A Bears fan who calls himself “Your Boy Roy” breaks down the Cutler injury while holding a snifter of beer. It’s actually a pretty good breakdown of what (may have) happened to Cutler last Sunday.
Month: January 2011 (Page 8 of 51)
Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News has an idea on how the Phillies can fill the hole left by outfielder Jayson Werth, who signed with the Nationals this offseason. I’m just not sure it’s a good one.
There are several outfielders who could be available before Opening Day, but it says here that the best option just might be a blast from the past: Aaron Rowand.
The Phillies would want the Giants to pick up most of the $24 million he is owed the next 2 years, and that could be a sticking point. The Giants could reason that if they’re paying the money anyway, they might as well keep him around. They might not be impressed by what the Phillies could offer in return. Or they might be reluctant to help a team they had to beat in the National League Championship Series to get to the World Series in the first place.
But if there’s a will and a way, Rowand might be a perfect low-risk, high-reward move. He’s coming off a terrible year but is a righthanded batter who hit .309 with 27 home runs, 45 doubles, 105 runs and 89 RBI the last time he played his home games at Citizens Bank Park. He’s still just 33. He’s a good clubhouse guy who would be an antidote to the complacency that manager Charlie Manuel sometimes worries about.
The thing Hagen is overlooking is that Rowand isn’t just coming off a terrible year – he’s coming off of three terrible years. And when he was in Philadelphia, his .309-27-89-105 season came in a contract year. Once he got paid, AT&T Park swallowed him whole and nobody has heard from him since.
Hagen’s right: Rowand is an excellent presence in the clubhouse. He’s also one of the few major leaguers that plays hard every day and his defense is still above average. But his offensive numbers have been declining since his magical ’07 campaign and there are no signs that he’ll regain form. A trade back to Philadelphia may rejuvenate him, but I highly doubt he’ll suddenly transform into a .300 hitter. He’ll hit more home runs at Citizens Bank Park than at AT&T, but that’ll be about it.
Brian Cashman has been one outspoken general manager recently. A couple of days after making the Derek Jeter/centerfield comments, the Yankees’ GM said people who question the club’s management of Joba Chamerlain are “stupid.”
From ESPN.com:
“Those people are stupid,” Cashman said of critics of the Yankees’ handling of Chamberlain. “It’s just an easy, stupid, idiotic thing to say. There’s no screwing anything up. That’s how Andy Pettitte came in, that’s how guys have been broken in for years. They’re starters in the minor leagues, they come up and we use them in the ‘pen, and eventually they break into the rotation. So what’s the problem? I just think it’s naïve.”
“Listen, he had a full chance to make a run at it [in spring training 2010], and he failed at it,” Cashman said. “His stuff does not play the same way as a starter anymore since the injury in Texas. He’s pedestrian as a starter but he still has pretty wicked stuff as a reliever. So his job is just to get outs when Joe calls on him. It’s as simple as that.”
On one hand, I don’t blame Cashman for being a little annoyed that he’s constantly asked about whether or not the Yankees screwed the pooch with Joba’s development. But part of his job is to answer questions about why a young starting pitcher with elite stuff has turned into a broken down old Chevy in a matter of a couple of seasons.
That said, pitchers get hurt and sometimes they never recover. It’s just part of the game. Just because Joba hasn’t turned into a dominant starter doesn’t mean that the Yankees mishandled him. Brien Taylor never panned out either and he was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It happens – guys get injured.
Ask the Cubs if they know anything about young pitchers who broke down too soon. It’s not just the Yankees who have had a stud not pan out. The good news is that Joba may wind up being a solid reliever and that’s better than nothing.
Earlier this week, Herschel Walker was on a teleconference call promoting an upcoming MMA fight and said that he wanted to be the “George Foreman of football.”
From ESPN.com:
“Who knows, at 50 I may try for football again to show people I can do that,” Walker said Monday on a teleconference call to promote an upcoming fight. “I want to be the George Foreman of football. I can come back and do that one more time.”
“The two teams I would come back to play for are Minnesota or Atlanta,” Walker said. “It would probably be Atlanta because that’s home for me.
“I’m a Georgia boy. That’s just home.”
That’s just what the Falcons need: another bruising running back to go along with Michael Turner and Jason Snelling – and one approaching 50, no less.
With how good of shape he’s in, I wouldn’t doubt that Herschel could return to football and take a few handoffs. Have you seen him lately? The man could scare children with his action-figure like physique.
But at his age, I’m thinking one hit from Jerome Harrison would end that experiment real quick.
According to Spike TV officials, the main card of “UFC Fight Night: Ortiz vs. Nogueira,” which is official for Seattle, is set to broadcast live on March 26.
From HeavyMMA.com:
Now that all bouts have been made official for “UFC Fight Night: Ortiz vs. Nogueira,” Spike TV officials have announced which four fights will be broadcast live this March.
Though no fight order has been set for the three fights leading up to the main event of the show, a featherweight rematch between Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia will be featured on the main card, while Dan Hardy vs. Anthony Johnson and Duane Ludwig vs. Amir Sadollah will be as well. The headliner between light heavyweights Tito Ortiz and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will cap off the evening’s action.
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