I think its time......

...for super prospect Phil Hughes to hit the bricks back to AAA or AA. It hurts me to say it, I love the kid. I think he will in the near future be a rock solid anchor in the Yankee rotation, but that time is not now. Phil continued his string of poor outings tonight, giving up 6 runs in 3 and 2/3 innings. This totals his stats to:

      W   L   IP     H     R     ER    BB   K    ERA   WHIP
      0   3   18.1   26    17    16    10   11   7.85  1.96    

To me his biggest problem seems to be that he is scared of challenging batters. He seems to be pitching like a Greg Maddux, just with out the pin point control. When that happens you throw a lot of pitches, walk a lot of guys, and end up in a lot of jams. Add all those things together and it sure as hell ain't looking good. Hughes is supposed to be a power pitcher, a guy who says "I dare to you try and hit this, bitch!!" So whats the problem? One problem seems to be that he has lost about 3 to 5 mph of his fastball. If he realizes he has lost his velocity then he might be scared to throw a strike because he doesn't want a guy to shell him.

So Hughes needs a trip to the minors, and very soon so he can get his career back on track. Down in Scranton he can regain his confidence and his velocity. One extra thought with the velocity. It seems like a lot of previously successful pitchers(Zito, Bret Myers, Hughes, there are more) are not doing so well, and the main culprit is a unexplainable drop in velocity. I certainly hope these unexplainable situations are not so very explainable if adding steroids and HGH to the conversation.

So if the Yankees are going to send Hughes down who do they bring up? I hate to say, I really hate to say it, but I think its time to see Kei Igawa. I don't like him, never did, but I think he could at least give the team 6 innings, if not a win or two.

Ahhh soon I feel I will be cursing Kei Igawa soon too. I hate the Yankees pitching staff, but am still glad I don't see Johan Santana every 5 days.

Sports Don Found Half Dead In South American Rain Forest...... By being half dead He was still more alive then Rocco Baldelli.

BHH saved me from the likes of the evil Bohemian Amazon Furry Snake shortly after asking of my where abouts. I've always been one for adventure and excitement so i decided to take a flight down to south america and roam around a little. On my journey i ran into a badger and a one eyed toad who took me in to help me find inner peace. On the 13th day of that experience after drinking something they referred to as "jungle juice" (very similar to a blend of juice we make with everclear here in the states actually) I got so drunk i wandered in the rain forest. In the rain forest i ran into Luke Conway who introduced me to the giant Evil Furry Snake. It was then i realized the badger and one eyed toad were in on this plot to kill the sports don (myself) for that time I handled the family business and spoke sports trash to the badgers brother. Ike. The first chance i got i was able to write a letter (I always carry supplies for times like this) and i sent a carrier pigeon to bring the letter to the bean head hater. The Bean immediately Got on a boat and came to get me.

Now that i'm back... lets talk some sports.

Can the Hawks Beat the Celtics and Advance in the Playoffs?

Mike Bibby has experience in big games which Rondo doesn't have and isn't 56 years old like Cassell. Enough said. Joe Johnson will be able to score baskets on Allen but will he be able to guard the penetration and dish out? he'll probably have to worry about Paul Pierce also as Josh Smith will have his Hands Full trying to accumulate blocks against The Big Ticket who will surely look to dominate now that he has a legit chance at an nba title.

All in All I don't have much to say other then this will probably be alot closer then most people think. I see the Hawks Matching up fairly well if only because of the athletisism they bring to the table. I say they can and will shock the celtics.

The don can't wait to say he told you so.

don...out!

MIssing person!!

Where has The Sports Don gone? Is he lost in the Congo? Maybe in the Bering sea catching crabs on that show Mike Rowe narrates? Or could he possibly be at the Playboy mansion boning broads with huge mammies all day and night? Naaa can't be, he must be somewhere else.

Where are you Sports Don?

My Cardinal Sins of Baseball

You know when your a professional baseball player you are expected to be able to do certain things. These things are the fundamentals, the things you learn in little league from the fathers who think that their kids are going to be the next major leaguers. Yet every time I watch a game, or see highlights on Sportscenter I see things that should not under an circumstances happen at the major league level.

This list will be revised and updated as I see fit, but for now here are the two cardinal sins of baseball:

1. Thou shall not walk in runs - A professional pitcher should under no circumstances walk in any run in any game in any situation. Ever. This one is seen all the time, some middle relief guy named Dipshit McDouche comes in walks two guys to load the bases and then a third to walk in a run. Just throw a strike man! Seriously lob one in, give the guy a meat ball if he hits it probability says it will most likely be an out.
   
   Those who violate this sin should immediately get shipped to the minors for a game. I don't care if your name is Johan Santana, you walk in a run...TO THE MINORS WITH YOU!!!
   
   
2. Thou shall be able to bunt - Infuriating to see a major league hitter not be able to lay down a bunt when needed. The worst is when your an NL pitcher and you need to sacrifice a guy to second or third and you can't get a bunt down. I think right before Pedro popped his hammy he had trouble laying down a bunt for a sacrifice. Well that hammy injury was the Force punishing him for the inability to bunt. Baseball and the Force are powerful allies.
   
   Or when your Jason Giambi and the whole defense plays you to pull the ball, how about you try and lay one down the third baseline? I mean give it a shot man, then if it works then the stop playing the shift on you and you get more hits through the holes. Hit to the holes the defense gives you.
   
   And when your team is trying to pull off a suicide squeeze, you better get the bat on the ball some how. I don't care if you have to dive, jump, duck, or cartwheel to get wood on the ball, just do it. The Devil Rays, I mean Rays, screwed that up against the Yankees the other day. With Aybar on third, Jason Bartlett missed the bunt completely, and Aybar was caught in no mans land. Cost them a run and maybe a rally that could have won them the game.
   
   Those who violate this sin should be benched immediately, for that game and maybe the next. As for Jason Bartlett who missed the squeeze bunt, TO THE MINORS!!!! There is no excuse for this, you people are professional baseball players.

Finally I said I would give my seasons end standings for the league, so here we go:

NL West

1. Arizona Diamondbacks
2. LA Dodgers
3. Colorado Rockies
4. San Diego Padres
   
5. San Francisco Giants
   

NL Central

1. Cincinnati Reds
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Milwaukee Brewers
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Huston Astros
6. Pittsburgh Pirates
   

NL East

1. Philadelphia Phillies
2. New York Mets
   
3. Atlanta Braves
4. Washington Nationals
5. Florida Marlins

AL West

1. Anaheim Angels (to hell with Los Angeles)
2. Seattle Mariners
   
3. Texas Rangers
4. Oakland Athletics

AL Central

1. Cleveland Indians
   
2. Kansas City Royals
3. Detroit Tigers
   
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Minnesota Twins

AL East

1. New York Yankees
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Tampa Bay Rays
4. Toronto Blue Jays
5. Baltimore Orioles
   

The wild cards will be the Red Sox and the Mets.

So there you have it, those WILL BE the season standings at the end of the year, end of story.

Until next time, keep your pimp hand strong!!

Week 1 Round Up

What a glorious week it has been!!! Gotta say once baseball season hits life is always good, because no matter how shitty a day you have just had you know you get to watch your team play and thats super(unless they lose and then your more pissed). Anyways welcome to the best time of year friends.

Lets start it up with the week one round up:

The Royals swept the Tigers - I am sure just about everyone is aware of this by now because it is pretty darn ridiculous. But the Royals didn't just beat the Tigers they pretty much dominated them. Could this be the year the Royals put together a good year? They have not been over .500 since 2003, and before that it was 1994. I think this could be the year they have a solid season, and go above .500. They have a solid lineup with Gordon, Butler, and Guillen knocking in Gruds, Teahen, and DeJesus. I also think maybe this can be the year that they have 3 solid, not great, but solid starters to throw out there. I don't think they can win the division and certainly not the wild card, but an above .500 year is a good start for this franchise.

PS. Butler- 22-109-.310 Gordon-20-115-.290

Fragile Handle with Care Department - Well welcome back to the disabled list Pedro, Mike Hampton, Rocco Baldelli, and Scott Rolen!! I swear they just keep coming back because the food is so good. There are other guys who hit the DL recently to but those guy are not as much fun to harass.

Pedro popped his hammy throwing a pitch, the funny part about this(at least for me is the conversation The Sports Don and I had earlier that night before the fateful pitch:

(2008-04-01 18:47:06) Donbot: i look for pedro to compete for the cy young this year with santana
(2008-04-01 18:51:25) Me: no chance
(2008-04-01 18:51:47) Donbot: u'll see
(2008-04-01 18:52:30) Me: I will see him start 20 games if he is lucky
(2008-04-01 18:52:53) Donbot: fair enough. we agree to disagree
.....
.....
(2008-04-01 20:32:22) Me: DL stint #1 coming up
(2008-04-01 20:32:49) Donbot: jesus christmas
(2008-04-01 20:33:08) Me: wow man
(2008-04-01 20:33:27) Me: I didnt mean to jinx him, but 20 starts it is

Really I didn't mean to jinx him. Now a days you have to know Pedro is going to get hurt he hasn't throw 200 innings since 2005, and is just getting older. I would hate to think that Omar went into this season with his fingers crossed. NO he wouldn't do that, I am sure he has a backup plan better then Claudio Vargas.

Then we have the mandatory Mike Hampton DL stint. Strained left pectoral. So basicly he hurt his left titty. Imagine your wife/girl friend/lover/one night stand said to you "Honey I can't do it tonight, I strained my left titty." You would probably fire her, or at least send her to the bedroom for the night while you do whatever it is you do online. Thats what someone needs to say to Mike Hampton, "YOUR FIRED". I don't know why you sign him to anything less then a minor league deal anyway. Guy has not thrown more then 200 innings since 2001, and has not pitched at all since 2005. So while your on the DL Mike enjoy wraslin' gators in the swamp of Florida.


Toujours blesser Rocco!!!! Rocco has had just about every aliment know to man ACL, Tommy John, pulled hamstrings, but this new one is an interesting one. He now has a "Mitochondrial disorder, a condition that causes extreme fatigue". So in other words he just gets reeallly tired after playing. Maybe that stems from not playing for so long? Probably not, but just asking. At least the Rays have smartened up and declined his option for next year, so someone else will have to deal with this walking catastrophe.

Finally we have Scott Rolen, who when healthy is a solid all around player. But he has missed a lot of games in his career. 50 missed games in 1999, 30 in 2000, 20 in 2004, 105 in 2005, 20 in 2004, and 50 last year. Most of that time was with various shoulder injuries. This year he starts the season on the DL with a broken right finger. The claim is out for 3 to 5 weeks, but I will lay money he gets some other injury some how.

What helmet? - Well Larry Bowa let the MLB know what he thought about this new rule requiring base coaches to wear helmets and the new rule about staying within the coaches box. Gotta say that Bowa id 100% correct, can say I agree with his methods, but the message is right. These rules are nothing more the public relations and CYA legal maneuvering. These new rules were put into place this season because of the death of Mike Coolbaugh last year. Mike was hit in the the neck with a line drive, which killed him. Thats a horrible thing to happen and everyone wishes things like that would never happen, but sometimes they do.

The helmet rule is down right ludicrous. Apparently this helmet :

Is going to protect a base coach from being injured by a line drive. Um how about no ya crazy dutchman. The helmet doe not protect anything more then the top of your head, also the part which needs the least protection because it is so hard. The soft parts of the neck, ears, temples, back of the head are all still very much exposed. So basically baseball has made a rule, which most coaches are very much against, that does nothing but look good to the ingorant sheep known as Americans. I feel like the MLB has magically turned into the Federal Government who only pick solutions that help on the nearest election day.

Ya know MLB most of these guys have been in the league for the better parts of their lives. Let them choose to wear a helmet or not, and any new guys into the league have to wear the helmet. I think its called grandfathering or something like that. NHL did it once, maybe call them up for some advice.
Barry who?Barry still does not have a job. How this is I am not sure. I mean yea he might get put in jail, he might be linked forever to steriods, he might be a huge jerk, but I KNOW he can help some team win games as a DH. End of story.

Yearly Awards - Here I am going to give you my picks for MVP, Cy young, ROY, and such.

NL MVP - Dave Wright (32, 120, .310, 26)
AL MVP - Can you guess? Alex Rodriguez (60, 153, .321, 10)

NL Cy Young - Johan Santana (22-5, 2.10, 234)
AL Cy Young - Scott Kazmir(18-10, 2.65, 216)

NL ROY - Jay Bruce (20, 70, .270)
AL ROY - Joba Chamberlain(10-1, 1.81, 107)

AL SB - Carlo Gomez - 54
NL SB - Jose Reyes - 61

Also the Yankees will win the AL east. Next time I will give you all my division standings for the end of the year. Until then its on like Donkey Kong!!

Charlie and the Great Glass Elev...errr....Baseball Players

Ok once again this will be an opinion piece and contain almost no information of value. This is definitely more of a rant then anything else.

With that said... Why are Baseball players such complete Fairy's?

Almost Immediately after I expressed to the Bean Head Hater that Pedro Martinez was back to stay and was going to compete for a Cy Young with his Friend Johan, he pulls up limp with another injury. This injury caused an immediate uproar in my bedroom followed by a trip into the kitchen for a $1.00 oven pizza to cheer me up. Happy i am not.

You put the left foot in, you pull the left foot out, you put the left foot in and you.... get an injury?
It seriously is starting to seem like no matter what these guys do nowadays they can't stay on the field. Its a crying shame when 98% of the league does not hustle to first base but i am now seeing exactly why. With any type of hustle or pushing of the envelope these men crumble like a delightful block of cheese. Hell most of the time they get hurt doing basic baseball maneuvers.
Yes Yes I understand that these mean put above normal strain on their bodies doing unnatural movements to the max but c'mon.

Its obviously not just Pedro Martinez. He's not even close to the worst.
Scott Rolen, Mark Prior, Rich Harden, Kerry Wood, AJ Burnett, and of course the Biggest Nancy of them all.... Rocco Friggin Baldelli all enjoy just traveling with the team rather then playing with the team.

I don't know where exactly i am going with this other then to say that if you feel the way i do and can't stand seeing your favorite ball players collecting paychecks for doing absolutely nothing then let me know.

I want to open this up for comments on who you think could be the biggest towel boy in baseball and why.