Baseball thread No. 7: Somebody slip the pinstripers a Mickey

Joe Maddon on the player to be named later from the Kazmir trade: He is "a very interesting player that I’m very excited about."

Either he's being a smart-ass or the player has already been agreed to by both sides but not named yet because the Angels don't want to see him in a potential playoff matchup with the Rays.

Also, the Rays activated Iwamura-san for today's game at Detroit ... meaning Navarro has to return the little guy's pants.

We close with BJ Upton's reaction to the Kazmir trade: "I've got nothing."

Thanks for sharing, Bossman Junior.

 

I thought about posting that but thought I might get yelled at since it was lefty-on-lefty, so therefore it was pretty defensible, other than Ortiz hitting the ball so far I'm not sure if it's landed yet.

 

I stand by what I wrote (I'm sure y'all are shocked). So Morales struggled in his first two months of big league ball. Doesn't mean it was right that a guy with this kind of talent and ability to produce MVP numbers should have sat behind a guy who is now on the Doug Mientkiewicz path.

I don't think I ever denied that Scioscia has done a tremendous job lifting the Angels out of the morass, or even dubbed him a shitty manager (maybe I did, I dunno). I just think he is vastly, vastly overrated.

I guess we'll wait and see how the Angels fare in October.

 

Ryan Howard in his last 10 games: 14 for 42 with 7 HR and 20 RBIs. Wow.

 

I would say the fact that Morales has developed into a legitimate MVP contender this year and Kotchman has regressed from Sean Casey wannabe to part-timer shows that just maybe they were giving the wrong guy the greater opportunity.

Morales got one regular shot with Anaheim before now, in 2006, and he failed to take advantage of it. But part of the problem is that the Angels kept seeing potential in Kotchman that now seems like it was never there.

 

or maybe Morales needed the extra time in the minors to develop.

 

Possible, but given how he has developed and Kotchman hasn't, there is at least some reason to believe the Angels should have given him another shot sooner while their offense struggled most of the last two seasons.

 

This is something I've never even considered, which is weird because I always wonder about unique baseball things like a guy hitting two grand slams in one inning, etc.

But a few days ago was the 32-year anniversary of this:

Back-to-back inside-the-parkers? The place must've gone nuts.

Anyone here at that game?

 

Fine work White Sox. You just managed to get one hit by the two-headed monster known as Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin.

 

So Contreras gives up eight runs and doesn't make it out of the fourth inning. Couldn't have seen that coming, given how well he's pitched lately.

The White Sox need to be blown up. Get ride of Thome, get rid of Konerko, get rid of Dye. Get some more young players in there with upside (not more overpaid hacks like Rios), get the rotation set with Peavy and start actually playing "Ozzie ball." Oh, and find someone to teach the players how to catch, thrown and run.

 

Pallister, above right, and an unidentified friend beat up some poor unsuspecting schlub after their beloved White Sox were one-hit by the Yankees Saturday.

 

Fixed