More Sadness In Saint Louis

Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock died in a car crash early this morning. Today's game in St. Louis against the Cubs has been canceled.

5 years ago, almost to the month, Cards pitcher Darryl Kile died of heart problems in his hotel room. Interestingly, St. Louis was also supposed to play the Cubs, but in Chicago.

It's already been a difficult season for the defending champs, and this won't make it any easier.

Phil In The Gap

A few Blue Jays took Mr. Hughes there last night in New York and his debut was not what the Bombers were looking for as they fell 6-0. Of his 91 pitches, 58% were strikes, but he fell behind a lot, threw a wild pitch, and allowed two stolen bases (both runners ended up scoring). Overall, he got the hook in the 5th, allowing 7 hits and 4 earned over 4 1/3, two of which came in the top of the first. But he did have 5 k's and 2 of the runs scored on sac flies, meaning he didn't panic with men on base.

Joe Torre said he wasn't disappointed, adding he didn't think Hughes was out of his league at this level. But he wouldn't say if number 65 would get another start any time soon.

Perhaps the biggest story line from last night is as follows. The Yankees have lost 6 straight. They are now 8-12, good for last in the East and the Red Sox are coming to town for a three-game-set. Luckily for them, the Yanks face the back end of the rotation (Dice-K, Wakefield, and Taravez).

Johnny Damon summed it up best. "There's going to be panic soon if the winning doesn't start. We have to stay close. If we can't start getting victories, I'm sure there's not going to be too many happy people."

I'm not sure if I agree 100%. If the Yankees keep losing, I think there will be lots of happy people.

Curt Schilling And The Red Socks

Gary Thorne (who is definitely one of my favorite broadcasters) said during last night's Red Sox/O's game that Curt Schilling wore a red, painted stocking during the 2004 post-season and that it wasn't actually blood leaking through from his injured ankle. Thorne says Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli let him in on the PR stunt a few years back. Mirabelli says Thorne is lying (I'm cleaning up what he actually said). Schilling and Manager Terry Francona say it's a lie too.

Here's my take. I remember watching those games pretty closely (especially Game 6 of the ALCS). And I remember seeing the splotch, whatever it was, getting progressively bigger and bigger as the game went on. So it was either a growing blood stain, or Schilling was carefully having extra paint applied to his stocking in between innings in the midst of an elimination game, with a chance to end an 86-year World Series curse at stake.

But on the flip side, what would Thorne have to gain from saying something like that if he knew it wasn't true? He would have known ahead of time that every member of the organization would come to Schilling's defense (which they have) and that people would start calling for his job (which I'm sure is bound to happen if it hasn't already). What purpose would that possibly serve him as a broadcaster? It seems more like career suicide than anything else.

My guess is this. Thorne and Mirabelli were talking about the sock a few years back, Mirabelli jokingly said "oh no, it was just paint" and Thorne misunderstood his sarcasm.

There's only one way to prove who's telling the truth- test the sock. It's in the Hall of Fame. That will quickly put an end to all this (and if he's wrong, maybe to Thorne's career too).

Scott Boras Is Now On His Ninth Jack And Coke

Write your own caption for this picture. But as he begins to wrap up a record month of April, A-Rod now says he wants to stay in New York next season.

At first my thought was, man this guy's hard to figure out. But as I thought about it a little, he's not hard to figure out at all. He loves to be loved. Right now, he's hotter than Hansel, so everybody's forgetting about last post-season (including #13 apparently). I'll say this though, there are 140+ games to go, plus playoffs if the Yanks fix their pitching. And if A-Rod costs them a key game or two, goes into a slump, or looks at Derek Jeter the wrong way, he could regret these words.

For now, I'll believe him when he takes the field for the first time as a Yankee in 2008.

I'll Bet You Didn't Know...

The Oakland A's set a record this afternoon against the Baltimore Orioles. Their pitchers haven't allowed a first inning run in any of their first 20 games of the season. That's never happened before, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. And Oakland starters have also gone 18 straight games without allowing more than 3 earned runs, tying the 1998 Cleveland Indians (which wasn't a particularly dominant staff by the way- Nagy, Colon, Dave Burba, Jaret Wright).

What's remarkable is that the A's are doing this without Barry Zito and with Rich Harden now on the DL. Guys like Danny Haren, Joe Blanton, Chad Gaudin, Joe Kennedy, and today, Dallas Braden (pictured) are shouldering the load.

Billy Beane, phone call on line one. It's Brian Cashman. Something about a trade offer.

Fantasy Question Of The Day

Would you trade Alex Rodriguez right now for Albert Pujols? A month ago, this would have been a slam dunk. Pujols was the consensus #1 overall pick. And coming off of a sub-par year by his standards A-Rod was slipping to the middle of the first round.

Now, it's April 24. A-Rod is closing out one of the finest months in big league history and Pujols is still slumping.
So would you sell A-Rod high to get Pujols while he's, perhaps a bit undervalued?

For the record, here's how the stack up right now...

Rodriguez - .400, 26, 14, 34, 1 (#1 overall in 5x5)
Pujols - .229, 11, 5, 12, 0 (#114 overall in 5x5)

Phil Hughes Will Debut Thursday

This, I find funny. I was just having a conversation with a Yankee-fan member of my family Sunday about how soon the Bombers would bring up Phil Hughes, in light of their pitching woes (including, as a Red Sox-fan friend of mine calls him, Chase Wright Down The Middle).

I told him that a young pitcher's brain is arguably the most fragile part of his body, even more so than his throwing arm. And I said the Yanks would most likely want him to get about 100 innings under his belt at triple-A before even thinking about a call up. But now that their starting rotation makes the Nationals' staff look deep, they're giving Hughes the nod after just three triple-A starts. He'll throw Thursday night at home against Toronto.

Best case scenario: Hughes is great, Wang comes off the DL, only to be joined by Moose and Pettitte, and the Yanks pitching rivals that of the Red Sox and Angels for best in the league.

Worst case scenario: Hughes gets batted around like he did in spring training causing his ego irreparable damage and he peters out as a Can't Miss Kid who somehow did. We'll know more Thursday.

Three Weeks In

Whether you're a real manager or a fantasy baseball manager, I think the worst thing you can do at this point is panic, like using your ace to bolster a struggling bullpen. But at the same time, now that most teams have played 17 or 18 games, I think it's time to face some facts.

#1 The Yankees are not in the Red Sox league, yet
Fresh off a three-game-sweep of the Bombers, it's evident Boston is the far superior team. The Sox have the best winning percentage in baseball and Manny isn't hitting, yet (although last night was a good start). Meantime, it's a miracle if New York's bullpen phone doesn't ring before the fifth. They need their starters back soon.

#2 The Braves are back
Thanks to a resurgent Tim Hudson and a dynamite bullpen (Wickman, Villarreal, Gonzalez, Paronto), the Braves look like they just might be able to hang with the Mets, at least for now. What's scary is that Andruw Jones and Jeff Francoeur haven't done much of anything yet.

#3 The AL West is wide open
I'll admit I thought the Angels were going to run away with this one, but so far the Halos have stumbled out of the gate (9-9) and the main reason is, they're not hitting. They've only scored 65 runs so far. Only the Mariners (in 4 fewer games), Nationals, Cardinals, Pirates and Giants have scored fewer. None of those other teams look like post-season contenders yet, and if LA doesn't want to join them on the golf course in October, they'd better pick it up. Luckily, they still have a diesel starting rotation now that Colon is back, so they might be able to win a whole lot of 3-2 games.

#4 The Nationals are bad, and getting worse
6-13, second fewest runs scored in baseball, second most runs allowed in baseball, and I bet you can't name 3 of their pitchers. Poor, poor Manny Acta.

#5 The NL Central is also wide open
I know it's early, but the Cardinals look like shadows of their former selves. The Astros and Reds closer situations scare me. Pittsburgh has no business winning the division, the Cubs suffer a new injury every day. That leaves the Brew Crew. This team hasn't been to the post-season since 1982. Is this the year?

Raise Your Hand If You're Hurt

Okay Gregg Zaun isn't (yet) but B.J. Ryan, Troy Glaus, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, Carl Pavano, Hideki Matsui, Rich Harden, Alfonso Soriano, Mark Prior (shocker), Kerry Wood (double shocker), Ramon Hernandez, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, Octavio Dotel, Jered Weaver, Vlad Guerrero, Chone Figgins, Chris Carpenter, Randy Johnson, and Kaz Matsui are all banged up.

Is it just me, or is that an awful lot of talent on the shelf, less than three weeks into the season?

My Baltimore TV Debut

Here I am on WJZ this morning, promoting "What Day Is Today?" Oh, shameless self-promotion.