The legendary Cy Young threw a perfect game against the Philadelphia Athletics on this date in 1904. The perfecto was one of three no-hitters thrown by Young in his career, and it accounted for nine of Young's record 24 consecutive hitless innings.
Some notes from around the majors…
- Red Sox reliever Dan Wheeler has appeared in more games than all but two other pitchers since the start of the 2005 season, and The Providence Journal's Brian MacPherson believes Wheeler's workload is the reason for his poor start this year. MacPherson also points out how the other heavily-worked pitchers on the list (like Chad Qualls, Francisco Cordero and Aaron Heilman) have "hit the same wall."
- Ryan Doumit is unlikely to get much more playing time with the Pirates despite the club's desire to trade him, writes Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. GM Neal Huntington said the Doumit trade market had "kind of died" back in February, though the Bucs have no plans to release him.
- "While fully realizing that it'll never, ever, ever happen," Alex Remington of Fangraphs looks at how Major League Baseball could implement a franchise relegation system akin to that of European soccer.
- Matt Eddy of Baseball America recaps the week's minor league transactions.
- The 42 players who made their Major League debuts in March and April combined to hit .172/.248/.212 though April 30, reports Sean Forman of the New York Times. "The worst-hitting bunch ever" has just one home run, courtesy of the Giants' Brandon Belt.
For Heilman that wall is called “Aaron Heilman”.
Even up trade Ryan Doumit for Salty–today.
The sellout crowds are too much for him and that may be just what the doctor ordered for Doumit. I have never seen Doumit play but I think he would be welcome in Beantown.
we don’t want your crappy catcher
We’ll wait until Doumit is DFA’d and get him for nothing–I was trying to be nice and give you something in return in addition to saving the Pirates the $4 M. that’s left on RD’s contract.
Relegation would really do fans of 29 teams a favor.
It would get rid of the Mets. [rimshot]
the problem with wheeler isn’t workload-related imo. it’s a regular bad streak exacerbated by his manager refusing to play to his strengths
the last two successful seasons in tampa wheeler enjoyed a platoon advantage 75% of the time he pitched – meaning he pitched almost exclusively to right-handers, who he does very well against
this season, he has had a platoon advantage about half the time (57%) he’s pitched – meaning he’s pitched a lot to left-handers, who crush him
technically it’s his fault that he’s not good against lefties i guess. but practically speaking, this was common knowledge when the red sox signed him. he was a known commodity just like a LOOGY is. he shouldn’t be expected to get lefties out and shouldn’t be pitched against them as often as he has this year
all told, francona has started this season almost as slowly at managing as wheeler & crawford
have at pitching and hitting