Cold Coors Field Applesauce - Lo Duca Sued, Bobby V Back To Japan?, Weekend Of Sweeps

by James Kannengieser on Oct 12, 2009 9:36 AM EDT in Link Dump Comment 26 comments

An Angels-Rockies World Series sounds nice but I think Major League Baseball would disagree.

Meet the Mets

Ken Rosenthal reports that Bobby Valentine might return to Japan to coach. The Yokohama Bay Stars are very interested.

Paulie Walnuts Lo Duca is being sued for allegedly not paying a stud fee to the owners of his horse's lover.

Matt at Metsblog notes that Cliff Floyd was released by the Padres and discusses the importance of having Floyd type "player-coaches" on the roster.

Jason at Faith and Fear would root for the Phillies if they meet the Yankees in the World Series. It's a tough call but I'd have to root Yankees. Also check out that post for the results of the FAFIF reader survey.

Metsmerized does a hatchet job on Daniel Murphy, showing us that he was the worst hitting National League 1B with 450+ plate appearances. This is the same site that trips over itself praising Jeff Francoeur, the same Francoeur who was the 2nd to worst hitting rightfielder in the NL this season (Randy Winn was worst). Seriously, look at these slash lines for Murphy and Francoeur in 2009, they are basically identical.

Murphy: .266/.313/.427

Francoeur: .280/.309/.423

Praise or bash whoever you like but atleast be consistent with methods of player evaluation.

Around the NL East

The Phillies beat the Rockies last night to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 is tonight at 6:00, Cliff Lee vs. Ubaldo Jimenez.

A Purple Row writer attended the game and wrote up a nice report.

Talking Chop discusses options at 1st base next season.

Around MLB

The Yankees swept the Twins, backed by strong pitching from Andy Pettitte and clutch clutch clutch hitting from Alex Rodriguez. Nick Punto was on his way to becoming the new David Eckstein until his costly baserunning gaffe.

Tom at Bluebird Banter takes a couple Jays writers to task for writing about "The Twins Way", which is playing fundamentally sound, mistake-free baseball. I haven't seen much Twins baseball this season, but in the last week they've made some pretty boneheaded mistakes.

The Angels owned the Red Sox as Billy Wagner and Jonathan Papelbon struggled in Game 3. Thankfully we won't be subjected to any renditions of Dirty Water this year.

Memories of Kevin Malone recapped the Dodgers-Cardinals series.

DraysBay highlights a potential buy-low candidate: Astros catcher J.R. Towles.

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Comments

Phillies over yankees

If I lived in Philadelphia, see, I’d root for the yankees. It’s the proximity of the fans that eats you up inside.

by letsgocyclones on Oct 12, 2009 9:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

which is why i'm rooting for the yankees.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Oct 12, 2009 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

it's not even close for me

I’d buy a Derek Jeter jersey and wear it for every World Series game if I thought it would help the Yankees beat the Phillies. Luckily, I don’t think that would help, so I won’t have to do it.

"[The Giants] beat us down. We were beat by a grown-man team, a team we want to be like one day. They came in here and took it to us. Out-manned us, out-gunned us. ... It wasn't even close." - Raheem Morris, 9/27/09

by cjmulrain on Oct 12, 2009 11:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Same here. I’d still like to see the Rockies do it, and Lidge cost the Phillies the series in the 9th. But LA/Anaheim Angels would also be a good story.

by Jsz on Oct 12, 2009 11:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'd cheer for a meteor

The tough call is trying to decide which stadium I’d want it to hit.

"We're just as bad as the old Mets, but this time nobody's laughing"
-Dallas Green

by Schmidtxc on Oct 12, 2009 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

another thing

I was talking to a yankee fan and they said this year is different because the team cared only about winning and not stats. Really? How about the fact they have a better frickin’ team?! Seriously, it’s like people don’t comprehend stats are what happened on the field. Stats are good.

by Jsz on Oct 12, 2009 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

C'mon dude

it’s because they wanted it more. That’s all you need.

Seriously, I wanted a million dollars and then I won lotto. No wait, that didn’t happen. What was I saying?

by blains2000 on Oct 12, 2009 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wasn't sure

but I find myself getting more irritated by the Yankees winning than the Phillies (although both are pretty irritating).

by Mount17 on Oct 12, 2009 11:21 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Living in Boston, I'm rooting for Yankees

The tears of Massholes sustain me. Yesterday was a good day.

With the added bonus of watching the moron Yankee fans now claim A-Rod as one of their own after these idiots kept trying to run him out of town because he wasn’t a “true” Yankee.

by Bieser's Balk on Oct 12, 2009 11:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh yes

Yesterday, I was able to say with glee we helped the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Through trading Wags

"We're investigating the investigative procedure of the investigation of Tony Bernazard"---Omar Minaya (he really didn't say it but he would"

by firejerrynow on Oct 12, 2009 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

"...moron Yankee fans..."

Isn’t that redundant?

by blains2000 on Oct 12, 2009 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I hate Massholes.

Read this article. It’s therapeutic.
http://deadspin.com/5379765/fire-up-the-self+pity-machine-its-black-sunday

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Oct 12, 2009 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That was classic

Magary gets me through a lot of my days up here. I know at least 8 Tommy from Quinzees.

Seriously though — you lost a relatively meaningless regular season football game on the same day you lost a division series where you were already down 2-0.

Calm down.

by Bieser's Balk on Oct 12, 2009 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

WE HAVEN'T WON SHIT SINCE THE CELTICS A YEAR AND A HALF AGO

Please shut your face.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Oct 12, 2009 8:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm of the opinion

That there are more buy-low candidates scattered around the league at catcher than at any other position. Their development curves are so strange that it’s often difficult to figure out what you have in a catcher. Towles is a good example.

And sometimes guys are inexplicably never given a chance. Take a look at a guy like Brayan Pena, who was released last year at age 26 despite being a switch-hitting catcher who hit .303/.376/.462 with okay defense at Triple-A Omaha. He had a long track record of similar production, and I was surprised the Braves couldn’t have gotten something for him at some point. At his age, the numbers never really screamed above average player, but there was every reason to believe he could be effective in some role on some team. Which is precisely what he did for the Royals this year.

My thought is that with a little bit of work you could come up with a list of 10 comparable players or so scattered around Triple-A who are just being poorly utilized in some way and could be had cheaply. You won’t find any stars, but you could find guys who can help more than guys like Robinson Cancel.

by Alex Nelson on Oct 12, 2009 12:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Matt Holliday green day song paradoy

fucking hilarious
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Matt-Holliday-s-NLDS-error-mocked-through-Green-?urn=mlb,195446
does this drive his value down for us?

"We're investigating the investigative procedure of the investigation of Tony Bernazard"---Omar Minaya (he really didn't say it but he would"

by firejerrynow on Oct 12, 2009 4:20 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Link fail

FIXED HERE (no charge)

by fxcarden on Oct 12, 2009 5:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

thanks

"We're investigating the investigative procedure of the investigation of Tony Bernazard"---Omar Minaya (he really didn't say it but he would"

by firejerrynow on Oct 12, 2009 8:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

these playoffs offer few viable rooting options

hopefully the rockies win the world series because i pretty much hate everyone else. angles would probably be least repellent choice. phillies last, yankess close second. so i guess i too would be rooting for phillies over yankees.

also good to see big pud back in the news. he sure was a great presence in the locker room. man dont the mets wish they still had that walking pile of dog excrement still around.

Lets hope that when gut check time comes again the Mets will pass it with flying colors.

by kendynamo on Oct 12, 2009 5:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

thinking aloud

Jim Tracy’s inexplicable playing of Yorvit Torrealba over Chris Iannetta is like Omir-over-Castro squared. This man is going to win manager of the year too…..

Somehow, a chain of events unfolded that put Steve Phillips in a professional broadcast booth Sunday night so he could rip Carlos Beltran. Try to explain that in any other terms.

by Greenpoint Ian on Oct 12, 2009 6:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Torrealba is a winner though

and his BA is .291 and Iannetta’s is .228. Clearly Yorvit>Chris.

Maybe they’ll sell real low on Iannetta. That would be awesome.

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Oct 12, 2009 7:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Is this the same Torrealba who the Mets did not sign because he failed his physical ?.

Medical staff fail ?.

by fxcarden on Oct 12, 2009 7:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I doubt it

I get the feeling Dan O’Dowd knows what he’s doing. He’s gotten that team to the postseason in 2 of the last 3 years, despite the handicap that is Coors Field.

Somehow, a chain of events unfolded that put Steve Phillips in a professional broadcast booth Sunday night so he could rip Carlos Beltran. Try to explain that in any other terms.

by Greenpoint Ian on Oct 12, 2009 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Jim Tracy is awful.

It pains me that the Rockies magically turned it around right when he took over. He really has no clue.

ain't had enough...

by BlackOps on Oct 13, 2009 2:29 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kind of like the Mets last year

Playing better under Jerry despite him not really having a clue either.

by Balagast on Oct 13, 2009 8:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Go Dodgers, go Angels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slMTiDZuVp0

Somehow, a chain of events unfolded that put Steve Phillips in a professional broadcast booth Sunday night so he could rip Carlos Beltran. Try to explain that in any other terms.

by Greenpoint Ian on Oct 12, 2009 9:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs