Swollen Dome » Albert Pujols

Inside The Swollen Dome: The Return

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:09:06 +0000

Harmon relaunches “Inside The Swollen Dome.” In his first extended ranting session, he rambles on about the NBA Finals (and the LeBron sub-plot), NHL Final, myriad baseball topics (Carlos Zambrano) and the glorious entertainment world.

Inside The Swollen Dome, Episode 1

Jose Bautista Signs a Huge Deal: Worth It?

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:53:40 +0000

Congratulations go out to Toronto third baseman Jose Bautista, who reportedly scored a monster 5-year, $65-million deal on the heels of his huge 2010 season. He slammed 92 extra-base hits, including 54 home runs, while driving in 124 runs with a .260 batting average (he’s a career .244 hitter).

I applaud Bautista and his agent for negotiating such a fantastic contract on the strength of a single season. The 30-year old 3B/OF had been in and out of the major leagues since 2004. He had never hit more than 16 home runs nor driven in more than 63 runs in any season.

Bautista had shown gap power with his 36-double, 15-home run season for the Pirates in 2007 (the year that he drove in 63 runs) and finished 2009 with a huge power surge, but nobody could have seen his 2010 season coming.

And now, the Blue Jays are forking off a mountain of cash to him with hope of similar output. Was it really just a simple adjustment of his swing that kept Bautista from being a fledging major league player to a behemoth? It took that long to find it?

I don’t believe that the floor drops out from under Bautista or that he sinks into oblivion. He’s in a good lineup in a good ballpark and will put up solid numbers. What level of production are they paying for here?

I Gave Up Too Early

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:04:41 +0000

I recently had a link forwarded to me that took me back to the sandlot.

I was a crafty southpaw and slap hitter as a youngster, far earlier than anybody should have carried either of those tags. The decision was made that contact was better than the big fly, hence I didn’t make full use of my ass-ets. I hit well, but the glory of the scoreboard-shattering blast eluded me.

On the mound, I never learned to harness the power that laid in what would later be dubbed Quad-zilla. I never found that sweet spot between power pitching and control and, in my youth, you could still get people to chase if you mixed things up … although drilling a few more batters might have been good for releasing frustrations.

Regardless, I wasn’t fleet of foot. I wasn’t the statuesque portrait of a ballplayer. I wasn’t, well, I just wasn’t … but the combination of being a lefty and this means that perhaps I should have kept going.

It’s not too late, is it?

Check out the article here .