Vlad’s hurting, but his Expos mates are feeling their own kind of pain. Velocity Project Jr.: just how hard is Jesse Foppert throwing? Halladay and Escobar are shutting down offenses for the Blue Jays. All this and more on Toronto, San Francisco, and Montreal in today’s Prospectus Triple Play.
Everyone knows the shorthand of fan apparel. A Red Sox hat? Well, you know you’re dealing with a borderline alcoholic with a proclivity for self-flagellation. (See also: Woolner, Keith.) An old-time White Sox uniform fashioned from modern fabric? Probably a gullible masochist whom you can defraud for a lucrative second income; but be careful–could also be creepy, stalking Scientologist. A Pete Rose jersey and matching haircut? That’s a future Wal-Mart greeter who spends the majority of his free time calling political talk radio shows. A cap sporting the colors of both the A’s and Giants? Those are David Koresh rejects who should be dragged from their ’82 Dodge Colts and savagely beaten into a persistent vegetative state.
But save your pity for those gilding themselves with the colors of the New York Mets.
As you know, the Mets fired Steve Phillips, and now find themselves facing not only their own intra-Gotham inferiority complex, but with a number of landmines in house that may not be possible to avoid. The days of being able to readily unload horrifying, soul-draining contracts is largely over, and the Mets have their share. They’re not going to be able to Mondesi someone about the head and shoulders, a la Toronto. Those days are over. What are they really facing as they try to rebuild a team?
I’m not sure how to report the injuries to Paul Wilson because I don’t know who said what or how the tension built to the point where Kyle Farnsworth form-tackled Wilson and proceeded to drop a beatdown unlike most baseball fights I’ve ever seen. Wilson, for one, owes Damian Miller a six-pack for covering him and keeping a couple more Farnsy haymakers from landing. I’m sure suspensions will be forthcoming, but this fight–in more ways than one–hurt the Reds much more than the Cubs.
It’s an odd injury to Alex Rodriguez, who is nearly as durable as his hero, Cal Ripken. From the tape, I can’t tell if he just dropped his glove early or was making something of a deke tag, but either way, the throw down on the steal attempt whacked Alex squarely in his nose. He was dazed and bloodied, leaving the game early, but there’s no word on if he’ll miss any time. With injuries like this, it will be based on his awareness level and pain tolerance. I’d expect him to miss a game or two, but nothing serious.
A groin injury has put yet another Yanks reliever on the shelf. Antonio Osuna’s injury is not considered serious, but an already thin bullpen might push Frankensteinbrenner to do something, well, rash. The mind can’t really wrap itself around the possibilities in such a thin trade market, but I keep hearing that Jeff Weaver is suddenly available.
Steven Goldman takes on the Tigers’ and Padres’ flirting with a .300 winning percentage with a history lesson on some of baseball’s most renowned losing clubs.
If you’re following the College World Series for the first time, you’ve picked a really great year to do it. The format has changed this year so that the TV-inspired one-game crapshoot final of the past fifteen years has been replaced with a best-of-three round between the winners of the two half-brackets. Given that most college teams are built around the idea of winning a three-game series, this should show the teams at their best. On top of that, there have already been some great games this week, and the final comes down to two of the three best teams in the country, so I’m really excited about this weekend. So you can share that excitement, I want to give you a viewer’s guide to this weekend’s series.