Al the Thinking Man

They are gutsier than I.

I am wondering why in the world those players don't simply move to the US full-time. "Home" is a crime ridden dump...time to move on.

Lend, in cases like this, injury is almost always part of the culprit. Mass, talent is talent. Injuries will happen. Guys will be held back to protect them from injury. Unless they are a top FA at the minor league level, the money is negligible. I'm happy to pick up a ERA leader one year removed.

Actually, his BB/K ratio was excellentn until 2004. Looks like a hard thrower who fell into a funk LY, that no one could get him out of. Mike & Bill may find his flaws and turn into a productive, generic reliever.

As usual, BC makes sense. That said, I know many 6 year FA's get nice bonuses as well, once in a while, one even hits 6 figures, though they are uncommon. Ford, a hard throwing lefty, may well have had a shot at a decent bonus, but I assume injury derailed any chance at that he had.

I think Matt Ford is a perfect example of a couple things...one, how easy it is to have a good small sample; two, how easy it is for a prospect to simply stop being a prospect. Many guys the Crew have in their bullpen mix (Turnbow, Lehr, the BOS curveball kid) have jumped from prospect status, and out of it, many times due to inconsistency and injury.

Sometimes I have to login a couple times a day, as it will lose me during my searches of different posts. This hasn't happened in weeks, now that I think of it.

I'd say he's in the mix in the bullpen, along with a dozen others.

Not much quantity this offseason, but good, solid pickups. Gotta love a 24 year-old who has a good curve and has spent plenty of time on a 40 man.

I don't know a thing about this fella, but: 1. 29-0? Wow. 2. Middle relievers need nothing but 2 effective pitches and the ability to throw 70 innings. There's no better place to look for "nuggets" than in this area.

When I tried to log in this afternoon, the forum took forever to load. When it did, the topics (Major League, Off Topic) were in blue and underlined, as opposed to the normal black. Now, it's back to normal.

Perfect for Krynzel too, if Dave is in AAA.

Needless to say, the list of $2 players is bleak. I did one last year as well, and struggled to find a single player I had heard of.

the distributor is having problems with your address format (the Waukesha county Nxxx Wxxx format. I must admit, that's about as weak of an excuse as I can imagine. Maybe I'm haunted by the "customer is always right" mentality, but geez, grab a pen and a sticky label and take care of it. It took more time to write the e-mail to Brian than to take care of it.

The countrymen make much more than the Americans, at least the stars. I do not have numbers, but I doubt any of the Americans make any more per month than they do in the minors.