Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-23-2015

Braves manager George Stallings, quoted in the January 23, 1915 edition of the Pittsburgh Press:

“I don’t like $2 bills, and I never laid a hand on one during the world’s series.

“Throughout the season, of course, I have to come in contact with some of these, but I would fold them over and tear the corners off just as soon as I got hold of one to kill the jinx. If any of the readers of this story come across a $2 bill with the corners trimmed off they will know that the $2 bill circulated ...

Why Jung-Ho Kang Doesn’t Need to be a Brilliant Fielder | FanGraphs Baseball

A really good look at what the Pirates are doing on defense.

Making the Case for a Strasburg/Betts Trade | FanGraphs Baseball

Neither side is comfortable with the deal which suggests that perhaps it’s a reasonably fair proposal? Really? David Cameron writes some enjoyable articles at times. I’m glad, though, that he’s not the GM of the Red Sox.

In talking with people in the game, neither side seems comfortable with the deal, which suggests that perhaps it’s a reasonably fair proposal, or at least in the ballpark of being reasonable on both sides. I know I’m higher on Betts than most, and if you place a very high ...

Top Blue Jays prospect willingly lives in a van by the ocean | Big League Stew - Yahoo Sports

Huh.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-22-2015

Washington Times, January 22, 1915:

The Indianapolis Federals, world’s champions by default, probably will do their spring training at home. There is plenty of money in sight to sent them on a training trip such as a world’s championship team would be supposed to take, but the Hoosier Fed promoters think better results can be obtained in the latitude of Indianapolis in March and April.

Team owner Harry Ford Sinclair really did have plenty of money - shady oil deals can be extremely lucrative - ...

Max Scherzer says winning, not cash, landed him in D.C.

I call bullshit.

“It’s pretty easy. It’s one (reason). Winning,” he said. “This team is capable of winning, and winning a lot, when you look at the near-term and long-term. This is an organization you want to be a part of.”

IN PURSUIT OF PENNANTS—#17 — Dan Duquette

A current GM makes the list.

Are top prospects overvalued in baseball? - GammonsDaily.com

Publications such as Baseball America provide great information on a wealth of young players, but a significant number of those players covered never amount to anything of significance at the major league level. Consider this study from Matt Perez of Camden Depot which concluded that from 1990 through 2006, approximately 70 percent of Baseball America Top-100 prospects failed. Over at Royals Review, Scott McKinney conducted a similar study that came to a couple of conclusions: A) 70 percent of ...

Bud Selig: The Greatest Commissioner in the History of Baseball | HardballTalk

Craig Calcaterra’s take on Bug Selig’s tenure as Commissioner.

Video: Tomas works out with D-backs | MLB.com

Hopefully tomorrow they will have video of him eating lunch.

Seven-year deals for pitchers ... big trouble - Jayson Stark Blog - ESPN

Scott Boras amazes me. How any team would give Max Scherzer a contract of this length shocks me. As Stark notes, the track record for such contracts is terrible.

The Yovani Gallardo gamble: Can the Texas Rangers get more from Yovani? | FOX Sports

Isn’t this the crux of the question? Without knowing “why” he made the change, all the rest doesn’t really tell us much.

It’s certainly possible that Gallardo made the switch because his four-seam fastball has eroded in quality to the point where he’s not capable of generating strikeouts anymore. And perhaps asking him to go back to that style of pitching would result in a disaster. But pitchers are tinkerers, and it’s also possible that Gallardo moved more toward the bottom of the zone because ...

Rockies notes: Rosario plans, Blackmon trade, Shields rumors

Wiln Rosario doesn’t look particularly athletic to me.

General manager Jeff Bridich tells me that the team is confident that catcher Wilin Rosario can make the transition from catcher to first base, and possibly even right field.

Rosario spent a full week at the team’s training complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., earlier this month, working at first base and the outfield. He will also spend time at the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic before reporting for spring training around Feb. 20.

...

The Angels bullpen power outage

They only throw in the low 90’s. Pfft!

Guillermo Heredia Leaves Cuba - BaseballAmerica.com

The trickle is turning into a flood.

Marco Scutaro designated for assignment by San Francisco Giants - ESPN

Second baseman Marco Scutaro was designated for assignment by the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday as he recovers from back surgery.

The Giants said they plan to retain Scutaro and continue working with him through his rehabilitation following back surgery that could end his career. Dr. Michael Wang performed a fusion last month in Miami to alleviate the troublesome area at level L-2/L-3 of Scutaro’s spine. It will be four to six months before doctors determine whether Scutaro can play ...

Pitchfork: Jack White Gets His Own Baseball Card

Rick Auerbach will now form a band and rip him off.

Jack White is getting his own baseball card, and guess what? He smiles in it! The Detroit Free Press reports (via Radio.com) that White’s card will appear in the 2015 Topps Series 1 set.

It’s unclear just how rare White’s First Pitch insert card will be. As you can see above, he wears a vintage Tigers jersey on it.

How is it that free-agent right-hander James Shields is still unemployed? - ESPN

Has he overpriced himself? How much did he postseason performance impact his market?

MLB and Umpires Reach 5 Year Agreement

Major League Baseball owners and the World Umpires Association, the exclusive bargaining representative of all full-time Major League Umpires, have both officially ratified a five-year labor agreement, the parties announced today.  The pact covers the 2015-2019 seasons.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-21-2015

Pittsburgh Press, January 21, 1915:

H.A. Jennings, a lawyer at the Lackawanna county bar in the winter time and manager of the Detroit American league baseball team in the spring and summer, has been elected a director of the Traders’ National bank, of Scranton. Hughey, as he is familiarly known throughout the baseball world, has been a stockholder in the Traders bank for several years.

Jennings appears to have done just about everything in Scranton, other than catching the Scranton Strangler. ...Read More...

The Most Pitcher & Hitter Friendly Umpires

As a quantifiable skill, pitch framing has been garnering a lot of attention in the past few years. While most research on that front has focused on a catcher’s ability to get extra strikes called, at Baseball Info Solutions we have developed a methodology for dividing the credit among the catcher, the pitcher, the batter, and the umpire. We call our system Strike Zone Plus/Minus, and the details of the methodology will be explained in The Fielding Bible—Volume IV coming out this spring.

...Read More...

Jim Furtado Posted: January 21, 2015 at 06:46 AM | 10 comment(s)
  Beats: sabermetrics, umpires

Prospect Watch: Top 10 right-handed pitchers | MLB.com

There are always a ton of right-handed pitchers on our Top 100 list. The 2015 version is no different. All 10 on the list below are in the Top 100, and then some.
Some of the names are familiar. Five right-handers—the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard, the Rockies’ Jon Gray, Archie Bradley of the D-backs, the Orioles’ Dylan Bundy, Robert Stephenson of the Reds—were on this list a year ago. Bradley and Bundy have made the list four years running, while this marks the third straight Top 10 for Syndergaard.

...Read More...

Jim Furtado Posted: January 21, 2015 at 06:38 AM | 8 comment(s)
  Beats: prospects

Yankees Held Private Workout For Yoan Moncada - BaseballAmerica.com

I hope they used the proper mood lighting.

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez training with Barry Bonds, per report - MLB - SI.com

That will fix things.

Colby Rasmus to Astros - 1/$4MM

@jonmorosi

Colby Rasmus’ deal with #Astros will be worth more than $4 million, source says.

Calcaterra: Given all the advantages he’s had, is Brian Cashman the 21st best GM of all time?

The Yankees were already good — heck, they had already won a World Series — when Brian Cashman took over. They had Jeter and Mo and all of those guys and more money than God. It’d be harder, under those circumstances, to lose than it would be to win, right?

On a related note, is Luis Sojo the 21st-greatest Yankee player of all time?

Counting Down the 25 Best GMs in History - #21 - Brian Cashman

As promised, here’s Cashman.  A very fair assessment of his tenure IMO.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-20-2015

Pittsburgh Press, January 20, 1915:

The Cleveland Naps are to be called Indians hereafter. Unless all signs fail, the Indians are in for a scalping next summer.

Washington Herald, January 20, 1915:

Possibly the owners of the Cleveland club, by changing the name of the Sixth City club from “Naps” to “Indians” had in mind the Boston Braves.

This makes so much more sense than the strained explanation about honoring Louis Sockalexis.

Brewers committed to Jimmy Nelson, so scratch Jordan Zimmermann | FOX Sports

As Melvin told me: “Jimmy Nelson is in the rotation.”

OK, then.

So, it appears the Brewers will enter the 2015 season with Kyle Lohse, Matt Garza, Wily Peralta, Mike Fiers and Nelson.

No Zimmermann. No James Shields, either.

Sources: Rangers acquire RHP Gallardo in trade with Brewers | FOX Sports

The deal sends Gallardo to Texas in exchange for infielder Luis Sardinas, right-hander Corey Knebel, and right-hander Marcos Diplan.