Ballbug Firehose http://www.ballbug.com/ MLB Buzz Bot en-us Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:05:18 -0500 Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:05:18 -0500 Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen to start in Class AA Harrisburg (Adam Kilgore/Nationals Journal) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p9#a100320p9 Adam Kilgore / Nationals Journal:
Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen to start in Class AA Harrisburg  —  The inevitable became official this morning when the Nationals optioned phenom Stephen Strasburg to Class AA Harrisburg, meaning baseball's best pitching prospect will not join the Nationals until late spring or midsummer.

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:05:03 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p9#a100320p9 Mets' John Santana all smiles after erratic outing against Twins (Steve Popper/NorthJersey.com) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p8#a100320p8

Steve Popper / NorthJersey.com:
Mets' John Santana all smiles after erratic outing against Twins  —  Mets third baseman David Wright, left, and starting pitcher Johan Santana get together after the Minnesota Twins second home run in the second inning in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Friday.  —  But he couldn't resist a smile …

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:25:00 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p8#a100320p8 Red Sox sign Embree to minor-league deal (Peter Abraham/Boston Globe) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p7#a100320p7 Peter Abraham / Boston Globe:
Red Sox sign Embree to minor-league deal  —  The Red Sox, unhappy with their bullpen options, today signed 40-year-old lefty Alan Embree to a minor-league deal that included an invitation to spring training.  —  With veteran Brian Shouse not particularly impressive and prospect Dustin Richardson getting hurt …

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:45:01 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p7#a100320p7 Stephen Strasburg's striking preference: groundball outs (Adam Kilgore/Nationals Journal) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p6#a100320p6 Adam Kilgore / Nationals Journal:
Stephen Strasburg's striking preference: groundball outs  —  Three starts, 9 innings, 149 pitches and 1 at-bat into his Washington Nationals career, Stephen Strasburg has basically been everything the Nationals hoped he would be.  —  For a bounty of reasons, Strasburg will certainly not be starting the season in major leagues.

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:05:04 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p6#a100320p6 Reliever Kanekoa Texeira shows hope that he could make Mariners' 25-man roster (Geoff Baker/Seattle Times) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p5#a100320p5

Geoff Baker / Seattle Times:
Reliever Kanekoa Texeira shows hope that he could make Mariners' 25-man roster  —  Texeira is a Rule 5 draft pick and cousin of Philadelphia's Shane Victorino.  Despite only minor-league experience he has a sound shot at making Seattle's opening day lineup.

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:10:00 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p5#a100320p5 Sabermetrics: Stats guru advising Blue Jays (Robert Cribb/Toronto Star) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p4#a100320p4 Robert Cribb / Toronto Star:
Sabermetrics: Stats guru advising Blue Jays  —  There's no statistic too obscure for Blue Jays adviser Tom Tango, a self-taught, secretive superstar in the growing field of sabermetrics … Tom Tango, one of the Toronto Blue Jays' latest acquisitions, won't be pitching, catching or hitting for the club this season.

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:25:00 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p4#a100320p4 Lajoie excels at scouting intangibles (Fred Claire/MLB.com) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p3#a100320p3

Fred Claire / MLB.com:
Lajoie excels at scouting intangibles  —  Former Tigers GM publishes book about his career  —  There was a very interesting point that came out of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference held recently in Boston.  —  In a panel discussion on baseball analytics, with some of the bright young minds …

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:20:02 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p3#a100320p3 Reds 6, Mariners 2: Don Wakamatsu rips umpire over Milton Bradley "witch hunt" (Geoff Baker/Seattle Times) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p2#a100320p2 Geoff Baker / Seattle Times:
Reds 6, Mariners 2: Don Wakamatsu rips umpire over Milton Bradley “witch hunt”  —  Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu just went off on Class AAA umpire Jon Merry for ejecting Milton Bradley in the fourth inning.  —  “To me, it's almost like a witch hunt,” he said.

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:35:02 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p2#a100320p2 Stephen Strasburg fans 8 in 4 innings as Nats top Cards 13-5 (Associated Press) http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p1#a100320p1 Associated Press:
Stephen Strasburg fans 8 in 4 innings as Nats top Cards 13-5  —  VIERA, Fla. (AP) — Stephen Strasburg (FSY) watched two of his first 11 pitches sail out of the ballpark.  He didn't flinch.  —  So much for the notion that the Washington Nationals' top pitching prospect can't handle a little adversity.

]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:50:05 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100320/p1#a100320p1 For Cubs core, this could be the last hurrah (Paul Sullivan/Chicago Tribune) http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p34#a100319p34

Paul Sullivan / Chicago Tribune:
For Cubs core, this could be the last hurrah  —  Window of opportunity closing for Lee, Lilly, Soriano, Ramirez, Dempster, Piniella and Hendry  —  Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee tags out White Sox's Juan Pierre in the first inning.  (Tony Dejak, Associated Press / March 19, 2010)

]]> Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:45:02 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p34#a100319p34 Oney Guillen, son of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, has resigned ... (Bruce Levine/ESPN) http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p33#a100319p33 Bruce Levine / ESPN:
Oney Guillen, son of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, has resigned from his position with the team  —  Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen stormed past media representatives after Friday's Cubs-Sox game in Glendale, Ariz. It was the first time in anyone's recollection that Guillen didn't talk to media after a baseball game.

]]> Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:55:05 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p33#a100319p33 Strasburg's fate to be decided Saturday (Bill Ladson/MLB.com) http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p32#a100319p32 Bill Ladson / MLB.com:
Strasburg's fate to be decided Saturday  —  Team meeting to determine if righty is ticketed for Minors  —  VIERA, Fla. — Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg made his third Spring Training start Friday night against the Cardinals at Space Coast Stadium, and it was a good one.

]]> Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:15:00 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p32#a100319p32 Cliff Lee on flight back to Seattle (Geoff Baker/The Seattle Times) http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p31#a100319p31 Geoff Baker / The Seattle Times:
Cliff Lee on flight back to Seattle  —  UPDATE: 4:10 p.m.Turns out it's a lower abdominal strain.  He'll be re-evaluated in a week, but will likely miss at least a couple.  —  Mariners pitcher Cliff Lee has left the team and flown back to Seattle.  He arrived in Seattle at 2:10 Pacific time.

]]> Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:30:09 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p31#a100319p31 Francoeur gets license to steal (Mark Hale/New York Post) http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p30#a100319p30

Mark Hale / New York Post:
Francoeur gets license to steal  —  JUPITER, Fla. — Last summer, after Jeff Francoeur was acquired from the Braves, Mets manager Jerry Manuel asked him to try to steal more bases.  Francoeur, though, couldn't quite handle that.  —  “Jerry wanted me to,” Francoeur said yesterday, “but I just don't know how.”

]]> Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:10:02 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p30#a100319p30 Johan bested by former mates (Marty Noble/MLB.com) http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p29#a100319p29 Marty Noble / MLB.com:
Johan bested by former mates  —  Mets fall to Twins; Santos hits second spring homer  —  TWINS 7, METS 3  —  Twins at the plate: Rookies Danny Valencia and Wilson Ramos, neither of whom was a teammate of Johan Santana, hit solo home runs against the Mets' ace in the second inning.

]]> Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:00:11 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100319/p29#a100319p29 SITE NEWS: Mediagazer is to Media as Techmeme is to Tech http://news.techmeme.com/100308/mediagazer Today we're launching our first new news vertical in almost four years: Mediagazer, which will focus on the content production and distribution business, organizing topics as wide as journalism, blogging, video production, e-books, and digital distribution technologies.

Why it's been four years is an interesting tale. Our experience with Techmeme memeorandum, WeSmirch, and Ballbug taught us what was most valuable to readers, and why. That lead us to focus on one site, Techmeme, first by giving extra attention to the configurations controlling its automation, and second, introducing manual editing and evolving the process in which man and machine work in concert.

Mediagazer incoporates all these lessons. We've taken great care in its construction, have outfitted the site with the latest iteration of our automation engine, and have launched it from the outset with a dedicated human editor.

That editor will be Megan McCarthy. While Megan's career in media has focused more on the technology space (both at Gawker and at Techmeme), she's long developed an interest in media industry buzz and should feel very much at home at Mediagazer. Techmeme will continue to be edited by Rich DeMuro, Lidija Davis, Mahendra Palsule, and myself going forward.

For more on this see Megan's post on the site blog. Finally, we should emphasize our delight in featuring from day one five great sponsors targeting media companies: WordPress, Tynt, Zemanta, Smash Summit, and Seesmic. When you check out Mediagazer, please take a look at the companies helping to support it.



]]> Site News Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:03:41 -0500 http://news.techmeme.com/100308/mediagazer