Archive for August, 2009
hill is at it again:
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Ryan Howard homered twice during a perfect night at the plate, Jamie Moyer pitched effectively in relief of Pedro Martinez, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2 in the rain Friday. Looking for its third straight division title, Philadelphia increased its NL East lead to eight games over Atlanta and Florida, which lost at home to San Diego.
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Take a peek at a video of hill:
05/23/09 - NEWARK BEARS vs. YORK - BOBBY HILL - 2nd Inning Action - Atlantic League Baseball
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camp sure has been in the news a lot lately:
Denver probably thought all their troubles were gone when they shipped Jay Cutler out of town, but now they’ve got an even bigger problem child on their hands in Brandon Marshall. The operative word being “child.”
Marshall has not played in either of the Broncos preseason games because he fully admits that he hasn’t bothered to learn the playbook. Then he threw a temper tantrum at practice on Wednesday (helpfully captured by local news crews), by walking through running drills, punting balls across the field instead of giving them to ball boys, and knocking down passes instead of catching them. Basically just being a gigantic baby. He was not allowed to practice on Thursday as a result.
The disgruntled wide receiver told ESPN last night that he isn’t trying to force a trade, even though he’s been asking for one for months. That’s good news, because no one is going to want to trade for a spoiled brat wide receiver. (There’s plenty of those to go around.) He says he’s “frustrated” over … playing in Denver, I guess, and apologized for his behavior. That doesn’t mean he’s suddenly interested in cooperating with offense, however.
So for now Denver is stuck with him, their only recourse being a maximum four-game suspension. UPDATE: And that’s exactly what they’ve done. He’s just been suspended for the rest of the preseason for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Of course, there is one constant between both the Jay Cutler saga and the Marshall one—Josh McDaniels. The only thing he seems to have accomplished in his first offseason is pissing off his team’s two best players and winning the respect of no one. Should be a good year in Broncoland!
Brandon Marshall Makes A Mockery Of Practice ABC7
Denver Broncos’ WR Brandon Marshall misses practice again, likely out Sunday ESPN
Broncos can’t send Marshall home with pay ProFootballTalk
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I bet nobody saw that one coming! Thoughts?
Take a look at a vid of camp trying his thing:
Jose Canseco’s Baseball Camp (Part 3)
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If you’re a fan of Wells, you’ll appreciate this -
Let’s push controversy aside for a while, shall we, and try to just enjoy a baseball game this afternoon?
The last time the Mets visited Wrigley Field was more than 16 months ago, on April 22, 2008. That isn’t that long ago in baseball terms, but of the eight starting Cubs that day, four are no longer with the team and one is on the DL. Five other Cubs who appeared in the game are elsewhere as well. As for the Mets, four of their starting eight from that game won’t appear due to injury and three others have departed.
Ronny Cedeno hit a grand slam in that game, just to remind you of blasts from the past. It’s still his only slam. (That’s just about the time we started calling him ONEDEC.)
Two very different teams will take the field at Wrigley this afternoon from that long-ago day in 2008 (the Cubs did face the Mets last September, still almost a year ago, when the Mets were desperately trying to win a playoff spot, which they lost on the last day of the season). The Mets have been decimated by injuries, both to their starting lineup and pitching rotation — the three Mets probable starters in this series, Pat Misch, Bobby Parnell and Nelson Figueroa, were definitely not the pitchers Jerry Manuel envisioned in his rotation in April.
OK, I suppose I can’t resist a couple of links and comments regarding the current Milton Bradley situation. Phil Rogers says the Cubs should just cut him, which would cost north of $20 million and I think is a ridiculous idea, but Rogers also offer some suggestions of other teams’ bad contracts that could result in a trade:
The only way to trade Bradley, according to executives with other clubs, is to up your ante to take on someone else’s bad contract. You know the names — the Blue Jays‘ Vernon Wells, owed $98.5 million over five years; the Giants‘ Barry Zito, $83 million over four years; the Astros‘ Carlos Lee, $55.5 million over three years, maybe the Giants’ Aaron Rowand, $36 million over three years.
The best of those scenarios involves the Rangers‘ five-year, $80-million deal with Michael Young, who at 32 is a productive player. He’s owed $16 million a year for four more seasons.
In a cost-cutting mode because of ownership problems, Texas might consider a Bradley-for-Young trade. But it wouldn’t do it during its ongoing playoff race and it’s going to be increasingly awkward for them to try to wade through a hugely problematic trade.
As Rogers says, Texas is in a playoff race and probably wouldn’t do it now. So are the Giants with Zito, who has actually pitched very well since the All-Star break. The Vernon Wells deal would be more palatable to the Cubs if it didn’t have five years and nearly as much money as Alfonso Soriano’s. But I’d do it. Wells is virtually the same age as Bradley (about eight months younger) and, though he’s had a couple of tough years since he signed his monster deal, at least he does have proven power numbers from the past, and could play CF, allowing Kosuke Fukudome to move back to RF next season (with Reed Johnson retained to back them both up).
And strangely enough, the best local media words on this situation come from the Tribune’s Steve Rosenbloom, who I almost never agree with and who often writes ridiculous bombast. But today he nails it, in a column titled Bradley’s response ought to anger those who take on racism seriously:
Racism is serious. If you are concerned or angry enough to put that in the public discussion, then you seemingly should be motivated to explain when and where this happened. How else do you take a step toward keeping it from happening again?
But when Bradley offers only cynicism and sarcasm, he diminishes the severity of the issue. Moreover, he does a disservice to those suffering abuse but who are willing to fight the fight head on.
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Under no circumstances does anyone deserve to be abused racially. Underachieving baseball player and racial epithets are dots that should never connect.
But Bradleyâs history and now his dismissive response to questions following his serious charges invite the suggestion that heâs looking for ways to shield himself from his problems, self-inflicted or otherwise.
One hundred percent correct, Mr. Rosenbloom. Bravo.
Try to enjoy today’s game.
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Pat Misch’s stats below are with the Mets only; see the pitcher box for his full-season stats.
There’s no profile photo of Pat Misch in a Mets cap available (at least not in that size), so you get one of him with his former team, the Giants. The Mets acquired Misch on waivers in July and he’s spent the last couple of months shuttling between Buffalo and New York, making 15 relief appearances with the Mets (after four with the Giants). He is a Chicago-area native who graduated from Glenbrook North HS in Northbrook in 1999 and has made three career relief appearances vs. the Cubs, all in 2007. This will be his first start as a Met. Only one current Cub has a hit off him — Koyie Hill (1-for-2), but that’s covering only eight total at-bats from all current Cubs.
Ted Lilly is 2-1, 3.86 in five career appearances (four starts) vs. the Mets. His last two starts against them, one in 2007 and one in 2008, were both wins, the last one in the April 22, 2008 game mentioned above. The current Met who has the most AB against Ted is Gary Sheffield; Sheffield is only 5-for-28 against him.
Cable-only today in Chicago (CSN) and New York (SNY). For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Mets site Amazin’ Avenue.
Overflow comment threads will post today at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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My vote for MVP this year goes to ray:
â¢It’s pretty much unanimous: everyone hates Liberty National, the golf course built over a toxic industrial site in Jersey City. Well, what do they expect? Nicky Santoro is buried under the 15th green. â¢So, which is worse, a clubhouse cancer like T.O. or your number one receiver being Patrick Crayton? That’s life for the Cowboys for a while, after Roy Williams goes down with a shoulder injury. â¢John Elway to tie the knot tomorrow with former a former Raiderette. Hope he had his fun, because once she says “I do,” she won’t let him near her black hole ever again. â¢Your Little League World Series final four: California, Georgia, Mexico and Taiwan. The semis are tomorrow, and finals on Sunday. So, no need to leave the house to get your crying children fix this weekend. â¢Mike Vick lines up in the slot, in the shotgun and behind center - and only one of his six plays goes for a decent gain. Yup, he’ll fit in just fine as an Eagles QB. â¢Yes, it’s come to this: extreme pogo jumping. Not nearly as hardcore as extreme jump rope, which I believe involves barbed wire. â¢Don’t act like you wouldn’t pay to see this. From “Dr. Coolsex,” the live action Mario Kart movie: 
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