The kid has already earned two Cy Young Awards in his first three years in the league, but Tim Lincecum just can’t figure out the right message for his personalized greeting.
I love when he goes, “The franchise? That’s arrogant.” Then follows it up with, “Hey, this is the Freaky Franchise…”
SI.com’s Jon Heyman reports that Reds’ starter Edinson Volquez has been suspended 50 games after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
It is believed Volquez failed the test during spring training. Major League Baseball confirmed the suspension in a press release and said the suspension will take effect April 21.
Volquez was an NL All-Star in 2008, his first year with Cincinnati, and was off to a 4-2 start with a 4.35 ERA for the Reds in 2009 before being shut down with elbow problems. He didn’t pitch after June 1 and underwent Tommy John surgery last August. He is still rehabbing and has not pitched yet this season.
Volquez was placed on the 60-day disabled list on February 22 and apparently he can start serving his suspension while he’s on the DL, which is crap in my opinion. If he broke a rule, he shouldn’t be allowed to start crossing suspended games off his punishment checklist when he wasn’t even going to be playing in them anyway. The suspension should start the moment he’s activated from the DL.
But I digress. I’m speculating here, but chances are Volquez took the PEDs in order to speed up the recovery time after undergoing Tommy John surgery. It’s incredibly disappointing that players still believe that they can get away with taking performance enhancers, but at least MLB caught and punished him for it.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Before the first know-it-all reminds me, I’m fully aware that the 2010 MLB season is only 13 games old. We’re not even a quarter of the way through the season and considering teams go on winning and losing streaks all the time, it’s hardly time to hit the panic button.
That said, what the hell was that, Red Sox?
The Rays are a damn fine baseball club, one that will compete for the AL Wild Card throughout the year as long as their pitching stays consistent. I’m completely fine with residing to the fact that the Rays are just better than the Red Sox, but even as good as Tampa is, its not that good to walk into Fenway and make Boston look like the Orioles. In their four-game sweep, the Rays outscored Boston 24-9 even though they faced Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey. That’s unprecedented.
The Red Sox are now 4-9 to start he season, which is their worst record after 13 games in 15 years. Given how good their pitching is and how much veteran talent they have on their roster, the Sox aren’t going to be this bad all season. In fact, they could easily put together a nice run over the next couple weeks, get back to .500 and put this slow start behind them.
The Rockies have always felt that Ubaldo Jimenez was special. On Saturday night, he proved them right by taking his place in the club’s 18-year history.
Jimenez recorded the first no-hitter in Rockies’ history in a 4-0 victory over the Braves. He allowed no runs on no hits while striking out seven batters over a masterful 128-pitch effort. He did walk six batters, but something as trivial as that can easily be overlooked on such an amazing night. The 26-year-old flamethrower was so on that he even hit 98-mph on the radar gun in the ninth inning.
Perhaps what’s most impressive about Jimenez’s no-no is what team he accomplished the feat against. The Braves don’t have the Phillies’ lineup, but they’re not the Astros either. Jimmenez had to face Nate McLouth, Martin Prado, Chipper Jones and Brian McCann four times each, not too mention top prospect Jason Heyward three times. Entering Saturday’s game, McCann, Heyward and Prado were all hitting over .300, while Prado was even hitting over .440. Jimenez faced a couple of hot hitters and still managed to pitch nine hitless-innings.
All and all, it was a special night for a young man that will now be etched in Rockies history forever.
In a recent piece for FoxSports.com, Ken Rosenthal points out that the baseball world seems to have accepted Mark McGwire.
McGwire did not move to change the conversation, yet the noise did subside. He was not a distraction to the team in spring training. He is not a distraction now.
All this amounts to a positive step in the evolution of how fans, media and people within the game view players who used performance-enhancing drugs.
Other past users should draw inspiration from Big Mac, recognizing that they can admit the truth, emerge with a clean conscience and move forward.
No matter what you think of McGwire, he deserves the chance to be hitting coach of the Cardinals, who host the Mets this weekend on MLB on FOX (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET).
It bothers me that he used PEDs. It bothers me that he refuses to admit they helped him as a hitter. It bothers me that he has failed to fulfill his pledge to become a national spokesman against steroids, a pledge that he made to Congress in 2005.
But exactly how long should any of us harbor resentment toward McGwire and other past users?
People change. Perceptions change, too. Forget the Hall for a moment. If McGwire can regain at least a measure of dignity, then why not Sammy Sosa? Why not Roger Clemens? Why not Barry Bonds?
While I agree with Rosenthal, I think he should acknowledge that our interest in McGwire has also weakened because more important things are happening in the sport. I mean, what’s really left to say about Big Mac? I know there are many out there that loathe the idea of a baseball cheat being allowed back in the game, but they’ve even exhausted themselves talking about it. MLB follows 30 teams and hundreds of players over the course of seven months. Simply put, nobody wants to read about a hitting coach for too long. Rosenthal is correct in that our resentment for McGwire may be waning, but it’s not because of McGwire’s recent sound decisions. It’s because the story is boring. We all made up our minds a long time ago about how we viewed McGwire — his steroid admission just hardened those opinions.
It’s also tough to despise a guy that didn’t directly harm anybody but himself. Sure, he sullied the game of baseball, but he had many accomplices. I tend to group all these steroid guys in a giant cluster of disappointment. I don’t have a unique hatred for each and every one of them anymore. McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens — they’ve all exiled themselves from the hearts of the baseball-adoring public. If one of them comes back, like McGwire has, the story will lose steam quickly.
McGwire doesn’t have our forgiveness. We may empathize with him, but hitting statistics never go away. Instead, he’s become a sports figure we’ll simply deal with because we’re tired of mentioning him.
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