http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3552938&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Rangers get a 21 year old reliever named Mark Hamburger.

Also DFA by the Rangers because of the move, dear friend Jason Ellison. I had no idea he was down there, considering the Rangers have such a glut of outfielders.

Random thought:  What headlines would you make for a newspaper for a game started by Strasburg and closed by Hamburger?  Extra points for puns.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080511&content_id=2681029&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea

Assuming he can actually use it, this is probably a good thing, right?  Think JJ is teaching him the split, or would it be Stottlemeyer?

75 word Wikipedia fun fact:

A split-finger fastball or splitter is a pitch in baseball and a variant of the straight fastball. It is named after the technique of putting the index and middle finger on different sides of the ball, or "splitting" them. When thrown hard, it appears to be a fastball to the batter, but suddenly "drops off the table" towards home plate—that is, it suddenly moves down, towards the batter's knees.  It is thrown today by many pitchers, including Roger Clemens, John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, Dan Haren, and Rich Harden, a reflection of its popularity amongst power pitchers.

So I was watching the later innings of last night's game against the Rockies (avoiding homework), and I saw some weird stuff going on in the Padres dugout in the middle of the 18th inning.

via i67.photobucket.com

via i67.photobucket.com

I should tell you that I am a Mariners fan, and don't follow the Padres all that much, so it's entirely possible that this is some kind of inside thing in the Padres clubhouse.  That being said, what is the deal with the ram's head?  Where did it come from?  What is it's story?  The announcer said (I think, it was late) that it was left over from Linebrink's time.  Is this something that the Padres do when they have long games in an effort to jinx the other team?

I hope someone out there can answer this burning question, since it's weirding me out a little.

 [Note by jbox, 04/18/08 12:52 PM PDT ]

The Rams head is from Linebrink's locker.  This is a photo I took a few years ago. Not sure why they needed to tape the head up though.

I want to go see the King Awesome bobblehead night game versus the Nationals in early June.  I've never been to a bobblehead night before, so I have a couple questions.

1)  How fast do tickets sell for those games.  I prefer sitting in the CF area (lower deck).

2)  How early is it advised to get to the game so I can get one of those bobbleheads?

The Mariners and the Nats are my two favorite teams, so this would be a great opportunity for me to see a game.

Hat tip for Gaslamp Ball, who posted about this first.

A math professor used a method called Chernoff Faces to make faces for baseball's managers based on how they use things like defensive subsitutions/platooning/baserunning and so forth.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/science/01prof.html?ex=1364702400&en=c8f70d006f87dbd9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Key is at the bottom, John McLaren is 2nd row, right-most face.

via assets.sbnation.com

Apparently those horns mean he uses a lot of pinch-runners, and small everything else means he rarely does any of the other things that were measured.