Over 50 exotic animals, including many that are large and potentially dangerous, were released from the Muskingum County Animal Farm by their owner before he turned a gun on himself. Police officials and Columbus Zoo personnel quickly descended on the area to corral the animals.

He reduced his ERA to a ridiculous 1.87 mark (1.06 WHIP) and earned his 12th win of the season. Jurrjens has achieved these heights despite posting a low strikeout rate of 5.3 batters per nine innings. It’s helped markedly that Jurrjens has averages 2.03 walks per nine innings.

When you look into the splits, nothing stands out in the raw stats. His groundball-to-flyball ratio is sub-1.00, and I’ve already mentioned the low strikeout rate. Still, Jurrjens has made pitches when they’ve counted, and he’s been ultra-efficient. He completes innings at an average of 14.4 pitches per frame to tie for fifth in Major League Baseball. Interestingly, Jurrjens has earned decisions in 15 of 16 starts.

Woodley Speaks AFC and Linebackers

His fastball reportedly hit consistently in the low 90s and topped out at 97 mph. Most importantly, Feliz was low in the zone when he missed. That’s good news when considering his Arlington home.

Feliz will have multiple opportunities to pitch from the rotation before Nolan Ryan and Ron Washington make the decision of whether he’ll stay in the rotation or return to the closer role. The 22-year old hurler stated that he’ll do whatever is asked of him by the team when asked about his preferred role after the game. Management wants more. Ryan wants to see the desire and certainty from Feliz that the team saw when former closer C.J. Wilson asked to shift out the bullpen. Wilson won 15 games for the Rangers in 2010.

For fantasy purposes, there’s more at play. Certainly, Feliz has the strikeout punch to become an instant hero, provided that he moves past his early-spring control issues. The offense will provide ample support to allow him to pile up wins.

If he moves into the rotation, then Darren Oliver, who struck out four batters per walk issued in 2010 and pitched to a 2.65 ERA, would likely be first in line for save opportunities. Veteran reliever Arthur Rhodes is also onboard for the 2011 campaign.

For now, continue drafting Feliz as a top-flight closer. I chatted briefly with Nolan Ryan following the deal that sent Frank Francisco to Toronto and he was non-committal about the back-end of the rotation and Feliz’s role (and spoke of the potential contributions to be made by Dave Bush and former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb).

It’s one of the positional issues we’ll be monitoring throughout the month of March. Fire up the carousel!

In Illinois, horsemen and track owners are trying to get through the legislature to bring slot machines, the electronic salvation, in to fill up their coffers. The tracks continue to lose owners, trainers, drivers and jockeys to other states that have implemented the measure. Should the state step in?

Horse Racing Struggling in Illinois

“You can see the frustration on Phil Jackson’s face because he knows what’s happening.”

When asked point blank if Phoenix would win Game 4, Donaghy responded with this: “I’m not saying it’s a definite thing, but they’ll get the benefit of the calls.”

“It’s obvious how the referees are trained and programmed to put the teams that are down in the series at an advantage.”

Sigh. The home team got aggressive and drove the ball to the hoop. They didn’t settle for jumpshots and tried to force the action against the wounded Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. They did the same thing on Tuesday night. Bynum scored 12 points with eight rebounds, while Gasol added 15 points and five boards.

Look at the difference in the Los Angeles offense. They shot 33 three-point shots combined in games 1 and 2. In the past two games in Phoenix, the Lakers chucked up 60 three-point shots (connecting on 30%). They out-shot the Suns marginally on Tuesday overall, but Phoenix amassed 19 more all-important foul shots (15 more makes).

You go into the box score and you also see another couple troubling notes for the Lakers. The Lakers were -16 with Bynum on the court and -21 in Shannon Brown’s 13:38 of action. Brutal.

Donaghy claims that he was told to manipulate games and in pre-game meetings, told what to call and what to look for in games. He did clarify those statements to explain that he was never explicitly ordered to produce a specific outcome, although it had been implied.

He’s basically equating the NBA to soap operas and the WWE. You know it’s scripted. You get sucked into the drama, anyway. I guess Donaghy’s next book will have a chapter or two about the league’s partnership with TNT. “We know drama.” I want an investigation about the hours of “Law & Order” re-runs that I’m losing to NBA coverage, too.

Seriously, the whispers have always been there. The frozen envelope for the Knicks. The 2008 NBA Draft Lottery win by the Bulls … and countless other examples are cited. Fire up the telestrators and game film and we can find 1,000,000 uncalled traveling violations, big men camping in the lane for a week, palming, push-offs, “dirty” screens and touch fouls that altered substitution rotations and game flow.

I do appreciate that everyone remembers the lesson out of Woodward & Bernstein: “Follow the money.” I do.

Do I believe that the league would like to see Los Angeles and Boston battle again? There’s no question about it. With most of the stars still around from that historic rivalry (just find an online feed for an LA or Boston radio station), you’re likely to run into one of them.

I get the basic economic principles at play. More games equals more butts in seats, ad sales, marketing opportunities and so on …

Do I believe that David Stern is working an invisible hand to manipulate the outcomes of games? No chance. There’s enough human error in trying to keep up and call 48 minutes of activity with some of the greatest athletes in sports. There are enough bang-bang plays to force quick decisions. Superstars get calls. That’s the nature of sport.

- In baseball, hitters or pitchers get the call on the edges based on their histories. Just ask Boggs or Maddux.
- In football, established linemen rarely get called for a hold, even if they’re mauling the charging defender. Established receivers get to put to push-off a bit and rarely get an offensive PI call.
- I need only one word here. QUARTERBACKS
- The referee looks the other way when the manager throws a foreign object into the ring.

Wait. That last one isn’t helping my point.

“Follow the money.” A direct link back to Commissioner Stern sees that money walking over to another sport and his work toward global domination swirling down the drain.

Might Donaghy eventually be tagged as basketball’s Jose Canseco? You know what I mean. He’s a man with questionable motives looking to sell a tell-all book and generating controversy. Canseco’s allegations have proven true time and again. Will Donaghy’s? He predicted a Suns win in Game 4 and got his W. Predicting games on a national radio/tv show, as Mr. Patrick pointed out, seemed to be a dubious move, but Donaghy did it nonetheless. In this case, he’ll need more corroboration from other officials and executives or a paper trail or positive drug tests as were obtained in the Major League Baseball inquiries.

I have to ask this … if David Stern was operating things in the matter Donaghy suggested, why wouldn’t the calls have shifted in the Lakers’ direction in light of his radio appearance? Wouldn’t the Commissioner flip a double-bird in the air to Donaghy and call off the Code Red? Don’t tell me that the hotline didn’t ring in the Commissioner’s office once Donaghy’s segment began to air. He’s ever-vigilant about his brand.

Now, push that aside for a minute. I do have a bone to pick with the Commissioner’s office about collecting checks from owners and front office folks (Mark Cuban and Steve Kerr) while chiming in about his desired destination for King James. I’ll save that rant for tomorrow.