Archives › 2011 › September › 22
-
Rays left-hander Matt Moore took the mound Thursday night at Yankee Stadium for the first start of his major league career. And it went about as well as any prospect evaluator could have imagined. The 22-year-old southpaw fanned 11 batters over five scoreless innings, yielding only four hits and issuing just one walk as the…
-
It looks like Davey Johnson will get his wish. From Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post comes word that the Nationals have decided to give right-hander Stephen Strasburg two more starts before the end of the 2011 season. The first will come this Friday night against the Wild Card-leading Braves. The second will be in…
-
Marlins closer Leo Nunez was suddenly placed on Major League Baseball’s restricted list Thursday and sent back to his native Dominican Republic. And now we know why. According to the Associated Press, the right-hander has been pitching under a fake name and a fake birth date since arriving in the United States back in 2001.…
-
The Cardinals suffered their worst loss of the season Thursday afternoon to the Mets, but the organization did get some positive news earlier in the day. According to MLB.com’s Matthew Leach, righty Adam Wainwright threw a two-inning bullpen session on Thursday morning at Busch Stadium and reported no issues with his surgically-repaired elbow. Wainwright, who…
-
The funny thing is that if Boston had offered him an extra $1 million, he’d likely be playing for the Red Sox right now. Martin, who chose instead to try to resurrect his career with the Yankees last winter, told ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand, “I hate the Red Sox.” “Anything to get the Red…
-
From beat writer Larry LaRue of the Tacoma News Tribune comes word that the Mariners have put an early end to Casper Wells‘ 2011 season due to ongoing complications with his head. The mysterious ailment, which is affecting Wells’ equilibrium, was originally diagnosed as a “severe sinus issue.” But that was ruled out this week…
-
New Cardinals closer Jason Motte picked a bad time to suddenly lose it. Up 6-1 after seven against the Mets, the Cards allowed one in the eighth and six in the ninth to lose 8-6 on Thursday. A win would have left the Cardinals one game back of the idle Braves with both teams having…
-
If Manny Ramirez hadn’t been stupid enough to file retirement papers when he learned he was getting slapped with a 100-game PED suspension back in April, he would have been eligible to resume playing in the majors last month. That’s not to say anyone would have taken him — the Rays almost certainly would have…
-
Tigers manager Jim Leyland has already decided his ALDS rotation and won’t consider bringing Justin Verlander back on short rest, even if the Tigers are behind after three games. “Verlander will pitch Game 1 and Game 5,” Leyland said. “All the second-guessers can come out and say I should pitch him in the fourth game…
-
While speculation has Andre Ethier potentially on the way out this winter, Matt Kemp is looking to stay in Los Angeles. Asked about a contract extension by ESPN Radio’s Beto Duran, Kemp replied that we ”haven’t started talks… but I plan on being with the Dodgers the rest of my career.” Kemp would be the obvious choice…
-
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Thursday that CC Sabathia, who pitched effectively but failed to get his 20th victory Wednesday against the Rays, won’t get another start before the postseason. With the first game of the ALDS falling nine days after Sabathia’s start Wednesday, there was no good way to have him pitch again during…
-
Alec Baldwin sells baseball caps by peeing on John Krasinski’s floor
Sep 22, 2011, 6:00 PM EDT
I’m not sure how Alec Baldwin peeing on your living room floor is supposed to sell baseball caps, but then again, I never really have understood advertising. Maybe this is genius. Ah, screw it. I’d watch Alec Baldwin in just about anything, so here you go. And don’t get offended at this: it’s purely fiction. I…
-
If you want to read a dumb, reactionary column about how statistics have ruined sports and that people who use statistics should “STFU,” by all means, go read Jason Whitlock’s latest thing over at Fox. Just know ahead of time that it is aggressively stupid, profoundly lazy and provides no insight whatsoever. Even if you hate…
-
GM says Reds’ payroll will rise in 2012, but don’t expect big free agent signings
Sep 22, 2011, 5:22 PM EDT
General manager Walt Jocketty said earlier this week that the Reds will exercise their $12 million option on Brandon Phillips for next season and today he revealed that the team’s payroll will rise from the current $80 million mark. “Our preliminary projections are that we’ll bump it up a little,” Jocketty told John Fay of…
-
Yesterday Leo Mazzone kinda sounded like he admitted that John Smoltz used to put pine tar on baseballs. Today he kinda sorta retracted it. His comments on WNNX radio in Atlanta today: “We were trying to have some fun on the air and in trying to have some fun somebody took a story and ran…
-
MLB ruined Manny Ramirez’s plans to play winter ball in the Dominican Republic by pointing out that retiring in April rather than serving a 100-game suspension means he’s banned from participating in all MLB-affiliated leagues. Instead of just playing in a league that has nothing to do with MLB or actually retiring Ramirez told Enrique…
-
It wasn’t pretty, but the Twins managed to snap their 11-game losing streak with a walk-off win over the Mariners today, as Rene Tosoni went 3-for-4 and delivered the game-winning double after coming into the day with a .164 batting average. With the win Minnesota improves to 60-95, which means Houston has officially clinched the…
-
Well, “freely” may be a relative term — they may not want to spend much money — but nor are they likely to be prohibited from doing do by the bankruptcy court: The Dodgers’ status as a bankrupt company should not prevent owner Frank McCourt from offering big contracts this winter, according to parties involved…
-
Robinson Cano is having another excellent season, hitting .305 with 27 homers, an .891 OPS, and strong defense at second base while playing every game for the Yankees, but his name is rarely brought up in most discussions about MVP candidates. Or at least rarely brought up by anyone but Cano himself. Matt Ehalt of…
-
UPDATE: Word now is that this is not a disciplinary matter. Rather, Nunez is returning to the Dominican Republic to attend to a personal matter of some kind. Either way, it seems his season is over. Here’s hoping the personal matter isn’t too ugly. 2: 59 PM: There are no details yet, but the Marlins…
-
Earlier this week all indications were that Stephen Strasburg‘s final start of 2011 would come Friday against the Braves and the Nationals would not bring him back on normal rest to pitch the season finale on September 28. However, yesterday manager Davey Johnson told Bill Ladson of MLB.com that he’d like to see Strasburg start…
-
As time goes on, this is far less of a baseball story, but so many of you have continued to ask and voice concern about Bryan Stow’s condition, that I feel it worthy of providing updates from time to time. The latest: Stow’s family has posted an update of his condition on their website. And…
-
Confirming reports from earlier this week, MLB executive vice president of labor relations Rob Manfred told Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com that Manny Ramirez is indeed banned from participating in an MLB-sanctioned winter ball league. Ramirez had planned to play in the Dominican Republic, but to do so he’d have to get permission from Bud Selig…
-
Tiffany and I talk about the Angels’ arrival in the wild card chase
-
No, I’m not inviting you guys to have that debate here for the 100th time this year. I’m merely directing you to The Hardball Times where Brad Johnson and John McCann debate the matter more formally than we are accustomed to doing. There’s numbers there and stuff. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
