Category: MLB (Page 410 of 448)

The Boston Globe is reporting that the Red Sox won the right to negotiate a contract with Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Boston’s winning bid of $51 million trumped its most hated rivals, the New York Yankees.

“If they can sign him, they’ve got the best pitcher in the market, and he may be the best pitcher in baseball when all is said and done,” said one American League general manager last night. “He’s got five outstanding pitches.

“Coming over from Japan where he threw a lot of innings and had 18 complete games [including playoffs], I would think this would seem like a vacation to him. It’s a lot of money, but if you have it, why not use it on a kid like this? The Yankees have to be sick about this.”

Why would the Yankees be sick? Because they might miss out on the next Hideki Irabu, Chan Ho Park or Hideo Nomo? One of Matsuzaka’s five pitches is called a gyro-ball. Apparently, this gyro-ball is supposed to “disappear” at some point on the way to plate. Riiiiiiight. Trust me, major league hitters will eventually figure this guy out, just like they figured out Nomo’s awkward pitching motion and whatever Park brought to the table when he first came to America. Matsuzaka may fool hitters for half a season or maybe even an entire year, but it won’t last.

Instead of trying to outbid the Red Sox, why don’t the Yankees actually take the time to find the next Francisco Liriano, Dontrelle Willis or even Carlos Zambrano in their farm system?

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the New York Yankees traded OF Gary Sheffield to the Detroit Tigers for three minor league pitching prospects.

The deal comes on the heals of Sheffield’s comments last week that he wanted the Yankees to trade him and that Bobby Abreu (who replaced Sheffield in the outfield after he was acquired at the All-Star break from Philadelphia) wasn’t a better player than him. The three prospects that the Tigers traded to New York were Humberto Sanchez, Kevin Whelan and Anthony Claggett.

This is a good move for both ball clubs. For the Yankees, they get rid of a potential bad situation next year with having to possibly move Sheffield to first base permanently (where he wasn’t that good defensively), as well as ridding themselves of an overall headache. Detroit is chalked full of young pitchers already on its major league roster, so the Tigers aren’t depleting their farm system by shipping off the three prospects.

The only real concern now for the Tigers is Sheffield’s health. He only played in 39 games last year for the Yankees and is already 38 years old. Detroit also extended his contract for another two years, making him a Tiger through 2009. However, Sheffield adds a lot of pop to an already solid lineup and this kind of move signals that the Tigers aren’t going to be complacent coming off of their World Series appearance. Plus, Sheffield reunites with manager Jim Leyland, who he won a title under while in Florida.

The aftermath of the 2006 World Series is not even a week old and the Minnesota Twins have already lost a key member of its pitching rotation. After only being able to pitch six innings throughout the final two months of the season, it was determined that Francisco Liriano needed Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.

Promoted to the rotation in mid-May, Liriano dominated the league with a wicked slider that he often threw well over 90 mph and went 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 121 innings as a rookie. It’s possible the strain put on his arm by throwing that pitch so hard was part of this problem with his ulnar collateral ligament, which first popped up in late July and was diagnosed then as a mild strain.

Obviously this is a huge blow for the Twins after such a dominating rookie campaign by Liriano. The best thing that Minnesota can do for both its future and Liriano’s career is to let him fully recover. As similar to the cases of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior of the Chicago Cubs, when young pitchers experience injuries so early in their careers, it’s important for those athletes that the club doesn’t rush them back.

Hopefully the Twins are smart enough to allow Liriano to regain his full health.

Barry Bonds’ agent, Jeff Borris, has told the Mercury News.com that several ball clubs in both the American and National League have expressed interest in the seven-time All-Star. If this is true – is Bonds worth the trouble?

In my opinion, yes…and no.

I don’t see how any team in the NL would want to take this guy on for even one season. His play in left field has become laughable and he can’t play a day game that follows a night contest. So, not only do you have to take on a hefty salary for one year (probably in the range of $15 million per season), his awful attitude, his four reclining chairs that piss off teammates and not to mention his overall distaste for life. But you also have to have a decent backup for when he can’t play.

On the flip side – the guy would be great for an AL club. Bonds can still hit for power and he would be relegated to DH, so his body would save on the ware and tear from not playing in the field. Then again, the team would still have to deal with a hefty salary for one year, his awful attitude, his four reclining chairs that piss off teammates and not to mention his overall distaste for life.

Most likely scenario? Bonds ends up back in San Francisco. The Giants are in flux and seem destined for the bottom of the NL West with so many holes to fill. So, with the All-Star game being in San Fran this year and Bonds still chasing the home run record, the Giants can use Bonds as their cash cow for one more season.

I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do – just the most likely.

Well, at least I got the “______ in 5” part right. The guy holding the sign in the new Busch Stadium wasn’t kidding when he said, “Hit it to the pitcher.” Ye gods. Kenny Rogers was surely hitting cameramen off-camera after what he saw on the field tonight.

The game had two goats in place, depending on how it turned out. If the Cardinals lose, then your goat is Chris Duncan, who booted a routine fly out to right field when Jim Edmonds invaded his space and freaked him out, causing Duncan to take his eye off the ball. One pitch later, Sean Casey deposits a ball into the right field seats and gives Detroit a 2-1 lead. Later, Duncan misplays a ball at the wall – also hit by Casey, his second double of the night – but that does not come back to haunt the Cardinals in any way.

The goat for the Tigers, on the other hand, is undoubtedly Brandon Inge, despite his lofty batting average during the Series. He made the throwing error to first that allowed the first run to score. Then, after hitting a double, he was caught in a rundown between second and third after running on contact to a ball up the middle, which Jeff Weaver picked off and hurled to third to begin the rundown.

And then there was the worst play of the game, which will make sci-fi geeks the world over wonder if the Matrix really does exist (well, the sci-fi geeks that watch sports, anyway). With runners on first and second, Justin Verlander, who was toooooooooootally overexcited for this game, fielded a come-backer from Jeff Weaver, the freaking pitcher, and threw to Inge to get the force at third. Only problem was, he threw about three feet to the left of the bag, just like Joel Zumaya did in Game 3. If you combine the two official errors, and the unofficial baserunning error, Inge was involved in all three plays.

I did say at the beginning of the playoffs that the Tigers were a year early, that they weren’t ready to compete yet. Still, I have to think that the Yankees would have put up a better fight than this in the World Series. Maybe there is something to be said for the LDS being seven games instead of five. Until that day, congrats to the Cardinals, and World Series MVP David Eckstein (!), for proving us experts horribly, horribly wrong. Only five more months before the Cubs begin breaking my heart once again.