The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck takes note of Jorge Julio’s latest change of address.
Somebody is going to have to explain this to me. I thought that Jorge Julio was one of the biggest busts in recent Orioles history, yet he has been traded (twice) over the past five months for the top draft choice of 1996, baseball’s self-proclaimed sexiest wife and one of the best postseason pitchers of this generation.
That’s right. The Orioles got Kris and Anna Benson in the deal that sent Julio to the New York Mets and the Mets just got Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez from the Arizona Diamondbacks. In each case, the team getting Julio and his 98-mph fastball was hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. I guess that all depends on how you define lightning.
Just a hunch, but I’m guessing that Hernandez helps in the fourth slot in the Mets’ rotation and Julio will be playing for his fourth major league team next year.
The International League suspended Durham manager John Tamargo for 10 games yesterday, following an incident last Sunday in which Tamargo bumped the first base umpire in a 1-0 win over Charlotte. The IL’s decision comes on the heels of Delmon Young’s 50 game suspension and the PCL suspending Oklahoma City’s Tim Ireland for 10 games (Ireland was subsequently fired by the Rangers).
If the minor league governing bodies want to continue to insist the quality of the replacement umpiring isn’t having an impact on the game, they might want to consider opening secret prisons overseas to house anyone with a dissenting point of view.