Source: Nolan Ryan to stay with Texas Rangers as CEO

The Rangers announced Wednesday that CEO Nolan Ryan will remain with the club, ending a six-week drama in which he considered leaving because he was uncertain of his role going forward after the promotion of Jon Daniels to general manager/president of baseball operations.

“After productive discussions the last several weeks with Ray Davis and Bob Simpson about the structure of our organization, together we are moving forward. In my role as CEO, I am focused on working closely with ownership ...

Royals Review: Kauffman Stadium Turns 40

There was a very real fear that one or both of the teams could relocate. The report cited the “progressive” city of Atlanta, that built a multi-purpose stadium and then attracted a baseball and football team. These new stadia were all the rage with the Astrodome leading the way. Kansas City and Jackson County wanted to stake their ground. This is what they proposed:

Kansas City was thinking big. Also included in the plans were secondary proposals for a smaller arena for hockey, ...

Ike Davis of New York Mets not concerned about 4-for-27 start at plate - NYPOST.com

Ike Davis, future hitting coach.

“I feel great, I’m seeing it great and I swung at one bad pitch [Monday] and that was basically it,” Davis said. “I’m fouling back a lot of pitches I should hit. Once I actually start hitting those pitches instead of fouling them back, that’s when I start to get hot.”

Yankees notes: Joe Girardi optimistic on Derek Jeter’s return after shortstop runs for the first time since suffering a setback to his ankle last month - NYPOST.com

“He looked as good as at any point in spring training,” Girardi said.

Morse matures from excitable pup to accountable veteran | Seattle Mariners - The News Tribune

“You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever.”

“You know, this game has so many ups and downs, the only way to survive is to be humble,” he said. “You take the good with the bad, and the big thing I’ve learned over the years is to just enjoy it; enjoy the game, enjoy what it brings you. Because when it’s said and done, you’re going to have a lot of great memories.”

Cardinals closer Jason Motte shut down until May, surgery an option | cardinals.com: News

This is not good news.

An MRI taken of Cardinals closer Jason Motte’s right elbow on Tuesday revealed a low-grade tear of the ligament, which, if it doesn’t show improvement over the next three weeks, will require season-ending Tommy John surgery.

Angels righty Jered Weaver has broken left elbow, will be out 4-6 weeks | angels.com: News

Ouch!

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-10-2013

Washington Herald, April 10, 1913:

A telegraphic offer of $15,000 was made [yesterday] to Ty Cobb, the hold-out outfielder of the Detroit team, to play with the [Lynchburg] club in the United States League this season.
...
If Cobb accepts, the money will be raised at once by popular subscription. Cobb declares that he will not play with the Tigers unless he gets $15,000, and President Navin declares he will not pay Cobb any such salary.

“Listen, Ty, we’ll give you $15,000 to play in a league ...

Carlos Carrasco drills Kevin Youkilis in first game back from suspension

Carrasco and the crowns: Synapse gap.

Carlos Carrasco made his season-debut Tuesday night after serving a long-delayed six-game suspension for intentionally hitting a batter. After his performance against the Yankees, it won’t be a shock to see him serve another.

Carrasco was ejected from the game with two out in the fourth inning after he drilled Kevin Youkilis in the back of his left shoulder one pitch after Robinson Cano took the righthander deep.

“No one ever knows if a guy truly ...

Wade Boggs thinks Red Sox should retire his number

Hail Boggs! (It’s about time somebody found him)

“It would be nice,” said Boggs, 54, who is currently the assistant baseball coach of the Wharton High School Wildcats here, wearing pinstripes. “Am I bitter? I thought when I wore a Boston hat in the Hall of Fame I’d be up there.

“It’s been eight years now. I used to be bitter. But I think those days are over. Was I bitter? Absolutely.”

...Boggs says he never needed steroids, even after his average dipped to a career-worst .259 ...

4-10-2013 OMNICHATTER

Omnichatter. It’s where the primates gather to discuss baseball games as they happen. Assuming, of course, they don’t get distracted by random bits of other pop culture or the fact that there is actually a ballplayer named Brad Peacock.

Abraham: Red Sox Sellout Streak Likely To End Wednesday

My, how times have changed. The last two non-sellout games at Fenway were in May 2003, featuring an opponent managed by Buck Showalter.

Bud Selig to create task force on blacks in baseball

Major League Baseball, alarmed by its historic low 7.7 % of African-American players on opening-day rosters this season, will announce the creation of a formal task force Wednesday to help reverse the decline, three MLB executives told USA TODAY Sports.

The executives spoke on the condition of anonymity because Commissioner Bud Selig has yet to announce it.

The 17-member committee will consist of owners, executives and coaches, including Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, Chicago White Sox vice ...

George: Get used to plenty of good seats being available at Miami Marlins home games

Of course, baseball at its intimate best, with the stripped-down Marlins puttering along at 1-7, simply does not appeal to everyone. There’s always something to do at the ballpark, though. Stargazing through the open roof on a comfortable April night, now there’s a romantic notion for you. And for the kids, there’s the latest variation on “Where’s Waldo,” that kooky search for a favorite character in the crowd.

We call it “Find Jeffrey Loria,” and in 2013 it’s apparently not ...

Where the Crazy Closer Comes From

FacePage was way ahead of its time:

I wondered if it would be possible to locate the origin of the Crazy Closer archetype. Was there one late-inning reliever who was simultaneously good at his job and bonkers, thus planting this archetype in the heads of baseball fans and writers forever after? In my hunt to find the answer to this question, I kept coming back to one man: Joe Page.

Film Review: 42

There is already talk of a sequel - “43: This Time Its Personal”

Despite the film’s sleek feel, the basic life story with its tribulations and triumphs remain intact. It’s inspiring, especially as depicted by Boseman who has the swagger of a young Denzel Washington. Serious, stoic, pent up. If anything he suppresses his anger better than Washington, letting it ride under the surface, so when it erupts, it’s dramatic, forceful. The physicality of his performance—mimicking Robinson’s ...

Seamheads.com:  Negro Leagues Database 1933 Statistics Added

The year 1933 marked something of a fresh beginning for the Negro leagues, with the start of a new league and the inauguration of what became black baseball’s biggest event, the annual East-West All-Star Game. ....

The Crawfords are possibly the most famous team in Negro league history, featuring five Hall of Famers. Their offense was led by the 22-year-old Josh Gibson, by far the league’s dominant hitter (.411, 14 home runs), and the 35-year-old first baseman/manager Oscar Charleston ...

Bernie Miklasz: A holiday for ‘Best Fans in Baseball

We have met the enemy. And they are us.

As we flock to Busch Stadium for the 2013 home opener, this is as good time as any to tell everyone that St. Louis is The Best Baseball Town in America.
In case you didn’t know it, we’ll be happy to repeat it. If you didn’t hear us say it the first 100,000 times, no problem. We’ll brag on it again.

And again. …

And again. …

Let’s face it: we’re baseball snobs.

The Cardinals and their fans can be annoying to outsiders. Try to view it ...

Murray Chass: ABOUT SALARIES AND THEIR EVOLUTION

More than two decades later I do not feel the need to keep up with every signing. I don’t need the information as immediately as I did previously, my wife periodically reminds me that I am supposed to be retired and there are others who mine the free-agent fields for contract data, though there is actually only one reporter whose information I trust.

That is Ron Blum of the Associated Press, who has been the AP’s reporter on baseball’s business and labor matters for years. I once ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-9-2013

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, April 9, 1913:

Renewing a quarrel which began here last Saturday, Ty Cobb, Detroit star, and Rutledge Osborne, a member of the Wofford College team…engaged in a rough and tumble fight in a Greenville hotel bedroom last night. Osborne came off second best.

The friends of the “Georgia Peach” say that Osborne took offense at a fancied insult, refused to accept apology [sic], insisted on a fight, and that Cobb in sheer self-defense took Osborne to the room and gave him a ...

Protesting fans ejected from Marlins Park for ‘creating disturbance’

Flesh Tantrum!

One fan identified himself as Dan Barton, 25, of Fort Lauderdale. He wore a shirt that read: “Marlins baseball – helping other teams get better since 1998” – a reference to the franchise’s first roster purge.

Barton and four or five of his friends showed up on the main concourse above the first base line in the second inning and were approached by two reporters, from The Palm Beach Post and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

They posed for photos and talked about their ...

Murphy: These Phillies not worth watching

Unless you’re on some really heavy duty shiit.

The Phillies must also operate on faith alone when it comes to their lineup, which was no match for young Mets righthander Matt Harvey’s mid-to-high-90s fastball. They managed four hits, one of them for extra bases, and struck out 10 times in 30 at-bats. The biggest piece, naturally, is Ryan Howard, who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a sacrifice fly and is now 4-for-27 with 10 strikeouts and no extra-base hits. But they also need more out ...

Joe Nathan: “We were pretty fortunate;” umpire acknowledges blown call

Violent Is Not the Word for Joe.

Joe Nathan picked up his 300th save on Monday night in the Rangers’ 5-4 win over Tampa Bay.

Well, there was a little more to it than that.

Nathan, who became the 24th all-time member of the 300-save club, may be the first guy to do it on what everybody – even the umpire who initially called it a strike – knew to be a walk.

Home plate umpire Marty Foster called an 82-mph curve ball on the low and outside part of the plate a strike on left-handed ...

4-09-2013 OMNICHATTER

The Astrodome opened today in 1965. Houston will honor its memory by playing in the retractable roofed stadium of Safeco Field…

Musical Grand Slams

Not sure I’d agree with any of these but Len Kasper contributed so, ummm, baseball-related.

With Baseball’s Opening Day around the corner, Jim and Greg team up with Len Kasper, TV voice of the Chicago Cubs, to pay homage to their version of a Grand Slam. We all know how this works in baseball (though sports-phobe Jim DeRogatis is still getting the hang of the rules). A batter hits a home run with bases loaded, sending four players to home plate. In music, Jim and Greg define a grand slam as ...

Terry Francona gets lost on walk

Well maybe if Francona didn’t have a .300 career OBP…

Cleveland’s new manager said he got lost Monday making the two-block walk from his apartment to the ballpark for the Indians’ home opener against the New York Yankees.

Francona is living in downtown Cleveland during the season and he plans to ride a small scooter he used during spring training in Arizona for the short commute to the ballpark. However, he decided to hit the streets on foot early in the morning and ended up needing ...

FanGraphs: Q&A: Jon Miller, Hall of Fame Broadcaster

Fire Jon Miller!

On Former ESPN Broadcast Partner Joe Morgan: “I can’t presume to speak for Joe, but I think he definitely feels statistical analysis has its place. He works with Walt Jocketty now; he’s a consultant with the Reds. Walt picks his brain and Joe tells him what he thinks, based on his experience. Walt has his number-crunchers as well.

“Making up a roster based on numbers, or a decision based simply on the numbers, is where Joe disagrees. I remember talking about that with ...

Jose Molina and Called Strikes - Beyond the Box Score

There is nothing like a handcrafted leather framing of a good pitch.

Barsch: Analytics and Hedgehogs: Lessons from the Tampa Bay Rays

Think my kids threw that “Sonic and the Silicon Warriors” book away years ago…

But enabling that hedgehog-like approach to pitching is a culture of measurement and analysis.  To illustrate, the SI article mentions that pitchers are encouraged to have a faster delivery (no more than 1.3 seconds should elapse between a pitch and hitting the catcher’s glove). Pitchers are also instructed to throw the changeup on 15% of deliveries. And while other pitchers try and focus on getting ahead of ...

Tomase: Red Sox Easy To Root For

From the Boston Herald, so it’s just making the case that it’s easy for Red Sox fans to root for this version of the team. Last year… not so much.

On WEEI this morning they noted how everyone in the dugout was giving Middlebrooks high-fives after his flyout yesterday. I think it’s a foregone conclusion that nobody was happy he made an out. And it’s a lot easier to maintain a positive attitude when ahead by double digits, and in first place. But it’s still a positive sign that they’re a ...