Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings…….

Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings…….

13) Triple-A baseball games used to use Rawlings’ standard minor league baseball, which is made in a factory in China and is less expensive. Now they use the major league baseball.

The major league baseball is handmade in Costa Rica, and it has long been considered to be a more lively baseball. The MLB baseball has a tighter construction and lower seams in general (they are handmade) than the standard minor league baseball.

In Double-A, the average hitter is hitting .241/.319/.371 this year. Guys are getting called up to AAA and routinely putting up better numbers than they did in AA. Go figure.

12) AAA pitchers are frustrated but they don’t say anything because they’re minor league pitchers and they don’t want to hurt their chances of being promoted.

There is a reason, though, why the Padres have had several of their pitching prospects skip over AAA El Paso and go from AA to the majors; El Paso being at a higher altitude, plus the juiced baseballs, add up to pitchers getting their ERA’s inflated, their confidence deflated.

11) When college basketball teams take summer trips overseas (they’re allowed one every four years) it can result in an excellent season the following winter, since teams practice more, play more and bond better as a team.

(Unless you’re USC and your point guard tears his ACL on a trip, which happened a few years ago)

West Virginia is in Spain this week, Minnesota is in Italy; next time you hear people whining about how bad college athletes have it, ask them how many free trips to Italy they’ve gotten?

10) Top five grad transfer basketball players, according to CBSSports.com:
— Kerry Blackshear, going from Virginia Tech to Florida
— Chris Clarke, going from Virginia Tech to Texas Tech
— Lamar Kimble, going from St Joe’s to Louisville
— Nate Sestina, going from Bucknell to Kentucky
— Admon Gilder, going from Texas A&M to Gonzaga

9) NCAA put in new requirements for people to become agents, and it is causing controversy. Here are the requirements:

To become an NCAA-certified agent one must:

Have a bachelor’s degree;
Have been NBPA certified for at least three consecutive years and be in good-standing.
Maintain professional liability insurance.
Submit application by appropriate deadline.

The controversy is with the college degree thing; Rich Paul is one of the most powerful agents in the NBA- he is also one of Lebron James’ oldest friends and he doesn’t have a college degree.

8) Pro Football Talk posted that there are reports from Oakland Raider land saying Antonio Brown burned the bottom of his feet by entering a cryotherapy machine without the proper footwear, and his feet were frostbitten.

Oy.

7) Baseball stuff:
— Dodgers put OF Alex Verdugo (oblique) on the IL.
— Giants DFA’d 2B Joe Panik.

6) Mariners’ SS Tim Beckham was suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

5) White Sox reliever Aaron Bummer has appeared in 38 games; he held the first batter he’s faced in each game to 0-33 with five walks.

Because he is a lefty, some might think it will be a bummer when they change the rules and he has to face 3+ batters in an appearance, but lefties are batting .175 against him this year, righties .180, so he’s been tough against everyone.

4) Bookmaking legend Jimmy Vaccaro posted on Twitter Tuesday that when he drove to work at SouthPoint, it was 104 degrees out, but around 50 people were waiting in line for a picture by the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign at the south end of the Strip.

3) When Joey Lucchesi starts on mound for San Diego, Padres are 12-6-3 in first five innings, but they’re only 9-12 overall in his starts. Lucchesi doesn’t usually get past the sixth inning; their setup guys aren’t very good.

2) Rays 7, Blue Jays 6 (10)— Tampa Bay trailed 6-0 in fourth inning.

1) A high school football team from Anaheim lost all of their equipment recently in a storage fire; the LA Chargers stepped in and donated $10,000 to help the team get back on their feet.

This is what we need more of; people helping other people out.

Armadillo Sports