MLB Mid-Season Review

So we are slightly beyond the actual half-season, but we are at the All-Star Break, which is the traditional half-season, of course.  A little look back at what we have seen, what we can expect, and a check up on my predictions.

For the first time since 1969, there are two teams at the break with 60 wins.  The Astros had the best record in baseball for a long time, until the last week or so when the Dodgers got hot and just passed them by a game.  The Astros have the largest lead at 16.5 games (over both the Angels and Rangers), while the Nationals have the largest lead in the National League by 9.5 games.  The other two American League divisions are fairly close (2.5 and 3.5 games).  Meanwhile, the West has three of the four best teams in the National League.

I think we can all agree that the biggest surprise team is…the Brewers!  Who would have guessed they would be leading the Central (even if the division is overall bad) and have 50 wins at the break?  The most disappointing team has to be the World Champion Cubs, who are struggling at two games below .500.  A secondary surprise team would be the Twins, who are only 2.5 games behind the Indians and currently hold one of the Wild Card spots.  Another disappointment?  I would say either the Blue Jays (41-47) or the Tigers (39-48).  Brad Ausmus will be the first manager fired, unfortunately.  One final minor surprise team: the Braves, second in the East but three games below .500.

To mention a few players who are really standing out: of course the talk right now is all about Aaron Judge.  He’s leading baseball in OPS, home runs, and just four behind the leaders in RBI.  He also, of course, stole the show at the Home Run Derby.  As much as I hate to say something good about a Yankee, he has been impressive.  I also have to shout-out to George Springer.  Though he is my favorite player, I would not have predicted he would be second in baseball with 27 home runs.  Then of course there is the “other” Rookie of the Year, Cody Bellinger.  While his batting average may not be great, he has amazingly hit 25 home runs in less than 300 plate appearances.  It will be interesting to see if he can keep up his power numbers.

Now to review my predictions:

AL East: I had the Orioles first, but they’re in fourth in a stack division and can’t make up the ground.  I did, however, have the Red Sox in the Wild Card, and they look good to make the playoffs, probably hanging on to the division.

AL Central:  Flip the Tigers and Twins at second and fourth, and I had this one dead-on.  I did have the Tigers in the Wild Card, and I doubt that’s going to happen.

AL West:  Ding ding with the Astros on top (and my comment on them out-hitting anyone).  The rest of the division is a crapshoot right now, so I’m not worried about it.

NL East:  Oof, I was tired of picking the Nationals (though I did have them in the Wild Card), so I went with the Mets.  They’re terrible. 

NL Central:  Like most people I was high on the Cubs, and had the Brewers in fourth.  I also picked the Cardinals in the Wild Card.  I don’t feel good about that.

NL West:  Not too bad, I correctly picked the Dodgers and Diamondbacks 1-2, but was too high on the Giants, who are in last.  I did not see the Rockies being this good, and still think they will fall off.

Finally, my Astros predictions (so far):

1.      Yes, Gurriel has cemented his place at first.

2.      Yes, Altuve and Correa are both MVP candidates.

3.      Aoki has taken a backseat, mostly because he stinks (and Gattis doesn’t have enough PAs).

4.      Keuchel and McCullers were both fantastic in the first half (hopefully continuing after injuries).  Fiers has stood up when they were gone.  And it’s still expected they will trade for someone before the deadline.

5.      Giles has been much better this year.  I may have undersold Devenski.  The real problem is the bullpen between those two.  I wouldn’t mind another arm to take the place of Gregerson.

Astros June Review

Record: 16-11 (54-27) 13.5 games up

Average: Josh Reddick (.389)

Doubles: Jose Altuve (10)

Triples: Carlos Correa, Josh Reddick (1)

Home Runs: George Springer (11)

Runs Batted In: George Springer (21)

Stolen Bases: Jose Altuve, Josh Reddick (4)

Walks: Carlos Correa (15)

Strikeouts: Carlos Correa (24)

On Base Percentage: Jose Altuve (.431)

Slugging Percentage: George Springer (.733)

On Base Plus Slugging: George Springer (1.145)

Wins: Mike Fiers, Brad Peacock (3)

Losses: Joe Musgrove (3)

Earned Run Average: Mike Fiers (2.32)

Saves: Ken Giles (4)

Innings Pitched: Mike Fiers (31)

Hits: David Paulino (31)

Earned Runs: David Paulino (19)

Home Runs: David Paulino (7)

Walks: Brad Peacock (17)

Strikeouts: Brad Peacock (35)

Walks Plus Hits Per Inning Pitched: Mike Fiers (0.968)

How convenient (for me) that the last game of June was also game #81, i.e. the half way point.  All we have to do is double everything from the first half and we know exactly what we’re going to get!

June, for the Astros and for me, was an interesting and not always easy month.  Since I was out of the country for nearly the whole month, I haven’t been able to see many of the games, relying on recaps, box scores, highlights, and (too many) injury reports.  In many ways, that has been the story of June: injuries and chances.  At one point, four of the five main starters were on the DL.  Somehow, they have been able to cobble together some decent starts and plenty of offense to more or less keep rolling.  Also, I predicted 17-10, and so was only one game off.

The month started with a continuation of a great stretch.  A three-game sweep in Arlington was part of an eleven game winning streak.  Then came the roughest part of the season so far, as the Astros went 4-8 over a twelve game stretch, most of it at home.

There have been two big stories in June.  First, the resurgence of Mike Fiers.  Of course, I was the loudest voice behind the “get rid of Fiers” club, and they basically had until he was pressed into emergency service on May 30.  All he did after that was one dominant performance after another as he took over the defacto ace role for the ailing rotation.  How is this for turn-around: after giving up 18 home runs in the first two months, he gave up none in five starts in June!  Cheers to him for stepping up.  Brad Peacock also did an admirable job, going 3-1 in five starts with a 3.33 ERA.  The problem is the number of fill-in starters have not been able to pull their weight in innings, which has begun to take its toll on the overtaxed bullpen.  They’re going to need to do something to turn that around as the season moves into the second half.  A playoff team is only as good as its bullpen.

The second story has been the offensive outburst from guys like Springer and Correa.  Springer’s home run numbers in particular have been impressive (he’s on pace for nearly 50 home runs, and already set a franchise record for lead off home runs and became the first player in baseball history with nine lead off home runs before July).  Springer is also on pace to become the second player in baseball history to have 100 runs scored and 100 runs batted in from the leadoff position (the other?  Darin Erstad).  Josh Reddick has also stepped up and cemented himself in the #2 hole with a great month.  While this offense is great, the team will need to become more balanced in the second half of the season if they expect to go far in the playoffs (at this point we should assume they will make it).

May outlook:  Two final games against the difficult Yankees at home before the pre-All Star break road trip East to Atlanta and Toronto.  After the break, they start with winnable series at home against the Twins and Mariners, before another long road trip to Baltimore (tough), Philadelphia (should be a sweep) and Detroit (tough again).  A little optimistic, but I’m hoping for a 15-9 record.

Overall Grade: B+

My Pilgrimage: June 21

It’s been a long day, I’m tired, it’s getting late, and I have a long day of travel tomorrow, so I’m going to try and keep this short.

My list for today was a long one, though shorter after I decided not to try and venture out for a Medieval Castle about an hour away from town.  Another time!  Instead, I started with an out-of-the-way ride to the Danube River.  I’m this near to a historical waterway, I have to touch it.  So I did, I took in the sights, the swans, and I made my way back to Old Proper.  Despite what the song says, it’s not blue (and yes, I was listening to it while I was there).

Ok it's looks blue here, but up close it was more green (though not as bad as the Jordan)

My four museum stops for today were all close together.  First was the Natural History Museum.  It has two major claims to fame: the oldest and largest collection of meteors, and the famous Venus of Willendorf, which is 25,000 years old (though interesting they have an even older figure in the same room).  Besides that, it is surprisingly mediocre when compared to Chicago’s Field Museum or, especially with the tiny dinosaur collection, the Houston science museum.

The second oldest gold objects ever found

Isn't she lovely?

And...even older

Ubiquitous dinosaur shot

A tiny portion of their big meteor collection

Across the plaza (with a humongous statue of Maria Teresa) is the Kuntshistoriches Museum, the art museum.  I’ve been blessed to see some great art museums (Louvre, Uffizi, Vatican, to name a few), this is up there with them.  The highlights include Raphael’s Madonna of the Meadow (which has been following me; we studied it in my Michelangelo class and it was outside my door at IPF), Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, Bruegel, Titian, etc.  As a big fan of Renaissance art, this was a treat.  It was after noon by this time, and I could not find information for any nearby food stops, so I grabbed a quick sandwich at the museum’s café.

Titian's Thesus, like all good European art museums the building is as impressive at the art

Maddona in the Meadow

Caravaggio

Automaton ship centerpiece, the cannons actually fire

They have videos of each of the automatons, but this was my favorite.  You have to stay until the end.

The third stop today was the New Palace, which has three exhibits.  First was the archeological findings from Ephesus.  Second was a huge collection of musical instruments, including two clarinets said to have been played by a young Beethoven (plus his portrait) and the violin of Mozart’s father.  Third was my real interest: the royal arms and armor museum.  Maybe not as impressive as the collection in Paris, but still pretty cool (though room after room of armor gets a little old).  Interestingly, their weapons collection does not include anything from the 20^th century.  Almost like they don’t want to remember the world wars.

Young Beethoven and his instruments (the black one and the small one to the right)

Table with drinking songs

Just one set of suits of armor

Lots of guns

The last big stop for the day was the Imperial Treasury.  If only I wasn’t the walking dead by this point, I could have better appreciated all this had to offer.  The treasury includes two Holy Roman Emperor crowns, the royal cradle for the son of Napoleon and one of the Hapsburgs, a golden rose from the pope, the 11^th century Imperial Cross including large pieces of the True Cross (with nail hole!) and the Holy Lance, a reliquary with one of the nails said to have been worn by Constantinople, and many other pieces that made the Hapsburgs THE royal family.  And then there was my highlight: the royal ecclesiastical collection.  We’re talking rooms full of chasubles, chalices, monstrances, reliquaries (many not labeled, but some including the apostles, a tooth of John the Baptist, a piece of Jesus’ loin cloth, a piece of the cloth used at the Last Supper, and many others), and all kinds of amazing Church paraphernalia.  It’s a liturgist’s (or seminarian’s) craziest dreams come true.  The only problem was the rooms were very light, and with no flash photography most of my pictures are very dark.  That is until the last room, when I decided to try my phone instead of my camera.  I’ll never mock the iphone camera again.

Golden Rose

HRE crown

True Cross

Holy Lance

When I finished there it was 4:00, so I had about an hour before Mass at St. Peter’s.  I spent some of that time back in St. Michael’s and some of the time roaming the streets.  St. Peter’s is an amazing Baroque church.  I didn’t have much information on it, so I just went by what I saw.  I did notice remains under a couple of the side altars, but I have no idea who they were.  By the way, a quick note about what I observed in two Masses in Vienna.  I was surprised.  Both had at least 60 people for Daily Mass, and from what I could tell they were locals and not tourists.  Today’s Mass was about half people in the 20s and 30s.  Both priests wore fiddleback chasubles.  No homilies.  The priest today held his hands “the old way” during the consecration.  St. Stephen’s uses its altar railing, St. Peter’s does not have an altar railing so people knelt on the lowest step.  And no extraordinary ministers.  They seem pretty traditional to me.  Again, they were pleasant surprises.

Then it was time for dinner.  I won’t go into the whole story, but let’s say I was upset with how difficult it was to find a traditional Austrian restaurant.  I settled for an outdoor café near the cathedral, and went total cliché.  Weiner schnitzel and apple strudel.  They were pretty good.  But now I’m tired.  I can really feel the three plus weeks wearing on me.  As much as I like Vienna and could easily spend more time here, I’m worn out from being away this long.  I’m looking forward to tomorrow.  Not the travel (you can probably tell by now I hate it), but more the fact that, God willing, by 7:00 I will be back in Madison.

My Pilgrimage: June 20

Long story short: I really like Vienna so far.  I think I’m not an honorary Hapsburg.

It was an early day for me, because I wanted to get to the Schönbrunn Palace, the huge palace of the von Hapsburgs just outside of Vienna.  But first, I have to mention the hotel breakfast buffet.  I have never seen anything like it!  Five long tables full of food, anything you can think of.  All kinds of cereals and fruits, yogurt, pre-made smoothies, omelet stations, meats, eggs, French toast, one side full of different pastries, juices, milk, etc.  I could have gone crazy, but I held back.  I grabbed a yogurt and smoothie (the yogurt was the most bland part of the breakfast, not really chilled), and of course a couple of pastries.  One was an amazing croissant filled with chocolate and drizzled with chocolate.  The other was a cake donut with chocolate glaze, it looked like the kind you can get in bags that taste nasty but this was fantastic.  I really wanted to eat more, but I also really wanted to not get sick.

It took about an hour to get to the palace, since I had to first figure out how to get tickets, then take a train to the city center, then get on the U-bahn to the palace, then actually walk to the palace.  Whew.  But believe me, it was worth it, and I knew it as soon as I saw it!  Wow!  The palace has something like 1400 rooms, but the tour takes you through about 40 of them.  Unfortunately you cannot take photos inside (which is why I bought a book about it afterwards), but I can say the real WOW was the main ballroom.  It’s hard to describe, but I imagine it’s something like the mirror room in Versailles (which I’m now extra bummed I didn’t see while in Paris). 

Now THAT'S Money!

My only picture inside, before the No Photo signs

After the tour, which took about an hour, I was well ahead of my schedule so I took my time walking through the gardens and the grounds.  Then I came up to the zoo, the oldest in the world.  I debated with myself for a few minutes.  In the end, my love of zoos, and especially historical ones, won over my concern for the cost.  I took about an hour to walk through most of it.  The highlight for me was the close up with hippos, but I also liked seeing the arctic wolves and lions.  Unfortunately, the tigers were nowhere to be found.  While walk through, I splurged for a strawberry gelato (a whole 1.50 Euros), which was good since it was starting to get hot.

There is glass there, but those kids were still too close

Hungry Hungry Hippo

King Penguin

A couple of arctic wolves

Check out that view!

I finished my walk through the grounds, including some great views of the palace with Vienna behind it, and made my way back to the metro.  I was still about an hour ahead of schedule, which worked out well.  I went directly to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, getting there around 11:30.  As I walked in, the guard said the nave was closed for Mass.  I asked what time Mass was; “12:00 everyday.”  I then asked if I could go to Mass, he said “surely” and I was in.  So that’s the trick to skip pay the 4 Euro to get into the main nave.  It was an interesting Mass, my first in German (add that to English, Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, and Arabic).  They had four hymns, including a post-Communion, but no Alleluia and no homily.  Oh, and they used the communion rail.  I was able to take a few pictures, then made my way out of the cathedral.  Before leaving, I wanted to see the treasury, but unfortunately it’s closed for renovations and will reopen “next week.”  Sigh.

A lot of construction inside and out made some pictures difficult

Vanquishing the Turk

So then I decided to wander through the streets of Vienna, take it in, and make my way down to the Opera.  Their tours were on the hour, so when I got there around 12:15, I had some time to spare.  What to do?  To the Socher Hotel for the famous Socher Torte!  It didn’t take too long to be seated, and I ordered green tea and a torte for my lunch.  What can I say?  It is very good (and hot tea on a day like today is a dumb idea).  The cake by itself would be a bit dry, but the apricot jam and whipped cream really work well with the chocolate.

Next up was the Opera tour.  To put it bluntly, it puts the Houston Symphony hall to shame.  The tour guide said we were lucky because today we were able to see the stage from the side of the stage, so a little of the backstage.  What’s amazing is that they run for 10 months (September through June), and each season they have about 50 operas or ballets.  At any one time there are usually five rotating, so every day they have to dismantle one set and put up the next.  They have to store the sets at a nearby museum and truck them in every day.  Seems like a bit much, but they make it work.  The building itself was pretty remarkable, especially the parts that served the bombing in 1945 (the main staircase and a couple of intermission salons, including the royal one).

The Royal Intermission room, spared from bombing

It was about 2:00 and I was starting to drag, but I still had one more big stop to go: the Imperial Apartments.  They were a bit difficult to find, but I finally did and started the tour through the “kitchen collection” as I’m calling it: silverware, serving sets, plates, etc. (the only part of the tour you could take pictures).  The first few rooms were cool, but it got old fast.  That part finally ended and I walked upstairs to the apartments.  Or at least that’s what I thought it was, but they started with a long tour of the life of “Sisi,” Queen Elizabeth, wife of Franz Joseph.  She had a “tragic” life, I suppose, marrying him reluctantly at the age of 15, hating the spotlight and doing everything to avoid it, having her only son commit suicide, and finally being assassinated at a young age by an Italian anarchist.  They really played her up as tragic, but I kind of thought she was a bit overdramatic.  That part of the tour could have lasted 30 minutes if I listened to the whole audio guide, but I wasn’t really interested in her life so I kind of fast forwarded until I got to what I want to see: the actual apartments.  While they were good, they were somewhat of a letdown after the Palace in the morning.  Or maybe I was just tired.

Royal Chamber Pots!

Just part of a HUGE centerpiece

After finishing that tour, I was pretty bushwhacked, but I didn’t want to call it a day at 4:30.  So, I decided to check out a couple more churches in the area.  First up was St. Michael’s, directly across the street from the apartments.  WOW!  This church is some kind of beautiful.  The sculptures behind the altar are breathtaking, and the eight (I think) side altars are pretty great too.  As slightly underwhelmed as I was by the cathedral, this blew me away.

Close up on Michael

15th Century Pieta

I then made my way up to St. Peter’s, only to find out they were about to have Mass.  No bother, I will try to return for Mass tomorrow (I noted the times) for a better look.  By that time I really was tired, not to mention hot and smelly, so I made my way back to the metro, train, and hotel.  I’m pretty happy with myself, after I was nervous this morning, that I navigated with no real problems both the transportation and the city.  I’m looking forward to another great day tomorrow!