Alex Rios, hats, and Justin Verlander

The platinum sombrero. Ever heard that baseball term before? Me neither, but then I didn't know Miguel Cabrera had donated his entire Detroit Tigers contract to bring Twinkies back to the shelves. Just kidding about Cabrera, but yes, the iconic Hostess products will be coming our way again soon. Forget the wheel, sliced bread, automobile, and cellphones -- cupcakes, Twinkies, and Susie Qs are necessary for the human species to survive. I suppose hohos have their place, and might very well be delicious, but I've never personally sampled such a product. Ahem. Where was I?

Oh yeah. Alex Rios. Back in 2009, when Rios was still a Toronto Blue Jay, he came up to bat 5 times in a game against the Los Angeles Angels -- and struck out all five times. Evidently, this is known as the platinum sombrero. Why a precious metal would be associated with such a miserable performance is beyond me -- but there's a lot of things I don't understand about baseball. Like why does every home-plate umpire seem to have a different "strike-zone"? Shouldn't it be the same for everybody? And what's up with the foul poles being in fair territory? I dunno.

At any rate, Rios, now a member of the Chicago White Sox, obviously changed hats in last night's game against the Detroit Tigers. Everything Cy Young winner Justin Verlander threw up to the plate was getting rocketed all over the park by Rios. Indeed, Rios went 6 for 6 in his at-bats as the ChiSox were routing the Tigers. Wear a sombrero one day, and a crown another day. Funny how that works out in baseball sometimes.

At that, one is left to ponder the current Justin Verlander. Certainly the Fastball Flakes man is still a terrific pitcher, but with a 9-6 record this year, he hardly seems his former dominating self. Yours truly has a theory why this is happening.

Yes, Verlander can still bring the "heater" at close to 100 MPH whenever he feels like it, and hitters still have a hard time catching up with it. But let's not forget -- these are major league hitters were talking about, and if the only thing a pitcher has going is a fastball -- those hitters will adjust their timing, speed it up a tad, and they'll be all over it the second and third time through the batting order. A great pitcher needs other pitches to compliment his arsenal. Verlander had -- and has them -- hence his success in recent years.

In this day and age, pitchers do a lot of homework studying opposing batters' tendencies and trying to identify their weak spots. Conversely, no doubt hitters spend an equal amount of time watching tape of an opposing pitcher they're about to face. It works both ways.

And from what I've seen lately, it appears opposing hitters are sitting on Verlander's off-speed pitches. Sure, those pitches still dive into, or even out of the strike zone -- but if a guy's watched enough tape -- and that's what he's waiting on -- chances are good he's going to hit the ball hard somewhere.

Yes, once in a while, you'll see one of Verlander's 98-100 MPH fastballs go 400+ feet the other way for a home run -- but not too often. He's been mostly getting banged around with his breaking stuff. The other guys are looking for it because they know JV won't throw a fastball every time. And even if he did, as mentioned above, that wouldn't work for very long.

So what's the solution for Verlander? Beats the hell out of me. I'm still trying to get my mind around how his teammate and a former journeyman pitcher like Max Scherzer suddenly turned into Roger Clemens.

No wonder I like the NFL so much better. Like women -- I understand completely what is going on at all times.

Well -- maybe.

Sort of?

Once every 10 guesses?

Hmmm. Nevermind.