Major League Baseball

[Green Demon]

It is nice to see for me that the Indians have been able to come out to a quicker start then they usually have in april. By this time most years they are already 5-6 games back which still is a little to make up in a lot of time, but as the Central found out last year a quick start can keep you out front for a while. It is good to see that some of the guys are picking up where they left off last fall, especially Travis Hafner who has been on fire for most of the games so far this year and along with him some of the guys that started off slow last year such as Boone, Blake and Martinez are having better Aprils then last year. They will probably need the hitting to cause the pitching is down a bit from last year but still has most of the mainstays. Carmona who was able to pitch the other day for C.C. looked good and hopefully he is in the rotation by the end of the year for them.

[ACCBiggz]

2009 will be Bud Selig's last season as MLB Commish, and all I can say is IT'S ABOUT TIME!

[reyrey619]

yes, hopefully it will be his last year. Hopefully, Peter Gammons becomes the next commish. That guy is awesome.

[Lowerdeck]

2009 can't come soon enough.

[Corizzle]

Beginning of the end for my beloved Blue Jays?

Burnett to have troublesome elbow examined

TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays placed starter A.J. Burnett on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with a right elbow injury.

Burnett left his start against Boston on Friday night after four innings with soreness in his elbow. He will visit Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., on Monday.

Andrews performed ligament replacement surgery on Burnett's elbow in 2003.

"It [pain in the elbow] came on pretty good in the fourth inning," Burnett said. "This really is frustrating for me. I feel about two inches tall. It's tough not to be able to go more than four innings."

Burnett said he's willing to miss a month to make sure he's OK.

"I want to make sure it is out of there for good. Whatever it is, there is a shark floating in there and we got to get it out," Burnett said.

Burnett, who signed a five-year, $55 million deal with the Blue Jays in the offseason after spending seven seasons with the Florida Marlins, began the season on the DL after scar tissue broke off in his elbow March 18 during spring training.

The Blue Jays are hoping it's just scar tissue this time, too.

"They don't seem to think it's anything structurally wrong," manager John Gibbons said. "He'll go see the guy who did the surgery. Hopefully, he'll get some reassurance from him. Until he sees him we won't know."

Burnett was a key piece of Toronto's offseason overhaul. The Blue Jays also added closer B.J. Ryan for $47 million over five years, signed catcher Bengie Molina and traded for slugger Troy Glaus and first baseman Lyle Overbay.

Pitching coach Brad Arnsberg noticed a drop in velocity in Friday's start.

"All of a sudden his velocity tapered," Arnsberg said. "I knew something wasn't right."

Arnsberg said they'll be extra careful with him.

"You've got to guard him with kid gloves. We did that the first time and felt good," Arnsberg said.

The Blue Jays recalled right-hander reliever Shawn Marcum from Triple-A Syracuse

Edited April 22, 2006 by Corizzle

[Mofoticon]

Burnett getting hurt, wow, i'm shocked...that's never happened before, oh wait, he's only had tommy john surgery and countless other injuries over the years....He's going to turn out to be a horrible signing, like i've been saying all along.

[Lowerdeck]

Burnett getting hurt = not a surprise

Fuck the Jays, their offense is kicking ass. Pitching may be a question mark, but the bats aren't.

David Wells needs to retire.

[ACCBiggz]

Bonds homers for the first time... worthy of a note, I still think his knee is a bit of a problem.

[GhostMachine]

Bonds may not even get close to breaking Hank Aaron's record and could possibly retire after this season. Apparently his shoulder is bothering him, as well as his knee.

If he ends up on the DL for long because of his knee this season, he might as well hang it up right then.

Biggest surprise of the season so far? It's almost a month into the season, and the Reds haven't been eliminated from postseason contention yet! :blink:

Reds pulled off a trade with Dodgers. Got Cody Ross for a player to be named later. Haven't seen anything so I don't know if the player to be named later has been named yet, but I wish it was Griffey.....even though I know it won't be.

[Miami Vice]

Burnett getting hurt may or may not be a surprise but it still sucks. I'm not mad because he blew out his elbow I'm mad because he has handled the injury like a pussy. Apparently this injury is very mild and thus AJ should be able to pitch through it. He's just got to get over the fact that his elbow is going to hurt from time to time when he pitches from now on.

The big problem isn't Burnett going down though it's how bad Towers has been. I didn't expect him to duplicate his career year from last season but I did think he'd be a .500 pitcher. Instead he's been tossing BP fastballs so far with little to no movement on his breaking pitches. I don't know where the team can go from here since they are already using their AAA team's best starter to replace Burnett. If Towers doesn't improve by June 1st I'd look for a trade.

The offence has been fantastic so far and the team has done pretty well. This first month is the toughest month on the schedule and many have said if they come out at .500 they'd be in good shape. Well, they are 12-11 to end the month of April so it can be deemed a positive month. Now it's time for them to put together a 6 or 7 game winning streak.

[Lowerdeck]

Boston brings back Doug Mirabelli from the Padres for Josh Bard, Cla Meredith, and cash.

He just got a nice ovation from the Fenway Faithful coming to bat. Got cheered for not making a passed ball on a Wakefield pitch in the 2nd inning.

Only in Boston can we cheer on the backup catcher like this.

[Lowerdeck]

Someone please validate my statement that Bernie Williams has little to no value to the Yankees organization.

[CISS]

Why is that exactly?

[Lowerdeck]

I was a special guest on this sports talk radio show. (Actually, I know the host, his sidekick, and some of the other regular guests. I just shown up to the studio.)

Anyway, I was on the show and I said Bernie Williams has little value to the Yankees organization now. That they don't like playing him in the OF all that much because he's a liability, that they only play him at DH when they have to, they only play him cause he's getting paid too much. Wasn't exactly in those words ... but close enough. The three main guys on the show are Yanks fans, and basically just played me off for being an ignorant biased Sox fan.

[Ananas]

Casey Janssen delivers his 2nd brilliant performance of his rookie season. I tell you, if Burnett and Chacin gets back and Towers hasn't kept his act together, we could have a new number 5 starter.

[GhostMachine]

I was a special guest on this sports talk radio show. (Actually, I know the host, his sidekick, and some of the other regular guests. I just shown up to the studio.)

Anyway, I was on the show and I said Bernie Williams has little value to the Yankees organization now. That they don't like playing him in the OF all that much because he's a liability, that they only play him at DH when they have to, they only play him cause he's getting paid too much. Wasn't exactly in those words ... but close enough. The three main guys on the show are Yanks fans, and basically just played me off for being an ignorant biased Sox fan.

[Lowerdeck]

A. The Braves have never been a serious threat to being at the top of the big spenders. I doubt their payroll has ever crossed over 90M, nor do I think it's higher than 80-85 right now. Not sure exact figures though. But yeah, 14 NLE titles in a row. Sure, Yanks may have the last 8 ALE titles ... but they went to great lengths (spending sprees) to get the last 4-5.

B. I'm a Red Sox fan and I want a salary cap. With Steinbrenner controlling the Yanks, it'll never happen.

Edited May 18, 2006 by Lowerdeck

[gunnar hendershow]

A Salary Cap would help, but it wouldn't solve every problem. Too many owners are scared of spending big no matter how much they are making on revenue sharing because of the fact that they don't know what next year's income will be. In Baltimore attendance has dropped a lot, if we had gone off and spent a ton like we physically could have after last year we'd be in financial trouble right now believe it or not.

I'm not sure on exactly what the best solution is, but a Salary Cap won't be the perfect solution since baseball income, unlike football for instance, doesn't always stay around the same "level" if you get what I'm saying.

[Lowerdeck]

Barry Bonds, please hit #715 so we don't have to deal with this countdown shit anymore. Then immediately retire, cause your 2nd place is illigitimate enough.

[gunnar hendershow]

Barry Bonds, please hit #715 so we don't have to deal with this countdown shit anymore. Then immediately retire, cause your 2nd place is illigitimate enough.

He hasn't hit it yet?

Shows you how much I care. The only record chase I care about is Pujols being on track to shatter single-season HRs and RBIs.