Bartolo Colon: 38 consecutive strikes

Bartolo Colon, of the Oakland Athletics, threw 38 consecutive pitches for strikes last night against the Angels. That includes foul balls and ball that were put in play. That number is amazing and most guys would not be able to through that many strikes in the bull pen. That is incredible. I personally believe that this is more impressive than Cliff Lee and Matt Cain last night.

Lee pitched 10 innings and let up no earned runs. Cain was able to pitch 9 shutout innings. The unfortunate part of this story for them is that fact that Cain got a no decision out of it and even though Lee pitched 10 innings, he also got a no decision and his team lost. What does a guy have to do to win a game?

Colon was more impressive though because sometimes the call depends on the home plate umpire. To be pounding the zone like that explains why he was able to give his club a victory.



The real deal?

Yoenis Cespedes has hit his first home run in his major league career. It came in the second game of his career. Some people said that he wouldn't be able to adjust to the pitching quickly and the power numbers would go down because of it. What a way to silence some of those critics. It is FAR to early to make any serious judgements on this guy. Career's last seasons and not just game to game. It is very encouraging though for A's fans. They would have a nice outfield with Coco Crisp stealing bases and Cespedes hitting home runs. To bad for them, they would probably end up trading them away. Just take a look at their moves this offseason.



Opening Day (Technically) and player rankings

Here is your list of players from 151 - 200.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7740507/ranking-top-500-major-league-baseball-players-2012-nos-151-200

Who do you think will come in at number one? Or are there any suprises on this list? Bryce Harper is ranked at 190 and hasn't played in the major leagues. Fair or foul?

On a real baseball note, today is Opening Day! Kind of. The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners played the first game of the season over in Japan today. Ichiro went 4 - 5 with an RBI in the game. Not a bad start for the Japanese player. Felix Hernandez was strong in his first outing. He threw eight innings while allowing only five hits. He struck out six and allowed one earned run. They went on to win the game in 11 innings thanks to Dustin Ackley. The final score was 3 -1.

Ichiro in Japan.



Yoennis Cespedes

The Oakland Athetics have signed Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes for four years and $36 million. That contract surpassed the one that Aroldis Chapman signed with the Cincinnati Reds who also came from Cuba. Cespedes is 26 years old and is now entering his age 27 season, his prime. Cespedes has been able to perform and put up great numbers. He also did well playing for his native Cuba in the World Baseball Classic. As with almost every prospect, Cespedes has the talent to perform, but is still very raw. The other concern was how he would transition and adapt to major league pitching. I see no reason why he would struggle with the transition. I think Cespedes will have a productive career in the MLB.

Yoenis Cespedes