Kuzul

Some of you might be thinking who is J.P. Arencibia. Well Arencibia was drafting No. 21 overall by the Blue Jays in the 2007 draft. He was a highly regarded catcher who could hit for average and for power and he sure made himself known today.

Arencibia went 4-for-5 with two home runs today against the Tampa Bay Rays. His parents were in attendance and they were so happy about what he did. In his first at bat he homered on the first pitch he saw.

Arencibia made a curtain call after his second homer. He is just the fifth player in MLB history to hit two home runs in his debut.

He joined Daniel Nava of the Red Sox as the only players this season to hit a home run in their first major league at bat and he was the first Blue Jay to do it since 1989.

After the 17-11 blowout win against James Shields and the AL Wild Card leader Tampa Bay Rays Arencibia got hit in the face with the traditional shaving cream pie for his great debut.

The only reason Arencibia is even at the majors right now is because All-Star catcher John Buck is on the DL. 

In Triple-A he hit .303 and led the minors with 31 home runs. Arencibia is the only player in the modern era to get four hits and two home runs in their debut which shows this was one heck of a debut.

While Arencibia was dominating today Aaron Hill, Adam Lind, and Lyle Overbay also hit home runs. Hill and Arencibia each hit a homer and in the third inning Hill and Lind went back-to-back. It was the fifth time this season the Jays have gone back-to-back.

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There have been many pitchers who are in the running for AL Cy young this season.

The AL Cy Young is an award to goes to the best pitcher in the AL based on wins, ERA, innings pitched, and WHIP.

In this list I will say the top 5 candidates for this great award in the AL. I hope you enjoy and comment with your opinion! 

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Being a major league manager is a very tough job. You have to do stuff like make the lineup card every day, you have to pick what pitcher to start on a certain day, and you have to choose what player should come out of the bullpen at a certain time. It is stressfull and it is very hard to do it day and day out. These managers have not done a good job at all and in this list I will say the managers who will most likely be fired or who should be fired before this season is over. This list is not in a certain order it is just the managers who should be fired. I hope you enjoy!

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In baseball there are players who bat right handed or left handed but then there are some who do both. The name for hitting right and left handed is “switch hitting.” In this list I will say the best switch hitters in baseball at every position.

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In baseball there are some parks that are easy to hit home runs in, but in this list I will say the hardest. I will rate this from 1-5, with No. 1 being the hardest.

I hope you enjoy! Please comment with your opinion!

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You would have thought that maybe all the injuries from the Red Sox would finally stop—well, they didn’t.

The new victim to the injury bug is Kevin Youkilis. Youkilis came out of the ball game when he shook his right hand in pain after his first at-bat. Youkilis’ MRI showed that he had torn his adductor muscle in his right thumb.

The Red Sox will decide on Tuesday whether he needs surgery. It was not told how long Youkilis will be out, but if he does have surgery his season might be in doubt.

This season Youkilis was one of the best players on his depleted Red Sox team. He was hitting .307 with 19 home runs and 62 RBIs. He is second on his team in average, (behind Adrian Beltre) and was almost an all star this season coming in second during the all star game vote for the final player.

With Youkilis gone, Mike Lowell was activated. Lowell will most likely play first base for the Red Sox. Before Tuesdays game, Lowell said “with Youkilis out of your lineup, you’re not a better team.”

Hopefully Youkilis will not require surgery and he will heal in a few days if not this will be a very hard blow for the Red Sox and their hopes to make it to the playoffs.

With Jacoby Ellsberry coming back soon there still might be hope for the Red Sox but not much because Youkilis was a great clean up hitter for the Red Sox and he will be missed a lot.

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The Mariners are just coming off one of the worst months in team history. In July they had a 6-22 record and couldn’t do anything right. When they had good pitching games, they couldn’t score. When they had good hitting games (which were rare), their pitching struggled. 

The Mariners need someone to blame for all of their troubles last month and this year, and the person to blame is Don Wakamatsu. He has made many bad decisions as manager. For example, he kept on starting Ryan Rowland-Smith every fifth day and after seeing him struggle every game didn’t do anything about it.

Another bad thing Wakamatsu did was use the same pitchers in his bullpen way too often. He pitches Brandon League in almost any situation. He pitches him in the eighth, ninth, or extra innings. The Mariners have a pretty good bullpen and do not need to use League as much as they do.

Wakamatsu has also not mixed up his lineup at all. He has stuck with Ichiro, Figgins, Branyan, Lopez, Kotchman, Gutierrez, Saunders, Bard, and Wilson for almost every game. Maybe if he moved some players up or down he might have more success but he hasn’t tried that this year.

Wakamaksu has not managed this team well at all and I believe he should get fired soon so the team can get a new manager who will continue the promise of last season.

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This trade deadline has seen many, many trades so far, like Roy Oswalt going to Philly and Cliff Lee going to Texas.

Do not expect anything less before this deadline is over. Some players still on the market are Ted Lilly and Adam Dunn, who could really impact a team’s playoff hopes. In this list, I will give the winners and losers so far during the trade period, and some targets the losers should go after.

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Pitchers usually aren’t known for hitting, but these pitchers sure can hit. Usually pitchers just go up and take three pitches right down Main Street, but when these hit pitchers step up to the plate, it is usually a good thing.

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Adam Dunn or as his teammates call him, “The Big Donkey,” is on the trade market and four teams are very interested in acquiring his services: White Sox, Yankees, Rays, and Tigers.

These four teams are in the playoff chase and need someone like Dunn to help them in the second half to either get into the playoffs or get home-field advantage for the fall classic.

This season, Dunn is hitting .281 with 23 home runs and 63 RBIs on a bad Nationals team. He also plays half of his game in a non-hitter friendly ballpark in Washington, which proves he has loads and loads of power.

The White Sox might need Dunn because he can play both the outfield, first base, and DH. The position he will most likely play is DH because the White Sox have a very deep outfield. They have Juan Pierre in left, Alex Rios in Center, and Carlos Quentin or Andrew Jones in right. They also have Paul Konerko at first base and he’s staying because of his great power. 

The only problem is the asking price for Dunn. The Nationals are asking for second baseman Gordon Beckham but the White Sox label him as “untouchable” because he has been swinging a hot bat recently and will be a great player in the future for them. This shows that the deal between the two will probably not be done, but there is still a chance.

The Yankees also need Dunn for a playoff push. They could also use him as a DH since that is the only position lacking on their team. He would love Yankee Stadium because of the short porch in right and that team fits him perfectly.

Just like the White Sox, the Yankees do not want to give up many good prospects. The Nationals want players like Austin Romine or Jesus Montero but the Yankees will not give up players like that. They would only be willing to give up medium-level players.

The Rays just got on the market for Dunn and they like the White Sox and Yankees need him. They do not have a good DH either and since they are much closer to the Yankees then the Red Sox they need him to maybe have a playoff push past the Yankees or at least in the wild card.

The Rays have very good prospects they could give the Nationals, including several high picks, and I think they will be in the race until the very end for Dunn.

The Tigers are without a doubt the team that needs Dunn the most. They just lost Ordonez, Inge, and Guillen recently and they really need a bat if they want to still be in the AL Central race. They do have a good outfield but do not have a good DH, which is what Dunn can be.

The Tigers have a lot of prospects, such as Danny Worth or Scott Sizemore. They could be in this race till the end and will make a HUGE push for Dunn.

The Team That Gets Him: Tigers

I think that the Tigers will get him because of how desperate they are for a bat and because they have good players they can offer. The Tigers will get a good player in Dunn who they can sign long term since Ordonez will probably be a free agent next year. 

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