Bad news for the Royals tonight as they learned that left-hander Danny Duffy is likely out for the year with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. The 23-year-old is the second Royals hurler sidelined for the year following Joakim Soria's season-ending injury. Tonight's links..
- Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports handicapped the free agent market for Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton. Passan has Texas as the heavy favorite with the Dodgers in second.
- Yankees starter Andy Pettitte will be guaranteed his full $2.5MM salary come Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
- Rangers president Nolan Ryan told ESPN Radio Dallas that he believes that Hamilton and his family are happy living in the Arlington, Texas area.
- The release of left-hander J.C. Romero will leave the Cardinals with just one southpaw in the bullpen, but manager Mike Matheny is confident that Marc Rzepczynski can handle the workload, writes B.J. Rains of FOX Sports Midwest.
- Four of the five highest-paid teams in baseball would not qualify for the playoffs, even with the expanded format, if the season ended today, writes Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Nightengale also gave his list of the five worst contracts in the sport.
Gee, what a surprise. Bob Nightengale didn’t dare mention Albert Pujols as having the worst contract. Can’t go upsetting your pal, Sleazano, huh Bob?
He lost me when he decided to write an article about which teams would be out of the playoffs 35 games into the season. We still have 130 games left in some cases. Did we not learn anything from game 162 last year with not one, but two teams going to the playoffs (including the eventual championship winner)? Or more importantly, does he not understand the concept of the law of averages?
… or Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez, etc…
***This comment made with the taste of sour grapes still in my mouth. I still think Albert has a few monster years left***
Monster???? I doubt he has an MVP left in him…
Los Angeles has to be about the worst fit for Hamilton as far as off the field stuff goes. I don’t think Hamilton would want to chance going there and I’d hope the dodgers wouldn’t want to take such a risk by pursuing him in free agency. That said he’s an extremely unique person and talent and could help any ball club.
Completely agree but could you imagine an outfield of Kemp, Ethier and Hamilton? I’m not even a Dodgers fan but the thought gives my bat full wood
I’ll give you a like if for nothing else than the the second sentence. lol
That is really unfortunate for the Royals.
pitchers need to stop relying on the slider so much,if not stop using it all together
Or just throw them properly.
even thrown properly it puts to much stress on the elbow.
I don’t think you can stop throwing them altogether. Pitchers will still get hurt even if everybody is just fastball/change up.
This is an obvious pipedream, but I wonder if Hamilton could be the Tigers’ LF next season. Because of Cabrera’s alcohol incident, they also avoid alcohol in the clubhouse and imagine a lineup that has both Miguel Cabrera and Josh Hamilton, along with Victor Martinez and Prince Fielder.
With Jhonny Peralta (6.5M), Brandon Inge (5.5M), Jose Valverde (9M), Delmon Young (7M) off the books, they might just be able to afford him. With Victor Martinez gone in 2 seasons, they could backload the contract as well. They would need to use internal replacements at shortstop and closer, which would not be a huge loss as they could really upgrade defensively at those positions. Nevertheless, I admit it is still a pipe dream.
Backloading a contract to Josh Hamilton. How could that possibly go wrong?
Wow I just looked at “Baseball Reference” and “Josh Hamilton” and figured out he was on the restricted list for three years straight. How do you do that?
I’ve always thought that the Braves were the darkhorse to get him. Hopefully the Rangers lock him up though.
I just can’t see Hamilton leaving Texas as long as they give a respectable offer (which they will) if he hits free agency. I think he is just very comfortable there, and there is no other team he can go to that will give him the same treatment that the Rangers and their fans have given him…
And not the performance enhancing kind either…
If they had them in the 70’s, it would have been Bill Lee.
IMO? They should name the baseball drug test in his honor…
“mean greenie detection device” or something of that sort ;-(