Listen, we know it's tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn't easy. It's okay, though, we're going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
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★★★
Red Sox leftfielder Hanley Ramirez and Mariners designated hitter Nelson Cruz -- both free agent signings from this past winter -- are tied for the league lead in home runs, with 10. That’s one fewer -- each! -- than the Twins have hit as a team to this point, and the 20 dingers the two players account for combined would have them tied for 11th in the league with the Nationals. Cruz, who has played in all 21 of the Mariners’ games thus far, is on pace for 77 homers, while Hanley gets to 77 if you round up since he’s missed one of Boston’s 22 contests. Sure, neither will get there, but it does show you the kind of run they’re on at the moment.
Cruz led the majors in homers with 40 last year, so the surprise here is that he hasn't been held back by pitcher-friendly Safeco. He'll slow down eventually, but he's in a position to once again lead the league in dingers after never hitting more than 33 in a season prior to 2014. As for Ramirez, while he hasn't been known for his home run swing, he also has never been in the position he's in now: he's spent his entire career playing in pitcher-friendly parks, and almost entirely as a shortstop. When Ramirez signed with the Sox to play left field, he added 25 pounds of muscle over the offseason, since extra weight wouldn't encumber him in left the way it would at short. The result? Baseballs moving at the speed of light off his bat, basically. Not to be outdone, Cruz hammered the longest homer of anyone this season on Wednesday, at 483 feet. It didn't have the giddy-up of Hanley's shot, but it went about 80 feet further.
Power might be down across the game, and these two aren’t likely to co-break Barry Bonds’ single-season record unless you add up their end-of-season totals, but that’s okay. They’ve already hit these majestic shots and laser beams, and there will be more to come.
- Ruben Amaro dropped some hints about who he’s still talking to about Cole Hamels, while also dispatching Charlie Manuel to one of the Red Sox’ minor-league teams in order to potentially scout a new centerpiece for a trade. What, you thought you were free from Hamels’ trade talks? They have only just begun.
- Madison Bumgarner doesn’t think much of Alex Guerrero, but there are ways of dealing with that besides yelling at him, probably.
- The Orioles and White Sox played a game in front of an empty stadium on Wednesday. This is what it looked like, and while it started out as intriguing -- if you forget about how we came to have the game like this, anyway -- it ended up unsettling. (Please do not forget how.)
- Grant Brisbee had thoughts on what we learned from watching this baseball first. His conclusion? Never again.
- The Red Sox activated Rusney Castillo from the minor-league disabled list, but not from the minors, saying there are “no plans” to promote him soon. This is a convenient way of being able to act like Castillo forced their hand in a few weeks, rather than having to tell Shane Victorino right now that he’s running out of time.
- Baseball Prospectus has given us a new pitching statistic meant to measure past performance. Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as you fear it to be, unless you accidentally click on the separate article that explains the math behind it.
- Sonny Gray has evolved, and I’m pretty annoyed at the commenter in that post who referred to him as “Sonny White” before I could get in my own Gandalf joke.
- These are the five best hitter-pitchers in the game. They might also be the only five hitter-pitchers in the game.
- Albert Pujols left Wednesday’s game with hamstring tightness, and this is about the last thing the Angels need in what has been a disappointing start to 2015. (The thing they need the most? A conscience, probably.)
- We can’t end on a serious note like that, so here is Hunter Pence celebrating International Dance Day. In his kitchen.
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