Baseball

Jason Bay is officially a Met. He passed his physical, had his press conference, and is now the new left fielder for the Amazin’s. He’ll essentially replace Carlos Delgado in the middle of the order (or will he? Please tell me Delgado will not be back; he needs to make his “clubhouse presence” present in another clubhouse).

Art Lawrence is a rabid Yankees fan, but there was one time when he rooted for the Yankees' opponent.

The Yankees had summarily dismissed Casey Stengel after the 1960 World Series.

In June, 1963, Casey Stengel managed at Yankee Stadium, but he was managing the Mets. For one of the few times in his life, Art Lawrence wanted the Mets to win.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m the same guy who said heading into last season that I thought the Red Sox had made enough savvy moves to challenge the Yankees for the pennant.

Not quite. My prediction that cost-effective reclamation projects such as John Smoltz and Brad Penny would pay serious dividends landed somewhere between woefully off base and numbingly stupid.

So take what you will from this: I really like the team the Sox are preparing to roll out in 2010.

Congratulations to the Mets. After all those other teams' offseason signings where Omar Minaya appeared to be sleeping (literally), the Mets finally made a move, signing former Pittsburgh Pirate and Boston Red Sock (is that the singular?), Jason Bay. 

Bay, 2004 Rookie of the Year in the National League, is a great player. A top-15 outfielder without a question, probably even top 10. 

But the Mets signed the wrong guy. 

It's hard to believe, but the 2007 trade that sent Miguel Tejada to the Astros and brought Luke Scott, Mike Costanzo, Matt Albers to the Orioles, was mostly about Troy Patton.

The 24-year old lefthander was a footnote of the deal due to the fact that he was forced to end his 2007 season early because of a torn labrum.

He was an early 30's (in age) slugger, traded several times during the early part of his career until a team in the NL Central finally gave him the opportunity to play full time. At this point, he began to produce big offensive numbers.

The New York Yankees are arguably the MLB organization of the year; 27-time World Champions, 103 regular season wins, and an unobstructed run to the World Series.

You ask, how can the TinCaps of Fort Wayne, the Midwest League affiliate of the San Diego Padres, top the evil empire ?

The 1920s was one of the worst decades in the history of Major League Baseball for starting pitcher stats.  It is the worst, except for the 1890s, 1930s, and 2000s (now). 

It’s especially interesting because it followed one of the best decades in history for starting pitcher numbers—the 1910s.