The Dude hit his 10th home run of the year last night. It came off Craig Kimbrel, the Braves’ ridiculously awesome closer who had only allowed one home run in 94 1/3 big-league innings before that one.
Duda can now boast a .295/.365/.480 line in 341 plate appearances on the year. Here’s hoping he takes to this outfield thing, because the guy can really hit.
The Mets announced yesterday that they agreed to a one-year contract extension with Tim Byrdak. The news came right on the heels of the lefty’s second win of the season.
After a rough start to the year, Byrdak has capably served his role for the Mets. He has held lefties to a .208/.260/.323 line and though he’s 37 now, he’ll likely again be a solid lefty one-out guy in 2012.
After the announcement, Sandy Alderson stressed that the Mets now have two left-handed relievers locked up heading into the offseason: Byrdak and Daniel Herrera. But since Herrera also seems to profile as a LOOGY, it’s tough to imagine the Mets carrying both pitchers on the 25-man roster.
Wait, that’s not true. It’s easy to imagine them doing so, it’s just tough to imagine how it would be a good idea. Unless the team believes Byrdak or Herrara can regularly retire both lefty and righty hitters — Jerry Manuel’s much-coveted “crossover” guy, carrying both would mean committing a pair of rosters sports to maybe 90 total innings. Unless they have a great rotation — which they won’t — that would likely wind up putting a lot of stress on the other arms in the bullpen.
For long parts of this season, much was made of the Mets’ need for a second lefty in the bullpen. That makes sense, given some of the strong lefty hitters in their division and Terry Collins’ worship of platoon matchups. But ideally one of those lefties would need to be able to work more than part-inning stints lest the bullpen collapse on itself (even more).
Also worth nothing: Byrdak is hilarious. Sometime in the next couple weeks I’ll post a montage of his videobombs on teammates.
With Toby and Patrick, as per usual. On iTunes here. Embedded here:
Yeah I asked Valentino Pascucci his favorite sandwich.
Can a newly single A-Rod smack more doubles and triples?
The Yankees slugging third baseman is due back in the lineup Friday night against Toronto for the first time since his split with Cameron Diaz – and fans hope the heartbreak means home runs….
Rodriguez, who was also linked with Madonna after his divorce, memorably dated “Almost Famous” actress Kate Hudson during the Yankees’ 2009 championship run.
The blond Hollywood honey received much of the credit when A-Rod reversed a disastrous post-season slump as the Yankees won the World Series.
– Larry McShane, N.Y. Daily News.
A-Rod’s hitting line, by celebrity girlfriend:
Madonna (August 2008 – end 2008): .258/.366/.511 in 50 games.
Kate Hudson (Late May 2009 – end 2009): .302/.419/.560 in 129 games, including postseason.
Cameron Diaz (July 2010 – Sept. 15, 2011): .274/.349/.498 in 156 games.
By my best estimates of when he started dating each based on the maximum number of celebrity-gossip articles I could stomach.
It’s worth noting that while dating Hudson, A-Rod enjoyed his best batting average with balls in play.
Oh, indeed.
During a brief conversation in the bowels of Citi Field last night, the topic of MLB’s September roster expansion came up.
It’s a weird wrinkle, unlike any other I know of in professional sports. Managers spend the first five months of a season with 25 players to work with, then the last month with up to 40. It can lead to seemingly interminable games like Tuesday’s 13-pitcher affair between the Mets and Nationals, but it provides some relief for tired players down the stretch and gives teams and fans an opportunity to preview of some of the prospects that might soon contribute to the big-league club more regularly.
I got to wondering when and why the tradition started, figuring it must have been a product of some collective-bargaining agreement of yesteryear.
It turns out late-season roster expansion dates back to the earliest days of baseball. By 1910, teams kept active rosters of 25 guys for most of the season and could expand to 40 starting Sept. 1.
But why?
I emailed official MLB historian John Thorn for help. He writes:
I can only speculate that as minor-league seasons tended to close earlier than major-league ones, September seemed to be a good time to reward high-performing aspirants perhaps less expensively than inviting them to spring camp. The extra-manpower feature surely was not as important in the early days, when staring pitchers tended to complete a high percentage of their games.
That makes sense. I’d love to find a newspaper article or something from 1910 stating the exact reasons, but I have no idea what microfiche I’d have to pull up.
Some have complained that the rule creates an uneven playing field, in part because the league’s more cash-strapped teams might not have the resources to pay all the extra Major League salaries.
But as John Schuerholz points out in the linked article, it’s not as if teams are all working with the same payroll in the other five months of the season. And if a GM thinks September call-ups are enough to make a difference in a pennant chase, he could allot room for them in his budget before the season.
HT to @OldBiscuitPants, who points out that Lou Gehrig was a September call-up in 1923 and 1924.
New to the Citi Field menu this year, the pastrami sandwich is available at a concession stand on the Field Level concourse behind left field. It’s also available elsewhere, but I’m pretty sure this is the one you want.
Every sandwich is made with meat hand-sliced fresh from the brisket, weighed out on a scale to six ounces — plenty of meat for a sandwich on regular-sized bread*. The guy making my sandwich then squirted mustard on one slice of rye and pressed it up against the other, ensuring even mustard distribution across both slices. That’s going the extra mile. Oh, and it comes with a pickle:
I don’t normally eat a lot of pastrami, but even as a novice I can tell this is a hell of a pastrami sandwich. The big challenge I’ve always found in cooking brisket is keeping it moist, but that’s not an issue here. This is meatjuice-dripping-down-your-arms moist. Tasty too, by no means overseasoned but with the flavor of coriander lingering after every bite.
The bread is soft — maybe too soft. I generally prefer rye that’s chewy around the crust, and this wasn’t exactly that. It didn’t take anything away from the sandwich, but I think good, strong, flavorful rye can often add something. The mustard tasted like mustard and the pickle was predictably amazing.
It’s $10.50, which is a lot. But then the touristy deli stops in Manhattan charge way more. They also give way more meat, but that seems like more of a gimmick than an effort at a well-proportioned sandwich.
*- Speaking of which: When I worked at the deli we were told to aim for about 1/3 pound of meat for sandwiches on bread or regular rolls and 1/2 pound for sandwiches on heroes. We never measured it out because with a couple weeks’ worth of meat-slicing experience it becomes pretty easy to eyeball amounts. I always tended to go a little bit over on my sandwiches, figuring people could always take meat off the sandwich.
But one time, in my first week, a guy asked for an “American.” That wasn’t on the menu, but he meant the standard ham-turkey-roast beef-cheese combo familiar from six-foot catering heroes. I kind of lost focus while slicing the guy’s ham and gave him about a full sandwich’s worth, and the roast beef we had was tough to slice thin, so he wound up with a lot of that. Then I wanted to make it look even so I gave him a lot of turkey too.
He wound up with a full pound of meat on his sandwich. I know because he took it back and showed it to my boss after he opened it, and I got my first (and only) stern talking-to about sandwich construction. Looking back on it now: Why’d you sell me out like that, guy? I gave you a pound of meat! You could take half of it off the sandwich and have enough to make another massive sandwich later in the day. C’mon, guy.
Davey Johnson sort of pwned me before we started taping, which is why I’m laughing at the beginning. Apparently he doesn’t need to be prepped before interviews.
Also, is Davey Johnson our most prominent -ey Davey? Both Crockett and Jones are Davy.
Courtesy Carly from SNY:
Tejada
Turner
Wright
Bay
Pagan
Evans
Pascucci
Paulino
Schwinden
For yesterday’s Baseball Show, Randy from The Apple asked me which Taco Bell menu item Jose Reyes would be if Jose Reyes were a Taco Bell menu item. This inspired Twitter discussion about which Mets best correlate with which products, and, ultimately, this post.
Jose Reyes: Volcano Taco. The Volcano Taco is fiery and awesome, one of the very best options on the Taco Bell menu. But like all hard tacos, its value is hampered by its brittleness.
David Wright: Crunchwrap Supreme. We got so excited when the Crunchwrap Supreme first joined and dominated the menu that it might now be the victim of its own hype. Nonetheless, the Crunchwrap Supreme is excellent. It can boast all the ingredients that make Taco Bell great, there’s just nothing about it that stands out as obviously spectacular.
Daniel Murphy: Cheesy Gordita Crunch. Sometimes the Cheesy Gordita Crunch is on the menu and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it seems soft, sometimes strong. Some people seem to overrate it, some underrate it. But it’s always pretty good, and due to its unique construction it’s pretty versatile.
Mike Pelfrey: Nachos BellGrande. Nachos BellGrande can be pretty frustrating. Sometimes you’ll get a bite that’s got the perfect distribution of toppings and be all, “holy crap, these nachos are amazing, they’re everything everyone told me they’d be and more.” But then other times you’ll wind up with a chip with nothing on it, and be like, “These nachos are mentally weak.” Too much of the Nachos BellGrande can be difficult to stomach. They require some patience, and they’re always much better at home than on the road.
Daniel Ray Herrera: Cinnamon Twists. Cinnamon Twists are unlike anything else on the Taco Bell menu. They’re small, but they’re a pretty good value. They can serve a useful but very specialized role when you need something sweet to counter all the salty stuff you’ve had. But you’re never going to want them as a full meal.
Nick Evans: Doritos Loco Taco. I’ll turn this one over to Twitterer @TeamHate: We’re not sure if it exists, but we’re all willing to give it a try.
Dillon Gee: Chicken Flatbread Sandwich. The Chicken Flatbread Sandwich is pretty new to the menu and some people probably went a little too crazy about it when it first showed up. But it’s OK. It’s inexpensive and a good, efficient way to fill out your order. Five Chicken Flatbread Sandwiches would make for a pretty boring and underwhelming meal, though.
Ryota Igarashi: Strawberry Fruitista Freeze. If Taco Bell decided to take the Strawberry Fruitista Freeze off the menu tomorrow, I’d be fine with that. And then years later I’d think back and chuckle, “Man, remember what a bad idea that turned out to be?”
Lucas Duda: XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito. The XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito is massive and pretty good.
Jason Isringhausen: MexiMelt. People sometimes snicker about the MexiMelt because it’s got a silly name and it’s been around forever. But truth is, the MexiMelt can still get the job done in a limited role.
Johan Santana: Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito. The Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito has been gone so long that it has receded in our minds, a hazy memory of something superbly awesome. But Taco Bell enthusiasts everywhere pine for its return.
Jason Bay: Taco Bell screwed up my order. Look: No one goes to Taco Bell expecting five-star haute cuisine. But you at least expect they’ll give you what you ask for with reasonable efficiency and at a fair price. Then every once in a while everything goes wrong, and you wind up paying too much and getting way less than you expected.
Who else?
Tedquarters 