Great front-line talent on today's Birthday Team, and Angels In The Outfield.

C: Marty Castillo
1B: Albert Pujols
2B: Dave Stapleton
3B/Manager: Jimmy Collins
SS: Art Whitney
LF: Jack Cust
CF: Alfredo Amezaga
RF: Mark Trumbo

SP: Dizzy Dean
SP: Jack McDowell
SP: Erskine Mayer
SP: Ferdie Schupp
SP: Jim Owens
RP: Ron Villone

Would start for most Birthday Teams: Buck Jordan
Fun Ballplayer: Steve Balboni
Started in RF last year, relegated to PH duty this year: Showboat Fisher
Most career games played by a left-handed throwing shortstop: Jimmy Macullar

I remember when Jim Owens was traded for the then-unknown Cookie Rojas and Gene Mauch responded to questions of the fairness of the trade saying that sometimes you get addtion by subtraction.

EDIT: Owens went from PHI to CIN.

My roto league is thinking about adding a 6th pitching category and the proposed category is a Home Runs Allowed.

I think this is stupid, so I want some facts to bamboozle my league mates with, and I hope someone that can do math can help me.

I think that Home Runs Allowed correlates with better with a pitcher that throws a lot of innings than it does with pitchers with poor ERAs. Is this true?

Earlier this season, Balboni was outproducting Pujols on my very bad birthday team in the January league.
A few years ago, I thought Reid Brignac was going to greatly improve the MI. I was wrong.

mlbtraderumors says:
vicente padilla to softbank (3.25m)
minor league deals: jesus flores to LAD, don kelly to DET, juan cruz to PHI, mike wuertz and nick green to MIA

Aaron Cook to Phils (Minor), be still my heart.

don kelly to DET

I just realized recently that Don Kelly had not been around for 20 years. I think I was getting him mixed up with Bill Selby and thus thought he had started playing in the early 90s.

Aaron Cook is just the guy to replace Scott Elarton as the veteran anchor of the AAA rotation.

Speaking of AAA, I'm wondering who the recent leaders in AAA starts are. There aren't many minor-league lifers anymore. Brandon Duckworth has made 189 appearances (161 starts) at AAA, spending the entirety of 2009, 2010 and 2011 there, and most of 2005, 2006, and 2008. He finally left for Japan in the middle of last year and is still listed as a Rakuten Golden Eagle, though they have also added Casey McGehee and Andruw Jones so maybe they're hitting their foreigner limit.

Shane Loux has got to be up there. 229 games, 169 starts.

My roto league is thinking about adding a 6th pitching category and the proposed category is a Home Runs Allowed.

I think this is stupid, so I want some facts to bamboozle my league mates with, and I hope someone that can do math can help me.

It depends on the parameters in your league. But if you are adding HRA to the standard 5 categories, and you don't have some sort of innings minimum, you are inviting the strategy of a relievers-only pitching staff: You punt wins and saves, but count on winning (or close) SV, HRA, ERA, and WHIP.

I really dislike "negative" categories. I have played in leagues where batter strikeouts are counted, and it was just silly.

Brandon Duckworth has made 189 appearances (161 starts) at AAA

Ah, who can forget the glory years of the Duck Pond in Philly.

good question! maybe nelson figueroa? (242 g, 215 gs)
granted, it's probably some mexican league lifer.

Nelson Figueroa - 242 G 215 GS in AAA. Also did a stint with Chihuahua and Long Island.

Chris George - 289 G 195 GS in AAA.

Chris Seddon - 166 G 158 GS. Still under 30.

Seddon will be in Korea next year.

These AAA free agent types are kind of living the life of the major league player of 1930 or so. They get paid more than the typical young prospect, but the signing bonus is a distant memory. They may do other things in the offseason. They have other leagues they could jump to if the right offer is made (like the PCL back then).

These AAA free agent types are kind of living the life of the major league player of 1930 or so. They get paid more than the typical young prospect, but the signing bonus is a distant memory. They may do other things in the offseason. They have other leagues they could jump to if the right offer is made (like the PCL back then).

George has got to be the perfect example of this. All of the other guys have pitched in other leagues (MLB or Asia) in the past few years, but he has only 6 games in Mexico and everything else is AAA since 2004.

I was surprised to see Kei Igawa made "only" 75 starts in Triple-A

I had no idea Chris George has been still pitching every 5 days for all those years.

Then you have the case of Lorenzo Barcelo, who apparently vanished for five years, spent another three years in the minors, and appeared on the 2013 list of minor-league free agents, to the astonishment of all, since the last time anyone noticed him he was in the White Sox bullpen with Gary Glover and Kelly Wunsch.

In Robin Roberts' autobiography he says that Owens wasted his talent. I took that to mean that he had alcohol issues.

In Robin Roberts' autobiography he says that Owens wasted his talent. I took that to mean that he had alcohol issues.

That's the same Jim Owens of whom Jim Bouton writes very favorably in Ball Four, right?

JoJo Reyes to play in Korea next year.

Austin Kearns signs with Miami

[21] -- I was only 11 at the time so I couldn't quite get my head around the euphemisms and innuendo, but I think you are right.

mlbtraderumors says:
vicente padilla to softbank (3.25m)

I would love to hear how the words "Padilla Flotilla" sounds when the Japanese announcers give his back story.

Seddon will be in Korea next year.

Is Korea making a little move upward in the league hierarchy? Rick van den Hurk is going over there, too. Aren't these guys a little better than Korean teams would pick up 5 years ago?

Wil he or won't he? Durham Bulls already marketing Wil Myers.

-- MWE

26 - sure seems that way.
27 - that came out the day after his acquistion. (note: he's totally opening with durham)

27 - that came out the day after his acquistion. (note: he's totally opening with durham)

I didn't see it until today, largely because I haven't cleaned out my mailbox for a while. I've got a lot going on right now. (Der-K, we need to get together for lunch or a drink soon...)

And I agree that he's going to be in Durham to start the season. How long he stays depends on how the first month-plus of the season shakes out for the Rays.

-- MWE

Birthday League update:

January 5           57  36  .613 ----  
January 14          55  38  .591  2.0  
January 23          53  38  .582  3.0  
January 28          49  40  .551  6.0        
January 22          52  43  .547  6.0

News and notes:
* Jason Giambi (January 8) leads the league in HR (24), RBI (75), SLG (.603), RC/27 (10.4), TB (202), and HR vs RHP (19). Giambi is tenth in runs scored (57), fourth in hits (111), second in walks (57), and second in OBP (.431).

* Max Carey (January 11) watch: 95 games, 85 stolen bases. Otis Nixon (January 9) has 82 steals.

* Jeff Suppan (January 2) leads the league with 15 victories. He's on pace for 25 wins.

* Johnny Mize (January 7) in the past ten days: 19-for-35, 9 walks, 3 HR, somehow only 5 RBI.

* Ken Cloude (January 9) in the past ten days: 3 GS, 0-3 record, 11 IP, 24 H, 15 ER, 8 BB. No home runs allowed, which is nice. Cloude now leads the league with 13 losses. He's allowed a league-leading 103 runs (20 more than any other pitcher) and 98 earned runs (25 more than any other pitcher).

* Mike Caldwell (January 22) leads the league with a 2.02 ERA in his 18 starts.

Stats, standings, box scores, and league leaders here.

Any mention of Ken Cloude recalls possibly the worst prediction in internet baseball discussion history, Jeff Joseph's 1997 assessment of the Heathcliff Slocumb trade that "Jason Varitek is a big nothing, possibly because of what Scott Boras did to him, and Derek Lowe is hardly Ken Cloude."

I'm trying to link to it here, but old usenet posts are often unlinkable, and when they are linkable google changes the formatting a month later so the link doesn't work again.

Kilgore at WaPo:

Mike "Michael" Morse goes to Seattle

2012 Mariners best hitter by far John Jaso goes to Oakland

Oakland's AJ Cole returns to the Nationals, in a Gio Gonzalez-esque reversal, having left last year in exchange for Gio Gonzalez

Definitely, Mike...

Pete Moylan to LAD (minor league deal)