Javier Vazquez, Ken Burns, Scott Kazmir, RA Dickey, Bullpen Phones, HOF Voting

Javier Vazquez  stat line last night in the PRWL playoffs: 6.0-IP, 1-ER, 10-K, 1-BB.



Noted baseball historian Ken Burns summed up how many self-appointed Cooperstown bouncers feel about actual or merely alleged steroids users.

"Those motherfuckers," Burns told The Hollywood Reporter, "should suffer."

                            - how do we do this? by making them watch his PBS specials?

The Cleveland Indians have signed P Scott Kazmir to a minor league contract.

                I had always hoped we would have given Kazmir another chance. He’s come available a number of times over the past few years and I still remember that wonderful year (2003) in Cap Cities where he went 105-K in 76.1-IP. He’s still only 28 years old and has a lifetime MLB stat line of 66-61, 4.17, 1022-IP, 993-K… but it was always the control that cost him… 473-BB, 1.41-WHIP. Still, nobody touched him last year and he had to pitch for Sugar Land in the Atlantic Indy league (3-6, 5.46, 1.65, 59-1-IP, 48-K, 27-BB). One thing though, don’t feel sorry for him. The Angels released him in 2011 but still had to pay him $14.5mil that was owed on the guaranteed contract that was originally negotiated and signed with Tampa Bay in 2008.

The New York Post  said:

R.A. Dickey said Tuesday he is thankful the Mets did not meet his contract demands and he is thrilled to join the Blue Jays, a team he said that is “all in” to win the World Series.

Well, that’s not exactly what Dickey said. In fact, it didn’t even come close. Click on the link and go read the story without the name of the author.  Sadly, this is what we call journalism these days and it’s being taught at the editor’s desks, not in the universities. Twist the words as tight as you can and make someone turn the page or click on the link in order to read ‘the rest of the story’. All RA is doing is saying all the right things to and about his current team and General Manager. Here is every quote by Dickey in the story:

“You can see that he’s all in (GM Alex Anthopoulos), the moves that he made.If we don’t win, it won’t be because of him.”

“I immediately knew that we should be very competitive. I’m hoping to play 10 more years, but this could also be my last contract. And when you see that, you want to win.”

“I think this can be a special few years for this city, this country and the players. I remember the glory days with Joe Carter hitting the home run against Mitch Williams.”

“The first time I really felt I could be consistent with it was late 2009. I still have more to learn. I’m still hungry and passionate about my craft.”

Do you see anything Dickey said bad about the Mets, or being happy the Mets didn’t meet his contract demands? This is the kind of horseshit reporting being done out there these days by people being paid full salaries and Cadillac insurance policies. I fully understand why the writer didn’t identify himself to this dribble. 

OMG… ‘T-Mobile’ has become the Official Wireless Sponsor of major league baseball. This was announced on Tuesday at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. What this means is the next time TC calls for someone to warm up in the bullpen, no one will walk over to the wall and pick up the old land line that’s been around since the earth fell into its axis. In fact, I’m not sure if Wathen will even stand up at this point. There might even be a number of one letter tweet signals sent alerting the bullpen coach who to warm up. Where the hell is my game going?

I never expected much from Wednesday’s vote. I don’t respect any baseball voting process that doesn’t include the name ‘Gil Hodges’ on it.

That being said, I really don’t care who did what when. As I have said in the past, every generation has had players doing whatever it took to set themselves apart from the rest of the players (my day was cortisone and bennies) and, if you’re going to charge me $19 to park my car, you better do whatever it takes to earn that ten million dollars you are earning.

My top 10 list is simply based on results regardless of what got them there. I can’t leave these people out when Gaylord Perry is already in, if you know what I mean.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clements, Jeff Bagwell, Curt Schilling, Larry Walker, Edgar Martinez, Mike Piazza, Alan Trammell, Rafael Palmeiro, and Edgar Martinez would have been my top 10 picks.