Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
About 5 years back, I bought an Alex Rodriguez baseball glove for my soon to be newborn daughter. Now that she is finally old enough to really wear it comfortably, I'm not sure I made the right purchase. Actually, the glove Alex should be pimping out is not made by Rawlings, but by Trojan.
Looking at it more closely, his name across this coney island whitefish would fit nicely. I mean, A ROD is pretty fitting, don't you think? Considering I pushed the idea of Trojan being a sponsor on Dick Trickle's NASCAR hood, I'm hoping that this time the perfect synergy between the 2 will actually come together. Well, maybe come together isn't the best description, but I think you get where I'm coming from.
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I wonder if Madonna will do a cover of this classic tune.
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In my MLB preview, I spotlighted how the biggest key in baseball now is the bullpen. Here is a few comments.
The Indians are the best team in baseball...except that they have decided to stick with Borowski to close out games. Time to move someone up or get someone to take care of that serious flaw.
The Tigers have a bunch of aging hitters coming off big, if not career years, and a pathetic bullpen. Does that scenario remind you of someone? (2007 White Sox). No team has a bigger high/low possibility than Detroit.
Last season the White Sox bullpen was as bad as a gets for about a 3 month stretch. Outside of Jenks, their pen was awful. One more starting pitcher and they could climb back into the Wild Card picture in 2008.
The Twins and A's seem to both be in a transitional phase, but they have enough pitching to be more competitive than expected.
Too many people are out ahead of the D-Rays, as their bullpen will continue to kill them. (Big F-ing oops on that one.)
I picked the Angels to beat the Red Sox because I felt they had the 2 best bullpens. I actually spent more time on this subject the following week after my predictions. Maybe this is a better way of explaining it to you. Coffee is for CLOSERS!
NOTE THAT the clip below IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Oh and remember, Always be Closing!
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By the way, if you enjoyed that Mamet epic, check this parody out. It is really inspired.
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While I'm putting up youtube videos, there is no truth that the Juice Blog's Will Carroll was the original instigator in the skirmish shown below, which happened during the Cubs and White Sox series. I believe at the time, Will was at Nobu telling their Maitre D to get him a F#*King Table and make it snappy!
While Linnebrink and Dotel are certainly upgrades over last year's pen, I wonder what the South-siders pen would look like if Danks, Contreras and Floyd had about 45 less IP (which was a possibility) this year---it probably wouldn't be pretty.
As a long time Brave's fan, I often marveled at Cox/Mazzone's ability to cobble together bullpen after bullpen using discarded Berenguers, assorted Spooneybargers and the odd Hammond. It's starting to look like that the success of those bullpens had as much to do with the heavy inning workload that the starters took on year after year as it did with any magic that was performed on Mike Remlinger's behalf.
Now it's possible for a bullpen to occasionally succeed while pitching lots of innings, but I'd suspect that there is a very strong correlation between bullpen success and a lighter workload.
Bottom line is that I'd attribute more of the the Sox's run prevention success to their incredible starting staff than to their bullpen.
Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle should have been Crockett and Tubbs in the movie, and it shouldn't have been as dark and broody as it was.
Here is where Don Johnson lost it. He made an impossibly cheesy album which took away much of his cool quotient. Bruce Willis survived his Bruno moment, as he had a sense of humor. Outside of the Hot Spot, I can't think of a movie Crockett made that had any artistic integrity to it after Miami Vice. He sold out. It made him rich, but it left him not much more than a glorified Jan Michael Vincent.
Pitt has taken many chances and has stayed mostly away from the blockbuster film. Do I think Pitt is a better actor than Johnson? Not much, but Johnson had terrible instincts when it came to his own career. As soon as put on those fruity vests on Nash Bridges, his career went from being a contender to being Texas Walker Ranger. Choices.
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