fat EMO kid baseball blog

What is going on this year?  Another big name player has suddenly come down with a case of the “I’m sad about stuff”’s.  Justin Duscherer of the A’s, due back soon from arm surgery, is going to miss the rest of the season because of clinical depression.  Until this year, I had never heard of this in professional sports, and even if it was around, would never be admitted.  Are baseball players getting in touch with their feelings?  Are they getting soft?  Is coming down from steroid cycles throwing their hormones into overdrive?  Who knows.  Duscherer could have found himself on a contender, but instead will spend the rest of the season laying on a couch and popping pills.  Seriously though, hope he recovers quickly, it’s all fun and games until something serious happens. 

In other news, the Yankees pounded the Red Sox tonight, 20-11, in what had to be one of the worst-played games this season.  More interesting news was made off the field, as the Red Sox have supposedly claimed Billy Wagner from the Mets.  This of course, means the Yankees wont get him, which would have been a great fit.  Hopefully the Mets do the right thing and don’t let him go to Boston, but it was good to see him back on the mound, throwing 95, on Thursday night. 

Also, if you saw the game on YES tonight, or maybe even read the news, you’d heard a story about Jim Rice bad-mouthing Derek Jeter.  Rice lumped Jeter in with A-Rod and Manny, as guys who only care about money.  There are so many things wrong with that, but I wont get into it all right now.  I am as big a Jeter supporter as you will find, but it surpised me that the Yankee announcers were so outraged by this.  Did they miss this?

Here we ago again.  Just about two weeks after the Yankees swept Boston in the Bronx, the New York will travel to Beantown this weekend for a three-game rematch with the Sox in Fenway.   Things figure to be a little different this time around, with the Red Sox looking to show that the race in the American League East is not over. 

The Yankees have had their struggles recently in Boston, losing every game this year there, including a ninth-inning game-tying homer by Jason Bay off of Mariano Rivera, and a game-winning HR by Kevin Youkilis – and that was in the Yankees best performance at Fenway this season.  The Yankees, lately, have played scared when they play at Fenway, generally appearing to play not to lose, and getting out of their game plan. 

The pitching matchups generally favor the Yanks, with Andy Pettitte up against struggling Brad Penny on Friday, and A.J. Burnett opposing rookie Junici Tazawa on Saturday.  Tazawa, of course, was on the mound when A-Rod hit his 15th inning walk-off homer.   Hopefully the Yankees can take at least one of these, though the numbers suggest they should win both.  The best matchup of the series comes on yet another Sunday night game between these two, when C.C. Sabathia goes up against Josh Beckett, in what is a matchup of potential CY Young candidates.  The Yankees have struggled against Beckett, especially in Boston, while Sabathia’s number are good, far from dominating, but he is currently pitching his best baseball of the season.  This should be a great matchup, that could very well determine who wins the series. 

This 3-game set is bigger for the Red Sox than the Yankees, who, even if they are swept, will still have a four game lead in the AL East, but either way, it will go a long way in determining how the last month of the season will go. 

My prediction, unfortunately, is that the Red Sox will take 2 out of 3, and David Ortiz will continue his hot hitting of late and have a few big at bats in the series.  As much as the world is sick of Red Sox/Yankees, the rest of the season would just be too boring if we all had to follow was a race between Boston and the Texas Rangers.

The Nationals have finally done the right thing and named Mike Rizzo to be their full-time GM after operating on an interim basis since before the season began.   Rizzo has been able to do what Jim Bowden failed to do, make meaningful moves that have brought Washington close to respectability.  Rizzo has reconstucted a sorry pitching staff, and now features a decent young rotation led by John Lannan, Craig Stammen and Colin Balester.  Add to that the signing of Steven Strausburg, and there’s finally some hope for the future.  The only downside is the loss of promising right-hander Jordan Zimmerman to Tommy John Surgery. 

Rizzo has also remade the bullpen, which couldn’t close a door, let alone a game, to start the season.  Re-tread veterans like Mike MacDougal, Ron Villone, and Jorge Sosa has brought some measure of consistency to the ‘pen. 

Rizzo’s biggest move was the trade with Pittsburgh that landed Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett for banished outfielder Lastings Milledge and struggling closer Joel Hanrahan.  It may be a one-year wonder, but Morgan is tearing up the National League, and Burnett has given Washington a nice situational lefty. 

They may only be 43-77 and destined for another last-place finish, but there is finally some reason for optimization in the Nation’s Capitol, and Rizzo seems to be the right man for the job.

Pedro Martinez is back in the big leagues, starting tonight against the Cubs.  He was given a gift, matched up against rookie Jeff Samazijdoifdzia who should be catching passes in the NFL.  Pedro still looks like a shell of his former self, but has been able to hit 92 on the radar gun a few teams, and still has the ability to get a call on anything within a foot of the plate.  I don’t think he will be a difference-maker for the Phillies, but he can’t be any worse than Jamie Moyer, who is taking his demotion like an 8 year old girl, has been.  It’s low risk, high reward for the Phils, but isn’t that what Boston said about John Smoltz?

EDIT:  despite what Rick Sutcliffe (the biggest drama-queen in the history of annoucing)  would have you believe, Pedro’s stuff was good for about two innings.  He’s completely done now and it’s only the fifth, if it wasn’t 12-3, he’d be gone by now.

A Cubs fan just threw a cup of beer on Shane Victorino, what is this, fenway?

Amazing how the Yankees can look so good and then so bad. Sabathia has been good, but shouldn’t he be better than this? Throwing balls away, swisher doing tricks out in RF, making a watered-down Scott Kazmir look like CY Young…get this out of your system now before the playoffs, because when you lose, you lose ugly. The Rays have some incentive now to add Cliff Lee. The AL East Race is far from over….

-Bitter Yankee fan who is convinced the world will end tomorrow