The Economist: Draft dodgers no more

Will a worldwide draft do to baseball in the Dominican Republic what it did to Puerto Rico?

Many buscones accuse MLB of selling out Latinos to protect American players’ jobs. They note there is just one Latino on MLB’s international-talent committee—who, as the son of an MLB player, mostly grew up in America. “I feel like we’re being invaded, like it’s 1965 all over again,” says Astin Jacobo, a buscón, referring to America’s occupation of the DR. “We’re only number one in one thing, and that’s baseball. We can’t give that away.”

A group of Dominican buscones has already held anti-draft protests. They might convince MLB to set up a separate draft for foreigners with an eligibility age of 16, which would be less disruptive than extending America’s draft abroad. But stopping the draft entirely will be hard.

Many buscones talk of a strike. But they have not formed a union. Even if they do, they could not stop their players from opting to sign with MLB teams.

That leaves the government. Felipe Payano, the sports minister, has already written a letter to Bud Selig, MLB’s commissioner, expressing his opposition to a draft. He says his office is investigating whether it might violate the DR’s free-trade agreement with America. Another option would be to sue MLB for collusion under Dominican antitrust law.

Blue Jays complete Francisco Cordero signing

The Toronto Blue Jays have signed veteran reliever Francisco Cordero to a $4.5-million, one-year contract.

The 36-year-old right-hander was 5-3 with 37 saves last season for the Cincinnati Reds. He posted a 2.45 earned-run average and held opponents to a .198 batting average.

Terence Moore: Designated hitter skews home-run totals

Yea, and relief wins skew career win totals! Start thinking about even moore asterisks!

No question, baseball’s home run records are tarnished by those who spent part of their careers with artificially enhanced bodies, or have been suspected of it.

That said, why don’t folks talk much—if at all—about that other great evil in this regard called the designated hitter?

In other words, may the baseball gods help us purists if Alex Rodriguez really does spend a lot of time this season and beyond as a DH for the New York Yankees. At 36 and sitting just 134 home runs shy of passing Barry Bonds’ record for career homers of 762, Rodriguez could get a mighty boost toward history with more than a few DH homers.

...As a DH, Rodriguez could play well past 40, while putting the career homer record nearly out of reach. He could catch Bonds by averaging about 44 homers over the next three years, or about 33 over the next four years.

Rodriguez could do much of this as a DH, and then baseball officials could do something they don’t like to do.

Start thinking about asterisks.

Arrest order issued then revoked for Vincente Padilla

I have made a huge mistake…

According to La Prensa newspaper in Nicaragua, pitcher Vicente Padilla—who signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox earlier this month—had an arrest warrant issued for his failure to show up in court for a child support hearing, only to have the arrest order revoked later. That second article suggests that Padilla is facing an order not to leave Nicaragua for spring training until the matter is resolved. According to the reports, Padilla owes approximately US$4,200 in child support.

The Red Sox signed Padilla to a minor league deal that includes a $1.5 million salary if he is added to the major league roster. The 13-year veteran has a career record of 104-90 with a 4.31 ERA.

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.

One Hall of Fame finally welcomes Tony Oliva

Vote Tony O: Destination La Romana.

Oliva isn’t the only former Twin feeling a bit frustrated these days about Hall of Fame voting.

There’s Jack Morris, baseball’s winningest pitcher of the 1980s and author of arguably the greatest Game 7 pitching performance in World Series history… “He go next year,” Oliva predicted. “They give him a big push this year.”

There’s Jim Kaat, a 283-game winner who fell two votes short in the most recent balloting by the Golden Era Committee. “There’s a lot of guys — Jim Kaat, Luis Tiant,” Oliva said. “I don’t know what the Veteran’s Committee wants.”

And, there’s Oliva. He’ll have to wait until 2014 for another chance with the Golden Era Committee, which meets every three years.

He’s 73 now. With any luck, he’ll be 76 the next time he comes up for election — but nobody has that guarantee.

“We no have too much time, you know?” Oliva said of himself, Kaat and others. “We don’t live forever. We only have one life. “I mention to them, the guy who no make it now, he have to wait three years. A lot of those guys (being considered) will be 90 — why they have to wait three more years? “Why it not like the young players? They (are eligible for election) every year. I no care what group they consider.”

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-2-2012

El Paso Herald, February 2, 1912:

Big league magnates almost universally cry out against the idea of having their players numbered with numerals on their shirt sleeves. This is considered good form in some minor leagues but the better players resent being placarded like a bunch of horses.

Yeah, I don’t see how this whole “numbers on the uniforms” thing will ever fly.

Tom Brady a Montreal Expo: What might have been

With a twist of fate some 17 years ago, Tom Brady might have been a Montreal Expo instead of one of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history.

The 34-year-old signal caller fielded questions from a mob of reporters with ease at Super Bowl media day on Tuesday – easy breezy for a guy who is about to join John Elway as the only two quarterbacks to appear in five Super Bowls. But imagine what might have been if the Expos had lured Brady to the major leagues after drafting him in 1995.

Also in that alternate universe:
-Joe Mauer plays professional football.
-Gerald Ford signed with Detroit Lions, never entered politics.
-Nyjer Morgan is currently active in the NHL.
-The Graduate is a cult classic starring Doris Day and Burt Ward.
-Tom Selleck was Indiana Jones. Eric Stoltz was Marty Mcfly.
-Al Gore won Florida.
-The greatest band of all time is the Quarrymen, AKA John, Paul, George and Pete.

Twins’ Joe Benson on dangers of playing in Venezuela

Joe Benson went to Venezuela this winter with the intent of playing baseball for Tigres de Aragua in the offseason. He ended up getting much more than he bargained for.

Benson, a 23-year-old Minnesota Twins outfielder, was robbed at gunpoint when the taxicab he was in hit a boulder and crashed. As the Spanish-speaking cab driver was making a call from his cell phone, three gunmen approached Benson. They took everything he had except for a bag that contained some baseball spikes and a few T-shirts.

“When you don’t speak the language, there’s not much you can do,” Benson said. “You can’t really beg for your life. You can’t ask them not to pull the trigger. You can’t beg for mercy. I kind of sat there in silence, let everything happen.”

The cab driver was also robbed. It could have been much worse for both men, however.

“It wasn’t a setup. He wasn’t in on it,” Benson said of the cab driver. “He lost everything he had. The National Guard, thankfully, showed up about 10 minutes later and took me to a local police station, where I was picked up by some of the front-office guys from the Tigres.”

Red Sox Still Have ‘Great Chance’ At Roy Oswalt

Yeah, but who would they have to give the Cardinals in retur…WHA?!

Sometimes a baseball source will tell a writer one thing, and then another baseball source will tell the writer a conflicting thing. This might be new. Here we have a baseball source telling a writer one thing, and then the same baseball source later telling the writer a conflicting thing. Gordon Edes:

  After indicating late Friday night that pitcher Roy Oswalt was signing with the St. Louis Cardinals “soon,” the same major league source acknowledged Wednesday that Oswalt had not yet made a decision and that the Red Sox still “had a great chance” of signing him.

On the one hand, okay, maybe the baseball source is plugged in to the fluid Oswalt sweepstakes. On the other hand, this baseball source said Oswalt was going to the Cardinals last Friday. This exact same baseball source, just last Friday. Like, no baseball source has told Gordon Edes the wrong thing more recently than this baseball source.

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.

Phillies Nation: Why Have Black Fans Rallied Around the Phillies?

Philadelphia Soul!

For people like my father, seeing Howard and Rollins play for the Phillies is a reminder of the progress the team, the sport and this country have made over the years.

“For guys my age, I can remember back in the 1950s when the Phillies were still one of the most racist teams in baseball,” my father told me. “To see guys like Howard and (Jimmy) Rollins on the team now, that means something.”

Jason Heyward optimistic about re-tooled swing

Let the “he’s in the best shape of his life” stories commence!

Heyward’s workouts started two weeks after the season ended. They started with 8 a.m. wake-up calls five days a week, as opposed to just Monday, Wednesday and Friday as in the past.

He did physical therapy to build strength in his shoulder twice a week, workouts with weights at the gym three times a week and for the first time he started a regular routine of running and cardio-work. Look closely in the pool at L.A. Fitness you might have even seen Heyward swimming laps.

He made an effort to slim down, dropping from 256 pounds last spring to 235 now. He’s eating fewer steaks and junk food and adding fruits and healthy snacks to meals of salads, fish, chicken or pasta.

Heyward said he added weight last year in an attempt to build on his standout rookie season, when he finished second to Giants catcher Buster Posey for National League rookie of the year after hitting .277 with 18 homers and 72 RBIs. But after the injury, he started to feel sluggish.

“I wasn’t feeling like myself,” Heyward said. “I didn’t feel that I could make my body do what my mind wanted to do. I wanted to make sure I have that feel, that control again.”

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.

HBT: Cartwright: Why Oliver Loves Yu

Great pitcher?  Or greatest pitcher?  Cartwright chooses (c) my projection engine messed up.

6.2 WAR, 2.57 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 16-4 W-L, 185 IP, 138 H,  8 HR, 41 BB, 198 K

It looks like Yu broke Oliver. That’s Yu Darvish; Oliver is the engine of The Hardball Times Forecasts. It’s not the first time it’s happened, but when a player so dominates his non-major league competition that that his derived major league true talent exceeds generally accepted norms, it offers an opportunity to examine the system and make some changes for the better.

Calcaterra: Columnist Phil Rogers has decided Ryan Braun’s appeal for us

But the most interesting thing about it is that he seems to blame the contract for Ryan Braun’s positive drug test in October. And, unlike the folks who have reported on the test, does not believe that it was inadvertent or the result of a tainted supplement or something. No, Rogers believes that it was Braun “amping up” his game in order to justify what, in the grand scheme of things, pretty reasonable contract:

  Braun would have been a fool to say no to the deal, but it puts the onus on him to perform. So the guy who led the National League in slugging as a rookie amped up his game to again lead the NL in slugging and to compile a .994 OPS last season, earning an MVP award — and then he tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance.

So great it is that Rogers can see past everything else being reported about Braun’s test, capture his true motivation — a desperate desire to justify his insane contract — and determine his specific transgression, which was to “amp up his game” and perform.

Thank you, Detective Rogers. Your services here are invaluable.

Thanks to Mohl.

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.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-1-2012

New York Tribune, February 1, 1912:

James Doyle, of Syracuse, third baseman of the Chicago [National League] club last season, who was stricken with appendicitis on Monday, was reported as being in a critical condition last night.

Doyle died 100 years ago today.

His was a really improbable, if brief, success story. The Cubs’ third baseman, Harry Steinfeldt, held out to start the 1911 season. In response, Frank Chance (completely rationally) waived Steinfeldt and gave the hot corner to Heinie Zimmerman, previously a utilityman. A month or so into the season, Johnny Evers broke down due to “Fudge Orgies and Nicotine Sprees”, so Zim slid over to second and Doyle, a 29-year-old rookie, became the third baseman.  He played well in 1911; hit .282, 40 extra-base hits, OPS+ of 110, 3.5 BB-Ref WAR.  Not bad for a guy who never would have seen a regular job if not for holdouts, nicotine, and fudge.

Less than four months after the 1911 season ended, Doyle was dead.

MLB 2K12: Games Should Be More Than Their Covers

In the game of baseball and in any other competitive sports for that matter, we see tireless and ambitious athletes keep on coming back. They still have the spirit to keep on going if they have been losing or are about to lose. In some cases, though, it is much harder to keep your hopes up.

This is the problem with MLB 2K12. Although the game has an awesome-looking cover, the franchise has not shown the pure determination that athletes such as Justin Verlander has shown. In the video game industry, pure ambition is apparently not enough. In 2006, 2K Sports hired Ben Brinkman. Brinkman came from Electronic Arts’ MVP Baseball series. In a way, he was MLB 2K7’s executive producer and savior. 2K7 has made a lot of improvement in terms of game visuals but MLB 2K8 was plagued with all sorts of bugs and gameplay glitches. MLB 2K9 did not improve things. Rather, it even dragged the franchise down further. Brinkman was fired as producer and MLB 2K9 continued to become a sinking ship. At this point, the developers were already thinking of the franchise as a liability. Strauss Zelnick, who serves as chairman of Take-Two Interactive, 2K Sports’ parent company considers the franchise a “losing proposition and we don’t have any interest in pursuing losing propositions.”

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.

Bob Costas: MVP award should be re-voted if Braun loses appeal

Looks like Costas “has his faintly disapproving schoolmarm face on” (syte Lipsite)...again.

“No one has ever won an appeal,” Costas said. “The thing is set up and it’s made clear that even if you by your own testimony unknowingly ingest something that trips the test, you are responsible for ingesting it. So I don’t see what his successful defense will be. So he sits out 50 games and it costs him more than $3 million.

“I also do not understand the baseball writers’ position,” Costas said. “I understand the position that you will not be able to go back and yank guys out of the Hall of Fame if it’s subsequently discovered that they used steroids. Or even that you can’t take away A-Rod’s MVP from years ago during a period of time that he has now acknowledged that he was among those who tested positive.

“But baseball ought to have a rule in place like the one football put in a few years ago,” Costas said. “You may remember (Chargers’ linebacker) Shawne Merriman (in 2006) was suspended for using performance enhancing drugs during the year, but he still made the Pro Bowl. Then they put in a rule that said, ‘Look, you can’t make the Pro Bowl or receive an honor in the year you have been sanctioned. Not suspected. Not Jose Canseco wrote a book. Not something that came up in the Mitchell Report. But under our official procedures you tested positive.’ Well, (Braun) tested positive in October of the year he won the MVP. So I think - and I’m not taking a shot at Ryan Braun here, terrific player, seems like a good guy too - but I think you submit it to a re-vote. In which case Matt Kemp would easily win. In fact, if the Dodgers had been contenders, Kemp would have won anyway because he actually had a better year than Braun.”

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.

Pirates catching prospect Sanchez injured in offseason scuffle

Tony Sanchez, the Pirates’ top catcher prospect, again got into hot water with the team when he sustained a broken jaw in a bar brawl earlier this offseason.

Sources told the Tribune-Review the fight happened about three months ago while Sanchez, 23, was participating in the Florida Instructional League. No police charges were filed.

Sanchez did not return a phone call and text messages from the Tribune-Review. As a policy, Pirates management does not comment even in general terms about player misconduct and discipline.

The Onion: Joel Zumaya Agrees To Throw One Last Amazing Pitch

Injury-plagued fireball reliever Joel Zumaya informed reporters Monday that his new $800,000 contract with the Twins obligates him to throw one last beautifully self-destructive pitch that will finally annihilate his arm forever.

“I’ve undergone dozens of surgeries and months of painstaking rehab to get my arm in good enough shape to pitch again, so that pitch is going to be absolutely incredible,” said Zumaya, whose single-pitch contract is laden with incentives for velocity, accuracy, and the horrifying sound his elbow makes when it implodes from the torque.

“Bones will splinter, arteries will be spouting in all directions, ligaments will twang through the air like snapped guitar strings, and when the shock and disgust finally subside, they’ll look at the radar gun and see ‘235 mph.’” Zumaya then broke his wrist clicking a pen.

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”.

MASN: Positionally, Werth is the center of attention

TARGET WERTH!

About the biggest uncertainty revolves around Jayson Werth - will he play center field or right field, and if it’s center, who’s in right?

Rizzo and manager Davey Johnson insist Werth is capable of manning center. They think he’s got sufficient speed to cover the gaps and there’s no doubt that he’s the kind of take-charge outfielder to can play traffic cop (in other words, none of that silliness where the center fielder allows himself to be called off a catchable ball, which has happened occasionally in the past). In his brief trial in center at the end of last season, Werth acquitted himself well, making good reads and taking good routes to the ball. He’s no stranger to center, having played the position in each of his nine major league seasons, but his 31 games and 233 1/3 innings at the position with the Phillies in 2008 were his career highs at the spot.

Dirk Hayhurst to play ball in Italy this year

The Non-Prospect will stay in Europe for another year to work out their fiscal crisis.

Dirk Hayhurst, author of “The Bullpen Gospels” and the upcoming “Out of my League,” is a personal favorite of mine. Yes, because of the books, but also because he lives in Ohio and I got to meet him last fall and I found that he is just as neat a guy in person as he is in print and on Twitter and stuff.

Anyone who has paid attention to his career since his first book came out knows that, after 25 major league games in 2008-09, he was first beset with injury and then, last year, was beset with being part of the Tampa Bay Rays organization which, unfortunately for Hayhurst, had way damn too many good pitchers.

It might be easy to get discouraged if you’re a guy like Hayhurst, but he’s not doing that.  No, rather than get upset at a system that is, by design, almost impossible to crack, he has decided to view his baseball career as an opportunity to experience neat stuff.  He just announced on Twitter that he’ll be playing baseball in Italy in 2012.

Source: Yankees hire Jim Hendry

The Yankees just scoop up all the available talent.

Former Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry has been hired by the New York Yankees as a special assistant to GM Brian Cashman, according to a major league source.

Hendry, who was the Cubs GM from 2002 to 2011, was let go by chairman Tom Ricketts after two straight fifth-place finishes.

Hendry, 56, worked 17 years in the Cubs organization in numerous positions, including farm director, scouting director, assistant GM and GM.

Hendry agreed to a multiyear deal with the Yankees, according to the source.

Under Hendry’s direction the Cubs won three division titles (2003, 2007, 2008). The 2003 team was five outs away from the franchise’s first World Series appearance since 1945 before an eighth-inning implosion in Game 6 against the Marlins in the NLCS.