Yesterday was a wonderful day to be a manager, huh? Jim Leyland wasn't happy about something Jason Grilli said. Leyland's not happy about how the Tigers are playing, either (audio here with lots of bleeps, and I couldn't help noticing that MLB.com, when transcribing the material, left out not only the bleepable stuff, but also the bleeps). Ned Yost wasn't happy about the local writers publishing that blogger's rumor about Yost getting fired on Monday (and no, we're not going to link to Badger Blogger any more). And Willie Randolph? He's right about one thing: now it's all about wins and losses. If the Mets don't start winning, he's going to lose his job.
• River Ave. Blues makes a
great point about Mark Teixeira: Yes, both New York teams could use a guy like Teixeira next year. But he's going to be 29 next season and he's going to want a superlong-term contract. Is seven years too many?
• Big League Stew's
pictorial history of Mike Piazza's career is neat-o ... but how do you forget to include a photo of Piazza
hitting? Not to worry; David Pinto's got
a great one here.
• In case you haven't already read enough about Jon Lester's no-hitter, I have to recommend
Joe Posnanski's typical Posnanskian take, with a bit of you-are-there flavor because Poz was there. It was his first no-hitter, which makes me feel even luckier to have seen
one, as I'm sure Joe's been to a lot more games than I have.
• Eric Seidman reviews
the career of Bucky Walters, in part because of a letter he received from Walters' grandson. I got the same letter a few years ago. I know something about
Walters' career, but I have to admit I upped my opinion of him after doing some studying. After all, Walters won 198 games, lost 160, and he was the best pitcher in the National League in two (or perhaps three) different seasons. He really was a great pitcher. Great enough for the Hall of Fame, though? There are a lot of 200-game winners who aren't in the Hall of Fame, and some of them had better (adjusted) career ERAs than Walters. He posted ERA+s better than 130 in four seasons; two of those were 1944 and '45, when most of the best players were wearing military uniforms. Yes, Walters was better than some guys who are in the Hall of Fame. More to the point, though, there are a lot of pitchers
not in the Hall of Fame who were better than Walters.
• Yesterday I sort of ripped the Mariners for sending Jeff Clement down. I should have just let USS Mariner do it, as DMZ came up with
a scathing indictment through the use of
facts (as opposed to my silly opinion).
• The
latest edition of Cardboard Gods highlights Jeff Torborg. Show up for the no-hitter stuff, and stick around for the punchline featuring one of my all-time favorite Royals.
•
Todd Jones: Cross-Dresser. Peace out. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Rob Neyer
