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Wednesday, March 09, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves
Fun With BA's All-Time Top 100 Lists
McCovey Chronicles has a snicker at Baseball America's top 100 prospects of all time, noting all the guys who turned in behind Nerf-hitting Neifi Perez. The Dodgers' gold standard for such has to be Darren Dreifort; behind him, we get Trot Nixon, Derek Jeter, Charles Johnson, Johnny Damon, and Billy Wagner. The Angels don't escape without me poking at their entrants; in 2000, Ramon Ortiz placed ahead of Barry Zito, Eric Gagné, Adam Eaton, Ben Sheets, and Cesar Izturis.There is a lesson in this somewhere, but I don't know what it is, exactly. It would be a fun offseason project -- and might be of some interest -- to identify cumulative VORP and see if there's any correlation between BA rank (using the last possible year for each player) and career contribution.
San Francisco Joins The American League
Well, at least during spring training. Barry Bonds will be permitted to DH at home in Giants' spring training games.Easing The Pain, One C-Note At A Time
Speaking of the Giants, ex-Giant and present crank A.J. Pierzynski has taken to paying his teammates for hitting home runs off his former club. Pierzynski was released by the Giants despite a year remaining on his contract, so he has a right to some bitterness, yet San Francisco -- or at least their training staff -- has even more right to be happy he's gone:One of those now-it-can-be-told stories the White Sox, A.J. Pierzynski's new employer, surely haven't heard: During a Giants exhibition game last spring, Pierzynski took a shot to his, shall we say, private parts. Trainer Stan Conte rushed to the scene, placed his hands on Pierzynski's shoulders in a reassuring way, and asked how it felt. "Like this," said Pierzynski, viciously delivering a knee to Conte's groin. It was a real test of professionalism for the enraged Conte, who vowed to ignore Pierzynski for the rest of the season until Conte realized how that would look. The incident went unreported because all of the beat writers happened to be doing in-game interviews in the clubhouse, but it was corroborated by a half-dozen eyewitnesses who could hardly believe their eyes. Said one source, as reliable as they come: "There is absolutely no doubt that it happened."
New Blog
Once the season starts, I expect there'll be about a dozen new baseball blogs started each month. It's nearly impossible to keep up with the ones I have on the sidebar as it is; but this is an equal opportunity gig, and I'm always happy to throw a link back. Here it is: The Baseball Spot, general baseball, all the time.
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