Polar Bear Phan wrote:Roger Clemens is a Sugar Land Skeeters

Fastball was clocked at 87 mph and four pitches were working, so everyone believes he can do it.

UPDATE: Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com hears Swisher may seek a "Jayson Werth contract" when he hits free agency at the end of the year.

That translates to Werth's seven-year, $126 million deal with the Nationals. Can't blame Swisher for thinking big, even if it is wishful thinking.

smitty wrote:http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/20gameLosers.shtml

The above link is a list of 20 game loser seasons in MLB history from baseball-reference.com.

Well. . .I think it is reasonable, yes. There are three issues. There is a belief--which I gather is founded on bad sabermetrics, I don't know--that a pitcher's injury risk explodes if he increases his innings pitched in a season by more than 30 a year.

We can get by that, based on the belief that the original research doesn't stand up to scrutiny--but then there are two more issues. Strasburg is coming back from Tommie John, and he is still very young. You're asking him to do A LOT for a pitcher one year away from Tommie John, and you're exposing a 23, 24-year-old pitcher to a full workload.

If it was me, I'd err on the side of caution. I don't know that I would have done it exactly the way the Nationals did. Maybe I would have limited him to 80 pitches a start for the first half of the year, and then cut him loose late in the year, rather than the other way. But I think I would have erred on the side of caution, rather than risking another injury.

philliesphhan wrote:Always thought it was interesting that Carlton lost 20 the year after he won 27.

JFLNYC wrote:Wilbur Wood did both in the same year.

The following year, on July 20, 1884 Anson again refused to take the field against Toledo, calling their two black players – Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Welday – "chocolate-covered coons."