A night after bowling over the catcher, Nyjer Morgan gets a pitch behind him. Morgan goes after the pitcher, when — BAM! — Gaby Sanchez out of nowhere.
The (Marlins?) announcers tend to blame the whole thing on Morgan. While he is obviously not without some blame, Volstad is the guy throwing behind him. I didn’t see the game live, but apparently after they hit Morgan earlier in the game he stole a couple of bases? The Nats were down a lot, so I don’t see the logic in saying that’s why he deserved to get thrown behind again.
One thing ownership won’t do, Ricketts said, is favor a managerial candidate for marketing and fan-draw value, such as Ryne Sandberg.
‘‘The fact is, it’s Jim’s job to decide which manager to bring in,’’ said Ricketts, who expects to get involved as part of the interview process once Hendry has a short list of finalists. ‘‘But it’s about winning, not about marketing.
‘‘I don’t think we need a marquee name to sell tickets. What we need is a team that produces on the field. That’s really what’s most important to us.’‘
What’s the over/under on how many secons before Vazquez gets booed?
For all the tumult that has engulfed the Yankees’ rotation during Andy Pettitte’s absence, it will probably not look much different when he returns.
For one thing, Javier Vazquez will be back. And A. J. Burnett’s spot is safe, regardless of how he pitched Wednesday night against Oakland. Manager Joe Girardi announced these moves about 30 minutes before Pettitte continued making progress in his recovery from a left groin injury, throwing 55 pitches at a high intensity.
Among the promises Frank McCourt made on the day he took over the Dodgers in 2004: He would maintain the Dodgers’ player payroll within the top one-quarter of major league teams, and he had no plans to consider selling naming rights to Dodger Stadium.
The business plan he filed with Major League Baseball tells a different story on both counts. In two largely similar versions of the plan, the document explains how he plans to reverse the Dodgers’ financial losses in part by slashing payroll—from $100 million in 2004 to $85 million in 2006—and limiting annual growth to about 4%.
The Arizona Fall League will feature 30 former first-round Draft picks this year, including 2009 No. 2 overall pick Dustin Ackley and No. 4 selection Tony Sanchez.
Nationals’ 2010 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Harper, rumored to debut in the AFL this fall, was not included among the league’s preliminary rosters.
Cleveland tried out a new shortstop named Knaupp, Tuesday. He played the position like a Chinaman, made no hits and jassaked half his chances.
...
Is it the corkcore baseball or the 80-horse-power automobile that is stimulating the hitters to such great batting feats this year? We are curious to know.
Cotton Knaupp: Chin-lung Hu before Chin-lung Hu was Chin-lung Hu.
Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee was sent back to Texas on Tuesday to have his sore lower back examined by Dr. Keith Meister. Lee brought the problem to the Rangers’ attention following Tuesday’s 10-9 loss to the Royals.
Meister told the Rangers it was just some muscular pain and inflammation and gave Lee an injection to help alleviate the discomfort. Lee will rejoin the Rangers on Friday in Minnesota.
“Meister did not seem to think it was too serious,” Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine said. “He thinks the injection will give him a lot of relief.”
...
Lee went 1-4 with a 6.35 ERA in seven starts in August, and the back may have been a factor… “That would be speculative on our part, but he did intimate he has been feeling it for longer than one start,” Levine said.
Continuing this week’s theme of retro commercials (there was the Clemens “Zestfully Clean” ad in yesterday’s image of the day/International Roundup combo).
A. Bartlett Giamatti, the Renaissance scholar and former president of Yale University who gave up a brilliant academic career in 1986 to join the rough-and-tumble of big league baseball, died after apparently suffering a heart attack at his summer home on Martha’s Vineyard yesterday.
Reuters, September 2, 1997:
Pete Rose Jr., son of baseball’s banished all-time hits leader, made his major league debut Monday as third baseman for the Cincinnati Reds—and got a hit.
After finishing up the par-4 18th hole at True Blue - Clemens began his round on the 9th hole - he was asked by a Daily News reporter outside the clubhouse if he’d be open to talking after he finished his round, as long as the subject was golf related.
When told the reporter was from the Daily News, he said, “The Daily News? That’s comical. You must know (Brian) McNamee real well.”
Miguel Montero drove in the go-ahead runs with a ground-rule double, Gerardo Parra made two critical defensive plays and hit a two-run single, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat San Diego 7-4 Tuesday night to hand the NL West-leading Padres their sixth straight loss.
I suppose I’ll start doing semi-organized postseason race game roundups (at least for the races that are somewhat close at the moment - sorry, AL West and NL Central), like I used to do, starting with Wednesday’s games.
Tuesday night’s game had real potential for the Rays. But that was only at the beginning, long before the Blue Jays strung together a 10-run inning and ruined all the fun.
Toronto’s offensive explosion in an eventual 13-5 win over Tampa Bay took away some of the focus from Rays starter Jeff Niemann, who was trying to rebound after his last, equally rough, outing.
...
The 10-run assault tied a Rays club record for most runs allowed in a single frame, and was the first time it had happened at Tropicana Field. Conversely, it was the first time Toronto had scored 10 runs in an inning since July 25, 2007, when the Blue Jays scored 11 against the Twins.
One has to feel bad for the Nationals’ pitchers. They give up ONE hit over nine innings (and one walk), but the Washington offense couldn’t score any runs, so they go to extras and lose.
Chad Tracy singled home Hanley Ramirez with the winning run as the Florida Marlins beat the Washington Nationals 1-0 in 10 innings on Tuesday night.
Ramirez singled with one out off reliever Drew Storen, then stole second. After Gaby Sanchez drew a walk, Tracy singled to left.
The Rangers have acquired right-handed hitting outfielder Jeff Francoeur from the Mets for infielder Joaquin Arias, who was designated for assignment last week.
The only trade discussion with any traction for the Rangers involves Jeff Francoeur, a right-handed-hitting outfielder for the Mets. A source said that talks with Boston for Mike Lowell, Colorado for Ryan Spilborghs and Los Angeles for Reed Johnson have broken off after those clubs determined that those players are not expendable.
Colorado acquired Delcarmen from the Red Sox for Minor League right-hander Chris Balcom-Miller and cash considerations. It wasn’t immediately known how much of Delcarmen’s salary his new club would assume.
Among players with 200 plate appearances, the Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton leads MLB with a .356 batting average. In fact, the top four are all veterans, but fifth is St. Louis Cardinals’ rookie Jon Jay (.330 entering Tuesday).
Of course, the Cardinals’ outfielder will have to do a lot more if he wants to become the Jo(h)n Jay. The rookie will probably forever live in the shadow of the founding father with a similar name, John Jay. In addition to serving as the 1st Chief Justice of the United States, Jay was also a president of the Continental Congress.
Now it’s time to get waist-deep in an endeavor of absolute nerdiness. What other notable athletes share names with one-time members of the Continental Congress, and which person is more famous? We’ll let you decide. Dig in!
Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman says there are discussions involving Rangers’ infielder Joaquin Arias in exchange for the Mets’ Jeff Francoeur… Heyman adds, “rangers and mets are indeed talking about francoeur. would give rangers OF flexibility, extra righty bat”.
The question is simply this: If a player, even for one season, plays at the very highest level in the history of the game — I mean at the Ruth level, the Mays level, the Williams level, the Walter Johnson level, the Sandy Koufax level — does that make the person a Hall of Famer?
... And after seeing this sort of thing over and over — the mentioning of Greg Vaughn and George Foster and Albert Belle and Jose Bautista — I realized something that I probably should have already known — my obviopiphany. People, in large part, think of big home run seasons as great seasons. In many minds, they are one in the same. Lots of home runs = A historic season. I know, this realization is hardly groundbreaking, I told you that.
... But in my obviopiphany, I wondered if it isn’t much simpler than this: Maybe the steroid rage is ALL about home runs. I mean, maybe it isn’t about anything else at all — with a little collateral damage thrown in.* Wouldn’t that explain some of these contradictions? My obviopiphany is that home runs alone define how many people look at the game. Home runs alone create the image of a great season. Home runs stay with people long after everything else. Steroids meant more home runs — fake home runs to so many — and maybe this above all is what created the stir, the Congressional hearings, the lying and cover-ups and all the other stuff. Maybe it’s no more complicated than that.
The story of the 2010 Sox, though, will always be injuries: Josh Beckett, winner of 49 games the previous three years, has a 6.50 ERA and a sore back. Jacoby Ellsbury has only played in 18 games this season due to fractured ribs received in a collision with third baseman Adrian Beltre. Dustin Pedroia, the 2008 AL MVP, has played in 75 games due to a broken foot. Kevin Youkilis and Victor Martinez have each had thumb problems that resulted in Youkilis’ season ending in August, Martinez missing July, and perhaps scariest of all, Kevin Cash getting playing time.
Just an idea…have Power taser kids every time they take a nibble of their cheese covered nachos.
The Power intends to use the new mascot and Street Team in a club initiative to tackle community issues, hoping to influence positive change.
The Power’s first target is childhood obesity, Milovich said.
As for the mascot, Milovich hinted Monday that the new furry friend is “more animal than anything, but not like a black bear or dog. It’s more on the lines of a Phillie Phanatic, a Muppet-type character.”
College Baseball isn’t as big in Japan, but they do have a few college associations. One of them is the Tokyo Big 6, and here is a report from the B6’s All-Star Game from the blog Marinerds, etc.
AMERICAS: The Baseball Mexico blog continues to hand out their awards. Pitcher of the year- Bobby Cramer. MVP- Willis Otanez.
Pedro Luis Lazo, the winningest pitcher in Cuban National Series (Cuban League, despite the fact it says “series”), will be retiring after the coming season. He has 257 wins over 21 seasons.
EUROPE: In Holland, there is a slight problem in that it is raining. Alot. Games have been rescheduled, cancelled, replayed, etc. etc. Still, Kinheim and Amsterdam will try to finally finish up the series, with the winner (probably Amsterdam, as they are ahead 7-0 in the game they will resume and are up 2-1 in the best of 5 series) facing DOOR Neptunus in the Holland Series.
Germany’s Baseball Bundesliga has a final four as well: Solingen Alligators, Heidenheim Heidekoepfe, Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg and the Paderborn Untouchables.
OCEANIA/MISC:
Nothing today.
GLOBAL: Cricket has been hit by a fixing scandal. I give it a day before somebody writes a article in some way comparing or contrasting or making some sort of link to any of the problems in North American sports. Maybe two. I mean, they even mention the Black Sox in that article, so there you go.
The fifth spot in the Texas Rangers’ rotation is switching again, this time from the right arm of Rich Harden to the left arm of Derek Holland.
Harden agreed Monday to move to the bullpen, effective immediately, and Holland will be the Rangers’ starter Friday at Minnesota after they enjoy their first off day in 20 games.
Later in the article, there’s this, which I found amusing:
Manager Ron Washington decided that Hamilton needed a day as the designated hitter after batting practice to rest some minor aches and pains. Vladimir Guerrero hopped into right field, Murphy went to center and Cruz to left.
The end is near for the Rangers’ affiliations with minor-league squads in Oklahoma City and Bakersfield, Calif., and Round Rock and Myrtle Beach, S.C., could be on the horizon.
The Rangers announced their plans to stay with three minor-league affiliates through at least 2012, but noticeably absent from the news release were plans for their Triple A and High A squads.
It’s all but certain that agreements with Oklahoma City and Bakersfield won’t be extended, according to sources, and those clubs will be on the move to franchises owned by Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg.
Though I am no accountant I did read some tidbits regarding the paying back of monies owed for back taxes to the Govt. here and the intricate method that was used to defer payments for the taxes on the stadium over a long period of time.
“It’s remarkable Tito has juggled 48 players,” Henry wrote in an e-mail yesterday, “and remarkable that Theo was able to provide him with that many replacements capable of keeping us in the hunt.”
He’s starting early. Just imagine how great he’ll be at getting kids off his lawn some day.
The mouthy Oakland A’s lefty is slated to start against the Yankees at the Stadium—the first time he’ll face them since he and Alex Rodriguez feuded on April 22, when A-Rod crossed Braden’s mound in Oakland after an out, and Braden snarled “Get off my mound!” at the Yankees third baseman.
(114 - 1:29pm, Sep 02)
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