S.T. Game 24. Yanks lose slugfest, 13-12 to Phils.

Aaron Judge finally hit his first HR of spring training, and Gleyber Torres added one as well, but it wasn’t enough as the Yankees (13-9-2 in spring training) lost a slugfest to the Phillies, 13-12. Chris Gittens also homered for the Yankees.

And yes, our old buddy Didi Gregorius tortured his old club again with another HR.

Any remote chance Michael King had to be the #5 starter—or even on the team heading north—probably disappeared with his showing last night. With the spring training rules of letting a pitcher off the mound because of too many pitches in an inning, then to have the pitcher go back out for the next inning to complete his work after he got some rest, all to protect the pitcher, it is embarrassing for a pitcher to actually have that happen to him.

It has happened to several pitchers this spring, and last night King was one of them, and it had to happen twice. The same thing happened with Matt Moore, the Phillies starter. King hasn’t had a good spring training.

King hit not one, not two, but THREE batters. Meanwhile, a Phillies pitcher threw not one, not two, but THREE wild pitches.

Ugly game if you were a pitcher.

Right now, I’d say German is the #5 starter behind Cole, Kluber, Taillon and Montgomery. Not necessarily in that order, but we do know Cole is #1.

King 2 1/3 IP, 7 R, 5 H, 2 W, 2 K. Gave up 1 HR. Hit THREE batters.
Lane 2/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K.
Loaisiga 3 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 W, 2 K.
L. Garcia 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K.
Lyons 1 IP, 4 R, 3 H, 1 W, 2 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Cortes (L) 1/3 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 W, 0 K.

Hitting highlights:

LeMahieu 2 hits.
Judge 2-run HR
Florial 2 RBI
Gittens solo HR
Torres 3-run HR

The Yankees did make some moves. From ESPN:

Reassigned RHP Kyle Barraclough, OFs Socrates Brito and Ryan LaMarre and RHP Asher Wojciechowski to minor league camp.

Also, it appears as if Mike Tauchman has won a bench spot over Jay Bruce.

S.T. Game 23. Yanks get shut out, lose 5-0.

I’m a little worried about the offense lately, as the Yankees (13-8-2 in spring training) got shut out by Toronto yesterday, 5-0.

For example, I think Aaron Judge doesn’t have a HR or even an RBI in spring training so far.

I know, it’s only spring training, but…

Of the Yankees six hits, two were by Gary Sanchez, two by Brett Gardner.

Deivi Garcia, after a good spring training so far, got roughed up yesterday, giving up 2 HR. Whether that, or his age (21) keeps him from the starting rotation, we’ll see.

Good news on Justin Wilson’s MRI. Nothing significant. Give him anti-inflammatory medicine and shut him down for a while.

D. Garcia 3 IP, 4 R, 7 H, 2 W, 2 K. Gave up 2 HR.
Cessa 2 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 0 W, 3 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Luetge 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 1 K.
Russ 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K.
Barraclough 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 2 K.
Abreu 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.

You wonder how familiar teams are getting with each other. Because of COVID, the Yankees are only playing Toronto (and they have a six of their first 12 regular season games against Toronto), the Phillies, Tigers, Orioles and Pirates in spring training. Usually you have more of a mix.

Rose banishment sticks.

Commissioner Manfred today upheld the banishment on Pete Rose. Many may disagree, but I have one question for those people.

Have they ever read the Dowd report or are their opinions not based on the facts in the report, but on their own opinions?

I HAVE read the summary of the Dowd report, and there is no doubt in my mind that Rose’s banishment from baseball is deserved and should stick.

Another thing that grates on me are the people who call Rose the best hitter ever. Just because he has the most hits ever doesn’t make him the greatest hitter ever.

Really, would you take him over Ruth, Ted Williams, Mays, Aaron, Cobb, even steroid users like Barry Bonds? I wouldn’t.

Heck, Rose isn’t even the greatest switch-hitter ever. That would be Mickey Mantle.

This isn’t to knock Rose, a great player. But he isn’t the greatest hitter ever.

Those other guys didn’t get the hits Rose did because they drew many more walks—because they were FEARED more.

Rose was a great player. Greatest hitter ever? No. But also a player whose ego and transgressions sadly barred him from the game he was so great in…and deservedly so.

I  don’t have the time or place to chronicle each free agent signing, but Johnny Cueto goes to SF to team up with Samardzija and Bumgarner out there.

Lastly, a passing. Legendary NY Sportswriter Phil Pepe has died at the age of 80 from an apparent heart attack.

Baseball Tonight. Beltran on rehab.

The Majors were off due to the All-Star break. We will see what trades may develop over the next two weeks.

AAA: The All-Star game was tonight for the AAA. The International League (the League the Yankees’ AAA team, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (SWB) Railriders are in) scored 3 in the top of the ninth to win 4-3. Big night for SWB’s 1B/DH Kyle Roller. He drove in 2 of those three runs in the ninth to tie the game. C Austin Romine 0 for 1 with a walk.

AA: The Eastern League ASG ended in a 4-4, 9-inning tie.  From Trenton, C Gary Sanchez, 0 for 2. OF Jake Cave, 0 for 3, 3 strikeouts, 1 RBI. P Brady Lail a scoreless IP.  P Eric Ruth a scoreless IP.

High A: Gabriel Encinas 1 R on 2 H in 7 IP in Tampa’s  6-4 win. On rehab, DH Carlos Beltran 2 for 2, walk, rbi, 2 runs scored. 1B Mike Ford  3hits, 2 rbi.

A:  10-5 Charleston win. 4 SB for SS Jorge Mateo, who now has 60 on the season. 2 h, 2 Rbi for DH Isaias Tejeda.

Regarding the Pete Rose thing, as I mentioned yesterday, it is a a thing where I am sick of the USA just letting people off the hook. Lifetime ban. Make people responsible for their actions. If you want to let Pete, or any gambling or  PED user in the HOF, then LIFETIME ban. Compromise? Lifetime ban. Put them in only AFTER they are dead (and if Pete goes in, so does Shoeless Joe Jacksson). That way they are in (and on the plaque, the bottom line STATES why they were admitted posthumously). That way greats like Rose, Palmeiro, Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod, McGwire, etc. are honored, but only AFTER they are dead, and the last line of the HOF plaque states, for eternity, the reason for the delayed induction.

And by the way, ESPN can go bleep themselves. How about awarding the Arthur Ashe Award for courage to an individual who showed REAL courage? Not a transgendered freak (Jenner) or to a person who came out of the closet (Roberts, Sam)… maybe award it  to a vet who ran a marathon or a half-marathon or whatever after losing a leg fighting for our country? Doing so on a prosthetic leg?

The Arthur Ashe Courage award to a freak. I want to vomit.

It is why I am sick of the media forcing their nutcase opinions on us and canceled my newspaper subscription and will fight the nutcase media until I croak.

Game 70. Phils beat Yanks, 11-8.

Michael Pineda, 8-3 and pitching at an All-Star pace vs. a team that is 24-47, with a Team OPS+ of 79. (21% below league average). Mismatch, right? After all, didn’t this guy strike out 16 Orioles on Mother’s Day? Didn’t the Orioles just beat the Phillies 19-3?

It was a mismatch. But not the way we expected. You’d expect Pineda to dominate the Phillies, but it was the other way around last night as the Yanks lost, 11-8.

That’s baseball. You just don’t know.

The Yanks stay one game out of first in the AL East, at 38-32.

Pineda was knocked out in the fourth, giving up eight runs.

The Phils pounded out 18 hits, Maikel Franco getting 4 of them, hitting 2 HR and driving in 5 runs.

For the Yanks, Brett Gardner was 4 for 4 with a 3-run HR (8). Brian McCann also homered, his 11th of the season.

Diego Moreno made his MLB debut.

With the loss, the Yanks’ ERA+ dropped to 98, slightly below league average. Let’s hope the pitching gets better soon (the OPS+ is 109 for the hitters…. good). Of course, what has really hurt has been some recent outings where Eovaldi, Pineda and even Tanaka had short outings. Let’s hope CC rights the ship.

Ivan Nova will come off the DL and start Wednesday afternoon. He’ll be the 26th pitcher the Yanks will have used this year… .in less than 1/2 a season.

Pineda (L, 8-4, 4.25) 3 1/3 IP, 8 R, 11 H, 1 walk and 0 K.
Capuano 2 2/3 IP, 2 R,  3 H, 0 walks and 3 K. 5.32
Moreno 1 Ip, 0 R, 2 h, 0 walks and 2 K. 0.00.
Shreve 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 1 K. 1.88
Pinder 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 0 K. 2.61.

Sad news. Ex-major leaguer Darryl Hamilton the victim of a murder-suicide. Hamilton played for several teams, including for the Mets against the Yanks in the 2000 Subway Series.

…and in other news, apparently there is now evidence that in 1986, while still a player, Pete Rose bet on baseball. Before the evidence was only as a manager….

Ironies.

…and so we have the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. In a place dominated by one Peyton Manning (at least before THIS year…)

…and what do we have here? His chief rival, Tom Brady, against whom Manning lost the AFC title game to in 2003, only to best him in 2006.

…and who is Brady facing? None other than Peyton’s brother Eli.

…and in what could be the most ironic thing of all, Eli, if he and the Giants win, would then have one more SB ring than Peyton (two to one). Given Peyton’s injury, and the Colts’ 2-14 season this year, you have to think that should Eli get #2 in a few weeks, that Peyton may never catch him.

And who would have thought that?

The early line is New England by 3. I’ll be rooting for the Giants.

Easiest pick of the year?

Ok, so I got into an argument with someone at the local pub tonight.

I don’t know if he was an Eagles fan or not (Good joke: E-A-G-L-E-S stands for: Eagles Are Gonna Lose Every Season). But I mentioned that this game may have been the best bet of the week for the following reasons:

1) You have a team coming off a tough game vs. one of the top teams in the NFL in the Patriots.

2) That team played Sunday at 4:15, then is playing at 8:20 (both times Eastern) on Thursday against a team IT HAS TO FLY ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO PLAY.

3)  That team is in disarray. There are calls for the head coach to be fired, and meanwhile at the last game, there were two coaches (one offensive, and one defensive) who almost got into a fight with each other.

4) The Home team, who didn’t have to travel across the country, was a three-point underdog.

Now the person I argued with said that it was easy to mention that with four minutes left in the game. My retort? Sorry I didn’t see you two days ago. Now the ideas listed to bet on Seattle (and take them outright) were not my own, but ideas I heard (and agreed with COMPLETELY) on the Colin Cowherd show (and I  am NOT a big fan of Cowherd).

But think of it. A team reeling after being annointed a Super Bowl contender. Said team going with a backup QB. Said team facing a tough team Sunday, then flying across the country to play four days later. Said team with a coach on the brink, and two coordinators ready to stage their own “Thrilla in Manilla or wherever.” Said team a three-point favorite despite all that.

Wouldn’t you have taken the Seahawks and the points? If not to flat out win?

And win the Seahawks did. By a whopping margin.

I don’t know if the said person was an Eagles fan or not.

But the outcome of this game seemed obvious—to me, to Cowherd, and to anyone who may have analyzed.

Sorry I told him it was obvious with four minutes left.

I only wish I could have told him a few days ago.

Trouble brewing? Championship games?

Before even being named Boston manager, there could be trouble brewing in Beantown regarding Bobby Valentine.

Championship Games? Have you seen the lines on some of the conference championship games this weekend?

LSU by 13 1/2 over Georgia  Ok, LSU is #1
Wisconsin by 9 1/2 over Mich. St. (that’s reasonable)
Va. Tech 7 over Clemson
Houston 13 over So. Miss.

Ok… but here is the one that tops all.

Oregon 31 1/2 over UCLA.

You read that right. What UCLA at 5-7 is doing in a conference title game (probably due to USC’s suspension?) is beyond me.

31 1/2?  For a Conference Championship?

David DeJesus signed a deal with the Cubs. 2 yr., 3rd yr. option. He hit .240- 10-46, OPS+ 93 this year for the A’s. From MLB.com: DeJesus, who turns 32 next month, will earn $4.25 million each of the next two years, and the 2014 option year is for $6.5 million with a $1.5 million buyout. DeJesus, 31, is a .284 career hitter, OPS+ 106.

 

 

 

Could Alex be facing a suspension?

MLB is investigating A-Rod. Is a suspension looming? Alex was warned before about frequenting and participating in illegal underground poker games. MLB is investigating continued involvement in them, and some unsavory incidents. Selig is said to be not happy with Alex. Could he be suspended? Stay tuned.

SWB bound.

Heading to SWB this afternoon to check out the AAA game.

As for later today, I’ll find out if my KY Derby bet is the most interesting horse in the world. Stay thirsty, my friends. 😉

Congrats to Andre Ethier on his hitting streak reaching 30, but as Joe D. said, “call me when they hit 40…” It’s amazing how much press they get when they’re only halfway there at 28.