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Tyler Kepner / New York Times:
Stats Tell Only Half the Story for Abreu — Bobby Abreu has 2,111 career hits. He has a .299 average, a .404 on-base percentage and a .493 slugging percentage. Only 15 other players have career marks as high in all four categories. Ten are in the Hall of Fame, and the others are active …
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Billy Witz / New York Times:
Laid-Back Practices for Dodgers and Angels — LOS ANGELES — Dodgers Manager Joe Torre looked laid-back late Tuesday afternoon as he sat down at a news conference at Dodger Stadium. Torre, dressed in blue jeans, an untucked dress shirt and a baseball cap from a Hawaiian golf resort, seemed as relaxed as ever.
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Dodger Thoughts
John Perrotto / Baseball Prospectus:
Closing Confidence Tests — The most automatic managerial decision in today's game is to bring the closer in to pitch the ninth inning with a lead of three runs or less. That is certainly the strategy Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Angels manager Mike Scioscia will employ …
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The Good Phight
Beth Harris / MiamiHerald.com:Torre says he doesn't anticipate extension
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Circling The Bases
Adam Rubin / NY Daily News:
Mets' pitching prospect Mejia on fast track — SURPRISE, Ariz. - Jenrry Mejia felt ill and stiff the day he auditioned for the Mets at their old Dominican Republic complex in Boca de Nigua two years ago. — “I don't know how I can throw today. I think I'll throw maybe 86 (mph) …
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Brittany Ghiroli / MLB.com:
Mets' Davis dominates in Rafters' rout — Former first-rounder hits grand slam, drives in six runs — A week ago, Mets top prospect Ike Davis was running on fumes. — Following a 114-game Minor League season split between two levels, he spent nearly a month playing for gold medal-winning Team USA at the IBAF World Cup.
Evan Grant / Texas Rangers:
Rudy Jaramillo, Rangers to part ways — UPDATED, 12:17 p.m. CDT: The rest of the coaching staff will return, the Rangers have announced. — Dallas-raised Rudy Jaramillo, the Rangers hitting instructor for the last 15 seasons, has turned down the club's one-year contract offer and is preparing …
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Stan Hochman / Philly.com:
McCarver sings, tunes out zings — THE FIRST ROUND of the playoffs is history. Tawdry, bumbling history, marred by shoddy umpiring, Minnesota's dumber-than-dirt baserunning and the babbling of Chip Caray on TBS. — Cue the catcher/broadcaster/singer. Enter Tim McCarver doing …
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Steve Bisheff / Angels Unplugged:
Wooden is a Scioscia fan — As you may have heard, my favorite sports figure of all time, John Wooden, turned a spry 99 today. — Happy birthday, Coach. — What you might not know is that Wooden is a longtime admirer of Angels' manager Mike Scioscia. After the 2002 World Series …
Josh Leventhal / Baseball America:
International League Top 20 Prospects — Wieters sticks around long enough to rank No. 1 … The industry consensus at the start of the season was that the two best prospects in baseball were Orioles catcher Matt Wieters and Rays lefthander David Price. Both began the year in the Triple …
Sean Forman / Bats:
Yankees Defy Their Advancing Age — One of the remarkable things about the Yankees this year is the set of performances turned in by their veteran players. Statistically, studies have shown that players tend to peak around age 27 to 29 and then slide from there into retirement.
Sweeny Murti Yankees Blog:
Three Down...Eight To Go — yankees@wfan.com — Minneapolis, MN (WFAN) — In a relatively dry corner of the Yankees clubhouse last night, I asked Joe Girardi what he thought was the best part of the night? He said, without hesitation,"Alex and Jorge. With all that Alex has gone through …
Thomas Harding / MLB.com:
Hawpe, Marquis face uncertain futures — Rockies veterans faded after All-Star selections — DENVER — Rockies right fielder Brad Hawpe wasn't ready to shift his mind from the here-and-now to his just-completed 2009 season. — “That's not a question I can necessarily answer right now …
Ken Rosenthal / Fox Sports:
Barring big offer, Braves' Hudson to be free agent — Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005. He appears weekly on the FSN Baseball Report and MLB on FOX. — add this
Bryan Hoch / MLB.com:
Past is inconsequential to Sabathia — Tabbed for Game 1, Yankees ace zeros in on Angels — NEW YORK — The Yankees may have spent the better part of the last decade-plus slapping their foreheads trying to handle the Angels, but those memories do not mean much to the most important man …
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Paul Hoynes / Plain Dealer:
John Farrell says he's not interested in being Cleveland Indians manager — CLEVELAND — The next manager of the Indians will not be Boston pitching coach John Farrell. — Farrell, former Indians pitcher and farm director, has withdrawn his name from consideration. He told GM Mark Shapiro this morning.
