The Chicago White Sox official site reports the club has asked release waivers on right-hander Bartolo Colon.
Colon, 36, was 3-6 with a 4.19 ERA in 12 starts for Chicago this season. He has not pitched since July 24 because of right-elbow inflammation.
The right-hander, who won the AL Cy Young Award as an Angel in 2005, was 4-2 with a 3.92 ERA in seven starts for the Boston Red Sox in 2008.
But Colon has been on the disabled list for long stretches at some point each of the past four seasons.
This is what is known as contrast.
The Fenway Park scenes Saturday (above, as a dejected Robinson Cano and New York absorb a 14-1 loss to Boston) and Friday (below, as Eric Hinske, Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher savor a 20-11 Yankees triumph over the Red Sox) could not have been more different.
A.J. Burnett was worse Saturday than Brad Penny on Friday, if that’s possible.
The Red Sox are leading, 25-21 on aggregate, as they say in soccer, going into Sunday’s game.
I can’t believe I resisted the cliche, what a difference a day makes. Oops.
The Boston Globe continues to poll the panic level of Red Sox Nation.
Today, with Boston no longer in the Wild Card lead, only 48.8 percent believe the Red Sox’s season is over.
That’s an improvement over last week, when 54 percent were looking forward to the Patriots’ exhibition season after the Yankees’ four-game sweep of their baseball heroes.
The return of shortstop Alex Gonzalez must have stemmed the tide of negativity.
Maybe not. Here’s a sample comment:
Q. When is a sellout not a sellout?
A. When it’s at the new Yankee Stadium.
What else to expect from a wacky sports world that gives us a Big Ten Conference that has 11 teams? No Northwestern jokes, please.
With all the shouting on TV about “the sellout crowds” that watched the resurgent Yankees punish the Red Sox with a four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium, you’d think the $1.5 billion ediface with the overpriced seats was finally full.
Not true. The house that NYC taxpayers built, on Jerome Ave. at 161 Street in the Bronx, has a seating capacity of 51,800 (it’s 52,325 for SRO).
The crowds in the Red Sox series, per the boxscores on the ESPN site? Thursday night, 49,005 (93.8 percent capacity); Friday night, 48,262 (92.4 percent); Saturday afternoon, 48,796 (93.4 percent) and Sunday night, 48,190 (92.3 percent).
Those are great crowds, but they are not sellouts. The last 7-8 percent seats in new Yankee Stadium must be horrible, or over-priced, or both.
Which means, if you are one of those who didn’t believe what David Ortiz said Saturday about not using steroids, he wasn’t the only liar at Yankee Stadium last weekend.
David Ortiz said Saturday at a Yankee Stadium news conference that he did not buy steroids, and he did not use steroids.
I believe him, and I don’t care if anyone else does.
Ever since Rafael Palmeiro pointed his finger in denial at a Congressional panel, then later failed a drug test, the word of any baseball player accused of taking PEDs has been dismissed — except for those who confess.
In this country, it’s presumed innocent until proven guilty — unless you’re a professional ballplayer accused of PED use.
Teixeira has yet another suitor.
The Red Sox have the dough - and they need a hitter.
As the Boston Globe reports, the Red Sox lineup has gotten soft in the middle - kinda like Big Papi after a lax offseason - which means yet another team will probably be gunning hard for Angels’ free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira:
“According to a team source, the Red Sox already have had some internal discussion about free-agent-to-be Mark Teixeira, the most desirable hitter available on the open market and a player for which the bidding will be fierce. Coupled with the strength of Boston’s player development system, the real benefit of Ramirez departure is that the Red Sox will have a truckload of money to spend this winter. All signs point to a spirited run at Teixeira, a switch-hitting, slugging first baseman with the good defensive skills, exceptional baseball acumen, and the kind of discretionary plate discipline that Sox officials so covet.
“The obvious question is where they will put him.”
Money should not be an object for Boston:
“Thanks largely to the contractual erasures of Ramirez and Curt Schilling, the Red Sox will have roughly $40-$60 million to spend this winter.”
What do you think?
Number two in the AL East, baby!
The Boston fan is like the guy with bad breath, the loud talker and the drama queen.
We all know at least one.
Most Angel fans list Boston fans as the most obnoxious in Angel Stadium. So, for all your acquaintances who think “Fever Pitch” was a good movie, here’s the perfect gift.
Major League Baseball, with a perfectly straight face, is selling this “2008 Wild Card” hat for Boston fans.
It’s only $22.99 - and worth every penny.
This figures to be a lucrative off-season for Manny Ramirez. But he could start out with a good chunk of walking around money if the Boston Red Sox make it to the World Series.
According to this article in the Boston Herald, Red Sox players voted Ramirez a two-thirds share of any playoff money the team collects. It’s a late-season task for playoff-bound teams to meet and vote on playoff shares. Ramirez’s share is not unexpected — he spent roughly two-thirds of the season in Boston.
No doubt, he was also voted a piece of the playoff pie by his Dodger teammates — who would have had no playoff pie to divvy up without Manny.
Which raises the possibility that Ramirez could have been playing for the Dodgers while being paid by the Red Sox and collecting playoff shares from both if the two teams had faced off in the World Series.
And this is no small amount we’re talking about here. A playoff share for the World Series-winning team last year was worth over $300,000.
According to the sports web site www.BodogLife.com, these are the favorites to land free agent outfielder Manny Ramirez:
Los Angeles Dodgers -125
New York Yankees 3/2
New York Mets 5/1
Philadelphia Phillies 15/1
Boston Red Sox 100/1
Field 9/2
…… and free agent pitcher CC Sabathia:
New York Yankees -150
Milwaukee Brewers 5/1
Los Angeles Dodgers 5/1
Los Angeles Angels 11/2
New York Mets 15/2
San Francisco Giants 10/1
Field 4/1
The Red Sox did more than leave Mike Lowell out of their starting lineup for Game 4. They placed him on the disabled list with the hip injury that has limited him for the past few weeks.
He started two of the first three games in this series, went hitless in eight at-bats and was unable to move in the field.
“He’s hurting today,” Sox manager Terry Francona said earlier this afternoon. “He showed up today very sore. He’s been looked at by the trainers. I’ve spoken to him a couple times. The doctors are probably down there now. We’ll get him looked at. We have some decisions to make.”
They made that decision, placing him on the DL a little while later. The move also makes Lowell ineligible if the Red Sox advance to the ALCS.
In his place, the Red Sox added infielder Gil Velazquez to their active roster. Velazquez was a September callup who went 1 for 8 in his first three major-league games. He hit .260 with 10 home runs and 46 RBIs in 101 games in Triple-A.
good thing Theo went and got another shortstop that can’t hit. Maybe he can now find us another DH that is hitting .220.
Without a bat, the season is over.