Jobas mom faces up to 20 years in jail (AP)

The mother of New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain faces up to 20 years in prison when she's sentenced next month on a felony drug charge. Jackie Standley pleaded no contest Monday to an amended charge of delivery of a controlled substance, according to court records. The 44-year-old Standley was arrested in May after selling [...]

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http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2009/11/03/jobas-mom-faces-up-to-20-years-in-jail-ap/

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The Greatest Reds: #95 - #91

95. Sam Crawford

- 2nd in single-season triples (1902)
- 5th in career OPS+
- 5th in career batting average
- 13th in career slugging percentage
- 20th in career triples

This hall-of-famer—and an absolutely legitimate one at that—began his career with the Reds for four short years, and showed tremendous promise (leading the league with 16 HR and posting a 167 OPS+ as a 21 year old in 1901) as a nascent superstar. After the 1902 season, bidding wars popped up all over the league as NL and AL teams begun fighting for player services. Crawford signed contracts with both the Reds and Tigers, and a judge awarded his talents to the Tigers, where he played 15 more seasons, eventually becoming the all-time leader in triples (still standing).

94. Chuck Dressen

- 14th in career AB/K ratio
- 19th in career sacrifice hits
- 31st in single-season sacrifice hits (1927)

Dressen had an abrupt and exaggerated career path, in which he didn't break into the majors until age 26, became a decent player at age 27, posted a peak season at age 28, and was washed up by age 30. His peak season saw him finish 3rd in the NL in doubles, 9th in triples, and 5th in walks, to accompany typically above-average defense. After retiring as a player in 1933, he was hired late in 1934 to manage the Reds, which he did for portions of four seasons, never posting a winning record in any of them. Much later, he skippered two pennant winners for Brooklyn in the 1950’s.

93. Ivey Wingo

- 17th in career sacrifice hits
- 20th in career triples
- 29th in career games played
- 44th in career plate appearances
- 48th in career hits

One of the executive decisions made in putting together this list was to give "extra credit" for outstanding post-season performance, where applicable. Wingo’s work in the 1919 World Series boosted him 4-5 slots on this list, despite appearing in only 3 out of the 8 games in the Series that year. As part of an inextricable platoon with Bill Rariden that year (Wingo 1919 OPS+: 114, Rariden: 70), Wingo made the most of his World Series playing time, reaching base 7 of the 10 times he came to bat. When Wingo retired in 1929, he held the NL record for most games played at catcher.

92. Wally Post

-7th in career slugging percentage
-8th in single season total bases (1955)
-11th in career home runs
-25th in career RBI
-38th in career runs scored

I had remembered reading about Post as a 1950’s era slugger, and was surprised to see his numbers to be so unspectacular. His peak season was pretty good: .309 average, 40 HR, 109 RBI, 143 OPS+, but he never again approached anything like that. In the pennant-winning season of 1961, he combined with Jerry Lynch to form a very strong platoon in left field, and was one of the few bright spots in the doomed series. What I find fascinating with Post are the Reds’ transactions related to him: after a very bad 1957 season, the Reds sent Post to the Phillies for Harvey Haddix; Post played well for the Phils for 2.5 seasons, then came back to the Reds in 1960. Haddix also pitched quite well in his one season for Cincy, but after that year was packaged with Smoky Burgess and Don Hoak for four players who played a combined 216 games for the Reds—all with poor results. Meanwhile, Haddix went on to pitch one of the most famous games in history, Burgess turned into a perennial all-star behind the plate, and Hoak put together a couple strong seasons, including one where he was the NL MVP runner-up.

91. Rube Bressler

-4th in single season batting average (1926)
-6th in career batting average
-8th in career on-base percentage
-31st in career triples
-35th in career OPS+

One of only five players since 1900 to appear in at least 50 games as a pitcher, and 50 games as a non-pitcher (a list that includes Babe Ruth and Joe Wood), Bressler was uniquely talented, though at the end of the 1920 season, one might have projected an early end to Bressler’s career, given his frequent injured status and his subpar hitting stats. In 1921, however, Bressler committed to a full-time position player role, and gradually improved his hitting to the point that over the three-year period from 1924-1926, he was a consistent .350 hitter, with consecutive OPS+ marks of 133, 131, and 147.

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Still feeling confident

Yes, it would have been nice to get the series over with in Philadelphia. Yes, it stinks that A.J. Burnett couldn?t make it through the third inning last night. But still, the Yankees have it set up perfectly for the final two games in New York, leaving[...]

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http://www.lennysyankees.com/2009/11/still-feeling-confident.html

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AFL Rising Stars Game Saturday

-Some of the best prospects in Major League Baseball will showcase their talents in the AFL Rising Stars game this Saturday at 6:15pm MT. The game will be televised on the MLB Network.
-Players who participated in this years AFL were eligible to compete in the game. The players were selected to play by scouts and Minor League directors. The squads will be split into two teams, East and West.
The entire world seems to be prospect crazy these days, me included. It's great that we live in a time when events like this are televised. Kudos to MLB Network for bringing the game to baseball fans.
Personally, some of the players I'm most looking forward to see play are: Buster Posey (SF), Starlin Castro (CHC), Stephen Strasburg (WAS), Dustin Ackley (SEA), Ike Davis (NYM) and Tanner Scheppers (TEX).



Read The Full Article:
http://www.first2third.com/2009/11/afl-rising-stars-game-saturday.html

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Evaluating AJ Burnett and the Yankees in Game 5

AJ Burnett had the chance to be the hero last night and failed in grand fashion; that’s the[...]

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http://bronxbaseballdaily.baby-bombers.com/2009/11/03/evaluating-aj-burnett-and-t
he-yankees-in-game-5/

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Phillies Hold Off Yankees, Force Game Six

Like George Costanza, the Philadelphia Phillies did the opposite last night.Instead of having tuna on toast, with coleslaw, and a cup of coffee and trying to wait out AJ Burnett, the Phillies had chicken salad, on rye, untoasted, and a cup of tea and jumped all over Burnett.The Phillies were aggressive and ambushed Burnett in [...]

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http://theghostofmoonlightgraham.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/phillies-hold-off-yanke
es-force-game-six/

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Latest Headlines

• Yanks drop Game 5, head home up 3-2
• The Yankees are playing series spoilers. Yup, they are. This Phillies team bores me.
• Check this out:

In an unexplained blunder that many baseball fans would call doomful, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a huge Macy?s ad on the back of the main section today congratulating the Phillies for being back-to-back world series champions.

This comes the morning after Game 4?s crushing defeat by the Yankees, putting the Phillies behind 3-1 in the series.

The ad, which takes up most of the back page, states, ?Congratulations Phillies! Back-to-Back Champs.? With a photo of a T-shirt bearing the words, ?Philadelphia Phillies 2009 World Series Champions,? Macy?s directs Philadelphians to show their Phillies pride and ?celebrate their World Series Win? by buying a shirt.

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Some Saving Gate 2 Updates

Here is the latest PDF from the Save Gate 2 Committee released to us today…Download the pdf here.

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http://www.demolitionofyankeestadium.com/2009/11/03/some-saving-gate-2-updates/

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Yanks Make It Official: Pettitte To Start Game 6

Following last night's game Brian Cashman told Jon Heyman that "andy's looking forward to [game six]", so we all knew this anyway. But Joe Girardi made it official today and named Andy Pettitte the Yankees' game 6 starter. Pettitte told the media that he felt "great" today.
In 14 career starts on three-days rest Pettitte is 4-6, with a 4.15 ERA. The last time he started on short rest was on 9/30/06 when he was with the Astros. He got a no decision, but pitched well. In 7 innings pitched he allowed 1 earned runs on 4 hits, walked 1, and struck out 7.

He's pitched on three-days rest four times in the postseason and has had two great starts and two bad ones.
Game 5 '96 World Series: W, 8.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Game 5 '97 ALDS: L, 3 IP, 6.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Game 5 '00 ALDS: ND, 3.2 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Game 2 '03 World Series: W, 8.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
Totals: 2-1, 3.00 ERA
Still, all these stats are meaningless. I'm a little concerned, but hopefully the Yankees offense can score some runs off Pedro early.
What do you expect from Pettitte tomorrow?

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Pettitte: "I had NOTHING in game 3"; Ortiz out in
Boston; Mets like Holliday more than Bay

-Jon Heyman of SI.com and WFAN in NY, reports that Andy Pettitte told teammates after game 3 that he had "NOTHING" and had to battle himself the entire game. What does this mean for Pettitte starting on 3 days rest in game 6??

-Heyman also reports that the Red Sox are looking to move David Ortiz or Mike Lowell in the offseason. They are trying to clear payroll to either re-sign Jason Bay or pursue Matt Holliday to play left field. Numerous reports link the Red Sox to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez as well.

-The Mets apparently like Matt Holliday a little more than Jason Bay. Heyman spoke with Bay's agent, Joe Urbon, who disputes that claim and cites Bay's production in that joke of an organization in Pittsburgh and his production in the pressure-filled confines of Fenway Park..

Read The Full Article:
http://www.first2third.com/2009/11/petite-i-had-nothing-in-game-3-ortiz.html

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