THT Links: Science Time

The first link in today’s queue is an important one. Far too often, the general populace just takes what the media reports as 100% facts. It’s not really our fault, as it is rare for anyone to have the time needed to investigate every claim out there and when something gets repeated a lot, it just becomes ingrained in us, it becomes fact-esque (copyright Stephen Colbert) if you will. It happened with DDT and it’s happening with Global Warming (on which the actual research is far less conclusive than the media, or Al Gore, reports), and to a lesser importance, it’s happened with HGH. We’ve been hearing non-stop about the lack of a test for HGH and how that taints any steroid prevention policy. The problem is, what we do not hear about, is whether HGH is actually beneficial to ballplayers. So in the spirit of more enlightened debate, and a recognition that I am part of the media and I want to avoid being hypocritical, read the first link and do some of your own research and
. Or refer me to research already done.

Blowing the Outrage Apart – This is one that everyone needs to go read as JC, with the assistance from trainers and medical research, tears apart the notion that human growth hormone is a problem in baseball. The reason? It probably doesn’t help you play baseball better.

Day by Day – David Pinto’s Day-by-Day database, an invaluable tool, is now up to date. Time to go look up how Milton Bradley has hit since August 14 of 2004.

Brrrrrrr – Games are getting canceled left and right as the northern mid west is hit by extreme cold and snow and the mid-Atlantic gets rain dumped on its head. Wouldn’t it make more sense to schedule as many games as possible in April down south? It wouldn’t affect the schedules that much and considering the reduced number of double-headers needed later on to make up for all these postponements, it might actually be an improvement.

K-Rod Claims Innocence – Francisco Rodriguez brushes off recent speculation that he’s been doctoring the ball. MLB is investigating so I guess we’ll know either way at some point unless he gets the conspiratory Roger Clemens treatment.

Devil Rays Spoil Pettitte’s Return – Elijah Dukes homered again, a good start for the troubled prospect, and the Devil Rays won only their fourth road game since July 1st of 2006.

Buehrle Hit, Leaves Game – Mark Buehrle was hit in his throwing arm by a line drive from Ryan Garko yesterday and was taken out as a precaution. X-Rays were negative though and he’s listed as day-to-day. Also, I spelled Buehrle correctly on the first try without looking it up. That makes me a level 8 baseball name speller.

Matsuzaka Makes Impressive Debut – Daisuke Matsuzaka sure looked like a $20 million a year pitcher yesterday. Equally important is to notice Zack Greinke’s line. For a guy who went through what he did last year, that’s a tremendous outing for him.

The Best Red Sox Debut – Meanwhile, Sean Forman looks at the best first game by a Sox pitcher in the last 50 years. Matsuzaka comes close, but he isn’t the best.

Our First Trade – The Phillies sent just $100,000 over to Toronto in exchange for relief pitcher Francisco Rosario. Do you think they sent U.S. or Canadian dollars?

Today at THT

No One’s Fantasy – Finding truly useless regulars isn’t as easy as it looks.

Let The Games Begin! – It’s early and I’m squirrely.

This Annotated Week in Baseball History: April 1-7, 1996 – On April 1, 1996 the Mets rallied to beat the Cardinals 7-6 on Opening Day. That’s not all of the story, nor the only oddity about the first day of the season that Richard turned up this week.

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