Spring Training 2008

[Guest Michael Myers Resplendent]

To tie the comments that don't warrant a thread together, if Colon can't hack it with the Red Sox, he'll go join the Marlins Manatees.

 

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Only if he accepts a non-roster invite, though.

[NYU 0]

 

Number 14 is in it to win it.

[NYU 0]

By the way, it's a little pathetic that the Marlins just got rid of Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera for largely financial reasons but they will have no problem financing the Marlins Manatees. I would hope every Marlin fan is just a little embarrassed at their team ownership right now.

[devo 0]

What's to finance? A set of undersized matching t-shirts and these guys are ready to go. I seriously doubt they're getting paid besides free tickets, and the value of those are pretty low at this point.

[NYU 0]

I'm going to assume they will be receiving some kind of financial reimbursement for their work unless I hear otherwise.

 

Plus the Marlins WILL need to pay money for the marketing and promotion of this stunt. That should add up nicely.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

By the way, it's a little pathetic that the Marlins just got rid of Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera for largely financial reasons but they will have no problem financing the Marlins Manatees. I would hope every Marlin fan is just a little embarrassed at their team ownership right now.

In fairness, they did get a great deal in return. Andrew Miller could be every bit as good as Willis within two seasons.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

By the way, it's a little pathetic that the Marlins just got rid of Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera for largely financial reasons but they will have no problem financing the Marlins Manatees. I would hope every Marlin fan is just a little embarrassed at their team ownership right now.

In fairness, they did get a great deal in return. Andrew Miller could be every bit as good as Willis within two seasons.

 

In all fairness, Andew Miller could be better than Willis this season. Giving up Willis was the smart move given his decline over the past few seasons. He may well bounce back, but Florida was savvy in moving him at the right time to maximize their return.

 

2008 Projections:

 

Willis - 200 IP, 4.55 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 123 K

Miller - 170 IP, 4.52 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 146 K

[CanadianChris 0]

Blue Jays signed Shannon Stewart to a minor league deal.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Tampa is showing interest in signing Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza and Kenny Lofton..

 

lol

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Tampa wants to sign Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza and Kenny Lofton..

 

lol

Source?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

St Pete Times on Bonds and the Rays as well as Lofton and Piazza

 

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Tampa is showing interest in signing Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza and Kenny Lofton..

 

lol

 

They don't want to sign all three. They've expressed interest in bringing in Bonds or Piazza for DH and Lofton to try and win an outfield spot. Those are good low cost, high reward type signings. A team like Tampa Bay can take a gamble on some of these bargain guys.

 

What's the lol for?

[Guest]

Bonds would OBVIOUSLY help them out. At DH, Bonds doesn't need to rest, ever.

 

Dioner Navarro sucks. What's wrong with signing Piazza?

 

Baldelli hasn't been very good either. I think all we've taken from this information is that Marvin looks like a bigger idiot than he did before, if that's at all possible. Chemistry is so overrated in baseball, if the lol is because Bonds is a clubhouse distraction, I don't think that means anything at all.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Bonds would OBVIOUSLY help them out. At DH, Bonds doesn't need to rest, ever.

 

Dioner Navarro sucks. What's wrong with signing Piazza?

 

Baldelli hasn't been very good either. I think all we've taken from this information is that Marvin looks like a bigger idiot than he did before, if that's at all possible. Chemistry is so overrated in baseball, if the lol is because Bonds is a clubhouse distraction, I don't think that means anything at all.

The problem with Piazza is that he's a tremendous defensive liability. Navarro is just 24 yet and had a great second half.

[Guest]

Catchers generally don't play every game anyway, and at Piazza's age, they play even less. Navarro would still get his chances, so I don't see the big deal. More than that, Navarro's first half was so bad that his OBP as a whole couldn't even get to .290. That's enough reason all on its own to look at other options, if better ones are available.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Catchers are notorious for being late developers. The fact that Navarro had a good second half at age 24 is a sign that he could still develop into a better than average player. Still, signing Piazza to DH for 80 games, catch for 40 and play 1B for another 10-15 might not be the worst use of resources.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Here's a question that popped up on BTF that's given me pause. Would the Rays have a better shot than the Phillies of winning the NL East. Dead serious here.

 

Phillies have:

-Impact Hitters. Chase Utley is the best 2B in baseball, Ryan Howard is the most powerful hitter in baseball. The Rays had a great year from Carlos Pena and a hit lucky year from B.J. Upton, but those may not hold up. The rest of the team is above-average at best.

-Experience. Most of the Phils are established, the Rays are younger.

-Top of the Bullpen. Tom Gordon has his detractors but he's produced every year. Ryan Madson is solid. The Rays meanwhile had the worst pen in baseball.

-Defense. Victorino in center field, Pedro Feliz at third, with Rollins and Utley up the middle. The Rays defense was horrid, but will be vastly improved this season.

 

Rays have:

Pitching depth. Which would you rather start a rotation with? Hamels, Myers and Moyer, or Kazmir, Shields and Garza? The Phillies have Kyle Kendrick's less than impressive K rate behind that and a collection of contest winners. The Rays have a group of Andy Sonnanstine, J.P. Howell, Edwin Jackson, and Jason Hammel to cobble together a rotation. What strikes me about the Phillies is their complete lack of pitchers who could make an impact. Josh Outman is the great white hope.

 

I'll take Phillies, but it frightens me a bit that the Rays almost have a better pitching staff. The Phillies have four pitchers guaranteed bullpen slots (Lidge, Tom Gordon, J.C. Romero, Ryan Madson). One of them will miss opening day. Beyond that is a list of "Who's That?" including two Rule V picks, a Tommy John survivor, a handful of minor league journeyman, a fat lefty nicknamed "Mini Me," and two guys named Durbin. The fat lefty has the lowest projected ERA of the bunch.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

This could be interesting... Rotoworld.

 

Manager Joe Torre said Monday that he wouldn't hesitate to call Clayton Kershaw up to the majors this season despite the fact that he's just 20 years old.

 

"To me, players become good players when you find out how they handle failure," Torre said. "A lot of it's the makeup of the youngster. But it's happening more and more in the big leagues now, a lot of kids coming up. You don't think twice about bringing a youngster, especially a pitcher, from Double-A."

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Kershaw's a great prospect, but he's unproven above the Midwest League yet and more importantly, he is not yet on the 40 man roster. It'd be a reach to call him up unless he has a huge year.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

I can't see the Rays opening up the checkbook for Bonds or Piazza.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I can't see the Rays opening up the checkbook for Bonds or Piazza.

 

 

I'm not sure that's correct. The Rays have a miniscule payroll, but I don't think it's because they are overly cheap. They've just never seen the upside in paying for marginal upgrades when there was no hope of competing and they had promising youngsters at every position who needed to play. I could easily see theme extending their payroll in the $60-$80 million range, especially with a new stadium on the way.

[Fuzzy Dunlop 0]

According to WSCR, there are already talks of the Cubs possibly playing a season at The Cell while Wrigley is rehabbed, perhaps as soon as 2010.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Baseball America released their top 100 prospect rankings today. The full list is available from their website. Here's the top 20.

 

1- Jay Bruce, OF - Reds

2- Evan Longoria, 3B - Rays

3- Joba Chamberlain, P - Yankees

4- Clay Buchholz, P - Red Sox

5- Colby Rasmus, OF - Cardinals

6- Cameron Maybin, OF - Marlins

7- Clayton Kershaw, P - Dodgers

8- Franklin Morales, P - Rockies

9- Homer Bailey, P - Reds

10- David Price, P - Rays

11- Travis Snider, OF - Blue Jays

12- Matt Wieters, C - Orioles

13- Jacoby Ellsbury, OF - Red Sox

14- Andrew McCutchen, OF - Pirates

15- Jake McGee, P - Rays

16- Brandon Wood, SS/3B - Angels

17- Wade Davis, P - Rays

18- Mike Moustakas, SS - Royals

19- Elvis Andrus, SS - Rangers

20- Fernando Martinez, OF - Mets

[devo 0]

According to WSCR, there are already talks of the Cubs possibly playing a season at The Cell while Wrigley is rehabbed, perhaps as soon as 2010.

 

Ew. I wonder if they'll be able to sell out outside of the friendly confines.

[Guest Michael Myers Resplendent]

No. Unacceptable. How many ways can Reinsdorf fuck our team? They'll have to rehab Wrigley during the offseasons only. Figure out a way.

 

So I assume this means that the Cubs will be sold from Jerry Reinsdorf's business partner to Jerry Reinsdorf's buddy, and Wrigley Field will be sold to the state agency operated by Jerry Reinsdorf's cronies, thus the bill for the renovated Wrigley will go to Illinois taxpayers? Lovely. I hate that bastard so much.

 

Someone needs to hurry up and buy the Cubs AND Wrigley Field to prevent this disgusting conflict of interest from developing. It's bad enough that the taxpayers are on the hook for Wrigley Field, it's worse that the White Sox will benefit from all this. The corruption. It's insane. Only the cocksuckers of Chicago could get away with this filth. Good thing we're about to elect a Chicagoan politician to our highest office. Only the best!

[Guest Michael Myers Resplendent]

La Russa compared McGwire's work ethic to that of another man caught in the steroids swirl, Clemens. In spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, La Russa maintained that both of them deserve a pass. "There's a certain amount of credit that should be given to a guy who's worked hours and hours to get stronger and bigger," he said.

 

I reminded him that the whole point of using many performance-enhancing drugs is to increase the ability to work and train harder. "So working hard doesn't give you an alibi that you didn't use drugs," I told him.

 

"Well, that's what you believe and you're probably right according to testimony, but that's not what I believe," La Russa said. "I watched Mark McGwire work."

 

I interrupted him.

 

"Wait a minute, Tony. You still don't believe McGwire used performance-enhancing drugs?"

 

"Absolutely not."

 

"Come on."

 

"Absolutely not," he said. "If you see Mark today, he still looks like he did then."

 

"No, he doesn't," I said.

 

"Yes, he does," La Russa said.

 

"No, he doesn't," I repeated.

 

La Russa tossed his hands in the air and looked at me in frustration. "Are you asking for my opinion or yours?" he said.

 

"I'm asking your opinion," I said. "But we're having a conversation, and I'm disagreeing with you."

[CanadianChris 0]

Put the victory parade in Tampa on hold. Scott Kazmir is scheduled to have an MRI after experiencing "discomfort" in his elbow:

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/n...tory?id=3265581

[Guest Michael Myers Resplendent]

What the fuck? It's been over an hour and nobody has replied to me! How does nobody understand the gravity of this situation?

 

Reinsdorf-Meddled Illinois Stadium Authority: "We have extensive plans to renovate Wrigley Field when we buy it from Sam Zell on the state's citizens' dime that will force the Cubs to play at U.S. Cellular Field and pay rent to Jerry Reinsdorf."

 

This is wrong, wrong, wrong. It's us against the world here. None of what's happening should be happening. What are we gonna do?

[Mike wanna be 0]

Cut off the ivy and put in some padding over the bricks instead. Save Reinsdorf the trouble of hiring somebody to do it.