Baseball Beauties MLB Highlights Week of September 21st

It has been a VERY busy week for Baseball Beauties, so we couldn’t put a lot of stuff together but some stories had to be mentioned. It was an entertaining week in baseball, starting with murder suspects, player and team conflicts, flying balls and 100 losses for a team. We’ve decided to stick to mostly amusing stories this week. It’s pretty obvious who’s going to the playoffs now so might as well have a chuckle before we get serious!

Giants ML Prospect is being held as a murder suspect (Serionsly!)

Giant’s minor league prospect and first baseman, Angel Villalona, is being held as a murder suspect in his hometown in the Dominican Republic. Villalona turned himself into the police within 12 hours after the bar shooting, yet he is pleading innocent to the murder of a 25-year old man named Mario Felix de Jesus Velete. He declined to speak to reporters at Monday’s court hearings. The judge ordered Villalona to remain in jail for 2 months while the case is being investigated.

No Comment!

The Giants will not comment on the case, although they stated that they are “disappointed” that Villalona was considered a suspect in the shooting. The Giants signed Villalona for a record $2.1 million bonus in 2006. He played 74 games for the Giant’s Rookie Single-A team, batted .267, and earned 9 home runs and 42 RBIs. Villalona was a valuable player and considered a prized prospect. He had a successful run in the minor leagues and a promising chance in the major leagues, but at this point who knows how things will turn out? If Villalona is found guilty, he will face 20 years to life in prison and he could kiss his baseball career goodbye.

Bradley vs. Cubs

Milton Bradley has only been playing on the Cubs since the beginning of this year and already his relationship with the Cubs is pretty much damaged. He's been suspended from the Cubs for the rest of the season after publicly speaking about his adverse feelings towards the Cubs. Bradley announced that the Cubs and the organization create a negative environment. He said that "there's too many people everywhere in your face with a microphone asking the same questions repeatedly. Everything is just bashing you. You go out there and you play harder than anybody on the field and never get credit for it. It's just negativity." He went on to say that the reason why the Cubs haven't won in 100 years is because of the negativity.

Hendry has had enough....

After 2 suspensions and the disrespectful things Milton Bradley has said, Cubs general manager, Jim Hendry, has had enough. Bradley still has more than 2 years left on his $30 million contract with the Cubs and if he doesn't want the rest of his time to be miserable, he better shape up his attitude and work with the Cubs in order to improve their relationship. Bradley has already made the first step by apologizing for the things that he said. He admitted that he regrets saying those things and that he wishes he would have handled things differently. He was disappointed with how he played this season and the struggles that the Cubs went through. Bradley hopes to clear the air with the team and he "hopes to see better days." "We'll see," was Hendry's response. Despite the suspension, Bradley is still getting paid. Not that bad of a punishment, is it?

Umpire struck by 3 foul balls

I had to mention this story, because I saw it on ESPN the other night! It was a bad night when veteran umpire Marty Foster was struck by three foul balls and was taken for X-rays on his swollen and bruised left arm after San Francisco’s 5-2 victory over Arizona. The poor guy was hit twice on the arm and once in the mask, but he never left the game! (That’s a TRUE veteran!) Although the X-rays were negative, he was to be seen again by a doctor later Wednesday night for further evaluation on a stiff neck. “The first one was the hardest I have ever been hit,” he said “and the shot to the face mask was like a whiplash syndrome. In slow motion, you can see it snap my neck back.” After being in the major leagues for 10-years this is the first time Foster had to get X-rayed for a game specific injury. Although everyone laughed about this on ESPN, I felt bad for the guy!

Nationals 100th loss forces the team to cut prices on tickets for next season

A day after their 100th loss of the season, the Nationals have announced they’re cutting prices on some tickets for the 2010 season. That’s a smart move, because they will need to get fans out to their games somehow & no one wants to see a losing team (not to mention the worst team in MLB) More than 3,300 seats will have lower season-ticket costs, and prices will not rise on any non-premium spots at their Park. The only prices that will increase in 2010 are for high-end season tickets that already have been sold with agreed-to cost hikes. This is unfortunate for the high-end ticket holders, but I guess that someone has to make up the difference! This may be their only revenue as far as the ticket sales go. I was surprised to see that the Nationals rank 13th in the 16-team NL in attendance, averaging about 22,250 fans. This is more than the Pirates get per game. A 7-6 loss to the Dodgers on Thursday night dropped Washington’s record to a majors-worst 52-100. The Nationals finished 59-102 in 2008 and are the first NL club since the 1973-74 Padres to lose at least 100 games in consecutive seasons. Better luck next season!

It was refreshing to see the A’s win!

The A’s left-hander Eveland (Sounds like Cleveland! LOL) earned his first win since April 26. In the beginning of the season as one of the A’s starters but sadly losing his job after five starts. He got moved to the bullpen and then was shipped to Triple-A Sacramento on May 5. “Sinker, cutter combo,” said Eveland describing what he used to beat the Indians. “I think I threw about eight off speed pitches. I just threw sinkers and cutters pretty much the entire game.” (Good job!) But Eveland couldn’t have done this without A’s offense. Adam Kennedy had a two-run home. Ryan Sweeney added two RBIs as the A’s improved to 12-2 in their last 14 games. “My first two at bats weren’t very pretty,” said Kennedy. “But sort of figured it out after that.

Go Kurt!

"The offense has kind of an identity right now and we are having fun playing." This has been rare this season but the Athletics finally came together and played as a team! Ryan Sweeney added two RBIs. Rajai Davis, Jack Cust, Scott Hairston and Chad Pennington each added two hits for the A’s. Kurt Suzuki got hit by a pitch 7 times this season! Way to take one (or 7) for the team Kurt! It was a butt-whipping 11-4 game and I enjoyed watching it.