Davidson is a joke and has been a joke for almost his entire career. He’s a cheat, a jackass, and a shitty ump. He’s obsessed with making himself the center of the game. Darren Daulton put it best; “you go into his house, and there’s lots of pictures of himself and none of his family.”
But that said he’s getting worse, in part because he’s. I find it curious that MLB allows really old, decrepit umpires to continue working. Davidson is 60, and there’s just no way you can tell me a 60-year-old has the eyesight, hustle, and judgment he had when he was 40. It’s ridiculous that they allow senior citizens to ump Major League Baseball games; they should be forced to retire at 55, at the latest.
In the case of Davidson they blew their chance when he “resigned” and they let him come back. The day he resigned was a gift to baseball fans, and his return was a knife in the back.
This has been done to death, but how in the world does MLB think it’s a good idea to blackout a game between the Cincinnati Reds and the New York Yankees on MLB.TV in Charlotte, NC? It’s not on any local broadcast. No one is driving up to the game. All they are doing is preventing an audience from seeing their product. Stupid motherfuckers.
The Blue Jays have put Adam Lind on irrevocable waivers, quite a fall from grace from a guy who was an All-Star three years ago.
It’s a shame because he’s a nice guy, but he’s now in a 325-game slump. It’s time to accept that that is… well, not a slump. He really can’t hit, and 2009 was a fluke.
Lind is owed about $10 million on his contract (at a minimum) and I can’t see who would wnt him, though there’s always the Angels.
Kershaw looked like a Cy Young winner again tonight. Six-hit complete-game shutout of the Cardinals. Dodgers win the game (6-0) and the series, and look for a sweep on ESPN tomorrow night.
If the Red Sox beat the Orioles tomorrow, every team in the AL East will be .500 or better.
On the subject of the Orioles, they have been playing well but also getting pretty lucky lately. They are a full 5 games over their Expected Win-Loss. They are 6-2 in extra-inning games, and 8-3 in 1-run games. That can’t last forever.
For those who may not be paying attention–and there is no reason why anybody outside of Chicago should–the Cubs are really awful this year. Their record at the moment is 15-26, and it is liable to get worse when they start dumping veterans.
However, they did have a brief moment of glory on Friday afternoon, even while getting swept by the crosstown White Sox (yay!). Kerry Wood had been oscillating between injury and ineffectiveness all year, and decided to retire. But he wanted to go out on a high note, so he asked to pitch one more game and face at least one more batter, whom of course he wanted to strike out.
And he did. He threw three nasty pitches to White Sox OF Dayan Viciedo, and struck him out on a hard breaking ball in the dirt. If he could pitch like that all the time, he wouldn’t be retiring. But of course he can’t, without hurting his arm. He walked off the field and embraced his young son, to a standing ovation and hugs all around.
End of story, right? A rare feel-good moment in a miserable season?
No, of course not. It’s the Cubs.
Catcher Welington Castillo strained his MCL in lunging to block the breaking ball in the dirt–the one on which Wood got his strikeout–and is headed to the Disabled List.
Making matters worse, the Cubs had already burned through two catchers this year, with injuries to Geovany Soto and Steve Clevenger. Their catchers are now Koyie Hill, who was hitting below .200 for the Reds’ AA team, and Blake Lalli, a career minor leaguer who had been hitting below .200 in AAA.
That was just incredible. Nothing like having your first major league home run be the game winner to clinch a sweep, eh? Of course, my wife mocked me mercilessly for wondering aloud (before the pitch) why you’d give a rookie the green light on a 3-0 pitch in that situation. I suppose that’s why Mattingly was getting paid to be in the dugout and I was on my couch in front of the TV.
Mattingly frustrates the heck out of me sometimes, but almost as frequently he makes unconventional choices that pay off well. Bringing in SVS at all was unusual, giving him the green light to hit was brilliant. It totally made up for the stupid hit and run with Loney and AJ Ellis earlier.
Oh, and I hope everyone is voting for Ellis to go to the All Star Game. He is going to need the help because he isn’t sexy, but his OBP and WAR say he deserves it.
And, I could be wrong, but I believe Baltimore’s 6 extra-inning wins have all come on the road. That certainly can not last. Boston is heating up so this will be an interesting series.
Back to Bob Davidson, I think he’s in the running with Country Joe West and CB Bucknor for worst MLB umpire.
Tigers’ Max Scherzer threw a peach of a game yesterday-- 15 Ks, 1BB (two earned runs, both HRs). And it was only the second-best pitching performance by a Tiger this weekend.
Now if the Kitties can just do this with some consistency.
I’ve never trusted him I love him, but have never trusted him. Every pitch is suspenseful, and has been since about 2009. He seems to fall to pieces easily. It’s clear to me that he’s not lost everything, but the little drop in speed is very disconcerting.
I am, however, glad that I grabbed Bumgarner, Vogie, Panda, and Melky in my fantasy draft. Long as Sandoval doesn’t have a third hand to break.
Lincecum is such a little guy with such a quirky motion, I’m not surprised things are starting to derail a little bit. Right now his fastball tops out at, what, 91? On top of that he’s had to lay off the slider somewhat this year to take the load off his arm. I think of a guy like Pedro Martinez, when he started losing his fastball he at least had awesome secondary stuff he could still rely on. Not sure Lincecum has that.
so close again. When he is on, Major leaguers look like whiffle ballers.