Stiglich: Lew Wolff touches on San Jose ballpark, revenue sharing and playing waiting game

I attended a Q&A session involving A’s co-owner Lew Wolff this afternoon hosted by the Rotary Club of San Jose. It’s interesting to see Wolff operate in that kind of environment. He represents the bad guy to so many A’s fans. But he was on friendly terrain Wednesday, speaking in the same downtown area where he hopes to build his new ballpark someday – and he drew laughter with a few sharp one-liners. You can’t help but wonder how he would have been greeted in Oakland for a similar function.

–If the team does indeed move to San Jose, they will be called the “San Jose A’s,” which has been assumed. Wolff pointed out how the franchise has moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland, always keeping the “Athletics” label. There was a stuffed Stomper on hand at Wednesday’s event, with the A’s mascot wearing a “San Jose Athletics” uniform.

–Getting an answer from MLB on the stadium issue “in the next couple months would be great,” Wolff said. Someone asked how long he might wait for an answer before throwing in the towel on building a ballpark. “I’m not going to continue this much longer,” he said. “What we want is an answer. We want a ‘Yes, you can relocate and share the territory,’ or ‘You can’t.’ But not having any answer is difficult not just for me, but for the 130 people that work for us, for planning, for our baseball team every year.” So what happens if his timeframe expires and there’s still no answer? Would Wolff and his fellow owners sell? He said he’s not entertaining that option yet.

–Despite the trades of three All-Star pitchers over the winter, Wolff thinks the A’s will field a quality team this season. “We’re going to fool a lot of people with our team, I think,” he said.

Throws (in) towel.

Guelph Mercury: Argos will likely be turfed out of Rogers if Jays get grass

TORONTO — Not long ago, Paul Beeston more than hinted to Blue Jays subscribers that the team was noodling the idea of installing grass at the Rogers Centre.

It sounded like an easy answer to an annual question, but they are serious about it and possibly as early as 2013. The Jays are kicking tires now on what is involved and the costs.

The Argos’ lease and the five-year deal with the Buffalo Bills are both up this year, giving the Blue Jays the freedom to do as they please with Rogers Centre.

NYT: Alderson Remakes Needy Mets From Bottom Line Up

Phillips, Duquette, and Sirius checking in.

Since he came aboard in October 2010, Alderson has been obligated to take a payroll that was over $140 million and cut it to about $90 million. You can make that kind of huge and swift reduction only if you repeatedly acquire players who will cost very little.

“I don’t think people really understand how constrained he really is,” Steve Phillips, a former Mets general manager, said of Alderson. “There’s no team in the last year and a half that’s been as affected by financial challenges as the Mets.”

...“They’ve been in a bottom-feeding mode when it comes to the free-agent market,” said Phillips, who is now a host on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio channel. “They are trying to catch that lightning in a bottle, that diamond in the rough.”

...Jim Duquette, who served as the Mets’ general manger in 2004 and now works as an analyst for SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio, said Alderson was in a tough spot.

“I can’t see how he or even the team’s ownership could have predicted beforehand the extent of the financial issues they currently face,” he said.

Alderson and his deputies have shown some willingness to be assertive with the resources they have available to them. Breaking with the team’s previous stance, they bypassed the essentially unenforceable guidelines set forth by the commissioner’s office for signing bonuses to sign several draft picks last summer.

Fangraphs: Cameron: The 10 Worst Transactions Of The Winter

How did Ned Coletti avoid this list?

#2 – Tigers Sign Prince Fielder for 9/214M

Prince Fielder is a good player, but this is three years and about $70 million too much for what he brings to the table. Yes, the Tigers are in win-now mode, and yes, Fielder makes them better in the short term, but the reality is that if the Tigers had this kind of payroll flexibility, they should have simply been far more active earlier in the off-season, as they could have improved their roster significantly more by spreading the cash around to bring in multiple players and fill a number of holes. Instead, the team overreacted to the Victor Martinez injury and compromised the long term health of the organization for a short term gain in the standings. The fact that Mike Illitch might not be around to see the end of the contract doesn’t make the deal any less damaging to the Tigers franchise – it just means that the current owner is borrowing from the next owner’s pockets in order to achieve his own personal goal. Of all the moves made this winter, this is the one that has the potential to really cripple a franchise – they need it to pay off in 2012, because the long term costs of this deal are going to be extremely harmful to the organization.

DuPaul: How much money has AJ Burnett cost the Yankees?

AJ cooked: Final destination - 2 years.

Burnett has played three seasons for New York, since they signed him to a monster 5-year/$82.5 million contract.  This deal is similar to some other contracts starting pitchers have received recently:

-Justin Verlander 5 years/$80 million

-Felix Hernandez 5 years/$78 million

-Jered Weaver 5 years/$85 million

-CJ Wilson 5 years/$77.5 million

...The Yankees have paid out $49.5 million thus far to Burnett for three seasons of service. Based on Linear dollars per fWAR, Burnett has been worth $28.2 million.  Thus, New York has incurred a net loss of the $21.3 million by having AJ on their payroll. They owe Burnett $16.5 million next season and in 2013; so they’ll continue losing money by having Burnett pitch in the Bronx.  Burnett would need to be worth a total of $54.3 million combined over the next two seasons, for the Yankees to break even on the signing.  In order to do this, AJ would only have to duplicate his ’08 season (18-10, 4.07 ERA, 231 K’s 5.5 fWAR) in 2012, and then duplicate his ’05 season (12-12, 3.44 ERA, 198 K’s, 5.1 fWAR) in 2013.  Shouldn’t be too hard, especially because the Yankees’ website currently lists Burnett outside their starting rotation.

NYBD: Silva: Yankees Fragrance and 1996?

So stenchingly good…Francesspool odored a velvet case of Borsari di Parmesan!

These aren’t your father’s Yankees. They aren’t your 1996 Yankees, either.

Only the Yankees could be self-important enough to launch a non-baseball related product with a cocktail party.

According to Wallace Matthew of ESPN NY, the Yankees will launch two official fragrances called ”New York Yankees” and “New York Yankees for Her” at a cocktail reception in Manhattan on Tuesday, February 21.

Yes, every team has non-baseball related products. You have checkers, chess, teddy bears, etc. with the team logo. None of the 29 other teams believe they are bigger than the game where they create a fragrance and have a bourgeois party to announce it. This is the same organization that puts out press releases to let everyone know what Hal Steinbrenner thinks regarding world events. What’s next? Randy Levine on the catwalk modeling underwear? Don’t discount it, since the modern Yankees brand caters to the Wall Street crowd with the new Stadium, luxury advertisements, and the moat near the luxury seats to keep the lower class of fans away.

Lawsuit: Ex-slugger George Brett falsely advertises health benefits of necklaces, bracelets

But can they cure diarrhea at the Bellagio?

Lawyers are seeking class-action status for a lawsuit that claims Hall of Fame slugger George Brett has been falsely advertising necklaces and bracelets as being able to help improve health and sports performance.

A lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Des Moines claims Spokane Valley, Wash.-based Brett Bros. Sports International, Inc. has falsely claimed its Ionic Necklaces help customers relieve pain in the neck, shoulders and upper back, recover from sports fatigue and improve focus. The company has also falsely claimed its bracelets, which include two roller magnets, would relieve wrist, hand and elbow pain, the lawsuit said.

Brett, who was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1999 after a 21-year career with the Kansas City Royals, has been president of the company since 2001 and appears in its advertisements.

The claims appeared on the company’s website from 2008 to 2010, and still appear on the packaging of the products and on the websites of its distributors, according to the lawsuit.

Trump’s Son-In-Law Seeks To Buy Dodgers

Its about time someone brought some class to this process.

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, is looking to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Kushner, 31, is the owner and publisher of the Observer Media Group, the organization responsible for the New York Observer. He married Ivanka Trump in October, 2009 tying the knot between two highly successful real estate empires….

Kushner, like the Caruso group, would most likely be interested in developing the real estate surrounding Dodger Stadium. Thus far, team owner Frank McCourt is including the stadium in the sale but not the land the parking lots sit on. Clearly, to maximize the value of selling the Dodgers, the real estate would have to be included.

Who is the youngest majority owner in MLB history?

Madonna Coming To Yankee Stadium In September

Maybe I can get back staged passes! (breaks ankle doing nostalgic Club 57 thrift-store boogie drop)

Fresh off her Super Bowl halftime performance, and its attendant digit-borne controversy, Madonna has announced a world tour in support of her forthcoming album MDNA. Its New York stop is set for September 6 at Yankee Stadium, which has a big wide-open schedule surrounding that date, just FYI. (Madonna’s tour goes from Boston on Sept. 4 to New York on the 6th to Ottawa on the 10th.) Tickets for the show go on sale on Monday, February 13, at 10 a.m., with prices ranging from $52.90 to $375.05.

BASN: The MLB FRAUD - Oakland, Los Angeles, and New York

Straight from the riveting pages of The Beane Eaters comes…

The jig is up for Major League Baseball, just ask the cities of New York, New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California.

The con game is over and the cover is being lifted. MLB wants fans to attend games with minor league players on the field. MLB wants fans to buy their team’s products, and to watch inferior baseball.

The question should be asked, why do fans of the New York Metropolitans, the Oakland Athletics or the Los Angeles Dodgers support their teams?

It seems odd or a coincidence that these teams have a competitor across town to compete for the same fans. Teams that have owned or will own the city. The New York Yankees dominate the Big Apple, the San Francisco Giants own the Bay Area. With the new star first baseman and National League all star Albert Pujols joining the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. You can bet Southern California fans will be flocking to Orange County and leaving Chavez Ravine.

...What is troubling, other teams are now following the Money Ball method of running a baseball team. With Commissioner Bud Selig’s wishes. Baseball continues to slide down the American popularity poll.

...Baseball fans have to take it into their own hands and not attend games of the New York Mets, Oakland A’s, and Los Angeles Dodgers to make their message clear. Put a product on the field that can compete for a division title.

Megdal: A Note On Access And The Mets

or as Howard just tweeted…“Write a book critical of the Mets, lose media credentials.”

I thought I ought to pass along this bit of news, so all of you have a sense of what the blog will and won’t be this coming year, and why that is.

Since taking over the LoHud Mets Blog in March 2011, I have been credentialed numerous times by the New York Mets-100 percent of the time my editor here, Sean Mayer, has requested credentials. This is nothing new. In my years covering sports, I have been credentialed by every major sports team in the New York area, writing for ESPN.com, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Observer, and many other outlets.

So it was odd that last week, Sean received a call from Jay Horwitz, the Director of Media Relations for the New York Mets, telling him that while the Journal News can continue to receive credentials, the Mets would not be credentialing me.

Sean asked why that was, and Jay responded that the Mets “don’t like my reporting”. The team declined to respond to my multiple attempts to reach them for a fuller explanation.

...What the Mets manage to do by keeping me out of the clubhouse is deny my the chance to give you a better sense of the Mets players as people, thus giving the fans a greater stake in the success and failure of the team. Why they think that is somehow to their advantage, I couldn’t possibly say.

Viva el Birdos:the 2012-16 CBA: the more you know

Nice summary of the new CBA, presented by e.e. cummings.

rule 4 draft

every team will now get a slot-based “pool” for how much they can spend in the top 10 rounds, calculated relative to how many picks they have and how high those picks are. the cardinals, with 6 picks in the top 100 will have a relatively generous cap. the cardinals can spend up to the cap on all their picks through the 10th round. it doesn’t matter how it is distributed within that group; they can spend $100,000 on a first round pick and $1m on a 10th round pick. as long as they don’t spend more in total in the top 10 rounds than is in their pool, there will be no penalty. the ideal is that teams will pay slot for everybody. whether teams obey that kind of logic is yet to be seen.

there are huge penalties for paying more than is in your “pool.” a 5% overage is not a huge deal. let’s say the cardinals got $5m to spend in the top 10 rounds. if they go over by $200,000 (4%), they’d be taxed a further 75% of that $200,000, which would be $150,000. However, if they go over by more than 5%, they get the 75% tax AND they lose next year’s first round draft pick. go over by 10% and the penalty is a 100% tax and loss of next year’s first and second round picks. go over by 15% and you lose your first round pick next year and the year to follow. i read the graduated penalties as giving teams room for small errors or oversights, but imposing very stiff penalties for anything beyond minor discrepancies.

beyond the top ten rounds, you can give anybody a bonus of up to $100,000. anything beyond that counts against your pool fund.

what will be interesting to see is if teams game the system or, if they do, how they do so. as i said, the concept is that teams will pay slot in an orderly way. since there’s a finite pool, any extra money you pay to one prospect must come out of the slot money dedicated to another. but that leaves room to shift salary from one slot to another or even not to sign a player in a given slot, in favor of giving money which should’ve gone to him to another draftee. (ed: this is incorrect. although it does not appear in the summary cited above, baseball america states that when a player fails to sign, the money for that slot comes out of the pool. this woud seem to make a ground-up negotiating process, starting with the 10th round player and moving up to ninth, etc. almost mandatory.)

will teams take a chance in later rounds on signability players and just fail to sign some other players? (ed: as noted above, they’d lose the slot money if a player failed to sign; however the team could draft 30th round talent in early rounds and offer them far below slot talent - or as one commenter at bucsdugout suggested, offer pittances to college seniors, to keep money for above-slot signings elsewhere). if next year’s austin wilson falls to round 8 or even round 12, will some team get creative with their pool funds? i suspect most teams will follow the designed plan, since the risk of not doing so seems pretty high. however, some team may find an irresistable prospect falling in the draft and shift money around to sign him.

the signing deadline has moved up substantially (mid-july) to ensure that players sign fairly quickly—which should be easy to accomplish, there being less room to negotiate as most teams will hew closely to slot offerings….

Brad Penny signs with Softbank Hawks

The Softbank Hawks of Japan’s Pacific League have signed former major league pitcher Brad Penny to a one-year contract.

Softbank announced the signing of free agent Penny on its website Sunday

The 33-year-old right-hander is expected to arrive in Japan on Wednesday. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

Thanks to Val.

MLB: Jose Reyes gets dreadlocks shorn for charity (Video)

Cripes, I remember when a $100 bag of Thurston Moore’s muggy hair sat grewsomely for years on our record store wall…with little feedback.

Jose Reyes took one for the team Friday night.

To conform with Miami Marlins policy, the 28-year-old shortstop cut off his famed dreadlocks, which he had sported the past three years as a member of the New York Mets.

The Marlins have a strict grooming policy, and Reyes met it in grand style. On Friday night, the four-time All-Star had his hair cut on MLB Network’s “Hot Stove” show, which aired at 6 p.m. ET.

“It’s going to be a little bit emotional, because I’ve spent three years with this hair,” Reyes said shortly before sitting in a barber chair set up in the studio. “At the same time, I understand it’s a rule of my new team, the Miami Marlins. I’m a team player, so I have to cut it off.”

...Reyes used his platform on MLB Network to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of South Florida.

Reyes’ hair has been packaged and authenticated by Major League Baseball. It is now being auctioned on eBay.

Garrison: Repeat DUI Arrestee Dan McLaughlin Keeps Job as Cardinals Broadcaster

Throwing ‘em back with The McLaughlin Groupdrink.

Good news, sports fans. The glory days of baseball broadcasting—when a commentator could be forgiven for a bit of misbehavin’—are alive and well.

Why’s that? Because this week Fox Sports Midwest announced it will retain Cardinals play-by-play broadcaster Dan McLaughlin for the 2012 season. Last fall, Daily RFT opined that McLaughlin’s career in St. Louis was finito after he was charged for his second DWI in just over a year’s time.

We felt even more confident about that prediction when the embarrassing details of McLaughlin’s arrests came out a few weeks later. When pulled over in August 2010 for the first DUI, McLaughlin was allegedly so shitfaced he’d wet his pants. When he crashed his car in the second DWI in September 2011, McLaughlin was apparently too drunk to unlock the car door and lied to the officer that he lived just a few blocks away and could safely drive home if she let him go.

...FSM general manager told the Post-Dispatch today that he is standing by the 37-year-old whose worked for the cable channel for 14 years. Since the second DUI charge, McLaughlin has confessed to being an alcoholic and is said to attend as many as two or three AA meetings a day now.

“It’s perceived as an illness,” Donovan said of McLaughlin’s alcoholism. “We’re trying to support him.”

Adam Rubin: SNY bailing out Mets

According to the report, Time-Warner and Comcast—the Mets’ business partners with SNY—authorized the purchase of 16 percent of the ballclub to prop up the Mets, which in turn should help ratings. The $80 million infusion should allow the Mets to meet this year’s debt obligations.

Makes some sense, to the extent their fortunes are already intertwined.

Yankees’ Mark Teixeira Becomes A Player In Health Drink Business

juicepress.com? I thought The NY Daily News Sports Investigative Team owned the rights to that.

Teixeira, a two-time All-Star, and investing partner Kenny Dichter are teaming up on a Juice Press store in Greenwich, Conn., where Teixeira lives. They are also putting an undisclosed amount of money in the entire company. The Juice Press has three stores and a soon-to-open fourth in Manhattan, according to its website. They feature cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juices for refreshment and for the juice-only fasts called cleanses. The stores have also gained a following among raw-food devotees. The Connecticut outlet is expected to open in the spring.

In addition to Teixeira’s heavy-hitting profile, The Juice Press apparently got a determined entrepreneur. The first baseman said he was looking for a worthwhile investment to help manage, not a celebrity endorsement gig. “It’s not like I’m getting free juice for life to like it,” he said. “I am much more interested in long-term partnerships.”

Teixeira paid $25,000 for a new company domain name, juicepress.com, because it was easier to remember, store officials said. The address will become active soon.

The Daily Gamecock: ESPN founder pitches positive perspective

I guess even Bill Rasmussen is turned off by the constant flow of live Super Bowl tailgating food injury updates.

Bill Rasmussen is a baseball fan.

So naturally, when he met USC President Harris Pastides, there was one main topic he wanted to discuss.

“Baseball,” Rasmussen said. “He, as all of you are, is incredibly proud of the back-to-back national championships. What I mentioned to him was, because of my interest in baseball, prior to ESPN, the College World Series had no coverage. I wanted to include it, and that was part of our contract with the NCAA — that we get to do the College World Series.”

Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN, is not only a baseball fan, but a sports fan in general, which pointed him towards a 24-hour network devoted only to sports.

Thirty-two years later, Rasmussen doesn’t even watch his brainchild every day.

“I’m not a big television fan,” Rasmussen said. “I’d rather be doing things.”

...His favorite part of ESPN is the “Baseball Tonight” program, mostly because of his love of the sport. Though he doesn’t watch the channel every day, he still takes immense pride in how it has grown.

BBWAA: Official BBWAA scorebooks are now available to the public

Pitching To The Scorebook: Now you too can make the same mistakes the pros do!

These scorebooks are convenient to carry (8.5 by 6.5 inches) and have room for 200 games.

Verducci: From games to gaming, Schilling on, well, pretty much everything

Sooo looking forward to his “Pantsload: Call of Doodie!” roll-plying action game!

Whether Roger Clemens, an early mentor to him, should be in the Hall of Fame: “No, he shouldn’t. I don’t believe any of those who cheated should get votes. You never know when they did and when they didn’t. I don’t know how much was real. That’s just me. I don’t think anybody who did it should get in.

“Wait, you said [for years] that you never did it? Now [you say] you did? It’s the Pete Rose defense. And you got caught the first time you did it? And how about when you [actually] started? That’s a whole other conversation. It’s just very black and white: They got caught doing it, they’re out. Unfortunately, some of my friends and teammates are on that list and it makes me disappointed they made that decision. It doesn’t make me like them less. Now, Barry Bonds? How can you even remotely consider that guy a nice guy?”

Giving steroid users a pass because not all users have been identified: “No. You can’t unlearn what you’ve learned.”

The advantages of steroids: “My biggest problem, and I’m so sick of hearing it from hitters or anybody else, is that steroids didn’t help you hit. That’s the most bald-faced lie ever. When I’m facing Barry Bonds Sept. 1 and Barry Bonds feels super fresh and I’m dragging ass, don’t tell me that. It was as much about being fresh and keeping your body fresh.

“Talk to [former NFL and MLB players] Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan. They’ll tell you the grind of a baseball is way harder [than football] because of the grind of the season. So yes, [a steroid regimen] did help you produce.”

The 2011 Red Sox: “It was clearly a group of kids that took a swift kick in the ass. What they did last year was embarrassing and shameful. I’m shocked that a good kid like Jon Lester got caught up in that. [Former manager] Terry [Francona] got fired for being the same guy he was years before that. I ran off at the mouth, but Terry will always tell you that I was as coachable as anybody. It was shocking that some people in this clubhouse allowed those stories to come out, but it was embarrassing, as if that wasn’t enough, that nobody had enough guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough!’”

Brewers To Accommodate Fans With Peanut Allergies

Hey, if Lowrey and his 92 OPS+ were on my team…I’d be allergic too.

Anyone who’s sung “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” knows that peanuts and Cracker Jack are forever linked with baseball. But for fans with peanut allergies, a ballpark experience can be tough to navigate.

That’s a point that local sixth-grader Mathew Trotier made in a letter last month to the Milwaukee Brewers.

In response, the team said this week it will set aside a peanut-controlled area for three home games next season.

Team executive Rick Schlesinger said the team’s goal is to make Miller Park accessible to as many fans as possible.

Keith Olbermann: 10th Annual Topps Pack Opening Day

Any Nate Colbert Super Pack pulls!

For years, as part of my moonlighting as an unpaid consultant for Topps Baseball Cards, I have engaged in a ritual involving a few company executives and a few (brand new) boxes of that year’s Topps set. The first box to come off the production line is ceremonially opened, either on television or at Topps HQ, and then we quietly pillage through whatever’s available pack-wise.

Today we turned it into a happening.

This started when I ran into my colleague and fellow collector Greg Amsinger at MLB Network two weeks ago. Greg is giddy enough about cards that I once almost distracted him from a Yankee Stadium live shot by advising him that my collection included three Honus Wagners. When the Topps gang and I set the “ripping of the first packs” for today, I asked if I could invite Greg along.

Ka-boom.

Greg brought a camera crew, Topps put up a display including blowups of the cards of Pujols and Reyes in their new unis and the one-of-a-kind gold card inserts, they assembled the entire 2012 Baseball Production team, I dressed up in my Matt Moore First Win Game-Used uniform, they fitted up a conference room full of unopened boxes, and pizza…

Royals add new power to their lineup: solar power

Baseball isn’t heliostats…baseball is Sunny Jim Bottomley rounding second!

The Kansas City Royals baseball team is getting greener with the largest in-stadium solar array generating electricity in Major League Baseball.

The 160 solar panels, which have been installed and tested, are expected to produce 36,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which is enough to power for four homes. That won’t be enough to meet all the stadium’s electricity needs but should provide most if not all of a crucial element of the game.

“Your beer is going to be cooled by the sun,” said Chuck Caisley, a spokesman for Kansas City Power & Light.

...The installation of the panels was completed Monday. They’re at the back of the ballpark and stretch around most of the outfield. They can be clearly seen from most seats although they blend in — blue solar panels in brushed aluminum frames. The panels are non-reflective and tilted to keep any reflections from interfering with play. That wsa a concern of Major League Baseball, which had to approve the stadium change.

The design also had to deal with obstacles unique to a ballpark. The array is in two sections, so none will be behind the scoreboard, which would have cast a shadow reducing their effectiveness.

ESPN: Mark Teixeira ... $180 million bunter?

Hell, just pull a couple of bunts.

In order to beat the shift, Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira claims he’s going to do the previously unfathomable: bunt.

“I’ve been so against it my entire career, but I might lay down a few bunts,” Teixeira conceded Tuesday night. “If I can beat the shift that way, that’s important. “
Teixeira hit just .191 this season as a left-handed hitter with no men on, according to Mark Simon from ESPN Stats & Info. So clearly, he’s going to have to make some changes.

It’s a decision Teixeira says he made on his own.

“Kevin [Long] and I made the decision of squaring myself up, and so when I’m open, I see the pull side a lot better, and that right field porch is just so enticing at Yankee Stadium,” Teixeira said. “I’m not going to complain about hitting 39 home runs, but I’d love to bring my [.248] average up, and it’s very simple, it’s left-handed singles.

Heyman: Magic Johnson, with secret weapon, may be Dodger favorite

The Magic Our?

At least eight groups advanced to the second round of the big Frank McCourt Dodgers sweepstakes. Several of them look like powerhouses. But one of them looks like a winner of the Dodgers from here.

That would be the Magic Johnson-Stan Kasten group.

For one, that group has Magic Johnson. For another, that group very likely will have Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Soon-Shiong isn’t Magic in terms of jump shots, fame or even local cache. But in terms of moolah, Soon-Shiong blows everyone in L.A. away.

Soon-Shiong is reported to have $7.2 billion, and sources suggest to me he will very likely join the Magic-Kasten group. I mentioned this on twitter recently, and the Los Angeles Times, which has been all over this story, wrote soon after that Soon-Shoing is mulling over which group to join. That’s very likely the way Soon-Shiong or someone close to him wants it played. But he is a close friend of Magic’s, bought Magic’s 4.5 percent stake in the Lakers (and is believed pleased with that purchase) and is a basketball junkie. It’s possible he’s holding out like Bill Clinton’s buddy Ron Burkle, who appears to be waiting to see who’s leading before committing. But if the Magic-Kasten group is in it to the end, and they should be, expect Soon-Shiong to join them.

The Korea Times: High school sophomore joins Orioles, drawing ire of KBO

A Korean high school sophomore has signed a minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles in Major League Baseball (MLB), a transaction that had local baseball officials concerned about further departure of young talent.

The Orioles announced on their Web site that they have signed Kim Seong-min, a 17-year-old who pitched for Daegu Sangwon High School, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Dan Duquette, the team’s executive vice president of baseball operations, was quoted as saying Kim is “one of the top amateur left-handed pitchers in South Korea” who has “an excellent curveball and very good control.”

While several high school graduates have been signed by major league teams before entering college in the past, Kim is only the second sophomore to ink a deal. In 1997, Bong Jung-keun, formerly with the Atlanta Braves and now with the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), was the first to sign with a U.S. club before entering his final year in high school.

In light of Kim’s signing, the KBO plans to file an official complaint with the MLB over the exodus of young baseball talent, officials said.

“In the name of KBO Commissioner Koo Bon-neung, we will soon send a letter to the MLB, telling them to refrain from indiscriminately signing players,” said Yang Hae-young, the KBO’s secretary general. “If things do not change, we will either visit the MLB commissioner’s office in person, or team up with leagues in Japan and Taiwan to confront major league teams’ hegemonic rookie signings.”

Will inform band tonight that we are now “The Hegemonic Rookies”.

Source: Mets to sell 10 shares of team

We went from the Mets closing in on 20 shares sold by end of January to 10 shares by end of February. Nope. No problems here.

The Mets expect to sell 10 minority shares of the team by the end of February, a person familiar with the process said Monday. The units, priced at $20 million each, would raise $200 million for the cash-strapped franchise and be used to pay existing loans and operating expenses for 2012

Cuban explains losing out on Dodgers

VAYA AL INFIERNO, JOHN KENNEDY!!!

“It just didn’t work out. I wanted to buy a baseball team; they were selling a media rights deal,” Cuban said, alluding to the fact that the Dodgers’ TV rights are up for sale and obviously a big part of the purchase price.

He then elaborated: “The economics got so out of control because the Dodgers’ TV deal’s up for bid and so there’s a lot of groups coming in going, ‘This TV deal’s worth so much money that we’re gonna pay whatever it takes to get the Dodgers.’ And so they’re buying the TV rights deal first and the team second,” Mark said.

It’s a bit of a head-scratcher to come at it from this angle, because buying a baseball team is a huge package deal. Every team has TV rights. If they didn’t, revenues would be a lot lower. Basically, Cuban’s bid was far too low and he thinks the other bids are too high.

Lansing Lugnuts to add ‘craft beer garden’ to Cooley Law School Stadium

Cooley High Life, if you will.

The Lansing Lugnuts will debut a new “craft beer garden” at Cooley Law School Stadium this coming baseball season.

Craft beer is a currently a popular fad among beer connoisseurs, according to Lugnuts Assistant General Manager Nick Grueser.

“It’s basically like a lot of your little microbrews that are around town,” Grueser said. “They’re not the big Budweisers of the world that are mass producing all over the place.”

He said certain specifications are required of craft beer manufacturers.

“They have to sell less than two million barrels of beer a year,” Grueser explained. “They have to be independent; they can’t have more than 25 percent controlled by a larger beer company. And they have to be a traditional beer, like they have to be an ale or a lager.”

Ryan Howard’s contract looks good to Amaro

Hell…Brill’s Content and Talk looked good to me at one point. So there’s that.

“I’m kind of happy,” Amaro said. “Really happy because if I would’ve had to put eight or nine years on Howard’s deal right now, that would be a little disconcerting. Right now we have Howard for the next five years. I kind of like that rather than giving an eight-, nine- or 10-year deal.”

...Amaro has been criticized for Howard’s contract - it’s worth $25 million per season compared to $24 million for Pujols and $23.7 million for Fielder - and that was before the first baseman tore his Achilles’ tendon making the final out in the team’s NLDS loss to St. Louis.

“He’s still, say what you want about Ryan Howard and how he stacks up against those guys, but there’s not too many people who over the last several years that have had this kind of production and he’s right there with those guys,” Amaro said.

...The numbers are comparable, though Howard ranks third in all but home runs. Amaro, however, said he doesn’t see the Big Piece on the downside of his career.

“I think that Ryan’s the kind of guy - this is one of the reasons we signed him to two long-term deals - even when we signed him to a multi-year deal he got himself in better shape than he’s ever gotten himself into,” Amaro said. “There’s always a fear that guys get complacent. That’s not what we’re going to get out of Ryan. I know Ryan. Ryan’s desire to be successful remains very high. I know there was no one more upset with the way things ended the last couple of years than he is. I think he’s going to be as productive a player as he has been in the past and even more so at times.”