Darwin Barney is in the Record Books and Other Bullets

Did you see that Pablo Sandoval/Brandon Crawford catch against the Astros last night? Humorous and awesome all at once.

  • Darwin Barney tied David Eckstein’s NL record 113-game errorless streak at second base (in a single season) last night. He’ll go for the record tonight. The AL record is 141 by Placido Polanco in 2007, so Barney could take the MLB record this year if he keeps going like this. The overall record is 186 straight games without an error at second base, by Polanco in 2007 and 2008.
  • With the tied record, Barney is now officially as scrappy as Eckstein. And that’s a whole lot of scrappy.
  • David Schoenfield says Starlin Castro is good, but he’s not a franchise player. The primary reason given is Castro’s failure to improve at the plate this year.
  • Anthony Rizzo on Castro’s big extension: “I guess if you work hard and accomplish some things, you will be rewarded around here.” Gotta love it if that’s the message the young guys are getting.
  • Speaking of young guys, it’s easy to see Josh Vitters’ struggles at the plate when you look at his numbers. But an NL scout tells Doug Padilla that you can see the struggles in the field, too, in the way that Vitters tries to guide his throws over to first base with two outs (suggesting he isn’t relaxed and comfortable about there, letting his instincts take over). Dale Sveum, too, suggested that the mental side of the game is the problem for Vitters right now. “Some people take on a little more than they can bite off sometimes and right now he’s got a lot going on at the plate and defensively,” Sveum said. “He’s done an OK job defensively, but he needs to develop on an everyday basis in at-bats and understand the sequences of a pitcher and what he is trying to do with situational hitting. There’s a long way to go yet.”
  • Vitters seems to agree. “Obviously, the pitchers here are better than minor league pitching,” he said, according to the Tribune. “It’s not like the talent is better, just the skills are better and they know how to use it better. It takes a little bit of getting used to. It’s just kind of learning their mindset and having [an idea] of what they’re going to do to you. I’m trying to wait pitches out a little bit and get a good pitch to hit.”
  • A couple of top prospects – 2010 Rays first rounder Josh Sale and 2012 Blue Jays first rounder Marcus Stroman – have been suspended 50 games for testing positive for banned substances (not steroids in this case, but stimulant/amphetamine-type stuff).
  • The MLBullets at BCB look at the Yadier Molina/Josh Harrison collision from last night. Clean? Dirty? Unfortunate play? Just one of those things that happens?
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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