Editor's Meeting

MTD lives in New Orleans and Derwood built a cabin out of sticks and mud in Conyers, Georgia, so occasionally they have to communicate through text message. Here's the latest back-and-forth entitled "Strasburg Returns".


MTD (7:45 p.m. EST): Strasburg struck out two in the second. A 90 MPH change up and a 99 MPH fast ball.

Derwood Morris (7:47 p.m.): 90 change up? Big deal.

MTD (7:48 p.m.): Yeah, no biggie. Miles started swinging at the 99 MPH before it left Strasburg's hand.

DM (7:49 p.m.): So, I guess you could say there is a little Aaron Miles in all of us, thought hopefully not too much?

MTD (7:52 p.m.): Yes, I would have had to change my pants.

DM (7:55 p.m.): I had to change my pants and I wasn't even watching, which actually describes every single at bat I had in little league.

MTD (8:12 p.m.): Strasburg has retired nine straight after giving up a lead off double.

DM (8:16 p.m.): What a bum. A double?!

MTD (8:41 p.m.): Five innings, two hits, and he's in line for the all-important pitcher win.

DM (8:44 p.m.): He'd tie for the all-time lead in wins by a pitcher on September 6, 2011. Also, I bet if Donnie came out of retirement and pinch hit, he would've doubled down the right field line off Strasburg. But, I sometimes live in 1987.

MTD (8:47 p.m.): All of this Strasburg pitching to contact BS makes me want to punch my TV in the groin.

DM (8:49 p.m.): What if you pitch to contact and no one makes contact? Is it still considered pitching to contact or does it not matter at all because it's a really stupid and pointless topic to discuss?

MTD (8:51 p.m.): It makes sense if you're a crappy ground ball pitcher, like me in wiffle ball, but not wanting Strasburg to strike guys out early in games to keep his pitch count low is like having a Ferari that you only pull in and out of the garage.

DM (8:56 p.m.): According to Moe Syzlak it's called a car hole, but that does remind me of the time I had my station wagon and I refused to drag race my friend Chris' grandpa. I forgot what we were talking about. By the way, the 2011 Los Angeles Dodgers are making a come back! Someone tell Alex Cora to grab a bat.

MTD (9:07 p.m.): I have drinking to do now, so, I stopped watching.

DM (9:10 p.m.): I never started.

Happy Birthday Derwood!

Today is the birthday of my esteemed colleague, Derwood Morris. He's been covering a lot of ground for me here lately so I wanted to express my gratitude. So I racked my brain for threes of minutes. I mean, what do you get for a guy who has nothing? He has chewed through most of the straps on his straitjacket that he got last year. But I decided to go with the classic clip combining two of his favorite things; Don Mattingly and The Simpsons...



Have a good one, buddy.

Now, here's a Simpsons clip just for me...



*Technically, Yardbarker is owned by Fox and I made them close to 7 cents last month, so I don't think I'm subject to any copyright infringement here*

Sweet Lou's Last Run

Cubs manager Lou Piniella has announced he will retire after this season, presumably after a Chicago loss in late-September. Piniella, who started his managerial career in 1986 with the Yankees, has been around forever. The only seasons he wasn't a manager were 1989 and 2006, and he's been in the dugout with five different teams.



Piniella guided the 1990 Cincinnati Reds to a World Series sweep over the A's, but since hasn't had a ton of post-season success. He had several great regular-season teams in his 10 years with Seattle. In the strike-shortened 1995 season, the Mariners won the AL West in a one-game playoff over the Angels and reached the ALCS before losing to Cleveland. The 1997 West champions were beaten in four games by Baltimore in the ALDS, and the 2001 team won a record-tying 116 games before losing to the Yankees in the championship series.



After a forgettable three seasons in Tampa Bay (200-285, combined 96 1/2 games out of first), Piniella was 46 games over .500 in his first three seasons with the Cubs (2007-2009), which included an NL-best 97 wins in 2008. But like 2007, when Arizona swept a first-round series (yes, the Diamondbacks were in the post-season as recently as 2007), Piniella's club was swept in the first round in 2008 by the Dodgers.

Here's a list of some players Piniella managed:

Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Dave Winfield, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, Goose Gossage, Ichiro Suzuki, Fred McGriff

And here's another list of players Piniella managed:

Wayne Tolleson, Mike Pagliarulo, Bobby Meachum, Steve Trout, Lee Guetterman, Luis Quinones, Rob Dibble, Troy Afenir, Mackey Sasser, Wally Backman, Erik Plantenburg, George Glinatsis, Salomon Torres, Alvaro Espinoza, Ryan Radmanovich, Brett Hinchliffe, Desi Relaford, Terry Shumpert, John Rocker, Hideo Nomo, Rocky Cherry, Carmen Pignatiello, Esmailin Caridad

So long, Sheppard

"The first baseman, No. 23......Don Mattingly. First base, No. 23."

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Off Base Percentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy: Mackey Sasser




Rockies 1, Bluejays 0. This is what interleague play is all about. The Toronto-Colorado rivalry: just good, old-fashioned hatred. Rockies' righty Jason Hammel was excellent again-8 IP, 6 H-and after a rough start to the season has struck out 24, walked eight and allowed three earned runs combined in his last four starts.

Mets 3, Orioles 1. Hisanori Takahashi is making a case for greatest Takahashi in baseball history after his seven innings of one-run ball. Hisanori has now pitched well in three of his five starts after moving into the rotation May 21. The other Takahashi, Ken, also pitched for the Mets and in 2009 had a 2.96 ERA in 28 appearances. It's neck-and-neck.



New York has won consecutive road games for the first time since last July 25-26. That's bad, but it's not nearly as bad as: the Orioles since 1998.

Devilrays 6, Marlins 5. Carlos Pena homered in his sixth consecutive game, a franchise record and two shy of the ML record held most-importantly by Don Mattingly, and some others.

Giants 5, Athletics 4. The last time Barry Zito faced his former team May 21, he allowed six earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. Saturday, the southpaw was much-less Irabuian, giving up solo home runs to Matt Carson and Adam Rosales in seven strong innings. Zito knows now that you just don't mess with Matt Carson (949) and Adam Rosales (312).