River Ave. Blues posts an interesting graph showing the ups and downs of the Yankees offense and pitching in 2008.
Posted by David Pinto at 7:41 pm | Team Evaluation | Permalink | No Comments
January 31, 2009
Blacked Out
Eight teams are not scheduled to appear on the national broadcasts of ESPN and Fox this year.
Blue Jays, Marlins, Padres, Nationals, Pirates, Reds, Rockies, Royals- 0
I’m guessing the Rockies will be good enough to appear on a broadcast before the season is over.
Posted by David Pinto at 5:55 pm | Broadcasts | Permalink | 4 Comments
January 31, 2009
Happy Birthday 42!
It’s Jackie Robinson’s 90th birthday anniversary.
Posted by David Pinto at 5:43 pm | All-Time Greats | Permalink | No Comments
January 31, 2009
Volcano Sunrise
Here’s a picture of the Redoubt Volcano in Alaska at sunrise this morning:
Redoubt VolcanoPhoto: Alaska Volcano Observatory
There are rumblings under this cone and they are expecting it to erupt any time.
Posted by David Pinto at 1:53 pm | Other | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 31, 2009
Giant Plan
The Giants’ plan to land Manny Ramirez seems to be to wait until Manny is so upset at the Dodgers he’s willing to take below market deal someplace else.
Executives with other teams do not believe the Giants are serious players in the Manny bidding. They think San Francisco’s real intent is to keep the Dodgers [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 12:26 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 3 Comments
January 31, 2009
Talking to Verducci
Alex Belth interview Tom Verrducci about his new Joe Torre book at SI.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:36 am | Books | Permalink | No Comments
January 31, 2009
Violating the Rule
I have a friend who has a rule for determining how young a person you should date. Take your age, divide by two, then add seven. So if you’re 30, the youngest person you should date is 22. If you’re 50, a 32 year old is as young as you should go. [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:09 am | Owners | Permalink | 10 Comments
January 31, 2009
Contract Offer
Heh.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:32 am | Free Agents | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 30, 2009
Giving Arbitration the Byrd
The Texas Rangers sign Marlon Byrd, and clear their arbitration docket.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:46 pm | Transactions | Permalink | No Comments
January 30, 2009
Yankees Settle
The Yankees reach a contract agreement with Brian Bruney. He’s the last of the outstanding contracts, and New York won’t need to deal with the arbitrator this season.
Posted by David Pinto at 6:20 pm | Transactions | Permalink | No Comments
January 30, 2009
Varitek Agrees
Jason Varitek blinks, returning to the Red Sox for $5 million dollars:
Varitek, who turns 37 on April 11, will earn $5 million in 2009, according to baseball sources, with the club holding a $5 million option for 2010. If the Red Sox do not pick up that option, Varitek has the choice of remaining with [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:02 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 5 Comments
January 30, 2009
Pitch Volume
Razzball looks at the effect a high volume of pitches has on success the next season.
Posted by David Pinto at 3:28 pm | Predictions | Permalink | No Comments
January 30, 2009
Challenge from Brazil
Tuffy R sent me this link, as the Brazilian curling team calls out the Americans:
“We knew they were out there playing,” Patzke said, “but we didn’t really have them on our radar until they made the challenge.”
The best-of-five match against the United States team, beginning Friday in Bismarck, N.D., will be Brazil’s international curling debut, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:21 am | Other | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 30, 2009
Rally Manny
Mets fans rallied for Manny Ramirez outside the SNY studios (owned by the Mets). It was called the Million Manny March, although they were about 999,970 people short.
Should teams listen to their fans? If the Mets sign Manny and still fall a game short of the playoffs, would Omar Minaya get to fire [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:07 am | Free Agents | Permalink | 7 Comments
January 30, 2009
Coast to Coast
There’s some confusion on the Varitek deadline. Is it Eastern or Pacific time?
Update: Or maye there’s no deadline at all.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:14 am | Free Agents | Permalink | 3 Comments
January 29, 2009
I Will Find You and Kill You
Every time I see an ad for Taken, I think of this.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:34 pm | Other | Permalink | 2 Comments
January 29, 2009
Bobby and Barry
A former teammate of Barry Bonds is going testify against the slugger:
It looks like Barry Bonds has more than just a failed urine test to worry about when his perjury trial gets underway on March 2nd. According to ESPN, Bobby Estalella, a former Giant who admitted using steroids provided by Bonds’ trainer Greg Anderson, is [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:22 pm | Cheating | Permalink | 9 Comments
January 29, 2009
Improving Pitching?
Lyflines examines the idea that Jason Varitek improves the Boston pitching staff.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:17 pm | Defense | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 29, 2009
Looking A’s
Athletics Nation takes an indepth look at the A’s propensity to strikeout looking. The team does rank high in the stat, but more interesting are the player charts. There are players like Sweeney and Crosby who get called on the edges, but there are also players like Cust and Hannahan who just takes [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:27 pm | Offense | Permalink | No Comments
January 29, 2009
Varitek to Retire?
Jason Varitek is threatening to sit out the 2009 season. Given the environment for free agents, I suspect the Red Sox would be happy to take him up on the offer.
Posted by David Pinto at 4:59 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 4 Comments
January 29, 2009
Kubel Contract
The Twins buy out the last two years of Jason Kubel’s arbitration and are down to one arbitration case.
Posted by David Pinto at 4:52 pm | Transactions | Permalink | No Comments
January 29, 2009
Secret Surgery
Carlos Pena underwent abdominal surgery over three weeks ago, but should be ready for spring training. He won’t play in the WBC, but should be ready for the season. I wonder why they didn’t announce this earlier?
Posted by David Pinto at 4:42 pm | Injuries | Permalink | No Comments
January 29, 2009
Joe on Joe
Joe Christensen reports the latest news on Joe Crede.
Posted by David Pinto at 1:55 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
January 29, 2009
Hacking A-Rod
New York Baseball Hack Dan Graziano offers his take on A-Rod:
A-Rod is actually an interesting guy to talk to about baseball. He loves the game and works so hard at it that he has a great deal to offer in terms of analysis — of his own game and other people’s. I have had many [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 12:59 pm | Players | Permalink | 3 Comments
January 29, 2009
Maholm Extended
The Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to a three-year contract extension with Paul Maholm. There’s no word on the money yet, and the Pirates hold an option for a fourth year. This buys out Paul’s three years of arbitration, always a good move for a club, and possibly his first year of free-agency. Paul [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:52 am | Transactions | Permalink | No Comments
January 29, 2009
More Revelations
Zog’s Point reveals what Joe Torre left on the cutting room floor.
Torre almost ruined David Cone’s perfect game in 1998 by trying to bring in Tanyon Sturtze, before realizing Sturtze was on the White Sox.
There’s plenty more.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:11 am | Humor | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 29, 2009
Off the Cuff
Baseball Time in Arlington comments on Joaquin Benoit’s surgery:
Benoit, coincidentally, is set to earn a base salary of $3.5 million in 2009. Toss in Frank Catalanotto’s seemingly immovable $4 million salary (coupled with a $2 million buyout for 2010), and that’s suddenly more than 10 percent of the projected 2009 payroll sunk into either damaged [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:01 am | Injuries | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 29, 2009
Stupid Clauses
I agree with this post 100%.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:57 am | Management | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 28, 2009
Sheets to the Mets?
The headline made me laugh but this paragraph slayed me:
“It’s not Ben’s Spanish-speaking ability that interests me,” Minaya said. “I’m interested in Ben for other reasons. I mean, look. Here’s a pitcher who is not getting any younger, who deals with severe arm injuries on an almost annual basis, who has never fully reached his [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:50 pm | Humor | Permalink | 3 Comments
January 28, 2009
Getting Desperate
Was this really necessary?
Posted by David Pinto at 7:48 pm | Cheating | Permalink | 4 Comments
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