Sunday Funnies: Hackers, Knowing the Roster, Old Men

What a way to begin this week’s edition of the Sunday Funnies because this is funny.

Hacked!

Apparently, some MLB teams had their Facebook pages hacked. (H/T to Deadspin for having these messages “preserved”.) Wasn’t me. You all know I’m not smart enough for that.

And some of the message the hackers left were funny and, in some cases, offensive. A couple were both.

For example…

the Nationals FB page said the team was moving back to Montreal.
the White Sox, although in Chicago, were voting for Mitt Romney.
a message on the Cubs FB page said to change the password from “nextyear”. (That comes from MLB Memes on FB)

Get a look at these over on Deadspin.

At Least Spell it Right…

Some like that you can trend on Twitter. If you’re an individual, it can be a neat thing…unless you’re Reds pitcher Mat Latos. Why is that? It seems there is still an inordinate number of Reds fans that cannot correctly spell Mat. Seriously, it’s Mat. Only one “t”.

For the record (well, at least according to Baseball Reference) the given name of the Reds hurler is Mathew A. Latos . Not sure of the middle name, but that’s not the point here. His first name even only has one “t”. Therefore, if you shorten it, it should be Mat.

Of course I’m making something out of nothing. And I’m not done.

Who’s possibly the Reds hottest hitter right now? Hint: he plays left field on games when Chris Heisey doesn’t. If you said Ryan Ludwig, you…are…wrong. It’s Ryan Ludwick. And this error is not made only by Cincy fans. Noooooooo. Even the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports can’t get it right.

The article title was eventually changed, but this tweet will forever be on the interwebs…unless someone from the WWL decides to delete it. The best way to correct yourself on this matter…

If you even begin to think of Ludwig, think Beethoven is wrong or think that he’s not a drummer (although he could be. Don’t know since I’ve never asked him.) Music is not likely involved. Thumping baseballs is.

Ranting against The Mothership

As is usually the case, The Mothership has done a fair share of things to tweak me this past week. Skip Bayless made my blood boil without mentioning Tim Tebow. Watch this…

http://youtu.be/JnlCMUWQoGA

Talk about complete and total lack of respect.

So, I’ll go on the record here and say that I cannot (pounds desk) put Skip Bayless on my list of top 100 sports journalists. I’m sure there’s more of you that would proclaim the exact same. And even if I weren’t mocking him (which I think it’s obvious that I am), I still couldn’t put him in the top 100 among today’s sports journalists. First Take has developed into one of the most contrived “shows” that airs on TV today. Period.

Sure, ask me why I still watch anything on that network then. I’ve said it before, there are some great baseball people that are employed there. Whenever I find something on that network that digs at me, it’s most likely due to the fact that I’ve gotten bored and was in the process of channel surfing or someone has alerted me.

Not Important? Ha!

If you’re one that was calling this weekend’s series against the Pirates not important, you would most likely be a Reds fan. I think that is a fair assessment. There may be some Pirates fans saying the same, but I don’t believe that thought from their side for a minute. Fans, maybe. Team, not hardly. At least that’s not the message I’m “reading”. Think about it…

If this was honestly not an important series for the Pirates, then why was the pitching rotation altered so that A.J. Burnett (13-3, 3.27 ERA, 1.185 WHIP and pitched a one-hitter during his last outing), who was originally scheduled to pitch Monday, moved to today to replace Erik Bedard (5-12, 4.83 ERA, 1.476 WHIP and was shelled by the Cubs in his last outing)?

It doesn’t matter that the Reds own a higher winning percentage against starting lefties (.625 on a record of 20-12 in 32 games) than starting righties (.613 with a 46-29 record in 75 games). It’s not that big a difference to actually consider.

Hey, if a Pirates beat writer can question Dusty logic, which I would never attempt because I can’t or even ask the Reds fan base to do, I can question Hurdle’s noodle. And the signs point in the direction of this series held importance to the Bucs.

Am I right?

About last night…

No, I’m not giving a synopsis on the 80’s film with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore (along with Jim Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins), but it feels like something from an older “day”.

According to Baseball Reference, the two biggest plays from last night’s game were turned in by Scott Rolen. You know, the guy most of us have constantly said he needs to let it go and walk away from the game. The Scott Rolen that some of us have stated as being washed up. Yep, that Scott Rolen.

Well, he hasn’t looked so old as of late…

Biggest play from last night’s game was his triple to lead off the bottom of the 8th. Next biggest was his 2 RBI single in the bottom of the first. We know offense contributes (or is viewed as contributing) more to winning games.

One play that wasn’t in the top 5 was the simply superb defensive play by Miguel Cairo on a Pedro Alvarez grounder. But BR didn’t see that play as meaningful enough to be one of the top five of the game. Aroldis Chapman striking out Gaby Sanchez to end that game was. So was Ryan Ludwick’s double. The other was the induced Neil Walker double play by Mike Leake in the top of the fifth. We don’t need a rating to understand that play’s significance.

If that Alvarez grounder gets through, then the Buccos have runners on first and third with Travis Snider coming to the plate. With Jonathan Broxton on the mound for the Reds, the Pirates have the matchup in their favor with Snider being a lefty bat and Brox a righty pitcher.

Sure there were two outs, but who knows…

Extra!

In case you didn’t see this on Twitter today…

16-3 without Votto in the lineup and 15-3 since the day of Votto’s surgery. 19-3 since the All-Star Game and 23-7 in their last 30. I’d say the Good Guys are on a roll…