#4 Al Leiter, 1999 – Game Score: 86
Leiter threw 135 pitches that day — he threw 120+ pitches eleven times in 1999 — in a performance that should go down as one of the Mets’ best all time. He was never pretty, walking four, but he sure got the job done. A little more than a year later, he would throw 142 pitches in Game 5 of the 2000 World Series.
11 13-20 5/09 Blue, pan up from lid of ball cap End of manager
Exactly how much rope does the Dodgers’ skipper have left? Probably not the best choice of words there, because whatever you think of the way Don Mattingly is going about his business, any and all rope is best locked away safe and sound.
Rope, sharp objects, plugged-in radios near bathtubs, adjacent medicine cabinets, tall buildings, you name it. Not for Mattingly, necessarily, but for the inconsolable fan, because ...
Conor Glassey explains the difference between what writers do and what scouts do:
Yes, we often will write about players we’ve seen and we’ll tell you how fast a pitcher was throwing, what kind of offspeed pitches he throws, or how fast an outfielder got from home to first. That’s not scouting, that’s just reporting. Anybody can sit at a game and hold a radar gun or click a stopwatch.
However, there’s a growing number of people online who think the opposite. It’s baffling to me ...
Jake Odorizzi and three Durham Bulls relief pitchers combined on an historic Sunday performance.
The four Durham pitchers combined to throw just the second no-hitter in the team’s International League history as the Bulls defeated the Pawtucket Red Sox 2-1 at McCoy Stadium.
Odorizzi (3-0) pitched the first seven innings, before Frank De Los Santos, Taylor Yates and Jeff Beliveau kept Pawtucket hitless over the final two innings despite allowing one ...
I haven’t seen a Romero ruined this badly…since Cesar Romero’s Pretty Willie Wetzchahofsky got shatzed-on in “Love That Brute”!
The call to return Ricky to the bigs was an absolute mishandling of a career on the part of the Blue Jays.
If you’re going to overhaul a player, and you know that player’s confidence is a factor, how can you, in good conscience, throw him back into the fiercest competition after only a single outing in High A?
Any baseball man worth his salt knows the true test ...
You are widely considered the greatest catcher in major league history, which makes you more qualified than to weigh in on the subject: With his steady improvement at the plate, combined with his prowess behind it and the championships he’s helped the Cardinals win, do you feel that Yadier Molina is worthy of having a plaque next to you and Fisk and Yogi Berra at Cooperstown?
(Molina) is really one of the best defensive catchers that you’ll see, and he’s swung the ...
vivaelpujols, it might be time to update…“That was possibly the worst thing I’ve ever read. Not even kidding.”
But you fit all the models. You are from the Dominican Republic. You are an older player. Older players don’t get better. You’ve had injuries consistent with steroid use. You showed up on the list from 2003. You fit all the formulas.
“[Expletive], I’m a human being just like everyone else,” said Ortiz. “You can get worse or you can get better. One or the other.’’
While the [Milwaukee-Minneapolis American Association] game was bad enough in itself, the fight between [Brewers manager/third baseman Harry] Clark and [Millers shortstop Dave] Altizer was one of the most disgraceful ever witnessed on a Milwaukee ball field. Sliding into third base in the seventh inning, Altizer deliberately cut Clark down with his spikes, leaping high in the air and planting both feet on Harry’s anatomy. The Brewer leader…jumped onto the runner ...
The secret trick that led to accusations of Boston Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz throwing a spitball has an ancillary benefit: It prevents skin cancer, too.
Two veteran pitchers and one source close to the Red Sox told Yahoo! Sports that about 90 percent of major league pitchers use some form of spray-on sunscreen – almost always BullFrog brand – that when combined with powdered rosin ...
Wonder if OJ will offer a congratulatory phone call…
The former five-time All-Star was known for getting into trouble in the past. In maybe the most publicized case, he was charged with guaranteeing payment for a $200,000 cocaine shipment. He was, however, acquitted of drug conspiracy charges in June 2000.
“I feel like that was a long time ago,” Guerrero said. “I wasn’t charged; I walked free. I feel like I was set up for some reason. I don’t like to look back. I hit 15 home runs in June of ...
The higher deck seats will be off limits starting with the Marlins next home games series which starts Tuesday. That will reduce the attendance capacity by about 10,000 . . . The team may consider closing the upper bowl for remaining weeknight games this season, but has yet to determine if it will do so. Fewer than 500 people own season tickets in the upper bowl, and those fans are being moved — with no additional charge — to seats in the lower bowl for all Monday-through-Thursday games.
Will the Angels somehow get swept by the Astros?
Will the Athletics come after Angel Martinez with torches and pitchforks?
Will Dickey or Price finally find their groove?
A’s infielder Adam Rosales hit a heroic game-tying solo home run in the top of the ninth inning Wednesday against Indians closer Chris Perez, stunning the crowd at Cleveland’s Progressive Field and injecting new life into an Oakland club that has hit a few road bumps since the calendar flipped to May.
Except Angel Hernandez and his umpiring crew blew the call … twice.
Joe Girardi insists he’s not trying to reinvent the game with his off-beat lineup Wednesday night. He’s just trying to get the most out of what he has.
Girardi batted starting pitcher David Phelps eighth in the batting order against the Rockies, dropping catcher Austin Romine into the No. 9 slot.
The manager pointed to the fact that Colorado has a pair of lefties in its bullpen as one of the primary reasons for the decision, as his two biggest threats off the ...
“Garvey was a huge run producer nevertheless.” Fixed/Neutered.
In the seven-year stretch from his MVP season of 1974 through 1980, it could be argued that there wasn’t a better hitter in baseball than Garvey. No one had more hits during that period… not Rose, not Rod Carew, and not George Brett. Only Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame slugger Mike Schmidt had more RBIs (732 to 730), and as far as first basemen are concerned, only Carew (another Hall of Famer) comes close to Garvey’s ...
Baseball scouting is an inexact science. Just ask Mike Schmidt.
Schmidt is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and widely considered the greatest third baseman ever after a career in which he hit 548 home runs and drove in nearly 1,600 runs. But in 1972, he was a just a minor leaguer who struggled at the plate in a brief late-season stint with the Philadelphia Phillies.
And scout Steve Vrablik wasn’t too impressed, writing in a report that the young Schmidt’s bat was “a question mark.” Oops.
The blueprint has worked once again. Cabrera and Fielder are putting up another elite season. Hunter is thriving, Austin Jackson is still getting on base at a .350 rate, and the supporting cast of Andy Dirks, Omar Infante, and Jhonny Peralta are performing well. The offense ranks in the top four in every offensive category. They are doing so while Victor Martinez continues to shake the rust after a year layoff.
The Tigers are not without their flaws. Defensively, they rank ...
• Francona loves the willingness of veterans such as Nick Swisher, Mark Reynolds and Mike Aviles to move between multiple positions without complaint. He says of the effervescent Swisher, “Just when it seems you need a little encouragement, he’s standing right there.”
• Designated hitter Adam Dunn on the White Sox, who entered Tuesday ranked last in the AL in runs per game (3.47), last in on-base percentage (.283) and next-to-last in ...
For a second there, I thought he had his Wood’s confused and was going to call in Arthur Koehler.
Even Chicago Cubs pitcher Travis Wood was stunned when he heard what manager Dale Sveum said about him after Wood threw another gem in helping to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1, on Tuesday night.
“He’s the best starter in baseball pretty much,” Sveum said bluntly.
That might be overstating the case, but with a 2.33 ERA for the season and 6⅔ innings of one-run ball Tuesday, Sveum might not ...
Although several members of the Naps and Red Sox bore slightly bruised and chipped faces as a confirmation of the report that a free-for-all fight had taken place between both teams following Wednesday’s game, not a player could be found Thursday who would directly admit that a scrap had taken place.
...
It waged for at least 10 minutes. Tris Speaker emerged with three spike marks on his head.
...
Both Manager Birmingham and acting Manager Wagner professed to know ...
IN A WORLD where it’s Wednesday, 15 games give us hope, dreams and entertainment. King Felix goes against Pittsburgh, Jordan Zimmermann tries to steal the Astros’ lunch money from the Tigers and Clayton Kershaw takes the mound in the lone 10 PM game.
Also, the Angels try to stop the bleeding against the Astros, because, wow, that is a lot of bleeding.
A simply horrifying turn of events in Tuesday night’s Toronto-Tampa Bay game: Jays starter J.A. Happ was wheeled off on a stretcher after being struck flush on the side of the head by Desmond Jennings’s line drive. The play occurred in the second inning. Please be warned that the following footage will be disturbing for some:
Moments after impact, Happ appeared to be bleeding profusely from his ear or the area around his ear. He was attended to on the field for several minutes ...
I’ll get to this fun…as soon as I’m done playing this round of Pin the Duragesic Time-Release Patch on an Unsuspecting Ass!
That intangibles notion is murky, of course, and complicated. Jeter played in an era when everyone was suspected of PED use. For those choosing to believe the shortstop that he was, is and always has been a clean ballplayer, the monument to his fidelity and greatness lies in his old-school bona fides. Jeter, along with possibly Ken Griffey Jr., is the only player in the ...
It seems that more and more of these old scouting reports are beginning to surface on the Internet, and I’m all for that. It’s rather cool to see what scouts thought of future big-leaguers when they saw them play for the first time.
And here is the report on a 22-year-old player for Auburn by the name of Vincent Edward Jackson. We know him as Bo Jackson:
Anyone who commits to the Cubs should be committed.
Stewart just finished a rehab assignment with the Iowa Cubs for a left quad injury that has plagued him since early in spring training. The maximum time a player can spend in the minors in that situation is 20 days, making last Friday his final day of rehabbing.
But because he was hitting .091 the Cubs decided to keep him there by officially sending him down after his rehab stint was complete. He didn’t need to clear waivers, so Stewart ...
You Think You Know About A-Rod’s Dreams… You Know Nothing!
In fact, there are people who think A-Rod has been breaking the rules since his rookie year – even as far back as high school – and has never stopped. That’s why Rodriguez’s detractors in the game think he’s doomed: not because his hips may or may not function efficiently any more, but because of his psychological dependence on PEDs.
If Rodriguez returns to 24-7 scrutiny, and if he knows can’t use PEDs any longer, what ...
The Philadelphia National League team…protested [the May 5] game with St. Louis, claiming that Umpire Klem “took undue advantage of the rule which provides that the ball must be thrown by the pitcher within 20 seconds after it has been called for by the umpire.
...
Pitcher Seaton had two strikes and one ball on Wingo in the seventh inning and was waiting to receive his signal from the catcher when Klem called the second ball, which later forced Seaton to ...
Take it from Joe Mauer, as studious and selective as they come.
It’s different out there.
“The game has evolved,” Mauer said. “This is my 10th year. My first couple years in the league, if you were a sinkerball pitcher, you were a sinkerball pitcher. Now, they throw a sinker, a cutter, a four-seamer. So you’re looking for three fastballs instead of one or two.”
It’s working, and Mauer is the perfect example of how well it’s working.
