Today’s news is powered by . . . a baseball-themed Tex Avery cartoon:
- No Peavy this weekend:
The chances of Jake Peavy making his first start for the White Sox on Saturday are remote, team sources said on Wednesday.
Pitching coach Don Cooper said that Peavy was unable to throw his side session on Wednesday due to lingering effects of being hit by a line drive in his last rehab start on Monday. The right-handers is still getting treatment on on his pitching arm, which had some swelling and soreness.
- Robinson Cano is pleased with his plate production:
“This is the best year that I ever had,” Cano said. “Everything came together — hitting, average, doubles, singles. I never had 13 home runs in the first half. I looked at my numbers and said, ‘Wow.'”
. . . “It feels great,” Cano said. “I’m one of the youngest on the team and I’m learning from the guys. These are guys that work hard every single day and they can really play the game. I’m glad that I’m here, because when you’ve got those kinds of guys, all you can do is learn.”
Batting .315 with 65 RBIs entering play on Wednesday as he rebounds from a down and frustrating 2008, Cano believes that the biggest difference for his season was having Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long travel to the Dominican Republic for a week in November.
- On this date in 1938, Joe DiMaggio has three triples in the first game of a doubleheader with Cleveland, an 8-7 win in New York. Monte Pearson has a no-hitter in the 2nd game, winning his 10th straight game, 13-0. The Yankees will have played their fifth doubleheader in five days.
- On this date in 1977, at Yankee Stadium, Rangers Bump Wills and Toby Harrah hit back-to-back inside-the-park on consecutive pitches. Texas wins the game, 8-2.
[My take: I was at this game, and I have it tied for the weirdest thing I’ve seen at a game. Its tied with a minor league game I saw in which a team won on two consecutive HBPs with the bases loaded.]
Tex Avery! Diane, you RULE.
seriously, thoseTex Avery gags have aged well. Lotta chuckles in those 6 minutes.
Brad Penny asks for his release, and the Red Sox will oblige him. $5 million well spent.
I shall be at the game today.
[3] Oh Christ
Two things of note about Cano's season. First, his LD% is 20.1%, which justifies his .317 BABIP. Second, according to Fangraphs, his dollar value based on his WAR is $13.5 million which easily surpasses his $6 million salary.
oh to be a fly on the wall of the dugout near Billy Martin during that '77 game...
[3]
"Penny saved, 3,076,385 GBP foolish" ???
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html
Anybody listen to The Baseball Project? I saw something in SI this week and downloaded their album, and its about 10 million times better than I thought it would be.
[3] FWIW, he outperformed his salary; Fangraphs has him valued @ $9.4M
[4] He's still a better option than say, Mitre
[7] nice!
Penny would probably be served better by going to the NL. Not that he was any great shakes, but he's performing right around his career rates, WRT velocity & grounders. He is allowing more fly balls this year, for whatever reason.
Everytime the Yankees look at or sign one of these bad scrap heapers, the reasoning is that "[Y] has to be a better option than [X, who is currently stinking it up]!"
Then we sit and watch Y pitch terribly FOR-EVER.
Regardless, Penny at his best is better than Mitre at his worst.
Just like Pavano and Wright at their best were no better than Pedro at his worst during 2004.
The point behind picking up a scrap heap pitcher is for them to at minimum provide replacement level performance. If they don't work out, let them go and replace them with someone else. Just like middle infielders and backup catchers, they're cheap, plentiful and cost very little.
[9] Huh. I don't get that Fangraphs $ value.
Penny is much, much worse than, say, Ross Ohlendorf, in practically every statistical category, and Ross's value is $2.2M. How can Penny's be $9.4M? The difference between the NL and the AL can't be that much. Again, Penny is worse than Jeremy Guthrie at, well, every aspect of pitching.
Does anyone understand how Fangraphs comes up with their $ value? (They have an explanation somewhere, I know, but it seems like too much work.
see a Penny, pick it up
all day long you'll have... meh.. to yuck.
[13] with all due respect to Penny, he's better than meh to yuck.. but nothing else rhymes... so tough shit
[11] i would think me at my best is better than mitre at his worst :}
so who is next on the yankee dfa tour of rsn?
[13] all day long you'll have...
bad luck
chuck & duck
to listen to John Kruk
to end up DFAing the schmuck
to admit that he is teh suck
need a bigger score truck
[16] nice.. and bonus points for the Kruk and score truck!
[17] what if Kruk is driving the score truck? ;-)
[16] nice bama
and if kruk is driving the score truck - either that bad boy has a flat tire or his fat ass is headed straight for waffle house
[19] LOL. Mmmmm, waffles...
[12] Part of it is the differences between the leagues, as well as park factors.
This report of Jeter being engaged can't be true - can it?
[20] And on that note, I believe lunch is in order!
[8] It's really very, very good. The pedigree of the players suggested it might be, but the history of "baseball" related music is pretty grim. Recommended. (Hell, just for "Ted F**king Williams" alone...which lets you know this is not yer' grandpa's baseball music...)