Oh god, not DST Monday Reading
Don’t get me wrong. When it comes to Daylight Savings Time, I’m a huge fan. In fact, along with the Red Sox, coffee, celebrity gossip, and Scotch, I’d put DST right up there on my list of favorite things. (Julie Andrews I ain’t, folks.) But on the first Monday after the clocks “spring ahead,” I always feel super jet-lagged. Add to this an undeserved parking ticket this morning, and you have yourself a veritable cocktail of crankiness. So instead of working (shhh!) I’ll offer up some procrastinatory reading.
The only person grumpier than Sarah Green? Ken Tremendous in this post over at Fire Joe Morgan.
A bit depressed that the hot stove has (mostly) cooled? Dugout Daily predicts this summer’s trades.
Breaking Balls has a couple of neat posts about Johan Santana’s stuff. Santana is going up against Sox youngster Jon Lester today in the Grapefruit League. Lester was part of Boston’s proposed deal for Santana this winter. (As you’ve probably already heard countless times, when Lester and Jonathan Papelbon were coming up through the minors together, scouts were divided on who had the better arm. The Red Sox hope that a healthy Jon Lester will have a breakout year this season and give them more of the fire and dominance they saw in Game Four of the World Series last fall.) While fans of both teams are no doubt pumped for today’s game, it’s still Spring Training, and both Lester and Santana are just getting warmed up—both have suffered rough outings already this spring. And the Red Sox haven’t even penciled in Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz into today’s lineup. Nonetheless, that shouldn’t stop you from checking on the game surreptitiously this afternoon. Game starts at 1:10pm local time.
In related news, via Babes Love Baseball, Randy Johnson will make his spring debut today.
The Biz of Baseball has the new signage for Cleveland’s freshly christened Progressive Field. Oooh, signage.
Yankees blogs Pinstripe Alley, River Ave. Blues, and Yankees Chick all agree that Tampa Bay Ray Elliot Johnson had no business bowling over Yankee catching prospect Francisco Cervelli in a spring training game (Cervelli ended up with a broken wrist). Naturally, Tampa Bay blogs DRaysBay and Rays Index disagree—and point out that Elliot Johnson is playing to make the team. Personally, I think of Joe Girardi and the Empire are going to take the view that Johnson was out of order, they’re also obliged to agree that Cervelli had no business blocking the plate. Because if you block the plate, you’re gonna get bowled over. That’s not playing dirty—them’s just the rules. And yes, I realize that has no legitimacy coming from me, whatsoever. But Yankees fans, take heart—though he’ll now miss 8-10 weeks, the important thing to remember is that the AA-level Cervelli still held onto the ball. That is some prospect hotness right there.
Speaking of which, The Baseball Analysts finish their round-up of this year’s crop of impact prospects.
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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