Yankees Bolster DH, Bench with veteran Bats

It was first reported on Friday that the Astros and Yankees struck a deal to send Lance Berkman to New York. The odd thing about this is that the Astros practically handed him over in exchange for two minor leaguers. This blows my mind. So this essentially means that any team in the league could have made a move for Berkman as long as there were two minor leaguers the Astros were interested in. Nevertheless, it seems Yankees manager Joe Girardi isn’t as thrilled as others are to get an everyday DH. He liked to use that spot to give guys rest and keep them in the lineup. I’m sure he’ll get over it though.

Also on Friday, the Yanks acquired Austin Kearns from the Indians. Kearns has jumped around the league since he came up as a prospect with the Reds. He is a good bench player at this point in his career and I think he will help the Yankees in the right situation.

Howdy Partner – Rangers Land a Pair of Players

The Texas Rangers made some moves this week acquiring Jorge Cantu from the Marlins and Christian Guzman from the Nationals. Cantu has not been as productive as he was earlier in the season, but he is a solid bat and an RBI producer. I like the pickup there because they didn’t go for the strictly power hitter. Another non-strictly power hitter is Christian Guzman. It’s been speculated for a couple years that Guzman would be traded, and it finally happened. I feel like this gives the Rangers an incredible amount of infielders. I wonder who the odd man out is?

No-Hit Stuff in Chicago

Hey, it might have been with a couple handfuls of walks, but Edwin Jackson and his 2010 no-hitter are heading to the Chicago White Sox. Jackson is owed a lot of money, so I don’t know why the White Sox made this deal, considering he’ll be the fourth starter. However, if he is motivated, Jackson is a very good pitcher. Only time will tell on this trade.

Tidbits:

• The Tigers were looking for help since Magglio Ordonez went down with an injury last week. They picked up Johnny Peralta from the Indians on Wednesday to help out. He already helped the team win a game in Boston on Friday night, so I’m people are feeling better in Detroit.
• The Rays are trying to be active this deadline, but not much is out there for a team unwilling to pick up too much payroll. Although, they did pick up Chad Qualls from the Diamondbacks on Friday to help their bullpen. Qualls has been so-so this year with a high ERA, but I’m sure this trade could get him going.
• Are more deals to come? Names like Adam Dunn, Ted Lilly, Carlos Zambrano, Brett Myers, Prince Fielder, Jake Westbrook, and even Manny Ramirez are still on the market. Stay tuned!

I’d like to wrap up this post by saying this is the 1,000 post in MLBtoday.net’s history. Thank you to our fans and everyone who has visited the site reguarly!

-Chris

The most anticipated first career start since Cy Young ended with a bang and lived up to the hype. I knew Stephen Strasburg would have a good game, but WOW!

Nationals phenom starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg made his debut on Tuesday night in Washington DC in front of 40,315 fans. I use the word ‘fan’ loosely though, because this may be the first time in the team’s history that someone would admit to being a fan of the Nats. The 21-year-old was on it all night.

After 7 innings and only 94 pitches I can say I’m impressed. But after 14 strikeouts in those 7 innings, I’m almost in shock. Not only that, but he finished his final inning by striking out the side! He was in command all night which is proven by him not giving up a single walk. He only gave up four hits, but he did give up a two-run homerun to Delwyn Young in the fourth inning. That actually put the Nats behind 2-1, but back-to-back homers in the sixth gave Washington a 4-2 lead and Strasburg the winning decision.

Strasburg’s 14 strikeouts is the second biggest K debut since 1969. J.R. Richard struck out 15 hitters in 1971 for Houston. Let’s hope for Strasburg’s sake that his name lives on more so than Richard’s. His fastball hit 100 MPH, his curveballs were as sharp as you can see. Even when he trailed in the game, you just knew he would hold the Pirates and the Nats would end up prevailing. Sure enough the standing-room only crowd went home happy and impressed. After it was announced that he set a team record for strikeouts since their move from Montreal, Strasburg was given a curtain call. Not many pitchers get those.

Now, let me be very clear, I was not rooting for Strasburg tonight, and I am likely not going to root for him unless he’s facing the Mets or the Cubs. I’m not going to get into it too much, but I hate when stations like ESPN crown players as spectacular before they even do anything (i.e. LeBron James). Now, this case is a bit different because Strasburg hasn’t been cocky (from what I’ve seen so far), but LeBron has basked in the spotlight for years with complete arrogance for everyone else.

I PRAY Strasburg doesn’t turn into that.

-Chris

a) The pitcher
b) The hitter
c) One of the fielders
d) The umpire

Not many of you would even think to include the umpire in this group, but wouldn’t you know that the umpire was the difference maker in what could have been the final play in a perfect game.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Tigers SP Armando Galarraga was looking to put the finishing touches on a perfect game, but more importantly he was looking to just get a win and stay in the majors. He had it, literally, and it was gone just like that, literally. Cleveland’s Jason Donald hit a slow ground ball in the hole between first and second that Tigers 1B Miguel Cabrera had to go over and grab. Galarraga went over to first base to cover and make the final putout; he caught the ball on the run and put his foot back to tag first base right after. He got him, perfect game… right?

No, no perfect game. First base umpire Jim Joyce, a 20+ year veteran, blew it. Instead of just focusing on the base the entire time, he was watching the play. After Galarraga hit the base, Donald ran through and put his arms out to signal ‘safe’. But not even he thought that he was actually safe. After he realized what just happened, he put his hands on his helmet as if to say, “I can’t believe I’m safe and that this just happened.”

Boos ensued throughout the Detroit crowd. They missed out on seeing history on a play that really wasn’t as close as the umpire made it seem. How this could happen in the potential final play in a perfect game is just absolutely amazing to me. I am still in disbelief of the situation. I’m waiting for someone to tell me that this was an exhibition, or a video game, or simply a dream. I can only imagine what Galarraga is feeling right now.

Joyce was not willing to back down from his call during the game, which he really shouldn’t do even if he knew he missed it, but he believed all along he made the right call – until he saw the replay after the game:

“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the **** out of it. I just cost that kid a perfect game.”

I was thinking a few things after this game. First off, umpires very rarely admit their missed calls, which includes seeing the replay. For him to man up to it, especially given the circumstances, that means a lot to me, and hopefully it makes people feel for him a little and realize he can have a tough job. But don’t get me wrong, the call was bad… even to the naked eye.

Secondly, if you were going to miss a call as an umpire, how would you want to miss it? What I mean is, would you rather miss a call to give a guy a perfect game, or miss a call to have a guy lose a perfect game? Joyce did the latter, but what truly is worse? I would probably find myself playing to the crowd. As bad as it sounds, I would have my fist ready to call him out before the playa started if the pitcher was at home. If the game was on the road, I might have my arms ready to call safe. I don’t know.. but that’s why I never umped. Not even little league.

Lastly, this is eerily similar to Don Denkinger’s missed call in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series. Denkinger’s missed call was the same variety and cost the Cardinals a World Series title after the Royals came back to win that game and murder Game 7. If you haven’t seen or read about this before, you should look it up. That call followed Denkinger throughout his career. It even made its way into a painting that currently stands in my dad’s basement office. So you know it was serious.

Going back to Galarraga, he has been a class act all the way. At the time, he didn’t get in the face of the umpire and he didn’t flip out. He did know he had the out in the bag, but he never did the unclassy thing (which I know I wouldn’t have been able to contain). It should have been the third perfect game this season and 21^st overall, but it will end up going down as a one-hitter.

Should there be instant replay? I really don’t want to get into that. But it will have to be discussed by those in the MLB.

What a game, what a night. Surely, we’ll be hearing more about this for a little while…

-Chris

The Phillies scored one run in the 3rd and ironically it was unearned on a Maybin misplay in the CF.  Josh Johnson pitched a great game himself, seven innings of one unearned run, 6 hits and 7 K’s but his performance was clearly overshadowed by Halladay’s perfect game.

When I was watching in the bottom of the 8th I wasn’t sure if he had a perfect game or not.  The announcers were beating around the bush and made it seem like he had a no-no but it didn’t come out until the 9th when they said only one more out until a perfect game.  At that point I thought they had jinxed the perfect game but Halladay is way too good to be jinxed.

Congrats to Roy Halladay for throwing a perfect game and thanks for helping out my fantasy team!

-Jason

Athletics 4, Rays 0

Alex Rodriguez, meet Dallas Braden.

Oakland Athletics SP Dallas Braden has pitched a perfect game!

He becomes the 19^th pitcher in big league history to pitch a perfect game, 27 up and 27 down! What an incredible achievement for a young pitcher! You better believe he was amped up after getting that last out too!

It took Braden 109 pitches to get all 27 outs and he picked up six strikeouts along the way. Braden used his changeup to perfection and his teammates used the large foul ground throughout the game. This comes against a very tough Tampa Bay Rays lineup, the team that holds the best record in the MLB. Go figure, the Rays have now been the victims of the last two perfect games (Mark Buehrle – 2009).

Here is a recap of the top of the ninth inning in Oakland: Willy Aybar led off the ninth inning with a soft lineout to first base. Dioner Navarro hit a hard liner to left field which Eric Patterson was able to step back and grab. For the final out, you could feel the nerves. Gabe Kapler had a 3-1 count and drilled a ground ball to shortstop which Cliff Pennington gobbled up and threw to first for the final out.

It is the 6^th no-hitter in A’s history, and the second perfect game (Catfish Hunter). The perfect game comes on Mother’s Day and Braden immediately pointed to his grandmother, who met him on the field shortly after the final out. Unfortunately, he lost his mom to skin cancer, but he had 12,000+ people behind him cheering him on. He also was able to do it in front of Section 209 – his hometown fans from Stockton, California.

My reference to Alex Rodriguez, in case you weren’t sure why I mentioned him, comes from a few weeks back (and this past week when it resurfaced), of Braden yelling at A-Rod for stepping on his mound after a foul ball. After the game, Rodriguez mentioned he had never heard of him before and he was surprised that someone who never accomplished anything would make such a claim. Now, Braden can rub this in A-Rod’s face and proclaim that mound HIS.

-Chris

Well, I am winded, to say the least.

What a marathon game in St. Louis this afternoon/evening/night (?) between the Mets and Cardinals. The game started at 4:14 EST and finished at 11:07 EST. That’s 6 hours and 53 minutes! 19 pitchers were used and 46 of 50 total players were used and 651 pitches were thrown between the two teams! Ultimately, the Mets won in 20 innings, 2-1.

It was a scoreless game until the 19^th inning, a SCORELESS GAME! I will tell you that before the 18^th inning, the game was not a total thriller, but still interesting as heck.  Jamie Garcia and Johan Santana dueled it out, with Garcia even having a no-hitter through five innings. The Mets didn’t get their second hit until the 12^th inning, and the Cards had three chances to score a run in extras with the bases loaded and two outs. Tony LaRussa kept the relief pitchers in to bat in two of those innings, instead of putting emergency catcher Bryan Anderson in to bat. That was a terrible idea, because they couldn’t score.

So we pick it up in the top of the 18^th – the fun part for sure.

Felipe Lopez, who played most of the infield during the game, came in to pitch the top of the 18^th for the Cardinals! Note: Lopez, a switch hitter, pitched with his right hand (21 pitches). Lopez freakin’ hit a grand slam last night and pitched the next day! Also, pitcher Kyle Lohse played left field from the 17^th inning on! With one out, Brendan Ryan threw a ball away that was hit in the hole, P Raul Valdes ended up going to second and didn’t slide – and he was out by a hair! This proved literally anything was going to happen in this game! Lopez got mauled in the dugout after returning from the hill!

Joe Mather, another position player, came in to pitch the 19^th inning for St. Louis. After a leadoff walk to Joe Reyes, Luis Castillo bunted him to second. Mather intentionally walked David Wright and then hit Jason Bay to load the bases. Jeff Francoeur followed with a fly ball to left (to P Kyle Lohse) and Reyes scored the first run in 19 innings. Game over? Nope.

Of course, the one pitcher who didn’t make into this game until the bottom of the 19^th inning was Francisco Rodriguez aka K-Rod. Ryan Ludwick led off with a walk and on the first pitch, with Pujols batting, LaRussa called a hit and run. Pujols missed the pitched and Ludwick was out (by a hair, if that) at second. What’d Pujols do? He drilled a double to left center, which would have scored Ludwick either way. UGH!

So here comes Kyle Lohse to bat – and he had nothing (to none of his fault for sure). Lohse tapped out to short for the second out, but moved Pujols over to third. So it comes down to Yadi Molina. A high breaking ball was slapped to right for the tie!! YADI YADI YADI! He probably was like, “Wow, now I have to catch another 19 innings.” Haha.

Well, the Cards certainly needed to end this in the 19^th, because the 20^th the Mets came out with a purpose against Joe Mather (again, a POSITION PLAYER). Two straight hits to start the inning, followed by a sac fly by Jose Reyes to regain the lead, 2-1. Game over now? Well, yes.

Mets SP Mike Pelfrey came in to the game to shut the door in the 20^th inning, despite pitching two days earlier in Denver. He did allow a hit and a walk with two outs, but Ryan Ludwick grounded out to second to end the game. Save: Pelfrey.

I hope none of the players made dinner reservations, because needless to say, they missed it. But for real, did they eat something other than sunflower seeds in the clubhouse between innings? They had to have gotten hungry!

While watching a game like this, there’s always a part of you that just wants it to go on forever. As a Cardinals fan, I did NOT have that feeling. I wanted them to score a run from the first pitch on! Why couldn’t they just score!!?!??!???!!

A rant from me on how LaRussa managed this game can be read here.

-Chris

Rockies SP Ubaldo Jimenez has thrown a no-hitter against the Braves! He gave up zero hits in a 4-0 win, despite giving up six walks along the way. This is the first no-hitter in Colorado Rockies history!

The ninth inning was no cake-walk for Ubaldo, as he got the red-hot Martin Prado to pop out to second base, Chipper Jones to fly to left, and finally Brian McCann to ground out to second. Jimenez was immediately mobbed by his teammates!

As I said, Jimenez did walk six men, but a no-hitter is still a no-hitter. As a result, it took him 128 pitches to get the 27 outs. It should be noted though, he didn’t have any walks after the fifth inning.

Jimenez struck out seven Braves along the way, with one double play. Catcher Miguel Olivo also picked off a man at second base in the third inning.

Ubaldo is now 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA on the 2010 season and he certainly proving himself to be an ace of the staff and a top-tier pitcher in the majors.

Oh yeah, incase anyone is wondering how the Rockies scored, they actually got an RBI single from Jimenez, along with a few ribbies from Carlos Gonzalez and a sac fly from Troy Tulowitzki. This makes me wonder how many pitchers who picked up a no-hitter also nabbed an RBI along the way. What an awesome day!

Congratulations Ubaldo!!!!

-Chris

Yankees 7, Angels 5

What a day to be a Yankees fan. Seriously, this may be one of the few times that I’m jealous to be a Yankees fan. My buddy Pat (Hey buddy) went to the game today and he got to see some pretty cool things…

First off, the ring ceremony. For some people, that’s a once in a lifetime event. Well, not if you’re a Yankees fan though. Also, Bernie Williams threw out the ceremonial first pitch, and he couldn’t even reach home plate. Umm, I thought he hadn’t even retired – maybe it’s time to retire Bernie, haha. Secondly, they gave Hideki Matsui a rousing ovation, including chants of “MVP, MVP, MVP” in regard to his 2009 World Series MVP. That’s a pretty cool thing, seriously.

As for the game, the Yankees won, and homers were hit (again). Looks like that ballpark will remain a joke in 2010 as it was when it opened in 2009. The game was not nearly as close as the score would show, due to a ninth inning grand slam by Bobby Abreu. But of course, that’s a rally killer – and so is putting in Mariano Rivera. Game over, Yankees win, Pat goes home happy (heard he got some free food too).

Blue Jays 4, White Sox 2

The performance of the day goes to Blue Jays SP Ricky Romero. He went 8 innings with 12 strikeouts and a no-hitter through 7 innings! Going into the seventh, the first pitch was a curveball in the dirt that AJ Pierzynski pretended to get hit by. Literally. The ball didn’t even hit him, and he jumped around on the right foot even though the ball was closer to the left foot! Man, he is annoying!

But back to the game… He triggered a little shakeup, in which Alex Rios homered in the next at bat to end the no-hit bid and the shutout. Romero was visibly upset after the homer and then when he reached the dugout – but he has nothing to be upset about really. He was still six outs away from history, and he pitched one heck of a game.

Rays 8, Orioles 6 (10 innings)

Talk about a roller coaster game! Orioles SP Brian Matusz was amazing through seven, but they kept him in for the eighth. After allowing a run and loading the bases, they took him out and lost the lead, 5-3 Rays. Then, Luke Scott tied it with a homer in the bottom of the eighth for the Orioles. However, in extras, Matt Albers allowed a pair of walks followed by a three-run bomb by Carlos Pena. The Orioles are SO bad – it pains me to watch them play. Matusz deserved better.

Dodgers 9, Diamondbacks 5

In LA’s home opener, Clayton Kershaw, who really should have been the Opening Day starter (Vicente Padilla, really?), allowed two runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. But that wasn’t the story in LA. The Dodgers knocked four homers – Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier all homered. That’s the kind of offense they’ve been looking for all week.

Tigers 6, Royals 5

I don’t know how the Tigers do it, but they won another game they should have lost. This time it was a six run 7^th inning against KC. How??

Reds 10, Marlins 8 (11 innings)

Extra innings in Miami with Joey Votto being the hero in the 11^th with a go-ahead RBI single. The Marlins had yet another big comeback at home – I’m not sure how they continue to do it either!

-Chris

Heading into Opening Night 2010, I was skeptical in the Yankees/Red Sox matchup being exciting. I mean this rivalry really doesn’t do it for me anymore, mostly because I live in the NY area and I’m pretty tired of it. But you know what, it was your typical Yankees/Red Sox game, and that was a good thing on Easter Sunday.

Before the game started, former Red Sox SP Pedro Martinez came out to throw the first pitch, and you know he did everything he could to enjoy the limelight. That guy is a clown, but he was a good clown too. I did find it a bit odd that he threw out the first pitch despite not even really retiring.

Each starting pitchers first inning was terrific. Josh Beckett was on target and CC Sabathia was in control. But in the second inning, the Yankees proved to be the Bronx Bombers with back-to-back homers from Jorge Posada and new Yankee Curtis Granderson. I realized then that Beckett wasn’t going to last too long.

The Sox got one back in the bottom of the inning, but the Yankees struck again in the fourth. After Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter drove in a run each on singles, Jeter stole second and Gardner stole home as part of a double steal. Bizarre play, but the Yankees certainly caught the Sox sleeping with some trickery. Yanks led 5-1 after four innings. Beckett left in the fifth inning with five earned runs.

Sabathia was cruising with only one hit allowed in the first four innings, but the Sox caught up to him. Boston was able to tie it up in the sixth inning thanks much to Kevin Youkilis’ two-run triple. But the Yanks retook the lead in the top of the seventh with a RBI groundout and a RBI single by Posada. It looked as if the Yankees would not let another lead slip away, but the Red Sox came right back out in the bottom of the seventh with a winning attitude.

With one out and Chan Ho Park on the mound, Dustin Pedroia smacked a high fly ball down the left field line that somehow left the park. It was an odd homer, which I didn’t think he hit very well, or even fair for that matter, but it landed straight down into the Green Monster bleachers. Demaso Marte came in to shut down David Ortiz but his wildness came into play. After a wild pitch to move Youkilis to third, I thought to myself, “Well that was pointless, unless of course there’s another wild pitch.” Turns out there wasn’t another wild pitch, but there was a passed ball that jumped out of Posada’s glove allowing Youk to score the go-ahead run. You HAVE to shut the door after your team regains a lead and the Yankees failed to do that.

The Red Sox lead 8-7 and added another run in the eighth, but Jonathan Papelbon closed the door in the ninth for his first save of the year.

Red Sox fans should be happy that their team was able to persevere, but Yankees fans shouldn’t hold their heads down. They are going to be just fine (yes, likely fine enough to win the division too). I recall last season when the Red Sox won the first eight matchups between these two teams and still lost the division.

After watching this game, I am just giddy for Monday’s lineup!!

-Chris

Matthews Jr. is still owed $23 million over the next two years and the Angels are paying $21.5 million of that to ship him off to the Mets.  Obviously the Angels were going to have to pay a huge chunk of money or the deal would not have been done.  Matthews Jr. will compete for the starting CF position with Pagan until Beltran comes back.

Grade for the Mets: D; I fully expect Matthews Jr. to get out played for that temporary CF position and then be demoted to 3rd on the depth chart in CF once Beltran comes back.  What a joke of a move.