January 2012
3 posts
December 2011
4 posts
Unlimited Texting
MOM: WHO GAVE GRANDMA A PHONE AND WHY ON EARTH WOULD THEY GIVE HER UNLIMITED TEXTING?! oh god, how many have you gotten? i’m up to 18 in 8 minutes…
ME: i’m up to 25, dont complain…
November 2011
8 posts
25 TWEETS IN 25 DAYS: Day 12 BACKSTORY
A crazy-busy last few days filled with cooking, baking, eating, whining like a baby about indigestion, working crazy hours at my awesome part-time seasonal retail job (including the 5 a.m. Black Friday shift) and soaking my feet in equally awesome bubble baths – not to mention preparing for the upcoming Winter Meetings – has made this girl a little backed-up when it comes to going into more detail...
25 TWEETS IN 25 DAYS: Day 11
“I don’t know everything. I don’t pretend to either. But I do generally know where to find the answers. Better late than wrong.”
This is pretty self-explanatory, no?
But I’m often surprised by how many people, when asked a question people expect them to know the answer to (and they don’t), kind of blather on and on aimlessly, or simply state firmly and...
25 Tweets in 25 Days: Day 10
As a Rule 5 Draft geek (never Rule V, please note), today is one of my favorite days of the year: 40-man roster deadline.
I’ve mellowed a bit as the years have past. I used to kill a million trees (or so Jonathan Mayo told me) printing out rosters and constantly updating them and then re-printing them.
This time I’m doing it all online and will not print out the 40s until they...
25 TWEETS IN 25 DAYS: Day 9
In slightly expanded form here … (as in, more than 140 characters)
IMHO, the Winter Meetings “experience” can often be determined by two words: Hotel Lobby.
This is one reason I am so looking forward to this year’s event in Dallas which, along with the Sheraton in Anaheim, is one of the most “participant-friendly” set-ups in the expanded rotation. ...
THE QUEEN IS BACK!
I’m baaaaaaaaaaaack. Huzzah.
So, during the period that I could not seem to make my Tumblr work, I did launch a little project on Twitter which I am calling “25 Tweets in 25 Days.”
It’s, well, 25 tweets in 25 days (sure, I’m tweeting more often than that, but these Tweets are all specifically baseball-related).
I welcome comments and thoughts, either here or on my Twitter feed (see link to...
This Monday - Bar Lubitsch!
danawells:
Come on out to Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood on this Monday, November 7th, for some music, fun, and, of course, potato vodka! Or, you know, beer. Or soda. Whatever you want to drink, really, it’s up to you because the cover charge is only $5! Yes, you read that correctly! Five bucks for a whole night’s worth of music! I will be playing at 8pm for half an hour, and I hope to see you...
Tumblr is hard, said Teen Barbie
Due to a combination of factors … Tumblr apparently changing some of its technological stuff (yes, that is a big techie word — stuff) and my complete inability to figure out how to make corresponding edits, as evidenced by the unintentional new format of my blog here … as well as another big change in life/career/etc …
Queen of Diamonds is going on a brief hiatus.
Not...
October 2011
3 posts
September 2011
8 posts
10 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: THE LAST 2011 CALL
Well, that was certainly a dull and uneventful end to the first MLB season to end on a Wednesday. Yawn.
Okay, okay, this comes to you a little later than usual because of my waiting for the last day of the season (and I’d thought for awhile it might be even another day later as catcher Luis Exposito in Boston and shortstop Tyler Pastornicky in Atlanta waited to see if their services would be...
D A N A • W E L L S: SHOW TOMORROW NIGHT IN... →
danawells:
Come out to the POP Champagne and Dessert Bar (come on, isn’t the name enough to make you want to go?) in Old Town Pasadena to see me play alongside three other singer/songwriters in a round! For those who don’t know, a “songwriter round” is when three or more singer/songwriters take turns playing…
10 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: SEPT. CALL-UPS THRU SEPT....
DISCLAIMER: The blog you are about to read is pretty much true. Some exaggeration has been inserted for alleged humor. The DEBUTS are factual, however. I may occasionally insert my own commentary but they are not exaggerated.
So, the other day my husband asked me “Why do you waste so much time on these debuts?” He was confused and perplexed. Or perplexed and confused. And I could sort of...
11 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: SEPT. CALL-UPS THRU SEPT....
Aaaaaaand … here we are with M-Z! JORDAN PACHECO C, Colorado Rockies B/T: R/R H/W: 6-1/190 BORN: Jan. 30, 1986 ACQUIRED: Selected in the ninth round of 2007 out of the University of New Mexico PROMOTED: Recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs Sept. 6 when rosters expanded DEBUT: Sept. 6 in an 8-3 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks: The starting third baseman, he batted eighth and...
15 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: SEPT. CALL-UPS THRU SEPT....
I have never been so glad that the Interwebz doesn’t have a space limit.
On Monday morning, I filed Diamonds in the Rough to cover the first weekend of September call-ups, a column which covered the debuts of 20 players.
By Wednesday morning, the new list of players who had been called up since then — what I call my “follow list” — was already at 28 players. 29, if you count...
24 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: SEPTEMBER CALLUP EDITION,...
The first week of September: It is a time that tries the soul of those who write up Major League debuts. Fortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of us. So apologies in advance to any players (or their families/loved ones) who feel they may have gotten short shrift in this column since, due to sheer volume, I’ve had to trim down some of my usual loquaciousness.
So without further ado, let’s take...
Dana in La La Land
danawells:
I took this picture earlier tonight when I went grocery shopping. This is easily the most ominous weather I’ve seen since moving to L.A., and on the way back from Whole Foods, I saw a flash of lightning. Still, no rain. After living in Boston for three years, the consistency of this biome is staggering.
15 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 8/31
So why was I late this week? Because I am sort of weirdly anal-retentive and decided to use August 31 as my cut-off date for this edition of Diamonds in the Rough so that the next installment (and those thereafter) will encompass players brought up after the rosters expand to 40 men.
Oh, and Hurricane Irene didn’t help.
But any thoughts I had that it might be the calm before the storm...
August 2011
6 posts
No, I haven't forgotten ...
For those of you who were wondering, waiting, angsting, coming here again and again and hitting “refresh refresh refresh” (there are some of you who were doing that, right?) …
… “Diamonds in the Rough” will run on Thursday this week, drawing a slightly delayed but firm line in the sand between debuts made BEFORE/AFTER rosters expand from 25 to 40.
So you...
4 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 8/21
The calm before the storm — that Sept. 1 storm when rosters expand to 40 and we get the biggest rush of debuts since the first two weeks of the season — saw just a handful of callups and debuts this week, so let’s get right to them, shall we? STEVE EDLEFSEN RHP, San Francisco Giants B/T: S/R H/W: 6-2/195 BORN: June 27, 1985 ACQUIRED: Selected in the 16th round of 2007 out of...
10 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 8/13 -- the...
One of my daughter’s favorite TV shows is the VH1 series “I Love the 90s” which makes sense since she was born in 1990 so the pop culture of that era contributed largely to her formative years (and my midlife formative years — yeah, I love the Spice Girls — wanna make something of it?).
The three most prominent blue chip prospects in this week’s crop of big league debuts were also...
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 8/7
It’s not unusual for this time of year to boast a bumper crop of big league debuts, as teams scramble to fill roster spots vacated by players traded at the deadline. But of the 10 players who debuted in the past week, there have definitely been some unexpected and unfamiliar names on the list, along with a few of the more obvious blue-chippers. Raise your hand if Dodgers pitcher Nate Eovaldi has...
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH RE-RUN IN HONOR OF JUAN...
This week’s edition of “Diamonds in the Rough” will be uploaded in a little while. But for now, I wanted to re-run the lede to my column from just over two months ago, when I happy-danced all over my house celebrating the debut of one of my favorite prospects … enough so that for the first time I actually name-checked him in the “title.”
Words cannot express...
7 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 7/31
The madness and mayhem of the annual MLB trading deadline is 24 hours past and the dust is beginning to settle. It will be a little while before we see who the “winners” of the last-minute deals may be …
Offhand, I’ll say that whoever had Vegas odds on a Pittsburgh-Cleveland World Series (and if you did, please tell me, so I can be your bestest friend!) may have gotten just slightly...
July 2011
4 posts
17 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 7/24
Aaaaaaaand … she’s back. The Queen has returned (though admittedly my trip out west did not include playing polo in Santa Barbara like some royalty I could mention) and with a slew of debuts having occurred in the last week, we’ll get right to the good stuff.
Kudos this span go to the Tampa Bay Rays who not only had three players make their Major League debuts, but two of them took some...
9 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 7/10
QUICK NOTE: Hope you’re enjoying the All-Star break … there will be no “Diamonds in the Rough” on Monday, July 18, though I do expect to chime in more frequently from now on with random Queen of Diamonds thoughts. But those who look only for the debuts can tune back in on Monday, July 25, for the next blockbuster installment …
Meanwhile, a little walk down memory lane …
...
6 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 7/3
Happy July 4th or, to my international readers, Happy Monday! I’ll let you all enjoy the day off or continue arguing who should and should not have been named to the All-Star teams (WTF? No Andrew McCutchen?) and get right to business (and keep my fingers crossed that NEXT week’s debuts will include the big moments of a certain Hector Santiago, who has been languishing in the Chicago White Sox...
June 2011
4 posts
4 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 6/26
It’s a light week for “Diamonds in the Rough” with just four big league debuts made this week, two of them for the surprising Pittsburgh Pirates who took two out of three games from the Boston Red Sox during interleague play this past weekend: CHASE D’ARNAUD 3B, Pittsburgh Pirates B/T: R/R H/W: 6-1/175 BORN: Jan. 21, 1987 ACQUIRED: Selected in the fourth round of 2008 out of Pepperdine...
7 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 6/19
As we usher in the official beginning of summer this week, we also usher in the big league debuts of seven players, though only four of them remained on big league rosters by the end of the week’s play on Sunday. Not to fear. All three who were “one and done” starting pitchers are likely to be back sooner rather than later: DUSTIN ACKLEY 2B, Seattle Mariners B/T: L/R H/W: 6-1/185 BORN: Feb....
13 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 6/12
For those of you who noticed this week’s “Diamonds in the Rough” is a day late, I thank you for your keen observational skills. A wonderful and joyous family occasion took me out of town and away from my Interwebz for a few days, and as you can see, it was a busy weekend of debuts so I was playing some catchup.
But one promotion I was particularly happy to see was that of Jemile Weeks....
11 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 6/5, brought to...
This week’s “Diamonds in the Rough” is, a la Sesame Street, brought to you by the letter L.
L is for Lyles (as in Jordan), Lynn (as in Lance), Lindblom (as in Josh) and LeMahieu (as in D.J.).
It’s also for Louis, as in the St. Louis Cardinals, who had three players make their big league debuts — pitchers Lynn and Maikel Cleto, as well as third baseman Matt Carpenter — to raise...
May 2011
5 posts
11 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 5/29, special...
We knew it would be a busy week here at “Diamonds in the Rough” when, by 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, we already had SEVEN players on our watch list.
By the end of the night on Sunday, 11 players had made their major league debuts, and there were three more on tap for this coming week already in the bigs.
I admit I get especially excited when I get to see the arrival of players I saw so...
11 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 5/22
It’s been a busy week in Debutville, and not only because we were waiting to see if indeed the Cubs-Red Sox game on May 21 truly did signal the end of the world as we know it.
No, instead, quite a coterie of players made their big league debuts this week and with them several intriguing stories, making it tough to determine which one should be this cycle’s “lede.”
With the lovely...
4 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 5/15
Do I really need to tell any of you who have read my columns for these last 20 years how much I love it when a long-time minor league veteran finally gets called up? My signature “happy dance” has, fortunately, never been caught on Flipcam but … well, just think of those old cartoons of Snoopy dancing around with his ears flapping (minus the ears part).
This week’s happy dance was...
6 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 5/8
I apologize for the lateness of this week’s column, but I was out of town for a few days watching my own top prospect, my daughter Dana, graduate from Berklee College of Music.
It’s been a huge week for avid “prospect watchers” when it comes to Major League debuts, as three — count them, THREE — of Baseball America’s No. 1 prospects for their respective organizations got their...
9 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: LITTLE BIG MEN -- DEBUTS...
I am what is known as vertically challenged. I top the height chart at a smidge over 5-foot-2 and since I am incapable of wearing high heels I’m generally the smallest one in a room full of adults.
So it’s probably no big surprise that I have always been a fan of the little guy, not just figuratively but, in baseball, literally.
And this first month of the season has been a great one...
April 2011
18 posts
4 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 4/24
This week’s set of debuts is one man shorter than I’d hoped it would be, as the New York Yankees optioned right-hander Hector Noesi to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on April 22 to make room for reliever Buddy Carlyle. That in itself might not be a transaction that earns headlines, but Noesi had been sitting in the Yankees’ bullpen waiting to make his big league debut since APRIL 13. In the end,...
9 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 4/17
After a week which saw NO debut players called up to the majors, the last few days of the past week brought a flurry of new activity with nine pitchers getting the call. Of that crew, eight had made their debuts by the end of Sunday’s action with only Yankees reliever Hector Noesi in waiting for this week.
But before we get to this week’s “debutantes,” I want to single out an appearance this...
30 SONGS IN 30 DAYS, DAY 30:
DAY 30: YOUR FAVORITE SONG THIS TIME LAST YEAR: “SECOND AVENUE” by Tim Moore.
Honestly, I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night, and the majority of my list of favorite songs include tunes that I have had on my “list” for decades, so I figured I’d be at a loss to figure out what I would have been listening to in mid-April 2010.
I assumed the closest I would come would probably be...
2 tags
DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: DEBUTS THRU 4/10
After the annual debut whirl of Week 1, the second week of the 2011 season was quiet on the debut front, highlighted by the Major League debuts of the two remaining players who had broken camp with their respective big league clubs but had not yet played at the end of the first coverage period (Monday-Sunday) — Seattle ace-in-training Michael Pineda and Pittsburgh utility infielder Josh...
30 SONGS IN 30 DAYS, DAY 29
DAY 29: A SONG FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD: “I See The Moon” as sung by my mommy.
My mommy sang this to me before bed every night and then would tuck me in and say “good night, good night.”
Oddly enough, there are no videos available of this so instead, here is a clip of the awesome Claire Danes singing it in the film “Evening.”
BTW, I had no idea this was written by Meredith Willson of “The...