Loria keeping positive on Marlins stadium

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria popped up at Sunday's spring training game and says his club's plight to build a new stadium couldn't come at a better time.

''The timing for the stadium could not be better and to get this stadium built now is the perfect time,'' Loria said. ``Our nation is embarking on its largest public/private partnership. . . . People need jobs, people need paychecks and the time to get it done is now.''

Asked about the opposition he encounters in trying to get the stadium built, Loria said: 'I don't want to hear about the naysayers. There's plenty of them around. They are the ones who always look back and say, `You know what? You guys did the right thing.' . . . There will always be people who are opposed to progress. This is a positive thing for Florida. This is a positive thing for the nation and certainly for the thousands of people that need the work.''

Loria added he is optimistic about the stadium deal passing and does not ponder if it were to fail.

''I never think of what if,'' Loria said. ``I am a positive thinker. Our ballclub I think positively about. I'm thinking positively about the stadium. . . . There is no other way to think.''

Optimist is putting it lightly, Jeff. The city of Miami votes on Thursday on a new stadium at the site of the old Orange Bowl. We'll see how optimistic Loria sounds after the vote.

Utley takes first step

Chase Utley's back at it, playing four innings of a spring game to get himself ready for the regular season after offseason hip surgery. Oddly enough, Utley didn't make his debut with the Phils, but instead went 2-4 with a double in a minor leage intra-squad game.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said the decision was made collectively by Utley and team personnel.

"We felt like he was ready to get into one and test the waters," Amaro said.

Amaro said that after the intrasquad game team trainers told him Utley was "tired, but it was a good workout for him. We'll have to see what happens, how he feels tomorrow morning, and kind of progress him day by day."

Amaro said that while Utley has been eager to play, the second baseman has resisted the temptation to return before his hip was ready.

"He knows what is at stake, and how important it is for him to be healthy in the long term," Amaro said. "This was probably a test date for him, and we'll see how he comes out of it."

Manuel said that the team would proceed with caution.

"We'll take it easy on him," Manuel said. "He's not ready for me to just turn him loose and start playing every day. We're going to kind of break him in."

Makes sense that Utley would start in a minor league game if he's not quite up to snuff. A step down allows him to get his bearings, have some success and build confidence before return to the parent club.

Getting the best of Lester?

Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald writes an interesting piece on Jon Lester's five-year, $30 M signing with the Red Sox and how it miffs agent Scott Boras.

It’s quite easy to understand why the Red Sox and the players love these deals. Not only do the Sox have cost certainty with such early proactive deals, but they also bought out one to two years of free agency with Kevin Youkilis [stats], Dustin Pedroia [stats] and Lester. For example, the latter is on a career trajectory that has the potential to mirror that of CC Sabathia, who waited to reach free agency and then inked a seven-year $161 million deal with the Yankees.

There are no guarantees with anything, of course, and there is no doubting the sincerity of such eager Red Sox players and others who opt for early deals (Ryan Braun, Evan Longoria, Troy Tulowitzki) when they say they love their deals because of the financial security they grant them.

Boras, who has only had a couple of clients (Jeff Weaver, Carlos Baerga) sign such deals in recent years, believes players who don’t wait for the free agency status that comes after six years in the major leagues deprive themselves of the opportunity to maximize their earning potential, as well as the earning potential of other elite talents, by deferring that long-range freedom for an early cash grab.

“You have to ask the question, why would teams that have four years of control over a (two-year) player offer six years security?” he said. “The math doesn’t work unless there is a substantial discount.”

It's a good piece, and in what are less than stable economic times you have to wonder if more teams continue to offer these types of deals to young stars.

Japan downs Cuba

In a rematch of their 2006 championship game, Japan defeats Cuba, 6-0. This is no surprise considering Daisuke Matsuzaka started for the Japanese against Aroldis Chapman. Japan is now in control of Pool 1.

Team USA wins, loses Braun?

Team USA stays alive to fight another day with a 9-3 win over The Netherlands, but in the process they lost Ryan Braun due to a sore left side.
Chipper Jones, Dustin Pedroia and now Ryan Braun. Dare we ask what's in the water?

Twins waiting to know more on Mauer

Joe Mauer's back problem is not getting resolved, and it has the Twins making other plans for their April 6 opener.

peaking through a team spokesman, Minnesota general manager Bill Smith said Sunday that he's received no update from the doctors on Mauer.

Mauer was scheduled to return to Fort Myers, Fla., on Saturday night after seeing a specialist in Baltimore for a second opinion on his lower back. But there has been no indication as to when the Twins will get an update on the results of the exam.

Mauer was diagnosed with inflammation in the right sacroiliac joint -- where the base of the spine meets the top of the pelvis -- by team doctors following a magnetic resonance arthrogram this week. He's been unable to take part in any team workouts so far this spring due to pain in his lower back, which he first began experiencing late last season.

An MRI on Mauer's back over the offseason revealed a kidney obstruction, and he underwent surgery to eliminate the problem on Dec. 22. The hope was that it would help relieve the back pain, but that has not been the case.

The Twins' season opener is April 6 against the Mariners, and while the club has yet to declare that Mauer will miss the start of the regular season, his availability is clearly in doubt.

"The more days go by, it looks like we are going to have to ad-lib at the beginning," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said Sunday. "But we are waiting on the latest news on Joe to see where we're at."

Mauer's fantasy draft stock should be sliding at this point. Weird that the Twins don't know anything by now.