Remember Mark Prior?

At least Mark is dealing with his recent demotion with all the grace that could be expected of a guy in his situation. And by 'his situation' I mean, 26 years old, former All-Star, won 18 games in 2003 and struck out 245 with an ERA of 2.43. That was almost four years ago. And now, he is a proud member of the AAA-Iowa Cubs. Actually, he's not technically on the roster, because he has yet to 'return' from another injury. I'm not sure how, during spring training, he was being considered for the fifth spot in the rotation.

Prior doesn't seem to have an acute injury. He simply has one, very chronic, shoulder injury. His velocity in the spring was in the mid-80's. For a guy that relied largely on a lights-out fastball, mid-80's is pretty awful. I find it absolutely ludicrous that, with millions of dollars at stake, not to mention his professional reputation, he hasn't found some way to rehab it and strengthen that rotator cuff. There has got to be more to the story. But I don't think we should keep reading his name in reports as, "Prior (shoulder) hasn't made an appearance since..." until we actually have a description of this phantom injury. Or at least something like, 'he visited a specialist, who can't find a problem.' Well, enough speculating. What does Prior have to say about this?

I'm just an employee. The goal now is to go down and help that team win and try to make the AAA All-Star team. Maybe I can get invited to the Futures game or something. I'm still 26. It's part of the business. That's the way I look at it. There's not much I can say. I'm a controlled player. I do what I am told.

Wow. That's seriously depressing. And a major bummer. Here's a former 18-game winner who is aspiring to make the AAA All-Star team, and maybe, maybe, if he gets really lucky, he can even make the Futures game. That's really sick. I do what I am told? It's almost like he's been emotionally beaten into submission by some force within the Cubs organization. Creepy. Also, the previous link was not a mistake.

And you know Rich Hill is going to be a lights out guy someday soon. I meant to write about him about a year ago. I saw him throw a couple years back and the dude had a lights out curve ball. And so I drafted him in the 20th round of my pay league. Dude went for the perfect game against the Brewers, and didn't allow a hit until Corey Hart took him deep in the sixth. He ended up with 6 K's in 7IP. And that HR was the only hit he allowed. Just watch out for the guy.

Kazmir, Cubs, C. Duffy, and College Baseball Lying - May 18th, 2006

You'd think that Dusty Baker the Commentator would be great, right?

As we all know, Dusty Baker is no longer at the helm of the Chicago Cubs. He left, and Lou Piniella took his place. That's a pretty big adjustment for D. Lee, Dempster, and A Ramirez to make. But I'm sure they'll make it work, right? After all, they always find a way. It'll be interesting to see if this team implodes in on itself again, if it actually performs to expectations, or if they resort to beaning opposing batters to "defend themselves," as Lou's previous team did. In the end, I'm disappointed, because I will no longer be able to poke fun at Baker's crazy antics, or the fact that he is flat out the worst in-game manager in the sport. Especially since Alan Trammel took himself out of the running last year. Bummer, I'll miss Baker.

Or so I thought.

See, I turned on ESPN yesterday to catch some opening day ball. And then I heard one of the announcers mention something about how to catch a pop-up, concluding what I'm sure was a flash of brilliance with, "isn't that right, Dusty?" I've got rabbit ears for the guy, and if I'm not 100% focused before, I sure am now. Sure enough, Dusty Baker was in the booth, "commentating." I did some digging and found out that Baker is not only going to appear on the regular season telecasts, but he is a full-fledged analysis on Baseball Tonight as well. I missed that, because Baseball Tonight isn't my favorite show. That's great. Now, I didn't hear any interesting Baker-isms, but I'm sure he's just starting off a little shy. He'll warm up. By the All-Star break, we'll start hearing about how all the walks the A's are getting are just clogging up the bases for the guys that can run. Just wait for it.

Ben Sheets is back. Apparently, he finally remembered who he is, and what people used to think he was. People used to expect great things from the guy. Especially after he shut down the world in the 2000 Olympics, allowing just 1 run in 22 innings. But lately he hasn't been so hot. I've always had faith in the guy. But nothing adds to faith like a 9-inning, 2 hit, 1 run opening day start.

What do you mean, Baker's out? - October 17th, 2006
D-Rays and Red Sox - May 1st, 2005
Are John Kruk and Steve Phillips stupid? - April 10th, 2006

Here's a Show of Good Faith

Well, I was just looking at Kevin's post in the chatbox from a few months back,

rumor has it, reid is planning a great return to the blog. He may say he has been "very busy" but he is lying. He has just been lazy, and has been catching up in watching The Office.

Here's the thing about that - I am busy, I am. Biochemistry is a lot of hard work. The Office is also the best show on TV, and it's also on my computer, and I like to watch it. A lot. Sue me.

What does Boston want with Todd Helton? Can someone explain this to me? Last year, Helton came this close to going dead last in my fantasy draft. Dude went from first-rounder to "Um... we'll take Todd I guess..." Like the fat kid in Dodgeball. And now Boston wants to take on this load? Big teams keep making these mistakes, and I can't figure it out. Sure, a team like Tampa Bay will bring in a big, past-his-prime star to teach the youngsters and to draw fans to the park. The Red Sox need neither of those things. The Yankees were also in need of neither when they acquired Randy Johnson. There has to be something I'm missing, right? Of course, we don't know what the Red Sox are offering for Helton. I just don't see this as a situation where Colorado no longer needs Helton, but the Red Sox are looking for just that guy. Let me know what you think.

And what's going on with Mark Buehrle in Chicago? I've long been one of Buehrle's biggest fans, and I don't know what happened last year, (ERA circa 5,) but I'm willing to write it off. Apparently, GM Ken Williams isn't. Actually, maybe he is. No one really seems to know what's going on here, least of all Williams and Buehrle. It doesn't help that this whole scene has been covered like a soap opera. For example:

The question was asked of Mark Buehrle maybe once, maybe twice, maybe even a handful of times. Well, in reality, it probably was asked about 15 or 20 times.

Apparently the question dealt with money. And from what I can gather, 'they' asked Buehrle how much he would need to stay with the White Sox after 2007. He said he wasn't looking for Zito sort of money. But he said that didn't matter because he had seen direct quotes from Williams saying he didn't want Buehrle back. And now, it would appear that Williams never said that. Or he did, and he's sorry it was interpreted that way. Does anyone notice that Williams and Ozzie Guillen seem to repeatedly find themselves in these sort of situations? What a mess.

I had an idea, something I can work on before Spring Training. Maybe I'll try to do a quick run down of the free-agent deals. This is a win-win situation for everyone. This way I know who is where before the season starts, and so do you. It's not too original, but I think it will work. I'm really going to try very hard to keep up for this season. Leave your thoughts. Wait, I still don't have this out of my system... this is really going to bother me for the next five years. "What do you mean, Dusty Baker's out?"

On top of that, I would like to hear from any of you regulars that are still out there - just to see who we have left. Thanks.

Buehrle, others talk money at SoxFest (MLB.com) - January 27, 2007
GM Williams clarifies Buehrle situation (MLB.com) - January 27, 2007
What do you mean, Dusty Baker's out? - October 17, 2006

I'm still alive, I promise

Things have been pretty weird around here lately. There have been a few things that I wanted to write about but didn't really have the chance to. Also, it's the off-season so no one really reads this thing anyway. But I'm just gonna bring up a few free agent issues, if anyone is around still reading, talk amongst yourselves...

Randy Johnson traded to Diamondbacks
I can't be the only person who thinks this is hilarious. Now, granted the Diamondbacks didn't give up a whole lot to get Johnson, but on the same token... what are you getting with this guy? Randall just celebrated his 43rd birthday at the end of last season. A season in which he finished with an ERA of 5.00. Randy's struggles during his first year in New York could have been at least partially ascribed to him getting used to a new team, a new league, that whole 'New York media' and the like. He still finished with an ERA of 3.79. But last year, he was just bad. There's nothing left in the guy. I thought the Yankees, (or rather, Steinbrenner,) were foolish for acquiring Johnson. And the Diamondbacks are not getting back the guy that left after finishing with a 2.60 ERA and 290 K's, (you may also recall that he won only 16 games that year.) Of course, the Diamondbacks are not a stupid organization, otherwise they would not be playing baseball. We know there are other forces at work here. I think that, despite his apparent hesitation, Johnson wanted out of New York, and into Arizona. And of course, the Yankees needed to get that guy out of New York. I'm sure you can figure that part out for yourself.

Octavio Dotel to the Royals
Well, shoot. What did this man give the Yankees in his one year? People were excited about him before the season started. We knew he was sick. But when he 'healed' he put in 10 innings, and allowed 12 runs. 10 innings is hardly a long enough time to judge the guy, it's just interesting to see his final contribution. In any case, he's on to the fighting Royals.

And there's another hilarious note, and you regular readers know where I'm going with this. PFC Mark Grudzielanek ended up losing his war. Of course, the Royals lost 100 games again, finishing behind every single team in the league - except the Devil Rays, who managed 101 loses. Another interesting note - because it's funny, and so weird - is that the Royals managed to go 2-4 against the Cardinals. You know how when you're in little league, and you get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, you root for the team that beat you - that way you can say you got beat by the Champions. In other words, you weren't bad, they were just good. Well, this is kind of like that, except that we're not talking about small children. I had to find something nice to say though.

Sheffield to the Tigers
This is one of the first trades that I have ever found myself undecided about. I know it's good for the Yankees. I wrote that Sheff was out of there as soon as they got Abreu. But is he good for the Tigers? Obviously, the Tigers were overachieving last year - not by much, but they were really streaky. Really good teams play well most of the time. The Tigers managed to get farther than any other team in the AL by playing lights-out baseball for most of the season and playing like the Royals -- literally -- for a few small stretches. I'm assuming Sheffield was brought in as a way to keep the boys alive when they decide they don't want to hit for a week. I can't imagine that he'll hurt us -- the thing with hitters is that you can always take them out of the lineup, unlike pitchers -- but I don't think he will have as big an impact as people expect. I could easily be wrong on this, though. *Edit: 11-16-08: I was not wrong.

I'm not sure what's going to happen for the next couple months. I hope I can get something in here whenever something interesting happens, at least once every week or two. So we'll see. Feel free to leave comments if you want me to hit on something, because I'm looking for ideas. I've been trying to keep on top of stuff, so I'm not completely clueless. I hate waking up on opening day, or the day of my fantasy draft, and finding that 50 players aren't were they "should" be. That's why I got creamed in my last two fantasy leagues. *Another edit, 11-16-08: Won my fantasy league in 2007.

NL West: Citizenship Revoked - March 19, 2006
It seems the Royals are bad. Really bad. - May 2, 2006

Some shady Cubs dealings...

The Cubs have never been known for their shrewd management skills throughout the last five years or so, (and, well, technically, the last 99 years). The Dusty Baker Era/Experiment died a sick and, for us fans of humor, unfortunate death this off-season. But, that's not where the madness ends. I think a little re-hashing would do everyone some good. We're gonna be kind of tricky here and start at the beginning of this off-season, then kind of work our way back.

To start off, Cubs management fired Dusty Baker. Why they did this is, to me, a mystery. Sure, the team finished a game back of the Pirates and 30 games South of .500. The players were soft, and Dusty liked it that way. He is also the worst in-game manager in the history of the sport. His 'strategies' went against every logical rule in baseball - "If you take a walk, most of the time you're just clogging up the bases for someone who can run." And, while this made for one of the most entertaining franchises in the past few years, eventually taking the K instead of the BB will catch up to you, in the W column. So, they canned him. What about his days in Frisco, you might ask? Put it this way - if Phil Jackson's mother was coaching the Chicago Bulls between 1989 and '98, they would have still been amazing, because they had Michael freaking Jordan.

Now, this is what does not make sense. How do you fire Baker, and then turn around and give pitching coach Larry Rothschild an extension? Rothschild is guilty of everything Baker is. This man has done more to keep Wood and Prior on the bench -- or, rather, pitching "more than a bullpen session -- we'll keep counts and outs, stuff like that" -- than anyone else. He kept Wood and Prior sheltered in some kind of Spring Training limbo while the rest of the team struggled through the first half of the 2006 Season with a variety of phantom ailments. And when the guys do come back, they're terrible. Now, this isn't all Rothschild's fault, because obviously he's not throwing the ball. But, if the dude's contract just ran out, and you just fired the Manager, and you had the kind of pitching that the Cubs had last year... maybe it's time for a job search. At the very least, you don't rush to a 2-year extension.

Then the player moves. First off, signing Aramis Ramirez. The dude is a baller, and I wrote before the 2006 season that he was going to go nuts this year, and he did. But is he worth $73 million over 5 years? Either way, if the Cubs are going to even look serious, they had to make that deal. They also signed Kerry Wood to a 1-year, $1.75 million deal. Now, Wood used to be a good pitcher. But he hasn't done a thing in the last four years. Still, if the guy turns it around in 2007, which he won't, Jim Hendry will look like a genius. So, I get it. $1.75 million is nothing.

Obviously, the big one is the Soriano deal. The dude is 30 years old, and he just got inked to an 8-year, $136 million contract. One could say that he had his best year last year. But I promise you that he will never, ever, hit those numbers again. He's a below average fielder, a clubhouse cancer -- depending on who you believe -- and the owner of a lifetime .280 batting average. And now that he got his payday, he's good. To put this into perspective, only four other players have ever signed a contract worth this much: A-Rod, ($252 million, 10 years,) Derek Jeter, ($189 million, 10 years,) Manny Ramirez, ($160, 8 years,) and Todd Helton, ($141.5 million, 11 years.) However, Helton's contract is only worth about $12 million a year, while Soriano's is worth $17 million a year. All of these guys are going to be legends, except for Soriano. The way I see it, Cubs ownership knew that they had to make up for the foul-up that was the 2006 season. They knew they had to sign a big name. Soriano was the biggest name, and the Cubs bought into the hype. Again, I'm going to say the same thing that I've said for, literally, the past three years. It's good to see that that's more important to them than building a solid bullpen.

When are the Cubs going to get it? Post-2003, the Cubs did a lot of pouting, as is the Dusty Baker style. They made no real moves to strengthen their bullpen or their rotation. Instead, they got a hold of the Bartman Ball and blew it up. Cubs Fan explained that if Marlin Fan got their hands on this ball, who knows what could happen? I can't make this up. After the 2004 Season, which was another failure, Cubs fans ingested the remnants of the ball in the form of beer and sauce. Again, no improvements to the bullpen. Actually, the bullpen went backwards in that off-season, shipping off Farnsworth and resigning two relievers that ended up getting the Dusty Baker Arm-blown-off treatment in the first few months of the season. After the 2005 season, the Cubs made the following unbelievable improvements to the pitching: traded away first-rate prospect Sergio Metre, signed Scott Eyre, (who, as you might recall, injured both himself and Team Leader Derrek Lee on the same play last year,) and signed Wade Miller, who pitched in 21.2 innings last year and gave up 11 runs. So far this year, they have resigned Wade Miller, and resigned Kerry Wood. Um...?

Which makes Brewers GM Ned Yost's quote all the more interesting. "They [Cubs] are stacking it," he said. "You look at Soriano, Ramirez and Lee, and they're going to have quite a team. We're not going to be able to match their thump, so we're going to have to have good pitching and defense to compete. They're looking pretty good right now." It must have taken an enormous amount of self control for Ned to get out that whole statement without cracking up. Dude -- they have one more guy, Soriano. And, for a team that struggled to last place in the entire National League last year, Alfonso Soriano is not a difference maker -- no matter how hard Hendry taps his feet, or crosses his fingers, or whatever else he might try. Clearly, all these other moves the Cubs are making aren't awful choices -- it's just that they're overpaying, and they're not getting any pitching. Someone should remind them how the Yankees have turned out the past few years... and the Rockies, who, as you might recall, threw in the proverbial pitching towel and developed their offense.

Maroth, Dusty Baker v. BB, and Marlins - April 26, 2006
David Wright, Aramis Ramirez, and Yankees-Red Sox - March 23, 2006
Thank you, Roy. - April 5, 2006
Cranes, Cubs, Yankees, and DL Notes - April 20, 2006

What do you mean, Baker's out?

Who's idea was it to take a team previously managed by Dusty Baker for years and throw Lou Piniella into the mix? You can't find two more different guys. First, we all know that Dusty Baker is probably my favorite topic here. So I'm sad that he's gone. But the Cubs are so soft that when their TV announcers said anything critical about the team, they ran to Baker and complained. They can't take mild, even constructive criticism from their announcers -- how will they take the serious stuff from Piniella? Piniella is one of the most fiery managers in the game, if not the most. Do you remember the start of the D-Rays v. Red Sox Rivalry in 2005? Lou explained away all the hit batsmen by saying, "We didn't throw at guy's heads, but if we're thrown at, we'll defend ourselves." Curt Schilling responded by calling Lou and idiot and claiming that D-Ray players had told him that Lou was the reason they're a lock to lose 100 games every year, and that he makes them throw at guys. Lou responded by saying he's forgotten more baseball than Curt will ever know, he's disappointed that Curt would say such a thing, and he's sure none of his guys would ever say that. Oh yeah, and recall that the 2005 D-Rays had nothing to defend, that they hit three Blue Jays in the next game, and that all those bullet pitches were just pitches that sailed away.

In contrast, Dusty Baker explained away all the walks his pitchers gave out and his batters didn't receive last year by saying that, "walks just clog up the bases." And how about this memorable story?

In a 2004 game against the Marlins, Moises Alou hit a foul ball close to where Bartman was sitting in the 2003 NLCS. After it went into the stands, Marlin's left fielder Miguel Cabrera mocked Alou's angry reaction to Bartman's grab, pouting and stomping around, and basically acting like a small child. Marlin's 3B Mike Lowell said, "It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life." The Cubs, however, didn't think it was very funny, and Cabrera got dotted by Cub's pitcher Glendon Rusch in his next at bat. Well, whether or not it was funny isn't up for debate, because it was hilarious. The fact is, the 2004 Cubs are just soft.

And that was two years ago. Nothing has changed. The team whines and cries about the smallest things. In many ways, they're a lot like the post-championship Pistons. In a blog post I saw a few days ago, it was explained that the Pistons lack of success lately is the result of their excessive on-court whining. The only difference is that the Pistons do it because they think they deserve the calls, post-championship as they are. The Cubs, needless to say, are not in that position.

So what's it going to be for the post-Baker era? How's it going to play out? Unless Hendry makes some serious moves, the team is still going to be terrible. But maybe instead of going out on the field knowing they'll lose 90 games and not caring how they do it, they'll go out big. Like, "hey, we know we're still a lock to lose at least 90, but we're gonna be major a-holes about it." So, instead of LaTroy Hawkins pitching in the 9th to protect the lead, but actually giving up the win to Albert Pujols' 3rd jack of the night, (and then, you guessed it, crying about it, in this case attempting to fight Ump Tim Tschida, under "Albert Pujols is good,") we'll just have Ryan Dempster peg Pujols in the skull. The outcome will be the same, but at least they'll have more street cred!

Those D-Rays and Red Sox - May 1, 2005
Yankee OF and Catchup-Part II - May 16, 2006
Red Sox/Yankees, Pujols, and NL West Solutions - May 1, 2006

AL/NLCS Recaps

I just got back from a Writing Competence Exam that I'm required to take in order to graduate college. You pick one of 10 questions presented to you. I chose the question asking if, since the two teams with the best record in the AL were eliminated in the first round, should we increase the series to a seven-game format from the current five-game format? Let's get something straight - these ten questions were all current event questions to be answered in typical, five-page, persuasive format. There were questions asking about the college's upcoming "Coming Out" week. There was a question asking about Congressman Foley's "deplorable" behavior. Questions of great and worldly importance. And a question about baseball. Well, I think I passed.

Now, look where we are? The Tigers have a 3-0 series lead on an Oakland team that I berated SI for rating as the "2nd best" in all of baseball. Looks like they weren't that far off the mark. Actually, Oakland beat the Twins because, in the all-important Game 3, the Twins sent out tough guy Brad Radke. When your very existence in the postseason is on the line, you don't send out a guy with so many physical problems that, less than halfway through the season, he says "screw it, I'm retiring after this." If he's you're Game 3 stopper, you have no business in the postseason anyway. Taking one step back, the A's made it into the playoffs because, heck, they're in the AL West. If you can take out the pitching-deprived Rangers, the talent-deprived Mariners, and the offensively-deprived Angels, you win. And I know the A's finished with 93 wins, and the Angels with 89. Toronto had 87 wins in a heck of a lot tougher division. If Toronto had played say, eight games, against the Mariners instead of the Yankees, they might have 95 wins. But good job Oakland, I'm sure it means a lot to you guys, even after you get your brains beat in by a very good Tigers team.

This Detroit team is, quite simply, a team that is not going to be beaten right now. This is the kind of team that I play in MVP Baseball 2004, and they make every play. The pitcher will spot every pitch on the corner. The outfielders catch up to every ball. It's like the team is playing on god mode. Now, I'm not saying that the Tigers aren't a good team. They're great. But they're also hot right now, and the postseason is the right time to get hot.

Now, who saw last night's Game 2 of the NLCS? First, let it be known that, in every conceivable way, the NL is a wreck of a league. I simply cannot find the entertainment in any NL Game. There's something about it that just is not exciting. I know it's crazy, but I feel like the parks are darker, the players are more formal, and the excitement level just isn't there. I feel like I'm watching a golf match. (Is it called a match?) I don't expect anything exciting to happen. But when I watch an AL game, I never know what to expect. It's like getting together the 2004-2005 Pacers team; some idiot is going to throw a punch, or fire a gun, or scream at Rick, or freak out at the media. You don't know what will happen, but you know it will be big. In the AL, we have all the drama of Kenny Rogers and the Tiger's bullpen limiting the A's to two hits to go up 3-0 on them and on the brink of a World Series. Meanwhile, in the NL, we have Chris Carpenter pitching as well as John Maine; actually, worse, but only because he was in for one more inning. And then we have a tie game, broken up when the great So Taguchi - who didn't even start - hits a home run. The Cardinals score twice more, and the Mets respond -- as their own stadium empties -- by striking out, and then grounding out twice more to end the game. Fabulous. Did you actually listen to So's Home Run? It was morbid. Shea was silent. The announcers were mildly excited. Now the series is tied 1-1, while the Tigers are about to enter the World Series. It's just boring. However, I won't deny the fact that, since the only NL team I even come close to caring about is the Cardinals, maybe I just don't like it because I don't follow it. Oh yeah, and because every team is awful.

So where do we go from here? Is a well-rested Tiger team better off than a down-trodden, pitching deprived Cardinals or Mets team? The writing is on the wall, people. I just have one question - when is the parade? *Edit, 11-16-08: Opps.