Bradford: Diamond comes full circle in Lowell’s life journey

Excerpts from Mike Lowell and Primer-pal Rob Bradford’s new book...Deep Drive: A Long Journey to Finding the Champion Within. Good stuff.

After the 1-0 win, the Puerto Rican team was getting ready to load onto its bus when Fidel Castro requested to shake the hands of all the players in his private box. One Puerto Rican player, my father, chose to wait behind for the rest of his team on the bus. He was not about to acknowledge the man who spearheaded a government that persecuted my father’s family and friends and committed unspeakable atrocities. Shaking the hand of this man would have been another black cloud among the memories my father’s family were so desperately trying to put behind them.

That refusal to shake Castro’s hand has always stayed with me. My father stood up for what he believed in, and because of it I have always tried to do the same.

Dad got another crack at exacting a measure of revenge against Castro in ’72 when he went back to Cuba to pitch in a tournament called, ironically enough, the Friendly Series. This time my father went face-to-face against his former countrymen, the Cuban National Team. He went seven innings, leaving with a 5-1 lead, having scored the fifth run to complement his extraordinary pitching performance. That final run would prove to be the winning run in what ended up as a 5-4 Puerto Rico victory. My father had become the first Cuban to ever come back and beat the Cuban National Team.

Celizic: Red Sox become dynasty right under our eyes

Or as that outrageous Boston punk coverband, The Shell Dannon Yogurgitators, sing..."Hats Off to Larry Lucchino!”

As good as the 2004 team was, the 2007 team was better and the 2008 team is better still. And that’s how you establish a dynasty — you start with a winner and keep making it better.

The Yankees can’t do it that way. When they start every season declaring that anything less than a championship is a failure, they’re stuck grabbing every available aging all-star they can find, desperately trying to win right now. The Red Sox want to win every year, too, but Epstein also keeps an eye on the big picture. Unlike the Steinbrenners, he’s willing to finish second now and then — or even to miss the playoffs altogether as he did two years ago — if it means the team will be better in the long term.

It’s not as if Boston has infinite patience. It just has perspective — and a plan. The Yankees believe in all-stars at every position and so are built out of headlines. The Red Sox believe in value, and so are built on the mathematics of the game.

Joe Posnanski Blog: Keltnerizing Fred Lynn

And I’m sure he got hurt in the process…

Then there’s Lynn. Because Fred Lynn was so good, so young, lots of people have a tendency to look at what his career could have been or should have been and maybe even would have been had it not been for the injuries and getting traded away from Fenway Park and all that. He got about 1,100 fewer career plate appearances than Rice, and because of this his counting numbers are not as good*, though his OPS+ is actually the best of the three at 129.

Interestingly enough, though, I think Lynn might have the most compelling Hall of Fame case of the three. Again — I’m using the word compelling.* Rice has better numbers and a big reputation. Evans has better numbers and an all-around game. But Lynn … well, I’ve been thinking a lot about him lately. I think he’s sort of a combination of the two. He was charismatic and respected like Rice, but he was a great all-around player like Dewey. He was the one guy of the three who I think was, in fact, the very best player in baseball for a stretch of time. Plus, he was the centerfielder.

First Blood Drawn in Sox-Yanks War

This totally negates the kid A-rod saved from an oncoming car the other year.

According to the victim’s sister, Hernandez got into a fist fight early Friday morning in the parking lot with a woman in the group, and then stalked off to her car. Some in the group saw a Yankees sticker on her car and began taunting her with a familiar chant in Red Sox Nation: “Yankees suck! Yankees suck!” prosecutors said.

Hernandez then pulled out of the parking space aggressively and nearly hit one of the men in the group, said the victim’s sister, who spoke to other members of the group about what happened. Hernandez exited the parking lot as members of the group continued to taunt her, prosecutors said, and then turned around.

“She thought they would get out of the way,” Susan Morrell, a senior assistant attorney general, said yesterday in Nashua District Court, where Hernandez was arraigned on charges of reckless conduct, aggravated drunken driving, and second-degree murder. “She never braked, and she accelerated at a high speed for about 200 feet. She went directly at this group of people.

I guess we know for sure which group of fans is the bigger group of murderous dinguses now, huh?

NBC Sports:  Yanks fan allegedly runs over, kills Red Sox fan

A 43-year-old Nashua, N.H. woman faces murder charges after a man she’s accused of running down during the weekend died.

Police say the incident followed an argument. They haven’t released details, but witness are saying an argument broke out in Slade’s Food & Spirits after Hernandez said she was a Yankees fan. They said Beaudoin was among a group of people who began chanting at Hernandez.

Ask 14: Jim Rice: I Never Witnessed Racism at Fenway

But wait’ll I get elected next year...then you’ll hear some major guff!

Last week a story came out in which Torii Hunter remarked that he heard racist taunts while playing as a visitor at Fenway. Other people have made remarks to the media about racism at Fenway over the years and, though I can’t speak for what another player has experienced, in my 15+ years of playing in Boston, I never encountered this type of behavior directed at me, a teammate, or opposing player.

Actually, I never really heard of this type of behavior at any of the opposing ballparks that I played at. We always thought Yankee fans would be the worst but they’re just like any place else. Fans are gonna say “you suck” because you hurt their ball club. If you are just making outs and errors in the field, they won’t say a word. But when you do something to hurt their team such as hitting a home run, stealing a base, or throwing out a runner.

But as for racism, I NEVER had any experience like that. I think for a situation to escalate to that level, you have to do something to incite that type of behavior. If you talk about the fans or acknowledge their taunts by responding to them, that is when the situation can deteriorate into the type of behavior Torii alluded to. Again, I can’t say for certain what Torii experienced or what led up to it, you would have to ask him about that.

Tom Hanks says Dice-K would make good movie

Cool! Hanks can piggyback this with his Schilling tribute..."The Man With One Red Sock.”

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks thinks the story of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japanese star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, would make a good film.

Matsuzaka, known by his Boston nickname Dice-K, has been under intense pressure after the Red Sox spent more than 100 million dollars to acquire him last year from his Japanese team.

“An interesting movie, I think—one I’d want to see, if they made it—would be the story of Dice-K,” Hanks told the Japan Times in an interview published on Thursday.

“That movie would have conflict and cultural clashes and superb sports skills and sportsmanship,” he said.

“It would really be something in the right filmmaker’s hands.”

WSJ: Bialik: Can the Red Sox Sweep Again? Furniture Buyers Want to Know

What do you get when Carl Bialik, Jim Albert, Phil Birnbaum and Jim Lackritz put their heads together on the furniture puzzle? Uhh...a leg up on the competition?

So I turned to several sports statisticians, whose answers for the probability of a Red Sox sweep are higher than you might think: Somewhere between 2% and 5%. They all pointed to sports books that had the Sox as among the favorites to win the American League pennant, at about one in four or five. (See, for instance, TradeSports or BetFair.) That reflects their dominant championship last year and their high level of talent. Then the probability that the Red Sox sweep the Series is equal to about 0.2 — the chance they make the World Series — multiplied by their probability of sweeping the Series. If each game is a toss-up, that’s one in 16: 1/2 multiplied four times, for the four wins needed for a sweep. That translates to one out of 80 that Boston will sweep the Series. But sports-book odds suggest that the Red Sox are likely to be better than their World Series opponent, because the odds they’ll win it all are greater than half their pennant odds. That can nudge the probability of a Sox sweep up to one in 50.

In reality, individual games aren’t identical; even at the simplest level, the home team should get an advantage. (I went into more detail about winning probabilities in baseball in this 2005 column.) That doesn’t significantly change the likelihood of the sweep, at least not within the fuzziness of making such a calculation in late April. One statistician also suggested that sweeps are more likely than statistics would suggest because a team down 2-0 and 3-0 is likely to feel demoralized and have a lower chance of winning subsequent games.

projo: McAdam: Halladay’s a throwback with complete-game artistry

Dearth takes a Halladay…

Certainly, he’s the most durable. Since 2003, Halladay has 30 complete games; the next closest pitcher (Livan Hernandez) has 20. Heck, Halladay has more complete games in that span than 19 franchises.

His string of four straight complete games is the longest for a major-league starter since 2003 when Halladay himself had another run of four complete games in a row.

...None of which detracts from his artistry. At a time when the complete game has been virtually outlawed by baseball’s obsession with pitch counts, Halladay goes about his work like he has been studying tape of Bob Gibson, circa 1968.

In six starts this season, Halladay has pitched seven innings, eight innings, nine innings, nine innings, eight innings and, last night, eight and two-thirds. Since the last two have come on the road, with his team trailing, he has left exactly two (2) innings for the bullpen this season.

...In his current string of four complete games in a row, Halladay has averaged 111.5 pitches, or the same number that Daisuke Matsuzaka sometimes needs to get through six innings of work.

Red Sox legend Tiant introduces name brand cigars to South Shore

El Tiante...looking to the sky as frilly tobacco-specific nitrosamines float about.

“Louis is known for two things, playing baseball and smoking cigars,” said Anderson, the company’s vice president and CFO. “There’s almost a built-in market for the cigar here.”

But that’s not to say the famed Sox hurler is resting on his name to sell the product. Instead the “23 Series,” the company’s introductory cigar named in honor of Tiant’s old number, was meticulously crafted and fashioned to Tiant’s liking. A mild cigar, the 23, like all other El Tiante brands, is hand crafted in Nicaragua and boasts its own unique flavor.

“It’s the kind of cigar I would like to smoke,” Tiant said. “I didn’t want to put my name to something that wasn’t a good product. It’s a good cigar.”

And if there is one thing Luis Tiant knows a thing or two about beyond baseball, it’s a good cigar. An avid cigar lover and smoker since he was 17, Tiant has always boasted cigars as his second love. “I think I had my first one in 1958,” he recalled. “I quit a few times, a year here or a few years there, but I always loved to smoke cigars. I never liked cigarettes, only cigars.”

HOF Network: High and Inside, My Life in the Front Offices of Baseball

Hold tight ye precious bagwells!  Head-spinning excerpts from Lou Gorman’s latest book...“High and Inside: My Life in the Front Offices of Baseball.”

Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics philosophy ignored fielding skills, foot speed and the basic physical skills (or tools) of a player. In the Bill James way of thinking, which became the Oakland A’s way of thinking, the “naked eye was an inadequate tool for learning what you needed to know to evaluate players and baseball games.” It would follow that the importance of scouts and scouting intelligence was overstated. All too often a professional baseball scout was characterized as a former player, one of the good old guys who would sit in ballparks all across the country, chewing tobacco, traveling in bunches, ignoring modern technology, steeped in ancient concepts and theories that were long outdated. Nothing could be further from the truth. If one accepted the position that you can only truly evaluate a player’s ability by statistics, then how in God’s name in looking back at the history of our great game have we been able to discover, without the value of statistics, the many great players of the past who are now enshrined in Cooperstown?

...So often in my career I have seen players with excellent physical skills but questionable inner makeup fall by the wayside or never fully perform at the level of their God-given talents. The value of statistics and statistical analyses, plus modern technology, can be a great asset to any ball club, but to rely primarily on these assets and ignore or discredit the essential value of the judgment of a qualified scouting staff, is in my mind, absolute folly. No organization has been, or will be, a consistent winner without that intelligence no matter how many methods of statistical analyses are employed.

Now to the ultimate question that was posed at the beginning of this chapter: Is the modern game a better game, talent-wise and as an entertainment medium, than it was some forty years ago? In my judgment the expansion to 30 major league ball clubs from the 16 that existed in the early sixties has depleted the average talent to a greater or lesser degree. I believe the level of competition and the overall quality, particularly of front line pitching, is not as deep as it was in the past.

projo: Beckett is fuming about 20 straight (RR)

Beckett and the Schedule of the Absurd…

Pitcher Josh Beckett provided a solid starting performance, in which he struck out a career-high 13 in his seven-inning outing. The right-hander allowed only two runs (one earned) and four hits. He didn’t get any help from his offense, and when he looked around the clubhouse after the team’s 3-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, he saw a lot of tired players. So he made his feelings known.

“A lot of our guys need that,” he said, referring to today’s off-day. “It’s unfortunate we’re just a little banged up right now. Tito is usually pretty good staying on top of giving guys days off when we’re in a stretch like that. I mean, Kevin Youkilis (0-for-3 yesterday) needs to be in there right now because he’s either playing third or first. “There’s nothing you can do,” added Beckett. “Tito’s hands are tied. It’s going to be nice to get Mike Lowell back pretty soon. (MLB) makes the schedule and it’s not just the 20 games in a row we play — 8 o’clock getaway games in Oakland. There’s not enough [complaining] and moaning that goes on to get it changed. I don’t know what we can do.”

He wasn’t done.

“That’s what strings guys out,” he said. “It’s tough playing 20 in a row, anyway, but whenever you get Sunday night baseball here and Sunday night baseball there, it’s at 8 o’clock and you don’t get home until 5 in the morning. Then you’re right back out there the next day.”

Ask 14: Rice: Pitchers That Gave Me Trouble

Well, if you go by those blasted BBWAA members...all of ‘em!

Who was the best pitcher you faced-the hardest to get a hit off, and who was the easiest (Of the pitchers that were in MLB for a significant period)?

When I think of guys I had trouble with, I think of relievers. Guys who hide the ball well in their deliveries like Dan Quisenberry or Dennis Eckersley. These were guys who could come in for a couple innings and be dominant.

Like Papi, he might hit four bullets into the shift and come up empty because the 2nd baseman in playing in short right field. He hit the ball well but it still shows up as 0 for 4 in the box score. Well, that type of stuff happened to me also. I might be o for 7 against a guy but I still hit him hard. It wasn’t the necessarily the pitcher that I stuggled with, it was the defense.

The pitchers who i didn’t like were guys like Eck and Q who I might have faced 20 times but might have struck out 9 times. Quisenberry was toughest on me. He threw hard, hid the ball well, and came almost underhand in his delivery.

Top 7 :: Best Long Term Baseball Contracts

Chan Ho Park is still upset he didn’t make the list of Worst Long Term Baseball Contracts

This week, showing that we’re not all about negativity, here are the best long-term contracts ever signed in terms of the value that they returned.  For the purposes of the list, it does not count when a guy is just coming into the league, they would have to sign a contract afterwards, so Prince Fielder’s rookie contract can’t be on here even though it’s about as good of a deal as you can have.  The same goes for fliers taken on a guy - Chris Carpenter’s deal with the Cardinals would top that list.  These are long-term deals that actually ended up working out well, and they are kind of hard to find.....

5. Manny Ramirez
When he turned down Cleveland’s deal and signed with Boston for 8 years and $160 million, it seemed like an insane amount of money, until two things happened—A-Rod signing for almost $100 million more, and Manny being…a guy who was worth it.  He has finished in the top 20 of MVP every year including the top 10 each year but one (plus he would be the MVP so far this season), has two titles, and a World Series MVP.  He also has 260 homers and a batting average well over .300.  It’s amazing that even in the last year of such a massive deal that he is still giving them value.

Butch Hobson Lends His Wisdom to Youth Baseball and Earth Day Celebration

Everything will be cleaned out...except for these damn floating (adjust-poke-prod-settle...AAAH) bone chips in my elbow!

In the spirit of two great American traditions - Baseball and Earth Day -the Cromwell Clean Energy Task Force is supporting Youth Baseball and Clean Energy at Cromwell Middle School on Saturday, April 26 between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. “Good luck to all of the young, up and coming baseball players in Cromwell. May God bless you with hot bats, strong arms and swift legs,” states former Boston Red Sox ballplayer and manager Butch Hobson. “I want families in Cromwell to join our winning team, the Fields of Green, to clean the environment and reverse the tragedy of global warming.”

The Task Force will be giving out free compact fluorescent light bulbs and reusable shopping bags to the first 100 Cromwell residents that bring in their old incandescent light bulbs. For those families that sign-up for clean energy, additional energy saving compact fluorescent light bulbs will be given out. The first 25 families that sign-up for clean energy will receive an autographed baseball from Red Sox great Butch Hobson and be eligible for a raffle to receive an autographed glove, bag of sunflower seeds, or bottle of Ultimate ME2 – a fuel additive that lowers vehicle emissions and a Fields of Green product recommendation.

Wicked Good Sports - Ellsbury quickly, and quietly, approaches MLB record

Jacoby Ellsbury is very, very, very fast.

Boston Globe: Cafardo: Jacoby Ellsbury makes powerful impression

Or as old-timer Chicky the Clicker (picking his soppy wethead off the bar for the first time in 30-years) said last night when watching Jacoby Ellsbury..."Freddie Lynn is still playing?”

Every day you see this kid, you ask yourself, “Who is he? Haven’t I seen him before?” His speed, his demeanor . . . is he Johnny Damon? Maybe, but he has a better arm and he might have more speed.

When he hits home runs and plays a good center field and runs, is he Grady Sizemore? What an excellent finished product that would be.

The emerging power and offensive ability . . . Bernie Williams? Maybe, but this kid can steal far more bases.

“A little Damonesque,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “He has the ability with two strikes to throw that emergency hack on you and stay alive. He has shown the ability to hit the ball out of the park. He can change the game with his legs.”

Yes, he is all that.

For now, we may just have to be satisfied with the fact that he’s Jacoby Ellsbury, and on nights like this, when he strokes two homers, ignites the winning rally with a bunt, and scores from first in the eighth on a double, maybe Ellsbury is better than the aforementioned center fielders. Maybe this kid is going to carve his own little place in the game and in Red Sox lore.

Boston Herald: Torii Hunter has heard hate at Fenway

Though the Red Sox have done a great deal to remake the image of Fenway Park in recent years, visiting players continue to voice concerns about fan conduct. The latest example came from Angels center fielder Torii Hunter.

Hunter told the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., that until the last couple of years, he regularly heard racist taunts when visiting Fenway as a member of the Minnesota Twins.

“I’ve been called whatever they call me - a lot - since I was a kid,” Hunter told the newspaper. “My first five or six (years), I was ‘That N-word.’ Some people would chant that out, some people would throw beer or whatever . . . batteries.”

...He had, however, informed Red Sox slugger and close friend David Ortiz - with whom Hunter spent six seasons as a teammate in Minnesota - of the racist comments he’d encountered. Ortiz remains dismayed that such behavior occurred in his home ballpark.

“He told me those complaints before, but what can I do about it?” said Ortiz. “You know how it is. When you play for the other team, you’re going to hear some (stuff) like that - wherever you’re at. He’s aware of that.

“(But) he heard some stuff that I’m surprised at. One of the security guys told me it was true. They were screaming that kind of stuff at him. That’s not right.”

The Press-Enterprise article…

S.I.: Verducci: Where does Manny rank on the list of the best right-handed hitters of all-time?

With Ramirez, however, on the cusp of 500 home runs—the Manny Meter read 496 Tuesday—now is the time to get real on Ramirez. You might well be looking at a guy who will surpass 600 home runs, 2,000 RBI and a .300 batting average by the time he retires. But let’s not wait to celebrate the greatness in our midst. Even today, Ramirez can make a case to be among the five greatest righthanded hitters of all time. For real.

...And where do you go from there? Albert Pujols will be in the discussion someday, but he’s only 28. Vlad Guerrero? He also needs more time. Alex Rodriguez? His projectable career numbers are scary, but for now Ramirez is the better pure hitter with edges in average (.313-.306), OBP (.409-.389) and slugging (.594-.578) that Rodriguez is unlikely to overcome. Joe DiMaggio? His ability to make contact with a power hitter’s profile was extraordinary, but war and early retirement cost him the prolificacy this discussion demands. (Ramirez already has more hits, homers and RBI.)

And then where do you go? Hank Greenberg? Too short of a career. Honus Wagner? Absolutely great, but it’s difficult to acknowledge someone who played at a time when power hitting didn’t even exist. Al Simmons? Great hitter, just not the same threat as Ramirez. Frank Robinson? He too often gets overlooked, but he was a cut below Ramirez. Frank Thomas? Amazing numbers, but you would take Manny over Frank in their best days.

Uh...no. And Dayn Perry would probably agree...(my doing)

Gordon Edes to Yahoo!

Multiple sources have confirmed to Scott’s Shots that Boston Globe writer, Gordon Edes, has agreed “in principle” to a job with Yahoo! Sports as a national baseball writer. Edes, according to sources, is committed to going to Yahoo!, but was still hoping to be part of the buyout offer at the Globe that recently lured Jackie MacMullan off the masthead.

The specifics of how Edes will leave - either through the buyout or simply by switching teams - are still being ironed out, according to sources.

...Either way, the Edes departure will be yet another crippling blow for Joe Sullivan’s thinning sports desk and will continue to give the Boston Herald a leg up in Sox coverage with the talented, experienced three-headed monster of Rob Bradford, Michael Silverman and Jeff Horrigan now going up against the 17 Percenter’s still-developing Amalie Benjamin and long-timer Nick Cafardo. Up-and-comer Julian Benbow has been “pitching in” on Sox coverage, especially on the Web, so we’d expect to see Benbow get more reps if Edes follows through on his Globe G’Bye.

Thanks to the inky-fingers of ShysterBall.

AP: Flu hits Red Sox; Delcarmen sent home

Boston, which has won five straight games and nine of 10 entering Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, were without reliever Manny Delcarmen and catcher Jason Varitek. Delcarmen changed out of his uniform and into street clothes and went home about an hour before the game started. Varitek, who appeared weak while walking around the clubhouse, was also expected to be sidelined with the flu.
....
During his pregame meeting with the media, Francona said second baseman Dustin Pedroia was the backup to Tuesday’s starting catcher Kevin Cash.

“Everybody who has always volunteered, (Alex) Cora or (Mike) Lowell, guys who say they can do it, are on the DL,” Francona said. “Pedroia was next in line and, at this point, as soon as somebody tells you they can do it, that’s good enough.”

Madden: Bosox winning beanball battle

Uh-oh...Madden musta broke out his favorite 78 from his teen years..."I’se A Muggin’” by Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys.

It’ll be interesting to see if Farnsworth’s buzzing of Manny was a signal that this trend is about to turn under Joe Girardi. Because, for whatever reason, Joe Torre seemed reluctant to order his pitchers to deliver “message” pitches, with only Roger Clemens being more than willing to take on the role of enforcer and intimidator in recent years. (Mind you, we’re talking “first-strike” hit-by-pitches such as Boston’s Dave Aardsma’s drilling of A-Rod Wednesday night, as much as retaliatory ones.) I always found that rather puzzling given that Torre’s idol and closest pal in baseball was Bob Gibson, although maybe it was because, other than Clemens, Torre’s pitchers simply didn’t have the makeup to be knocking guys down while the Red Sox’s obviously do. But while most everyone agrees it’s part of the game, certainly Jeter/A-Rod 22 to Manny/Ortiz 3 is no accident.

Deveney: The World Series the Cubs (maybe) gave away

Did the 1918 Cubs throw the World Series to Boston?

Alas, in the gambling scandal that never was, the ‘18 Cubs just might have laid down for that year’s A.L. champ, the Red Sox. In their defense, those Cubs could not have known that, 90 years later, North Side fans would still be pulling hair out over this team.

Now, it cannot be said for certain that gamblers got to the ‘18 Cubs. But Eddie Cicotte, pitcher and one of the eight White Sox outcasts from the ‘19 World Series, did say in a newly found affidavit he gave to the 1920 Cook County grand jury that the Cubs influenced the Black Sox. Cicotte said the notion of throwing a World Series first came up when the White Sox were on a train to New York. The team was discussing the previous year’s World Series, which had been fixed, according to players. Some members of the Sox tried to figure how many players it would take to throw a Series. From that conversation, Cicotte said, a scandal was born.

That’s some heavy-duty history, and, fittingly, the Cicotte affidavit sits in a room on the third floor of the Chicago Historical Society. Last December, the museum won an auction for the rights to a group of documents pertaining to the 1919 White Sox. The museum’s curator, Peter Alter, says the museum will eventually make the documents available to the public.

Emphasis mine. Tip of the Hat to Baseball Musings.

John Marzano Found Dead In South Philadelphia

John Marzano…

Former Major Leaguer and sports broadcaster John Marzano has died at the age of 45.

Marzano, a native of South Philadelphia, was found dead inside his home on Passyunk Avenue.

A family member called police to break down the door shortly before noon, officials said. Marzano apparently fell down the stairs, but it is not known whether he suffered a heart attack or simply fell.

Throw at Manny’s head to cost Farnsworth 3 games

and Yankee fans applauded...the suspension.

Kyle Farnsworth may have said he didn’t throw at Manny Ramirez intentionally Thursday night, but apparently, Major League Baseball believes otherwise.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Farnsworth will be suspended three games and fined $2,000 for throwing behind Ramirez’s head in the seventh inning Thursday night in the Bronx.

Farnsworth was not ejected from the game for the throw, which sailed behind Ramirez’s head. Instead, both teams were warned by home plate umpire Larry Vanover, though there were no further incidents in the game.

Country Genius: Cobb’s Random Player of the Day: Terry Hughes

Ricky Cobb examines the brief career of forgotten Cubs phenom Terry Hughes.

With Jon Matlack, John Mayberry, Ted Simmons, Bobby Grich, Vida Blue, Dave Kingman, Don Baylor and others on the board in the 1967 draft the Cubs took this guy. Yes, I’m being a little unfair. Blue, Kingman, and Baylor didn’t go until the second round. Of course, the Cubs blew that pick too by taking Jimmy McMath, Arithmetic Boy! McMath got only two career hits himself, both as an 18-year-old, and never again sniffed the majors. Two picks, three base hits. Thank God Jay Mariotti wasn’t around back then.”

N.Y. Observer: Megdal: The Yankees Are Still Missing a Josh Beckett

Beckett: “Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better”

While in theory the playoffs are such a small sample of games that a team can get by without top-flight pitching, in reality, teams without it seem to always lose to the clubs that bring along the trump card of a dominant starter or two. The Yankees have certainly fallen victim to such teams—and when New York was winning four titles in five years back in 1996-2000, New York sported a large number of such pitchers, from David Cone to Andy Pettitte to Roger Clemens. Even David Wells and Orlando Hernandez, who don’t typically fit the designation, were each excellent postseason pitchers—Wells pitched 125 innings of 3.17 ERA ball during the postseason, while El Duque is 12-3, 2.55 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 106 October innings.

There is little to suggest that the 2008 Yankees have found their ace. While Chien-Ming Wang rolled to a 2-0, 1.23 ERA start, his strikeout rate (11 in 22 innings) meant that he allowed hitters to put lots of balls in play. As a result, his form is bound to be uneven. (Case in point: in his last start on Wednesday night, Wang allowed 8 runs in 4 innings to see his ERA more than triple, to 3.81.)

Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina have been inconsistent—certainly, neither seems a good bet to be both healthy and effective enough to counter the top pitchers on other playoff contenders. Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy both may have future October brilliance in them, Hughes especially—but both pitchers have been showing their age so far.

Boston Globe: Detractors having a field day with Lugo

Lugo: The Charming Trickster!

“That’s how it is,” Lugo said. “I know I’m an aggressive shortstop. I’m going to take chances other shortstops don’t take. That’s just the way I am. That’s my game. I was pleased last year. I thought I did pretty good with reducing my errors. Every shortstop is going to make some errors. There are certain errors you have to try to avoid. The ones on a routine ground ball or something like that, those are the ones you have to avoid.”

...Of course, Lugo hates making errors. Nothing bothers him more. He takes them home with him, thinks about them a lot. And he knows people dwell on them.

“People always remember the bad stuff,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s how it is. You make a lot more good plays than you make errors, but they always make you remember the errors. And sometimes I make errors because I’m an aggressive shortstop. Another guy wouldn’t have thrown the ball there [Wednesday night], but if I make a good throw, we get out of the inning.”

38 Pitches: Schilling: Intent?

What’s a Farnsworth to the Die Ostfront? Nichts!

You just cannot throw a ball BEHIND someone when you are trying to throw a strike, or even a ball in. A stray breaking ball sure, but that’s even rare to impossible. A ball sailing behind a hitter, one that’s hit 2 bombs, is a ball being thrown at a guy.

The rule in place now gives umpires authority to eject a pitcher if for any reason he suspects a hitter is intentionally thrown at. How that didn’t happen with a veteran guy like Larry Vanover is beyond me.

...I understand the leagues desire to curb all the bench clearing crap being the motivator to give the umpires the ability to head problems off before they start, but tonight was a clear cut scenario that the rule was specifically created for, absolutely no doubt.

When you see the hitters the next inning acting very skittish and tentative on the 1st pitches of ABs you know that they know what’s going on.

At the end of the day, we win, so it’s all good, and there’s still 140 some games to play…….

38 Pitches: Schilling: Umm, no.

and 27 pseudogouts!

The ankle has certainly become a sore spot and I think that’s more to do with the huge increase in cardio over the past few months, but even before that, back through 2005, the discomfort is something that’s just part of everyday living now. Explained to me was that one of the 4 surgeries done when they opened it up was to remove the ‘dead bone’ that had died during the season, and even with a subsequent shave of the surface to promote potential healing, nothing was guaranteed. I’ve never had arthritis but that is what it is I am told. So dealing with that is almost an afterthought, it’s there, it’s not going away, so dwelling on it, talking about it is not going to make it hurt more, less or change anything other than what’s on my mind, doing no one any good.

My left knee is a bit sore as well but I was made aware 13 years ago when I had it repaired that ’someday’ it would be an issue. I just didn’t expect some day to be while I was still playing. I had a small bucket handle tear of the meniscus and the two options were to stitch the tear, or remove the tear. Stitching meant longer rehab, less discomfort later, removing meant much faster rehab, with ramifications later. Hmm, not sure that was the smartest move.