THE TOP 10 MLB LINEUPS FOR 2015

2. Blue Jays: Were Dalton Pompey more established, Michael Saunders and Justin Smoak more reliable and second base not such a worry, I’d strongly consider the Blue Jays for the top spot on this list. Alas, those are, of course, all big questions.

Still, there is a lot to like about a lineup that begins with Jose Reyes, Russell Martin, Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion. Those are five steady on-base presences and a middle of the order that can straight-up mash.

There are big ...

Commish: Don’t surmise PED use

Asked what he would tell the Hall of Fame about how it should handle the PED era, Manfred replied: “The only piece of advice that I’m comfortable giving is that I think that everyone should keep in mind the difference between players who tested positive and were disciplined on the one hand, and players where somebody has surmised that they did something on the other. And I think, based on what you read in the media, sometimes those lines get blurred. And I think it gets really important to ...

SBJ: After 4 years, MLB seals the Fan Cave

The post-Selig era begins in earnest.

MLB is shutting down the Fan Cave, its much-acclaimed 4-year-old social media hub in New York City, representing an early sign of the unification of business operations under new Commissioner Rob Manfred.

The move, led by Bob Bowman, president of business and media, is an attempt to consolidate all of baseball’s social media activities under MLB Advanced Media and the MLB Network. MLBAM had its own active social media agenda separate from the Fan Cave, ...

WaPo: Meet the startup in a trademark war with the Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs

Calling all BBTF IP lawyers to litigate WalletHub vs MLB.

Evolution Finance has been locked in a trademark dispute with lawyers representing the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs for two years after Major League Baseball, on behalf of the teams, opposed their attempt to trademark the white-and-green logo.

The league asserts that the WalletHub logo bears a strong resemblance to Ws trademarked by the two teams, and that granting Evolution Finance rights to use the mark without restrictions ...

Schoenfield: Ranking the teams: 30 through 25

Due for a better year: Domonic Brown gets what is maybe his final chance to prove himself as a big league regular. An All-Star in 2013 when he hit 27 home runs, he fell apart in 2014 with a .235/.285/.349 line. There’s still some talent here, but how much?

Due for a worse year: Ruben Amaro Jr.

I’m just the messenger: Everyone has been predicting the decline of the Phillies for a few years and Amaro finally admitted that a rebuilding was in order. He’s been asking for a ransom for Hamels, ...

OT: Soccer January 2015

Better late than never. A few of this month’s interesting games:

Feb 10: Spurs vs Liverpool, Bournemouth vs Derby (top 2 teams in the table)
Feb 11: Chelsea vs Everton, Soton vs West Ham, Partick Thistle vs Celtic
Feb 14: FA Cup Quarters
Feb 15: FA Cup Quarters
Feb 17: Bayern vs PSG
Feb 18: Schalke vs Real Madrid
Feb 19: Spurs vs Fiorentina
Feb 22: Spurs vs West Ham, Liverpool vs Soton
Feb 24: Man City vs Barca, Juventus vs Dortmund
Feb 25: Leverkusen vs Atletico, Arsenal vs Monaco
Feb 26: ...

Julio Franco, 56, joins semi-pro team in Japan as player-manager

It has now been eight years since Julio Franco last played in MLB, but his playing days are still not over. The 56-year-old Franco went 6-for-27 (.222) in seven games with the independent Fort Worth Cats last season, and now he’s heading to Japan to continue playing. According to a report, Franco has signed with the Ishikawa Million Stars, a semi-pro team in Japan.

He made his MLB debut in 1982.

Souhan: Koskie has found his niche after a career in baseball | Star Tribune

In case you have been wondering what Corey Koskie has been up to…

School of Roch: Orioles who need to get defensive

Showalter is getting defensive about the Orioles in 2015.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-9-2015

Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, February 9, 1915:

Ray Corhan, star shortstop of the Pacific Coast League, who signed a contract with the St. Louis Federals and accepted $500 advance money, will be allowed to remain with the Los Angeles team, Phil Ball of the St. Louis Feds announced today.
...
“Probably we could force him to play, but I don’t see the use. We will let him go to the little old Coast league if he returns the $500 and you may bet he’ll return the coin. Corhan kicked about the St. Louis ...

Jennings: Haren on board, Fernandez may be ready in June | MLB.com

Dan Haren is ready to be part of the Marlins’ rotation and ace Jose Fernandez could be back as early as June 15, according to general manager Dan Jennings.

Padres, James Shields agree to 4-year deal, according to source - SBNation.com

e Padres have agreed to sign free agent right-hander James Shields to a four-year contract that includes a club option for a fifth season, according to major-league sources. The deal is currently pending a physical, and is likely to be announced early in the week.
...
Shields, 33, is the last major free agent starter to sign with a club in a winter that has already seen Jon Lester join the Cubs and Max Scherzer sign with the Nationals on multi-year deals. His deal is expected to be in the ...

Many new faces but same high expectations at A’s FanFest - San Francisco Chronicle

“I’d like Billy Beane to be able to tell America, ‘Take that!’ when this is all over,” new bench coach Mike Aldrete said during the Q-and-A.

“One thing I’ve always heard around the league is, ‘Billy knows what he’s doing,’” new first baseman Ike Davis said. “I figured he had a plan, just be patient, and now that you look at it, it’s a pretty exciting team.”

Perth claim second consecutive Shield (Australian Baseball League title)

ADELAIDE, 8 February - For the fourth time in five years, Perth reign supreme atop the pedestal of the Australian Baseball League. The Alcohol. Think Again Perth Heat beat the Adelaide Bite, proudly presented by SA Power Networks, 12-5 in Sunday’s third and final game of the ABL Championship Series presented by ConocoPhillips, to take home the Claxton Shield for the second consecutive season.

The Yankees of Down Under.

MLB.tv 2015 Now Available

Not much to add beyond the title.  Same price as 2014 (129.99 for the Premium).  What is odd is that the MiLB.tv option is still only available on computer or an iPhone, apparently it won’t work on an iPad which makes very little sense to me.

Matt Harvey’s arrival this week spurs Mets’ optimism - NY Daily News

It will be interesting to see where his command is at the start of the season.

Rob Refsnyder just may be the Yankees’ solution at 2nd base - NY Daily News

Classic good make-up.

“I don’t know if God has blessed me with being being the biggest or the fastest or the strongest, but He has blessed me with a burning desire to be better,” Rob Refsnyder says.

Edit: Link fixed. Jim.

Rays manager Kevin Cash plans more stable lineup | Tampa Bay Times

Ultimately we would like our core guys to have a good sense of where they’re hitting in the lineup,” Cash said. “Some would be planted, whether in the No. 3 spot or No. 4 spot or wherever. And some we’d like to have it be, ‘You’re going to hit either fifth or sixth’ or ‘You’re going to hit first or second,’ something of that degree. Our goal coming in is to have a righty lineup and a lefty lineup, and have that be very similar on a daily basis.”

So whether the Rays decide to put Evan Longoria ...

Jay Bruce and his struggle with the strike zone - Beyond the Box Score

Jay Bruce under the sabermetric microscope.

A little selective memory would serve Royals well this season | The Kansas City Star

It’s a new year.

Sunday Notes: Badenhop & Perez, Weinstein on Framing, Cowart, Renda, more

David Lauria’s Sunday Notes.

Walking Through Ben Revere’s 19 Assists | FanGraphs Baseball

Another interesting article from Jeff Sullivan.

Dearth of homegrown pitchers has hurt Red Sox’ rotation building - Sports - The Boston Globe

How much do we apportion the blame to their draft scouting and to their player development system?

Late-inning relievers are becoming more valuable. | SportsonEarth.com

Ultimately, though, every manager—every single one—falls into the same basic patterns with the late innings. They’ll go with committees only to the point that one member of that committee catches fire, and then they’ll ride that guy in the ninth for as long as his arm and effectiveness will allow.

I asked Showalter why that is.

“There are four parts of a season,” Showalter said. “Spring Training, when you manage pitchers completely different; the regular season, when you manage starters and ...

All-Star Game To Be Awarded By Bid, Manfred Says - BaseballAmerica.com

The devil is in the details.

New MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he intends to award the All-Star Game with a bidding process, rather than alternating leagues as has been the practice generally every season since the game was put in place in 1933.

Catching? John Jaso takes a break | Tampa Bay Times

I’m interested in seeing how Jaso does as a full-time DH. About a 1/4 of his PA so far have come at DH. He’s essentially hit about the same as he does behind the plate.

“We have an understanding that they want me to hit, and putting me in the instance where I could be in harm’s way — where I would then be on the bench for the rest of the year — that’s not worth it at this point,” he said.

Jaso said he plans to eventually return to catching, though it’s possible — and potentially better ...

Quantifying uncertainty in FIP - Beyond the Box Score

Since the largest uncertainties are principally independent of one another, they can be combined in quadrature to establish the 90% confidence interval on FIP’: 0.538 runs per 9 innings. The largest contributor to the uncertainty in FIP is the HR/FB rate. xFIP mitigates this uncertainty contributor considerably by adjusting each pitchers’ HR/FB rate (xFIP therefore has less total uncertainty). Pitch-based techniques can be used to reduce the uncertainty in each of the other major ...

Stark—-Commish: Don’t surmise PED use

“The guys I’m concerned about are, there are players out there who are talked about where there is literally nothing. They have nothing, other than, you know, ‘He looked like X.’ Trust me, from somebody who spent a lot of time [investigating], you can’t decide whether or not somebody was using steroids, based on what they look like. That is not enough evidence to make that determination.”

Why Doesn’t Anybody Want James Shields? — The Cauldron — Medium

James Shields under the sabermetric microscope.

Hudson leaning toward retirement after 2015 season | CSN Bay Area

This is it.