crewcrazy

The only problem I could see with Tampa getting Bonds is that they already have a few guys who could be designated as "DH-only" -- Floyd, Jonny Gomes, etc. It'd be hard to find enough ABs to go around, so they'd probably have to deal someone to make it fit.

A profile on Matt Wise was in the NYT yesterday, so I thought I'd post it in case anyone is interested in how things are going for Salad Tongs so far in New York. The article mentions Matt's bad luck with injuries, discussing the slippery railing in San Diego, the salad tongs in Kansas City, and hitting his head on the dugout in Minnesota. It looks like Matty has the inside track to being the Mets' middle-innings guy, but I thought this quote was kind of funny: Are they in for a surprise, or what? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif The full article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/sports/baseball/25mets.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

This is probably better suited for the rumor forum, but word is that Bonds' agent has been having meetings with the owner of the Tampa Bay Rays. It's not out of the realm of possibility if Bonds will settle for something like 1 year for $7 or 8 million -- it'll add a ton of OBP to the Rays' lineup, they'll be paying an extremely discounted price, he'll put butts in the seats, and they could possibly trade him at the deadline to a contender if they wanted to. I don't think the connection to PEDs scares the Rays much, since it seems like almost every team has a guy connected to PEDs after the Mitchell Report came out. The possibility of him serving jailtime could be a concern, but if you're only paying him $8 million for one year it's less of a concern than if you're paying him $20 million.

I especially liked this part of the FJM post on this article: Some of these quotes are pretty paradoxical. Dusty wants his big hitters to drive runs in, but he doesn't want them clogging up the bases with OBP. What are they supposed to do, hit like 50 sac flies and 50 home runs?

That figure is mostly just speculation right now, but he did just beat the Mets in arbitration and will be making $6.5 million this year. He's always had some pretty nasty stuff, which I think a lot of teams would overbid for, and he'll be 27 when he hits the open market..something that's rare with starting pitchers. Taking a look at what's left for next year's free agent class, the top three will probably be Sabathia (if he doesn't get something ironed out with the Tribe), Benny, and Perez. He's always been a guy I kind of liked and wouldn't have minded if the Brewers were looking at him to replace Sheets in the rotation, but that price would be too steep to me. I'm sure someone will find a way to get him that kind of money, though...I wouldn't even be surprised if the Mets lock him up long-term if he starts the season out well.

If Oliver Perez is expecting $13-15 million per year when he hits free agency after this season, it's safe to assume that signing Sheets will cost a little more than that, in my opinion.

20 Euros for a beer, 130 Euros for nosebleed seats. MLB has expanded to 40 teams, annexing multiple teams from Japan and the Caribbean leagues. Bud Selig is still commissioner of baseball.

Judging pitchers solely on wins and losses is how Carl Pavano ends up making $10 million a year. It's fun to look at, but when Chien-Ming Wang is getting Cy Young votes just because he manages to win 18 games with like 6 runs of support every night, it gets a little ridiculous.

I've heard speculation that Bonds actually has a decent offer or two but he's holding out for his outrageous contract demands so he can act like a victim when no one has him signed by Opening Day. There's also rumors going around that Bonds could actually go over to Japan to play, assuming his legal problems here in the States get worked out. Fans in Japan apparently treat Bonds like a God and would totally embrace him if he decided to end his career there as some kind of protest against MLB.

I believe this is the translated version of Gagne's French apology: "I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time." (If you don't get it: )

Schuerholz resigned the GM position after last season, but ended up getting a position higher up in the Atlanta front office. If he was still an active GM, I would think he would have to make the list (same goes for Walt Jocketty and Terry Ryan...a lot of good GM's stepped down after last season). As for Cashman's ill-fated signing of Kei Igawa, I think that was more of a pressure move from the Steinbrenners to respond to losing out on the Dice-K sweepstakes. They went after Dice-K hard and it was a rare occasion where the Yankees lost a bidding war. Signing Igawa was a panic move that was doomed to fail -- the guy's numbers in Japan weren't even all that special...he was basically just junkballing lefty innings-eater over there; I don't know what else the Yankees could have expected over here in the States, let alone in the AL East. With that said, the Yankees seem to think that he could potentially slide into their 5th rotation spot sometime this season and hopefully do well enough to keep Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen. The fact that Igawa's going to get another shot to stick as a 5th starter this year is proof that most teams are lucky to have 4 quality starters and that the Brewers are really lucky to have 6 or 7 of them.

Looks like it: http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080218/capt.a6b885a6c5f94ec399898a00140fbebd.brewers_spring_baseball_azmg115.jpg Could just be the weird angle, but it looks like TGJ bulked up a little bit over the offseason.

No problems with the top three or so, but after that it gets a little dicey. I'd say Melvin deserves some credit for turning a 100-loss team into a playoff contender, and the fact that Kenny Williams is on that list instead of DM is pretty laughable. The list could be worse -- he could have included Brian Sabean (He's gotten the Giants to the playoffs! He put together a World Series team! He *has* to be a good GM!).

TH has a blog post on this already: http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/02/17/gallardo-might-have-knee-injury.aspx I'm guessing that's where the "missing the first couple weeks" thing comes in -- the Brewers would want to be sure that he gets a "full" Spring Training before throwing him into the rotation.

He must've spent too much time hanging out with Ben Sheets. Seriously, hopefully this is nothing major and he'll be able to avoid surgery. If he does have to miss the first couple weeks, at least the Brewers have the pitching depth to stay afloat.

Can't wait for the first Spring Training pics to come out.

The Marlins still do have a good amount of loyal fans, but it's a little much to ask them to drive 40 minutes outside the city of Miami every night for a game, especially if rain delays are likely most nights early in the season. I think this ballpark will do wonders for their attendance numbers, especially since it's going to actually be in the city and have a retractable roof. Who knows...by the time Hanley Ramirez gets through with arby, they might actually have the cash to sign him longterm with the help of this stadium.

I'm not all that surprised -- that rotation might actually be one of the best in the division with Kazmir-Shields-Garza at the top, and they have a lot of good young hitters (even if they did trade away Delmon Young). Their success will probably come down to their bullpen, as it has the past couple years. The story of the Rays franchise has been something like "Kazmir strikes out 13 in 6 innings with 120 pitches, leaves the game with a 1-run lead, bullpen gives up 6 runs, Rays lose." They've gone to great lengths to attempt to improve that bullpen...I wouldn't be surprised to see them put up the first winning season in franchise history. Outside of Boston/New York, it looks like it'll be a down year for the AL East with Baltimore playing for draft position and Toronto just hanging around the .500 mark with some injury questions. What I find interesting is the Mariners' projection for last place in the AL West -- I don't know if these projections were made pre-Bedard trade or not, but I've heard a lot of people saying the Mariners will push the Angels for the AL West crown. That's not something I really bought, though, since they had some pretty big offensive issues last year and didn't do their offense any favors this year by trading away Adam Jones. I thought it was really interesting that the Mariners and the Giants are the only two teams with projected SLG's under .400. As for the Brewers, I'd take a 4-game improvement over last year if it meant a wildcard berth. Finishing 2 games behind the division leader again would be a tough pill to swallow, but like everyone else has said, a 2-game swing isn't all that much and could be decided by any number of things. Things could be worse -- the Brewers could be projected 10 games behind the division leader like the Braves are behind the Mets (I realize that Santana in the NL projects to some crazy numbers, but the rest of their rotation is kind of iffy and they're coming off the biggest chokejob in the history of the league).

I'm not all that surprised -- that rotation might actually be one of the best in the division with Kazmir-Shields-Garza at the top, and they have a lot of good young hitters (even if they did trade away Delmon Young). Their success will probably come down to their bullpen, as it has the past couple years. The story of the Rays franchise has been something like "Kazmir strikes out 13 in 6 innings with 120 pitches, leaves the game with a 1-run lead, bullpen gives up 6 runs, Rays lose." They've gone to great lengths to attempt to improve that bullpen...I wouldn't be surprised to see them put up the first winning season in franchise history. Outside of Boston/New York, it looks like it'll be a down year for the AL East with Baltimore playing for draft position and Toronto just hanging around the .500 mark with some injury questions. What I find interesting is the Mariners' projection for last place in the AL West -- I don't know if these projections were made pre-Bedard trade or not, but I've heard a lot of people saying the Mariners will push the Angels for the AL West crown. That's not something I really bought, though, since they had some pretty big offensive issues last year and didn't do their offense any favors this year by trading away Adam Jones. I thought it was really interesting that the Mariners and the Giants are the only two teams with projected SLG's under .400. As for the Brewers, I'd take a 4-game improvement over last year if it meant a wildcard berth. Finishing 2 games behind the division leader again would be a tough pill to swallow, but like everyone else has said, a 2-game swing isn't all that much and could be decided by any number of things. Things could be worse -- the Brewers could be projected 10 games behind the division leader like the Braves are behind the Mets (I realize that Santana in the NL projects to some crazy numbers, but the rest of their rotation is kind of iffy and they're coming off the biggest chokejob in the history of the league).

I'm not all that surprised -- that rotation might actually be one of the best in the division with Kazmir-Shields-Garza at the top, and they have a lot of good young hitters (even if they did trade away Delmon Young). Their success will probably come down to their bullpen, as it has the past couple years. The story of the Rays franchise has been something like "Kazmir strikes out 13 in 6 innings with 120 pitches, leaves the game with a 1-run lead, bullpen gives up 6 runs, Rays lose." They've gone to great lengths to attempt to improve that bullpen...I wouldn't be surprised to see them put up the first winning season in franchise history. Outside of Boston/New York, it looks like it'll be a down year for the AL East with Baltimore playing for draft position and Toronto just hanging around the .500 mark with some injury questions. What I find interesting is the Mariners' projection for last place in the AL West -- I don't know if these projections were made pre-Bedard trade or not, but I've heard a lot of people saying the Mariners will push the Angels for the AL West crown. That's not something I really bought, though, since they had some pretty big offensive issues last year and didn't do their offense any favors this year by trading away Adam Jones. I thought it was really interesting that the Mariners and the Giants are the only two teams with projected SLG's under .400. As for the Brewers, I'd take a 4-game improvement over last year if it meant a wildcard berth. Finishing 2 games behind the division leader again would be a tough pill to swallow, but like everyone else has said, a 2-game swing isn't all that much and could be decided by any number of things. Things could be worse -- the Brewers could be projected 10 games behind the division leader like the Braves are behind the Mets (I realize that Santana in the NL projects to some crazy numbers, but the rest of their rotation is kind of iffy and they're coming off the biggest chokejob in the history of the league).

It takes a miraculous season to hit 60 HR. I'd be pretty surprised (pleasantly if it was in a Brewers uni) if Prince ever did it...I'd be shocked if Ryan ever did. To me, they're both too much complete hitters to ever hit 60 HR, if that makes sense. Both seem like the kind of guy who'll do what he can with the pitch he's given...if a pitch is there for him to pull, he'll pull it, but he won't go out of his way to hit a HR in every at bat like Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire did. With that said, I would be less shocked if Ryan Howard ever put up 60, especially considering his home ballpark. He's more of an all-or-nothing type hitter than Prince is, and you could argue that he has a little more pop in his bat than Prince does (I think Prince has him in raw strength, but Howard generates a ton of bat speed and I think he generates more power from his swing).

It'd be a bigger story if he said they'd miss the playoffs...players should believe that they're going to win the World Series every year they start Spring Training, unless they play for a team like the Pirates or Royals. I'm sure Prince Fielder would say the Brewers are winning the division this year if you asked him. All players have to have some level of cockiness/confidence that allows them to be so much better than the rest of us bums. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

I think the Kendall and Turnbow hate will more than make up for it. I'm sure there will be others, like if Gagne blows a save on Opening Day or something, or if Cameron never puts it together after the suspension. I don't see Mench staying on the Rangers' roster all year, but it looks like he valued returning to the D/FW area more than playing time. Who knows...maybe a return to Arlington will boost his numbers back up again and he'll be able to cash in next offseason or something.

I think the Kendall and Turnbow hate will more than make up for it. I'm sure there will be others, like if Gagne blows a save on Opening Day or something, or if Cameron never puts it together after the suspension. I don't see Mench staying on the Rangers' roster all year, but it looks like he valued returning to the D/FW area more than playing time. Who knows...maybe a return to Arlington will boost his numbers back up again and he'll be able to cash in next offseason or something.

I think the Kendall and Turnbow hate will more than make up for it. I'm sure there will be others, like if Gagne blows a save on Opening Day or something, or if Cameron never puts it together after the suspension. I don't see Mench staying on the Rangers' roster all year, but it looks like he valued returning to the D/FW area more than playing time. Who knows...maybe a return to Arlington will boost his numbers back up again and he'll be able to cash in next offseason or something.