ESPN: Dodgers assistant GM Ng considered an option for ‘gender blind’ Mariners

Highly regarded Los Angeles Dodgers assistant GM Kim Ng is considered an option.

The 39-year-old Ng has had her job for seven seasons and was a top adviser to New York Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman before that. She was believed to be the final candidate beaten out by Ned Colletti when Los Angeles selected a new GM in 2005, and the Dodgers say she is the first woman to ever interview for a GM job.

In 137 years of baseball history, we have never had a female general manager. But that seems to be the way the wind is blowing these days. After all, we have female singers, female motorists…

RFT: Schafer: Ten of Baseball’s Unforgettable Wild Card Teams

5. 2001 St. Louis Cardinals:

You can call me a homer on this one if you like. Go ahead. I can take it. Still, I think this team belongs here, and nothing you can say is going to convince me otherwise.

2001 should go down in history as the year of the wild card. In the American League, you had the Oakland Athletics winning over a hundred games and still finishing runner up, and in the NL you had the Cardinals, who finished tied with the Houston Astros for the division lead and ended up with the wild card by dint of the season series between the teams. The Cards still hand their “Co-Champions” banner up every summer, though, irritating the Astros to no end.

In a way, the 2001 post-season was really a tragedy. You had two superior teams in the AL both folding when confronted with the big, bad Yankees, and the two best teams in the National League just happened to play in the Division Series.

And what a series it was. In my ever so humble opinion, the 2001 NLDS is probably the greatest Division Series ever played. It was the eventual champion Diamondbacks, led by their twin aces Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, going up against the Matt Morris and Daryl Kile led Cardinals. Never before, or since, has five games felt so truly epic. Cecil DeMille would have had a tough time coming up with a better baseball script than the one the Cards and DBacks wrote that October, as some of the truly great pitching performances in postseason history were turned in on both sides.

An emerging young rookie by the name of Albert Pujols also just happened to lead the Cardinal offense that year. Just a bonus, really, considering how it all turned out.

Thanks to the ever aware Craig ShysterBall…

ESPN: Yanks fire Latin American scouts amid probe, official says

A Major League Baseball source said Friday that the New York Yankees decided to fire two scouts for taking kickbacks from Dominican prospects after being briefed by MLB investigators on the financial scandal and the role the men played in it.

The fired officials were identified as Carlos Rios, the Yankees director of Latin American scouting, and Ramon Valdivia, the team’s Dominican Republic scouting director. The two, who had been on leave, were terminated Thursday.

Why isn’t there more mainstream attention on this scandal?

ESPN: Caple: The most overrated position in sports

I asked Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon whether the definition for save situations could be improved, and he said no. “A save is what it is. You save the game. It’s a situation in which the tying run is at the plate or on deck and the game is on the line.”

Well, that’s precisely the problem: the very name. “Save” is as misleading a term as “reality television.” Closers don’t really “save” many games these days, nor is the game really on the line most of the time. Closers merely conclude what is usually a foregone conclusion. By the time the music starts and they charge to the mound to protect a three-run lead, the victory is already all but assured....

“Whitey Herzog had a lot of success with a closer by committee,” Beane says. “Although now that I think back on it, I’m not sure they called it ‘closer by committee’ back then. I think then it was just called ‘using your bullpen wisely.’ Then closers became ‘specialists.’”

SaberScouting: Jeremy Jeffress scouting report

This full package is somewhat similar to Johnny Cueto, but even moreso to the last FSL prospect I profiled, Jeremy Hellickson, just with less consistent command and two notches more velocity. The other differences are negligible other than Jeffress’ athleticism. Which one would I take? Good question. I went back and forth about 5 times while I was writing this and ultimately went with Jeffress because he’s got more stuff and more ultimate upside. That being said, I’m not totally sold on Jeffress’ ability to reach his ceiling and maximize his talent, while I am sold on Hellickson’s ability to do the same. I’ll probably change my mind a few more times this month.

With a fastball that hits 97, a plus hammer curve, and above-average changeup, flashes of above-average command, a clean arm, efficient power mechanics, and groundball tendencies, Jeffress certainly has the complete package to be a frontline starter if he puts it all together. He has #1 starter potential if everything comes together and you can’t say that about very many humans on Earth.

If the stuff and command develop just a little bit and he’s an inconsistent guy with frontline stuff at the big league level, then that’s a solid #3 starter that would show flashes of a #2 starter for stretches, a Kelvim Escobar-like career path. I think that’s a likely outcome, and a big initial splash in the league like Johnny Cueto or Dontrelle Willis wouldn’t surprise me at all.

Kalk: Seth McClung--Can We Just Call Him McNasty?

McClung as a reliever didn’t have a very repeatable delivery.  He would release the ball in a wide band from over the top to very close to three quarters.  The fastballs were over the top mostly and the curves and sliders from three quarters.  The result was a relatively straight fastball and a slurvy slider and curve.  Not only might he have been tipping the off speed pitches with the release point but he also wasn’t throwing them in the same vertical or horizontal plane.  My look into curves and sliders seem to strongly indicate that you need to hide the off speed stuff in one of the two planes or the hitters will sniff it out and it looks like that was happening to McClung.  He had so much movement on his curve and it came from such a different release point hitters would identify it and either let it go for a ball or crush it if it were a strike.

The new McClung has adopted even more of an over the top delivery than what he was throwing his fastball with before.  He has also moved more to the third base side of the mound.  You can see this by in increased height and horizontal shift in the new release point.  He is now really hiding his pitches in his release point and his curve has become much more 12 to 6 which means it is hiding in the same vertical plane as his fastball for much longer.  With this more consistent release point has come much better control (duh).  Here is how this change has affected the movement of his pitches.

McClung has been a rotation revelation.

NY Daily News/Price and Raissman:  Fox Picks NASCAR Over Yanks Finish

Heidi-heidi-heidi-ho!

Fox spokesman Dan Bell, who said the network had to show the entire NASCAR race, said Fox apologized for the switch, but added it had warned viewers of the Yanks-Red Sox game several times of the upcoming move.

Bell also said when the game resumed at 8:30 p.m., play-by-play man Joe Buck told viewers the game was also being simulcast on FX, giving them plenty of time to switch over before the plug was pulled. Bell said Buck gave the last warning at 8:53 p.m.

Bell said Fox’s MLB contract only calls for a required 4-7 p.m. Eastern time slot.

“We had two great events we thought we would be able to air in their entirety,” Bell said. “It’s not the way we planned this out. We apologize to viewers.”

Bell said Fox did all it could, even asking NASCAR to push the start of the race back from 8:45 p.m. to 8:53 p.m. - which it agreed to - thinking the game would be over by then.

But the two-hour, 10-minute rain delay meant the game - which, according to Bell, was being shown to 97% of the country - didn’t resume until 8:30 p.m., and couldn’t finish before the start of the race.

“We understand if viewers are upset,” Bell said.

Phil Hughes’ Mechanics: What’s The Deal?

When you are the youngest pitcher in Major League Baseball and being touted as the future ace of the New York Yankees, I suppose that it is normal to be under the microscope at all times. And, boy has Phil Hughes been under the microscope.

What has come in question about Hughes the most is his velocity and its relationship to his mechanics. Has his delivery changed as so many have speculated? If so, what has changed.

What Is Wrong With Kei Igawa?

Ah, yes, the question that just about every Yankee fan would like an answer to.  There’s probably a lot wrong with the Japanese southpaw that the Yankees wish they could fix.  But, there are also other things that seem to be more obvious, at least to me, that appear to be more correctable.  All players, though, cannot correct all their flaws, and hence, that is where players are weeded out.  So, whether Igawa can sort out his problems remains to be seen, but issues there are a plenty.

Chicago Tribune/Sherman—Cubs and WGN:  Losing Team, Winning Combination (RR)

Early on, fans were able to see those games because of Wrigley. He saw the possibilities for exploiting this new medium called television. He went against the wave of a bunch of owners who thought airing the games would cause fans to stay in front of their TV sets and away from the ballpark.

Wrigley saw just the opposite happening.

“The other owners thought he was crazy,” said Curt Smith, a noted baseball broadcast historian. “They said, ‘Why would you want to give away something free?’ Wrigley figured if hundreds of thousands of fans watched the games on television, some of them would eventually find their way to Wrigley. And he was right.”

Also, WGN will air a two-hour special called “Cubs Forever: Celebrating 60 Years of WGN TV and the Cubs” at 6 p.m. April 20. As a companion piece, Bob Vorwald, executive producer of WGN Sports, compiled interviews and vintage photos in a book, “Cubs Forever: Memories from the Men Who Lived Them.”

Catcher’s Block Percentage: With or Without You

For today’s post, I’d like to continue my look at catcher’s block percentage that I began on my personal blog. For those who haven’t read the rest of the series, let me summarize the concept. Basically, I’m using the MLB provided Gameday data from 2005 through 2007 to calculate how each catcher performed in blocking pitches. Wild pitches and passed balls are considered “Misses,” while balls in the dirt with runners on base are considered “Opportunities”.

ESPN.com:  Hank Steinbrenner says teams should not ‘forget who subsidizes a lot of them’

Yammerin’ Yank puts his 20,000,000,000 cents in . . .

“I don’t want these teams in general to forget who subsidizes a lot of them, and it’s the Yankees, the Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets,” he said to The New York Post. “I would prefer if teams want to target the Yankees that they at least start giving some of that revenue sharing and luxury tax money back. From an owner’s point of view, that’s my point.”

Steinbrenner, again exhibiting his penchant for verbal jabbing, said he has been pleased by the Yankees’ team-first mentality this spring, and did not want to comment on Shelley Duncan’s slide—the one that prompted the Wednesday skirmish.

“Girardi has his players’ back and I have his back and that’s never going to change,” Hank Steinbrenner said to The Post.

“There are going to be problems, especially if they go after our stars,” Steinbrenner added. “It’s not going to be tolerated. We never have done it to them. It’s just not going to happen anymore.”

Francisco Cervelli is a star?

St. Petersburg Times:  Romano: So, Girardi, where’s your rush to judgment now?

I don’t mind that Joe Girardi feels obligated to protect every player in a Yankees uniform. That is what a good manager does.

And I don’t mind that Girardi felt Rays infielder Elliot Johnson crossed a line by bowling over Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli in a spring training game last week. No matter what the Rays, or Pete Rose, or anyone else says, baseball has always had unspoken rules about the time and place for aggressive play.

What I do mind is that now Girardi is acting like a hypocrite.

. . .

Think of it as a beanball war. Your pitcher hits my cleanup hitter, so one of my pitchers is eventually going to get your cleanup hitter somewhere down the line. But what a pitcher does not do is throw behind a hitter’s head. That goes beyond retaliation and flirts with danger.

By the same token, the Yankees would have been within their rights to bowl over a Rays catcher or take out a middle infielder on a double play. But Duncan crossed the line of propriety. And he did it purposefully.

For Girardi to avoid addressing that issue is disappointing. We’re not talking about some 20-year-old fueled by testosterone who is too macho to admit a play might have gone too far. Girardi is a smart man, and he has the reputation of being an honorable man.

The problem is, you do not get to choose to turn character on and off. Either you have it, or you do not. Girardi talked a good game last week when he wanted his players to know he was standing up for Cervelli, but now is putting integrity on hold when it becomes inconvenient.

Duncan went over the line. Everyone knows it.

Just say it is so, Joe.

ESPN.com:  Reds Sign Hairston Jr., Patterson to Minor League Contracts

Ha!

CINCINNATI—The Cincinnati Reds signed two players on Monday who used to play for Dusty Baker in Chicago.

Jerry Hairston Jr., who was named in the Mitchell report, signed a minor league deal as did Corey Patterson.

The Mitchell report says former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski said he sold human growth hormone to Hairston on two or three occasions during 2003 and 2004. Radomski said he had one check from Hairston.

Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky said the team talked to Major League Baseball about Hairston’s situation before offering the contract.

“I can’t get into specifics,” Krivsky said. “It’s a situation we’re comfortable with now, based on what we were told.”

Hairston, an infielder who played with Baker in 2005-06 with the Chicago Cubs, spent the bulk of his 10 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, from 1998 to 2004. He played for the Texas Rangers in 2006-07 and batted .189.

Hairston is the son of Jerry Hairston, grandson of Sammy Hairston, brother of Scott Hairston and nephew of Johnny Hairston—all major leaguers.

If added to the 40-man roster, Hairston would get a contract paying him $500,000 in the majors and $62,500 in the minors. He could earn $100,000 in performance bonuses: 25,000 each for 75 and 85 games, and $50,000 for 95 games.

Patterson, who batted .269 with eight homers, 45 RBIs and 37 stolen bases for the Orioles last season, played for the Cubs from 2000-2005 and for Baltimore in 2006-2007.

Both players are expected to report to camp Tuesday.

Tampa Tribune:  No Laughing Matter

This column should come with a warning. It is about Rays baseball and it does not focus on how good things are going to be three or four years from now. We won’t speculate about how bad things are going to be this season, which has been an annual rite of spring for more than a decade.

That’s because - inhale, exhale - these guys are dangerously close to being competitive right now.

It’s understandable if you need to take a moment.

But, honestly, as spring training approaches, the catwalk commandoes are generating a little buzz. They have more than just a new name (they dropped the Devil), new uniforms (they dropped the green), and plans for a new stadium (as long as we don’t have to pay for it, take your best shot).

They have a new outlook. They’re talking about winning games NOW. It has always been about the future with this organization. We’re not saying the future has arrived, but things are finally looking up.

St. Petersburg Times:  Payroll Blows Past Promise

The payroll most likely will exceed $40-million, a significant increase nearly 70 percent from last season’s opening day $24-million.

The Rays have more than $20-million committed to seven players (Carl Crawford, $5.25-million; Troy Percival, $4-million; Cliff Floyd, $2.75-million; Akinori Iwamura, $2.4-million; Al Reyes, $2.3-million; Rocco Baldelli, $2.25-million; Gary Glover $1.075-million); four players remaining in arbitration (Carlos Pena, Scott Kazmir, Dan Wheeler and Jonny Gomes) who could make $13-million to $14-million; 12 or 13 players who will get the $390,000 minimum or slightly more; and openings for a backup catcher, super-utility type and left-handed reliever. Plus millions in incentives.

The increase is considerably larger than the 20 percent promised by principal owner Stuart Sternberg but won’t be a problem or force other cuts, executive VP Andrew Friedman said.

Daily Herald/Rosner:  Is Wrigley sale good for the Cubs?

Prospective buyers will begin to look at the books and notice that without the deed to Wrigley Field, the new owners will immediately lose about $20 million a year in naming rights, which will instead go to the state.

They’ll also add the expense of roughly $30 million a year in rent, which also will go to the state.

The next owner would lose the opportunity to create stunning new revenue streams, an innovative group perhaps finding another $100 million within, and just outside, the walls.

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s about $150 million the next owner loses.

Per season.

The new owner might also lose the land adjacent to Wrigley Field, and probably the Cubs’ share of Comcast.

All of these items shed before the sale of the team will make it more difficult for the next owner to turn a profit, and lest you forget, that is part of the exercise.

Step One:  Buy the Cubs
Step Two:  ???
Step Three:  Profit

ESPN:  Mets get Pagan from Cubs, send OF Coles and P Meyers

The New York Mets acquired outfielder Angel Pagan on Saturday from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers.

Outfielder Corey Coles and righthanded pitcher Ryan Meyers were sent to the Cubs.

The 26-year-old Pagan batted .264 with four home runs and 21 RBIs for Chicago last year.

“Angel is young, athletic and has the versatility to play all three outfield positions,” Mets general manager Omar Minaya said in a statement.

Pagan was originally drafted by the Mets in the fourth round in 1999. He was traded to the Cubs for cash Jan. 25, 2006.

Coles, 25, rose to New York’s Triple-A affiliate last season, but spent the bulk of his time at Double-A Binghamton, where he hit .296 and stole nine bases.

Meyers is a 22-year-old who had 13 saves and a 2.14 ERA in 33 games at Class A Savannah. He struck out 48 and walked 14 in 42 innings.

New York Times: Don Larsen’s Perfect Game Lives On in Amateur Films (RR)

Two men out of 64,519 fans were unknowingly producing the lost films of Don Larsen’s perfect game, color home movies that complement the few newsreel clips of the game that are frequently replayed, and the NBC broadcast that has been seen only by small groups since it was carried live. Whether Terry’s and Mengert’s films will be seen by fans depends on efforts to sell or license them.

MIL Journal-Sentinel blog: Brewers reach deal with Kendall

Ah, hell.

Allakhazam.com: An Interview With Curt Schilling

Schilling talks to the gaming site Allakhazam.com. The interview is split between baseball and computer games. A lot of interesting stuff on both.

Incidentally, I looked up Curt’s characters on the WoW Armory. Allow me to comment that having seen Ngruk and Wyndwraith, I am not exactly impressed.

Newsday:  Yankees bar ESPN from conference calls

The Yankees have barred ESPN from news media conference calls with their managerial candidates this week. The move was in retaliation for the network violating rules covering last week’s call on which it was announced Joe Torre had turned down a contract offer.

Crain’s Chicago Business—Curve for Cubs bidders: Trib stalls on sale

Despite Tribune Co.’s official line that the Cubs will be sold in the fourth quarter, the team looks likely to stay in Tribune hands well into next year — possibly through opening day. That means a new owner will have to manage a team with a roster assembled by corporate brass long maligned, but recently cheered, for payroll decisions.

. . .

But Tribune is in no hurry as it decides whether to sell the team, Wrigley Field and other assets in one piece or individually.
“There’s no hard deadline, and I don’t think that the interest in this asset is going to dwindle,” says the person familiar with the planning.

“The groups that you’ve heard publicly that are interested in this deal, none of them have said, nor do I expect they will say, ‘If I can’t own it by April 1, 2008, I’m taking my money and I’m going home.’ “

If offering documents don’t go out until next month, it’s unlikely the team will be sold until spring, says Michael Rapkoch, president of Sports Value Consulting LLC in Dallas, who is not involved in the sale.

Tampa Tribune:  Longoria May Put Iwamura At Second

ST. PETERSBURG - There are absolutely no guarantees that top prospect Evan Longoria will be the Devil Rays’ third baseman coming out of spring training next year, but the team is preparing for that possibility.

During an end-of-season meeting with Akinori Iwamura Tuesday afternoon, Rays manager Joe Maddon asked his incumbent at the position to do some work at second base this winter. Maddon emphasized to Iwamura through his interpreter, Masa Koyanagi, that no final decision on a move across the diamond has been made.

“It’s all about possibilities,” Maddon said, “but we wanted to give him some kind of advance warning.”

The request didn’t come as a shock to Iwamura, as the Rays told him when they signed him last offseason that there was a chance he would have to play multiple positions. But he has been entrenched at his natural spot all season, making each of his 117 starts there.

“I brought some different styles of gloves at the beginning of the season,” Iwamura said through his interpreter. “That shows that I’m willing to try different positions.”

In other Iwamura news:

Iwamura was able to get Torre to autograph the bat that was confiscated at the manager’s request during a Sept. 1 game at Yankee Stadium.

The inscription: “To Iwamura-san. You use this very well. Good luck, Joe Torre.”

Iwamura said he plans to display the bat on his wall along with newspaper reports of the incident.

ESPN:  Barry Bonds HR Ball #756 to Go to the Hall of Fame With An Asterisk

The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame, its owner said Wednesday.

Chicago Tribune:  Sandberg ready to move up ranks (RR)

While he said his first year of managing at Class A Peoria was “terrific,” Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg believes it is time to start moving up the organizational ladder, which apparently is a surprise to the organization.

“I don’t know what options are going to be out there,” Sandberg said when asked about next season. “[But] I feel like I’ve learned Peoria and A-ball, so I think [going back there] would be like too much repeat, like a redo.

“That’s how I feel about that. It’s almost like looking to see what the next step will be.”

“I’m going to … talk to him about that. He didn’t tell me that,” Cubs minor-league director Oneri Fleita said. “When the time comes, we’ll sit down and talk. I know one thing; he had a fun time there.”

Daily Herald—Miles:  What if … the Cubs won in 2003?

CHICAGO, Oct. 15, 2003—The Tribune Co. announced today that it has named Andy MacPhail president for life of the Chicago Cubs.

In turn, MacPhail has extended the contract of general manager Jim Hendry for five years. Hendry then gave field manager Dusty Baker a five-year extension.

All of these developments came in the wake of the Chicago Cubs reaching the World Series for the first time since 1945. The Cubs beat the Florida Marlins 3-0 last night in Game 6 of the National League championship series to advance to the Fall Classic.

Chicago Tribune:  Patience? That’s next year’s worry (RR)

“If you want selective, patient hitters, looking for a base on balls, you sign those guys over the winter,” Piniella said. “You’re not going to change what hitters do … at the end of the season just because it makes a little more sense. We’ll go with what we have and do the best we can with it.”

So does Piniella want to get a few more patient hitters next year?

“I like what I have,” he said. “Let’s just play with what we have, and we’ll talk about next year next year.”

ESPN-Stark:  Exposing our dirty double standards

I can’t believe I’m posting a steroids thread, let alone another Ankiel thread, but I did find that Jayson Stark had some good points and interesting takes:

The defenses, the rationalizations, the leave-this-guy-alone pleas on behalf of Ankiel came rolling in Friday as Americans tried their best to wish away the nasty HGH bomb that had just been dropped on their favorite sporting fairy tale.

* He wasn’t even a hitter then.

* It wasn’t a banned substance then.

* He had a doctor’s prescription.

* He was recovering from Tommy John surgery.

* He needed it to heal.

* He hasn’t been accused of any “wrongdoing.”

* The media is out to get him.

* It’s not like he’s Barry Bonds or something.

We heard them all Friday, on the radio, in our inbox, in the questions cascading at us in an hour-long chat.

We understand where all those arguments come from. We understand why people want to make them. There are varying degrees of merit to every one of them.

But at times like this—with Ankiel’s HGH blockbuster tag-teaming with a report linking Troy Glaus to steroid shipments from the same Orlando pharmacy—we often find the perception of these stories as fascinating as the stories themselves.

That’s because we live in a world ablaze in double standards. And we’re never more aware of those double standards than we are when stories like these break.

St. Petersburg Times:  A keeper Rays can’t count on

Should the Rays pick up Baldelli’s 2009 option?

It is an unusual contract situation because it must be resolved six months ahead of schedule. The Rays must decide by next April whether they will guarantee Baldelli $6-million in ‘09, and activate a $2-million buyout for 2010. If they do not pick up the option, they must give him a $4-million buyout, and he will be a free agent at the end of next season.

To break it down simply, that’s $8-million to keep him and $4-million to let him go.

For a guy who will have been healthy for about 28 percent of your games over a three-year period, an $8-million commitment does seem extreme. And the Rays would be wise to pause before leaping.

But, in the end, they should do it.