A lineup stacked with Tuesday reading
I feel that Tuesday often gets lost in the workweek shuffle. There’s Monday, which gets a lot of attention for being first. There’s Wednesday, which gets to be “Hump Day.” Thursday is often “thirsty,” or at least gets a sort of half-credit for being almost Friday. And then there’s Friday itself, which, when it rolls around, we’re all so thankful for. But where does poor Tuesday come in? The shock of Monday has worn off, but the ray of hope that Wednesday offers hasn’t yet broken through the gloom. Well, I’ve decided Tuesday needs more love. And on UmpBump, love = links. So let’s get to ‘em. And let’s do it lineup-style!
Leading off, my own Metro Column: A Few Reasons Why Baseball Is Awesome. Need I say more?
Batting second, the June amateur draft is just two months away and The Baseball Analysts are getting ready with a must-read preview series.
Third, Baseball Musings points out that Randy Johnson’s loss last night was unearned. Literally—all the runs the Giants managed came as a result of errors by the D-Backs.
Batting cleanup, Beyond the Box Score looks at some hot starts (and a few slow ones) and identifies which ones are flukes.
Fifth—this one’s for all you Milwaukee Brewers fans. Take heart! There is one closer who may be scarier to have in your bullpen than Eric Smelly Gagne (as my Red Sox-loving roommate still calls him, and will ever call him): Joe Borowski. Bugs and Cranks has the hilarious, heartbreaking rant. (VegasWatch also chimes in, pointing out that thanks largely to Borowski, the Tigers aren’t in quite as deep a hole as it seems.)
Sixth, Joe Posnanski has a nice post about airport security lines. (And if that’s not baseball-related enough for you, then you can read this one about how much he loves Brian Bannister’s slow-ass fastball.)
Seventh, this Marlins fan has started Florida Marlins Finances to prove it to the management that they are profitable, dammit, whether they like it or not and with or without that new, taxpayer-funded stadium they want.
Eighth, via River Ave Blues: the Red Sox and New York face off again tomorrow and the first pitch will be thrown from space. (Side note: doesn’t it seem weird that the Sox and Yanks are playing each other again already? And that the Brewers and the Reds will also be facing each other for the second time later this week? And that the White Sox and the Tigers have already faced each other twice? And that the Rays have also faced the Yankees and the Orioles twice? Divisional face-offs are all well and good, but the scheduler may have taken it a bit far this April.)
And batting ninth, the pitcher, Rumors and Rants, who brings us more good news about Randy Johnson: the mullet (pictured above) is back! It is just as I hoped it would be!
And as a sort of pinch hitter, I have to give a shoutout to Tim Dierkes at MLB Trade Rumors for giving me credit for my foresight on Kyle Snyder, who has cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to Boston’s AAA affiliate, the Paw Sox. There were doubters at the time! But I was right! And as regular readers of UmpBump know, there’s few things Sarah Green loves more in life than being proven right (coffee, my as-yet-unborn children…let’s see…what else? Nope, I think that basically covers it).
March 10th, 2008 at 10:43 am
That Fire Joe Morgan article was hilarious! It was the perfect attack on an ignorant sports writer.
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March 10th, 2008 at 11:17 am
I too, was stifling my inter-office laugh at the firejoemorgan.com post. I ain’t no stat-head, but anybody should be able to appreciate the importance of walks. They give your team opportunities to score, and they give the next hitters better pitches. That columnist is pretty dumb.
As for the Progressive signs, I can appreciate your sarcastic excited anticipation. Who friggin cares? Do we really need to preview advertisements?
Yankees fans: Shut the hell up. Seriously. It’s baseball. People get hurt. It’s not like the kid was vying with Posada to start this year.
Is there an echo in here?
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March 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Right there with you, guys. I mean, what’s the most important thing for a hitter? To NOT make an out. That’s first and foremost. And if your hitters—even your 3-6 hitters, which were the topic of that graph—are drawing walks, they are a)not making outs, b) driving up the opposing hurler’s pitch count, and c) showing him they won’t chase junk out of the zone, thus increasing the chances they’ll see hittable pitches next time through the lineup.
Like, duh.
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March 10th, 2008 at 11:51 am
That is a great picture of Johnson running over Cervelli.
And I think that was a totally legitimate play.
I watched the video, and Cervelli was blocking the plate. Which is a great, gritty thing to do, if you are a catcher, but if the catcher is blocking the plate before he even has the ball, what else is the runner supposed to do but run him over?
Johnson had no choice but to run him over. That is how they teach baseball in every organization, at every level – if the catcher is blocking the plate before he has the ball, you have to run him over. If Cervelli didn’t want to get run over in a spring training game, he shouldn’t have blocked the plate. He should have left a clear path for Johnson and went for one of those pansy-ass swipe tags that Jorge Posada is always doing.
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March 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I have to say that one of my favorite aspects of this “controversy” (only in ST could you have a controversy with players no one has ever heard of! I love it!) is Don Zimmer’s response. Zim, aka “The Gerbil,” thinks of Girardi “as a son” and expressed his dismay at the Yankee skipper’s response. No word on whether Zim got misty-eyed as he made these remarks.
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April 15th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
It was a shame that a couple of fielding blunders by the D-backs prevented the Unit from picking up a win here – his outing was not pretty…but was certainly effective.
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April 15th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
“I love baseball on the radio. Some people only fully relax when they hear Mozart, or the ocean or an “Om.” For me, baseball on the radio is like all of these put together, but with beer added.”
[Yoga Studio]
And now extend your legs and streeetch it out…(”he takes low and inside for ball one”)…Good, and now cross your legs and form the Lotus position…(”and he pops one up to shallow center, Crisp coming on, and he makes the catch”)…Now take a deep breath as I count up to 10, and exhale as I count back down…(”HE HITS ONE DEEEEP INTO THE RIGHT FIELD CORNER. IT’S GOING BACKBACKBACKBACKBACK OUTTA HERE!”)…*burp*
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April 15th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Tommy, are you secretly The Guy Who Burps in my Tuesday yoga class? He’s almost as bad as the Woman Who Farts during my Wednesday pilates. :)
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