Results tagged ‘ Cleveland Indians ’
An odd thing happened at the ballpark yesterday…
In last night’s Reds-Indians game, Cleveland starter Derek Lowe was clearly intentionally brushed back with a mid-90s fastball from Mat Latos.
You just don’t see that happen unless there is either some sort of past history with the pitcher, usually bad blood from a previous bean ball incident, or something went down in the game where the “fly-by” happened.
None of that seems to apply here so it’s a little bit of a mystery.
After the game MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian asked Derek Lowe about it and he gave a long, expletive-filled but ultimately not-very-forthcoming explanation, alluding to some years-old bad blood between Reds manager Dusty Baker and himself:
After the game, Lowe insinuated that Baker has been instructing his pitchers to throw at him for the past five seasons due to a grudge that dates to Lowe’s final year with the Dodgers in 2008.
“Dusty will deny it,” Lowe said. “I have zero respect for the guy — not that it matters. I imagine he’d say the same about me” … The 39-year-old Cleveland starter hinted at an incident that was never made public during his time in Los Angeles, but he was not willing to offer up specific details.
Now I’d love to know what the heck is at the center of all this animosity, but who knows if we’ll ever get the full story.
But until then you guys are gonna have to settle for:
Indians, Phillies Scouting Kevin Youkilis
By Steve Adams @ MLBTradeRumors
The Indians and Phillies are keeping an eye on Kevin Youkilis as he rehabs from injury, according to ESPN‘s Jerry Crasnick (on Twitter). Crasnick goes on to tweet that while the Tribe has a need for a right-handed bat, they’ve yet to actually call the Red Sox to begin any negotiations.
Youkilis, 33, has appeared in 18 games for the Red Sox this season. He hit just .219/.292/.344 in those contests. The fast start of Will Middlebrooks and the long-term presence of Adrian Gonzalez have many speculating that the Red Sox may be ready to move on from Youkilis.
Middlebrooks, ranked as Boston’s top prospect and No. 51 in all of MLB by Baseball America this offseason, is hitting .277/.309/.565 with five homers through his first 16 games. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted today that the Red Sox rave about Middlebrooks’ glove as well (Twitter link).
The Indians have been using Jack Hannahan and Casey Kotchman at the corner infield positions, but Kotchman has just a .620 OPS and neither has an extensive history of Major League success.
The Phillies, meanwhile, have received an OPS+ of 83 from Placido Polanco at third base. They’ve primarily used Ty Wigginton, John Mayberry, and Laynce Nix at first this year, to mixed results. As a whole, their first basemen are batting .272/.351/.406.
Earlier today, the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo threw the Diamondbacks into the mix of teams who could be interesting in acquiring the 33-year-old.
World according to Josh Beckett: “I spend my off days the way I want to spend them”
After Josh Beckett got smacked around by the Indians last night he faced the press.
To nobody’s surprise, the press asked him about the golf-between-starts-despite-maybe-having-a-bad-back thing. Beckett defensively told the press to mind its own business when it comes to his free time:
“I spend my off days the way I want to spend them,” he said. “My off day is my off day. We get 18 off days a year. I think we deserve a little bit of time to ourselves.”
18 days off a year, huh?
Seems to me the Red Sox stopped playing in early September last year and have yet to start back up. Seems to me has had nearly 9 months a vacation time.
More to the point, what kind of world does this assclown live?
Mr. Beckett, you get paid great sums of money to play baseball. In fact, to be more specific, you get paid great sums of money to play baseball well.
Now, obviously, since your contract is guaranteed fans just have to bite the bullet and watch you cash your checks one way or the other, even if you pitch like you did last night.
But what fans, and your employers, don’t have to tolerate is your recreational activities getting in the way of the “playing baseball” part of the equation.
We can’t say for certain that his playing golf injured (or merely aggravated) his back issues.
But then again we can’t say that a player will get hurt riding his motorcycle (hey there Jeff Kent) or playing a game of pick-up basketball (how ya doin’ Aaron “F***in’” Boone?) yet teams never get vilified for insisting that their players do neither for fear of injury.
If people want to question your common sense, or maybe more accurately your commitment to your team & your craft because of boneheaded moves like this then you probably have only yourself to blame.
(I am definitely curious to hear what Red Sox fans have to say about this)
