I have to admit, I haven’t really caught the flow of the baseball season yet. Don’t get me wrong, I am in full Red Sox flow with only the occasional early season day game and sudden rash of rain outs tripping me up, but I am not in synch with the rest of the league. I find myself a step behind on the transaction wire in my fantasy leagues and not as informed about the rest of the league as I would like to be. The season’s been a little herky-jerky for me so far.

So I’ve decided to bring back “Around the Horn” on Mondays in an effort to place the onus on myself to branch further outside the parochial topics inherent to Red Sox Nation. With the weekend behind us, a nationally televised Sunday night game in the bag, and often times a Sox off day, Mondays seem like the best day to look outside our box that is New England and (to quote Len Berman) “span the globe.”

- The Yankees and the A’s are coming off as good an early season three game set as you can find which saw three one run games all decided in the final inning. After the teams split two extra inning affairs to start the series, the Yankees looked like they had managed to survive their pitching injuries (more on that in a second) and take the series, that is until the ever reliable Mariano Rivera threw a bad pitch to light hitting A’s second baseman Marco Scutaro. The 0-2, two out pitch from Rivera with two on and a 4-2 lead in the ninth, caught more of the plate than Rivera wanted. Scutaro took it deep for the walk off game winner.

“I don’t know about this one,” Scutaro said. “I can’t believe it still, against Mariano. I was just praying the ball didn’t go foul. You don’t get that against him, you don’t get many pitches to hit. The way I’m feeling at the plate right now, the last thing I thought I was going to do is hit a home run.”

It’s not often Rivera walks off the mound without the satisfaction of a job done right and the timing of this loss might send Yankee fans over the edge.

“I was shocked,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

This series comes along with the news that two more Yankees starters will join Chien-Ming Wang on the disabled list; Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano each hit the 15 day disabled list this weekend. This news has Yankee fans wondering a little panicked.

“Can A-Rod pitch?” - Jamie, comments on Lo-Hud.com Yankees Blog

Why not? He’s done everything else this year. Who knew what a little positive reinforcement would mean to the slugger? Arod is hitting .372 with 7 home runs, 18 RBI and has a SLG percentage (.977) higher than David Ortiz’s OPS (.943). Rodriguez has had a 30% larger win probability added + than anyone in the game (2.20). But his “un-clutchiness” still bites him as he has contributed negatively to overall WPA (-1.25) enough to knock him to third on the net WPA leaderboard behind Grady Sizemore and Delmon Young. According to Fan Graphs, Arod has been in high leverage at bats 11% more than any other player in baseball this season. So far, Arod has been up to the challenge more than not. We’ll see if he can keep it up this weekend at Fenway Park when the pressure really starts to mount.

Don Amore of the Hartford Courant’s Yankee Blog sums it up best;

“It’s going to be a rough week for the Yankees, with their pitching situation and the Red Sox coming up, the kind of week you might look back on later and say it was a key to the season - one way or another.

- One advantage that the Toronto Blue Jays have is B.J. Ryan at the back end of the bullpen.  After a stellar 2006 where he was a lock down closer for the Jays blowing only 4 saves in 42 opportunities, Ryan has struggled thus far this season going 0-2 with a 12.87 ERA and two blown saves.  Now Ryan finds himself on the 15 day DL with a strained elbow. [Babes love Baseball]

- While the Red Sox saw Jackie Robinson Day washed away by the rain with many other teams, the celebration went on in tribute to the first African-American player to break the color barrier and play in the Major leagues.  Appropriately enough, the Dodgers, all wearing the #42 in tribute to Robinson, won 9-3.

“I’ve often said that baseball’s most powerful moment in its really terrific history was Jackie Robinson’s coming into baseball,” commissioner Bud Selig said during an on-field ceremony before the Dodgers beat San Diego 9-3.

“It’s an incredible story — not just for baseball, but for society. Jackie was an American hero and the ultimate barrier-breaker. Threats to his life were commonplace. Yet Jackie took everything hate-mongers had to offer him. Not only is he a baseball Hall of Famer, he’s a Hall of Famer for all-time.”

Sox1Fan encourages us to also nod our caps to Branch Rickey, the Dodgers GM who signed Jackie Robinson.

- Much to my surprise, the Atlanta Braves have the best record in baseball and Mets’ fans are starting to get a little nervous.

“The Braves looked good and I’m becoming increasingly more concerned with their potential to take back the eastern crown.”

Well…as I was still patrolling the MLB blogosphere for stories, it appears the Red Sox game has started.  I didn’t think it would get off before 1 pm.  Look for more Around the Horn next Monday

Trackback URI | Comments RSS