Huo...*sigh*

You suck

Dammit Livan!

If the Royals win tonight (Odalis is going for KC so I'm not betting on it), they'll be out of the cellar after April for the first time since 2003 :)

I'd love to go to the game tomorrow with a broom and not in last place. I'll take my small victories.

SI

And there go those hopes dashed. Also, I was incorrect, they'd have been percentage points behind, needing to win tomorrow. However, the 10 inning loss tonight renders that moot. The bullpen just ran out of gas- it's had so many great appearances over the last month that it was bound to happen as Dotel came up as the weak link again.

I know the fans in cities that are perennial winners don't get this at all, but I haven't wanted a couple of games this bad for quite a while. I know a chance to "not be last" doesn't sound like much but it's a lot for us here.

My favorite line from the AP summary for the game: "The winner was Matt Bukvich (1-0), who threw one pitch to one batter in ninth."

SI

I certainly love that Dodgers' reliever, Tomko. LOL.

Great matchup between Peavy and Penny and both came out close to even as can be.

Why is the SF/Arizona game on in Kentucky?

Let the arguements begin!
 

Your 2007 All Star Teams

Whew! Bud ......I mean the fans has saved us from having to hear the "should Barry be on the All Star team" debate;)

Yay Martin!

I would love to see the votes audited.

JJ Hardy has no business on the All-Star team over Hanley Ramirez.

Why the hell is Victor Martinez a reserve. He should be starting.

Because the voters are high. This is how it is every year. Tho it's not awful this year. We've had worse years.

SI

Why did Leyland pick two reserve catchers?

Also, why is the final man vote centered around pitchers this year?

Isn't that usually how it is for the AS Game? Also, the more flippant answer would be because they both really deserved it

SI

Jerry Narron fired from the Reds

Cabrera got screwed. The fact that there has to be a player from every crappy team is a freaking joke.

If the Rangers closer gets the final vote, Michael Young should be shamed into giving OC his spot.

Edgar Renteria's omission is a shame.

He's another one that should have been in over Hardy.

Just thought I'd point out that the M's are on an 8-game winning streak including sweeping both Boston and Toronto, are just 4 games back of the Angels and 1 game back of Detroit, and Jeff Weaver has now had 3 pretty good starts in a row and has dropped his ERA under 7.00 (it had peaked at 18.26).

Also, what's with the fascination with relief pitchers? 10 closers on the roster (6 on the NL) and 2 setup men are on the ballot to potentially be voted in.

Jeff Weaver is the Ricky Williams of baseball to me for some reason.

Although Victor should be the starting catcher, I'll let it slide now that I see the Tigers have more starters then the Yankees. LOL. that is fantastic.

Spoken like a true large market fan... :rolleyes: Maybe Manny and his lackluster numbers should give up his spot.

SI

I think there are just too many teams to have all the all-stars that should be there. How about getting two more teams and going to 4 divisions of 8. Have three all-star games as the teams are selected by division. Then have the NL teams play each other and the AL teams play each other for home-field in the LCS's and then the winners of those play for home-field in the Series. Might as well go all the way with this thing.

I have the Extra Innings package. Unless you're referring to why I would watch a West Coast game because of where I am...?

Same problem the Reds have had for years:

No relief pitching, no clutch hitting, too many strikeouts. Short a complete team revamp, I don't see how a new manager changes this. Maybe better pitcher management, but even so, having just 1 crappy reliever, or 5 crappy relievers to choose from in the pen won't make much difference: when you bring someone in the game in the 7th to protect a 1-run lead, they're still going to be crappy.

I read somewhere that the Reds have 22 losses when they led in the fifth inning or later.

And the relievers not named Weathers are 0 for 10 in save opportunities.

In what world does a shortstop that is average at best in every category you can think of deserve to be in the all-star game over a guy hitting .335+, one of the best fielders at the position, a great baserunner, with the same exact power numbers? Who gives a shit about large market vs. small market - put the best player in the damn game.

Ironically, if Manny wasn't there, that opens up a spot for Sosa who deserves to be there a whole hell of a lot more than Young.

There are definitely some things that are beyond his control but he's a bad manager too. He makes some very poor decisions where I just wonder what in the heck he is thinking. To me, they should have fired everyone associated with pitching coaching at the major league level and brought up Ted Power to be the pitching coach and see what that did.

There is enough pitching ability in some of those guys that they should get more out of them. That's what good coaches do and I'm not seeing that. Our players don't grow once they hit the majors and that's a problem. Whoever they are when they come to the majors is who they are five years later.

This wouldn't hurt. Tom Browning's been hanging around a lot lately. And we have a number of left handers who could use some help.

Tim Lincecum was absolutely dealing yesterday (went to the Giants game)- the 3 hits he gave up were a "double" that dropped in the OF because of confusion as to who would catch it, and two broken bat singles. 12 K's in 7 IP, and it could have been more (97 pitches after 7 IP when he was pulled)- the stuff was nasty. This kid and Cain are going to be the new Sphan and Sain, as far as Giants fans are concerned . :D

I think they pick closers for two reasons:

1. They are used to warming up and pitching only 1 innings
2. Using a starter can impact other team's starting rotations.

Royals win in the 11th to get back on track :)

Meche, unluckily rewarded with another start against the other team's ace duels Felix even thru 7 with a 2-2 draw. Next up Scott Kazmir

SI

A lot of people down in Houston are very upset to see Biggio not get picked to go to the All Star Game. You know he will retire at the end of the season, why not let him go to one last All Star Game?

Because there are way more deserving players

Schmidt and Ripken are the only 2 players I can think of getting into the All Star game during their last seasons even though they had pitiful stats. The difference is both were voted in.

If the fans want to see him there, I'd be fine with it if he were voted in. However, since he's having a terrible year, I'd much rather have someone more deserving there.

The Orioles actually came back from the dead and won a one-run game. 75 wins, here we come!

I realize your point is about whether all teams should get a player, but I think you should look a bit closer at Cabrera before you equate putting him on the team with a star having a subpar year. Look at the numbers--he very much deserves to be on that team.

Did anyone watch this past inning for the Dodgers? Reading the boxscore, it said that Pierre reached on a "bunt double" to SS...

What's a bunt double? and how can any IF let that happen?

Oh, I see. As a Giants fan who has watched nearly every game this season that they've played in, I offer my heartfelt apology that you witnessed even one inning of this debacle of a season. Unless Lincecum is pitching.

Now to be fair, roughly 1/3 of the Giants games has been good baseball. That's 2/3rds of the innings when they're on defense, and 1% when they're at the plate.

It was a close game, so I turned it on. I can't remember what other games were going on at the time.

I agree. But why is he railing on the "every team should get a player" rule when there's a player on his own team with subpar numbers because of name recognition. Not only that but he is a reserve, not someone voted in (I think we all understand that there's going to be some voting "mistakes").

SI

Please vote early and vote often for Chris Young as the last NL All-Star. Thank you.

Manny Ramirez plays for the Angels? Sweet.

Tommy (Memphis, TX): Joe Morgan stated that wins are more important than ERA and other meaningful pitching stats because "there's a difference between pitching just well enough to win and just bad enough to lose." He's right, but you don't actually know where that fine line is until the game's, you know, OVER. Are you allowed, as an ESPN employee, to flat-out say that Joe Morgan was a great ballplayer who happens to be an absolute moron?

Rob Neyer: (12:59 PM ET ) I certainly would say that Joe is a moron. He's wrong about this, though. And frankly, I don't think he really believes it. Just like you or me, he'd take Santana over Haren every time.



LOL at accidentally leaving out "not."

Or was it accidentally? ;)

Hold on, I'll get back to arguing with you after I remove my foot from my mouth. :D I completely had a brain freeze where I thought Cabrera was in Boston. Kinda stupid since he's been in Anaheim a couple of years after only getting a cup of coffee in Boston and KC just played the Angels. This is the problem when your team is much more active doing stuff (*cough*selling*cough*) at the trade deadline than signing people over the winter :(

SI

No worries, just being a smartass :)

What has really got to me this year is that the players from the weaker teams aren't even the most deserving on their own team. Sosa deserves to be there over Ramirez I'll agree, and Otsuka could easily be in there over one of the other closers, but Leyland perceives a spot he can throw in a shortstop and picks Young - Cabrera gets screwed. Doesn't make sense to me. Ditto with Freddy Sanchez in the NL for Pittsburgh.

The problem is the all the OF's were voted in by the players. If he takes Otsuka he can't take Santana. If you're Leyland, not an Angels fan, what sounds better?

Santana & Young or Cabrera & Otsuka?

Interesting goings-on in the Tigers/Indians game. The Tigers appear to be playing head games with the Indians - first Pudge points out Hafner standing too far back in the batters' box, then someone apparently alerted the umps that Rafael Bettencourt takes longer than 20 seconds to throw a pitch with the bases empty (that's the rule), because Doug Eddings was timing him and called him for 2 balls during his 2 innings. I've never seen that called, not even brought up!

I was going to post on this too, totally nuts to see. Itdidn't effect Bettencourt but it was funny to see.

Capallean looked good in his debut as well. Not getting my hopes up however as de la Cruz did as well and then began getting rocked.

Manny isn't having an All Star year, but he definitely belongs over Sosa. Sammy has been bad with ok power so far this year. Manny has had ok power, but is at least still above average for his position.

Granderson, Sheffield, and Youkilis are just as deserving as Cabrera is. All in all I think Leyland did a solid job. I question Manny making it, but there's been much worse selections (Ozzie Guillen's choices).

The NL has Fuentes on the team, when they could have taken a Pirates starter and then taken Hanley Ramirez over Freddy Sanchez. Then Renteria over Hardy. It makes the NL team shortstop heavy, but they're all deserving.

Usually the fans screw up a few positions pretty badly, forcing managers into really tough decisions, but the fans actually did a pretty solid job this year. A couple guys I'd rather see in there as far as player/manager choices, but this is the best All Star choices I can remember seeing.

Wait a second.....when the hell did the Phillies sign that fuck Jose Mesa. I should watch more often.

Matt Cain might actually get a win today.

Why do the Twins always suck against the Yankees?

A number of players rumored to possibly be traded this year are injured. I have a feeling this year's trading deadline is going to be a dud. So far, we have Tejada, Dye, Teixeira, Lidge, Otsuka, Al Reyes, etc., all with injuries right now.

Ha! Olney blogs about this today. The only names he mentioned that I missed are Glaus and Mike Sweeney. He also mentioned Rich Harden, but I don't see him getting traded until he establishes he can avoid injury or becomes a closer.

I always love these debates about who belongs in the All-STAR game. It's not about who the BEST players are, it's about who the most FAMOUS are. It's a chance for fans to see who they WANT to see play. Cy Young, etc are for the best players, while the All-Star game is all about fame.

.172? What the hell was he taking, sleeping pills?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...ters&type=lgns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Detroit Tigers shortstop Neifi Perez has been suspended 25 games for testing positive for a banned stimulant, Major League Baseball said Friday.

The 34-year-old native of the Dominican Republic has appeared in 33 games this season and is batting .172 with one home run and six RBI.

Neifi, a 12-year veteran, violated baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, the league said, adding that his suspension will begin immediately.

This is the Lord's way of saving Jim Leyland from himself.

Well, a drug-boosted Neifi Perez is still Neifi Perez . . .

See, this is where Neifi miscalculated. As opposed to Bonds where it changed warning track shots into home runs, for Perez, his increase in power just changed bloop singles into routine fly balls.

This is a ban for stimulants, not steroids (or similar). He was getting hopped up on goofballs to stay awake on the bench, not getting ripped to hit the long ball. He's the first to be suspended for stimulants, meaning he's already tested positive once before.

Was he really doing it to stay awake on the bench?

Oh hell, I don't know. I was just pointing out that this isn't the same suspension that Palmeiro got, it is the first ban under the stimulants provision.

Oh ok. I'll just keep on thinking it was to stay awake then. Seems funnier. I can picture Neifi acting like Jessie Spanno.

Yeah, Neifi is Jessi, Palmeiro is Slater.

Oh no, did Slater take steroids?? It would explain those quick wrestling wins...

I just assumed, since he was a wrestler and all.

Ouch! :o

No, that's Adam LaRoche ;)

McClatchy stepping down after 12 years running Pirates
 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2927649

PITTSBURGH -- Kevin McClatchy, a newspaper heir who likely prevented the Pirates from leaving Pittsburgh by assembling an ownership group in 1996, is stepping down as the team's chief executive officer at the end of the season.

The Pirates are on pace for a 15th consecutive losing season, one short of the major league record. If they do not have a winning record this season, it will be their 12th consecutive losing record under McClatchy.

McClatchy lost majority ownership stake in the club to West Virginia newspaper owner G. Ogden Nutting several years ago, and in January was supplanted by Nutting's son, Bob, as principal owner. McClatchy, who initially knew the elder Nutting through their newspaper ties and brought him into his ownership group, remained as chief executive officer.

"It was a difficult decision, but in the end I felt the time was right to step down as the day-to-day leader so the organization can move forward with a fresh perspective," McClatchy said in a statement.

The 44-year-old McClatchy became one of the youngest owners in major league history when his group officially completed the purchase in February 1996. The club -- formerly owned by a cross-section of Pittsburgh businessmen and corporations -- had been for sale for nearly 18 months, with cable TV magnate John Rigas unsuccessfully attempting to buy the club before McClatchy stepped in.

Bob Nutting said McClatchy's departure at the end of the season will give the franchise plenty of time to "conduct a thorough search ... give us an opportunity for a smooth transition into a new chapter of the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates."

McClatchy took months to assemble a group that finally bought the Pirates for about $95 million -- or about one-third the current value. At the time, no other group or individual was interested in buying the team and NL president Len Coleman guided McClatchy's group through the sale process so the team would not be forced to relocate.

While the Pirates stayed in Pittsburgh under McClatchy, they did not prosper. McClatchy was not privately wealthy, and the club's payroll was annually among the lowest in the majors except for a brief period in 2001, when the Pirates moved into PNC Park. Building one of the majors' best ballparks will likely be viewed as McClatchy's chief accomplishment.

The Pirates have contended only once under McClatchy, in 1997 when the lowest-paid team in the majors stayed in the NL Central race until the final week of the season until losing out to Houston.

McClatchy's reign also was marked by the departure of successful manager Jim Leyland, who wearied during four consecutive losing seasons, and a string of unsuccessful signings that included Derek Bell, Pat Meares and Kevin Young. The team also gave a far-above-market value $60 million deal to catcher Jason Kendall that still hasn't been cleaned off their books.

"Finding a new leader of the organization is the most important decision I will make in my first year as the principal owner of the franchise," Nutting said.

McClatchy had no baseball background when he bought the Pirates and, except for a brief period when Dick Freeman was brought in as club president, he never had a baseball executive in a day-to-day leadership role.

McClatchy served on several major league ownership groups, including its executive council and international and labor committees.

Watching the Braves & Padres, started wondering about something & did a little looking around.

At the moment Andruw Jones is hitting .201 with 15 homers & 51 RBI's.

Thanks to a handy little tool called the Season Finder at
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi...der.cgi#form:2
It appears that, from 1901 through 2006

Dave Kingman had the lowest season BA, .204, when hitting 30+ homers.
In '90 Mark McGwire had the lowest BA, .235, when having 100 or more RBI

Great tool, John. Helps me answer my earlier question in the thread.

Mark McGwire holds the record for most RBI's (64) with less than a .200 batting average. He accomplished this in 2001. His 29 HR's that year are also a record.

If Andruw can just getunder .200, he's got the RBI record sewn up. The HR record will be close.

Mendoza line takes on a whole new meaning...

Chicago gives up 32 runs in one day. I wonder if this is the straw that gets Guillen fired.

Wow, Bedard has looked awesome tonight. 10 Ks in the first 5 innings and he had zero in the first inning. The Ranger broadcasters just said, "uncle!" :)

Bedard is on fire, going for his 15th K. I've been flipping between this game and the Red Sox/Tigers, who keep leaving the bases loaded. No one wants to win it.

Ksyrup - did you see Carlos Beltran's catch in the bottom of the 14th to save the game against the Astros? The Houston announcers said, "you've just seen the best catch in Minute Maid park history" - it was amazing.

No, I'm still watching the Tigers/Sox in the 13th.

Crisp almost made an incredible catch...but he didn't, and the Tigers win!

I'm following the Mets/Houston game - 16th inning! But you know it can't last too long with Sele and Moehler in the game.

First off...amazing catch. The concentration it must take to make that play going up the hill is something I can't even fathom. Didn't Edmonds make a similar catch a few years back? I think his might have been even more impressive (and I'm a Met fan).

I have a question for the Astros fans...why all the hatred for Beltran? I haven't heard an opposing player get so mercilessly booed by a crowd since John Rocker made his first post-NY subway-related interview appearance at Shea. Yes, he spurned you guys to join a team for more money (actually, I think the Yankee offer he would've preferred might have been less than Houston's, but that's besides the point...), but he was a rent-a-player, not a guy who devoted six or so years to the organization and was the team's heart and soul. And not only did he not owe you anything for his half season with Houston, but he turned in arguably the greatest playoff performance of all-time to get you close to the World Series.

Seriously, what's up your collective asses? I can't think of other examples where a player who was on a team for a few months and then signed elsewhere and was booed like he was Hitler. From a Mets perspective, when we made a huge deal for Mike Hampton prior to the 2000 season, and he was an important piece to a World Series team...when he signed a big deal with Colorado, he didn't become Public Enemy #1.

One out away from the 17th! Should be interesting to see the bullpens tomorrow.

At least they'll have 3 days off after tomorrow. I hope it goes 20+ innings. Where's Fernando Valenzuela at 1B?

Lenn Sakata at catcher!

You know, for a 17 inning game, this shit is flying.

How's that for an "excuse me" single?

You mean the perfect execution of a hit and run?

Pseudo-perfect - that looked more accidental to me - though it ended perfectly. I know you'll hate this, but I'm hoping for an Astros rally in the bottom half :).

Mark McLemore changed his race and became a pitcher for the Astros?

I'll defer to another replay but my memory is that he threw the bat out there to put the ball right into the vacated SS spot. Gotay has shown pretty good bat control this year.

Lo Duca (0 for 8) might single-handedly kill my fantasy team's BA for the week from this game alone.

There's always one in every long game:

LoDuca, 0-for-8.

Dola. Beat me to it!

I'll defer - he and the Mets got the result they wanted!

I have to say, I love the MLB.TV package. There are few things better than heading off to bed every night listening to Vin Scully.

Prince Fielder has a very distinctive shape.

Anyone catch the Yanks-Angels? Anyone who likes good pitching would have loved it. Defense? Not so much (especially if you're a Yanks' fan). Lackey versus Clemens, both allowing just a run through eight. Three of the relievers that came in after them up to the 13th inning were Mariano Rivera, KRod and Shields--three of the best. That's a heck of a lot of pitching skill and talent that walked out onto the Yankees' mound today.

Round is distinctive?