Monday Mendozas

July, 20, 2009
Jul 20
12:09
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By Rob Neyer
Today's links were lassoed, wrestled to the ground, tied up in one second flat, and then apologized to ...

• As I write this, still no official word on Tim Redding's fate. But considering that he was probably on the verge of being let go before Sunday night's lousy performance, it doesn't seem likely that Redding and his 7.16 ERA will be around for much longer. Redding's not pitching all that much worse than he did last season, but then again what he did last season shouldn't have inspired a great deal of confidence. And right now, what the Mets need more than anything is a scapegoat.

• There's no telling if Mark Grudzielanek will actually play for the Twins this season, seeing as how he apparently hasn't played any baseball at all since last fall. But it's probably worth a shot, signing him to a minor league deal. Have you seen what the Twins' second basemen have done this season? Thanks mostly to Alexi Casilla and Matt Tolbert, but also the wonderful Nick Punto -- Twins second basemen sport a nifty .511 OPS this season. Which is not just the worst in the majors; it's the worst in the majors by a lot.

• As promised, I did watch HBO's Ted Williams documentary this weekend. Like nearly all of HBO's sports docs, this one's solid. I suppose my one criticism is that when Williams' playing career ends in 1961, the movie's only half over. I had a similar complaint about Leigh Montville's excellent biography, which (I thought) had too much material about Williams' post-playing life. So maybe it's just me. If you don't have "time" to read Montville, this documentary will stand you in good stead. (For more, here's a review of the movie.)

• In case you missed it (I did), last week the Yankees launched a new fan club. Apparently, John Henry's not all that impressed; Sunday night he tweeted: "News from Yankees' Universe. Big upsurge in membership. Apparently coming mostly from Pluto. Not doing nearly as well on Mars."

Pete Abraham wasn't real impressed with that; within minutes of Henry's tweet, Abraham blogged:

    Seriously? Your team is in first place (for now) and you're making cracks on the Yankees for having a fan club they modeled after Red Sox Nation?

    Note to Hal Steinbrenner: Leave Twitter to Hank. Take the high road.

Delicious!

• Is there anyone reading this who's not already in love with Baseball-Reference.com? I'm never quite sure what the audience knows, if only because the audience changes every day. Sometimes I'll think to myself, "Self, don't write about that because you've written about that before." And then I have to remind Self that when the last time I wrote about that, at least a few of you were in the fourth grade. Anyway, if you're not already hip to B-R.com and Sean Forman, here's a real nice introduction.

• And finally, here's the biggest story last week you might have missed.

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