Yardbarker: Mike Timlin

AL All Crap Team

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:09:29 -0500

Screw the All Star Game let's put together a roster from those that have been utter disappointments this season.

C: Victor Martinez - He's supposed to be the best hitting catcher in the league. Instead he doesn't have a single home run this season and has been on the DL for about a month now.
1B: - Paul Konerko - Despite Paul Konerko's miserable .213 average the White Sox still find themselves in first place.
2B: - Asdrubal Cabrera - Last season Cabrera came up and solidified the Indians middle infield, this year he couldn't even hit close to .200 before being demoted.
3B: Jack Hannahan - Not much has been made in the media about the absence of Eric Chavez for most of the year, but his replacement for the A's has been piss poor hitting .222 with only 3 homers.
SS: Edgar Renteria - Renteria was supposed to be another key acquisition for the Tigers, yet it hasn't quite worked out yet as Edgar barely has an on base % above .300 to go along with his .326 Slugging %.
OF: Franklin Gutierrez - It's no wonder the Indians are in sell mode when you look at how many players they have on the All Crap roster. Gutierrez 200+ at bats and has an on base % of .265. Ugh.
OF: David Dellucci - Dellucci also has 200+ at bats this season for the Indians and he too has an on base % below .300 and an average below .225.
OF: Johnny Gomes - He's nothing more than a platoon outfielder for the Rays but he should really be nothing more than a platoon player for their AAA affiliation. He's hitting .186 with only 6 homers.
DH: Travis Hafner - Pronk used to be a consistent beast at the plate. This year he's hitting .217 with only 4 home runs and now finds himself on the DL.

Bench: Kenji Johjima - I was gonna go with V-tek, but Johjima has actually been worse, he has well over 200 at bats and has yet to score 20 runs.
Bench: Daric Barton - The rookie has not been the answer for the A's. In 267 at bats Barton is hitting .225 with only 3 homers.
Bench: Juan Uribe - No longer starting but still getting marginal playing time for the White Sox, Uribe has managed only a .206 average this season.
Bench: Craig Monroe - He has 140+ at bats for the Twins and is hitting a massive .211. Woo go Craig.
Bench: Shannon Stewart - Stewart has never been a masher and he certainly isn't this year with a .303 slugging %, but he used to at least have speed. This year he only has 3 stolen bases.

SP: Jeremy Sowers - The Youngster for the Indians has started 8 games this season and is 0-5 with a 7+ ERA.
SP: Steve Trashbag - He was brought back to the Orioles for a little veteran leadership, but he was designated for assignment in early June after posting a 8+ ERA.
SP: Carlos Silva - Um, why did he get a solid contract? He's never been really good and he's been atrocious with a 5.59 ERA thus far this season.
SP: Phil Hughes - Supposedly the best prospect in baseball Hughes had an ERA of 9 before landing himself on the DL for which he might remain the entirety of the season.
SP: Ian Kennedy - The 2nd Yankees youngster recorded an ERA well above 7 in 9 outings and has yet to manage a victory.
SP: Boof Bonser - The man with the funny name has been relegated from the rotation after posting an ERA well over 6.
RP: Jimmy Gobble - Gobble has come into 29 games from the pen and has an ERA above 7 for the Royals.
RP: Mike Timlin - I guess when you're about 90 you should be losing a little zip on the fastball and Timlin is with his 6+ ERA.
RP: Ross Ohlendorf - One more Yankee 'prospect' that has been a disappointment thus far this season.
RP: JJ Putz - JJ was supposed to be amongst the elite closers. Instead he's been on and off the DL and only has 7 saves.
CL: Joe Borowski - He wasn't very good last year when he recorded a ton of saves but he's been absolutely brutal this season with a 7.56 ERA and only 6 saves.

Mike Timlin to be activated from the DL

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:35:40 -0500

Mike Timlin is going to join the team at Yankee Stadium today and be activated off the disabled-list. Timlin rocked a 7.06 ERA in 21.2 innings pitched so far this year until he was shelved with tendinitis in his knee on June 17th. Chris Smith is the odd man out and will be sent back to Pawtucket to make room for Mike.

Wednesday: Phillies can't answer Boston's Lester

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:33:22 -0500

The heart of the lineup – Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell – went hitless with eight strikeouts, as rising young left-hander Jon Lester earned the win in Boston's 3-0 shutout of the Phils. Over the last two nights, the in-game discussion revolved around hitting, but on the field, it's been all about pitching: Cole Hamels and the poor outings by Bartolo Colon and Mike Timlin on Monday; and Lester's terrific start last night. For the fourth time this...

Is Mike Timlin finished?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:09:45 -0500

I don't take another man's job dismissal lightly (unless that man is Julio Lugo), but after another gut-wrenching performance from Mike Timlin last night, I have to ask, "Will he go the way of Tavarez soon?"

The Red Sox and their technicolor bullpen

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:54:35 -0500

There are a LOT of reasons that the Red Sox won the World Series last year but the biggest had to do with the complete dominance of their bullpen. In 2007, Boston had the second best bullpen in the majors with a combined ERA of 3.10 and roughly a 2.2 K/BB ratio. If you think that's good, you should have seen what the numbers looked like before Eric Gagne got brought into the equation and Hideki Okajima's arm started getting tired near the end of the season. Lets just say that if the Sox had the lead by the 7th, the game usually ended that way. By comparison, in 2006 when the Red Sox blew a huge divisional lead and missed the playoffs for the first time in 4 years, their bullpen had a 4.51 ERA. That was good enough to get the pen ranked 9th worst in the entire MLB. Yes, it is not completely fair to blame the bullpen for the collapse that year because they were forced to work almost 50 more innings than in 2007, but that excuse only gets you so far. Relievers tend to be the most inconsistent of all baseball players (that is another article for another time). It's because of this that most Red Sox fans became very concerned when the pen started this season so badly, but there IS good news on the horizon as they seem to have turned it around. The pen has only allowed 7 runs in their last 39 1/3 innings. Their ERA over the last 39 games is a tidy 2.80 and their ERA for the season has been lowered to 3.86. Nothing like a bit of sunshine through the clouds.

Julian Tavarez channels Charlton Heston

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:23:35 -0500

Westbrook was pitching decently, Betancourt was waiting in the wings, and the Red Sox needed to hold the Tribe down with Julian Tavarez, who, quite honestly, inspires as much confidence as Hubert H. Humphrey these days.

Colon to join Sox soon

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:37:48 -0500

Bartolo Colon's impressive start at AAA-Pawtucket on Thursday has earned him a trip to the bigs, in a couple weeks that is. Boston Red Sox manager, Terry Francona said the pitcher will join the team once he's ready. The team wants to stretch Colon out to about 100 pitches before calling him up. His last start he only threw 74. So essentially, he is in extended spring training but against much tougher opponents.

How smart is the Yard?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:12:26 -0500

While the idea of community projections has existed in blog circles for a while, I haven't seen any real good breakdown as to if those projections were more accurate in aggregate vs. any single individual or experts predictions. So here is what I propose to you today; let's find out. All you have to do is click on the links below to fill out a form for each player asking for predictions for the following statistics; AVG, OBP, SLG, HR, RBI, SB and for pitchers - Wins, Losses, ERA, Strike Outs/9 IP, IP, and Saves. If you would like to provide your name or MVN "handle", it will only be used to call out how correct, or incorrect you are at the end of the season. If you would rather not provide any information linking yourself to your predictions and providing a layer of plausible deniability, feel free to leave it blank. Lastly, please provide the team you root for on a regular basis. Could it be that the collective intelligence of Yankee fans about Red Sox players is more accurate than the fans that live and die all things Sox? We will hopefully find out. Follow the story link to participate...

Mike Timlin gets stitches on his pitching hand

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:58:27 -0500

Timlin received a few stitches on his pitching hand's ring finger today. He cut open the finger fielding a comebacker to the mound during Wednesday's exhibition game. Francona said a stint on the DL is unlikely for Mike but its unsure whether he will pitch in Japan or not.

Phormer Phils Team

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:04:24 -0500

Bored of being dispirited by the awfulness of the Phillies this spring and not even wanting to bother hashing out the Pirates problems I have focused my energy elsewhere. I decided to entertain myself by perusing the current 40-man rosters to piece together a team made of former Phils. Stipulation- must have played for the Phils not just in their minor league system (meaning no JD Drew or Derrick Turbow). My roster is an NL roster (screw the AL) and has a balanced lineup of power and speed with some good defense mixed in. The rotation has some inning eaters and the bullpen actually looks better than the Phils current one. *Career OPS in parentheses Starting Lineup: 1. Kenny Lofton- LF (.795) 2. Placido Polanco- SS (.766) 3. Bobby Abreu- RF (.908) 4. Jim Thome- 1B (.974) 5. Scott Rolen- 3B (.879) 6. Aaron Rowand- CF (.805) 7. Tadahito Iguchi- 2B (.768) 8. Johnny Estrada- C (.726) Bench: David Dellucci- OF (.788), Rod Barajas- C (.696), Marlon Anderson- Utl (.713), Marlon Byrd- OF (.730), and Michael Bourn- OF (.702). *Career era and whip in parentheses Rotation: 1. Paul Byrd- RH (4.35, 1.32) 2. Kevin Millwood- RH (3.97, 1.28) 3. Carlos Silva- RH (4.31, 1.37) 4. Randy Wolf- LH (4.25, 1.34) 5. Kyle Lohse- RH (4.82, 1.43) Bullpen: 1. Billy Wagner- LH (2.40, 1.01) 2. Todd Jones- RH (3.93, 1.40) 3. Mike Timlin- RH (3.55, 1.27) 4. Aaron Fultz- LH (4.26, 1.36) 5. Ryan Franklin- RH (4.25, 1.32) 6. Geoff Geary- RH (3.94, 1.40) 7. Trever Miller- LH (4.46, 1.52) Notes- as you can see shortstop was thin, so I had to move Gold Glove winning Polano there because he's actually played that position before and then insert Iguchi into secondbase. Billy Wagner is the closer, but Todd Jones serves as a backup should Billy need a break. Bourn is my primary defensive replacement in the outfield and pinch-runner, while Marlon Byrd and Dellucci have some thump for pinch-hitting. Cuts- Jon Lieber, Vicente Padilla, Endy Chavez, Jason Michaels, Robinson Tejada, Gary Bennett, and Nick Punto. Curt Schilling is injured and wasn't even considered.

Red Sox Fashion Police: White House

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:17:22 -0500

Your day is not complete until you've read a thorough dissection of the Red Sox fashion choices during their White House visit yesterday. There were enough pinstriped suits to costume an episode of the Sopranos, Bobby Kielty looked like a shop teacher stuck in the '70s, and David Ortiz carried what looks suspiciously like a MAN PURSE.

Sox Rookie Card Superlatives

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:40:30 -0500

Appearing on that first baseball card is the dream of every ballplayer from the time they start whacking at balls on a tee. Unfortunately, most rookie cards don't stand the test of time-- and the Red Sox are no exception.

Lowell, Timlin File For Free Agency

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:33:29 -0500

World Series MVP Mike Lowell and leader of the bullpen pirates Mike Timlin both filed for free agency today.The Red Sox will still be able to negotiate exclusively with Lowell and Timlin until November 12th.

Red Sox In 80's Gear Photos

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:32:43 -0500

Shonda Schilling celebrated with a bangin' '80s-themed 40th birthday bash at the Children's Museum over the weekend where the Schillings and Sox teammates partied like vintage rock stars

A True Champion Tim Wakefield

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:27:02 -0500

This was my favorite moment of the night. Don Orsillo interviews the classy Tim Wakefield, when Mike Timlin steps in and has a touching moment talking about how Wake gave himself up for the team.