So now that Gabe Kapler has decided to make his comeback to the Major Leagues, we here at UmpBump figured it was high time we awarded coveted “Hot Baseball Wife” status to a hot baseball wife who we have shamefully overlooked. Until now.

The envy of women and gay men everywhere for having snagged the most ripped man in baseball, the former Lisa Jansen has also made her mark by going public with the painful story of a physically abusive long-term relationship she was in before meeting Gabe, in the hopes of turning her personal pain into something that can help other women escape from abusive relationships of their own.

Even Gabe was surprised to hear the story when Lisa first told it in 2004, but Gabe and Lisa were determined to try to do something to make sure other women would not have to go through what Lisa did, so together they established the Gabe Kapler Foundation, a non-profit organization which helps both men and women battle and overcome domestic violence.

Lisa Kapler, for being a brave and undeniably hot baseball wife, we hereby induct you into our pantheon of immortal hotness.

Update: We’re all done!!

Let us know if you find any bugs (or any other weirdness) on the site at get [at] umpbump [dot] com

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To a new hosting provider that is.

We’re in the process of moving our files and database to a better and faster host; as far as we’ve been informed by the support team at our new home, the process will be seamless. However, we’d like to let you guys know in case a hiccup should present itself.

If anything, the domain might not respond for a few minutes while the DNS records get updated, but all should be back to normal by tomorrow.

Thanks!

The 2008 inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame get announced today, so it’s only appropriate that we here at UmpBump announce the latest inductee into our own little Hall of Fame we call “Hot Baseball Wives.”

Our honoree this time is All-Star catcher and “True Yankee” Jorge Posada’s wife Laura, pictured here helping a rather uncomfortable looking Regis Philbin discover that all his moving parts are still quite functional after all these years:

Lauramarried Jorge in 2000. Before marriage, she had been a fitness model and minor actress in Puerto Rico, before later hitting the books to become an attorney. Laura also made waves after coming to the US by posing in a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition wearing nothing but strategically placed paint:

Laura’s most high profile activity since coming to the US, however has been her active role as co-founder of the Jorge Posada Foundation. Jorge and Laura’s first child, son Jorge Jr., suffers from craniosynostosis, a condition in which the bones in a child’s skull fuse too early, before the brain has had enough time to grow. The painful affliction results in an abnormally shaped skull, and causes serious complications, and Jorge Jr. has already had numerous surgeries to help correct the condition. Laura and Jorge co-founded they named after their son in order to raise money to find a cure for thecondition and to help support needy families with children afflicted by the disease.

Congratulations Laura! For combining beauty, brains, and compassion, you’ve more than earned the honor of Hot Baseball Wife.

Laura shown here with second child, daughter Paulina

Comparisons may be odious. But dang it, they make great bar conversations. And few topics fuel debate more than comparing the inherent value/abilities of baseball players.

Since the American League Most Valuable Player in 2007 is ABSOLUTELY NOT UP FOR DEBATE (and if you somehow disagree with this absolute, you deserve a karate chop to the throat), we will move on to the National League MVP. Paul argues in favor of David Wright, while Coley touts the virtues of Matt Holliday.

PAUL SAYS:

Although the regular season has come and gone, it still seems that the general answer to the question “Who’s the NL MVP?” can vary daily. Simply put, there are far too many candidates. There’s Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins in Philadelphia. Chipper Jones had a tragically overlooked season for the Braves. There’s Prince Fielder for Milwaukee, Matt Holliday in Colorado, Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera for the Fish, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes in New York, and no MVP conversation is complete without mentioning Albert Pujols.

With so many candidates, I’m not going to bother going through each player’s credentials here. But I will explain why I feel that David Wright should be (but won’t be because putting numbers into context is too hard for BBWAA members to understand) your 2007 NL MVP.

The detractors will point to the fact (and perhaps fairly) that David Wright does not lead the league in anything that’s easy to compute. “Homeruns are the best a hitter can do, right? Then Wright can’t be the best because he only hit 30. And scoring runs are good too. He only brought home 103 of those!” But context, people, context!

Let’s begin with Park Factor. David Wright plays in the National League East – home of the pitcher’s park. Four of the five stadiums are disadvantageous to hitters. And looking at two ways to measure these things (at Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN), it appears that Shea may be the toughest of them all. This puts Wright at a severe disadvantage in terms of power numbers when compared to those who play in hitter’s parks such as Wrigley, Coors, Minute Maid, Great American, Chase, and Citizens Bank. Luckily for us, people far smarter than I have created ways to help equalize these numbers.

By now, I think most baseball fans have at least heard of things like Win Shares or VORP, either as respectable tools for evaluation or as the thing that’s destroying the very fiber of everything we’ve ever held dear. But as a quick recap, Win Shares was devised to calculate how much each individual player contributed (both offensively and defensively) to their team’s wins. Wright led the NL in Win Shares this year with 34, with Pujols behind him with 32. Basically, this means that Wright’s contributions to the Mets’ total number of wins outweighs that of any other player in the National League.

For VORP, Wright placed second behind Hanley Ramirez (who had an amazing offensive season) which is even more impressive once you consider that VORP does not calculate defensive value – an area that strongly divides Ramirez (arguably the worst defensive shortstop in MLB in 2007) and Wright (one of the best defensive 3rd baseman in the NL).

Then there’s Runs Created, another one of these wacky numbers made popular by Bill James, where we see literally how many runs scored were a direct result of each player’s offensive contributions. Wright leads the NL here too, barely over Miguel Cabrera (136 to 135), but again, when you take defense into account, Wright truly was the better player in 2007.

Lastly, Runs Above Average. This is a metric that figures out how many runs a player either created offensively or prevented defensively when compared to their positional peers. In 2007, David Wright was responsible for 73 Runs Above Average, which by far and away was tops in the NL (Pujols comes in second again with 60 RAA).

In 2007, David Wright did everything anyone could ask of him as an individual player. He hit for a very high average (.325), was one of the best at not making outs (.416 OBP), had 30 HRs and 34SBs (with an excellent stolen base success rate of 87%), hit with runners in scoring position (.310 AVG, .975 OPS), and played a very good 3rd base (he led all MLB 3rd baseman in the number of plays made outside of his zone. By a lot.). By pretty much all sabermetric measurements, David Wright was the best player in the 2007 National League.

COLEY SAYS:

Paul, I notice you’ve listed a lot of really good reasons why David Wright should be the NL MVP.

But I also notice you’ve omitted all the reasons why he shouldn’t. Like, for example, the fact that he played for the New York Mets.

Read the rest of this entry »

So we here at umpbump often fling emails around tossing out ideas for potential posts. Finally, this afternoon, umpbumper Paul couldn’t take it anymore and finally asked the question that had been on his mind all day:

From: Paul Moro
To: Umpbump Staff

So, is anybody going to say anything about Bonds???

The following email thread ensued…

From: Nick Kapur
To: Umpbump Staff

I actually like the fact that we have collectively been totally silent on Bonds. I think that speaks volumes.

I saw that Bonds homered last night. I watched the video. I felt nothing. I went to bed.

From: Paul Moro
To: Umpbump Staff

That was pretty much my reaction too. I just don’t understand why we should care about Bonds to THIS degree. I have been all bonds-ed out for quite some time. Not sure why I should care any more now that the record has fallen. The sky is still blue, the grass is still green, Stephen Hawking is still smart, and baseball is still baseball. But a tornado in brooklyn this morning? Now that’s something different.

From: Alejandro Leal
To: Umpbump Staff

I just felt bad for Barry’s kid. He got no love from his pops… he just stood there at home plate… alone…

From: Sarah Green
To: Umpbump Staff

What is there really to say about Barry that hasn’t been said before? Douchebag, cheater, lightning rod, scapegoat, and owner of the all-time home run record. Former skinny five-tool player and charter member of the 500-500 club turned swollen mutant cyborg. Yawn.

From: Nick Kapur
To: Umpbump Staff

We still haven’t heard from Coley. Anything to add, Ward?

From: Coley Ward
To: Umpbump Staff

Barry Bonds can suck it.