Archives › 2009 › June

A couple of weeks ago I mused that rather than building a new ballpark, maybe the Rays would be better off simply taking a can opener to Tropicana Field, refitting it with grass and a retractable roof, and otherwise making the best of things. I thought I was pretty clever too! Seems that the Rays…

Some folks are wondering if the Indians’ own people had a hand in breaking up Cliff Lee’s no-hitter on Sunday night: In the eighth inning Sunday night, Cliff Lee took the mound with a no-hitter against St. Louis. While he was warming up, the Indians’ in-house announcer, appearing on the Progressive Field scoreboard, asked a…

There’s a lot of talk about how rough it may be for teams going nowhere this year to unload talent and salary at the deadline, but according to owner Mike Illitch, the Tigers will be buying: Ilitch has a first-place baseball team, and he said he would do whatever was necessary to ensure the Tigers…

There’s some talk that Jorge Posada is contributing to the Yankees’ pitching woes: One unsettling fact for the Yankees is the difference when Jorge Posada catches. With Posada behind the plate, the Yankees’ pitchers have a 6.31 E.R.A. The combined E.R.A. with Francisco Cervelli, Jose Molina and Kevin Cash is 3.81 . . . Posada,…

Only two games? Hardly worth the effort. Brewers 14, Indians 12: I started to watch this one, but eventually realized that life is too short to watch ugly baseball. I do wonder, however, how Ben Francisco, Jhonny Peralta and Mike Cameron feel about going a collective 0-13 on a night when the pitchers couldn’t get…

It’s a wonderful problem to have when you’re blessed with too much pitching. In fact, you could argue that it’s no problem at all. That it’s impossible to be blessed with too many competent hurlers. The Boston Red Sox are testing that theory. The Red Sox already have a rotation consisting of Jon Lester, Josh…

Grady Sizemore received good news Monday, as an MRI exam on his injured left elbow showed that most of the inflammation has subsided. Without that progress surgery would have been an option for Sizemore, but manager Eric Wedge noted Monday that the “best-case scenario” would now have him back off the disabled in 7-10 days.…

We know that the Washington Nationals are going to fire Manny Acta, probably sooner rather than later. And we also know that the Nationals are done. Finished. Cooked. Kaput. The only thing they have left to play for is a second straight shot to draft a young, talented Scott Boras client No. 1 in the…

With the Brewers, Cardinals and Reds all losing seven of their last 10 games, the six NL Central teams are currently separated by just four games. Milwaukee – 34-29St. Louis – 34-30Chicago – 30-30Cincinnati – 31-30Pittsburgh – 30-33Houston – 29-32 It’s not just the records that are similar either. The NL Central is the only…

It could have been done before the end of April, but I didn’t have the idea for the segment back then. So let’s officially declare the Nationals dead for 2009 and look ahead to 2010. The 2010 depth chart Catcher: Jesus Flores (Arb.), Wil Nieves (Arb.), Josh Bard (Arb.), Luke Montz Flores, who hit .311/.382/.522…

* Milwaukee dumping Manny Parra from the rotation yesterday was a long time coming. Not only has he been awful recently, going 0-4 with a 13.50 ERA over his last five starts, Parra is 5-14 with a 6.41 ERA since last season’s All-Star break. Prior to that he was 8-2 with a 3.78 ERA, so…

Johan Santana tied a career-high by serving up four homers to the Phillies last week and turned in the worst start of his career against the Yankees yesterday, allowing nine runs while failing to make it out of the fourth inning. After watching Santana get clobbered for the second straight start, pitching coach Dan Warthen…

Dontrelle Willis, on handing out eight walks while allowing six runs in 3.2 innings Sunday: Honestly, today was just unacceptable. I can’t put my team in that type of hole. Can’t beat anybody pitching like that. It’s very tough to pitch when you’re in a jam every inning. I’m going to have to finally do…

As a Twins fan Francisco Liriano has made me well aware that coming back as strong as ever from Tommy John elbow surgery is far from guaranteed, but Josh Johnson of the Marlins is proving to be one of the operation’s biggest success stories. Johnson tossed a complete-game Sunday against the Blue Jays and is…

* Not only is Willy Taveras hitless in his last 32 at-bats while misguidedly playing through a hamstring injury, he’s failed to reach base at all in eight straight games in which he’s had at least two plate appearances. Steve Balboni, Dan Meyer, and Rob Picciolo are tied for the most since 1954 with nine…

Four years ago, baseball was told that, after 2008, its presence was neither requested nor desired in the Olympics. Since then, the International Baseball Federation has tried hard to get it back in. Today the IBAF made its pitch for 2016, and for what I think is the first time, got some concessions from Major…

Fun times in the independent leagues: Consider this week’s action at the port city’s historic little Blair Field, max capacity 3,238. There, two enigmatic pitchers who once drank deeply the major league good life were the main attractions for the Long Beach Armada, a 5-year-old team in the independent Golden Baseball League. On Friday, pitching…

I don’t know how White Sox fans feel about things, but those of us who don’t care if they win or lose never, ever want Ozzie Guillen to be fired, because if he was, a true national treasure would be lost. Here’s Guillen yesterday on the Sox’ annual trek to Wrigley Field: “But one thing…

While everyone wonders what the Yankees will do with Wang and the Tigers with Willis, I’m far more interested in seeing what the Red Sox are going to do with their problem starter, Daisuke Matsuzaka. In case you missed it, Dice-K had yet another rough go of it on Saturday, giving up four runs on…

D.J. noted the Brian Bruney-Francisco Rodriguez dust-up yesterday. Seems like at least one of them want to make nice now: Bruney said he had hoped to apologize for critical remarks he had made about Rodriguez on Saturday, but he never got the chance. “He had some things he wanted to say and we’ll leave it…

Nationals’ manager Manny Acta is rumored to be out the door, but no one has told him that yet: After today’s game, the elephant remained in the room. Manny Acta has in fact boarded the team plane, heading to New York for the upcoming series against the Yankees. But that begins Tuesday. We’ll see what…

Let the Bryce Harper countdown begin. Harper, the 16-year-old Las Vegas high school star who was christened as the “Chosen One” by Sports Illustrated, is planning to skip his final two seasons of high school in an attempt to be eligible for the 2010 draft. According to Harper’s father Ron, the phenom has registered at…

So much for all the trade talk. Jake Peavy will be sidelined for at least one month and as long as three months after an MRI exam revealed a slightly torn tendon in his ankle. He suffered the injury while running the bases on May 22 and had one good start, one decent start, and…

With the Cardinals and Indians less than an hour from first pitch, here’s a few things to consider: A pair of aces: – Chris Carpenter (4-0, 1.23) toes the rubber for the Cardinals. He’s coming off his worst start of the season against the Marlins, which is saying a lot, considering that he allowed three…