Archives › 2009 › September

It certainly looked like one of the better signing of the offseason: after missing out on Milton Bradley, the Rays inked Pat Burrell to a two-year, $16 million contract to take over as their DH.  He was coming off four straight seasons with OPSs around 890 and he had averaged 153 games during those seasons. …

Minimum 50 innings. Listed along with each pitcher’s ERA are saves+holds and blown saves. 1. George Sherrill – 1.75 – 32 – 5 2. Trevor Hoffman – 1.76 – 36 – 3 3. Mariano Rivera – 1.82 – 44 – 2 4. Jeremy Affeldt – 1.84 – 33 – 0 5. Kiko Calero – 1.86…

* Rookie outfielder Sam Fuld has been very productive in 61 games with the Cubs, hitting .302 with a .417 on-base percentage, six extra-base hits, and 16 runs in 103 plate appearances, but is still looking for his first career RBI. Fuld has 26 hits, including five with runners in scoring position, but amazingly none…

Boston lost last night for the fifth straight game, but still managed to clinch a spot in the postseason when Texas lost 3,000 miles away and a few hours later. Most of the Red Sox stuck around after their loss to watch the Rangers on television in the clubhouse, but getting into the playoffs that…

Last week I wrote that Eric Wedge was unlikely to be back for his eighth season as Indians manager in 2010 because “general manager Mark Shapiro probably needs to make someone the fall guy before all of the attention turns to him.” Sure enough, this morning Shapiro cleaned house by firing Wedge and his entire…

* After clinching their third straight division title, the Angels scratched Scott Kazmir from last night’s start and have also bumped Jered Weaver from tonight’s scheduled outing. Matt Palmer will take Weaver’s place against the Rangers. Lyle Spencer of MLB.com speculates that the Angels’ postseason rotation will have John Lackey in Game 1 followed by…

It was about this time last year that the Mets gave Omar Minaya his contract extension. The Mets finished choking away the division a day or two later.  The Dodgers are in all likelihood still going to win the west, but with their lead down to 3.5, with them losing like crazy to the Pirates…

Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera were given a bunch of gifts before last night’s game. Cool stuff, too!  For example, check out what Rivera got:  Rivera was given the bullpen bench from the old Yankee Stadium and the Citi Field pitching rubber from the night he earned save No. 500 against the New York Mets across town.…

Usually you hear old ballplayers talking about how good they were. It’s quite odd, then, to hear someone as good as Mike Schmidt talking about how flawed he was: I hated striking out, all 2,000 times I did it. I guess my problem was I felt the opposing pitcher saw me as a dangerous hitter,…

Twins 3, Tigers 2; Tigers 6, Twins 5: Porcello and Blackburn were each tough in game one, but Verlander wasn’t matched by Duensing in Game 2, putting his team in a 5-0 hole. A seriously long day for these two teams, and despite all of the drama, now they’re back (back) where they started, here…

As bad as they’ve looked over the past five games, the Boston Red Sox are once again back in the playoffs, thanks to the Los Angeles Angels, who eliminated the Texas Rangers from contention on Tuesday night. That’s a record seventh wild card berth for Boston, as well as its sixth playoff appearance in the…

Clay Buchholz pitched his way into the Red Sox’s postseason rotation by going 7-3 with a 3.21 ERA through 14 starts, but turned in a disastrous outing Tuesday against the Blue Jays. Buchholz served up a career-high five homers after allowing a total of seven long balls through his first 84 innings this year, coughing…

Rest easy Red Sox fans, Josh Beckett’s aching back did not come about as a result of pitching, but from an inability to, umm, rest easy (from the Globe): “It was just something that you wake up with,” Beckett said. “It wasn’t like I felt anything when I was throwing. You just you wake up…

While the subject had died down during the last couple of years, the idea of putting Rickie Weeks in the outfield is again being kicked around in Milwaukee, this time because of Felipe Lopez’s stellar performance since arriving in a July trade. Not surprisingly, Weeks is still completely against a possible move to center field.…

Here are the infield hit leaders, listed along with their number of bunt hits. Numbers taken from Fangraphs.com 1. Ichiro Suzuki – 49 – 6 2. Michael Bourn – 29 – 17 3. Carl Crawford – 27 – 0 3. Shane Victorino – 27 – 0 5. Cristian Guzman – 26 – 1 6. Ryan…

Ron Gardenhire did his best to over-manage the game by calling for five bunts–including a suicide squeeze that resulted in an inning-ending double play–but the Twins still prevailed in extra innings this afternoon to take Game 1 of the crucial doubleheader in Detroit. Nick Blackburn and Rick Porcello both turned in strong starts, combining for…

Shannon Drayer of ESPN radio in Seattle has chronicled the amazing psychic abilities that announcer Mike Blowers displayed yesterday. You really ought to read Drayer’s amusing recap, which includes the actual audio clips, but here’s the short version … On the pregame show Blowers selected Matt Tuiasosopo as his “pick to click” and then jokingly…

Last night Peter Moylan set a Braves record by appearing in his 85th game, which is pretty remarkable for a guy who missed nearly all of last season following Tommy John elbow surgery and was no sure thing to be healthy by Opening Day. In fact, even after making the team out of spring training…

Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com reports that 16-year-old Dominican shortstop Miguel Angel Sano has lowered his asking price after MLB was unable to verify his age. Considered by many to be the top international prospect available this year, Sano reportedly turned down a $2.6 million offer from the Pirates several months ago only to have several…

* There’s been a lot of speculation recently about whether the Giants will retain Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy, but Sabean made it clear yesterday that Bochy will return as manager if he returns as general manager. “Without question, Bruce has done a great job,” said Sabean, who has the second-longest tenure among all GMs…

I was just sort of joking in the recaps this morning when I mused that the Braves could potentially overtake the Phillies for the division, but apparently some people in Philadelphia are a little uneasy. Maybe the Braves fan in me is reading too much into it, but is Charlie Manuel making excuses already? “The…

They haven’t popped champagne just yet, but with the Pirates’ win against Los Angeles yesterday, the Nats can now finish no worse (better?) than a tie for the worst record in baseball. If the Pirates lose out and the Nats win out, they’ll both finish 59-103.  But, because the Pirates took the season series 5-3 against the Nats,…

I mentioned in the recaps this morning that it’s hard to gauge the impact of the rainout given that the Tigers will throw better starters out there while the Twins have a better bullpen. What I didn’t think about until some readers and the Strib’s Joe Christensen reminded me of it was that two games…

I’ve been accused of being an apologist for players taking steroids. There’s an element of truth to that, I suppose, at least if you equate “not thinking that players who take PEDs are Satan” with being an apologist.  I simply think there are worse offenses in the baseball world, even if some folks disagree. A big reason…

Frenchie, when asked if he is sad that he’s not part of the Braves’ late season wild card surge: I wish them nothing but the best,” Francoeur said, “but to be honest with you, there’s not even a .1 percent chance that I’d want to be back there right now. It has nothing to do…