Cody Ransom’s Top Five Hits Of The 2011 Season

It’s the end of the year, which means that, all around the Internet, it’s a time of reflection. Baseball Nation is a part of the Internet, so for Baseball Nation, this should be a time of reflection as well. However, I don’t feel like pulling together and linking Baseball Nation’s top posts of 2011. Some people do that on other sites and that’s fine, but it makes me feel a little self-important and weird. I also don’t feel like reviewing the top stories of 2011 or the top games of 2011 or what have you. Those are fine ideas, but they’ll be done elsewhere. I’m sure they already have been done elsewhere.

Ransom steps in and lines a 1-1 fastball into center field for a single. It is a solid single that nearly takes Guerra’s hand off since literally no pitcher has ever taken his coach’s advice about trying to barehand a comebacker. Every time a pitcher tries to barehand a comebacker, he ends up hearing about how you shouldn’t try to barehand a comebacker. And yet every time there’s a comebacker, the pitcher will try to barehand it. Maybe it’s time to just stop giving advice about barehanding comebackers. It’s pointless.

Anyway, single. Ransom started a rally that ultimately didn’t go anywhere. The single was forgotten, until right now.

Ransom steps in and lines an 0-1 fastball into left-center field for a single. Then Cameron Maybin boots the ball somehow, allowing Ransom to scamper up to second. This single is no better than the previous single, but the error provides a humor bonus, plus this was Ransom’s first hit of the year, providing a significance bonus. Before this single, Ransom’s last major league hit came on July 29, 2010.

Cody Ransom’s 35. He was drafted by the Giants out of Grand Canyon University in the ninth round in 1998. That same year, the Giants used their fifth-round pick on Ryan Vogelsong, out of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. Ransom and Vogelsong were teammates with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. They were teammates with the Shreveport Captains. They were teammates with the Fresno Grizzlies. Before 2001, Baseball America ranked Vogelsong as the Giants’ fifth-best prospect. Before 2002, Baseball America ranked Ransom as the Giants’ tenth-best prospect.

Vogelsong moved on to the Pirates. On August 7, 2003, Vogelsong as Pirates starter faced Ransom as Giants shortstop. Ransom singled. Ransom didn’t appear in the majors in 2005 or 2006. Vogelsong didn’t appear in the majors in 2007, 2008, 2009 or 2010. In 2011, Vogelsong as Giants starter faced Ransom as Diamondbacks third baseman. Ransom doubled. Ransom also grounded out and got hit by a pitch, but here, he doubled. It was his third-best hit of the year.

That is a two-run double in a game the Diamondbacks wound up winning 4-3. That win allowed the Diamondbacks to stretch their NL West lead over the Giants to two games. The official caption for that video highlight:

8/12/11: Cody Ransom crushes a two-run double down the left-field line in the bottom of the second, plating Xavier Nady and Sean Burroughs

Rob hates when I say this, but baseball is so damn weird. Before 2002, BA had Ransom as the Giants’ tenth-best prospect, Nady as the Padres’ fourth-best prospect, and Burroughs as the Padres’ best prospect. In 2011, those three players helped the Diamondbacks make the playoffs.

Clayton Kershaw won the 2011 NL Cy Young. He came into this game with a 2.68 ERA. In the bottom of the seventh, he allowed a lead-changing and eventually game-winning home run to Cody Ransom.

Afterward, the Arizona announcers wanted Ransom to take a curtain call, but Ransom remained in the dugout. It turns out that curtain calls are kind of old hat for Cody Ransom.