• Hey, I'm glad Cito Gaston finally got another shot at managing. And according to this story, he'll be back next year. Better read the fine print, though.
"Cito's definitely going to be back," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said Thursday. "He's done a good job. We're six games over .500 since he took over. We've got a long way to go offensively, but he's really laid the groundwork for some of the right stuff offensively. The guys like playing for him."
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Sure, that sounds definitive … But I've scoured the Web and haven't seen anything about Gaston getting an actual contract to manage the Jays in 2009. A lot of people in Toronto are wondering how much longer J.P. Ricciardi can keep his job. If the owner decides (or has decided) to make a change in the front office after this season, won't the new GM want the freedom to hire a new manager? I won't believe Gaston's coming back next year until he's signed a new deal.
• Do you think
Mike Mussina's on the verge of getting himself into the Hall of Fame? After winning again
yesterday, Mussina's only five wins away from winning 20 in a season for the first time in his fine career, which would remove one of the arguments commonly used against his candidacy ("But he never won 20!"). What's more, if he wins 20 this season, he'll have 270 career wins and would figure to push that number past 280 next year. You give Mussina 280 wins
and one of the more impressive winning percentages in major league history, and I'm not sure how you keep him out of the
Coop.
• It's been too long since we've checked in with
Pat Venditte, the Yankees' ambidextrous reliever. So today's the perfect time for
David Laurila's recent interview with Venditte, who's been sort of brilliant since signing with the Yanks in June. The odds are still greatly against Venditte pitching in the majors, as he's a 23-year-old reliever in short-season Class A who doesn't throw hard. So we have to enjoy him while we can.
• Buster Olney reported Thursday night that the Red Sox
placed a waiver claim on Brian Giles. I read
another report suggesting that the Red Sox are blocking the Angels and the Rays from claiming Giles, a notion supported by the facts that 1) Giles may veto a trade to the Red Sox, and 2) the Red Sox outfield is already full (especially in the corners). I think this is probably right; the Sox probably don't have much legitimate interest in Giles. Let me throw out another possibility, though: Since coming off the DL two weeks ago,
David Ortiz is batting .250/.327/.354 with one homer in 12 games. At any given moment, the Red Sox know a great deal more about the health of their players than anyone else knows. And if they believe Ortiz is headed back to the DL, Brian Giles is the sort of player they'd try to acquire.
• Speaking of waiver claims, the Rays made a nice one yesterday,
picking up Chad Bradford, and I'm surprised that 11 teams -- including the Red Sox, the Yankees, the White Sox and the Twins -- passed on him. Bradford's got a 2.45 ERA this season, despite a strikeout rate, 2.9 per nine innings, that's well below what's needed to pitch effectively in the majors. In his prime -- his first three seasons with the A's -- Bradford struck out 7.2 per nine innings, which is excellent, especially for a guy who never broke 90 with his "fastball." Bradford's strikeout rate has plummeted since then, bottoming out this year. So how has he survived? He's become
exceptionally stingy with the long ball, giving up only five homers in his last 190 innings. In contrast, last year
Brad Penny had the lowest home run ratio among ERA title qualifiers, and Penny gave up nine homers in 208 innings.
• I don't know why I even read
this story about the U.S. soccer team's 1-0 victory over Japan on Thursday; I have just a small interest in soccer, and no interest at all in the Olympics. But my brain was stimulated when I saw this:
Marvelle Wynne was critical in creating the U.S. goal, using sheer speed down the right side to get a half step on Yuto Nagatomo and send his low drive into the goal box. Japanese captain Hiroki Mizumoto deflected the ball out to the top of the penalty area, where Holden ran onto it unchallenged.
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The spelling of the first name is off by one letter. But yes, U.S. soccer player
Marvell Wynne II is the son of 1980s major leaguer
Marvell Wynne.
• ShysterBall takes a fairly interesting story and
makes it his own.
• Well, this is interesting. At the same time
Manny Ramirez seems to have suddenly become the best hitter in the National League, Dan Shaughnessy
reports, "The commissioner's office is investigating the circumstances of Manny's final hours with the Red Sox." According to a popular (since last week) theory, MannyB essentially stopped giving anything like 100 percent at the behest of Scott Boras, in order to make both of them a great deal richer after this season. I wouldn't put it past either of them. But I can't figure out what, of substance, an investigation might discover. And what the commissioner's office would do, even if something of substance
is discovered.
Rob Neyer
