Results tagged ‘ Houston Astros ’
Lots of Carlos Lee chatter today…
Over at Hardball Talk a reader (sincitybonobo) had this to say about the Houston DisAstros Carlos Lee not wanting to take a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers, contenders in the NL West:
I will preface this by saying he simply exercised an option that was available to him and broke no rules.
However, at the tail end of a contract that he never came close to justifying, he has a chance to save the woebegone Astros some money, let them pick up a couple of prospects, and make a push for October with a storied franchise.
He’d be spending six extra weeks in the regular season away from his ranch. Half of his remaining games as an Astro will be played on the road.
Weak. If he weren’t ridiculously overpaid, I wouldn’t be so hard on him. Exercising this option is permissible. However, it does not prevent you from being perceived as gutless and selfish.
Craig Calcaterra had this to say about it:
Ultimately, however, I think this serves as a lesson that, contrary to what a lot of fans want to believe, players often — maybe more often than we realize — think of baseball as their job and nothing more. And no matter how much money is involved, many of them view a trade the same way you’d view being transferred to another city for your job. It’s disruptive and, if it can be avoided, it’d be nice to.
While I agree that far too often these players view it as a “job” and don’t have 1/100th the passion that the everyday fan does, I don’t completely agree with the analogy.
Another reader (rooney24) very correctly pointed out the obvious:
Sorry, but Craig’s comparing this to one of the readers getting transferred in their job is night and day different. If a reader were transferred, they would have to pack up their house and move, maybe find new schools if they have kids, leave their friends behind, and start a whole new life in another city.
Carlos would merely have had to find an apartment for a couple of months (which the Dodgers would likely have done for him if he asked), and go work in another city for a couple of months, all while making an insane amount of money compared to what the majority of America makes.
Gee, that doesn’t sound like a very level comparison to me.
Whether he views it as a job or not, the simple fact is Carlos Lee was a shitty employee for all those years, with his productivity coming nowhere near his level of compensation.
It would have been nice to see him remove his head from his rather large ass long enough to notice this would benefit the team & more importantly its fans.
Yes baseball fans, he owes them that much.
Pedro Gomez embodies the intellectual dishonesty of the anti-PEDs bloc of the Hall of Fame electorate
by Craig Calcaterra @ Hardball Talk
No two ways around it. Pedro Gomez of ESPN is just another douche bag who knows very little about the sport, is lazy as all get out (failing to research even the most basic of things) and has the backbone of a jellyfish.
Hell, I put him right up there with the @TreyHickman‘s of the world:
ESPN’s Pedro Gomez had some back and forth on Twitter last night about the Hall of Fame. Pete Rose came up, but so too did PED users — or rumored users — like Jeff Bagwell.
Here’s Gomez’s tweet in response to someone who thinks it is unfair for Gomez and his “500 friends,” as Gomez later referred to the Hall of Fame electorate, to keep Bagwell out:
This is screwy for two reasons. First, because of the McCarthyite “Look! He never denied doing that awful thing we keep saying he did!” jazz, which has no place in mature discourse. I’m sure I can think of all kinds of things Pedro Gomez might have done and start tweeting about them all day. If Gomez doesn’t deny them, does it make it true? Is that how we roll in the sporting press, gentlemen?
But it’s screwy for a much more basic reason: Bagwell has repeatedly denied that he took steroids. Most recently to Gomez’s own ESPN colleague, Jerry Crasnick:
Jeff Bagwell first denied using performance-enhancing drugs during a 2004 interview with the Houston Chronicle. The passage of time hasn’t altered his words or softened his emotions on the topic. Bagwell, to this day, asserts that he never touched steroids or other illegal performance-enhancers…
… ”I never used [steroids], and I’ll tell you exactly why: If I could hit between 30 and 40 home runs every year and drive in 120 runs, why did I need to do anything else? I was pretty happy with what I was doing, and that’s the God’s honest truth. All of a sudden guys were starting to hit 60 or 70 home runs and people were like, ‘Dude, if you took [PEDs], you could do it too.’ And I was like, ‘I’m good where I’m at. I just want to do what I can do.’
You can choose not to believe Jeff Bagwell here — players who have used PEDs have obviously said such things before — but you cannot say that he has not denied using steroids. No, in order to hold the stance that Gomez holds on Bagwell, he has to call Bagwell a liar.
But he’s apparently too cowardly or too ignorant to do that. He’d prefer to play this cutesy, oblique, intellectually dishonest game, smearing a man while trying desperately to not get his hands dirty. It’s pathetic.
UPDATE: Gomez has responded:
So, I presume now that either (a) Gomez will change his Hall of Fame vote and support Bagwell’s induction; or (b) what Bagwell said, and whether or not he actually did PEDs is a wholly irrelevant concern for Gomez, and he was just being disingenuous about it all.
Of course, given that he has basically taken his ball and stormed home, we probably shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for a reply.
Wandy Rodriguez: Worst Spring Pitcher Ever.
Interesting observation from Matthew Pouliot @ Hardball Talk:
Astros ace Wandy Rodriguez gave up four runs — two earned — and walked five in 3 2/3 innings Thursday in a loss to the Mets. And this is what passes for one of his better spring outings.
The loss left Rodriguez 1-2 with an 8.10 ERA in three starts this spring. Since 2006, the left-hander is 4-17 with a 7.44 ERA during Grapefruit League action. He’s allowed 96 runs — 86 earned — in 104 innings. During that same timeframe, he’s 63-65 with a 3.89 ERA in the regular season.
What makes it especially odd is that Rodriguez turns it on the moment the regular season starts. April is actually his best month, as he has a 3.17 ERA in 28 career starts. His next best ERA in any month is a 3.81 mark in July.
That’s just redonkulously odd.
Now contrast that to these Mariano Rivera tidbits:
From 2006-2011, Rivera appeared in 44 official exhibition games, pitched 43 1/3 innings, allowed just 19 hits (.130 OBA) and 5 walks (0.55 WHIP), gave up only 2 earned runs (0.42 ERA), and struck out 54 (11.2 K/9 inn).
So basically, the anti-Wandy Rodriguez lol.
