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Say hey, baseball: If Adrian Gonzalez is cooling down, it won’t be this weekend
Friday morning’s baseball includes the fire-breathing dragon known as Adrian Gonzalez flying to Arizona, a detailed look at players who have had Tommy John surgery, possible expansion cities and more. Subscribe for your daily Say Hey!
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Saying that Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez has come out of the gates flying would be an understatement: instead, Adrian Gonzalez has violently burst through those gates at breakneck speeds, and nearly melted them with the fire breath he exhaled. Gonzalez is the first player in MLB history to hit five home runs in three games, and currently has more homers than most teams. Again, this man is not just flying: He's terrorizing the skies as if he was a dragon in the Middle Ages.
Of course, conventional wisdom would say that Gonzalez isn't going to be this hot all season. It's baseball, which means that he's still got an extremely long year ahead of him. It's difficult enough to hit 70 home runs in a season, so it'll probably be a tad bit more difficult to hit 270 round-trippers. As amazing as that series against San Diego was, there's no way that this is sustainable.
With that being said, the slowdown probably won't come this weekend. The Dodgers will be traveling to the desert to face off with the Diamondbacks at Chase Field, a hitter-friendly park that has also been Gonzalez-friendly as well. He hit .481/.545/.963 with four home runs at Chase last season, and has 20 homers in 327 at-bats in the desert oasis. This is good news for everyone except D-Backs fans, who will now see their pitching plundered by the blue-and-white fire-breather. Adrian Gonzalez had Dodger Stadium lit on Wednesday night, and Chavez Ravine is no Chase.
- After Matt Harvey made his much-anticipated return from Tommy John surgery and absolutely dominated the Washington Nationals, Bryce Harper really went out on a limb and predicted that Harvey would win the Cy Young some day. What a wacky forecast!
- Speaking of Tommy John, ESPN’s Stephania Bell wrote an in-depth examination of players who have had the surgery, in an effort to uncover some truths and dispel some myths, as well.
- The Hardball Times decided to take a look at potential expansion cities, which you can check out here.
- Could the loaded Pawtucket Red Sox beat the dumpster fire 2012 Boston Red Sox? Probably (i.e. absolutely) not, but it’d be closer than you’d think.
- Alex Rodriguez hit his first homer of the season on Thursday. He’s now 100 home runs away from catching Hank Aaron on the all-time list.
- The Braves are off to a surprising 3-0 start, but that could change as they get deeper into their pitching staff.
- Everybody’s excited about baseball returning -- that is, until a west coast game goes nearly 12 innings without seeing anybody score, which is what happened Thursday night in San Diego between the Padres and Giants.
- While we’re on the topic of the Padres, Justin Upton isn’t exactly jazzed about being reunited with his brother on the baseball field.
- Milton Bradley is back in the news, and once again, it’s for all of the wrong reasons.
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