10 Things We Learned About Baseball In May

What can I say about the month of May in Major League Baseball?

It had everything you could have asked for. In the last 31 days we had sorrow, excitement, amazing individual accomplishments, and the start of pennant race baseball.

Here are the top 10 things we learned about baseball in May:

10. Pat Burrell and Dontrelle Willis were DFA'd. Tough month for two of the bigger stars of the early 2000s, as Burrell was designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays and Willis was DFA’d by the Detroit Tigers.

Burrell, to me, was the biggest surprise. Not that he was waived, but because he was just a colossal failure in Tampa. I definitely didn’t see that coming.

Pat Burrell is now playing for the Giants.

Ironically, both weren’t without jobs for long. Burrell landed with the San Francisco Giants, and Willis was recently acquired by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Speaking of Tigers, baseball lost three personalities this month. …

9. Ernie Harwell, Robin Roberts, and Jose Lima passed away. Baseball lost two Hall of Famers, and a former All-Star in the month of May. That's a lot.

Harwell, the legendary Detroit Tigers broadcaster, passed away at the age of 92. Harwell announced more than 6,500 baseball games in his life, and perhaps his most famous call was Bobby Thompson’s “shot heard round the world” in 1951.

Roberts passed away at the age of 83 on May 6. The Hall of Fame pitcher won 286 games most notably for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Lima’s death was the most shocking. Lima passed away at the age of 37 from a massive heart attack. Lima was an All-Star in 1999, when he went 21-10 for the Houston Astros.

One of the teams that Lima pitched for was the Kansas City Royals ...

8. The Royals ax Trey Hillman. Hillman was the first manager to be let go in 2010 when the Royals sent Hillman packing on May 13. Hillman was let go after the Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, which I guess made things easier.

While Hillman made some odd decisions, if you are not given the horses as a manager, you really don’t stand a chance. Hillman never stood a chance with the Royals.

While Hillman won’t be around in Kansas City ...

7. ... Kendry Morales won’t be around in Anaheim. In one of the most bizarre injuries in baseball history, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim first baseman Kendry Morales fractured his leg celebrating at home plate after he hit a walk-off home run against the Seattle Mariners.

Morales was hitting .290 with 11 homers on the season, and is a huge loss to the Angels. Morales could be back in September, but that might be stretching it.

Speaking of bonehead moves …

6. Hanley Ramirez and Fredi Gonzalez had a difference of opinion. I thought Ramirez would win the NL MVP award this year, but after what transpired on May 17 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, I doubt that will happen.

After Ramirez kicked a ball down the left field line trying to field a pop up, Ramirez jogged after the ball, allowing two runs to score. Ramirez claimed he was hurt, which is why he wasn’t running hard, but Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez wasn’t buying it.

Gonzalez benched Ramirez, which prompted Ramirez to say he didn’t respect Gonzalez because he didn’t play in the major leagues. It was completely wrong of Ramirez and he later apologized.

Ramirez is a tremendous talent, but I hope he learned his lesson.

On the subject of Dominican-born players …

5. David Ortiz is not done yet. After a dismal month of April where Ortiz hit .143 with just one home run, many (myself included) where calling for Ortiz to be benched. However, Ortiz was not done—not even close.

Ortiz responded to his terrible April by having perhaps the best month of May of any hitter in baseball, let alone one of best months of his career. Ortiz led the majors with a 1.211 OPS in May and jacked 10 home runs.

Ortiz’s resurgence is one of the main reasons why the Red Sox had the second best record in the American League in the month of May (18-11).

Speaking of hot teams …

4. The Cincinnati Reds have made it a race in the NL Central. It was supposed to be so easy for the St. Louis Cardinals. They were going to just march right through the NL Central like Ben went through the Dharma Initiative on LOST, which ended it's incredible television series run on May 23.

Pitcher Mike Leake has the Reds in first place.

Thanks a mediocre month of May by the Cardinals, and an 18-11 month by the Reds, the NL Central now has quite a race on it’s hands. The Reds are about a year ahead of schedule, and if they continue to get the pitching they have, they will give the Cardinals all they can handle down the stretch.

Let’s stick with the pennant race theme …

3. Guess who ended May in first in the AL West? The Angels? Nope. The Texas Rangers? Nope. How about the Oakland A’s.

Despite being the only first place team with a negative run differential (minus-7), the A’s find themselves in first in the very winnable AL West. The Mariners stink, the Angels aren’t the Angels, and the Rangers will always have injury problems.

Who knows, if the A’s could ever get any more offense they could steal the division.

Speaking of the A’s …

2. Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay were perfect. It’s very rare to get one perfect game in one year, but two in the same month? That’s almost impossible. But Braden and Halladay made the impossible happen.

On Mother’s Day, Braden tossed the 19th perfect game in major league history against the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the second time in less than 10 months that the Rays had a perfect game thrown against them.

Twenty days later, Philadelphia Phillies’ ace Roy Halladay pitched the 20th perfect game in Major League history by defeating the Marlins 1-0.

That is now three perfect games in the last 10 months. I guess the steroid era is officially over.

And we can’t talk about May and about pitching without mentioning one guy …

1. Ubaldo, Ubaldo, Ubaldo. Colorado Rockies RHP Ubaldo Jimenez shut out the Giants on Monday lowering his ERA to 0.78 this season. That’s a Major League record for the lowest ERA for a pitcher through his first 11 starts of a season.

Jimenez is now 10-1 on the season, and could very well run away with the NL Cy Young award.

What will the month of June bring us? Check back at the beginning of July to find out everything that happened in baseball’s third month.

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