InsideCoroner

What about Juan "The Windmill" Samuel?

It's not a popular opinion but I'm with you on this one.

I personally would like nothing more than for a caught-red-handed PED offense to basically invalidate Ortiz's entire career (just like Palmeiro). But that said, if we *really* went digging and were able to identify all illicit substances, who is to say the Orioles wouldn't be as (if not more) red-faced than the rest? For a while I thought PED users would all be recognizable with their adjustable-band caps to accommodate their growing cranial size, but we soon learned it wasn't just the Cansecos and Bonds and Caminitis, but the Teagardens and Ficks and Gibbons. Guys who apparently needed it just to keep backup jobs in the majors. For all we know, Flash, Manny, Trumbo, Reimold, Givens, Britton and others might be on the special sauce. Are we so sure about our guys that we want to start turning over other stones? I'm not.

David Lough is hitting .224 for the Phillies (no homers, 1 SB, 2 CS -- some things never change) Travis Snider is hitting .291, no homers, in the Royals AAA system. Alejandro De Aza hitting .200 in 45 PAs for the Mets, who were so desperate to find a backup for the injured Lucas Duda that de Aza took groundballs at first base last week. Bud Norris, 6.69 ERA for the Braves, removed from the rotation almost a month ago but has pitched much better out of the bullpen (1.32 ERA in his 7 bullpen appearances). As a starter he had given up 22 runs in 22+ innings. Yeesh. Jim Johnson, on the 15-day DL for the Braves, sitting on an 0-4 record and a 7.90 ERA. Delmon Young, incredibly still unsigned despite his off-season efforts. However, in February just after his arrest, one of his girlfriends hacked his Facebook account and said he was addicted to alcohol and prostitutes. So he's got that going for him.

Fantastic comeback. They couldn't get anything going against Pelfrey, and I thought he might keep them of the board the whole game. But they chipped away, and really came up huge against the Tigers bullpen. Nice protective swings by Manny and AJ on outside sliders to get base hits, with even Alvarez coming up big on a 2-strike count against a lefty, and then Schoop really drove the final nail into their coffin with that triple. Credit to Thorne and Palmer for mentioning their Grape Nuts "rally" ice cream just before everything kicked off in the 7th inning. :thumbsup1:

I agree, if anything I was just looking for an excuse to use the name Strike-U-Tron 3000. But seriously, it's not something I am in a rush to see happen. There are bad and good calls (though most calls are right on the money) and that's the human element. I like that there are mistakes sometimes, infuriating as it can be, because it goes both ways. I like when an ump has a specific strike zone and you see pitchers adjust to it accordingly. Then again, I'm a relic of a bygone era in that sense. I greatly prefer hearing Keith Moon drumming, despite his tempo fluctuations, than drummers who are metronome-perfect but have no soul. No matter what happens, it's baseball. I'll be watching.

If the Don Denkinger call from the '85 WS happened now, they would probably be rolling out beta testing of the Strike-U-Tron 3000 software by the time winter ball started.

I'll tell you who wishes he had stayed in bed today, though -- Conger. He pinch-hits with the bases loaded with the Rays down by a run in the top of the 8th and strikes out on an O'Day slider so far inside that Wieters had to lunge just to catch it. Then gets behind the plate in the bottom of the inning where Trumbo fouls a fastball right back into his mask, shaking him up, then has a subsequent pitch that inning skip away from him, allowing Machado to score from 3rd while he flings the ball over the head of the hapless pitcher, who was late to cover the plate. Oof.

I watched through 7 innings on mlb.tv and by then it was three in the morning over here, but I felt pretty good going to bed with a 3-2 lead. I got up this morning and resumed it from the top of the 8th, and watched in abject horror as they handed it away and looked set to make it 6 straight. Oh, thank you AJ, CD and Lough for righting things, making the sun shine just a little brighter and putting a little extra spring in my step for the rest of the day.

I taught myself how to switch-hit as a kid because of Eddie. Happy birthday, Mr. Murray.

That's the one. Some had two angles (one to return the ball your way, and a lower section angled upwards to help you practice fly balls and pop-ups). But I remember the strike zone box shown in thread in the middle. Those little silver stakes were incredible ineffective at keeping it firmly anchored once you threw with any strength at all, especially if you were using a real baseball. The worst part was when you had it set up in the middle of the yard and would miss it completely, since you'd have to then go track down and fetch the ball you just threw as hard as you could.