Monday's Bunts and Boots--Delgado, Yankee Indignity, and Don Gutteridge

I can't recall a player seemingly resurrecting his career in mid-season the way that Carlos Delgado has for the Mets in 2008. By the middle of June, I had joined the chorus of doomsayers who had declared Delgado finished, the victim of a slowing bat and fading reflexes. Some extreme pessimists had actually recommended the Mets deal Delgado to the cross-town Yankees for the equally slumping Jason Giambi. Three months later, Delgado has emerged as a National League MVP candidate, albeit a darkhorse after the likes of Albert Pujols, Ryan Braun, Chase Utley, and Mets teammate David Wright. Delgado has been on a tear since late June, averaging an RBI a game over his last 65 games while lifting his slugging percentage to a season-high .504. Delgado's two home runs on Sunday gave Johan Santana all the cushion he required, helping the Mets to a much-needed series-salvaging win against the Phillies. There are plenty of theories that attempt to explain Delgado's rise from oblivion; some say that Delgado has benefited from the managerial change that saw Willie Randolph give way to Jerry Manuel, while others credit a shortened swing. I tend to favor the latter explanation, but the reasons don't really matter to the Mets, who are benefiting from the slugger's remarkable turnaround, or to Delgado, who is earning himself a nice contract for 2009. Amazing...

In a season filled with disappointing mediocrity, the Yankees may have suffered their largest embarrassment over the weekend, when they lost two out of three to the sinking ship known as the Mariners. The losses were bad enough, but the way they lost the games brought the Yankees an extra level of humiliation. In the first game, the Yankees barely avoided a no-hitter against Brandon Morrow, who was making his first major league start after a mid-season conversion from the bullpen. In the third game of the set, the highly paid Yankees fell victim to the pitching of the unpronounceable Ryan Feierabend, who had compiled a lifetime ERA of over 7.00 before improving his statistical lines against New York's anemic offense. Including the debacle against Feierabend, the Yankees have now lost three of their last four games, further cementing their non-playoff fates in 2008...

One of the few bright spots for the Yankees in recent days has been the pitching of Alfredo Aceves, who will make his first major league start on Tuesday and figures to play some kind of role on New York's 2009 pitching staff. Aceves represents one of the Yankees' few ventures into the Mexican League since the days of the good-field, no-hit Celerino Sanchez. A veteran of six Mexican League seasons, Aceves has moved quickly through the Yankees' farm system this summer and figures to have more long-term impact than Sanchez, who played parts of the 1972 and '73 seasons before fading from the major league scene. At six-three, 220 pounds, Aceves throws four pitches, including a live fastball that ventures into the mid-1990s and a hard-breaking curveball that bends the knees of opposing hitters. Here's one possible scenario for Aceves: he starts 2009 in the rotation and then moves back to the bullpen in June, reversing roles with the equally versatile Joba Chamberlain...

Finally, a link to one of baseball's most colorful teammates passed away on Sunday. Former major league infielder and manager Don Gutteridge, the last surviving member of the Cardinals' "Gas House Gang" of the 1930s, died at the age of 96. A versatile infielder, Gutteridge played for the Cardinals from 1936 to 1940 before playing for the American League champion St. Louis Browns in 1944. Gutteridge also managed for two seasons before becoming a scout, his career in baseball spanning more than 60 seasons.