Friday, August 03, 2012

THIS IS WAIVER WIRE WEEK

## Now that the July 31 trade deadline is past, you'll start to see a lot of high-priced players on the waiver list. Guys like Alphonso Soriano of the Cubs, who stands to make (I almost said earn) $38 million over the next two years, or Cliff Lee, who could make as much as $107 million over the next 4 years. Placing a player on the waiver list has two advantages for a team. #1, they might get some sucker, er - team, to take over a burdensome contract, or if he clears waivers, they can make a trade with anyone. They also get to see who might be interested in the player. They can still pull a player off the list if he's claimed, but they can only do that once. If they give him up on waivers, they get nothing in return. Don't expect too much to happen, though. The money is just too great in most cases.

## I may have to start a regular feature - BOBBY'S MOUTH.
Valentine is at it again.
"He also made a peculiar allusion during the radio appearance to pitching coach Bob McClure having taken a "two-week vacation"... McClure had left the club because of an emergency medical issue involving one of his very young children;"
Valentine corrected himself, but you have to wonder what's going on under that Red Sox cap.
This came out of Gordon Edes column also.
"Valentine, appearing on WEEI's "The Big Show" on Wednesday, had described a minor tempest caused by a sarcastic remark he'd made to rookie Will Middlebrooks, one the kid later said he didn't remember hearing. Valentine claimed Thursday to be annoyed to have to talk about something no one would have known about if he hadn't brought it up in the first place."

## I'm sure we will hear this on tonight's broadcast over and over again. Derek Jeter (all genuflect) will reach another milestone tonight, playing in his 2529th game for the same team. That places him 10th on the all-time list.Carl Yastrzemski leads the list with 3308. Derek would have to play full time for another 5 years to top that mark.

## Tim Kurkjian wrote a long article about getting hit by a pitch. If you ever played baseball, you know what it's like to get hit by a pitch, but you probably didn't get hit by a major leaguer. That's different. I was hit in the head in a sandlot game once about 50 years ago, but it didn't hurt (Will someone please answer the damn phone?).  I think.
Here's the article:  http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8195515/what-feels-get-hit-pitch

## Tony Chong has suggestions for some new Olympic events:
"When are we going to see Women’s Beach Baseball, Beach Football, Beach Hockey, Beach Curling, Beach Soccer, Beach Badminton, Beach Basketball, Beach Poker, Beach Horseshoe Pitching, or Beach Frisbee Golf?"
I was going to say that the Beach Hockey and Beach Curling would probably be 'low scoring' events, but I think the uniforms would negate that theory  --which may be what Tony had in mind in the first place.

***THEY SAID IT***
"New York Jets coach Rex Ryan has lost 106 pounds. The only thing he's been putting in his mouth is his foot."  -- Brad Dickson
"Winnipeg Jet Dustin Byfuglien plead guilty in a Minnesota court last week. He got two days community service for unsafe boating and a $1000 fine for an unpronounceable name."  -- RJ Currie
"Kim Yoo Suk is a Korean pole vaulter competing in London. Hasn’t his surname has been chanted by fans at Maple Leaf games?"  -- Tony Chong
"Eight women badmnton players from China, South Korea and Indonesia were kicked out of the Olympics for alleged match throwing. (Trying to lose early matches, for easier matches later.) And who says women are not as competitive as men?"  -- Janice Hough
"Three SMU football players say a prostitute they solicited exacted revenge for non-payment by stealing $3,000 worth of laptops, televisions and video games from them, Dallas' KTXA-TV reported.
Which certainly gives a whole new meaning to the sports term "taking it to the house."  -- Dwight Perry
"Camps have opened in the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers are worried about Ben Roethlisberger’s quickness. At his age, he can no longer outrun a jealous boyfriend."  -- Alan Ray
"Ichiro used a translator for his press conference yesterday. After 11 years here, he still is not functional in English. Well, if this baseball thing doesn’t work out, he’s already qualified to be a New York cabbie."  -- Janice Hough
"Joe Paterno's family is saying it will launch its own investigation into the Jerry Sandusky scandal: "Yeah, and I hear Nixon's kids are going to take another look at Watergate." -- Greg Cote
"Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates sit atop the NL Central. This is all covered, we assume, in the Book of Revelation."  -- Dwight Perry

CP-

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