Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

He’s old AND he stinks

A top Washington Nationals prospect and recipient of the largest international signing bonus in team history is not who he appeared to be. Esmailyn Gonzalez, who is listed as 19 years old on the team's roster, is actually 23-year-old Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo, four sources have told SI.com.

The Nationals, owned by the Lerner family, gave the shortstop from the Dominican Republic a $1.4 million signing bonus on July 2, 2006, and trumpeted his arrival as a sign of their commitment to acquiring top-tier talent. (Players from Latin America are not subject to the draft and can sign with the team of their choice.) "This signing is symbolic of the Lerner family's and incoming club president Stan Kasten's pledge to become an industry leader in scouting and player development,'' Washington general manager Jim Bowden said at the time of the deal.

Gonzalez's signing, however, immediately drew suspicion from baseball insiders. There was considerable skepticism about the team's description of him as a five-tool player. "He doesn't run all that well, and has an average arm," an executive with another team said this summer.

The Texas Rangers were the next highest bidder for Gonzalez, offering only $700,000.

Sorry Jose

Jose Canseco believes he was the only player telling the whole truth about steroids. Who used and when. For how long.

He was called a liar and a huckster for admitting in two books he juiced for nearly the entire length of a 462 home run career and describing how he injected teammates with illegal anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.

Now that players he named in his tell-all memoirs, like Alex Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro, have admitted using performance-enhancing drugs or flunked drug tests, Canseco wants an apology from baseball for treating him as an outcast.

"It's time for somebody in baseball to say to Jose Canseco, 'We're sorry you got treated the way you did,"' said Canseco's attorney, Dennis Holahan.

The former Bash Brother wants more than forgiveness from baseball. He wants to educate the sport, too. Canseco offered to help baseball move on from the steroid era and end the use of banned substances with education about the dangers of drugs, starting at the high school level.

Holahan sent a letter last week to union head Donald Fehr and Gene Orza, the union's chief operating officer, offering the former slugger's assistance.

Holahan's letter explained how Canseco regretted writing his 2005 book, "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big," and wanted to restore his "good name."

"Nevertheless, after being vilified and labelled an informant and a liar, all allegations, in both of his books, have now been proven to be truthful, including the recent news about Alex Rodriguez," Holahan said in the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

More 25 Things

12. Based on the information I have available to me (not to mention my understanding of that information), not only am I not opposed to steroid usage in baseball, but I support it. If it really does help keep players healthy and on the field, then I say great. Baseball is a war or attrition, and so many promising young careers have been dissolved by injury. If a wonder pill can keep them on the field, I don't see the problem with it. If there ARE long-term health problems, though, I'm willing to reconsider my position. I have no animosity toward Barry Bonds, outside of the way he generally comes off as less than pleasant, and, frankly, there have been few times in my life I've enjoyed baseball as much as I did when he was playing it the way Ruth did.

21. I have long thought that Radiohead's "Exit Music (for a film)" would make an excellent song for a closer. The lyrics are simple and easy to understand, and would serve a closer well, albeit in a somewhat unique fashion. The song is a slow builder, though, so in my fantasy, the closer is of Rivera-like dominance and celebrity, and so the whole crowd gets into it, sings along, and finishes the song after the music has cut out and the inning has begun, perhaps concluding the song just as the closer finishes in the inning.

Lee’s Liquor Lounge

A prominent sight from the back parking lot at Target Field is the historic illuminated sign for Lee’s Liquor Lounge. This proximity to the Twins’ new home has caused many people to insist to Lee’s proprietor Lou Sirian that he’s looking at a financial bonanza come 2010.

“I don’t buy it,’’ Sirian said. “That lot is going to be for the elite – the players and the people with the most expensive seats. They aren’t coming over here.’’

OK, Lou, but you’re about five-minute walk from a stairway for the masses. Surely, some of those folks will stop for a $4 pregame beer, rather than paying $8 inside the ballpark?

“That’s what we thought when Target Center opened,’’ Sirian said. “That was 20 years ago, and I’m still waiting for my first customer because of Target Center."

Today at THT