Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Chipper to be extended


Chipper Jones is about to get a contract extension:

It appears Chipper Jones may get his wish to remain with the Braves throughout his entire career.

A Major League source has indicated that Jones and the Braves are close to agreeing to terms on a contact extension that could keep the veteran third baseman in Atlanta through the end of the 2013 season. An official announcement could come as soon as Tuesday.

Of course, since this is the Braves, it's just as likely that the announcement will be that, rather than get extended, Jones has broken his current contract to sign with the Dodgers or Mariners or something.

Seriously though, for Braves fans this is one of those things that transcends objective analysis. I really don't care what his injury risk is. I really don't care how much money it's for. At some point and with some players you have to throw that stuff out the window, and Jones is the player you do that for in Atlanta. He's the Braves' Al Kaline, and that's the kind of guy you never want to see in another uniform, no matter how much of a shadow of his former self he becomes by the end of the deal.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:30am (9) Comments

Plain City Slugger


From the "things I did not know" department, there's a guy making bats for big leaguers right here in my backyard:

"The thing I like about bats is, somewhere in the middle, you have the science part and the art part, and they meet there in the middle," said Charley Trudeau, founder of Phoenix Bats, a baseball-bat manufacturer in Plain City, Ohio, with a growing list of big-league clients . . .

. . . As a new season approaches, more players than ever will swing Trudeau's bats. Company general manager Seth Cramer estimated that Phoenix Bats will produce between 13,000 and 15,000 bats this year for players at every level of the game; "a few dozen" big-league players will use them, and "a half-dozen to a dozen" big-league players will use them exclusively.

"Already this year, we're about 40 percent ahead of what we were doing in previous years," Cramer said. A few feet away, a box of bats sat ready for shipment to Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada.

It's sad that Tejada doesn't come up to Plain City personally to get his bats. I think it would be cool to run into him at the Der Dutchman salad bar.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:00am (3) Comments

Today at THT


Lots of content today, so instead of writing a joke, the joke will be just how panicky I get to finish the recaps of it before my son wakes up, demands his Cheerios, and yells at me to "get off the 'puter, Daddy!"

  • Jon Weisman has five questions about the Los Angeles Dodgers. Question number six: Does the 100 Things Dodger Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die include drinking heavily upon realizing that Jeff Weaver made the roster of a team that's supposed to compete for the pennant?


  • Steve Treder continues his look at Branch Rickey's years with the Pirates. Little known fact: in addition to inventing the modern farm system and integrating baseball, Rickey could eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour and once saved the local community center from destruction by organizing a break dancing and hip hop show with his friends.


  • Harry Pavlidis uses Pitch f/x to profile Shairon Martis and Nick Adenhart. Careful Harry: the last guy who did that around here disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Rumors have it that he joined some tropical cult.


  • Evan Brunell has five questions for the Philadelphia Phillies. Question number six: Do the Phillies retain their title if they lose on a disqualification, or must they be beaten by pinfall?


  • Over at Fantasy Focus, Paul Singman updates the THT fantasy player rankings. I used the last version of this as a cheat sheet for my Yahoo! draft. If I crash and burn in that league, I'm going to blame some of the people in this room. And that I do not forgive.


  • Finally, Eriq Gardner helps you figure out when to cut bait on useless dudes on your fantasy roster. No, Jimmy Gobble is not coming around. Yes, you can still call your team the Jimmy Gobble Experience.


    • Whew! Made it. Now to the Cheerios.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:59am (5) Comments

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