Multimedia: Week 2′s Top Pickups
2012
Browns CB Joe Haden’s four-game ban kicks in – Joe Haden | CLE
2012
Top to bottom: Indians crashing after great start
2012
Since the start of division play, only three teams in Major League Baseball history started the season in first place after 70 games and finished it in last. The Cleveland Indians are on the verge of making it four.
Beat reporter Nick Camino of WTAM radio writes on Twitter that the 2006 Rockies, 2005 Nationals and 1991 Angels did what the Indians presumably are doing their darnedest to avoid. With a 59-81 record, Cleveland leads the last-place Minnesota Twins in the AL Central by one game with 22 to play.
On June 23 at the 70-game mark, the Indians were 37-33 and led the Central by a half-game. They've gone 22-48 since, including 5-24 in August. But here's the thing about the Indians that makes them special: They have a chance to not only finish last, but also with the worst record in the American League.
Rachel Phelps would love this.
The '06 Rockies, '05 Nats and '91 Angels might have finished last, but they did it somewhat respectably. At least the Angels and Nats did, each going 81-81 (and Los Anaheim finished last in a seven-team division). The Rockies won 76 games and finished a half-game behind the Dodgers for third place in the NL West.
The Indians could avoid last place and they also could avoid the league's worst record — the Red Sox have three fewer losses coming into Monday — but they would have to start playing more like the April-May-June Indians to do it.
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The 10-man rotation, starring Johnny Bach
2012
A look around the league and the web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C: NBA.com. Steve Aschburner writes that Johnny Bach is long overdue for a call to the Hall of Fame.
PF: The Point Forward. Judging which current players are on the fringes of Hall of Fame candidacy.
SF: The Basketball Jones. NBA players wore weird things at Fashion Week.
SG: 48 Minutes of Hell. On the San Antonio Spurs' "Program."
PG: Forum Blue and Gold. Documenting the importance of new Laker assistant Steve Clifford.
6th: SB Nation. Tom Ziller with an entertaining takedown of several awful NBA owners.
7th: Boston Globe. Could Ben Wallace be looking for one more year?
8th: NBA.com. Brandon Roy, in video form, working out with the Timberwolves.
9th: Pro Basketball Talk. Mehmet Okur won't be playing in Madrid this year, apparently.
10th: NY Mag. Seth Rosenthal: "So, to James Dolan I say: Whatever. Do whatever you want. Any Knicks fan who still values his or her own sanity has already bailed at this point. I mean, please don't hire Isiah Thomas. That would be incredibly stupid. I'm just saying that such stupidity no longer impresses us. We've seen it all."
Got a link or tip for Ball Don't Lie? Holler at me at kdonhoops (at) yahoo.com, or follow me on Twitter.
NHL teams lose money, and the lockout isn’t going to change that
2012
The National Football League isn't just profitable; it could replace the toilet tissue in the League headquarter's bathrooms with dollar bills and still have enough left over to give Roger Goodell his own Scrooge McDuck money bin. For example, only one team in the NFL discovered a way to lose money in the 2010 season: The Detroit Lions, thanks to winning just 23 percent of their games over five years and experiencing an 0-for-16 season.
This despite the NFL's players taking 57 percent of the League's $9 billion in revenue annually.
"We'd all like to have football's problems," an NHL executive told me recently.
After the NFL's lockout drama, the players' share was reduced down to a 50/50 split (on average) in what was called an "all-revenue" model. The rich will get richer; and the collective brain-trusts of Enron and Solyndra couldn't find a way for an NFL team to lose money under this CBA's terms.
But someone will. Someone always does. In a business with 30-plus franchises, there's going to be an owner who overspends or a team that fails to keep its gate up or a market that suddenly doesn't support the franchise the way the League hoped it could.
The problem in the National Hockey League is that there are, at last count, around 18 teams that Forbes.com claims lost money in 2010-11. Many of these teams are successful on ice, but that success hasn't bled over to their economics.
This has led to both sides of the CBA debate targeting revenue sharing as a panacea for these money-bleeding teams. As James Mirtle of the Globe & Mail passed along:
The players' proposal involves giving up closer to $100-million, money the union wants to put into a $260-million revenue-sharing pot for struggling teams rather than benefit those that make a healthy profit.
The NHL has offered to raise revenue sharing to $190-million from last season's $150-million, with the extra likely easy to come by given it's a small fraction — just 10 per cent — of the owners' savings in their deal.
"We're not interested in helping the Toronto Maple Leafs make a bigger profit," one source on the players' side said this week. "We're interested in directly targeting the teams that are losing money and guaranteeing that they don't lose money in a new system. That's what we're prepared to do."
The NHL is down with revenue sharing, too, but thinks that player costs are the real devil in the details. Its mantra leading up to the labor battle with the NHLPA: The system they put in place seven years ago works for the on-ice product, but "we got the economics wrong."
Question is: Can they ever get them right, or are NHL teams destined to always be money losers?
The NHL has said that the NFL is its own animal, which is true: Professional football's television contract and revenue streams make hockey look like a lemonade stand by comparison.
The comparison the NHL likes to make is to the NBA, where costs are fixed and capacities are similar and both Leagues have had executives named Gary Bettman in the last 20 years.
In 2010-11, the year before its lockout, there were 15 NBA teams that lost money according to Forbes.com. Will a shift in the Association's revenue split towards the owners provide relief to some of these teams? Of course. But not all. Because self-inflicted wounds aren't easily prevented.
According to Forbes, the Dallas Mavericks lost $8.9 million on average over five years. This is, in part, because they chose to spend above the cap and paid $18.9 million in luxury taxes in the 2010-11 season. The Memphis Grizzlies lost $9.7 million; again, a team with a high payroll by choice.
The New Jersey Nets, meanwhile, lost $10 million on average over five years and then relocated to Brooklyn, where projections have them potentially in the top six teams in generated revenue next season.
The Charlotte Bobcats made the playoffs once in eight years and lost $26 million in 2010-11, the year after their playoff appearance. They are the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NBA — a team in a potential hotbed market whose futility hasn't allowed it to take root.
You'll find common threads between these NBA teams with the NHL, as broken down by Lyle Richardson in his terrific take on money-losing franchises. (Check out the first and second rounds of analysis.)
What it comes down to, frequently, for money-losing teams in the NHL: Budget mismanagement, either as intentional overspending to compete or irresponsible contracts handed out to ineffective talent; or franchise misplacement, as markets that can't sustain teams (Atlanta) stay on life support until moving to a market that can (Winnipeg).
(On that second point: NHL players, from my experiences, favor relocation for teams that struggle to fill their buildings, although not if it's the team for which they currently play. What they don't like: Not having a strong enough voice in expansion/relocation debates, and not getting a suitable slice of that fiscal pie the NHL receives as moving costs.)
Look, there's no question that player salaries have rocketed up in the last decade: According to CBC Sports, the average player salary has increased 69 percent since 2003-04. But as Dirk Hoag pointed out, there's a lot of losses for these teams that aren't simply fixed by downgrading player payroll:
In order to lose $273 million back then, "other costs" (outside of player costs) must have been in the ballpark of $770 million. Since that time, however, the league rolled back player salaries by more than 20%, and put a cap in place, so that player costs rose in line with revenues. In today's world of $3.2 billion in league revenues, that can only mean that "other costs" have basically doubled since then, as player costs have only risen by 25-30% overall.
Even if you use a generous figure of the players getting 60% of revenues today (a little higher than 57% due to high-salary players stashed in the AHL, long-term injury costs, etc.) that puts player costs around $1.9 billion for last season. $3.2 billion in revenue - $1.9 billion in player costs yields more than $1.3 billion in "other costs" that would still allow them to break even, but apparently they are even higher than that if Renaud's informant is correct.
There's also no question that 57 percent of the revenues is an unsustainable number, as the NHL and its owners have noted. Back in 2005, the owners know they [expletived] up, gave the players too much, saw the error of their ways in the NFL and NBA cash grabs and wanted one of their own.
Meanwhile, the sole reasons that player costs have inflated are (a) the financial system the owners put in place seven years ago and (b) the GMs whose fiscal irresponsibility has either subverted the effectiveness of that system or revealed it to be wholly ineffective in moving franchises into profitability.
Again, check out Lyle Richardson's piece. There are six teams — the Nashville Predators, Florida Panthers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Phoenix Coyotes, NY Islanders and Atlanta Thrashers — that annually lost money from 2005-06 to 2010-11. The Carolina Hurricanes, St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres lost money in five of six NHL season between '05-'06 to '10-'11.
Would increased revenue sharing help the nine teams, on average, that lose money annually for the NHL? Yes, and it would help others like the New Jersey Devils that don't currently qualify for revenue sharing but lose significant money when they're not making Stanley Cup runs.
Would it "guarantee that they don't lose money in a new system" as a player proxy told James Mirtle? Not unless revenue sharing can promise playoff success in a way that parity hasn't; or create revenue streams where there aren't any; or produce a robust and enthusiastic fan base instead of one prone to apathy; or give the NHL the NBA's television contract(s).
Or prevent mismanagement of funds by team executives willing to throw money at on-ice problems and then cry poverty about it. (The solution, apparently: Give them MORE money to mismanage!)
Maybe the solution is to take the power away from the GMs and have the NHL negotiate all contracts, like some nanny state or Major League Soccer. It's something the NHL floated seven years ago; not a peep this round, even if it's the League's team executives that have turned the "cost certainty" of 2005 into 2012's next lockout.
The more reasonable solution: To accept that teams will lose money no matter what the players are or are not earning; and that the woe-is-us routine during every CBA negotiation clouds the real revenue, management and systemic market issues that aren't simply cured by temporarily rolling back salaries.
Chase Headley’s grand slam was caught by a dancing man wearing a friar costume (Video)
2012
Major League Baseball hasn't had an official human mascot ever since the Atlanta Braves told Chief Noc-a-Homa to pack up his teepee after the 1986 season. I'd like to make a motion, however, that the San Diego Padres adopt one after seeing a man dressed like the swinging friar catch Chase Headley's grand slam during Sunday's 8-2 win over Arizona before breaking into a highly entertaining dance in the mostly empty right-field seats.
Watch him break it down at Petco here:
Honestly, sometimes you just have to love the universe's sense of humor. As for Headley, his second grand slam of the season put him over 100 RBIs for the first time in his career and extended his career-high total of homers to 27. Though there were only 21,037 fans on hand for the game, the roar and response Headley got from the crowd were pretty impressive.
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What We Learned: Envy not the Boston Bruins’ future salary cap situation
2012
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.
By the absolute slightest of margins, the Bruins have the most cap dollars committed to players for next season of any team in the NHL.
With 23 guys under contract and another quarter-million committed to Patrick Eaves' buyout, they're at nearly $68.9 million for the 2012-13 campaign. We obviously don't know what the final salary cap limit will end up being under the new CBA, but when you are first in the league in it, you're not exactly giving yourself a ton of wiggle room.
Now, I know what the argument will be: That includes Tim Thomas' $5 million cap hit, which the Bruins should be able to unload on some team with a need to get up to the floor, as well as Marc Savard's slightly-more-than-$4 million, which will be artificially inflating the team's cap number and then coming off the books annually at the start of every season through 2016-17.
So that's a little more than $9 million, bringing the team down to a much more manageable $59.9 million or so. Very manageable, and almost middle-of-the-pack league-wide.
But that's all under the League's current salary structure, which we know the NHL would very much like to roll back, and which the Players' Association would like to keep more-or-less as is. Which is what makes Peter Chiarelli's willingness to re-up Brad Marchand for $4.5 million a year over the next four, on a deal that begins in 2013-14, a little baffling.
(Coming Up: Dustin Byfuglien, living large; the law vs. the CBA talks; Marian Hossa and the lockout; Bobby Ryan backs off trade request; Joe Sakic is the greatest; Chris Pronger still struggling; Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias are healthy; Ovie on RGIII; and a wacky Roberto Luongo trade suggestion to ... San Jose.)
That's a whole lot of money to give to a guy currently making $2.5 million, and who has 49 career goals in two seasons on a 14.1 shooting percentage. But that's not to say Marchand isn't a good player. He's very good. And even if the money on the new contract seems a little much, Bruins fans seem happy to justify it to themselves as being the same money as Buffalo is paying Ville Leino, but for two fewer years. I don't know how a contract hailed universally as being absolutely abysmal contract justifies a not-great one, but there you have it.
The real issue with the Marchand contract is that, good though he is, what he is definitely not is "as good as Milan Lucic" or "as good as Tyler Seguin." And the real sticky wicket in this: both are RFAs after next season. As it stands now, Marchand is the Bruins' third-highest-paid forward under his new deal, behind only Patrice Bergeron, understandably so, and David Krejci, bafflingly so. That's going to change in a hurry when Chiarelli has to lock down Seguin and Lucic.
The question of, "If you're paying Marchand $4.5 million, what do you give Lucic and Seguin?" isn't a very comfortable one to consider, regardless of how much is coming off the cap next season: Thomas' $5 million, Horton's $4 million, Andrew Ference's $2.25 million, and Anton Khudobin's $875,000 ($13 million in all, for those scoring at home) all come off as UFAs, yes. And Lucic's $4.08 million, Seguin's $3.55 million, Jordan Caron's $1.1 million, and Tuukka Rask's $3.5 million ($12.23 million total) all come off RFA deals. But the raises those four younger players should get will eat very heavily into that $13 million, even before new contracts for Ference or Horton are considered, and they very much should be.
If Marchand's pulling $4.5 million, does Lucic get $5.5 or 6 million? Can you convince Seguin to take a Jeff Skinner contract or does he demand a Taylor Hall deal? (Hint: He's already better than Taylor Hall.) What on earth do you give Tuukka Rask? These are tough questions, and the answer is going to greatly endanger the Bruins' ability to add salary down the road if they want to keep their guys.
(One question that's perfectly legitimate to ask is how an otherwise responsible general manager like Chiarelli lets Marchand, Lucic, Rask and Seguin all become RFAs in the same summer, but that's not one anyone seems particularly willing to pursue.)
That's not a bad problem to have, of course: They're already one of the four or five best teams in the league and won a Stanley Cup two seasons ago, plus they happen to draft extremely high-quality young players upon whom they can already rely in many situations. The issue might be whether they can replicate that kind of drafting and developmental success in the future, and certainly you don't back into having a pair of back-to-back top-10 picks while winning as many games as the Bruins have more than once in a long while.
You hear a lot these days about how this is a copycat league and everyone else tries to ape successful teams' winning formulas. The Bruins, by design or not, don't allow themselves to get involved. They will likely be forced continue their policy of staying out of the free agent market for the foreseeable future, meaning that all those worries about goalscoring or veteran, depth defense or a reliable older backup netminder will have to be put by the wayside while all the team's existing free agents are re-signed.
Continually having to give your young players fat, multi-year deals isn't exactly conducive to changing with the league and remaining flexible under whatever new salary cap situation emerges from this current labor strife. But hey, at least those young players are really good, right?
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: Remember when Bobby Ryan demanded a trade out of Anaheim? Here's what he has to say about it now: "[A]bout 10 minutes after the interview, I was like, 'Gosh, I shouldn't have done that, seeing that I'm teeing off on the 37th hole of the day after 11 o'clock.' It was kind of stupid." So there ya go. No Bobby Ryan trade. Unless the media decides Toronto needs a goal-scoring wing again.
Boston Bruins: Not surprisingly, the Bruins' rookie camp and tournament scheduled to begin soon has been canceled. Oh but hey cheer up, Chiarelli says the team still plans to hold training camp on time hahaha.
Buffalo Sabres: Because he's still 22, Luke Adam has no problem starting the season in the minors if the NHL gets locked out, which makes sense since he'll still be drawing a paycheck in North America, unlike most NHLers, who are over the age of 22.
Calgary Flames: Because of an Albertan law, the Flames and Oilers might be legally unable to lock out their players, which is just about the funniest thing.
Carolina Hurricanes: About a dozen current 'Canes are already in Carolina, waiting for the season to start. Which means they'll have plenty of time to, I don't know, eat barbecue or something.
Chicago Blackhawks: Much like Jarome Iginla and Brendan Shanahan before him, could Marian Hossa's career hit a bit of a road bump if he doesn't play during a lockout? I'd worry more about that whole "horrible concussion" thing, but that's just me.
Colorado Avalanche: Joe Sakic, who now serves in an advisory role to team management, will be honored as the greatest hockey player in British Columbia's history later this season at a Vancouver Giants game. Overlooked again, Byron Ritchie.
Columbus Blue Jackets: The Blue Jackets now have a new paperless ticketing system for season ticket holders, which allow them to swipe a card to gain access to the building. The real upside is that it's way easier to cut up a credit card than a book of tickets.
Dallas Stars: Here is a headline about Cody Eakin worthy of NHL.com.
Detroit Red Wings presented by Amway: Tomas Holmstrom says he'll take his time deciding whether he'll come back to the Red Wings, but he's a UFA. If Ken Holland has any sense at all he'll say, "Thanks but no thanks."
Edmonton Oilers: Devan Dubnyk is gonna get a ton of work this season, and that's fine because he had the fifth-highest save percentage in the league in the second half of last season. Please forget that he couldn't wrestle a starting job away from Nikolai Khabibulin in the first half.
Florida Panthers: Erik Gudbranson seems to have injured his shoulder in workouts this past week and that could be very bad news indeed for the Panthers going forward. Oh wait they won't even play until the end of November so he'll probably be fine by then unless it's real bad.
Los Angeles Kings: The Kings recently signed prospect Nikolai Prokhorkin. Not bad for a kid who was taken in the fourth round this year.
Minnesota Wild: Pretty much all of the Wild's top prospects will at least start their seasons in the AHL, lockout or not. Which means that early money should probably be on Houston being really, really good.
Montreal Canadiens: Oh and like the Flames and Oilers, it might technically be illegal for the league to lock out the Canadiens. If these are the only three teams playing, that's gonna make for one terrible league.
Nashville Predators: Nashville's penalty kill ran at 89.3 percent after they acquired Hal Gill, up from their full-season average of 83.6. One wonders how much losing Suter is going to affect that, but still, pretty damn impressive.
New Jersey Devils: Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias will both be healthy for the start of the season, even if it begins on time. Well good, someone's gotta score goals for them.
New York Islanders: The Islanders' Travis Hamonic hasn't made it out to Long Island yet to begin training with his teammates because he's driving there, and doesn't want to haul ass from Winnipeg to Nassau only to find out he won't be playing for two and a half months.
New York Rangers: Glen Sather on the basis for his optimism that the league will start on time: "It's probably based purely on stupidity." Love it.
Ottawa Senators: Reason for the league not to cancel this season: It sure sounds an awful lot like Dany Alfredsson would hang 'em up if it did.
Philadelphia Flyers: Sad to hear Chris Pronger is still getting headaches regularly and that his condition is more or less the same as it's always been.
Phoenix Coyotes: Today is Day No. 31 since Jude LaCava of Fox 10 in Arizona said Greg Jamison would have the deal for the Coyotes sewn up within the next five days. And here's why you don't use public money to fund a hockey rink, specifically in non-traditional markets.
Pittsburgh Penguins: The Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins have a new third jersey that looks one hell of a lot like those of the Pittsburgh Hornets, an AHL team from the World War II era. And also the Red Wings' old Winter Classic jerseys.
San Jose Sharks: For some reason, Sharks fans and news outlets seem to be talking more about Shane Doan agreeing in principle to a deal with Phoenix than any Coyotes supporters.
St. Louis Blues: The Blues trotted out Vladimir Tarasenko for an introductory press conference late last week, but he can apparently already speak English fairly well. First minus-2 game with no shots on goal I bet he forgets it all real quick.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Mathieu Garon is "healthy, ready to play" but one suspects that he won't get much of a chance to do that since Yzerman went out and got a goalie who may or may no be pretty good. We already know Garon isn't. Guy Boucher is already calling them "Nos. 1 and 1a," which doesn't really help matters since usually it's 1a and 1b.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Anyone wanna take bets on what happens to Ben Scrivens this season? No one?
Vancouver Canucks: Manny Malhotra recently trained with the MLS's Vancouver Whitecaps, though it was probably all nepotism. He's married to Steve Nash's sister, and Steve Nash is a part owner of the team.
Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin offered some advice to the Redskins' Robert Griffin III, and I bet a lot of it had to do with not calling your coach a "fat [expletive]."
Winnipeg Jets: Holy hell, Dustin Byfuglien. And the scary thing is, that's not Photoshopped.
Gold Star Award
Raffi Torres says he's going to change his style of play, presumably by getting the same Ludovico treatment the league gave Matt Cooke. "At the end of the day, the hit was a little late and it was a little high," he said, indicating that he also needs to re-learn the definition of "a little."
Minus of the Weekend
Bill Daly says the two sides in the labor war are "a long way apart" which I guess isn't surprising but we're under the gun here so…
Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week
User "Hi-wayman" is living up to the first part of his name.
To San Jose: Roberto Luongo & Alex Edler (Canucks replace Edler's spot with Ballard)
To Vancouver: Patrick Marleau & Ryane Clowe
Great stuff.
Signoff
Draaaaaaainage.
Ryan Lambert publishes hockey awesomeness almost never over at The Two-Line Pass. Check it out, why don't you? Or you can e-mail him and follow him on Twitter if you so desire.
Report: Titans players grumbling about Palmer – Kendall Wright | TEN
2012
The user’s guide to two-start pitchers, Week 23
2012
The fantasy playoffs are coming your way in most leagues, which makes doubling up all the more critical. Because we're in the middle of the silly season - September expansion, some teams in experimental mode - consider just about everything on this list to be tentative. It's the nature of the beast at this time of year.
National League
Cookie Monster
Gio Gonzalez -- at NYM, at ATL
Clayton Kershaw -- at ARI, vs. STL
Adam Wainwright -- at SD, at LAD
A sore hip flexor eliminated Kershaw from his scheduled Sunday night turn. The hope is that he'll be able to pitch Tuesday.
Cookie Rojas
Mat Latos -- vs. PIT, at MIA
Roy Halladay -- vs. MIA, at HOU
Jaime Garcia -- at SD, at LAD
Mike Minor -- at MIL, vs. WAS
Kyle Kendrick -- vs. MIA, at HOU
*Eric Stults -- vs. STL, vs. COL
Kendrick's last five starts have been terrific (35.1 IP, 25 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 25 K), and he has the coveted Astros matchup on the ledger. He's unowned in 68 percent of Yahoo! leagues . . . Stults is no guarantee to get the second turn, as San Diego could go with six starts if it wants to.
Cookie Jarvis
Wandy Rodriguez -- at CIN, at CHC
Chris Volstad -- at HOU, PIT
Ryan Vogelsong -- at COL, at ARI
I'm not giving up on Vogelsong, despite his rough patch; he's been hit-unlucky, the majority of the damage has come on singles, and the K/BB rate is still good. That said, this awful schedule isn't going him any favors. The following week, he's home against San Diego.
Cookie Googleman
Wily Peralta -- vs. ATL, vs. NYM
Dallas Keuchel -- vs. CHC, vs. PHI
Alex White -- vs. SF, at SD
American League
Miles Davis
Hiroki Kuroda -- at BOS, vs. TB
Jake Peavy -- vs. DET, at MIN
Doug Fister -- at CHW, at CLE
Matt Moore -- at BAL, at NYY
I wanted no part of Kuroda in the AL East this year, but he's handled the assignment with aplomb. And he's been especially effective in the confines of Yankee Stadium: 2.38 ERA, 0.95 WHOP, almost four strikeouts for every walk. The Fenway Park assignment isn't as big of a deal now with so many Boston hitters having flown the coop.
Crash Davis
Matt Harrison -- vs. CLE, vs. SEA
Jarrod Parker -- at LAA, vs. BAL
Brandon Morrow -- vs. SEA, vs. BOS
Dan Haren -- vs. OAK, at KC
Dan Straily -- at LAA, vs. BAL
Like so many Oakland pitchers, Parker has been terrific in the big yard (2.48/1.17) and something else on the road (5.37/1.51). He's only allowed two homers in 87 Oakland innings . . . Straily is likely to pick up two starts, stepping in for Brandon McCarthy. Get well, B-Mac . . . Haren has bounced back well, posting 18.2 innings of high quality (16 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 17 K). He hasn't allowed a homer since the middle of August.
Geena Davis
Jon Lester -- vs. NYY, at TOR
Samuel Deduno -- vs. CLE, vs. SEA
Miguel Gonzalez -- vs. TB, at OAK
Justin Masterson -- at MIN, vs. DET
The eternal key with Masterson is handling left-handed batters. Minnesota and Detroit have enough sticks to give him trouble . . . Lester has never been a reliable arm against the Yankees; for his career he has a 4.23 ERA against them, and a 1.39 WHIP. He also has a 9-4 mark over those starts, but the offense that provided for those victories is long gone, now. And Lester's in the midst of his worst season, besides.
Storm Davis
Jose Quintana -- vs. DET, at MIN
Rick Porcello -- at CHW, at CLE
Will Smith -- at MIN, vs. DET
Ubaldo Jimenez -- at TEX, vs. DET
No 2013 suspension for Marshawn Lynch – Marshawn Lynch | SEA
2012
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