Fire. Jim. Joyce.

Armando Galarraga should have made history tonight. In a way, he did. But not in the way that he would have liked.

Following Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay, Galarraga became the third MLB pitcher to throw a perfect game in 2010... until Jim Joyce blew the biggest call of his career at first base.

With 2 outs in the 9th inning, Jason Donald grounded out to Miguel Cabrera, who tossed the ball to Galarraga covering at first base for the out. But then, the unthinkable happened, as Joyce called him safe.

This is safe, apparently.

Fire Jim Joyce. That is all.

Pictures courtesy of Jose3030.

You Can Never Have Too Much Young Pitching

Today on First Take, ESPN's increasingly ridiculous and cheesy morning show, Jay Crawford discussed the best young pitchers in baseball with The Boston Globe's Gordon Edes, Rob Parker of ESPNNewYork.com, and Tim Kurkjian of ESPN's Baseball Tonight.

When asked which young pitcher they'd build their team around for the next decade, all three of them gave some pretty questionable answers, in my opinion. Kurkjian started off the discussion by picking Nationals prospect Stephen Strasburg, Parker selected Yankees starter Phil Hughes, and Edes picked Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox.

With all due respect to these esteemed gentlemen who make their living talking and writing about the game of baseball, they all dropped the ball on something that should have been one of the easiest questions anyone has ever asked them.

The answer is clear, and it's really not even close. 24-year old Tim Lincecum, who already has 2 National League Cy Young awards under his belt, is the obvious choice. No offense to Hughes, Strasburg and especially Lester, but Lincecum has been the best pitcher in baseball since the day he arrived in San Francisco, and he's not stopping any time soon.

Without further ado, here are my picks, in order, of starting pitchers that I would want to pick to build my team for the next decade. Enjoy.

1. Tim Lincecum, 24, San Francisco Giants
As I already said, he has 2 NL Cy Young awards in his first 2 full seasons, and he's already leading the NL in K's this year with 83. His career ERA is an amazing 2.93, and his K/BB ratio is 3.07. He leads an immensely talented Giants rotation that also includes Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez, and he'll probably be adding a lot more hardware to his trophy case in the years to come.

No pitcher has ever won 2 Cy Young awards in their first 2 full seasons, and Lincecum could win a 3rd this year, if Ubaldo Jimenez cools off a little bit later in the year.

2. Felix Hernandez, 24, Seattle Mariners
Everyone talked about Cliff Lee going to the Mariners to be their ace, but it's debatable that Lee is the best starter they've got. While he has been pretty outstanding over the past few years, Felix Hernandez has been every bit as dominant. He put in a Cy Young-worthy performance last year, and carries a 2.78 K/BB ratio over his career.

3. Jon Lester, 26, Boston Red Sox
He has already beaten cancer, and then he beat the Colorado Rockies in the World Series clincher in 2007. He also threw a no-hitter against the Royals in 2008. The question is, who or what CAN'T he beat? While the talk continues to be about guys like Josh Beckett and John Lackey in Boston, Lester has been one of the best power lefties in baseball.

He leads all active pitchers with a .727 career winning percentage, and he is off to a great start in 2010, with a 6-2 record and a 2.97 ERA.

4. Stephen Strasburg, 22, Washington Nationals
This could end up being the biggest snub on my list. Based on pure potential alone, Strasburg could wind up being the best out of all of these players. That having been said, he still hasn't even made his MLB debut. He is blowing through the minor leagues, and we'll see him pitch in a Nationals uniform for the first time next Tuesday, June 8.

5. Ubaldo Jimenez, 26, Colorado Rockies
He's the early favorite for 2010 NL Cy Young, with an incredible 10-1 start, including a 0.78 ERA, 70K's, only 26 walks, and he has only given up 1 home run so far this season. He threw a no-hitter earlier this year against the Braves, and in his only loss, he gave up 1 run on 2 hits.

He doesn't have a long term history of this kind of domination, but he has always had great stuff, and shown flashes of brilliance. As he continues to mature, he could be a true ace for the Rockies for a few years, something they've never really had at any point in franchise history.

Honorable mentions:
6. C.C. Sabathia, 29, New York Yankees
7. Phil Hughes, 23, New York Yankees
8. Zack Greinke, 26, Kansas City Royals
9. David Price, 24, Tampa Bay Rays
10. Justin Verlander, 27, Detroit Tigers

Mike Brown: From Coach Of The Year To Coach Of Nothing. That's What You Get For Letting LeBron Run The Team For You.

In 2008-09, he was handed the NBA's Coach of the Year award. In one short year, the Cavaliers apparently realized it had nothing to do with Mike Brown, and everything to do with LeBron James picking up the Cavaliers and carrying them on his back.

Brown was one of the league's worst coaches this year, especially in the playoffs against the Celtics, when he made absolutely zero adjustments in a series that ended with the Cavs getting dominated in 6 games.

It's really not that hard to win a few games in the NBA when you have the most talented player on the planet. It does, however, take a decent coach to push a good team over the hump and make them a great team. That's something that Mike Brown is incapable of doing, and even a #1 seed and a trip to the Eastern Conference semi-finals could save his job this time.

They'll be another job in the future for Brown, but don't expect much of him. Especially when he doesn't have the "give the ball to LeBron and get out of the way" offense to rely on.

When Even Your Own Teammates Are Sick Of You, Maybe It's Time To Check Yourself

I first wrote about this over a year and a half ago, when Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez was breezing past Bobby Thigpen's single season saves record, and acting like every one of his single-inning outings was the equivalent of achieving world peace and curing cancer at the same time.

Now, even his own teammates are tired of his attitude, including his ridiculously over-the-top celebrations every time he manages to make 3 outs in a save situation.

Last year, Yankees reliever Brian Bruney confronted him about it. This year, his teammates are less than thrilled with the way he complains in the bullpen, and his overall attitude among the team.

This guy's a supremely talented pitcher, and he always wants the ball in big situations, but it's all of the other times when you have to look at him and wonder how he might be hurting his team. Whether through his teammates getting beaned in response to his celebrations, or just having a bad attitude in general, he needs to realize that he's just a one-inning pitcher, and he should behave accordingly. Take a page out of Mariano Rivera's book, K-Rod, and pretend you have some class.

Relax.

People are already getting nervous about the Celtics, after they lost Game 4 to the Magic in overtime. Here's a word of advice: Stop.

The Celtics still have a 3-1 series lead, and they've played better in Orlando than they did in Boston. The Magic still have no answer for the Big 4, and Dwight Howard still can't shoot free throws. Paul Pierce lit up the Magic for 32 points, even with his critical misses in overtime, and Rondo had his worst game of the series, and the Celtics still pushed it to overtime.


The Celtics played about as badly as we've seen them play in weeks, and they were still one key shot away from sweeping the Magic. Keep your heads up, and we'll see them finish this off on Wednesday. Book it. Done.

The Best Of Three That Never Happened

I hate to count my chickens before they've hatched, but this is what we'll see again shortly, once the Lakers and Celtics finish disposing of the Suns and Magic, respectively.

This year's Finals should have been the 3rd in a row between the NBA's two most storied franchises, but Kevin Garnett's injury last year flipped the script a bit. Now, they're on a collision course again.
Both teams are playing as well as they've played all year, and their experience is benefiting them greatly against teams that were hot coming into the conference finals, but have ran into the wall.

Get ready for another round of Lakers-Celtics in the finals. Who are you picking to win?

Game 6, In Which LeBron Doesn't Choke, But It Doesn't Matter

LeBron James will take a lot of heat after tonight's loss to the Celtics. It's most likely his last game in a Cavaliers uniform, and soon he'll be accepting a huge pile of money to take the weight of a new city on his shoulders. The consensus is that it will be New York, but that's certainly no guarantee.

You might hear a lot of people bash LeBron's performance in Game 6, and it looked like he was less than inspired at times.

While that's not exactly what you want to see from arguably the best player on the planet, this loss wasn't his fault. Did LeBron choke in Game 5? Yes, absolutely. But this one was a different story. His 9 turnovers were troublesome, but his 27 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists all led his team, and he really didn't get a whole lot of help.

Mo Williams was a beast in the first half, shredding the Celtics D with 18 points. In the second half, he virtually disappeared, going scoreless for the first 11+ minutes. After that, Shaq was the only Cavalier with double digits, dropping 11. The Cavs as a team shot 38.4% from the field, and were never really able to control the game.

On the other hand, the Celtics saw big performances from many of their players. Rajon Rondo was his typical self, with 21 points, 12 assists and 5 steals, and Kevin Garnett had 22 points and 12 boards.

Even Rasheed Wallace came up with 13 points for the C's, and was a huge spark at times off the bench. Tony Allen made some incredible plays that swung momentum several times, including a ridiculous dunk over half of the Cavaliers defense.

The bottom line here is that LeBron's legacy does not hang in the balance. He's still arguably the greatest basketball player on the planet, and at age 25, he has a lot of years of dominant play ahead of him. He'll win a ring. Whether it's with the Knicks or someone else, it will happen. He's just too good to fail. Write that down.

The Curious Case Of Brian Cushing

The news that Brian Cushing tested positive for a banned substance back in September is raising some serious issues. For starters, the Associated Press is holding a re-vote, in an attempt to wipe some egg off their face in the wake of their Defensive Rookie of the Year and All-Pro linebacker getting popped.

The problem is, the season is over. The award was handed out, the statistics were compiled, and there's really nothing that you can take away from Cushing for his 2009 season. 2010 will be a different story, since Cushing will have to sit out for the first 4 games.


Cushing Should Get His Votes Again

By holding a re-vote, the voters are not only being hypocritical (remember, they gave juicer Julius Peppers the 2002 Defensive Player of the Year award), they're also pretending that they know a few things about which they truly know nothing.

If any of them changing their vote, they are doing so for one of two reasons. One of them may be that they believe no one should win the award if they test positive for banned substances. This is reasonable.

The other reason would be that they evaluated Cushing's performance, determined what it would have been if he had not taken banned substances, and decided that in this hypothetical situation, he no longer stood out as the best among his peers.

Problem:
They would have to know which banned substance he took.
They would have to know exactly how it affects a player's performance.
They would have to know how much he took, and for how long.
They would have to know that he was the only player taking said substances (or any others).

They know none of this.

That's why when the votes come back, I hope to see pretty much the same exact voting results. Kudos to John McClain for being one voice of reason among the crowd.


This Isn't The AP's Problem, It's The NFL's Fault

The AP is now awkwardly trying to save face, but in reality, this is something that should never have needed to happen. The positive test was in September. That means the NFL knowingly allowed Cushing to play nearly an entire season possibly under the influence of performance enhancing drugs.

Again, we don't know which drug(s) he tested positive for. We only know that the NFL knew about it from the beginning of the season, and did nothing about it for the duration of the football season. They didn't punish him, they didn't notify the media (like the AP, who votes for awards), and they didn't let the fans know. According to Texans owner Robert McNair, they didn't even tell the team the details.


Even If The AP Screws This Up,
The Transitive Property Does Not Apply

Some of the nonsense that I've heard from fans is that not only should the AP strip Cushing of his Defensive Rookie of the Year and All-Pro honors, other teams and players should also be stripped of accomplishments that are potentially tainted by the use of banned substances.

This Pandora's Box is something that I hope never gets opened. To try to pretend that we know exactly who was taking which substances at any given time is ignorant and foolhardy.

For example, over a decade of World Series championships have been tainted by steroid users in baseball. Should the Oakland Athletics of the late 1980's and early 1990's be stripped of their accomplishments because of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire? Of course not. Should the entire 2000's be re-played, simply because many players on many championship teams were caught using steroids or HGH? Nope.

There's not a single team in baseball that hasn't been tainted by a suspended player, and there are countless others that we don't know about. The same applies in football, and it's even spreading to the NBA.

By vigilant in testing, be open about the results, and hopefully we can put this behind us. But let the past stay in the past.

Dallas Braden 1, Alex Rodriguez 0

Alex "Bush League" Rodriguez just wanted Dallas Braden to relax after their recent confrontation, in which Braden called out A-Rod for walking on his mound after a double play. Here's the video of the eruption of Mt. Braden, in case you missed it:

A few days later, Braden focused his energies on the Tampa Bay Rays, who were completely overmatched. Braden retired all 27 batters without incident, throwing only the 2nd perfect game in Oakland Athletics history.

A-Rod and the Yankees are probably lucky Braden didn't get another crack at them so soon. Braden was pretty clear that he wasn't going to get walked on this year, and his performance put a pretty emphatic exclamation point on his recent comments.

He should probably take a note from his captain over there and realize you don't cross the pitcher's mound in between an inning or during the game. I was just dumbfounded that he would let that slip his mind — being someone of such status. I don't care if I'm Cy Young or the 25th man on the roster, if I've got the ball in my hand and I'm on that mound, that's my mound ... He ran across the pitcher's mound foot on my rubber. No, not happening. We're not the door mat anymore.

No, Dallas. You're definitely not the door mat anymore.

Can Anyone Stop Rajon Rondo?

Rajon Rondo's performance in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Cavaliers was exactly what the Celtics needed... and then some. He led all players with 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists, and led the Celtics to a 97-87 victory in what everyone acknowledges was a must-win game.

Paul Pierce hasn't really gotten things started yet this series, only averaging 11.8 points per game. A lot of people are attributing that to fatigue, since he's defending LeBron James, arguably the best player on the planet. Also, James is guarding Pierce, and that might have something to do with it.

That's where Rondo's performance might really be the turning point in this series. After Rondo's epic performance, the whispers are that James might guard Rondo in Game 5.

“I would love to [guard Rondo]. It’s something that we maybe should explore, because Rondo is definitely dominating this series at the point guard position. For me, I don’t have a problem taking Rondo or guarding Rondo throughout the course of the game. If the coaching staff or the guys want me to do it, I will.”

While that might put a damper on Rondo's numbers, it would do wonders for guys like Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, who would no longer have to worry about Rondo guarding them, and/or patrolling the paint picking up rebounds and blocking shots.

Pierce has shown an ability to run the point in the past, and realistically the Celtics could take LeBron out of the game altogether by virtually removing Rondo from the offense. A rejuvenated Pierce would more than make up for it.

No matter what happens from this point, the fact is clear: Rajon Rondo is an elite point guard who steps up in big games.

Rondo in the regular season: 10.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 6.8 apg
Rondo in the playoffs: 13.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 8.4 apg
Playoff numbers AFTER his rookie season: 17.3 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 10.4 apg

Someone's Going To Hell For This One

I wish I had the ability to edit and make videos like this, but wow this one was quick.

These NHL videos are some of the best commercials I've seen in a while, and someone hooked it up for Sami Salo's nut shot... which only happened earlier tonight.

Salo was taken off the ice in a stretcher, and headed to the hospital for further evaluation. For the Canucks and Salo's sake, I hope he's fine.

Welcome To My World.

Some of you may know me from my work at FanIQ... others may know me from Twitter. Some of you may have stumbled here randomly, much like I did. Regardless, welcome to the new parking lot for all of the ridiculous(ly intelligent) things that pop in my head. Enjoy.

Some quick things to kick it off:

• The Red Sox need a big bat.
• The Patriots need a pass rusher.
• The Bruins have already gone above and beyond this year, as far as I'm concerned.
• The Celtics need to hold on to Rajon Rondo forever.
• Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is for real. Now, I want to see him fight Anderson Silva.
  
• I hate Brett Favre, but once I realized my feelings for Pedro Martinez are identical to the way a lot of people felt about Favre, I decided to go easy on him. There's always a spot on our roster for you, Pedro.
• The New York Jets are scary good, but it was pretty dumb to get rid of Thomas Jones and sign LaDainian Tomlinson. That's a backwards move right now.
• LeBron James, championship or not, is a better basketball player than Kobe Bryant.
• The new Lakers Retro 6 Jordan sneakers are ridiculous, and I don't even like the Lakers or their colors. They drop on May 15. Get them at your local Finish Line.

Sometimes I'll stray away from sports, but for the most part I'll focus on Boston teams, why they're great, or what they need to do to become great. The theme here is "greatness." I will bring it. That is all.