Fox, FS1 bring out-of-market streaming, new timeslots to MLB in 2014

A table of scheduled games and chart of teams by appearance is included in the article.

While Fox will still provide 12 regional split broadcasts in 2014, Fox Sports 1 will air a majority of the baseball. FS1 will air at least a game (and, in 10 weeks, a doubleheader) every Saturday of the season, plus a couple of midweek features. Fox will join for eight weeks of primetime coverage from May until July and then jump back in for the September pennant chase.

FS1 will also necessitate the return ...

Baltimore Sun: Monica Pence Barlow, Orioles PR director, dies at 36

Orioles public relations director Monica Pence Barlow died early Friday morning after a long battle with cancer. She was 36.

Barlow worked full-time in the Orioles front office since 2001. She started out with the club as a front office intern in 1999 and returned as a public relations assistant in 2001 before being named to replace former PR director Bill Stetka in 2008.

She was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in September 2009 but continued to lead the department until taking a leave of ...

McCoy: Joey Votto learns from criticism but isn’t changing approach

Votto as in Otto the Autopilot.

Votto is paid a bank vault full of money—a 10-year, $225 million deal—and with that comes high expectations and when those expectations aren’t reached the howling and the sniping begin.

So Votto understands that some fans believe he should change his approach to hitting so that he doesn’t walk so much and so that he will drive in more runs.

What Votto doesn’t understand is that there are some people who should know better, who he thought knew the game, who ...

Full Count » John Lackey on salary structure for 2015: ‘It’s going to be different’

From out house to champion to bargain.

The Sox starter is slated to make the major league minimum for 2015 (a team option it will surely pick up) due to a clause originally put in Lackey’€™s five-year, $82.5 million deal.

The salary drop is precipitated due to Lackey’€™s Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. It was stated that in lieu of insurance, the team would get the option of the extra year at the discounted rate if there were any sort serious problem with the already damaged ...

Star-Telegram: Rangers pitcher Buckel ready to shine after forgettable year

Keith Comstock, the Rangers’ rehab pitching coordinator;

“To be honest, about 50 percent of pitchers have some form of the yips. Whether it’s throwing a pitch out, trying to intentionally walk a guy, throwing to first base, most guys have something. It’s just not as noticeable as a guy who can’t play catch or can’t throw a strike.”

Shake the hand of the guy sitting next to you.  You’ve just shaken the hand of a guy with the yips.  Or not, if he reached over and missed.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-28-2014

Milwaukee Journal, February 28, 1914:

There are many indications that baseball will gain a real foothold in France this year. The visit of the New York and Chicago teams which are concluding their tour of the world will be followed by organized effort on the part of many of the French admirers of the American game to popularize it [there].
...
The pronunciation by the French youths is amusing to Americans especially as to “foul,” which is termed “fool,” and “fly,” which they call “flea.”

You ...

WaPo: Why we’re actually mad at ruthless ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant Arthur Chu

Paging Snapper…

Chu’s strategy wasn’t part of some long-brewing master plan, but simply the result of some Googling. He did some searching once he found out he would appear on the show and was inspired by what discovered about Chuck Forrest, a 1985 contestant whose similar Daily Double hunting even earned a phrase to describe his method of play, the “Forrest Bounce.”

“There’s no logical reason to do what people normally do, which is to take one category at a time from the top ...

Reiter: With one move, Tigers reinvent themselves on offense and defense

So Ausmus’ first Tigers team will be different than Leyland’s last—more athletic, more dynamic, more versatile. Will they be better? Well, no, not definitely. It is not easy to replace the production of a player like Fielder, even a down-year Fielder. “You take Prince Fielder’s bat out of the lineup, that’s 100 RBI, that’s nothing to scoff at,” Ausmus said.

The fact is that Detroit didn’t need to get better. It is de rigueur for teams that don’t win the World Series to focus publicly on their ...

Paul White: How instant replay will change baseball

Wonder if Mike Pereira has an equally useless brother.

Every clubhouse in every major league ballpark will have a mini-command center in which teams can see the same video feeds. But unless the play in question ends an inning or there is a pitching change, teams will be pressed to make a call — and there’s no tolerance for stalling.

That doesn’t mean managers won’t try. Several have already added a term to baseball lingo: Turning the manager.

...One American League manager, who requested ...

Marlins president David Samson debuts on Survivor: Cagayan

RECAP CONTAINS SPOILERS
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David is the President of the Marlins, which means that if there’s a challenge that requires salary dumping, he’s going to be hard to top…. After making it clear to his tribe that because his blazer doesn’t match his pants, he’s not wearing a suit, David picks Garrett as Brain’s weakest, saying that he’s making the decision for the end of the game. Is anybody else surprised that the President of the Marlins’ first instinct is to jettison the strongest ...

Ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain: I’ve lost over 150 pounds

That’s only about $250…times must be tough!

Denny McLain, the ex-Tigers ace and felon, told WWJ Newsradio 950 he has lost 156 pounds.

“I am down 24 pants sizes,” he said. “I’m down a whole shoe sizes. I had the fattest feet in Michigan. ... I’m seeing things now I forgot I had!”

McLain said he had bariatric surgery to lose the weight so he could help take care of his wife, Sharon, who has Parkinson’s disease.

“I’m trying to get to my playing weight,” said McLain, 69. ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-27-2014

Pittsburgh Press, February 27, 1914:

Folsom prison has lost its most popular convict. Eugene Lavender, burglar and star pitcher of the “Major league” baseball team of the penitentiary, got an unconditional release from the states, but when he stepped from the prison gate Sheriff Fleming, of McLennon county, Texas, was waiting with extradition papers to draft him back to the Texas courts to stand trial on a burglary charge. Lavender served four years at Folsom and was the idol of the “fans”.

He ...

Gene Collier: Australia games make cents, but not sense

Another mess for brother Collier to chime in on.

For reasons unclear and probably even unnecessary, there is a concerted push all of a sudden by Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith and the producers of the official beer of Major League Baseball to designate Opening Day a national holiday.

Where, in Australia?

They had better hurry.

Opening Day 2014 is just 24 days away, 24 days and about 9,500 miles, give or take a slow walk to the mound.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks ...

Pedro Martinez thinks he ‘should have a shot’ at the Hall of Fame in 2015

Hell, everybody has a higher WAR than Tom Glaivine.

Pedro Martinez should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when his name appears on the ballot for the first time next year.

He has a lower career ERA (2.93) than Greg Maddux, more strikeouts (3,154) than Sandy Koufax and a higher WAR (86.0) than Tom Glaivine. All of those pitchers were inducted on the first try.

Martinez, now a special assistant to Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington, is confident, but not certain that he’ll get the news ...

‘Sharknado 2’ with Tara Reid does shoot at Citi Field

“Nopliw”... it’s “Wilpon” spelled backwards!!!

The sequel to “Sharknado”—the cult TV movie you definitely watched but pretended you didn’t until everyone admitted they saw it—is filming at the Mets’ home. The production starring Tara Reid (“American Pie”) and Ian Ziering (of “Beverley Hills, 90210” fame) headed to Citi Field on Wednesday…because what’s more fitting than a disaster flick at the home of a team that went 74-88 last season?

  ...Read More...

Josh Reddick robs Mike Morse of 2 HRs in same game

Videos in link. Poor Mike Morse.

DIRK HAYHURST » The Proletariat is Right

You would think major leaguers would be a far better option than a lawsuit against the owner.

In my first year I was paid $800 dollars a month. After housing, taxes, dues and insurance were taken out, that was down to $360. My minor league brothers and I were oblivious because we were playing the game and chasing our dream, all suffering from the delusion that we were only weeks from the bigs and escaping the bills, and mortgages, and mouth feeding struggles we still had. But even then, as naive ...

Full Count » Sources: Red Sox not currently engaged in Stephen Drew market

‘€œHe’€™s got great body control, he’€™s a great athlete,” said Butterfield. “The main thing that we’€™ve been concentrating on is his feet. I think with all young shortstops it just becomes a matter of time before they know where to put those feet down. He’€™s getting there. He’€™s still not there completely, and he’€™d be the first one to tell you that. But extremely athletic. And when he does it right with his feet, you see the explosion, the body control, and ...

Carl Pavano is retiring

Damn! Pavano is 557 on the Starting Pitcher JAWS Leader Board and not 550 (DL in Roman Numerals).

As of a couple months ago Carl Pavano was trying to make a comeback after missing all of last season following a gruesome home accident in which he suffered a ruptured spleen, but now he’s ready to call it a career.

Pavano’s agent told Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors that the 38-year-old right-hander is retiring after 14 seasons in the majors, issuing the following statement:

  Despite my ...

Frank Deford: It’s Time To Shrink Home Plate

Day by day it grows! Science is baffled! And so is Frank Deford!

It’s time to make home plate smaller. I know: That’s heresy; that’s sacrilegious. But there are simply too many strikeouts in baseball now, and that hurts the game, because if the ball isn’t in play, it’s boring.

The size of home plate was not decreed by God. Back when it was an iron plate — where the name came from — it was, in fact, round. It became rubber and a square, 12 inches to a side, but its present distinctive ...

Dwyre: Chone Figgins is back and might just catch on with the Dodgers

NL pennant is secure!

It has come to this for Figgins. His talent and history in the game will no longer carry him. He has to make the team by performing, starting with that first pitch Wednesday.

He knows it. There is no sulking, no hint of entitlement. The quiet, hustling personality that made him so popular in Anaheim has not changed. His perspective has.

On Jan. 15, he worked out in his hometown of Tampa, Fla., for officials of most of the major league teams. When he finished — “It was ...

James: On the Relative Importance of Pitching Categories (Registration Required)

Part I:

Which pitching stats are most closely connected to value?... I took all pitchers in history who pitched 199.0 to 201.0 innings… The more often a category agrees with the bottom line, the more closely it is connected to Value.

What is Value?  I decided to use Fangraphs WAR as “true value”.

Coker: Josh Hamilton, Angels Slugger, Downsizes Role of Anti-Drug “Accountability Partner”

Crutch/crutches.

John Hamilton came to your Anaheim Angels of Anaheim with a big stick and a lot of baggage. The first overall pick in the 1999 Major League Baseball draft spent most of his first eight seasons in the minors or suspended due to drug and alcohol addiction. He’s gone on to become a lifetime .295 hitter, five-time All-Star outfielder and 2010 American League MVP in the Bigs. By his side on and off the road has been an “accountability partner”—think a life chaperon. But the Angels ...

Mets’ ‘Dominican Mafia’ has a new leader…Jose Valverde

Leave the JUGS gun. Take the deditos de novia.

In less than two weeks with the Mets in spring training, Jose Valverde has emerged as the leader of, what the reliever calls, the team’s “Dominican Mafia.”

The members include young pitchers Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia, Rafael Montero and Gonzalez Germen, and meetings are held in a corner of the clubhouse near Valverde’s locker. Another veteran Dominican pitcher, Bartolo Colon, also presides.

“It feels like we are brothers here,” ...

WashPost: New pitch would make baseball’s opener a holiday

The following question came before the American body politic Tuesday: Should Congress designate baseball’s opening day as a federal holiday?

To which fans responded: You mean it’s not?

The first day of the baseball season is already a day of mass miracles, when hundreds of thousands of invalids who call in sick at 8:30 a.m. are healed in time to be at the ballpark by the first pitch at 1:05 p.m. Maybe it should be a religious holiday….

Like many great ideas, the movement to create ...

Connie Mack’s Less Than Graceful Exit

The Yankees made them do it. That’s the time-honored explanation for the American League’s decision to move the Philadelphia Athletics to Kansas City in 1954. After strong-arming the rest of the league to install a friendly, compliant owner in Kansas City, the Yankees looted the Athletics franchise, acquiring such key players as Roger Maris, Ralph Terry and Clete Boyer in return for nobody in particular.

That conventional wisdom has been disputed recently by historian Bill Deane, who ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-26-2014

The race to sign Big Six is heating up.

Milwaukee Sentinel, February 26, 1914:

Christy Mathewson, the Giant star pitcher, who has been offered the berth of manager of the Federal league Brooklyn club left [Los Angeles] on Wednesday for Marlin Springs, Tex., the spring training camp of the New York Giants.

He carried with him his unsigned contract to play with the Giants and while reiterating his intention to seriously consider the Federal offer, declared he was confident of coming to terms ...

Izenberg: Happy 95th birthday Monte Irvin

83-year old Jerry Izenberg, on Monte Irvin’s 95th birthday.

The last Eagle will be 95 years old this morning. Monte Irvin broke the New York Baseball Giants’ color line in 1949 and played in two World Series for them. He was the first African-American to work as an aide in the office of the Commissioner of Baseball. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

That’s for the résumé.

But for me, he will always remain a Newark Eagle.

...Now, after all those years home and abroad ...

Larry King to Host ‘At Bat’ Show For the Dodgers Network

Hello…Manuel, no longer in Chavez Ravine…you’re on the air!

Larry King bleeds blue for his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers and even celebrated his 80th birthday at the stadium last November.

Now, the lifelong fan will become one of the faces of the team as he hosts Larry King at Bat, a new series premiering March 18 at 7 p.m for the SportsNet LA channel, which launched today.

A season ticket holder and a fan since the Dodgers played in Brooklyn (they moved to L.A. in 1957, which shows what a ...

Ozzie Smith Talks Derek Jeter’s Career and Gives His Shortstop Mount Rushmore

Great Gutzons! Garry Templeton is on Ozzie Smith’s Mount Rushmore of shortstops!

For now, Jeter already has a special place in history in Smith’s eyes. When asked to name his shortstop Mount Rushmore, Smith was quick to include him.

“Well, of course Cal would be on there. Derek would be on there. Omar Vizquel would be on there. The guy I got traded for actually would be one of those guys because he was a true five-tool player,” said Smith.

Also, naturally: “And of course, I’d put myself on ...