From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
Every Hot Stove season, each team reshapes its roster in an attempt to better themselves. After each transaction, whether a free agent acquisition, trade or something else, writers and bloggers everywhere provide knee-jerk reactions on each particular move. Though the majority of the analysis is educated, it's still just conjecture. Today, we'll take the long view and look back at some of the maneuvering this past offseason and see how it played out on the field.
Wednesday morning, it seemed a little crazy when the New York Daily News broke a story about the Mets' VP for Player Development Tony Bernazard flipping out on the Double-A Binghamton Mets, reportedly removing his shirt, challenging the players to a fight, and calling shortstop prospect Jose Coronado, "a slang term associated with a woman's anatomy." Surely, every farm director gets a little fired up from time to time when his prospects are disappointing, but this seemed over the top.
For Bernazard, though, it seems like this type of behavior may be par for the course. The New York Post ran a story Wednesday afternoon reporting that Bernazard also recently tried to pick a fight with the big-league club's closer, Francisco Rodriguez. They quoted an anonymous player as saying Bernazard is "crazy."
Yorvit Torrealba of the Colorado Rockies is thankful for the return of his 11-year old son and the child's uncle after they were kidnapped in Venezuela. The story was largely kept out of the public eye until the abducted were returned safely to their homes, and the perpetrators were apprehended. The situation resolved itself without tragedy, and we learned an important lesson: that this is way, way less important than two unassociated, relief-pitching strangers having beef.
NEW YORK -- Blasphemy, you'll say, but think about it. What are you going to remember about Tuesday night's Yankees-Red Sox game? David Ortiz's third home run of the year? Nick Green's second? Maybe Josh Beckett, fine, but the fact is this isn't 2003-04 anymore, the Red Sox own the Yankees now and they're both probably making the playoffs anyway, what with the Rays looking like World Series-hangover-roadkill.
No, this here is where it's at for big-time baseball rivalries circa 2009. Mets-Phillies has morphed from spring training trash talk to nailbiting, in-season theater, complete with all the subplots, drama and good, intense baseball you can take. Tuesday night had everything anybody could ask of a midseason rivalry game, and in the end it was the battered-underdog Mets who came away with a 6-5 victory that was in no way easy but in all ways satisfying.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what's ahead. You Oughta Know ... That it's awfully hard for K-Rod to earn his money if J.J. Putz isn't doing his job ahead of Rodriguez. For the second straight day, Putz had a rocky outing. He surrendered two runs in a touch and go eighth inning Sunday against the Marlins (the Mets still won the game) and followed that Monday by allowing four runs and taking the loss against the Pirates.
Putz gave up four consecutive singles during Pittsburgh's rally, and attributed much of his performance to misfortune.
"A couple hoppers up the middle," Putz said. "They hit groundballs; they just hit them to the right spot.
"There's not much you can say about that. There's a little bit of bad luck involved."
"The Mets injury woes are becoming so comical that from now on I'm just going to imagine that Snoop and Chris Partlow are bringing starters one by one into vacant homes and shooting them in the head." - Matt W., on the Progressive Boink forums
The important thing to remember here is that now is when the Mets are supposed to be great. They don't start getting bad until the middle of September. If they can hurry up and be bad NOW, maybe they will be good at the END of the season. Or they will be so bad that Major League Baseball demotes them to AAA.
It's always nice to know how secure a closer's job is and who's next in line if somebody loses their 9th inning job. The Closer Report will give you that info. And if that wasn't good enough, we'll rank the closers from top to bottom.
As you'll see, Heath Bell has taken over the top spot on this edition of The Closer Report. A few big-name, top-of-the-charts closers from years past have fallen off quite a bit. How weird is it to see Brad Lidge near the bottom of the closer rankings and Joe Nathan stuck in the middle?
The Mets got a scare on Saturday night when closer Francisco Rodriguez was taken down by back spasms so severe that he collapsed outside the clubhouse. He was seen "weeping in pain" before he was put on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.
Two hours after the Mets' 3-2 victory over the Red Sox, New York offered no report on Rodriguez's prognosis, but there was some optimism that the problem would not keep Rodriguez out for long, since he'd never had back spasms before. The scene described by the New York Post seemed severe, though.
It's always nice to know how secure a closer's job is and who's next in line if somebody loses their 9th inning job. Each week The Closer Report will give you that information. And if that wasn't good enough we'll rank the closers from top to bottom.
Here's an interesting statistic. Somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent of the closers who are listed as the the team's official closer will not be in that role by the end of the season. It's the case every year. Whether a closer loses his job due to injury or just plain can't get the job done, you're going to learn that you can find saves on the waiver wire throughout the season. You just have to know where to look.
Wednesday morning, it seemed a little crazy when 
NEW YORK -- Blasphemy, you'll say, but think about it. What are you going to remember about Tuesday night's Yankees-Red Sox game? 
Starting Five
"The Mets injury woes are becoming so comical that from now on I'm just going to imagine that Snoop and Chris Partlow are bringing starters one by one into vacant homes and shooting them in the head." - Matt W., on the 
The Mets got a scare on Saturday night when closer 
It's always nice to know how secure a closer's job is and who's next in line if somebody loses their 9th inning job. Each week 
