Touch ‘em All Time: The Hamster is Angry

Welcome back to Touch ‘em All Time, our weekly look at the home runs from last week and choose which one we like the best. I apologize for the delay, I’m currently on a work conference and was incredibly jet lagged on Tuesday evening. But while I was a bit sluggish this past week, the Cleveland Indians were busy hitting #MonsterDongs. In last week’s poll, the overwhelming victor with 92% of the vote was Francisco Lindor’s go-ahead grand slam against Sam Dyson. Congratulations Francisco!

Over the past week, the Cleveland Indians have been busy in terms of hitting home runs. They had a total of ten home runs hit by six different players. While last week was a pretty clear cut decision, this week may not be so cut and dry.

Michael Brantley (4/13/17 v. Miguel Gonzalez, WPA .026)

LINK TO VIDEO

So Twitter apparently didn’t want to document Michael Brantley’s first home run since 2015. That’s fine, Twitter, you can be wrong. Dr. Smooth, as of late, has really started to look like himself, and nothing said “I’m back” more than his fifth inning shot to right field. The game was pretty much over at this point so the home run didn’t do much in terms of the game results, but it was sure nice to watch.

Yan Gomes (4/13/17 v. Dan Jennings, WPA .003)

No, this is not a typo. Yan Gomes of the Cleveland Indians on the thirteenth day of April in the year two thousand and seventeen hit his first home run of the season in garbage time against Dan Jennings. Again, this is the same game that featured Michael Martinez as an ace reliever, so Gomes’ home run didn’t really do anything to help change the course of the game. But it did make me smile.

Lonnie Chisenhall (4/14/17 v. Francisco Rodriguez, WPA .032)

This game was basically over until it almost wasn’t and then it ultimately was. Lonnie Chisenhall came off the bench to pinch hit against a terrible Detroit bullpen and immediately deposited a #Papaslam into the stands in right field. Coming into the inning, the Tribe was down 7-1, and Lonnie’s efforts helped to make the final inning exciting before the game ended on an Austin Jackson strikeout.

Jose Ramirez (4/15/17 v. Justin Verlander, WPA .242), Carlos Santana (4/15/17 v. Justin Verlander, WPA .096), Lonnie Chisenhall (4/15/17 v. Justin Verlander, WPA .040)

This past Saturday was a good day for baseball. Not only did the Cleveland Indians erupt for 13 runs, they did it against Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers. Sure, Corey Kluber kind of got roughed up, but shhhhh we’re not talking about that right now. Instead, check out Hammy’s call of Jose Ramirez, Carlos Santana, and Lonnie Chisenhall’s sweet, sweet dingers.

Jose Ramirez (4/15/17 v. Anibal Sanchez, WPA .021)

LINK TO VIDEO

Twitter said “Alright, Hamster, you’ve already been featured for a home run this game. We can’t put another video of you up. Now go eat your carrots”. Despite Twitter’s stubbornness, Jose Ramirez continued his onslaught of the Tigers by hitting his second three-run home run of the day. The man cannot be stopped.

Michael Brantley (4/17/17 v. Kyle Gibson, WPA .119)

Speaking of men who cannot be stopped, Michael Brantley. The man is healthy, the man is on fire, and the man is hitting home runs in meaningful games for the Cleveland Indians again. What a time to be alive. His second homer of the week came in the later innings of the series opener against the Minnesota Twins when he tacked on an insurance run off of Kyle Gibson. Don’t ever change, Dr. Smooth.

Jose Ramirez (4/18/17 v. Phil Hughes, WPA .184)

Jose Ramirez rounded out his impressive week at the plate with his third home run, this time against Phil Hughes. Similar to Brantley’s the night before, Hamster’s shot just barely cleared the wall in right center field. And yes, Rick Manning did refer to this two-run home run as a “two pointer”. Make of that what you will.

Edwin Encarnacion (4/18/17 v. Michael Tonkin, WPA .004)

With the exception of Carlos Santana, none of the guys who had hit home runs this past week are considered necessarily to be “power hitters”. That is, until Edwin Encarnacion stepped up to the plate on Tuesday night and blasted a deep home run up the bleachers in left field. The game had been long over prior to our second Edwing of the year, but it was nice to see the big man hit the ball with some authority after what seems like the slowest start of anyone ever.

Verdict

There are a lot of good options this week. Do you go with Michael Brantley for hitting his first home run in over 18 months? How about Yan Gomes for hitting his first home run in (what feels like) an equal amount of time? Or Lonnie Chisenhall for coming off the bench and injecting some excitement and drama into an otherwise sad baseball game? All of these are valid choices, but my pick for this week is Jose Ramirez and his first three-run home run against the Tigers on Saturday. Jose Ramirez was on fire this week, and seeing him go toe to toe with Justin Verlander and come out the victor is just too good to pass up. Congratulations Jose!