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News of the Day – 8/27/09

Today’s news is powered by . . . a baseball-themed Tex Avery cartoon:

The chances of Jake Peavy making his first start for the White Sox on Saturday are remote, team sources said on Wednesday.

Pitching coach Don Cooper said that Peavy was unable to throw his side session on Wednesday due to lingering effects of being hit by a line drive in his last rehab start on Monday. The right-handers is still getting treatment on on his pitching arm, which had some swelling and soreness.

“This is the best year that I ever had,” Cano said. “Everything came together — hitting, average, doubles, singles. I never had 13 home runs in the first half. I looked at my numbers and said, ‘Wow.'”

. . . “It feels great,” Cano said. “I’m one of the youngest on the team and I’m learning from the guys. These are guys that work hard every single day and they can really play the game. I’m glad that I’m here, because when you’ve got those kinds of guys, all you can do is learn.”

Batting .315 with 65 RBIs entering play on Wednesday as he rebounds from a down and frustrating 2008, Cano believes that the biggest difference for his season was having Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long travel to the Dominican Republic for a week in November.

  • On this date in 1938, Joe DiMaggio has three triples in the first game of a doubleheader with Cleveland, an 8-7 win in New York. Monte Pearson has a no-hitter in the 2nd game, winning his 10th straight game, 13-0. The Yankees will have played their fifth doubleheader in five days.
  • On this date in 1977, at Yankee Stadium, Rangers Bump Wills and Toby Harrah hit back-to-back inside-the-park on consecutive pitches. Texas wins the game, 8-2.

[My take: I was at this game, and I have it tied for the weirdest thing I’ve seen at a game.  Its tied with a minor league game I saw in which a team won on two consecutive HBPs with the bases loaded.]

Categories:  Diane Firstman  News of the Day

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23 comments

1 Alex Belth   ~  Aug 27, 2009 9:23 am

Tex Avery! Diane, you RULE.

2 Sliced Bread   ~  Aug 27, 2009 9:43 am

seriously, thoseTex Avery gags have aged well. Lotta chuckles in those 6 minutes.

3 RIYank   ~  Aug 27, 2009 9:44 am

Brad Penny asks for his release, and the Red Sox will oblige him. $5 million well spent.

4 Mattpat11   ~  Aug 27, 2009 9:45 am

I shall be at the game today.

[3] Oh Christ

5 Rich   ~  Aug 27, 2009 9:52 am

Two things of note about Cano's season. First, his LD% is 20.1%, which justifies his .317 BABIP. Second, according to Fangraphs, his dollar value based on his WAR is $13.5 million which easily surpasses his $6 million salary.

6 RagingTartabull   ~  Aug 27, 2009 9:53 am

oh to be a fly on the wall of the dugout near Billy Martin during that '77 game...

7 Diane Firstman   ~  Aug 27, 2009 10:23 am

[3]

"Penny saved, 3,076,385 GBP foolish" ???
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html

8 Mattpat11   ~  Aug 27, 2009 10:31 am

Anybody listen to The Baseball Project? I saw something in SI this week and downloaded their album, and its about 10 million times better than I thought it would be.

9 Raf   ~  Aug 27, 2009 10:36 am

[3] FWIW, he outperformed his salary; Fangraphs has him valued @ $9.4M

[4] He's still a better option than say, Mitre

[7] nice!

Penny would probably be served better by going to the NL. Not that he was any great shakes, but he's performing right around his career rates, WRT velocity & grounders. He is allowing more fly balls this year, for whatever reason.

10 Mattpat11   ~  Aug 27, 2009 10:50 am

Everytime the Yankees look at or sign one of these bad scrap heapers, the reasoning is that "[Y] has to be a better option than [X, who is currently stinking it up]!"

Then we sit and watch Y pitch terribly FOR-EVER.

11 Raf   ~  Aug 27, 2009 10:58 am

Regardless, Penny at his best is better than Mitre at his worst.

Just like Pavano and Wright at their best were no better than Pedro at his worst during 2004.

The point behind picking up a scrap heap pitcher is for them to at minimum provide replacement level performance. If they don't work out, let them go and replace them with someone else. Just like middle infielders and backup catchers, they're cheap, plentiful and cost very little.

12 RIYank   ~  Aug 27, 2009 10:59 am

[9] Huh. I don't get that Fangraphs $ value.
Penny is much, much worse than, say, Ross Ohlendorf, in practically every statistical category, and Ross's value is $2.2M. How can Penny's be $9.4M? The difference between the NL and the AL can't be that much. Again, Penny is worse than Jeremy Guthrie at, well, every aspect of pitching.

Does anyone understand how Fangraphs comes up with their $ value? (They have an explanation somewhere, I know, but it seems like too much work.

13 Sliced Bread   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:07 am

see a Penny, pick it up
all day long you'll have... meh.. to yuck.

14 Sliced Bread   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:10 am

[13] with all due respect to Penny, he's better than meh to yuck.. but nothing else rhymes... so tough shit

15 ms october   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:21 am

[11] i would think me at my best is better than mitre at his worst :}

so who is next on the yankee dfa tour of rsn?

16 Bama Yankee   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:25 am

[13] all day long you'll have...
bad luck
chuck & duck
to listen to John Kruk
to end up DFAing the schmuck
to admit that he is teh suck
need a bigger score truck

17 Sliced Bread   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:28 am

[16] nice.. and bonus points for the Kruk and score truck!

18 Bama Yankee   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:32 am

[17] what if Kruk is driving the score truck? ;-)

19 ms october   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:34 am

[16] nice bama

and if kruk is driving the score truck - either that bad boy has a flat tire or his fat ass is headed straight for waffle house

20 Bama Yankee   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:41 am

[19] LOL. Mmmmm, waffles...

21 Raf   ~  Aug 27, 2009 11:53 am

[12] Part of it is the differences between the leagues, as well as park factors.

22 Shaun P.   ~  Aug 27, 2009 12:05 pm

This report of Jeter being engaged can't be true - can it?

[20] And on that note, I believe lunch is in order!

23 glennrwordman   ~  Aug 27, 2009 12:06 pm

[8] It's really very, very good. The pedigree of the players suggested it might be, but the history of "baseball" related music is pretty grim. Recommended. (Hell, just for "Ted F**king Williams" alone...which lets you know this is not yer' grandpa's baseball music...)

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
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