Isn't Puerto Rico part of USA? IGT

[Guest Kong76]

Davey drinking champagne at a wedding, Larkin is managing.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, how about Holland getting to keep their Caribbean islands and we don't?

[Guest Kong76]

Rootin' for PR anyways, Jeter's on USA.

[Guest Kong76]

Catering must have been bad, Davey in the dugout in the 2nd inning.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Mark DeRosa not diving for a grounder up the middle would make me get my ass to the park also.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'd like to come out against acquiring Jake Peavy.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

6 runs in 2, stock lowered-- Now's when you buy, Edge.

I worry that Javy Vazquez may end up having been a bigger add than any other in the division this winter.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

So... PUDGE is hitting against non-Nederlanders, right, so...

[metirish]

A mercy rule beat down for Team USA......

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, wow, a two-run single by the legendary Mike Aviles finishes the beatdown.

[nymr83]

wow.

[Fman99]

Edgy DC wrote: Yeah, how about Holland getting to keep their Caribbean islands and we don't?

We got the Virgin Islands (well, some of them). What's better than that?

Whore Island.

[bmfc1]

Now that Manny Ramirez has signed a contract, Jon Heyman can stop being a pipeline for stories that help Scott Boras' client and return to being a prick. Tonight, he goes after Davey Johnson for skipping Friday's Team USA practice and almost missing tonight's game for his stepson's wedding:

"U.S. manager Davey Johnson rushed back from his stepson's wedding across the state in St. Petersburg in time to catch Peavy's act, and the rest of his lame team's performance.

It was Johnson who urged the group several days ago to commit fully to the team, and not treat it like an exhibition. You have to wonder whether any of that message was lost in translation when John[son] missed Friday's practice presumably for the rehearsal dinner, and was slated to be replaced on Saturday by coach Barry Larkin, the former great Reds player.

Johnson was said to have "hustled'' back to the WBC, but his surprising early appearance didn't exactly inspire anyone."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jon_heyman/03/14/usa.routed.by.puerto.rico/index.html

[Guest OlerudOwned]

It was only his stepson's wedding? Bastard!

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't know. Heyman's a jerkweed and all (Armando), but that seems to me a legit criticism.

I wuv Davey and such, but he's known where he's needed to be for months.

[Frayed Knot]

And Team USA knew months ago where he Davey would be on this date so his absence was neither a surprise nor a recent decision, something Heyman's piece doesn't exactly make clear.
I also somehow doubt his uninterrupted presence would have woke up the bats or kept Peavy from sucking. After all, even Jeter's presence couldn't.

[bmfc1]

Nicely put FK: wouldn't the mere aura of Derek Jeter, and all that Jeter-ness, have overcome any void left by the absence of a manager that the players barely know?

[nymr83]

jeter's lack of leadership and clutchness (where was he to hit a 10-run homer when we needed it?) is appalling. He may be a true yankee but he is clearly not a true patriot.

[metirish]

Just a bad job all around here I think.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Verducci's got himself all worked into a lather. His final point...

5. By the way, to follow up on that 11-1 debacle to Puerto Rico, the last time Team USA suffered the embarrassment of losing via the mercy rule occurred in 1999 at the Intercontinental Cup in Sydney, Australia. It was the first USA Baseball team using professional players, though they were nothing like the star-studded cast that flopped against Puerto Rico. Most were independent ball players. The pitchers were Kevin Pincavich, Scott Conner and Aaron Jersild. Chad Thornill, not Derek Jeter, was the starting shortstop. In other words, you would be safe to assume that the 11-1 defeat Saturday to Puerto Rico was the most embarrassing loss in USA Baseball history.


Not that the loss was good on any level, but I'm going to guess that the 1999 opponent did not include a certain Hall of Famer (Pudge) and a handful of guys who will be in the conversation (Beltran, Delgado, Williams) and a number of All-Stars.

[bmfc1]

D-Wright gets knocked in the head, Ollie throws 85 pitches and F-Rod gets 4 out saves twice in three days. (Other teams, esp. Florida, have their own WBC-related problems.) I'm so sick of this tournament and want our guys "home." I want the USA to win tonight because Puerto Rico has five Mets and the USA has just two (Wright, Putz) so a USA win brings Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Alex Cora, Pedro Feliciano and Nelson Figueroa back to the (comparative) safety of Mets camp.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm going to go ahead and doubt that there is much if any relative safety at the Mets camp.

[soupcan]

I dunno. I think its good that Beltran and Delgado are in regular season mode and hitting lights out and Ollie apparently needs the work.

Putz has only been used for 2 innings and are two 4 out saves for Rodriguez that worrysome?

Wouldn't these guys be dialing it up about now anyway?

As Edgy says they can get hurt just as easily in Port St. Boring then they can in the WBC.

[metirish]

I've enjoyed watching Francisco Rodriguez doing his thing, I'm all pumped up myself.

Tom Martin couldn't have been further away form the WBC and he fell down a stairs, things happen.

[bmfc1]

I read today that the Mets are upset about Ollie because there was no way that he would have thrown 85 pitches at this point of the ST season. There is also no way that F-Rod would be used for 4 outs (esp. twice in a row). Sure, crap happens (e.g. Tom Martin), but the WBC takes players away from the norms of ST and puts them in a highly-competitive situation when they are not physically ready. Hold the darn thing in November and I'll be yelling "USA! USA!", but for now, I want our guys home.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ryan Church got his first concussion last year in spring training. Mookie Wilson nearly lost an eye in a rundown drill. Moises Alou may have ended his career in an A-level rehab game. Junior Spivey broke his wrist hitting off a tee. It's a contact sport played with really hard balls.

You like to think veterans know how to dial it down to protect themselves in spring training, but I'm not sure it works that way, and playing in second gear while you're surrounded by rookies playing in fourth may get you hurt also.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I agree that I'd prefer to see it in November, for the sake of the tournament as much as for the players absent from spring training.

[bmfc1]

From Buster Olney, today:

1. Matt Lindstrom has a strained rotator cuff, as Clark Spencer writes. This is already being viewed by some talent evaluators as a classic WBC injury, because Lindstrom was pitching at a heightened intensity level for which his body may not have been prepared, in mid-March. Whether or not that's fair criticism is another question, entirely.

It is bad news for the Marlins no matter how you slice it, says the Florida GM.

Chipper Jones has some harsh words about the WBC, as David O'Brien writes. Bud Selig says the WBC is globalizing the sport, as Sean McAdam writes.

The Mets are unhappy with how a couple of their pitchers have been handled in the WBC. Injuries happen in the WBC and everybody should just get used to that, writes Ken Davidoff.
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http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2009/03/16/braves_chipper_jones.html

[bmfc1]

Edgy, your points are valid. Even the quotes from Olney should that there are writers who support the WBC. My opinion is that it's better for the Mets, as a whole, if their players are wearing blue & orange, rather than other colors.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Matt Lindstrom was given his torn rotator cuff as kharma for being a meathead thug.