A baseball, I'll remind you, is a lethal weapon. It's a rock-hard, tightly-wrapped object with a cork center that has killed one player and ruined the careers of others. In 1920, Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch and died 12 hours later in a New York City hospital. More recently, in 1967, a promising young hitter named Tony Conigliaro was struck in the temple by a pitch that caused serious damage to his left retina and, eventually, led to his premature retirement because his eyesight was permanently blurred.
Call those rare occasions, if you insist. I'd say it's historical evidence that we're long overdue for another tragedy, especially if the sleepy lords of Major League Baseball continue to poo-poo the potential consequences of purpose-pitch retaliation. Yes, I realize that Milwaukee slugger Prince Fielder was hit on his very beefy leg Tuesday night by Dodgers reliever Guillermo Mota, which came in response to Manny Ramirez being plunked by Brewers reliever Chris Smith. But what made this episode so surreal -- and frightening -- was the sight of the 275-pound Fielder barreling through the underbelly of Dodger Stadium and trying to bust his way into the home clubhouse, where Prince wanted to crown Mota in front of 24 teammates who I'm fairly certain would have turned the scene into bloody-Octagon-meets-Evander Holyfield's ear.
Keeping track of beanball feuds can be complicated. Tuesday night, after the Dodgers finished drubbing the Brewers, Prince Fielder walked off the field and directly toward the Dodgers clubhouse, intent upon committing some unspecified act of violence against Guillermo Mota (or perhaps just yelling really loudly at him). This was a result of Mota's plunking of Fielder in the ninth inning of a 17-4 Dodger win, which was actually preceded by the Brewers' beaning Manny Ramirez in the seventh.
Mota has made a career of throwing at sluggers and getting chased around the field by them, as with his beaning of Mike Piazza in spring training 2002 led to Piazza leaping out of the Mets dugout and choking Mota, which led to a follow-up incident in spring training 2003 in which Mota fled the mound after an enraged Piazza charged him following another beaning.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the ... Eventual landing spot for Manny Ramirez. Seriously, it's going to happen sooner or later, so we'll just assume it's already happened for the purposes of this post. Obviously, if he either signs elsewhere (unlikely) or sits out this season (as unlikely as the holier than thou media embracing A-Rod), we'll have to re-fantasy-spin the entire offense. He's that important to the lineup.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
It's hard to think of a team that's been on more of a rollercoaster than the Milwaukee Brewers have the past five months. In June, they acquired CC Sabathia and started steamrolling towards what looked like a certain playoff berth. In September, they collapsed and nearly lost what looked like a sure wild-card berth. Then they fired Ned Yost and slid into the playoffs anyways. In October, they were knocked out by the eventual world champion Phillies. Now they've hired Ken Macha and Willie Randolph, but CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets have filed for free agency.
Of course, the important thing for the Brewers and their fans to remember is that they're going to be in good shape next year, even without Sheets and Sabathia. They've still got a great offense, they've still got Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra, and hey, Eric Gagne's gone! They're going to be a different team next year, yes. But that doesn't mean they're going to be worse.
Every four years, Major League Baseball's postseason intersects with a presidential election. This is one of those years. In the spirit of the season, we here at MLB FanHouse have divided the playoff teams up for a series of debates. Here Pat Lackey and Mullet discuss the NLDS between the Brewers and Phillies. Mullet: This series may turn out to be the least competitive of all the four first-round matchups out there. There are a lot of reasons the Phillies should take care of the Brewers in three or four games, so I'll start with this one: Brad Lidge is 41-for-41 in save opportunites this season. The Brewers bullpen, meanwhile, has Eric Gagne and Guillermo Mota. You've seen it as much as I have, bullpens win in the playoffs.
Pat Lackey: It makes me vaguely sick to my stomach to point this out, but since mid-July Eric Gagne has a 3.52 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. He's not the Gagne of old, as his strikeouts are way down (17 in 23 innings over that span), but he's at least done a good job of keeping guys off of the bases for the home runs he inevitably gives up. The Brewers will likely turn to Salomon Torres in a pinch before either of the guys you named and until a couple hiccups down the stretch, he was very good this year.
Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that the Brewers' biggest worry was a vaguely controversial scoring decision that may or may not have cost CC Sabathia a no-hitter? It wasn't yesterday, but it was only two weeks ago that the Brewers held a 5 1/2 game lead over the field in the NL wild-card race. Today, it's all gone after a double-header sweep at the hands of the Philies.
With the sweep today, the Phillies completed a four-game sweep of the Brewers that's brought them back from an exile nearly as deep as the one they bounced out of last year to win the NL East. In the first game today, they fell behind 3-1 early before four runs in the seventh off of Guillermo Mota and Brian Shouse. In the nightcap they jumped all over Jeff Suppan and cruised to a 6-1 lead behind a complete game from Brett Myers.
And the Brewers? They can't do anything right at the moment. They draw the Cubs (six games), Pirates, and Reds for their final 12 games while the Phillies have six against the Braves and one series with the Marlins and Nationals. Don't look now, but in two weeks the Brewers have gone from the overwhelming favorites in the NL wild-card race to decided underdogs.
I've always been one for letting my employer decide when I'm no longer capable of doing my job, but Eric Gagne and Jason Isringhausen apparently feel differently, being "honest" enough to let their managers know they're no longer worthy of the closer role. (Update: Gagne can apparently close again!) Either way, not a lot of confidence. What they did is rare in the sense of being voluntary, but it certainly underlies the basic fantasy notion that saves are easy to come by.
In Milwaukee, if you're looking for saves, you actually love Gagne flip-flopping; Ned Yost will probably go back to the well with him, and you'll have an easier time going after the guy who will probably end up getting the saves. Salomon Torres, Guillermo Mota and David Riske are the official closer by committee. (The reality is they shouldn't have let Francisco Cordero walk, but that's neither here nor there at this point). I've been saying that Riske is my guy since early in the season, but in fairness, he hasn't pitched perfectly. Then again, neither has Torres, so I'm sticking by my guns here and saying Riske ends up with the most saves in the Milwaukee pen this year (unless Yost does something cr-r-r-r-azy and puts Carlos Villanueva in the spot).
The Cardinals end of things appears to be a little more cut and dry, in the sense that Ryan Franklin is the new go-to guy from the bullpen in St. Louis. Russ Springer and Randy Flores are apparently in the mix as well to a degree, but when you look at Springer's walk count -- five! -- since Izzy went down, it's hard to imagine Tony La Russa trusts him. Plus, Franklin is actually locking down the ninth. And the guy you want to grab for your fantasy league.
Yorvit Torrealba has had himself a bit of a tumultuous month or two. After an historic World Series run with the Rockies, Torrealba hopped into free agency and fielded serious offers from the New York Mets. In all, Torrealba -- a thoroughly mediocre player -- looked set to go make a pretty penny for his mediocrity.
Alas, it was not to be. The Mets went in a different direction by unloading Guillermo Mota to the Brewers for Johnny Estrada, and Yorvit was left on the outside looking in. Now, he's accepting his fate; he'll re-sign with the Rockies:
Yorvit Torrealba is staying in Colorado, agreeing Thursday to a two-year deal worth about $7 million with a mutual option for 2010.
Torrealba, who filed for free agency after helping the Rockies reach the World Series, was set to sign a three-year contract for about twice the money with the New York Mets this month. The Rockies got back into the mix when that deal fell apart and the Mets traded for Johnny Estrada instead.
Ouch. Torrealba could have been making oh, $15 million or so, and now he's back in Colorado for half that price. I'm sure he likes being in Colorado and all ... but probably not more than an extra $8 million. Ouch.
Estrada for Kendall is a pretty lateral swap behind the plate, I think. They're both pretty terrible hitters at this point in their careers and just generally past their primes. I suppose the net benefit of this is that the Brewers pick up Mota, if you can call that a benefit. Mota was pretty terrible last year after coming back from his steroid suspension. Still, he's another arm in the bullpen for the Brewers, which they may need if they can't keep Francisco Cordero, who figures to be one of the hottest properties on the free agent market this year.
Honestly, I thought the Brewers would've tried harder to replace Estrada with someone that could hit. Kendall was traded from Oakland to the Cubs last year and promptly lost his job to the completely unproven Geovany Soto. He did hit better with the Cubs than he did with the A's, but that doesn't mean his .270/.362/.356 line is good. If Ned Yost bats him at the top of the order, we'll know he's officially gone insane.
The Mets have been trying, and failing, to go in any direction away from Paul Lo Duca this offseason. After talks with Yorvit Torrealba fell through, the Mets found another route: trade Guillermo Mota!
You wouldn't Mota would be good enough to acquire anyone of note, and, well, you'd sort of be right. Because you'd get Johnny Estrada:
"Johnny adds depth to our catching situation," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said. "He's a former All-Star who switch-hits and has hit over .300 three times in his career."
Estrada had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Oct. 4 to repair a torn meniscus. He also had a bone spur removed from his right elbow. The operations were performed by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala.
The 34-year-old Mota was 2-2 with a 5.76 ERA in 52 relief appearances this season. Often booed at home, the right-hander struck out 47 and walked 18 in 59 1-3 innings.
Mota wasn't just booed this season; he was in many ways the focal point for angry Mets fans during the team's historic stretch-run collapse. Tim Marchman, a normally level-headed columnist, even wrote a scathing ode to the pains involved in watching Mota pitch. Hated doesn't begin to describe Mota's standing with Mets fans.
So to gain something, anything, for Mota -- even if it is Estrada -- is a minor coup for the Mets. At the very least, it's a subtly pleasing PR move.
A baseball, I'll remind you, is a lethal weapon. It's a rock-hard, tightly-wrapped object with a cork center that has killed one player and ruined the careers of others. In 1920, Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch and died 12 hours later in a New York City hospital. More recently, in 1967, a promising young hitter named Tony Conigliaro was struck in the temple by a pitch that caused serious damage to his left retina and, eventually, led to his premature retirement because his eyesight was permanently blurred.
Keeping track of beanball feuds can be complicated. Tuesday night, after the Dodgers finished drubbing the Brewers, 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that the Brewers' biggest worry was a vaguely controversial scoring decision that may or may not have cost CC Sabathia a no-hitter? It wasn't yesterday, but it was only two weeks ago that the Brewers held a 5 1/2 game lead over the field in the NL wild-card race. Today, it's all gone after a double-header sweep at the hands of the Philies.
I've always been one for letting my employer decide when I'm no longer capable of doing my job, but 
Within a day, the Brewers have completely changed their catching situation. 
The Mets have been trying, and failing, to go in any direction away from 
