Moronic League Baseball

So today is opening day for the 2012 Major League Baseball season. 29 teams are excited to start fresh and try to recover from the disappointing end to last season. The Cardinals, on the other hand, no doubt would prefer to bask in the glow of their 2011 championship for a little longer, but dems the breaks.

Naturally, fans of the 30 teams are all excited to watch their team play its first game of the season today. That's great...as long as you root for one of these teams:

• Boston Red Sox
• Detroit Tigers
• Atlanta Braves
• New York Mets
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• Washington Nationals
• Chicago Cubs
• Toronto Blue Jays
• Cleveland Indians
• Cincinnati Reds
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• San Diego Padres

You may notice a couple of interesting things about that list. One, it contains 13 teams. The last time I checked, 13 isn't equivalent to 30. In fact, it isn't even half of 30. Two, 13 is an odd number, which should be impossible. How did we get here? I'm glad you asked:

• Seattle Mariners
• Oakland Athletics

These two teams have played two games already. These games occurred March 28 and 29, and despite being home games for Oakland, were played in Tokyo. Yes, that Tokyo. Is there even a Tokyo, California? Google says no, and I'm inclined to trust Google given that it could ruin my life with all the information its been saving up on me. Anyway, these two teams played 2 regular season games in Tokyo while everyone else was stateside playing meaningless spring training games , then came back to the US and continued to play more spring training games.

As ridiculous as this does sound, I don't have a problem with how it played out. No, it's not fair to make 2 teams go through the rigors of playing games in Japan while 28 don't, but stopping teams and leagues from putting marketing over fairness isn't going to get us anywhere. And if you're going to send two teams to Japan, this is the only way to do it and not be horribly unfair about it (it's not like you can give teams consecutive off days during the season). And since no one in Oakland cares about baseball anyway, not a huge loss. Normally I'd complain about how the games weren't shown live outside of Seattle, Oakland, and Japan, but it's the Mariners and the Athletics, so that's a defensible decision.

• Miami Marlins
• St. Louis Cardinals

Miami (no, it's not the Florida Marlins anymore) is the reason the topmost list of teams playing their first game today is odd instead of even. See, Miami played the Cardinals last night, on Opening Night (which means Opening Day should really be called something different, but whatever).

So if Miami is playing today, why isn't St. Louis playing today. Aren't baseball games usually played in series of 2-4 games? Why yes, yes they are. But apparently it made more sense to have St. Louis and Miami play a 1 game series in Miami, then have Miami travel to Cincinnati for the next day and have St. Louis travel to Milwaukee for the following day.

Now Miami is breaking in a new ballpark and the Cardinals are the defending World Series champions. So why exactly are both going on the road? Did baseball forget that the Marlins have a new park, and a new name, and new uniforms? Because that's what this feels like. The schedules were made and then someone piped up "Hey, the Marlins built a new park, shouldn't we feature that on Opening err...something?" And rather than rearrange the schedule, they simply stole a Marlins-Cardinals game from the middle of the season and plopped it in front of the non-Japan games.

As for the remaining 13 teams, they simply don't start play until Friday. In fact, no one who plays on Thursday aslo plays on Friday (except for the Dodgers and Padres), which I guess makes sense, as it allows two entirely different sets of fanbases to enjoy an "Opening Day" for their team, except for the fact that, well, there's a Dodgers/Padres game that day. And the Cardinals already played. And the Mariners and Athletics. At this point, trying to figure out the logic behind what MLB is doing will only make my head explode, so I'll stop.

So why? Why wait on these 13 teams? Well, these are my best guesses.

• Chicago White Sox - So Cubs fans can have happiness for one day, where their team doesn't lose and their cross-town rivals do.
• Texas Rangers - Not enough recent success to justify Thursday inclusion.
• Minnesota Twins - MLB's attempt to delay the first Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau injuries of the season.
• Baltimore Orioles - Give Baltimore fans one extra day before they have to remember they're doomed in the AL East for another season.
• New York Yankees - MLB probably figured there aren't enough people eager to watch the Yankees to have them play on Thursday.
• Tampa Bay Rays - Making the fan base of 3500 people wait an extra day doesn't result in much of a PR hit.
• Kansas City Royals - These fans are well-conditioned to abuse.
• Anaheim Angels - No marketable stars to justify Thursday inclusion.
• Milwaukee Brewers - MLB is hoping if they wait as long as possible to thrust Ryan Braun in front of the cameras, the media will forget about his whole ridiculous successful positive drug-test defense.
• San Francisco Giants - Getting San Francisco back for the Barry Bonds era.
• Arizona Diamondbacks - See Rays, Tampa Bay
• Colorado Rockies - Peyton Manning doesn't want to share the spotlight any sooner than he has to.
• Houston Astros - No one is going to want to watch this team play. Except masochists.

What? Given the actual decisions MLB has made surrounding Opening Days, what makes my reasons any more ridiculous?

A brief history of Mariner relief

Last year, former first round draft pick Brandon Morrow decides he wants to be a closer, not a starter. Economists and baseball fans around the world start laughing at the Mariners for spending a top-10 pick on a reliever when they could have had Tim Lincecum. Yes, Washington state native and reigning back-to-back Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum.

In game 2, Morrow melted down and gave up a game versus the Twins. This scenario was repeated somewhere between 2 and 37 times in the first month and a half (I can't remember specifics). Morrow is demoted, David Aardsma takes over, throws hard, and saves a lot of games. Morrow decides he wants to be a starter again, but forgets to develop offspeed pitches or any semblance of control.

This past offseason, Seattle tired of Morrow, and traded him to Toronto for a new Brandon (Brandon League). Brandon League was a fastball and sinker pitcher who was billed as a late inning reliever who could take over for Aardsma in a heartbeat if his performance sagged this year.

That hasn't really happened. League's ERA was well over 3, and he'd blown 2 saves already in 16 appearances. Then today's 8th inning against Baltimore happened:
Home run
Runner reached on a strikeout and wild pitch
Single
Fielder's choice
Walk
Grand slam

...and a 5-1 lead was a 6-5 defecit and, an inning later, a loss (League's 3rd of the season).

Moral of the story? Brandons don't perform in Seattle. As starters, relievers, mascots, anything. Someone wake up Griffey, the Trade Cliff Lee watch has begun in Seattle.

Criticism gets to MLB, Shift in Umpiring Assignments for World Series

Apparently, the bad press the umpires have generated for MLB has actually gotten a response.

From espn.com:

Stung by a rash of blown calls in the playoffs, Major League Baseball is breaking tradition and sticking with only experienced umpires for the World Series.

and

CB Bucknor was in line to work the World Series for the first time this year. But he missed two calls in Game 1 of the division series between the Red Sox and Angels, damaging his chance to get picked, one of the three people said.

So, in the end, baseball does a good thing, but for entirely the wrong reasons.

This is at least the third year that I have heard references made to the fact that CB Bucknor is one of the least respected umpires in MLB. He then proceded to blow 2 calls at first base in the first game of the Angels-Red Sox series. Taking Bucknnor out of a World Series assignment is the right thing to do.

However, it's not the right thing to do because Bucknor is inexperienced. It's the right thing to do because he's not a good umpire. And this is MLB's problem. It categorizes umpires as experienced or inexperienced, instead of good or bad.

Other leagues give championship game assignments based on merit. They grade officials and give the ones with the highest marks postseason games. Not MLB. They give out these assignments based on experience instead of merit.

Is it really a shock that all of these calls are being blown in the playoffs, when all that matters to MLB is how much experience an umpire has?

Matt Holliday

You know how coaches say, "No one play or player lost this game, we lost this as a team?"

Well, the St. Louis Cardinals did not lose game 2 of their NLDS matchup with the Dodgers. Matt Holliday (and only Matt Holliday) lost it for them. He out-Bill Buckerned Bill Bucker.

That was quite possibly the worst job of fielding I have ever seen. Even Manny Ramirez wouldn't have blown that catch like that. He may have tripped over himself, and he may have not reached that ball, but he would not have taken an easy fly ball, mangled it enough to have it hit him in the privates, and then trip over himself...all with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth with a 1 run lead.

Holliday should take $10 million out of his free agent contract he's going to sign this offseason, and buy enough booze to make all of the Cardinals fans in the world forget that this game ever happened.

The Lone Pennant Race* of 2009

If you haven't been paying attention, there is still one race that has not yet been wrapped up: the AL Central division race. Not only has it not been wrapped up, but Detroit and Minnesota have identical 85-76 records with one game left in the regular season.

This scenario is being spun as a total collapse by Detroit, and I was all ready to pile on to the Tigers. The I took a look at the numbers, and I was surprised at what I found. Here are Detroit's and Minnesota's record by month, with how many games Detroit was ahead of Minnesota in the standings at the end of the month in parenthesis:

April: 11-10 11-11 (+0.5)
May: 17-11 14-16 (+4.5)
June: 15-13 15-12 (+4.0)
July: 10-14 12-12 (+2.0)
August: 16-13 14-14 (+3.5)
Sept/Oct: 16-15 19-11 (0)

So, in actuality, Detroit has never been that far ahead of Minnesota. Sure they may have jumped more than 5 games ahead at a point in the season, but they never were able to pull away from Minnesota. So why is everyone piling on the Tigers? Here are their records over the last 9 games:

Detroit: 3-6
Minnesota: 6-3

So over the first 22 games of September, Minnesotsa made up 0.5 games of a 3.5 game defecit. Over the last 9 games, they've made up 3 games. So, clearly it looks like Detroit has choked, right? Let's look at who they've actually played.

They played 4 games against each other, and split those games. That means Detroit has gone 1-4 against the White Sox and Minnesota has gone 4-1 against the Royals. Now, Chicago is practically a .500 team (as of this post, they are 79-82), while the Royals are just 2 games out of the AL cellar.

So is this really a total choke on the part of the Tigers? I'm going to say no. It looks bad because Detroit has been on top of the division for so long. In fact, the Tigers will make history if they lose the division in becoming the first team to lead their division since May 10, only to lose their lead in the last week of the season. But while you'd expect Detroit to do better than 1-4 against a team with nothing to play for, if you're going to take issue with the Tigers, you should look back earlier in the season where they didn't pull away from Minnesota, not to these last 10 games of the season.

The real winners in all of this? The New York Yankees. The only thing that scared the Yankees for their first round matchup was the prospect of facing Tigers starter Justin Verlander in games 1 and 4 of the series. Now, because Detorit needs tomorrow's game, they have to put Verlander out there tomorrow, which means he won't pitch until Friday in the playoffs, which would be game 2. Let's be real, these 2 teams are looking at about 86 wins, while the Yankees have 102 and have their starters set up exactly how they want them.

Anyway, the Tigers send Verlander to the mound around 1 PM tomorrow, while the Twins send epic Yankee failure Carl Pavano to try and push themselves to a W around 2 PM.

*Technically this isn't true, as if Colorado beats LA tonight and tomorrow, the Rockies will steal the division from the Dodgers. But since both of these teams are in the playoffs already anyway, it doesn't really count.

Random thoughts...

- The joys of being a fantasy owner: Your quarterback is David Garrard. While David Garrard is a good NFL quarterback, he's a game manager on a team that would prefer to run the ball all day, bad recipe for fantasy success. Since you're in a keeper league, your pickings are a little slim. The best chance for big production out of the QB spot? Matt Schaub, Mr. Pencil me in for 5 missed games due to injury. You decide to roll the dice because he has so many weapons and so much ability. 24 hours later, you sit down to watch some preseason football...and Schaub sprains his ankle.

- Ricky Rubio decides to stay in Spain for at least 2 years. This despite TWolves president David Kahn travelling out to Spain and putting an agreement to buyout Rubio from his club in writing before Rubio himself nixed the deal. Nice to see that diva behavior isn't limited to American teenagers.

- The Seahawks sign Edgerrin James because they realized what everyone else following the league knew: their RB situation stank. Of course, given that James is over 30 and couldn't hack it for the last 3 years in Arizona, their RB situation still stinks. Add in that 2/5 of their starting OLine is out, and that opening game at home versus the St. Louis Rams is looking like a tough win...excuse me while I go throw up.

- The Tampa Rays trade Scott Kazmir to the Angles for a 2 players, a bag of balls, and 4 tickets to Disneyland. This is what happens when your team has finite resources (in other words, you don't root for the Yankees, Mets, or Red Sox), but it's still a crying shame that it makes sense for Tampa to trade one of their top 4 starting pitchers to a team they would face in the first round of the playoffs if they made it. If you're a Red Sox fan, you're especially upset as you are much more likely to be the team that faces the Angles in the first round of the playoffs, and Kazmir owns your guys.

- And finally, Curt Schilling is interested in Ted Kennedy's now-vacant Senate seat. This is clearly a joke, but someone might want to tell Curt that, as I'm not sure he understands it.

Follow up to the Rios note

Well, the referendum on the economy and how it's affecting baseball has occurred, and the Toronto Blue Jays made the case for those who argue the economic downturn is greatly affecting baseball.

Toronto placed Rios on waivers, and he was claimed by the White Sox. Rather than pull him back off of waivers and keep a pretty good (though substantially underachieving) player, the Jays let him go to Chicago for $20,000 and the opporuntity to get out of paying him about $10 million a year for the next 6 years.

There was much surprise around baseball when word got out a team had claimed Rios. This is why.

Of course, the flipside of this coin is Chicago, who has added Jake Peavy (3 years, $52 million starting in 2010) and Alex Rios (7 years, $69.35 million starting this season) within 10 days of each other. Either owner Jerry Reinsdorf is sitting on a treasure chest no one else knows about, or he's about to slap GM Kenny Williams upside the head.

Editor's note: The White Sox are clearing $34 million from their books this offseason (per espn), which should take some of the sting out of these contracts going forward.

MLB notes

- David Ortiz ended up on the list of players who tested positive for PEDs in 2003. That fact was made public recently. Ortiz said he would be upfront with any information he had, then announced midweek that he would discuss this positive test on Saturday.

His explanation? Tainted supplements. Seriously?

I'm not calling Papi a liar, but if you're going to announce a press conference ahead of time, it indicates you have either a) a unique explanation or b) a lot of information you want to publicize (like the then-legal supplements you took that you believe triggered the positive test). Instead of either of these, Ortiz went with, if not the most cited reason for one's name appearing on a banned substances list, it's certianly top-3. Again, simply because this sounds almost exactly like, "the dog ate my homework" doesn't mean it isn't true. However, if you're going to go out of your way to call a press conference, you could come up with a significantly less tired excuse or give actual details.

- I hope you're proud of yourself (umpire) Ed Rapuano. Rapuano called Philly's Ryan Howard out on strikes in the bottom of the 6th. Howard didn't agree with the call, and said a couple of things to Rapuano. In the top of the 7th, Rapuano called the 0-2 pitch to the 1st batter of the inning a ball, which prompted Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino to throw up his hands in the air. Rapuano somehow saw this act from about 300 feet away, and immediately ejected Victorino. Victorino was not involved in the Howard call in any way. He wasn't at the plate and he wasn't on base. And there is no way Rapuano can justify throwing someone out for a gesture made 300 feet away. What the heck was Rapuano doing noticing a gesture in centerfield, anyway? It would be one thing if Victorino made the gesture in the batter's box, as that's right in front of the ump's face. Shouldn't the ump be focusing on about 300 other things before what the centerfielder is doing? You shamed yourself Ed, and if MLB suspends Victorino, they will be shaming themselves too.

- Apparently, several MLB teams don't have scouts. From espn.com:

Some National League teams, as well as the Texas Rangers, have interest in acquiring John Smoltz, major league sources say, which is an early indication that he will have another opportunity to pitch this year -- if he chooses to take it.

Smotlz worked hard to get himself back from surgery, and made 8 starts for Boston this season. In those starts, he put up the following line:



It all came to a head in Thursday night's game against the Yankees, where Smoltz couldn't get out of the 4th inning after surrendering 8 runs on 9 hits and 4 walks. Smoltz clearly had no out-pitch despite having a fastball clocked in the low-90s. He got to 0-2 or 1-2 counts on many New York hitters, and had no way to put them away. The Sox designated Smoltz for assignment after the game, hoping he will take a demotion to Pawtucket to transition to a reliever's role. But the Smoltz we've seen so far would be terrible as a reliever as well. With no out pitch, he's simply hoping the hitters hit the ball at someone. That is not a recipe for success. That several teams (even if they are predominantly NL teams) would be interested in Smoltz boggles the mind.

- We're about to have a referendum on the economy as it relates to Major League Baseball. Alex Rios is a Toronto Blue Jays outfielder, and circa 2006-2007, he looked like a rising star. He looked so good in fact, Toronto signed him to a 7-year, $69.35 million extension that kicked in this year. Rios responded by seeing his numbers drop across the board last season, and continue their fall this year (for example, his OBP is .315 this year). Rios was one of many players placed on waivers in the past week. Surprisingly (more like shockingly), at least one team claimed him.

Now, Toronto's front office has been told by ownership that they must cut payroll, and the team is scuffling (hence the Halladay derby before the non-waiver trade deadline). Since Rios was claimed, Toronto has a golden opportunity to get out of 6+ of the 7 years of his contract, all they have to do is let him go. True, Rios was considered a cornerstone of the franchise less than 2 years ago, but his baseball numbers do not measure up to his contract numbers, and the Blue Jays have been offered a get out of financial jail free card. If the Blue Jays do not take this opportunity to shed Rios and his onerous contract, every agent is going to throw it in the face of MLB's owners this offseason when arguing for contracts for their clients. If a team like Toronto can turn down freeing up almost $10 million a year, then the owners aren't in nearly as bad a position as they'd like us all to believe.

Most Ridiculous Trade of Deadline Day

Boston Red Sox trade 1B Adam LaRoche and cash to the Atlanta Braves for 1B Casey Kotchman.

This is a trade, that, on the surface, looks ridiculous. Yes, the Sox had just traded for C/1B Victor Martinez, giving them a legitmate bat at C/1B/DH. Given the presence of Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, and Jason Varitek already on the roster, the presence of Adam LaRoche (acquired from Pittsburgh 9 days earlier) became beyond superfluous. When word leaked out that the Sox were looking to dump LaRoche after the Martinez trade, it made perfect sense...

...until they got yet another first baseman in exchange.

The party line in Beantown is that Kotchman will be better suited to come off the bench than LaRoche was. Bullsnot. Kotchman does the following things better than LaRoche: play defense and get on base. The problem is, getting on base and playing defense is already the specialty of current infielders Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell. If you lift Victor Martinez for defense in the late innings, your best option is to move Youkilis back to first and insert Mike Lowell at 3rd, an option that does not involve Casey Kotchman.

How about pinch hitting in the late innings? Both Kotchman and LaRoche are left-handed, and LaRoche is the more dangerous hitter (his increased power threat cancels out Kotchman's OBP advantage in most pinch hitting situations.

Kotchman is cheaper (~2.8M vs 7M this season for LaRoche), but the Red Sox sent money to the Braves in this deal (presumably enough to cover the difference in salaries for the rest of the year). There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to this deal, so why make it?

WARNING: Full Speculation Mode ahead!

My belief is the Red Sox were trying to swing one more trade. And since they already grabbed some offense, I believe they were chasing Roy Halladay. Part of the reason Toronto was exploring the idea of trading Halladay is because ownership has demanded the front office cut costs. For a team with non-infinite resources like Toronto, Kotchman is a MUCH nicer piece than LaRoche. Not just because of the salary, but unlike LaRoche (who will be a free agent at the end of the season), Kotchman has a couple of more arbitration-elligible years remaining, which makes him cheaper to keep around for a couple more years than LaRoche would be. A package that includes Kotchman looks much nicer to most teams than a package including LaRoche. I believe the LaRoche/Kotchman swap was an effort to put together another deal (I'm guessing for Halladay, because the Sox were continuously linked to him over the last few days) which didn't end up happening for whatever reason. I have no evidence to back this up, but it's the only story that allows this deal to make any kind of sense.

All Star Note

Pitcher A: 10-3, 2.85 ERA, 3 CG, 1 SHO, 123 IP, 17/106 BB/K, 1.098 WHIP
1.17 Ground balls/fly balls, 151 ERA+ (adjusted to ballpark)

Pitcher B: 10-5, 2.12 ERA, 5 CG, 2 SHO, 127.1 IP, 21/129 BB/K, 1.076 WHIP
0.72 Ground balls/fly balls, 204 ERA+

Who should start the All Star Game?

I'm not saying Roy Halladay (Pitcher A) is an unworthy choice to start the All Star game for the AL, I'm just saying Zack Greinke (Pitcher B) deserves it more, and there's no argument otherwise. Add in the fact that Greinke has come back from social anxiety disorder (feel-good story) AND the fact that he pitches for Kansas City when the ASG is in St. Louis (local flavor), and I'm surprised at Joe Maddon's decision.

Then again, with 1 second baseman on the roster (Aaron Hill) after Dustin Pedroia dropped out, instead of replacing Pedroia with a second baseman who deserved to be there in the first place (Ian Kinsler), Maddon adds a 4th 1st baseman (Carlos Pena).

Lou Merloni

Lou Merloni, native son of New England and former Red Sox player, surprisingly threw his old team under the bus earlier today.

From the New York Post:

"And I walk into that office, and this happened while I was with the Boston Red Sox before this last regime, I'm sitting in the meeting. There's a doctor up there and he's talking about steroids, and everyone was like 'Here we go, we're gonna sit here and get the whole thing -- they're bad for you.' No. He spins it and says 'You know what, if you take steroids and sit on the couch all winter long, you can actually get stronger than someone who works out clean, if you're going to take steroids, one cycle won't hurt you, abusing steroids it will.'

Now, this is a bombshell. Baseball already has a giant black eye relating to steroids because everyone believes the league and the teams turned a blind eye to its players juicing. But to suggest a team actively encouraged steroid use? That takes things to a whole new level.

Reading further, however, it seems Lou Merloni is about as good at this revelation stuff as he was at hitting major league pitching.

From the same story:

Merloni said he couldn't remember the name of the doctor or what year the meeting took place.

Oh. Well...ahh, hmmm...are you sure you don't remember trivial details like when this eye-opening meeting occurred? I don't want to call you a liar, or claim you're trying to make yourself relevant in a way your playing career never could, but this does make it just a touch more difficult to believe you. I can understand not wanting to name names, but I don't think we're going to shun February 25th if it turns out that's when this meeting occurred.

Really, giving us these kind of specifics isn't going to taint anyone you're not already trying to taint with the information you've already given us. Since you won't, excuse me, "can't" give us these details, I'm afraid all you're accomplishing is making Dan Duquette into a sympathetic figure. That is quite the accomplishment, but I have a feeling it's not really what you were going for.

Manny being Dirty

In case you missed it, Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games yesterday for violating MLB's drug policy. Apparently he was caught with a female fertility drug in his system (in addition to unnatural testosterone). Manny claims his doctor prescribed him this drug for a "personal health issue".

Many were surprised at this news, and one of the reasons boiled down to this: If Ramirez was a juicer, how on earth did he manage to not get caught all of the years leading up to now? Manny may be the smartest hitter in the game, but he certainly isn't an Einstein in any other field.

I obviously have no information about Manny's past or present, but I do have a theory: Follow the money. I'm not going to say Manny never juiced as a Red Sox player, but I wil say he received new motvation to juice as a Dodger. While with Boston, Ramirez was playing under an 8-year, $160 million contract, with team options to make it a 10-year, $200 million one. You may recall that Manny acted like a spoiled teenager when the team refused to make a decision on the option before last season, all but forcing a trade to LA and voiding those team option years.

For the first time in 8 years, Manny was playing for a contract. All of a sudden, a switch flips, and Manny begins destroying the National League. Along comes the offseason, and all of a sudden, Manny's not getting many offers. He's looking for a 4-year $80-100 million deal, and no one's going above 2 years. Whether it's his age, his atrocious defense (yes, atrocious, the Monster protected Manny and made him look like merely another bad outfielder 81 times a year), or the stunts he pulled to get out of Boston, teams weren't biting. In the end, Manny signs a 1 year deal with a player option for next season.

Guess what? It's a contract year again, and with Manny running out of time to get his last big deal, there motivation to squeeze every last drop of talent out of his body that wasn't necessarily there during his first 7 years in Boston.

On the other hand, it's not like Manny was caught with simple steroids or amphetamines in his system. He was caught with a hormone that gets the body back to producing testosterone naturally after a steroid cycle. It stands to reason that to know how to use the more sophisticated stuff, you've already gotten comfortable with the simpler ways of the juice.

We'll never know if Manny became a juicer or simply got caught this season (well, unless SI gives him the ARod treatment), but his motivations certianly have shifted these last 2 seasons...unless you believe Manny isn't all about the money, and if that's true, I've got some B-12 shots and flaxseed oil to sell you.

Yankees thinking of changing uniforms

To this:

Since more than 60% of their fans are now showing up to the games dressed like this, I think it makes sense. When the 7th inning of a Red Sox-Yankee game (even in May) looks like this:

Then you have a problem. Next time, perhaps you should spring for a retractable roof and Ben Sheets instead of CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. Your pitching won't be any worse, and your fans won't be left out of the stadium due to poorly communicated rain delays.

Beckett suspended 6 games

For those of you who missed it, there was a slight disagreement over proper decorum between Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett and, well, pretty much the entire LA Angles team. The genesis of it all? Bobby Abreu calling timeout. Normally not a big deal, but he did it during Beckett's windup. The umpire (foolishly) granted the timeout request, and Beckett, since he was already in the middle of his pitching motion, let the pitch fly anyway...over Abreu's head.

Abreu wasn't thrilled with the location, and stared at Beckett with a "what was that?" look on his face. That gave Josh the chance to do what he loves best, be ornery towards a batter. Beckett had words with Abreu, the benches cleared, and then Beckett had words with Angels coach Mike Scioscia, and some shoving ensued.

Interestingly, 4 Angels players/coaches were ejected, and no Red Sox were. But, MLB disagreed with that decision, and suspended Beckett for 6 games. Beckett claims the ball wasn't intentionally tossed near Abreu's head, and if you believe that, I have a Red Sox 2003 ALCS Champions ring to sell you. There is no way Beckett wasn't trying to send a message with that throw. If you don't believe me, check out his actions immediately afterwards. He gets in the face of Abreu, Scioscia, and the Rally Monkey.

Was the suspension justified? Yes. Being a starting pitcher, Beckett only plays once every 5 games, so a 6 game suspension for Beckett is the same as a 1 game suspension for a regular player. And given Beckett's intentional toss in the vicinity of Abreu's (large) head, it's warranted.

That being said, I believe Beckett was right to make the statement he did. The ball was far enough away from Abreu's head to not be a threat to harm the ex-Yankee. Since it wasn't dangerous, it was a perfectly valid statement to make: watch yourself, batter. Batters have no fear anymore: from the body armor they wear at the plate that would make a tank blush, to the quick warnings given by the umpires when a pitcher throws too far inside, pitchers don't have much on their side anymore. Hitters can even dictate the pace of the game by calling timeout and stepping out of the box after every pitch. And the balance wasn't this out of whack 30 years ago. It has swung, gradually, towards the hitters over time. If pitchers don't make a statement on something like this, soon they'll have to underhand the ball over the plate, and batters will be outfitted head-to-toe in Kevlar.

The pendulum has already swung well to the side of the hitters, the pitchers have to protect what little ground they have left to stand on. Beckett did that. Missing a game is warranted, but he did the right thing.