Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Keith Law’s Top 100


In the last post I called Matt Wieters "the best prospect in baseball." Know how I know that?

Because Keith Law's Top 100 is up, and Wieters is listed number one.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have 99 more to read. As do you.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:05pm (8) Comments

Waiting for Wieters


Orioles fans, meet the man who, for a while at least, will be blocking your dreams from coming true:
Gregg Zaun returned to the team that drafted him in 1989, finalizing a $2 million, one-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday.

The 37-year-old Zaun is expected to replace Ramon Hernandez as the starting catcher, at least until the team's top prospect, Matt Wieters, is ready.

Zaun has 14 years of experience to draw upon in working with a young pitching staff and newcomer Koji Uehara of Japan. Zaun has a .251 batting average in 1,114 games with Baltimore, Florida, Texas, Kansas City, Houston, Colorado and Toronto.

With his guaranteed money this year and his buyout for 2010, that means that, no matter what, the Orioles have to pay Zaun $2 million. Between that obligation and what is likely a strong desire to keep Wieters from achieving super two status, you can probably expect to see Zaun starting through the All-Star break or later.

Is that as satisfying as seeing the best prospect in baseball? Nah, but hey, Zaun is Rick Dempsey's nephew, and that has to count for something in Charm City, right?
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:49pm (7) Comments

Comment of the Day


I don't highlight a reader comment every day, but "Comment of the past 10-12 days or so" doesn't fit in the title bar. Anyway, here's The Common Man's response to that knucklehead in the Daily News who wrote "But I say Kent cannot be looked at as a second baseman”:

He also can’t be looked at as a baseball player, motorcycle enthusiast, mustache-aficionado, carbon-based life-form, human being, or any of the other things that Kent undeniably is. Instead, let’s look at him as what he is not: a leftfielder, a left-handed hitter, an Arabian prince, a dishwasher, an idea. And clearly based on how he stacks up to what he is not, he’s not qualified to be in the Hall of Fame. For Jeff Kent is a piss-poor dishwasher and a mediocre idea at best.

TCM's comparisons make just as much sense as the knucklehead's.

Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:50pm (5) Comments

Baseball writers wanted


Aaron Gleeman and Rotoworld are looking for scribes:

Rotoworld is looking for writers to join the staff as paid, part-time contributors for the upcoming baseball season. Previous writing experience is an absolute must, as is significant knowledge of and passion for both baseball and fantasy baseball.

Qualified applicants would work under baseball editors Aaron Gleeman and Matthew Pouliot, providing coverage for Rotoworld's player news page that requires the ability to report news with instant analysis and recap games in a clear, concise style.

If interested, click through to the article for Aaron's email address.

And I know you're wondering, so I'll just say it: I am not applying. Aaron and I haven't been on speaking terms since I told him that I have a buddy who knows Jenna Fischer and that, no, I wouldn't try to get her number for him.

Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:15pm (2) Comments

More Commish for Day


Jason at IIATMS continues his Commish for a Day series, and this time he asks the opinion of a real piece of work.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:40pm (0) Comments

Somebody talked


Thanks to Michael S. Schmidt, I continue to enjoy not having to read Kirk Radomski's new book. The latest revelation:

Officials for Major League Baseball said Wednesday that in the early stages of its steroids-testing program it did not summon players to its offices to tell them they had failed drug tests.

The denial came in response to a passage in “Bases Loaded,” a new book written by Kirk Radomski, the confessed steroids dealer. Radomski wrote that a player who was one of his clients told him that in 2004 the commissioner’s office contacted various players and asked them to come to headquarters in Manhattan. The commissioner’s office, Radomski wrote, wanted to tell the players they had tested positive for steroids the previous season, when testing had been introduced on an anonymous basis, without any penalties.

The passage in question is significant because it implies that officials might have been trying to limit the number of positive tests in 2004 by warning players who had tested positive in 2003 . . .

. . . In a telephone interview Wednesday, Rob Manfred, baseball’s top drug-testing official, said that the passage in Radomski’s book was “categorically incorrect.”

I am more than prepared to believe that Radomski is flat out wrong, but in my experience, after the superfluous "quite frankly," the insertion of "categorically" before a denial is the second biggest warning sign that a lie is coming. But even if Manfred is telling the truth, I'd have more confidence in his categorical denial if it wasn't phrased like this:

“By no means were we involved in that process; any suggestion that we were involved is untrue,” he said.

That's rather specific. Why not deny that players were warned of positive tests during the trial period at all? "We weren't involved in that process?" Were your agents, employees, successors, assigns, mail room lackeys, secretaries, wives, pimps, fixers, or information dissemination designees? As Schmidt -- and George Mitchell his own self -- notes, at least some players were warned of positive tests back in 2004. Mitchell blames the union -- and that makes sense given that the union had access to the trial-run test results -- but there's no escaping the fact that, in this one instance, the union and the league had a common interest in minimizing baseball's steroid problem.

I'm still not buying Radomski's book, but it's worth noting that Radomski's veracity and integrity were good enough for Major League Baseball when the Mitchell Report was being compiled. Because of that, I don't know that Rob Manfred flat out calling Radomski a liar on this point is enough. I want to know whether and to what extent players who tested positive in 2003 were warned about it and by whom before testing got teeth in 2004, and in light of this allegation, I think baseball has an obligation to make some showing in this regard.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:48am (0) Comments

Today at THT


The first thing I usually do in the morning is round up the days' articles in my "Today at THT" post. When I woke up this morning, however, the posts weren't there yet. My first assumption: someone had infiltrated Orchid Station and turned that big crank Gleeman installed years ago, and now we find ourselves stranded in a time before the site's publishing platform had been invented. Hey, I'm an Occam's Razor guy, and that seemed to work.

As I was pondering this, a big flash of light overcame me, knocking me to the ground. When I arose a few moments ago, the posts were there, and now I bring them to you. Read quickly, however, for we don't know how long they'll last!

  • John Walsh has figured out who had the best outfield arms of 2008. Grady Sizemore is described as "noodle armed." I guess being dreamy doesn't enter into John's formula.


  • Colin Wyers talks about what, generally speaking, goes into total player evaluation stats like Win Shares, WARP, OPD, and WAR. He left out the Grand Unification Theory, but that's due to personal bias. See, Colin's favorite player of all time is Mark Grace, and while GUT explains quantum physics, Relativity, and everything else in the cosmos, it doesn't explain how chain smoking first basemen with little power can last 16 seasons in the Major Leagues. Well, that and flightless waterfowl.


  • Finally, over at Fantasy Focus, Alex Zelvin explains the types of players who are more valuable in Rotohog than in other fantasy games. If you guessed Japanese players you're wrong, but I can at least understand your thought process.


    • Question: are we just pretending that the polar bears and the black smoke monster and all of that stuff never happened now? I'm cool with that if that's the case, but I would like some confirmation.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:14am (6) Comments

    KittleBall


    White Sox fans and owners of the 1983 Fleer set will be interested to know that Ron Kittle is alive and blogging. Only one post up in the last month -- that being from yesterday, where he tells us that he's in Belgium, consulting with Belgian (Belgi? Belgi?) baseball coaches. Not sure exactly what he's teaching them, but he seems to be having fun:

    They were a good bunch of guys, and my Friend Pete and I did a little sight seeing also, despite the frigid weather, they say it was the coldest ever, and who am I to say different..they speak Dutch, French and Flemish? And I don't care what anyone says, hearing someone speak French to you is pretty cool, so friendly, heck they might have been making fun of me!!!! but it sounded cool anyway.

    How do you say ".306 career OBP" in French?

    OK, that was unnecessarily mean. I apologize. It's just that when I was 10 years old I traded a Wade Boggs rookie for a Kittle rookie because, well, because I was an idiot, that's why. I shouldn't take it out on Ron. I should take it out on Brian Young of Flint, Michigan, in whose basement the trade went down.

    (thanks to ShysterBall International Correspondent Ron Rollins for the heads up)

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:01am (1) Comments

    The Rangers are the tops


    ESPN has published Keith Law's annual organizational rankings, and on the top of the list is the Texas Rangers. Keith says that the Rangers have done it every which way, including the draft, the international free agent market and, of course, via trades:

    And the Rangers have worked the trade market to add prospects, cashing in Mark Teixeira for a huge package that included Feliz and Elvis Andrus, flipping Kenny Lofton for Max Ramirez and more recently dealing Gerald Laird for Melo and Guillermo Moscoso.

    It was this point that made me cringe a bit as a Braves fan, because I fear that my team has given up too much in misguided trades recently. Keith! Tell me it will be OK!

    4. Atlanta Braves: Still one of the best and deepest systems in the game despite the trades for Mark Teixeira and Javier Vazquez. Scouting director Roy Clark and his staff are among the game's best, with a knack for finding talent beyond the first round while they remain quietly productive on the international front.


    Ah . . . that's better.

    Keith's top prospects list -- the must-read of the offseason -- will start going live today.

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:22am (1) Comments

    The Hall of Left Fielders


    I was never a big Jeff Kent fan, but even I can see that the man is clearly qualified for the Hall of Fame. That said, I suppose there are reasonable, if ultimately unpersuasive arguments against Kent's candidacy. The New York Daily News' Bill Price, however, doesn't make one of those:

    But I say Kent cannot be looked at as a second baseman, especially in this day and age where middle infielders all over baseball are putting up numbers usually posted by outfielders and third baseman. We have to start judging players - other than catchers - as all part of the same pool. Is Nomar Garciaparra a Hall of Famer because he put up big numbers at shortstop?

    Kent was never a great fielder. He had to hide somewhere and most teams chose to put him at second base. Also, Kent played in the steroids era, so all of the numbers from that time have to be judged on some sort of scale. 600 homers may have to be the new 500 homers.

    And while Kent’s numbers may have gotten him into the Hall of Fame 10 years ago, they are comparable to several other players who will be retiring soon or have already retired and likely won’t ever get in.

    Albert Belle has more homers (381) than Kent. Is he a Hall of Famer? Gary Sheffield has more homers (499), hits (2,615) and RBIs (1,633) than Kent. Is he a Hall of Famer? Andres Gallarraga (399), Dale Murphy (398), Joe Carter (396), Jason Giambi (396), Vlad Guerrero (392), Craig Nettles (390), Dwight Evans (385), Harold Baines (384), Larry Walker (383) and Matt Williams (378) all have more homers than Kent. Only Guerrero has a legit shot to make it to Cooperstown.

    I guess if defensive position doesn't matter, we can expect a wonderful "Derek Jeter isn't worthy of the Hall of Fame" column from Price sometime in the next few years, right? And what of Mariano Rivera? How can we elect a man won't have even 80 wins by the time his career is over!

    (link via BTF, where Price is taking a beating and a half)
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:00am (16) Comments

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