The 2012 MLB Thread

[GolfWang]

I'm an A's fan but I always liked the Red Sox too, at least I did before they hired that moron Bobby Valentine to manage.

Maybe I'm the only one, but as someone who has probably watched about 90% of Red Sox games this year I actually think Bobby V has done an excellent job. I'm a fan. The players, on the other hand, need to be slapped upside the head a few times.

[Miroir Noir]

Bobby V is dealing with a lot of the hangover from last year, and he has the perfectly wrong personality for handling the players and media. It's the wrong guy for a bad situation.

However, I absolutely agree that in terms of the baseball stuff, you can't find much to fault the guy for. He hasn't blown a bunch of games through stupid managing. He's dealt with a lot of injuries and organizational chaos. I was telling Gribbz a few weeks ago that I thought he would survive the offseason because he hasn't committed any baseball mistakes. After this, I'm not so sure though. I'm not sure he should want to stay.

[Grandma]

I MUST go to this.

http://sanrafael.patch.com/articles/...r-championship

Sports
Pacifics Sign 65-year-old Bill "The Spaceman" Lee in Battle for Championship
The former Red Sox left-hander, who owns a house in Terra Linda, could become the oldest person to pitch and win a professional game.
By Theo Fightmaster Email the author 5:30 pm
Email Print 1 Comment



There's always room for a strike-throwing left-hander on any professional baseball team's roster. Bill Lee proved that axiom true when the former Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expo pitched 5 1/3 innings, picking up the win for the Brockton Rox in a Can-Am League contest in 2010. With the victory, Lee reportedly set a record becoming oldest pitcher to win a professional baseball game.

The San Rafael Pacifics have signed Lee, and on Thursday, Aug. 23, the 65-year-old will look to break his own record, as he gets the start for the Pacifics who host the Maui Na Koa Ikaika as part of a six-game, season-ending series. The two teams — in first and second place respectively — are battling for the North Division championship.

Lee, a former Terra Linda resident who still owns a house in the area, surrendered only two earned runs on five hits as the Rox defeated the Worcester Tornadoes in his last outing. The southpaw threw 63 pitches — 41 of them for strikes — on his way to striking out one and walking none.

"It felt good out there," the Spaceman told reporters. "Everything was where I wanted to be. I got pulled before I could use all of my pitches today. I was hoping to be able to break out my Juan Marichal screwball."

Team President and General Manager Mike Shapiro approached Lee with an offer to sign on for a start during the season, but had no idea it would be in the heat of a pennant race.

"Because of Bill's connection to this community and his great pitching career I thought it would be a treat for our fans to get to see a local legend pitch,” Shapiro said. “It's even more special that he has a chance to help us win the division.”

Believed to be the oldest pitcher to earn a victory in a professional game, Lee is among other golden greats like Satchel Paige; who was 59 when he pitched three innings for the Kansas City Athletics in 1965. Another longtime Negro Leagues player, the legendary Buck O’Neal, batted twice in the Northern League All-Star Game in 2006 at age 94. He swung at one pitch and walked in both at-bats. Earlier that year, Jim Eriotes, 83, led off the game for the Sioux Falls Canaries and struck out. He did foul off a pitch.

Over his 14-year career in the major leagues, Lee went 119-90 with a 3.62 ERA and 713 strikeouts. A native of Burbank, Calif., Lee won 17 games each season from 1973-75, was selected to the 1973 American League All-Star team and in 1975, he helped the Red Sox clinch the American League championship.

Tickets to the game are available at Pacificsbaseball.com. Follow the Pacifics on Twitter.com @SRPacifics, and become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sanrafaelpacifics.

[rag and bone]

Melky Cabrera out for the season after testing positive for testosterone. Ouch!

[dorkfish]

damn.

[Robin]

Melky Cabrera out for the season after testing positive for testosterone. Ouch!

Is anyone surprised?

[Grandma]

Yes. Safe to say his days as a San Francisco Giant are over after this season...

[rag and bone]

Giants should have to vacate at least 5.5 wins

[TomAz]

Giants should have to vacate at least 5.5 wins

And the AL should get home field in the series.

[Miroir Noir]

All of those stories about the Melk man soliciting training and career advice from A-Rod suddenly make more sense.

[TomAz]

This has got to be the biggest steroid suspension in baseball history.

[Miroir Noir]

ALL HAIL THE KING

[nahuatldream]

Quite a two-faced kinda day in MLB. It was only a matter time with Felix. As for Melky, sucks for gnat fans, but yay for my Dodgers.

[dorkfish]

Yes. Safe to say his days as a San Francisco Giant are over after this season...

Or it'll be easier to lock him into a club-favorable extension contract if he's worth keeping.

[xxxxxxxxxx]

This has got to be the biggest steroid suspension in baseball history.

Player suspended in the middle of an All Star season, yeah I would say so. He probably just cost himself over $50 million. So much for getting that big free agent contract, haha.

[kneuller]

A San Francisco Giants outfielder using steroids?!?!? Well, I never...

[Down Rodeo]

That could very well turn the tide in the NL West race. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are killing it in Pittsburgh... a four game sweep could be in order tomorrow.

[xxxxxxxxxx]

Word is Giants knew about suspension in late July, reason they acquired Hunter Pence. I'm hoping the Dodgers take the division.

[Miroir Noir]

Carl Crawford officially enters the Pavano zone.

[TomAz]

I'm willing to bet Cabrerra's suspension winds up being for more than 50 games.

San Francisco Giants star outfielder Melky Cabrera mounted a campaign to avoid his 50-game suspension that included a fake website featuring a fictitious product in an effort that was quickly uncovered by MLB investigators, the New York Daily News has reported.

Citing an anonymous source close to the case and a Cabrera associate who told the newspaper he was "accepting responsibility for what everyone else already knows" concerning the fake site, the Daily News reported famed investigator Jeff Novitzky and agents from MLB's investigative arm have begun looking more closely at Cabrera and the scheme purportedly hatched in July as they seek the source of the synthetic testosterone found in his urine.

"There was a product they said caused this positive," the source told the Daily News of Cabrera and his representatives. "Baseball figured out the ruse pretty quickly."

Juan Nunez, who has been described by Cabrera'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 purchase the fake website, according to the report.

The purpose was to fool MLB and the players' union, while presenting them with the website and resulting phony product information, into believing Cabrera had ordered a supplement fraudulently spiked with testosterone, therefore causing the positive drug test, the report says.

Players who test positive are allowed, as part of the collective bargaining agreement that covers MLB's drug program, to try and prove they ingested a banned substance through no fault of their own.

Cabrera's suspension was announced Wednesday.

Cabrera was to miss the final 45 games of the regular season and serve the remainder of the suspension at the start of next season or during the postseason, depending on whether the Giants make the playoffs and how far they advance.

The union initially had filed a grievance, which would have caused the case to go before an arbitrator, but then dropped it, a person familiar with the process told The Associated Press last week.

Cabrera's associates and his entourage, including trainers, handlers and agents, have now drawn the focus of Novitzky, along with agents from MLB's Department of Investigation, according to the report.

Novitzky is the Food and Drug Administration special agent who, in his prior job as an IRS special agent, ran the investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). That probe led to the seizure of the baseball drug list and the indictment of home run king Barry Bonds.

The Levinsons denied to the Daily News of having anthing to do with the scheme, a claim backed by Nunez and a source from the union who also spoke to the newspaper.

"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 newspaper. "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.)"

Nunez said he worked alone in getting the site operating for Cabrera.

"I was the only one who had dealings with the website," Nunez told the Daily News. "Neither Seth nor Sam had any dealings with the website, nor did anyone else in the firm."

A source from the union said "the MLBPA has not been presented with any evidence at this time that the Levinsons had any connection to the website."

On Sunday, manager Bruce Bochy would not discuss the allegations against Cabrera before the Giants' game against the Padres in San Diego. He didn't defend his player's actions, either.

"You can be world-class parents and your kids can go south or have some issues," Bochy said, according to The Associated Press. "We can't follow guys 24/7, and it comes down to choices. (Cabrera) is a grown man, he's a veteran.

"These are unfortunate things and we'll continue to work at cleaning out baseball."

Cabrera leads the National League with 159 hits and is second in batting average behind Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen. Cabrera's penalty is the first for a high-profile player since last year's NL MVP, Ryan Braun, had his suspension overturned by an arbitrator last winter.

"My positive test was the result of my use of a substance I should not have used," Cabrera said in a statement released Wednesday by the union. "I accept my suspension under the Joint Drug Program and I will try to move on with my life. I am deeply sorry for my mistake and I apologize to my teammates, to the San Francisco Giants organization and to the fans for letting them down."

Cabrera is batting .346 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs in his first season with San Francisco.

[Grandma]

how about them dodgers ehh?

[Geno_g]

Bartolo Colon :

how about them dodgers ehh?

Baked Ziti for 8 inning strong...

[buddy]

First game at Fenway, and was witness to horrible pitching with a football score. All in all was a great time. Thanks santasutt for the advice.

[Miroir Noir]

Those were good seats! I loved Fenway my one trip there. It helped that the game didn't involve the Yankees.

[TomAz]

Did you stay for all 4 1/2 hours buddy?

[Miroir Noir]

Here's the box score from the game I attended at Fenway. It was also a five hour long game. For some reason, I had forgotten that Jose Canseco was on that team and that I saw him play.

[Robin]

Buddy - Those are awesome seats! Hope you're enjoying New England.
Made me sad that I've never been inside of Fenway. I've been bar hopping outside of Fenway many times, though.

[buddy]

Not my original seat. I snunk down in the 7th or so, but my original seat wasn't bad either. I left after Aceves blew the save, since i had to take the green line back to my car and drive back 2 hours to Connecticut, and since I already knew how the story ended by following the Red Sox this year.

[Newro7ic]

That game pissed me off so much that I couldn't even enjoy the ending... and I'm an Angels fan.

[Miroir Noir]

Apparently the Dodgers have been awarded a waiver claim on Adrian Gonzalez.