Category: MLB (Page 330 of 448)

      MLB looking into Manny Ramirez’s strange departure

      August 8, 2008 /

      Red Sox fans want to know if Manny Ramirez’s final days in Boston were on the up and up. Apparently MLB wants to know the same thing and is looking into how things unfolded around last week’s trade deadline.

      Here’s why Selig’s office is looking into the matter:

      The Red Sox had an option to retain Ramírez in 2009 for $20 million. They had the same option for 2010. Ramírez, who will turn 37 next season, wanted to be a free agent at the end of this season. His agent wanted the same thing. Boras inherited Ramírez’s old contract and stood to earn nothing until Manny signed a new one. It was in the interest of the player and the agent to have the options dropped.

      Manny’s only leverage was withholding services and playing at half speed. So that’s what he did.

      How do you prove that Manny was playing half-assed? Unless they find documentation that Boras ordered Ramirez to only go half speed so that he would be traded (and thus become a free agent at the end of the year), it’s going to be hard for the league to draw any conclusions from this situation.

      It is nice, however, that the league cares enough to look into a dirty situation, because Stevie Wonder could see Manny was dogging it. Who knows, maybe the league will find some damning evidence and nail Boras and/or Ramirez.

      MLB

      Former Yankees prospect Karstens nearly throws perfect game

      August 7, 2008 /

      When the New York Yankees traded a handful of prospects to the Pittsburgh Pirates for outfielder Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte, many figured the Bucs got fleeced like every other team that deals with the Bombers.

      But maybe not. One of the prospects the Yankees gave up in the trade was right handed starter Jeff Karstens – a player NY was willing to part ways with due to his recent struggles with a groin injury.

      On Wednesday, Karstens made his Pirates’ debut and took a perfect game into the eighth inning before Diamondbacks’ outfielder Chris Young hit a double down the left field line. Karstens wound up completing the game (a 2-0 Pirates win), yielding no runs on just two hits and striking out four.

      Kind of ironic how Joba Chamberlain goes on the DL the same day a former Yankee prospect almost pitches a perfect game for another club. What NY needs most right now is pitching and how fitting is it that they gave up a starter to acquire yet another bat. (I’m not a Yankee-hater, I just find the irony in the situation.)

      Media outlets like ESPN jumped all over the Nady trade because they thought the Pirates made a horrible deal (and maybe they did). But let’s wait to see how these prospects perform before we just assume the Yankees fleeced another team at the trade deadline.

      Fantasy Baseball, MLB

      Joba Chamberlain heading to the DL

      August 6, 2008 /

      According to the New York Post, Yankees’ starter Joba Chamberlain will be placed on the DL.

      The Yankees put the right-hander on the 15-day DL with an injured shoulder before tonight’s game against Texas while awaiting word on a diagnosis from Dr. James Andrews.

      The Yankees recalled pitcher Chris Britton from Triple-A, despite the fact he was sent down less than 10 days ago.

      A player cannot be recalled after a demotion before 10 days have passed, unless his team needs him to replace an injured player.

      Chamberlain is in Pensacola, Fla., today having his right shoulder examined by Dr. James Andrews, is bound for the DL.

      A diagnosis from Andrews likely would determine how much time the 22-year-old would miss, and if surgery is required.

      That thud you just heard was the Yankees’ playoff hopes.

      Fantasy Baseball, General Sports, MLB

      Ozzie Guillen admits to ordering hits

      August 5, 2008 /

      Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen admitted what many already assumed: He’s purposely ordered his pitchers to plunk batters in retaliation to other teams throwing at his players.

      “I’ve hit people before on purpose,” said Guillen, the Chicago White Sox manager, after a game Sunday in which umpires levied a suspect ejection in the fifth inning of a blowout when Chicago reliever D.J. Carrasco hit Kansas City’s Miguel Olivo with the bases loaded and incited a bench-emptying square dance.

      “Yes I have,” Guillen continued. “Because that’s my job. Protect my players.”

      Managers know better than to admit publicly one of baseball’s most unsavory truths, that a select number of hit-by-pitches registered each year come laced with intent. The purpose pitch – or the purpose hit, in these instances – is simply a part of baseball, and whether it’s to keep a batter from getting too comfortable or avenge some kind of perceived misdeed, it will never go away, no matter how much Major League Baseball tries to police its game.

      This is completely stating the obvious, but Ozzie doesn’t have that chip in his brain that tells him to think before he speaks. The information just goes from brain to mouth without hesitation and it gets him into trouble. Still, you gotta love when he speaks his mind because he is exactly who he is – nothing more, nothing less.

      That said, managers shouldn’t ordering hits on other teams’ players – even if they think they’re protecting their players in the process. What happens when someone catches a pitch in the face and a career is lost because a manager wanted to send a message?

      MLB

      David Ortiz, Joba Chamberlain potentially injured

      August 5, 2008 /

      The race in the AL East is the most exciting in baseball but the division has the potential to lose two star players.

      Red Sox DH David Ortiz said he felt a “click” in his surgically repaired wrist during Boston’s 4-3 loss to the Royals Monday night. And Yankees’ starter Joba Chamberlain is scheduled to have an MRI on his throwing shoulder after leaving Monday’s game with soreness.

      “My last at-bat, it kind of pulled back a little bit,” Ortiz said of his wrist. “You feel that click and you get a little concerned about it.”

      While Ortiz did not know whether the problem would affect his status for tonight’s game, he knew he might experience some instability in his wrist after tearing a tendon sheath earlier in the season. Ortiz effectively missed two months while resting and rehabilitating the injury, and team medical personnel cautioned him he might feel movement in the joint from time to time.

      With Manny Ramirez recently traded to the Dodgers, the last thing the BoSox need is Ortiz to feel any sort of discomfort in his wrist. But it was bound to happen given he just had surgery.

      And the Yankees can’t afford Chamberlain going down for any amount of time with the club sitting 5.5 games out of first. This could sink their postseason hopes. (Red Sox fans everywhere smile in unison.)

      MLB

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