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AL Central drama: Young talks trash, Tigers play like it
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News
Trash talk generally is heard around garbage trucks, incinerators, NBA courts or NFL fields.
Baseball? Not often ... until now.
This came from the lips of former Cincinnati Reds outfielder Dmitri Young, now wearing Detroit Tigers stripes.
"Forget the other teams (in the American League Central), it is going to come down to us and the Cleveland Indians," Young said after a loss last Sunday.
Most people picked Minnesota or Chicago, Dmitri.
"Us and Cleveland," he repeated.
When Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire was told of Young's prediction, he said, "Everybody says we're the weakest division, but we have the strongest lips. I'd rank our division's trash-talking right up there with anybody's."
Is it bad?
"What's wrong with it?" Gardenhire said. "You're supposed to be able to talk trash about the other guy, bulletin-board material. Sometimes it is entertaining."
Gardenhire, then, should love what 74-year-old Florida manager Jack McKeon said.
"There is a lot of parity in the game," he said. "You see a couple of sorry clubs, rebuilding, going with young players, like Kansas City and Colorado."
Guess which bulletin boards McKeon's quote will occupy?
By the way, since Young's prediction, the Tigers and Indians are each 1-4, losing at the hands of the Twins (5-0) and White Sox (4-1).
Listen up, man
Cincinnati's Joe Randa was forewarned Tuesday in St. Louis. With the bases loaded, the batter was St. Louis pitcher Jason Marquis. Cardinals star Jim Edmonds was on third, and he said to Randa, "Our best hitter is at the plate."
Marquis, who led all major-league pitchers with 21 hits last year, crushed a three-run triple.
The next day, when the Cardinals had the bases loaded again with one out in the ninth inning, Albert Pujols bounced one high toward third base.
Randa jumped to get it and 10 guys in the dugout jumped with him and yelled, "Get up there, little man."
Little man snared it and started a game-ending double play.
Completing the task
Florida Marlins pitchers had four complete games in their first nine outings, including two shutouts by Dontrelle Willis.
Said teammate Carlos Delgado, "Some teams have the whole year go by without four complete games."
Ten National League teams had four or fewer complete games last year ... and, no, the Reds weren't one. They had five.
Florida? Six.
Law of averages?
Maybe it was the team and not the pitcher. When Troy Percival was closing for the Anaheim Angels, he faced the Minnesota Twins 32 times, covering 401/3 innings and never gave up a run. Zero, zip, nada.
The Detroit Tigers signed him in the offseason, and last week the Twins scored a run off him in the ninth and won, 5-4.
"Forty innings worth of no hits and no runs and you start reading about it in the Guiness Book of World Records," said Twins manager Gardenhire.
Tough way, Jose
Jose Acevedo probably thought he would be better off in the Colorado organization than in the Reds organization when he was traded last week to the Rockies.
He was sent to the Class AAA Colorado Springs SkySox, but when he got there, he must have thought he really reported to the Rockies by mistake.
All eight members of the SkySox bullpen already have major-league experience: Acevedo, Jay Witasick, Matt Anderson, David Cortes, Scott Chiasson, Travis Phelps, Scott Sedlacek and Steve Kent.
Signing a Pronktract
Some say he is only half a player, nothing more than a designated hitter for the Cleveland Indians.
Well, the Tribe thinks highly of him, on a high financial plateau. Travis Hafner was signed last week to a three-year, $7 million deal.
Cleveland General Manager Mark Shapiro knows giving a DH a long-term deal is rare and could think of only one other DH with a multi-year contract, Boston's Dave Ortiz.
Hafner, nicknamed "Pronk" by his teammates (half prospect, half donkey) signed his contract and said, "I'm signing a three-year pronktract."
OK, so DH's aren't that funny.
It's a trend
Blown saves were a big topic the first week of the season, and it didn't just center on New York's Mariano Rivera, who blew two the first week to the Boston Red Sox.
That's not exactly big, big news. Since 2001, Rivera has blown 28 saves, 12 to the Red Sox.
Those who blew saves last week are the Who's Who of Francisco Cordero, Braden Looper, Armando Benitez.
Poor Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates, below .500 for 12 straight seasons, are off to another slip-and-fall start, and the critics are bellowing about manager Lloyd McClendon, a former Cincinnati catcher who's been manager since 2001.
"Some people were calling for my head the day after I was first hired," McClendon said.
It doesn't help that his top two starters, Oliver Perez and Kip Wells, started 0-4. Maybe he needs to flip-flop his rotation. The bottom three, Mark Redman, Josh Fogg and Dave Williams, started 3-0.
Holy Cubbies
With his pitchers, Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker will try anything. Anything?
How about holy water?
Yes, Baker sprinkled holy water on the troubled elbow of Mark Prior, a vial blessed by Pope John Paul II.
"I'm not Catholic, but my wife is," Baker said. "I go to church with her and just sit there praying and putting a little holy water on myself. There is something to it. It's not voodoo. It's blessed. I hope my sinning doesn't negate it."
Somebody should sprinkle some on that billy goat credited with cursing the Cubs.
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Originally Posted by missionhockey21
