Rumors for April, 2010
Hit a home run 470 feet get a set of golf clubs
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As if the seven and eight figure salaries aren’t enough, Callaway, makers of golf clubs, is giving away a new set of golf clubs to any player who hits a home run longer than 470 feet.
The company is marketing their clubs toward the more “athletic, aggressive” guys.
Callaway isn’t expected to award too many golf clubs since only ten home runs exceeded 470 feet. Jason Heyward of the Atlanta Braves is the only one to hit one so far this season.
Information from this article came from the Wall Street Journal.
The Dodgers are starting who?
Posted by: | CommentsThe Dodgers season so far is in disarray due to a rash of early injuries and possibly poor roster planning. Recently, Ned Colletti pointed fingers at Matt Kemp as being a reason for the slow start. While Matt Kemp on the most recent road trip slumped, he still is a league leader in most offensive categories. A real reason for the Dodgers poor start has been their poor pitching. Opening-Day starter Vicente Padilla has been ineffective through 4 starts and has posted a 7.06 ERA. He currently is on the DL with an inflamed radial nerve in the right forearm. There is no timetable for his return as the injury he has is not a common one for pitchers.
Hiroki Kuroda and Clayton Kershaw have held their own. They are also the only two starting pitchers with an ERA under 5. The next starter Chad Billingsley has enough potential to be a center piece chip in a Roy Halladay trade but has not lived up to the hype this year or the second half of last season. Through 4 games, Bills sports a 5.40 ERA. The coaching staff is holding out hope that he may have mentally overcome some of the issues he was facing as his last outing he posted 6 innings of 1 run ball his best outing of the young season so far.
Now we come to the major question marks. The fifth starter who broke camp with the Dodgers was knuckleballer Charlie Haeger. Haeger has been ineffective through 4 starts and 1 relief appearance posting a 7.45 ERA but provides Joe Torre flexibility with using a starting pitcher out of the bullpen in a emergency situation on short rest.
With Padilla’s injury, the Dodgers had to call up John Ely after just 3 triple-A starts to fill in against the red hot New York Mets. His final line was 6 innings with 5 runs allowed. Take away a mental blunder by Ely in a 4-run second inning and his final line might have been a little different.
Now Torre is faced with filling another starting spot on Saturday and that lucky person (could be you) is Carlos Monasterios. For those who do not know Monasterios, he was acquired by the Dodgers this offseason in the rule 5 draft from the Mets (via-trade with Phillies). With rule 5 draft picks, they have to stay on the major league roster for the entire season to stay under team control. Monasterios made the team out of the gate as the were winning by a lot guy go in and finish the game or were loosing by a lot finish the game guy. Never the less, he has done a decent job compiling a 1.69 ERA in 10.2 innings with his last 4 outings (8 1/3 innings) he has not allowed a run.
I think the question comes down to how can the team with the highest attendance in all of baseball last year be scrambling for pitchers who can produce this soon in the season? One word DIVORCE.
Jason Frasor Rumors: Orioles looking at closer
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According to Jayson Stark of ESPN, the Baltimore Orioles are interested in Blue Jays closer Jason Frasor.
One AL executive said the Blue Jays already have the for sale sign out, and are motivated sellers. “They would move a whole bunch of their bull guys,” the executive said of the Blue Jays. “Frasor, [Scott] Downs, [Jeremy] Accardo. And Casey Janssen might have as much value as any of them. But the problem is, they’re all situational guys or setup guys. So what are they going to get back? A middling prospect at best? I just don’t see where, even if they make a trade, it’s going to make that big a difference to their club.”
David Wells rips Alex Rodriguez over Braden incident
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Remember the whole Dallas Braden-Alex Rodriguez-pitching Mound love triangle? Of course you do! If not, then you can check it out here.
Today, George A. King of the New York Post gets former Yankees David Wells‘ take on the whole debaucle.
“A-Rod is full of [bleep], that he never heard of that,” Wells told The Post from San Diego yesterday. “He has been around the game long enough to know that.”
Top 10 Major League Baseball Rivalries
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FOXSports posted a list of top 10 Major League Baseball Rivalries. Here they are in reverse order with some commentary from PRO Rumors:
10. Cubs – Brewers: The teams first met in 1997 (when the Brewers made the jump to the NL). Now 83 miles of freeway separate the teams. Miller Park is often dubbed “Wrigley North” when the two division rivals meet. The Cubs lead the seres 103-90.
9. Braves – Mets: The Braves hold a comfortable series lead over the Mets with a 355-291-1 regular season record, but the two have split their two post season series’. In the early 2000’s the rivalry was pretty big considering John Rocker and his foul mouth was on the Braves. And don’t forget Robin Ventura’s grand slam single in 1999.
8. Yankees – Mets: The first Subway Series between the two teams finally occurred in 2000 where the Yankees won in five games, and have had bragging rights ever since. One notable memory was the Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza feud. The Yankees lead the series 42-30 in the regular season.
7. Rays – Red Sox: This is a relatively new rivalry, but many cannot forget the ALCS of 2008 nor can you forget Gerald Williams charging the mound at Pedro Martinez when he was working on a no-hitter. The most recent memory is Evan Longoria going after the women of Boston via text message.
6. White Sox – Cubs: The South Side versus the North Side. The White Sox lead the series 37-35 and they beat the Cubs in their only World Series meeting in 1906. Let’s remember Ozzie Guillen’s famous quote, “But one thing about Wrigley Field, I puke every time I go there.”
5. Yankees – Dodgers: These two teams used to be regulars in the Fall Classic, most notably in the late 1970’s and early 19080’s. They have met in the World Series 11 times with the Yankees taking eight of them. The rivalry has since been renewed with Interleague play and the two will face off in Los Angeles in June of this year. Despite Interleague play going on since 1997, the two teams have not played in the Bronx yet. You would think that MLB would make an effort to schedule the series in New York with Joe Torre and Don Mattingly with the Dodgers. The Yankees lead the all-time series 38-31.
4. Phillies – Mets: This rivalry has been one-sided lately with the Phillies being so dominant in the NL East. The rivalry could be traced back to then-Phillie and former Met Tug McGraw, at the 1980 Phillies’ World Series victory parade, he told the crowd that New York could “take this championship and shove it!” The Phillies old a 438-381-1 advantage over the Mets.
3. Cardinals – Cubs: Despite the Cubs leading the overall series 1082-1038-17 (yes, there were ties), the Cardinals have their Chicago counterpart beat in almost every other category: World Series Championships (10-2), MVPs (20-10) and the 1998 Home Run Champion (Mark McGwire over Sammy Sosa) to name a few. One little known fact was midway through “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at Wrigley Field in 2001, Cardinals announcer Jack Buck swapped his Cards hat for his Cubs hat.
2. Yankees – Red Sox: What? MLB’s cash cow is only ranked #2? The Yankees lead the series 1119-934-14. The Yankees lead the post season series (2-1), but the 2004 ALCS was worth it for Sox fans around the world when they came back from an 0-3 deficit to win the pennant and then the World Series. This series may not have been what it is today if Babe Ruth was never traded from Boston to New York, or maybe it was Pedro Martinez versus Don Zimmer that caught the world’s attention.
1. Dodgers – Giants: This is one of the oldest rivalries in sports dating back to the late 1800’s. The Giants hold a series advantage of 1080-1068-12, but the Dodgers hold a 6-5 World Series titles lead. The teams haven’t played in an NL championship series of what we are familiar with today, but the two teams played in two three-game tie breakers including the 1951 “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” when Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hit a home run to beat the Dodgers and clinch the pennant.
Honorable mention:
Bad News Bears versus the Yankees.
Carlos Beltran coming back soon……or not?
Posted by: | CommentsCarlos Beltran is coming back in May. Ok hopefully June. Well maybe he will be back this season. The safe bet when talking about Beltran is he will be back sometime before his contact is up next season. The reason is no one really knows how his recovery is coming along as not even the Mets knew Beltran was going to have surgery.
At the end of Spring Training, Beltran had hoped to be running and able to rejoin the Mets by early May as he recovered from “scope clean up” knee surgery. Beltran was fitted for a custom knee brace on his right knee last week in the hopes of accelerating his rehabilitation, a team official confirmed on Wednesday. Beltran got the brace from the Steadman Hawkins clinic in Colorado which is where Beltran went under the knife. Beltran left with a knee brace but forgot one thing from the doctors, MEDICAL CLEARANCE. That means he still can not run and is limited on what type of activity he can do.
Beltran’s agent, Scott Boras, has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the outfielder’s status. A possible theory is this: when Beltran had knee surgery, it was billed as minor surgery. If Beltran’s knee surgery keeps him out for a significant period of time, teams are going to be hesitant when he becomes a free agent after the 2011 season. This could be a reason why Boras has remained mum on Beltran’s status. With the different economic times and the potential severe knee injury he suffered, Boras is going to have a tough time finding someone to give him a large contract I.E. the Mets in 2005 7yr $119 mm.
While the Mets are on a 7-game winning streak, having Beltran in the line-up will be a huge upgrade over Gary Matthews and Angel Pagan. Until we hear from Beltran or hear that he has been given magical words “medical clearance” his return date will remain a mystery.
Information from NYDailynew.com was used in this article.
Grady Sizemore Trade Rumors: "Zero inclination"
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According to Jayson Stark of ESPN, the Cleveland Indians have a “zero inclination” to trade center fielder Grady Sizemore.
Back in February, there were thoughts that Sizemore could be traded in 2011 or 2012. The thought was that his next contract would be in the neighborhood of $50-100 million – a figure the Indians cannot afford.
History has dictated that the Indians will deal their players two seasons before their contract expires such as C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee. Teams will trade a player this early in order to fetch a bigger prospect bounty since the team acquiring the star player will have the player for two playoff runs rather than a short-term end-of-the-season rental.
Stark says that since he’s guaranteed through 2011 and has a club option for 2012, trading him his year would make it a non issue.
SI cover jinx for the Yankees Core 4?
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The Yankees Core Four: Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte are on this week’s Sports Illustrated and it has Yankees’ fans everywhere cringing. There’s been a long associated “cover jinx” for these athletes that get on the front of the magazine, and those that follow the pinstripes want to avoid any kind of setback.
According to an SI article from 2003 by Alexander Wolf, 2,456 covers were run until that point and 913 of them were victims of some kind of jinx. A jinx rate of 37%.
Jeter isn’t worried about the jinx.
“Last time I was on the cover was before Game 6 of the World Series,” Jeter told the New York Daily News. “So there’s your jinx.”
Posada on the other hand may have to decline any future covers. The catcher was drilled in the back of his right knee in the second inning of Wednesday night’s game and had to leave the game. It’s been declared by the team as a contusion and he’s currently day-to-day.
Rivera and Pettitte have so far been unaffected, but we’ll keep an eye on them as the week progresses.
A-Rod told Kate Hudson that Cameron Diaz was ugly?
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So what does Kate Hudson, former girlfriend of Alex Rodriguez, think about the latest A-Rod and Cameron Diaz pairing?
According to Life & Style Magazine, “When A-Rod and Kate were dating, he always told her that Cameron wasn’t cute or his type,” a friend of Hudson said. “So Kate thinks A-Rod is a total joke for dating Cam now.”
Kate doesn’t think very highly of Cameron either, to put it lightly. “Kate hates Cameron,” says the friend. “She finds her to be pathetic and desperate because she’s always bouncing from boyfriend to boyfriend.” And while they used to be acquaintances, now Kate is giving Cam the ice-queen treatment. “Kate won’t give Cameron the time of day and all of Kate’s friends can’t stand her either.”
A-Rod and Cameron Diaz are supposed to be dating, but neither one is confirming it. It is believed that the two stars have been secretly dating since their encounter at a Super Bowl party in February where “Cameron had her hands all over Alex’s back, and they were dancing together.” The two have also been known to be shuttling back and forth to Miami in their spare time.
Bill Belichick sends Rays manager Joe Maddon a hoodie gift
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The guy who made the hoodie cool to wear on the NFL sidelines sent a gift to the guy who made it cool to wear a hoodie in an MLB dugout. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick sent a personalized hoodie to Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon with a note that said, “From one hoodie weare to another, I thought I’d pass along my complete support with something to wear.”
A couple of weeks ago Major League Baseball banned Maddon’s use of the hoodie. They later retracted that ruling. You can read about it here.
Information from The Tampa Tribune was used in this article.
