Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Last night Seattle reliever Matt Thorton came in the game, threw sliders instead of fastballs, gave up the lead and then heard it from manager Mike Hargrove. There is a special baseball word for his performance and it's likely Hargrove mentioned it in their little chat. According to Bob Finnigan in The Seattle Times:
In a rare display of anger, Mike Hargrove stomped to the mound in the sixth inning and apparently gave reliever Matt Thornton a hard lesson in what he expected to see from a pitcher, with much vehemence and finger-jabbing....Thornton, who walked Bernie Williams after Giambi's game-turning strike, was frank in revealing what the skipper would not. "He wanted to make sure he knew I can compete, for me to pitch like he knows I can, like I know I can," said Thornton, who had given up crushing homers earlier in the year, but not lately.
Be sure and peep the U.S.S. Mariner, especially tomorrow night with Felix Hernandez on the mound, to see how the other half lives.
I wonder if this is representative of a shift from the Tampa to NY offices. Any thoughts or ideas?
When I played freshman baseball one of the best kids on our team was a dirtbag named Tom Timmons. (The only thing we dared rag on him was about his name, switching it up...I remember one day he finally had it: "The next motherfugger that calls me Tim Tommins is getting his ass kicked.")
He was actually a really nice guy, but not down with the jock crowd at all. You know the type, he smoked, wore flannels and stone washed jeans, drove an IROC or something like that, screwed girls, stuff that none of the rest of us were doing. And he was a naturally good player. Could just show up and be better than the rest of us.
Well one day he got picked off of third, right in front of our coach, who was also the thirdbase coach. Not only that but he was tying run, and getting picked off ended the game. Our coach was too upset to say anything but the look on his face said "Horseshit" all the way.
As far as the moves Cashman and co. have made this year I don't think it represents a shift in the Yankee front office. I think it has a lot to do with the slim pickings that were available. After all, there weren't any other teams making big name deals either. I just think Cashman was able to make a few swaps that have turned out nicely and he deserves credit. But the Yankees front office--and who knows where to point the finger--put themselves into this hole to begin with. Thank goodness Cashman was able to do something...
True, and I do believe you might be right. Still I could imagine a year or two ago, shipping of Henn, Cano or some others for someone like Griffey or Burnett near the deadline. I'm only hoping this trend continues. People seem to forget that the late 90s teams were not a bunch of superstars (by this I mean the Tampa people, not the fans).
Someone said Jorge was flipping off Mariano. For hitting him with the pitch, I assume.
I'm kind of surprised he would do that. He had to know he'd be on TV. There's kids watching, and all. At least on the West Coast there might be kids watching...
On another subject, I wish some talking head had asked Jorge why he flipped off Mo. Why don't they ever ask the interesting questions? ;-)
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.