This is a really good sign for Eugenio Velez, the team's most influential baserunner and a potential backup at either second base or the outfield. It now seems likely that Velez will make the team, if for no other reason than the speed he brings off the bench.Velez still fights for time with Emmanuel Burris and Kevin Frandsen. That means his fantasy value is limited to steals until he cracks the lineup on a regular basis. Even then he might be limited to merely stolen bases.
Any fan hoping to make fun of New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez can no longer get a No. 13 Yankees jersey with the word "A-Fraud" on the back.Here's guessing "Boli" and "Sucart" won't draw nearly the interested that A-Fraud was getting.
MLB.com has banned the new A-Rod nickname from the personalization feature on replica jerseys on MLB.com. MLB.com spokesman Matt Gould told CNBC that the league does not allow fans to personalize products with anything that is deemed inappropriate, derogatory or profane.
Fans haven't been able to personalize their jerseys on the site with the word "steroids" since 2005, but as of this afternoon, fans can get A-Rod's drug of choice, "Boli," on the back of jerseys. They can also get "Sucart," the last name of A-Rod's cousin, who has been part of the story.
It's far too late to make any radical changes to the 2009 Major League Baseball schedule. So Twins President Dave St. Peter offered two special requests to pass along to the firm that produces the 2010 sked: No road trips longer than nine games, and one interleague visit by the Cubs. "Because they do draw fans," St. Peter said.Stunning, really. The article goes on to explain that most requests are more substantial, such as the Rockies needing to be out of Denver during last year's Democratic National Convention. Makes sense.
"We cannot allow those clubs to beat us. It's our game," the former Los Angeles Dodgers manager said Thursday. "Remember one thing: In your hearts, you better pull for the USA or you may not get into heaven."Lasorda might be xenophobic when it comes to baseball, but he's willing to flip the switch for this year's world tournament despite his hostility toward everyone but the USA.
"It's our game. Baseball is America's game. It doesn't belong to the Italians or the Cubans or the Koreans or the Japanese," he said. "It's our game, and we're not going to let them beat us."
Lasorda, the Hall of Fame manager and Classic global ambassador, was there with Major League Baseball executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan and Empire State Building general manager Jim Connors for the official lighting ceremony of the Classic.Yes, all of the country, indeed. Not all of the world. I'm guessing Lasorda wished that building was made up of the three primary colors. Well, his three primary colors of red, white and blue.
That evening, once the sun dipped below the Hudson River to the west, the Empire State Building was geared up to shine red, green, blue and yellow on each of the four sides of the building in honor of the World Baseball Classic colors.
"The colors on the building shows it's big-time," said Lasorda. "All of the country now will know about the Classic."
Fausto Carmona said he did report to spring training overweight, but is in better condition now.If Carmona isn't keeping his weight in check, his stats could continue to take that hip check they suffered last year.
"I've lost a few pounds," said Carmona, dripping sweat after his postgame sprints Wednesday. "I'm feeling much better."
Carmona, listed at 6-4 and 230 pounds, threw two scoreless innings Wednesday in the Tribe's 5-4 exhibition victory over the Cubs.
"Mentally, I've been just trying to throw the ball to the middle of the plate and not try to do too much," said Carmona, who walked 70 and struck out 58 last year.
Schumaker misplayed a couple of routine choppers Sunday, suffering the first setback in his transition from outfield back to infield.Good luck, Schu. Here's hoping for your sake things work out, but I'm not entirely certain you're the right fit for the Redbirds at second long-term. And it's not your glove I'm worried about. It's your bat.
“Those ground balls the other day are outs,” Schumaker said. “Pitchers expect those balls to be out and so do I. So I have to get that down.”
On the first play, he stayed back on the ball, then rushed his catch-and-flip to get the force-out at second base. He cuffed the ball as a result.
On the second play, Schumaker backed up on a chopper -– and the last bounce ate him alive.
“Once I backed up, I was praying the ball would go into my glove,” he said after the game. “It didn’t.”
Veteran Ryan Franklin, dazzling in his first outing, retired all six men he faced. Young Chris Perez, who had struggled in his first two outings, had a perfect inning; Josh Kinney, who had walked four hitters in two previous innings, didn't walk anybody and Jason Motte worked his third straight scoreless inning.That has me wondering: might the Cardinals end up going with a three-man closer like the Cincinnati Reds of yesteryear? I'm not saying Perez / Motte / Franklin will ever be as talented as Randy Myers / Rob Dibble / Norm Charlton, but maybe it's time to bring back the three-headed committee approach.
Intrigue over approaching former Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez as a potential closer will go no farther. The club now views projected set-up man Ryan Franklin as its alternative to Chris Perez and Jason Motte should the younger pitchers not assert themselves this spring.Something tells me Pedro still wants to start. If he can get a gig as a fifth starter somewhere else, he'll take it.
Lowell is progressing nicely from right hip surgery and could play his first exhibition game "within a week," according to manager Terry Francona.The Red Sox need Lowell now as much as ever. He was really their fallback option at third this season when any chance to sign Mark Teixeira was nixed when the Yankees signed him. If Tex went to Boston, Kevin Youkilis would slide to third and Lowell would be the odd man out.
"We're getting into that area now where we can maybe think about DHing [him] a couple of at-bats, and then [have him] play third," Francona said. "But I bet you were getting close enough where it will be within a week. He's doing good. He's doing fine. He's running the bases. Every step he's supposed to do, he's done. We'll do our best to ease him in as much as we can where he gets comfortable baseball-wise."
In fact, Drew said that his lower back has been at its best of late when he's on the field. It's normally when he's sitting at home or doing some other idle activity when it tightens up.Drew played just 109 games last season with injury problems, but he did hit the 140-game mark each of the two seasons prior.
"It seemed like the more I got it loose and moving around, I wasn't really having any issues out there playing," said Drew. "That was encouraging. But it is aggravating to be sitting at home and what we call dancing in the chair, back and forth, trying to get in a position that doesn't really stiffen up. I had good days and bad days, and hopefully, this will give me the benefit of getting freed up and having a lot of good days."
The purpose of the shot was to get some scar tissue out of the facet joint and reduce the inflammation.
The Rodriguez news, changing by the hour, has more immediate impact on the Sox. A-Rod seems certain to miss the beginning of the season, could be out until late summer, and may have a career-threatening condition with $275 million still owed from the Yankees.While that money could impact the Yankees over the years, with YES Network money and the New Yankee Stadium set to open in April, I don't see New York entering any financial straits, perhaps, ever.
Bill Plaschke says Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti was the big winner, "correctly reading the market and holding firm despite a winter's worth of criticism.''I guess it's not just the paper that has the cynical view of the deal being between enemy combatants "The Dodgers" and "Manny Ramirez." Jeff Passan obviously sees it that way, too, that the Dodgers and Ramirez were at war over the contract, and there's obviously a winner and a loser between the two.
You can follow Plaschke, by the way, at twitter.com/latbillplaschke.
Jeff Passan of YahooSports! writes that all the stalling still didn't give the Dodgers enough time to recognize "the gravity of their mistake.''
As for Ramirez, he reportedly will appear at a news conference tomorrow in Arizona, but he spoke to T.J. Simers last night and revealed that he was close to returning to Mannywood.
"There's two courses of action concerning what he has," Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said Thursday from Tampa, Fla. "There is treat it conservatively, which would imply rest, exercise and treatment. Or you can treat it aggressively, which is by surgery. At this point in time, we are going to go the conservative route."There have been comparisons of A-Rod's injury to Chase Utley's. Utley played last year with his own hip injury and is just getting back to playing baseball again after surgery in late November.
Recently we have seen other high-profile baseball players undergo surgery to address labral injuries, including Phillies second baseman Chase Utley and Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. Utley, for one, had labral surgery in late November and is optimistic that he'll be ready for Opening Day. "Optimistic" is not "certain," though, and the time lapse between Utley's surgery and Opening Day will be about 19 weeks.So, let's see how much Utley's numbers suffered from 2007 to 2008 to see what kind of impact we might see in A-Rod's 2009 season, assuming he can play through the pain like Utley did.
It will need to take some tips from soccer's World Cup, one of the greatest sporting events around, to truly capture the attention of the baseball world:There are all sorts of problems with these points, including the fact that soccer takes a much different toll on the body than baseball does, and rarely does a team play more than two games in a week in soccer. But the biggest problem with the WBC is its lack of tradition. World Cups in soccer are nearly as old as the sport itself. When there were no multi-million dollar contracts from club teams, soccer players felt more of a loyalty to playing for the national team for free. A certain glamor became attached to playing for country, and soccer players and fans alike have developed a unique bond with their tournament that stands the test of time. The WBC enters the baseball world at a time of mega-deals between teams and players, meaning loyalty is firmly established between player and ballclub and not player and country. This situations makes it a lot more difficult to get players to risk injury and play for free.
1. Too many players sit out the WBC for dubious reasons because their loyalty to their ballclub and the signer of their checks still trumps playing for their country.
2. Even baseball fans would struggle to recall that Japan won the first WBC, and South Korea won the 2008 Olympic gold medal, but every soccer fan knows that Italy won the last World Cup and Spain is the reigning Euro Cup champ. Baseball fans need to get more familiar with international squads, which will come with increased exposure.
3. Once the WBC does gain the type of notoriety mentioned in points 1 and 2, then it will be able to suspend the MLB schedule in order to hold the games. If the Classic were held when players were at their peak, say in the middle of the traditional season, instead of in pre-season when they are just getting back into shape, the quality of play would be better and the games more exciting. After all, the NHL suspends its season for the Winter Olympics, and European soccer leagues work around the World Cup.
"Alex expressed a little stiffness. There was really no pain," Girardi said on Wednesday, a day after the 33-year-old slugger played for the Dominican Republic in a tuneup for the World Baseball Classic. "We just thought it was best because he had some minor issues last year with it. We'll have a better idea after today with what the course of plan is."At this point it sounds like the Yankees and Rodriguez are trying to stop the injury from becoming a bigger problem, but if the issue lingered through the offseason into the spring there might be more to it than needing rest.
The team announced on Tuesday that Rodriguez would get his hip checked by Dr. Marc Phillipon in Vail, Colo., on Wednesday afternoon. An exam Saturday revealed a cyst in the hip.
"Whenever you have something going on, you're concerned," Girardi said. "The fact he didn't have a lot of pain is a little bit more comforting. He's been able to play, and play at a high level. It hasn't kept him from doing anything. It hasn't kept him from driving the baseball. That's the good thing."
"[Laughing]... it's not a match for us," Acta said. "I don't think at this stage of his career that Barry is going to pick a team that is rebuilding anyway."The Nationals might not want Barry, but he would pick any team at this point. The only teams that might remotely be interested in him are the playoff contenders that fall into desperate straights later in the year.
Bonds would put people in the seats at Nationals Park, but that's not the direction the team is going in.
"Yeah he will, but that's not the main point here. It's trying to win, win in the long term basis and give a chance to younger guys."
“I’m expecting soon something to happen,” Rodriguez said yesterday after training at the Red Sox [team stats] minor league facility, where the Puerto Rican team will work out this week. “I’m ready to play for a major league team.”There's at least one team willing to talk. The New York Mets would like Rodriguez to compliment Brian Schneider in a platoon- or reserve-type role.
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