I hope the feud between Tony LaRussa and Tony Rasmus, the father of new Blue Jay Colby Rasmus, doesn’t end anytime soon, because it’s insanely fun. Here’s Rasmus talking about LaRussa after the trade was finalized yesterday:

“Evidently Tony (La Russa) has absolutely made that stuff up. He’s got it on the brain. If I was working with my son I’d tell people.

“Tony needed pitching and wanted to force the GM into making a trade, so he belittled Colby to the fans.”

Besides adding right-handed starter Edwin Jackson, who the Jays had acquired from the White Sox earlier Wednesday, the Cards added relievers Marx Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel from the Jays.

“Tony would like to have 25 pitchers,” Tony Rasmus said, “like he thinks he has to put his stamp on every ball game. They had nothing else to trade. I think everyone is better off now.”

Most people have chastised Rasmus for occasionally speaking up on behalf of his son, but personally I feel for him. I don’t know if he’s been giving him coaching on the side and Colby ignored his actual coaches because of it or not, but frankly I doubt it. On the other hand, it seems to me that there’s a non-negligible chance that Rasmus is completely right about everything else.

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The Mariners’ losing streak screeched to a halt Wednesday afternoon, as King Felix stymied the Yankees offense. The game was close for much of the afternoon, but the New York bullpen was unable to keep the Bombers in it, as their offense looked anemic against the Seattle ace. While the Yankees won the series, the Mariners finally snapped a seventeen game losing streak with a 9-2 victory over the Pinstripes.

Both Felix Hernandez and Phil Hughes looked good early, but the Mariners broke through in the top of the third. Ichiro Suzuki hit a one out single and scored on a triple by Dustin Ackley, putting Seattle ahead 1-0. Jack Cust, Josh Bard and Ichiro started the fifth with singles, loading the bases. Ackley drove another RBI in with a lined single to left and the Mariners were ahead 2-0.

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Apologies for the lack of rounding up on the farm stuff last night; things came up. Montero homered. As for today: Triple-A Scranton beat Buffalo 3-2 Buffalo tied the game in the bottom of the fifth, and it took a Jordan Parraz homer in the top of the ninth to put Scranton ahead. Kevin Whelan [...]

I’m usually inclined to defend Bud Selig from a lot of what I feel are unfair criticisms of him. On a host of issues ranging from steroids to his general stewardship of the game, I think Bud usually gets a bum rap because baseball fans just generally don’t like him. And though I’ll never fully forgive him for the 1994 strike and sacrificing the World Series for his desire to break the MLBPA, I think he’s learned his lesson in many ways and is probably the best commissioner in any sport right now.

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