Eric Gagne granted his release by Dodgers

The optimized spherical dual lens is a crisp, clear window to an unknown future…

Former Cy Young Award winner Eric Gagne has been granted his release by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Dodgers spokesman Joe Jareck said Gagne asked for his release Sunday, six days after he was reassigned to their minor league camp. Gagne had an out clause and could have become a free agent but initially accepted the assignment.

Gagne was attempting to make a comeback with the team he successfully converted 84 straight save chances and won the 2003 Cy Young.

The 34-year-old Gagne had a 20.25 ERA in three outings during spring training, allowing six runs and eight hits in 2 2-3 innings.

Rosenthal: Social media present challenges for GMs

Only when Flirtomatic takes up more time than Strat-O-Matic.

Your sympathy should go only so far — being a G.M. is a pretty sweet gig, and Ken Williams acknowledges that he is fortunate to hold the position. But talking to him Saturday, I started thinking about my own place — and the places of other baseball writers — in Williams’ universe.

And yes, I felt a little uneasy.

General managers of high-profile teams probably could spend four hours a day answering media requests. The competition for news is fierce, but journalism — in sports, politics and other fields — is not necessarily better for it.

Early in my career, I would lose sleep if I reported something inaccurately, even worry about losing my job. The standards now are much lower; too often, the emphasis is on being first rather than factual. Many stories lack nuance and context, particularly when reported in 140-character tweets.

I’m not preaching from any mountaintop here — I pride myself on accuracy, but occasionally make mistakes, too. It is the nature of the business now. It is not a step forward. And from the perspective of an executive such as Williams, it is just one more hassle.

Red Sox sign Embree

Though it’s difficult to know exactly what Embree will have to offer, being 40 years old, the Sox are willing to take a chance on a familiar face. They signed Embree to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training as a nonroster player. The contract — which will pay him $500,000 if he makes the major leagues, according to a team source — does include an out that would allow Embree to assess his situation as of April 15.

Klapisch: Teixeira puzzled by fielding analysis

Tim Tang Teixeira Test - Hints, Walkthroughs, Mindsuckers & Spoilers!

Judged by UZR, Teixeira had his best season in 2008, with a 10.7 rating that was No. 1 in the majors. And despite what the Yankees say, UZR practically flunked Teixeira in 2009: He was 16th in the big leagues with a minus 3.6, the second-worst year of his career.

So what gives? Teixeira was flabbergasted at the statistical flip-flop. Not surprisingly, he said UZR’s analysis was wrong in its very premise.

“Honestly, I don’t think I had that great of a year in 2008,” Teixeira said. “I thought I played better last year with (the Yankees). I was very proud of the fact that between me and Robbie (Cano), not a lot of balls got through the infield.”

Teixeira repeated an oft-heard complaint among ballplayers and old-school scouts — that when it comes to evaluating talent, nothing replaces an experienced set of eyes.

..."Look, if computers could run the game, why bother having general managers?” Teixeira said. Sort of like the post-Judgment Day world in “Terminator,” where humans have been deposed in a machine-controlled society.

...But here’s the kicker: Sabermetrics don’t acknowledge a phenomenon known as “clutch.” Derek Jeter’s “intangibles” similarly are dismissed.

“Oh, come on,” Teixeira said. “You can’t say Derek isn’t different than a lot of hitters when the game is on the line. Or that Johnny wasn’t able to put up great at-bats against the toughest closers. Matsui was the same way. He was a monster when it counted.

“Certain players can say to themselves, ‘It’s time to step it up,’ “ Teixeira said, although he knows UZR doesn’t quite get that. Maybe someday.

Olney: Mauer’s agent seen near Twins’ camp

An arrest is imminent!

There are strong indications that the Minnesota Twins and All-Star Joe Mauer are gathering momentum in their negotiations for a long-term contract that would keep the catcher anchored to his hometown team for the foreseeable future.

Mauer’s agent, Ron Shapiro, was seen at the Fort Myers, Fla., airport early Sunday afternoon, near the Twins’ spring training facility, amid signs there has been progress in the talks.

The working parameters of the deal were not known, but the expectation within the industry was that Mauer was in line for a contract of eight to 10 years, worth $20 million-$25 million annually.

...The Twins’ signing of Mauer to a long-term deal would be widely hailed within the industry, at a time when there are growing concerns about the disparity between teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, and teams that generate less revenue, like the Rays, Athletics and Twins.

Assuming a Mauer deal is completed, a major challenge for the Twins—who have evolved from a small-market team into a club with a midrange budget—is how they can compete while paying one player such a high percentage of their payroll.

UPDATE~~ Joe Mauer and Twins agree to 8 year, $184 million contract extension!!!!

Lopez will play 3B, Figgins 2B to start season

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu has let both Jose Lopez and Chone Figgins know that he’s pleased with the progress they’ve made at their respective positions at that they will open the season at third and second base respectively…

There had been some plans to move the two back to their original positions on an infrequent basis starting this weekend, but that has apparently been scrapped since Lopez is at third today and Figgins at second.

Nathan to have Tommy John surgery

Twins closer Joe Nathan said today that he will undergo the Tommy John ligament replacement surgery on his right elbow with an eye toward returning for Opening Day in 2011.

Nathan played catch with pitching coach Rick Anderson this morning. It was Nathan’s first throwing session since he suffered a significant tear of his ulnar collateral ligament on March 6.

“It didn’t go like we hoped,” Nathan said. “We knew it was a long shot, but this will help clear my head.”

Nathan said he will have the surgery as soon as possible, though he hasn’t decided where or when. The estimated recovery time is 12 months.

The throwing session took place along the right-field line of Field 5, here at the Lee County Sports Complex. Nathan was making some strong throws before it ended. I couldn’t tell from the body language if it had gone good or bad.

Anderson patted Nathan on the back before they walked off the field, expressionless.

Carig: Kevin Towers brings scouts’ perspective to new role with NY Yankees

Can you describe what a great scout should be?

It’s somebody who was tremendous work ethic. It’s somebody who is willing to get to know the player, not just turn in a report. Somebody that’s able to pick up on the intangibles not just the tools, and that takes getting to know players. You have to have instincts to become a great scout. I don’t think it’s taught but you become better.

And a great GM?

The good general managers hire good people. Without some of my key evaluators, I wouldn’t have been as successful as I was… Be yourself. Don’t try to be somebody that you’re not. Be consistent. And have no fear. When I pulled the trigger on deals, I wanted to do it. If I was wishy-washy on it, I wasn’t going to do it. Not all of them worked out. ... You had to have some conviction.

What can you learn from scouting that no number can tell you?

I really think a big part of good scouting is knowing your player, knowing those intangibles, knowing what they’re made of. What do they do after the ballgame? What do they do in the offseason? What drives them? Do they like to be in tough situations with the game on the line? And knowing those things about players before numbers really matter… Your good organizations make those reads early.

And they must have great carigture, I guess.

NYBD: Silva: Tango Knows its About Winning and Dollars

I did find laughable the author, Robert Cribb, used Bill James with the 2004 Red Sox as an example of how sabermetrics works. First, you didn’t need advanced statistics to trade for Curt Schilling, nor did it develop the farm system (that was Dan Duquette) which allowed them to make such a trade. Key players such as Johnny Damon, Manny Ramirez, Derek Lowe, and Jason Varitek were acquired during the Duquette regime. The failed theory of James sabermetrics on how “anyone could close in 2003” led to a porous bullpen and the need to sign Keith Foulke in the offseason. Foulke pitching in pain everyday in the playoffs was the stabilizing force in that pen, which I find hard to believe had something to do with James analysis. You could not quantify the big game guts of Foulke and “not anyone” can do that. I hope those who criticize me for my statements acknowledge the fallacy of what Cribb’s said about the 2004 Red Sox with as much fervor.

It’s great to see Tango monetize his passion. This is what all of us should be striving for in the business. It’s exactly the question I had for sabermetricians back in December: Why do this if you can’t make money? If big league teams see monetary savings on their end, you should get a piece as well. The value it can bring to the business side of sports truly will show if Toronto can compete with their small revenue market in the flawed MLB economic system. As for “on the field”, I encourage managers to incorporate analysis into their daily reading, but its good coaching, scouting, and player development people that I want at the front line.

Thanks to Sir Georgie Gleep.

Baseball Image of the Day: Did Irish Catch It?!?!

Today’s Image:

Creative Commons:

Tomorrow: Back to the Pros

Seamheads: Schlossberg: Spring flings from Florida camps

Another reason Hollywood Steps Out should be mandatory viewing for all rookies!

Also overheard at Roger Dean: red-hot rookie rightfielder Jason Heyward talking to a New Jersey reporter. “Hey, I hear you were born in Ridgewood,” the writer said. “Were you born in Valley Hospital?”

Heyward said he was.

“That’s where Catherine Zeta-Jones had her baby,” said the writer. “Who’s Catherine Zeta-Jones?” Heyward asked. “Michael Douglas’ wife,” the writer said. Heyward then ended the exchange by saying “Who’s Michael Douglas?”

Heyward may be 20 but not to know two movie superstars is surprising, to say the least. Maybe someday people will say of Valley Hospital, “Hey, that’s where Jason Heyward was born!”

Kovacevic: Russell pushes to ‘break streak’

“The Unwritten Book is Finally Written!”

Q: The numbers would suggest offense should be a concern. Can this team hit?

A: Yeah, and I think we’ve shown some of that this spring. You don’t want to get caught up in spring evaluations. But Cutch and Andy LaRoche and Lastings Milledge are swinging like they did last year, Jeff Clement’s coming along and not chasing as much, Garrett Jones is a threat, Ryan Doumit is getting locked in, Aki Iwamura can add a dimension for us ... so, yeah, we’ll hit.

The biggest thing is taking advantage of situations, and that’s been our big goal down here. A runner at second has to get moved over, and you have to find a way to get him in. We’re starting to see a little power surge with some of the guys coming up, which is a good thing for any organization, but those little things are going to be big for us now.

Q: Especially as it relates to McCutchen hitting leadoff or maybe dropping to No. 3, but also with Jones now at No. 3 and Doumit at cleanup, you’ll still have to be flexible about your batting order well beyond opening day, won’t you?

A: Absolutely. We’re always going to look at the lineup and see how we can make it more efficient, score more runs. That’s one of the things I like about this lineup, that we have guys we feel can move into different spots and help us come up with a 3-4-5-6 or a 2-3-4-5 that works.

Andrew is the type of player ... who knows where he’s going to end up? Aki’s another one. Maybe he’s a quality three-hole hitter. Garrett could be cleanup.

We’ll play around with it. We’re going to look, in some cases, for the lineup that fits best just for a given night.

Henning: Without old zip, Dontrelle Willis appears headed for release

Zoom, fly. Pack up your your googlegear!

Armando Galarraga has already been sent to Triple-A Toledo. Phil Coke, who once upon a time was viewed as a potential starter, is judged by Leyland and his staff to be a quality pitcher, but a reliever only.

That leaves two names for consideration: Dontrelle Willis and Eddie Bonine.

I believe today that Willis will be released and Bonine will make the team as a long reliever.

There is no indication from the Tigers that any such move is likely. But it appears from how the pitchers have performed during the past three weeks that Willis is not throwing with enough zip or command to be a serious factor in Leyland’s 2010 rotation. In his three-inning stint Thursday against Houston, Willis’ fastball never once exceeded 89 mph.

It’s conceivable that Willis might be taken north as a long reliever. But if he were able to pitch long relief with any expectation of success the Tigers would just as easily hand him a starter’s job.

And I don’t believe that is in the cards.

Olbermann: I’m Open To Realignment, Too

I’m a traditionalist: I don’t like the DH, I don’t like the Wild Card, and I think the arbitrariness of inter-league scheduling has probably decided more pennants than any of us would like to admit. I also think it is dangerous to base which teams play in which divisions or leagues based on the seeming permanence of a couple of dynasties: we’re just a season removed from the Yankees not making the playoffs, and if it’s all about market size and geography, shouldn’t the Cubs have a dynasty? Or the Dodgers?

Nevertheless, it is a practical reality that some divisional realignment needs to be accomplished to prevent what will probably be at least cycles in which only two teams have realistic shots at winning the American League East. If you don’t want to go the blow-up-the-leagues route, and you don’t want to break up the value of the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry, you’re going to have to pull Baltimore or Tampa or Toronto out of that division.

Here is the one idea that seems to me to offer the biggest upside for the least disruption: swap the Rays for the Astros. There are two lesser moves that would have to follow - the Pirates and Marlins should swap divisions.

Here’s my logic:

~~crumbles up logic notes...throws at camera~~

Edmonds feels pull of family as he tries for another season

Oh, the sweet pickings of Jasper T. Jowls. Does it every time.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Edmonds’ glove and his .440 on-base percentage in the Cactus League are putting him in line to be the team’s fifth outfielder. However, that only makes Edmonds’ mind race at what it means for his family.

“Going away from them for a couple of days is one thing,” Edmonds said. “But being away for weeks, I start thinking about packing up and moving my stuff to Milwaukee and fitting them into my schedule.

“That starts to hit home.”

...Now that he is back, he’s running against the enormous pull of his family - so much so that even if the Brewers ask him to don their uniform this season, there’s no guarantee he’ll button up.

If the Brewers can’t assure him of playing time or at-bats and just want him to be ride the bench and back up all three outfield positions, Edmonds might balk, and as he often has put it this spring, “Go back to taking my kids to school and playing golf.”

“I still have a wait-and-see attitude,” Edmonds said. “I don’t know what they’re going to say or how I’m going to react.

“(If the team offers a job), that’s when judgment day will come and I’ll have to make a tough decision then.”

NYT: Megdal: Religion Aided a Home Run Chase

Evidence has finally been published that seems to resolve a 72-year-old mystery. When Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers made a run at Babe Ruth’s season home run record, falling two short with 58 in 1938, was he pitched around because he was Jewish?

NYTimes: Paul Westerberg: Beyond the Box Tops

Color Me Depressed...until I read this. (Hey...at least it ain’t Pavement!)

It was some years back, the last time I saw Alex Chilton. We miraculously bumped into each other one autumn evening in New York, he in a Memphis Minnie T-shirt, with take-out Thai, en route to his hotel. He invited me along to watch the World Series on TV, and I immediately discarded whatever flimsy obligation I may have had. We watched baseball, talked and laughed, especially about his current residence — he was living in, get this, a tent in Tennessee.

Because we were musicians, our talk inevitably turned toward women, and Al, ever the Southern gentleman, was having a hard time between bites communicating to me the difficulty in ... you see, the difficulty in (me taking my last swig that didn’t end up on the wall, as I boldly supplied the punch line) “… in asking a young lady if she’d like to come back to your tent?” We both darn near died there in a fit of laughter.

Yeah, December boys got it bad, as “September Gurls” notes. The great Alex Chilton is gone — folk troubadour, blues shouter, master singer, songwriter and guitarist. Someone should write a tune about him. Then again, nah, that would be impossible. Or just plain stupid.

Closer Kerry Wood lost to Cleveland Indians for six to eight weeks

Its the first day of spring! Time for crocuses to bloom, bears to awaken from hibernation, and Kerry Wood to land on the DL.

The Indians have lost closer Kerry Wood for six to eight weeks with a strained right latissimus dorsi muscle. Chris Perez will open the season as the Indians closer…

“It’s a setback,” said GM Mark Shapiro. “In the second half of last season Kerry showed dominant numbers and was a dominant guy. We haven’t really had any challenging news this spring. You expect something to come up.

“This is not a long-term situation. It’s a short-term situation.”

Goold: La Russa spreads the word of Musial

As Goold spreads the words of Posnanski.

The St. Louis Cardinals arrived this morning to their clubhouse at Roger Dean Stadium to find a later start time for their workouts and an article waiting for them at their lockers.

Before he shooed them out onto the field to stretch, manager Tony La Russa explained his gift.

“It’s about Stan Musial,” he said. “I want you to read it.”

La Russa explained later that he sensed not enough members of the current roster knew enough about the Cardinals’ Hall of Famer, Stan “The Man” Musial. He wanted to share a snapshot of the Cardinals’ icon, the player who Bob Gibson once said established the “identity for the organization” and what it means to be a Cardinal for all of the players who followed him. This winter, La Russa received an email containing just the story to capture that.

It was written several years on one of the best baseball blogs out there (OK, OK, the best baseball blog out there): Joe Posnanski and his “curiously long posts”. (He has a post up about Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols today, and, yes , it does include the phrase “internal discussions”.) Posnanski’s profile on Musial, which has gone viral since its publishing, begins:

Stan Musial never got thrown out of a game. Never. Think about this for a moment. Musial played in 3,026 games in his career, or about as many as his contemporaries Joe DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky played combined. He played across different American eras — he played in the big leagues before bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, and he retired a few weeks before Kennedy was shot. He played when Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller ruled the Top 40 charts, and he played when Elvis was thin, and he played when Chubby Checker twisted. He played before television, and after John Glenn orbited the earth. And he never once got thrown out of a baseball game.

Rosenthal: Nats’ Dunn learning about life at first

Around the camps with Robothal…

“He can be above-average. He might even be above average right now picking balls in the dirt,” says Nats quality-control coach Tim Foli, a former major-league infielder who has been working with Dunn.

“He’s really got nice hands. But he’s 6-foot-12. And because he’s 6-foot-12, he’s got to get on the ground so his legs work and his hands are soft. It’s easy for a shorter guy to get down there.

“He doesn’t want to be a big donkey. He wants to be an athlete. And he is an athlete. To me, the sky’s the limit with him over there.”

...Dunn is aware of the club’s increased emphasis on defense, how his value as a free agent might be affected if he is perceived as a below-average defender.

“I’m not doing it for all that,” he says. “I’m doing it because I know we need that for this team to win. I don’t want to be the reason why we stink.”

...Reds left-hander Aroldis Chapman has his last name tattooed in big letters across his upper back. He wears a large gold chain on the mound — “a cowbell,” one Reds veteran says, smiling. “You’ll hear it.”

...White Sox infielder Alexei Ramirez on his fellow Cuban, Reds left-hander Aroldis Chapman: “Minimum 10-game winner.”

Francoeur gets license to steal with Mets

Hey, guys!  Yeah, I’m finding that it’s hard to learn how to steal a base… but it’s super easy to learn how to get a steal of a deal at Delta.com!  Fly from JFK to McAllen, Texas for $129… or to Buffalo for $138!  Fernando, you’ll want to make a note of that last one!

Last summer, after Jeff Francoeur was acquired from the Braves, Mets manager Jerry Manuel asked him to try to steal more bases. Francoeur, though, couldn’t quite handle that.

“Jerry wanted me to,” Francoeur said yesterday, “but I just don’t know how.”

Francoeur says he never learned how to steal bases with the Braves, explaining that it wasn’t part of Atlanta’s offensive philosophy. But it is part of Manuel’s plans. So this spring he’s told Francoeur he wants him to run more, and now the Mets right fielder is trying to learn how…

Francoeur has only stolen 15 bases in his five-year career—and he only has 30 major-league attempts. He also never has swiped more than six bags in a season. But Manuel believes it’s essential for the Mets to be baserunning threats since they play their home games at Citi Field, which isn’t hitter-friendly…

How is Francoeur learning how to steal? He says his baserunning lessons are being taught by everybody from Manuel, Hale and bench coach Razor Shines to Met players who are threats like Angel Pagan and Gary Matthews Jr.

The most valuable lesson he’s learned so far is staying down when pushing off his foot.

Baseball Image of the Day: Babe Ruth and George H.W. Bush

Today’s image is the oft-reproduced image of Babe Ruth and a young George H.W. Bush. I love photos like this, where we have one historic figure (and Babe Ruth is a true historic figure) is with another historic figure long before one of them is historic.

No copyright restrictions.

Tomorrow: More College Baseball.

SABR40: Presentation Proposals Due by Midnight PST March 21

To anyone who might be interested --- time is running out to sent this in.

Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen to start in Class AA Harrisburg

TO HELL WITH WINNIN...oh, ok.

The inevitable became official this morning when the Nationals optioned phenom Stephen Strasburg to Class AA Harrisburg, meaning baseball’s best pitching prospect will not join the Nationals until late spring or midsummer. Joining him in Harrisburg will be closer Drew Storen, a fellow 2009 nfirst-round draft pick whom the Nationals reassigned to minor league camp.

“I felt like I had an opportunity, a chance” to make the majors out of camp, Strasburg said. But the Nationals made a prudent decision, both for his development and for the business of baseball. The Nationals will save millions by keeping Stasburg in the minors to begin the regular season.

“It’s a business,” Strasburg said. “That’s all I got to say. It’s not the perfect situation. But it’s their decision.”

Despite the overwhelming evidence, gathered all spring, that Strasburg would be headed to the minors to begin the year, Strasburg held out hope he would start in the majors.

“They didn’t tell me anything until towards the end here,” Strasburg said. “There’s always that thought in my head. Everybody is competing for a job here. I felt like I was included, but you know, it’s all good. I’m going to go down to Harrisburg and learn what I need to learn and be ready to be called up, hopefully soon.”

Nick Punto hoping ‘the cycle’ holds true for him in 2010

Plunks down “Minnesota Marv” Blihovde’s tuff cut “You’re My Everything” for no real reason.

John Dewan, founder of STATS Inc. and developer of a metric that calculates how many runs a player saves or costs his team on defense, agrees. From 2005 through 2007, Dewan said Punto was one of the major leagues’ top 10 third basemen, saving the Twins 25 runs. In that same span, Punto saved the team nine runs at second base and eight runs at shortstop. According to Dewan, Punto’s defense has dropped off the past two seasons, but that largely could be a result of decreased playing time.

Either way, Dewan said Punto’s best position is third, where from 2005-07 the infielder’s numbers “jumped off the page.” And if Gardenhire gives Punto the everyday job at third this season, Dewan said the Twins should have a “tremendous” left side. J.J. Hardy, according to Dewan, saved the Brewers 20 runs at shortstop from 2005-07 and is an upgrade from Punto (last season’s Opening Day shortstop) in the field.

..."I’ve been through a lot of struggles in my six years here,” said Punto, who batted .290 in ‘06, .210 in ‘07, .284 in ‘08 and .228 in ‘09. “You’ve heard it a million times, that defense wins baseball games, pitching and defense. When we win here, it’s pitching and defense and timely hitting; that’s what wins game. It’s a perfect marriage for me.”

Casey: An In-Depth Discussion About Bloomberg Sports With Bill Squadron

Stroboscoping is go!

PRC: Did the teams ask for such a product? Isn’t there already too much analysis of baseball as is?

Information has great value, and our mission as a company is to give people the information they need to make their work and lives better and easier to navigate. We create the tools for people to use as it best serves their needs.

The teams did not ask originally. However we have met with almost all the teams to design a system that essentially fills holes that they have been seen in statistical analysis over the years, whether that is in scouting, game situations, or talent evaluation, and created essentially a one stop shop for any possible scenario that could arise in player evaluation. It takes into account not just statistics, but any possible trend in hitting, pitching or fielding that involves a player.

We do not feel there is too much analysis and we are not creating more formulas. What we have seen in sport, much like in the financial markets, is that there is a great deal of wasted time spent coming up with potential business scenarios, and by streamlining this process using a variation of the technology we have already created, the analysis becomes, more simple, time saving and concise. In short, it takes the guess work out of analysis and frees the professionals up to do what they do best, run the business of baseball with the best possible information at hand.

Toronto Star: Cribb: Sabermetrics: Stats guru advising Blue Jays

(adjusts suddenly ramping Cosellian toupee)...Almost up close and nearly personal with Tom Tango!

The former Montrealer is a self-taught expert in the science of baseball statistics (referred to as sabermetrics), which is gaining authoritative influence in front offices and on the field.

“There’s nobody better than (Tango) in the world,” said Wayne Winston, a professor of decision sciences at Indiana University and author of Mathletics.

“He’s a genius. He knows everything about baseball. I think he’ll help (the Jays) a lot to make better decisions.”

...You can forget about divining any Jays-specific intelligence from Tango. His contract with the club includes a “non-disclosure agreement” forbidding such things, says the shadowy Tango, who operates quietly behind the club curtain.

He wouldn’t agree to an in-person or phone interview. But he did respond to questions from the Star via email.

“My work contributes far more in terms of evaluating baseball talent in terms of wins and dollars than anything else,” he wrote. “(Coaches and GMs) can still use their instincts on things that have no data, but if the information exists, then I make sure they have it, in some digestible form. This way, they can make an informed decision.”

L.A. Times: Why the Dodgers should name Clayton Kershaw their opening day starter

Now, you could make a good argument for any of the four pitchers in the Dodgers’ current rotation to get the opening day nod, but really there should be only one choice:

Clayton Kershaw.

The Dodgers lack a proven ace, but this kid is the chosen one. He has a wealth of talent. His future is all things possible.

So get it into his head right now: He’s the man. Make him start thinking like an ace. If you want to develop a stopper, feed the beast.

Yeah, he’s young. He went 8-8 last season. The Dodgers were still understandably protective of the number of innings he pitched.

But his ability is undeniable and he seems to have the composure to handle pressure. And though he won’t turn 22 until Friday, he’s been in the majors almost two years.

Last season the left-hander began to show the makings of possible true stardom. He struck out 185 in 171 innings pitched and finished with a sterling 2.79 ERA. He allowed three runs or less in 26 of his 30 starts.

MLB: Claire: Lajoie excels at scouting intangibles

As five-star turned one-all star, Omar Milton Bradley, once said..."Leadership is intangible, and therefore no damn eggheaded stat ever designed can replace it!”

One thing is for sure—there is more technology, analytics and statistical information applied to Major League teams and players than ever before in the history of the game.

I couldn’t help but think of the discussion at MIT when I discovered old friend Bill Lajoie, a former general manager of the Detroit Tigers and baseball lifer, had just published a book on his career titled “Character is Not a Statistic: The Legacy and Wisdom of Baseball’s Godfather Scout Bill Lajoie.”

... “So how does Bill determine if a young player has strong character?” writes the author of Lajoie’s book, Anup Sinha, a former Major League scout himself.

“Lajoie believed in watching a high school or college prospect in everything he did, in the dugout, on the field, interacting with his parents, essentially doing everything short of following the kid to the bathroom.

“The player will tell you if he’s determined to become a great player, if he’s motivated to succeed, or if he’s only motivated by money and attention. The way he plays when nobody’s in the stands, the way he plays ‘away from the ball,’ the way he plays hurt, in big games, all of these things collectively give an idea of what the young man is made of.”

Little fanfare, but talks progressing for Beckett, Mauer

So much silence surrounds the talks regarding Twins superstar catcher Joe Mauer that unenlightened outsiders are starting to wonder whether progress is being made. The same goes for star pitcher Josh Beckett and his talks with the Red Sox, who train seven miles down the road.

While little has become public in the case of either Mauer or Beckett, that shouldn’t be taken to mean that neither negotiation is going well. In fact, indications are strong that steady or better progress is being made in both talks. Though nothing is known to be set yet with either player, the likelihood is that both stars are likely to eventually reach deals for contract extensions with their current teams, and that neither will hit the free-agent market next winter.

Although there still appears to be work to be done, the guess here is that the two stars will end up with deals for a quarter of a billion dollars combined, or perhaps slightly more than that. The guess here is that both megadeals will be done in the coming weeks. In the case of Mauer, both sides are said to be willing to work into the season, if necessary, as each trusts the other to keep quiet and Mauer is focused enough to block out negotiation noise while playing or the Twins.

While one Boston person said “we need Beckett,’’ the Red Sox do have two more ace pitchers in Jon Lester and John Lackey. That sort of statement is even more true for the Twins and Mauer, the hometown hero whose stature has grown to the point where he’s much bigger than even Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett ever was, as a Twins employee acknowledged to me on Thursday.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jon_heyman/03/19/mauer.beckett/index.html#ixzz0igSrCaJM

Boras mumbles something somewhere about how wrong it is that Heyman dare to mention people who are not clients of his.