Chicks Dig the Long Ball
The 2023 Home Run Derby was won by Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. last night, giving us the first father-son duo Derby champs in the contest’s history, as Guerreros’s father, Vladimir Sr.
won 16 years ago in San Francisco.
Guerrero’s 72 total homers were punctuated by 25 in his finals win over Randy Arozarena. Julio Rodriguez also broke the record for home runs in a single round of the Derby, hitting 41 against two-time champ Pete Alonso in the first round in front of his home fans in Seattle.
But the numbers that should concern Pirates fans – whose homer leader, Jack Suwinski, ranks 14th in the Majors and would have ranked fifth among Derby participants with 19 – tie directly to regular season longballs and how they relate to team success.
The Atlanta Braves lead the bigs in home runs. They also have the best record in baseball.
The Tampa Bay Rays lead the AL, in both – you guessed it – home runs and wins.
In fact, four of the top six home run-hitting teams lead their divisions at the All-Star Break. And each of the bottom seven teams in home run hitting have a losing record, including the Pirates.
Home runs don’t necessarily equal wins. But they sure as hell make it easier to win.
And it’s not just that the Pirates have had to rely on small ball to win this season, it’s that there’s relatively little power in their system.
The Indianapolis Indians are tied for the fifth fewest home runs at the AAA level. Altoona has the seventh fewest at AA. It’s not until you get to the Hi-A level Greensboro before you start to see some glimpses of, as the Grasshoppers are second in their league and at their level in home runs.
So, while we can all allow ourselves to get excited about the drafting of Paul Skenes and what it means for the future of the Pirates’ rotation, it’s fair to wonder if the dearth of power in the Pirates system will be as easily remedied as landing a generational arm after a bounce of a lottery ball.
Fitzgerald Fired
After serving just three days of what was to have been a two week suspension for not adequately monitoring hazing that was taking place in the Northwestern football program, head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired yesterday.
Northwestern President Michael Schill appropriately pointed out in an open letter that “The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team. The hazing we investigated was widespread and clearly not a secret within the program, providing Coach Fitzgerald with the opportunity to learn what was happening.
Either way, the culture in Northwestern Football, while incredible in some ways, was broken in others.”
While not approaching the same level of inaction nor remotely the same level of accusations, it’s eerily reminiscent of when Joe Paterno was taken down for not being aggressive enough in expunging Jerry Sandusky from his program and its facilities.
Like it or not, Division 1 football coaches are often the most well compensated employees in their state, let alone their given institution. If at any point they fail to do enough to bring an immediate halt to abusive actions taking place within their program or their program’s facility, they should face the strictest consequences possible.
In this case, even if you’re willing to buy Fitzgerald’s excuse of ignorance – which is a tenuous thread to grasp to at this point – you can’t allow him to use it as an excuse to remain in a role that asks him to be a face of an institution that’s supposed to be educating young people, not allowing them to be abused.
Pulling a Costanza
Perhaps Fitzgerald should just show up for work tomorrow and pretend like nothing happened.
At least that’s what Bob Huggins is trying to pull off.
But Stephanie D.
Taylor, Vice President and General Counsel for West Virginia University, said in a statement released last night that the school isn’t having it.
“There is no support in the law of on these facts to suggest that Mr. Huggins may now ignore his resignation and his actions upon which all have relied, and return to work as if none of this ever occurred."
Perhaps Huggins can get a job with the Environmental Protection Agency considering his love of conservation efforts.
The Mayor of … the Bronx?
The Yankees hired Upper St. Clair native, MLB Network analyst, and 12-year big league veteran Sean Casey as their hitting coach yesterday.
The Yankees fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson following their 7-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs. New York is eight games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and has lost four of five.
Since losing reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge, who injured his toe on June 3 after colliding with the right field wall at Dodger Stadium, the Yankees are dead last in baseball with a .218 batting average and a .288 on base percentage.
The firing of hitting coach Dillon Lawson was General Manager Brian Cashman’s first in-season firing in his 25-year tenure in the Bronx. It's not the first time he’s added to the coaching staff from television though, as manager Aaron Boone worked for ESPN before being hired in 2018.
Casey and Boone were teammates in Cincinnati for parts of six seasons.