再見...Manny Ramirez says Zhai Gen aka Adios to Taiwan

Photo Courtesy of AP

Ay-yay-yay. So the Manny Ramirez era in Taiwan has come to an end with his opting out of his contract with the EDA Rhinos of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Ramirez states that his reasons for leaving have to do with his being homesick. This might very well be true but I really think that Manny wants to make a return to the MLB but the question remains does any team in MLB want the traveling drama show that is Manny Ramirez. Has he fully burned all his bridges in MLB or is there a team that is actually willing to give him a chance.

Rumors have it that the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) is serious in their intent to want to sign Ramirez. Lotte is currently in first place of the Pacific League and I'm sure they see Ramirez as a power bat and a potential draw. If he was indeed homesick in Taiwan, he'll surely be homesick in Japan. But I think its a masterful move. If he joins the NPB, the competition will be stronger there than in the CPBL and if he can put up similar numbers there then I would think he would seriously get better interest from an MLB team.

In 49 games with the Rhinos, Ramirez hit .352 with 8 homers and 43 RBI. His slash line was .352/.422 OBP/.555 SLG.

We'll have to see where Manny lands next. I do have to say that I'll miss the homerun calls that the Taiwanese announcers would bellow when ManRam would go deep. This ball is long gone. Just like an ex-girlfriend who will never return...Awesome

FH

What Should The Yankees Do About Phil Hughes

After sitting through the 6-0 loss by the Yankees to the Los Angeles Dodgers and reading some of the remarks about losing pitcher Phil Hughes it got me to thinking: What Should The Yankees Do About Phil Hughes. Now Hughes had nothing in his tank from the first batter on. The Dodgers got off to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first and never looked back. While I think Hughes should take his fair share of blame for this loss I also believe the offense took the night off. In doing so, they made Dodger starter Chris Capuano look (as John Sterling described him on the air) fabulous. In six innings pitched, Capuano gave up only 3-hits while walking none and striking out 4. The Yankees got a runner to third only once and were 0-3 with Runners in Scoring Position. So the offense tonight was just as bad as their starting pitching. But back to Hughes.

This loss leaves Hughes with a 3-6 record and a large 5.09 ERA. Do they send him to the bullpen?  Who replaces him in the rotation. Looking at the Scranton/Willks Barre roster, do they give Ivan Nova yet another chance? Vidal Nuno? Bring up Dellin Betances? Do they wait out Michael Pineda's rehab and leave Hughes in the rotation.

I think for the moment, the decision not to bring up Chien Ming Wang and releasing him (Wang signed a Major League contract with division rival Toronto Blue Jays) will loom large. The Yankees just don't have an experienced arm to plug into Hughes' spot in the rotation. I think they have no choice but to keep putting Hughes out there every five days. Unless Hughes has a major turn around in the second half, I believe his days in pinstripes are numbered. I can even see Yankees General Manager packaging him in a trade near the deadline. But I am getting ahead of myself. We'll have to see what happens in five days.

What do you all think. Let me know.

Sisco Kid

I Might Have To Start Calling Tim McCarver Karnak

My friend Christopher and I had a good laugh right before the season started based on some comments made by Fox Sports Announcer, former MLB player and the 2012 Ford C. Frick Award recipient Tim McCarver. McCarver, who is slated to retire after this season from his duties at Fox Sports made some rather (at the time) far fetched comments concerning Detroit Tigers starter Max Scherzer. McCarver stated that he believed that Scherzer, rather than Tigers' ace Justin Verlander would win the American League Cy Young Award this season. Now imagine how many among Baseball felt that McCarver may have bitten off more than he could chew with his comments. Well, maybe everyone except Max Scherzer.

To give credit where it is due, Scherzer isn't on par with someone let's say like Oliver Perez. Scherzer did finish the season with a 16-7 record with a 3.74 ERA and a league leading 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings (231 K's in 187 2/3 innings). But in all reality, could anyone really see him being as good as he's been this season? Well, aside from McCarver and Scherzer. Here are Scherzer's statistics up to today:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Max Scherzer		9	0	3.19	13	13	0	0	0		90.1	57	33	32	.182	22	106	0.87

Let's see how Scherzer compares with the league leaders. He's tied for first in wins (9) with Clay Buchholz, Patrick Corbin, Adam Wainright and Jordan Zimmerman. He's tied for first in losses (0) with Buchholz and Corbin. Scherzer is 33rd in the league in ERA, 10th in innings pitched, 2nd in the league in strikeouts behind Yu Darvish and has a league leading .182 opponents batting average. He trails the Seattle Mariners' starter Hisahashi Iwakuma in terms of WHIP (0.82) with a 0.87 WHIP. 

So I would say it is a safe bet at this moment, that Max Scherzer indeed is a prime candidate for the American League Cy Young award along with Boston's Clay Buchholz and Texas' Yu Darvish among others.

So to quote the legendary Mel Allen: How About That!!!

Sisco Kid

- Click Here to Access Max Scherzer's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com

What Is Up With The National League Central

I know that it is hard sometimes to look closely at all the other division races when your team is in the middle of a four team battle royal in the American League East. But I was astounded when I noticed that the top two records in the entire league were in the National League Central. Leading the pack are the St. Louis Cardinals with a 37-19 record, followed closely by the Cincinnati Reds AND surprisingly the Pittsburgh Pirates with identical 35-22 records. The only American League team in the mix (record-wise) are the Boston Red Sox with a 35-23 record. I'll get to the Pirates in a few sentences but first the Cardinals and the Reds.

The Cardinals might be the best built organization in Baseball. Consider that in 2011 they lost Adam Wainright for the season and went on to win the World Series. Last year they lose Albert Pujols to free-agency and Chris Carpenter to injury for almost the whole season and finished with a 88-74, 2nd in NL Central. The would upset the #1 ranked National League team in the Washington Nationals in the five-game NLDS and lost to the eventual World Series Champion San Francisco Giants in seven games in the NLCS. This season they again lose their number two pitcher Carpenter to injury, have Kyle Lohse leave via free-agency and lose closer Jason Motte to season ending surgery AND have the best record in Baseball. Simply amazing. And with players such as Michael Wacha and Oscar Tavares as the future building blocks, the future is indeed bright for the Cardinals.

I picked the Reds as the team to win the National League Central and their loss to the San Francisco Giants after being up 2-0 in the NLDS only serves as the fuel to their proverbial fire. Led by Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips, the Reds are a solid team from top to bottom. They don't have the standard ace that most rotations have. What they do have is three pitchers in Arroyo, Latos and Leake each with 5 wins a piece and a bullpen that is anchored by the intimidating fireballer Aroldis Chapman. I am definitely not surprised to see the Reds in the position that they are in.

Speaking of surprising. I know the Pirates have been slowly been improving year after year but who would have thought (except for Pirates fans) that after 57 games the Pirates would be tied for the second best record in Baseball. I'll be quite honest with you, aside from Andrew McCutchen, 2nd Baseman Neil Walker, starter Wandy Rodriguez, closer Jason Grilli and the former Yankees that are on the Pirates (AJ Burnett and Russell Martin), I couldn't tell you who the rest of the starters are on the Pirates. And that is sad on my part. I need to pay more attention to them. The Pirates are a dynamic and fun team to watch who because they play in Pittsburgh don't get much national air-time. If they continue playing the manner that they are and don't drop off like last season, we'll be seeing more of the Pirates on prime-time TV.

So we'll see how the next month or so plays out for three lead teams in the National League Central compared to the rest of the league.

Sisco Kid

Andy Hawkins The Yankee Who Pitched a No Hitter and Lost

This post was inspired by a comment made by my friend Russ. We were talking about being realistic about the Yankees' chances this season after talking about my last post The State of The Yankees Entering June. Now the comment he made was as so:

You know I love my team, win or lose. If Andy Hawkins pitching a no-hitter and losing couldn't drive me away, nothing can. It's just a question of being realistic

Now that got me thinking. I remember that no hitter by Hawkins. So I decided to go back in time and take a look at that particular game.

As Russ also stated, that was the first no-hitter since Dave Righetti's July 4th no-hitter in 1983. That 1990 season was definitely not one for the ages for the New York Yankees. The Yankees finished the 1990 season with a 67-95 record finishing 7th and dead last in the AL East 21 games out of first place. Now Andy Hawkins joined the Yankees as a free-agent during the 1988 offseason and was a respectable 15-15 with a 4.80 ERA in his first season in the American League (1989). Hawkins had pitched his first seven seasons with the San Diego Padres. The 1990 season was one that Hawkins sure would want to forget. He would finish the 1990 season with a 5-12 record with 5.37 ERA. This is the season of the loss during his only no-hitter.

The game was on Sunday July 1 and the opponent for the Yankees were the Chicago White Sox. Opposing the Yankees was pitcher Greg Hibbard. Here is how Michael Martinez in his article No-Hitter, but With No Glory of the New York Times describes the game up to the moment of truth for Hawkins:

The Yankees were almost no-hit themselves. Greg Hibbard, the starting pitcher for the White Sox, retired the first 16 batters he faced before Bob Geren reached base on an infield hit in the sixth. Hawkins, meantime, set down the first 14 White Sox hitters, walked two and opened the eighth by getting Ron Karkovice and Scott Fletcher to hit pop flies.

With two outs in the top of the 8th Sammy Sosa (yes, THAT Sammy Sosa) grounded to 3B Mike Blowers who dropped the ball causing Sosa to reach base. Andy Hawkins wouldn't help his cause by consecutively walking Ozzie Guillen and Lance Johnson. Up to the plate came Robin Ventura.

It would seem that Hawkins would get out of the inning unscathed when he got Ventura to fly out to rookie left fielder Jim Leyritz. But knowing how the season would end for the Yankees in 1990, it was not to be. With the runners on the move with two outs, Leyritz would end up dropping the ball causing all three runners to score. With the score 3-0 and the no-hitter still intact, Ventura would score when a fly ball by White Sox slugger Ivan Calderon was lost in the sun by Yankee right fielder Jesse Barfield. In total, 2 walks and 3 Yankee errors in the bottom of the 8th inning were the difference in the game. For Hawkins would indeed a bitter achievement since he would have thrown a no-hitter but be hung for the loss. Here is how Hawkins described it:

''I'm stunned; I really am,'' he said, still standing on the field. ''This is not even close to the way I envisioned a no-hitter would be. You dream of one, but you never think it's going to be a loss. You think of Stewart and Fernando, coming off the field in jubilation. Not this.''

The reference to Stewart and Fernando? Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela threw WINNING no-hitters on the same day, 48 hours before Hawkins pitched his. But Hawkins wasn't alone.

At that point there had been 13 other no-hitters for losses, the last one before that one being in 1967. Here is the salt being rubbed in the proverbial wound. According to the Major League Baseball rules on no-hitters:

An official no-hit game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings. In a no-hit game, a batter may reach base via a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, a passed ball or wild pitch on strike three, or catcher's interference.

Since the Yankees were on the road at Comiskey Field and on the losing end of the score, Hawkins never got to pitch the 9th inning thus invalidating his no-hitter. How's that for bad luck. Hawkins would pitch half of the 1991 season with the Yankees before being released and pick up by the Oakland A's. He would finish his career after that same season.

That is some of the stuff us older Yankee fans went through before the current stretch of successful Yankee seasons. Thanks again to Russ for the inspiration for the post.

Sisco Kid

For Further Reading
- Click Here to Access Andy Hawkins' career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here to Access Michael Martinez's article No-Hitter, but With No Glory from the New York Times dated July 2, 1990 from NYTimes.com
- Click Here to Access the Box Score for the July 1, 1990 game against the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox from BaseballReference.com
- Click Here to Access the official Major League Baseball Rules from the MLB.com

The State of The Yankees Entering June

I find it funny to read comments by some Yankee fans concerning the four game sweep of the Subway Series to the Mets. I keep reading "Wait until September" or "We'll see when the World Series is on and the Yankees are playing". My favorite was "We were saving our strength for Boston". Stop with the false bravado folks. This team will be lucky to finish the month of June with a .500 record with the way they are hitting. Let's look at their schedule this month:

Boston
Cleveland
Seattle
Oakland
Anaheim
Los Angeles
Tampa
Texas
Baltimore

You have all three American division leaders this month (Boston, Cleveland and Texas), two division rivals who are at least five games over. 500 (Baltimore, Tampa), they play 10 games on the West Coast which always proves difficult for the Yankees (Seattle, Oakland, Anaheim) and two games against the Dodgers.

With how their schedule is looking this is the worst time for the team to have stopped hitting and producing runs. And you can't blame the pitching.

The rotation has actually done their job. In three of the four games against the Mets, the starters gave up four runs. In those same three games the Mets scored a total of seven runs. You can't let pitching like that go to waste especially when you have the toughest month on the schedule approaching fast.

Maybe the additions of Teixiera and Youkilis can add some bulk to a very small and thin lineup. Hopefully Tex doesn't have his notoriously slow starts and Youkilis can play like he did to start the season. You also hope that no one else falls prey to the injury bug that seems to keep affecting the team. As we see, the injuries might already be hard to overcome. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

So please fellow Yankee fans, root and believe in your team but don't do it blindly. The Yankees have overachieved based on the fact that they were patching holes in the lineup due to the massive amounts of injuries to their roster. I think that early season magic has petered out and we really need to be realistic about this team's chances as they look at the moment. And certainly don't downplay the effort put forth by the Mets and their fans obvious reaction to their team sweeping the entire Subway Series.

Regardless if the team was complete or injured, the Mets won those four games fair and square. So stop being sore losers and let the Mets fans enjoy their moment in the sun. 

Sisco Kid

The Amazing Walk Discipline of Bob Tewksbury

My friend Christopher and I were talking about the 1987 Yankees earlier today when he mentioned that former Yankees pitcher Bob Tewksbury walked a total of 20 batters during the 1992 season. I had mentioned that I needed to look at his statistics a bit more closely and I was amazed at how little number of batters he walked over his career. Before I go into his lack of walks, I wanted to go into a little background on Tewksbury.

Tewksbury was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 19th Round of the 1981 Draft. After a number of seasons in the minors, Tewksbury was called up in April of 1986 and made his debut on April 11, 1986. He would pitch during the 1986 and part of the 1987 season for the Yankees before being sent down to the Yankees AAA affiliate Columbus Clippers. His demotion caused Tewksbury to ask for a trade.

His wishes were granted with his being traded on July 13, 1987 with Rich Scheid and Dean Wilkins to the Chicago Cubs for pitcher Steve Trout in one of the many lopsided trades the Yankees seemed to fall prey to during the late 1980's. Trout went 0-4 wth a 6.60 ERA in his only season with the Yankees and would himself be traded with Henry Cotto to the Seattle Mariners for Lee Guetterman, Clay Parker and Wade Taylor.

Tewksbury never really seemed to find himself in his season and a half with the Cubs going 0-4 with a 6.75 ERA in only 8 games pitched. He would be granted free agency and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. It was with the Cardinals that he would show flashes of his limited walk potential.

In six seasons with the Cardinals (968.2 IP), Tewksbury walked a total of 125. That's an average of almost 21 walks in an average of 161 innings pitched. Here are the number of innings and walks during his six years in St. Louis:

Year	IP	BB	BB/9
1989	30.0	10	3.0
1990	145.1	15	0.9
1991	191.0	38	1.8
1992	233.0	20	0.8
1993	213.2	20	0.8
1994	155.2	22	1.3

Tewksbury led the National League in 1992 and 1993 with less than one walk per nine innings pitched. He would still be impressive in the walks department upon joining the Texas Rangers for the 1995 season, the San Diego Padres in 1996 and the Minnesota Twins to close out his career in 1997-1998. Here are his walk totals for those seasons:

Year	IP	BB	BB/9
1995	129.2	20	1.4
1996	206.2	43	1.9
1997	168.2	31	1.7
1998	148.1	20	1.2

Tewksbury's best season was the 1992 season when he made his only All-Star appearance and was third in the National League Cy Young Award voting. Here are his statistics for that season:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	W-L%		IP	H	R	ER		BB	K	WHIP
Bob Tewksbury		16	5	2.16	33	32	5	0	.762		233	217	63	56		20	91	1.017

Now I'm not saying that Tewksbury was an elite power pitcher and starter. Far from it, but let's see who, if anyone, came close to that 20 walk range in close to 200 innings during last season. The closest  starter that I've been able to find is Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies who walked 28 batters in 211.0 innings pitched. Kyle Lohse formerly of the St. Louis Cardinals walked 38 in 211.0 innings pitched and Bronson Arroyo of the Cincinnati Reds walked 35 in 202.0 innings pitched. 
It makes you wonder what the Yankees may have looked like if they had kept pitchers like Bob Tewksbury, Doug Drabek, Jose Rijo and Al Leiter instead of trading them for players who did not produce for the team as these young players may have. The Yankees dynasty might have come sooner...or might not have come at all. I leave you to speculate on that.
Sisco Kid


For Further Reading: - Click Here to access Bob Tewksbury's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com - Click Here for the article Cubs Put New Man In Action from the Chicago Tribune website dated July 17, 1987 - Click Here for the article Yanks Trade Trout, Cotto To Mariners from the Sun Sentinel website dated December 23, 1987