MLB: Bryce Harper tallies four hits despite suffering from flu

Four for five, despite being on an IV drip right up until the first pitch and vomiting in the 2nd inning.  Yeah, he’s a gamer.

[M]ake no mistake about it: Bryce Harper was still sick.

The 20-year-old phenom went 4-for-5 with a double and an RBI and recorded three hits off Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco in the Nationals’ 6-1 win over the Marlins after sitting out the previous game due to a stomach flu that kept him up all night.

But Harper deemed himself well enough to play after a pregame IV, ...

Davidi on Jays: The trade that almost was

In some ways the remade Toronto Blue Jays owe the visiting Chicago White Sox a debt of gratitude, since it was their exploration of trade possibilities for Jake Peavy back in October that helped set the stage for Alex Anthopoulos to pull off November’s blockbuster with the Miami Marlins.

A few weeks before that franchise-altering deal went down, the general manager was close to acquiring the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner from the South Siders, whose $22-million club option for 2013 was due ...

Padres CEO Tom Garfinkel Compared Zack Greinke to Rain Man, Quickly Apologized [Audio]

Zack doesn’t even like Wapner!

Padres CEO and Team President Tom Garfinkel spoke with season ticket holders last Friday, less than 48 hours after the Zack Greinke/ Carlos Quentin incident that resulted in Greinke breaking his collarbone. Yahoo Sports obtained audio of Garfinkel’s talk. Garfinkel was of the belief that Greinke was throwing at Quentin intentionally, and explained-away it being a 2-1 game and a 3-2 count by comparing Zack Greinke to Raymond Babbitt.

“Zack Greinke is a ...

Brewers re-sign former reliever Francisco Rodriguez

As a possible alternative should they seek to add an experienced relief pitcher to their roster at some point, the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday re-signed Francisco Rodriguez to a minor-league deal.

The deal is a no-risk move by the Brewers, who have 30 days to summon Rodriguez, 31, to the majors or grant his release. Rodriguez, who pitched the last 1 1/2 seasons for the Brewers, was not offered a job as a free agent over the off-season and has been in his native Venezuela. He did pitch for ...

Brisbee: Pedro Alvarez: the most confusing hitter in baseball

Wait…I thought it was Matt Kemp.

As of the end of April 17: .089/.180/.089 in 50 plate appearances. He’s without an extra-base hit, obviously. He has four hits in 45 at-bats. He’s struck out in over a third of his plate appearances. If Alvarez is the most perplexing hitter in baseball, this wasn’t a perplexing start. It was simply awful. I went through the game logs, and just started tallying the plate appearances up. So instead of a narrative, you’re going to get a list of factoids.

  • ...

Lohse pitching well

it’s ridiculously early but kyle lohse has been great. he throws strikes and he works fast. yes he makes funny faces while pitching and most brewer fans figure his performance is going to tank any moment but for right ‘now’ doug melvin has to feel good.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-18-2013

Pittsburgh Press, April 18, 1913:

George Sisler, the twirler who refused to report to the Pirates and who is now on the local team’s ineligible list, twirled a wonderful game for Michigan university [sic] yesterday, beating the Alma college nine 4 to 1, allowing his opponents one hit. In addition to twirling like a big leaguer, Sisler also pounded out two hits, one of which was a triple.

Mark my words: This Sisler kid is going to be a great big leaguer someday.

Rybarczyk: Can Mantle’s 565-foot homer be matched?

Up Chuck Stobbs? Rumination syndrome at play here.

Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of one of the most famous home runs in major-league history—one hit by Mickey Mantle off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. Yankees publicist Red Patterson claimed the home run went 565 feet.

Is a 565-foot home run feasible in today’s game? Let’s look at that from two angles.

...Let’s run through five ballparks just to show you how difficult a feat this would now be.

At Yankee ...

Schram: Washington’s sorry monument to Jackie Robinson

Even the Frank Howard monument makes more sense.

So today we’ll educate ourselves by taking a guided tour of Washington’s monument to Jackie Robinson. You never heard of it? Probably not. After all, it doesn’t tower above the capital skyline like George Washington’s, nor sit and gaze down at us like Abe Lincoln’s. Washington’s monument to Jackie Robinson stands just 131 pages tall, a monument originally made of paper and microfilm. It is the FBI’s file on Jack Roosevelt Robinson. ...

Tigers 2, Mariners 1: Pitchers’ duel ends in 14th, masterful Scherzer strikes out 12

AL SO/9 is now up to 7.6. Ho-hum…K’s are becoming the HR’s of the 90’s.

The Detroit Tigers needed 14 innings, 19 strikeouts, eight pitchers and ended the game by throwing out a runner at the plate, all in order to beat the Seattle Mariners 2-1. The two teams combined for 40 strikeouts (Mariners 19, Tigers 21), the second-highest single game total of all time.

Neither starting pitcher was eligible for a decision, but Max Scherzer and Felix Hernandez deserved better. Scherzer and Hernandez ...

4-18-2013 OMNICHATTER

Games start 1:10 with the Giants at Brewers, and the final game of the day starts at 7:10 when Miami is at Cincy. Among the pitchers today: Cain, Gallardo, Verlander, Lester, Wainwright, Price, Sale, Dickey and Hamels.

Newhan: Matt Kemp: Has a Superstar Ever Been This Lost at the Plate?

Dunno…but I do remember Mantle (after his last HR) finishing his career going 1 for 20.

—Yes, it has only been two weeks, but I don’t recall ever seeing a verifiable superstar looking as lost at the plate as Matt Kemp. The Dodger center fielder can not hit a breaking pitch, seems equally unsteady in the field, and is the equivalent of the Thin Man after his shoulder surgery, reducing his home run strength to that dreaded cliche of “warning track power.”

  —Unless the Angels prove they can ...

The Washington Informer: The Real Reason Blacks Got to Play Major League Baseball

‘twas I, informed on…

Ironically, in the years before Robinson’s breakthrough, a committee was formed to help baseball overcome its “Negro problem” then. The late Queen Mother Audley Moore of Harlem, then 84-years-old told this writer for a 1982 documentary, for The Black Scholars Radio series, that in her early years, she had tried to be a “good Negro” and that she was involved in just such an effort.

“I worked hard at it. And this was what I did as a Negro,” she said. “I’ll give you an ...

Triple A fan throws peanuts at Brandon Inge

Brandon Inge is trying to make his way back to the majors with the Pirates by playing at Triple-A and last night he almost got into a fight with a Toledo Mud Hens fan throwing peanuts at him.

Deadspin: Tony Gwynn Jr. Shows Us How Hecklers Should Be Dealt With

This video has been on YouTube for almost two years, but we’ve only just discovered it. And we are very glad that we did, because this may be the best way we’ve ever seen a baseball player handle a heckler.

Chris Getz removes name from list of homerless streaks

On Tuesday night against Atlanta, Royals second baseman Chris Getz did this for the first time since 2009, for the first time in 954 at-bats ...

That would be third home run of his career, which to date spans 1,350 plate appearances.

Getz’s rare clout calls to mind current notable homerless streaks—a list from which Getz has, of course, just removed himself. Here’s the rundown from FoxSports Kansas City’s Joel Goldberg:

Ben Revere it is! Revere, it should be noted, has no ...

TheScore: Mariners Look to Complete Nintendo+Television Combination for Maximum Fun

The Seattle Mariners already purchased one of the largest televisions in the world and are owned by a company best known for creating some of the most popular video games in history. Why not complete the entertainment trifecta and buy up the company which current owns the team’s broadcasting rights?
The good people at Seattle Mariners Inc are going to do just that, as reports indicate the Mariners ownership group will buy a controlling interest in ROOT Sports, the regional sports network that ...

Granillo: “Rise of the Robot Umpires”

It troubles me that the world is just one big rip-off of Ferro Lad.

We’ve all thought it. Heck, many of us have even said it. Watching the exploits of Eric Gregg, Phil Cuzzi, Jim Joyce, and so many others, it’s hard not to believe it at least once. “We want robot umpires!”

A new project by Dan Levy is working to explore just what might happen if baseball ever heeded that call. Rise of the Robot Umpires is a graphic-style novel set in the not-too-distant future where the commissioner finally ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-17-2013

Washington Times, April 17, 1913:

This is a story of a young man who literally would rather play baseball than eat.
...
[Because he spent eight hours a day working as a plumber, Hugh High] did not have very much time left for ball playing, but he found that by passing up his supper he could get in about an hour’s work on the lots in the baseball months.
...
He still works at the plumbing business in the fall and winter months and holds a union journeyman’s card. They say that he can melt lead ...

Rockies employees clear half a foot of snow off field for doubleheader

“And then swept off the Mets” sez Carlos.

Just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, Rockies owner Dick Monfort walked by the media cafeteria. He was no longer hunched over or limping from shoveling snow for four hours.

While his effort was admirable, it raised the question of why team employees were needed to clear Coors Field, delaying the start of the first game of Tuesday’s scheduled doubleheader with the Mets by 2 hours, 2 minutes.

Colorado swept the doubleheader, winning the first game 8-4 with Todd ...

Nats Talk: Nats’ confidence waning after blowout loss

Swagger gone…no longer money in the bank.

The Nationals took the field two weeks ago for the start of the most-anticipated season in club history brimming with confidence. They had a potent and balanced lineup, they had one of baseball’s most-dominant rotations, they had a ridiculously deep bullpen and they had a talented bench more than capable of plugging any holes that developed along the way.

They also had a swagger, starting with their manager, that suggested a ballclub with no fear and ...

Terence Moore: Is this the best Braves team ever?

Holy Harry Hanebrinks…10 in a row!

So will these Braves evolve into a better “team” than any of their predecessors—Atlanta or otherwise? We’re talking about teams ranging from the 1875 one that won nearly 90 percent of its games (71-8) to the Miracle Braves of 1914 who shocked the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series to Chipper’s 1995 bunch that won it all.

“From top to bottom, this Braves team certainly has the capability of being in that same conversation with some of the best in ...

OMNICHATTER for April 17, 2013

Among the pitchers taking the mound today are Sabathia, Masterson, King Felix, Scherzer, Matt Moore and Kershaw. Two of those names I would not have expected to mention in the same breath as the others when the season started.

Chatter up!

Rob Neyer: “42” - A Rogues Gallery

Good stuff from Rob here…

The new movie about Jackie Robinson tells many lies, as all such movies do. The great majority of people who see 42 will assume that it’s telling the truth, because the great majority of viewers won’t bother to marshal any facts that would suggest anything else.

I don’t actually want to get into all the lies today. I do want to write about 42’s villains, and there are more than a few.

There are plenty of anonymous villains—the filling-station attendant, the desk ...

Yankees to honor Boston by playing ‘Sweet Caroline’ on Tuesday

In light of the tragic events in Boston on Monday, Yankee Stadium is going to play Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, the team has announced.

As many know, singing “Sweet Caroline” is a Fenway Park tradition.

Classy move by the Yankees to show this kind of camaraderie to their on-field rivals.

Thanks to Chet.

Fan’s oversized glove pays off

I believe he’s using a Luis Polonia model.

Yovani Gallardo picked up for DUI

Lucky for Gallardo that drunk driving is not a crime in Wisconsin.

CAPUTO: Can Detroit Tigers compete with Murderers’ Row

Bengough home!

Baseball has had its share of great lineups. Is the Tigers’ current batting order next?

It may not be far-fetched.

...After a dozen games this season, the Tigers have a long way to go to be mentioned in the same breath with “Murder’s Row” and the “Big Red Machine.”

Yet, it does appear the Tigers have put together one of the most formidable lineups in recent baseball history.

The Tigers’ team batting average is .307 - 30 points better than the next best team ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-16-2013

Milwaukee Sentinel, April 16, 1913:

Wilbur Good...and Ward Miller...worked a delayed double steal Tuesday and Chicago won the final game of the series from Pittsburgh, 5 to 4.

Miller…stole second, and Good, who was half way home when Miller started, crossed the plate before [Viox], who had fumbled the ball, could get his bearing. There was no chance to catch either runner, and the game was over.

Delayed double steal with two outs in the bottom of the tenth with the reigning batting and home run ...

Vin Scully on Chad Billingsley: Damocles of the Dodgers

Thanks to Paul Dylan for transcribing “this beautiful moment in Vin’s call”...

“We often talk about Chad Billingsley, saying that he pitches ‘with the Sword of Damocles over his head.’ That’s an old Greek legend.

The ruler was Dionysus, and he had a guy in the courtier - in the court – who would always talk about how great the ruler had it.

So finally, the ruler said, ‘Ok. I’ll tell you how great it is.’ - the pitch is high, ball two - and he had a big dinner for Damocles ...