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CommentAuthorgrabarkewitz
- CommentTimeAug 3rd 2009
BluePastorKyle:
Thanks for the link, James. Ringolsby is always a good read.
One conclusion to draw after reading the article I saw was this: it's gonna be fun to watch the Rox and Gnats battle it out for the WC. Both teams improved well enough to make teams like the Braves, Astros, Brewers, and Fish afterthoughts. No way any of those teams catch the Rox/Gnats. The only team with a legit shot, IMO, would be the Cubs, but they may be all smoke and mirrors yet again, who knows?
The Rox and Gnats play each other TEN more times before season's end. Six in SF, where the Gnats are dominating this season, for some reason.
Someone must've ghost-written this for Ringolsby. The love child of Plass-Hat and a lonesome hippo is usually waste deep in downplaying any team in the NL West other than the Rox. The purpose for this story was nothing more than justifying more of his Rockie-love and explaining why they are not in first place by accepting that the Dodgers and Giants are "equally" as good.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night... -
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CommentAuthorgrabarkewitz
- CommentTimeAug 13th 2009
I know some may call what Bronson Arroyo said this morning idiocy, but I think it has to be said. He is quoted as saying he is taking supplements like ginseng and caffeine-based drinks that are not on MLB's "OK" list. He is practically challenging Bud Lite to do something to him. As he states, his job is be the best player possible and Bud Lite's stand on supplements is no more than pandering to the media to curry favor in the light of his head buried in the sand act for the past decade and a half.
I am betting that if Arroyo does get suspended, he may take Bud Lite and the MLB to court on the challenge that it is his life and none of the supplements he is taking are illegal in this country. I know I will be cheering the man on. A goodly portion of the stuff on Bud Lite's list is hardly harmful and in some cases therapeutic. I don't know who made up the list, but a good legal team could rip apart Bud Lite and his legion of idiots in less time than it takes to finish the New York Times crossword puzzle. Just for reference, I did yesterday's in under twenty minutes.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night... -
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CommentAuthorBluePastorKyle
- CommentTimeAug 13th 2009
grabarkewitz:
I know some may call what Bronson Arroyo said this morning idiocy, but I think it has to be said. He is quoted as saying he is taking supplements like ginseng and caffeine-based drinks that are not on MLB's "OK" list. He is practically challenging Bud Lite to do something to him. As he states, his job is be the best player possible and Bud Lite's stand on supplements is no more than pandering to the media to curry favor in the light of his head buried in the sand act for the past decade and a half.
I am betting that if Arroyo does get suspended, he may take Bud Lite and the MLB to court on the challenge that it is his life and none of the supplements he is taking are illegal in this country. I know I will be cheering the man on. A goodly portion of the stuff on Bud Lite's list is hardly harmful and in some cases therapeutic. I don't know who made up the list, but a good legal team could rip apart Bud Lite and his legion of idiots in less time than it takes to finish the New York Times crossword puzzle. Just for reference, I did yesterday's in under twenty minutes.
Didn't the player's union have to approve the list?
- Kyle... CrossRoads Church -
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CommentAuthorgrabarkewitz
- CommentTimeAug 13th 2009
BluePastorKyle:
Didn't the player's union have to approve the list?
It was a give and take thing. Fehr backed off on the list, so he could keep Bud from killing off two teams, IIRC.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night... -
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CommentAuthorhunteralan
- CommentTimeAug 18th 2009
Sanity from Bristol . . . . . . . Who knew...
Draft in desperate need of repair
by: Jayson StarkStephen Strasburg may be -- whoop de doo -- a Washington National now. But you can bet every centavo of his signing bonus on this:
The draft that made that miracle possible will never be the same.
"This thing's broken, man," said one scouting director.
"The system needs to be blown up," said another. "We need to reevaluate how we do the whole draft process."
"What Stephen Strasburg has succeeded in doing," said an official of yet another club, "is that now, to me, there's no question that there will be a [formal] slotting system in the next labor agreement."
But wait. Didn't Strasburg get "only" $15.1 million out of this deal? Not $20 million? Not $30 million? Not $50 million? So did he really get enough to implode the entire draft? Uh, you bet he did.
"That's still a gigantic amount of money," said one AL exec. "Don't kid yourself."
So how gigantic an amount is it? Think of it this way:
• Only five starting pitchers on the entire free-agent market got packages bigger than that last winter -- CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Derek Lowe, Ryan Dempster and Oliver Perez.
• And Strasburg is guaranteed slightly more money than Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz were guaranteed for this season put together. Those guys own a combined nine Cy Young awards. Strasburg has thrown a combined zero professional pitches.
But it's not just him.
The Mariners showered a package on their top pick, Dustin Ackley, that can be worth between $7.5 million and $10 million. That's more than Bobby Abreu, Orlando Hudson or Ken Griffey Jr. signed for last winter.
The Tigers threw a package at high school pitcher Jacob Turner that could pay him nearly $7 million. That's more than they guaranteed their three major-league free agent signings -- Brandon Lyon, Adam Everett and Matt Treanor -- combined last winter.
The Rockies -- a team that had to trade away Matt Holliday over the winter and a club that could afford to sign only one major-league free agent (Alan Embree) -- tossed almost $4 million at another high school pitcher, Tyler Matzek.
And everybody -- OK, not quite everybody, but 17 of the 29 first-round picks who agreed -- signed for more than Bud Selig and his office's "recommended" slot.
"So the big loser," said an official of one team, "is Bud and his slotting system. It got crushed. Some of these signings are off the charts. Look at some of this stuff in the later rounds. There's carnage all over the map."
And where there's carnage, there's always a reaction. And by that, we don't mean all the yelping emanating out of the commissioner's office after these mega-dollars had finished splattering off Selig's wall.
We mean change is coming. This draft isn't working. It hasn't for years. And now Selig's informal slotting system is being so widely ignored, you can bet this topic is heading for a bargaining table near you in 2011.
"It is called being a professional. If you take the money, give the effort. If you are a pro in any sport, you are always supposed to give your best effort." ~Joe Morgan. -
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CommentAuthorhunteralan
- CommentTimeAug 18th 2009
It's impossible to say for sure exactly how this draft will change once that bargaining is done -- because the union has always been opposed to formal slotting. But here are some of the topics that have to be addressed:
• SLOTTING -- Baseball is now the only major sport that doesn't have some sort of system that regulates how much drafted players can get paid. And that can't go on. Not just because the clubs want slotting, either. It's because players want it. We've polled a bunch of them. And big-league players want those $15-million deals going to them, not to kids who have never played a professional baseball game.
• TRADING PICKS -- Now here's a concept the union is in favor of. So it seems just about inevitable that this is a new draft wrinkle that's coming soon. If you have the first pick and you don't want the price tag that comes with Stephen Strasburg, or you don't want the migraine that comes from dealing with Scott Boras, you pick him anyway and then dangle him on the open market. Amazingly, it's always been small-market owners who have opposed the idea of dealing picks. And what's their argument? That it would allow Boras to manipulate the draft. Huh? He manipulates it just fine now.
• WORLDWIDE DRAFT -- We're not sure if this on-again, off-again idea will ever fly. But it's gaining momentum again, because it needs to. A system that allows the Yankees and Red Sox to outspend everybody on any player they really want, with no limits whatsoever, doesn't serve anyone except the Yankees and Red Sox. Whether baseball can figure out a way to navigate all the unique laws and circumstances of every country with a baseball talent pool is a massive question. But we now sense more interest in getting those international signings under control than we've sensed in years.
• THE CONTROL ROOM -- Another idea that's been building steam beneath the surface is a way for teams to wriggle out of the embarrassment of being held hostage by 17-year-old high school kids. What some people in the sport would like to see is a draft system similar to the hockey draft, which would allow any team picking a high school player to control that player's rights through his college years. "We need something to that effect," said an exec of one team, "just so you don't feel like you have no leverage as a club in those negotiations. So if you draft a kid out of high school and he says he's not ready to sign, after his sophomore year you can try to sign him again. And after his junior year you can try to sign him again. And then, if he still doesn't sign, after his senior year of college, then he goes back into the draft."
These are just some of the ideas being collected by a committee, headed by the esteemed John Schuerholz, which is studying ways to "fix" the draft. They won't all fly. They won't even all make it to the bargaining table.
But file them away for future reference, because many of them are going to happen. They have to happen -- because any system that's paying an 18-year-old amateur more than a five-time Cy Young winner needs more repairs than a 1962 Volkswagon.
"It is called being a professional. If you take the money, give the effort. If you are a pro in any sport, you are always supposed to give your best effort." ~Joe Morgan. -
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CommentAuthorgrabarkewitz
- CommentTimeAug 18th 2009 edited
hunteralan:
It's impossible to say for sure exactly how this draft will change once that bargaining is done -- because the union has always been opposed to formal slotting. But here are some of the topics that have to be addressed:
• SLOTTING -- Baseball is now the only major sport that doesn't have some sort of system that regulates how much drafted players can get paid. And that can't go on. Not just because the clubs want slotting, either. It's because players want it. We've polled a bunch of them. And big-league players want those $15-million deals going to them, not to kids who have never played a professional baseball game.
• TRADING PICKS -- Now here's a concept the union is in favor of. So it seems just about inevitable that this is a new draft wrinkle that's coming soon. If you have the first pick and you don't want the price tag that comes with Stephen Strasburg, or you don't want the migraine that comes from dealing with Scott Boras, you pick him anyway and then dangle him on the open market. Amazingly, it's always been small-market owners who have opposed the idea of dealing picks. And what's their argument? That it would allow Boras to manipulate the draft. Huh? He manipulates it just fine now.
• WORLDWIDE DRAFT -- We're not sure if this on-again, off-again idea will ever fly. But it's gaining momentum again, because it needs to. A system that allows the Yankees and Red Sox to outspend everybody on any player they really want, with no limits whatsoever, doesn't serve anyone except the Yankees and Red Sox. Whether baseball can figure out a way to navigate all the unique laws and circumstances of every country with a baseball talent pool is a massive question. But we now sense more interest in getting those international signings under control than we've sensed in years.
• THE CONTROL ROOM -- Another idea that's been building steam beneath the surface is a way for teams to wriggle out of the embarrassment of being held hostage by 17-year-old high school kids. What some people in the sport would like to see is a draft system similar to the hockey draft, which would allow any team picking a high school player to control that player's rights through his college years. "We need something to that effect," said an exec of one team, "just so you don't feel like you have no leverage as a club in those negotiations. So if you draft a kid out of high school and he says he's not ready to sign, after his sophomore year you can try to sign him again. And after his junior year you can try to sign him again. And then, if he still doesn't sign, after his senior year of college, then he goes back into the draft."
These are just some of the ideas being collected by a committee, headed by the esteemed John Schuerholz, which is studying ways to "fix" the draft. They won't all fly. They won't even all make it to the bargaining table.
But file them away for future reference, because many of them are going to happen. They have to happen -- because any system that's paying an 18-year-old amateur more than a five-time Cy Young winner needs more repairs than a 1962 Volkswagon.
Of course, it makes sense. That is reason one that Bud Lite will never push for it. The union wants it, the owners want it, but Bud Lite is opposed to change at any level. Bud's system didn't work and it is time for the real powers in baseball to fix this. Hell, it is time to make Bud what he should be - a powerless figurehead.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night... -
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CommentAuthorhunteralan
- CommentTimeAug 27th 2009
Jason Stark:
American League Most Valuable Player
If the season ended right now …: You'd have to be watching a different sport than we are to vote for anybody but Joe Mauer. He's hitting .373. His on-base percentage (.442) is ridiculous. He's leading the league in slugging (.622) by more than 40 points. And if the season ended today, he'd be only the fifth player since the 1930s with numbers that high in all three categories. (The others: Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Larry Walker and George Brett -- whoever they are.) Mauer (in case you hadn't noticed [coughcoughjoemorgancoughcough]) is also a premier defensive player at a vital defensive position. And while the Twins may not be stampeding toward the postseason, don't impose any empty-number penalties on this guy's candidacy. His team is only 4½ games out of first place. So every stat he's compiled has been totally meaningful.
But …: The Twins' pitching is in such disarray that they may not be able to hang in there -- not that it would be Mauer's fault. And if they finish, say, seven games out and below .500, many voters will start looking at the candidates whose teams might actually win something. If Miguel Cabrera, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bartlett, Ben Zobrist or Michael Young lug their teams into the postseason with huge Septembers, they belong in the argument. But the big debate could be between the prime Bronx contenders -- Derek Jeter versus Mark Teixeira. The number-crunchers mostly favor Jeter in that duel. The folks who view Teixeira's signing as the difference between the Yankees and Red Sox are pushing Teixeira. But nobody in this group is even in the same area code as Mauer in the off-the-chart historic-year portion of this discussion. So this is shaping up as one of those classic MVP debates: the clear-cut "best player" or the guy perceived to be most "valuable" on a team that wins.
I love it when his immediate colleagues make Joe Morgan look like an idiot...
"It is called being a professional. If you take the money, give the effort. If you are a pro in any sport, you are always supposed to give your best effort." ~Joe Morgan. -
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CommentAuthorgrabarkewitz
- CommentTimeAug 27th 2009
hunteralan:
Jason Stark:
American League Most Valuable Player
If the season ended right now …: You'd have to be watching a different sport than we are to vote for anybody but Joe Mauer. He's hitting .373. His on-base percentage (.442) is ridiculous. He's leading the league in slugging (.622) by more than 40 points. And if the season ended today, he'd be only the fifth player since the 1930s with numbers that high in all three categories. (The others: Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Larry Walker and George Brett -- whoever they are.) Mauer (in case you hadn't noticed [coughcoughjoemorgancoughcough]) is also a premier defensive player at a vital defensive position. And while the Twins may not be stampeding toward the postseason, don't impose any empty-number penalties on this guy's candidacy. His team is only 4½ games out of first place. So every stat he's compiled has been totally meaningful.
But …: The Twins' pitching is in such disarray that they may not be able to hang in there -- not that it would be Mauer's fault. And if they finish, say, seven games out and below .500, many voters will start looking at the candidates whose teams might actually win something. If Miguel Cabrera, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bartlett, Ben Zobrist or Michael Young lug their teams into the postseason with huge Septembers, they belong in the argument. But the big debate could be between the prime Bronx contenders -- Derek Jeter versus Mark Teixeira. The number-crunchers mostly favor Jeter in that duel. The folks who view Teixeira's signing as the difference between the Yankees and Red Sox are pushing Teixeira. But nobody in this group is even in the same area code as Mauer in the off-the-chart historic-year portion of this discussion. So this is shaping up as one of those classic MVP debates: the clear-cut "best player" or the guy perceived to be most "valuable" on a team that wins.
I love it when his immediate colleagues make Joe Morgan look like an idiot...
There is no real challenge to making Joe look moronic. The real job is to make Joe look as smart as a bell pepper.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night... -
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CommentAuthorhunteralan
- CommentTimeAug 28th 2009
grabarkewitz:
There is no real challenge to making Joe look moronic. The real job is to make Joe look as smart as a bell pepper.
Well . . . You go me there...
"It is called being a professional. If you take the money, give the effort. If you are a pro in any sport, you are always supposed to give your best effort." ~Joe Morgan.
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Now don't everyone faint - an actual GOOD column from Plaschke:
www.shmolnick.com -
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CommentAuthorbeefchopper
- CommentTimeAug 31st 2009
shmolnick:
Now don't everyone faint - an actual GOOD column from Plaschke:
You're right. Thanks for pointing it out.
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CommentAuthorgrabarkewitz
- CommentTimeAug 31st 2009
shmolnick:
Now don't everyone faint - an actual GOOD column from Plaschke:
The only thing that irks me about this story is that a couple years ago, Plass-Hat was doing his level best to get Bison traded anywhere. Hard to forget that story that painted the kids are overindulged asshats.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night... -
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grabarkewitz:
The only thing that irks me about this story is that a couple years ago, Plass-Hat was doing his level best to get Bison traded anywhere. Hard to forget that story that painted the kids are overindulged asshats.
True enough, but let us forgive and forget. For today anyway.
www.shmolnick.com -
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CommentAuthorBluePastorKyle
- CommentTimeAug 31st 2009
Dang. That was good. Hate it when Plashke gets lucky.
- Kyle... CrossRoads Church -
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CommentAuthorThrowdeuce
- CommentTimeAug 31st 2009
grabarkewitz:
The only thing that irks me about this story is that a couple years ago, Plass-Hat was doing his level best to get Bison traded anywhere. Hard to forget that story that painted the kids are overindulged asshats.
Hell there was one line in the article that even says that Kemp only a few years ago was basically trade bait. Yes and by whom Asscke?
Now that Manny is finally signed, lets get Pierre off the team -
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CommentAuthorgrabarkewitz
- CommentTimeAug 31st 2009
Throwdeuce:
Hell there was one line in the article that even says that Kemp only a few years ago was basically trade bait. Yes and by whom Asscke?
Bill will never admit he is wrong. He will just backtrack and say that he was quoting "sources" when he made that statement. I am sure that source get his/her mail at the same address as Plass-Hat.
I'll play the radio on Southern stations because Southern Belles are Hell at night... -
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CommentAuthorkennerbuggy
- CommentTimeAug 31st 2009
grabarkewitz:
Bill will never admit he is wrong. He will just backtrack and say that he was quoting "sources" when he made that statement. I am sure that source get his/her mail at the same address as Plass-Hat.
I see this is a just another Manny-bashing piece, this time using Bison instead of Slappy as the "good example". Plasshat is still oinking about Kemp's base-running and route lapses, while Matt is now to the point that he doesn't have many more than any other starter on the club.
Bison has improved his read & jump defensively from poor to so-so, while his routes have gone from so-so to decent. He is making better use of his speed given the improvement in reads & routes, but is still not an elite defender. It's his offense from a defensive position, that he plays at least adequately, that makes him a notable player.
I don't recall his last big baserunning gaffe, and there have been far fewer of them this season.
His overall game improves incrementally with every game, and he has the look of a + defender and +++ offensive force in a year or 2.
Every silver lining has a cloud. -
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kennerbuggy:
I don't recall his last big baserunning gaffe, and there have been far fewer of them this season.
I believe it was Saturday when he got picked off trying to steal 3rd.
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CommentAuthorhunteralan
- CommentTimeFeb 18th 2010
As a counter to Plasshat's hatchet job on Lindsey Jacobellis, Jon Weisman on his Dodger Thoughts: http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/dodger-thoughts/post/_/id/2865/coping - Why Lindsey Jacobellis Rocks.
One excerpt:
On top of that, Plaschke is thunderstruck that Jacobellis did not want to hold interviews with the press who, in Plaschke's own words, "ripped her four years ago, folks who she believes will never understand the culture of her game." This one doesn't exactly belong in "Unsolved Mysteries."
Plaschke went on Twitter this morning with a series of generalizations that confirm his not-so-occasional myopia. A sample: "Male figure skaters are, like, great athletes who squabble like teenage girls...Women figure skaters are divas who fight like men." Sheesh.
He acknowledges in one breath, "Sports columnists here are strangest creatures of all...We analyze people we don't know playing sports we don't understand." In the next, he writes about how its his task to judge them. He doesn't seem to connect that if he's not capable of judging them, then maybe he just shouldn't.
Jon, you're my new hero.
(And yes, I hope he reads this too!)
"It is called being a professional. If you take the money, give the effort. If you are a pro in any sport, you are always supposed to give your best effort." ~Joe Morgan. -
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Those 4 little letters "e, s, p and n" have significantly lowered the threshold for his tolerance of Plasshat's inane ramblings.
Fortunately for everyone.
Poor fella, he has no idea -
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CommentAuthorJon Weisman
- CommentTimeFeb 19th 2010
Thanks, Hunteralan
I haven't changed my approach to Plaschke since moving to ESPN, though. Don't expect me to beat the dead horse on a regular basis.
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