Eight-man bullpen under consideration by White Sox | whitesox.com

Eight-man bullpens make very little sense. That only leaves twelve players on offense. (Yes, I have great math skills.) With one backup catcher, a team is left with one backup infielder and one outfielder. With thinking like this, no wonder offense is down. 

That extra arm at the start of the season could help starters from getting their pitch count up too high early and work toward keeping them fresh all season. In order for that plan to manifest, either Micah Johnson or Carlos Sanchez would ...

Bryce Harper says he’s reporting to spring training as light as he’s been since college - The Washington Post

In college?

Harper spent a lot of his offseason working out after the Nationals were eliminated in the National League Division Series by the eventual World Series champion Giants, but he isn’t reporting to spring training “as big as a house,” as he vowed to do after the 2013 season. Harper, who was listed at 225 pounds last season, says he arrives in Viera with about 7 percent body fat and as light as he’s been since he weighed 205 pounds in college.

Meetings help Indians set tone early in spring | indians.com

Updates on the Indians.

Levine: Cubs’ Bryant Asked To Play Outfield This Spring « CBS Chicago

Something needs to be done to fix this issue.

This new task will give Bryant something else to work on at Triple-A to start the season. He most likely will spend at least 21 days in Iowa to confirm another year of service-time control for the Cubs.  This is done by most all clubs with young stars who have agents looking forward to six-year free agent status.

Pirates notebook: Team has big plans for newcomer Kang | TribLIVE

It seems like they intend to give him a chance to make the big-league roster.

“We believe we’ve brought in a player who’s going to be an everyday player,” manager Clint Hurdle said Monday. “When that happens, we don’t know. We want to prepare him for a starting role, see how the season plays out, see where he can fit and what he can add. Everybody’s vision down the road is for this man to post up and become a regular player in the Pirates’ lineup.”

Kang played shortstop in South Korea ...

How Golden State constraints forced Giants GM Sabean to build his roster a different way

“In some ways we’ve found … to entice a free agent to come to San Francisco, we’re almost in an overpay situation,” Sabean said. “...So why get involved with those kinds of (players) when you won’t be able to tow the load money wise?”

“We’re not a team that’s going to overspend. We’re not going to bump the luxury tax. Having said that, we’re very much on a cash flow basis. We’re budgeted into the future. And if you look at our future commitments, they’re quite ...

Rob Manfred: 154 games possible

Baseball is more popular than ever. Let’s have less of it.

In his first days as Major League Baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred has been open to considering making changes to help make the sport more marketable.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said he’d be willing to consider a shorter, 154-game season if there was enough interest for it.
Proving that nothing is off the table, Manfred said Monday that he would entertain shortening the regular season if there was interest in doing so.

“I don’t think ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-24-2015

Red Sox third baseman Larry Gardner, quoted in the Toledo News-Bee, February 24, 1915:

The funniest thing I ever saw on a baseball field was a pitcher sliding clear past third base and spiking a coacher, and at the same time preventing his team from making what might have been considered a serious error.
...
[After a fly out to center, while the runner on second was heading for third base, Browns pitcher Bill] Bailey came tearing across to back up the third baseman. Just as he reached the base ...

Baseball’s Fight With Fatigue - WSJ

Who would think I’d be using the word “innovation” to describe the Marlins.

ESPN: The Great Analytics Rankings

ESPN rates every sports organization on its use of analytics.

MLB considers spinning off its powerful streaming business

Current proposals would see MLB.com and baseball ticketing — both currently under the MLBAM umbrella — stay with Major League Baseball, while the entire streaming business would be split off. It’s big now, but only getting bigger, based on what MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the Journal.

AROd Arrives at Spring Training Early

As noted in these august pages, Yankees stick of SEO dynamite Alex Rodriguez on Monday reported to camp three days early. A-Rod, of course, sat out the entire 2014 season while serving a suspension related to the Biogenesis scandal and the dark arts thereof.

Anyhow, as you might expect action-news photographers were air-lifted to the scene once word got out that A-Rod was at spring training. Let’s have a look at their outputs, shall we? Come for the search terms, stay for the banality—banality ...

Pawtucket mayor: New PawSox owners didn’t give us a chance - providencejournal.com

One thing for certain…the taxpayers will get screwed.

Yankee Doodling « Our Game

How the Yankees got their name.

Red Sox land Cuban prospect Moncada

On Twitter Jesse Sanchez from MLB.com says

Cuban INF prospect Yoan Moncada agrees with Red Sox on a deal in $30 million range.

UPDATE: Link updated to MLB.com article.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-23-2015

Pittsburgh Press, February 23, 1915:

“If baseball players did not load around and drink so much booze during the off-season, there wouldn’t be any necessity for so much training in the spring. This was “Billy” Sunday’s opening clout when asked what he thought of training camps for the major league clubs.

“Of course, I don’t mean to say that training camps are not necessary. They are even more so today than they were when I was in the game, although there isn’t nearly as much boozing among the ...

Morrissey: It’s WAR: White Sox’ Samardzija not a big fan of analytics

And this is coming from a guy whose name contains over two dozen sabermetric acronyms.

The topic Sunday morning was whether Sox pitching coach Don Cooper’s methods were old school in this day and age of Sabermetrics.

“Sabermetrics, nyeh. Sounds like a lot of hot air,’’ Samardzija said, smiling. “I think there are definitely positive aspects to it. I think there is some information you can take from it that’s important. But ultimately from a player’s point of view, you want a ...

Q&A: MAT LATOS OPENS UP

Where’s the manager and coaching staff?

After Bronson, the same exact thing. We had starters in there roping our (clubhouse attendants), like, cattle-roping our clubbies. Guys on their computers, buying stuff, hanging out in the clubhouse. We had a guy with a year-and-a-half in the big leagues wandering around the clubhouse, hanging out. We had a closer in there sleeping until the seventh inning. We lose that veteran leadership, that’s what happens. You can’t have that ... it turns into a ...

Choate hopes to resume specialist role : Sports

This is silly.

Veteran lefthander Randy Choate and Matheny have discussed Choate’s occasional unhappiness last year that he wasn’t used as much for lefthander-on-lefthander specialty purposes, which basically why Choate was given a three-year contract before the 2013 season. He pitched more complete innings than he thought he would but some of them were in blowout games.

Bids are coming in on Moncada, 19, and so far they’re past $20M - CBSSports.com

No real update in this report. I still can’t see a team going over $30 million. As Heyman notes, Sandoval got $95 million. On top of that fact, this is just bonus money. Moncada will still need to be paid.

He is probably worth such a lofty price, anyway, but the other big factor is that the signing team will have to pay a 100 percent tax, or something very close to that. So $50 million would really mean $100 million. That would be an extraordinary fee for a teenager considering established big ...

Projecting baseball’s best rookie pitchers in ‘15. | SportsonEarth.com : Paul Casella Article

Is Snydergaard really going to get a lot of MLB time this year?

1. Noah Syndergaard, Mets (No. 10 overall prospect)
Projected ERA: 3.57

Allen Craig out to prove his worth with Red Sox - Sports - The Boston Globe

If he hits this spring, he’ll be playing somewhere.

“I’m pretty confident that the best players are going to play. That’s the way it’s going to be, and I’m going to go out there and do the best that I can. ... I have something to prove every spring training, but I feel like this spring training is extra important for me to go out and prove myself and just get ready for a really good season, which I’m looking forward to.”

Maury Povich’s baseball past includes a stellar batboy stint and a sportswriter dad | MLB.com

Who’s he going to expose is the baby daddy?

He’ll be on MLB Now live Monday at 2 p.m. on MLB Network, talking about that and more.

Yoan Lopez a poster boy for Diamondbacks’ scouting efforts

How long will it take Lopez to make the major league team?

Baseball America: Five Historical Precedents for Cubs’ Loaded Top 100 Class.

1. 2006 Diamondbacks

The Players

SS Justin Upton (#2), SS Stephen Drew (#5), 1B Conor Jackson (#17), OF Carlos Quentin (#20), OF Chris Young (#23), OF Carlos Gonzalez (#32), RHP Dustin Nippert (#67)

The First Six Seasons
Arizona went 477-495 (.491) from 2006-11, with three winning seasons and two trips to the playoffs, one courtesy of an National League West division title.

The precedents aren’t as strong as I would have expected.

BJ Upton to be henceforth known as Melvin Upton

‏@JeffSchultzAJC
#Braves exec John Hart made passing reference to “Melvin” (B.J.) Upton, then confirmed player will go by Melvin Upton Jr, this season.

Nate Silver: Sports nerds have it too easy - ESPN

Yeah, nerds, stop whining while you run your regressions and correlations!!

Sunday Notes: Thorn on Game Changes, Salaries Redux, Moya on Mashing, more | FanGraphs Baseball

David Lauria’s latest includes an interview with John Thorn.

Is rust inevitable for Matt Harvey in 2015? - Mets Blog - ESPN New York

More Matt Harvey info.

Pablo Sandoval challenges Boston.com’s Steve Silva to workout contest - Over the Monster

Steve and I were middle and high school classmates. As I jokingly commented on his Facebook status, “I can verify that Steve was the fastest kid in 7th grade. Unfortunately, that was his athletic peak.” I’m sure the contest will be amazing.