Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on May 31, 2009 
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CC Sabathia won two games last night. First he beat Brian Bruney and then he beat the Indians.
Alfredo Aceves reminds some Yankees of an old teammate. This notebook also has updates on Carl Pavano (yes, him), Jose Molina, Melky Cabrera and Andy Pettitte.
The Sunday Baseball Beat has Mark Teixeira’s take on the flawed baseball draft.
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In case you were sleeping at the time, Texas beat Boston College 3-2 in 25 innings last night in an NCAA tournament game.
Texas coach Augie Garrido should be arrested and/or fired. He let relief pitcher Austin Wood throw 169 pitches over 13 innings. Wood is 22 and is expected to be a fairly high draft pick — unless his arm falls off. Oh, and he’s their closer.
Meanwhile, he had thrown 30 pitches on Friday night.
Good luck to the Eagles, who play Army this afternoon in an elimination game for the right to play Texas again. BC catcher Tony Sanchez is the nephew of blog reader and astute commenter SJ44.
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Meanwhile, here’s a shot of the pressbox window last night. Being in Cleveland in bug season is like being in a horror movie.
“Aceves has never heard of Mendoza. But he wrote the name down and planned to do some research.
“That guy won three rings?” he said. “I like the sound of that.”
I don’t know why, but I love that quote by Aceves. Good work, Pete.
What velocity was Wood sitting on during the 169 pitch count ?
SJ’s nephew is BC catcher Tony Sanchez ?…small world.
As I was watching last night’s game in HD, the constant pictures of those bugs and the seagulls eating them gave me the willies.
169 pitches for a 22 year old closer.
my arm hurts just thinking about it.
Like I’ve said before, I’m not a baseball pro, but 169 pitches/13 IPs, for a 22 year old, let alone the closer whom I guessing has not come anywhere near that before, sounds like abuse.
You want a horror movie? How about that playoff game in 2007?
Crush the idle!
On another note, those bugs make Progressive a horrible stadium.
“Little did Garrido know that Wood would throw 13 innings – 12& frac 13; hitless. *He threw 169 pitches after throwing 30 the previous night against Army. Of the 169 pitches, 120 were strikes*.
“*In 41 years of coaching, that was one of the best pitching performances by an individual pitcher that I’ve ever seen,” Garrido said. “Nothing I’ve ever seen was more courageous than his performance tonight*.”
The Longhorns contemplated lifting Wood from the game after nine innings. The gutsy senior, though, turned to his coaches and was adamant he wasn’t leaving the game under any circumstances. He wasn’t kidding.”
WTH ? IDK whether to clap his effort or punch out his manager
Pete, in your Sunday beat about Teixeira and the draft, how could you rank the Yankees fourth, behind the Cardinals and the Red Sox?
The Yankees have been one of the hottest teams in baseball and lead the best division (unquestionably, and by far) by 1.5 games. While the Red Sox do own a 5-0 record against the Yankees, it is clear that the Yankees are a completely different team with A-Rod in the lineup (his contribution and the effect it has on Tex). The Red Sox should not be ahead of them.
And the Cardinals, really? The Cardinals and the Yankees share the same record, yet the Cardinals share a division lead of the good-but-not-great NL Central while the Yankees are leading the monster AL East outright. Plus, the Yankees have done this while only having their three sluggers playing in the same lineup for two games (Tex, Arod, Posada).
I can understand putting the Dodgers in first (though they are cruising in a AAAA division), but the Yankees should not be any lower than second. The Rangers may have a half-game lead over the Yankees, but the Yanks just smoked them in Arlington last week.
I’m not sure it’s as bad as folks make it out to be. The guy is a senior and even though he’s supposed to be the best pro prospect on Texas, he’s also a senior with average stuff and good command. Baseball Prospectus considers anybody on Texas being picked in the first 10 rounds to be a shocker, so I’m not sure he’s really much of a prospect.
http://www.baseballprospectus......cleid=8777
If this is possibly your last chance to pitch in a competitive game, wouldn’t you want to leave it all on the field?
Allowing teams to trade draft slots would help the problem. Think about what a team like Washington could get in terms of major league ready talent for the right to overpay Strasburg.
No rest for the weary. Noon elimination game today.
When I get back from Austin, I’ll post in more detail about that game. It was really an amazing experience.
No matter which way you slice it, 169 pitches is baseball child abuse. That’s how you ruin arms.
SJ –
Good luck to Tony and the BC boys today. I didn’t realize if they beat Army, they have to turn around and play Texas again tonight!
I watched the press conference with the Texas Manager live last night – it was a love fest as expected. The guy has been there 41 years – it was like watching Joe Torre and the NY beats all over again.
Not an impossible task for Coach Sottolano and his Army team. If you’re ever going to beat BC & Texas in one day, you’d like them both coming off a 25 inning marathon. An Army sweep would set up a Monday tilt with Texas again to advance to the Super Regionals. Go West Point!
Wow that is just awful The kid probably shouldn’t have thrown more than 25 pitches last night. But 169 pitches!!! Thats about 40 too much for a starter. The kids parents should be livid, his career could be ruined before it even starts.