This Week in Baseball 8/18 - 8/24

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Note to Joe Magrane announcing the Olympics, there are other ways to score besides by bunting.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Umpire's pulling a Ray Fosse and pointlessly blocking the plate in front of the instant replay trainwreck. Apparently they don't trust the people MLB has viewing the video and wants to see it for themselves, because it takes a trained umpire eye to look at a video and see which side of a pole or fence a baseball lands on.

[MFer 0]

Carl Yastrzemski had triple bypass surgery today after being taken to the hospital for chest pains. Hopefully he gets well soon.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Carl Yastrzemski had triple bypass surgery today after being taken to the hospital for chest pains. Hopefully he gets well soon.

I'm blatantly stealing this joke from BTF. Better get the freezer ready.

[C Dubya 04 0]

I'm going to the Phillies/Nationals game on Thursday night. Very excited to check out CBP. I got really good seats too, behind the first base dugout.

Excellent. Check out Bull's BBQ, where Greg Luzinski is usually in attendance. The park itself is incredible.

 

Schmitter Sandwich is where it's at. Yum city.

 

You're missing a Chase Bobblehead by a night though. Tough break.

[Guest Smues]

Cal isn't the bad part of those hotel commercials.

[treble 0]

We better not be talking about the Holiday Inn commercials.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

We better not be talking about the Holiday Inn commercials.

 

There's a new wave of HI commercials with Joe Bookman and Cal Ripken. Not the goofy guy, sadly. I can't even find those on YouTube or Google any longer

[Guest Smues]

There are more? They can't be worse than the old ones can they?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Hey, Al (or anyone else who watched the Phils/Nats game) - what happened on that Victorino play where he advanced to 3rd on the pickoff throw, but was made to go back to 1st base? I was at a bar watching w/out sound, and nobody could figure out what happened? Batter interference on the throw from the catcher is the only thing we could think of, but the batter didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

[2GOLD 0]

On the first page of the MLB section of Yahoo Sports, there is a CGI Yankee coffin. So I guess they are saying that even with a month to play, the Yankees are eliminated?

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

I see Dwayne Wade.

 

Edit: It's the MLB page, not the Sports one.

[jimmy no nose 0]

If the Blue Jays can beat the Yankees again tomorrow they will be tied at 3rd in the division and the wild card race.

 

I hadn't even noticed that the Rays right now are tied for the best record in all of baseball.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

The Yankees were not able to sign their first round draft pick this year. He's going to UCLA instead.

 

That really sucks.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Japan/USA Baseball going. Japanese phenom Yu Darvish is on the mound.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Hey, Al (or anyone else who watched the Phils/Nats game) - what happened on that Victorino play where he advanced to 3rd on the pickoff throw, but was made to go back to 1st base? I was at a bar watching w/out sound, and nobody could figure out what happened? Batter interference on the throw from the catcher is the only thing we could think of, but the batter didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

Apparently umpire Joe West got in the way of the play behind home plate.

 

The Yankees were not able to sign their first round draft pick this year. He's going to UCLA instead.

 

That really sucks.

I wouldn't sweat it, a high school pitcher is a longshot, and they will get a similarly placed compensation pick next draft.

[Guest WhackingCockDick]

So the Minnesota Twins have one whopper of a road trip coming up. Evicted from the Metrodome for 14 games due to the Republican convention. This might be the end of their chase, too much to overcome given the home/road disparity this year, but I wish them way more than the best of luck.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Carl Pavano was scheduled to start on Saturday for the Yankees. Then he woke up with a stiff neck and now he can't go.

 

Amazing.

[Brett Favre 0]

lol.

[naiwf 0]

Carl Pavano is my hero. He has pretty much stolen $45 million from the New York Yankees organization. That man is a genius.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Eh-hem.

 

It's $39.95 million. He fired his agent because he didn't get him $40M.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I have to rub my eyes everytime I look and see that Daisuke Matsuzaka is 15-2 with a 2.77 ERA. This is one time where the numbers and performance don't mesh AT ALL. He is to be the most frustrating "good" pitcher to watch.

[naiwf 0]

Eh-hem.

 

It's $39.95 million. He fired his agent because he didn't get him $40M.

 

Sorry about that. I guess I overestimated the greatness of Pavano by a bit. Somehow stealing just under $40 million just isn't quite the same. Between that contract and Mike Hampton's I'm shocked the owners haven't tried coming up with some sort of exemption to get out from under a contract where a guy doesn't throw a pitch in the bigs in over 2 full years.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Carl Pavano's starts, by season as a Yankee:

 

2005: 17

2006: 0

2007: 2

2008: 0

 

Mike Mussina's taken a few shots at the guy in the press as well. I've also recently heard that in the most recent contract talks with Mussina (after 2006), the Yankees gave him an offer which would have him making less than Pavano per year, and he refused, citing it as the reason.

[Annabelle 0]

Carl Pavano was scheduled to start on Saturday for the Yankees. Then he woke up with a stiff neck and now he can't go.

 

Amazing.

thats the funniest thing ever.

 

haha

 

pavano.

 

haha

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The Yankees released Jason Lane from Scranton (understandable, since they now have a glut of outfielders in the minors). The Red Sox snapped him up. Coincidently, he'll likely play for Pawtucket, who will play Scranton in the first round of the IL playoffs.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

Just saw these stats, I'm pretty excited. Toby Hyde of MetsMinorLeagueBlog compares Kingsport Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores to Jose Reyes' first season with Kingsport.

 

Then I pulled up the numbers. Both players made their professional

debut with Kingsport of the Appalachian League at age 16, but turned 17 that

summer. The following table compares Reyes’ 2000 in the APP with Flores’

2008 when both players were the same age:

Player G AB AVG OBP SLG 2B 3B HR BB SO SB CS E

Reyes 49 132 .250 .359 .318 3 3 0 20 37 10 4 11

Flores 53 220 .332 .374 .523 12 3 8 11 25 2 1 15

[Guest Vitamin X]

I have to rub my eyes everytime I look and see that Daisuke Matsuzaka is 15-2 with a 2.77 ERA. This is one time where the numbers and performance don't mesh AT ALL. He is to be the most frustrating "good" pitcher to watch.

 

His WHIP is at 1.37, too, but the story is best told by the fact he's leading the AL in BB with 77, just ahead of Daniel Cabrera and A.J. Burnett.

 

EDIT: Dude's only allowed 8 HR's this year, too.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Beating Reyes (or practically any player's GCL stats) isn't particularly impressive. GCL stats aren't really indicative of future success. A 16 year old that can handle a professional league though is impressive. He's almost certainly now among the Mets' top five prospects. One caveat, he's likely to move off shortstop in the future. Comparing him to Jose Reyes is disingenuous, they are not similar players.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

He's probably too big to play shortstop. Maybe he can play 1st.