There's a new professional baseball league starting up this year ... in Israel.

Six teams will begin competing June 24th in the inaugural season for the Israel Baseball League.

The league recently held its player draft, and with the final overall pick, the Modi'in Miracle selected 71-year-old Sandy Koufax.

"His selection is a tribute to the esteem with which he is held by everyone associated with this league," said former big leaguer Aret Shamsky, who will manage the Miracle. "It's been 41 years between starts for him. If he's rested and ready to take the mound again, we want him on our team."

I have it on good authority that Sandy's 2007 version of his fastball doesn't have the ability to break the afikomen, much less bats anymore.

PNC Park is supposedly a beautiful place to watch a game.

But on Wednesday night, it turned into some nefarious, blood-thirsty creature, felling two players who never even made it into the Pirates 4-3, 16-inning win over the Astros.

Pirates' back-up catcher Humberto Cota sustained a DL-necessitating shoulder injury while warming up a pitcher during the game.

Astros right-hander Rick White injured a muscle in his left side while warming up to pitch in that same game.

No word on whether the Pirates will stencil "No pepper (or warming up) permitted" on the wall behind home plate.

The Yankees, adrift in aging and/or infirmed pitching arms, have called up their top pitching prospect, 20-year-old Philip Hughes to start Thursday's game against the Blue Jays.

For the veteran-laden Yankee teams of the late 90s and early 00s, Hughes will be an anomaly. In fact, in the last 50 years, only three Yankee starting pitchers have made their ML debut prior to their 21st birthday (Hughes turns 21 on June 24th):

.... more cowbell!

The Devil Rays are hosting the Yankees tonight, and to celebrate their 10th anniversary, they are giving away .... umm ... 10th season commemorative cowbells, sponsored by dairy farming company T.G. Lee.

Christopher Walken did not throw out the first pitch. (Former Buccaneer QB Brian Griese got that honor. Perhaps the Rays thought it appropriate given how often Griese got his bell rung during his two seasons behind that Tampa offensive line?)

Blue Oyster Cult apparently has nothing to do with the Rays, or the state of Florida for that matter, given their current tour schedule.

The Mets' David Wright extended his intra-season hitting streak to 26 games Thursday night, going 1-3 in New York's 11-3 pasting of the Marlins. The streak was subsequently snapped Friday night versus the Braves.

What was interesting about the streak, beyond its spanning two seasons, was its underwhelming nature.

Since the start of the 1976 season, there have been 38 hitting streaks of 26 or more games. As detailed below the cut, Wright's 1.35 hits per game was the worst average amongst those streaks.

He had had exactly one hit in 18 of those 26 games, including 12 games of either 1-4 or 1-5.

Additionally, his .343/.396/.480/.876 line was the worst in each category amongst the six 26-game streaks.

Wright wasn't even in the top 10 for batting average since his streak has begun last September 17 (minimum 80 PA):

Player	Games	AB	Hits	BA	OBA	SPct
Victor Martinez	18	65	26	.400	.512	.585
Moises Alou	25	92	34	.370	.414	.674
Joe Mauer	25	95	35	.368	.439	.526
Ryan Theriot	27	83	30	.361	.418	.506
Placido Polanco	22	89	32	.360	.389	.472
J.D. Drew	27	85	30	.353	.457	.635
Brian McCann	26	97	34	.351	.400	.639
Ichiro Suzuki	24	106	37	.349	.389	.519
Bobby Abreu	28	106	37	.349	.410	.509
Aramis Ramirez	22	89	31	.348	.385	.663
Vladimir Guerrero	22	78	27	.346	.409	.654
Wes Helms	25	81	28	.346	.409	.556
Freddy Sanchez	21	84	29	.345	.370	.452
Jeff Kent	28	99	34	.343	.441	.505
David Wright	26	102	35	.343	.396	.480

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The Yankees' Mariano Rivera failed to hold a lead during the 8th inning of last night's 7-6 loss to the Red Sox in Fenway Park.

Coupled with his prior save opportunity, surrendering a game-ending 3-run homer in a 5-4 loss to the A's on the 15th, this represents only the 8th time Rivera has blown consecutive save opportunities. Its been over two years since his last run of consecutive blown saves, perhaps not-so-coincidentally at the hands of the Red Sox.

Rivera has a ways to go to eclipse the record for consecutive blown saves though. As shown below the cut, four different pitchers have managed to blow six consecutive save opps:

Continue reading...

Welcome to "Stupid Humbug Stat Tricks", a new feature in which we'll be taking a look at some of the stranger statistical quirks going on in the game.

Our first topic for discussion is Jorge Julio, the alliterative closer middle reliever arsonist for the Marlins.

His first appearance of the year was innoncent enough ... 1 inning, 1 walk against the Nats on April 2nd.

Then Jorge remembered he is tied to the "WHIP"ping post.

His next 6 appearances:

W	L	G	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	HBP	WP	BK	Pit	Str
0	2	6	2	0	4.2	15	13	12	10	2	1	23.14	1	1	1	161	79

6 straight relief appearances in which he pitched one inning or less, and allowed at least three baserunners. How often has THAT happened? How about ONCE in the past 50 years?

His WHIP over the last six games resembles the ERA of a middling AL starter, 5.36.

The Marlins then determined they had made a very bad trade Julio had strained a calf, and placed him on the DL.

… at least that’s what the Scrabble gods are implying.

With a nod to Score Bard’s Scrabble Word Score generator, I’ve examined the rosters to find the teams with the greatest number of Scrabble-acceptable players.

The A’s boast an AL-best 16 players, featuring 26-point performances from MIKE (10) PIAZZA (16 … don’t go counting that 2^nd Z, unless you are playing Italian Scrabble), and JAY (13) MARSHALL (13). The Cubs, thanks in part to newly-promoted Felix PIE (5), best the NL with 17 players.

Here then is the team-by-team rundown (Scrabble-acceptability in all CAPS, followed by value):

ANA [9 players]: MIKE (10) Napoli, SHEA (7) Hillenbrand, GARRET (7) Anderson, Greg JONES (12), HECTOR (11) Carrasco, JOE (10) Saunders, JOHN (14) LACKEY (15), SCOT (6) SHIELDS (11), TOMMY (12) MURPHY (16)

I've found some brave souls to help me generate more content here on Humbug. However, I'm still open to suggestions, so if, in addition to our usual artsy stuff, you have any ideas for "gimmicky recurring features" (our new mantra), please email me at toaster AT humbug .com.

In the meantime, I'm happy to welcome Dianagramr and Ember Nickel (nobody uses real names around these parts) to the Humbug team. Ember starts things off with a lovely acrostic sonnet.

Join us and watch. See what is taking place
As players reclaim the field from the past.
Can anyone match number unto face?
Keep score, and keep the scorebook. It will last.

It will tell generations yet to be
Exactly what transpired on this day.
Running from third to home, and flying free
Or is there something different in this play?

Between the foul lines, everything is fair
It's said. It's what we all hope to believe:
No outside prejudices matter there
Solely what any player can achieve.

Of life, the universe, and everything
Numbers say all: one number might just sing.

I'm looking for some help to create some more Humbug content. I'd like to provide some more fun, frivolous baseball humbug on a more regular basis.

In particular, I'm looking for a quizmaster of sorts, someone to help me create another round of Humbugardy questions. If you're interested, or have any other brilliant ideas for fun, frivolous baseball humbug, send me an email at toaster AT humbug.com.

A lesson for K-Rod the Cheater:
When tacking a tail to your heater,
Don't let the police
See spit, goop, or grease.
You need to disguise it discreeter.