Kuzul

Last week, I dove deep into the annals of Baseball-Reference.com and came up with a list of the top 10 all-time pitching performances by position players.It was a fun list, but I got the feeling afterwards that there was more to say about position-player pitching performances. They're few and far between and they're rarely pretty, but they're also quite awesome in their own way.So I went back to the records. This time, my goal was to uncover the most memorable position-player pitching performances of all time.I'm going with a pretty loose definition of the word "memorable" here. Some of the performances I came up with are memorable because of the player who was doing the pitching. A few others are memorable because they were so incredibly bad. It's a mixed bag, but definitely a fun one as well. Let's take a look.Note: Baseball-Reference.com has a complete list of pitching stats for ...

The handshake deal. The discussion about the performance of the Colorado Rockies in the 2012 season keeps reverting to the handshake deal between Dan O'Dowd and Jim Tracy. Was it a clever strategy to help Tracy relax and manage some wins, or did O'Dowd really think Jim Tracy had shown enough to warrant an extension? As the Rockies sit at 13-21, fourth in the NL West, the question arises: When does the franchise make a change? Dan O' Dowd made some interesting comments today in the Denver Post about how he doesn't intend to make any changes to the current staff. While the comments should anger fans, it should be no shock that this is the mind set in the front office.Keep in mind that this comes from a man who told the current manager, Jim Tracy, that he can indefinitely be with the organization. While fans and analysts have ...

Stephen Strasburg's day could have gone better. Perhaps a better performance on the mound and less Icy Hot on his testicles would have helped. Nobody is perfect. That includes Nationals' ace Stephen Strasburg and the alleged prankster that put something hot where it doesn't belong. Oh, I know that you must have a ton of questions after a statement like that. All in good time. The Nationals dropped a game to the Padres on Tuesday. Losing to San Diego is embarrassment enough, but the Nats found a new way to make headlines. Consider this tweet from the Washington Post's Adam Kilgore. An unusual postgame revelation: Davey volunteered that Strasburg got "hot stuff" in "the wrong place" and "I don't know how it got there."— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) May 15, 2012  Thankfully, we have a few more details on the biggest mystery of the day. CSN Washington's Mark Zuckerman offers this in a tweet. The insinuation from Davey: Somebody put something like Icy-Hot ...

The season is off to an extremely rough start for the Colorado Rockies, and there are questions everywhere in regard to the team. Let’s review the 2012 team...Begin Slideshow

Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com reports that the New York Yankees announced Tuesday afternoon that reliever David Robertson is being placed on the DL with a strained left oblique muscle.Right-hander Cody Eppley has been recalled, according to Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News.This is just the latest item of bad news for the Yankees, who have been plagued by the injury bug for the past two weeks. Not only did it end the season of the greatest closer of all time, it delayed the return of speedy outfielder Brett Gardner (who suffered a setback in rehab last week) and forced an early end to Ivan Nova's outing Monday evening in Baltimore (due to a sprained ankle).David Phelps would be the likely choice to return to the rotation if Nova misses any starts, since he has been much better as a starter this year than Freddy Garcia.Robertson had ...

It's no secret the Miami Marlins were in heavy pursuit of free agent slugger Albert Pujols this past offseason and dangled nearly $200 million for 10 years to get him signed, sealed and delivered to sunny South Beach. Fast forward to May 15 and the front office should be breathing a sign of relief they missed out on him, but maybe kicking themselves that they didn't deal their own first baseman, Gaby Sanchez, after an All-Star season in 2011. Here is the tale of the tape on both Sanchez and Pujols this season (via ESPN): Sanchez, who had a 2.4 WAR (wins above replacement) in 2011, currently has a WAR of -0.8. And while Pujols is getting all the headlines—and with good reason after signing a massive contract with the Angels—Gaby's struggles have gone under the radar. A deeper look reveals Sanchez's struggles could be tied with an increased tendency to extend the strike ...

When Major League Baseball finalized its decision to incorporate a second wild card berth into the league's postseason format, everyone realized that things were going to be very different going forward.The second wild card is already starting to make its presence felt. We're still many weeks away from seeing teams lock up postseason berths, but we're really not that far off from MLB's trade deadline. The existence of the second wild card is going to make things even crazier than usual as we get closer to July 31.On the surface, the situation is pretty straightforward. With one more postseason berth up for grabs, there are more teams vying to make the playoffs than usual. Simple as that.Naturally, things get slightly more complicated once you go digging beneath the surface. Here's a look at five ways the extra wild card is shaking up the MLB trade market. Begin Slideshow

The Yankees bullpen is not looking too good right now.First, Joba Chamberlain with the dislocated ankle. Then, Mariano Rivera with the torn ACL,Now, according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, David Robertson will be put on the 15-day disabled list with a left oblique strain.Cody Eppley will be recalled from Class AAA-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in place of Robertson.Robertson was having a great start to the 2012 season with an 0-1 record and a 2.51 ERA in 14.1 innings with 24 strikeouts.After Rivera was shelved for the entire season, Yankees manager Joe Girardi decided to go with both Robertson and Rafael Soriano as temporary closers without giving either one the official role.But with Robertson now on the shelf for the next couple of weeks, that leaves Soriano as the closer by default. Now, the Yankees will need to find a temporary solution for the setup role.The Yankees can go with guys like Cory Wade ...

Although the Boston Red Sox have won their last four games, they currently sit in last place in the AL East with a 16-19 record. Many pundits have counted them out for the season and expect they’ll finish around .500 or below.The reality is that while the Red Sox have gotten off to a slow start this season, they will be competing for the top spot in the division well into September. The Sox have been carried so far by their championship-level offense, which has scored 194 runs, second in the MLB to only the Texas Rangers led by Josh Hamilton.David Ortiz has led the way with a .346 batting average and 26 RBIs, both top-five in the league. Dustin Pedroia is his usual self, and the Sox have gotten quality contributions from newcomers Cody Ross, Ryan Sweeney, and rookie Will Middlebrooks. But Boston has missed Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl ...

Manny Ramirez's 50-game ban from the MLB has almost run its course, and the enigmatic slugger is on schedule to return to the field, as a member of the Oakland A's, on May 30th. Jane Lee, Oakland A's beat reporter for MLB.com, tweeted out the info: Release says Manny "is scheduled to play his first game with the A’s May 30 in Minnesota."— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) May 15, 2012 Ramirez was initially suspended for 100 games after his second positive test for performance enhancers. That came in 2011 when he was a member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. At that point, Ramirez decided to retire. The suspension was then cut in half when he decided to return to baseball. It will be interesting to see what one of the best hitters of his generation brings to the surprising A's. The problem is that Ramirez's generation is not this generation. Coincidentally, he turns 40 on ...