17-year-old Lee Su-Min, who is averaging 139 pitches per game — IBAF.org

In American baseball, managers talk about pitch counts as if they’re a death sentence. Once a player has reached a certain number of pitches, he’s out. End of story. That’s particularly true in high school and youth baseball, where athlete’s bodies are still developing and the long term health of their arm may be more fragile.

There are no such concerns in Asia, which helps explain why one superstar teen pitching in South Korea is making national headlines at home while setting off blaring alarm bells in the U.S.

As reported by the Yong Hap news agency, Daegu (S.K.) Daegu Sangwon High School pitcher Lee Su-Min set a new national prep record with 26 strikeouts in the course of a 10-inning game. Lee through all 10 innings of the matchup against area rival Daegu (S.K.) High School, allowing just three hits and three walks in a 2-1 victory.

In the process, the 17-year-old starting pitcher threw an astounding 162 pitches. Perhaps ironically, given Lee’s remarkable control, his team won on a walk-off walk in the bottom of the 10^th.

While Lee’s 162 pitches would make anyone concerned, they’re only a small part of his worrisome overall workload. Again according to Yong Hap, the teen is averaging 139 pitches per game in 2013.

For his part, Lee claims that he has felt no arm problems despite the high pitch counts, perhaps because he gets five off days -- one more than a standard MLB workload -- between starts. Still, 139 pitches is an awful lot to put out even over the course of a week.

His manager seems to realize that such a lofty pitch count may not be able to last, either. Daegu Sangwon manager Park Young-jin told Yong Hap that he is already considering using Lee as a closer rather than a starter during the second half of the season just to keep him healthy.

When you’re the best hitter on the planet and you're coming off the first Triple Crown season in MLB since 1967, you really don't need too much luck in your favor or assistance from your opponents.

Of course that doesn't mean you won't take a little of either when you get it, and that's exactly why Miguel Cabrera was happy to take both on Wednesday night when his warning track fly ball bounced off the glove of Cleveland Indians center fielder Michael Bourn and ended up dropping in the first row of seats for his 13th home run of the season.

Honestly, it wasn't nearly as hilarious as Jose Canseco assisting a home run with his noggin back at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium (or Lakefront Stadium), but it's a rare enough event that it will always be funny regardless of time, place or circumstance.

In this case, Cabrera's gift home run came in the eighth inning of a wild affair that saw starting pitchers Justin Verlander and Ubaldo Jimenez get bounced around early and often. There was also a 62-minute rain delay in the middle of the fifth inning, which Verlander surprisingly returned after to qualify for his fifth win, and then another long delay a couple innings later.

In a head-scratching moment during the Colorado Rockies 4-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon, the umpiring crew that includes Angel Hernandez took time to huddle up and then review a fair-foul ruling that would NOT have resulted in a home run regardless of their determination, was not interfered with, and never came close to leaving the field of play.

Those are the three big criteria a call needs to be reviewed.

Of course we all remember Angel Hernandez from several bizarre incidents and rulings over the years, but the freshest in our minds is the botched home run review in Cleveland two weeks ago. These were entirely different circumstances that played out at Coors Field. The game was in no way decided by what happened, but it was no less weird, and the men in blue won't come off looking much better.

It happened during the sixth inning with Dexter Fowler at the plate. Fowler hit a towering fly ball down the right field line that was pushed into the corner by a pretty strong crosswind. The result was a ball striking high upon the wall, where only a white line separates fair from foul, before dropping back into play.

Though it hit high on the wall, at no point did it appear to be a home run or anything reviewable. In fact, Fowler and D-Backs' right fielder Gerardo Parra went through the motions as if the ball were live and in play, only stopping when first base umpire Doug Eddings' foul ball ruling had become clear. That was the correct call, by the way, as several replays confirmed Fowler missed a likely double by mere inches.

Tony Pulis with the Olympic torch in May 2012. (Getty)

Tony Pulis' second spell as Stoke City manager has come to an end following a disappointing season in which the club finished 13th in the Premier League. After his initial three years with Stoke between 2002 and 2005, Pulis returned in the summer of 2006. He won promotion to the Premier League and eventually led Stoke to their first ever FA Cup final in 2011 and a spot in the Europa League. The baseball cap and tracksuit wearing 55-year-old, who physically fought one of his own players in 2009, ultimately didn't reach the heights expected of him with the money he was able to spend. So now he's gone.

But on his way out the door, he took a cue from Roberto Mancini's full-page ad in the Manchester Evening News saying goodbye to Man City supporters last weekend and penned a farewell letter to Stoke fans that ran in a local paper.

From The Sentinel:

I'D like to start by thanking every single one of you who have made the last decade so special for me at Stoke City.

I am grateful for this

(AP)The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

Chris Davis’ hot-hitting season continued with four more hits, including his American League leading 14th home run, as the Orioles locked up an important division series with a 6-3 win over the New York Yankees. Davis’ two-run blast in the first inning capped a three-run rally against Hiroki Kuroda. Nick Markakis also homered in the inning. Matt Wieters later added a three-run homer that proved to be the difference.

All important hits in a big game, but it was Davis who kept the line moving with productive at-bat after productive at-bat. And as he noted after the game, the series was of utmost importance to the Orioles. And not just because it was their biggest competition within the division. David Ginsburg of the Associated Press tells us more:

In the opener Monday night, Baltimore closer Jim Johnson blew a ninth-inning lead and Baltimore absorbed its sixth straight loss. The Orioles rebounded to win in 10 innings on Tuesday night before coasting in the finale.

''Anytime a division rival comes in, you want to try to win the series especially when you're at home,'' Davis said. ''We avoided the snowball effect to some degree and were able to get back on track.''

The Yankees have also avoided the snowball effect this season despite numerous injuries. They added another on Wednesday night as Kuroda was forced to leave in the third inning after being struck on the calf by a Manny Machado line drive. At this time it's not believed to be a serious concern, but one could understand if Yankees fans held their breath a few hours longer.

This isn't just the year of great fan catches, this is the year of the fan making a miraculous catch while dangerously cradling a baby.

First, we had a fan in Houston making a sweet lunging catch with his cap while leaning over a row of seats with a baby in his left arm. Now, we have a daring fan in San Francisco, who on Wednesday afternoon was standing in an aisle along the third base side at AT&T Park when the left-handed swinging Brandon Crawford sliced a foul ball in his direction.

With the young child sort of sitting on his left arm like you might see on a shopping cart, the fan reaches out and casually snags the ball in a backhanded fashion not unlike what we often see from Crawford when fielding a ball in the hole at shortstop. In other words, it was a slick play. Then, in one swift motion, he holds the ball up for all to see as the crowd around him gives a nice ovation.

Josh Nicholls has four goals and two assists in the MasterCard Memorial Cup.Saskatoon, Sask. – The Saskatoon Blades know they don’t have time to dwell on their 4-2 loss against the Portland Winterhawks in their final round-robin game on Wednesday.

The Bridge City Boys have to regroup quickly and focus on the London Knights in the MasterCard Memorial Cup's tiebreaker game not even 24 hours after getting off the ice.

“Usually after a loss, you have a couple days to look back at your mistakes and go over the game, but not this one,” said Blades winger Shane McColgan, who scored Saskatoon’s first goal of the game. “We have to have a short memory and just put the game behind us. We now just have to get prepared for the Knights.”

“We have to forget this game just focus on London for tomorrow night's game,” added Blades forward Brett Stovin. “We now have to win every game from here on out and have to focus on just what is ahead of us.”

Star forward Josh Nicholls believes playing against London shortly after the Portland loss can work to Saskatoon’s advantage.

“We

(@SimplyAJ10)With themed outfits becoming a trend du jour among baseball teams, members of the Baltimore Orioles decided to get extra denim-y Wednesday as they traveled from New York to Toronto to start a series with the Blue Jays.

The look is called the "Canadian Tuxedo" — a denim-on-denim get-up that's fashionable in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. Only this wasn't a group of hipsters being ironic or Canadian Olympians poking fun at themselves, it was Adam Jones and his crew fully being aboot that denim life.