Borzi: Upbeat Twins owner Jim Pohlad has lots to say but stays mum on the Mauer issue

Minnesota Rocked! More info than a tour of Tommy Tourville’s records!

And Pohlad stressed that qualifying for postseason alone was no longer good enough for an organization that has lost five consecutive playoff series since 2002, three of them to the Yankees. He even appeared to guarantee a future world championship, without specifying when.

“I hear that we’ve got to do better, or get better, so that when we face the Yankees (we’re competitive),” he said. “I hope we’re not a team that’s intimidated by the Yankees. I don’t believe we are. I’m personally not intimidated by the Yankees or the Yankee organization. We just need to, every year, get better, so that whoever we face, that we will be able to advance.

“Teams mature. I don’t know where the core of our team is on the maturity level or the peak level, but I don’t think we’re at peak yet. Our core group of players is still very young. The future is very strong, and we will advance past the first round of the playoffs, into the World Series, and to the White House.”

About deferred compensation: St. Peter said the Twins last did it with Keith Atherton in the 1980s and Terry Steinbach in the 1990s. Pohlad, without addressing the Mauer contract directly, said he opposes it.

“There’s a whole bunch of examples in real life of that kind of stuff, that make you feel real good at the time, and later on you wish you hadn’t done that,” he said.

“You’re just kidding yourself. It’s either going to be somebody else’s problem, or we’ll worry about it later. At that point where you’ve got to worry about it, it affects your current operation. So it’s really not a good thing. You’ve got to pay the money no matter what. You might as well do it when the player’s playing for you.”

MLB, Granderson join anti-obesity effort

As much as his million-dollar smile and his impressive combination of speed and power, new Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson is known for his active involvement in the community.

So it was no surprise when Commissioner Bud Selig said he “can think of no better MLB representative” to have been at the White House on Tuesday morning.

The reason for his latest visit to Washington, D.C.: Granderson joined first lady Michelle Obama to support the new White House Anti-Obesity Program, yet another venture that has Granderson’s full support.

The 28-year-old, a native of Illinois, was the son of a physical-education teacher, so the idea of getting kids active is especially important to Granderson.

Damn you Yankees, how dare you have such a Tzadik on your team?

P A A P F L Y: Dear Mr. Neukom, SOS.

“We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
Let’s drop the big one and see what happens”

What we can clearly see from this is that the Giants still appear to lack the ability to get on base at a league average rate and are by far the worst in the division. Exasperating that problem is the fact that when they do manage to sneak their way on base, they are going to have to go station to station to score runs.  While my method for examining their relative speed and OBP for 2010 isn’t exactly bullet proof, it does provide some pretty significant evidence that the Giants won’t be terribly swift.  After all, Bill James’ ( a pretty smart guy) projections are based on past performance. The Dodgers have the second worst average speed factor in the division and still have greater than a 20% advantage in that category. The back breaker of course is the fact that the Giants also have a serious power outage since the departure of Barry Bonds. A team that can’t get on base, runs like a team full of catchers and can’t play for the three run dinger probably isn’t going to score many runs. So if the Giants pitching staff felt they were carrying the load last year, they will probably feel more of the same this year and the defense behind them projects to do them a lot less good, too.

Sabean is out of money for the upcoming season and he’s running out of time. He may have fooled the business man Neukom thus far, but it appears his days are numbered. Frankly, he was very lucky with the timing of Peter McGowan’s departure. Neukom probably didn’t want to make such a big splash, especially coming off of a very successful season with the huge turnaround from ’08 to ’09, but if Sabean’s rosters continue to be less than impressive despite the young infusion of talent provided to him by John Barr and Dick Tidrow, Neukom will show him the door and find a new CEO. If a man who once ran the very successful Microsoft can’t understand the benefit that is the wealth of statistical information currently available to evaluate players and which Sabean ignores, who can?

Jonah Keri: Ranking MLB Stadiums, Part 1

I’m reminded of the weekend I spent one night in the Untamed Youth touring van.

Chris Jaffe, an excellent writer for The Hardball Times and one of two Jaffes at the top of my recommended baseball reading list, has penned a fun feature ranking his favorite baseball stadiums. It’s such a good idea, I had to nick it for myself.

One advantage I have over Chris (and even the biggest baseball nerds) is a history of baseball road trips. The mid-to-late 90s were a blur of frantic 400-mile drives, TripTiks, ballpark beverages and pitcher heckling. Those trips enabled live baseball viewing in every major league market but one (that white whale will be revealed shortly).

...31 Riverfront Stadium (Cincinnati): Your basic, multi-use, cookie-cutter stadium, but it trails some other, similar parks for its lack of rabid fans (St. Louis) and its inferior waterfront location (the Ohio River is more pleasant when crossed with two others in Pittsburgh, for some reason). Food was lame, configuration stunk, crowd noise didn’t travel well, etc.

But the worst part, by far, was our encounter with stadium security. We visited Cincinnati the weekend of June 14-16, 1996. How do I remember the dates so clearly? First, June 16 was my buddy Andrew’s 22nd birthday, so we were psyched to hit the town, get hammered, then see the Expos battle the Reds. The Spos took the first two games of the series, much to our delight. On the Saturday night, we all went out drinking.

...Jagermeister turned out to be…not the best choice.

Former Lotte Giants catcher dies (after 10 years in a coma after collapsing during a game)

A former catcher who fell into a vegetative state in the prime of his career was pronounced dead early yesterday after spending the past decade in a persistent vegetative state. Former Lotte Giants catcher Lim Soo-hyuk, 40, was pronounced dead at the Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital in eastern Seoul early yesterday.

....

Lim was drafted in 1994 and listed at 185 centimeters (6 feet 1 inch) and 90 kilograms (198 pounds), he was tabbed early on as a promising ball player with a lot of potential. However, soon after the start of his seventh season, Lim suddenly collapsed at the second base during an April, 18 2000 game against the LG Twins at the Jamsil Stadium in southern Seoul. According to the medical reports, Lim collapsed due to a heart arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat and failed to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation on time. Although an emergency medical service vehicle arrived and transported Lim to a hospital, the brain damage he received from the incident was said to have resulted largely from the lack of first aid soon after Lim collapsed at the stadium.

Poor first aid and the ensuing brain damage resulting from lack of oxygen to the brain meant there wasn’t much the doctors at the hospital could do to help Lim once he was brought to the hospital. The former baseball player went onto spend the next decade in a vegetative state.

Sad story out of Korea.

Hall of Fame Classic making return

The Baseball Hall of Fame will hold a second annual Hall of Fame Classic on Father’s Day this year.

....

The Hall said Monday that this year’s seven-inning exhibition game will feature seven Hall of Famers: Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bob Feller, Phil Niekro, Gary Carter, Harmon Killebrew and Mike Schmidt.

Niekro’s knuckleball should should work well.

Baseball Picture of the Day: YOUPPI post-Expos

It is now approximately 9 days until Pitchers and Catchers!

Today’s image shows us Youppi! Briefly out of work when the Expos split for DC, Youppi was able to quickly find a new home.

Youppi realized quickly that Canadians only care about Hockey, and so he would have to adapt. So he became the mascot for the Montreal Canadiens. But he still wears a Baseball Cap (albeit one with the Canadiens logo on it), showing his roots as the mascot of the late Les Expos.....

Creative Commons:

Tomorrow: Mascots are fun. Maybe I’ll do another mascot image.

Rosenthal: Looking back on race, Red Sox

I know they pulled a card on the heavily Zoe Graystoned Cylon robot...but Robothal?

I think back often to my column from ‘08. I know that for many, the topic was — and is — discomforting. But it’s important to keep talking about race, particularly in a sport that faces dwindling numbers of African-American players. It’s also important to remember that players choose teams for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes racial makeup is a factor; sometimes not.

Cameron says he cannot wait to play in a town where baseball is “deeply rooted.” In the end, he does not view the world in terms of black and white.

“I’ve never been a person like that, who viewed people in terms of color,” Cameron says. “I’ve never looked at it from that aspect. I try to treat everyone the same — my kids, parents, grandparents, the guy on the street.

“I believe the people in Boston will see it the same way, understand that all we do as players is put on the uniform and have a little bit of talent to play the game of baseball.

“I know the expectations are very high, and I’m looking forward to being part of our success, the team, the community and the fans.”

That’s a prominent African-American free agent talking. Maybe I should not have been so concerned in ‘08.

FanGraphs: Carruth: Fastball Losses

As Mrs. Delaviour (French for dicknose) said to me in high school..."You’re the most negative person I’ve ever met.” So...to answer that here’s the Fastball Gains.

Looking at the list from the other end, however – that is, from the pitchers that lost the most speed on average on their fastballs – produces more starters. Whether because starters will get more innings even when injured, a usual byproduct of diminished fastball speed, or some other cause is open for speculation, but the results are definitely interesting.

As promised, a list of the biggest drops in fastball speed from 2009 to 2008. A minimum of 50 innings pitched in each season was needed to qualify.

Joba Chamberlain, -2.5
Ervin Santana, -2.1
Ross Ohlendorf, -2
Jared Burton, -1.7
Tim Lincecum, -1.7
Daniel Cabrera, -1.7
Manny Delcarmen, -1.6
Chan Ho Park, -1.6
Brian Fuentes, -1.6
Jeremy Sowers, -1.5
Lance Cormier, -1.4
Chris Young, -1.4
Grant Balfour, -1.3
Mariano Rivera, -1.3
Tim Redding, -1.3
Oliver Perez, -1.2
Aaron Cook, -1.2
Kevin Gregg, -1.2
Kyle McClellan, -1.1
Aaron Heilman, -1

Cashman: No new pacts for big three

We’re not in Sloanville any more.

When Brian Cashman looks at Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Joe Girardi, the Yankees’ GM paints his shortstop, closer and manager with the same brush.

And with spring training opening next week in Tampa, Cashman has no plans to stray from his plan of not negotiating with them. All three contracts are in the final year.

“I don’t think you can separate one from the other,” Cashman explained. “I am not saying they are the same, but the questions will come, ‘If you did one, why didn’t you do the other?’ If this was Kansas City, it would be different — but it’s not.”

...“Everybody signed those contracts and there is a lot of money being made and people are comfortable,” said Cashman, who is signed through 2011 and never lobbied for an extension when he was in the final year of a deal.

Mets’ Citi Field to become more homer-friendly next season; center-field wall gets chopped to 8 feet

Good...gives the Marlon Anderson Hernandez’s something to shoot for.

The height of Citi Field’s center-field wall will be sliced in half, making the ballpark more homer-friendly, the Daily News has learned.

Last season, the wall measured 16 feet in front of the sparsely used Home Run Apple. Now, with the second level of padding being removed, it will measure eight feet in the middle of the outfield.

Still, as the Daily News exclusively reported in September, the stadium’s spacious dimensions won’t be altered.

The Mets hit 95 homers last season, by far the fewest in the majors. San Francisco ranked 29th with 122.

Wright, whose home-run power is more to right-center than the left-field line, saw his power plummet as the Mets moved from Shea Stadium to Citi Field. He went from a career-high 33 homers in 2008 to 10 homers last season - five at home, and five on the road.

MLB: Mays’ life and legend transcend statistics

As Sammy Davis once said to Willie Mays on the Mike Douglas Show..."Willie, man, I must ask you, where did that saying about you “Willie don’t want that ball” come from?” Mays..."I have no idea what you are talking about, Sammy”

Then, after the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, he played home games for 12 full seasons (1960-71) at Candlestick Park, where the incessant winds muted drives pulled to left field by right-handed-hitting sluggers such as him.

Asked if Candlestick denied Mays batches of homers, former Giants broadcaster Lon Simmons responded without hesitation.

“No doubt about it,” said Simmons, who saw Mays’ best years in San Francisco.

Right-hander Bob Bolin recalled watching the gusts stifle dozens of Mays’ clouts when the Giants’ bullpen was situated down the left-field line in Candlestick’s early years.

“The ball would actually be out of the ballpark on those high drives, and the wind would push them back in,” said Bolin, who pitched for the Giants from 1961 to 1969.

Undaunted, Mays learned to stroke pitches to right-center field, where the breezes carried batted balls toward the fence. But if Candlestick frustrated him, he wouldn’t reveal it.

“It was miserable to play there, and he never, ever said how bad it was,” said shortstop Chris Speier, who began his 19-year career with the Giants in 1971.

freep: Johnny Damon likes Yzerman, Tigers

Yes...but will he like Rybarczyk’s line change?

“Johnny came to me about Detroit,” Boras said in a telephone interview. “He told me, ‘If I can’t play for the Yankees, I want you to let the Tigers know I want to play for them. I can make that team a winner.’ “

Although Damon, 36, has been a free agent since November, Boras said the market for him really didn’t develop until it became clear the Yankees wouldn’t re-sign him. Then, said Boras, “We got four or five offers right away.”

Boras declined to identify which clubs made offers or how much interest they have subsequently shown.

Boras addressed one aspect of Damon’s performance last season. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Damon hit 15 of his 24 homers to a place where the ball carried notoriously well, rightfield in the new Yankee Stadium.

“It’s no secret that Johnny Damon purposely hooks the ball in Yankee Stadium and changes his swing on the road,” Boras said. He added that Damon, a left-handed hitter, is a “strong guy” whose Yankee Stadium homers would have cleared the rightfield fence at Comerica Park.

Kansas City Kansan: Sloan: It’s time to trade Greinke, Soria

Wyandotte the land with unread newspapers...when you can have Nick Sloan!

The Royals’ two most popular and talented players, the trades would leave many fans disappointed.

However, it could also leave the Royals’ cupboard stacked with young talent and within five years, the Royals could be a prime-time contending team.

ESPN recently ranked the Royals farm system. It ranked ninth, the highest in years.

Consider trading Greinke.

Greinke has one of the friendliest contracts in baseball and any team – not just the Yankees, Red Sox or Mets – could afford him. A team like Tampa Bay, Texas or Anaheim, who might be just one piece away from a title, might not hesitate to dish out four or even five solid prospects.

Soria, a top notch closer, could generate two to even three prospects.

While the six to eight prospects all wouldn’t turn out, odds are that half of them would. And joining the highly ranked class already, the Royals could have the premier minor league system in baseball by making these two moves.

Tango:  Evaluating the 2009 forecasts - Chone/ZiPS + Fantistics win

[Chone and ZiPS lead the way.  Marcel is where it should be, whil PECOTA once again brings up the rear (just not so obvious this time). 

(...)

It looks to me like we found our secret recipe: Chone/ZiPS forecasts for rate, with Fantistics for playing time.

So, my question is, what did Nate do with PECOTA that hasn’t been done by the rest of the BP guys since Nate became a politometric dork?  This is the second year that PECOTA got trounced and it also was bottom of the barrel in Tango’s Simulated Draft experiment.

AP: Foot surgery to limit Cliff Lee

SEATTLE—The Seattle Mariners say left-hander Cliff Lee is recovering from minor left foot surgery and will be limited when pitchers and catchers report to spring training this month.

The team announced Monday that its biggest offseason acquisition had surgery Friday in his native Arkansas to remove a bone spur that broke loose and was floating in his left foot.

MLB: Kielty hopes to try his hand at pitching

The only thing Kielty knows about pitching is...how to sell burgers.

In the course of baseball history, numerous strong-armed position players have reinvented themselves as pitchers.

Outfielder Bobby Kielty—a veteran of seven Major League seasons who last appeared in the bigs with the Red Sox in 2007—hopes to do it in a more creative way than most.

In an e-mail message to MLBTradeRumors.com, which on Saturday first reported the 33-year-old’s plans, Kielty indicated he would ideally like to be a pinch-hitter also able to work in relief.

Or, presumably, a relief pitcher also available to pinch-hit.

Kielty, a switch-hitter who throws right-handed, has never appeared on a professional mound—not even for mop-up duty in blowouts, as position players do occasionally.

SNY: Salfino: Yanks prove money does equal winning

Yes, certainly a tom gray area.

The Yankees were really set back when the current draft rules were implemented in 1965. But free agency saved them and now many premium players (like current top Yankees prospect Jesus Montero) are not U.S. residents and therefore not subjected to the draft. These players can be signed by the Yankees in the manner that existed before 1947, de facto free agency. Inevitably, this team with even only competent management was going to rise to power—playoff appearances in 14 of the last 15 years. During this time, they’ve won “only” five championships.

So, is this the best of both worlds for baseball—having a great New York team that usually is not the champion? The ever-growing legion of Yankees haters would take satisfaction from the team either losing (sub-.500 record) or at least failing to make the playoffs (like in 2008). From 2001 to 2007, Yankees fans got to strut their stuff for six full months before being ultimately thwarted. That gave their haters a brief rush of pleasure, but then it’s on to football.

The best thing for baseball right now is that the Yankees are in the same division as the Red Sox. This means that they either have to beat Boston or the field of non-division winning teams. It’s easy for them to do this. It should be expected. But it’s not a slam dunk in the way their recent playoff streak implies.

Bodley: Zduriencik builds winner in Seattle

And all without sabermetrics! Way to go, Bods!

Jack Zduriencik reminds me of a movie star discovered in a Hollywood drug store who goes on to win an Academy Award.

Those who celebrate these kinds of successes are unaware of all the years of hard work, waiting on tables, daily struggles, toiling in the Minor Leagues, etc., for that defining moment at the drug store.

Baseball people are gawking at Zduriencik’s success since becoming Seattle’s general manager and even calling him an overnight success.

Don’t mention that to the 59-year-old Zduriencik (zur-EN-sik). The Z-man, as he’s called in Seattle, has more than paid his dues. For years he’s been anything but baseball’s best-kept secret.

“I got my chance, but I’m not doing anything differently than I’ve ever done,” he says. “I just try to be who I am. I want to be good; there are 30 clubs out there who want to be good.”

Report: Yankees sign OF Marcus Thames

Jon Heyman of SI.com reports that the Yankees have signed outfielder Marcus Thames.

Terms of the contract are not yet known. Thames could enter a left field platoon with Randy Winn. Generally considered a poor defensive outfielder, Thames has value in his .845 career OPS against left-handed pitching. The Yankees will also benefit from having an extra right-handed bat in the outfield. Thames, originally drafted by the Yankees in 1996, batted .252/.323/.453 with 13 home runs in 258 at-bats last season.

SNY: Megdal: Have Mets eschewed cheaper options?

Eschew readers...and other Voola from Howard!

But the two-part frustration Mets fans are justified in their anger comes from a sharp decline in salary spending relative to 2009—that team made $149 million—despite a clear understanding across baseball that this Mets roster, even should everyone return to good health, had a number of glaring holes.

The bigger irritant has to be the contracts signed recently by Erik Bedard, Yorvit Torrealba and Adam Kennedy, however. Bedard is guaranteed $1.5 million, Torrealba $1.25 million and Kennedy $1.25 million. In other words, for $4 million, the Mets could have upgraded their rotation options and at second base and catcher.

Now, it is important to point out, the Mets may not have gotten these players for the same money they signed for. But let’s unpack that a bit. Why should that be? Is it because the Mets have a poor reputation right now due to alack of success? Well, the only plausible way to combat that reputation is with, well, success.

In other words, spending a bit more to get these players would not only have helped with 2010 on the field, it likely would have aided the bottom line in 2011 and beyond, since the Mets wouldn’t be saddled with the failure handicap in free agency.

AP: Brewers erecting a statue of Selig outside Miller Park

“The Brewers and Miller Park are in this city because of the commissioner’s vision and dedicated efforts,” Attanasio said Monday.

Selig’s foundation donated statues of Hank Aaron and Robin Yount that were unveiled when Miller Park opened in 2001. Selig’s statue, which will be more than 7 feet tall, will be built by the same designer, Brian Maughan.

How will they choose which inspiring pose to immortalize?

van Dyck: White Sox unretire Aparicio’s No.11 for Vizquel

This time it’s the No. 11 of Luis Aparicio, the only Venezuelan Hall of Famer. It will be worn by countryman Omar Vizquel, with the blessing of the former great shortstop.

The White Sox also “unretired” Harold Baines’ No. 3 in 1996 and 2000 when he returned to the team. Baines coaches first base and still wears his jersey number.

How will this affect his Hall of Fame chances?

Sabermetrics to Remain in Public Domain

For Immediate Release

February 8, 2010

Contacts:  Susan Petrone Christian Borges

Publicity & Member Services Manager VP Digital Communications

Society for American Baseball Research Deep Focus, Inc.

812 Huron Rd E, #719 345 Hudson Street, Fifth floor

Cleveland, OH 44115 New York, NY 10014

216-575-0500 212-792-6801

spetrone@sabr.org christian@deep-focus.net

Sabermetrics to Remain in Public Domain

On February 3, 2010, Deep Focus, Inc. withdrew its application to trademark the term “sabermetrics” for social media consulting services.

Sabermetrics was coined by statistician Bill James, who first introduced the word to readers of his Abstract in March 1980, writing: “Sabermetrics is the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball records.” Since that time, sabermetrics has become a ubiquitous part of the baseball landscape at all levels and by players, front office staff, the media, and fans alike. Most major league teams use sabermetrically derived statistics as part of their player evaluations. Members of the Baseball Writers Association of America and others who report on baseball refer to sabermetrics and its metrics on a regular basis. Recently James has said that sabermetrics is a “declaration of no ownership of knowledge.”

Send Mark Zuckerman to Viera

There’s a cool movement afoot among Nationals fans to respond to the fact that the team is on the verge of having basically zero full time, independent (ie not affiliated with the team) beat writers, as the Washington Times has ended sports coverage, and the Post’s beat writer, Chico Harlan announced months ago that he was leaving the beat and didn’t want to cover the Nationals anymore.

Check it out.

MLB Network: Understanding plate discipline (Video)

Fangraphs goes mainstream…

The Hot Stove crew takes a look at the 2009 swing percentage leaders in the Major Leagues.

Dodger Thoughts: Time to stop believin’ in ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ at Dodger Stadium

The betting here is that the playing of “Don’t Stop Believin’” in the middle of the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium will disappear, now that former Dodger exec Dr. Charles Steinberg is no longer around to champion it. Maybe it would have disappeared even if Steinberg had stayed. It wasn’t getting any fresher over time. (Sorry, Eric.)

If the Dodgers decide to replace the Journey anthem with another song, what would you like it to be?

My default answer on questions like these is Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to (Score a Game-Winning) Run” or Sam Cooke’s “Shake,” but I don’t think too hard about such things. I’m really quite satisfied with “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in the seventh. But I am interested in your ideas ...

The Atlantic: Cohen: Where Have You Gone, Jim Merritt?

While you’re searching...can you check on the Wesley Willis Fiasco? Thanks.

Merritt is now 66 (says Wikipedia so it must be true) and I am sure he is either laughing or crying at the notion that a whole new generation of baseball fans like me (who were toddlers in 1970) now know that his battery mate, a future Hall of Famer, and his coach, a future Hall of Famer, thought his pitches had “nothing” with his team’s season on the line. Who says baseball history is static? What I had thought all along was the power and poise and precision of Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson and Paul Blair and Boog Powell turns out, in Game 5 anyway, to be poor ol’ Merritt.

So I try to find Merritt, you know, to give him the final word on Sparky. I call the alumni group of the player’s union and guess whose voice greets me on the answering machine as I call to find out about Jim Merritt? Why, it’s none other than Brooks Robinson--Brooksie!--one of the merely five Orioles’ batters Merritt retired before he was replaced in Game 5. I leave a message. I get an email back from a nice lady saying that Merritt has been given my request. And I wait. And wait and wait.

I don’t blame Jim Merritt for not calling me back. Forty years from now I won’t want some punk calling me to ask me about my legal analysis of the Florida Recount (I predicted Gore would win) or the Martha Stewart trial (I predicted she would be acquitted). He deserves his privacy even as the glorious MLB Network arrives on the scene to help remind us all of one of his worst moments at work.

The Baseball Analysts: Jaffe: Evaluating Baseball’s Managers

Let Chris explain..."The commentary below is the introductory essay to EBM’s Chapter 5, which is titled “Rise of the Fundamentalists, 1893-1919.”

People look at John McGraw and his devotion to those precious fundamentals. He ordered his players come to the park to practice and work out for several hours every day, making the athletes perform precisely in accordance with his formidable will. Other managers, like Frank Chance, made a similar fervent push for sound ball. Chance’s Cubs had a well-earned reputation as the sharpest players in the league.

However, not only was the deadball era far from being the golden era of fundamentals, but the evidence used to make it seem like a Mecca of proper execution are the very facts that indicate otherwise. John McGraw did not want his players practicing constantly because they were so committed, but because those who earned a spot in major league baseball commonly displayed poor fundamentals. The book Crazy ‘08 by Cait Murphy provides an interesting window into baseball during the 1908 NL pennant race. Despite focusing on teams that diligently practiced their basics – McGraw’s Giants and Chance’s Cubs – examples of shoddy play litter the book. It was not a matter of errors; the gloves and conditions of the day made muffed grounders understandable. The problems went deeper. Virtually every game contained at least one boneheaded play that could not be blamed on the conditions. Flies landed between fielders. A base runner would be doubled off on a pop up. An outfielder would misplay a grounder for an inside-the-park home run. These plays still happen, but not nearly as often. If the Cubs and Giants played like that, imagine how the doormats played. There were also some extremely smart plays, but the floor for proper conduct was much lower in 1908.

It seems strange that teams that practiced so religiously played so poorly, but think for a second. Much of what is now received wisdom was still being worked out. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, players slowly began figuring out how to work together, or back each other up. For example, what should a catcher do when a base runner is caught in a run-down between first and second? Where should the shortstop go when the runner on first heads for third on a single to right? People are not born knowing the answers.

BPro: Dodgers Top 11 Prospects

Five-Star Prospects
1. Dee Gordon, SS
2. Chris Withrow, RHP
Four-Star Prospects
3. Ethan Martin, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
4. Aaron Miller, LHP
5. Scott Elbert, LHP
6. Trayvon Robinson, OF
7. Garrett Gould, RHP
8. Ivan DeJesus Jr., SS
9. Josh Lindblom, RHP
Two-Star Prospects
10. Kenley Jansen, RHP
11. Kyle Russell, OF

Four More:
12. Andrew Lambo, OF: He isn’t an athletic corner outfielder, and is instead a bat-only prospect who might not have enough bat.
13. Allen Webster, RHP: A highly projectable righty, Webster has the potential to rocket up this list after his 2010 full-season debut.
14. Pedro Baez, 3B: He needs to overcome an injury bug and plate discipline issues, but his tools remain outstanding.
15. Nathan Eovaldi, RHP: This Tommy John surgery survivor was kept on a short leash in 2009, but he was brilliant at times while showcasing one of the more live arms in the system.

Get on the Chris Withrow bandwagon because we’re going places!