add hundreds of other opportunities. from corse178's blog
Bruce Bochy and Dave Roberts manage rival teams in the NL West, but they can probably agree on one thing: A no-hitter is no easy spot for a manager. Jack Ham Jersey .Roberts caused quite a stir Saturday night when he pulled Los Angeles Dodgers starter Rich Hill after seven innings, even though the left-hander was working on a perfect game. Hill has been bothered by a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. The Dodgers eventually allowed two hits after Hills departure.Last month, Bochy was pacing around the dugout as San Franciscos Matt Moore closed in on a no-hitter. Bochy let Moore -- who missed most of the last two seasons after Tommy John surgery -- stay in until he allowed his first hit with two outs in the ninth. Moore threw 133 pitches.Now that managers are more sensitive to high pitch counts, a no-hitter in progress can become pretty stressful.Theyre not used to throwing 120, 130 pitches. You have guys that sometimes have had injuries in their career that youre concerned about, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. Sometimes as a manager, you want to see it take place, you want to see a guy have a perfect game and you want to see a guy have a no-hitter. But theres part of you that says you dont want to be in that situation.Roberts had to take into account Hills health problems and the Dodgers playoff prospects, weighing all of that against Hills opportunity to accomplish something special. Managers around baseball understood the move -- and so did Cleveland right-hander Corey Kluber.Its probably disappointing at that point in time, but theyre playing for more than just one game, Kluber said. Theyre trying to get him lined up to be a big part of their team for the playoffs, Id imagine. I think that ultimately when you look at it, thats the reason, and its hard to argue with it.Detroit manager Brad Ausmus pulled lefty Daniel Norris after five perfect innings last year, but there was little controversy about that because Norris was on a pitch count following an oblique strain.Ausmus said the score can also factor into the decision.If its a close game and its a guy thats pitch count is climbing, I think ultimately youve got to make the decision if you think its the best way the team can win a game, Ausmus said. Its about amassing wins, not amassing no-hitters.Hill had thrown 89 pitches when he was taken out.Here are a few other developments from around baseball:DOWN TO THE WIREOnly five of the 15 teams in the American League are under .500, so theres quite a race on for the postseason spots. The AL East is particularly wild, with Boston leading Toronto and Baltimore by two games. The New York Yankees are another two games back.The Blue Jays and Orioles currently occupy the wild cards, but Detroit is a couple games behind, tied with the Yankees. Seattle and Houston are 1 1/2 games further behind, and its another half-game back to Kansas City.So thats 10 teams either occupying a postseason spot or within four games of one.CLINCHING TIMEThe Chicago Cubs have a chance to wrap up the NL Central in St. Louis at the home of the rival Cardinals. Chicagos magic number is five heading into a three-game series at St. Louis that starts Monday.FANTASY FOCUSFantasy owners probably didnt mind that much when Hill was pulled from his perfect game bid. It was only his third start since the beginning of August -- and the first time hed thrown seven innings since May 23. A step in the right direction, to say the least.LINE OF THE WEEKHill is the pick here, although Colorados Chad Bettis earns an honorable mention for his two-hitter against San Francisco on Monday.---AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick in New York and AP Sports Writer Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis contributed to this report. Lynn Swann Jersey . James, who turned 29 on Monday, injured his groin Friday during the Heats overtime loss at Sacramento. He sat out the following game, a 108-107 win Saturday in Portland, before coming back to help send the Nuggets to their seventh consecutive loss. Jordan Dangerfield Jersey .com) - The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks both take aim at their first wins of the season on Saturday, as the Canucks open their home slate at Rogers Arena. http://www.cheapsteelersjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=authentic-benny-snell-jr-jersey .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. Active rosters in Major League Baseball have been set at 25 players since the end of the Wilson administration (Woodrow, not Willie). But with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire on Dec. 1, there have been talks about potentially adding a 26th player to the active roster. ?Is this a good idea? What would be a good way to use the new extra spot? Would there be any drawbacks?We asked three of our writers these questions about adding a 26th player, and they answered.1. Do you think adding a 26th roster spot is a good idea?Bradford Doolittle: I love it, though I have to admit that the knee-jerk source of that feeling is the idea that the switch will be tied to stricter September roster limits in the CBA talks. But even if you remove that factor, the 26th spot should help improve strategic options and offense off the bench. Sure, some teams will simply add another situational reliever. Some teams arent very imaginative.Sam Miller: In April 2003, a few months after David Ortiz was released by the Minnesota Twins and picked up by the Boston Red Sox, he went 0-for-6 in his first game of the season. Playing only part-time, he went hitless in four of his first five starts, and through six weeks of the season he was hitting .208/.310/.347. As a DH. In a hitters park, on a big-market team, while fighting for playing time, at age 27. Maybe the Boston front office was absolutely in love with him and would have let him slump for months until he figured it out, but knowing just those details -- a not-very-young DH who wasnt hitting and had just been released by another team -- its easy to speculate that we came just that close to David Ortiz not having any sort of career with the Red Sox, or with anybody else. Baseball would be far worse off if that had happened.There are 750 players on active major lleague rosters every day, and about 6,000 playing in affiliated ball broadly, and yet theres still a permanent roster crunch across the sport. Franco Harris Jersey. Players who are good enough to play in the majors get overlooked, buried, go undrafted, end up in independent leagues. We know the near-misses, because they didnt, ultimately, miss. David Ortiz was a near-miss. But surely there are players who weve never heard of who missed entirely, and not because they were capable of any less than Ortiz was.What we know a 26th man will definitely do is add 30 opportunities to play in the majors. Minor league rules tend to follow the majors lead, so it seems likely -- at least possible -- that immediately, or in time, the minors will add 26th spots, too, which would add hundreds of other opportunities. I consider baseball to be almost a public utility, a vehicle for every child to dream of and aspire toward, and adding more opportunities is as much a public good as nationwide broadband access or the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line. I, therefore, love it.David Schoenfield: I definitely love it more than that canned cranberry sauce everyone serves on Thanksgiving, though maybe not quite as much leftover turkey sandwiches on Friday. With the way teams constantly shuffle the back end of their rosters -- go check out the transactions file this past season for the Dodgers or Mariners -- it makes sense to add another guy since teams are essentially playing with 26-man rosters anyway. Ive actually advocated for a 28-man taxi squad, which is a system used in Japan, where you activate 25 guys each game. I like the idea of spreading the wealth around and seeing more pinch-hitters and pinch-runners. Wholeslae Jerseys NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale NBA Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Cheap College Jerseys Cheap Football Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Baseball Jerseys ' ' '
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