1. The Yankees, fresh off their dramatic victory Thursday over Toronto, will take three out of four from Kansas City at home. But the Yankees' veterans will grow further suspicious of management Sunday when they see a scoreboard advertisement reading: "Rent out the Stadium this October for your wedding or bar mitzvah!"
2. The Mets will win their next three games over the Padres, continuing their strong play of late. In a visit to the famous San Diego Zoo Saturday, Mets reliever Scott Schoeneweis will personally clean, massage and feed (with a spoon, no less) every animal. An infuriated Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson will ask, "Why did you make it so easy for them?!"
3. In his second major-league start Sunday, Joba Chamberlain will last five innings with his assigned 77 pitches and pick up his first victory as a starter. But in maintaining their restrictions on him, the Yankees will allow Chamberlain just half a dessert and order him in bed after the "Scrubs" rerun on Channel 5.
4. Having been thwarted in their effort to control fantasy baseball, Major League Baseball and the Players Association will attempt to squeeze more blood out of their fans by charging a $2 fee every time someone mentions a team name in any conversation, anywhere.
5. Exchanged e-mails late last night with a scout who works for a team that is not the Mets or Yankees, and he was kind enough to share his take on the three young players (two by the Mets, one by the Yankees) who were selected in the first round of yesterday's amateur draft.
Here's the scout on Ike Davis, the Arizona State first basemen whom the Mets picked 18th: "Ike Davis is a tremendous athlete with light-tower power. Definitely can handle both corners in the OF and plays a nice first base. Not quite the pure hitter as the other first baseman that went ahead of him in the draft, but his pure power creates a high ceiling.
On South Carolina shortstop Reese Havens, who went to the Mets at 22: "Solid arm strength. Bat came around later in college career, but started to gain momentum after Cape Cod last summer. Some teams thought he was a true SS. Others thought he would be a perfect conversion to catcher. Makeup is outstanding."
And on Orange Lutheran High School right-hander Gerrit Cole, who went 28th as the Yankees' first pick: "Tremendous young pitcher's build. Powerful arm. Consistent 92-98 on the radar gun. Advanced changeup. Useable slider. Makeup concerns dropped him a shade in the draft by some clubs. No denying arm strength or arsenal."
6. Just three days after Joba made his first start, I'm having my live-chat debut at 1 o'clock this afternoon. Just like Joba, I'll have my limits: 30 minutes, and no more than six "Seinfeld" references. If you have a chance to stop by, I'd love to hear from you.
And on Sunday night, 10:30 on Channel 5, I'll be on "Sports Extra" with Duke Castiglione. I'm working on my mustache for the appearance.
Thanks to the IMDb for the photo, and have a great weekend.
Comments (13)
Ken, The Yankees gave Robinson Cano $32 million in the off season and so far it hasn't work out. Perhaps Cano can't handle expections. Nor can Cano bunt in the 8th Inning yesterday. I don't understand why Girardi has Cano bunt, where Cano can't bunt at all. All of a sudden these teams are signing their young players. Sime of them can handle expections, where others like Cano can't.
Ken - Billy Crystal hasn't been intentionally funny since "Analyze This".
Off to see my old team vs. the Yanks on Monday afternoon for a first hand look. The Royals wuld have to grow full beards to have any luck whatsoever the way they are struggling.
What was the worst team you covered and how did you stay sane doing it?
Bob, I know you were not wtih the Royals for the famous " Pine Tar' game. But what were your thoughts about that game when George Brett was call out and went nuts beacuse of using pine tar on the bat.
Ken--it seems like the Red Sox and their media are making no big deal of the Manny-Youkilis altercation in the dugout last night. Mainly because why it happened is a big secret. However, when it happened, on the Rays' radio broadcast, the guys said something like this is expected given Youkilis' (yes they said Youkilis, not Manny) lack of popularity in the clubhouse. Have you heard anything like this about him?
Since we have been murdering Farnsworth lately, I'd like to say something nice about him: his wife is hot. Hopefully he will remember this is his contract year and fight to save his career ala Mussina and Giambi (soon to come, Abreu) and shut us all up.
As for the Pine tar Game, it is watching the other umpires step back and make first year umpire Tim McClelland call Brett out.
As for Youkilis, I don't want to start something, but...he is Jewish and the Sox are a very born again team (as is much of baseball) . Everyone claims that it is no issue, but after the Nats/Church Baseball Chapel case and the Rockies purportedly making management decisions rebarding faith and character, it may have to be considered.
Full disclosure...I converted to Judaism during my major league career.
Bob, I've been fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on your level of masochism) to not have covered too many bad teams. As a beat writer, I covered the 1998-2004 Yankees. No complaints there, although I did spend some time around the 2003-04 Mets. Before my beat-writing days, I was around the 1995-96 Mets. Those teams were dreadful, but you find interesting stories with them, positive or negative.
I've never heard that about Youkilis, Sandy. I do know that Manny is popular, except when he abandons the team for long stints every now and then. Bob, I'd say that the Red Sox are one of the less religious teams around
as for Manny, supposedly Youk was mad that he didn't really get out onto the field too quickly when the fight broke out. Considering that the Sox has run out on the field a few times for Manny when Rays pitchers went after him, I can understand.
in 2005, the Baseball Chapel leader Vince Nauss deemed the Sox the most religious team in baseball.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/08/31/faith_binds_many_on_sox/
Ken-Who would you say were the 3 most likeable players that you covered? Who were the 3 most difficult to deal with?
OK, Bob, but there's only 3 guys left from that group (Schilling, Varitek and Timlin). All I can tell you is, from spending time in their clubhouse, I don't get any sort of religious vibe like I did from the Yankees dynasty (Pettitte, Girardi, Brosius, Curtis). And to be clear, I'm not judging this at all, but it's more apparent in some clubhouses than others.
I hope the Yankees keep drafting pitchers and keep stocking up on the young arms in the minor league system. I think their next great run will be fueled by home grown pitching. I like Melky in center. Wish he had a little more power. A couple of current minor leaguers might one day soon fit in nicely in the OF. I'd like to see a young catcher on the horizon. Hope they someone can bring a power guy in to play first base next year when Giambi is gone. I think Cano is going to be a very good player, despite his poor first half this year.
Is their a more awful hitting team in the clutch with runners in scoring position than the Yankees? I like to know what team with the type of offensive players that the Yanks have can't seem to drive in runners on base worse than the Yanks in clutch situations.
If the "close and late" statistic can be used to measure clutch hitting, then actually the Yankees aren't too bad. They rank 5th in the AL with a 729 OPS. Boston is first with a 782. The Mets are 14th in the NL with a 654 OPS. So the Yankees aren't as bad as Dennis suggests but they could be better.
Not to be outdone by the Red Sox, Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro just had a shouting match on the mound in Texas and after the inning was over they got into a small fight in the dugout.