- So let get this straight.........Kam Loe struggles through the first 2+ months of the season at the big league level, goes to the minors for 2 days, gets a couple pieces of advice on throwing angles or somesuch from some minor league coach, comes back and goes 6.2 and 8 innings for back to back wins? Combine that with the almost 7 team ERA and you may have a new pitching coach in 08.
Rangers win, 7-3
- Tom Hicks - just stop talking. Please.
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks suspects that two-time AL MVP Juan Gonzalez may have used steroids.
His number of injuries and early retirement just makes me suspicious. In any event, we paid him $24 million for very few games.
Rangers owner Tom Hicks
"I have no knowledge that Juan used steroids. His number of injuries and early retirement just makes me suspicious," Hicks wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Wednesday. "In any event, we paid him $24 million for very few games."
Hicks was responding to questions about a television interview in which he was asked about decisions he regretted since owning the team, then mentioned the oft-injured outfielder and steroids.
"Juan Gonzalez for $24 million after he came off steroids, probably, we just gave that money away," Hicks said in the interview, aired June 10 on KTVT-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Gonzalez had three extended stays on the disabled list when he returned to the Rangers for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. Sidelined by a torn ligament in right thumb and a right calf injury, he played in only 152 of 324 games, hitting .288 with 32 homers and 105 RBIs.
"That kind of rhetoric does not deserve a response, because it's so irresponsible," said Gonzalez's agent, Al Nero.
Jose Canseco, who played with Gonzalez and the Rangers in 1992-94 before Hicks owned the team, has admitted using steroids. Canseco claimed in his 2005 book that he used steroids with Gonzalez, who was 35 when he played his last major league game and tore his hamstring in his only at-bat for Cleveland in 2005.
Gonzalez, who had 434 home runs, was the AL MVP in 1996 and 1998 for Texas. He was the centerpiece of a nine-player trade that sent him to Detroit after the 1999 season following the Rangers' third AL West title in four seasons.
After only one season with the Tigers and a year in Cleveland, Gonzalez signed a $24 million, two-year free-agent deal to return to Texas, the team that had originally signed him as a 16-year-old free agent out of Puerto Rico.
Back problems limited Gonzalez to 33 games in 2004 after a $4 million deal with Kansas City.
- Why wouldn't Minnesota do this? You're not going to be able to acquire anything legit around KG to put you in the upper tier in the west, so why not blow up, get expiring contracts and 3 1st rounders in a deep draft?
Expanded Timberwolves trade rumor: Kevin Garnett to the Phoenix Suns as part of a three-way deal with the Boston Celtics that would bring the Wolves 6-9 Kurt Thomas from Phoenix and 6-10 Theo Ratliff from Boston, both of whom have contracts that expire after next season. The Suns would send forward Shawn Marion to the Celtics, who would send guard Sebastian Telfair to the Wolves.
The Wolves would get the Celtics' No. 5 overall pick and the Suns' No. 24 overall pick in next week's NBA draft, and keep their No. 7 overall pick. In addition, the second-round conditional pick they owe Boston in the Ricky Davis-Wally Szczerbiak deal would be eliminated.
- Penn State added to Nebraska's non-conference schedule?
Paterno says Penn State is working on a deal with Nebraska, which a school official said would be a home-and-home deal for 2014 and '15, although contracts aren't signed.
I love it, at least they won't be criticized for not scheduling tough non-conference games. Check out the previous 7 years non conference and the next 10 years. Pretty stout stuff.
2000 - @ Notre Dame
2001 - Notre Dame
2002 - @ Penn St., Arizona St.
2003 - Penn St.
2004 - @ Pitt
2005 - Pitt
2006 - @ USC
2007 - USC, @ Wake Forest
2008 - @ Virginia Tech
2009 - Virginia Tech
2010 - @ Washington
2011 - Washington
2012 - @ UCLA
2013 - UCLA
2014 - Penn St.?
2015 - Penn St.?
2016 - Tennessee
2017 - @ Tennessee
- Dodger's Jason Schmidt out for rest of year. The NL sucks however, and they still have, top to bottom, probably the best staff in the league. It's their offense that they should worry about. I fully expect them to come calling to Texas for Teixeira and Gagne/Otsuka in July. Read on below.
Rob Neyer writes:
Here's an A-No. 1 definition of bad news: When you go in for shoulder surgery, and you wake up to news that's worse than expected.
That's what happened to Jason Schmidt yesterday.
Dr. Neal ElAttrache at the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic, in an arthroscopic procedure, repaired a labral tear, a frayed bicep tendon and cleaned up scarring in the bursa sac, according to trainer Stan Conte, who said he's hopeful Schmidt will be pitching by next Spring Training.
Although the club had said it did not know what to expect going into the exploratory surgery, Conte said the labral tear was not anticipated and was the most severe of the three injuries.
"It must grow back to the bone, so the rehab process slows down," he said. "We anticipated that the labrum did not need to be reattached, but it did."
Obviously, Schmidt won't pitch again this season. Leaving aside the financial side of this loss -- that money's gone, so forget about it -- it's worth exploring what this means for the Dodgers on the field.
They do have a ready replacement in Chad Billingsley, and as GM Ned Colletti said of Schmidt, "In all due respect, he hasn't thrown well. It's not as if he was on his way to a Cy Young Award and, all of a sudden, we lost him."
That's the good news: Schmidt's making more money than anybody else on the roster, he's going to finish this season with one win ... and the Dodgers have the fourth-best record in the National League. Sure, they're in third place in their division. But they're only a game-and-a-half out of first place.
Here's the bad news: Billingsley's young and talented. [This is bad news?--ed. Patience! I'm getting to it.] Last season he started 16 games for the Dodgers, and walked nearly as many batters as he struck out. Those probably were just growing pains, and he's been outstanding in relief this season. But he's not proved himself as a starter in the majors.
More bad news: The front-runners in the West are obviously the Padres, whose +78 run differential is easily the best in the league. The Dodgers' run differential is +19.
But here's the best news: the National League is sort of a joke. As unimpressive as the Dodgers' run differential is, it's also the second-best in the league. In September, the list of wild-card contenders is going to be short, and it's going to include the Dodgers.
- Dining Review
Made it to Primo's last night, a review -
- For pure scenery enjoyment, it definitely is worthy of the hype, every blonde trophy wife/girlfriend with $5k stuffed in her chest in the area makes this their home base. Sitting on the patio looking for hot women overshadows the food, no doubt.
- But the food is very good, carne asada a little thin, but good flavor and very tender. Hot sauce very good, more on the spicy side, but good.
- 8 out of 10 overall - Even if your order should be sub-standard a few times (although I highly doubt this), watching Cougars and Park Cities/West Village trust fund babies get drunk on happy hour margaritas will no doubt lift your spirits. It's Cougar season year round here.
www.primosdallas.com
- Picks O' the day
Yesterday's record (6/20) - 6-4
In addition to taking every home underdog, my picks for today are:
Dodgers +115 - Billingsley goes from bullpen to starting today. Very good pitcher, although Rob Neyer seems to disagree with me.
SD -125 - SD very good at home at home, 14-7 vs. LHP
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