My completely uninformed opinion was that he would be a pretty good to great pitcher, at least for a few years before any potential overuse from Japan set in. That said, no matter how much success he has at first, you have to hold off at least a couple months to give the league a chance to get accustomed to an experienced guy they've never seen before (as opposed to a rookie coming up and just dominating by "throwing").

Pretty good start for the Braves, sweeping the Phils in Philly.


also

Brian McCann >>>>>>>> Joe Mauer

Follow-up on the K-Rod cheating incident(s):

"It's the same stuff I've had since I was called up [in 2002]," Rodriguez said, showing his cap to a pair of reporters at his locker to show the resin residue on its bill. "A lot of pitchers use it. They rub it on their pants and use it when they need it. I have it on my cap. You can see it in all the pictures; it's there.

"I don't see why they're making a big deal out of this. We can't worry about things we can't control. They haven't made it illegal, so it's something I do."


Um...it is illegal to have any substance under the bill of your cap. That's what the resin bag is for, and why it is kept away from the mound. If you could put it under the bill of your cap, you could also put other illegal things there. So the substance might not be illegal, but where you keep it and use it is.

It's become readily apparent that the days of Gaylord Perry are long gone. These days, there are too many cameras to keep cheating like this hidden.

I hardly ever watch the Yankees, but there's something about how bad they're playing right now that is compelling me to watch. They stink right now. I'm sure you can pencil them in for 95 wins, but man, right they aren't good. Jeter's still on vacation - 3 errors, and tonight he failed to cover second on a bunt. Strange things afoot at the House That Ruth Built.

Wow... Oliver Perez looked very nice tonight as the Mets rout the Braves 11-1, behind Jose Reyes' 2 triples and 4 RBIs and 2 runs. The Mets continue to be very fun to watch early on in the season.

"Cheating like this".

Got it. So why is it cheating again? Because a legal substance isn't where it should be on a player's person? How does that affect the game? If the substance has been deemed legal and usable by players on the field, why does it matter where they keep the stuff? Are you saying it's not resin? Because everyone seems to believe it is indeed just resain, a legal substance.

You call this cheating. Cheating is trying to gain an edge through means outside of the rules. How exactly is K-Rod gaining an edge here? Because he doesn't get as tired constantly going back behind the mound to get the resin bag? Because by putting it on his cap instead of on his pants leg, he can reach up easier, so he's not so fatigued? What exactly is the edge here?

If you say the edge is somehow in how his pitches move, clearly you have missed every Angels win between 2002 and now, because if you had ever seen the guy pitch, you would know there is no foreign substance that can make a guy's pitch move like that. I mean, honestly, it's one of the most wicked sliders to come along in some time. You honestly think any substance out there exists that turns a normal slider into a something as knee-breaking as K-Rod's out pitch? His fastball has pop, but is fairly straight. His change is only effective because of its contrast to his heat. His curve is his weakest pitch. When exactly is he using his resin to cheat again?

Yes, I'm an Angels fan and acknowledge it willingly. But anyone who thinks this is cheating is either overreaching on semantics (where a legal substance is placed?!?) for reasons that are unclear to me, or obviously has a sharp disgareement with how baseball authorities themselves view the affective qualities of resin on the game.

The blogger is doing this to sell a book. Sad to see anyone taken in by it. Bob Watson, by all accounts the biggest beauracratic asshole in baseball as the head disciplinarian, already contacted Bill Stoneman and said there wouldn't be any investigation. Read between the lines. This is nothing.

If you want to talk about GMJ possibly using HGH, okay, that's another subject altogether.

It's cheating. The rosin bag is there in order to use rosin. Anything on the player himself is illegal.

I don't view the whole thing as a huge deal, but "smudges" on a player are difficult to police, and that's why they're illegal. Is an umpire supposed to physically check the smudge every inning to make sure it's still resin? Because it wouldn't be difficult to swap it with something else.

Why should MLB bend over backwards for K-Rod's habits? A bright line rule here is appropriate, and easy to enforce, so that's what we have. I don't see why he should be above that.

Anything? Sweat? Spit? Left over rosin form when he picked up the bag? There's a reason why baseball labels substances as legal and illegal. Some can affect the game. Some can't. Baseball has determined rosin doesn't affect the game, at least not to the degree it needs to be banned. It is in fact recognized as a legal tool for pitchers and placed right out there behind the mound.

You're saying it's cheating for a player to use a substance placed out there for his use by baseball? You're right. Makes sense to me, too.

"Smudges" are not illegal. Smudges happen all the time. It's what makes the smudges that make them illegal. If it is something that can affect the outcome of a game event (a pitch, a swing, etc.), then baseball deems it to be illegal. The umpires have every right to check out every smudge they see (or that is pointed out to them by managers), but if the substance is deemed to be legal, what is there to do? At worst, you wipe the substance off and move on (as with Rogers, which otherwise is different because most people believe he didn't just have dirt there).

I see your point, and the reason for such a rule for practical purposes. And by the letter of the law, yes, K-Rod is breaking the rules. As are pitchers who put rosin on their legs or in their gloves.

But "breaking the rules" is not "cheating". Breaking the rules is breaking the rules--not abiding by a set list of rules. Cheating is doing something illegal in order to gain an unfair advantage outside of the rules, with advantage being judged by its impact on the game for which those rules are set. If rosin has no impact on the game, whether it comes from a bag behind the mound, the bill of the cap, or "rosin boy" walks out with a bucket full of the stuff every pitch, it's not cheating. K-Rod's pitches aren't breaking more sharply from it. He isn't throwing more strikes because of it. His pitchess aren't any harder to see. It has no impact on the game whatsoever except making his outings go faster because he isn't constantly retreating to the back of the mound for more rosin.

I don't mind him being called a rule breaker. But you guys are way too willing to toss out "cheater" without actually considering the circumstances. There is a big difference between rule breaker and cheater and you know it.

K-Rod shouldn't be above these rules, so if baseball feels it must, it should inform him and the Angels he must not place rosin on his person at any point anymore except in his hand. I would be fine with that. I would also, however, expect everyone here to be fine with Scioscia checking out every opposing pitcher who walks out to the mound for rosin residue on their clothing, checking each pitch if he has to. There are tons of pitchers who do this sort of thing (once again, not cheating, but rule breaking without game impact), but if the league draws a hard line on K-Rod, they better damn well draw that same line on everyone else, too. Or does that suddenly become a problem with everyone when it happens to a player on their favorite team instead of on some other guy's team?

As long as we're at it, let's also check every tag play to make sure the runner doesn't leave the base at all before the ball hits the glove, that every force play includes the ball in glove and foot on base before any part of the runner touches the base, that every tag out actually touches the runner before he reaches the base, that no batter's foot touches the batter's box line while in place to take a swing...and so forth.

There are rules broken all the time. And then there's cheating. Let's enforce the latter. Let's not get inanely impractical about the former.

You say tomato, I say tomato.

A-Rod = teh suck

If there were some way that A-Rod could succeed but the Yankees would suck, I would be very happy.

Semantics. Sorry to get you worked up by interchanging one for the other. You can argue its not cheating but breaking a rule and I don't have an issue with that.

Now can we please get back to rooting against the Yankees? It's not coincidence that this argument broke out, and the Yankees won today. If we just work together, we can accomplish good.

Then I would say you want to live in an impossible idealistic world where everything is absolutely called correctly and dealt with appropriately. Absolute zero can also be reached, a perfect vacuum can be achieved and the speed of light is a reachable goal.

Here in the practical, pragmatic world, the rest of us realize that enforcement of all rules every day every moment to the letter is not only impossible, the effort is extremely counterproductive.

If you honestly equate someone having rosin on their person with Barry on steroids and Gaylord Perry salivating on his ball, you aren't a rational person whose perspective I would willingly seek on any topic, baseball or otherwise.

Thanks, Ksyrup. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. You're right. For the good of baseball and a nonchaotic world, we need to put aside our differences and ensure the karmic forces of this world return to concentrating on the Yankees.

The good news is, if we can win the AL West, the Yankess will have to try to get past us in the playoffs. They haven't been too successful at that. ;)

If it's just rosin, why isn't there a similar smudge on the top of the cap? Does he only touch the rosin bag with his thumb?

Edit: That is to say, it's suspicious, but I doubt anyone really cares because pitchers on all teams cheat.

I would guess he does just touch it with his thumb. No one is saying K-Rod denies knowing that it's breaking the rules for him to have this on his cap or in his glove or on his leg. So he probably made the sensible decision years ago (he apparently has been doing this every since he started pitching) to just rub his thumb on the cap, so as not to have it stand out on the outside. Certainly an indication of his knowledge of the rules and complicity in breaking them (although, as I mentioned, far short of the actual line of "cheating", as I believe a tangible effect on the game must be achieved by the illegal act for it to be deemed cheating).

Anyone notice how clutch Jeter looked trotting in from 2nd to score the winning run on the walk off grand slam by A-Rod?

Jeter and A-Rod getting back together and having pyjama parties again would be as big for me as Ross and Rachael getting back together in the Friends finale.

Hopefully this is a step toward bringing them back together.

Astros win! Astros win! Dear lord almighty, the Astros win!

Hey, John Patterson. Wanna stop making me look like an idiot for thinking you'd have a nice bounce back year after the injuries?

SI

Went to the Royals game today. Game time temp: 29 degrees, with lots of wind. Small (~14K) crowd but into it for as few people as were there. This is not baseball weather. Cruel irony- the next game we're going to (April 20th), the giveaway is Royals fleece blankets. Would have killed for another blanket today.

I can see what people say about Gil Meche with the maddening inconsistency. I remember looking down when I was keeping score and his first ball was pitch number 10, partway into the second inning. Then he lost the strike zone in the third and Detroit put up a crooked number. Aside from that 3 run third, he gave up 3 solo homers on a day when the wind was howling from left to right. He finished 7 innings on just over 100 pitches so you have to be grateful for that, toughening up after that last homer and I don't think he allowed another hit. Still, giving up 6 runs won't win you many ball games.

Also, can someone explain why Buddy Bell has a mancrush on Ross Gload?

SI

One of the ESPN reporters (Buster Olney I think) was talking about how a few years back baseball tried to schedule the first couple of weeks in venues where the weather would not be a problem. According to him, teams complained about it and that is why MLB stopped the practice. Can someone share more about what happened? I can't understand why anyone in baseball would not try to avoid the weather problems they had this week.

I really don't have any more info on what happened...but as a NY fan, I would be totally against it.

1) It already takes some of the fun out of opening day when your team opens with 2 series on the road, leaving you to celebrate the "home opener."

2) Obviously everyone plays 162 games so it balances out, but I think a two week west coast road trip just isn't fair. A 3-9 start isn't out of the question for even a very good team.

Play more day games. Don't shift the schedule anymore than that.

Yeah, northern teams complained that they wouldn't get as many sellouts once the luster of opening week was over and they finally got their home openers a week later, added to the fact that if your team started the year on a bad note, that would cause a further ticket sale decrease.

Really, this doesn't seem to happen that often, or at least it's not as wide spread as it has been this year.

Someone has to start on the road, I don't think all 32 teams can start at home ;)

It just doesn't make sense for Arizona (75-85 and pleasant here) to travel to 40-degree Colorado and 20-degree Washington to open the season. Same goes for Seattle (60-65) playing in 28-degree Cleveland and 33-degree Boston.

Why not just have a two-city road trip for the first week of April that minimizes the weather issues and then go back to normal? Now, we are going to have a slew of double headers that will have much more of an impact on records down the road because MLB didn't want to anger fans in cold climates.

Look at the NFL, this was the first year in nearly a decade where the Arizona Cardinals opened at home (cause they finally had a dome stadium). Now, maybe opening on the road meant the Cards often started 0-1, but it didn't make sense having teams and fans sit out in 105 degree weather to watch football.

Day games really would have helped the conditions in Cleveland and Washington.:rolleyes:

Just be smart and if you have an opening series between Arizona and Washington, Cle-Seattle or NYY-Tampa, maybe start with the obviously warmer city (Crazy! I know!).

Um, yes it does make sense. It's called "it's been happening for 100 years and it was never a big deal until this year."


So pushing it around for a week is going to make a huge difference? There was a snowstorm in Cleveland this whole weekend. If the same storm occurs next year and comes a day later, you're screwed again.


I've been at Shea for the last two home openers. Last year I remember being completely comfortable in the swirling winds of the upper deck in my t-shirt and jeans. The year before, I was a little cold with the wind so I put my windbreaker on. The horror. We're going to start the season on the west coast every year because of fluke weather patterns?

Weather is unpredictable. We all know this. Jesus, the Masters (in Georgia) was being played in 40 degree weather.

Heck, in KC, it was 81 for the opener on Monday and then 29 yesterday when we went.

SI

BTW, I missed the whole story Friday about the Seattle/Cleveland game getting cancelled within a strike of ending. What happened there? They mentioned it for a minute on the Royals broadcast but I didn't get the whole story.

SI

Paul Byrd was actually working on a no hitter, and shook off two signs before the batter stepped out and the game was cancelled. Basically at that point it was a whiteout, nothing could be seen. Byrd could have probably just grooved in one of his trademark 85 mph fastballs and the game would have been over.

Braves get embarrassed by the Mets on Friday, losing 11-1.
Braves respond by beating the Mets both Saturday & Sunday.
Nice.

Royals get a great performance from Brandon Duckworth, 6 1/3 shutout innings and the pen gets it to the 9th with a 2-0 lead. Pudge erases it all with a 3-run homer in the 9th. This is the type of early season game that can just kill a team. So, instead of a really nice 3-3 homestand to start against the Red Sox and Tigers, it's 2-4 :(

SI

Cardinals start hitting!

Giants are one of the worst teams in baseball...

You have to put the Nationals there as well. After 4 home games against the DBacks (not exactly the 29 yankees), Washington finished 0-4 and was outscored 21-6.

:( Sadly I have to agree. Especially if they play the same way on this upcoming road trip.

This is the most on-topic thread I could see on the front page to post this, just thought it was neat

O's take 2 of 3. Take that MFY's!

Hey, Alex Gordon has more hits this year then Brandon Inge at least.

All kidding aside, Duckworth was sharp. A sick sinker worked awesomely in the elements but Riske even said after he felt with guys on 1st and 2nd and 0 out Pudge would bunt. He out thought himself and because of it, Pudge went yard.

Royals are a gritty team though, and Pena Jr is the best fielding SS in the game.

Man, I'm really loving Rob Neyer's blog. I watched the Yankees/Orioles game on Friday night and was stunned by how far the Yankees' announcers went out of their way to NOT make Derek Jeter look bad on a play he screwed up. I guess I shouldn't have been stunned, but it was so obvious and Kenny Singleton was right on top of it but didn't have the guts to say directly what he was suggesting, that I found it unbelieveable. And then I see that Neyer caught the same thing.

Man on first, guy bunts toward ARod and when ARod fielded it, he had an easy play to second to get the lead guy, except no one was covering second. On a play when both the 1B and 3B are charging, the 2B covers first, and the SS covers second. Well, Jeter didn't immediately move toward second, and by the time ARod realized his only play was to first, at that point Jeter went to cover third. Instead of pointing out Jeter's mistake, the announcers basically blamed Cano for not covering second and praised Jeter for alerting covering third. When Singleton mentioned that Cano's responsibility was to cover first, neither he nor Michael Kay made the obvious connection - Jeter failed to cover second.

And then in the fourth, on a delayed steal, no one covered second and the announcers basically made that point obvious, then failed to follow-up on who's fault it was (and it could have been Cano's, but it also could have been Jeter's, so they just let it go).

Glad to see I'm not the only one who sees/hears these things.

BTW, anyone with the Extra Innings package enjoying the new features they have? You can check scores, see box scores, pitchings stats (# of pitches, balls/strikes, etc.) on screen during the game. Pretty cool.

But Barry was just breaking the rules. Really, not even that. Steroids were not banned.

(please read the sarcasm there, just said to prove a point)


Don't worry, he'll be injured before too long. *groan*

A little broadcast news from last week
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sp...408sptbiz.html

Safe to say Cal Ripken Jr. won't be as outspoken or as outrageous as Charles Barkley.

But Ripken, hired by Turner Sports on Thursday as studio analyst for its new Major League Baseball television package, hopes to bring a bit of Barkley to the job.

"I'm a basketball junkie, and I love listening to Charles and Kenny [Smith] in Atlanta," said Ripken, referring to TNT's popular NBA studio show. "They're entertaining in many ways ... and Charles can be Charles ... but from an analyst's standpoint, they also really know the game. I hope I can bring some of that sort of analysis to the baseball side."

Ripken, the former Baltimore Orioles star who will be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame this summer, will join host Ernie Johnson Jr. on a studio show that will precede and follow TBS' telecasts of Division Series and National League Championship Series games this fall.

TBS, which will be televising postseason baseball for the first time, also will have a Hall of Famer in the booth during games. Tony Gwynn, to be inducted into Cooperstown along with Ripken, will be the game analyst alongside play-by-play voice Chip Caray on the NLCS and on the No. 1 Division Series broadcast team.

Turner Sports executive producer Jeff Behnke said Gwynn will warm up for the postseason by serving as guest analyst with Caray on some TBS Braves telecasts, probably in September. Behnke said it hasn't been determined how many Braves games Gwynn will work.

TBS is in its final season of televising Braves games nationally and next year will debut an MLB-wide Sunday afternoon "game of the week" package. Ripken will serve as analyst on a still-being-formulated studio show in conjunction with that package. Gwynn could join play-by-play voice Caray in the booth on some of the Sunday games, but the former San Diego Padres star said his top priority is his job as San Diego State baseball coach.

Ripken, a two-time American League MVP who holds the major-league record of 2,632 consecutive games played, and Gwynn, an eight-time National League batting champion with a career .338 average, will make their TBS debuts on a July 1 All-Star Game selection show.

"Similar to what we've done with our NBA package over the years," Behnke said, "we wanted to have some signature voices, some familiar faces who are very respected in the game. We think we definitely have that with Cal and Tony."

TBS has rights to all Division Series games and one League Championship Series per year (alternating leagues) through 2013.

I just want TBS to broadcast (more? any?) games in High Def, dammit!

The Phillies suck out loud.

I am officially disgustipated by their presence in the major leagues. I hate soccer and relegation in general, but if I had the power, I'd stick their sorry asses in a league with the Nationals and force them to play each other for an entire year.

I think the Nationals (my team) would still struggle to lose few than 100 games. :)

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sp...10hampton.html

Braves left-hander Mike Hampton will have surgery Tuesday morning for a torn flexor tendon in his left elbow, according to the Braves.
The decision was made today after Hampton met with Dr. Dave Altcheck in New York. Altcheck performed Hampton's "Tommy John" surgery in September 2005. Hampton is expected to be sidelined for six to nine months.

Lidge is out as closer...thank god!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2830954

Carpenter on DL

ARod will not accept a banning.

That home run by A-Rod doesn't count. The Yankees were already up by 5.