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Saw today on the New York Post where Joe Torre is planning on complaining to MLB about John Wetteland. Technically he’s not supposed to be in uniform and in the dugout during the game, there’s a rule that you’re only supposed to have six coaches. Our six in uniform coaches are Rudy Jaramillo, Orel Hershisher, Don Wakamatsu, DeMarlo Hale, Steve Smith, & Mark Connor. Wetteland makes 7 which pushes us over the limit. However, it’s been I think two years
And what about guys like Don Kalkstein? He wears 66, and is essentially the “shrink” for the team. I know that’s not his real title, but I can’t think of what his real one is. I see him in the duguout all the time. What’s the difference between Wetteland and Kalkstein? Why complain about it now? What about all the other teams who didn’t care, or all the other times we’ve played the Yankees?
What exactly does Torre hope to gain by this? Seems like a cheap shot to me, even if we are violating the coach rule.
In other Yankee news, the same article talks about the Yankees wanting to get Gary Matthews Jr from the Rangers. I will say my usual quote. Never help the Yankees. Baseball would be better off if not a single team at all ever traded with the Yankees. DON’T HELP THEM. Period.

1) Well, that didn’t take long. Jason Botts was sent back down today without having made an apperance as far as I can tell. CJ Wilson is brought back up. Given the state the bullpen is in now, we probably need another arm. Is Wilson it? Don’t know. At least Botts won’t get a chance to rot on the bench. When he comes back, I’d rather it not be as a bench player.
2) The quote by an unnamed player that appears in today’s FTW-ST article by Jim Reeves is pretty damning of Ranger management. The quote was “I’m not expecting anything, why would I?” in reponse to a move at the trading deadline. Now I don’t know who that is, but I have a hard time it’s someone like Marshall McDougall, or Sandy Alomar. It’s probably someone like Soriano, Blalock, or Tex. Why? Fringe players aren’t likely to make a quote like that – to me, that kind of statement is made by a player who is a leader, or at least is established. Could be Kenny, given his recent spate of negative happenings. Who knows? The point is if it’s true, then it means that players are getting agitated about the lack of moves. For the most part, I agree with Jim Reeves, although I think he takes it a bit too far. I agree something needs to be done, but I don’t think it’s quite as dire as Reeves makes it out to be.
3) Francisco Cordero should change his uniform number to 35. He appears to have become John Wetteland in terms of the scariness of some of his appearances. I love Wetteland, but he had a habit of putting men on before getting the job done. That’s what Cordero is doing (or worse, giving away the lead).
4) Juan Gonzalez is out for the season. [ link ]. I can’t say this surprises me. A quick look at some of his stats the last few years:

I have to say, it’s a better rate of money per at bat than any other player in history, even counting Arod. Juan made 600k for one plate appearance this season. I can’t imagine anyone giving him a major league deal next year, assuming he even tries. Someone’s got to sign him to a minor league deal.

The other day I was looking at the Phillies website. I’m from there, so I continue to follow the team. Something was bugging me about the their site, and I couldn’t figure it out. I finally did. Look at this capture from their site. Do you see what’s wrong with it?
I didn’t pick up on it right away, but perhaps you will. Take a look. If you can’t figure it out, highlight the text below with your browser.
The baseball that is leaving the stadium in the picture is leaving in foul territory! That image is used to signify a home run ball flying out of the park. But this is a foul ball – behind the plate, and a little up the first base line!!!
I don’t know who was the bonehead that approved that picture, but I bet you they didn’t know much about the park that this image is supposed to be about!
Yeesh.

It annoyed me so much how we lost that game that not only did I not feel like writing about it, I didn’t feel like writing about Saturday’s game either – which we won (barely).