March 7, 2013

Westmoreland Retires; Ortiz Frustrated; Yankees Crumbling

Ryan Westmoreland has retired from professional baseball at age 22. [ESPNBoston; WEEI; Globe; MLB] GM Ben Cherington offered his comments. ... Ryan Kalish was inspired by Westmoreland's example.

David Ortiz said that the slow pace of his recovery "has been driving me crazy. I got no choice but to wait. I hope it goes away soon so I can get back into action. ... I hope I get to the point where I can start playing without pain."

Reliever Craig Breslow will likely begin the season on the disabled list. Franklin Morales may join him. OTM's Ben Buchanan wonders what that means for the Opening Day bullpen.

Carl Crawford spoke out about his terrible experiences in Boston. Yes, he played poorly, but that doesn't mean his comments about the toxic media environment are off-base (the print media was obsessed with his contract from the very beginning). "They love it when you're miserable. Burying people in the media, they think that makes a person play better. That media was the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life."

In New York, the injuries are piling up. Curtis Granderon is out ten weeks with a broken arm. Alex Rodriguez is recovering from hip surgery and may miss most of the season. Mark Teixeira will miss 8-10 weeks with a strained right wrist tendon. Three other Yankees - Derek Jeter (ankle surgery), CC Sabathia (left elbow bone spur surgery) and Mariano Rivera (knee surgery) - are coming back from surgeries. Oh, Phil Hughes is having back trouble. No wonder the Post says: "The Yankees look health-challenged, depth-challenged and talent-challenged." (P.S. Rivera is set to announce on Saturday morning that 2013 will be his last season. Can he keep his career WHIP below 1.0?)

Dave Zirin, The Nation: Why Major League Baseball Owners Will Cheer the Death of Hugo Chavez

2 comments:

FenFan said...

You nailed it in regards to Crawford. In that same interview, he admitted that he played poorly. Of course, the media wants to paint the story as if he is blasting the Red Sox fan base.

To be honest, I could care less about the experience some former player had here, good or bad. I'm more concerned about who plays for this team now and what contributions he will make this season.

laura k said...

To be honest, I could care less about the experience some former player had here, good or bad.

Ditto. It's non-news.