Monthly Archives: May 2010

How about a fried green tomato blt? Why the hell not?

Over at SI.com, Cliff kicks off a season-long column about who is in the lead for post-season hardware. Phil Hughes holds the top spot for the AL Cy Young award. Next, two studs from Tampa Bay:

2. David Price, LHP, Rays

Season Stats: 5-1, 2.03 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 7.2 K/9, 2.29 K/BB

Last Four Starts: 3-0, 1.24 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 6.8 K/9, 2.44 K/BB

This is how it was supposed to go for Joba Chamberlain. The first pick in the 2007 draft, Price arrived in the majors in late 2008 and dominated out of the bullpen as the Rays surged to their first pennant. He then opened 2009 in Triple-A to limit his innings and returned to the majors in late-May as a starter. After some growing pains in ’09, Price seems to have arrived as a dominant ace this year. However, the big difference between his 2009 and 2010 performances, like Hughes, has been some good fortune on balls in play and fly balls staying in the park, both of which could regress as the season progresses. Still, Price has Cy Young stuff and pitches for the team with the best record in baseball, so don’t be surprised if he sticks around on this list.

3. Matt Garza, RHP, Rays

Season Stats: 5-1, 2.38 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, 2.82 K/BB

Last Four Starts: 2-0, 2.60 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 7.5 K/9, 3.83 K/BB

One could make an argument for Rays starters James Shields and Jeff Niemann as well, which should give some explanation as to why the Rays have been the best team in baseball thus far. The top four men in their rotation are a combined 17-3 with a 2.44 ERA and 24 quality starts in 30 appearances. Shields has the best peripherals of that quartet, Niemann the second-lowest ERA after Price, but Garza has a better overall line than either of those two as well as share of the AL lead in wins, the category that seems to speak the loudest to awards voters.

Tough loss last night. Time to shrug it off, cause hey, it’s never to early to feel sexy.

This is the one of the great can’t-miss records of all-time. Hard not to move to this one. It’s a Lady-Killer.

Though it’s an everyday occurrence for beat writers who work on deadline, I rarely start writing my game recaps before I’ve seen the last out, and given that I typically watch the games on DVR-delay, that can lead to some pretty late nights. Tuesday night’s game, delayed for an hour by rain, slowed by the deliberate pace of the two starting pitchers, Josh Beckett and CC Sabathia, extended by a controversial moment when Beckett was removed ostensibly due to a back injury just after giving up a two-run double on his 101st pitch, prompting Joe Girardi to put the game under protest as the Red Sox didn’t have anyone warming in the bullpen and reliever Manny Delcarmen was allowed unlimited time to warm up on the game mound, and inflated by the usual rain-related business (pitchers cleaning their spikes, the grounds crew applying drying agents to the mound, etc.), took so damn long that I decided, with the Yankees leading 5-1 in the eighth, to start writing.

Bad idea.

The reason I usually don’t start writing before the last out is the same reason I never leave games before the last out. In baseball, until the final out is made, anything can happen.

As I began to type, Alex Rodriguez made a bad throw on a ground ball, pulling Mark Teixeira off first base and allowing Marco Scutaro to reach base to start the inning. From there, Joba Chamberlain, the first man out of the Yankee pen after CC Sabathia gutted out seven innings allowing just one run on a Kevin Youkilis solo homer, began to unravel.

Dustin Pedroia singled. J.D. Drew doubled Scutaro home. Kevin Youkilis singled home both Pedroia and Drew, and after a Victor Martinez groundout moved Youkilis to second, David Ortiz hit a would-be double off the wall in front of the Yankee bullpen to plate Youkilis and tie the game at 5-5.

I say “would-be double” because Ortiz, failing to account for the wind blowing in, didn’t run out of the box on what he thought was a home run, and was easily thrown out at second. It was that kind of game. The Yankees scored their first two runs in the second after Scutaro muffed a would-be double play ball, failing to get even one out. Rodriguez’s error started the Red Sox’s comeback.

The worst gaffe of the game, however, came in the top of the ninth with the score still knotted at 5-5 and Mariano Rivera on the hill. With one out and Darnell McDonald on first via a single, Scutaro popped up to shallow right. Robinson Cano went back and Marcus Thames came in. Thames call for the ball, which was clearly his to catch, but after Cano peeled off expecting Thames to make the catch, Thames dropped it, putting the tying run in scoring position with still just one man out. Rivera got Pedroia to ground out, but Jeremy Hermida, in the game for Drew who hurt himself running the bases during the Sox’s rally in the eighth, crushed a 2-2 pitch over Randy Winn’s head in left for a two-run double.

Having won the night before on a pair of two-run home runs off Jonathan Papelbon in the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees rallied against the Boston closer again. Again the inning started with an error, an Alex Rodriguez grounder that skipped under Scutaro’s glove. Robinson Cano, who hit the two-run double that drove Beckett from the game, followed with a double that scored Rodriguez, then was bunted to third by Francisco Cervelli to put the tying run on third with just one out.

That brought up Monday night’s hero and Tuesday night’s goat, Thames. Likely aware of Thames’ ability to lift a game-tying sac fly, never mind another game-winning two-run homer, Papelbon threw just one of his six pitches to Thames in the strike zone and Thames accepted the free pass. Ramiro Peña ran for Thames and took off on a 1-1 count to Juan Miranda, who earlier had driven in the first Yankee run of the day with a single and later added a solo homer. Miranda hit a hard grounder back up through the middle, but Papelbon made a nice stab to hold Cano at third and could have had a double play had Peña not been running. That passed the baton to Randy Winn with two outs, the Yankees down by one, and men on second and third. Winn battled Papelbon for eight pitches, three of which he fouled off on his way to working the count full, but ultimately Papelbon got the upper hand, blowing a fastball by Winn to seal the 7-6 win for Boston.

The whole affair took four hours and nine minutes, which is long enough for a nine-inning game, but with the hour rain delay, miserable weather, and sloppy play, it felt like six hours. Hell, it felt like eternity.

The rain she ain’t a-stoppin’. No telling if they are going to get this one in, but it don’t look likely…

I’m headed over to Two Boots in Grand Central to see Josh Wilker, Greg Prince and a Mess-o-Mets bloggers. Yee-haw.

[Photo Credit: No One Can Remeber the End]

Movin’ in the right direction…

Light in August, By Willem de Kooning (1947)

First thing that pops into my head about tonight’s game is: If Josh Beckett plunks someone will there be a fight? In a chat at Boston.com, our old chum, Pete Abraham thinks so. There hasn’t been a good brawl between the Yanks and Sox in a few years. I used to like fantasizing about them, but now, I’m not so keen on the idea. Jeez, the last thing the Yanks need is to get somebody else hurt.

How will the last portion of Derek Jeter’s career play itself out? That’s one of the burning questions we’ve been asking around these parts for a few years now. Joe Pos takes a look at Jeter’s chance to catch Pete Rose for the all-time hits record (slim to none), and checks out how poorly even the best middle infielders age:

– Cal Ripken had his last great offensive year at 30, and his last good offensive year as a part-time player at 38.

– Robin Yount moved from shortstop to center field, the move many people believe Jeter will eventually make. Even so, he was barely a league average hitter after 34, and he retired at 37.

– Craig Biggio played until he was 41 — but he posted a 95 OPS+ his last eight seasons.

– Rogers Hornsby was a part-time player after age 33.

– Frankie Frisch was a part-time player after age 35.

– Charlie Gehringer played until he was 39, but he hit .225 his last two seasons.

– Robbie Alomar was done as a great player at 34.

There are a some old-time middle-infielders — Eddie Collins, Luke Appling, Honus Wagner — who played until their young 40s. Wagner played in a very different time, Collins was a shell of himself, and Appling was a very different hitter from Jeter (no power, hardly ever struck out, etc.).

Truth is, when you look at Derek Jeter’s comps … none of them aged especially well, except maybe Johnny Damon who is aging as we speak. Barry Larkin, Alan Trammell, Ryne Sandberg, Lou Whitaker — none of these guys were effective players into their late 30s.

[Picture by Walker Evans]

From Nick Cafardo in the Boston Globe:

Red Sox fans won’t want to read this, but here goes.

Great players do great things. And Alex Rodriguez is one of the greatest.

Sox fans will resist every inkling in their bodies to admit that. They’ll bring up steroids, and incidents such as the ones with Jason Varitek and Dallas Braden. They’ll never give him his due, but the fact is he stepped to the plate with his team trailing, 9-7, in the bottom of the ninth inning last night and slammed a two-run homer on the first pitch from Jonathan Papelbon to tie the score.

Since we are still riding high from a sweet win, why not get right to some eats. Buddy of mine has been watching Treme and got to hankerin’ for some Hubig’s Pies, a New Orleans specialty.

I’ve never had one. They look sweet, gross, n’ great. Hu-dat?

[Photo Credit: YatBazaar]

Random thoughts from a crazy 11-9 Yankees victory that had highs, lows, and a lot of agita in between…

The lead-up to this quickie two-game set between the Yankees and the Red Sox featured several back stories:

1) The Red Sox were not a threat. They entered Monday night’s action in fourth place, three and a half games behind the Blue Jays, the starting pitching reduced to mediocrity, the bullpen reduced to tatters, and riddled by the combined struggles of David Ortiz and Victor Martinez, and injuries to Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury.

“The Red Sox don’t scare me,” so said 1050’s Seth Everett on Sunday. “They’re not a threat. David Ortiz doesn’t scare me. Not even now that he’s started to hit a little bit.”

“It’s not a rivalry right now,” said Mike Francesa. “It’s not a rivalry until the standings dictate that it’s a rivalry.”

To paraphrase Buster Olney, who subbed on “Mike and Mike in the Morning”: “By the end of May, Theo Epstein will evaluate and look at this team and restructure with 2011 in mind.”

Thank you, Cliff Corcoran, for bringing some sanity to the matter and giving the “Sox are dead” sayers a nice punch to the stomach. The Red Sox don’t suck and they proved it. (More on this later.)

2) Because Mariano Rivera hadn’t given up a run to date and was inhumanly infallible at Age 40, the fact that he yielded his first grand slam at home since 1995 and first grand slam since Bill Selby in July of 2002 to blow the save Sunday meant that something was wrong and the end was near. The likes of Olney, Craig Carton, and Mike Francesa all thankfully decried this notion. Olney said Rivera was allowed to have a bad day, Carton pointed to Teixeira’s drop of a line drive that would have ended the inning, and Francesa downplayed the importance of a Sunday game in May against a team the Yankees have owned in recent years.

3) Javier Vazquez is incapable of starting against the Red Sox, regardless of location. Monday morning, stories appeared stating that manager Joe Girardi planned on using Vazquez in the bullpen this week against the Sox and Rays to supplement a start. He struck out Kevin Youkilis on four pitches in the ninth inning — and was the winning pitcher — but even with that appearance, there’s a chance he may not start against the Mets at Citi Field Friday, in favor of the inimitable Sergio Meat Tray. If Vazquez is not good enough as a starter to get the Mets lineup out, in a National League ballpark, then why trot him out to the mound at all? That might be the kind of situation to get his confidence back.

In his postgame presser, Girardi got testy when the words “Javy Vazquez,” “skipped,” and “because of the Red Sox” were used in the same sentence.

“Absolutely not,” Girardi said. “I want to make this clear, OK?” His voice was stern and he was waving his hand in a karate chop motion. “He was not skipped because of that situation. Our bullpen is a mess. I needed a long guy today. We could not activate Chan Ho Park if you didn’t have a long man.”

Fine, but he was still skipped a second time during a Red Sox series. The reporter was right to ask the question. Girardi, to his credit, added that he didn’t want to use Vazquez because he still wanted to be able to start Vazquez on Friday, but with Joba Chamberlain unavailable after getting up twice to warm up on Saturday, and David Robertson unavailable, he had few options. After throwing just four pitches, Vazquez can still go Friday.

(more…)

When the Yankees arrived in Boston a little more than a week ago, I wrote about how the Red Sox didn’t suck and were getting their season back on track. Then the Yankees went out and beat them 24-6 in the first two games of that series. Thing is, I still believe what I wrote. Even with those two games included, the Sox arrive in the Bronx tonight having won eight of their last 13 and 15 of their last 25. That’s not a breakneck pace, but it is a .600 winning percentage, which translates to 97 wins and, typically, a postseason berth.

The big news in Boston is that Big Papi is back, hitting .387/.412/.710 over his last eight games and having launched five home runs already in May with the month just half over. The big news in the Bronx is that Phil Hughes is the best pitcher in the American League right now. Hughes takes on Daisuke Matsuzaka tonight, which sounds like a mismatch except Matsuzaka just twirled a gem against the Blue Jays in his last start (7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 9 K). CC Sabathia takes on an achy Josh Beckett tomorrow. The Yankees should sweep this quick two-game set, but even if the do, the Red Sox still don’t suck.

(more…)

Last Friday, David Ortiz hit two long home runs against the Tigers, reminding us that he can still turn on a fastball. At least for one night. He creamed both pitches, too. Shades of the old Big Papi not the Old Big Papi.  

The question remains: Is Ortiz back, or was that just a blip? Today at ESPN, Howard Bryant has a long profile on the Boston slugger:

“You have to remember how proud David is,” said his former Minnesota Twins roommate Torii Hunter. “He treats people well. He makes you feel good. He makes it fun to come to the ballpark and play this game. Now, he’s having a tough time, and it looks like the same people he used to make laugh want him out? How would you feel?”

…Last year was supposed to be old news. He had conquered the bad start. He thought he had proved that last year was not evidence of a trend.

“Do you understand that this is killing me?” he tells me one day. “Do you know when I’m going good I cannot sleep because I’m trying to remember everything that I did right so I can repeat it the next day and the next? And that’s when I’m going good. When I’m going bad, it’s even worse because everybody looks to me to be the guy who comes through for this ballclub. It’s like I never sleep anymore.”

Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images

I’ve long ago made peace with the fact that I cannot simply brush off Yankee losses, even in April or May. I am invested, so each defeat carries a sting. The good news, though, is that there’s always another game waiting around the corner and the team is usually at or near the top of the standings. I mourn, I recover, I move on.

But every once in a while a game comes along that cuts a bit deeper; Sunday was one of those games. It started out fine, of course, as the Yankees led 3-1 after six. Worked well for me, since my parents were in town and the kids were eagerly showing off their bike-riding skills outside. I could join the fun in the front yard, comfortable knowing that the bullpen would somehow stumble through the seventh before handing off to Joba in the eighth and Mo in the ninth.

But of course, it didn’t work that way. I managed to sneak in just in time to catch Joba walking off the mound after loading the bases, but I was only mildly concerned. Rivera was on the way, and everything would be fine. Soon enough, it wasn’t.

The thing about baseball, is that we get used to failure. Derek Jeter is my favorite player, a player who has come through in big situations an awful lot in his career, but when he came up as the tying run in the ninth inning, I can’t honestly say that I expected victory. I hoped, but I did not assume.

It’s different with Mariano. He might not be favorite player, but he is the one I expect to succeed every single time. Game 4 in Cleveland, Game 7 in Arizona, and Games 4 and 5 in Boston are all burned into my psyche, but even when taken together, those four games can never outweigh all of the other evidence telling me that Rivera is invincible.

So when Rivera is touched for a loss the way he was on Sunday, it amounts to much more than just a loss in the standings. It shakes me to my core, calling into question all that I believe in. The game itself becomes secondary as I struggle to make sense of what I’ve just seen: Mariano has failed.

Greater writers than I have tried to explain the wonders of Mariano Rivera; rather than attempting to improve upon them, I’ll use the words of the greatest writer of all time. Mariano “is an ever-fixed mark that looks upon tempests and is never shaken; [he] is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.” Sure, Shakespeare was talking about true love, but when it comes right down to it, is there any greater love than Mo?

“Untitled (Tomato and Knife)” By Richard Diebenkorn (1963)

Here’s a great cookbook from Fuchsia Dunlop.

Peep the review from Tigers and Strawberries.

Over at ESPN, Mark Simon looks at the MVPS of the recent Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. The results may surprise you.

[Photo Credit: Cafe Press]

An American Master…

Interesting piece on Duke Ellington’s music and race in America by Claudia Roth Pierpont in The New Yorker:

What did he feel about—what did he contribute to—the mire of American race relations during the last century? Harvey G. Cohen’s “Duke Ellington’s America” (Chicago; $40) attempts to get under the skin of this apparently most imperturbable of men, and the results, if hardly conclusive, are fascinating. One of Ellington’s few confidantes, his sister, Ruth, believed that he concealed himself under “veil upon veil upon veil,” and Cohen is not the first Ellingtonian to treasure the smallest telltale sign of his subject’s human susceptibilities. There is, for example, an uncharacteristically angry letter to a white business associate with whom Ellington wished to break (which is nevertheless signed “with great respect,” and turns out not to have been sent). Cohen’s extremely intelligent and formidably documented book—a welcome change from much that has been published about Ellington—is not a standard biography; Ellington’s personal life and sexual mores are officially beyond its scope. Nor is it a critical work, since it contains no musical analysis and not a great deal of musical description. Cohen’s long hours in the Smithsonian’s huge trove of Ellington papers were devoted to the business records and the scrapbooks, and, as his title suggests, he has broad social issues on his mind. Even Ellington’s professional life is examined in circumscribed areas, almost all of which touch at some point upon race. The question is whether, sooner or later, everything did.

Early in the book, Cohen quotes Ellington’s longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn objecting to a movie project about Ellington that Strayhorn was told would have a racial theme. “I don’t think it should be racial because I don’t think he’s racial,” Strayhorn protested. “He is an individual.” But Strayhorn concluded, in a line of thinking that seems emblematic of the era and of the personalities involved, “You don’t have to say the darn thing.” Cohen keeps Ellington’s individuality firmly in sight, while detailing such targeted subjects as his relationship with Mills, the white man who has been lauded for launching Ellington’s career and—both before and after they split, in 1939—accused of exploitation; Ellington’s travels with his band in the harshly segregated South of the nineteen-thirties and forties; the overt, if often forgotten, racial programs of much of his music; and his sometimes contentious relationship with the civil-rights movement of the nineteen-fifties and sixties.

A different set of subjects—Ellington’s musical development, his band members, even his women—might have yielded something closer to the post-racial portrait for which Strayhorn argued, a portrait more in accord with the high personal horizon on which Ellington’s sights were set. But “the darn thing” will not go away, and race remains unsurprisingly essential to the story of America’s first widely recognized black artist, and of what he had to say.

You can order “Duke Ellington’s America“, here.

Early beat today, from the more bounce to ounce department:

Sébastien Tellier – Look from Record Makers on Vimeo.

Look lively and Happy Monday.