Megdal: Carlos Gomez Finds His Groove

Groove Mil Groove/Swing Mil Swing

So what, then, to make of Carlos Gomez, a 6’3”, 215 center fielder, the best in the National League? He’s a power/speed threat on par with anyone in baseball, whose average and home run totals have skyrocketed. And it happened when he stopped listening to years of coaches insisting he hit the ball on the ground, and became the 30-plus home run hitter he says he always thought he could be.

“In 2011, I realized what I wanted to do, to make a change in my ...

Las Vegas: The Mets’ Minor Disaster

“They’re undesirable,” said Dave Rosenfield, a longtime Norfolk (Va.) Tides executive. “Nobody wants them.”

Rosenfield was Norfolk’s general manager when it became the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in 1969 (it was named Tidewater then) and was still on the job when the Mets left in late 2006. Only a one-hour flight from New York, Norfolk was perfectly suitable for the Mets. And for decades, the two got along well enough.

But Rosenfield said the relationship soured after Jeff Wilpon ...

$weep! Astros ($24 million) Take Four From Angels ($127 million)

It’s obvious that $100 million just doesn’t buy what it used to. That’s the approximate gap in respective payrolls for the 2013 season between the Los Angeles Angels and the Houston Astros, with the ‘Stros bringing up the rear in the major leagues…They’re not getting their money’s worth.

The Astros outscored the Angels 15-8 in the series and won their sixth straight game on the road for the first time since 2005, when they went to the World Series.

Milton Bradley convicted of abusing wife

LOS ANGELES—A jury on Monday convicted former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley of abusing his estranged wife.

Bradley, 35, was convicted after a four-week trial of nine misdemeanor counts, including four counts of spousal battery, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of making criminal threats, Los Angeles city attorney’s spokesman Frank Mateljan said. He faces up to 7½ years in jail at his sentencing, which is scheduled for July 2.

Prosecutors said ...

Betzold: Tigers’ defense is letting them down late in games

And a dread of some strange Impemba doom…

For weeks, the Fox Sports Detroit TV announcers kept crowing that the Tigers had the fewest errors in the league, and that proved they must be a great defensive team, as if fielding percentage were a meaningful measure of defensive prowess. It hasn’t been, at least not for the past 30 years, since Bill James arrived on the scene.

It’s really quite simple: in order to be charged with an error, you have to reach a batted ball. And if you have poor ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-4-2013

Milwaukee Sentinel, June 4, 1913:

LA CROSSE, Wis., June 3.—Roy Lueth’s fondness for baseball, which caused him to miss a “date” with his sweetheart Saturday night, has caused the police department a great deal of trouble the last two days.
...
Hearing a rumor that Lueth had gone up the Mississippi river in a canoe, the river was dragged on Sunday and Monday for his body. Tuesday morning Lueth showed up and said that Saturday night he had felt an irresistible impulse to go to Chicago and see a ...

Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski eager to help MLB be more diverse

The On-Field Diversity Task Force? This sounds like something Chuck Goggin should be heading up.

Bud Selig has made past efforts to analyze and attack baseball’s problem in drawing African-American players.

A new strategy, unveiled last month by the commissioner, was to name Dave Dombrowski, president and general manager of the Tigers, as chairman of a 17-person committee designed to remedy a growing racial gap in the number of athletes playing baseball and evolving as big-leaguers.

...

Madden: Putting Overbay in right field shows just how desperate struggling Yankees have gotten

But right now what troubles the Yankees and their high command has nothing to do with A-Rod. Rather, it is everything that was troublesome for them back in March when they faced the season with an aging team that was seemingly breaking down everywhere. The loss of Curtis Granderson for the second time, combined with Vernon Wells’ prolonged May slump has opened up the new hole in right field that, against the Indians’ right-handed ace, Justin Masterson, Joe Girardi elected to fill with ...

Yasiel Puig makes throw from warning track to end game with double play

So sick, it makes you wanna…uhh, Yasiel.

Yasiel Puig left his mark on the game in his MLB debut on Monday night. The Cuban prospect went 2-for-4 with two hits batting in the leadoff spot for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also made a sick throw for a game-ending double play in the ninth.

San Diego Padres outfielder Kyle Blanks was up with Chris Denorfia on first, one out, and the Dodgers leading 2-1. Blanks hit a fly ball to deep right, and Puig made the catch at the warning track. Then, despite ...

OMNICHATTER FOR 6-04-2013

Even the worst MLB players are probably way better than any of us ever were. A humbling thought.

Anyway, OMNICHATTER is right here.

Sulllivan: The Jason Bay Lessons

Cracking open a Bay window on a nice June evening.

It’s June 3, and Jason Bay is starting again tonight for the Mariners. He brings in just a .231 batting average, but his on-base percentage is more than a hundred points higher than that, and his slugging percentage is right there with Michael Morse’s and Kyle Seager’s. Through the first third of the season, Bay’s been a contributor, and a year ago he was a pile of crap. He cost the Mariners little to bring in, his placement on the ...

Jonathan Gray has positive test

Jonathan Gray, the University of Oklahoma pitcher and No. 2 prospect heading into this year’s MLB Rule 4 draft, tested positive for the medication Adderall during baseball’s predraft drug testing program, according to multiple sources familiar with the details of Gray’s test.

The positive test will not result in a suspension, but will make Gray subject to additional follow-up testing once he begins his pro career, according to a source with Major League Baseball. Adderall comprises salts of ...

DallasNews chat: A-Rod an “insufferable human being,” “completely phony.”

Flink: People here seem to hate Josh Hamilton. That replaces Alex Rodriguez, who also put up huge numbers for fans here only to get booed mercifully. Is this an odd current phenomenon?

Tim Cowlinshaw: The booing for A-Rod and for Josh exists for very different reasons. With A-Rod, it’s entirely with his persona. He’s really an insufferable human being and, in many cases, completely phony. Josh is not that. Josh is honest. Josh speaks from the hip. He doesn’t measure his words and he certainly ...

Mark Teahen released by Round Rock

Looks like Jason Giambi has outlasted the next Jason Giambi.

Mark Teahen’s 2013 baseball odyssey took another turn Monday, as the Yucaipa High product was released by the Round Rock Express, triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

Teahen batted .171 (6 for 35) with two RBIs in 10 games this season with Round Rock. The Rangers signed him and assigned him to Round Rock on May 23, four days after he was released by Arizona. He batted .211 in 22 games with the Diamondbacks’ triple-A team in ...

Former umpires union head dies at 72

Richie Phillips, who led the Major League Umpires Association from 1978 to 1999, died Friday at his home in Cape May, N.J. He was 72….

After negotiating a contract for Villanova basketball star Howard Porter with the Chicago Bulls, Mr. Phillips began representing other athletes. In 1976, he helped organize the National Basketball Association’s referees into a collective bargaining unit, which he represented until 1984.

In 1978, Mr. Phillips became general counsel and executive director of ...

Police probe apparent suicide on John Henry’s yacht

Not much I can add.

The Draft by John D’Acquisto

In 1970, 18-year old John D’Acquisto was recruited by three powerful institutions: USC, Major League Baseball & The United States military during the height of The Vietnam War. 

Chris Davis credits season’s success (20 HRs, .357 average) to Michael Young

Screw Gaspard Monge…Michael Young can do it all!

Crazy, in that Davis began the season with a lifetime .258 batting average and 77 homers in 1,520 at-bats. He attributes his lofty numbers this season to some advice he got from a former teammate with the Rangers.

“A long time ago Michael Young told me this is a game of routines and you really need to hammer a routine down,” Davis said. “It took me a while to kind of understand what he meant. I’d come in here and put my socks on the ...

The 111-Year-Old Yankees Fan Is Probably Lying About His Age

Just another phoney dimension of the Trost/Levine regime.

It was the ultimate photo op: Derek Jeter, the face of the Yankees, meeting Bernando LaPallo, who at 111 years old would be older than than Yankees franchise itself. Like every other good thing, it’s probably not true. LaPallo’s age is very much in dispute, and he’s been accused of lying about it to sell books.

LaPallo met with Jeter and Joe Girardi before Saturday’s game, and regaled reporters with tales of attending New York ...

RLRS: The Hot and Cold of Daniel Nava

I saw on a website today
Some musings from MCoA
About Daniel Nava,
How he’s hot as lava,
And whether he’ll keep it that way:

Nava’s current 134 wRC+ stands fifteenth in the American League, and he’s not terribly far from being a deserving All-Star selection.

...I’m going to argue for optimism on Nava. I think it’s important to distinguish between Nava’s 2010 hot and cold streaks–which look very fluky in retrospect–and his 2012 hot and cold streaks, which look like something ...

WaPo - Adam LaRoche Knows What Danny Espinosa Is Going Through

In which Danny Espinosa learns that denial is not just a river in Egypt.

The hardest part is, you don’t feel it swinging,” LaRoche said. “So you don’t blame it on your shoulder. I just knew where I was, the way I was seeing the ball, and what I was feeling, not getting to balls that I always have. I just knew something was wrong…Finally, I just asked the doctors. ‘Could it be just weak? It’s not painful. It hurts to throw. But to swing, it’s not painful.’

The most tell-tale ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-3-2013

Robert Ripley (yes, that Robert Ripley) discusses a baseball-ish game played in Egypt, via the El Paso Herald, June 3, 1913:

...they only had eight men on a side, short bases, and a very narrow bat, like a curtain pole…The baseball used is about the size of the usual indoor baseball, except that it is a little “faster”.

Each side is entitled to eight outs, one for each man, and is not retired as a side until the full eight men have been put out…To score a run a player must make a complete ...

Run-hungry Dodgers call up Yasiel Puig after 7-2 loss to Rockies

The question now is, can Puig, perhaps the most hyped minor league outfielder since . . . well, since last year . . . bring enough magic to turn the Dodgers into a winner?

With half the regular lineup out because of injuries and the last-place Dodgers ranked 28th in the majors in scoring, it was clear Colletti had to do something to shake up his foundering team. Whether he did the right thing will be determined beginning Monday, when Puig is expected to make his big league debut against San ...

Adam LaRoche: “We deserve to be where we’re at right now”

“Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead”

“We deserve to be where we’re at right now,” Adam LaRoche said after today’s loss. “We’ve played like crap, and still not in awful shape. It only goes so far, we’re pretty deep into the season. We’ve got to get it going or else we won’t be there in the end. I don’t sense any panic or anyone stressing over it, but it’d be nice to pick it up a little.”

There are 105 games remaining in the season. That’s plenty of time to overcome the deficit ...

Thunder Scares Yankees, Red Sox Players During Rain-Shortened Game

Thunderclap NEWMAN! (But hear me and hear me well!)

The players in the Yankees’ and Red Sox’ dugouts may be on opposite sides of a historic rivalry but they have at least one thing in common: Thunder is scary.

With a storm having sent the players to their respective dugouts during a rain delay at Yankee Stadium on Sunday night, both teams were startled by a loud boom of thunder in the Bronx. ESPN cameras showed the reactions of players in both dugouts, ...

CNet: Avoid seeing spoilers on Facebook and Twitter with Chrome extension

I have two kids with active schedules, and a wife who likes to unwind at the end of the day with a procedural crime drama. As a result, I DVR a lot of sports. Attempting to avoid the final score of a game I have recorded is a regular occurrence and a feat made more difficult with the presence of Facebook and Twitter. With Chrome extension Silencer, I can filter Facebook and Twitter to remove posts that may give away the result of a game. Or a TV drama I am behind on. Or suggested posts on ...

OMNICHATTER FOR 06/03/2013

Weather permitting, here’s the OMNICHATTER.

NY Times: Kepner: Two Young Boston Pitchers Find One Coach Makes the Difference

They are Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, and both pitched a no-hitter under Farrell’s tutelage. In their last season with him, they combined for a 36-16 record and a 2.83 earned run average. In their last season without him, they combined for a 20-22 record and a 4.70 E.R.A.

The Red Sox, who had won a championship and two other playoff berths in Farrell’s four seasons as pitching coach, fell to last place. Lester lost track of how many instructors came and went.

“The last three years ...

Ricky Romero off Blue Jays roster

SAN DIEGO—Ricky Romero’s free fall continues, with no tenable end in sight.

The Blue Jays Saturday outrighted Romero, the club’s ace the past three years, off the 40 man roster. It was part of a roster clearing move Saturday that started with another blow to the pitching staff—the placement of right hander Brandon Morrow on the 15 day disabled list with a forearm strain.

That precipitated the club purchasing the contract of veteran right hander Ramon Ortiz, whom they outrighted two ...

Clarion Ledger: State will help build Biloxi baseball stadium

Gov. Phil Bryant, at a Coast press conference with Beau Rivage workers dressed as ballpark vendors and handing out CrackerJacks, today announced the state will kick in $15 million of BP oil disaster money to help build a baseball stadium in Biloxi.

He also announced that an ownership group he’s been working with since last year is about to buy a team to play there, although its name and pro team affiliation would not be announced until later.

Talk recently around Biloxi has centered on the ...