Thursday, May 07, 2009

Eckstein Delivers Walk Off Single in Extra innings.

Thursday May 9, 2009

David Eckstein delivered a walk off single in a 4-3 San Diego Padre win that may have sealed the fate of Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin.

After Kevin Kouzmanoff stroked his 2nd double and 3rd hit of the game, both Nick Hundley and Chris Burke drew a walk setting the stage for Eckstein.

Eckstein came through with s sharply hit single down the line to RF driving in Kouzmanoff.

This was the 2nd straight win which has been decided in extra innings and the 8th come from behind win for the Padres this season.

Chris young looked sharp for 6 innings allowing just 3 runs and 5 hits, striking out 6 on 98 pitches.

Kevin Kouzmanoff has what Padres fans can hope is a breakout game going 3 for 5 and scoring two of the Padres 4 runs.

After the game the Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin was fired and will reportedly be replaced as field general by VP of Player Development AJ Finch. The Diamondbacks had stumbled out to a 12-17 start this season after stumbling badly last season after a 20-8 start.

The Padres now head out on the road for a 6 game, 7 day trip that begins tomorrow night in Houston against a struggling Astros team.

It is fitting that the Natinals broke Dodgers streak

Thursday May 7, 2009

Isn't it fitting that the Washington Natinals, the worst team in baseball, were the ones to break the Los Angeles Dodgers home winning streak?

The Natinals, with only 7 wins in 25 games going into tonight's game, beat the Dodgers 11-9 tonight at Chavez Ravine.

Certainly the hoopla surruinding the Dogers best offensive player, Manny Ramirez, had something to do with it. As did the absence of Manny's bat in the middle of the Dodgers lineup.

That being said it sure seems to be a measure of Karma that the team that broke the streak stinks so badly.

Manny Tests Positive Part Deux

Thursday May 7, 2009

Manny Tests Positive and is Suspended 50 games!

Los Angeles Left Fielder Manny Ramirez tested positive for a performance enhancing drug and has been suspended for 50 games.

That was the headline and the 1st line of the story.

As Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story.

According to two sources that reportedly spoke with ESPN's T.J. Quinn and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Manny tested positive for a Gonadotrophin called hCG - human chorionic gonadotropin. It is very similar to Clomid, the drug Bonds and others used when they were allegedly juicing with the help of Balco.

From a post on Fangraphs by Brian Recca I learned that:

"It is a woman’s fertility drug. According to Wikipedia, hCG is used in combination with various anabolic androgenic steroid cycles.

When using anabolic androgenic steroids the body stops creating testosterone after a number of cycles. This drug helps restore and maintain testosterone production. The drug is used during and after steroid cycles."


So Manny used steroids. Not just a little, but for an extended period and his body shut down the natural production of testosterone.

Then Manny went and had his doctor prescribe another banned substance to get his body to start producing testosterone again.

Manny, this is the internet age. In just minutes we will learn the truth and the truth is you are dirty. And you are not just dirty today, you were apparently doing steroids for long enough for your body to shut down testosterone production so you needed a drug like hCG.

WOW! This one is going to cost you a lot more than the nearly $8 million you are losing while suspended. You are on a one year deal Manny and now no one is going to touch you next season with this suspension and the obvious cover up of steroid use and with you being 37 years old to start the 2010 season.

You could have stayed in Boston and made $40 million for 2 seasons. Instead you are one and done for $16.5 million (what is left over after the $8 million you are losing due to the suspension).

Edit: I guess I was wrong about one and done. Manny has the option for year two of the 2 year $45 million contract with the Dodgers and even Manny is not stupid or self centered enough to opt out of a guaranteed $20 million - or is he?


Well I guess this is just more Manny being Manny.

I have had my say. Now what do you think?

Manny Tests Positive!

Thursday May 7, 2009

Los Angeles Dodgers Left Fielder Manny Ramirez Tests Positive for a banned substance and is suspended for 50 games.

Now the weak excuses start. "My doctor gave it too me ... I didn't take steroids".

It makes you wonder why these guys think they have to lie. We know that they are juiced. Almost every great power hitter of the past decade has been juiced.

The guys now days trot out that tired old line that Manny tried to foist off today - "I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons".

Come on guys. do you really think we are all that stupid. Steroids are taken on a three week cycle and you pretty much know when you are going to be tested each year. MLB testing is not like Olympic testing where the athletes are subject to random testing all YEAR long even out of competition and may get tested a dozen times or more in season.

Major league players only get tested once in spring training and twice during the season during a home stand. If you are serious about stopping steroid and other performance enhancing drug use you have to do year round testing.

Since steroids are not fat soluble you can take them all off season and up to a few weeks or even days before the testing and still come up clean if it is a urine test, which is what MLB uses, and not a blood test.

Folks, if you were wondering why Manny Ramirez suddenly had this incredible streak of success with the bat once he left Boston in 2008, you have your answer.

Was the delay in coming into camp this year really an attempt to get the steroids he used in the off season out of his system and nothing having to do with the money?

I do have a question for Major league Baseball. In other sports a team (like a relay team in track and swimming) has to forfeit wins if one athlete is caught cheating.

Why do major league baseball teams NOT have to forfeit games when a player is caught cheating?

The guys in the locker room will do a much better job of policing the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball than you possibly can if they know that they may have to forfeit all the games after the positive test date if a team mate is caught using performance enhancing drugs.

So how about it Fehr and Selig? Are you serious about stopping steroid and performance enhancing drug use or is the drug testing you have now just a smoke screen to shut up the media and the general public?

Lets see some real year-round testing and TEAM penalties.

Then and only then will your sport be relatively free of this scourge.

I have had my say. Now what do you think.