Archive for 25. July 2008
Jets Receive Permission To Talk To Favre
25. July 2008 by gchacko.
ESPN - The New York Jets have received permission to talk to retired Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, a source told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Friday.
Also Friday, a Packers source told Mortensen that Favre informed Packers general manager Ted Thompson by phone on Thursday that he was planning to report to the team’s training camp this weekend.
The Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have expressed interest in Favre, according to a Packers source.
Red Birds come to Shea
25. July 2008 by Glendo.
A first-place margin this narrow in the NL East can close with one bad pitching performance or an equally lackluster offensive showing. That makes the Mets’ series vs. the Cardinals the ultimate opportunity to stretch a divisional lead, and Mike Pelfrey is tabbed for the opener. Pelfrey’s streak of consecutive starts won ended at six in Cincinnati on Sunday, but he didn’t lose, and he provided what few of his starting colleagues provide, length. He pitched seven innings and allowed only six hits and a walk. But three of the hits were solo home runs, a surprising development because he had surrendered merely four home runs in 108 2/3 innings before Sunday.
A former pitching prospect in the Yankees system, Brandon Knight will make his first Major League start — and his first big league appearance in six years — against the Cardinals Saturday. Knight, the reigning Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week, was 5-1 with a 1.60 ERA for Triple-A New Orleans.
Santana will take the mound Sunday and try to finally get a win. Hopefully the bullpen can hold up for him. He has never faced the Cardinals.
MATCHUP
St. Louis Cardinals (57-47, 3rd Place NL Central/4 GB) at New York Mets (55-47, 1st Place NL East)
Tonight: Cardinals (Mitchell Boggs, 3-1, 6.59) at Mets (Mike Pelfrey, 8-6, 3.81) 7:10pm ET
Saturday: Cardinals (Joel Pineiro, 3-4, 4.52) at Mets (Brandon Knight, 0-0, -.–) 7:10pm ET
Sunday: Cardinals (Kyle Lohse, 12-2, 3.35) at Mets (Johan Santana, 8-7, 3.05) 1:10pm ET
Phillies bench Jimmy Rollins after MVP shows up late
25. July 2008 by gchacko.
Jimmy Rollins pinch hit with two outs in the ninth inning Thursday and grounded into a fielder’s choice, sealing the Phillies’ 3-1 defeat. He was, quite literally, too late to help his team stay in first place.Rollins walked into the visitor’s clubhouse at Shea Stadium about an hour before the 12:10 p.m. first pitch, well past the 
10 a.m. report time. He said that he was stuck in traffic after leaving the hotel in his own car 10 minutes behind the team bus. Manager Charlie Manuel called Rollins into his office and told the reigning MVP shortstop that he was benched. Eric Bruntlett started at shortstop at went 3-for-4.
“Jimmy and I talked about it,” Manuel said. “That’s all I’ve got to say. It’s an in-house thing between he and I.”
After seeing his Phillies scatter seven hits during their second consecutive loss, and surrender the division lead for the first time since April 19, Manuel did not limit his criticism to Rollins. “Something is not in tune,” he said of the team. “We need to pick it up. We’re not…I don’t know if it’s hungry enough. I haven’t put my finger on it yet. We’ve got to get after it more.”
Rollins disagreed both with his manager’s decision and opinion of the team. “We’re not going to agree on this one,” he said of the benching, his second of the year. After Manuel sat Rollins on June 5th for not hustling, Rollins supported the move. “I agreed with him on the last one.”
Asked if he thought the Phillies lacked a hunger to win, as Manuel suggested, Rollins shook his head firmly. “You ask anybody in this clubhouse -that’s definitely not the case.”
That clubhouse was funereal after Carlos Delgado’s eighth-inning double lifted the Mets to their second dramatic victory following Tuesday’s bullpen implosion. Chase Utley and Shane Victorino, the only players who lingered in the locker room, ate silently, their eyes on the table. Rollins did not appear at his locker, but spoke with reporters who followed him into the hallway.
Before leaving, he added a confident assessment of the division race: “(The Mets) find themselves in first place right now. Not too much different than this time last year.”
Starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, the 22-year veteran who baffled the Mets through seven two-hit innings, supported Manuel’s decision. When informed that Rollins was late, Moyer said pointedly: “That’s unfortunate. But rules are rules, and I commend Charlie for standing up to the rules that he has set. We all have to be accountable to that. You create who you are in the clubhouse and on the field by the way that you act.”
