Hungry?

Fans are lining up for oversized sandwiches, massive plates of food or batting helmets filled with edible delights. Which of these 16 food items will be the Greatest of the Gut Busters?

There are thousands of young men on minor-league baseball rosters working toward a spot in the majors. Most of them won’t make it. With this in mind, essayist Lucas Mann spent the 2010 season in Clinton, Iowa, watching the city’s Class A team, the LumberKings. In his new book, Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere (Pantheon), Mann writes about becoming intimate with the players, the fans, and the town, and explores the themes of nostalgia, failure, and hope.

The link is a question ...

Jake just made it look easy. Odorizzi.

Jake Odorizzi and three Durham Bulls relief pitchers combined on an historic Sunday performance.

The four Durham pitchers combined to throw just the second no-hitter in the team’s International League history as the Bulls defeated the Pawtucket Red Sox 2-1 at McCoy Stadium.

Odorizzi (3-0) pitched the first seven innings, before Frank De Los Santos, Taylor Yates and Jeff Beliveau kept Pawtucket hitless over the final two innings despite allowing one ...

Anyone who commits to the Cubs should be committed.

Stewart just finished a rehab assignment with the Iowa Cubs for a left quad injury that has plagued him since early in spring training. The maximum time a player can spend in the minors in that situation is 20 days, making last Friday his final day of rehabbing.

But because he was hitting .091 the Cubs decided to keep him there by officially sending him down after his rehab stint was complete. He didn’t need to clear waivers, so Stewart ...

Your Toledo Mud Hens, the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, will wear Chewbacca-styled uniforms for two games this weekend.

No Wookie mistake here.

Was gonna say that ten-run seventh was the problem, but losing 17-9 ain’t exactly great.

Eight RBI for Luis Jimenez. Lots of fun stuff from players who have hung around major league rosters on-and-off.  Minor League Baseball: it’s FAN-tastic.

Other fun stuff in the box score:

Every player in the lineup for both teams had a hit.
*Josh Thole was the only player for Buffalo who did not score.
*Mauro Gomez was the only player for Buffalo without an RBI.
*Moises Sierra was 6-6 with 5 ...

The Scranton Times Tribune reports that the blaze started after fireworks landed on some dry brush in a field just beyond the stadium, which we probably could have surmised on our own. They did add that the fire was contained to just one acre of land which means local firefighters reacted quickly and did a good job knocking it down.

It sounds as though conditions were conducive to brush fires as typically spring does bring warmer temperatures and drier weather. In fact, local meteorologist ...

If it quacks like a duck, and swings at everything like a duck, it must be a Long Island Duck.

Vlad is back. Well, sort of. According to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, nine-time All-Star Vladimir Guerrero has signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League.

Guerrero, 38, hasn’t played in the majors since 2011 when he batted .290/.317/.416 with 13 home runs and a .733 OPS with the Orioles. He signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays last May and hit .358 (19-for-53) ...

The kid had just blown an easy play in center field and he came back to the dugout with his head down. And the first hand that landed on his shoulder, the consoling hand, belonged to Derek Jeter…

Jeter had already hit three times, in fact had led off each inning in the privilege afforded major leaguers who are doing a rehab assignment in the minor leagues, and now it was his turn to hit again.

“Why don’t you go up there and hit first this inning?,” Jeter asked the kid.

“Maybe ...

No ordinary minor league team, the [Havana] Sugar Kings were the Cincinnati Reds’ International League Class AAA affiliate based in Havana for six and a half seasons in prerevolutionary Cuba. Though the team’s existence was brief, the Sugar Kings drew a strong following in Cuba and became a springboard for Latin American players. [...]

Fulgencio Batista, defeated by Castro’s rebels, fled the country Jan. 1, 1959. Revolutionary fever reached its peak at the Gran Estadio that year at midnight ...

Mr. Amaro? You can have my answer now if you like. My final offer is this: nothing. Not even the effort to fax the paperwork into the league office, which I would appreciate if you did personally.

When it came down to dealing right-hander Mike Cisco, no price seemed fair to Philadelphia Phillies GM Ruben Amaro. So he literally traded Cisco to the Los Angeles Angels for nothing.

Worth a special trip?

Those who come to see the West Michigan Whitecaps play will have the opportunity to chow down on a Baco, a taco with a specially made bacon shell.

The Baco was the top vote-getter in the fourth annual Whitecaps food contest, which determines Fifth Third Ballpark’s next culinary delight.

The team narrowed to 10 a list of more than 150 fan-submitted menu ideas and turned the contest over to the fans.

The second-place finisher was The Bad Joke, a corn dog covered in cheese ...

So that string across home plate on Monday? Aim for it.

“What you’re trying to present to the guys is that these are outcome numbers, but if we follow this process and pound the bottom of the strike zone, [the average is] .193,” Peterson said. “And that’s the major league data. What do you think it is in the minor leagues. I don’t have the numbers, but I would think its .125 or .150.”

At Hardball Talk, Calcaterra said of this B-Pro guest piece by former journeyman pitcher Eric Knott:

We should spill way less ink about who we think “the real Home Run King” is — as if that matters — and think way harder about those frequent minor league suspensions and what they mean to the people who are faced with the choice to take dangerous drugs or wind up out of baseball.

Against that backdrop is this excellent column from Eric Knott. Knott pitched 11 years in the minors and ...

“You’re thinking about this guy’s been sick, has been sleeping, probably hasn’t swung the bat in about two or three weeks. He shows up, goes out, stretches for, like, two seconds, goes out to shortstop, starts taking groundballs. Right away, you’re like, ‘Holy cow.’ You see his hands work. The fields are horrendous. There’s half-rock, half-sand. Every other ball is flying off on a bad hop. He gets a couple bad hops, but he makes plays, and you could just see the athleticism…

...

As noted orator, Horace DeBussy Jones, once pointed out…“No speech can please for long or live forever…that is spoken by a water drinker”

Florida senator Marco Rubio’s excessive hydration during his response to the State of the Union has become an Internet sensation. Knowing that and knowing how creative minor-league ballclubs get at times with promotions, this shouldn’t be too much a shock: The Fort Myers Miracle are set to have Marco Rubio Water Bottle Giveaway Night this season.

Here’s a ...

the 2011 season represented, in many ways, the most satisfying of Sutton’s big league career, his first opportunity to contribute to a contender.

“Baseball-wise, it was probably the funnest year I’ve ever had,” said Sutton, who had previously shuffled between the Astros, Reds and Indians organizations. “If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that I would have gotten two and a half months with the Red Sox, played as much as I did, I would have taken it. It was a lot of fun when ...

Google Images suggests this is a better decision than any Lenny has made since about 1993.

Lenny Dykstra’s son, 23-year-old minor leaguer Cutter Dykstra, is engaged to 31-year-old actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano on “The Sopranos.”

Dykstra has played five seasons in the minors without advancing past Single-A and spent last year playing for the Nationals’ low Single-A team.

Best Farm System flags fly forever. Just ask the Royals.

1) St. Louis Cardinals (ranked #5 last year): Strengths: Everything. They have pitching, hitting, high upside, and depth. They have a proven track record of player development. Weaknesses: none really. They could use a shortstop with a better bat but so could most teams.

2) Seattle Mariners (#4 last year): Strength: Good balance between hitting and pitching, strength up the middle with Zunino, Miller, Franklin; potential ace arms; good ...

In light of recent events involving All-American linebacker Manti Te’o, the Brooklyn Cyclones have announced that June 21st will be Fictitious Friday at MCU Park…

Anyone who purchases one ticket at regular price will be allowed to bring their make believe significant-other to the ballpark free of charge. Fans will also have the chance to draw a picture of their girlfriend, because obviously something came up and she couldn’t make it, so that their friends can finally see what she looks ...

Not So Nasty Nate made a comment the other day about the Sox’ lack of depth on the corners that resonated with me.  I got to thinking about some players who are a bit off the radar and might contribute in 2013.  I’m pretty geared up for my Spring Training trip (52 days!) so count this as a little list of non-big name guys I’m hoping to check out somewhat closely while I’m there (thus ending their careers in the process).  Plus, a thread that isn’t all-Hall of Fame all the time seems useful;

1) Oscar Taveras, OF, Grade A: One of the easiest grades in the book. Outstanding hitter for power and average, and he improved his baserunning and defense. Next great Cardinals star? Seems like it to me.

2) Shelby Miller, RHP, Grade A: Terrific second half of the season saved his A rating from last year. Still looks like a rotation anchor to me, just needs to stay healthy.

Overall, this is an amazing system, a prospect factory. They find guys at big colleges, they find guys at small ...

“A college pitcher with a knack for numbers and his statistics-loving coach have found a way to mine baseball statistics that could help big-league scouts and managers more accurately assess minor-league prospects and bring better hitters to The Show.

Major-league teams analyze reams of data when building and managing squads, a numbers-driven endeavor that’s been part of the game since the Brooklyn Dodgers hired the sport’s first full-time statistician in the 1940s. But while much work has ...

[bq] The list of 20 names to know has 13 pitchers on it, nearly all of whom have the profile to fill a bullpen role. Red Sox right-handers Ryan Pressly and Josh Fields, Rockies righty Coty Woods and Royals lefty Jon Keck are among the potential relievers who have been mentioned in the early run-up to the Rule 5 Draft.

Position players aren’t as popular—four out of the 12 Major League-phase selections a year ago were hitters—but Arizona Fall League MVP Chris McGuiness, fellow first baseman Nate ...

Meyer is a real prospect, Span is a good player.  That’s how trades work.

The Nationals ended their long-standing search for a center fielder and leadoff hitter at the high cost of their top pitching prospect, acquiring Denard Span from the Minnesota Twins for right-handed flamethrower Alex Meyer.

The deal sets up the rest of their offseason, with the Nationals now more likely to move on from free agent first baseman Adam LaRoche while moving Michael Morse to first base and Bryce Harper to a ...