OT: The Soccer Thread June, 2013

This month is all about World Cup Qualification.

June 7th: Jamaica v USA
June 11th: USA v Panama
June 18th USA v Honduras

Some other key dates:

June 4th: Jamaica v Mexico qualifier and AFC qualifiers (Japan v Australia being the key game)
June 7th: Full slate of CONMEBOL AND UEFA qualifiers (Portugal hosts Russia in a do or die game for Portugal)
June 8th: Full slate of CAF qualifiers and the final day of Segunda featuring what could be a relegation playoff match between Villareal and ...

Jose Valverde’s ninth-inning collapse denies Max Scherzer win No. 8

You can’t spell Verve Lad without Valverde! (and The Legion of Substitute Heroes is freakin’ calling)

Max Scherzer retired the final 16 batters he faced. It was the kind of performance that shows why he hasn’t lost this season.

Scherzer left with a 5-3 lead, but remains 7-0.

Jose Valverde allowed two home runs in the ninth inning, including a three-run walk-off home run to Chris Dickerson. The Tigers lost, 7-5, on Friday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

“We obviously let one get ...

Stephen Strasburg leaves after two innings with injury

Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg has left his start after two innings against the Atlanta Braves with an apparent injury.

Manager Davey Johnson said after the game that Strasburg has a strained right oblique, according to the Washington Post.

He will head back to Washington to have his side examined.

The right-hander grimaced after throwing a changeup to Brian McCann, the sixth batter he faced, with one out in the second inning Friday night.

Strasburg retired McCann on a ...

OMNICHATTER for JUNE 1, 2013

Let’s try not to have any games be PPD by tornado warnings today, okay?

Megdal: How Domonic Is Dominating

Plus…The Domonic One has 2 more taters tonight.

This may come as a surprise if you’ve watched him play lately, but Domonic Brown — Phillies outfielder and current team leader in home runs with 13 — was having trouble hitting a single ball out of the park during batting practice Thursday afternoon before a game against the Red Sox.

Make no mistake: The ball was carrying in the late-day heat, teammates were reaching the small pockets of early gatherers at Citizens Bank Park with ...

Casting True Yankees Fans: Wall Street Guys, The Working Man, Hipsters

The Empire takes many forms…

A tipster who has access to these sorts of things passed along a casting call today for an AT&T commercial saluting the fine career of Mariano Rivera. (Mo, if you’re reading, we apologize for spoiling the surprise.) The memo explains exactly who is a true Yankee fan, by central casting’s lights. They wrote, “We are ONLY looking for REAL YANKEE fans.”

So who, exactly, are these “REAL YANKEE fans”?

  1. Wall Street types, men and women of all ethnicities, who will ...

Miles: Dale Sveum, meet Pythagoras

Hypotinuse or not?

I’m not sure how far Cubs manager Dale Sveum got in mathematics with the Pythagorean Theorem. As most of you know, you can calculate a team’s “Pythagorean” or “expected” won-loss record based on its run differential. I’ll spare you the details here.

Despite their actual won-loss record of 22-30, the Cubs go into this afternoon’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks with a run differential of plus-6, having outscored their opponents 214-208. Their ...

Passan: MLB will not implement international draft

Major League Baseball will not implement an international draft for 2014 and may not revisit the subject for another three years, temporarily allaying fears of those worried one would destroy the vibrant baseball culture in Latin American countries, sources told Yahoo! Sports on Friday.

The league and the MLB Players Association are expected to announce Friday they did not reach an agreement and plan to table the idea of an international draft for the rest of the current collective-bargaining ...

Beckett worried his career may be over

Endgame: Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.

The level of local goodwill that Josh Beckett built with his historic 2007 postseason faded over time, and all but disappeared in the 2011 chicken-and-beer fiasco. And there’s no doubt there are plenty of people—a local talk-show host, most notably—reveling in his 0-5, 5.91 start for the Dodgers.

But only the most heartless among us can be happy with the shocking news, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, that ...

Jordan: Interview with former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent

So much for that planned Fay Vincent/Pete Rose Happy Hour Event.

We hear this congratulatory phrase—the post-steroid era—being thrown about to explain lower ERAs and fewer home runs. How do you react when you hear that term? Do you think it is accurate? Has the war been won, at least in baseball, or merely a battle?

I do not believe there can be an end to the “steroid era.” The problem will be with all athletics permanently because there is so much money at stake that cheating will always be ...

Matthews: Can Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis rescue the struggling Yankees?

But you must also recognize that Teixeira and Youkilis are mere Band-Aids, hardly sufficient to close all the wounds from which the Yankees are currently bleeding.

After all, they can only play first and third. The Yankees are are still getting precious little production out of their shortstop, their catcher and both corner outfield spots.

And the pitching, which has been the glue that has been holding this ragtag collection together, might be starting to come apart at the seams.

Phelps had ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-31-2013

Milwaukee Journal, May 31, 1913:

The Washington baseball club has purchased land adjoining the right field fence on the local ball grounds and will enlarge the garden because of the large number of home runs made in that part of the field. Three circuit clouts were features of yesterday’s game and a couple of these were over the right field fence.

It worked. Griffith Stadium became a notoriously difficult place to hit home runs.

MLB: Votto and Choo are down with OBP

Dusty Baker, not so much. (quickly heads over to chemicalland21.com for product updates)

It is some kind of oddity or irony or sabermetric injustice that they are providing this OBP assault in the first one-third of a lineup drawn up nightly by the man oft-associated with being anti-OBP. But Dusty Baker, who once famously made the observation that “clogging up the bases isn’t that great to me,” will tell you he’s not so much anti-OBP as he is anti-OBP obsession. OBP, he said, means nothing if ...

OMNICHATTER for MAY 31, 2013

Everybody doing interleague is done, but there are plenty of interesting series for the weekend. Hey, look, Red Sox-Yankees!

Crisis Magazine: DeMarco: When a Crowd Becomes a Mob

Yeah, but if was Crisissy Magazine, it would be a different story.

It was Victoria Day in Canada and the Toronto Blue Jays were hosting the Rays of Tampa Bay. The word “hosting,” however, hardly applied to the treatment that one Yunel Escobar, the Rays shortstop, received, who was lustfully booed each time he came to the plate.  When he homered in the 9th inning, he was booed again for employing his signature gesture as he crossed home plate—stretching his arms out to indicate the ...

Scioscia familiar with Mattingly’s hot seat

And here I thought FOX was supposed to be a family type thingee…

If anyone can can sympathize with the plight of Dodgers’ manager Don Mattingly, it’s his counterpart from 35 miles down the freeway, Angels leader Mike Scioscia.

“Nobody ever said it was going to be easy managing in the big leagues, especially in Los Angeles,” said Scioscia, who’s been the target of media and fan criticism after missing the playoffs for the past three years and getting off to rought starts the last two. “I’m ...

Yankees to honor Hideki Matsui on July 28th

Sure to be a Brooke Ballentyne blast!

Hideki Matsui will sign a one-day, minor-league contract on July 28 in order to retire as a Yankee, the team announced on Thursday afternoon. Matsui, the 2009 World Series MVP, will be honored in a ceremony that day at Yankee Stadium.

The date was picked because it is the 55th home game for the Yankees this season. Matsui wore No. 55 during his seven seasons in pinstripes. He hit 140 homers during that time.

Carl Pavano’s hoped-for return to the mound has been delayed until ‘14

Carl Pavano’s hopes for a return to baseball have been stalled until at least next year as he continues to recover from a serious injury that required removal of his spleen, his agent, Dave Pepe, said Thursday.

“Carl will not be physically able to play this year as he recovers from his spleen removal and the complications that followed,’’ Pepe said via text. “His hope is that he can give it a try next year.’‘

Pavano, 37, suffered severe bleeding and internal injuries when he ...

This is the sort of TV umpires use for instant replay

I heard you can play Pong on it.

A few weeks ago, umpire Angel Hernandez blew a call on an Adam Rosales home run despite having the opportunity to review it on a replay monitor. At the time it was reported that umpires who review home run calls do so with the same pictures the fans see on TV, using large full resolution HD broadcast monitors made by Panasonic and similar to those commonly used in TV production trucks.

It’s not clear if that was the case at Progressive ...

Braves call up Alex Wood, designate Juan Francisco for assignment

With their bullpen depleted by season-ending elbow injuries to left-handers Jonny Venters and Eric O’Flaherty and taxed after covering seven innings behind Kris Medlen Wednesday night, the Braves have called on left-handed prospect Alex Wood.

Wood, the Braves second-round pick last year out of the University of Georgia, has been recalled from Double-A Mississippi and is expected to join the Braves’ bullpen Thursday in Atlanta.

David O’Brien tweets about the Francisco DFA.

Royals demote hitting coaches, hire George Brett as replacement

The Kansas City Royals have hired George Brett as their new hitting coach, the club announced Thursday.

Previous hitting coaches Jack Maloof and Andre David were reassigned to the minor leagues while Pedro Grifol will become a special assignment coach alongside Brett with the big-league club.

Wednesday, my colleague Danny Knobler wrote that manager Ned Yost’s job isn’t safe in the long-run, but it isn’t in immediate jeopardy. With that in mind and knowing how much Royals hitters have ...

Labor dispute at company that makes MLB uniforms; Baseball players union lends support

The factory makes uniforms for every major leaguer, from likely Hall of Famers such as Albert Pujols to minor league call-ups like former IronPigs hurler Tyler Cloyd, as well as high-end replicas worn by fans everywhere.

Now a labor dispute that has caught the attention of the Major League Baseball Players Association threatens to disrupt that supply. The textile workers’ three-year contract will expire Friday night. And Pennsylvania Joint Board Workers United, Service Employees ...

Crying 4-Year-Old Mets Fan Wants To Be A Yankees Fan

“Whoever is winning, I want to cheer for them.” This might be the most honest justification for being a Yankees fan we’ve ever heard.

Cheer up, kid. It’s only another 17 years until you can start drinking the pain away.

Megdal: Yankee Odds Piece

Megdal’s latest…

So with the stipulation that someone or someones will likely step forward and give the Yankees enough hitting to support a strong rotation and ridiculous bullpen, here are your betting odds for just who that will be over the next few months.

Some random guy currently hitting .180 for your favorite team, 2-1: Roger Bernadina? Chris Heisey? Jesus Guzman? Whatever, it’s totally going to happen, and it’s going to be annoying.

Ichiro Suzuki, 10-1: It should concern the Yankees ...

Kernan: As Replacements sputter, Yanks need rescue from Regulars

Here Comes a Regular…or Two.

Their job is done, their time has come.

It’s time for the Yankees Replacements to be replaced. Even Lyle Overbay, who has played tremendously in a fill-in role for Mark Teixeira at first base, understands this cold fact of baseball life.

The Replacements have run their course, and last night’s 9-4 stomping by the Mets at Yankee Stadium was more proof. The Mets have won all three Subway Series games. It was the Yankees’ fourth straight loss.

Teixeira ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-30-2013

Milwaukee Journal, May 30, 1913:

CHICAGO, May 30.—Baseball, with its incentive for exercise, will prevent the youth of America from becoming effeminate if war is abolished, declared Elmer E. Rogers, in a Memorial day address at Senn High school, when he pleaded for universal peace and urged general disarmament.

“Baseball, our national pastime, will afford the exercise and skill to counteract any loss of virility both in players and fans,” said Rogers. “I would observe that in any country where ...

Paul Daugherty: I like RBI. I think RBI are important.

Arthur Koehler will testify that Daugherty indeed has a knot in his head.

I KIDNAPPED THE LINDBERGH BABY. Actually,  I wrote that a 3-hole hitter should drive in runs. Seems an obvious statement. Harmless, you know? Not to the metrics gurus.  I’m not getting into this, except to say it’s starting to get amusing. For suggesting RBIs are, you know, good, I am e-bombed by the SABR types… Apparently, I’m ignorant and lazy. I know nothing about baseball. Certainly not compared to them.

...

Oakland A’s players fume over tweet ripping Coliseum

Total Blam Blam strikes again!

Long-time baseball writer Jon Heyman riled up A’s players and fans with a tweet that was critical of the Oakland Coliseum.

Said Heyman’s tweet: “A shame the a’s and giants have to play these games at the coliseum while ATandT sits empty. #shame”

A’s reliever Sean Doolittle wasted little time in responding via Twitter, writing: “I can see why you don’t like it. We have a strict No High Horse policy at O.Co.”

...Heyman, who writes for cbssports.com, backtracked ...

ESPN : Granderson Funds New Stadium For Alma Mater

University of Illinois trustees have agreed to a deal in which New York Yankees star Curtis Granderson will pay for most of a new baseball stadium at his alma mater, the University of Illinois-Chicago. Trustees voted Wednesday to name the new stadium after Granderson, who announced in February that he will donate $5 million to the project. The total cost is projected to be $7 million. The open-air, brick-and-stone stadium will seat 1,200 and is expected to open in 2015. The plan calls for using ...

OMNICHATTER for MAY 30, 2013

The season, keeps rolling, along….