Drew Storen beat fellow 2009 first-round pick Stephen Strasburg to Washington by a few weeks and picked up his first big-league victory last night, for which he got not one but two shaving cream pies to the face from teammates. Plus, as is customary for the guy Nationals center fielder Nyjer Morgan selects as the…

NBC’s own TIffany Simons interviewed Kevin Youkilis, asking him about his offseason workout habits (none); his superstitions (some very inconsistent ones), his batting stance role model (Eric Davis), his charity (a good one), white wine (“um, I guess it goes with fish”), and the taunts he gets at Yankee Stadium (“I get a lot of…

Stephen Strasburg made his latest and perhaps second-to-last Triple-A start last night, tossing 6.1 shutout innings against the Twins’ affiliate in Rochester, New York. My friend and former SABR convention roommate Ben Jacobs was in attendance and offered up this scouting report: Strasburg touched 99 mph on the park gun a handful of times and…

Fun times in the Daily News today, as Mike Lupica takes A-Rod to task over the Dr. Galea story, sarcastically asserting that, apparently now that Rodriguez is no longer a post-season choker and all of that, apparently he doesn’t feel the need to come clean. Many of you may agree with him. But read the…

No news story or gossip to base this on, but based on his tweets the wonderful Ozzie Guillen is feeling a bit edgy and insecure today: I’m playing golf trying to clear my head, still not working hahaha. Nice day; I sleep like a baby, but I get up every 2 hours and cry; I’m…

Out since last Opening Day with a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery in August, Brandon Webb said yesterday that the past five months of rehab have “been almost wasting my time” because he was “throwing bad.” Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that Webb met recently with a specialist at the rehab facility…

As per my usual Thursday afternoon routine, I’m going to be on the Paul and Tom Show at at HotStove.com at 2pm.  Today’s topics will include the Hanley Ramirez business, a little Josh Beckett and other baseball topics that stay crunchy in milk. Come for the service, but stay for the legroom.

I’ve taken a few shots at Ken Macha in the past couple of days, mostly because teams that (a) are expected to contend; (b) lose nine games in a row; and (c) have an able and experienced bench coach like Willie Randolph hanging around tend to fire their managers. But that’s not the case says…

According to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune “indications are that Bob Howry will be in a Cubs uniform very soon” after being released earlier this week by the Diamondbacks. Howry pitched for Lou Piniella and the Cubs from 2006-2008, going 17-17 with 14 saves and a 3.90 ERA in 228.2 innings before signing with…

Yesterday we heard that Trevor Hoffman and the Brewer brass had a little meeting before the game.  We now know, thanks to Tom Haudricourt of the Journal-Sentinel,  that the result of that meeting is Hoffman getting some time off to clear his head and fix his mechanics: Hoffman would spend a couple of days working…

Boston’s offseason moves to build the team more around “run prevention” are being mocked because the Red Sox have allowed the most runs in the league, but injuries to Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury certainly have helped and now Marco Scutaro is sidelined with a sore elbow. Scutaro sat out last night’s game with “tennis…

What’s the point of having replay review of home runs if the umps aren’t going to use it? Josh Hamilton was credited with a double on this play despite the fact that the ball clearly left the field of play.  It didn’t end up costing the Rangers the game, but it easily could have. Let…

Confused? You won’t be if you click over the Big League Stew and check out the paparazzi pics of the Red Sox’ GM going under cover at the surprisingly controversial Monday night concert. I know Bill Simmons is a big fan, but is there such a great overlap in Red Sox and Peal Jam fans…

I have the best readers on the planet. In this morning’s recaps I made a joke about how the 47 year-old Jamie Moyer pitching to the 20 year-old Starlin Castro linked Castro directly to 19th century legend Cap Anson. I was just being silly with that, of course. But reader Luis took it as a…

Last night the Yankees ended the game with an outfield of Ramiro Pena, Randy Winn and Brett Gardner.  Not exactly how they figured the season would go.  Add in the Jorge Posada injury, Nick Johnson’s wrist, Alfredo Aceves’ back and everything else and this team is the walking freaking wounded. Snakebit? I don’t know. But…

Why did Hanley Ramirez apologize to his manager and teammates yesterday? Partially, I bet, to get back in the lineup, and partially, I hope, because he realized he was being a jerk.  But according to a tweet from Peter Gammons last night, a lot of it may have had to do with Big Papi: David…

Yesterday couldn’t have gone much worse for the Indians, who announced Asdrubal Cabrera will miss 8-10 weeks following surgery to repair a broken forearm, placed Grady Sizemore on the disabled list with a bone bruise in his left knee, and then watched Kerry Wood turn a 4-3 lead into an 8-4 loss to the equally…

As evidenced by the deconstruction of the limping and wounded New York Yankees last night, the Tampa Bay Rays have taken their place as the new beasts of the AL East.  And, even though the delivery was muddled and aggravating, Chris Berman and Rick Sutcliffe’s multiple mentions of the Rays’ arrival as the new class…

The Red Sox told Scott Schoeneweis that he was being designated for assignment after last night’s game, ending his tenure in Boston. The actual move will come this morning, so the ten-day period during which the team has to trade him, release him or place him on waivers begins today. It’s never a good thing…

After alternating Kaz Matsui and Jeff Keppinger at second base all season the Astros finally released Matsui and his .141 batting average last night. Signed to a three-year, $16.5 million contract in December of 2007, he ended up hitting just .259/.315/.370 while missing 108 of a possible 363 games with various injuries. Keppinger celebrated the…