No Matter How Long The Winter...

Ah, spring training! Pitchers and catchers are in camp and my RSS reader is blowing up. News and notes:

-Mike Mussina had minor leaguer Billy Traber's locker switched so that Phil Hughes could be in the corner, next to Mussina and Ian Kennedy. The Moose comes off as such a grouchy old man sometimes that I thought Traber must have been playing his music too loud or something, but that's not it:

Ian Kennedy was given the locker on one side of Mussina and non-roster lefty Billy Traber the other. Phil Hughes, meanwhile, was five lockers away, between Carl Pavano and Andy Pettitte.

So Mussina talked to Rob Cucuzza, who is the actual clubhouse manager, and asked Hughes and Traber to be swapped. Mussina wanted Hughes we well as Kennedy to be part of any impromptu pitching discussions.

My question is, whose idea was it to place Hughes next to Carl Pavano? That guy shouldn't be allowed within 15 feet of a pitching prospect. Just the thought brings out all my protective instincts.

Anyway, this is a classy move by Mussina. I wonder what kind of wisdom he'll be imparting?...

“So kids, remember all that stuff Rocket told you last season about ‘B12 shots'? DISREGARD.”


-MetsBlog has a quote from Ryan Church, who's all excited to join the Mets -- to be expected, as this kid comes from a place where Dmitri Young qualifies as a superstar. Just wait until the lifetime Expo/National finds himself on a team with a winning percentage over .500, his head might explode.


-Paul Lo Duca apologizes, vaguely, for "mistakes in judgment" and his memorable supporting role in the Mitchell report. That took two months?


-While I find all this "team to beat" stuff pretty silly, it's nice to see Carlos Beltran showing a little life. Beltran, when he's healthy, is a joy to watch, but you always wish he would have a bit more fun out there.


-Excellent news: the Mets signed Olmedo Saenz, owner of one of the better nicknames in the game, to a minor league deal. "The Killer Tomato" is not only an accomplished pinch-hitter, but also offers the kind of zaftig presence that's sorely lacking in New York this season.



-In the "La Plus Ca Change" division: pitchers throwing for Joe Torre in the Dodgers' camp the other day included Tanyon Sturtze, Esteban Loaiza, and Mike Myers.

You can run, but you can't hide.

Christ on a Pogo Stick

Well, the Baseball Gods decided to stop fucking around with ominous threats and skirmishes last night, and declared open war on the New York Yankees. Some hapless clubhouse attendant must have messed up the requisite burnt sacrifice of a white ox back in early March. Their revenge is swift and terrible.

In perhaps the most depressing 10-1 win in living memory, the Yankees' offense woke up against several hapless Texas Rangers while Phil Hughes, rookie sensation, had his gorgeous, dominating, self-assured, no-hit performance ended abruptly in the seventh inning by an major hamstring pull. He'll be out six weeks, and that's if you're optimistic -- which at this point would probably require heavy-duty pharmaceuticals.

Did this happen because Hughes was rushed to the majors? I don't know, honestly. It seems possible, but I know too little about anatomy and the medical effects of pitching mechanics to judge. Meanwhile, given the bonanza of pulls and strains and tears (Damon, Matsui, Mussina, Wang, and counting), there's a lot of scrutiny on the Yankees' new strength and conditioning coach, the alliterative Marty Miller. But I say they just need to appease the deities before Don Zimmer, with the help of a vengeful Poseidon, sends the team plane on a perilous, cursed, decades-long journey through strange and dangerous lands.

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of Brian Cashman, skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Shea...



[UPDATE: Willi Carroll of Baseball Prospectus doesn't think rushing Hughes had anything to do with the injury. That's good enough for me.]

Huuuuuuuuuughes!

I always stay til the bitter end of baseball games. It’s not really because of loyalty or devotion to my team, or even superstition, but more out of fear: I don’t want to miss anything. Say you leave after 8 innings with the team down by 7, and miss one of the greatest comeback wins of all time? Or, almost as bad, a really fun brawl? So I stay. But the truth is, today I could’ve been out of there after the fifth without missing much.

Phil Hughes did pretty well under the circumstances. He threw too many pitches, and made a number of mistakes that the Blue Jays made him pay for, which is why he allowed 4 runs in 4.1 innings (though Brian Bruney was in by the time the last two scored); but you can’t expect perfection from a 20-year-old dealing with the nerves of his first start. I was actually worried for a while there that he'd mistake the "Huuuuuughes!" calls for real booing.

Anyway, he’s got great stuff, no doubt. I always rolled my eyes at the Clemens comparisons, and in fact I still will, because Roger Clemens is one of the 5 or 6 greatest pitchers of all time, and that’s way too much to expect from this kid. But I have to say, their deliveries are extremely similar – I almost had an acid flashback to 2000. (Of course Hughes is about 24 years younger, doesn’t have an enormous skull that encourages steroid speculation, and couldn’t grow intimidating stubble if his life depended on it).

Personally my take on the whole Hughes thing is totally dependent on what the training staff or team doctors say. If he can stay up here and really pitch 200+ innings without risking permanent arm damage, I’m all for it; but if it increases the odds of a serious injury, you have to send him back down, no matter what the team's record is. I personally have no expertise on the matter. The way the Yankees talked in spring training, they had concerns about it, which is why I did too; but if that’s not the case, I’d take him over Kei Igawa any day. I just don't know.

Anyway, it was a dismal game outside of Hughes’ promise, and the Blue Jays won 6-0 on yet another chilly night. I’ve been defending Joe Torre’s moves a lot recently, but I honestly am not able to understand why Doug Mientkiewicz was batting second tonight. Was he trying to get Mientkiewicz better pitches, in front of A-Rod? Or just prevent the bottom of the order from being three straight easy outs? Not like they would have won anyway, but it was odd. So that’s six straight losses for the Yankees, with the Red Sox arriving Friday night... and I’m still not panicking. But it's possible that I will be on Monday.

Me Too, Phil, Me Too

The Yankees and Mets both knocked out 9-2 wins last night, over the Indians and Marlins respectively. I watched both at a sports bar, where they also showed the Rangers' playoff win (sweep!) and the Nets game(sixth seed!). I thought my head was going to explode. It didn't, so here's a few notes:

• John Maine apparently does not mind a little extra rest. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and the Marlins aren't lightweights; if you ever wanted to know exactly what's meant by "movement on his pitches," check the tape on Maine tonight. They were going up, down, left, right, diagonally, all at the last tenth of a second. I didn't think he was really going to get the no-hitter, just because he threw too many pitches (four walks), but he had the stuff. The Mets backed him up with 17 hits(!), including four for Jose Reyes and a Carlos Beltran home run, and still more nifty double plays. It's being overshadowed by the Yanks-Red Sox series, but Mets-Braves this weekend ought to be good.

• I love Miguel Cabrera, but as Gary Cohen put it, he’s got a tendency “to nonchalant the ball.” Also, I could be wrong, but it looks like he’s put on a bunch of weight this season. Oh well; any player who does this is in my good graces forever.

• For reasons that I cannot, at this time, explain, the Mets' pictures on the Marlins' scoreboard all included a small image of Borat, giving two thumbs up, in the lower right-hand corner. I like it, but I'm confused.

Meanwhile...

• The Yankees got another good start out of Kei Igawa -- and totally creamed Jeremy Sowers, who's generally a very good pitcher (which is why I put him on my fantasy team... whoops). Alex Rodriguez homered again. I just keep cut and pasting that phrase. How long can he keep it up? That's 9 in 13 games, and I'm running out of superlatives... Amazing? Sick? Awesome? Insane? Really helpful when 3/5 of the rotation is on the DL?
  

• This may be premature, but Jeter had three hits and, better yet, seems to be coming out of his odd fielding funk. I know the guy doesn't have very good range, but for him to make so many clumsy errors was not in character, and I really thought he must be either hurting or distracted. But maybe it was just one of those fluky things.
  

• Phil Hughes, down in Scranton, pitched a game that screams “Hey! Hello? I’m sick of all these Wright puns!”