caulfield12

2nd/3rd, one out, 3-1 lead, not the easiest save situation at all for Sergio. Youkilis and Ortiz, doesn't get harder than that.

We're very lucky we didn't have to face Gomez as a starter today. Romero puts the first two on base for TOR, no outs and pitch count around 100. Now what do the Jays do?

Looks like we're going to have another Sergio Santos save opportunity again vs. Boston. What a line for Morel. 2 AB's, 3 runs. Now 1 for his first 16. Verlander, meanwhile with a one-hitter through 6. What else is new? 9,072 fans in attendance in cold CLE.

The only question is whether the league would have acted had the Marlins failed to do so, but there was absolutely no way that Loria wasn't going to take his pound of flesh from Guillen in some way, shape or form. It was clear enough, making him face the media without anyone else at the table with him. He was on his own. And we'll see the net, if the Marlins lose $70,000 in ticket sales or end up saying money on the deal. Hard to say at this point, but at least the politicians and media can return to their normal lives again now (well, except Cowley).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 01:04 PM) I believe they suspend for making contact with an umpire, not for anything that is said. An umpire can remove from the game for statements, but the league does not act unless the manager or player makes physical contact. Or spitting, see Alomar, Roberto.

Ventura really doesn't believe in pitch counts, within reason. Goes more by the "eye test," it seems. That's refreshing, more old school with that approach. Still, when Danks got into trouble and was laboring, he was quick to make a move and prevent CLE from believing it was back in the game again by rallying for 2-3 runs there.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 12:05 PM) It's kind of fun watching De Aza in CF. What happened in the first inning w/ Alejandro? The Indians' announcers said Cabrera hit a ball that should have been caught.

Not completely sure why Danks is pitching this inning, but it's obviously going to be his last one. With the offday, you could have pulled him to give Stewart or N. Jones some work.

AJ Pierzynski with another jack, this time off a left-hander. DeAza and AJ both with a multi homer series. What is it about CLE and us scoring 10+ runs there?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 03:03 AM) Im drunk, does this mean Im on Ozzie's level? Honestly, I feel smarter than that. You need to do it for 20-25 more years. Perhaps that will eviscerate enough brain cells to put yourself in that category. http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2012041...orts/704109641/ Barry Rozner of the Arlington Daily Herald doubly-eviscerating Guillen Forbes Magazine http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhause...-they-paid-for/ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writ...html?xid=si_mlb SI Michael Rosenberg, linking Guillen and Petrino http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...S=Ozzie+Guillen Wall Street Journal

http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_...learn-collision Bryant http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/1844881...ies-are-sincere Heyman http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Ozzie-G...ommunity-041012 Greg Couch, former SunTimes writer, rips Guillen to shreds Guillen’s mouth was always going to bury him. And this is the moment. The Miami Marlins suspended him for five games Tuesday for his comments about Fidel Castro, but five games is not going to be enough. Ozzie Guillen is not going to survive this as Marlins manager. What does five games mean, anyway? That’s what a pitcher gets for throwing at a batter. No, this suspension was just Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria’s way of buying time to see if the Cuban community in Miami will cool off, whether the protests and boycotts will go away. It’s about seeing whether Guillen can fix things. He cannot. But he tried Tuesday with an hour-long apology. Guillen was hired to be the face of Miami’s Latin community for the team. Instead, he defaced it. He told Time magazine that he loved Castro for his ability to survive for so long. That is never going to go away, no matter what happens from here, not even if the Marlins were to win a World Series. This is a permanent mark. Guillen left the team in Philadelphia and flew back to Miami for his apology. It was clear he felt bad for hurting people, and he said he has suffered for it personally. He said his remarks were stupid, embarrassing, hurtful. But he was full of double-talk. He apologized to people, but what was he apologizing for? What action of his caused the hurt? He said he has gotten an education in the past few days, learning how notorious Castro really is. So it was ignorance? No, Guillen said the problem was a faulty translation on his part. He said that when he was talking with Time reporter Sean Gregory, he was thinking in Spanish but talking in English, so he accidentally said things he didn’t mean. “What I was trying to say is that a person who has been in power for so long and has hurt so many people can still be in power,’’ Guillen said. “I’m not blaming the journalist. I’m blaming myself.’’ He was talking in circles, saying he didn’t know enough about Castro, but he was accepting blame only for broken English. It is so easy to hide behind that. But Guillen has lived in this country for more than a quarter of a century, and he knows what “I love Fidel Castro’’ means in English. He also knew four years ago, when he told Men’s Journal magazine that Castro was the toughest person heknew: “I don’t admire his philosophy. I admire him.’’ Look, it’s not up to me to say whether Guillen should be fired. It’s up to the Cuban-American community in Miami, and whether it is still willing to support a Marlins team with Guillen as the manager. But it’s hard to believe that anyone will accept that he didn’t know what he was saying.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 11:28 PM) I call bulls*** on that one. When it comes to the risk of losing an income people will apologize, apologize, apologize. Readers' comment are always fun to read, often better than the article. The article goes around in circles but doesn’t really state anything in itself. It feels more like a random facebook dribble, rather than an article by a professional journalist." And this surprises you? Those are the qualifications for a typical Miami Herald Reporter. Journalistic qualities be damned, you don't need them here. That's like expecting honor and integrity from a politician in Miami-Dade County. Reading other comments, people still don't understand free speech. If Ozzie was from Cuba I could understand his statements that got him in trouble. Foreigners in the American spotlight aren't so quick to denounce their dictators if they have family members living there. Yeah, it's the kind of rah-rah thing you usually hear from politicians about the military, until you investigate and find out that nobody in their family has ever served in active-duty combat. Guillen, as one of the most famous personalities in Venezuela, has to maintain at least a diplomatic relationship with the Chavez Regime or life will be much more complicated for his family members still living there. What is he supposed to say? That he wants the CIA to put together a drone/Predator attack and take out President Chavez like in one of those Tom Clancy novels?

Some political context, if you could call it that: Guillen is Venezuelan, and has said nice things in the past about Hugo Chávez, even calling him a “friend.” And yet he also called Sean Penn a “loser” and a “clown” for Penn’s own support of Chávez. During spring training, when I spoke to Guillen for The New Yorker, he insisted that his only rule was that players be on time for the singing of the national anthem—“especially if you come from another goddamn country,” he said. “Lot of people been killed trying to make this country free for us.” Asked about a letter tacked up on the bulletin board behind him, he said, “Some guys want me to work with Obama to be a President again.” The next day, the letter was gone. While managing the White Sox, Guillen used to display a photo of him and his family with President Bush. If you spend enough time with Guillen, you will hear him contradict himself, guaranteed. Guillen rightly finds the formality of the interview process contrived. (He is the manager of a baseball team, after all, not a politician.) He likes to get a rise out of people. “If it passes through his mind, he’ll probably say it,” Ozzie’s son Oney told me several weeks ago, in the course of marvelling over the fact that his father had become much more celebrated—a national hero, even, in Venezuela—as a chatterbox in retirement than as a Gold Glove-winning shortstop. “He says things other people wish they could say.” So does Oney, who was forced to resign from his job with the White Sox after tweeting too many personal opinions about the way the club did business. The Guillens are fun to be around, unless you’re their boss. Tuesday morning, while the Marlins were in Philadelphia, Guillen returned to Little Havana and held an emergency press conference to try to save his job. “They hired me to manage the ballclub, not to talk about politics,” Guillen said, in Spanish, and yet talk about politics he did, for much of the next forty-five minutes, in an attempt to convince Miami’s Cuban population not to boycott the Marlins. “I prefer to die before voting for Hugo Chávez,” he now said. “I will never vote for Hugo Chávez.” And: “Everybody in the world hates Fidel Castro, including myself.” Miami, you are now free to go back to being baffled by the Marlins. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/spor...l#ixzz1rhj5Skbc

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/11817911-41...is-problem.html Richard Roeper wading into the controversy (should correct that fact that it was the Cards and not the Phillies opening that new ballpark). Some controversy has also emerged over Guillen’s stance on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. A YouTube video of Guillen — who was born in Venezuela — blurting “Viva Chávez” or “Long live Chávez” following his World Series win in 2005 against the Houston Astros became another source of discontent. Ana Sanchez, a Cuban-American born in 1950, who attended both Marlins World Series appearances, said she thought Guillen had misspoken. But after reviewing Guillen’s remarks on Castro and seeing the YouTube video, she has decided to boycott the Marlins’ games. “I do hope this community grows a pair, [and] stays away from Marlins stadium in droves,” Sanchez said. Other season ticket holders also said they plan to boycott the games until Guillen is fired. “I hold season tickets. But not for long after this outburst from Mr. Guillen,” said Tony Exposito, a retiree from Miami. Said Mario Cicilia, 63, who lives in Miami and was born in Cuba: “If he stays as a manager I will ... sell my tickets this season even if I lose money.” Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/10/2740...r#storylink=cpy http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/11/2741...re-hurtful.html Greg Cote, feature columnist for sports section By Fabiola Santiago fsantiago@MiamiHerald.com I wanted to call in sick today. I had nothing to add to the loud and obnoxious conversation swirling everywhere you turned about the top news of the day, the kind of incredulous, ridiculous, predictable story that brings out the worst in all us, including the media. An uninformed fool, with a history of offending everyone from African Americans to gays and who readily jumps from one political stance to another, says in a Time magazine story that he admires the longevity of Fidel Castro, and all hell breaks loose in town. The players readily line up, as if this were a hurricane-preparedness drill and everyone knew their part: The most hysterical elements of the community rip something and holler at cameras; the bosses of the offender, whose money-making plans the fool just spoiled, release statements of outrage; the politicians, who see the opportunity to easily win votes without actually having to work for them, send press releases; and the journalists who can’t pass up a good fray chime in because we all know that crap like Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen dishes out drives readership, viewership and viral Internet activity. Ca-ching-g-g! At the end of it all, the cause of Cuba — a worthy cause that deserves much better —and a people long-suffering are reduced to caricature. Only one word for the circus came to mind: Barf. I could’ve called in sick, I was that nauseous. Please, even the usually civil New Yorker magazine got off its high-brow train to further spin the overexposed Guillen story. Aiya (that would be a Cantonese expression of exasperation), I walked back and forth from my computer to the phone. I gulped half a cup of straight-up dark café cubano sweetened with Splenda, and after reading all the hoopla surrounding the Guillen press conference at Marlins Park, in which the most hated manager in America swore he hated Castro and apologized, I brewed Starbucks French Roast Extra-Bold. Who gives a hoot about what Guillen thinks? The man has a history: He insults people, then apologizes. A man or woman of real convictions stands by them even in the face of criticism, even if it costs them their job. Who gives a hoot what Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez thinks about what Guillen thinks? The man needs to stick to running the county. And the rest of us, well, we never learn the lesson: We have the right to protest and express our views, however unpopular they might be with the rest of the nation, but we must never forget that even fools have First Amendment rights. That’s what makes this a democracy, but honestly, do I really need to say that? I grabbed the phone and started to call my editor. Then, a real breaking news headline flashed across my screen: Rick Santorum suspends his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Country saved, sanity restored, at least temporarily. But stay tuned, the circus is not over yet. There’s still the weekend news cycle, and not all the pundits have had their say. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/10/2741...l#storylink=cpy

Alex Gordon starting the season 0 for 16, must be the pressure of that new contract. He belongs on the White Sox, with how fragile he seems mentally. Obviously, it's early and he can still turn things around quite quickly, but not a good sign for Royals fans. Danny Duffy with a great opening start, although it's hard to extrapolate when you face the A's in a huge ballpark in April and what he'll do against the rest of the league. As far as Austin Jackson goes, I pulled up his minor league numbers and he's always been in the 700's, except for one big anomaly/outlier (964) in Tampa in about half a season of High A ball. He put up 691 last year and 745 in his rookie season, so you'd have to guess with that line-up behind him and much less pressure to produce, he'll be in that 750-775 range. He's never going to be a power type hitter in that stadium or replicate Curtis Granderson, but very few in the majors do. Combined with the fact that he's one of the 3 best CFers in the AL defensively and perfectly suited for that outfield, it's saying something that he's a complimentary player on that team.

Well, J. Gomez has really pitched well against us and he was the Indians' best pitcher in the spring, so who knows. Masterson, despite having an ERA in the 2's against us, still is 3-4 or 2-3, I know it'a an overall losing record. But there have been a couple of complete games where he just pretty much dominated, that's what is sticking in everyone's recent memory.

QUOTE (OilCan @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 10:24 PM) Well........ Addison Reed was a starter in college, to his credit. The White Sox just stuck him in the pen. Can't argue with their decision. Hector Santiago does have three pitches. FB, Screwball and CH. And speaking of Santiago... http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php...-closing-games/ Why would a series of slight hiccups force Santiago out of a job? We're not in an ALL IN year, and he had two MLB appearances before this season, so of course there will be some growing pains. I guess the presence of Reed/Thornton/Crain will push or incentize him, we'll see. In the end, it's hard for baseball "experts" to expect the #11 prospect in the worst or second worst system in the minors to come out and be a dominant closer. If that happens, they have to acknowledge they're wrong just as often as not with ranking and projecting prospects.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 06:48 PM) Knights @ Durham Stults Huntsville @ Barons Molina Dash @ Frederick Buch rocked Delmarva @ Intimidators Parrent 8 K, 2 BB but also 4 R in 4.1 IP Yep, although Mitchell has 5 RBI's....Saladino, Molina, Thompson (0/5 and 2 K's) and Mitchell aren't off to the greatest of starts. Castro didn't pitch well. Not too many glimmers of hope yet, but it's still early obviously. K. Walker might be more hopeless than Mitchell or Thompson. In fact, I'm to point where I would be shocked if he makes it to the majors.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 09:07 PM) Yet he's still going strong and making zillions of dollars yearly. But the key difference here is that he didn't say anything that would patently offend his audience, because they already listen to his show due to the fact that they generally support his ideas, his opinions and his philosophy. Limbaugh could care less about the 80-85% of the country that would never listen to his show on a daily basis. Whereas Ozzie is one of, if not the most important, representative and symbol of his team in a market where there are many Cubans and Hispanics. In other words, ANY person in South Florida, but particularly a Cuban or Hispanic, could be offended by his actions and not attend a Marlins game, costing Loria money both over the short and long term. Not only that, but it's likely the relationship between the two countries will open up more and more in the next couple of decades, they'll have many daily flights between Havana and Miami, even more fans will be coming to games from Cuba...not to mention that the Marlins want to be THE destination for Cuban free agent baseball players AND "Central/Latin America's Team," in the same way the Cowboys are in the NFL, etc.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 05:44 PM) Santos will probably end up where he was with the Sox. A middle-of-the-road closer. He was definitely in the Top 6-8 closers in the game until the last two blown saves against the Tigers. Usually that rate's 85% and above, but there are lots of other stats to look at...number of one run, two run and three run leads preserved, WHIP, BAA, inherited runners scored, 1-2-3 innings, performance in tie games, how many times when he blew a save the team still won the game (although that's also dependent on the team's offense), how many games he not only blew the save but also the outright lead, etc. I suppose it's fair to say he's in that 12-18 range now, although his first two blown saves is either an anomaly or part of a dangerous downward trend that started in the second half of 2011 and is still continuing today. Or, the AL East is just a lot tougher division. The number of closers who are consistently elite is obviously less than a handful. For the 2000's, it was Rivera, Nathan, Papelbon, Hoffman and Billy Wagner, in no specific order really.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 10:56 AM) Shack...I get why baseball might be tempted, but let's imagine that baseball had an anti-semite in their midst. With a thousand players, it's certainly not out of the question. Should baseball suspend people, in an official capacity for controversial statements or political beliefs? I can see why the league/commish would act on Schott...the owners are what, effectively contractors allowed into the league by the MLB main office, and the MLB main office is given extraordinary authority by Congress to regulate them and the game. Furthermore, there's no one else above the owners who has the authority to react to anything done by owners other than the League, while Ozzie has the team level to deal with, and I still think the team ought to care about this a lot more than the league. For example, former MLB Eric Show was a member of the John Birch Society, I'm pretty sure. Or can we punish players/coaches like Gary Gaetti for proselytizing in clubhouses, based on separation of church and state/freedom of religion?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 10:56 AM) Shack...I get why baseball might be tempted, but let's imagine that baseball had an anti-semite in their midst. With a thousand players, it's certainly not out of the question. Should baseball suspend people, in an official capacity for controversial statements or political beliefs? I can see why the league/commish would act on Schott...the owners are what, effectively contractors allowed into the league by the MLB main office, and the MLB main office is given extraordinary authority by Congress to regulate them and the game. Furthermore, there's no one else above the owners who has the authority to react to anything done by owners other than the League, while Ozzie has the team level to deal with, and I still think the team ought to care about this a lot more than the league. That's where it gets really dicey. Does that mean Luke Scott can be suspended for some of his idiotic comments? Then you have the NBA, who fined one of their players who tweeted a picture of his girlfriend's butt blocking the t.v. in her thong. In an election year, you can just imagine all the implications that go both ways. Baseball has never done anything to a player who refused to go to a White House ceremony after winning the World Series, for example. Nor should they. Somewhere, there's that invisible line of demarcation that goes solely from Hispanics to something that would offend all humankind...that's when you start talking about Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., in any kind of positive light. But I can't even imagine anything more than a five game suspension for Stalin or Mao comments. There again, with Mao you could have "in the interest of the game" cited due to baseball's efforts to market itself in China/Taiwan (2008 Olympics, Dodgers playing an exhibition game there, major league teams establishing academies and putting on coaching clinics and tryouts). Hitler is the 3rd rail, though. Do not touch.

Santiago's been consistently at 93-94-95 with the fastball. Santos so far anywhere from low 90's to 97. I think Santiago's delivery is a bit harder to pick up...definitely doesn't have Sergio's slider, but he's got two different offspeed pitches he can throw for strikes, which ends up being perhaps better than Santos' two pitch arsenal due to the variety. You have the sense with Santiago that he doesn't feel he HAS to come with a fastball when he's down in the count. Reed and Jones both throw with about the same velocity as Sergio, and Reed compares similarly because of that nasty slider of his, although you'd have to give the edge to Sergio so far of the two in terms of who has a better one.

Son or song, lol? I'm assuming it's the latter. Hmmm...he's Puerto Rican-American, so I would go with something like Daddy Yankee (Rompe or Gasolina) from the reggaeton school or maybe Don Omar/Tego Calderon, something with a flair and beat.

"It's like going to New York's Jewish district and saying, 'Hitler wasn't so bad. He managed to stay in power for a few years,'" veteran Spanish-language baseball announcer Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, who left Cuba at age 17, told USA Today. "Even a 9-year-old knows better than to say that in Miami. But I don't think he's really a fan of Castro or meant any harm. It's just that he talks so much that sometimes he says things without thinking about them."