Posnanski: Derek Jeter’s great, but let’s compare to Alan Trammell

And I it hit me: Oh yeah, THAT’S why I invented the word Jeterate.

He was a fantastic baseball player. But you know what? Alan Trammell was just about as good.

Here are Alan Trammell’s and Derek Jeter’s neutralized offensive numbers.

Trammell: .289/.357/.420
Jeter: .307/.375/..439

Jeter was a better hitter. But it was closer than you might think. They had similar strengths offensively. At their best, they were .300 hitters with some power and some speed. Both lost deserving MVP awards ...

McCoy: No facial hair in Cincinnati?

Tell that to Deacon White…okay, maybe not.

Manager Bryan Price made his first statement toward creating his own culture with the Cincinnati Reds, although he won’t be autocratic about it.

The Reds will not be the hirsute Boston Red Sox, they will not look like scraggly mountain men. Price is asking, not demanding, that most of the facial hair that sprouted mostly on the bullpen members last year be trimmed neatly.

He doesn’t want them retreating to the days of Bob Howsam and The Big Red ...

Gammons: Sabathia has to be soul of pitching staff for Yankees to contend

Carnival of soul. #Hilligross

His career has spanned 13 seasons, 12 post-season series and 205 wins for the Indians, Brewers and Yankees, thrown 2,775 innings for close to $200M, and he has always stood and faced his responsibilities, the definition of accountable. “I know what I am expected to do,” he says, “and I have always tried to fulfill the hopes and the expectations of my teammates and everyone associated with my teams.”

He has devoted much of his free time to kids from New ...

BCB: Fan Foils By The Numbers: Neifi Perez

I miss Neifi Perez…and Wiki Gonzalez.

By the title, you know the player featured as this week’s “Foil.” Neifi Perez was, shall we say, a very limited baseball player. His offensive short-comings will be documented here in a bit.

But Neifi as a “Foil” embodies many reasons the Cubs have stunk for so many years. He was a player with incredibly obvious flaws, brought in by a front office to solve problems he wasn’t capable of addressing, and put in a perfectly predictable position to fail by his ...

Bob McClure’s vision of Phillies pitching is a high octane car chase

Bullitt Bob McClure…

It makes sense Bob McClure wants to slow things down on the Phillies pitching staff. His vision of what baseball is sounds a lot like Outrun for Sega Genesis:

“It goes fast,” McClure said. “It’s almost like being in a convertible car in the middle of an arena with 30,000 people yelling and screaming at you. It’s intense. Now put that car on a racetrack and go 200 miles per hour. And try make your car fit through two cars on the first turn. Well, that’s what ...

Matt Kemp ‘won’t accept’ bench role

The Dodgers might go into the 2014 season with four every-day options for three outfield spots, but one of those players now has made his stance crystal clear. Matt Kemp said he’s not a bench player.

“I’m not a fourth outfielder. We can cut that off right there,” Kemp said. “I won’t accept that role. I can’t accept that role.”

Kemp is right; he doesn’t spend time on the bench. He spends all his time on the DL.

Whatever Happened To ... Antonelli Tire Co.?

I once attended a punkdrunk wedding up in Binghamton, NY and sorta came to in an Antonelli Tire Co’s parking lot.

He was arguably the best major leaguer to come from Rochester, but generations might have known Johnny Antonelli better from his post-baseball career.

The Jefferson High School graduate and World Series hero owned a tire business that expanded to 28 shops throughout New York state. He went from the pitcher’s rubber to pitching rubber tires and, for years, was the exclusive ...

Science Codex: MLB largely responsible for players’ steroid abuse, UTA researcher says

Explore the future our game demands!

The widespread use of illegal steroids among Major League Baseball players has been fueled by an “economy of bodily management,” the free agent market and exploding television revenues, a UT Arlington assistant professor argues in a newly published research paper.

Sarah Rose, a labor and disability historian, says by attacking individual ballplayers’ morality, commentators have obscured the more salient issue.

“Baseball is representative of the fact that ...

Shut up, stats nerds and haters: You’re wrong about Derek Jeter

If one had to synthesize most of the recent Jeter coverage under one headline, it would be: Is Derek Jeter a True Hall of Famer or Is He Overrated?

Let’s deal with the first question. There isn’t any doubt that he is going to get into the Hall of Fame. Only nine players in the history of baseball have more hits than Jeter. He’s a 13-time All-Star with five World Series rings. And he’s tremendously popular. If you put down a deposit on a hotel room in Cooperstown for July 2020, it’s ...

A-Rod: The Road Not Taken

Stepping on a butterfly needle.

The primordial circumstance that set Rodriguez’s career on an unwanted trajectory was the 1994-95 players’ strike, which began just one month after his major league debut… when the strike ended and the players and owners finally hammered out a new collective bargaining agreement, players were awarded service time for the games that were canceled, including guys in the minors like Rodriguez.  The result was that Rodriguez had just enough service time to ...

Delaware Online: Roy Halladay Brings a Fresh Perspective.

This year, however, Halladay’s stay in Clearwater will be a shorter one. The recently retired two-time Cy Young winner is a guest instructor at Phillies camp and will stick around for a couple of weeks before heading home.

Both Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. raved about having Halladay around.

“He has been outstanding,” Sandberg said. “This is something he is very good at. Sometimes it is tough as a player to coach and talk to teammates. What I’ve ...

Newhan: Remembering an All-Star Friend

Good stuff from Ross Newhan on Jim Fregosi…

I met Jim Fregosi in that first Palm Springs camp in the first year of the American League’s newly created Los Angeles Angels.

He was 19, a shortstop selected out of the Boston Red Sox organization in baseball’s first ever expansion draft. I was 24, on my first beat assignment for the Long Beach Independent, Press Telegram, and in over my head—unlike Fregosi, who would make his big league debut in September and become the Angels fulltime shortstop ...

Braves agree to six year contract with Julio Teheran

The Braves have agreed to terms with RHP Julio Teheran on a six-year contract through the 2019 season. The deal includes an option for 2020.

Jason Heyward
Freddie Freeman
Julio Teheran
Andrelton Simmons
Mike Minor

Jim Fregosi dies at 71; first star player in Angels history

Farewell, Jim Fregosi. Think I still have his signed bar napkin.

Jim Fregosi, the first star player in Angels franchise history and the manager who guided them to their first American League West championship in 1979, died Friday in a Miami hospital after suffering a stroke in the Cayman Islands. He was 71.

His death was announced by the Angels, who retired his No. 11 jersey in 1988.

Fregosi, who spent the last 13 years as a highly regarded scout for the Atlanta Braves, was stricken during a ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-14-2014

Pittsburgh Press, February 14, 1914:

It is interesting to note what the paper owned by C.P. Taft, who is interested in Murphy in the Chicago Cubs, says about the discharge of [Johnny] Evers.
...
“There is a tangled network of circumstances around it all, and lots of the webbing can never be unwound. One thing that may have swayed Mr. Murphy was the certainty that Jimmy Johnston, the wonderful speeder just signed by the Cubs, could never have succeeded under the management of Evers…Johnston, one ...

Pietrafesa: Hall of Fame should bend rule for Jeter to join Mo

Derek, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, Tich & Mo: Don’t Bend It.

This is a plea to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to bend the rules. It’s been done before, so do it again.

Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera deserve to be inducted together into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.

It’s the right thing to do. Jeter and Rivera came up through the New York Yankees organization together, won five World Series titles together with class on and off the field, and belong ...

Dusty Baker wants another shot

It was the Reds’ belly flops that did him in. A year after a blowing a 2-0 lead to the Giants in the National League Division Series, they lost their final six games last season, including the wild-card playoff game.

Baker’s strategy was second-guessed, and not for the first time. So was his style, which was characterized as too laid back.

Baker, without being prompted, addresses the criticism. He said he was following doctor’s orders to turn it down a notch, to keep his trademark enthusiasm ...

When Hal Newhouser quit his job over Derek Jeter

If anyone knew a top notch baseball prospect when he saw one, Hal Newhouser did. But the Houston Astros, for whom Newhouser was a scout in the early 1990s, ignored what “Prince Hal” told them. He told them to draft Derek Jeter with the #1 pick and pay him whatever he wanted. They didn’t, and instead the young infielder was drafted by the New York Yankees with the sixth pick. Jeter went on to become a superstar in pinstripes, winning five World Series titles.

Newhouser quit the Astros the ...

NYT: Sandomir: Let the Marketing of Derek Jeter’s Farewell Begin

The Derek Jeter farewell tour is coming, with the inevitable merchandising: caps and T-shirts with a Jeter-centric logo; dirt from his shortstop area packaged in vials; autographs; signed bases, balls, home plates and, well, almost anything else imaginable….The Yankees quietly kicked off the campaign within hours of Jeter’s retirement announcement. An email that hailed the coming season as his last offered this makeshift, Trekkian slogan: “Captain’s Final Voyage.”

Trekkian? or ...

Orioles Sign Korean Pitcher Suk-min Joon

The Baltimore Orioles have agreed to a contract with Korean right-hander Suk-min Yoon, a baseball source confirmed to ESPN’s Jim Bowden.

Nats, Rays swap Lobaton and Karns

The Washington Nationals shored up their catching corps and added more talent to the upper levels of their Minor League system on Thursday, acquiring catcher Jose Lobaton, left-hander Felipe Rivero and outfielder Drew Vettleson from the Tampa Bay Rays.

In exchange, the Nationals sent right-handed starter Nathan Karns to the Rays. To clear space for Rivero on the team’s 40-man roster, right-hander Erik Davis was placed on the 60-day disabled list with a right elbow sprain.

Mariners’ Franklin Gutierrez to miss 2014 season, cites health issues

Veteran outfielder Franklin Gutierrez has informed the Mariners that he’ll miss the entirety of the 2014 season because of ongoing health and injury concerns. The M’s had earlier this offseason signed Gutierrez to a one-year, $1-million contract plus incentives. Obviously, they will now not be on the hook for that contract

Larry Stone tweets that Gutierrez told the team that he suffered a relapse of symptoms that he suffered last spring. Those would be gastrointestinal/autoimmune problems, ...

Amaro not terribly concerned about Cole Hamels

Cozy Cole : Big Noise From…Clearwater.

So, what about Hamels?

The pitcher said he wouldn’t be able to make his second straight Opening Day start after battling soreness when rebooting his throwing program in November. But he’s also confident he’ll be in the rotation in early April.

Amaro’s concern? The GM was asked to rate it on the scale of 1-through-10 on Thursday morning.

“Two,” Amaro said.

Why?

“He had a little bit of tendinitis,” Amaro said. “We were just very cautious with him in ...

MLB Owners Voted to Allow Teams to Cut Pensions of Non-Players

Major League Baseball owners, despite earning more than $8 billion in revenue in 2013, voted in January to allow individual teams to slash or eliminate pension-plan offerings to their non-uniformed personnel….

A source told ESPNNewYork.com that Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf chastised owners for being petty with the lives of ordinary people during an earlier attempt to pass this plan.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-13-2014

Pittsburgh Press, February 13, 1914:

The baseball rules committee held an informal session and agreed to some rather important changes in the playing code. Hereafter a coacher will not be allowed to touch a runner rounding their base. If he does the runner is out. Heretofore coachers have been allowed to run out into the field and stop runners and literally carry them back to the base.

I’d pay money to watch Wendell Kim attempt to pick a running David Ortiz up off the ground and carry him to ...

Schoenfield: A few notes on Derek Jeter’s defense

Hey, at least it’s not Jeter is a Douche.

This come up in our Spreecast from today on Derek Jeter’s retirement, somebody insisting we point out that Jeter cost his team more runs on defense than any player in history. I just wanted to follow up on that a bit more.

That statement is arguably—or maybe inarguably, depending on your belief in defensive metrics—a true statement. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the players who cost their teams the most runs on defense over their careers ...

Jim Fregosi suffers stroke

Former major league manager Jim Fregosi suffered a stroke while on a Major League Baseball alumni cruise and has been hospitalized in the Cayman Islands, sources close to Fregosi said Wednesday.

Fregosi’s family currently is trying to make arrangements to fly him to Miami.

Fregosi, 71, currently serves as a special assistant to Atlanta Braves general manager Frank Wren. He managed 15 years in the majors with the California Angels, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue ...

Ronny Paulino suspended 100 games for second PED-related offense

Catcher Ronny Paulino hasn’t played in the majors since 2012 and is currently with the Tigers as a minor-leaguer. Wednesday, Major League Baseball announced that he has been suspended for 100 games as a result of testing positive for exogenous Testosterone.

This is Paulino’s second offense, hence the 100-game ban instead of 50.

Derek Jeter to Retire After This Year

Announced on facebook. FA has link to post.

A.J. Burnett to Phillies

Burnett: How many more years…

The Philadelphia Phillies and pitcher A.J. Burnett reached an agreement Wednesday on a one-year deal worth $16 million, a source confirmed to ESPN.com.

Burnett and the Phillies have to work through some additional details before the deal will be announced, the source said.

The 37-year-old Burnett spent the past two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The right-hander went 10-11 with a 3.30 ERA with team highs of 191 innings pitched and 209 strikeouts last ...