... Phil Hughes pitches.

Let me explain.

It's not that I dislike the kid - on the contrary, I always root for him and really want him to succeed. He's just so. Freaking. Frustrating. WHY can't he pitch at the major league level this year? He did it last year and showed great potential - getting all of our hopes up! Then this year... the hell? What happened, Philly Cheesesteak?

Here's what he did last year (AKA The Great FOOLED YOU Caper):
Appearances: 13
IP: 72.7
Record: 5-3
ERA: 4.46
WHIP: 1.208
Shining Moment: 5/1/07, when he took a no-hitter into the 6th against the Rangers.

And now let's take a gander at how he's done this year:
Appearances: 7
IP: 26.0
Record: 0-4
ERA: 7.96
WHIP: 2.038
Shining Moment: Um... I guess going 4 innings and giving up 1 run yesterday.

See what I'm saying, munecas? Yes, he only have up 1 run yesterday, but he really didn't look good and it took him 89 pitches to get through it.

Don't get me wrong - I haven't totally given up on the dude. He was rushed into the majors in the first place and he's had a lot of injury problems. There is certainly a chance for a turnaround. It's just painful to watch him at the moment, and I implore any of you to disagree.

BTW: How's that Santana trade deal proposed by the Twins looking now?

... the Clemens juicing drama heats up again. If anyone isn't sick of it at this point, I fear there may be something wrong with the part of your brain that is supposed to be irritated by fame-hungry people seeking to get their name in the news.

The latest comes courtesy of the man who allegedly shipped Clemens (and others) HGH back in the early 2000's, trainer boy McNameanie's crony and key evidence-giver in the Mitchell Report Kirk Radomski. Captain Kirk told espn.com that he was moving a broken TV in his house the other day and - surprise! - he found a stack of receipts showing he had shipped Clemens HGH right underneath it. He said they prove he sent the stuff to the Rocket in "2002 or 2003," which makes no sense to me - wouldn't a receipt have a date on it? What is this ballparking of the date business? The found receipts also include shipments to other players, but Captain said he couldn't recall to whom he was making those shipments. Again... fishy? If one of the receipts had Clemens name on it, wouldn't it stand to reason that the other receipts would bear the names of the other recipients? Or am I missing something here?

Thank god the All-Star break is finally over. I'm sick of Baseball Tonight discussing this.

... People describe players like David Eckstein as "scrappy" as if it was the greatest characteristic an athlete could possess. My hatred for this is twofold:

This is not a declaration of a particular dislike for Scrapstein. Rather, it is a plea to broadcasters to stop focusing so much on the intangibles an offer insightful commentary and analysis that is based on performance. If the ESPN announcers continue to pepper their game announcements with "he's a scrappy one!" type comments every time I watch the Jays play the Yanks I shall erupt into a fit of shrieks of frustration and hollers of disgust.

...the New York media can't think of anything interesting to jabber about and starts grasping at straws for a story, ANY story.

Case in point: Dissecting and over-analyzing the way Joba celebrates a successful pitching outing.

You know what I'm talking about - the innocuous fist pump he does every time he strikes someone out. No, you're not missing anything - THAT is what people are fired up about.

After striking out Frank Thomas on Wednesday, Joba executed the aforementioned fist pump, obviously thrilled that he got out such a prolific hitter and reportedly one of his own personal heroes. He didn't do a little jig, get in the Hurt's face and holler "BEYOTCH!" or get down on his knees and start praising Jesus. See for yourself:


I would certainly not classify that as "excessive celebration" or "jackassery" or even "over-excitement." What's more, Frank Thomas agrees! When asked about Joba's pumpin' all he had to say was:

"He was pumped up, did a good job, and he struck me out in a big situation. So go ahead."

Is there anyone - media aside - out there that thinks this is a big deal AT ALL? It should be such a non-issue that I feel stupid even mentioning it here. Any idiot can see that he's excited, not bragging. Joba has done a lot of interviews, and I have never seen one during which he was anything but humble, grateful, and completely devoid of cockiness.

...Jose Canseco defames A-Rod's good name with unsubstantiated reports of steroid use.

Let me state upfront that I actually like Canseco - he's quite the fascinating character, what with the playing record, a marriage proposal to Madonna, his Surreal Life participation, and the rescue of a wayward owl during a Rangers game. What's more, I think that a lot of his claims most likely are indeed based on truth; after all, he did host a delightful steroids BBQ (like an 80's theme party, or a slumber party... but steroid-aliciuos!) and was obviously right in the heart of the 90's steroid culture (like punk rock, or nudism... but steroid-alicious!).

HOWEVER! I am sick to death of his incessant insistence that A-Rod was involved in the aforementioned steroid "ring." Jose's second book, "Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball," on the subject is set to be released on April 1st, and A-Rod is a featured player. According to Canseco, he personally introduced A-Rod to a juice peddler. He admits that he did not ever inject him but maintains that A-Rod was in contact with the distributer and henceforth surely a user.

This all makes my YC blood boil. I can think of several reasons to disbelieve his claims just off the top of my head:

• Assuming this meeting took place somewhere in mid-1998 - since thats when the steroids bash took place - juice use would would indicate a dramatic spike in performance. Not so: every year since his full-season debut in 1995 has been similar: high batting average, good OBP, high slugging percentage. In his numbers were '98 .310/.360/.560 with 42 homers, in '99 .285/.358/.586 and 41 homers, and in 2000 .316/.420/.606 with 41. Furthermore, his numbers continued to improve nearly every year since then, and Canseco's allegations regard past drug use; he has not implied that A-Rod is currently on steroids. If he took them and then stopped, we would most likely see a subsequent decline in power at the very least.
• He has not suffered from extensive and chronic injuries that go right along with juice usage - see Klesko, Balco B, Nomaaaaaaaah, etc etc etc.
• Where is that distributor?
• His head is not the size of a watermelon.
  

On a funnier note, Canseco's anti-A-Rod ramblings include something of an even more soap opera-esque nature: he claims that A-Rod was trying to seduce his wife. JERRY, JERRY, JERRY!

Related sidenote: I didn't realize that Canseco and McNamee disagreed on whether the Rocket was at the infamous juice BBQ. McNamee testified to congress that he was present, but Canseco said he was not. Interesting... thoughts?

... Folks read too much into situations that don't warrant our valuable time and brain space.

Prime example: yesterday's shenanigans during the game against the Rays. There is a contingent of fans and even some writers claiming that Girardi must have been behind Shelley's antics, trying to rally his troops to retaliate against the Rays. There have been proclamations that yesterday's game showed that Girardi was going to be different than Torre, not content to sit idly by and give out pats on the back but instead telling a bunch of kids to aim for the groin when sliding DURING SPRING TRAINING IN "RETALIATION" FOR SOMETHING THAT WASN'T EVEN WORTH RETALIATING AGAINST.

The problem with that theory is that it's just plain stupid. After the game on Saturday he was asked whether he would encourage his players to strike back and he specifically said no; it was our Spirit Coordinator who was fired up and "warned" that he would be showing the same if not more intensity during their next face-off. Shelley is easily riled up (ADHD anyone?), so seeing him take matters into his own hands should come as no surprise. What's more, none of the core members of the team - Jeter, A-Rod, et al - were even at the game. Why on Earth would Girardino go out of his way to fire up a bunch of players that have no chance of making the roster (save for Shelley)? What would be the point?

Simmer down, peeps. It is completely overblown. It's done. It was nothing. Move the hell on.

... it takes three days for anyone to clue me in on something as fabulous as this:




This boy died of a broken heart, because baseball sucks now because of stats geeks no one likes.

Pure. Golden. Magic.

Red Sox fans impugn the entire Yankees fanbase based on a couple loud losers. EVERY team has moronic fans, the type that says ignorant and unimportant shit like "Yanks r the best team, ever, 25 champion ships dude!" or "ur team suckz cuz the Yanks beat them one time!" I'm not denying that there certainly are Yankees fans that are obnoxious and grating, but the fact that so much attention is heaped upon them is simply because morons tend to be louder than us sane folks. There are plenty of us that are rational, able to make solid arguments in favor of our team and admit their flaws - and we can even swallow our pride and acknowledge the accomplishments of our rivals.