Bojay's Baseball Blog

The Powder Blue Menace

2009-05-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

The overarching thing of the Winter seemed to be "who are the next Rays?"

I remained fairly non-committal on the subject. I don't think there will be another 08 Rays for a long time. But that doesn't mean there can't be surprises. And there definitely have been so far.

The Blue Jays are out-slugging everyone. The Tigers are playing defense for a change. The Padres look like an actual Major League Baseball team. And the Marlins look like a juggernaut.

But there is only one team who I define as "real." Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 Royals are the real deal.

It isn't just luck, grit and Zack Greinke. It is talent. The Royals have it in spades. The line-up is balanced, strong and deep. The rotation looks sharp, everyone knows their place on the field and the bullpen...well, the bullpen has Joakim Soria.

It has gotten so bad that I am starting to see George Brett charging at me in my dreams. AL Central, look out: Kansas City is legit. This doesn't mean that they are GOING to win the Division. But they definitely, definitely could.

Player of the Week

Jason Bay OF - Boston Red Sox. Jason Bay reached base 60% of the time this week. 60%. Of. the. Time. All together now: Holy crap. I am feeling pretty good about my Red Sox on top of the world prediction right now and Jason Bay is a big reason why.

The only question now is what the middle of the Red Sox line-up will look like a week or two from now. If Terry Francona bases everything purely on performance, Red Sox Nation will be looking at a Youkilis, Bay, Drew, Ortiz 3-4-5-6. The only problem is the pairing of righties and lefties. But with the state of left-handed relief in that division, they may not even worry about it.

So mark my words: the Red Sox are winning this division and Jason Bay is going to be a big reason why.

Pitching Performances

Zack Greinke, just continues to blow my mind. And he is tailor-made to become America's sweetheart. Debilitating medical disorder? Check. Boyish good looks? Check. Laser/Rocket Arm? Check. I just worry about all the exposure with him. I am not sure the cover of Sports Illustrated with the text "The Best Pitcher in Baseball" is good for someone who has a history of reacting poorly to pressure.

Elsewhere in the Midwest, Yovani Gallardo is just mowing bitches down. And I am the benefactor of it (picked him in Fantasy!) It is remarkable what talent + a whole year off will do for you. If the Brewers stay in contention, we could be talking Cy Young here.

Fantasy Minute with BBB

My experiment after four weeks of the season is a solid 10 out of 10. I am 3 and 0 in my league, having just beaten the only other undefeated team. I am loving Fantasy Baseball. Usually in Football, I would be so far behind after four weeks that the trades would begin. But honest to God I haven't even begin to start pondering roster moves. It has been such a relief to leave my line-up alone and just check in every day and watch the carnage that my team is wreaking. My MVP of the week is Jorge Cantu. Only 20 more weeks for an undefeated season!

Linking it Up

- Oh reallly???

- Smell that in the air? That's the draft, baby, the D-R-A-F-T.

- I really can't get enough of this.

Odds and Ends

- I am one of twelve people on the planet who thinks Joba Chamberlin should remain a starter.

- Don't look now but my boy Pujols is as good as ever.

- Alfonso Soriano won't crack 30-homers this year. This start is the definition of aberration.

- Travis Hafner quietly ended up on the DL. Fmylife.

- Props go out to Joe Saunders, Jered Weaver and Shane Loux for keeping the Angels playoff hopes alive.

April 2009 Power Rankings

2009-04-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

At the end of every month here at Bojay's, I will be posting the Major League Baseball Power Rankings as I see them.

The prevailing trend in sportswriting seems to be picking Power Rankings every week or every ten days. But I think every month is the way to go. If I had done Power Rankings after the first week: the Rays would have been ranked very high and the Padres very low.

I just find this to be more accurate.

30. Washington Nationals

I can't imagine them ever getting out of this spot all season. The "Natinals" need to start shopping: Adam Dunn, Nick Johnson, Austin Kearns, Josh Willingham, Ronnie Belliard, Scott Olsen and Christian Guzman sooner rather than later.

29. Houston Astros

Answer me this: what does an Astros fan have to be excited about? They are essentially down to a 4-man rotation, only one of which is good.....and no, I don't mean Wandy Rodriguez.

28. Los Angeles Angels

I hate to do it after all that this team has gone through but just look at that rotation. Ever heard of Shane Loux? No? Well that's their 3rd pitcher! I wasn't too high on this team going into the season but now they might actually be battling for 2nd in the division.

27. Oakland Athletics

The good news for Angels fans is that this is the team they are battling. Billy Beane had better be right about his young pitching because it is the Athletics only hope.

26. Milwaukee Brewers

Gallardo is looking like the Ace everyone thought he was. But after him it has been pretty ugly. I don't know why they had $100 million for CC but $0 for everyone else. If there is money in that front office, they should use it. This team can still compete.

25. Cleveland Indians

Hafner seems to be back and Martinez is unquestionably back and probably the best Catcher in baseball. Still its the pitching that is killing them (and that seems to be killing all the lower half-ranked teams). More 6-7 innings are needed from the starters so the bullpen doesn't have an opportunity to blow the game.

24. Colorado Rockies

Don't look now but Matt Holliday's replacement in LF, Seth Smith has a .961 OPS.

23. New York Mets

Johan is doing everything he can to win the Cy Young. And the scary part is that he is always better in the second half.

22. Arizona Diamondbacks

I think there were more problems with the starting rotation than most people realized. And now that Brandon Webb is out, things are only going to get worse.

21. Philadelphia Phillies

A sluggish start is nothing to be worried about, especially for the defending World Champs. But it might hurt my prediction that the Phils will be a powerhouse all year.

20. Minnesota Twins

They cannot panic and bring Mauer back too soon.

19. Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles seem to be right in line with what I thought they'd be: young, inexperienced but not incompetent.

18. Tampa Bay Rays

The fact that they started out strong tells me that they're still for real. Don't worry about this recent tailspin. Evan Longoria might thrust his name into conversation for best player in the League by the time this season is over.

17. Texas Rangers

DO. NOT. SLEEP. ON. THE. RANGERS. The AL West is now the worst division in baseball I believe. 85 wins may take this thing. Now doesn't that high-powered Rangers offense look good for 80-85 wins?

16. San Francisco Giants

Pablo Sandoval doesn't look like an All-Star. And that in and of itself might be enough to crush the Giants' playoff hopes.

15. Atlanta Braves

They overpaid for their pitching, but at least its better. Jorge Campillo is going to start doing more for them as well.

14. Chicago White Sox

They've been the definition of mediocre so far. But Carlos Quentin hasn't.

13. Seattle Mariners

The AL West may be awful, but I do think you can sleep on them. Even if King Felix and Erik Bedard are themselves, they just won't score enough Runs.

12. Detroit Tigers

I am worried I may have overlooked the Fielding factor on this team. They are so absurdly better on defense this year than last that it might be good for 10 more wins.

11. Cincinatti Reds

They can't keep this up. Not without a half-decent Edinson Volquez.

10. San Diego Padres

I am going out on a limb. Heath Bell in his prime will be better than Trevor Hoffman in his prime.

9. Pittsburgh Pirates

They've showed their fans something at least. They can't keep this up but maybe they can crawl out the NL Central. (Most of) That pitching is not a mirage.

8. Chicago Cubs

They may be winning but they are not looking good doing it. Milton Bradley is batting .043.

7. Kansas City Royals

It is shocking how much of a difference Coco Crisp has made at the top of the line-up. And who knew David DeJesus could carry the load of a #3 hitter? If Bannister and Davies continue their excellence, the Royals will not spend a day out of 1st place this season.

6. New York Yankees

With A-Rod back in that line-up and in that new wind tunnel of a stadium, the Yanks will probably have the most high-powered offense in baseball.

5. Boston Red Sox

They are essentially doing all of this without Big Papi and Dice-K. They will be 1st in these rankings before you know it.

4. St. Louis Cardinals

They are good, but not this good. Kudos to Ryan Ludwick to coming out of the gate strong. Boos to Rick Ankiel for not performing when Coby Rasmus is breathing down your neck.

3. Toronto Blue Jays

They are the mirror image of themselves from last year: awesome hitting, awful pitching. Something has to give...and I think that awesome hitting is going to start falling off.

2. Florida Marlins

Are they for real? In a word: Yes. In 7 words: You bet your sweet ass they are.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

The hottest team in baseball right now. Call me crazy but I still think that rotation holds up.

The House that Damaso Marte Built

2009-04-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

On April 18, 1923, Babe Ruth christened Yankees Stadium with a 3-run homer en route to a 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox. On April 16, 2009, Damaso Marte gave up a Grand Slam to Grady Sizemore en route to a 10-2 loss against Cleveland Indians.

After their victory in 1923, the Yankees went on to win 26 World Championships and become the most successful franchise in the history of North American sports. After their loss in 2009 ... well that remains to be seen. For those of you who believe in such things: the Universe may be sending us a sign regarding the direction of baseball for the next Century. For those of you who do not believe such things: the Indians took enough pitches to knock the Hefty Lefty out of the game just in time to victimize a truly awful bullpen and save a fighting Cliff Lee.

But now that the Yankees have opened up the House that Damaso Built it feels like the baseball season has truly started. Are there any themes we can notice yet? Power production seems to be down but that is nothing new. Perennial favorites (Yanks, Mets, Sox, etc.) are all struggling but again that is nothing new because I picked them and obviously jinxed them for the early season (sorry Tribe!). The only thing that seems to be the constant in the early-goings is loss. And I don't mean "loss" as in "opposite of win", I am referring to all of the baseball figures that have died recently.

One expects a few players to be placed on the DL in the beginning of the new season. But it seems to me that baseball has lost more than its fair share of important men forever. The Angels lost a current player, the Tigers lost a former player and the Phillies lost a current broadcaster. I know they say death comes in threes, but come on!

Player of the Week

Look, I don't want to be too Yankees-centric this week, but Nick Swisher has to be the guy. I was so confused as to why Yanks fans were down on the trade for him. The dude has power...like 20-25 HR legit power, gets on-base at will and is basically Kevin Millar 2.0 personality-wise. But I know how smart Yankees fans are, they probably missed Wilson Betemit and all the great things he brings to a baseball team. Nick Swisher is POW this week (I love that the initials are the same as "Prisoner of War) for proving me right. This guy should be batting 5th or 6th all year...even in that line-up.

Pitching Performances that Rocked

I was sitting around bored the other day, when I flipped open my phone to check scores around the league. It was then that I read of Josh Johnson and Johan Santana's duel. Look, I am not Johan's biggest fan, but even I had to give the old golf-clap to his 16 Ks. And it was a losing effort! I knew once I saw that box score that that was a game I would have loved to see. I get the feeling that the Marlins are going to engage in a Pitching duel more than once this year. Props also go out to Tim Wakefield for a masterful performance when his team needed it.

Wha...?

I guess it is perfectly normal to witness a cycle two days in a row by Second-Basemen (Orlando Hudson, Ian Kinsler). This game confuses me sometimes.

Fantasy Minute with BBB

So far, so great for my experiment. I had the fourth overall pick and ended up selecting Jose Reyes. I know, he wasn't the best SS available according to my Bojalad Factor stat but the players I really wanted would be available later on and Jose Reyes wouldn't. The only player in the first round that I truly coveted was Wright and he was gone after pick three. I ended up with several guys I targeted: Carlos Quentin, Carlos Beltran, Justin Morneau, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Victor Martinez. And the early results have been unbelievable. I squeaked out a little win in the first week and have now been dominating my opponent every single day in Week Two. My confidence in Bojalad Factor is currently 10/10.

Linking it Up

I really enjoyed Michael Bamberger's profile of Jamie Moyer.

Paul Lukas is dead-on about the influx of sleeve patches in baseball right now.

And this will never stop making me happy.

Odds and Ends

- Chris Carpenter to the DL? Ohhh boy. This should worry you, Cards fans.

- The more I see Brandon Inge play, the more I understand why everybody raves about his Defense at 3B. Seriously, he was Brooks Robinson-esque this week. Making him a Catcher would be like putting hand-cuffs on a painter.

- Evan Longoria will win the MVP. If I had my doubts before, they are no longer there.

- My brother went to the Diamondbacks game in Arizona on Wednesday. He loved Chase Field...he did not love Jon Garland.

- The Nationals really need to start trading people ASAP. Forget the fact that they are 0 and 5 trillion, for a second and remember they have 5 decent outfielders on their team. What business do they have keeping Elijah Dukes off the field and making my Fantasy team suffer?

Emiiiiiilllliiiiiooooo!!!

2009-04-11T00:00:00.003-04:00

Player of the Week

Man, what an Opening Week. There was so much baseball out there floating around, just waiting to be watched that it made my head hurt. I don't get the MLB Network, I don't have the Extra Innings package, and I own no MLB TV service on my computer. I am just a college student with standard cable who wants to watch as much baseball as we can. And from that sample size: this is what I can glean.

We have a very clear cut Opening Week Player of the Week. And she shares his name with the Mighty Ducks' coach. Emiiiiiiilllllliooooo Bonafacio ate Washington pitchers for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is nothing quite as exciting as Opening Day ... except maybe for an inside-the-park homer. So Emilio nearly exploded baseball fan's hearts by providing us all with a double dose of excitement on April 6.

The Aces (Current and Former Tribe Edition)

As for my Indians, it isn't looking so good. Both Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona defined the term "meltdown" in their two initial starts. But what is sadder is the fact that the offense couldn't produce more than 6 runs in Arlington (a.k.a the place where home runs are born). It could be worse though, the Indians could have had CC Sabathia pitch the owner. Ouuuuuch. I am sorry, CC, you're my dude but even you have to know that that isn't going to cut it in the Bronx. Cliff Lee had some good signs in his initial outing. He was striking people out when he needed to and even settled into a groove at certain points. There were just a few times that he missed his spot that the Rangers capitalized. And the Rangers DO look excellent, by the way. But CC really had no signs of life to speak of in his start. He was in danger early on and never seemed to get out it.

Ladies and Gents, Your Defending World Champions

Speaking of run support ... I think it is too easy to blame Brett Myers for the Phillies first game. Sure, he fell apart in the early going, but he DID settle down later in the game and we was pitching in a game that Cole Hamels was supposed to pitch in. If I'm Charlie Manuel, I am more worried by the fact that the Phillies hitters laid an egg on Opening Night, in their hitter-friendly park while facing Derek Lowe. Having said that: Derek Lowe was dealing on Sunday night. If he can resemble an Ace for 4 or 5 months, I will feel pretty good about my 2nd-in-the-East Braves pick. Jair Jurrjens did exactly what he was supposed to and nearly replicated Derek Lowe's start the day before exactly. But then came the Phighten Phils in an 8-run 7th inning outburst that I would have loved to have witness. I didn't, so for now I can only assume that it was an aberration and the Phils need to get their bats along with the program.

Fantasy Minute with BBB

I have never really been much for Fantasy Baseball. I play Fantasy Football every year but have never enjoyed the Baseball version. It is really only for two reasons: A) I am very forgetful and would surely never remember to set my line-ups every day. B) I never shut up about how I know everything there is to know about Major League Baseball, so it will be really embarrassing when I finish dead-last. But this year I am finally going for it. I am in a small 8-team league with some of my family.

So, to curb the embarrassment of a last-place season, I have come up with a poorman's formula to determine the best players available. I don't know anything about Fantasy Baseball rules so I don't know if the rules we are playing with are the norm, but I noticed that statistical category was about 1 point. There were, however, a few exceptions. Home runs, RBIs, wins, Stolen bases are all worth more points, while Strikeouts (for hitters) will cost you a point. So I thought I would simply add up all of the "major" categories and subtract anything that took points away.

I have found that all the pitchers essentially add up to the same result so I won't be using the formula for them anymore. But when it comes to hitters, results can vary anywhere from -65 to +68. I think it is fairly promising so I am going to give it a go with the hitters in my Fantasy draft.

The math is basically a kindergarten level and I did not account for the actual point level. So a 5-point homerun and a -1-point strikeout are weighted the same under my little equation. It is imperfect and probably a little stupid but I think it could work. My draft is tonight (Thursday) so I will keep you updated periodically on my progress to see if my goofy little formula works for Fantasy Baseball. Consider me a guinea pig (emphasis on the "pig") for this concept.

In case you are curious, here are the 5 best hitters under my equation, (let's call it the Bojalad Factor):

1. Dustin Pedroia 2B - +68

1. Carlos Beltran CF - +68

3. Justin Morneau 1B - +67

4. Carlos Quentin LF - +63

4. Mark Teixeira 1B - +63

And here are the best players by postion:

Catcher: Victor Martinez (based on 07 stats) - +63

First-Base: Justin Morneau - +67

Second-Base: Dustin Pedroia - +68

Third-Base: David Wright - +54

Short-Stop: Jimmy Rollins - +62

Outfield: Carlos Quentin - +63

Outfield: Carlos Beltran - +68

Outfield: Josh Hamilton - +45

Potential first overall picks Albert Pujols and Hanley Ramirez received +56 and +13, respectively, under my little system. The absolute worst player I measured was Mark Reynolds with a back-breaking -68. Any other players you would like to know about are available upon request.

Now, let's start this experiment to see if I can draft a competitive Fantasy team.

Linkin' it Up

Bill Simmons may barely write about anything other than basketball anymore but he still has a keen eye about the goings on in baseball. His profile of A-Rod is dead-on to me.

Spending in baseball is universally down this year and the Yankees are leading the cost-cutting charge!

Oh and here are the top 25 earners in baseball per FoxSports.

Odds and Ends

- Is it just me, or does anyone else find it strange that Terry Francona batted Rocco Balldelli 5th and Jason Bay 6th against the Rays?

- I am completely terrified of Zach Greinke. I hope the Indians only have to see him 3 or 4 times this year.

- What is up with the offensive fire-power in the Padres-Diamondbacks series? Is the NL West going to score runs by the bunch this year?

- Speaking of NL West, Chad Billingsley should be the Dodgers Ace.

- My man-crush of Nick Markakis just grows every day.

- In the Sports Illustrated Baseball Preview, SI predicted the AL Cenral to finish in descending order of each team's manager's experience. (i.e Gardenhire - 10 years, Wedge - 7 years, Guillen - 6 years, etc.) It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

- Dallas Braden looked pretty bad for the A's. I can only hope it was just Opening Day jitters.

- If Chris Carpenter keeps on pitching like that, the Cards will be in the playoffs no problem.

Fallen Angel

Finally, there was the horrifically sad news this week that baseball has lost one of its most promising upcoming stars. Angels Pitcher, Nick Adenhart, was killed late Wednesday night when a car ran a red light and smashed into his car. Two other people were killed and one person was still in critical condition as of Thursday.

We don't know what Adenhart would have done in his career. That is the tough part about potential: it is only a shrewd idea in all our heads. But Nick did his part to make that idea a little less shrewd and a little more realistic. His final start, pitched only a few hours before his death, was an absolute gem. The first words MLB.com beat writer Lyle Spencer wrote in his game recap were:

"Nick Adenhart couldn't have been much better."

How fitting.

Rest in Piece, Nick Adenhart and all baseball fans' hearts go are surely going out to his friends, family and the Anaheim community.

2009 MLB Preview Pt. 3

2009-04-04T00:00:00.002-04:00

Well, this has been fun. I have done my AL Preview and my NL Preview and now it is time to add up all the loose ends. Who is going to win the World Series? Who will be the MVP? Who will simply be the best team in baseball in 2009?

The answers to all these questions and more in the thrilling conclusion of to Bojay's Baseball Blog's 2009 MLB Preview!

PLAYOFF BRACKET

AL Division Series 1

Boston Red Sox: 3 games - Cleveland Indians: 2 games

AL Division Series 2

Oakland Athletics: 3 games - Tampa Bay Rays: 2 games

AL Championship Series

Boston Red Sox: 4 games - Oakland Athletics: 2 games

NL Division Series 1

Philadelphia Phillies: 2 games - St. Louis Cardinals: 3 games

NL Division Series 2

Los Angeles Dodgers: 3 games - Chicago Cubs: 0 games

NL Championship Series

St. Louis Cardinals: 3 games - Los Angeles Dodgers: 4 games

World Series

Boston Red Sox: 2 games - Los Angeles Dodgers: 4 games

REGULAR SEASON RANKINGS

30. Pittsburgh Pirates - 50-55 Wins

29. San Diego Padres 50-55 Wins

28. Washington Nationals - 50-55 Wins

27. Seattle Mariners - 55-60 Wins

26. Houston Astros - 55-60 Wins

25. Chicago White Sox - 60-65 Wins

24. Arizona Diamondbacks - 60-65 Wins

23. Toronto Blue Jays - 60-65 Wins

22. Colorado Rockies - 70-75 Wins

21. Detroit Tigers - 70-75 Wins

20. Cincinatti Reds - 70-75 Wins

19. Baltimore Orioles - 70-75 Wins

18. Florida Marlins - 70-75 Wins

17. Milwaukee Brewers - 75-80 Wins

16. Texas Rangers - 75-80 Wins

15. New York Mets - 80 - 85 Wins

14. Kansas City Royals - 80-85 Wins

13. Atlanta Braves - 80-85 Wins

12. San Francisco Giants - 80-85 Wins

11. St. Louis Cardinals - 85-90 Wins

10. Minnesota Twins - 85-90 Wins

9. Los Angeles Angels - 85-90 Wins

8. Chicago Cubs - 90-95 Wins

7. Cleveland Indians - 90-95 Wins

6. Oakland Athletics - 90-95 Wins

5. New York Yankees - 90-95 Wins

4. Los Angeles Dodgers - 95-100 Wins

3. Philadelphia Phillies - 95-100 Wins

2. Tampa Bay Rays - 100-105 Wins

1. Boston Red Sox -100 - 105 Wins

All Star Line-ups

Line-up

1. Ichiro Suzuki RF - Seattle

2. Dustin Pedroia 2B - Boston

3. Mark Teixeira 1B - New York

4. Josh Hamilton CF - Texas

5. Carlos Quentin LF - Chicago

6. Evan Longoria 3B - Tampa Bay

7. Victor Martinez C - Cleveland

8. Derek Jeter SS - New York

Rotation

1. James Shields - Tampa Bay

2. Jon Lester - Boston

3. Ervin Santana - Los Angeles

4. Cliff Lee - Cleveland

5. CC Sabathia - New York

Bullpen

1. Jonathan Papelbon - Boston

2.Brian Fuentes - Los Angeles

C. Joakim Soria - Kansas City

Bench

1. Grady Sizemore CF - Cleveland

2. Kevin Youkilis 1B - Boston

3. Matt Holliday LF - Oakland

4. Jose Lopez 2B - Seattle

Line-up

1. Jimmy Rollins SS - Philadelphia

2. Chase Utley 2B - Philadelphia

3. Manny Ramirez LF - Los Angeles

4. Albert Pujols 1B - St. Louis

5. Carlos Beltran CF - New York

6. David Wright 3B - New York

7. Ryan Braun RF - Milwaukee

8. Geovany Soto C - Chicago

Rotation

1. Adam Wainwright - St. Louis

2. Cole Hamels - Philadelphia

3. Chad Billingsley - Los Angeles

4. Johan Santana - New York

5. Tim Lincecum - San Francisco

Bullpen

1. Brad Lidge

2. Carlos Marmol

C. Francisco Rodriguez

Bench

1. Hanley Ramirez SS - Florida

2. Russell Martin C - Los Angeles

3. Chipper Jones 3B - Atlanta

4. Andre Ethier RF - Los Angeles

Rookies of the Year

AL: Koji Uehara SP - Baltimore

NL: James McDonald SP - Los Angeles

Managers of the Year

AL: Bob Geren - Oakland

NL: Tony La Russa - St. Louis

Cy Youngs

AL: Jon Lester SP - Boston

NL: Chad Billingsley SP - Los Angeles

MVPs

AL: Evan Longoria 3B - Tampa Bay

NL: Albert Pujols 1B - St. Louis

So what are my final thoughts on the 2009 MLB Season?

I think the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I am not talking about dollar amounts, I am talking about WINS. Last year, baseball's middle class seemed to be pretty strong. The Indians finished at .500 and were above the median in terms of wins. To me this means there was a lot of parity last year and there were a lot of teams who had a chance at the Postseason. There were only about two teams who seemed to have punched their postseason ticket from the All-Star Break and on (the Rays and Angels) and there seemed to be as many as seven or eight teams who had NO shot from Opening Day on.

This year, things will be different. I think the better teams (see the top 8 of my rankings) suck up a lot more wins from the "Middle class"and I think the dregs remain the dregs. So the scenario looks like this: 10-12 teams playing to make the playoffs and win in the playoffs, 8-10 teams clearly playing for next year and 8-10 teams in no-man's-land just playing because they are legally obligated to participate in 162 games as members of Major League Baseball.

Of course, the cloud hanging over the season is no longer PEDs, but the economy. So what effect does that have on baseball? I think it depends on where baseball is being played. For the 10-12 teams in contention, this should not be a problem (provided that they offered appropriate ticket prices), and about half of the teams in the "bottom 8-10" don't spend enough money to be worried anyway (Pittsburgh, San Diego, Florida). The only teams in trouble as far as I'm concerned are the teams who are paying to be bad (Seattle, Detroit) and the teams who are in No-man's-Land. People will spend their disposable income on a competitive team, or on a bad team with hope for the future. But they won't spend their disposable income on a mediocre team that is "fighting" to get to .500.

That's my two cents. And hopefully, you now have everything you need from me for the upcoming 2009 Baseball season. If it isn't enough, here are three of my favorite baseball articles from the past couple of weeks.

Stephen Strasburg-Quintillionaire

The Yankees 2009 Season

Verducci's 2009 MLB Preview

While I basically live my life to read and write Previews for upcoming baseball seasons, even I get sick of the anticipation at some point.

Enough talking about it. Let's get playing!

*Update* That was an excellent opening game (more on this Saturday)! I forgot to link to Rosenthal's preview so here t'is.

2009 MLB Preview pt. 2

2009-03-28T03:00:00.002-04:00

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST

1. Boston Red Sox

1. Jacoby Ellsbury CF
2. Dustin Pedroia 2B
3. David Ortiz DH
4. Kevin Youkilis 1B

5. Jason Bay LF
6. J.D Drew RF

7. Mike Lowell 3B
8. Jason Varitek C

9. Jed Lowrie SS

1. Josh Beckett

2. Jon Lester

3. Daisuke Matsuzaka

4. Brad Penny

5. Tim Wakefield

1. Justin Masterson

2. Hideki Okajima

C. Jonathan Papelbon

Key Player: Jacoby Ellsbury

BBB Off-season Ranking: 1st of 14 in AL

Analysis: Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Major League Baseball's best team in 2009. People seem to be slightly down on the Sox this year (including Boston Sports Guy Bill Simmons) and I am not quite sure why. When I look at this team, I see the closest thing the 2009 season has to perfection. Would you like to hear their POTENTIAL weaknesses? Here goes: Jacoby Ellsbury, End of the rotation guys like Brad Penny and Tim Wakefield. Would you like to hear their almost undeniable strengths? Here goes: everything else. This team is stacked and not just in terms of the talent on the field. Don't get me wrong the on-field talent is excellent as well, but it almost doesn't mean anything if you don't have an organization that is dedicated to winning from the top to the bottom. The Red Sox have that and more. The talent is there, the attitude is there and the intelligence is there. We are talking about a potential 100-win season here as far as I'm concerned.

2. Tampa Bay Rays

1. Akinori Iwamura 2B

2. B.J Upton CF

3. Carlos Pena 1B

4. Evan Longoria 3B

5. Carl Crawford LF

6. Pat Burrell DH

7. Matt Joyce RF

8. Dioner Navarro C

9. Jason Bartlett SS

1. James Shields

2. Scott Kazmir

3. Matt Garza

4. David Price

5. Andy Sonanstine

1. Grant Balfour

2. J.P Howell

C. Dan Wheeler

Key Player: Evan Longoria

BBB Off-season Ranking: 5th of 14 in AL

Analysis: The Rays are almost a different case entirely from the Red Sox. They have just as much talent as the Sawx do, if not more (that was not a typo; the Tampa Bay Rays may actually be more talented than the Boston Red Sox) but the intangibles seem a bit off. The baseball season is a long, tortuous grind and the Rays really squeezed every bit of juice out of last season as they could. They were a young team, unaccustomed to success battling for their very lives every day deep into October. Common baseball sense dictates that they are due for a letdown this year if only because they are emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted. I saw it happen first hand to the 2006 and 2008 Indians. Young teams just have a hard time bouncing back from big seasons like that. So what makes the 2009 Rays different? God, just LOOK at that team! Longoria and Pena could hit 40 homers each. Their line-up is so young, so fast, so athletic and so freaking balanced. And pound for pound, I think they have the best rotation in baseball. The bullpen is a bit of a question mark but bullpens always are. I think the Rays make the playoffs by the very skin of their teeth.

3. New York Yankees

1. Johnny Damon LF

2. Derek Jeter SS

3. Mark Teixeira 1B

4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Hideki Matsui DH

6. Jorge Posada C

7. Xavier Nady RF

8. Robinson Cano 2B

9. Brett Gardner CF

1. CC Sabathia

2. Chien Ming Wang
3. A.J Burnett
4. Andy Pettite
5. Joba Chamberlain

1. Edwar Ramirez
2. Damaso Marte

C. Mariano Rivera

Key Player: A.J Burnett

BBB Off-season Rankings: 3rd of 14 in AL
Analysis: So what does $430 million buy the Yankees? Third place in the division. To be fair, the Yankees are playing in what be the most competitive division of the decade but even with all their talent, they cannot win it. The Yankees may have fixed many of their problems and they may have just as much talent as any team in baseball but they also have more baggage, distractions and pressure than any team in baseball. Assembling baseball teams is a little more complex than paying a player to play a position you don't have filled yet. And when you overpay for that position you take away motivation. Just sweep your eyes over the Yanks line-up real quick. Think very hard about what players on that line-up you would want on your favorite team. Johnny Damon? Too old. Derek Jeter? Not a Shortstop anymore. A-Rod? Injured, insane and overpaid. Jorge Posada? Injured and old. Hideki Matsui? Injured, old and can't play anything other than DH. Brett Gardner? Not a starter. That leaves Robinson Cano, if he can get over himself; Xavier Nady, if you can suffer his poor fielding; and Mark Teixeira if you can afford him and don't mind having an emotionless cyborg in your clubhouse. Sure, their rotation is a lot better this year but it still isn't nearly as good as either the Rays or the Sox and those teams didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for their pitchers. I am also mystified that in their trillion-dollar spending spree, they forgot to pick up another bullpen arm who can achieve an ERA under 5.00. Call me a hater if you want, New York, but I am hard-pressed to believe that the Yankees will be any better than they were last year.

4. Toronto Blue Jays

1.Aaron Hill 2B

2. Adam Lind LF

3. Alexis Rios RF

4. Vernon Wells CF

5. Lyle Overbay 1B

6. Scott Rolen 3B

7. Travis Snider DH

8. Rod Barajas C

9. John McDonald SS

1. Roy Halladay

2. David Purcey

3. Jesse Litsch

4. Casey Janssen

5. Dustin McGowan

1. Jason Frasor

2. Brian Tallet

C. B.J Ryan

Key Player: Alexis Rios

BBB Off-season Ranking: 11th of 14 in AL

Analysis: Oh boy, does it look ugly in Toronto....and I don't just mean those hideous chrome jerseys. The payroll is getting pretty bloated and what do they have to show for it? Not much. I am at as much of a loss over Alex Rios and Vernon Wells poor performance as the Blue Jays. They do not have a good offense to begin with and Rios and Wells falling off the map only compounds matters. They don't even have their solid rotation to make up for the lack of hitting this year. And for the record: I think their pitching was overrated last year. So what should they do with a bad team,mediocre farm system in an un-winnable division. I am sorry to say it, but I think it time to start this thing over. Ricciardi, you tried hard but it didn't work out. You need to turn this ship around. The core of your team has been misjudged and you do not have a strong foundation to stand on. It is time to blow the thing up.

5. Baltimore Orioles

1. Brian Roberts 2B

2. Melvin Mora 3B

3. Nick Markakis RF

4. Aubrey Huff 1B

5. Adam Jones CF
6. Luke Scott DH

7. Ryan Freel LF

8. Matt Wieters C
9. Cesar Izturis SS

1. Jeremy Guthrie
2. Mark Hendrickson

3. Koji Uehara
4. Radahmes Liz
5. Rich Hill

1. Jim Johnson
2. George Sherrill
C. Chris Ray

Key Player: Koji Uehara

BBB Off-season Ranking: 6th of 14 in AL
Analysis: Speaking of blowing the thing up.... Last year the Orioles finally made the correct decision to rebuild with the hope of contending in a hopefully easier division a few years down the line. I am happy to report that the decision seems to be paying off. I think some of the position players they have in the Bigs are the real deal. Brian Roberts is legit, Adam Jones shows real potential and Matt Wieters is on his way. Then there is Nick Markakis who is the most underrated young player in baseball, but won't be for long. If they had any semblance of a pitching staff, I might even like them to finish 4th or even 3rd this year, but they aren't quite there yet. If they continue to collect a garrison of young pitchers through the draft and develop them well enough, the Orioles could be contenders in as early as two years from now. I am a big Andy MacPhail fan right now. The Blue Jays should pay attention to what he is doing because they will have to rebuild too in a year or two.

CENTRAL

1. Cleveland Indians

1. Grady Sizemore CF

2. Mark DeRosa 3B

3. Travis Hafner DH

4. Victor Martinez C

5. Jhonny Peralta SS

6. Shin Soo Choo RF

7. Ryan Garko 1B

8. Ben Francisco LF

9. Asdrubal Cabrera 2B

1. Cliff Lee

2. Fausto Carmona

3. Carl Pavano

4. Scott Lewis

5. Anthony Reyes

1. Jensen Lewis

2. Rafael Perez

C. Kerry Wood

Key Player: Travis Hafner

BBB Off-season Ranking: 2nd of 14 in AL

Analysis: Call me a homer, I don't care. The Indians are the deepest team in a very winnable Central. The line-up is a nice blend of vets and young, core-type guys. Barring a Travis Hafner renaissance, I don't think anyone will hit more than 25 homers in this line-up. But they are built in such a way that grinders like Sizemore (one of baseball's best young players) and DeRosa can produce runs at the top of the line-up. The bullpen has also gone from being a weakness to being as close to a sure thing as a volatile beast like a bullpen can be. The rotation is the biggest question but I truly believe that Cliff Lee will be CLIFF LEE again this year, inspiring and pushing his fellow hurlers to be better. I can't say that Pavano and Aaron Laffey/Lewis as a #4 and #5 doesn't make me nervous though. All in all the Tribe has the talent to contend and the organizational depth to ensure that they continue to contend.

2. Minnesota Twins

1. Denard Span LF
2. Alexi Casilla 2B
3. Joe Mauer C
4. Justin Morneau 1B

5. Michael Cuddyer RF

6. Joe Crede 3B

7. Jason Kubel DH
8. Carlos Gomez CF
9. Nick Punto SS

1. Scott Baker

2. Francisco Liriano

3. Nick Blackburn

4. Glen Perkins

5. Kevin Slowey

1. Pat Neshek
2. Craig Breslow
C. Joe Nathan

Key Player: Denard Span

BBB Off-season Ranking: 10th of 14 in AL
Analysis: This is a nice, balanced team. But it isn't without its questions. Is Michael Cuddyer still Michael Cuddyer? If not, can Delmon Young and Jason Kubel be legitimate power threats? Is the rotation really as good as it was last year? Will Denard Span's production fall off? The thing of it is, however, even if half of these questions are unfavorable, the Twins will still be in good shape. That's the nice thing about establishing a baseball organization the right way. Win or lose, the team will be hungry and they will play to the best of their abilities. I think the Twinkies fall off a bit from last year. Let's face it: they over-performed and are bound to come back down to Earth. But if Ron Gardenhire keeps the kids focused and playing hard (and he always does) they can grind out a 2nd place finish and maybe even a playoff appearance.

3. Kansas City Royals

1. Coco Crisp CF

2. MikeAviles SS

3. David DeJesus LF

4. Jose Guillen RF

5. Mike Jacobs 1B

6. Billy Butler DH

7. Alex Gordon 3B

8. Miguel Olivo C

9. Alberto Callaspo 2B

1. Gil Meche

2. Zack Greinke

3. Brian Bannister

4. Kyle Davies

5. Luke Hochevar

1. Kyle Farnsworth

2. Juan Cruz

C. Joakim Soria

Key Player: Luke Hochevar

Off-season Ranking: 8th of 14 in AL

Analysis: Here is your trendy Tampa-esque sleeper pick for the 2009 season. I am in agreement with the majority that K.C will take a giant leap forward this year, but I don't think it is a 2nd or 1st in the AL Central type step forward. But it IS a legitimate step forward and not a random aberration like the 2003 Royals (seriously, how random was that?). This line-up is young, fast and balanced. And that is the first step I look at when looking for a potential break-out team (see: Rays, Tampa Bay; Orioles, Baltimore). Finally, Alex Gordon doesn't have to worry about being "the guy" and can just be "Alex Gordon, Thirdbaseman, batting 6th or 7th in line-up." But my enthusiasm kind of tempers off a bit when I look at their rotation. Gil Meche has done the near-impossible and has earned the $55 million he is being paid and can even be called a legitimate Ace. Zack Greinke is dynamite as well. But after that.....meh. I used to be a big Brian Bannister guy, but after last year: who knows? Kyle Davies was probably a mirage and Luke Hochevar has been fairly worthless so far as a big-leaguer. The bullpen looks decent enough but lacks the young, nondescript guys that the prototypical surprise playoff team has. Of course, Joakim Soria is pitching the 9th, so there is always hope. KC will be much better but I don't see them making the playoffs. Although I did have a funny feeling about Tampa Bay last year and ended up picking them third as well, so theirs always a chance...

4. Detroit Tigers

1. Curtis Granderson CF
2. Placido Polanco 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera 1B
4. Magglio Ordonez RF

5. Carlos Guillen LF
6. Gary Sheffield DH
7. Brandon Inge 3B
8. Ramon Santiago SS

9. Gerald Laird C

1. Justin Verlander
2. Armando Galaraga
3. Jeremy Bonderman

4. Edwin Jackson
5. Dontrelle Willis

1. Joel Zumaya
2. Fernando Rodney
C. Brandon Lyon

Key Player: Justin Verlander

BBB Off-season Ranking: 4th of 14 in AL
Analysis: This could be a big uh-oh season for the Tigers. Either they had poor chemistry last season which lead to a flukey failure. Or they severely misjudged the quality of their core and have to start from scratch. I am guessing that the "uh-oh" will come to fruition. This team is starting to look pretty old, pretty overpaid and pretty bad. Everyone in the line-up is out of position and everyone is on the downside of his career aside from Curtis Granderson and Miguel Cabrera. The bullpen still sucks, possibly worse so than last season. The only hope that the Tigers have going into their 2009 is their rotation. I see Verlander bouncing back, Galaraga maintaining excellence and Edwin Jackson establishing himself as a #3 or #4 starter. But Bonderman, Willis and Robertson are all pretty much toast. So the real question becomes: can the ancient, bloated line-up happen into enough runs to help out Verlander/Galaraga/Jackson? I am going to guess: no.

5. Chicago White Sox

1. Jerry Owens CF

2. Alexei Ramirez SS

3. Carlos Quentin LF

4. Jim Thome DH

5. Jermaine Dye RF

6. Paul Konerko 1B

7. A.J Pierzynski C

8. Josh Fields 3B

9. Chris Getz 2B

1. Mark Buerhle

2. Gavin Floyd

3. John Danks

4. Clayton Richard

5. Bartolo Colon

1. Octavio Dotel

2. Scott Linebrink

C. Bobby Jenks

Key Player: Clayton Richard

BBB Off-season Ranking: 13th of 14 in AL

Analysis: This is my ballsiest pick of the off-season. The White Sox will go from 1st to worst in the AL Central. There is some talent to be had on this team. Carlos Quentin terrifies me....like haunts-me-in-my-nightmares-terrifies me. I don't want my Tribe pitchers having to pitch to a 40-homer threat for the next decade or so. But every one else in that line-up is pretty tame. Kenny and Ozzie wanted to get more athletic. I think they just confused athletic for "worse." They have no one to play CF and no one to lead off. I don't like any of their 2B options and who knows how Ramirez will handle shortstop (although I like him at #2 in their line-up). Thome, Dye and Konerko are all done, they just don't know it yet. And no one from #5-9 in the line-up is close to anything what I would describe as athletic. The bullpen is due to regress (any bullpen relying on Octavio Dotel and Bobby Jenks as sure-things is bound to). The rotation looks half-way decent, however. Gavin Floyd and John Danks are legitimate Major League pitchers and Danks even has Ace-potential. I don't think Mark Buerhle will survive the inevitable purge though. The Sox will take their lumps in 2009 to rise again like a phoenix in 2010.

WEST

1. Oakland Athletics

1. Orlando Cabrera SS

2. Travis Buck RF
3. Jason Giambi 1B
4. Matt Holliday LF

5. Jack Cust DH
6. Eric Chavez 3B
7. Kurt Suzuki C

8. Ryan Sweeney CF
9. Mark Ellis 2B

1. Justin Duchserer
2. Dana Eveland
3. Sean Galagher

4. Gio Gonzalez
5. Dallas Braden

1. Joey Devine

2. Santiago Casilla
C. Brad Ziegler

Key Player: Eric Chavez

BBB Off-season Ranking: 7th of 14 in AL
Analysis: Maybe my eyes have been clouded by the fact that I read Moneyball this Winter, but I really like the A's to win the West. I like the line-up and bullpen better than the Angels Teixeira and K-Rod-less line-up and bullpen. Jason Giambi fits so well in Oakland that I am hard-pressed to understand why he ever left....oh GREED, that's right. Jack Cust is thanking his lucky stars that he can continue to DH and will reward the A's with a 30-homer season. How many teams can boast two left-handed hitting 30-homer sluggers with the one of the game's premier RBI men (Matt Holliday) in-between them? Suzuki, Cabrera and Ellis are all proven commodities and can help them win. If they get any sort of production out of Chavez, Buck, Barton and Sweeney, they should be the highest-scoring team in the West. The only area that worries me is the rotation. Duchserer and Eveland are both Ace-material but after them its a whole lot of question marks. Gio Gonzalez looked pretty awful last year and Sean Galagher has never looked particularly good. But if I have one abiding principle on this Earth, it is this: I believe in young pitching. And the A's have plenty of it in the pipeline. It's good enough for me to declare the Athletics the AL West winners.

2. Los Angeles Angels

1. Chone Figgins 3B

2. Bobby Abreu RF

3. Vladimir Guerero DH

4. Torii Hunter CF

5. Juan Rivera LF

6. Kendry Morales 1B

7. Howie Kendrick 2B

8. Mike Napoli C

9. Erick Aybar SS

1. John Lackey

2. Joe Saunders

3. Ervin Santana

4. Jered Weaver

5. Dustin Mosely

1. Scot Shields

2. Darren Oliver

C. Brian Fuentes

Key Player: Kendry Morales

BBB Off-season Ranking: 12th of 14 in AL

Analysis: In just one year's time, the Angels line-up went from everything I loved (young, athletic, balanced) to everything I hate (old, power-oriented, focused on righties). It is a shame because the Angels have been one of the most underrated team of the decade. But if they continue down the Juan Rivera, Gary Matthews Jr., Mike Napoli, Kendry Morales path they will be one of the worst of the next decade. To be fair, they can't control the fact that Vladimir Guerro is aging faster than mayonnaise left out of the fridge but they can cultivate young guys to step in and take people's place. And it looks to me that they have severely overestimated their young talent. If they were so high on Kendry Morales, why did they put off giving him a starting job until they were forced to? Why do they continue to sign more outfielders than any team really needs? It's because they don't have any better options. For better or worse, they are stuck with the line-up they have. It hasn't hurt in past seasons, because they have been good but the decline will be seen this year. The rotation will mask some of the bleeding, however. Lackey, Saunders, Santana, Weaver, Escobar is just a dynamite 1-5. Even if Escobar can't bounce back and Jered Weaver starts to resemble his older brother, their starting rotation can be good enough to earn them a playoff berth. That's not to say it will though...

3. Texas Rangers

1. Ian Kinsler 2B
2. David Murphy LF
3. Josh Hamilton CF
4. Michael Young 3B
5. Chris Davis 1B

6. Nelson Cruz RF

7. Hank Blalock DH

8. Taylor Teagarden C
9. Elvis Andrus SS

1. Kevin Millwood
2. Matt Harrison
3. Vincente Padilla
4. Brandon McCarthy
5. Dustin Nippert

1. Joaquin Benoit
2. C.J Wilson

C. Frank Francisco

Key Player: Brandon McCarthy

BBB Off-season Ranking: 9th of 14 in AL
Bottom Line: Here is another trendy pick for the 2009 season. While I understand why some people are excited, I don't think people in the Dallas-Arlington area should be purchasing playoff tickets just yet. True, this is the best line-up the Rangers have had in years. I see no reason why Josh Hamilton shouldn't continue to be MVP worthy. Ian Kinsler is one of the game's best middle infielders and is legitimate leadoff hitter. Michael Young looks good at 3B and looks good as a clean-up hitter. Even the outfield has some promise with guys like Murphy and Cruz. And we've all heard about the Rangers' young Catching ad nauseam. But much like the Orioles, and the Royals to a lesser extent, the Rangers are a team with a good line-up and a bad rotation. Kevin Millwood has been a decent Ace so far but how much longer can he keep it up? Vincente Padilla is okay as a 4th or 5th starter but is frequently expected to a 2nd or 3rd. Matt Harrison looked good last year but Brandon McCarthy did not. And when it comes to young pitchers in that bizarre ballpark, who really knows what to expect? It really wouldn't surprise me if McCarthy and Harrison completely switched roles this year. The bullpen is pretty good and the line-up is excellent but it just isn't there for the taking for the Rangers in 2009.

4. Seattle Mariners

1. Ichiro Suzuki RF

2. Yuniesky Betancourt SS

3. Adrian Beltre 3B

4. Ken Griffey Jr. DH

5. Jose Lopez 2B

6. Russell Branyan 1B

7. Kenji Johjima C

8. Endy Chavez LF

9. Franklin Gutierrez CF

1. Felix Hernandez

2. Erik Bedard

3. Brandon Morrow

4. Ryan Rowland-Smith

5. Carlos Silva

1. Roy Corcoran

2. Mark Lowe

C. Miguel Batista

Key Player: Erik Bedard

BBB Off-season Ranking: 14th of 14 in AL

Analysis: This team is so hopeless that I don't even really want to write about them. I know it is hard to announce a rebuilding phase when your fans overpaid to watch a 100-loss team in a bad economy last year, but the smart baseball move to be rebuild. To a certain extent, the M's are rebuilding but they are just being too damn gentle with it. They shouldn't be getting cute converting relievers like Brandon Morrow and Ryan Rowland-Smith into starters, they SHOULD BE TRADING THEM. TRADE, TRADE, TRADE. SELL, SELL, SELL. It is cute that Ken Griffey Jr. is on this team and I don't mind the Mariners bringing him on a farewell tour but guys like Russell Branyan, Adrian Beltre, Carlos Silva (I know no one would take him though), Miguel Batista, Erik Bedard, Kenji Johjima and Endy Chavez should not be on this team. The line-up will be terrible, the rotation will be terrible, the bullpen will be terrible, the defense will actually be excellent (Betancourt, Lopez, Beltre', Gutierrez, Chavez, Suzuki are all among the best at their position) but the team as a whole will be terrible as a whole. Jack Zduriencik cannot control the fact that this team will lose. 85 games, 95 games, 105 games, 115 games, it doesn't matter, this team will inevitably lose. But what he can control is the payroll. If this is an losing team with no hope, they should not be paying a dime over $60 million to lose. They are currently paying in the neighborhood of $100 million to lose.

2009 MLB Preview Pt. 1

2009-03-21T03:00:00.000-04:00

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST

1. Philadelphia Phillies

1. Jimmy Rollins SS

2. Shane Victorino CF

3. Chase Utley 2B

4. Ryan Howard 1B

5. Jayson Werth RF

6. Raul Ibanez LF
7. Pedro Feliz 3B

8. Carlos Ruiz

1. Cole Hamels

2. Brett Myers

3. Jamie Moyer

4. Joe Blanton

5. Chan Ho Park

1. Ryan Madson

2. Scott Eyre
C. Brad Lidge

Key Player: Joe Blanton

BBB Off-season Ranking: 7th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: I try not to be boring with my picks but this time I just had to go with the defending World Champs. I think the Phillies have a chance to be the MLB's New York Giants this year. That is to say, they are the defending World Champs but probably weren't the best team in the sport (I think Boston and Tampa were better last year) but they will be one of the best legitimate teams in baseball this year. For all we've heard about the AL East this year, I think the NL East could be just be good. The difference for the Phils that puts them at the cream of the crop is their bullpen. Yes, a bullpen is going to decide who the best team in the NL East is...don't tell me you're surprised. I also love that rotation. Cole Hamels might win the Cy Young this year and everyone else slides in nicely behind him. I would like the line-up a lot better if there was a power-hitting righty in there but I think it can score enough runs for a Division crown.

2. Atlanta Braves

1. Kelly Johnson 2B

2. Yunel Escobar SS

3. Brian McCann C

4. Chipper Jones 3B

5. Garet Anderson LF

6. Jeff Franceour RF

7. Casey Kotchman 1B

8. Jordan Schafer CF

1.Derek Lowe

2.Javier Vazquez

3. Jair Jurrjens

4. Kenshin Kawakami

5. Tom Glavine

1. Manny Acosta

2. Buddy Carlyle

C. Mike Gonzalez

Key Player: Jeff Franceour

BBB Off-season Rank: 14th of 16 in the NL

Analysis:I've yelled at the Braves quite a bit for over-spending this off-season. But the fact of the matter remains that their pitching is a lot better than it was last season. I like Derek Lowe as a legitimate Ace, Jair Jurrjens is an absolute monster, Tom Glavine and Javier Vazquez both project well for their respective spots in the rotation. Kawakami worries me though. Call me crazy but I think I like the line-up better without Mark Teixeira. It may be weird that their 1B bats near the end of the line-up but I don't think that makes it any less effective. Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar at the top of the order is just awesome...especially when Brian McCann and Chipper Jones have proven time and time again that they can drive them in.

3. New York Mets

1. Jose Reyes SS

2. Luis Castillo 2B

3. Carlos Beltran CF

4. David Wright 3B

5. Carlos Delgado 1B

6. Ryan Church RF
7. Daniel Murhpy LF

8. Brian Schneider C

1. Johan Santana
2. John Maine

3. Oliver Perez

4. Mike Pelfry

5. Freddy Garcia

1. J.J Putz

2. Pedro Feliciano
C. Francisco Rodriguez

Key Player: Francisco Rodriguez

BBB Off-season Ranking: 1st of 16 in the NL

Analysis: I am sorry, New York. I really don't enjoy predicting another season of pain for you but I think it is going to happen. The bullpen just isn't better and you all know it's the truth. Francisco Rodriguez and JJ Putz are the real deal...but two pitchers a bullpen does not make. I think the rotation is a little thin after Johan Santana. I just think that John Maine, Oliver Perez and Mike Pelfry are all #4 pitchers and not #2, #3 and #4. The Mets do have a high-powered offense, however, including one of baseball's best players in David Wright. It is tempting to choose the Mets to finish high in the division but I just don't think things will go the Mets way this year. They are really relying on their line-up this year and if someone underperforms or gets hurt they are screwed.

4. Florida Marlins

1. Cameron Maybin CF

2. John Baker C

3. Hanley Ramirez SS

4. Dan Uggla 2B

5. Jorge Cantu 1B

6. Cody Ross RF

7. Jeremy Hermida LF

8. Emilio Bonafacio 3B

1. Ricky Nolasco

2. Josh Johnson

3. Chris Volstad

4. Anibal Sanchez

5. Andrew Miller

1. Logan Kensing

2. Leo Nunez

C. Matt Lindstrom

Key Player: Andrew Miller

BBB Off-season Ranking: 5th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: I was tempted to choose the Marlins to pick second....then I realized that was insane. The Marlins have a deceptively good team on paper and I think a lot of that will translate to real-life. But they just aren't good enough to finish any higher than 4th in this brutal division. The thing is that they have such an excellent rotation. It might be the best in the East. Ricky Nolasco is absurdly good. Josh Johnson could be a #2 in this league and the Marlins are in love with Chris Volstad. If Anibal Sanchez and Andrew Miller can simply be a #4 and a #5, this rotation will be awesome. The bullpen might be the most cost effective in the Majors. The Mets much, much more for Francisco Rodriguez than the Marlins did for their whole bullpen and I really think I'd rather have the Marlins bullpen over the Mets. The only problem is that I don't see where the runs are coming from. Hanley Ramirez is probably the best young player in baseball right now and the Fish can build around him for years (the next seven, to be exact). But after him, there isn't much else. Cody Ross, Dan Uggla and Jorge Cantu are all essentially the same player. One high-strikeout/high-homerun guy is nice....three is annoying for exasperated hitting coaches. I am interested to see how Cameron Maybin and Emilio Bonafacio turn out. If they can be the #1 and the #2 to Hanley's #3, then I wouldn't count the Marlins out in 2009.

5. Washington Nationals

1. Christian Guzman SS

2. Lastings Milledge CF

3. Adam Dunn 1B

4. Ryan Zimmerman 3B

5. Josh Willingham LF
6. Elijah Dukes RF

7. Jesus Flores C

8. Anderson Hernandez 2B

1. Scott Olsen

2. Daniel Cabrera

3. John Lannan

4. Shawn Hill
5. Colin Balester

1. Garrett Mock

2. Joe Beimel

C. Joel Hanrahan

Key Player: Lastings Milledge

BBB Off-season Ranking: 6th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: Oh Nationals, what are you doing. Actually, I think we know a little bit too much about Jim Bowden has been up to. Har-har-har, I got my Bowden joke out of the way, Nationals fans (all six of you). But seriously...this team sucks. There is some promise in the line-up. Ryan Zimmerman is a legitmimate franchise player. He may not be the most talented, but he plays hard, he's fun to watch and he probably won't break the bank to stay in D.C. After him and Adam Dunn, there isn't much to be excited about. I'll give you that the bullpen could be surprisingly good. But bullpens are naturally fickle anyway. The rotation looks pretty bad. The Daniel Cabrera signing could work. Then again, it might not. John Lannan is the de facto "ace" but when you even has to use the word "de facto", you are in trouble from the get-go. Scott Olsen seems to have his personal problems and turned in a good season last year, but how long can he maintain his cheery disposition with the line-up costing him gangs. I don't know why anybody would go out of his way to get both Lastings Milledge AND Elijah Dukes. To me, they are essentially the same player. So why not take a chance on only one of them and not waste your time with two models of the same player? And for what it's worth: I don't think either of them will pan out.

CENTRAL

1. Chicago Cubs

1. Alfonso Soriano LF

2. Mike Fontenot 2B

3. Derek Lee 1B

4. Aramis Ramirez 3B

5. Milton Bradley RF

6. Geovany Soto C

7. Ryan Theriot SS

8. Reed Johnson CF

1. Carlos Zambrano

2. Rich Harden

3. Ryan Dempster

4. Ted Lily

5. SeanMarshall

1. Jeff Samardzija

2. Kevin Gregg

C. Carlos Marmol

Key Player: Milton Bradley

BBB Off-season Ranking: 13th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: I would love to rank the Cubs lower this year, I really would. It is my honest belief that they are far worse this year than they were last year. They made a lot of changes to their bullpen...not one of which was necessary and not one of which made them better. The rotation is good enough to bring them the NL Central crown for the third year in a row, but again: it is slightly worse than last year. They could benefit from a full season of Rich Harden, but when has Rich Harden ever pitched a full season? And who's to say that Ryan Dempster can replicate his success from last season. Zambrano is great, Lily is okay and whoever is the 5th starter will inevitably be bad. Does that sound like a World Series rotation to you? It isn't. I don't know why I am coming down so hard on the Cubs, they are going to be fine and they are going to win the division. I just don't think they are set up right now for extended success. Alfonso Soriano is just going to get worse while he gets more expensive. Milton Bradley may never play more than 100 games in a season for the rest of his career and Derek Lee is finally on the downside. The Cubs are good but they had better hope they win it all this year because after this season....the walls finally cave in.

2. St. Louis Cardinals

1. Skip Schumaker 2B
2. Khalil Greene SS
3. Albert Pujols 1B

4. Ryan Ludwick LF

5. Rick Ankiel CF
6. Troy Glaus 3B
7. Chris Duncan RF
8. Yadier Molina C

1. Adam Wainwright
2. Kyle Lohse

3. Todd Wellemyer

4. Kyle McClellan

5. Chris Carpenter

1. Ryan Franklin

2. Josh Kinney

C. Chris Perez

Key Player: Ryan Ludiwck

BBB Off-season Ranking: 12th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: The Cards are a weird team. The only legitimate star of the rotation is Adam Wainwright, yet they have an excellent starting staff every year. They have the finest offensive force in the game, to go along with an excellent outfield, yet they seem to have a problem scoring runs. The only thing that seems to be certain about them is that year after year, they find a way to win. They will find a way to win this year yet again, and they might actually do it with some good old fashioned talent this time. I like moving Skip Schumaker to second-base. The Cards' talent seems to lie exclusively in the Outfield and they need to find a way to get that talent ABs. This could be the answer. Now instead of being weak in the middle-infield, they can just start transferring their talent to where they need it. Their line-up is surprisingly solid. And having Albert Pujols is no different than having a game-changer like Kobe or LeBron in basketball. He just wills his team to win. He and Tony La Rusa have too much of a presence to let this team go wayward. If Chris Perez and his bullpen crew can do their job, the Cardinals can be a playoff contender.

3. Milwaukee Brewers

1. Rickie Weeks 2B

2. Mike Cameron CF

3. Ryan Braun LF

4. Prince Fielder 1B

5. JJ Hardy SS

6. Corey Hart RF

7.Bill Hall 3B

8. Jason Kendall C

1. Yovani Gallardo

2. Manny Parra

3. Jeff Suppan

4. Dave Bush

5. Seth McClung

1. David Riske

2. Carlos Villanueva

C. Trevor Hoffman

Key Player: Yovani Gallardo

BBB Off-season Ranking: 16th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: The Brewers are another team that I wish I could slot down further than #3 in the division(a la the Cubs). But the competition has taken a big enough of a step backwards in the NL Central that the Brewers are barely going to notice the drop in their own quality. I predict a significant decrease in the Brewers number of wins this season but don't see them falling more than one slot down in the Division than they were last year. That isn't to say that they don't have their strengths. I still like their rotation, even without Sabathia and Sheets. To me, asking Yovani Gallardo to be your Ace is no more absurd than asking Chad Billingsly, Jeremy Guthrie or Justin Duscherer to be your Ace (And I think two of those teams are going to the playoffs). And if Manny Parra performs well enough to climb up to #2 or #3 in the rotation, the Brewers might have themselves a (very) poor man's version of Sabathia/Sheets. Suppan and Bush are legitimate starters as well. The fact that the Brewers signed a man in his 40s to a $6 million deal tells you all you need to know about the bullpen. It's bad...very bad. And you already know that their defense is atrocious, but what you may not realize is that their offense is severely overrated. They are too right-handed, too batting average oriented and too slow. I think I would take Ryan Braun over any Major League outfielder not named Grady Sizemore, but every one else I could take or leave.

4. Cincinatti Reds

1. Willy Taveras CF

2. Jay Bruce RF

3. Brandon Phillips 2B
4. Joey Votto 1B
5. Edwin Encarnacion 3B
6. Ramon Hernandez C
7. Chris Dickerson LF
8. Alex Gonzalez SS

1. Aaron Harang

2. Edinson Volquez
3. Johnny Cueto

4. Bronson Arroyo
5. Micah Owings

1. David Weathers
2. Bill Bray
C. Francisco Cordero

Key Player: Aaron Harang

BBB Off-season Ranking: 10th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: The Reds have youth and the Reds have a serviceable bullpen. Those are two good qualities to have, but it won't bring them a division title this year. The youth is still raw and I don't care if they have 100 Dusty Bakers as Managers, it still won't be enough to make this kids Major Leaguers over night. There seems to be a lot of upside in the rotation and the line-up and I must say: not many teams can boast this kind of balance as far as prospects are concerned. Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto and Micah Owings could very well take a step back this year. But I really don't think it matters much. This team seems to have the long-view in mind and those three pitchers to go along with Harang, Arroyo and Homer Bailey can form good foundation for many years out. Then in the line-up, they have guys like Votto, Phillips and Bruce. Again, all three of these guys could take a step back or two this year but I really feel like they have the talent to be middle of the order hitters. The talent is there and the talent has to learn. If Walt Jockety is patient and if the Reds hitting and pitching coaches know what they are doing, I may be able to predict the Reds to finish 2nd or 3rd in 2010. But for now, that notion seems fairly ridiculous.

5. Houston Astros

1. Kazuo Matsui 2B

2. Hunter Pence RF

3. Lance Berkman 1B

4. Carlos Lee LF

5. Miguel Tejada SS

6. Geoff Blum 3B

7. Ivan Rodriguez C

8. Michael Bourn CF

1. Roy Oswalt

2. Wandy Rodriguez

3. Brandon Backe

4. Mike Hampton

5. Brian Moehler

1. LaTroy Hawkins

2. Chris Sampson

C. Jose Valverde

Key Player: United States Congress (Miguel Tejada)

BBB Off-season Ranking: 9th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: Truth be told, I am surprised that the Astros finished as well as they did last year. I though they had the talent to finish 4th or 5th and they finished 3rd. So instead of admitting I was wrong, I am going to selfishly predict them to finish 5th again this year, with the hope that 2008 was an aberration. I mean, seriously, any 'semblance cannot last very long in Houston. This team just isn't built on a solid foundation. And it's a real shame too because they are such legitimate offensive forces on this team. Lance Berkman has been all kinds of wonderful for the duration of his career and people are finally starting to realize it. Carlos Lee is a fairly one-dimensional player, but there is really no shame in that. I don't think there is a single Manager who would have a problem with his powerful presence in their line-up. Is he overpaid? Sure, but so is everyone else on the Astros. But after that, there is really no one to be excited about in the line-up. The Rotation is set up similarly. Roy Oswalt is one of baseball's most consistently excellent pitchers. But after him, they might as well not even show up to the ballpark. "Spahn, Sain and pray for rain" may have worked. But "Oswalt, only Oswalt and nothing but Oswalt....then pray for rain" is NEVER going to work.

6. Pittsburgh Pirates

1. Nyjer Morgan LF
2. Freddy Sanchez 2B

3. Nate McLouth CF

4. Adam LaRoche 1B
5. Ryan Doumit C

6. Andy LaRoche 3B
7. Brandon Moss RF

8. Jack Wilson SS

1. Paul Maholm
2. Ian Snell
3. Zach Duke
4. Jeff Karstens
5. Phil Dumatrait

1. Craig Hansen

2. John Grabow
C. Matt Capps

Key Player: Freddy Sanchez

BBB Off-season Ranking: 8th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: Listen, Pittsburgh, I don't enjoy watching Pittsburgh finish last year after year any more than you do. But I am sorry to say that they will, once again, finish dead last in one of baseball's worst divisions. I would like to say this, however: they are on the right track. I know that isn't fun to hear when you are watching a baseball team lose game after game, but it is the truth. This kind of ineptitude isn't solved by simply finding and signing better players. It is solved by getting the right guys at the top of the ladder. And I truly believe that the Pirates have the right organization in place now to start making the subtle changes toward becoming a competitive franchise again. Sadly, this makes the actual team's performance on the field fairly inconsequential for this year. But I will blabber on about it anyway. I look at this roster and only see one guy who is not only good right now but who is also part of the long term answer in Pittsburgh. That man would be Paul Maholm. I think calling him a legitimate "Ace" would be fairly presumptuous, but he is definitely a Major League-quality Pitcher right now and I could see him on this team years from now when the Pirates finally start to put some things together and get the right team on the field. As currently constituted the bullpen is fairly underrated and if the Pirates lose 100 games this year, it won't be because they were blowing leads in the 7th, 8th and 9th. No, I think the Pirates won't have very many leads to begin with this year. Nate McLouth is the only offensive threat they possess and I even think that he is a bit overrated. Freddy Sanchez is terrible, Adam LaRoche isn't consistent and Ryan Doumit is good but shouldn't be batting as high as he is. Still, as I've said before the Pirates should not be worrying about this year anyway. Prepare yourself to lose, and to lose a lot this year, Pittsburgh. But that doesn't have to mean that things won't look up soon.

WEST

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

1. Rafael Furcal SS

2. Matt Kemp CF

3. Andre Ethier RF

4. Manny Ramirez LF

5. James Loney 1B

6. Russell Martin C

7. Casey Blake 3B

8. Orlando Hudson 2B

1. Chad Billingsley

2. Clayton Kershaw

3. Hiroki Kuroda

4. Jason Schmidt

5. Randy Wolf

1. Guillermo Mota

2. Hong Chih-Kuo

C. Jonathan Broxton

Key Player: Clayton Kershaw

BBB Off-season Ranking: 4th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: The NL West will be undergoing a mini-renaissance and the Dodgers will be leading the pack. It is tempting to say that Manny Ramirez is the key to this team's (presumed) success but I had them at #1 even before they brought Manny back in the saddle. No team in the National League has a better core of young hitters than the Dodgers. Kemp, Ethier, Loney, Martin: they are all young, all have a season or two of experience under their belt and all complement each other in the line-up. This is the year that the Dodger's offensive potential becomes an offensive reality. If Rafael Furcal and Orlando Hudson get on base like they are capable of, then the Dodgers will score runs in bunches in 2009. And they just might need those runs with the rotation's current state. I think I trust Chad Billingsley as an Ace more than most do. And Hiroki Kuroda had a hugely underrated rookie season. But I am a little nervous about the veterans. Schmidt might be done as a quality Major League pitcher. And if that's the case, suddenly Kershaw-Wolf doesn't look so hot as a #3/#4. Still, their bullpen is competent enough and I am not willing to bet against this line-up over 162 games. 86-90 wins aren't out of the question.

2. San Francisco Giants

1. Fred Lewis LF
2. Emmanel Burriss 2B

3. Pablo Sandoval 3B

4. Bengie Molina C
5. Travis Ishikawa 1B

6. Aaron Rowand CF

7. Randy Winn RF
8. Edgar Rentaria SS

1. Tim Lincecum
2. Matt Cain

3. Jonathan Sanchez
4. Barry Zito
5. Randy Johnson

1. Bob Howry
2. Jeremy Affeldt
C. Brian Wilson

Key Player: Pablo Sandoval

BBB Off-season Ranking: 3rd of 16 in the NL

Analysis: It is all Pablo Sandoval....ALL Pablo Sandoval. Really no one else is of consequence for the Giants' season. It isn't fair to place an entire season (and possibly the jobs of everyone in the front office) on the shoulders (albeit BROAD shoulders) of a 22-year-old playing out of position but it is a reality that the Giants must live with. The Giants starting rotation is excellent, the bullpen is much improved and the line-up is filled with competent role players. All it takes now is that X-factor, that one last little flash of lightning to reanimate this sleeping Giant. And that is where Pablo Sandoval comes in. I won't get into specific numbers, but he needs to do something befitting of the #3 spot in the order for this team to win. Although, I will say that 25+ homers wouldn't hurt.... In any case, much like the citizens of Gotham believed in Harvey Dent, I believe in Pablo Sandoval. And that confidence is reflected in my high-hopes for this team.

3. Colorado Rockies

1. Carlos Gonzalez LF

2. Troy Tulowitzki SS

3. Todd Helton 1B

4. Garrett Atkins 3B

5. Brad Hawpe RF

6. Ryan Spilborghs CF

7. Clint Barmes 2B

8. Chris Ianetta C

1. Aaron Cook

2. Greg Smith

3. Ubaldo Jiminez

4. Jason Marquis

5. Franklin Morales

1. Manny Corpas

2. Alan Embree

C. Huston Street

Key Player: Manny Corpas

BBB Off-season Ranking: 2nd of 16 in the NL

Analysis: To be perfectly honest with you, I have soured on the Rockies quite a bit since I originally made this pick. But it is too hard to copy and paste in Bogger so, sorry Arizona, Colorado remains #3 in the West. Let's flash back a month or two to the reveal that Jeff Francis is going to miss significant time in '09. Rockies fan panic...and so do I because it means that my Preview may be thrown completely into flux. And it a way it did. The Rockies have been ranked anywhere from 2nd to 4th in my mind since last season ended. But Francis' injury opened my eyes to a surprising aspect about the Rockies' organization. They have the most pitching depth in the division! This about it, if you had no idea that Jeff Francis existing and had no idea that this team was missing their former Ace, you would just look at this rotation and simply think "that's not a bad rotation; two vets with three young guys wedged in-between." And then after that there is still: Jorge De La Rosa and Jason Hirsh. Niiiiiice. And the bullpen isn't too shabby either. If Manny Corpas and Huston Street can get each other's competitive juices going, the bullpen could really work. That just leaves the line-up....which I have true reservations about. Todd Helton may finally be done. Who is playing Left-field? I like Carlos Gonzalez...I think they prefer Seth Smith. Garrett Atkins is not a clean-up hitter. And there might not be a clean-up hitter in this line-up. I like the Rockies a lot better than I did last year (called it!) but they won't be able to climb higher than #3.

4. Arizona Diamondbacks

1. Felipe Lopez 2B

2. Chris Young CF
3. Stephen Drew SS
4. Conor Jackson LF

5. Mark Reynolds 3B
6. Chad Tracy 1B
7. Justin Upton RF

8. Chris Snyder C

1. Brandon Webb
2. Dan Haren
3. Doug Davis
4. Jon Garland
5 Max Scherzer

1. Jon Rauch
2. Tony Pena
C. Chad Qualls

Key Player: Justin Upton

BBB Off-season Ranking: 11th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: The talent is there, it really is. This is an above-average team in a below-average division. So why can't they finish higher than third or fourth? It's simple, really: the front office doesn't want to win so the players won't either. I truly believe that baseball teams adopt the effort and identity of their decision-makers. And the Diamondbacks decision-makers have decided to lose this year. It isn't fair to say that they have decided, however, as the economy has forced their hand. I don't think that the Owners adequately anticipated the down-turn. Because if they did, they would have tried to sign Adam Dunn for only $20 million and would have tried to sign Orlando Hudson for only $3.4 million. I am not implying that teams NEED to have good off-seasons to compete, I am just saying that in the Diamondbacks case, specifically, they needed to send the message that they wanted to compete in 2009. The message that they sent to their team was that they couldn't afford to compete in 2009. So why would the players try? Especially when you consider that their best player comes from the same bloodline as J.D Drew. Talent-wise, they have enough youngsters to compete in 2010 and beyond. And if they can hang on to both Brandon Webb and Dan Haren, they will be in good shape. But 2009 won't be their year.

5. San Diego Padres

1. David Eckstein 2B

2. Brian Giles RF

3. Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B

4. Adrian Gonzalez 1B

5. Chase Headley LF

6. Scott Hairston CF

7. Nick Hundley C

8. Luis Rodriguez SS

1. Jake Peavy

2. Chris Young

3. Cha Seung Baek

4. Josh Geer

5. Wade LaBlanc

1. Cla Meredith

2. Mike Adams

C. Heath Bell

Key Player: Kevin Kouzmanoff

BBB Off-season Ranking: 15th of 16 in the NL

Analysis: Let's be honest: this season doesn't matter. The Padres are in such poor economic shape that the best they can hope to do this year is keep things respectable, cut payroll and pray that Adrian Gonzalez stays happy enough that he'll stick around for years to come. In their line-up, I count 1 player I would absolutely want on my team (Gonzalez), 2 I might want (Kevin Kouzmanoff and Chase Headley) and the rest I would just leave. Then when it comes to the rotation: there is 1 player I would love to have (Jake Peavy), 1 I might like to have (Chris Young) and the rest I would leave yet again. And don't even get me started on the bullpen.... The only people who are going to be doing actual work this year are the Padres fans praying for John Moores to sell the team. And that's never a good sign.

Watching the Classic and Prepping the Preview

2009-03-14T03:00:00.000-04:00

I know it isn't just me this time.

The World Baseball Classic is rocking this year.

The Netherlands beat the Dominicans once. It could have just been seen as an outlier, it could have been seen as a fluke, it could have been seen as an aberration. Sports Illustrated Football writer (and Ohio University alumnus) Peter King even said that if those two teams played 20 times, the Dominicans would win 19. Well, they must have been destined to play 40 times because the Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic TWICE! And eliminated them on the second go-around.

This outcome is incredible for baseball. Not only does it give them a legitimate upset instead of just a fluke. It also brings them the possibility of a baseball powerhouse in Europe. The West and East part of the globe have really embraced baseball. The central part (mainland Europe and Africa) has not. Africa probably will continue to not care for economic reasons. But if we can get the Dutch to become legitimately excited about baseball, we might be able to get something going here.

Then there's the "home team" Not only have the Americans won twice, but they have won convincingly. The Canada game was cathartic to say the least and they absolutely thumped the team that I thought would be the best in the tournament. And the Venezuela win in Pool C keeps my dream of a Venezuelan World Baseball-Ruling class alive.

The Asian Pool could not have gone better either. Korea and Japan are huge rivals, and we are all lucky that they met in their Pool's final. 1-0 games are a thing of beauty....and very hard to come by in tournaments like this. I have to say, my biggest worry about the WBC is that Baseball itself wasn't conducive to an elimination tournament like this. I always thought that 162 games were the only way to crown a champion in baseball and I was worried the fact that so few games are played in the WBC would cheapen the competition...but it hasn't. This tournament is an absolute thing of beauty so far.

As far as my pre-tournament predictions go... I have to say, they aren't as bad as I thought they would be.

ROUND ONE PREDICTIONS

POOL A Winner: Japan

POOL A Runner-up: Korea

POOL B Winner: Cuba

POOL B Runner-up: Mexico

POOL C Winner: Venezuela

POOL C Runner-up: Canada

POOL D Winner: Dominican Republic

POOL D Runner-up: Panama

ROUND ONE RESULTS

Pool A Winner - Korea

Pool A Runner-Up - Japan

Pool B Winner - Cuba

Pool B Runner-Up - Mexico

Pool C Winner - Venezuela

Pool C Runner-Up - U.S.A

Pool D Winner - Puerto Rico

Pool D Runner-Up - The Netherlands

I got Pool B exactly right. I got Pool A sort-of right but I mixed up the winner and the runner-up. I guessed the Pool C winner correctly, but the U.S replaced Canada as the runner-up. I must say I am happy to see my home country go on to the next round, regardless of my predictions. But Pool D was an absolute failure on my part. Turns out the U.S wasn't the choke artist this year, it was the D.R. Oh man, the Dominicans blew it. I attribute this completely to the teams lack of Pujols. The best player in the world should be in the ultimate international baseball competition...just saying. I did correctly predict that the tournaments WTF? team would come from Pool D. But I thought it would be Panama instead of the Netherlands. As a matter of fact, I thought the Dutch would be the worst team in the tournament. I guess that's why they call them "upsets."

But enough about the Classic. I have some other business to attend to right now.

I have read a few pieces of sports Journalism that I enjoyed quite a bit this week. I really enjoyed Lee Jenkins piece on Jason Giambi for Sports Illustrated. I finished Moneybal just a couple of months ago and this Billy Beane/Jason Giambi reunion felt like everything was coming full circle for me. Then there was Bud Shaw's story about Omar Vizquel and his art. The Indians are my favorite thing in life and Omar Vizquel was always my favorite player...which I guess makes him my favrite person ever. Plus, some of his art contains nudity. Finally, there is this little bit of epic awesomeness. It is called The Power to Believe and is written by Joe Posnanski. Now, I am new to this whole Journalism thing, but I would like to nominate this for Best Baseball Story of 2009. I said my piece on Albert Pujols a little while back but this says everything I wanted to articulate and then some. Joe Posnanski, I raise my glass to you.

Finally, I would like to talk about my upcoming baseball preview. It is a three-part release spread out over three weeks and the first one is coming up next week. Next week's post will predict the outcomes of all division races in the National League in 2009, as well as include line-ups, rotations, and bullpens for all teams. The following week will be the same for the American League and the first week of April will be devoted the the MLB season as a whole and my predicted playoff bracket.

That's it for now. Come back next week for the event 18 years in the making!

*Saturday Night Update* Wow, it looks like I was wrong about Puerto Rico this year. 11-1 over the U.S. But I was right about Jake Peavy sucking in the WBC. Should the Padres ever make the playoffs (a highly unlikely occurrence) I think we can safely assume that Peavy will tank it Sabathia-style. I'm sorry, CC, you know I still love you. You just suck in the playoffs....and are a freaking Yankee.

Regional Dominance

2009-03-07T03:00:00.000-05:00

As I've previously stated, baseball season officially starts for me when the first baseball previews are released. Well, I was flipping threw my spanking new copy of The Sporting News' baseball preview when I noticed something rather peculiar. Ryan Howard and Nate McLouth were on the cover of my Preview.

It seems the Sporting News made 16 different covers for every region in North America. The Wal Mart in Athens, Ohio for some reason received the "East" edition of the Preview when it clearly should have received the Mideast edition with Cliff Lee and Edinson Volquez. Anyway, I was looking at the all the covers on the inside jacket of the magazine and saw that almost every single edition had two teams gracing the cover, yet their were a few markets that featured one team.

Like most things regarding baseball, that got me thinking. What are the teams in Major League Baseball that don't have to worry about another team cannibalizing their fanbase. Peter Angelos threw a fit when the Expos relocated to Washington D.C and I can understand why. That Baltimore/D.C area belonged to the Orioles. There was no other team in the area to take attention and money away from them. So what teams in baseball are currently like the pre-Nationals Orioles? Who has the most dominance over their region..."Regional Dominance" if you will.

Here is a list of the regional covers for The Sporting News baseball preview.

SPORTING NEWS BASEBALL REGIONAL COVERS:

Region 1 - New England: Red Sox (Dustin Pedroia & Jacoby Ellsbury)

Region 2 - Canada: Blue Jays (Roy Halladay)

Region 3 - Northeast: Yankees (Alex Rodriguez), Mets (David Wright)

Region 4 - East: Phillies (Ryan Howard), Pirates (Nate McLouth)

Region 5 - Atlantic: Orioles (Aubrey Huff), Nationals (Christian Guzman)

Region 6 - South: Braves (Chipper Jones)

Region 7 - Florida: Rays (Evan Longoria), Marlins (Dan Uggla)

Region 8 - Mideast: Indians (Cliff Lee), Reds (Edinson Volquez)

Region 9 - Midwest: Cubs (Carlos Zambrano), Brewers (Ryan Braun)

Region 10 - North: Tigers (Miguel Cabrera), Twins (Joe Mauer)

Region 11 - Missouri Valley: Cardinals (Albert Pujols), Royals (Zack Greinke)

Region 12 - Midlands: Rockies (Garrett Atkins)

Region 13 - Southwest: Rangers (Josh Hamilton), Astros (Miguel Tejada)

Region 14 - West: Diamondbacks (Dan Haren), Padres (Adrian Gonzalez)

Region 15 - Los Angeles: Angels (Joe Saunders & Ervin Santana), Dodgers (Andre Ethier)

Region 16 - Northwest: Giants (Tim Lincecum), Mariners (Ichiro Suzuki)

I'll have you notice that neither the White Sox nor the Athletics are featured on this list. So I am going to make a few revisions to include all the teams. The White Sox are going to slide into the Midwest region, leaving us with a three-team. The A's are going to the Northwest region which I am renaming to the "Bay Area." Seattle gets to stay in the Northwest all by its lonesome. After all, Seattle is more than a twelve hour drive from Oakland, its closest Major-League city.

So with those revisions in mind, here are the 5 teams that I believe have the least competition for Regional Dominance

5. Colorado Rockies

Who would have figured? The Rockies don't have the largest fan-base in the world, or the best. But there is no one else out there competing for the Rockies' attention. Kansas City is the closest at about 8 hours away. The Rocky Mountains aren't really an environment conducive to good baseball or baseball fans, but tell me: if you are a fan in Colorado/Idaho/Nevada/Wyoming/Utah, who else are you rooting for?

4. Toronto Blue Jays

Now that the Expos are gone (to the Orioles' detriment), the Blue Jays really have no one to worry about...aside from the Maple Leafs of course. Toronto is a hockey-town and always will be. But as long as there are American transplants working in Canada who want to see baseball, the Blue Jays will sell tickets. Lame Toronto sports fans might prefer to root for the Yankees or the Red Sox, but for any Canadian baseball fan that believes in pride in country, the Blue Jays are now the absolute only team to root for.

3. Seattle Mariners

As I've previously stated, the closest team to Seattle is more than 12 hours away. Seattle is now a culture all to itself. There are no other metropolises knocking on the door drawing Mariners' fans away. The only thing that is turning fans away is the team, itself.

2. Boston Red Sox

For starters, the Red Sox have nothing to worry about because they have the largest bandwagon fanbase in the United States. I know people from Cleveland to Phoenix who root for the Red Sox because they are "just like totally cool, bro." But as far as ACTUAL Red Sox fans who ACTUALLY live in New England go....there is not much competition. Sure, there are a few weirdos in Connecticut who insist on rooting for the Yankees but every other inch of New England is officially Red Sox nation. That is 6.5 states, very, very rich states who support the Boston Red Sox.

1. Atlanta Braves

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you: THE JEWEL OF THE SOUTH. Every Confederate state of the South (I am sorry, Southerners, I couldn't resist) calls him or herself a Braves fan. And just think of the impact of that. The American South is one of the biggest baseball factories on the planet. SEC baseball is the only collegiate baseball that draws any fanfare in the country and all the old-timers in the South still loves them some baseball. Now tell me how it is fair that that entire region, which is so baseball centric, only has one team. The Atlanta Braves are not just Georgia's team: they are Alabama's team and South Carolina's team and North Carolina's team and Tennessee's team and Mississippi's team and Arkansas's team and maybe even parts of Kentucky's team.

Of course, there is one other little bit of business to attend to this week before we're done.

Los Angeles signs OF Manny Ramirez to 2 year, $45 million deal

Scott Boras lost. Enough said.

Oh, and if you don't believe me that the WBC matters, then take Tom Verducci's word for it.

World Baseball Classic Preview

2009-02-28T03:00:00.000-05:00

I know many of you don't care about the World Baseball Classic and I don't blame you.

For more than 100 years now the "ultimate" in baseball competition has been Major League baseball. The best players come to the United States to participate in the best competition the sport of baseball has to offer. So I can understand if you are leery about anything that detracts from the competition of the Major League Baseball season is just not worth the risk of injury.

I just happen to think differently. Maybe the World Baseball Classic would not have made sense in 1928 when 99.9% of Major League Baseball players came from the United States of America and no other country expressed an earnest interest in the sport. Then, we probably could call the winner of the MLB "World Series Champions" but nowadays, it just doesn't feel right to call the Phillies "World Series Champions" when many successful players come from the Caribbean and Japan has its own successful league.

And that's where I think the World Baseball Classic comes in. How can you not want to know who is truly the best in the World every four years? Admittedly, the presentation is not that impressive yet. Players are still declining invitations (Really, Johan? You had something better to do?) and there are only 16 nations involved. But if baseball truly wants to grow and succeed in this new International community, it is going to want to play up the World Baseball Classic as much as possible. And really, baseball fans, is it going to kill you to watch your team's players compete for their country just one month every four years. I do not think that it is too much to ask, seeing as they play 162 games every year for their employer.

With that in mind, here are my predictions for how the Classic will shake out this year.

16. Netherlands

Rick Vandenhurk, Greg Halman: these are the only Major League ballplayers involved with the Dutch team. Yikes.

15. Republic of South Africa
South Africa, on the other hand actually has 0 Major Leaguers. So, obviously they will finish higher than Netherlands. They don't have to deal with those prima-donnas Vandenhurk and Halman.

14. Italy
The rule that lets players play for a country that one or more of their parents were born in should be called the "Italian" rule. This team is made up of Americans by birth who just happen to come from Italian backgrounds. Whether or not this is fair is up for debate...but what isn't up for debate is that the team is better for it. The "Italians" will finish 14th this year but if an All Star with an Italian-sounding last name comes up in the next four years....watch out.

13. China Tapei
File this one under: gut feeling. I have no idea who is on the Tapei team, I just think they'll finish higher than Italy, Holland and South Africa.

12.Australia
Australia is surprisingly a team that is not completely hopeless. I could see them happening into some pitching this year and upsetting a team or two. In this kind of competition, a good pitching performance can eliminate a giant. But they don't have the talent to finish in the Top Half of the competition.

11. China
China is one to look out for. A nation with more than a billion human beings is bound to have a good athlete or two. Plus, we already know that they get jealous of anything Japan does and Japan currently has the International Baseball scene in a headlock right now.

10. Puerto Rico
Mike Aviles is going to be an excellent addition to this team, but he won't be enough to stop Puerto Rico's inevitable decline into oblivion. It's a shame because Puerto Rico would have done well in the 60s and 70s but they seemed to have missed their opportunity. They clearly have the best Catching in the tournament though (Soto, Pudge and the best Molina brother???)

9. United States of America
That's right, America, we won't even finish in the top half of the tournament this year. Why? We just still don't take this tournament seriously. You'd think we'd learn that you can't just show and win after last year but USA baseball has a bad habit of not learning from mistakes. I just can't believe that Ted Lily or Jeremy Guthrie may take the mound as the "best" the U.S has to offer. Jake Peavy absolutely TANKED three years ago in the tournament and Oswalt is a Classic rookie. So, I ask you: where is the pitching coming from? We are so lucky that Ryan Braun, David Wright and Grady Sizemore (Note: Grady will not play) signed though. If that young core can learn from this tournament, we can establish the best offense for the next two or three Classics. But they won't be able to overcome our poor pitching this year.

8.Panama

Whether it is George Mason in the NCCA Tourney or Ghana in the World Cup, every major sports competition needs a "WTF" team. Panama is the 2009 World Baseball Classic's WTF team. They are not necessarily the worst team in the World (just by their inclusion in the Classic, they are better at baseball than more than 200 other countries), but no one probably expects them to finish higher than 13th....except for me. I can conceivably see Carlos Lee catching fire and hitting homer after homer, striking fear into all opponents hearts.

7. Mexico
Oh Lord, am I afraid of Adrian Gonzalez! We already know he performs better for teams he has a personal connection to (he is a San Diego native as well) and I can just see him exploding in this tournament. The Mexican pitching staff is fairly underrated too. I know I wouldn't want to be trailing them, knowing that Joakim Soria is waiting for me in that bullpen.

6. Korea
I really don't know what Korea's strengths and weaknesses are as a team, but I do know that they are a TEAM. Screw Japan and Cuba, Korea was the best overall team three years ago. They would be World Champs if they didn't run into the Dice-K buzz saw. I know a lot can change in three years and the competition is certainly tougher this year but not enough changed for Korea to fall out of the Top 6.

5. Canada
God, what a horrifying offense. Jason Bay, Justin Morneau, Joey Votto and Russell Martin are going to tear International pitching up. I see them cutting a swath through the earlier rounds before running into a good pitcher or two in the later rounds, slowing them down and eliminating them.

4. Dominican Republic
The Dominicans ran into many of the same problems the Americans did three years ago. They had all the talent you could ever ask for but they were too old and didn't take things seriously. I think they run into the same problems this year. They are still a little on the elderly side but I like their pitching a lot more than I did three years ago. If Ubaldo Jiminez, Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto can put something together, they should be alright. But you can't tell me they won't miss the best player on Earth(don't kid yourself, you know who he is). I know their line-up looks like Murderer's Row as well, but again: it is too old, too right-handed and too powerful. Solo home-runs are not going to win the World Baseball Classic. They will make the Final Four on sheer talent alone.

3. Cuba
Cuba is the one team that lives for a competition like this. Their players are not allowed to partake in the MLB so this is truly their World Championship. They want this and they will be one of the most competitive teams in the world for as long as the World Baseball Classic exists. Since they aren't allowed to play in the MLB, I don't know anything about the players...but that means no one else in the tournament does either. There aren't many scouting reports you can find for the Cuban team. So they can take people by surprise and win it all. Man, would I like to see Yulieski Gourriel in an Indians' jersey.

2. Japan
Your 2006 World Champs will be the 2009 Runners-up. All I can say for the competition in 2009 is: watch out for the two-headed monster. Yu Darvish and Daisuke Matsuzake possess the potential to absolutely carve hitters up throughout the tournament. And having two of the best pitchers in the Classic is a horrifying proposition for the competition when 3-man rotations are the norm. And the line-up isn't anything to sleep on. They are the anti-Dominicans. A small, athletic fast line-up that can terrorize teams on the base-paths. The only bad thing I can think about this team is that I don't know too much about their bullpen and Kenji Johjima is somehow involved in the proceedings. Great team, and there is really only one better.

1. Venezuela
I have had a bit of a crush on Venezuelan ballplayers for quite some time now. I believe they possess the talent and potential to become to International Baseball what Argentina is for International Futbol. They are a young, athletic and exciting team that plays the game the right way. Had Johan Santana been involved, I would have proposed that Baseball just cancel the tournament and hand them the trophy now. But I still think they can finish first with the talent they have. Carlos Zambrano, Felix Hernandez and Armando Galaraga can truly shut teams down. It really only takes 3 good pitchers to win this thing and the Venezuelans have that, with K-Rod thrown in the 9th inning for good measure. Bobby Abreu and Magglio Ordonez will be at the top of their game; they are the type of players who I suspect would step it up for their country. I am not quite as sure as Miguel Cabrera. But if he gives a crap....or anything resembling a crap for that matter, he could be one of the better hitters in the Classic. The only thing holding them back might be the bad karma of Omar Vizquel's absence on the team.

Round 1

POOL A Winner: Japan

POOL A Runner-up: Korea

POOL B Winner: Cuba

POOL B Runner-up: Mexico

POOL C Winner: Venezuela

POOL C Runner-up: Canada

POOL D Winner: Dominican Republic

POOL D Runner-up: Panama

Round 2

Japan and Cuba advance

Dominican Republic and Venezuela advance

Round 3

Japan beats Cuba

Venezuela beats Dominican Republic

Finals

Venezuela beats Japan

That's it for this week. Come back next week, by which time Manny Ramirez will probably have turned down a 4 year, $99.9 million offer from the Dodgers.

Players Start to Speak Out and I Grade the AL Off-season

2009-02-21T03:00:00.000-05:00

Before we begin today, I would like to draw everyone's attention to a crucially important web article. I basically live and die by the Baseball Prospectus and a couple of weeks ago they released their predictions for how the divisions would shake out for each division in baseball including Wins and Losses. It is a fantastic list and Baseball Preview but I debated on whether or not I should link it.

Problem is, my Baseball Preview is going to resemble their's quite a bit. I have been working on this preview and thinking about these baseball team's diligently since the Phils won Game 5 of the World Series. But unfortunately mine is now going to resemble a lot of other source's Previews now. It is a fundamental question any baseball writer faces. Do I attempt to be on the cutting edge by releasing my Baseball Preview early or do I wait for most of the free agents to sign. I opted for Decision 2 this year and depending on how it goes, I might change my mind for next year.

Before I get to my grades of the AL Off-season, there are three, count 'em, three things I want to address about baseball this week.

First off, Tim Kirkjian secured an interview with Albert Pujols about the A-Rod scandal. I am SO glad that someone (especially a good writer) had the presence of mind to ask Albert Pujols how he felt about steroids. Pujols handled the interview like a champ, talking about children and admiring the game and being fair. But really what this interview was all about was taking the Crown off of A-Rod's head and placing it onto Albert Pujols's head as Best Player in the World. For the record, that is where the Crown belongs and that is where the Crown has always belonged.

Next, there was Adrian Beltre' speaking up. Look, I do not romanticize baseball as much as I used to. I have the mind of the G.M-all these players are just pieces that can be moved and added and subtracted and altered....not human beings. But Adrian Beltre' actually made me think about the human aspect a little more this week. The G.M in me knows that the Mariners need to dump anyone and everyone that they can from their failing team. Beltre' tells us, however, that it isn't always that easy and that Mariners players will miss Raul Ibanez contributions on and off the field quite a bit. Right on, Adrian, right on.

Then there is the news of two re-signings from struggling NL Central teams. The fact that the Pirates signed their semi-young CF Nate McLouth (a.k.a Jody Gerut 2.0) to 3 years, $15 million and the Reds signed their semi-young 3B Edwin Encarnacion to a 2 year, $7.6 million deal. Ladies and gentlemen, I can now safely say the Reds will climb out of the cellar far sooner than the Pirates.

Now here are the AL Off-season grades. Just like the NL Off-season grades, I will only take into account players that were added to or subtracted from the 25-man roster and I will not be counting re-signings. Enjoy reading!

Baltimore Orioles

Additions - Koji Uehara, Rich Hill, Felix Pie, Cesar Izturis, Ryan Freel, Greg Zaun
Subtractions - Ramon Hernandez, Daniel Cabrera, Garrett Olson
Result - B- The Orioles seem to have a decent core in place for the future so they seemed to keep that in mind for this off-season. No adding any high-priced free agents and looking for the bargain bin. I like the additions of Rich Hill and Felix Pie a lot. Hill could start every 5th day for them and Pie brings some nice up-side and could be a part of the potential core. The Uehara signing was fairly...interesting and Cesar Izturis was a decent, cheap option. I think Daniel Cabrera should have been re-signed. Not a slam dunk of an off-season by any means, but at least the O's didn't screw up too much or get in their own way.

Boston Red Sox

Additions - John Smoltz, Rocco Baldelli, Brad Penny, Ramom Ramirez, Josh Bard, Junichi Tazawa
Subtractions - Coco Crisp, Alan Embree, Paul Byrd
Result - A This is a deceptively excellent off-season. The Sox turned a player they didn't need into a player they did need (Crisp to Ramirez). And then they got a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer, a former top prospect and a perennial All-Star, all for about 1/12 of what the Yankees will be paying Mark Teixeira. That's not even to mention the fact that they brought in a young Japanese fireballer who came on the cheap because of his age. It still shocks me that teams will overpay for the Igawa's, Uehara's and Kawakami's of the world when presumably the Nippon League has plenty of talented players in their mid-20s who want to come America. You have scouts...USE THEM. Don't wait 10 years of a player's career in Japan before you decide if he is good or not. As far as I can tell, the Red Sox's only issue this off-season was missing out on an above-average Catcher. Other than that....perfecto.

New York Yankees

Additions - Nick Swisher, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, A.J Burnett,
Subtractions - Ivan Rodriguez, Wilson Betemit, Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Mussina, Scott Proctor, Carl Pavano, Jason Giambi
Result - B+ I've said it before and I will say it again: when talking about the Yankees, you have to throw words like "affordability" out the window. The Yankees could afford CC and Teixeira and wisely signed them. I think those are A+ deals and do not really mind the dollar amounts involved. There is one deal, however, that I cannot condone. I don't care if the Yankees have Infinity Dollars, signing A.J Burnett any longer than 2 years and for any more than $10 million a year is a M-I-S-T-A-K-E. What an awful deal. The other smaller moves the Yanks made seem to have worked out in their favor. Swisher can still produce and will at the very least get them a prospect or two should they choose to trade him and they can re-sign Pudge anytime they'd like. Good off-season.

Tampa Bay Rays

Additions - Pat Burrell, Matt Joyce, Joe Nelson
Subtractions - Edwin Jackson, Gabe Gross, Cliff Floyd
Results - B- The Burrell signing was a coup and I cannot argue with going out and getting another reliever. Take it from an Indians' fan: "you must always fortify the bullpen." Losing Cliff Floyd is fine and Gabe Gross won't be missed. This is the model of a small-market team off-season...until you get to the Edwin Jackson deal. I firmly believe that the Rays could have gotten more and should have gotten more for Edwin Jackson.

Toronto Blue Jays

Additions - Michael Barrett
Subtractions -
Result - C- Do I really even need to write about this?

Chicago White Sox

Additions - Bartolo Colon, Dayan Viciedo, Wilson Betemit
Subtractions - Joe Crede, Javier Vazquez, Nick Swisher, Boone Logan, Ken Griffey Jr., Juan Uribe, Toby Hall, Horacio Ramirez, Orlando Cabrera
Result - D+ Sometimes I just think that Kenny Williams gets bored. Here is/are the addition(s) that I like: Dayan Viciedo. Here are the additions I don't like: Colon and Betemit (a.k.a everyone else). Why get rid of Swisher? Why get rid of Boone Logan in addition to Javier Vazquez....as a matter of fact, why get rid of Vazquez in the first place. I understand that Ozzie had problems with him, but is that really worth making yourself a worse club in 2009? The Sox actually had to give up TWO good players (Vazquez and Cabrera) just because they couldn't mesh with Ozzie. You say you want to get faster and more atheltic....and then you promptly get rid of your only lead-off option and dynamite Shortstop. The Sox may have positioned themselves for 2010 but they did not make their 25-man roster any better for this year and under these rules, that is an atrocious off-season.

Cleveland Indians

Additions - Mark DeRosa, Carl Pavano, Kerry Wood, Joe Smith,
Subtractions - Franklin Gutierrez, Tom Mastny, Sal Fasano
Result - A- Call me biased, I don't care. The Indians had the best off-season of any team in baseball this year under a $100 million payroll. Look at the guys they lost....inconsequential (aside from Gutierrez who is an excellent fielder). Now look at the guys they added......fantastic. They got a Major League reliever in return for Gutierrez(remember what I said about fortifying that bullpen?), they got a potential All-Star Closer (probably the most purely talented relief pitcher in Cleveland since Jose Mesa) and they stole away one of the best role-players in baseball from the Cubs. Instead of overpaying for Casey Blake, they found a better version of Casey Blake and for less money and fewer years. That is just a masterstroke of a move, friends. The Pavano signing is fairly meaningless and Wood may have been a touch overpaid, but the Indians did very well for themselves this off-season.

Detroit Tigers

Additions - Gerald Laird, Adam Everett, Edwin Jackson, Brandon Lyon, Matt Treanor
Subtractions - Todd Jones, Matt Joyce, Edgar Rentaria, Kenny Rogers
Result - B The Tigers had the right idea this year. They opted to go for smaller deals for Defense (Laird, Everett) and pitching (Jackson) instead of pulling off a big blockbuster like the Cabrera-Willis deal. I have to say, they won't miss anybody that they lost and everybody that they picked up will help, if only a little. Laird, and Everett's contribution won't be massive but it will exist. Jackson is their best pick-up of the off-season. My only problem with the Tigers off-season is that they didn't do enough to help the bullpen. Lyon is alright, but he isn't worth what they paid him and there is no guarantee he will be closer material.

Kansas City Royals

Additions - Coco Crisp, Willie Bloomquist, Mike Jacobs, Horacio Ramirez, Kyle Farnsworth
Subtractions - Leo Nunez, Mike Grudzilanek, Joey Gathright, Ramon Ramirez
Result - C+ I really like the Coco pick-up and the Mike Jacobs pick-up...I just find it bizarre that it cost exactly one reliever in each deal. They weren't necessarily reliever-rich to begin with but I think Jacobs and Crisp were too good to pass-up. Farnsworth was probably a reaction to that and it was a fair deal for a fair pitcher. They can find someone to replace Grudzilanek and for less dough and Gathright probably won't be missed (especially when they already have 4 outfielders) My two big beefs with the Royals off-season are that they subtracted from the bullpen when they really needed to add and they made the maddeningly insane decision to sign Willie Bloomquist. That was probably the second worst deal of the off-season. Behind only Edgar Rentaria for 2 years, $18 million.

Minnesota Twins

Additions - R.A Dickey, Luis Ayala
Subtractions - Adam Everett, Dennys Reyes, Eddie Guardado
Result - C The Twins were not really in a position to add much or subtract much. You knew at the end of the season that their team was going to remain fairly static and it did. Their team looks pretty good as is but I have to say I would be nervous if I were a Twins' fan right now. Can you really remember the last time a team did not make a single significant change in the off-season and made it deep into the playoffs? I don't think I can.

Los Angeles Angels

Additions - Brian Fuentes, Bobby Abreu
Subtractions - Mark Teixeira, Francisco Rodriguez, Jon Garland, Garet Anderson
Result - D+ If there were one team that could NOT afford to lose its free agent in this off-season in was the Angels. Teixeira absolutely had to be on this team. The difference with him in the line-up vs. him out of the line-up will be shocking. They didn't get better by losing Francisco Rodriguez but it wasn't as bad as losing Teixeira. Garland certainly won't be missed in that awesome rotation and Bobby Abreu is a huge upgrade over Garet Anderson. That team is just getting older and worse by the day (for the record, Angels fans, I predicted the Angels would be the best team in baseball last year) and they had to get Teixeira to switch up their whole offensive identity.

Oakland Athletics

Additions - Jason Giambi, Matt Holliday, Russ Springer, Michael Wuertz
Subtractions - Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith, Huston Street, Matt Murton, Kirk Saarloos
Result - C+ This is technically an above average off-season, just a very confusing one. Matt Murton and Kirk Saarloos are gone and I don't care. Russ Springer and Michael Wuertz are added and I don't care. The only two deals I am looking at are the Giambi signing and the Holliday deal. The Jason Giambi deal made all kinds of sense. He has the left-handed power that the A's need and he is in the perfect stage of his career for an Oakland reunion. The Holliday deal made a little less sense. You can't argue that he doesn't make them a better team, but I think they gave up quite a bit for him. It is perfectly clear that they can't afford to resign him either so this will be a 1-year deal or he will be traded at the deadline for significantly less than what they traded for him.

Seattle Mariners

Additions - Russell Branyan, Franklin Gutierrez, Endy Chavez, Garrett Olson, Tyler Walker, Ronny Cedeno, Ken Griffey Jr.
Subtractions - J.J Putz, Sean Green, Jose Vidro, Willie Bloomquist, Raul Ibanez, R.A Dickey, Aaron Heilman
Result - D- I really don't think the Mariners get it. They are in the worst position of all the teams in baseball. They are spending more than $100 million....and they are not winning any games. It's barn-burning time. EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO. And they have the balls to slap their fans in the face with a Russell Branyan signing? Endy Chavez should not be on this team either, of the entire Mets-Indians-M's deal, Seattle should have said "Look, we are willing to give up Putz and Green and Luis Valbuena and the absolute ONLY Major League player we want in return is Franklin Gutierrez (he is going to fit that team's short-term needs like a glove)....as for everyone else: PROSPECTS, PROSPECTS, PROSPECTS. High-ceiling Low-A to Double-A players and absolutely nothing more. Kudos, to getting rid of Putz, Green, Vidro (extra kudos for getting rid of this corpse), Bloomquist, Ibanez and Dickey. But still: they should have gotten rid of so much more. Don't be gentle about it, Seattle, just blow the whole damn thing up. It is rebuilding time, and it is much harder to build a new building when the old one is standing in the way. Well, then there's Junior. Who could have a problem with that?

Texas Rangers

Additions -Jason Jennings, Eddie Guardado, Omar Vizquel
Subtractions - Gerald Laird, Milton Bradley
Result - C For all intents and purposes, the Rangers are set regarding half of their team. Their hitting and their bullpen are both fine. That leaves fielding and starting pitching as the problem areas. The Rangers seem to understand their fielding problems and have made numerous moves internally to solve the problem. Blalock is now a full-time DH, Michael Young is moving to 3B to make room for either the best fielding shortstop of all time (OOOOOMAAAAR!) or mega-prospect, Elvis Andrus. Texas has also expressed an interest in moving Josh Hamilton to RF and I expect that they will find someone competent to play CF. Hell, even their manager is a former infield coach. That leaves the off-season to solve the starting pitching problem. Did they? Absolutely not. Jason Jennings is just a flat-out waste of money. I am so glad that they got two competent prospects in exchange for Gerald Laird but they could have gotten another prospect or even a Major-League ready pitcher for Jarrod Saltalamacchia or Max Ramirez. The Rangers may have the starting pitcher to compete in 2010, but it isn't going to be there yet again for 2009.

That's a wrap on the MLB Off-season as far as I am concerned.

Special thanks go out to regular reader Lianna this week for crafting a new header for this blog. I hope everyone enjoys it!

A-Rod Screws Up and I Grade the NL Off-season

2009-02-14T03:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, was a HUGE day for me. Everyone has their own definition of when the baseball season starts. Some say it isn't until the first pitch of Opening Day, some people say it is when Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training, and some people say that the baseball season starts when there isn't any snow left on the ground. But for me, the baseball season officially starts when I hold the first official Baseball Season Preview in my hands.

I now hold The Sporting News 2009 Baseball Preview in my hands and it is beautiful. Spring is officially here and I am endlessly happy. Over the next couple of months I will spend about $50 indulging my baseball addiction. I still have to buy the Beckett Baseball Preview (awesome despite its dozens of spelling and grammatical errors), the ESPN Magazine baseball Preview, the 2009 Baseball Prospectus, the Regional Baseball Preview and the Sports Illustrated Baseball Preview. I can't wait! Now onto the other thing I know you want to hear about.

I hate talking about steroids so I will be brief.

Alex Rodriguez took anabolic steroids. I am admittedly fairly surprised but I am not upset. Many people have said throughout the week that they wouldn't be surprised if anyone's name came up. But I was.

I have a hard time being outraged when it is clear that steroids are a prevalent part of global sports everywhere you look. I suppose I should be upset that the Home-run record will be "tainted" for the foreseeable future but I am not. Records have been "tainted" for as long as records have existed. Everybody changes and everybody cheats: athletes, accountants, journalists, managers, construction workers, priests, everybody.

There hasn't been an untainted record in baseball since the game was invented. Ruth played in an era in which only white men could play. Maris played in an era in which seasons were longer. Aaron played in an era where the nature of hitting was inherently changing. And now Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez are playing in an era where performance enhancing drugs are prevalent, accepted by the culture of baseball and easy to obtain.

In a way, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds are the absolute poster children to represent this era of baseball in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Who better to represent the Steroid Era of baseball than steroid users themselves? Baseball cannot deny that it happened, especially since it did nothing to prevent it.

But Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds probably won't make the Hall of Fame and I just can't help but think that is a little backwards.

Now onto happier things.

Here is my final review of the entire NL off-season. Obviously, there are still a lot of players yet to be signed. But I am tired of letting the poor economy effect timing of this blog post. So here it is in all its glory. I listed only the additions and subtractions to and from the 25-man rosters and did not record any re-signings that teams made. The result may not be COMPLETE, but I like to think that it is fairly accurate.

Atlanta Braves

Additions - Derek Lowe, Kenshin Kawakami, David Ross, Javier Vazquez
Subtractions - John Smoltz, Mike Hampton
Result - D The Braves have had a turbulent off-season, so much so that I was surprised to see that they had only added 4 to their Major League players to their rosters. In the end, Atlanta added some talent to their Starting Rotation about B- to B talent-wise but the money that it took to get that talent was about Quadruple F-.

Florida Marlins

Additions - Leo Nunez, Emilio Bonafacio, Scott Proctor
Subtractions - Scott Olsen, Mike Jacobs, Josh Willingham, Joe Nelson
Result - B Marlins off-seasons must always be looked at through different lenses than every other team. They are in a perpetual state of payroll reduction and they did a fairly decent job of pruning the areas they could while keeping the essentials and even adding to their bullpen at the end of the day. Marlins fans should be hoping that Emilio Bonafacio starts at 2B, pushing Uggla to 1B and Cantu to 3B.

New York Mets

Additions - Tim Redding, Freddy Garcia, Francisco Rodriguez, J.J Putz, Alex Cora, Sean Green, Jeremy Reed
Subtractions - Scott Schoeneweis, Joe Smith, Endy Chavez, Aaron Heilman, Pedro Martinez
Result - A- Everybody and their mother knew the Mets needed to revamp their bullpen. They may have technically overpaid for Francisco Rodriguez but the market for closers has been inflated for a while now. It seems questionable to dump Schoeneweis, Smith and Heilman but I respect Omar Minaya's decision to go with a completely clean slate. Green, Putz and K-Rod are more than capable of holding down the late innings. Redding and Garcia were good bargains and the Mets get a high grade because Ollie Perez's deal doesn't factor into my rankings because he is technically a re-sign by the Mets. The Mets are lucky he was or their grade from me would have been significantly lower.

Philadelphia Phillies

Additions - Raul Ibanez, Chan Ho Park, Ronny Paulino
Subtractions - J.C Romero (Kind of), Pat Burrell
Result - C+ Can you believe how ridiculous $33 million for Raul Ibanez looks now. I'd take Burrell or Dunn instead any day of the week for less money. Not having Romero for 50 games is going to hurt more than they think. The defending World Champs spent most of the off-season locking down their core and there is nothing wrong with that, but defending World Champs or not, they had flaws and they did not fix them all this off-season.

Washington Nationals

Additions - Scott Olsen, Josh Willingham, Daniel Cabrera, Adam Dunn
Subtractions - Chad Cordero, Emilio Bonafacio, John Patterson, Tim Redding, Aaron Boone
Result - B I am surprised how little they had to give up for Olsen and Willingham. With Olsen and Daniel Cabrera, you have to be reasonably satisfied with the additions to the rotation, Lord knows they needed them. They obviously over-paid for Adam Dunn, but hey, they're the Nationals. Sometimes they have to overpay. Plus, Adam Dunn rocks! Losing everyone they lost (aside form Bonafacio) really won't hurt them.

Chicago Cubs

Additions - Aaron Miles, Milton Bradley, Aaron Heilman, Luiz Vizcaino, Kevin Gregg
Subtractions - Kerry Wood, Bob Howry, Jason Marquis, Mark DeRosa, Jim Edmonds
Result - D+ What were they doing? It's not that the Cubs off-season was TERRIBLE, it was just confusing. They moved parts that they didn't need to move (DeRosa) and completely revamped the most successful aspect of their team (bullpen). And everyone in the world but Jim Hendry knows that Milton Bradley was a bad signing. I just don't understand what they were trying to do this off-season.

Cincinatti Reds

Additions -Ramon Hernandez, Willy Taveras
Subtractions - Ryan Freel, Jeremy Affeldt
Result - C- Speaking of confusing...why give up Affeldt over $4 million a year? Why overpay for Taveras when you had a better version in Freel. Actually, why give up Freel in the first place? When the Orioles don't want Ramon Hernandez, you shouldn't either. The Reds get a slightly higher grade than the Cubs because they didn't dismantle a successful team for no reason. They merely tried to improve their team and just happened to do a poor job of it.

Houston Astros

Additions - Mike Hampton, Aaron Boone, Jason Michaels
Subtractions - Ty Wigginton, Reggie Abercrombie
Result- C- Ewwwww. Their is not one Astros fan who can be happy about "getting" Aaron Boone and Jason Michaels. Take it from an Indians' fan: "J-Mike" and "Booney" are not worth the roster spots in a weak economy. Hampton could actually end up being a shrewd signing though. Wigginton is alright, but if the Astros had to pay him, they made the right choice in letting him skip town.

Milwaukee Brewers

Additions - Jorge Julio, Trevor Hoffman, Braden Looper
Subtractions - CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, Eric Gagne, Salomon Torres, Guillermo Mota
Result - F+ Oh God, what is Doug Melvin doing. You can't fault them for losing out on the CC sweepstakes. No one but the Yankees really had a shot in this economy and the Brew Crew knew they really only had about a 5% shot of re-signing him. Gagne and Mota won't be missed but Torres will be...not that the Brewers made that decision. Here is what I don't understand though: if you have $100 million to throw down for CC, why don't you have $15-30 million to resign lifetime Brewer Ben Sheets. Jorge Julio and Trevor Hoffman were AWFUL signings. The Brewers might not actually be terrible in '09 (I think their rotation can certainly sneak up on people) but their off-season was terrible, regardless of a last minute Braden Looper signing or not.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Additions - Eric Hinske
Subtractions - Ronny Paulino
Result - C They signed Eric Hinske and traded Ronny Paulino. It is even worth the time to write about this off-season? The better question is: will anyone in Pittsburgh actually pay to see this team in 2009?

St. Louis Cardinals

Additions -Khalil Greene, Royce Ring
Subtractions - Aaron Miles, Cesar Izturis, Tyler Johnson, Braden Looper, Russ Springer, Adam Kennedy
Result - D+ I am a big supporter of trimming the fat off the roster, but I think the Cards dropped some good players while doing so...and some how also manage to add some (figurative, of course) fat to the roster. Why axe your entire middle-infield if it means you have to trade for Khalil Greene? Aaron Miles and Cesar Izturis weren't hurting anybody. Brian Fuentes would have been an excellent fit...Royce Ring isn't. Among Tyler Johnson, Braden Looper and Russ Springer, you have to keep one of those guys.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Additions - Tom Gordon, Jon Garland, Scott Schoeneweis, Felipe Lopez
Subtractions - Orlando Hudson, Randy Johnson, Adam Dunn
Result - C- It is tought to criticize the D-Backs too hard because it is clear they are undergoing financial issues...but I am going to do so anyway. Jon Garland was a good pick-up and losing Randy Johnson isn't going to hurt but my God, how can you lose Adam Dunn and Orlando Hudson when the only other lefty in the line-up is Stephen Drew? Dunn signed for $20 million and if O-Dawg signs for $10 million or less, Arizona should be kicking themselves. Not spending money when you don't have it isn't a crime, but the Diamondbacks can't expect to seriously compete in 2009 if their only hope is that the young talent develops.

Colorado Rockies

Additions - Carlos Gonzalez, Alan Embree, Greg Smith, Matt Murton, Huston Street, Jason Marquis
Subtractions - Matt Holliday, Luiz Vizcaino
Result - A- I am still shocked that Colorado got what they did for Holliday when everyone already knew that the Rockies had to get rid of him regardless. Billy Beane was in a generous mood. The object for a small-market team is always to get younger and cheaper. I think the Rox did that and did it in a way so that they can still compete in 2009. I am still not sure why they thought they had to have Jason Marquis though.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Additions - Guillermo Mota, Mark Loretta, Randy Wolf
Subtractions- Manny Ramirez, Takashi Saito, Brad Penny, Derek Lowe, Andruw Jones
Result - C- Most of the Dodgers big moves were re-signees so they don't factor into their grade. The Dodgers didn't shock the world with any other their signings, but they didn't hurt their team either. I think the only one they are going to regret is Mark Loretta (Seriously, why sign Casey Blake-lite when you already have Casey Blake?). You can't fault them for saying goodbye to Saito, Lowe and Jones but I am flabbergasted that they didn't give Brad Penny another go if all it took was a 1 year, incentive-laden deal. If the Dodgers get Manny for anything less than the 1 year, $25 million they offered than their grade will dramatically go up.

San Diego Padres

Additions - David Eckstein, Cliff Floyd
Subtractions - Josh Bard, Khalil Greene, Trevor Hoffman, Michael Barrett, Randy Wolf
Result - D "SELL, SELL, SELL, SELL, SELL, SELL" These words should be posted all over Petco Park and the Padres executive facilities. This team is terrible and it isn't getting better any time soon. Got rid of Bard? Good. Got rid of Greene? Good. Got rid of Hoffman? Good. Got rid of Barrett? Good. Got rid of Wolf? Good. Signed David Eckstein and Cliff Floyd? OH MY GOD, WHAT IS KEVIN TOWERS FREAKING DOING?

San Francisco Giants

Additions - Edgar Rentaria, Randy Johnson, Bob Howry, Jeremy Affeldt
Subtractions - Rich Aurilia
Result - B+ This was an absolute gem of an off-season...until Edgar Rentaria came in and ruined everything. I wouldn't sign Edgar Rentaria for half a year at the veteran minimum, and Brian Sabean thought he was worth two full years and $18 million. Booooo!

Well, that is the NL. Congratulations to Adam Dunn on getting $20 million when I thought he was destined for one year, $8 0r 9 million.

The Action Slows to a Crawl and Manny gets Greedy

2009-02-07T03:00:00.000-05:00

This is the week I phone one in.

Next week is all the exciting recap of the off-season action and just a couple weeks after that we have the World Baseball Classic Preview and following a few weeks after that you will witness the greatest Major League Baseball Preview these internets have ever seen. I have a pretty extensive vision for a 3-part Preview in mind, but if anybody has any suggestions now, just start pouring them in. I will be much-obliged to take in any more information. These an event years in the making.

But enough about the future, what do we have this week?

Answer: not a hell of a lot of anything. I would like to get the one big move out of the way.

New York (NL) signs SP Oliver Perez to 3 year, $36 million deal

Wow, just wow....leave it to the Mets to drop my jaw. Oliver Perez hadn't signed for three months. He seemed to be yet another victim of the failing economy. I figured Boras and Ollie would hedge their bets, sign a 1 year, $10 million deal and pray for a stronger economy in 2010. But the Mets were in a charitable mood this week, apparently. 3 years and $36 million cannot be described as anything but charity. The Mets didn't just overpay, they over-committed. 3 years for Oliver Perez? I know he isn't that old, but you can't say he isn't a huge-calculated risk. This is the same guy who looked like a world-beater for a year in Pittsburgh, then looked like a #5 AAA starter the next, then looked excellent for the Mets, then turned in the first pitching performance in NLCS history, then fall back down to Earth and pitched like a mediocre #3 pitcher last year. So if his career has fluctuated for the last 5 years of his career, why would the Mets feel like he will be consistent enough from now on to warrant a 3 year deal? What an insanely generous deal. One more thing about the M'azings. In the ESPN article announcing the Mets' casual decision to make the worst deal of the year, the article also referenced that the Mets had signed Freddy Garcia somewhere in the distant past of this off-season. Where was that press release? I think the odds that Garcia is a better pitcher than Perez are 2 to 1.

Then there's Jason Varitek. Oh Tek. What does it say about the Red Sox when their "Captain", presumably the intellectual and emotionally level-headed one, turns down $10 million in arbitration in a weak economy and then cashes in for HALF OF THAT, with his tail between his legs. And for the record, Jason Varitek is not worth more than 1 year, $1 million this year. That extra $4 million is as much a gift from the Red Sox as Oliver Perez's gift of a deal. Boston probably just wanted to put a band-aid on Tek's bruised pride.

Of course, there is another Boras client who is making poor decisions this week. I think 1 year, $25 million is the absolutely perfect deal for Manny Ramirez. He could earn the second biggest salary in the league this year, win the NL MVP, then cash in next year for a 3-year, $80 million deal. Apparently, Boras and Manny thought differently. I just pray that the Dodgers do not reward him for greed. There is NO ONE, literally no one out there who will sign Manny for more. The Giants are the only other team in the sport who are interested and they would only him if they can get him less than the Dodgers are willing to pay. The Dodgers can't give in and give him more money. They would just be negotiating against themselves...and unlike the Yankees, they can't afford to do that.

This just in, Barry Bonds did steroids!

And I still don't care. Barry Bonds is a jerk, a cheater and a potential prisoner in the future. But he is also a first ballot Hall-of-Famer. Even if you can prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt that he did steroids (and you probably can at this point), you still have to realize that a sizable chunk of his competition was as well. The Hall of Fame exists to document greatness throughout baseball history, not to selectively pick the nice gentlemen from each era. Barry Bonds is an ass but he is still one of the most prolific players to ever pick up a bat and he is the very icon of the Steroid Era. And Major League Baseball can close their eyes and pretend that the Steroid Era never happened all they want, but it did happen and you can't ignore it. Barry Bonds was the best player of his era, and he belongs in the Hall. There don't need to be any asterisks. History will know of the unfair things he and many others did, and history will judge them accordingly. But he still belongs in the Hall, even if he is sitting in his cell when his name appears on the ballot.

That is pretty much all that happened this week. There is just one tiny personal thing left.

I finally read Moneyball, and it is the best sports-book I have ever read in my life. It is pretty much all I have been able to think about for the past four days since I finished it. Just a masterpiece, absolute masterpiece. Billy Beane immediately jumps to the front of the list of my baseball heroes, and my faith in Mark Shapiro is forever rewarded for turning Bartolo Colon into Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee and not Cory Lidle and Carlos Pena, like Billy Beane tried to get him to do.

To those of you who have read Moneyball.....doesn't it rock?

To those of you who haven't read Moneyball....read it and thank me next week.

Joe Torre Strikes Back at the Empire and the Cubs Change Their Mind

2009-01-31T03:00:00.000-05:00

I have decided to include the word "and" in every one of my Post titles now. I don't know why but it makes me chuckle and lest you forget, this entire blog revolves around what makes me chuckle.

If you need an example, here you go: Joe Torre says Yankees players call Alex Rodriguez "A-Fraud." How is it that baseball fans, people who are among the most intelligent, creative and crass human beings on the planet could not realize that "Rod" rhymes with "Fraud" while Pin-stripe-wearing morons like Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada (for the record, I don't know if those three are morons. They are just the first three that came to my mind) hatched one of the best sports-related nicknames of all time?

For shame, Major League Baseball fans, for shame.

In all seriousness, I try to not bite on big "national media" gossipy type stories that involve big market teams but this one is just too fun to ignore. The truth is always hard to come by in professional sports. We all suspected that the Yankees's locker-room in the Torre era was probably a freak show but now, thanks to Joe Torre himself, we know it for a fact. The big thing that I take away from this story is not anything about the Steinbrenner's and Brian Cashman's villainy and it is not anything about Joe Torre upending clubhouse folkways. What I take away from this story is that Alex Rodriguez really is as strange as we think he is.

If A-Rod weren't making $30 million a year, the scenario would even seem kind of sad. Here he is, perhaps one of the most talented and wealthy athletes of his day, yet he wants nothing more than to be the Hometown Hero that Derek Jeter is. Torre's comments seem to indicate that Alex followed Jeter around like a sad puppy, trying to be everything he was. A-Rod has all the money, all the success, all the talent and all the Madonnas in the world, but he doesn't have the respect that Derek Jeter has. Poor guy...he is probably out there right now riding down a chocolate waterfall in his $239,000,000 mansion bawling his eyes out.

Elsewhere in Major League Baseball-land, there was a development that may interest only me. The Kansas City Royals signed their 25-year-old gem of a right-hander, Zack Greinke, to a 4 year, $38 million deal. I am not really surprised about the length or value of this deal. 4 years seems fair for a 25 year old pitcher who has never had significant physical issues and his mental issues even seem to finally be behind him as well. As far as cash goes, you can't tell me that you wouldn't pay a guy who had a 3.47 ERA in 2008 and still has his best years ahead of him less than $10 million a year in a world where Andy Pettite is getting $10 million. So the deal doesn't surprise me. What surprises me is the team who made the deal.

The Royals? The Kanas City Royals? This is the same team last year who were in a constant debate of whether they should trade Greinke for more parts to start over. But they didn't, and now they have a potential Ace in the fold for the next four years, Gil Meche for two more years, Brian Bannister and a combo of youngsters and veterans with something to prove to fill the #4 and #5 spots. The Royals finally seem to be sick of losing. They are adding instead of subtracting and if everything falls into place (a big IF) the Royals just might crawl out of the AL Central cellar in 2009 and finish higher than 4th or 5th for the first time since 2003. And if the Royals can finally reclaim an air of respectability, the AL Central may eclipse the NL West as the most competitive Division in baseball. Read Tim Kurkjian's latest article over at ESPN if you don't believe me.

Detroit signs RP Brandon Lyon to 1 year, $4.25 million deal

This is a deal for Tigers fans to feel rather lukewarm about. Brandon Lyon is not a bad pitcher, but I wouldn't pay $4.25 million for his services. I think there is just as good a chance that someone from AAA Toledo or from the dregs from their bullpen could have turned in similar production to Lyon, but for about $3 million less. Ultimately, the bullpen is marginally better with Brandon Lyon than without him but making only one move for that beleaguered bullpen is nowhere near enough to make Jim Leyland confident beyond the 6th inning. The Tigers defense and starting pitching is going to be slightly improved, but their bullpen might still end up being their undoing two years in a row.

New York (AL) signs SP Andy Pettite to 1 year, $10 milion deal

If Indians G.M Mark Shapiro made this deal, I would slap him across his pretty face. But this is Yankee-land and in Yankee-land, things run a bit differently. In Yankee-land, $10 million for a 36-year old coming off an uneven season may seem like a bargain, but to every one else, that just seems a little crazy. Oh well, the Yanks could have done a lot worse. Take it from someone whose team was nearly mowed down by Pettite in the 2007 ALDS: Pettite can still chuck it on occasion. This deal is far more reasonable than A.J Burnett's, considering that Pettite has no significant injury history, is comfortable playing for the Yankees and is only on a one year commitment. $10 million may seem like a lot to pay for a #4 or #5 pitcher, but Andy Pettite is at the very least a good #4 or #5 and the Yankees are clearly comfortable spending that money. More power to ya, New York.

Chicago trades SP Garrett Olson and IF Ronny Cedeno to Seattle for RP Aaron Heilman

I am really not sure what the Cubs are trying to do this off-season. What is their plan? How are they trying to get better? It seems like they have made a lot of moves, but I don't know if a single one made them better. The Cubs had one of the best bullpens in all of Major League Baseball last year....so obviously, the immediately dismantled it in the off-season. Kerry Wood? Off to Cleveland? Scott Eyre? Off to Philadelphia (in the interest of full disclosure, that actually happened last season). Bob Howry? Off to San Francisco. In order to remake the bullpen, they traded 22-year-old prospect Jose Ceda to Florida for Kevin Gregg. They traded their #5 starter Jason Marquis for journeyman Relief Pitcher Luis Vizcaino. And they traded Mark DeRosa for RP Jeff Stevens and two other prospects. Their bullpen looks about as good this year as it does last year with Carlos Marmol closing along with Stevens, Gregg, Vizcaino and Jeff Samardzija setting him up. Now they have traded a young and useful (albeit with limited potential) middle infielder and the potential #5 starting pitcher, that they had to trade Felix Pie to get, to receive yet ANOTHER bullpen piece. The Cubs seem to be obsessed with fortifying a bullpen that needed absolutely no fortifying whatsoever. Yes, Lou Pineilla will have plenty of options for the later innings, but look what it cost them. Kerry Wood, Bob Howry, Jose Ceda, Felix Pie, Garrett Olson, Ronny Cedeno, Scott Eyre, Mark DeRosa, Jason Marquis: it should not cost 9 players to craft an above average bullpen. You throw the Milton Bradley signing in there and you might have the worst off-season in baseball this year. As far as the Mariners are concerned: jackpot. The Mariners are going nowhere this year. Just get younger, get cheaper and cut away all the fat you possibly can. Garrett Olson and Ronny Cedeno will not bring the M's any closer to a Division win but at least they will be losing with young, cheap position players with slight upside and not with relatively expensive 30-year-old bullpen pitchers.

Arizona signs SP Jon Garland to $8.5 million deal

Jon Garland is a Javier Vazquez, Livan Hernandez-type inning eater pitcher. He is consistently healthy and you can practically pencil him in for 200 innings right now. The problem is what he does in those 200 innings is consistently mediocre. His K/BB ratio is not very impressive. He pretty much gives up a hit an inning year after year and his career ERA is an uninspiring 4.47, which is already diminished by an outlier-like season of 3.50. You have to appreciate his consistency but for $8.5 million you would probably want a little more pop. Strangely enough, Jon Garland would have been the type of pitcher you would want to sign to a longer 2 or 3 year deal if it meant driving down the price. I think something like a 2 year, $12 million deal would have made far more sense for a guy who doesn't have much upside, but who also has a consistent track record and who isn't 30 years old yet. I can confidently say that I would prefer Brad Penny for 1 year and $5 million than Jon Garland for 1 year, $8 million.

Now that this Blog is done, I would like to let you in on the preliminary schedule for the rest of our Saturdays up to Opening Day. Here are some big Post ideas that I have tentatively scheduled for certain dates. If a date has nothing listed, than it will be a by-the-seat-of-my-pants blog entry like the one you are currently reading.

2/14/09 - NL Offseason Review

2/21/09 - AL Offseason Review

2/28/09 - World Baseball Classic Preview

3/21/09 NL Season Preview

3/38/09 AL Season Preview

4/4/09 MLB Season Preview

Well, those are the big ones. Come back next week for another obligatory and unsatisfactory entry!

Teams Avoid Arbitration Like the Plague and I Get a Little Link-y

2009-01-24T03:00:00.000-05:00

If I ran this blog like a TV movie of the week and every week we had to have a lesson at the end, I think that a) this would be the worst blog ever and b) we would have a very clear lesson at the end of this week.

I would sit down in front of a roaring fire, wearing my finest velvet robe, take the pipe out of my mouth and say "Kids, the lesson for this week is that: teams are scared to death of going to arbitration with their players. This week it seemed like every single player in Major League Baseball re-signed with their team to avoid the dreaded arbitration process. I was originally going to write every single deal down under the bold transaction header like I usually do, but at a certain point, deals were being reported so fast that it was nearly impossible to keep up. Here is just a brief list of some important players who re-signed with their teams to avoid arbitration. Most of them were one year deals and most of them were clearly hastily engineered....how else do you explain Jonathan Papelbon making about as much as Bobby Jenks for the 2009 season?

Ryan Madson

Jayson Werth

Russell Martin

Felix Hernandez

Jonathan Papelbon

Huston Street

Bobby Jenks

Adam LaRoche

Those are just the short term examples. There were three players who received a little more substantial deals from their current team

Philadelphia re-signs SP Cole Hamels to 3 years, $20.5 million deal

Ohhh, this deal is magical. Any Phillies fan who knows anything about baseball probably choked to death on their cheesesteak when they heard about this deal. Trust me, that's a good thing. I am actually kind of shocked that Hamels even signed this deal. Before last season he reportedly balked at a Phillies offer that he felt was significantly too low. Now he accepts a $20.5 million deal in the same off-season that a pitcher 3 years older than him and without his postseason success (CC Sabathia) garnered a $160 million deal. That just seems kind of strange. Maybe he figures that he can hold the Yankees ransom in 2011 when he is the same age as CC was back in 09. But at the end of the day, 2011 is pretty inconsequential for the Phillies who for only $20.5 million essentially got a left-handed Josh Beckett circa 2004.

Baltimore re-signs OF Nick Markakis to 6 year, $66 million deal

You won't find many bigger fans of Nick Markakis than yours truly. This is because I am a fan of consistency. Let's look at Markakis's 2008 base-stats. In 595 ABs Markakis went .306, 20, 87 on a fairly bad team. Now let's look at his 2007 stats. In 637 ABs Markakis went .300, 23, 112 on an even worse team. And as if that weren't enough, in Markakis's rookie season he went .291, 16, 62 in only 491 ABs! He has been nothing short of clock work for three straight seasons. He hasn't missed significant time in three straight seasons. He has been an excellent defensive right-fielder in three straight seasons. He is only 25 years and can practically be pencilled in for the #3 hole and .300, 25, 90 (if not better) for the next 6 years. And if for whatever reason, that isn't enough for you, in '08 Nick Markakis placed in the top ten in the AL in TEN OFFENSIVE categories (AVG, OBP, OPS, G, R, H, 2B, BB, OPS+, RC). This deal was an absolute no-brainer and the Orioles now have someone to build around for 6 years.

Milwaukee re-signs 1B Prince Fielder to 2 year, $18 million deal

The Brewers did pretty well for themselves on this deal. You always want to make sure you have flexibility when it comes to power-hitting lefty first-baseman...especially when said first-baseman is rather tubby like Prince Fielder. Look, I'm not knocking fat people, I AM one, I just think those extra pounds add some extra risk to any deal involving Prince Semien Fielder (best name in baseball). This seems to be a pretty fair deal for both parties as Prince Fielder must be happy in Milwaukee if he didn't seek arbitration. Think about it: Prince Fielder is essentially Ryan Howard-lite and Ryan Howard is currently seeking a record $18 million in arbitration and he is five years Prince Fielder's senior. Bottom line is that Prince could have gotten more money.

In other news, the Dodgers outright released Andruw Jones. You had to figure that signing Andruw to a 2 year, $36 million deal last year was a bad idea but I don't think ANY of us could have foreseen just how bad a deal that was. If Andruw Jones was a bigger douchebag, he would have been Major League Baseball's answer to Stephon Marbury and the Knicks. I am almost disappointed that they cut him so the situation didn't reach Marbury-D'Antoni levels of awkwardness. Oh well. The knee-jerk reaction in all of this would be to say that Jones should go back to the Braves. I don't really know if that is the right move but I do know that wherever Jones signs, it needs to be a AAA deal. Andruw Jones needs to work himself back up from the bottom and start over.

Before I get to this week's transactions (there are only two of them), I have come across some baseball articles I must direct your attention to. First off, Jayson Stark gives us his World Baseball Classic "Preview". It is a pretty well thought out piece, and ESPN was nice enough to throw us WBC fans a bone (all twelve of us) but I can do better. And ladies and gentlemen, I WILL do better. Two weeks from today, I will bring you the most comprehensive WBC Preview the Internet has ever seen! God help me. Next up, Shawn Hoffman of Baseball Prospectus writes an article about why a salary cap would only hurt baseball. I feel VERY strongly against a salary cap in baseball and tried to explain why on my other blog a while back, but I was nowhere near as articulate as Mr. Hoffman. Finally, I was quite shocked to hear which team had the best farm system according to Keith Law, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so go read it.

That brings us to two little knick-knacky deals that interest only me.

San Diego signs 2B David Eckstein to 1 year, $.850 million deal

I don't care that David Eckstein is moving to an easier position for him to play, I don't care that the deal is only one year and I don't care that it is "only" $850,000. The Padres should not have signed David Eckstein, plain and simple. The Padres are an incomprehensibly terrible team and signing David Eckstein isn't going to change that, it isn't going to put more fans in the seats and it isn't going to bring them any more production than Edgar Gonzalez, Matt Antonelli or whomever their AAA second-baseman is; all infinitely more sensible options to play Second-base then David-Freaking-Eckstein. In the immortal words of Gob Bluth: "COME ON!"

Chicago (NL) trades OF Felix Pie to Baltimore for SP Garrett Olson

You know you are a baseball nerd when your reaction to Felix Pie being traded for Garrett Olson is "Cool!" and not "Felix Who? What Olson?" I have always been a closeted-fan of Felix Pie. Don't get me wrong: he is terrible. His swing is too long and a well-spotted fastball will kill him but there is something so exciting about pure, raw potential and he has it. It will be tough to find room in the Orioles OF for him, but he could be a half-way decent left-handed complement to Adam Jones when they play a Pitcher who just can't figure out lefties. Garrett Olson has done virtually nothing for the O's, but the Cubs seem to be in that confident Leo-Mazzone-type attitude where they feel like Larry Rothschild can save anyone's career after reinventing Ryan Dempster. They are probably wrong, but more power to 'em. It can't hurt to take a flier on a left-hander with #4 or #5 rotation potential when Felix Pie had clearly worn out his welcome in Chicago.

And that, children, is it for this episode of Bojay's Baseball Blog! Tune in next week when the gang gets into all kinds of fun hijinks!

Two More Join the Hall and Teams Start to Panic

2009-01-17T01:48:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been a busy two weeks! And I am just talking about the baseball off-season, and not my vomiting six times in under ten minutes (I was sick, not drunk).

First of all, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the the most hallowed Hall in American sports just gained two new members. Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, welcome to immortality! I have to say, I am perfectly happy with both selections. Each player represents the the two different types of players that populate the Hall. First, their is Rickey, whose personality is so unique, whose position in baseball history is so singular and whose talent is so explosive that he could have made the Hall even if you cut his career in half. Then there is Jim Rice, the type of player who is the underrated model of consistency. During his career, you might not have even realized that you were watching a future Hall-of-Famer but after it was all said and done and you looked at his career stats, it seemed right. Jim Rice is a Hall-of-Famer by attrition and there is no shame in making the Hall that way.

Then where was the bizarre news out of Philadelphia. J.C Romero tested positive for a banned substance and was banned for 50 games, problem is; J.C Romero insists that he had no idea that the supplement he took contained a banned substance. Romero fought against the suspension hard, even to the point of accusing the MLB of trying to label him as a "dumb Puerto Rican" (which I found very ballsy and kind of funny). It looks like the suspension is going to stick now, but I have to say: kudos to you, J.C. We were all too happy to demonize the players who had used banned substances in the period shortly after the "Steroid Era" concluded. Now the strict anti-steroid policies seemed to have claimed their first innocent victim and J.C Romero's vehement reaction has led me to conclude that the rules are a touch bit inflexible. J.C Romero won't be allowed to play for 50 games and the Phillies will miss his lefty arm in the bullpen, but he has convinced at least one baseball fan to reconsider the Witch Hunt style of banned substance testing.

Boston re-signed the 4th best 1B in baseball to a 4 year, $40 million deal. First the Red Sox get the AL MVP Dustin Pedroia for 6 years and $40 million and now they make this deal. I don't know about you, but I would much rather have Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia for 4-6 years, $80 million than Mark Teixeira for 8 years, $180 million.

Speaking of my Best Players in Baseball rankings...they appear to be in jeopardy again. The Texas Rangers have convinced a hesitant Michael Young to change positions again for the second time in his career. Young will move from SS to 3B to make room for SS prospect Elvis Andrus. So Michael Young falls off the Shortstop list and everyone moves up one spot with Indians' Shortstop Jhonny Peralta claiming the tenth spot. On the Third-baseman list, M.Y lands at #6 just ahead of Ryan Zimmerman, bumping Alex Gordon off the list completely.

Florida signs RP Scott Proctor to 1 year, $.750 deal

Florida really could use all the bullpen help they can get at this point. I know they are high on Logan Kensing and Matt Lidstrom but I am not. But I am high on Lidstrom, Kensing, Leo Nunez and Scott Proctor for a combined $1.95 million (based on 2008 salaries). It is very well known in baseball that the Marlins do not have a lot of money to spend. If the Yankees had overspent for those four core bullpen pieces, I would have come down hard on them. But it is tough to berate the Marlins for paying their four key bullpen guys just under $2 million, even if it isn't necessarily a guarantee that all four of these men will competently fill their expected roles.

Tampa Bay signs OF Pat Burrell to 2 year, $16 million deal

A.K.A the "Andrew Friedman makes Pat Gillick look like a jackass deal." If I am the Phillies and had the option between Pat Burrell for 2 years and $16 million or Raul Ibanez for 3 years and $30 million, I am not hesitating for another mili-second and am taking the Burrell deal before he can even think about changing his mind. I think Raul Ibanez is slightly better than Pat Burrell because of his ability to hit for average (both would have more than enough home runs in that ballpark) but the Phillies do not need another left-handed hitter. Their line-up as it is currently constituted features only 3 right-handed hitters, two of which are certain to bat in the 7th and 8th spots. With Burrell, the Phils could have had a 4 or 5 hole power righty who, might I add, is already quite familiar with the clubhouse, having played his whole career there. The mere fact that the Rays were able to get Pat the Bat for only $16 million makes me think the Phillies shouldn't have written him off so quickly. As far as the Rays go, this is the absolute perfect deal for them. The commitment isn't too bad and Burrell can start every day for them in the 5th or 6th spot as a DH. A huge upgrade offensively for a premium price. Good job, Tampa!

Chicago (NL) signs OF Milton Bradley to 3 year, $30 million deal

This is a bad deal. This is a bad deal because 3 years is a long time for a 30 year old. This is a bad deal because $30 million is a lot of money. This is a bad deal because 3 years and $30 million is a lot of time and money for a guy with an extensive injury history, suspension history, and a history of having poor clubhouse character. Milton Bradley has played for 6 teams in 8 years. Milton Bradley has average just under 90 games in the past 8 years. And Milton Bradley's only good season came when he was the DH in the best hitter's park in the AL. Don't get me wrong, I like Milton Bradley as a Texas Ranger, when he gets to be full-time DH, play under player's-manager Ron Washington and has the jet-like thermals of the Ballpark at Arlington to carry his line-drives out of the ballpark. But I do not like Milton Bradley as a Cub and I do not like the fact that they had to trade Mark DeRosa to make room for him....actually as an Indians fan, I LOVE that they had to give up Mark DeRosa to make room for him.

Oakland signs DH Jason Giambi to 1 year, $5.25 million deal

I like this deal a lot. Jason Giambi is nearly worthless as a 1B, but as a DH...that is a whole different story. With Milton Bradley in the NL and Travis Hafner slowly deteriorating before our very eyes, Jason Giambi may be the best DH in the AL not named David Ortiz. I know he is 38 and I know left-handed sluggers don't age very well, but you have to be impressed by his mini-career renaissance last year which came at the age of 37 and at 1B. I think he will look a lot better in that line-up as well, either helping Matt Holliday to get better ABs in the clean-up spot or benefitting from Holliday's presence in the 3 spot. And I've said it before and I'll say it again: power is at a premium in the Post-steroid Era of baseball. I would gladly pay for $5 million for an everyday player who is a proven HR-threat. Plus, you can't tell me that seeing Jason Giambi back in his Oakland #16 jersey isn't a huge boost for that poor beleaguered fan base.

Cleveland signs SP Carl Pavano to 1 year, $1.3 million deal

I was almost tempted to put "Copyright Mark Shapiro" next to this. This deal may be worth $1.3 million now but escalators begin to kick in after Pavano makes his 18th start. Pavano hasn't been an effective starter since 2004 but if he continues his mediocrity, who cares? The Tribe is only out $1.3 million on their investment and can just call up Dave Huff or Jeremy Sowers from the Minors to be the #5 starter. On the off-chance that Pavano can repeat his '04 numbers, the Indians will have to pony up more cash, but the Indians would be happy to pay for that kind of production. This is a win-win for everyone involved. And it's basically a clone of Kevin Millwood's 2004 1 year deal with the Tribe only it is less-risk and less-reward.

Baltimore signs SP Koji Uehara to 2 year, $1o million deal

The Orioles needed pitching in the worst way. But this was not the right deal at the right time. Signing pitchers from Japan is always a crap-shoot. Even the best Japan had to offer, Daisuke Matsuzaka, has essentially been a #3 starter for the duration of his career. 2 years, and $10 million is a big investment for a team who may not be competitive for another 3 or 4 years, and it is a especially big investment for a 33-year-old(!!!) starter who hasn't pitched an inning (!!!) in the Majors. Why not just invest in a new Pitching coach and re-sign Daniel Cabrera for the 1 year and $2.5 million that the Nationals got him for?

Boston signs OF Rocco Baldelli to 1 year, $.500 million deal

I would have loved to have seen Rocco re-sign with the Rays and try to revitalize his career with the team that first gave him a chance, but it looks like the Red Sox were more than willing to take the risk than the low-payrolled Rays. I hate to be the guy who pats Theo Epstein on the back even more than everyone already does, but you have to give it to him on this one. $500,000 and 1 year for a fourth outfielder is not bad, especially when that outfielder is still in his 20s and is still the guy who looked like the second coming of Joe DiMaggio a few years ago. Rocco's mitochondrial disorder sounds pretty terrifying but the Red Sox have one of the best training staff's in sports and they seem to think he will be alright.

Milwaukee signs RP Trevor Hoffman to 1 year, $6 million deal

I would love to have Trevor Hoffman for 1 year and $6 million....three years ago. Trevor Hoffman's career is over, he just doesn't know it yet. The Brewers do not seem to have a plan at ALL for this off-season. First, they offer CC Sabathia 4 years, at $100 million. Then they miss out on every bargain bullpen piece because they are too busy bitching about the Yankees and their evil money. You are trying to tell me that you had $100 million and four years to give to CC but deem Ben Sheets, your ace, too expensive. If this entire off-season goes without the Brew-Crew offering Sheets an incentive laden deal, then Brewers fans should shred their season tickets. The other big problem about the Hoffman deal is that Trevor has only ever been a closer in his career and won't want to be anything else. So when he starts tanking games, it will be in the 9th inning because Ken Macha won't be able to convince him to be a Middle-reliever. I won't be surprised if the Brewers are paying a combined $7 million for Jorge Julio and Trevor Hoffman, the set-up man and closer....for their AAA team.

Boston signs SP John Smoltz to 1 year, $5.5 million deal

This was the final dagger in what had to be the worst off-season in the history of the Braves franchise. First, they can't complete a deal for Jake Peavy. Then Rafael Furcal famously and utterly screws them. Then, they miss out on A.J Burnett to the Yankees (although, I would argue that this is a blessing in disguise). Finally, John Smoltz: future hall-of-famer, all-time good guy, pitched every inning of his career in a Braves jersey, signs with the Red Sox. I guess, financially, the non-deal makes sense for the Braves. $5.5 million is a lot of scratch for a 41-year old coming off of an injury. But come on, it is JOHN-FREAKING-SMOLTZ. This guy IS the Braves. If $5.5 million is what it took to bring him back, then $5.5 million is what you should have paid. It would probably have been a smarter move than signing A.J Burnett for 5 years, $60 million anyway. As far as the Red Sox are concerned: shame on you. You will pay karmically for taking away another franchise's icon by throwing money at him.

Boston signs RP Takashi Saito to 1 year, $1.5 million deal

I guess this deal makes as much sense as the John Smoltz deal. I don't know what is wrong in Red Sox-nation, money-wise but the Sawx have been spending money like bottom-feeders. By which I mean that Boston seems to have been on the lookout for inexpensive options coming off on injury. Penny, Baldelli, Smoltz and now Saito. You have to wonder if something is going on behind the scenes over there that is forcing John Henry and Larry Luchino to be more conservative with their money. In any case, this deal seems alright. Saito is a pretty underrated talent but his age is a bit of a worry. The Red Sox training staff better know something I don't about his arm because if he doesn't pitch that $1.5 million is going to look like quite a bit for an ineffective reliever. It isn't 1/4 as bad as Trevor Hoffman for $6 million but it is a little risky.

Atlanta signs SP Kenshin Kawakami to 3 year, $23 million deal

Good lord, what a mistake! For the longest time after this deal was made, the financial terms were not available in print. 3 years seemed like a big commitment for an unproven 33-year-old pitcher hopping the pond from Japan. I started thinking of what amount of money could help make this deal make remote sense at all. I thought $10 million would be acceptable and $12-15 million would be pushing it. But $23 million? Frank Wren, you realize that there is absolutely NO guarantee that this man will pitch anything close to remotely well in one Major League season, let alone three, right? And you realize that you are working with a limited payroll, right? I know this guys stats looked pretty good in Japan, but so did Kei Igawa's and he was 6 YEARS YOUNGER at the time of his deal. And the Yankees, THE NEW YORK-FREAKING-YANKEES paid the 6 years younger Igawa $3 million less a year! You know you are setting yourself up for failure when you spend more money on a Japanese pitcher than the New York Yankees spent on Kei Igawa. I don't mean to slight the Nippon Professional League in any way, by the way. I think it is a competitive, quality league. I just don't think you should spend $2o million on a 33-year-old player who has never had proven success in the Major Leagues.

Atlanta signs SP Derek Lowe to 4 year, $60 million deal

I have no choice but to defer to Buster Olney on this one. He says what I want to say but more eloquently and with more insight.

Chicago (AL) signs SP Bartolo Colon 1 year, $1 million deal

This deal violates my only rule in Major League Baseball: never sign Bartolo Colon under any circumstances, ever. I have nothing more to say. Enjoy your 6.78 ERA and endless "Fatolo" jokes, Chicago!

The Best Uniforms in Baseball

2009-01-10T03:00:00.001-05:00

Baseball is a classy game.

In a classy game (that is about 150 years old, by the way), all the players have to look classy. Baseball jerseys reflect the "gentleman's game" aspect of the sport. They have pinstripes, cursive script, belts, buttons and every other tool of class available in a wardrobe. In short, they look fly as hell.

I would like to take a moment to honor the modern baseball jersey. And what better way to do it than the thing I do best: make a list. What follows is a list of all the baseball jerseys in the sport that stretches from the very worst to the very best.

How did I judge these uniforms, you ask? Very simple, I used the tried and true (i.e just made up) Bojay's 5X5 method. I ranked teams jerseys on a scale of 1-5 in 5 different categories: Home jersey, away jersey, alternate jersey(s), hat and Wildcard. The Wildcard is simply a category to take other aspects into affect like the cultural impact of the uniform, the history, or just to inflate the score a little more.

It took some time, some simple math and a lot of neglected homework, but in the end I got all teams ranked 30-1. Here is where they fall:

30. Seattle Mariners - 2.0

Home: 3 Away: 2 Alternate: 1 Hat: 2 WC: 2

View Jerseys

29. Toronto Blue Jays - 2.2

Home: 1 Away: 3 Alternate: 4 Hat: 1 WC: 2

View Jerseys

28. Arizona Diamondbacks - 2.22

Home: 3 Away: 2 Alternate: 2 Hat: 3 WC: 1

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27. Florida Marlins - 2.6

Home: 3 Away: 4 Alternate: 2 Hat: 2 WC: 2

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26. Tampa Bay Rays - 2.75

Home: 3 Away: 1 Alternate: - Hat: 4 WC: 3

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25. Houston Astros - 2.8

Home: 3 Away: 2 Alternate: 1 Hat: 4 WC: 4

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24. San Diego Padres - 3.0

Home: 2 Away: 5 Alternate: 1 Hat: 5 WC: 2

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23. Minnesota Twins - 3.0

Home: 3 Away: 2 Alternate: 4 Hat: 4 WC: 2

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22. Milwaukee Brewers - 3.0

Home: 4 Away: 3 Alternate: 4 Hat: 2 WC: 2

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21. Chicago White Sox - 3.0

Home: 4 Away: 3 Alternate: 2 Hat: 3 WC: 3

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20. Baltimore Orioles - 3.0

Home: 4 Away: 2 Alternate: 2 Hat: 4 WC: 3

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19. Washington Nationals - 3.2

Home: 4 Away: 3 Alternate: 2 Hat: 4 WC: 3

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18. Colorado Rockies - 3.2

Home: 2 Away: 3 Alternate: 5 Hat: 3 WC: 3

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17. St. Louis Cardinals - 3.25

Home: 4 Away: 4 Alternate: - Hat: 3 WC: 2

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16. Los Angeles Dodgers- 3.25

Home:4 Away: 2 Alternate: - Hat: 4 WC: 3

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15. Los Angeles Angels- 3.4

Home: 4 Away: 2 Alternate: 4 Hat: 3 WC: 4

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14. New York Mets - 3.4

Home: 4 Away: 4 Alternate: 2 Hat: 4 WC: 3

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13. Oakland Athletics - 3.4

Home: 4 Away: 3 Alternate: 1 Hat: 5 WC: 4

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12. Boston Red Sox - 3.6

Home: 4 Away: 2 Alternate: 3 Hat: 5 WC: 4

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11. Texas Rangers - 3.6

Home: 3 Away: 4 Alternate: 5 Hat: 3 WC: 3

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10. Pittsburgh Pirates - 3.6

Home: 5 Away: 4 Alternate: 1 Hat: 4 WC: 4

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9. Detroit Tigers - 3.75

Home: 5 Away: 2 Alternate: - Hat: 5 WC: 3

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8. Philadelphia Phillies - 3.8

Home: 4 Away: 4 Alternate: 3 Hat: 4 WC: 4

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7. Cleveland Indians - 3.8

Home: 4 Away: 4 Alternate: 3 Hat: 5 WC: 3

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6. Atlanta Braves - 3.8

Home: 3 Away: 3 Alternate: 3 Hat: 5 WC: 5

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5. Kansas City Royals - 3.8

Home: 5 Away: 3 Alternate: 4 Hat: 4 WC: 3

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4. San Francisco Giants - 4.25

Home: 5 Away: 4 Alternate: - Hat: 3 WC: 5

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3. Cincinatti Reds - 4.4

Home: 5 Away: 4 Alternate: 3 Hat: 5 WC: 5

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2. New York Yankees - 4.5

Home: 5 Away: 3 Alternate: - Hat: 5 WC: 5

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1. Chicago Cubs - 4.6

Home: 5 Away: 4 Alternate: 4 Hat: 5 WC: 5

View Jerseys

So, that was the list. I can't begin to pretend like it is the most objective list in the world. The Indians are my team and as such I am exposed to far more AL teams than NL teams and of those AL teams, I am exposed to the AL Central teams the most. In the interest of full disclosure and fairness, these are my average uniforms scores for all the divisions in baseball:

AL East - 3.21

AL Central - 3.47

AL West - 3.10

NL East - 3.36

NL Central - 3.65

NL West - 3.17

AL - 3.26

NL - 3.53

The numbers for Midwest teams seem to indicate my Ohio-Central U.S bias, but what can't really be accounted for is the NL's absolute dominance over the AL (.27 is a rather large margin of victory), considering that I support an AL team. I also seem to like all baseball jerseys in general quite a bit. There wasn't a single team that score below 2.0 and what's more, there are only five teams that fell below the middle score of 3.0, meaning that I find 83% of all Major League Baseball uniforms to be at or above the average quality.

All in all, this isn't the most objective list, but then again; I am not the most objective person. I would love to see what a non-baseball-fan thinks of the best and worst uniforms in baseball

That's all for this week. Next week I will get back on track with all the off-season action and there was a lot of it, trust me.

The Final Roster Moves of 2008

2009-01-03T03:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it did not take long for my rankings from last week to be ruined. The Indians traded for the #5 2B, Mark DeRosa, and immediately announced that he would be playing 3B. So now Mark DeRosa falls out of the 2B race and everyone moves up one. Actually I think I had him ranked one spot too high to begin with. Brandon Phillips is about as good a hitter as he is, maybe a little worse. But Brandon is also significantly younger with more upside and is a slightly better defender. So where does Mark DeRosa fall in the top ten 3B? He falls right after Adrian Beltre, nestled safely at #8 between Mark Reynolds and Adrian. If given my way, I would like to replace the displaced Alex Gordon with Mark Reynolds outright (I neglected to notice that Reynolds led the NL in strikeouts AND errors) but I already made the list and can't retroactively meddle with anything.

But enough about last week (and thanks for the mostly positive response to my list last week, by the way). Let's move on to this week. Thanks to my top player list last week, we have much off-season action to get to this week. Now, I don't want to spoil anything but I believe that here we have the best move of the off-season so far, the worst move and a surprise cameo appearance by Nippon Professional Baseball. So read on, but first a few predictions for 2008 (specific predictions regarding playoffs and World Series will come in March)

- Power numbers will continue to go down this year and the league leader in home runs will be in the low 40s.

- The National League will still suck and will still be beat by the American League in both Interleague Play and the All-Star Game.

- If MLB Network is provided in Athens, Ohio, I will never leave my dorm room.

- If it isn't, I will fall into a deep depression.

- People will begin to complain about the Replay system already.

Los Angeles (AL) signs OF Juan Rivera to 3 year, $12.75 million deal

What a difference a year makes. In 2008, Juan Rivera was a convenient insurance policy for the Angels. In 2009, he is an absolute necessity. Garet Anderson is a free-agent. Gary Matthews Jr. is entirely worthless. Mark Teixeira signed with the Evil Empire. Vladimir Guerro may not be able to play right-field anymore. Reggie Willits may not ever be able to be an everyday player. So enter Juan Rivera. $12.75 million is the biggest contract of Rivera's career and he clearly cashed in on the Angels obvious need of him. It looks like a good deal now as Rivera is a competent every day player, but if Adam Dunn or Pat Burrell end up signing a deal around $20 million, the Angels should be kicking themselves.

Washington signs SP Daniel Cabrera to 1 year, $2.6 million deal

This is the "Hey, why not." deal of the winter. Daniel Cabrera was once considered a top prospect who just hasn't quite figured it out yet. The talent still appears to be there, just untapped as of yet. The Nationals had some money to throw around and had a clear need for starting pitching. So: hey, why not?

Hanshin (Japan) signs OF Kevin Mench to 1 year, $1.8 million deal

Here is another deal that only I care about. As Bobby Valentine once said on an ESPN special (and I significantly paraphrase): Japan is the only modern country in the world where baseball is number one and Major League Baseball would be stupid not to try and support that. So here I am supporting it. Go Hanshin! Sign as many Major Leaguers as you possibly can. I will miss you, Kevin Mench and your massive noggin.

San Francisco signs SP Randy Johnson to 1 year, $8 million deal

This is the difference between good franchises and bad franchises. Good franchises (the Red Sox) find a way to get a hard-throwing starting pitcher in his prime for $8 million (with incentives). Bad franchises find a way to get a hard-throwing starting pitcher who is far beyond his prime for $8 million. $8 million seems like a fair price for a future Hall-of-Famer until you realize how much more the Giants could have done with that money. For only $4-10 million more than the combined contracts of Randy Johnson and Edgar Rentaria, the Giants could have made a legitmate run at Rafael Furcal or Francisco Rodriguez. Plus, if Noah Lowry is healthy (a big if), there is no guarentee that Big Randy and his $8 million will crack the starting rotation....unless he pushes Barry Zito and his $126 million out of the rotation. My sincere hope is that Noah Lowry stays healthy, Jonathan Sanchez stays competent and the Giants call up a stud pitcher from the Minors so that they are paying a combine $134 million to pitchers who are not starting.

Tampa Bay signs RP Joe Nelson to 1 year, $1.3 million deal

After big names like Wood and Rodriguez came off the market, Joe Nelson became the in-vogue free agent reliever for some reason. There is something charming about the hard-working, effective reliever who hits his stride at age 34 but there is the very real possibility that Joe Nelson's 2008 season was an aberration. His peripheal stats look fine and his K/BB ratio is nearly 3:1, I am just not sure that the Rays and their limited resources should be paying $1.3 million to a guy who has bounced around between the Minors and Majors and only has 107 appearences in his career.

Cincinatti signs OF Willy Taveras to 2 year, $6.25 million deal

Here is a deal that makes the Ramon Hernandez a lot more palatable to me. The Reds were incredibly thin at outfield, which made trading Ryan Freel seem curious to me. But while Willy Taveras does not have the verstility of Freel (not many do), he is something that the Reds critically needed: a centerfielder and a competent lead-off hitter. He has good speed and is a legitimate base-stealing threat. His career OBP (.331) is low, however. He is better than any other option the Reds have right now and at $3 million a year, he is a relative bargain but he is not going to get them any closer to a post-season berth.

Boston signs SP Brad Penny to 1 year, $5 million deal

What a quriky off-season this has turned out to be. A guy like Brian Fuentes can pull down $9 million a year. But a 100 MPH flamethrower and one of the National League's consistently excellent starters over the past few years can only get a $5 million. What is interesting about this deal to me is the fact that Boston engineered it. Boston is a big-market team spending their money like a small-market team. Penny's $5 million base with $3 million in performance incentives reminds me of the contract that Mark Shapiro wrote up for Kevin Millwood in 2005. Millwood, like Penny, was coming off an injury plagued year, and Millwood, like Penny, was just entering the prime of his career, and Millwood bounced back in a huge way that year, just like Penny will do this year. This is a traditional low-risk, high-reward deal but it is even lower of a risk considering the capital of the team that is making the risk. This might be the biggest steal of the off-season. If $5 million is all it takes for a potential ace and All-Star, then I am wondering why my precious Indians didn't give Mr. Penny a call.

Boston signs C Josh Bard to 1 year, $1.7 million deal

Not a very exciting deal for anyone other than Josh Bard, who should be thanking his lucky stars that the Red Sox were willing to dish out $2 million for a back-up. But is Bard really a back-up? His stats and skill-set suggest that he can be a decent starter but certainly not an ideal candidate for a team competing for the toughest Division in baseball. Jason Varitek doesn't look to be coming back and there is no one else on the Catching roster that really lights the world on fire. I suppose he is an upgrade over the ancient Varitek but this is nothing to write home about for Sox fans. One thing I know is that he sure won't be catching for Tim Wakefield any time soon.

Baltimore signs SP Mark Hendrickson to 1 year, $1.5 million deal

Mark Hendrickson had a pretty decent year with the Marlins last year. He is far removed from the promise he showed as a youngster but at the very least he can eat some innings. And the Orioles flat out need ANY warm body who can throw a baseball and as their rotation is currently constituted, Hendrickson can be as high as a #2 starter. $1.5 million for a #2 (albeit an illegitimate #2) is an excellent deal for a mid-market club considering that the Royals gave the slightly worse Horacio Ramirez $1.8 million.

Chicago (NL) trades SP Jason Marquis to Colorado for RP Luis Vizcaino

Not the most exciting trade in the world. The Cubs did not need much more bullpen help but they certainly did not need Jason Marquis. And the Rockies certainly should not need him either. He will get absolutely rocked in Coors Field. I can wrap my head around a team overpaying for a guy like Marquis as a free-agent but I do not know why a non-contending team would trade their own important commodities to seek him out.

Chicago (NL) trades 2B Mark DeRosa to Cleveland for RP Jeff Stevens, SP Chris Archer and RP John Gaub

This is a very interesting trade for many reasons. I must admit, that as an Indians' fan I was on cloud nine after I read of this trade. I was yelling in every one's faces "WE GOT DEROSA! WE GOT DEROSA!" After all, I rated this guy the 5th best secondbaseman in baseball just last week. But no one else seemed to share my enthusiasm. Even though Indians' beat reporter first broke the story around 5:30, the Cleveland Plain Dealer had still yet to report on it by 11:00 the night of New Year's Eve. So I had to ask myself: is there something that everyone else is seeing that I am just not. And try as I might, I just can't find it. DeRosa is a slam dunk and the Indians gave away the baseball equivalent of table scraps to get him. I just couldn't see what was in it for Chicago. DeRosa's contract situation was less than ideal, being in the final year of his contract. So the cubs seemed to have resigned themselves to getting pennies back on the dollar he represented. But here was a guy who was going to play a significant part in the Jake Peavy trade before talks fell apart, so much so that the ESPN.com story paints this trade as the final nail in the coffin for that deal. In the end, the Cubs will be more than fine with Mike Fontenot at 2B and will probably benefit from the payroll flexibility, but they simply did not get enough for a versatile power-hitter. As for MDR's versatility, I envisioned him at 2B with Asdrubal Cabrera sliding to SS and Jhonny Peralta sliding to 3B. The Indians have even had Peralta playing 3B in Dominican winter ball. But Castrovince's story boldly stated that DeRosa WILL be playing 3B for the Tribe in 2009. I really have to question the wisdom of that move but I am beyond happy to have him. The Indians need one more starting pitcher to compete in 2009 and the Cubs now need a competent lefty or switch-hitting bat.

Los Angeles signs RP Brian Fuentes to 2 year, $17.5 million deal

What a strange, backwards world we live in when a starting outfielder (Juan Rivera) can be bought for less over 3 years than a Relief Pitcher over 2. The funny thing is that at this point, $17.5 for Brian Fuentes looks to be a bargain. It was a bully market for relief pitching this year. And if the man they call K-Rod could only pull down around $35 million than Fuentes could not have expected much more than $17.5 million. I don't think he is worth even that, however. This is the same pitcher that lost his closer job to Manny Corpas....Manny-freaking-Corpas. Strangely enough though, I think his demotion is another thing that only helped him. He hit the market this year as the "versatile option" whereas a guy like K-Rod or Trevor Hoffman can ONLY be a Closer. Ultimately, he will be a Closer in Anaheim. But his designation as "versatile" probably bought him a few more million dollars.

Come back next week for another list that I think you will all get a kick out of.

The Best Players in Baseball 2008

2008-12-27T03:00:00.001-05:00

Choosing the best players in any sport is always an iffy proposition.

And baseball is no different. The problem is that "best" is an impossible term to navigate. Is the best player the most talented athlete or the man who produces the most? And how do you measure a pitcher against a hitter when they are on opposite sides of the same coin?

So I have decided to fragment the proceedings a bit. Their are 9 fairly diverse positions in baseball that attract different kinds of athletes. The skill-set of a Shortstop differs greatly from the skill-set of a Catcher or a Left-fielder. Therefore I will be naming the top ten players at each position.

And as for that tricky word "best", you can just assume that if player A is higher than player B on the list that you would rather have Player A on your team for the immediate and near future. I know that "immediate and near future" is very vague and it is deliberately so. The time period you control each player is crucial to choosing which one you would rather have. If it were only for next year, then an older, yet talented player like Alex Rodriguez would have an unfair advantage. And if it were the rest of their career, then a younger player with more upside like Evan Longoria would have an unfair advantage.

Catcher

10. Ryan Doumit - Pittsburgh Pirates

9. Mike Napoli - Los Angeles Angels

8. A.J Pierzynski - Chicago White Sox

7. Yadier Molina - St. Louis Cardinals

6. Dioner Navarro - Tampa Bay Rays

5. Victor Martinez - Cleveland Indians

4. Russell Martin - Los Angeles Dodgers

3. Geovany Soto - Chicago Cubs

2. Brian McCann - Atlanta Braves

1. Joe Mauer- Minnesota Twins

First-Base

10. Prince Fielder - Milwaukee Brewers
9. Carlos Pena - Tampa Bay Rays
8. Adrian Gonzalez - San Diego Padres
7. Ryan Howard - Philadelphia Phillies
6. Miguel Cabrera - Detroit Tigers
5. Kevin Youkilis - Boston Red Sox
4. Justin Morneau - Minnesota Twins
3. Lance Berkman - Houston Astros
2. Mark Teixeira - New York Yankees
1. Albert Pujols - St.Louis Cardinals

Second-Base

10. Brian Roberts - Baltimore Orioles

9. Howie Kendrick - Los Angeles Angels

8. Kelly Johnson - Atlanta Braves

7. Jose Lopez - Seattle Mariners

6. Brandon Phillips - Cincinatti Reds

5. Mark De Rosa - Chicago Cubs

4. Dan Uggla - Florida Marlins

3. Ian Kinsler - Texas Rangers

2. Dustin Pedroia - Boston Red Sox

1. Chase Utley - Philadelphia Phillies

Third-Base

10. Alex Gordon - Kansas City Royals

9. Garett Atkins - Colorado Rockies

8. Mark Reynolds - Arizona Diamondbacks

7. Adrian Beltre - Seattle Mariners

6. Ryan Zimmerman - Washington Nationals

5. Aramis Ramirez - Chicago Cubs

4. Chipper Jones - Atlanta Braves

3. Evan Longoria - Tampa Bay Rays

2. Alex Rodriguez - New York Yankees

1. David Wright - New York Mets

Shortstop

10. Alexei Ramirez - Chicago White Sox

9. Rafael Furcal - Los Angeles Dodgers

8. Stephen Drew - Arizona Diamondbacks

7. Troy Tulowitzki - Colorado Rockies

6. Michael Young - Texas Rangers

5. J.J Hardy - Milwaukee Brewers

4. Derek Jeter - New York Yankees

3. Jimmy Rollins - Philadelphia Phillies

2. Jose Reyes - New York Mets

1. Hanley Ramirez - Florida Marlins

Left-field

10. Raul Ibanez - Philadelphia Phillies

9. Carlos Lee - Houston Astros

8. Adam Dunn - Free Agent

7. Alfonso Soriano - Chicago Cubs

6. Carl Crawford - Tampa Bay Rays

5. Carlos Quentin - Chicago White Sox

4. Matt Holliday - Oakland Athletics

3. Jason Bay - Boston Red Sox

2. Manny Ramirez - Free Agent

1. Ryan Braun - Milwaukee Brewers

Center-field

10. Chris Young - Arizona Diamondbacks

9. Nate McLouth - Pittsburgh Pirates

8. Shane Victorino - Philadelphia Phillies

7. Torri Hunter - Los Angeles Angels

6. Matt Kemp - Los Angeles Dodgers

5. Vernon Wells - Toronto Blue Jays

4. Curtis Granderson - Detroit Tigers

3. Carlos Beltran - New York Mets

2. Josh Hamilton - Texas Rangers

1. Grady Sizemore - Cleveland Indians

Right-field

10. Hunter Pence - Houston Astros

9. Andre Ethier - Los Angeles Dodgers

8. J.D Drew - Boston Red Sox

7. Magglio Ordonez - Detroit Tigers

6. Alexis Rios - Toronto Blue Jays

5. Nick Markakis - Baltimore Orioles

4. Jermaine Dye - Chicago White Sox

3. Vladimir Guerro - Los Angeles Angels

2. Ichiro Suzuki - Seattle Mariners

1. Ryan Ludwick - St. Louis Cardinals

Designated Hitter

5. Jason Giambi - Free Agent

4. Jack Cust - Oakland Athletics

3. Milton Bradley - Free Agent

2. David Ortiz - Boston Red Sox

1. Aubrey Huff - Baltimore Orioles

Starting Pitcher

15. Roy Oswalt - Houston Astros

14. Ervin Santana - Los Angeles Angels

13. Jon Lester - Boston Red Sox

12. Cliff Lee - Cleveland Indians

11. Dan Haren - Arizona Diamondbacks

10. Carlos Zambrano - Chicago Cubs

9. Edinson Volquez - Cincinatti Reds

8. Scott Kazmir - Tampa Bay Rays

7. Cole Hamels - Philadelphia Phillies

6. Roy Halladay - Toronto Blue Jays

5. Tim Lincecum - San Francisco Giants

4. Jake Peavy - San Diego Padres

3. Johan Santana - New York Mets

2. Brandon Webb - Arizona Diamondbacks

1. CC Sabathia - New York Yankees

Relief Pitcher

10. Dan Wheeler - Tampa Bay Rays

9. Kerry Wood - Cleveland Indians

8. Bobby Jenks - Chicago White Sox

7. Carlos Marmol - Chicago Cubs

6. Mariano Rivera - New York Yankees

5. Jonathan Papelbon - Boston Red Sox

4. Joakim Soria - Kansas City Royals

3. Brad Lidge - Philadelphia Phillies

2. Francisco Rodriguez - New York Mets

1. Joe Nathan - Minnesota Twins

I think this list represents the best that I can do as far as comparing players to others. When it comes ranking players overall then it gets a little more murky. If I were to draw a metaphorical line in each list to represent the "elite" players from the "good" players it would look a little like this:

C goes 4 deep

1B goes 5 deep

2B goes 4 deep

3B goes 5 deep

SS goes 3 deep

LF goes 5 deep

CF goes 4 deep

RF goes 4 deep

DH goes 3 deep

Pitchers are a different breed altogether and can be illuminated further in books and books of analysis and information. That is not something I tend to get into this week. Be sure to tell me how wrong I am in my analysis and offer your own lists.

Of course I would remiss if I didn't mention one other little thing that happened this Christmas week.

New York (AL) signs 1B Mark Teixeira to 8 year, $180 million deal

What else can you say but "wow"? Wow. The Yankees have spent $430 million on 4 players this off-season (they re-signed Chien Ming Wang, remember? An underrated move if their ever was one). That is approximately $410 million more than my Cleveland Indians spent and about $350 million more than my Cleveland Indians projected payroll for 2009. There is nothing I can really say about the Yankees. They clearly operate in a different plane than any one else. So good job, New York. Mark Teixeira, The Machine will finally be joining the team for him: The New York Machine.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Happy Kwanzaa to all. I hope you all got what you wished for.

I know Yankees fans did.

Mark Teixeira, The Robot

2008-12-20T03:00:00.002-05:00

Now that CC Sabathia has signed with the Evil Empire, there is one big free agent out there on everyone's mind. That of course would be switch-hitting firstbaseman Mark Teixeira. Mark Teixeira is the apple of many a team's eye. Super (evil) agent, Scott Boras and Teixeira have made it clear that Marky Mark wants to be a $200 million man and wouldn't mind being locked down for the next 10 years.

Given the sorry state of the economy, that originally seemed unlikely. But now that as many as 3 teams are in a bidding war for his services with the Yankees watching the proceedings like a hawk on the sideline, there is a small chance that the 28-year-old Teixeira may receive a deal that comes close to those numbers. To this, I say: right on. Mark Teixeira is a grown man and a professional and he has the God-given right as an American to find the best deal and the best fit for him and his family. But for as much as I enjoy the free market of baseball and understand Teix's trying to get the best deal, I have to admit one thing.

Mark Teixeira creeps me the hell out.

For as long as he has been in the league, Teixeira has shown no sign of loyalty or even humanity. Every day he grabs his glove and his bat and goes to work. He plays hard and he plays well but he doesn't really seem to connect at all with his teammates or with the game of baseball altogether. He is the purest business man in a profession that requires he play a game. He has just been that way throughout his whole career.

Mark Teixeira was a star athlete in Baltimore when the Red Sox drafted him in the 9th round . After signing with Boras, Teixeira decided to decline a deal from one of the most storied franchises in baseball history because the money wasn't good enough. He opted to attend Georgia Tech, a college miles and miles away from his Maryland home, presumably because they offered him the best scholarship. Then Teixeira was drafted by the Texas Rangers with the 5th overall pick only because the Phillies at pick 4 were too afraid to deal with a Boras client. Teix played four successful seasons in Arlington before the Rangers traded him to the Braves. Why did the Rangers trade away a potential franchise player? Boras and Teixeira decided to turn down an 8 year, $140 million extension.

Teixeira played a successful year and a half in the National League before the Braves were forced to trade him away to the Angels for Casey Kotchman. Any idea why the Braves had to trade away a potential-franchise player who played four years of college in Georgia and should presumably have had an emotional attachment to the area? That's right, money wasn't good enough. So Teixeira finished out the year in Anaheim and didn't sign a new contract.

Now it is the off-season and Teixeira has made it clear that he will simply play for the team that offers him the most money. That means that his hometown team the Orioles, who went significantly outside of their comfort level to attempt to sign their native son but couldn't match bigger offers from Washington, Boston and Los Angeles, are out of the question. Teixeira will call whichever city that offers the most cold-hard cash home.

As I have said before, I have no problem with a player accepting the best deal. CC Sabathia just gave in to the Yankees absurd offer and I found a way to forgive him. But something about Teixeira is different. In his five years in the league, Mark Teixeira has not given me a single shred of evidence that he is a human being with feelings and a passion for a kid's game. As far as I know, Mark Teixeira is just a bat-swinging robot who only operates when you put $200 million in his slot. Mark Teixeira is just a mercenary robot. And that's scary.

Chicago (AL) signs 3B/UTIL. Dayan Viciedo to 4 year, $10 million deal

The Sox seem to have themselves quite a pipeline in Cuba. First 26-year-old Utility phenom Alexei Ramirez arrived like an answer to the White Sox middle-infield prayers. Now comes Viciedo to help out in other areas. Everything I have read on this guys suggests that he is no where near the defensive presence that Ramirez is. But he has an excellent bat with power potential. The White Sox don't really need any more middle-of-the-order mashers, but they do need to get younger and Viciendo can help them there. Unfortunately, it does not appear that he can help them become more athletic. A cool, one time ten milly for a potential power bat must have been too good to pass up. But they are going to have to hope he is not a complete bust or those 4 years are going to seem like an eternity.

Colorado signs RP Alan Embree to 1 year, $2.25 million deal

$2.25 million for a proven relief pitcher? I don't know about you but that seems like a bargain to me, especially for a classic left-handed batter executioner. If Colorado keeps Huston Street and adds another starting pitcher, they may actually have a chance at winning the horrid NL West.

Kansas City signs RP Kyle Farnsworth to 2 year, $8.75 million deal

If I can't fault Colorado for spending $2.25 million a year for a reliever than I guess I can't fault the Royals for spending $4.5 a year. I am not sure how much I trust Kyle Farnsworth though. Yankees fans were not too happy with him and he posted a 6.00 ERA in what amounted to garbage time in Detroit. The Royals seemed to have been using their bullpen pieces with reckless abandon to get hitting help this off-season. And the signing of Farnsworth represents an attempt to get some bullpen back help. In the end, if you are really paying 2 years and $8.75 million to get Coco Crisp and Mike Jacobs, then I can spin that as a pretty good deal. They still need one more pitcher to be competitive this year (and they CAN compete this year if the young guys continue to mature and the AL Central stays weak).

Philadelphia signs SP Jamie Moyer to 2 year, $13 million deal

What's surprising about this deal isn't the fact that a 46-year-old was given 2 years and $13 million, it's the fact that a 46-year-old was given 2 years and $13 million and there is not a single baseball fan, enthusiast or analyst out there in the blogosphere who thinks its a bad deal. Jamie Moyer is 46 and now will be pitching until he is 48 and I, for one, am not going to raise a stink. Jamie Moyer is just one of those freak athletes who seems to get better as he gets older. When you look at his stats from last year there is nothing that jumps out at you. His strikeout to walk ratio is almost exactly 2 to 1, about as good as you can expect from a pitch-to-contact finesse pitcher and while his 20 homers allowed seems high, there were more than 50 pitchers in the MLB who gave up more (including Cole Hamles and Johan Santana). Jamie Moyer is an excellent #3 starter who we know can pitch for a World Series team and is well worth the $13 milion he is being paid. Plus, the Phillies just bought some karma from the baseball gods for signing a Hometown Hero.

Kansas City signs SP Horacio Ramirez to 1 year, $1.8 million deal

This isn't the kind of starting pitching help that Royals' fans were hoping for but it is a start. Ramirez actually posted a couple of good seasons for the Braves but fell off significantly for the Mariners. If he gets some good coaching from Bob McClure and the Royals start to gel and play well, he may have a good season in him yet. After all, at 29 and only a few years Major League's service it is not like the book is closed on Horacio Ramirez just yet.

Philadelphia signs RP Chan Ho Park to 1 year, $2.5 million deal

It seems as though Chan Ho Park has been around since the dawn of baseball. But Philadelphia seems to be in an ancient-pitcher-signing mood. Much like Moyer, Park had quite an effective season out of the 'pen last year for the Dodgers. He went 4-4 with a 3.40 ERA and was 1-0 with a 2.16 ERA as a starter. The Phillies seem to be banking on the fact that Park can be a starter since they are already stacked in the bullpen (Seriously look up the stats of their bullpen, take one guy out of it and they don't win the World Series). He Park succeeds as a starter than that $2.5 million is an absolute bargain but I don't really know if he will find very many innings in the bullpen.

(NL) signs OF Joey Gathright to 1 year, $.8 million deal

Obviously, this is not a deal that is going to bring the Cubs home the World Series but do not underestimate its importance. Joey Gathright does one thing very well: run. And that can help a National League team that has the flexibility to carry 5 bench players. Is $800,000 too much for a left-handed pinch runner and 4th outfielder? Not when your outfield consists of two 32-year-old righties and a 31-year-old lefty who was completely worthless during the second half of the year.

Los Angeles (NL) signs SS Rafael Furcal to 3 year, $33 million deal

Rafael Furcal and his agents get the Douce Bag of the Winter award by leading the Braves to believe that they had a three year deal, then signing with the Dodgers just hours later. I was getting excited for Rafael Furcal's return to the team that raised him, imagining a move of Furcal to 2B and Kelly Johnson back to the OF. But apparently, Furcal was plently happy in L.A and was just looking for leverage for more money from the Dodgers. My question is: why try to dupe other teams into thining you wanted money when you really just wanted to stay in Hollywood. In the end, Raffy did not get the Dodgers to give him an exorbitant amount of money. The A's and the Braves were willing to give him much more. But instead of just re-signing after the season, Furcal and his agents decided to piss off two teams, one of which that now refuses to do any more business with these agents' clients for as long as they may live. Just not a smart or classy move. The Dodgers, however should be happy. They got their man and at a premium price. Unfortunately, the 3-year deal may spell and end for SS prospect Chin-Hu Lung's time in Los Angeles. And it is not like they can get anything for him because teams know the Dodgers HAVE to trade him or let him rot in AAA for three years.

Detroit signs C Matt Treanor to 1 year, $.750 million deal

Well, 24-year-old Catcher, Dusty Ryan, it looks like you are spending at least another year at AAA Toledo. I don't really understand this move. Detroit already had its #1 Catcher in Gerald Laird and their #2 with Ryan and a #3 in Inge if you need him. Maybe they wanted Ryan to get more seasoning in AAA since Laird is definitely the guy this year. And maybe Treanor had a good relationship with Dontrelle Willis back in Florida and can be his Catcher this year. If D-Train improves this year, throwing the ball to Treanor exclusively then that $750,000 is money well spent.

That is it for this week. Come back next week when I rank the top ten players in baseball at each position.

Benedict A-Rod and the Ever-Warming Stove

2008-12-13T03:00:00.000-05:00

Alex Rodriguez....that bastard.

It seems that our friend, A-Rod, the consensus best position player of his generation (this "consensus" is 100% false, by the way. Albert Pujols is the best player of this generation and if you only care about hitting, Barry Bonds is...but that is another story for another time), has switched his allegiance. New York born Rodriguez donned the Red, White and Blue for the inagural 2006 World Baseball Classic. But come March, Benedict A-Rod will be representing the Dominican Republic in the 2009 Classic. WBC rules specify that a player may represent a country if one of his parents was a citizen of said country. The Dominican-American Rodriguez clearly fits the bill.

At the end of the day, I may be the only person who cares that A-Rod switched from Team A to Team B but I can't help it. I like the World Baseball Classic. I know the 2006 incarnation wasn't perfect and there is no reason to believe that 2009 will be any better. But I admire the global aspect of a sport like soccer or basketball and I would love for my favorite sport to support an exciting international competition like soccer's World Cup. I know the WBC is nowhere near the World Cup yet but I take the competition very, very seriously. And I will actively campaign to make others feel as strongly about it as I do. So with that in mind: A-Rod sucks. I hope you will all agree. David Wright will be better at 3B anyway.

A-Rod electing to play with the Dominicans would have been the biggest thing to happen this week for me if it weren't for that Big Fella who goes by the name of Sabathia, you might have heard of hm, signing with the Yankees. I will talk about what the deal means for both the Yankees and Sabathia later on but right now I would like to talk about what the deal means for baseball at large...and for me. For the past seven years, I have felt closer to CC Sabathia than I have ever been to any other professional athlete. Back in 2001, I was just a shy pre-teen who had only lived in Northeast Ohio for seven months, after moving there from New Jersey. The only solace I could find that year was the Indians' games at the Jake during the summer. It was then that I witnessed live CC's major league debut, a winning effort. I spent that whole summer watching the 2001 Indian's march into the playoffs, riding the arm of this 20-year-old phenom who just happened to be a bit overweight, like yours truly. CC played the game with a passion and gave the crowd a reason to cheer. He was also truly a class dude, as evidenced by his taking out a full page ad in the Plain Dealer, after being traded to the Brewers, thanking Cleveland for supporting during his tenure there. So the deal affects me quite personally. But how does the deal effect Major League Baseball?

The union has to be happy, and so does every other free agent Pitcher. The sheer girth of Sabathia's contract will have positive repercussions for players looking for a good deal. Those $171 million bucks raises the baseline salary of every pitcher who signs from now until the end of baseball as we know it. That is why no starting pitcher would sign before the big man. Ironically, the only Pitcher who may not be perfectly happy with the deal is Sabathia, himself. Sabathia made it clear he wanted to play on the West Coast and made it clear that he would take a pay cut to play on the West Coast. What I would like to know is how, among the three non-rebuilding West Coast teams with money (the Angels, Dodgers and Giants), no one stepped up to the plate and offered Sabathia a serious contract. Sabathia was undoubtedly the biggest free agent on the market...maybe even the best free agent pitcher available in the past decade. How is it then, that the Yankees and the Brewers were the only two teams who offered him actual money-on-the-table contracts from the word "go"?

The Angels pussy-footed around with Mark Teixeira while pondering whether they should go after Sabathia. The Dodgers declined to offer Sabathia a contract after he told them he WANTED to play for them. The Giants announced that they planned to "pursue" Sabathia (November 18th, a month after the Yankees had made him a $140 million offer) but may have never even "gotten around" to it. So while the Yankees were trying to make CC the richest pitcher ever, having Derek Jeter and LeBron James whisper in his ear and getting Reggie Jackson to show the man around town, the Angels, Dodgers and Giants (teams CC was willing to take a pay cut for) were sheepishly kicking the dirt at their feet wondering whether they should pursue the best free agent available and one of the top 5 starting pitchers in the league. What else can you say? The Yankees gave CC the best offer, when no one else would and he took it. I had hoped CC would be the one player who took less money to play for a city he loved, but at the end of the day: the West Coast teams made it very clear that they didn't want him. If CC beats the Dodgers in the playoffs, it will only be karma biting them in the ass.

Texas trades C Gerald Laird to Detroit for RHP Guillermo Moscoso and RHP Carlos Melo

I like this trade a lot for Texas. Gerald Laird was worthless to them, they have more good young Catchers than anyone in the league. They turned him into a 25-year old who can probably slide right into their embattled rotation and a 17-year old that Nolan Ryan can develop from scratch. The Tigers must think they have a shot in '09 to be making this deal. Fair enough...they had just better hope that they compete this year because if they don't, they will have just traded eight prospects in two years and have nothing to show for it.

Detroit signs SS Adam Everett to 1 year, $1 million deal

Nice, low-risk move. The Tigers defense was absolutely ruined by Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Rentaria at 3B and SS last year. Everett won't impress anyone with his bat but he can help you with his glove. Everett at Short and Brandon Inge at Third will give their Pitchers a fighting chance at the very least.

Los Angeles (NL) signs 3B Casey Blake to 3 year, $17 million deal

Contrary to popular belief, Casey Blake can still start in this league, provided that he is playing Third. I know a big part of his value has been his versatility, but that suggests that he can't start, which isn't very fair. He can be the starting Thirdbaseman for a playoff team (see Cleveland Indians, 2007). But the fact remains that he is 35 years old. Three years is a bit too long for his services, even to a guy who currently has a Casey Blake t-shirt hanging in his closet.

Los Angeles (NL) signs IF Mark Loretta to 1 year, $1.4 million deal

The Dodgers already have: Casey Blake, Angel Berrora, Blake DeWitt and Chin-lung Hu. If they wanted to give a guy $1.4 million just to sit on the bench, they could have called me. I would have done it for half of that!

New York (NL) signs RP Francisco Rodriguez to 3 year, $37 million deal

The Mets got the man they wanted, for the price they wanted, for the years that they wanted. They have got to be happy right now. K-Rod ends up making a TIIIINY bit more per year than Francisco Cordero who signed the bench-mark 4 year, $46 million deal last year. But that one less year is the key to this deal's value. Relief pitching is a fickle trade. Just because you are on top now doesn't mean you will be for the majority of your career. Just ask Eric Gagne.

Baltimore trades C Ramon Hernandez to Cincinatti for OF Ryan Freel, IF Justin Turner and IF Brandon Waring

I am not really seeing the point of this one. Baltimore has been doing a very satisfactory job of rebuilding up to this point and hopefully they saw something they couldn't resist in Turner and Waring because Ryan Freel just does not belong on their team. They are set in the outfield, and set in the infield. They just need their young guns to get their time in....and Ryan Freel certainly isn't one of those young guns. As for Cincinatti, what are you doing guys? Are you sure....absolutely SURE that you needed Ramon Hernandez? Ryan Hanigan seemed to do fine in his limited time and why wouldn't you spend a season seeing what Wilkin Castillo has. Are you sure you really needed Ramon, or did you just get enamored with the idea of having a "Pitcher's Catcher" who can call a good game? Plus, what business did the Reds have trading Ryan Freel. Their outfield has Jay Bruce and no one else. If you want to try rebuilding, you don't trade Ryan Freel for a 32-year-old Catcher. And if you want to compete for an NL Central title, you don't trade Ryan Freel, leaving Chris Dickerson and Norris Hopper as your CF and LF. Just an AWFUL deal for the Reds and only "alright" for the Orioles.

Cleveland signs RP Kerry Wood to 2 year, $20 million deal

When I first heard that the Tribe was close to signing Kerry Wood, I assumed that it would be in the mold of Kevin Millwood's 1 year, incentive laden deal that Millwood signed with Cleveland back in 2003. GM Mark Shapiro took a flier on a high-risk injury guy for less money. I THOUGHT that is what the Wood deal would look like, but 2 years, $20 million doesn't quite qualify as a "flier." The Indians seem to be confident that Wood can stay healthy and they had better be because while I will be happy to see Wood in the 9th inning at Progressive Field, I will also be eyeing that $20 million with trepidation.

New York (AL) signs SP CC Sabathia to 7 year, $161 million deal

I have already discussed the overarching effects of the biggest deal of the 2008 MLB Winter Meetings but what about the deal itself and how it will effect the Yankees? It is hard to discuss a deal which features such a large sum. Is CC Sabathia going to do anything in the next 7 years to justify being paid $161 million? Probably not. But $161 million is just the reality of what the Yankees had to spend to get him. In that sense, the deal is fair. The Yankees needed Sabathia and badly. They made it their #1 priority to get the big man. But CC Sabathia made it clear that he wanted to play on the West Coast. So it was clear to the Yankees that they had to overpay to get him. So they did. The Steinbrenners clearly had no problem paying $161 million for his services so who am I to question whether they spent too much or not. They spent as much as they were willing to spend to get the off-season piece that they absolutely HAD to have. Would I recommend the Rays or Athletics or Rockies spend $161 million to get CC Sabathia? Of course not! But the Yankees had the money and they wanted him the worst so they got him. For what it is worth, I think if you had to invest 7 years in a Pitcher, CC would not be a bad choice. He is currently one of the top 3 best pitchers in baseball (only Brandon Webb and Johan Santana come close to him) and durability has never been a concern. If he is going to get hurt, it will only be for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season. His weight doesn't seem to affect his athleticism or durability at all and the idea of him pitching competitively at 35 doesn't seem so far-fetched, regardless of his playing weight. Remember, this is a man who led the Bigs in IP in 2007. His poor playoff record is a fair concern to have when he is being paid $161 million, but who is to say he will not begin to perform in the clutch? In this three postseason appearances one was satisfactory (3.00 ERA in '01) and the other two were very poor (7.95 ERA in '07 and 12.27 in '08). To be fair, the '08 ERA is based off of only one game and on extremely short rest. But '07 was just an undeniable disaster. Still, the problem is clearly psychological if he has physical Cy Young talent and a psychological problem can always be fixed. All in all, a good deal that will pay immediate dividends and might not hurt them long-term as many people think

Baltimore signs SS Cesar Izturis to 2 year, $6 million deal

Baltimore definitely needed a shortstop. No one seemed to be able to hold down the position that Miguel Tejada called his own after he was traded. Cesar Izturis will be perfectly able to be a starter and a solid defender for the Orioles; just don't expect him to bat higher than 8th or 9th. Seems like an okay deal until the voice in my head starts asking: why pay a man with no upside $6 million to play a position in two rebuilding years when you could pay the league minimum to a younger gun who has a chance, however slim, to be better? I know Luis Hernandez and Brandon Fahey more than proved last year that they weren't ready but still....

Pittsburgh trades C Ronny Paulino to Philadelphia for C Jason Jaramillo

Young Catcher for young Catcher? Sounds pretty inconsequential to me. The only thing of note that this deal may represent is the end of Chris Coste's story-book career.

Three team trade-

Mariners receive: RP Aaron Heilman (NYM), OF Endy Chavez (NYM), 1B Mike Carp (NYM), OF Franklin Gutierrez (CLE), RHP Meikel Clato (NYM), LHP Jason Vargas (NYM) and OF Ezekial Carrera (NYM)

Mets receive: RP J.J Putz(SEA) , RP Sean Green (SEA) and OF Jeremy Reed (SEA)

Indians receive: RP Joe Smith (NYM), 2B Luis Valbuena (SEA)

Wow, what a trade! I don't care who you are, you have got to love a three-team trade. They are such a rarity in Major League Baseball. And this one was a doozy. I am having a hard time deciding who got the best of this deal. Know why? Because this was the perfect deal: every team got exactly what they needed by giving up what they didn't need. No more, no less. The Mariners had to cut payroll and had to get younger. Well, Aaron Heilman won't get them younger but he will eat innings for them and provide a valuable service to a rebuilding team. Endy Chavez is an excellent piece-part and Franklin Gutierrez has untapped potential. Turning a worthless Jeremy Reed into two outfield parts is so small feat, especially when you are thin in the outfield. As for Mike Carp? Who doesn't want a young lefty-hitting firstbaseman....especially if your current 1B is Bryan LaHair. Now, those three minor leaguers from the Mets? They're just gravy! The Mets needed to completely revamp their bullpen. And they have. Francisco Rodriguez and JJ Putz were two of the best closers in the game and now they are on the same team. Sean Green is no one to shake a stick at either. Jeremy Reed is worthless...but hey, someone has to be the 4th outfielder. The Indians had a surplus in the outfield (Choo, Sizemore, Francisco with Brantley, LaPorta and Crowe on the way) with no in-house option to take an infield spot. So they traded Gutierrez and not only got a potential infield part in Valbuena but also a sure-thing bullpen arm in Joe Smith. Valbuena is still young with little MLB experience, but hey, so was Asdrubal Cabrera when the Indians stole him out of the Ms' hands for Eduardo Perez...who can now be seen on ESPN.

Philadelphia signs OF Raul Ibanez to 3 year, $30 million deal

What an excellent deal for the Phils! Turns out you don't just roll out of bed and become World Champs; you do it by making deals like this. Raul Ibanez is an intelligent and savvy vet who can still hit the ball out of the park. I've said it before and I will say it again: in the Post-Steroid era, power is at a premium. And Raul Ibanez has plenty of it. He may be 36 but in that ballpark, he can probably hit 30 home-runs for at least the next two years. The third year on the deal is a bit iffy, but how can you fault the Phillies for getting an everyday player for the same price that the Indians paid for a Closer, who will probably only play a few innings a week? If he were a righty, he would be perfect. But alas, nobody is perfect.

New York (AL) Signs SP A.J. Burnett to 5 year, $82.2 million deal

What can you say at this point? The New York Yankees have a lot of money. And they used that money to overpay for a second big name pitcher in under a week. They are paying A.J half of the money that they are paying CC, but I almost feel that CC is a sounder investment. Burnett will be two years older than Sabathia by the end of their respective deals and Burnett has a much larger injury history than Sabathia does. But clearly that does not matter to the Yanks, or they wouldn't have done the deal. And I must admit that a Rotation of Sabathia, Wang, Burnett, Hughes, Chamberlain looks a lot better than a rotation of Sabathia, Wang, Hughes, Chamberlain and another disposable arm. The only thing that the Yankees can't afford A.J Burnett to be is another Carl Pavano. One was bad enough.

Arizona trades SP Conor Robertson to New York (NL) for RP Scott Schoeneweis

It looks like the Metropolitans were serious about revamping their bullpen. Not only did that mean adding more players (Francisco Rodriguez, J.J Putz, Sean Green) but apparently, that also meant getting rid of a lot of players too (Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith and now Scott Schoeneweis). None of those players were necessarily part of the problem, but G.M Omar Minaya is fairly wise that there is a certain psychological aspect to beating absolutely rocked and destroying your team's chances two years in a row. None of the new guys have that baggage and Minaya is making sure than Scotty Scho isn't around in '09 to remind them. Having said that, he is a competent left-handed reliever, a commodity that is rare in baseball these days, and the D-Backs should be happy to have him.

Detroit trades OF Matt Joyce to Tampa Bay for SP Edwin Jackson

How did this one fall through the cracks? I was strolling teams' rosters when I came across Matt Joyce on the Tampa Bay roster. Hmm Matt Joyce? Wasn't he a highly regarded young outfielder for the Tigers. So I look up his Wikipedia entry and sure enough, the Tigers had traded him for...Edwin Jackson. Wow. I had been waiting around all off-season to see where Edwin Jackson or Andy Sonanstine would end up. The Rays were ready to give David Price a starting slot (and rightfully so) and either Jackson or Sonanstine would be the odd-man-out and be traded for a piece that the Rays need. So apparently that trade finally happened, under everyone's noses. Seriously, where was ESPN on this one? My first reaction was "Only Matt Joyce?" But I suppose every team knew that Jackson was expendable to the Rays, so it was hard to get anything for him. Oh well. But the Tigers seem to be quietly building themselves a contender this year, the RIGHT way: with pitching and defense. If Mark Shapiro hadn't brilliantly smacked down their only chance to get a closer this year (J.J Putz), the Tigers would be scaring this Indians fan quite a bit right now. Verlander, Galaraga, Bondeman and Jackson pitching to Gerald Laird with Inge, Everett and Polanco behind them looks pretty good to me.

That is all for this week. Congratulations to Joe Gordon on making the Hall of Fame. That he is in the Hall, maybe they can start talking about him as one of the better Secondbaseman ever. It is a worthwhile discussion.

November Rundown 2008

2008-12-06T03:00:00.001-05:00

The MLB off-season has always been more of a boxing match than a 100 meter dash.

Instead of reacting too soon and running for the finish line, teams and players tend to circle one another for as long as they can, sizing the other up and taking their time before the first blow. No one wants to be the first guy to sign and watch as another, comparable player sign for more (I'm looking at you, Jeremy Affeldt). So suffice it to say, there have only been a few moves made in the early morning of this MLB Hot Stove. Here is what I have to say about all the (in)action (note: I will not be including any moves in which a club re-signed its own player).

Kansas City trades RP Leo Nunez to Florida for 1B Mike Jacobs

It is hard to analyze any move that the Marlins make without using the words "salary dump." Baseball's first Floridian franchise is in a perpetual state of dismantling. And at first glance that is all that this move looks to be. Mike Jacobs has been a very useful player for the past few years. He fits the classic mold of power-hitting first baseman to a T. And with the state of power in current Major League Baseball, his kind is now at a premium. But the Marlins are set as far as the infield goes. By dumping Jacobs, the Marlins can still try and replicate their power-numbers at the corners approach by playing Dallas McPherson at 3B and move a career-revived Jorge Cantu to 1B. Or they could (and they should) keep Cantu at 3B, move Dan Uggla to 1B and play the the young and defense-minded Emilio Bonafico at 2B. That would help fix an atrocious Marlin's infield D...especially on the right side in a Division heavy with power-hitting lefties (Delgado, Howard, Utley, McCann). This move makes sense for the Royals as well but it also represents a bit of a disappointment as well. KC has sorely needed a left-hander with some pop for a while now. And Jacobs can be just that, but unfortunately for the Royals's faithful (those that are still around), his signing is almost a white flag for the Royals farm system. Mike Sweeney couldn't stay healthy, Ryan Shealey is a massive disappointment, Alex Gordon hasn't developed the power they thought he could and Billy Butler is simply unplayable anywhere other than DH. So the Royals finally got their man, but it cost them a key bullpen piece for a team that doesn't have many.

Colorado trades OF Matt Holliday to Oakland for RP Huston Street, SP Greg Smith and OF Carlos Gonzalez

Who would have figured that the blockbuster of the Hot Stove so far would come from two small market teams? To me, this deal makes all kind of sense for the Colorado Rockies. Everyone who follows Major League Baseball in almost any capacity was well aware of the fact that Matt Holliday HAD to be traded. The Rockies made it very clear that they could not afford the Boras-induced salary he was certain to get in 2010. So their motives are clear in trading him. All they had to do is get back the best talent that they could. I don't know if they got the best they could get but I am certain they got back the best MLB-ready talent they could get. Gonzalez, Street and Smith are all ready to start from day one. Street effectively off-sets the loss of Brian Fuentes (and he is younger), Smith provides the Rox with a solid rotation piece for years to come and Gonzalez can immediately step in for Holliday, and be productive, if not be the offensive juggernaut that he was. Turning an All-Star that is certain to leave into 3 competent MLB players that can fill needs for your club is a good deal anyway you slice it. But as far as Oakland goes....I have no idea where Billy Beane is coming on this one. I honestly cannot remember an 0ff-season in which Beane decided to add a star player instead of waving one goodbye. The A's are in that constant payroll-squeeze so they simply cannot afford the premium talent like Holliday. So the mere addition of Holliday suggests to me that Oakland is going to try to make a run at a title this year, since he is almost sure to not be an Athletic anymore come 2010. But if the A's really are gearing up for an '09 run, why did Billy Beane trade his two best pitchers last year for virtually no MLB-ready prospects?It just seems like a direction-less move to me.

Florida trades SP Scott Olsen, OF Josh Willingham to Washington for 2B Emilio Bonafico, RHP P.J Dean and OF Jake Smolinski

In this article by Jerry Crasnick, the ESPN scribe writes about the Nationals inconsistent ways and seeming lack of identity. This move seems to fit the bill of inconsistency. After achieving the worst record in the Majors last year, the Nationals should be dumping role-players like Josh Willingham (Austin Kearns, anyone?) and not adding him. If they had to take Willingham at the behest of the Marlins payroll-cutting ways, then fine. But if they added a prospect or two for the specific purposes of getting Willingham, then shame on you, Jim Bowden, shame on you! I think a trade of Scott Olsen for Emilio Bonafico straight-up would have made a lot of sense. The Nationals are in dire need of quality starting pitching, and the Marlins need to get faster and have better defense in the infield. If the Marlins get any kind of production from either P.J Dean or Jake Smolinski, then they win this deal.

Chicago (AL) trades 1B Nick Swisher and RHP Kaneoka Texeira to New York (AL) for IF Wilson Betemit, RHP Jeff Marquez and RHP Johnny Nunez.

When I perused the White Sox's starting line-up at the end of the season and saw all the aging and declining pieces, I couldn't help but think: "they'd better thank God that they have control of Quentin, Ramirez and Swisher." Well, not anymore. Swisher's 2008 season was the absolute definition of an aberration. His OBP was more than a hundred points higher than his AVG and his K-BB ratio was not too far out of line with the rest of his career numbers. So, thanks to the White Sox impatience the New York Yankees now have a 28-year-old player who can play 1B and all three OF spots and who is a mortal lock to hit .260/.340/.450 with 30 HRs and maybe even 100 RBI for years to come. And what did the White sox get in return? A role-playing Utility infielder and two pitching prospects. For what its worth, Jeff Marquez looks to be fairly promising...I am just not sure if the Sox knew what they had in Swisher, however.

San Francisco signs RP Jeremy Affeldt to 2 year, $8 million deal

Now here is a deal that represents a reversing trend in Major League Baseball. Remember that 4 year, $46 million deal for Francisco Cordero last winter? Those are clearly on the way out. This is a bargain for the Giants any way you slice it...and especially when you consider just how bad the Giants needed bullpen help. I think the Giants would have been willing to pay Affeldt 3 years, $20 million based on need alone.

Boston trades OF Coco Crisp to Kansas City for RP Ramon Ramirez

This is the kind of trade, you just have to love. Team 1 has player X playing a position that have an overabundance of. So they trade player X to Team 2 for player Y, who plays a position that Team 2 has an overabundance of. Coco Crisp really had no future in Boston. Ellsbury was clearly the guy and Crisp wasn't overtaking Jason Bay or JD Drew anytime soon. And Crisp looks pretty good in royal blue in an outfield that can feature him as a starting Centerfielder and lead-off hitter. The Red Sox should be more than happy to get some bullpen help, as Terry Francona did not look comfortable going to his 'pen last year.

Houston signs SP Mike Hampton to 1 year, $2 million deal

A nice little low-risk, high-reward deal. Houston needs pitching if they have any delusions of winning the NL Central. Mike Hampton could very well help them achieve that goal. At, 1 year, $2 million, however, would it really hurt that much if he didn't?

San Francisco signs RP Bob Howry to 1 year, $2.75 million deal

See also: Affeldt, Jeremy- reasons to be furious at. Small salary aside, Bobby Howry can still throw strikes and get batters out. The Giants are probably thrilled to have gotten both Howry and Affeldt.

Seattle signs 1B Russell Branyan to 1 year, $1.4 million deal

Look, I know it is only $1.4 million, but why would the Mariners be signing ANYBODY? Their payroll is absurdly bloated as is and they are going to lose an absurd amount of game regardless of whether they have Russell Branyan or not. It is like paying somebody 20 bucks to sprinkle a few sugar granules on a turd when you are going to have to eat the turd, 20 bucks spent or not.

Chicago (AL) trades SP Javier Vazquez and RP Boone Logan to Atlanta for C Tyler Flowers, SS Brent Lillibridge, LHP Santos Rodriguez and 3B Jonathan Gilmore.

Kenny Williams follows his "one player for two" paradigm to a fault. You have got to wonder if it hurt him here. They probably won't miss Javier Vazquez all that much; Ozzie Guillen seemed to wish he was gone at any cost by the end of the season. But Boone Logan? The White Sox bullpen was one of their strong points last year, and I just don't know if you want to tinker with that by removing a left-hander from it. None of the talent that the White Sox get back is Major League-ready (as was the case with their other deal of the off-season). The Sox seem to be excusing themselves from the '09 season but when you look at their entire off-season haul, which includes three potential starting pitchers and a handful of infielders, they may be back in the saddle by the time 2010 rolls around. The Braves needed an arm...simply put. And they got an arm in Javier Vazquez. Vazquez has only been a disappointment to those who expect him to be anything more than a #3 or #4 starter. That just isn't his game; but he is consistent and he can be a valuable piece to a competitive team. Unfortunately, Vazquez will have to be a #2 this year behind Jair Jurrjens. If Hudson comes back healthy in 2010 and some of the Braves young arms develop well in 09 (Reyes, Morton, Campillo), then maybe this move will pay off in 2010. This was clearly not a move for next year by either team.

Milwaukee signs RP Jorge Julio to 1 year, $.950 million deal

See also: Affeldt, Jeremy- reasons to be furious at. Jorge Julio hit the market at the wrong time if he wanted to make any kind of money. Cost considered, it is a decent deal for the Brew Crew, but they are nowhere near being done with adding to their bullpen if they want to win.

Boston signs RHP Junichi Tazawa to 3 year, $3.3 million deal

Here is a move that might runs the risk of falling through the cracks of the '08 Hot Stove major plotlines. Aside from being a no-brainer move for the Red Sox, this move sends waves throughout the global baseball community. Junichi Tazawa is a Japanese baseball phenom who politely asked all of the Nippon Professional Baseball teams to not select him in their league's draft so he could bypass the Japanese league and sign directly with a MLB team as a 22-year-old. Major League Baseball teams have to be thrilled about the precedent of not having to post an outlandish price for the right to negotiate with a Japanese player already in his late 20s or early 30s. Instead they can sign a potential star for cheap and as a youngster, so they can fully acclimate him to their system. This spells bad news, however, for the NPL who already have a rough time keeping their stay players at home.

San Francisco signs SS Edgar Rentaria to 2 year, $18.5 million deal

After two superb Free Agent signings, the Giants were due for a stinker. And here he comes in the visage of SS Edgar Rentaria. I would've thought that after his 2008 defensive performance, Rentaria would have been unsignable as anything aside from a 1 year, $1 million role player. Certainly not for two years, certainly not for $18.5 million and certainly not as a starting shortstop, would I have signed Edgar Rentaria. Rentaria is so atrocious as a defender that I would not be surprised if San Francisco's pitcher's ERAs begin to rise. San Francisco may soon find that Rentaria's lipstick-on-a-pic AVG is hiding some unfavorable statistics. With his OBP and lack of speed, he won't be able to hold down a #1 or #2 spot in the line-up and with his lack of power, he certainly won't be a middle of the order hitter. Most likely, the Giants will be paying Edgar Rentaria $9 million a year to bat 8th in the order and hurt them defensively, when they could have kept Emmanuel Burriss at SS, who actually has some upside and some speed, and moved 26-year-old Eugenio Velez to 2B, who also has some upside. And they could have done that for about $7 million less a year. So be younger, faster and better for two years and $15 million less, or be older, slower, or worse for two years and $15 million more. These are the kinds of questions that seem to confound San Francisco GM, Brian Sabean (see also: Barry Zito).

San Diego trades SS Khalil Greene to St. Louis for RP Mark Worrell and a player to be named later

I don't know if Mark Worrell is any good. But I do know that Khalil Greene isn't. Kudos to the San Diego Padres for attempting to rebuild the right way....unlike the Russell Branyan-signing Mariners up north.

Well, those are all the significant moves that have been made so far. Be sure to tell me how wrong I was about each of them. And come back next week for some more long-winded baseball analysis.

Welcome to Bojay's Baseball Blog

2008-12-01T19:06:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Alec and I like baseball.

If one ever had to pick one phrase to introduce one's-self (Although I can't imagine any scenario in which that would be the case), I would have to say I would choose the one directly above. Of course, there is a little more to me than that, but for the intents and purposes of this blog I think that will do.

I am not a professional journalist. I haven't played baseball competitively since the eighth grade. And I don't have any type of inside information when it comes to Major League Baseball.

But I like baseball...a lot.

I love baseball, as a matter of fact. I love watching it, I love thinking about it, I love playing it and I love dreaming about it. There are so many cliches that can be and have been written about America's past time. And they are all true. The smell of the freshly mowed grass is intoxicating; the image of a father and son playing catch, powerful; and the knowledge of an impending play at the plate, exhilarating. But I believe the love between this sport and man is a sacred pact and a secret one. Every person who shares in loving and respecting this hallowed game does it for their own reasons. And this unique relationship is only part of the appeal.

I spent my High School days jotting down MLB line-ups in my notebook. If you were to raid my room and find my U.S History book it would look a little something like this: Panama Canal....Blue Jays.....World War One......Dodgers.......Bay of Pigs......White Sox. The disparate yet unified relationship of a baseball line-up fascinates me. And memorizing where the human pieces fit on each team is a way of organizing my thoughts.

Baseball is just one way to keep my sanity. Writing is my other.

I am now currently a Freshman in college, majoring in Magazine Journalism. My only goal is simple: to maintain a living through writing. And since baseball is such an integral part of my life, wouldn't it be nice to be able to write about it for a paycheck?

So with that in mind, I have created this Blog. Just think of it as the Minor Leagues. I believe that I have some natural talent as a writer and I fully intend to work hard at honing I craft, but I am also cognizant of the fact that right now: I suck. Bojay's Baseball Blog (I couldn't resist the alliteration) is my Class A effort. Every Saturday you can expect a new entry in which I offer my analysis on the previous week's events, argue for a certain aspect that needs to be improved in the game or predict the outcome of the season. All I ask of you, dear reader, is to read if you want, don't read if you don't want and tell me if I am ready for High A, or should probably give Cape Cod a try.

With that in mind, check this out on Saturday when I will be analyzing the few moves already made in this slow-starting off season.

Hopefully, the Indians will have signed Manny, CC, Teixeirra and Bob Feller by then.