Does he deserve it? Sure, his words were a little harsh and definitely shouldn’t have been said, but c’mon he’s the reason the Phillies are even in the playoff race in the NL East. He shouldn’t have been booed, right?Here’s where it all started, with these comments made by Jimmy Rollins…
There are times, like, it’s one of those cities … I might catch some flack for saying this, but, you know, they’re front-runners. When you’re doing good, they’re on your side. When you’re doing bad, they’re completely against you.
Jimmy Rollins on Philadelphia Phillies Fans on Best Damn Sports Show Period
Well, he ended up catching a lot of flack for saying that. And, in his first game since those comments he was booed immediately, starting from the announcing of the starting lineups. Every at bat by Rollins was seranaded with boos. Now, Jimmy Rollins was the Phillie Faithful’s favorite player last year, as his MVP season led them storming into the playoffs in the last month passing the stumbling Mets. So, they’re booing him now, doesn’t that mean he’s right, that they are in fact front-runners?
The answer is yes. Of course fans are front-runners in the sense that Rollins meant. Fans love you when you play well and hate you when you don’t, deal with it. And Jimmy Rollins isn’t playing well at all this year. After his .296, 30 HR, 94 RBI season last year, he’s hitting .263 with only 8 HR’s and 42 RBI’s. When you drop off that much after a season in which Phillie fans thought they were set for the next couple of years, of course they’re going to be mad.
I don’t think that Phillies fans should have booed him like they did but they do have a point. Rollins knew he was wrong when he was saying it, and even though he stuck his neck out for his teammates (statements were more about his teammates than himself), keep it in the clubhouse. If you don’t know how fans act by now you should seriously understand quickly because fans booing you every day can destroy one’s confidence and ruin a season.
We’ve all witnessed the tabacle that was the Manny Ramirez trade in which the Red Sox traded away a first ballot hall of famer to the Dodgers in a three way deal for Jason Bay. That along with Favregate became the two stories of interest and absorbed sports television. Well, with those two situations settling down(somewhat) who’s to say the Manny situation won’t heat up again. And, the Yankees might be involved…how juicy.
Manny’s love affair with the Boston Red Sox which rewarded both with two championship rings and ended the horrid curse of the Bambino, came to an abrupt end in the middle of this season. The love was gone. And soon enough Manny was gone. The Manny saga became as soap operish(that’s right soap operish) as Favre’s retirement. The two sides bickered back and forth, dissing eachother through the media. I did not agree with the Red Sox getting rid of Manny, because he’s such a great hitter that you can deal with his drama. But, the Red Sox could not. So now he’s a Dodger.
Does Manny want to be a Dodger? Of course not. He doesn’t want to be in the National League where the best pitchers in the world are. He doesn’t want to be in the least talented division in major league baseball in the NL West. He wants to be in the American League where the balls fly out of ballparks. He wants to be in the American League where he can get back at the Red Sox. And, maybe, just maybe, he wants to be the face of a new stadium. A new Yankee Stadium.
If you don’t believe me look at this coming from the New York Post…
According to people who have spoken to the eccentric outfielder since he was dealt to L.A. on July 31, Ramirez wants to sign a free-agent deal with the Yankees this offseason and get 19 chances a year to punish Boston.
George A. King III, New York Post
Ramirez becomes a free agent at the end of this year’s World Series. Brian Cashman may be in risk of losing his job by then because with the way the Yankees are playing right now, the Yankees won’t be the ones in this year’s World Series. Now, what’s the one desparate move that could save both he and the Yankees which will bring enormous crowds to the new Yankee Stadium? Putting one of the Yankees arch rivals in pinstripes and pitting him against his former team. You can’t make this stuff up…well I just did so I guess you can, but it would be awesome, right?
Every athlete has their own routine on game day to get themselves both mentally and physically ready to play. Some guys are very superstitious and go through the exact same routine for every game. They may wear the same clothes, or put on the right shoe first every time, whatever it takes to make an athlete feel confident and that he is prepared.
Travis Blackley is one such athlete who has his own unique game day ritual. Travis is a pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies organization and is currently pitching for their AAA affiliate the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Travis is from Australia and was originally drafted by the Mariners and had stints in the big leagues with both the mariners and the San Francisco Giants before making his way east to the Phillies organization. He has high hopes of returning to the big leagues one day and until that happens he is doing everything he can to have success at the minor league level. Listen to the following clip of an interview that we did with Travis about what he does on game day to get himself ready to hit the mound every night.
Sportsgist.com recently spent five days with Tampa Bay Ray pitcher Chris Mason down in Durham, North Carolina. Chris is in Durham pitching for the Durham Bulls who are the AAA affiliate of the Rays. This is day 5 in his pitching cycle. One in which he mentally prepares for his upcoming start, but most importantly he gets to relax a little bit from his daily baseball activities.
BOYS WILL BE BOYS:
In this video, Chris is on his last day before his next start. This is a day to recover and get ready to take the mound tomorrow. His work routine…the conditioning, workouts, and bullpen…have allowed him to keep his body in shape and adjust some of the flaws he had with his delivery.
Now we get to talk with Chris’ roommate, Nick DeBarr, and find out some inside information about Chris. Nick talks about Chris sleeping all day long and eating lots of hot pockets each day. As with many minor league baseball players, Chris loves to play video games. He is the man with the new Nintendo Wii. Nick offers Chris some words of advice, telling him to keep working hard and “maybe” get some more sleep. As all baseball players now, the journey is very long and difficult at times. There are many highs and lows throughout the season, but ultimately the ones who succeed are the ones who keep their emotions on a straight line. Never let your highs get to high or your lows get to low. As Nicks says, “Stay the course.”
Sportsgist.com gets to talk with Tampa Bay Ray pitcher Chris Mason and his pitching coach down in Durham, North Carolina during and after his Bullpen. Just in case you forgot, Chris is in Durham pitching for the Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate of the Rays. Our objective was to hang out with Chris and learn exactly what a pitcher does both on the days he pitches and on the days that he does not pitch. Working in the pen is where a pitcher fine tunes his mechanics before stepping out onto the mound for his next start.
BULLPEN SESSION:
In this video, Chris is going through the one of the most important, yet underrated, aspects of pitcher: the Bullpen. Pitching greats such as Greg Maddox and Roger Clemons worked out the kinks in their bullpen sessions. Chris works on keeping his mechanics in order. As his coach states, Chris has an unorthodox delivery which makes his timing all the more important. If he loses his release point or his shoulder flies open, Chris will have a hard time getting out of trouble. With that being said, Chris has decent stuff. His fastball is consistently at 87-88 mph and tops out at 91 mph. He has a good breaking ball and a decent change up. His deceptive delivery makes it difficult for hitters to pick up the ball…one of the reason why Chris has been successful throughout his career.
Sportsgist.com gets to talk with Tampa Bay Ray pitcher Chris Mason down in Durham, North Carolina the day after his start. Just in case you forgot, Chris is in Durham pitching for the Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate of the Rays. Our objective was to hang out with Chris and learn exactly what a pitcher does both on the days he pitches and on the days that he does not pitch.
PITCHER’S FIELDING PRACTICE:
In this video, Chris is going through the monotonous routine of pitcher’s fielding practice.All pitcher’s hate PFP (the baseball term for pitcher’s fielding practice), but they understand that repetition will only help them when they need to make a play.Making the play could be the difference in winning the game or losing the game.After PFPs, Chris gets to run around the outfield and shag some BP.All pitchers’ think they’re Andrew Jones, but running down fly balls actually helps them in their recovery.After BP, Chris runs a bit to get the blood circulating through the body and then it’s off to the showers.He watches the game from the stands where he charts every pitch for his time and one inning from the opposing team.He charts what pitch was thrown, the location, and speed of the pitches.The life of a pitcher…gotta love it!!!
Sportsgist.com recently spent five days with Tampa Bay Ray pitcher Chris Mason down in Durham, North Carolina. Chris is in Durham pitching for the Durham Bulls who are the AAA affiliate of the Rays. Our objective was to hang out with Chris and learn exactly what a pitcher does both on the days he pitches and on the days that he does not pitch. These videos are valuable to any pitchers out there that want to know what it takes to have success out on the mound. Chris takes us through each day of his routine and explains what it is that he is doing and why he is doing it. We also get to hear from Chris’ pitching coach as well as his strength and conditioning coach and his roommate.
STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING:
In this video, Chris is going through his off day workout routine. He will do his leg work out on the field with the strength coach and then will go inside to do his upper body lifts. His leg workout is a continuous circuit which will help Chris to develop strength in his legs and at the same time to work on his endurance, both key elements for a pitcher to be effective throughout a long season. Unfortunately we were not able to go inside with Chris, but you do hear his strength coach talk about the importance for a pitcher to focus more on his back and pulling exercise then his chest and pushing exercises.
Chris Mason is one of the top pitching prospects in the Tampa Bay Rays farm system.It has been quite some journey for him as he gets closer to reaching his ultimate dream: making it to the big leagues!He has coasted through the minors…dominating at every level he pitched at.Chris began his first full season of minor league baseball in Visalia, CA.He finished the season with a 12-10 record, which was very good considering it was his first full season of professional baseball.The next year was Chris’ coming out party.He pitched at the Double A level in Montgomery, AL and was voted the Southern League pitcher of the year and Co-MVP of the league.He was 15-4 with a 2.57 ERA and 136 strikeouts.
Chris is currently pitching in Triple A for the Durham Bulls.Chris takes us through his gameday routine…from start to finish.He tells us about when he wakes up, why he shaves his arms, and what happened during the game.The video gives you a good idea about who Chris Mason is and how he prepares for his starts.The video also shows what a great minor league baseball town Durham is.
Could the Mets handle this situation any worse? Throughout the last month or two, there has been heightened speculation about Willie Randolph’s coaching future. They have left Willie out to dry with dumb meetings and threats leaked to the media to make the job of coaching the Mets worse than it already is. So it only makes since that at 3:30 in the morning yesterday, they end this tabocle the worst way possible.
A report stated this weekend that if Willie doesn’t turn things around he is out as manager. The Mets were in the midst of a road trip in Texas playing against the Rangers when these rumors began. I never understand these threats in sports. Upper management threatens a coach to get the team together in a matter of days. If the thought of firing Willie was in the mind of Omar Minaya, what is winning a couple games against the Rangers, who don’t even play in your league, going to change things. And why would you do it in the middle of a road trip? Why not before or after a road trip? And why at 3:30 IN THE MORNING!?!?
I’ve heard a lot(maybe too much) about why Willie was fired at 3:30 in the morning. Maybe they were up talking about the job or maybe Omar had a bad dream about Willie and decided then, I don’t know. But, I do know this, do it when people are awake, do it when everyone else does it, sometime during the next day. The worst thing I heard was that maybe Omar gave Willie the choice of firing his coaches or its him. Why would Omar want Willie Randolph to fire his bench coaches and if he didn’t hire one? That would be the worst comeback ever to Randolph refusing to fire his coaches. I could hear it now, ‘you’re not gonna fire your coaches…well, I’ll uh, make one of them the manager, uh yeah, how do you like that Willie?’ Ridiculous.
Now, Jerry Manuel is the new coach of the New York Mets. This is the same Jerry Manuel who was not experienced enough a month ago when Willie firing rumors began. It was said that if there was a coach on the team that could do any better than Willie that coach would be upped to manager. But, at the time it was said there was no one there. Did Manuel prove himself over the past month or something? This was handled as poorly as possible and the Mets should be ashamed.
Willie Randolph should have been fired. But, fire him after his team makes the biggest collapse in regular season history. Fire him when you first bring it up. Don’t distract the team for an entire month, making them wonder who will be their manager each day. Show some respect and let Met fans wake up before they hear their season is over with Jerry Manuel at manager. Because it’s going to be a long season for them, and they’re going to need their sleep.
It’s scary to think that with the way the Tampa Bay Rays are playing this year that they have yet another first pick. This season they are playing like a playoff team and are beating up on teams in the powerful American League East. The Rays’ first pick of the draft was Beckham. Not the pretty boy soccer player but Tim Beckham from Griffin High in Georgia. The shortstop may complete an already impressive team in a few years and give American League teams more to worry about. Beckham wasn’t the only solid pick in the draft as I’ll break down the first ten picks of the MLB draft for you.
1.Tampa Bay Rays-Tim Beckham SS: Griffin High School, Georgia-Exactly what the Rays needed to complete their team. If they can hold on to him and not trade him the Rays will be set for the next ten years as they build around Rocco Baldelli, Evan Longoria, and Crawford.
2.Pittsburgh Pirates-Pedro Alvarez 3B: Vanderbilt University- Arguably the most talented player in the draft Alvarez could become a perennial all star in the MLB. The question is who will he be an all star for? Alvarez’s contract demands may be too much for the Pirates to handle and could end up somewhere else.
3. Kansas City Royals- Eric Hosmer 1B: American Heritage High School, Florida- An all-around player who is a solid player in the field, and the lefty has one of the strongest bats High School. If the Royals can keep him he can be a great power hitter with solid defense. I would compare him to a Tino Martinez, a great player who can make a tremendous impact.
4. Baltimore Orioles- Brian Matusz LHP: San Diego University- The Orioles desperately need starting pitching and nothing like a 6′4, 200lb lefty to do the job. Matusz has four pitches and can be very dominating with his size. One worry is the slow start he had to last season and that could impede his road to the Majors.
5.San Francisco Giants- Gerald Posey C: Florida State University- With the Giants losing their only hitter in Bonds(probably to prison), they need to find an answer. Posey might just be that answer. He has all the tools as a catcher except for power. I don’t think this was the right choice for the lowly Giants as they should be rebuilding with pitching.
6. Florida Marlins- Kyle Skipworth C- Patriot High School, California- Just like the Rays, the Marlins look awfully good this year and have both a young team and a small payroll. The Marlins got a steal with Skipworth because he is better than Giants’ 5th Pick, Posey, who is also a catcher. The Marlins have to be happy with the luck they’re getting and all they need is some luck in holding on to their players.
7. Cincinnati Reds- Yonder Alonso 1B- University of Miami- Not the best defensive player but sports a great bat that may get him into the majors. I don’t see him staying in the National League, but I can see him as a DH in the American. The Reds should trade him to get some good value for their team.
8. Chicago White Sox- Gordon Beckham SS- University of Georgia- Another Beckham!?! Again not the soccer player, but a middle infielder that the White Sox wanted and needed. They lack middle infield depth and Beckham could be a great utility guy who can start every night for the White Sox.
9. Washington Nationals- Aaron Crow RHP- University of Missouri Columbia- With only the second pitcher chosen in the first ten, Crow is a very smart choice for the Nationals. Crow has the best arm in the draft and will be a great piece to build around.
10.Houston Astros- Jason Castro C- Stanford University- The Astros would have been better off choosing Fidel Castro. Not really but Castro is not top ten talent to say the least and is not the right choice for the Astros. The future of Castro staying at catcher is bleak and may move to second base. I think Castro reminds the Astros of Craig Biggio who also went from catcher to second base for the Astros.
So in a Beckham filled draft, who are the winners? The two Florida teams stole the show, with the Rays picking up Tim Beckham first, and the Florida Marlins stealing Kyle Skipworth with the sixth pick. The Astros, Royals, and Giants are sadly the losers making all dumb moves. After this draft I think the Rays have a tremendous future ahead of them.
