I would like to thank Albert Pujols for leaving his hitting mojo behind for the Cardinals to use when he left for Los Angeles.
I kind of doubt they can keep up this pace either, but I know of no specific reason why they can’t, beyond reversion to the mean and Murphy’s Law.
MLB is apparently seeking to introduce a rule change whereby a pitcher who fakes a toss to third base and then whirls and throws (or pretends to throw) to first base will be called for a balk.
I’m willing to be convinced otherwise, but at first glance, this strikes me as being potentially the most useless rule alteration in quite some time.
Aiming to speed up the game, I assume?
The Yankees announcers just said that Derek Jeter is the first Yankee to ever get 50 hits in the team’s first 30 games; and the oldest MLBer ever to do it.
Josh Beckett, in the throws of Golfgate ™, has just been knocked out of the game against the Indians after giving up 7 runs in 2.1 innings. According to Indians’ announcer Tom Hamilton, Beckett received “standing boos” on his way out of the game from the Boston crowd.
Maybe Bobby V can lend him his fake-nose-and-glasses disguise for the walk to the parking lot later.
NESN is reporting that Beckett was spotted in the Red Sox clubhouse sobbing into a bucket of chicken.
More home runs in Baltimore today.
Josh Hamilton hit another in the second game of the double-header, giving him 6 for the series.
In the first game, the Orioles became the first team in AL history to open the first inning with 3 home runs. Rangers starter Colby Lewis game up the three homers in 8 pitches. That’s a pretty painful way for a pitcher to start a game.
So now Boston’s Josh Beckett went golfing the day after he missed a start with an injury, and this didn’t go over real well with the fans (funny how that works), but then he bit back (“it’s my business what I do on my day off”), which was tone-deaf at best, and then to make things even weirder he was defended by his manager and his good chicken-wing-eating-and-beer-drinking-buddy Clay Buchholz, who basically told the fans to quit overreacting and cut the guy a little slack.
I don’t really follow the Red Sox, though of course that’s a relative statement as they are always in the news whether they’re playing well or not, but this seems like about the eighth big controversy of the season over there. What on earth is going on over there? Anyone know? This one in particular seems open and shut–the guy made a bad decision, someone in authority should let him know he screwed up, end of story–but maybe I’m missing something… Talk about distraction, anyway.
It always struck me as bizarre that there was a rule against faking out the baserunner but that the fake-to-third-throw-to-first thing was totally legal. Not a big deal either way.
Who knows what, if anything, it’ll do to outcomes (although I think I remember a Nats pitcher balking in the winning run due to a botched attempt a few years ago – Hanrahan maybe?). But it is so boring, I can’t say I’ll miss it.
–Cliffy
It’d make virtually no differenence in speed up the game, but every time it happens, everybody rolls their eyes and says “not this again, it never works!” So it won’t save much time, but people won’t have that sense their time is being egregiously wasted by this move.
Vladimir Guerrero has signed a minor league deal with no guarantees with the Blue Jays. I used to think he was a sure-fire HOFer. He obviously never roided up and suffered the marks of aging. He could end up his career back in Canada, where it all began.
I think he’ll be in the Hall of Fame for sure. Might take a few ballots depending on who else is on his first ballot, but he’d be an unusual omission.
I’ve seen it work twice, and both times it was Dave Stieb.
I don’t particularly care if they get rid of it or not but I admit that changing it would make the rules consistent. The balk rule allowing this type of motion but disallowing a hundred other arbitrary things is nonsensical.
I think what you have here is a case of things snowballing. Had this happened in 2009, the story wouldn’t have amounted to much. But it’s coming after two baseball months of unrelenting on and off-field horror for the Red Sox; an epic September choke job, and removal of the GM and manager, and then a 30-game start featuring the league’s best offense being totally negated by some of the worst pitching Boston fans have ever seen coughing up games of the most painful nature. When the shit is rolling downhill every story gets blown up worse.
You’re correct of course, barring some off field incident he is a Hall of Famer. He has the numbers to make it, he was a top player for an extended period of time, even his black and gray numbers on BB-Ref indicate a shoe-in.
Considering that he’s having an even worse season than Beckett, he should know to shut up, too.
Just think of the psychologist in the locker room in The Natural repeating “Losing is a disease”. 
Letting him know he screwed up won’t have any effect on him, unfortunately. He’s on a guaranteed contract through 2014.
Tony Massarotti gets a bit shrill nowadays, mainly to drum up caller interest in his radio talk show, buthis comparison of Beckett’s recent behavior to the end of Clemens’ career here seems apt.
Maybe not.
Josh Hamilton is unstoppable at the moment. He hit another two homers against the Angels yesterday, making him 11-21 with 8 HR over his last 5 games.