http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/newsblog/ All the News That's Fit to Link en jimfurtado@baseballthinkfactory.org Copyright 2012 2012-02-08T04:08:13+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/whalen_erstad_talks_big_game_but_lets_see_if_huskers_deliver#When:04:08:13Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/whalen_erstad_talks_big_game_but_lets_see_if_huskers_deliver Husker do! A diamond hidden in the mouth of a corpse? One thing’s for certain: Nebraska’s new baseball coach talks a good game. At his press conference Monday, Darin Erstad sounded every bit like a man ready to turn around NU’s baseball program. He spoke of his recruiting pitch, saying Nebraska “sells itself”; downplayed his lack of coaching experience by referencing great baseball minds he’d learned from (including his father and Mike Scioscia) and called NU’s facilities amongst the best in the nation. All is well in Lincoln. Except for one thing: Erstad’s predecessor, Mike Anderson, talked a pretty good game too. He also coached a pretty good game, earning Big 12 Coach of the Year honors twice. And, let’s not forget, Erstad was on the staff last season, when Anderson’s fate was sealed, as a volunteer hitting coach. The Huskers finished dead last in the Big 12 in runs under his tutelage. ...As Feb. 17 approaches, there’s really no way to tell how well Nebraska will adjust to its new era. It could be like the women’s basketball team and show huge improvement because of new blood and a softer schedule. Or the team could struggle to adjust to its new opponents and fight to finish .500 for the fourth year in a row. Either way, it seems that Husker fans will be treated to some nice sound bites from their first-year coach. General, College, 2012-02-08T04:08:13+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/baseballboyfriend.com#When:04:05:30Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/baseballboyfriend.com I understand the first-prize gift basket is lovely. Choose Your Stud. In your little black book is a list of possible Baseball Boyfriends. Pick a boyfriend from your current team’s roster. This is also where you dump your ex and pick up a new player. As your team roster changes, your selection of potential boyfriends changes as well. Now That You’ve Picked Your Boyfriend. If he stays past noon, he’s your BBBF for the night. How Do You Know If He’s Worth It? On the first day of league play, you’ll immediately be able to compete with the other friends in your league that have a Baseball Boyfriend. Also, you can compete on a global level against everyone. Even if your fantasy team isn’t doing well, you can still get bragging rights for having the bestest BBBF ever… Is One Man Not Enough? You can have one Baseball Boyfriend in each of your fantasy leagues. The more leagues you play in, the more boys you can have. General, Fantasy Baseball, Special Topics, 2012-02-08T04:05:30+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/yankees_sign_utility_player_bill_hall#When:00:17:57Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/yankees_sign_utility_player_bill_hall The Yankees have signed 32-year-old Bill Hall as a potential utility player, news that Hall himself broke on his Twitter account by writing: “It’s official, I’m a Yankee!” He later tweeted a photo of himself wearing a Yankee cap. Hall, who will get a minor-league deal and be invited to spring training, batted .211 with a .261 on-base percentage and a .314 slugging percentage in 199 plate appearances over 62 games for the Astros and Giants. He also had two home runs. At the end of his tweet regarding the move, Hall wrote: “#IwannaRing!!!! Geez, I haven’t seen anyone pander for a ring so badly since “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”     General, NY Yankees, 2012-02-08T00:17:57+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/l.a._times_dodgers_sign_clayton_kershaw_to_two-year_19-million_deal#When:00:01:21Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/l.a._times_dodgers_sign_clayton_kershaw_to_two-year_19-million_deal That may not have been the truly long-term contract some of the faithful were hoping for, but the Dodgers did avoid arbitration with Clayton Kershaw this year and the next by signing him Tuesday to a two-year, $19-million contract. The Times’ Dylan Hernandez reports Kershaw will earn a $500,000 signing bonus, $7.5 million this season and $11 million in 2013. The club had previously exchanged arbitration figures with National League’s Cy Young winner, submitting $6.5 million to Kershaw’s $10-million bid. General, 2012-02-08T00:01:21+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/nybd_silva_yankees_fragrance_and_1996#When:22:38:35Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/nybd_silva_yankees_fragrance_and_1996 So stenchingly good…Francesspool odored a velvet case of Borsari di Parmesan! These aren’t your father’s Yankees. They aren’t your 1996 Yankees, either. Only the Yankees could be self-important enough to launch a non-baseball related product with a cocktail party. According to Wallace Matthew of ESPN NY, the Yankees will launch two official fragrances called ”New York Yankees” and “New York Yankees for Her” at a cocktail reception in Manhattan on Tuesday, February 21. Yes, every team has non-baseball related products. You have checkers, chess, teddy bears, etc. with the team logo. None of the 29 other teams believe they are bigger than the game where they create a fragrance and have a bourgeois party to announce it. This is the same organization that puts out press releases to let everyone know what Hal Steinbrenner thinks regarding world events. What’s next? Randy Levine on the catwalk modeling underwear? Don’t discount it, since the modern Yankees brand caters to the Wall Street crowd with the new Stadium, luxury advertisements, and the moat near the luxury seats to keep the lower class of fans away. General, Business, Media, NY Yankees, Memorabilia, 2012-02-07T22:38:35+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/beane_to_sign_extension_through_2019#When:21:31:40Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/beane_to_sign_extension_through_2019 General Manager Billy Beane and President Michael Crowley will remain with the Oakland Athletics through the 2019 season, club owner Lew Wolff said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” “I view them as partners as well as executives,” Wolff said. “So if they are here another 30 years, that is fine with me. I may not be here to see it, but that will be fine.” Oakland, 2012-02-07T21:31:40+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/djf_decipher_the_mind_of_brett_lawrie_with_translawrieate#When:21:25:21Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/djf_decipher_the_mind_of_brett_lawrie_with_translawrieate Or as Dustin Parkes sez about Lawrie…“just in case Toronto Blue Jays fans didn’t already know that if Brett Lawrie played for the Boston Red Sox, they’d hate his guts with an unforeseen fury.” Blue Jays like Brett Lawrie, who through his @blawrie13 account tweets uninteligible things like: “Runnin through these H*** like I got that devilish flow rock’n'roll no halo we party rockkkkk #Sorry4PRockin I don’t know either. Fortunately for those of us who can’t quite grasp young Brett’s dialect, some genius has come up with the Brett Lawrie Babel Fish—@translawrieat deciphers such garbled nonsense into common English. Fed through this handy system this we see the above tweet come out like this: “I’m not a man of pure actions. My unyielding sexual conquests with women of speculative morals resemble the efficiency of Drano” (1/2) Apologies for expressing the lyrics of Party Rock Anthem. (2/2) General, Toronto, Media, 2012-02-07T21:25:21+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/lawsuit_ex-slugger_george_brett_falsely_advertises_health_benefits_of_neckl#When:20:38:56Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/lawsuit_ex-slugger_george_brett_falsely_advertises_health_benefits_of_neckl But can they cure diarrhea at the Bellagio? Lawyers are seeking class-action status for a lawsuit that claims Hall of Fame slugger George Brett has been falsely advertising necklaces and bracelets as being able to help improve health and sports performance. A lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Des Moines claims Spokane Valley, Wash.-based Brett Bros. Sports International, Inc. has falsely claimed its Ionic Necklaces help customers relieve pain in the neck, shoulders and upper back, recover from sports fatigue and improve focus. The company has also falsely claimed its bracelets, which include two roller magnets, would relieve wrist, hand and elbow pain, the lawsuit said. Brett, who was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1999 after a 21-year career with the Kansas City Royals, has been president of the company since 2001 and appears in its advertisements. The claims appeared on the company’s website from 2008 to 2010, and still appear on the packaging of the products and on the websites of its distributors, according to the lawsuit.   Business, Kansas City, 2012-02-07T20:38:56+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/trumps_son-in-law_seeks_to_buy_dodgers#When:19:05:11Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/trumps_son-in-law_seeks_to_buy_dodgers Its about time someone brought some class to this process. Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, is looking to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to the Los Angeles Times. Kushner, 31, is the owner and publisher of the Observer Media Group, the organization responsible for the New York Observer. He married Ivanka Trump in October, 2009 tying the knot between two highly successful real estate empires…. Kushner, like the Caruso group, would most likely be interested in developing the real estate surrounding Dodger Stadium. Thus far, team owner Frank McCourt is including the stadium in the sale but not the land the parking lots sit on. Clearly, to maximize the value of selling the Dodgers, the real estate would have to be included. Who is the youngest majority owner in MLB history? Business, LA Dodgers, 2012-02-07T19:05:11+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/former_mlb_outfielder_danny_clyburn_shot_killed_in_lancaster#When:17:32:02Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/former_mlb_outfielder_danny_clyburn_shot_killed_in_lancaster RIP, Danny Clyburn... Danny Clyburn Jr., a former baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, died in a Lancaster shooting early Tuesday morning, police say. Clyburn, 37, was shot at about 2 a.m. at a home at 618 N. Market Street, Lancaster police said. An autopsy is scheduled for later today. Lancaster County’s Chief Deputy Coroner Karla Knight Deese would not say where Clyburn was shot or how many times he was hit. Witnesses told police that a man was arguing with Clyburn just moments before he was shot. Derrick Lamont Mcilwain, 36, of Lancaster, has been arrested and charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Mcilwain turned himself in to authorities early Tuesday, police said, and he is in the detention center awaiting a bond hearing. ...After being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992, Clyburn played outfielder in the Major League for three seasons - two with Baltimore (1997-98) and one with Tampa Bay (1999) - according to Baseball-Reference.co Playing in 41 games, he hit four home runs with a batting average of .211. General, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, 2012-02-07T17:32:02+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/madonna_coming_to_yankee_stadium_in_september#When:14:39:01Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/madonna_coming_to_yankee_stadium_in_september Maybe I can get back staged passes! (breaks ankle doing nostalgic Club 57 thrift-store boogie drop) Fresh off her Super Bowl halftime performance, and its attendant digit-borne controversy, Madonna has announced a world tour in support of her forthcoming album MDNA. Its New York stop is set for September 6 at Yankee Stadium, which has a big wide-open schedule surrounding that date, just FYI. (Madonna’s tour goes from Boston on Sept. 4 to New York on the 6th to Ottawa on the 10th.) Tickets for the show go on sale on Monday, February 13, at 10 a.m., with prices ranging from $52.90 to $375.05. General, Business, Media, Music, NY Yankees, 2012-02-07T14:39:01+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/duk_tim_lincecum_slims_down_with_swim_routine_loses_appetite_for_mcdonalds#When:14:28:45Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/duk_tim_lincecum_slims_down_with_swim_routine_loses_appetite_for_mcdonalds Checks Ptolemaic Terrascope for freak folk eating habits. No luck. Tim Lincecum’s bank account may be getting a lot fatter, but the Freak’s physique is headed the opposite way. After using 2011 to bulk up in an attempt to gain endurance, Lincecum appeared at the Giants fanfest this past weekend and said he had lost 22 pounds over the winter. ...He also cut down on his famous trips to In-N-Out while eliminating other outlets entirely. Bad Ronald!   “You take your first bite of a McDonald’s burger and it’s like ‘Why did I buy this?’” Lincecum said to reporters.   “You feel instantly sick. That’s what ended up happening with all these places and why I started eliminating them. I take a bite and I’m like ‘I can’t even finish this.’ So I just started going for stuff that made me feel better. I’m not crushing vegetables by any means, but I’m definitely eating better.” Lincecum said all of this while wearing a hat for Tacolicious, a San Francisco dining phenomenon that relies on local farmers for their ingredients. So perhaps he really is easing his way past the drive-thru routine of an early 20-something.. General, San Francisco, 2012-02-07T14:28:45+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/basn_the_mlb_fraud_oakland_los_angeles_and_new_york#When:11:18:50Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/basn_the_mlb_fraud_oakland_los_angeles_and_new_york Straight from the riveting pages of The Beane Eaters comes… The jig is up for Major League Baseball, just ask the cities of New York, New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California. The con game is over and the cover is being lifted. MLB wants fans to attend games with minor league players on the field. MLB wants fans to buy their team’s products, and to watch inferior baseball. The question should be asked, why do fans of the New York Metropolitans, the Oakland Athletics or the Los Angeles Dodgers support their teams? It seems odd or a coincidence that these teams have a competitor across town to compete for the same fans. Teams that have owned or will own the city. The New York Yankees dominate the Big Apple, the San Francisco Giants own the Bay Area. With the new star first baseman and National League all star Albert Pujols joining the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. You can bet Southern California fans will be flocking to Orange County and leaving Chavez Ravine. ...What is troubling, other teams are now following the Money Ball method of running a baseball team. With Commissioner Bud Selig’s wishes. Baseball continues to slide down the American popularity poll. ...Baseball fans have to take it into their own hands and not attend games of the New York Mets, Oakland A’s, and Los Angeles Dodgers to make their message clear. Put a product on the field that can compete for a division title.   General, Business, Media, History, Sabermetrics, Projections, Oakland, 2012-02-07T11:18:50+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/travers_bill_spaceman_lee_on_college_baseball_hall_of_fame_ballot#When:11:02:29Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/travers_bill_spaceman_lee_on_college_baseball_hall_of_fame_ballot NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE! He Came From Outer Space! Well, I am very pleased to announce that through my personal lobbying efforts - and I do not exaggerate - I have gotten Bill “Spaceman” Lee on the College Baseball Hall of Fame ballot and have voted for him (previously I had to write him in). They previously said that he was not eligible because he supposedly not a First Team All-American, an oddity considering he was 12-3 with a 1.67 ERA on the ‘68 national champs; what does it take to be an All-American? Was Bob Gibson pitching at Creighton that year instead of the Cardinals? Or Denny McLain at Michigan State . . . Prison? General, History, Hall of Fame, College, 2012-02-07T11:02:29+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/pedro_martinez_focus_shifts_to_foundation_hall_of_fame_call#When:10:52:03Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/pedro_martinez_focus_shifts_to_foundation_hall_of_fame_call One day, Pedro Martinez could join countryman Juan Marichal in Cooperstown and become the second Dominican-born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. But in the meantime, the retired pitcher said he is concentrating on his foundation and serving as an ambassador of goodwill. “I am getting excited, and I hope that nothing goes wrong with the [Hall of Fame] voters and they appreciate what I have done in the big leagues,” said Martinez, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Monday night’s Caribbean Series game between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. “Hopefully, I will be there on the first ballot or however.” ...In December, Martinez said he is going to announce his retirement with parties in Boston and the Dominican Republic. What’s certain is that he finished his career with a 219-100 record, a 2.93 ERA, 3,154 strikeouts, eight All-Star selections and a .687 winning percentage, which is second among pitchers with at least 300 games since 1919. Thanks to CharlieB. General, Boston, Hall of Fame, 2012-02-07T10:52:03+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/primer_dugout_and_link_of_the_day_2_7_2012#When:07:43:32Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/primer_dugout_and_link_of_the_day_2_7_2012 Pittsburgh Press, February 7, 1912:Bugs Raymond, the once great pitcher of the New York Giants, appears to be down and out as a major leaguer. This time last year he was taking the Keeley cure. It didn’t touch him…He still stands—or falls—suspended by the New York club and is ineligible to play with any club in organized baseball. He will not be traded. ... Bugs was a great starter but a poor finisher. He seldom finished anything but a drink. He began three seasons with the Giants full of hope, promises and temperance vows and ended them full of dope, remorse and bad booze. Ouch. For his part, Bugs was still doing his best to be a good citizen. 100 years ago today in the New York Tribune:“Bugs” Raymond is still on the map. A day or two ago he rescued a man from three thugs who tried to hold up their victim in one of the suburbs of Chicago. Raymond responded to the call to arms and put all three to flight…“Bugs” found the victim of the assault slightly injured and took him to a police station, where he received medical assistance. As you might imagine, General, History, Dugout, 2012-02-07T07:43 http://www.baseball http://www.baseball Arizona’s Willie Bloomquist is small (5-foot-11, 185 pounds) by current MLB standards, his baseball skills are limited, and he plays hard. He is, according to the vernacular, “scrappy.” Many fans love him for this. They watch Bloomquist, and what they see doesn’t seem so far removed from their own perceived level of ability. It is conceivable to watch him and think, “I could do that,” in a way that it is not possible to watch Justin Upton and reach the same conclusion. This makes it easier for some folks to root for Bloomquist than for Upton despite the latter’s superiority at baseball. I haven’t read the original research, but psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman references work done in this area:   Researchers Penelope Lockwood and Ziva Kunda at the University of Waterloo found that stars whose success was relevant to people and seemed attainable to them evoked inspiration. In contrast, if the star’s success seemed unobtainable, some subjects reported that they felt deflated. This could be a factor in Bloomquist’s popularity. And in Pavement’s. Perspective is everything. What inspires endearment in some may inspire resentment in others. You might think it’s great that a player of Bloomquist’s caliber can survive in the big leagues with such a limited skill set. Or you might wonder why he is taking time away from more talented individuals who are languishing in the minors. In Pavement’s case, the band had trouble writing cohesive melodies and recording them without falling apart in the process. Depending on your perspective, you might think it’s cool that people lacking basic musicianship skills can succeed in the business, or you might be annoyed that they have a recording contract when people who write songs and play instruments with some proficiency are struggling to support themselves and their families. Sits back, pops corn ... General, Amateur, 2012-02-07T05:20:56+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/edwin_jackson_turned_down_three-year_offer_from_pirates#When:04:07:19Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/edwin_jackson_turned_down_three-year_offer_from_pirates When you have the chance to play with Ian Desmond and Roger Bernardina…Last week when Edwin Jackson agreed to a one-year, $11 million deal with the Nationals there were several reports that he turned down multi-year offers elsewhere. Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com now has at least one of those offers pegged, reporting that Jackson said no to a three-year proposal from the Pirates believed to be worth around $30 million. General, Pittsburgh, Washington, Rumors, 2012-02-07T04:07:19+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/cubs_obtain_infielder_cardenas_release_dewitt1#When:00:00:21Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/cubs_obtain_infielder_cardenas_release_dewitt1 The Cubs’ new regime continued its housecleaning Monday when it released infielder Blake DeWitt and claimed infielder Adrian Cardenas off waivers from the Athletics. DeWitt, a former first-round pick of the Dodgers, was the highlighted return in former general manager Jim Hendry’s 2010 trade that sent Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot to LA. But he never could crack the Cubs’ lineup, hitting .265 in 121 games last season….... Cardenas, 24, split time at three infield positions and left field while hitting .314 with 28 doubles and a .374 on-base percentage for Triple-A Sacramento last season. He played mostly second base in four previous minor league seasons. Chi Cubs, 2012-02-07T00:00:21+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/hong-chih_kuo_agrees_to_one-year_deal_with_mariners#When:19:39:10Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/hong-chih_kuo_agrees_to_one-year_deal_with_mariners Sorry, we’ve moved on to Jeremy Lin.Hong-Chih Kuo has parlayed reported interest from multiple teams into a major-league contract with the Mariners, according to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. After three years as one of the most dominant relievers in baseball Kuo was awful last year, allowing 29 runs in 27 innings. As usual he missed a ton of bats, racking up 36 strikeouts, but Kuo struggled to throw strikes with 23 walks and also battled anxiety issues. General, Seattle, 2012-02-06T19:39:10+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/megdal_a_note_on_access_and_the_mets#When:17:34:53Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/megdal_a_note_on_access_and_the_mets or as Howard just tweeted…“Writ a book critical of the Mets, lose media credentials.” I thought I ought to pass along this bit of news, so all of you have a sense of what the blog will and won’t be this coming year, and why that is. Since taking over the LoHud Mets Blog in March 2011, I have been credentialed numerous times by the New York Mets-100 percent of the time my editor here, Sean Mayer, has requested credentials. This is nothing new. In my years covering sports, I have been credentialed by every major sports team in the New York area, writing for ESPN.com, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New York Observer, and many other outlets. So it was odd that last week, Sean received a call from Jay Horwitz, the Director of Media Relations for the New York Mets, telling him that while the Journal News can continue to receive credentials, the Mets would not be credentialing me. Sean asked why that was, and Jay responded that the Mets “don’t like my reporting”. The team declined to respond to my multiple attempts to reach them for a fuller explanation. ...What the Mets manage to do by keeping me out of the clubhouse is deny my the chance to give you a better sense of the Mets players as people, thus giving the fans a greater stake in the success and failure of the team. Why they think that is somehow to their advantage, I couldn’t possibly say. General, Business, Media, Books, NY Mets, 2012-02-06T17:34:53+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/viva_el_birdosthe_2012-16_cba_the_more_you_know#When:15:20:10Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/viva_el_birdosthe_2012-16_cba_the_more_you_know Nice summary of the new CBA, presented by e.e. cummings. rule 4 draft every team will now get a slot-based “pool” for how much they can spend in the top 10 rounds, calculated relative to how many picks they have and how high those picks are. the cardinals, with 6 picks in the top 100 will have a relatively generous cap. the cardinals can spend up to the cap on all their picks through the 10th round. it doesn’t matter how it is distributed within that group; they can spend $100,000 on a first round pick and $1m on a 10th round pick. as long as they don’t spend more in total in the top 10 rounds than is in their pool, there will be no penalty. the ideal is that teams will pay slot for everybody. whether teams obey that kind of logic is yet to be seen. there are huge penalties for paying more than is in your “pool.” a 5% overage is not a huge deal. let’s say the cardinals got $5m to spend in the top 10 rounds. if they go over by $200,000 (4%), they’d be taxed a further 75% of that $200,000, which would be $150,000. However, if they go over by more than 5%, they get the 75% tax AND they lose next year’s first round draft pick. go over by 10% and the penalty is a 100% tax and loss of next year’s first and second round picks. go over by 15% and you lose your first round pick next year and the year to follow. i read the graduated penalties as giving teams room for small errors or oversights, but imposing very stiff penalties for anything beyond minor discrepancies. beyond the top ten rounds, you can give anybody a bonus of up to $100,000. anything beyond that counts against your pool fund. what will be interesting to see is if teams game the system or, if they do, how they do so. as i said, the concept is that teams will pay slot in an orderly way. since there’s a finite pool, any extra money you pay to one prospect must come out of the slot money dedicated to another. but that leaves room to shift salary from one slot to another or even not to sign a player in a given slot, in favor of giving money which should’ve gone to him to another draftee. (ed: this is incorrect. although it does not appear in the summary cited above, baseball america states that when a player fails to sign, the money for that slot comes out of the pool. this woud seem to make a ground-up negotiating process, starting with the 10th round player and moving up to ninth, etc. almost mandatory.) will teams take a chance in later rounds on signability players and just fail to sign some other players? (ed: as noted above, they’d lose the slot money if a player failed to sign; however the team could draft 30th round talent in early rounds and offer them far below slot talent - or as one commenter at bucsdugout suggested, offer pittances to college seniors, to keep money for above-slot signings elsewhere). if next year’s austin wilson falls to round 8 or even round 12, will some team get creative with their pool funds? i suspect most teams will follow the designed plan, since the risk of not doing so seems pretty high. however, some team may find an irresistable prospect falling in the draft and shift money around to sign him. the signing deadline has moved up substantially (mid-july) to ensure that players sign fairly quickly—which should be easy to accomplish, there being less room to negotiate as most teams will hew closely to slot offerings…. Amateur, Business, International, 2012-02-06T15:20:10+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/rockies_get_guthrie_from_orioles#When:14:36:13Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/rockies_get_guthrie_from_orioles The Colorado Rockies made a significant addition to their rotation on Monday, acquiring right-hander Jeremy Guthrie from the Baltimore Orioles for right-handers Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom, according to a major-league source. Guthrie, 32, likely will be the Rockies’ No. 1 starter. He was scheduled to go to a salary arbitration hearing Monday; he asked for $10.25 million; the Orioles offered $7.25 million. He is eligible for free agency at the end of the season. Hammel, 29, will replace Guthrie in the Orioles’ rotation, while Lindstrom, 31, will move into a late-inning role in their bullpen. Both are under club control for two more seasons, and their combined salaries in 2012 will be in the range of Guthrie’s. Thanks to Calm Bill. General, Baltimore, Colorado, 2012-02-06T14:36:13+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/ba_early_draft_preview_2012_top_100_draft_prospects#When:14:30:25Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/ba_early_draft_preview_2012_top_100_draft_prospects 1. Mark Appel RHP R-R 6-5 190 Stanford 2. Lucas Giolito RHP R-R 6-6 230 Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif. 3. Byron Buxton OF R-R 6-2 175 Appling County HS, Baxley, Ga. 4. Deven Marrero SS R-R 6-1 194 Arizona State 5. Mike Zunino C R-R 6-2 215 Florida General, Prospect Reports, College, High School, 2012-02-06T14:30:25+00:00 http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/mumau_glory_days_of_the_50s_and_60s_titos_big_year#When:10:53:58Z http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/mumau_glory_days_of_the_50s_and_60s_titos_big_year or…The Year They Couldn’t Get a Speedball Past Tito Francona Terry Francona, the man who managed the Red Sox to two World Series championships, is often called Tito. That’s because it was his dad’s nickname. And his dad was quite a hitter. So good that in 1959, he had the highest batting average in the major leagues. But he did not win the American League batting title. ...Francona was batting .402 as late as Aug. 10, clouted a pair of home runs in a game five days later and a week after that, hit another ninth-inning game-winning homer. On Sept. 7, he was at .391 before going 11 for 56 to close the season while hampered by a sore hamstring. Francona got at least one hit in 75 of the 96 games he started and had 43 multi-hit games. He hit 20 home runs and had 79 RBI, a .414 on-base percentage and a .566 slugging percentage. He struck out just 42 times in 443 plate appearances. A player required 477 plate appearances to qualify for a batting title. That left Francona 34 short, which is why his final 1959 batting average of .363 did not crown him the AL champ. Detroit’s Harvey Kuenn won the title with a .353 mark.   General, History, Cleveland, Awards, 2012-02-06T10:53:58+00:00