Baseball 2012

[sbr]

He got it.  27 up and 27 down, 12 of them strikeouts. 

Best pitcher in the game today for my money.

[sbr]

First team in history to be on both sides of a perfect game in one season.

I watched the 9th inning of both.

[katmai]

Damn nice.


Giants pissed away the pennant today as Melk man suspended 50 games for violation of drug policy.
Sigh.

[Syt]

Yeah, the Bucs are back to their old tricks as well.

[jimmy olsen]

Perfect games seem more frequent, though: 5 in the 2000s so far, vs. 7 in 80s+90s combined.

8 now 

[CountDeMoney]

Orioles are 11 games over .500.  The Rapture must be near.

[Syt]

So are the Bucs. I usually tend to follow the O's in the AL a bit. In past years it was always a close race as to who is worse that was interesting to watch.

Oddly enough, they're pretty parallel again this season.

[CountDeMoney]

The Orioles are the team that won't go away. For months now, they've been predicted to, expected to, and they have no end of excuses for why they're supposed to be long since out of the expanded wild-card picture already. Injuries, run differential, relative anonymity plus generally underwhelming performances from most of the people you have heard of -- the Orioles are supposed to be goners.

They aren't gone, but they might be going places. On Saturday, it was Zach Britton's bend-don't-break stylings that were their latest "that's not really possible, is it?" feat. Seven shutout innings against the Tigers make for some sort of Saturday night special, not bad for the latest transient solution in Buck Showalter's constantly fixed-up rotation.

Go by appearances alone, and it seemed like Britton had no business matching zeroes with the Tigers' Rick Porcello, allowing nine baserunners to Porcello's four through the first six innings. But three 6-4-3 double plays were enough to keep his head above water. Porcello had retired 11 men in a row heading into the seventh, but so what? A pair of dink singles and Chris Davis' three-run shot later, it didn't matter what Porcello had done beforehand or how good he looked doing it, because the O's had a decisive lead thanks to Davis' just-enough bit of bopping, making Britton a winner.

That in itself might be a bit of a surprise, considering that Britton's shot at pitching this year was no sure thing in March, when shoulder surgery seemed likely. But opting for platelet-rich plasma (or PRP) treatments put him on the shorter road to rehab, and he's been the skippable, sometime-fifth starter for a team that barely goes a week without having to change something in its rotation.

The Orioles have managed to keep the identity of their rotation's third or fourth or fifth starter a matter of a near-weekly surprise to everyone, including themselves. Some of that has been a matter of effective roster management by general manager Dan Duquette: Early in the season, the Orioles could afford to flip the optionable Tommy Hunter back and forth between Baltimore and Triple-A Norfolk, rostering him only when they had to. Despite that time spent shuttling back and forth, it says something about Baltimore's lot that Hunter is now second on the team in total starts because almost everyone queued up ahead of him has broken down or pitched his way out of a job.

This yo-yo role Britton found himself in on Saturday, as he was called back up into the latest breach in the rotation after already blowing his initial call-up after the All-Star break, getting clobbered in five of six starts. In the Orioles' ad-hoc rotation, he was back up because he was on the 40-man roster and had four days' rest, and little else -- he was four days removed from getting chewed up by Charlotte, pitching through a split nail on his pitching hand.

Britton briefly dealt with the burden of being blown up too soon as a sign of better times to come in the spring of 2011, after he notched a quick eight quality starts in his first 10 turns as a rookie in the big-league rotation. But just like Brian Matusz and Jake Arrieta, his success didn't last -- Britton managed just five starts of six innings or more and three runs allowed or less in his last 18 turns in 2011, putting him well on his way toward a new entry on the Orioles' list of mound disappointments. But like every other expectation for an Orioles setback, it seemed to merely set the stage for this latest improbable bit of heroics.

Where the rotation woes of the Yankees or the Red Sox get featured prominently, the Orioles have been scrambling all season. Only Chinese import Wei-Yin Chen has lasted the season. Chen plus Britton, Hunter, former Mariners prospect Chris Tillman and journeyman Miguel Gonzalez represent the latest front-five confection in a rotation that has already had to use 10 starters. Every day, the four non-Chens are all pitching for their jobs, because Jason Hammel is on the mend and due back in another two weeks.

Contenders aren't supposed to start TBD in three or four rotation slots this late in the season, are they? But this comes on top of their playing TBNL in left field. Davis was briefly their answer there, but so was Nolan Reimold, Endy Chavez, Xavier Avery and Steve Pearce. They're down to a Nate McLouth-Lew Ford platoon that would be entirely plausible if we were talking about a contender -- in the International League.

All of which is part of what makes the Orioles so entertaining. As they scrape to keep pace with the Rays in the wild-card chase, it might be hard to call them the underdog, but that's only if you keep your eyes peeled on payrolls. It's easy to root for the Rays -- every statistically savvy smart kid goes fanboy on sabermetrics' poster team. And they're supposed to beat Baltimore -- they're supposedly smarter, and stocked up on the really good players you already know, like Evan Longoria and David Price. And yet the Orioles still will not go away. Fun, ain't it?

[sbr]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/exclusive-daily-news-uncovers-bizarre-plot-melky-cabrera-fake-website-duck-drug-suspension-article-1.1139623

Exclusive: Daily News uncovers bizarre plot by San Francisco Giants' Melky Cabrera to use fake website and duck drug suspension

In a bizarre attempt to avoid a 50-game drug suspension, San Francisco Giants star Melky Cabrera created a fictitious website and a nonexistent product designed to prove he inadvertently took the banned substance that caused a positive test under Major League Baseball's drug program.
But instead of exonerating Cabrera of steroid use, the Internet stunt trapped him in a web of lies. Amid the information-gathering phase of his doping case last month, his cover story unraveled quickly, and what might have been a simple suspension has attracted further attention from federal investigators and MLB, the Daily News has learned.
Famed steroid cop Jeff Novitzky, a criminal investigative agent for the Food & Drug Administration, and agents from MLB's Department of Investigation have begun looking into Cabrera's associates and his entourage, including trainers, handlers and agents, as they search for the source of the synthetic testosterone that appeared in a sample of the All-Star Game MVP's urine.

The scheme began unfolding in July as Cabrera and his representatives scrambled to explain a spike in the former Yankee's testosterone levels. Cabrera associate Juan Nunez, described by the player's agents, Seth and Sam Levinson, as a "paid consultant" of their firm but not an "employee," is alleged to have paid $10,000 to acquire the phony website. The idea, apparently, was to lay a trail of digital breadcrumbs suggesting Cabrera had ordered a supplement that ended up causing the positive test, and to rely on a clause in the collectively bargained drug program that allows a player who has tested positive to attempt to prove he ingested a banned substance through no fault of his own.
"There was a product they said caused this positive," one source familiar with the case said of Cabrera's scheme. "Baseball figured out the ruse pretty quickly."
Nunez told The News Saturday that he was "accepting responsibility for what everyone else already knows," regarding the fake website, adding that the Levinsons were not involved in the website in any way. They also adamantly deny any knowledge of the scheme or having been involved with it.
"Sam and I absolutely had no knowledge or dealings with anyone at anytime associated with the website," Seth Levinson said in an email to The News. "I will state unequivocally and irrefutably that any payment made to the website does not come from ACES (their New York-based sports agency, Athletes' Career Enhanced and Secured Inc.)"
"I was the only one who had dealings with the website," Nunez said. "Neither Seth nor Sam had any dealings with the website, nor did anyone else in the firm."
According to a union source, "the MLBPA has not been presented with any evidence at this time that the Levinsons had any connection to the website."
The website was part of the presentation Cabrera and his representatives made to MLB and the players' union before the league officially charged him with a doping violation.


Cabrera was at that point hoping to repeat the success Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun found earlier this year in challenging the evidence in arbitration. Braun escaped a 50-game ban for elevated levels of testosterone by raising doubts about the collection and storage of the sample, setting a hopeful example for other players who test positive.
MLB's department of investigations quickly began asking questions about the website and the "product" — Where was the site operating from? Who owned it? What kind of product was it? — and quickly discovered that an existing website had been altered, adding an ad for the product, a topical cream, that didn't exist.
As the website alibi imploded, so did Cabrera's hopes of getting off and leading the Giants to the World Series. Once a candidate for the National League's MVP award, Cabrera is now serving the 50-game suspension and has exposed his associates to scrutiny from Novitzky, who uncovered the BALCO doping ring and Kirk Radomski's steroid distribution network, and other investigators.
According to Seth Levinson, the agents hired the Spanish-speaking Nunez to help them obtain and deal with their Dominican clients, including Cabrera. On Saturday, Levinson distanced himself and his brother from Nunez.
"Juan Nunez is NOT a salaried employee of ACES and does NOT receive the benefits that all ACES employees receive," Levinson said. "Most importantly, any and all calls, texts and emails that he sends come from his own PERSONAL devices (BlackBerry)."
According to sources familiar with the case, the Levinsons are not a target of a probe by the feds, who are believed to have become interested in the Cabrera case as a result of the website machinations.
While the particulars of the Cabrera case are unusual, the case fits a familiar pattern. From Barry Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, to A-Rod's cousin, to trainer Angel Presinal, many of baseball's recent doping scandals have been facilitated by individuals in a player's entourage who weren't accountable to team officials.
The Giants organization's steroid problems didn't stop with the departure of Bonds. The News reported in November 2010, that former Giant Jose Guillen had arranged for a shipment of nearly 50 preloaded syringes of human growth hormone to be sent to a San Francisco address in his wife's name.
According to a source close to the federal investigation of Guillen, Drug Enforcement Administration agents who were monitoring the activities of the suspected supplier intercepted the package when it was sent to the Giants' outfielder to the attention of his wife.
The DEA agents contacted baseball's DOI and have continued to keep an eye on whether anyone else in baseball might have been involved. Now, the feds' interest in how ballplayers are obtaining performance-enhancing drugs is rekindled, and baseball itself is prepared to find answers.
Major League Baseball declined to comment on the Cabrera case but at the owners' meetings in Denver last week, commissioner Bud Selig touched on the issue of those who facilitate drug use by players, telling owners they would be "shocked" when they hear what's been going on "when this all comes out."
"If you engage in this type of activity," one source said of the investigation, "you do it at great risk to your livelihood."
[email protected]


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/exclusive-daily-news-uncovers-bizarre-plot-melky-cabrera-fake-website-duck-drug-suspension-article-1.1139623?pgno=1#ixzz240zvaklW

[The Minsky Moment]

Orioles have two secret weapons keeping them in contention:
1) Bullpen has been very effective and deep despite lack of names
2) Buck Showalter

[jimmy olsen]

2) Buck Showalter

Hardly a secret.

[The Minsky Moment]

2) Buck Showalter

Hardly a secret.

Yet the guy spent years plying his trade on espn when teams desparate for improvement settled for lesser options.

[sbr]

Buck isn't a perfect fit everywhere and isn't a long term fix anywhere.

[jimmy olsen]

I'd like to think Jeter is just having a late career renaissance like Ted Williams did when he was 38, but in this day and age I can't help but be suspicious.

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2012/08/derek_jeter_notches_50th_multi.html

[The Minsky Moment]

He's basically having a career average year.   

OBP is .367 compared to .382 career
SLUG is .442 compared to .449 career

If his hot streak tails off soon he will likely end up somewhat below those numbers.