The Luck Involved In A No-Hitter And Other Stories

• Jon Lester pitches a no-hitter:

    It's strange how the Red Sox get no-hitters from their two top young starters in Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester in within three months of regular season play and teams like the Padres and Mets have never had even one no-hitter in their entire histories. There have been some great pitchers to pitch no-hitters----Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller, Nolan Ryan; some good pitchers to pitch no-hitters----Vida Blue, Milt Pappas, John Candelaria, Sal Maglie; some "who's that?" pitchers----Bobo Holloman, Juan Nieves, Mike Warren; some who should've been great, but weren't for one reason or another----Steve Busby, Don Wilson; and some who were more famous for off-field antics than for their on-field achievements----Bo Belinsky. Then there are the greats who never accomplished the feat like Steve Carlton, Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux.
    It's even stranger that the Mets and the Padres have never had a no-hitter pitched for them because they have, historically, had some pitchers who had no-hit stuff. The Padres have had guys like Kevin Brown, Jake Peavy and Gaylord Perry who either didn't accomplish the feat while with the Padres (Brown and Perry), or haven't done it at all despite wicked stuff. The Mets have an even more sordid no-hit history because with all the dominant pitchers they've had, not one has managed to complete a no-hitter in a Mets uniform. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan pitched their no-hitters after leaving the Mets, as did David Cone and Dwight Gooden. With pitchers like these and others who had no-hit stuff like Sid Fernandez, one would think they would've had someone do it by now.
    Sometimes it's just a great play that saves a no-hitter; sometimes it's a pitcher putting it all together for just one night; sometimes it's just an accident of circumstance, but while the feat puts a pitcher's name in the record books forever, it's more of a confluence of events and luck than anything else

• Are the Blue Jays paying attention to Frank Thomas's hitting?

     For an organization that utilizes the Moneyball principles about as close to the blueprint as possible, the Blue Jays and their management team acts out in anger an awful lot. Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi worked for and is close to Athletics GM Billy Beane, but he sure doesn't act like Beane when one of his players wears out his welcome. Beane would never have acted so quickly and without benefit to his team in dumping Thomas after less than a month of play. Knowing Thomas's history as a slow starter, Ricciardi reacted with emotion rather than brains in dumping Thomas; now, as Thomas is starting to hit for the Athletics, the Blue Jays are getting great pitching and very little offense contributing to their continued underachievment as in years past. This all adds to the fuel on the fire that the Thomas release was due more in part to his contract incentive which would have been activated had he batted 376 times for the Blue Jays than any decline in performance. The Blue Jays knew the numbers and knew that Thomas was probably going to start hitting eventually. And he is starting to hit----for Billy Beane and the Athletics.

• Hank From Clearwater is getting cranky:

    And with good reason----NY Times Story. None of what's happened this year is Joe Girardi's overt fault, but he does share heavily in the responsibility of the Yankees woes. He came in with the reputation of dealing with and maximizing young players after his year with the Marlins (it should be remembered that the Marlins hot streak started after an 11-31 start, very similar to the Yankees 20-24 start if everything----players, expectations----are put into context); his rigorous exercise program in spring training was supposed to prevent all the nagging injuries that just seem to happen to veteran players who are playing clean, but reality is rearing its ugly head on the Yankees' hopes.
    Steinbrenner's bluster will eventually have to be backed up by some action and it's increasingly looking like the target is on the back of GM Brian Cashman. Perhaps Cashman wants out of the Yankees fishbowl, hasn't truly admitted it to himself and hopes that Hank is going to make the decision for him by dismissing him which will leave intact Cashman's "legacy" of a rebuilt farm system and new young manager to grow together organically; he'd certainly get another GM job somewhere. (Pat Gillick is retiring after the season and Philadelphia is a great spot, close to New York and Washington.) But if Cashman is hoping for a Joe Torre-style martyrdom and another lucrative job somewhere else, he's missing out on an important factor----Torre is charming and likable; Cashman looks and sounds like a corporate nebbish.
    Just as Cashman replaced Bob Watson after Watson was in the GM chair for the first Yankees championship in eighteen years and people asked, "Brian Who?", I'm quite confident that Damon Oppenheimer would be able to step into Cashman's seat just as smoothly. There won't be any candlelight vigils or angry talk show phone calls defending Cashman after a possible downfall as there were for Torre. Whether or not Cashman realizes that or is still blinding himself with his visions of Billy Beane/Theo Epstein-style adulation is an open question.

    Please check out and purchase my book The Prince Of New York's 2008 Baseball Guide also available on BN.com and Amazon.com.