Monday, January 31, 2011 |
Rowdy Giants Fans To Fly "BEAT LA" Banner Over Dodger Stadium Opening Day
Saturday, January 29, 2011 |
The Smell Of The Horsehide
... it's baaaack ....
Above: CSULB Dirtbags in a scrimmage against the alumni team. Not sure who this is making this awkward catch, but — dayam, it's baseball!
Friday, January 28, 2011 |
Angels Announce Mike Trout Among Spring NRI's
The pitchers are right-handers Ryan Brasier, Ryan Braun, Ryan Chaffee, Tyler Chatwood, Eric Junge, Garrett Richards and southpaws Matt Meyer, Trevor Reckling and Andrew Taylor.The catchers are Anel De Los Santos, Jose Jimenez, Carlos Ramirez, Kevin Richardson and Alberto Rosario. Infielders Alexi Amarista, Gabe Jacobo, Kevin Melillo, Efren Navarro, Darwin Perez, Jean Segura and Gil Velasquez and outfielders Trout, Tyson Auer, Angel Castillo and Travis Witherspoon round out the group of 25 invitees.
Labels: angels, spring training
Learning From The Rangers: The Wilpons Loosen Their Grasp On The Mets
Two additional thoughts:
- Incidentally, isn't it odd that Frank McCourt put his hat out to Fox in the same offseason? Are players under contract paid now? Shouldn't this be more an issue in the regular season?
- In the BTF discussion of this story, the first comment looms large:
Thus flatly contradicting the assurances the Wilpons made in late 2008 and in 2009 that the Madoff scandal would have no effect on the Mets.
Remember that?
Against [that] backdrop came this tweet from Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post:Update 2: The New York Times confirms the $1B figure:One of my sources from #Mets beat told me gov’t seeking $1B(!) clawback from Wilpon/Katz. No way they can keep the team if that’s true.
With the caveat that [...] this is just gossip at this point [...], allow me to say this: mercy.
One person involved in the Madoff cases said it was possible that [Madoff estate trustee Irving H.] Picard was seeking as much as $1 billion from Wilpon and Katz.
Labels: dodgers, mccourts, mets, owners, rangers
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 |
A Couple BP Things
- Tragically, Christina Kahrl's impertinent analysis of the Vernon Wells/Mike Napoli/Juan Rivera trade is now instantly obsolete on the Toronto side of the ledger, but I wanted to draw your attention to the following, in a devil's advocate sort of way:
Well, at least he has been fairly durable, right? No, as a matter of fact, he hasn't been durable. He had repeated injury issues in both 2008 and 2009: In 2008 he lost time to hamstring and wrist issues, and had continuing problems with both in 2009 (the hammy in spring training, the hand and wrist during the year). And in 2007, there was that shoulder issue he had to have operated on after the year, and reportedly hampered his hitting all season. So that adds up to quite the tally of handicapped performance while playing, as well as a couple of DL stints and injuries that, if they hadn't been repaired at season's end, would have involved DL time.
Speaking as one of the few observers who hasn't damned the trade outright, this is a key problem I missed. Wells appears to be one of those guys who plays straight through injury, performance be damned. Now, maybe you could make the argument that on the Angels he would be shipped off to the trainer's room and the 15- or 60-day DL, but that would subtract from his alleged durability. This is enough to make me sour on the deal overall, and once again bring into question Tony Reagins' abilities as a GM. - Can someone please explain to me how Jay Jaffe managed to write a post about the majors' worst regulars that did not include Jeff Mathis? Mathis had a -1.1 WARP in 2010, lower than two of his cited examples — Rob Johnson (0.9 WARP) and Josh Bard (0.3 WARP), while getting more plate appearances (205) than Bard (126) and almost as many as Johnson (209). Is there no injustice?
Labels: analysis, angels, blue jays, hot stove, trades, transactions
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 |
A New Landing Place For King Kaufman
Good luck to @king_kauffman [sic]. A man who has decided to do something about the weather rather than complain about it.
Labels: blogs
Blue Jays Move Just-Acquired Mike Napoli To Texas
Labels: blue jays, ex-angels, hot stove, rangers, trades, transactions
Monday, January 24, 2011 |
Another Allegedly Interested Dodger Suitor Bites The Dust
Related: Dodger Divorce thinks the McCourt saga might well end in a sale because it is in Frank's best interests — both fiscally and psychologically. I can see it if I squint, but McCourt is nothing if not litigious.
Labels: dodgers, mccourts, rumors
Sunday, January 23, 2011 |
The Angels, Now More Like The Yankees
Friday, January 21, 2011 |
Rays Sign Manny, 1 Year/$2M
Labels: ex-dodgers, hot stove, rays, transactions
Angels Trade Mike Napoli, Juan Rivera To Toronto For Vernon Wells
Napoli will age a lot faster, being a catcher. Too, I'm not really happy with his sudden decline in walk rate; despite taking the largest number of plate appearances in his career, he managed only two more walks (42) despite having almost 20% more plate appearances in 2010. Taken with the additional salary, I would actually call this a fairly even trade, because Toronto will have all year to negotiate an extension with the receiver, in his last year of arbitration eligibility.
Update: An ESPN report by Mark Saxon claims "The Angels' desire to move him accelerated when Napoli asked for $6.1 million in an arbitration filing last week." Also, the Halos have been trying to move Juan Rivera and the $5.25M remaining on his contract.
Update 2: The Times reports that the trade will also send Juan Rivera and the remaining $5.25M on his deal to Toronto.
Update 3: Sam Miller of the Register reminds us that the Angels refused even to take up a waiver claim at the trade deadline last year, but now they give up something of value in exchange? Very odd. It will be interesting to see Reagins defend this deal.
Labels: angels, blue jays, hot stove, trades, transactions
Yankees Sign Andruw Jones
Labels: ex-dodgers, hot stove, transactions, yankees
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 |
Various Arbitration-Related Signings
- The Angels signed four arbitration-eligible players: Kendry Morales ($2,975,000), Howie Kendrick ($3.3M), Erick Aybar ($3M), and Reggie Willits ($775,000), each for one year.
Ace pitcher Jered Weaver and catcher Mike Napoli still are eligible for arbitration. Weaver asked for $8.8 million while the Angels offered him $7,365,000. Napoli requested $6.1 million and the team proposed $5.3 million.
- The Dodgers signed a one-year deal with Chad Billingsley worth $6.275M, avoiding arbitration.
- An update to yesterday's announcement that the Dodgers had signed Marcus Thames: his one-year deal is worth $1M according to Rotoworld.
- Update: The Giants signed Cody Ross to a one-year/$6.3M deal. The Giants also reached single year arbitration-nullifying deals with Jonathan Sanchez ($4.8M) and reliever RHP Ramon Ramirez ($1.65M).
Labels: angels, dodgers, ex-dodgers, giants, hot stove, transactions
Milton Bradley Arrested
Labels: ex-dodgers, mariners, stupid ideas
Dodgers Sign Marcus Thames, Reportedly Hot On Gabe Kapler
Labels: dodgers, hot stove, transactions
Monday, January 17, 2011 |
Brian Fuentes Signs With Oakland
Labels: athletics, ex-angels, hot stove, transactions
Sunday, January 16, 2011 |
Review: Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend
By Larry Tye
© 2009 Larry Tye
Random House, New York
Long before Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby crashed the major leagues' gates, there was an implicit assumption among many of the Negro Leagues' elite that they should be the ones to integrate baseball. It didn't happen that way, of course, and Satchel Paige was irretrievably bitter about the slight. Robinson was then a newcomer on the scene with almost no bona fides, as far as Paige was concerned. "I'd been the guy who'd started all that big talk about letting us in the big time," he wrote in his memoir. "I'd been the one everbody'd said should be in the majors," an insult that cut him as "when somebody you loves dies or something dies inside you."
A big part of that was because Paige instinctively grasped something few others did: "Americans have room for just one hero at a time", Larry Tye writes in his fine biography of the pitcher. Paige had to wait until he was 41 to pitch in the majors, then and now a record for a rookie. By that time, his best years were well behind him, but despite it, he became the first black pitcher to record a win in the majors, as well as the first to appear in a World Series game.
Tye chronicles Paige's rise from the black slums of Mobile, Alabama, through reform school, and ultimately, to a kind of twilight stardom in blackball. Though his audiences were necessarily smaller, the venues frequently second-rate, and the owners often thinly disguised gangsters, as the game's leading star he was able to cut himself deals unthinkable today, abandoning contracts as soon as someone else waved enough money under his nose. His skill made him a first-rate draw in the U.S. (one black paper wrote that he turned out "more Negroes ... than Lincoln freed") and overseas — he hired himself out to teams in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Along with Cleveland's Bob Feller, he played in integrated leagues like the old California League of the 1930's and 40's, dueling some of the majors' best white talent — and frequently winning.
Paige's talent came at a considerable price to his buyers, and he got accustomed to the high life quickly once he'd proved his mettle (and his drawing power). Yet, he also insisted on good treatment for his teammates, demanding hotels, restaurants, and taxis that would take black customers while still in the middle of the Jim Crow era. Presaging the Curt Flood era of free agency by a good forty years or so, he also spent his career fighting in his own way for desegregation and equality.
Paige was a master storyteller — the myth of his variable birthday was one such he embellished repeatedly to grow his legend — but it was his pitching that had the most art. So feared was he in his heyday that
... John "Mule" Miles did not wait for the strikeout call. Satchel threw his first pitch and the umpire bellowed, "Strike one." The Chicago American Giants outfielder dug in again but never got the bat off his shoulder as the umpire said, "Strike two." With the count 0-2, Miles walked slowly back to the dugout. "My manager asked, 'What the heck are you doing?'" Miles remembers. "I said, 'I didn't see the first two. What makes you think I'm going to hit a third one?'"Tye's biography provides a window to the cruelties of Paige's segregated era, as well as the highlights of his career that exposed the fraud of separate-but-equal. It's a worthy, comprehensive treatment I recommend highly.
Labels: books, history, reviews
Friday, January 14, 2011 |
Rupert, Can You Spare A Mil? Fox Loans McCourt Operating Cash
Andy Dolich, formerly a top executive with the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Athletics and Memphis Grizzlies, said a cash advance would be unusual — particularly in the off-season, when teams generally do not pay their players."It's a bit odd, because the people and the entities that own these teams usually have the money to operate the team well into the future," said Dolich, who emphasized that he has not reviewed the Dodgers' finances or how the McCourt divorce might have affected them.
"Maybe it's not odd, in terms of what's going on, but I haven't heard of a lot of teams that do that."
McCourt has discussed a new television deal with Fox, one that would extend the company's rights to broadcast Dodgers games and provide him with the nine-figure sum most likely necessary to settle his divorce case.
Amen, Hallelujah, And What Can I Do To Help?
It may not happen soon, but it's going to happen: the Frank McCourt era of owning the Dodgers is on death watch
Labels: dodgers, haha, mccourts
Miscellaneous Bullety Stuff
- Judge Gordon has signed off on the divorce decree as final, which of course only means the bell has sounded on Round One. Apparently MLB has at its disposal a number of weapons to dispense with the McCourts, though I tend to think it's almost unimaginable that they would do so short of some sort of catastrophe; look at Pittsburgh.
It is easy to see Frank’s loss on the MPA, followed by his recent New York roadshow, as sure indications he’s not long for the Dodgers. And maybe he’s not. But know this: Frank McCourt is a fighter. If Selig tries to block his attempts to raise cash through a TV deal or emergency funding, you can bet Frank will look to other methods. And if he can’t find any, he’ll look some more. And if he still can’t find them, he’ll ready himself for whatever battle might come his way.
Lew Wolff, present-day owner of the Dodgers, shot down talk he might be interested in the Dodgers if the team came on the auction block. - The Angels signed contracts with Alberto Callaspo (worth $2M for one year) and Jeff Mathis ($1.7M/1 year) to avoid arbitration. I guess Mathis might have been better than what was out there, I don't know; but the fact that he was flirting with a run at the being among the worst position players in baseball history with as many plate appearances as he has is significant.
- The A's came to the odd idea that they needed to give Grant Balfour a two-year, $8.1M deal.
Labels: angels, athletics, dodgers, hot stove, transactions
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 |
How Did I Miss This? Kevin Goldstein's Top 11 Dodger Prospects
Four-Star Prospects
1. Zach Lee, RHP
2. Kenley Jansen, RHP
3. Dee Gordon, SS
4. Trayvon Robinson, OF
Three-Star Prospects
5. Jerry Sands, 1B/OF
6. Rubby De La Rosa, RHP
7. Allen Webster, RHP
8. Aaron Miller, LHP
9. Leon Landry, OF
10. Ethan Martin, RHP
Two-Star Prospects
11. Joc Pederson, OF
Dodgers Establish Christina Green Fund
Labels: dodgers
Trevor Hoffman Calls It Quits
Labels: brewers, padres, retirements
Could Lew Wolff Become The Dodgers' New Owner?
Thursday, January 06, 2011 |
Kevin Goldstein On The Top 11 Angels Prospects
Five-Star ProspectsTrout, of course, is the Angels' shining star in a farm system Goldstein says has improved dramatically over the last couple of years.
1. Mike Trout, OF
2. Jean Segura, 2B
Four-Star Prospects
3. Jordan Walden, RHP
4. Hank Conger, C
5. Kaleb Cowart, 3B
Three-Star Prospects
6. Garrett Richards, RHP
7. Fabio Martinez, RHP
8. Mark Trumbo, 1B
9. Tyler Chatwood, RHP
10. Trevor Reckling, LHP
11. Randal Grichuk, OF
Wednesday, January 05, 2011 |
Rangers Land Adrian Beltre For 6 Years/$96M
Update: Evan P. Grant tweets that the Rangers have informed Vlad Guerrero they will not be bringing him back. This probably comes as no surprise, since they had already moved Michael Young to a DH-primary role (though he will work out at first base in spring training).
Labels: ex-dodgers, hot stove, rangers, transactions
Blyleven, Alomar Make The Cooperstown Cut
Labels: hall of fame
Tuesday, January 04, 2011 |
Stupid Reasons To Vote Against Bert Blyleven, #632
“Why not Blyleven? I don’t vote for many people, in general, for the Hall of Fame, and it comes down to something that happened in 1959 when I was 7. My dad took me to a Red Sox game specifically so I could tell my kids I saw Ted Williams play, and for me, that’s the definition of a Hall of Fame player. And as good as he was, Blyleven does not pass that particular test.”So, unless your dad took you to the ballpark to experience a player, he shouldn't be in Cooperstown?
Labels: hall of fame
Monday, January 03, 2011 |
Chris Jaffe Projects Blyleven, Alomar Elected To Cooperstown
Labels: hall of fame
Sunday, January 02, 2011 |
Report: Rangers Sign Adrian Beltre
And, to those few reading, hullo, I'm back from vacation. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, all.
Labels: ex-dodgers, hot stove, rangers, transactions
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