huh?

Safe to say that 2010 might have been the weirdest year to date for professional baseball. All sorts of weird stuff occurred throughout all aspects of the game. Take for instance some offensive strangeness. Ichiro Suzuki led the American League in hits again. Nothing strange about that. Here's where it gets weird. He scored less runs than the man who got the fewest hits in the National League and qualified for the hitting title. Yeah. Ichiro had 74 runs on 214 hits. Mark Reynolds had 79 runs on 99 hits. Astro Michael Bourn was caught stealing third and stole third on back to back pitches. How you say? Atlanta's Tommy Hanson sniffed out the first attempt but dropped a throw when Bourn was in a run down, allowing him to get back to second. Score that CS/E1. Next pitch Bourn does it again. And makes it. Wha? Bengie Molina hit for the cycle this year. A player does it every year pretty much. Thing is, Bengie is statistically the slowest runner in the MLB. The cycle requires one to hit a triple, which he did in his last at bat of the game. The one and only time that year out of 416 at bats for Bengie. Yeesh.

33-year old rookie John Lindsey finally made his debut in the Major Leagues after a 16 year minor league career. He was announced as a pinch hitter, but the other team switched pitchers. Joe Torre then sent up Andre Ethier instead of Lindsey. He waited 16 years to make it to the show, and never played. Only in baseball. Avid Eckstein struck out nine times in his first 226 at bats of the season. Rick Ankiel struck out nine times in a row in one month. In one Pacific Coast League game, Royals prospect Mike Moustakas had as many homers (three) and RBIs (eleven) as Rusty Ryal had in 101 games and 222 plate appearances for the Diamonbacks. Carlos Gonzalez had an extra base hit 10 games in a row. Brandon Wood had an extra base hit in six games on the year. Sweet swingers Joey Votto and Buster Posey didn't hit an infield pop up all year. Holy bejeezus.

Only in baseball.