67 Pitches For Joba? Aren't They Afraid He'll Shatter?

• THE JOBA RUINATION:

I'd love to know what the Yankees are thinking.
I mean really thinking in the way they're using Joba Chamberlain as they head towards the playoffs.
Last night they allowed him to throw 67 pitches in four innings and he looked okay; he threw strikes and allowed four hits; but one of those hits was breaking ball that Vladimir Guerrero tattooed into the left field seats. What's the intent here? They've been talking about going with a three-man rotation in the ALDS, but the way A.J. Burnett's pitched recently makes that scheme just as shaky as the one they've formulated for Chamberlain.
Are they going to start stretching him out just in case Burnett continues pitching as he has recently? They're not sending Burnett to the bullpen, but they could have Chamberlain at the ready for long relief appearance if Burnett pitches poorly. (Joe Girardi had better have a quick hook in the playoffs.)
The "plan" has changed so many times and seems so inordinately half-assed that no one can speculate on what they're doing because it doesn't seem that the Yankees even know what they're going to do and that's one of the problems with having an "organizational philosophy" take hold when bringing in what's essentially a manager who takes orders rather than someone who does what he thinks is right to, y'know, win.

• Drink the Kool-Aid if you wanna work in this booth:

Taking anything Michael Kay says as part of reality is like watching an infomercial from Kevin Trudeau (do so at your own risk or subversion of any and all rational thought), but John Flaherty has the potential to be a great broadcaster. He's self-deprecatingly funny; he's witty; he's insightful. But it only lasts long enough for him to start joining the chorus of how what the Yankees are doing with Chamberlain is the "right" way to handle the young pitcher.
Flaherty was a journeyman player and I'm sure that while he understands the club has to protect their young investments, I can't believe that he'd be on board with the special floating set of rules that are in evidence for Chamberlain, but he goes along to get along because if you're broadcasting for the Yankees, you'd better be wearing a Yankee t-shirt under your suit or you're liable to find yourself looking for work elsewhere.

• Don't get too hung up on a late-season hot streak:

The Padres have played very well lately and while that's a positive, they'd be better-served to think before reading too much into what's gone on over the past month heading into next year. Teams that take brief little snippets and expect them to suddenly evolve into normalcy are asking for trouble. They still don't appear prepared to spend much money to get better; some of their young players have talent, but are flawed; and they're still being run by many of the same people who contributed to the mess they were under John Moores and Sandy Alderson over the past couple of years.
The one thing I think of in misinterpreting a small amount of success is the Indians of 1990-1991. People forget about this now that they've been mostly very good for the past 15 years, but the Indians were a bad joke in a hideous ballpark forever. Any and all tendrils to grasp at were reason to overreact, but the team went insane when a young speedster named Alex Cole arrived.
Cole could run, run and run some more and the Indians went so far as to configure the ballpark to him by moving the fences way, way back.
A bad idea.
Cole never replicated his rookie success and fell quickly into what he was----a guy who could run, but not play baseball very well. The Indians reverted the fences to normal before they opened their new ballpark, Jacobs Field; and the club improved quickly to become a force shortly after that.
The Cole experiment was an example of not thinking before making drastic maneuvers. There are very few players around whom one can say, "I'm building around this guy and I'm changing the ballpark to do it" and players who can do little more than run are the worst cases to do such a thing.

• An epiphany:

I was thinking about who the Braves Tommy Hanson reminded me of and it was always just barely out of my reach to grasp who it was until it finally snapped into place----Jason Isringhausen.
When the Mets brought up Isringhausen, he was a member of Generation K (along with Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson) and was expected to lead the Mets to a Braves-style run of young pitching and dominance.
Needless to say, it didn't work out that way.
But Isringhausen arrived in the big leagues amid much fanfare and starstruck awe at his power, confidence and dominance. He blew the league away for 14 starts late in the 1995 season going 9-2 with a 2.81 ERA and great stats across the board. There was a "this big league stuff is easy" attitude hovering around Isringhusen and when reality set in, he struggled, got hurt and wound up having to reinvent himself as a closer four years later.
I'm not suggesting the same thing will happen to Tommy Hanson, but it seems that his first run around the majors has been easy. Too easy.

• THE PADRES LOSSOMETER IS DEFUNCT:

It doesn't make much sense to continue, so like the Blue Jays and Rays, I'm bagging it. I know when I'm beat. The Padres could actually wind up with a better record than the Mets, which will literally make me sick.


MY WEBSITE SHOULD BE BACK RUNNING BY TONIGHT. I THINK.

If This Is True...

• J.P. Ricciardi should be fired immediately if this is accurate:

MLBTradeRumors.com wrote the following yesterday:

10:14am: Last month, Theo Epstein said Boston aggressively pursued Roy Halladay at the deadline and that their final offer was "probably the best offer [J.P. Ricciardi] received." According to Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun, that may have been a 6-for-1 offer of Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, Daniel Bard, Michael Bowden, Felix Doubront, and Nick Hagadone.

They later wrote that Theo Epstein responded with a "nope" at the speculation of such a trade.

Who knows?

But the bottom line is this: if that trade were offered for Roy Halladay and Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi didn't take it, he should not only be fired immediately, but he should be chased from Canada by the remaining Blue Jays fans who realize that Halladay isn't going to be a Blue Jay past January and whatever they get will likely be half what was offered by the Phillies and Red Sox.

That we're even debating whether Ricciardi's that stupid is a bad sign. Turning down a trade of six pitchers, which would almost automatically put the Blue Jays in competition for a playoff spot not just next year but for the next 4-5 years, wasn't just a mistake, but it was executive malpractice and would be a fitting epitaph to Ricciardi's tenure as GM.

• If you want to contend, this cannot happen:

The Marlins cannot be losing to the Nationals if they want to be taken seriously as a contender. It can't happen.
Unless they right the ship (again), the Marlins are going to look back on the past few weeks and the bad losses to teams such as the Padres and Nats and realize where they blew their chance at a playoff spot. The good teams beat up on the bad ones; that's the law of the aquarium.

• Yeesh!!!!

Could the Rays actually stumble to below .500?
This type of situation is perfect for the manager to come storming into the clubhouse and flip the food table, but I question whether Joe Maddon is capable of doing that or if the players would take him seriously if he did. Eleven losses in a row for a team with that talent is unacceptable.

• This is gonna be a bad ending:

Lenny Dykstra is now auctioning off his baseball memorabilia----ESPN Story.
How long before he's scrounging around for a job in baseball doing something, anything?
It turns out, in retrospect that I was right. As Dykstra was at the height of his "brilliant businessman" persona, I continually said to anyone who'd listen that the last guy from the 1980s Mets that anyone would've expected to hit it big in business was Dykstra; that the one whom everyone should reasonably have expected to wind up broke with the reckless lifestyle, lavish spending and incessant gambling, it would've been Dykstra.
Looks like I was right after all.

• Viewer Mail 9.14.2009:

Jane Heller at Confessions of a She-Fan writes RE a proposed Prince of New York radio show:

You should really consider an internet radio show. Your opinions would generate lots of callers and you could plug your book. Do it!


My opinions are little more than facts that haven't happened yet.
I have to admit, it might get pretty entertaining if a stat zombie called in and I got my hands (figuratively of course) around his throat; or if two called at once and I was able to CLUNK their heads together. After the season, I'll start looking into it. It's a good idea...maybe. It could get pretty wild.

Matt (Southwest Capo) at Diamondhacks writes RE the Mark Whicker column on Jaycee Dugard:

That was some column by Whicker. Some of us write tone deaf stuff from time to time, but what astonishes me is that an OCR editor, somewhere, didnt just say "No."

The Dugard case may present some interesting discussion points, but for a major paper to publish something so smirky, trivializing her ordeal/experience smacks of more than a lone writer's poor taste.


I'd have to guess that the editor didn't even read it. That's the only thing I could come up with that would even be in the ballpark of reasonable for that column getting through.
Agreed we all write things from time-to-time that we'd like to take back (me included) and most of those can be handled with a sincere apology, but that? Inexplicable even if Whicker was drunk, writer's blocked or getting story ideas from Glenn Beck.
And if he wanted to go with a story highlighting how things have changed in the past 30 or so years and what someone who was locked up in Pelican Bay or trapped on Tom Hanks's Cast Away island would've missed, there were a zillion other ways to do it. If I wanted to go in that direction, I would've written something along the lines of "The View From Inside Joba's Sarcophagus From 1980 To Now" or something like that.
One question: doesn't anyone get fired anymore? I've been fired from jobs for the stupidest reasons; sometimes I deserved it, most of the time, I didn't; I just pissed off the wrong people. (In fairness, it may be hard to believe, but I tend to be a bit unruly.) How do Whicker and that editor still have their jobs?

• Your intermittent dose of things I wish I'd said:

From Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith assessing the idiocy of a soon-to-be "dismissed" underling:

He is as clumsy as he is stupid.

• A note on my website PAULLEBOWITZ.COM:

Things should----*should*----be back to normal tonight. I'm considering making some changes to the site anyway. While it's gitchy, I might try and do something that still has personality, but is easier to navigate. We'll see. Opinions and suggestions will be duly noted. And I might even listen!!!

Sunday Lightning 9.13.2009

• The taste of blood:

It was only one game and if the Mets get pounded in Sunday's doubleheader against the Phillies, it will essentially be meaningless; but if anything was to be taken from the Mets 10-9 win over the Phillies, it's that David Wright has taken hold of the club's reins and is prepared to officially take over as the team's first captain since John Franco; and it's possible that the Phillies, with the same late-inning issues that plagued and dismantled the Mets in 2008 are going to see that as their downfall.
The year has been a disaster for the Mets in general and for Wright in specific. Left alone on an island as the last veteran who instilled any fear in the opposing pitcher, Wright's power numbers were curtailed by the cavernous dimensions of Citi Field and that there was no earthly reason to give him one good pitch to hit for fear of anyone else in the lineup getting the job done. Then----with the rest of the intended team dropping like someone had poisoned their food or placed a stunningly effective voodoo curse on them----Wright got beaned by a Matt Cain fastball putting the rest of his season in doubt. After a concussion and a stay on the disabled list, Wright was forced to wear a ridiculous looking prototype helmet to provide extra protection that also succeeding in making him look like Lil' Davey Wright whose vested interest was a Happy Meal rather than playing ball. He ditched the helmet after a few games. This series offered an opportunity at some redemption for the lost season.
In years past, the Mets would've cowered at the Phillies jumping out to a 8-4 and 9-5 leads until Wright's heroics came to pass. Homering in the eighth against one of the Phillies candidates to take over as closer, Brett Myers; and then in the ninth with two outs, he ripped the first pitch he saw from replacement closer-of-the-moment Ryan Madson over the left field wall to give the Mets the lead.
That wasn't all in terms of turning the tables.
The Phillies have come back on the Mets against so many different relievers in so many diverse (and perverse) ways, that it wasn't a guarantee that Francisco Rodriguez was going to get through the ninth without another disaster to pop the Mets in the mouth. Instead of getting into his usual amount of trouble, K-Rod retired the Phillies in order on two strikeouts and a fly out to close the game.
In the doubleheader, the Mets are facing one pitcher in Kyle Kendrick whom they've historically pummeled and another in Pedro Martinez against whom they'd undoubtedly like to inflict a good beating.
Vengeance can be sweet if the Mets are able to take this game and spur them to not only damage the Phillies moving forward, but to send a message for 2010 that things are going to be vastly different next year; and David Wright took the first major step toward that end with his performance today.

• If the JOBA RUINATION wasn't enough, this is a potentially bigger problem:

No one can say they're surprised that A.J. Burnett has reverted to the pitcher he's always been. Flashes of brilliance; flashes of mediocrity; and flashes of horror. The one saving grace he's had this year is that he's been healthy, but after two straight years of health in 2008-2009, can anyone say with confidence that the Yankees are going to get 200 innings and 33 starts from Burnett next year?
But that's next year.
The problem with Burnett is for this year and should be most concerning to the Yankees.
With the way Joba Chamberlain has pitched----due in no small part to the ridiculous way he's being handled----he can't be trusted for the playoffs. There's been talk that the Yankees are going to use three starters for the first round of the playoffs. Now, with the way Burnett's been pitching of late, can they trust Burnett any more than Chamberlain?
This "one bad inning" stuff can be overcome when a team has the offense of the Yankees...during the regular season, but in the playoffs in general and the division series in particular, the one bad inning could lead to an avalanche and the team could be heading home before they even know what happened.
Despite their bullpen issues, the Tigers are not going to be an easy mark especially with Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson able to match the top two Yankee starters. They need Burnett to come through and if he pitches as he did yesterday, they're going to have a problem. A big one.

• Talk about a collapse:

Did the Rays hear from the Blue Jays how nice it was to go home in August and decide to join them?
This is getting embarrassing and is rekindling memories of the days before 2008 when the Rays were a laughingstock. After last night's rain shortened, 9-1 whipping at the hands of the Red Sox, they've lost nine straight and are in a death spiral.
The way the Rays have essentially collapsed does not reflect well on manager Joe Maddon and while it's easy to kick the guy when he's down, it all reinforces my feelings about Maddon that he's not the guy to discipline a young team; nor is he the manager I'd want to take the next step into an annual contender that the Rays have the talent to be.
Of course, the team made it to the World Series last year, but much of that was talent and good fortune; that cannot be maintained over the long term. The Rays are falling back due to a natural course of events in which the young players who've never known success aren't sneaking up on anyone and the scrapheap pickups along the lines of Grant Balfour and Gabe Gross haven't performed as they did in 2008.
I've never hidden the fact that I don't like the way Maddon runs his team on or off the field, but the club isn't going to do anything now after their run last year and, more importantly, that they just gave Maddon a 3-year contract extension through 2012; but if they want to maximize their talent, I have two words for them if things start poorly next year and he's still available: Bobby Valentine. He's the guy to take a team like the Rays to the next level strategically and is exactly what they need.

• Viewer Mail 9.13.2009:

Jane Heller at Confessions of a She-Fan writes:

So now you have TWO blogs? What's next? Your own talk radio show? (You'd be great, btw.)


This is only temporary due to maintenance issues at PAULLEBOWITZ.COM. One has to have a backup plan.
A radio show, huh? I've been on the radio around three times. Twice, for some unfathomable reason, I called Mike and the Mad Dog and once I was the MLBlogs blogger of the week. I was good in that appearance but can't find it anywhere online. Maybe I should look into some kinda internet radio thing. Would it be the tree falling in the woods or would there be some listeners somewhere, anywhere? I tend to talk to myself anyway, so maybe there wouldn't be much difference.


Ted at Tribe Talk With Ted writes:

You should have your own talk radio show like Jane said.
BTW, I am a fellow mlblogger
and I saw your link and clicked away.
Nice blog here.
I don't think Olney would get anyone's attention
since he is so boring.
How does he still have a job?
I mean I know he is a fair analyst but he needs some enthusiasm you know?
Please stop by my blog.


Well, I don't think Olney's bad enough to be fired. If they were going to start chopping heads off, he'd be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down on the list. (Maybe there's a job for me there after all. I could be the executioner with one of those hoods and an axe to start dispatching the dead weight.)
Is there a recurring theme here? A groundswell to hear my voice on the radio? Hmmmmmm.

• The Twitter Mafia game has inspired me:

Not long ago, I published a rudimentary and incomplete Prince of New York Crime Family on August 6th. If anyone interested in being "made", I'm taking names. Just rememeber who the Boss is.

Hack, Hack, Hack Away

• If Buster Olney were a blogger, would anyone pay attention to him?

With some of the nonsense that emanates from ESPN and ESPN.com, you'd think that people would wise up to the fact that the majority of their "experts" don't know much of anything more than even the most mediocre bloggers. I have less of a problem with Buster Olney than I do with a large chunk of their writers (although I'm still trying to get past the commercial in which is does a "taste test"----watch below if you dare)...



But for a so-called reporter to fling absurdities against the wall and expect people to take it any more seriously than something anyone with a BlogSpot, TypePad or whatever forum to vent their views, and for him to get paid (presumably lucratively) for it, is a bit of an insult.
The latest from Olney concerns a flinging at the wall possibility that Matt Holliday will choose to leave the Cardinals as a free agent at the end of the year; Olney suggests that the Angels will let Vladimir Guerrero go and bring in Holliday. First he caveats Holliday's struggles in Oakland, then makes the suggestion about the Angels:

We don't know how Holliday's mediocre three-month stint with Oakland factors into how AL teams view him. On one hand, the lack of depth in the Oakland lineup undoubtedly hurt Holliday, but on the other hand, even when he was pitched to, he struggled to make an impact. "The book on Holliday [in the AL] was pretty simple -- just pound him with fastballs in," said one long-time NL talent evaluator. "They don't really do that as much over here."

But I'll venture a guess (and it's nothing more at this point): Holliday winds up signing with the Angels, effectively replacing Vladimir Guerrero within their salary structure.

I wouldn't come right out and say it's a done deal that Guerrero's not back. The Angels' modus operandi has always been to play their cards close to the vest. They've dispatched players who were no longer of use or didn't fit into their organizational template (Jose Guillen, Bengie Molina); they've kept players who many expected to leave (Garret Anderson); they've admitted mistakes and replaced those mistakes without qualms to money or perception (Gary Matthews Jr.); they've made quick-strike free agent signings before anyone knew what happened (Torii Hunter); and they've taken advantage of the markets (Bobby Abreu). Add in that Holliday simply didn't play well in the AL West with the Athletics and it's a big assumption to think that he's going to be the designated replacement for Guerrero.

The Angels always seem to have something cooking in the back of their minds. Who knows what they're going to do to reconfigure their lineup if they do let Guerrero leave? It could be anything. A blockbuster trade for a player no one knew might be available or something no one else cooked up. In fact, I'd go after Jason Bay before I went after Holliday if I were a team like the Angels.

As for Holliday, will there even be a market as lucrative as he and Scott Boras are expecting? Which teams might go after him? The Red Sox are a big possibility and he'd be a winner aiming for that wall. The Yankees? Probably not. The Mets? Doubtful. The Giants? Maybe. How much money is he expecting to get? If there simply isn't the money that he's expecting, will Holliday just tell Boras to get a deal done with the Cardinals? Or sign a short-term (2-3 year contract) somewhere and hope that the market improves?

My bet is that he ends up staying in St. Louis; but just like Olney's speculation, it's a guess, although I'd say mine's a little more educated than his is and I didn't stoop to licking anyone's spikes to come up with it.

• How does this man still have a job?

This is probably the stupidest and sickest thing you'll ever see written from a sportswriter about any subject----Mark Whicker OC Regsiter Column.
What this sick bastard was thinking about when he wrote this disgusting bit of garbage about the kidnapped and tortured Jaycee Dugard and how the worst thing that happened to her is not seeing the sports pages is beyond my admittedly rudimentary level of understanding of what goes through people's heads when they do certain things.
We all have our factions; our beliefs about stuff, but there's being a human being and not being a human being. Whicker apologized for his inappropriate column, but an apology isn't good enough in this case as far as I'm concerned and if I were Ms. Dugard's step-father, I'd like five minutes alone to discuss this with Whicker. I can promise one thing and float a likelihood: 1) he'd never write another column like this; and 2) there's a real good chance he'd never walk again.

• THE PADRES LOSSOMETER: 79

The Padres have played very well lately.

• Viewer Mail 9.12.2009:

Jane Heller at Confessions of a She-Fan writes RE the life story of the Prince:

So you think Hollywood would make a movie about your life? Hmm. Maybe you should write a memoir!


I haven't made a big enough mess of things...yet. I'm well on the way though!!!


Jeff at Red State Blue State writes RE my entreaties to the Mets to get back at the Phillies:

In a perfect world, 'Lil Davey will knock one right back up the middle and bust Cole Hamels' teeth... and Michigan will KILL Notre Dame -- not that you care or anything.


Hamels fancies himself a tough guy; he got into a bar fight a few years ago and broke his hand.
I've had just about enough of the Mets this year. They can't even play the spoiler right.

Maybe They Should've Brought In Nick Swisher Instead

• Indians 10-Yankees 2:

When the Yankees acquired Damaso Marte with the idea of him being a "crossover lefty" to pitch to batters from both sides of the plate, I doubt they meant that he'd get shelled equally by each. Grady Sizemore has been vulnerable to lefties his entire career, but in all fairness, at age 26 he's entering his prime years and could be learning to handle them much better to take the next step into superstar/MVP contention; Victor Martinez's numbers against lefties are righties (he's a switch-hitter) have been similar also.
That being said, Marte's line from yesterday was so hideous that all the talk of the Yankees "figuring out how to use him", which were supposedly the problems from last season and the genesis of his struggles, don't look like they've been resolved. The Indians lineup was too good to continue to slump as it has since the start of the season, but there's no excuse for the way Marte pitched yesterday, nor is there one for a nine-run inning.
I criticized the Yankees decision to decline Marte's contract option during the winter. It was for $6 million as I recall and the Yankees decided instead to re-sign Marte to a 3-year extension worth nearly $12 million. In the long term, it might've been a sound business decision, but Marte is 34-years-old , has only been involved in high-pressure situations once in his career (with the White Sox in 2005) and struggled to throw strikes in the playoffs----stats. There's every possibility that he simply can't handle pitching in such a high-pressure atmosphere as for the Yankees. It would've cost them more money over the one year to exercise Marte's option, but at least he: A) would've been singing for his supper and impending free agency; and B) he'd be gone after the year if he pitched like this. The Yankees are stuck with him because no one's taking that contract now and he's signed through 2011.

• Viewer Mail 4.17.2009

Jane Heller at Confessions of a She-Fan writes RE Xavier Nady and Nick Swisher:

Supposedly, Nady is trying rest and rehab to avoid surgery. I sure hope it works and he's not lost for the season. Just wrote up today's post about the home opener. What a disaster that game was.


I, too, wondered if using Swisher would cause possible injury. I certainly hope not!

Historically, I've found that when guys try rest and rehab for a severe injury, all they do is waste time they could've spent rehabbing after surgery. It happened with Jorge Posada last year; they'd be better off getting it done now if it's as bad as they're implying.

With Swisher, I doubt we'll see Joe Girardi pull something like that again. Sometimes I get the impression that Girardi's like a smart kid who's given control of a really successful business and does some really stupid things with it occasionally, mostly without thinking. Last year I suggested that the Yankees needed a smart, veteran bench coach who had some managerial experience, but had no designs on managing again so as not to be a threat to the young and occasionally defensive manager. Tony Pena ain't it. Girardi's lack of managerial experience shows itself far too often for my taste----and I'm a Mets fan!!!

Jeff at Red State Blue State posts three comments:

I feel ya on the MLBlogs issues. Getting a bit too much... throw in my issues with MLB.TV (I mean, they boast of the NextDef plug-in giving me HD but I have yet to actually see a game in HD because the damn thing doesn't work and we're well into week 2 already). *Ahem*... as for Motte, from what I read, TLR and Dunc want to put him in in a non-pressure situation first to get him the work. When lefties are a comin', we'll be seeing lots of Dennys "Big Sweat" Reyes. Franklin has the experience. And Perez could get a call-up any day. I was shaking in my boots last night as Franklin gave up a two-out single and Arizona fans actually made some noise, but it was all for naught. You're right, Prince. If anyone knows how to manage a closer-by-committee, it's LaRussa. The big challenge will be this week against the Cubs. So far I am pleasantly surprised. When it comes to Swisher, like I told Jane, I can't take him seriously anyway, unless he has a beer in his hand.

Carpenter is becoming the Cardinals' version of Mark Prior. Meanwhile, the bullpen continues to rear its ugly head. Last night's game made me vomit, twice. In other news: You're right. It ain't fair, Prince, but I don't think you're a schmuck. Manny, now Manny is a schmuck. Great hitter. Big schmuck. Why is balance so hard to find in the universe these days?

I'm going to wrigley today to see if the Redbirds are for real or not. If you never hear from me again it's because I opened my big mouth -- again -- and got pummeled underneath the bleachers -- again. And no sweat on the Padres; I have faith they'll tailspin soon as you predicted.

The one thing I do not understand about MLBlogs is why they put up with this shit. An entity that big and lucrative for the website designer should be working night and day to make sure it runs correctly. I'm not an advocate for screaming and yelling for no reason, but why isn't anyone on the phone screaming and yelling at their web designer to get the thing working correctly. A swath of viral negatives can really affect one's business far worse than a couple of positives.

With Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan, it's probably hell on their stomachs not to have a closer they can trust, but at the end of the day, they're also probably getting some satisfaction out of finding a way to deal with the problem so creatively.

I wouldn't stick Carpenter in with Prior. At least Carpenter recovered from some of his injuries and fulfilled a bit of his potential; plus, he's just got one of those bodies that breaks down; not much you can do at this point except pitch him when he feels good and sit him when he's hurt while not expecting too much.

As for the stuff at Wrigley: People actually take swings at you? Good grief. This is the problem with a free society: there's no IQ or common sense test to let people out of their house; to swill beer; to interact with others, etc.

Joe at Statistician Magician writes RE the Rays right field platoon of Matt Joyce and Gabe Kapler:

The platoon should be given more time though before a decision should be made as to whether or not they want to try something different.

I didn't actually suggest that they try something different; I just wondered if they saw what they had and regretted what they'd done. Kapler can't be expected to provide much of anything; Joyce is young and inexpensive in terms of dollars, but I wouldn't have traded an arm like Edwin Jackson for him. Whether or not they try something different at this point is irrelevant; they've got what they got. Kapler's won't be part of the regular outfield rotation for much longer either because he'll get hurt or won't start hitting and he ain't worth the $1 million plus they're paying him.

• The issue with my website:

Here's the thing: I've left the batcave for a couple weeks for unspecified reasons and there's some kinda problem that keeps popping up with the following message:

Temporary Interruption
An error has interrupted communication between your browser and the web site server. Internal errors can have many causes.

Click here to continue working.

Because of this interruption, you may have to log in again, or repeat your last action.

The consensus is that it's the internet connection, but it's been working fine so far. Dunno if it's something I did or downloaded or whatever. If anyone's computer savvy and has any suggestions that might help, I'm all ears. It could be a couple of days or it could be until the end of the month, but I'll be posting here in the interim as I try to fix the problems without flinging my computer out the window.

Notes From Yankeeland

• Xavier Nady may be out for the year:

This is a great example of why it's good for teams----especially teams with the cash to pay for quality----to have depth on their roster. In retrospect, the Yankees lukewarm attempts to trade either Nick Swisher or Nady in the spring were a positive failure. If Nady's elbow injury is as serious as it sounds, he's also going to be costing himself a guaranteed contract as an everyday players somewhere next year as he heads into free agency.

That Nady hurt himself making a routine throw emphasizes the risky stupidity of manager Joe Girardi having Nick Swisher pitch in Monday's blowout. I doubt we'll see a key everyday player on the mound again under Girardi no matter what the score is.

• Uh, let's calm down about A.J. Burnett:

The man's pitched two games and all of a sudden we're seeing articles with titles like this from John Harper of the New York Daily News:

A.J. Burnett worth every penny as he stops another Yankee skid

The questions with Burnett have never, ever had anything to do with his stuff. The questions have to do with whether or not he's going to stay healthy. How someone can equate two starts with a pitcher who has the injury history of Burnett to being "worth" the $82.5 million contract he signed is inexplicable.

I don't think even the Yankees expect Burnett's tenure with the team to be free of at least one or two trips to the disabled list in the best case scenario; and one thing that would really be on my mind is how this newfound acclaim is going to affect Burnett if he does feel a twinge that will require some rest. Is he going to be afraid to tell the team that there's something wrong because of how it'll look and make things worse? And it should be remembered, as Burnett is being seen as the Anti-Carl Pavano, is that Pavano won his first start as a Yankee (against the Red Sox no less!) and pitched pretty well in his first two months with the team before the wheels fell off----2005 Pavano Gamelogs. It's a bit premature to be validating the Burnett signing after two starts.

• Could the Rays be regretting their right field platoon already?

Neither Gabe Kapler nor Matt Joyce have done much of anything so far this season and you have to wonder if the Rays are regretting not going more aggressively after Bobby Abreu (defensive lapses aside) or just shutting their eyes and repeating last season's widespread use of their entire roster with Ben Zobrist and Gabe Gross as their primary right fielders. Their offense is good enough to withstand Gross returning to the offensive black hole he was before the sudden (and unforeseen) burst of power after he joined the Rays; and Zobrist has shown he can hit enough to be a semi-regular.

Kapler is only two years removed from retiring to manage in the minors for the Red Sox and was an injury-prone/"looks better than he plays" type of guy during his entire career. Joyce has shown some pop in the minors, but all things being equal, they might've been better off keeping Edwin Jackson (and it's easy to critique the move while Jackson's doing a pretty fair imitation of Dave Stewart with the Tigers) and playing Gross/Zobrist. If they were so intent on trading Jackson, they could've held onto him into the season to see what the offers would be as starting pitchers began feeling twinges and going on the DL as Dasiuke Matsuzaka, Mike Pelfrey, Brandon Webb and Chris Carpenter have so far already.

This is the problem when a management team like that of the Rays begins to believe the press clippings of how "smart" and "innovative" they are: they get too smart; they think that whereas every move they made before 2008 turned to shit, every move they make now will turn to gold; and it doesn't work that way. They outsmarted themselves and it's starting to look like it's going to cost them more in the long run than it would've been to be happy with the offensive upgrade from Pat Burrell and to leave right field as it was while holding onto Jackson or trading him elsewhere for better quality than Joyce currently appears to be.

• Is calling Chris Carpenter an "ace" even accurate at this point?

Chris Carpenter is a great pitcher when he's healthy, but the storyline that the Cardinals have "placed their ace on the disabled list" is something of a misnomer. Carpenter has barely pitched at all in the past two years; at this point, rather than calling him an "ace", maybe he should be called "an oft-injured extra from whom no one should expect much of anything and be happy if he pitches in 15 games".

• The Farnsworth Chronicles:

Kyle (2-years, $9.25 million) Farnsworth has been in four games this season and singlehandedly gacked up two of them with his horrendous hideousness. They should consider making him into a starter. I'm serious.

• The Padres Lossometer: 3

They've gotten off to a stunningly good start, but I still have faith that my prediction in my still available and useful book will come true and we'll be counting up (or down, however you see it) toward 106 losses.

• You wanna see some moves? Here are some moves:

I'm stunningly pleased that the New York Rangers were able to swipe the first game of the first round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs series with the Washington Capitals with a 4-3 win. Here's a highlight video of the game and if fast forward to about 4:00 in if you'd like to see Rangers center Brandon Dubinsky's imitation of Wayne Gretzky with a move that totally discombobulated the Caps defense and won the game for the Rangers.

Sheffield A No-Lose Proposition For The Mets

*Note: My website is down, so I'm posting here until it's back up. Maybe the same fucking morons who decided to change the MLBlogs platform last year on opening weekend are trying to screw up other avenues like Register.com now as well.

There are several reports that the New York Mets are close to signing free agent outfielder Gary Sheffield and I think it's a great, no-risk move for them to bring in a veteran bat and see if he has anything left for no money.

Sheffield could genuinely be finished, but the Mets aren't taking a major risk if they sign him and take a look for a couple of months to see if they can get some production out of him and provide some right-handed pop along with the drama of a guy hitting his 500th homer. If Sheffield can recapture even 70% of what he once was, he's still a big step up from Ryan Church or Fernando Tatis.

The idea of this signing reminds me of when the Mets signed Orel Hershiser during spring training in 1999. There was talk that the signing, along with another former star veteran, Rickey Henderson, was another example of the Mets grasping at straws and trying to dig into the past to find a fading veteran and thinking that he was going to contribute to a championship team as a final piece; but it turned out that both Hershiser and Henderson did have a great deal left to add to that veteran club.

Some may scoff at equating Sheffield with Hershiser. Hershiser had a reputation of being the equivalent of an extra coach on the pitching staff; he was well-liked by the other players and the media along with the staff. Sheffield carries baggage from so many well-publicized disagreements with various front offices and managers along with outrageous behaviors and comments at which even the most paranoid conspiracy theorists would roll their eyes; but one thing about Sheffield is that you won't hear any of his former teammates say a negative word about him on the field or in the clubhouse.

Sheffield plays hard; he helps his teammates; he plays through injuries and has been known as one of the hardest workers in baseball. Add in that he's got a winning pedigree and an edge that the Mets lack. If someone tries to take the liberties as Hanley Ramirez did when he walked by the Mets dugout on the last weekend of the 2008 season and told them, en masse, that they were going home and not to the playoffs, you can bet that Gary Sheffield would leap the dugout steps and be right in Ramirez's face.

The only issue is whether Sheffield is going to be healthy and whether he can still play; but the risk is minimal because he's not going to cost any money and he'll be on his best behavior to try and impress either the Mets or another interested team for next year. It's a worthwhile gamble.

Please purchase my book Paul Lebowitz's 2009 Baseball Guide available at numerous websites.