As one of the greatest hitters in Major League history despite missing several years of his prime due to military service, Ted Williams figuratively destroyed baseballs for parts of 19 seasons in the bigs. But his bat could be a force of actual destruction, too:
Teddy Ballgame died in 2002, but he would have turned 95 years old on Friday. He still ranks first all time in on-base percentage (.482) and second all time in slugging (.634).
As a point of reference, Miguel Cabrera’s astonishing 2013 has produced a .359/.450/.683 line. Williams hit .353/.498/.654 over parts of 14 seasons from 1941-1957. Ted Williams at least as good a hitter as Miguel Cabrera is this season for longer than the length of Cabrera’s entire career to date.
CLEVELAND (AP) — The Indians found someone to boost their sagging offense. They now have to hope it’s not too late.
After scoring just three runs in three games while being swept in Atlanta, the Indians acquired outfielder Jason Kubel on Friday from Arizona to help their playoff push. Kubel, who hit 30 homers last season but has struggled in 2013, was designated for assignment this week by the Diamondbacks.
It’s not immediately known what the Indians gave up for Kubel, who has averaged 20 homers and 81 RBIs the past five seasons.
A left-handed hitter, the 31-year-old joins Cleveland just as it opens a three-game series in Detroit. The Indians trail the AL Central-leading Tigers by 6 ½ games and are four back in the wild-card chase.
Kubel was struggling in his second season with the Diamondbacks. He batted just .220 with five homers and 32 RBIs in 89 games, and had been reduced to mainly pinch-hitting duties. The Diamondbacks had 10 days to trade, release or put Kubel on waivers.
The Indians went 0-for-18 with runners in scoring position against the Braves, and everyone in Cleveland’s batting order is slumping.
Kubel spent seven seasons in Minnesota before signing as a free agent with Arizona in 2011. He’s making $7.5 million this year with a club option worth $7.5 million for next season.
The Baltimore Orioles, seeking a boost in right-handed power for the stretch drive, acquired Michael Morse from the Seattle Mariners on Friday in exchange for outfielder Xavier Avery.
Morse, 31, was a key part of the Washington Nationals’ 98-win season in 2012 but struggled this season after a winter trade to the Mariners. Morse is batting .226 with 13 homers in 76 games in a year plagued by injuries. His on-base plus slugging (OPS) is down to .693, after it was at .791 last year and .910 in 2011, when he hit 31 homers and drove in 95 runs.
Avery, a 23-year-old who was a second-round pick in 2008, appeared in 32 games for the Orioles last season ,batting .223. He has a career .260 average and .328 on-base percentage in six minor league seasons, and set a career high with 39 stolen bases in 2010 at two levels.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals have acquired right-handed reliever John Axford from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for a player to be named later.
The 30-year-old Axford is expected to join the Cardinals on Friday night when they begin a seven-game road trip in Pittsburgh.
St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak calls Axford “a reliever that offers experience as both a setup man and closer. He’s also a pitcher who brings familiarity with the NL Central, pennant-race baseball and the postseason.”
Axford is 6-7 this season with a 4.45 ERA and 19 holds in 62 games. He led the NL with 46 saves in 2011 while helping the Brewers to the NL Central title.
The New York Yankees have 29 games left, and at this point, it seems worth counting their losses rather than their wins. How many losses can they withstand and keep their playoff hopes alive?
Last year, the Tigers made the playoffs with 88 wins. To get there, the Yankees can afford only 11 more losses.
But the Tigers advanced by winning their division last year. They wouldn’t have had enough wins for the wild card. If you go back two years — the last year with only one wild card — the Red Sox would have been the second wild card at 90 wins. To get there, the Yankees can afford to lose only nine games the rest of the way.
But even 90 wins might not be enough. Last year, both wild card berths required 93 wins. To get there, the Yankees can afford to lose only six games. Six.
“Any loss at this point in the season is rough on us,” Chris Stewart said on Wednesday, when the Yankees let one get away in Toronto. “Time is ticking away and we don’t really have much room for error.”
It really is a tiny margin with three teams to pass. Each win moves the Yankees incrementally closer. Each losses moves them devastatingly backwards.
“We need to win games; we need to win series,” Joe Girardi said. “We need to have a really good home stand is the bottom line. We’ve got 29 games left, and we’re home I think for 10 games. Playing some teams in our division. We need to have a really good home stand.”
Jennings also writes for the (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal-News, a Gannett property
GALLERY: A-Rod through the years
In Alex Rodriguez’s first at-bat in an Aug. 18 game in Boston, he was hit a pitch from the Red Sox’s Ryan Dempster. Both benches were warned and Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected after arguing that Dempster should have been tossed out of the game. Jared Wickerham, Getty Images
Alex Rodriguez hits his 648th career home run, his first of the season. The RBI moves him past Stan Musial for fifth on the all-time career RBI list with 1,951. William Perlman, The (Newark) Star-Ledger vis USA TODAY Sports
Alex Rodriguez gets a mixed reaction from the home crowd in his season debut at Yankee Stadium. He strikes out in his first at-bat. William Perlman, The (Newark) Star-Ledger via USA TODAY Sports
Alex Rodriguez address the media before the game against the Chicago White Sox at US Cellular Field on Aug. 5. He goes 1-for-4 in his 2013 season debut. Rob Grabowski, USA TODAY Sports
In his two games with the Trenton Thunder, Rodriguez went 1-for-2 with four walks , including a mammoth two-run homer. Joe Camporeale, USA TODAY Sports
Alex Rodriguez is one of about 10 major leaguers who will be suspended, but he is the only one who will be banned beyond this season. Joe Camporeale, USA TODAY Sports
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, as part of the Charleston RiverDogs, appears in a rehab game against the Rome Braves at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park. Jeff Blake, USA TODAY Sports
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, as part of the Charleston RiverDogs, grounds into a double play during a rehab game against the Rome Braves at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park. Jeff Blake, USA TODAY Sports
Alex Rodriguez tosses his bat in the air after hitting a two-out, walk-off, three-run home run in the Yankees 8-6 win over the Cleveland Indians on April 19, 2007. Kathy Willens, AP
Alex Rodriguez becomes the 22nd member of the 500-home run club on Aug. 4, 2007 with his three-run shot against the Royals. He is the youngest player to reach the mark. Jim McIsaac Getty Images
Alex Rodriguez, right, is helped with his new number 13 jersey by New York Yankees manager Joe Torre during an introductory news conference at Yankee Stadium. Gregory Bull, AP
Alex Rodriguez prepares to hand out American flags to fans at the admission gates at The Ballpark in Arlington before a game on Sept. 18, 2001. Jerry W. Hoefer, AP
Alex Rodriguez gives reporters a big smile while answering questions about his $252 million, 10-year deal with the Texas Rangers during a news conference in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 12, 2000. Donna McWilliam, AP
On July 8, 1994, Alex Rodriguez makes his major league debut for the Mariners in Boston, becoming just the third 18-year-old shortstop in the big leagues since 1900. Gary Stewart, AP
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Slumping Garrett Jones hit his 100th career homer and drove in four runs as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis 5-0 Friday night and moved into a tie with the Cardinals for the NL Central lead.
Jones had three hits and Russell Martin added his 12th homer of the season. Jose Tabata and Neil Walker got two hits as the Pirates moved within four victories of their first winning season in 21 years.
Francisco Liriano (15-6) allowed just two hits over eight innings, walking two and striking out six to reach the 15-win plateau for the first time.
Jones came in hitting just .119 in August but broke out against St. Louis starter Shelby Miller (12-9).
Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle gave Jones some time off to figure things out earlier this week. For a night, the tinkering worked.
Jones hit a two-run double in the first inning to give Pittsburgh the lead, added a moon shot to the seats in right field off Miller in the fourth and followed it up with an RBI single in the fifth.
That was plenty for Liriano. The left-hander is in the midst of a mid-career revival with the Pirates and he had little trouble improving to 4-0 against the Cardinals.
Liriano pitched a complete game in a 5-1 win at St. Louis two weeks ago and was even more dominant in front of a packed PNC Park that is still getting used to being in the thick of a pennant race.
The Cardinals managed only one runner in the last six innings, and no one got past second base in the entire game.
Behind Liriano and Jones, Pittsburgh righted itself following a bumpy three-game set against Milwaukee earlier in the week.
Miller is in the midst of a breakout rookie season but hasn’t figured out a way to solve the Pirates. He fell to 0-4 versus Pittsburgh, though his hitters haven’t done him any favors. The Cardinals have produced just one run in Miller’s four starts against Pittsburgh.
The Pirates doubled that total in the first inning against Miller. Tabata led off with a single and Walker doubled to put runners in scoring position. Miller hit Pedro Alvarez to load the bases and Jones ended a month’s worth of frustration by slashing a ball down the right-field line.
Jones kept it going in the fourth, golfing Miller’s fastball into the stands. Martin followed with a shot over the wall in center on the next pitch to give Pittsburgh a 4-0 lead.
Jones drove in newly acquired outfielder Marlon Byrd in the fifth, making his entire RBI total this month (four) with three swings of the bat.
St. Louis manager Mike Matheny replaced Miller one batter later. Miller lasted just 4 1-3 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits, walking three and striking out three. He struggled with his command, twice walking Liriano — who came in hitting just .075 — on four pitches.
NOTES: Pittsburgh All-Star closer Jason Grilli will pitch one inning for Double-A Altoona on Saturday as he continues his rehab from a strained flexor tendon in his right forearm. Grilli has been on the 15-day disabled list since injuring the arm against Washington on July 22 … The Cardinals bolstered their bullpen on Friday when they acquired reliever John Axford from Milwaukee. “There’s a lot of experience there, a lot of upside,” Matheny said. “It’s hard to forget that two years ago this guy was one of the top relievers in the game.” … Lance Lynn (13-8, 4.02 ERA) starts for the Cardinals on Saturday against A.J. Burnett (6-9, 3.18).
Starling Marte went on the DL last week with a hand injury. The Pirates, a game back in the division ahead of a big weekend series with St. Louis, could really use the speedy outfielder back in the lineup.
Before yesterday’s game against Milwaukee, Marte noticed a kid in the stands with a homemade drawing—”get better Starling,” it said. So Marte accepted it (presumably in exchange for something nice), and taped it up in the Pittsburgh dugout. Adorable.
You may now commence criticizing a five-year-old’s artistic abilities, you big jerks.
Some people are fans of the New York Jets. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Jets. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here.
Your team: New York Buttfumbles
Your 2012 record: 6-10. LET’S DO IT AGAIN, EVERYBODY!
Your coach: Rex Ryan, who stopped enjoying this job roughly 15 months ago. The fat, swaggering, toe-licking Rex that was here at the turn of the decade has been replaced by a deflated balloon of a man, a man who lost his team ages ago and has already visibly lost his composure in postgame press conferences. It’s only the third week of the preseason. This kind of complete systemic breakdown of a shitty team usually happens around November. For the Jets, it’s been ongoing for the past 80 weeks. This is the only time the Jets will get a jump on the rest of the NFL.
Like the Panthers, the Jets saw fit to hire a new GM but keep their old miserable coach around. I will never understand the logic behind such gross inaction. This team was a train wreck last season—a train wreck that EVERY LIVING SOUL ON EARTH saw coming—and somehow, through a combination of laziness and cap mismanagement, they are in the EXACT same position as they were a year ago. In fact, they’re worse.
It says volumes about the Jets’ current predicament that Ryan was pilloried by the local media for putting Mark Sanchez in harm’s way: the same Mark Sanchez who is inarguably one of the worst quarterbacks in football, the same Mark Sanchez that has absolutely NO PRAYER of being with this team a year from now, whose potential cap hit was the only thing keeping him from being fired. Somehow keeping HIM upright is crucial to this team’s short-term success. You could sabotage an entire team’s season Max Bialystock-style and still not concoct a more hopeless situation than the one Rex Ryan is currently in.
By the way, Marty Mornhinweg is your new offensive coordinator, because of course the Jets hired Marty Mornhinweg to be offensive coordinator.
The truth is that the Jets quarterback is not any one person but rather an immense inter-dimensional void inside which time means nothing and all particles of light are crushed into nothingness. To look at the space behind the Jets’ center is to have every blood vessel ripped away from your body. It is a thing that cannot be.
Sanchez is awful, but what’s far more alarming is that the Jets drafted someone to replace him (this is something teams should do!) and, again, EVERY LIVING SOUL ON EARTH already knows that he’s a bust. They just drafted the Appalachian JaMarcus Russell. Not only did Geno Smith turn the ball over 60 times the moment he got into a preseason game, but he showed up to camp fat. Christ. This is a team that had Tim Tebow listed as one of their QBs last season, and yet somehow they are now worse off.
Your fantasy player everyone will hate: Chris Ivory. This is who the Jets signed to replace the perennially disappointing Shonn Greene. If you’ve ever picked up Chris Ivory off of waivers (and you have), you know that he’s the kind of back that can get you five yards a carry if you happen to have a historically prolific passing attack keeping defenses from crowding the box. The Jets do not have that. They have the opposite of that. Every time Ivory carries the ball, he will experience deep, deep pangs of regret. Bilal Powell is already primed to take his job. “Bilal” sounds like a way of preparing lamb on a stick.
Why your team sucks: Let’s do a little thought exercise. Pretend the Jets never existed. Go ahead. It’s quite easy to do. Imagine an NFL with just 31 teams and only one franchise in New York. Now, imagine that an expansion group led by the shiftless, fame-whoring scion of a pharmaceutical company proposes the following to the NFL: “We’re gonna have a SECOND team in New York! It’ll play in the same stadium as the Giants, be horribly mismanaged, and will have the same kind of asshole fans as the Giants (NOTE: white bridge-and-tunnel trash assholes from Long Island and Queens and Jersey all like to pretend they’re different breeds of asshole, but they are not), just far less of them.”
Do you think the Ginger Hammer would accept that proposal? Of course not. He’d put a team in London and then demand the Brits stop paying national health care. The Jets don’t need to exist. In fact, they are actively harmful. The Jets are the NFL’s ruptured appendix. We’ve made fun of star-crossed franchises like the Browns and Lions and Bills here, but the Jets—who somehow managed to WIN a Super Bowl at one point—and unquestionably the laughingstock of the NFL. Not only do they lose, but they lose in the tackiest way possible. Their fans are insecure morons and their players are somehow even dumber. What purpose do they serve other than to hold themselves up for merciless ridicule?
It gets even worse if you look past the fact that the Jets are using a lame duck head coach and lame duck QB for the second straight season. Even if you factor in an injured, washed-up Santonio Holmes, there is no one for the GENOCHISE to throw to. Stud rookie CB Dee Milliner is already nursing a calf injury. The front seven is aging and there are no good young players to waiting in the wings at linebacker or defensive line. The Jets are a team that is never completely rebuilding and never completely refining—they remain an odd mix of overpriced veteran talent and iffy young talent, like the pre-Melo Knicks. They are doomed to lose 10 games a year while laboring under the delusion that they have a stacked roster. And now Darrelle Revis is gone for good. This team should have been blown up two years ago. That they remain intact is not a testament to their determination but rather a glaring indictment of their stupidity.
Also, fuck Chris Berman for whenever he sang “Vinny & The Jets.” The worst.
Why your team doesn’t suck: Everything is so convinced that they’re gonna suck that maybe, just maybe, they WON’T suck. The NFL works like that sometimes, right? Well, I mean, it works that way for teams that aren’t the Jets.
The 17 worst Jets ever:
1) Rich Kotite. They made him coach and GM. Never forget.
2) Vernon Gholston
3) Neil O’Donnell. O’Donnell, Kellen Clemens, Rick Mirer, and Quincy Carter (!!!!) have all started games for the Jets. That is a rough foursome. Keep in mind that Sanchez has been WAY more productive than any of those men.
4) Dewayne Robertson. He can’t miss! CAN’T MISS DINNER, THAT IS! ***RIMSHOT***
5) Scott Frost
6) Keyshawn Johnson/Alex Van Dyke. Drafted together. Never ever draft wideouts in the first two rounds.
8) Bubby Brister
9) Travolta
10) Ryan Yarborough
11) Marvin Jones
12) Browning Nagle. The Nagler!
13) Blair Thomas
14) Glenn Foley
15) Lou Holtz
16) Justin McCareins. I swear he was a fantasy sleeper once. That’s how stupid fantasy football will make you.
NYCFC, owned by Manchester City and the Yankees, will join MLS in 2015. But they don’t have a stadium just yet. Until one is built, they’re expected to play in Yankee Stadium. But it seems like there’s a good chance that when NYCFC gets a home of its own, they won’t have far to travel.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both report that NYCFC is eyeing a parcel of land just south of Yankee Stadium. It’s currently occupied by a parking garage, a warehouse, and an expressway onramp. (Here’s the plot on Google Maps.) It’s an attractive site for a number of reasons: nearby subways and commuter rail, and the few but stout gameday amenities already in place around Yankee Stadium. More importantly, for most New Yorkers it’d halve the commute time from the previously rumored site in Flushing Meadows Park.
It’s far from a done deal. Yankees president Randy Levine said they’re considering “four or five sites, in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.”
SD Yankee Report 