Jonah Keri: Shedding a tear for Tom Boswell

I’ll always be grateful to Boswell for the work he did earlier in his career. Heck, my humble offerings will never amount to 1/1,000th the contribution that Boswell has made to baseball writing. But I’m afraid that Mr. Boswell needs to spend some time reevaluating his take on the game, or risk having baseball pass him by entirely.

Please, Tom. Pick up a copy of this book (I won’t see a penny in royalties, promise), or check out the work of…anyone. Rob Neyer, Keith Law, Tom Tango, MGL. Dave Cameron, the BP group, Hardball Times, Fangraphs, you name it. Better yet, check out the work of Joe Posnanski, an excellent mainstream media writer with no statistical training of any kind who’s learned to funnel the best analytic findings into his work, while continuing to write in an enjoyable prose.

Tom, I want to enjoy your work again. I hope you make the effort to catch up. I’m rooting for you.

And plenty of Freedom for the Stallions to Neyer.

Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects: Detroit Tigers

La-la-la-la...still waiting for first Charlie Furbush sighting.

1. Rick Porcello, rhp
2. Ryan Perry, rhp
3. Cale Iorg, ss
4. Casey Crosby, lhp
5. Jeff Larish, 1b/3b
6. Wilkin Ramirez, of
7. Scott Sizemore, 2b
8. Cody Satterwhite, rhp
9. Dusty Ryan, c
10. Guillermo Moscoso, rhp

Despite all the bad news, Detroit officials were encouraged by the development of many prospects during the 2008 season, particularly some of their pitchers.

Porcello reinforced his status as one of the top arms minor league baseball. Though he was much younger than many hitters he faced, he led the high Class A Florida State League with a 2.66 ERA in his pro debut. The Lakeland bullpen behind him boasted several intriguing arms, including 2008 draft picks Ryan Perry, Cody Satterwhite and Robbie Weinhardt. Strike-throwing righthander Casey Fien and sidearmer Rudy Darrow have a chance to make the Tigers’ Opening Day roster in 2009. Crosby made a rapid return from Tommy John surgery and was very impressive in instructional league.

Schafer: Happy Birthday Stan the Man, Can Someone Finally Rid Us of Your Ugly Statue?

May Claes Oldenburg leave an enlarged nasty on your lawn. I dig the Musial statue for what it is.

The other regret, and I hate to say this, because it feels like blasphemy even to me, is that we St. Louisans have to look at that god awful statue of Musial every time we go to the ballpark.

Look, I realize that somehow, that thing has become a landmark. I get it, okay? That doesn’t change the fact that I can honestly say I’ve never seen a worse piece of sculpture. Honestly, look at it. Does that thing look like Musial’s body? His stance? Hell, does that thing look like anyone’s body? I believe the answer you’re looking for is “no.” See, the thing is, we actually have a really great statue of Musial, too. The one on the other side of the stadium, the one that perfectly captures Stan. The form is lithe and athletic. The posture is just right. Here is a snapshot of a legend in his prime, a hero in his element.

But no, we have to look at that misshapen monstrosity at the main gates. Honestly, I have to ask, can anyone tell me why that statue is the one that became the statue? Even Musial himself has complained that it looks nothing like him, and Stan is not the complaining sort. Can we please stop this sad farce and just admit that, landmark or no, the Musial Statue is just terrible? Am I the only one who sees this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

The Blackouts of DOOM will continue, so says Biz of Baseball

MLB owners, yet again, tabled restructuring the local and regional television territories for the league at today’s quarterly owners meetings in New York, and in doing so, leaves an arcane and convoluted system in place just before the MLB Network launches on January 1.

The commissioner’s office has proposed an adjustment that will involve clubs losing a territory or market if they do not broadcast within it. Currently, markets such as Las Vegas sees six clubs claiming the television territory, including the A’s, Giants, Padres, Angels, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks.

The issue will not be broached again until the next quarterly meetings by the owners in January.

Unless the league makes a provision, the ranks of those that will be faced with the “blackout blues” will grow exponentially as the new television network for the league reaches 50 million homes next season. MLB Network plans on broadcasting 26 games each season.

IDIOTS! YOU ####### IDIOTS! YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!

ARGH!

That is all.

THT: Walters: Season similarity scores

Improving Similarity Scores with Zach (YIKES! another Royals fan) Walters.

Similarity scores were introduced by Bill James in The Politics of Glory, a book examining the Hall of Fame selection process. James sought to bring order to a common Hall of Fame argument: If Player A is similar to Player B, who is in the Hall of Fame, then Player A should also be elected. In a characteristically insightful approach, James realized that what was needed was a way to fairly compare a player to every other player, find the most similar players, and describe how similar they were. If you can say that Player A is similar to Players B, C, D and E, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame, you’re starting to make a very strong case for Player A’s election.

Aside from their original purpose, Similarity Scores give an element of vivid detail to baseball statistics. Whenever I want to learn about a player I’ve never heard of, the first thing I do is look at his list of most similar players. Finding someone I already know about makes the player I’m investigating come to life. The point of looking at Similarity Scores isn’t that the current system doesn’t work, it’s that the idea of Similarity Scores is such a good one that it’s worth improving as much as we can.

Nigeria: Baseball Plans Big for 2009

“That will be a good starting point for us because America is the home of baseball and the meeting with the Ambassador will open doors for us to reach other America companies in Nigeria”, explains Jani Mohammed who is also the proprietor of LUBCON Oil.

The federation has also mapped out elaborate activities to mark the 20th anniversary of the game.

“The anniversary”, says the secretary of the federation, Kehinde Laniyan, “will afford the stakeholders the opportunity to come together for the betterment of the game.

“We’re looking forward to a very big celebration which will no doubt take the game to the next level.

“From the look of the things, the game can be popular if all lovers join hands together

I got nothing.

Matsuzaka commits to WBC

The 28-year-old’s signal of intent comes as Japanese officials met on Friday to select staff to assist new national coach Tatsunori Hara.

“It would be an honor to play,” Matsuzaka told reporters after arriving in Japan following the U.S. Major League Baseball season.

“I will keep myself in peak condition to play. I have not spoken much with coach Hara but he is a refreshing presence and very passionate about baseball. You can feel his energy.”

Matsuzaka did not play at this year’s Beijing Olympics in August when Japan failed to win a medal under Senichi Hoshino but was the most valuable player at the inaugural WBC in 2006.

Samurai Japan has Dice-K. I wonder, if they use him in a unexpected way, would they be rolling Samurai Dice?

Joe Posnanski Blog: Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs

Must..print..out..and bring up to the bar for all the crackaholics to blear over (oh, wait...major sweep last night. MAKE NOTE: Bring Poz article back in 6-8 months).

My point is we were INUNDATED with batting average, homers and RBIs. We were INOCULATED with batting average, homers and RBIs. We were BRAINWASHED with batting average, homers and RBIs — those are, for kids of my generation, like the queen of diamonds in “The Manchurian Candidate.” If someone called me up right now and said, “Why don’t you pass the time by playing a little solitaire,” and I looked at my baseball cards, and came across batting average, homers and RBIs, yeah, I’d probably be programmed to kill.

I think it’s good, every so often, to consider how deeply batting average, homers and RBIs are cut into our baseball DNA. Those were more or less the only numbers we were even ALLOWED to consider. Why do you think Bill James was such a seminal figure — it’s because he so clearly and concisely and hilariously was able to slap our faces and show us that, yeah, there was more out there, a bigger world. He was like the baseball version of Morpheus for us. Red pill or blue pill. Blue pill you can stick with your core statistics and believe that Steve Garvey had a good season in 1984 and Andre Dawson deserved his ‘87 MVP. Red pill and you can see beyond: .279, 14, 74.

Praise from Showalter helped Wakamatsu get M’s job

Wakamatsu wins The Eddie Haskell Invitational!

“Resume-wise, I don’t know what more a guy could really do as far as his background,” Showalter said Thursday. “Don, (the Mariners) hired a good man there, a very ethical guy who’s not too stiff, has a great smile, a guy that laughs easily. And when you spend the amount of time together that he and I have, early in the morning, spring training, late at night, for eight, nine months at a time, you certainly get to see (what type of person he is). What is it they say? ‘Friends are people that know all about you and still like you.’ “

..."I always challenged Wak—‘Don’t ever be working on your next job. Work on this job, let this job dictate that people would want to put you at another level’. “ said Showalter, now an ESPN analyst. “That’s my pet peeve, guys who always seem to be working on the next job, looking for somebody to Eddie Haskell and suck up to. I remember one of the first meetings I had that Wak was involved with, he disagreed with something I said. It was very impressive that he wasn’t going to come in and tell people what they wanted to hear. He was going to give them his opinion.”

South Side Sox: What Do We Know About the Impending Viciedo Signing?

The Cheat’s take on the Dayan Viciedo signing (ok, ok...not yet).

Dayan Viciedo was supposed to be introduced as the newest member of the White Sox in a press conference on Friday, but apparently visa issues--there’s always visa issues--may have derailed the event, though not the signing itself. The terms of the contract are as of yet unknown, but Phil Rogers put us in the $11M ballpark and you guys keep talking about 4-5 years (though I’m unsure where that info originated).

Until Viciedo is officially signed and plays a few spring training games all we’ll be able to do is speculate on his ability. Personally, I think the notion that he’ll compete for a job as the starting 3B this year is laughable, but I also thought that Alexei Ramirez should have gone to the minors out of camp last spring and thought he would probably end up in AA when the Sox signed him just before Christmas. So what do I know?

...So, is this a good signing?

The truth is, I don’t know. The Sox didn’t sign Viciedo looking to lock up some talent for a below market value. They signed him (or rather will sign him) to add more talent to their system. Period. The major league contract and the limitations that such a contract brings would seem to indicate their faith in Viciedo’s talent, but the contract’s overall value means Viciedo has to produce and produce relatively quickly to justify such a price. It’s a substantially riskier signing than your average top prospect.

Primer Dugout 11-21-08

Happy Birthday to Freddie Lindstrom, Stan Musial, and Junior Griffey.  Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind must’ve been the fact that Stan the Man and Griffey were born 49 years apart in the same town, but I forgot about it.

Salon: Kaufman: Mussina’s magic number

Or as The Bitter Pill says..."You could argue (and the Yankee fans are gonna love this one) that Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling deserve to go ahead of Mussina, and you wouldn’t be nuts.”

But he also spent his entire career in the era of the five-man rotation, unlike everyone else mentioned so far. He lost seven or eight starts a year compared to the men who were asked to pitch every fourth day. We could argue about how pitchers today are a bunch of wimps or whatever, but Mussina had no control over how pitching staffs were deployed during his career. He was a horse. From his age 26 through his age 34 seasons, he threw at least 200 innings every year.

Mussina got his 270 wins in 536 starts, meaning he got a W in 50.4 percent of them. Sutton got 321 wins—he won three as a reliever—in 756 starts, which was 42.4 percent. Tom Seaver, who pitched on a lot of bad teams and a few good ones, got 310 wins in 647 starts, 47.9 percent. Perry won 44.2 percent of his starts.

If Mussina had won at the same rate in Seaver’s 647 starts, he’d have retired with 326 wins. That would have tied him with Eddie Plank for 13th all time, and not only would no one have suggested he didn’t belong in the Hall, no one would have dismissed the gaudy win total because he played on a lot of winners. With Sutton’s 756 starts—including the one during the Battle of Bunker Hill—Mussina would have won 381, more than anyone but Cy Young and Walter Johnson.

Steinbrenner: Sabathia has deadline to accept Yankees’ offer

“No comment until the time limit is up” ...(I wonder if Bet-a-$137.5 Million Butler can hold out!) “No comment until the time limit is up"..."No comment until the time limit is up"…

CC Sabathia will have a deadline to accept the New York Yankees’ contract proposal.

“We’ve made him an offer. It’s not going to be there forever,” Hal Steinbrenner said Thursday after he was approved as the team’s new controlling owner during a meeting at Major League Baseball headquarters.

New York offered a six-year contract to the pitcher last Friday, the first day teams were allowed to start talking money with free agents. The proposal exceeds Johan Santana’s $137.5 million, six-year contract with the New York Mets both in total and average, a baseball official familiar with the negotiations said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge details.

Greg Genske, Sabathia’s agent, did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

Jon Weisman: James Loney: Try to Remember the Kind of September

On September 2, 2007, James Loney had an OPS of .824 (.361 on-base percentage, .463 slugging percentage). He OPSed 1.141 the rest of the way and finished the season at .919.

On September 2, 2008, James Loney had an OPS of .820 (.361 on-base percentage, .459 slugging percentage). He OPSed .472 the rest of the way and finished the season at .772.

What Kryptonited our September Superman? For one thing, Loney wasn’t as lucky in the final month of 2008. His batting average on balls in play was .227, compared to .393 in September 2007. But Loney’s bad September wasn’t just about balls not finding holes. Loney had four extra base hits in September 2008, compared to 17 (including nine home runs) in September 2007. He had three walks in September 2008 compared to nine in September 2007. His power and plate discipline just seemed to vanish.

Between these extremes lies the present-day James Loney, the one who has a career .833 OPS (114 OPS+) in more than 1,000 plate appearances before his 25th birthday. Like many hitters, he’s streaky, and there’s no doubt that 2008 overall ended up being a step back for him. His slugging percentage dropped more than 100 points, his homers dropped despite nearly 300 extra plate appearances, and his rate of grounding into double plays more than doubled (particularly early in the season: 18 of his 25 GIDP in 2008 came by the end of June).

I don’t have a magic bullet – not for lack of searching - to kill the uncertainty over what went wrong. His line-drive, groundball and flyball percentages remained fairly consistent from year to year, as did his ratio of plate appearances vs. right-handed pitching. I don’t know what pitches he was having trouble with. All I know is that for the first five months of 2008, despite playing every day in the major leagues for the first time in his career, Loney was pretty much as productive as he had been in the same period the year before. Each of the past two Septembers were aberrations.

Given his youth, his reputedly high marks for work ethic and an offseason to reflect on the previous year, I’m betting Loney resumes an upward trajectory in 2009.

CBS: Miller: Hall spot for Moose? Era, as much as ERA, may help sway

Wow! I think I booked Lil’ Scotty Miller and the Still Bristles at KNUP’S ("We Took A Bite Out Of The Big Apple And Spit It In Jersey") one over-guzzled night.

Certainly, Mussina’s case isn’t airtight. No Cy Youngs, and he finished as high as second only once (1999). And I still bristle at the lack of complete games produced by today’s starters. Mussina finished with only 57 (in 536 career starts), as compared to Feller’s 279 (484 career starts), Marichal’s 244 (457 career starts) and Bunning’s 151 (519 career starts).

But it’s a different era—and not simply because of the modern bullpen. No, when it comes time to consider Mussina’s Hall of Fame candidacy five years from now, two key facets must be considered:

1. He pitched in the Steroid Era, facing who-knows-how-many batters who were juiced. And while I’m skeptical of much of what I’ve seen over the past 10 years, I believe Mussina was clean. There was never any noticeable change in his body.

Selig: MLB will enact rules to ban weather-shortened postseason games

NEW YORK—There has never been a rain-shortened game in the postseason, and now there never will be.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced the sport will enact a rules change stating that postseason games cannot be shortened because of bad weather.

“All postseason games, All-Star games and that, will be full-length affairs, and the rule will be so written,” Selig said Thursday following an owners’ meeting.

Selig said the change also will apply to tiebreaker games that decide division titles and wild-card berths.

“Any game that has significance for the postseason,” he said. “It will be very clear now. Everybody will know exactly.”

Under baseball’s rules, games are official as soon as the trailing team has made 15 outs.

Driveline Mechanics does not like Strasburg

Strasburg reminds me a lot of Mark Prior - a truly dominant right-handed college pitcher with troubling mechanics: Bad arm action combined with slow tempo. I predict a steady loss of velocity over the first few years of his career leading to him dropping his arm slot and then a major shoulder injury.

MLB: Crisp sets sights on 40 steals

I once set my sights on seeing every Tom Graeff film...but that ain’t happening.

Give this to Coco Crisp: He’s got confidence in his ability. One day into his transfer to the Royals, and he’s talking about stealing 40 bases. That would be something different. No Royals player has swiped that many in a season since Carlos Beltran pilfered 41 in 2003. Before that, Johnny Damon had a league-leading 46 in 2000.

Bold talk, perhaps, from Crisp, who has never stolen 40 even in the Minor Leagues and has a Major League best of 28, for Boston in 2007.

“I’ve always been underrated as a speed demon, primarily I guess because I don’t steal a lot of bases,” Crisp said from his Rancho Mirage, Calif., home.

“That’s never been like my prime focus. When I was young, I’d just run. Now I have an idea of when and how to steal bases—when it’s appropriate for the situation and when we might need a spark. If I pick those times to go, I think I can easily steal 40. And whatever above that is uncharted territory for me, but without a doubt, 40 is something I can just close my eyes and do.”

Topps Rookie All-Star team named

These guys get a neat trophy in the bottom corner of their rookie card!

C Geovony Soto, Chicago Cubs
1B Joey Votto, Cincinnati
2B Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox
3B Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay
SS Mike Aviles, Kansas City
OF Jay Bruce, Cincinnati
OF Denard Span, Minnesota
OF David Murphy, Texas
SP John Lannan, Washington
RP Brad Ziegler, Oakland

Mental Floss: 4 Heartbreaking (or Miraculous) Moments in Gambling History

Game Five of the 1999 National League Championship Series between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets felt like it might never end. The game was tied 2-2 in the top of the 15th inning before Mets reliever Octavio Dotel gave up a run to stake the Braves to a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the 15th, though, the Mets managed to tie the game at 3-3 when catcher Todd Pratt drew a bases-loaded walk. The next batter, Robin Ventura, clubbed a pitch over the Shea Stadium fence for a walk-off grand slam. The Mets were going to win the game 7-3. Only there was a holdup: when Ventura got between first and second base, his teammates mobbed him in a raucous celebration. He never got to finish his home run trot or even touch second base. Since Ventura only touched first, the official scorer didn’t give him a home run and the four RBIs he had coming from the slam. Instead, Ventura got credit for a single and one RBI.

The “grand slam single” was obviously enough to give the Mets the 4-3 win, but it caused a sticky situation in Vegas. The over/under (combined number of runs scored by both teams) on which bettors had wagered was 7.5. If the Mets had gotten all four runs Ventura’s slam should have scored, the total number of runs would have been 10, and bettors who took the over would have won. Instead, the 4-3 final score resulted in the under bettors winning. Unfortunately for the sports books, it wasn’t immediately clear that the Mets weren’t going to get those three extra runs, so NBC posted the score as 7-3 on its broadcast. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal some casinos started paying out on “over” bets when the 7-3 score was initially posted and didn’t stop until NBC announcer Bob Costas told viewers the correct score five minutes or so later. As a result, if you were quick enough, this game did the seemingly impossible: it paid out for both the over and the under.

The Grand Slam Single lives on in the nightmares of bookies everywhere. And, yes Bud, people did and still do bet on Baseball in Vegas.

Nick James’ Rangers Prospect List

Camden Depot looks like they are expanding.  Rangers look good.  It will be nice to see how other prospects ranked so we can figure out how to compare his list to others.

We begin our Minor League review with perhaps the deepest and most talented farm system in baseball. The Rangers boast a stunning mixture of high-ceiling arms and impact position players in both the low- and high-minors. In addition to the wave of talent brought in last summer in the Mark Teixeira trade, Texas has commited sizeable resources to both the draft and the international market, making waves on both fronts. The talent level in the system is reaching the point where Texas will be able to start dealing high-end redundancies (such as young catchers) in order to fill any holes, or to simply upgraded thinner positions.

My favorite Rangers prospect:

3. Derek Holland | Stats | Depot Grade: A-
6-2 / 185 | Age - 21 | LHP | B/T - L/L | Drafted - 2006 (R25) | Wallace St. CC (TX)
Floor: Bullpen | Ceiling: Front-end Starter | Projection: #2 Starter

Notes: Though his stuff is not quite as electric as Feliz’s, Holland was every bit as effective this year and is closer to a finished product. His fastball has solid boring action and ranges from the low- to mid-90s. His second best pitch is a hard sweeping slider that he can dial-up to the low-80s, and he shows good fade and solid depth on his changeup. Holland blew through three levels, pounding both sides of the plate with his fastball and showing command over his arsenal to the tune of a 3.9 SO/BB ratio. He gives Texas another legit potential #1 starter.

MLB: A’s examine Furcal’s medical reports

Get out of the Dr. Paul Lochner Medical Center and watch some games!

Having set club records for use of the disabled list in each of the past two seasons, the A’s are leaving nothing to chance in their pursuit for free-agent shortstop Rafael Furcal, who missed all but 36 games of the 2008 regular season with a back injury.

Paul Kinzer, Furcal’s agent, confirmed for MLB.com on Thursday morning that the A’s, who have used the DL 47 times since 2006, have examined Furcal’s medical reports.

Kinzer did not say if the A’s have presented a formal contract offer for Furcal, who batted .357 with a .439 on-base percentage, five home runs and 16 RBIs with the Dodgers this season—the first time since 2001 that he played fewer than 138 games.

Star-Ledger: Price: Hal Steinbrenner takes over control of Yankees

Whew! Non-blinding stuff from Ed Price.

Major League Baseball owners have approved Hal Steinbrenner as the Yankees’ designated control person, taking over from his father.

Hal and older brother Hank began taking over operations of the team last year. Hal got involved first and is in charge of financial matters, which makes it no surprise he is the “control person.”

The team issued a statement through spokesman Howard J. Rubenstein:

“At the MLB meetings today, the clubs approved Hal Steinbrenner as the control person for the New York Yankees. This is consistent with George Steinbrenner’s desire and commitment to have his sons assume the day-to-day responsibility of operating the club. George Steinbrenner will remain as Chairman of the New York Yankees, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner will continue as Co-Chairmen.

“Hal was designated as the control person because he is responsible for the overall business and financial operations of the Yankees. Hank will continue to oversee the club’s Baseball Operations.”

Rosenthal: Where will Teixeira mark his turf?

And other Anti-Icky-Poop from Robothal…

Ibanez, 36, is drawing significant interest from a number of clubs, and compares favorably to the other free-agent sluggers in at least two categories.

His 338 RBIs over the past three seasons are more than the totals posted by Teixeira (336), Ramirez (311), Dunn (298) and Pat Burrell (278). Ryan Howard led the majors during that time with 431 RBIs.

Sabermetricians generally dismiss “counting” stats such as RBIs, but Ibanez played for sub-.500 Mariners teams in two of those seasons, and his home games were at pitcher-friendly Safeco Field.

Ibanez also batted .331 with runners in scoring position during that three-year period, tied with Teixeira and ahead of Ramirez (.317), Burrell (.237) and Dunn (.234). Mike Young led the majors with a .359 average over that span, according to STATS LLC.

Is Ibanez better than Ramirez or Teixeria? Of course not. He’s also five years older than Burrell and seven years older than Dunn, and hits for less power. Still, teams love Ibanez’s professionalism, and one general manager predicts he will receive a three-year deal for between $8 million and $12 million per season.

Zolecki: Utley to Have Hip Surgery, Out 4 to 6 Months

The release said, “Based on the diagnostic studies and examinations, it has been recommended that Utley have surgery on his right hip, which is scheduled for next week. The procedure will be an arthroscopic evaluation with treatment of any labral or bony injury. The recovery will allow for the initiation of baseball activities between three and four months, however, the total recovery time may require four to six months.”

Four to six months means Utley could be back as early as the beginning of the season and as late as June.

Yankees Possible Free Agent Signings

3) [A.J.] Burnett came out of the Marlins organization in the early 2000’s, a very bad omen for a lot of pitchers. Some of the others who were in those rotations with him include:

* Ryan Dempster, who struggled through injuries and ineffectiveness for five years before this season, which may yet prove to have been a fluke

* Josh Beckett, who’s had one good year in three since leaving Florida for Boston

* Brad Penny, who’s logged 200+ innings once since 2001, and spent half of 2008 on the DL

* Carl Pavano: Unmitigated disaster. 9-8, 5.00 ERA in 146 total innings during the 4-year, $40 million contract the Yankees gave him.

* Dontrelle Willis, erstwhile 22 game winner who logged only 24 MLB innings this year, and was sent down to Single-A(!) to straighten himself out.

And those are the success stories! Remember when all of those guys, plus Claudio Vargas, Blaine Neal, Wes Anderson and Geoff Goetz were supposed to become stars? Remember Nate Bump and Hansel Izquierdo? Yeah, neither does anybody else.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying the Yankees shouldn’t sign Burnett. All I’m saying is:

PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTYPLEASEWITHMONEYONTOP DO NOT SIGN A.J. BURNETT AT ANY COST!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously.

N.Y. Observer: Megdal: Time to Bid Fond Farewell to Pedro

No, this has nothing to do with a Mantle/Ramos footrace. It’s Martinez, silly.

But it is the combination of faint hope and Martinez reputation that would pose the biggest problem. In all likelihood, a one-year contract for very little money or a non-guaranteed spring training invite won’t be enough to entice Martinez to return to the Mets.

Not only will that mean guaranteeing too much money and possibly years to a pitcher who in all likelihood has pitched his last effective season, it would likely mean that Martinez would not be quickly dispatched should his ineffectiveness become obvious early in the season. Because he is Pedro Martinez, he’d get more of a chance to prove himself sound. Even moving him to the bullpen wouldn’t be a viable option—he struggles to get loose and in the first inning, remember?

The Mets would then be left with the ugly choice of carrying a washed-up fifth starter, or unceremoniously dumping an inner-circle Hall of Famer whose signing kick-started the franchise’s recent return to respectability.

Would it be heartbreaking for Mets fans to see Martinez sign elsewhere and find a last bit of the magic that made him beloved in New York? Absolutely. But the odds are the Mets will be much better off cutting their losses now than betting on a long shot.

Baseball With Nunchucks?

Japan has given the world some pretty good baseball players …

Ichiro, Wally Kaname Yonamine, Hideki Matsui, Kosuke Fukudome (jury’s still out) and the legendary Sadaharu Oh (and his World Record 868 Home Runs - suck it Barry) come to mind.

But none of them did anything as cool as this guy …

Watch as this martial arts master shows some incredible baseball skill by hitting a baseball with a pair of nunchaku.

If at first you don’t suceed, submit a post of a guy hitting baseballs with a nunchaku again! This is proof that Ninjas are good ballplayers, by the way, further making us fortunate that Japan will be called “Samurai Japan” and not “Ninja Japan” during the WBC.

Major League Baseball likely to change, not ban, maple bats

For those who have condemned the use of maple wood and blamed it for the epidemic of broken bats, it might be time to rethink their position.
Brian Hillerich, the great-grandson of Bud Hillerich, the founder of the company Hillerich & Bradsby, which makes the Louisville Slugger, said Major League Baseball is not likely to issue a ban of maple bats but it is going to explore specification changes to the models of bats being used.

“We’ve been told that they probably won’t ban maple, that they will come up with some recommendations for changing what we do now,” said Hillerich, professional bat production manager for the company, which has a 60% share of the MLB market.

One of the remedies to reduce the number of broken bats is to change the difference between the length and weight of a bat. According to MLB rules, bats can be no more than minus-3.5, which means the difference between the length in inches and weight in ounces cannot be greater than 3.5.

“A 34-inch, 30.5-ounce bat is waiting to be broken in half,” Hillerich said.

If I had a blog about Baseball Bats, I’d name it “Sons of Pete Browning”.

Thiel: Mariners’ talent search was well handled

The game, as always, is about talent. So while Wednesday was about introducing Wakamatsu, the more impressive figure was Zduriencik, the talent finder. Partly it was because he had actually done something—even if he had swatted a fly, it would have been more exciting contact than Mariners hitters managed last season—but mostly it was about how he did his thing.

To check out Wakamatsu, he upgraded the vetting to include not just past employers, but his former teammates from 25 years ago at Arizona State University. He also called up clubhouse men at his earlier employment stops.

Like college guys, the clubhouse workers see all aspects of personalities, including the dark side’s back stabbing, undercutting, fighting, sloth, avarice and the remaining deadly sins, plus fresh ones. If they give a thumbs up to a candidate, it’s far more valuable than scuttlebutt offered by five scouts and 25 sportswriters.

To put it more directly: If Bill Bavasi had made one call to an Orioles clubhouse guy, Erik Bedard never would have been a Mariner.

As my old biz-guru “Harry the Spitoon” Yingling used to say (in between bootshots of Jameson Irish)..."Those dollar-an-hour countermen will kill you every time.”