I'm not trying to let off Posada, I'm just saying Carlson deserves a suspension as well because we was trying to get something going by baiting Posada. He was trying to get Posada's goat and get him to snap first.

Sorry, what did Carlson do to bait Posada? Did he elbow him? Nope, that was Posada. Did he talk smack to him? Nope, that was Posada.

If anything, Carlson should be reprimanded by Cito for not plunking Posada and only firing a warning shot after Hill, their best player, got a heater in the spine.

Regardless... 3 games for each has been handed down.

He was standing on the 1B side of home plate on a throw from RF. If he was backing up the throw, he'd be on the 3B side.Aaaahhhhh, Red Sox baseball: 6 shutout innings from Dice-K and multiple bunts to score the winning runs.

FWIW, you can pretty much throw Dice-K's results from earlier this year out. Not that I have much hope in him being great going forward (I swear when the count goes 0-2 I can FF through 3 pitches and see the full count) but he was injured/tired from the WBC.

Okay I can't find a clip that shows the route Carlson took to get to where he was standing at the point Posada runs into him, but the point is, he's around home plate because he should be there defensively. In no replay have I seen Carlson make any movement towards Posada as he runs by and bumps Carlson and I have yet to see Carlson make any physical motion towards Posada, or so much as tip his head or move his lips.

It's not even the bump that seems to get him riled up as there is a delay between the bump and him turning. I'm guessing it's something Posada said but it may just be Carlson processing who it was/what just happened. Either way, I'm still failing to see how Posada running into Carlson after scoring a run is Carlson baiting him.

Especially given that Posada was the one to "warn" Carlson after the pitch went behind him following, as Johnny said, the Jays best position player getting plunked.

If either team/player were initiating things here, it's on the Yankee's side. It's bad enough that Carlson got suspended as well, but to try and suggest that Posada is some sort of choir boy in all of this is absolutely absurd. Had the order of events been reversed I can only imagine the accusations that'd be flying in the Jays direction at both the pitchers and Cito.

Posada is a little bitch.

I'd say that pretty much sums it up.

I love watching Daniel Murphy play defense.

There's also an exciting ninth inning in San Fran going on.

For obvious reasons, the Angels-Red Sox game was extremely frustrating for me as a fan.

That said, as a baseball fan, what a great game to watch.

Rockies hold out to win 4-3 :(

I'd written the Braves off last week but their six game winning streak has given me a glimmer of hope once again. They probably need to win 13-14 out of the 17 remaining games to have a chance.

That game was a huge microcosm of the Giants' entire season. Horrible lineup construction, terrible substitution decisions, and veteran players who are making far too much money failing miserably in key situations. Just when you think the Giants are completely out of it, they pull you back into believing they can do it...only to fail spectacularly in the end.

Every time I turned the TV on the Angels choked. I started watching with 1 out and bases loaded the first time, came back with the bases loaded the second time and then decided to watch the final out :banghead:

I still can't believe we didn't pick up any bullpen help before the deadline. When the Sox can throw out Saito, Ramirez, Delcarmen and Okajima in the middle innings and we are basically praying we can get to the 8th so we can go with Jepsen and Fuentes again (who are both pretty damn shaky) that really shows how the playoffs are going to go unfortunately.

Two pretty terrible umpiring calls in the Green at-bat. Pretty clear the ump didn't have the balls on the full count call, that was easily a strike. But can't have any complaints, the game shouldn't have even been in question at that point anyway. And was it just me or should Rivera have made the play on the game winning hit?

Ball 4 was a joke, but I thought they got the check-swing call right. At worst, it was 50/50 - definitely not on the level of the ball 4 call. Rivera's effort was atrocious. You've got to at least dive for it if you're not going to run full-speed. Overall, I'm just glad for your and CR's sake this game happened in the regular season when both teams were up 6+ games and not the ALDS. That would have been the type of excruciating playoff loss that sticks with you in the offseason, but regular season you can brush it off.

Wild Card's all but sewn up. A simple 9-9 the rest of the way and Texas would have to close 15-2 (along with LAA going 11-8 with at least 5 losses coming to Texas.) If anything, LAA is now the team that should start worrying about the Rangers.

Also, Toriiiii Hunter has some very aggressive postgame quotes regarding his teammates - Torii Hunter Calls Out Halos for 'Choking' -- MLB FanHouse We'll see how that turns out.No one - certainly not me - is suggesting that Posada was a choir boy, or really anything less than a complete douchebag. That being said, it doesn't matter what route Carlson took, he's standing near the 1B dugout as the throw from RF goes towards the 3B dugout. If he wasn't trying to antagonize Posada by where he stood the Blue Jays should suspend him for 3 games and send him to XST to relearn fundamentals.

EDIT - Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but this whole "Suspended for 4 games, but reduced to 3 when they agreed not to appeal" thing is new right? I mean, either they weren't suspended for 4 games or they made a deal - aka "appealed" it - down to 3.

Good pitching matchup tonight. Greinke vs. Jackson.

Green definitely held up by the slimmest of margins, but if I was that 1B ump I would've punched him out based on his guilty reaction alone.

Day game- 1:05am ET :)

Something to listen to at work today :D

SI

Ah, glad you said something. I hadn't looked at the start time. I'll be listening to the Gameday audio at work today. Thanks.

Though I would note that it's probably a 1:05 PM start time.

Looks like Greinke SHOULD pick up a win. He left the game after 5 innings and 77 pitches with an 8-0 lead. Guess the pitching duel didn't pan out so well for Jackson.

He left after 5 because he took a really hard Miguel Cabrera line drive off his throwing arm in the 4th. If he weren't going for the Cy Young, he'd have been out then and there.

Zack's line for the day:

Z. Greinke

5.0

3

0

0

2

8

0

1.06

2.14

SI

Fantastic stuff from Zack. He's really been a great spark along with Butler for an otherwise dismal team. I noticed as of yesterday that the Royals had no regulars hitting over .300. Terrible.

On a somewhat brighter note, Aaron Crow signed a major league deal yesterday. It will start next year. Buster Olney (ESPN) said that Crow will be given every opportunity to be in the Royals rotation next year right out of the gate.

Although it's only been the Nationals and Mets, Philly pitchers have been absolutely unhittable this week. It'd be nice to have this thing pretty much wrapped up before we play the Marlins.

Also, the Chan Ho Park injury is a blessing in disguise. He actually hasn't been that bad for us this year since moving out of the rotation, but the Phillies have the weird problem of having too many pitchers.

Despite the Park injury, I still expect Moyer to be left off the post-season roster. Just too many guys now (especially with Romero and Condrey about to come back)

I hate Jason Varitek - 2 straight games he gives up a late go-ahead run on a 3rd strike passed ball. I'm gonna be so mad if(when) he starts postseason games over Victor Martinez. Speaking of Martinez, he's on one of those odd hitting streaks - 17 games, but only 22 hits over that span.

Other good news, Clay Buchholz 6IP 1ER, ERA down to 3.49 now. His BB and K numbers haven't been good, but watching him his stuff does look great recently. Keeping the curve/changeup down.

Felix is keeping the pressure on Greinke. 9 IP, 1 ER, lowered his ERA to 2.45 and picked up win #16 when Ichiro homered with 2 out and 1 on to beat Mariano Rivera and the Yanks in the bottom of the 9th...

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic(AP)—A baseball prospect for the San Francisco Giants is the main suspect in the killing of a 25-year-old man in the Dominican Republic, police said Sunday.

Angel Villalona turned himself in 12 hours after the man was shot at a bar in the southern coastal city of La Romana, Col. Adrian Urbaez told The Associated Press.

“The Giants were disappointed to learn that there was an incident in the Dominican Republic last night in which an individual was killed and one of our minor league prospects, Angel Villalona, may have been involved. We will monitor the situation closely and trust that the judicial process in the Dominican Republic will resolve the matter promptly and fairly,” the team said in a statement released Sunday.

Villalona was signed by the San Francisco Giants in 2006 and received a club-record $2.1 million signing bonus. He played in 74 games with a Giants minor-league team this season, batting .267 with nine home runs and 42 RBIs.

The 19-year-old was considered the Giants’ most prized prospect when he signed and was chosen the top prospect in the Arizona Rookie League two years ago.

Frank Micheli, president of the Azucareros del Este - Villalona’s winter baseball team - said he was aware someone was killed but that he had no further details.

Villalona will appear in court Monday and could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty in the Saturday night killing of Mario Felix de Jesus Velete, police said.

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck

Villalona? Dammmmmmmmmnnnnnnn. Between this and Ugueth Urbina I hope we're not seeing a trend.

He'd only be 41 when he gets out of prison...

Cubs have suspended Bradley for the rest of the season.

Or 39.

:D

SI

Sad state of affairs, the Villalona thing. Hopefully it's nothing, but it sure looks pretty awful.

As do the Giants' playoff chances. Sigh.

That whoosh you heard was either the joke going over your head, or the Giants' playoff hopes as they went rushing by the 13th story on their way down.

You be the judge. :D

I guess it was 'A'. Was it a "South American prospect is probably 2 years older than we think" joke?

Who wants to sign the first prospect out of the country Andorra?

For those too lazy to click on the link, Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman has established residency in Andorra and will likely be a free agent soon.

Early word is that the Yankees, Angels and Dodgers are the frontrunners to sign Chapman. The Yankees make sense and Chapman has said he would like to play in Southern California.

I'm still pretty certain the O's aren't getting to 65 wins this season. They sit at 60 right now and have a rough stretch to end the season. Matusz and Reimold have been shutdown, and Tillman will probably be shut down after his start tonight.

On a positive note, it's nice to see Matt Wieters finally turning it on since being moved the the three spot in the lineup. Over his last ten games he's hitting .333 with a .947 OPS, and his defense has been much improved (he threw Carl Crawford out twice attempting to steal the other day, only the second time that's ever happened in his career.)

Edit - They're in line for the third pick in the draft right now.

Big shock the Yanks are interested. If they sign him, I hope like hell he turns out better than Kei Igawa. :banghead:

BTW, is "Chapman" a Cuban name? :confused:

Crazy game in Kansas City tonight. Ugly, rainy, messy game but definitely crazy and fun

SI

Why did Reimold get shut down?18 walks combined through 7.5. RS have 7 walks, 11 singles and 1 extra-base hit.

Tomorrow night, Paul Byrd vs. Zach Greinke. Reverse lock!

Byrd's 17-11 (3.90 ERA in 228 IP) might be the best for a Royals SP in recent memory until this year. Kindof sad actually.

According to some pundits' logic, tho, that was better than Zack this year since he only has 14 wins (oh, and a 2.14 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 210 IP, 224K, 44BB, and a 204 ERA+).

I'm a bit worried about tomorrow, tho. If he's still showing ill effects from taking that scorcher off his arm from Cabrera last start and gives up some runs, I'm sure all the CC lovers in the media will be down on him in a heartbeat about how it's so much harder to pitch in the AL East and how he'd be so much worse there (never mind that Sabathia's opponent OPS is .752 for the season while Greinke's is higher at .754)

SI

Nolan's had a solid rookie campaign. Nice to see someone from my area(he went to the Catholic school here in town) do well.

And I can't believe the Bucco's are actually going to be bad enough to lose 100 games. Somewhere along the line here, it just all went to shit. Even if they traded nobody, I still think they were looking at 90 losses.

Hopefully Garrett F'n Jones wins NL ROY, he's had a good campaign at least.

I don't think the Pirates can catch the Nats though. Anyways, I doubt the Pirates would sign/draft Bryce Harper anyways.

Somehow the Royals have put together an 11-3 string and picked up win 62 tonight. One more win avoids 100 losses which, I guess, is something. But with this hot streak, they've moved ahead of the Indians (by a half game) for 4th in the central and up (down?) to the 5th draft pick for next year.

I'd kindof rather have #2, I think, and not all this fool's gold in September, tho. :( I hate to say it, but I think the winning last September made Dayton think they were a lot closer than they were. I'm also worried as he still thinks injuries derailed this team and not loading up the team with guys who can't get on base including 4 guys who start pretty much every night and can't get an OBP of .300 (Olivo, Yuneifi, Jacobs, and Anderson with Bloomquist at .313 batting 1/2 most nights and .314 Guillen starting until he predictably got hurt)

SI

That O's team has the potential for a pretty good offense. Unfortunately, there's the pitching- what happened to Guthrie this year? He looked like a real good young pitcher and this year it just fell apart.

SI

That was the vibe I got off of it.

I'd agree with that. We seem to have a strong September every year, which makes the leadership think we're turning the corner. We obviously have not turned the corner.

Casey McGehee doesn't get enough love for NL ROY, in my opinion. I won't say he should win it, as there are other deserving candidates but I think McGehee being a waiver wire pickup and not being a top prospect works against him.

.303/.366/.503 15 HR 61 RBI

He's batting behind Prince Fielder, so he won't pick up as many RBI. Just a solid year. Astute pickup by Doug Melvin. Now if only he had an eye for some pitching.

He definitely should get some love in the press, but in a year where Tommy Hanson is pitching as he is, it'd be hard pressed for him to get all that far.

I don't think Hanson is going to run away with the award at all. Happ, McCutchen and Coghlan are all great competition for him.

They Yankees are 8-23 in Anaheim in their last 31 games against the Angels in SoCal. Fucking pathetic.

Dola

Not sure which team is melting down more right now, the Tigers or the Yankees. They both have had their pitching take a dump the past few weeks.

The difference there is that the Yankees have the postseason wrapped up so it really doesn't matter whereas the Tigers still have a lot to fight for.

SI

True, but don't you want your pitching to be at the top of its game heading into the playoffs? The Yanks' pitching is looking terrible, not that we ever thought it was great, but still...

Won't argue that at all. I just see some in the press not even mentioning McGehee in the list of candidates. There are probably better candidates to win it, but McGehee deserves some love.

He's also an all around good guy. His son has cerebral palsy and they had a game earlier this season where his son threw out the first pitch and Casey went on to blast the go-ahead home run later in the game. Just a great moment in what's been sort of a dismal season for the Brewers.

Does Garrett Jones get no love on the national level? OPS of .964, OPS+ of 155. Is it really going to come down to the fact that he only played a half season(should finish with around 82 games played and 340 PAs) and hit 20 homers(which leads NL rookies) and only drove in 40 runs?

I suppose Hanson should win, I didn't realize he was pitching that well.

I forgot him probably because he's come out of nowhere (though you could say the same about Coghlan) and that he wasn't there at the start (though that applies to others as well). He's certainly deserving of consideration.

kind of mirrors this vote 2005 Awards Voting - Baseball-Reference.com

Jones put up numbers like Howard. Hanson is more like Zach Duke. Not sure how the rest of the guys factor into the equation. Actually Jones was a bit better than Howard, and Hanson pitched more(although worse) than Duke, but I don't think it's crazy if a guy only plays 80ish games and wins. Maybe anyways.

To be fair, it's not like they're playing a Single A team when they come here.

And come to think of it, the Tigers also don't fare so well here.

The Angels are a good team. The Yanks have lost their last 9 of 10 in Anaheim. If they lose the division to Boston, they will play the Angels in the first round, and they might as well just kiss this year goodbye.

If we keep losing to the Royals I don't think you're in much danger of that. Plus we seem more interested in setting up Lester/Beckett/Buchholz for the playoffs than altering the rotation to pitch them against the Yankees when we basically need a sweep to win the division.I mean, I'm on record as supporting Greinke and certainly not CC, but I don't see how that last stat helps your argument. If CC has a lower OPSa and an ERA 1.2 higher, then really all Greinke has on him is a much higher strand rate, and without any evidence I'd guess the year to year correlation on that isn't as high as OPSa.

That's not the OPS against him- that's the combined OPS of all batters he has faced this season. Basically, it shows that Sabathia and Greinke have faced the same level of competition this season (and theirs is almost identical). However, Greinke has held them to a .615 OPS when facing him while Sabathia has a .648 OPS against.

That said- you know how this works as it's kindof a limited stat as it doesn't take defense into account or give credit for K's or balance for park effect, etc. That's why we start talking about ERA+, FIP, WPA, WAR, pERA, and all that.

It's just that I keep hearing this incorrect meme that Sabathia pitches in the much tougher East so he's so much better. Halladay is the only one who has a realistic case there, but everyone else looks like a wash, within .010 opponent OPS of each other (i.e. "strength of schedule")

SI

Ahh, my bad - I've been up since 4am. The CC thing shouldn't surprise - the AL East as a whole is tougher (or at least was until TB and Baltimore folded it up), but much of that and the best offense in the division is the Yankees, and clearly CC isn't matching up against them.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	WHIP	Season ERA
Z. Greinke	6.0	2	0	0	3	5	0	1.06	2.08

Greinke's line for the night- pulled after 91 pitches. The Royals have a 5-0 lead in the 7th but that means the bullpen still has to preserve it for 2 more innings.

Horrible home plate ump for both sides. Here's a scatter plot that was posted at one point:



SI

Is it Rick Reed?

Andy Fletcher- don't know much about him

SI

It's at least somewhat consistent - regardless what Questec or whatever says, umpires seem to like stretching the outside of the zone and pinching the bottom.

V-Mart continues his fairly cheap, now 21-game hitting streak with a lone single. During it he's raised his OPS all of 22 points.

I love cheap hitting streaks.

They put him on the DL for left Achilles tendinitis. He's been playing injured for most of the season, so they shut him down so he could get surgery and for him to be ready by Spring Training.

Roberts got his 55th double tonight, tying the MLB record for switch hitters. 60 hasn't been reached since 1936 and the record is 63 (he won't get that many, but he may get 60.) Wieters stayed hot and went 3-5 tonight. Other than that, there's no reason to watch anymore.

As far as the pitching... I don't know what happened to Guthrie, but you can count on him either giving up a ton of homers, or getting shelled in the first two innings and then pitching fine. I'm sure he'll be back in the rotation next year, but I hope not. I want it to be Matusz, Tillman, Hernandez, Bergesen, and hopefully a FA until Arrieta is ready.

Well, the Royals are terrible despite their 12-3 run of late. But it would be SO exciting to have Zack land the Cy Young Award. Really happy to see him flourishing under pressure. Probably didn't hurt that the Royals scored a bunch of runs in the first inning to give him a nice cushion.

When is he a free agent?

Just signed an extension I believe. Not for another 5 years or so.

Zack is one that KC could hang on to for much of his career, if not his entire career. The Royals are willing to give him extensions and, due to his personal issues, he's not interested at all in the bright lights and scrutiny that a big market commands.

He's signed through 2012.

He's also said he's comfortable pitching anywhere but NY.

Alex Speier | Divided Loyalties: Why One Sox Official Will Find It Hard To Root Against Zack Greinke

Saying it is one thing. Doing it is another thing. George Brett has been a great influence on him during the year away from baseball (he lived with George for several months during his time off) and during the comeback. Hopefully, Zack's upcoming marriage will help him as well. I think Zack would move on if the money wasn't there, but management appears much more willing to offer the bigger contracts now than they were 5-10 years ago.

Thanks for the correction on the contract. I was thinking of Soria's extension at the start of the year that locked him up for awhile.

I didn't mean to say that he WILL go anywhere, just that I read that story yesterday and it seemed relevant.

If KC lets Greinke go, then they truly have their heads up their asses. He seems like the kind of guy who will not push them for every red cent and instead wants to be somewhere comfortable. They should do everything they can to ensure that he resigns.

Sure. I appreciate you posting it. I don't think that a lot of people outside of KC and maybe some AL Central Division markets truly understand just how bad the situation was. He had a lot of really bad issues all rolled up into one and the story correctly notes that Bell and Baird did the best thing for him to shut him down and get him some support.

Brad Lidge. I will always love you for 2008.

After tonight, though, it's about time you go and die in a car fire.

As long as there's nobody else in the car.

Wieters 2-4 with another homer tonight, up to .290. Any chance he starts creeping back into ROY discussion if he finishes up like this?

Perhaps Homer Bailey has finally figured things out. He's 4-1 over his last seven games with a 2.00 era. Given Volquez is out for next season it would be nice to see him fulfill his potential. Harang, Arroyo, Cueto, and Bailey isn't a bad top four.

Now if only the Reds had a bat not named Votto...

Wow, what a trainwreck that guy is. He can't get out of his own way at this point.

Any chance that Brett Myers will move into the closer role (I heard one of the announcers on ESPN mention this)?

Myers is actually hurt right now (again).

I think the announcer mentioned this, and was wondering if Myers would move into the closer's role after he came off the DL.

Cubs lose and we can't get Smoltzie a win?

Guess this is what we're left with as Royals fans. Haven't had a pennant race late in the season for over a decade, so we've got the Daily Cy Young race watch instead!

GREINKE WATCH: Through Wednesday | Upon Further Review

Charlie Manual needs to:

1. Go to --> League Setup --> AI Options
2. Change "Last Year Stats" percentage from 100% to 0%
3. Change "Current Year Stats" percentage from 0% to 100%
4. Click "Apply now"

Then Lidge and Bruntlet should show up on waiver wire.

Nobody's paying any attention. Although I've only seen discussion on the NL RoY - who's out there for AL?

Andrew Bailey, OAK
Rick Porcello, DET
Jeff Nimenan, TB
Nolan Reimold, BAL
Gordon Beckham, CHA
Elvis Andrus, TEX
Ricky Romero, TOR

Personally I think it ough to be one of the first 3 listed. Porcello is 14-9 with a 4.19 ERA with the best ground ball to fly ball ratio of any AL pitcher, not just rookies, and yes I am a homer.

That said any of those guys are deserving.

This is CLASSIC :lol:

I think Nieman will win it, 12-6 with a 3.81 ERA, 172 innings and 2 shutouts. Then Bailey with 1.93 ERA and 25 saves then Porcello.

arent like 3 or 4 of those games vs the Pirates though?

Word on the street is that the Phils are considering using Happ in the post-season closer role.

Seriously.

I disagree. Porcello is the only one playing in meaningful games down the stretch, and has only gotten BETTER. Oh, and he's only 20.

He should win, hands down.

2, but it also includes games against the Dodgers, Marlins and Rockies.

I don't follow the Phillies nor do I like them, but anyone has to be better than Lidge at this point.

This season is an embarasment. Not that the past 17 haven't been bad. But the Pirates were like 35-38 at one point IIRC. Since then not so good.

I feel bad for Pirates fans, I really do. Just seems like ownership that doesn't care if they win or not, and screw the fans while they are at it.

They were getting to Zach too vs the Royals. That would have maybe out them 2 under. Then it rained. Since then like .250ish baseball.

i've always felt in cases like this (or that of the clippers for example) that there ought to be league provisions for stripping owners of their ownership and reselling the team (and then of course i guess paying the old owners back).

This.

Except for paying the owners back part. If they are dumb enough to fuck up a professional team's finances, let them swim in their own bankruptcy.

well yeah, but then none of the owners would agree to it. gotta have some way of getting somewhat paid back so they all want to be owners

Yeah. Killing Nutting would be awesome. But that isn't going to fix baseball and its finances.

Might help though. Quick fixes and changing plans every year wasn't working.

If I ran the team I'd probably try to sign Harden this offsesson. Or another solid veteran starter. And look to upgrade RF. Although maybe Pedro and Jose Tabata will fix the offense.

A lot of the bullpen guys got shut down last month. Hanrahan and milledge have done pretty good work. The trade with washington was a winner.

They just keep running Andy Laroche and Moss/Pearce out there and those guys sucks.