General Baseball Thread 2007

[Clockwork Orange]

http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_5390506

Tucson - As starters go, Taylor Buchholz profiles as an effective reliever.

After his performance in the Rockies' 7-4 win Thursday over the White Sox, Buchholz talked about the possibility of working out of the bullpen, his likely role with the Rockies this season.

"I have pretty much been a starter, but I am fine either way," said Buchholz, who is out of minor-league options. "It feels the same."

With Buchholz's bullpen spot close to being secure, the only pitching spots remaining are the fifth starter's role and a single relief spot open for Matt Herges, Dave Veres, Danny Graves or Denny Bautista.

That explains why the Rockies planned to let the Atlanta Braves know Byung-Hyun Kim and Josh Fogg are available in a trade. Braves' starter Mike Hampton strained his left oblique muscle and is out until at least May, leaving Atlanta with a potential void.

A Braves' official predicted his team would look from within first and seemed lukewarm to Fogg and Kim. The Rockies won't consider moving Kim to the bullpen, meaning he makes the team as a starter or not as all.

With all signs pointing toward Jason Hirsh sticking in the rotation, Brian Lawrence could insert himself into the fifth-starter derby Saturday. He faces the White Sox and then will attempt to pitch on three days' rest like the rest of the starters. The Rockies have remained cautious with Lawrence and are prepared for him to begin the season on the disabled list if necessary to build up arm strength.

"I didn't throw really hard before, so I only have a little ways to go," said Lawrence, who topped out at 82 mph in his last outing, about 3 mph off his normal velocity.

Veres worked a scoreless inning Thursday, matching Herges' outing the previous day. Graves, who was out for the first week with a strained oblique, threw 13 balls in his first 16 pitches before escaping with only one run allowed in the fourth inning Thursday.

"It felt like old times. I got loose in 10 pitches. It's nice to pitch against the big boys (Tadahito Iguchi, Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye)," Veres said. "They didn't swing at my splitter, but I was able to get outs with my sinker."

Graves said he felt fine physically, "but I expected to give up hits, not walks. I had no command."

[TexanBob]

I'll Be Watching Less Baseball This Year

...since MLBEI is going to DirectTV for the next seven years. They put a poison pill in the deal they knew cable carriers couldn't/wouldn't do, all so they could deny they were acting monopolistic like NFL Network is doing. But, make no mistake, they're cutting out part of their fan base with this move.

[-Slap-]

Results of my NL Only draft from last week. 5X5 Roto. CBSSportsline Platinum league. Ten teams, I picked eighth.

I named this team 755.

1/8 Miguel M. Cabrera (3B FLA)

2/13 Matt Holliday (OF COL)

3/28 Prince Fielder (1B MIL)

4/33 Trevor Hoffman (P SD)

5/48 Russell Martin (C LA)

6/53 Cole Hamels (P PHI)

7/68 Brad Lidge (P HOU)

8/73 Carlos Quentin (OF ARI)

9/88 Willy Taveras (OF COL)

10/93 Dave Bush (P MIL)

11/108 Rich Hill (P CHC)

12/113 Chris Burke (2B/OF HOU)

13/128 Ronny Paulino (C PIT)

14/133 Matt Murton (OF CHC)

15/148 Scott Linebrink (P SD)

16/153 Dan Wheeler (P HOU)

17/168 Corey C. Hart (OF MIL)

18/173 Omar Vizquel (SS SF)

19/188 Kelly Johnson (2B ATL)

20/193 Rafael Soriano (P ATL)

21/208 Matt D. Capps (P PIT)

22/213 Matt Diaz (OF ATL)

[WABronco]

Rich Hill pretty much won me a championship last year.

Soriano's a great, great sleeper pick too. He has legit health concerns, but if he's healthy he's a much better closer option than Wickman. I'd love to see him get a shot in Atlanta, but he's got two guys to go through...

[-Slap-]

AL Only draft. Same format, I picked tenth this time.

I named this team 714.

1/10 Derek Jeter (SS NYY)

2/11 Justin Morneau (1B MIN)

3/30 Robinson Cano (2B NYY)

4/31 Felix Hernandez (P SEA)

5/50 Nick Swisher (OF OAK)

6/51 John Lackey (P ANA)

7/70 Nick Markakis (OF BAL)

8/71 Octavio Dotel (P KC)

9/90 Alex Gordon (3B KC)

10/91 Coco Crisp (OF BOS)

11/110 Jason Kendall (C OAK)

12/111 Joel Zumaya (P DET)

13/130 Reed Johnson (OF TOR)

14/131 Akinori Otsuka (P TEX)

15/150 Ryan Garko (1B CLE)

16/151 Emil Brown (OF KC)

17/170 Gil Meche (P KC)

18/171 Phil Hughes (P NYY)

19/190 Casey Kotchman (1B ANA)

20/191 John Buck (C KC)

21/210 Cha Seung Baek (P SEA)

22/211 Craig Hansen (P BOS)

[-Slap-]

Originally Posted by WABronco

Rich Hill pretty much won me a championship last year.

Soriano's a great, great sleeper pick too. He has legit health concerns, but if he's healthy he's a much better closer option than Wickman. I'd love to see him get a shot in Atlanta, but he's got two guys to go through...

What do you think about Cha Seung Baek?

Most of the SP in Seattle are kind of weak-willed veterans. I really wish they would give this kid a chance in the rotation.

[DBroncos4life]

Zach Duke is pitching well, Bedard is too, and so is Santana (not the great one) Not only that Arroyo K'd three in his first real outing. All four of them are fighting for my last keeper spot.

[WABronco]

Originally Posted by -Slap-

What do you think about Cha Seung Baek?

Most of the SP in Seattle are kind of weak-willed veterans. I really wish they would give this kid a chance in the rotation.

He's a consistent 4/5 starter. He's a command pitcher because of his average stuff, but he's shown that he can hold down the fort for 5 or 6 innings when given a lead.

I'm not up to snuff as I usually am, but he may be on the outside looking in, in terms of the rotation.

[elsid13]

Tuned out
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

(ELSID _ F'ing morons run this game)

Besides being hell bent on infuriating its best fans and having less people watch its games, Major League Baseball would also prefer if you stop calling to complain. If the FCC and Sen. John Kerry would stop threatening to investigate them, that would be good too.

Other than that, it’s full speed ahead for MLB, which appears to have offered a virtually impossible to complete proposal (and a tight deadline to do it) to the consortium of cable and satellite providers that distribute the Extra Innings package to die-hard and displaced baseball fans.

If that option isn’t met by March 31, then DirecTV will get exclusive rights to Extra Innings and all the hundreds of thousands of fans that Bud Selig called “ridiculous” two weeks ago will be out of luck when it comes to watching out of market games.

As long as they stop complaining to MLB President Bob DuPuy, no one in New York seems to care what happens with them.

“I hope that those fans who have been directing their concerns to us over the last several weeks will now encourage their cable carriers to in fact enlist for this package,” DuPuy told the Associated Press.


Actually, DuPuy is just trying a weak public relations campaign. He must consider his customers morons if he thinks they are falling for his attempt to shift the blame for this debacle off MLB and onto cable providers who almost certainly will fail to make a deal that was designed to fail in the first place.

The nearly completed exclusivity would cut the availability of Extra Innings from 82 percent of U.S. households to 16 percent. The reason why MLB would do this is far more confusing than the regular baseball fan should have to try to figure out.

That person is someone from, let’s say, Cleveland, who now lives in Atlanta but still wants to watch his Indians so he can enjoy an emotional attachment to his father, his sister and his boys back home. He is gladly willing to shell out $179.95 to do so.

Only now, he won’t be able to, unless he switches to DirecTV.

There is virtually no chance the current consortium of cable and satellite providers (InDemand) can maintain access based on baseball’s smoke-screen offer.

It isn’t just money – the difference between the offers was less than $1 million per year, per team. It mostly hinges on clearing prime space on cable systems for The Baseball Channel, which isn’t scheduled to launch until 2009.

If that means a guaranteed spot on first-tier basic cable, then forget it. The Baseball Channel promises to draw even more anemic ratings than the NFL Network since baseball isn’t even as popular as football. It would be ludicrous to bump a higher-rated channel in favor of one that isn’t yet created and promises to do far worse.

Robert Jacobson, president of InDemand, said in a statement the “conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed (will) be impossible … to meet.”

The only other hope is intervention by the federal government. But don’t count on Congress telling 30 billionaires they can’t do something. Plus, baseball will probably have better luck confusing politicians with this “it’s the cable operators' fault” smoke screen. “This should help enormously in that area,” Selig said. Yeah, no kidding.

Regardless, it seems that MLB has the right to freeze out and anger its customers if it wants. This is the Land of the Free and MLB is free to be arrogant, duplicitous and money-hungry if it so chooses.

And it so chooses.

Earlier this month Selig, whose customer-relations skills were clearly honed during his days as a used car dealer, called fan protests about the rumored deal “ridiculous” and just “a slight controversy, in some places.” Then Thursday DuPuy asked fans to stop complaining to his office and instead tell it to those helpful folks at the cable company.

I swear, long before steroids or misbehaving athletes kill sports, these supposed genius businessmen who care about dollars but have no sense will have ruined it.

Last year over half a million people subscribed to Extra Innings and MLB just sold them out for $2 a head, per team per year. So there’s the price of fan loyalty, a small Coke at the stadium. The league is pushing the “television” package on its website but it’s laughable to suggest watching a game on a computer equates with television.

So, essentially, it looks like DirecTV or nothing for Extra Innings viewers.

What Selig can’t understand is that while there are plenty of people out there who take television very seriously and are willing to compare and switch providers based on slight improvements, there are exponentially more who don’t and won’t.

They will always stick with what they have either out of loyalty, convenience or laziness. Maybe their wife and kids prefer the current system. Maybe they can’t afford a whole new package.

Maybe they are among the five percent of households that can’t use DirecTV at all, or the others where the reception is awful. Or they think a dish is ugly. Or maybe they live in an apartment and while, sure, there is a federal law allowing them to install something on the roof, this being the real world their landlord is against such a practice. And he can make life miserable.

Then there are the young or transient, who move every year or so and just aren’t going to invest in satellite.

There are a million reasons why they aren’t switching and a million more why they shouldn’t have to.

Yet baseball is not just trying to make them, Selig and DuPuy are saying they don’t care about them, their concerns or their past loyalty.

This is what happens when you listen to the suits and not the fans because a spreadsheet can’t measure passion. This is what happens when your commissioner likes to play the part of dopey every man, but is actually just dopey and out of touch like the rest of the rich guys.

MLB is selling its fans out for the price of a utility infielder, which is pretty stupid. Although not as stupid as Selig and DuPuy think you are.

[Clockwork Orange]

http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_5413826

Tucson - Troy Tulowitzki's big scare turned out to be a false alarm.

The Rockies' rookie shortstop found out this morning that he did not suffer any fractures or major damage Saturday after getting hit just above the right wrist by a fastball thrown by the Padres' Doug Brocail. X-rays showed that Tulowitzki suffered only a bad bruise.

"I'm pretty much day-to-day, and tomorrow I'll takes some throws and see where I am," Tulowitzki said. "Tomorrow will be a big day for me, taking some swings in the cage."

Tulowitzki said he wasn't sure how long it would be before he was back playing.

"We'll see how it goes," he said. "Then (the Rockies) will be making those decisions."

The club's 22-year-old prospect went down during the fifth inning of a split-squad game in Peoria, Ariz. He said it was a painful, foreboding moment.

"I was scared," he said. "Supposedly there is a nerve that runs through to your two fingers, and both my pinky and ring finger were very numb. I didn't have feeling in them for quite some time, so I was very nervous. And things started coming to my mind, but as I calmed down, things started coming back into place."
----------

A collective sigh of relief goes up from Rockies fans.

[Clockwork Orange]

Drafted my 3rd and final mixed 5x5 team tonight. Had to pick from the dreaded 5th spot, but I think it turned out alright.

C Jorge Posada
C Ronny Paulino
1B Derrek Lee
2B Robinson Cano
SS Michael Young
3B Alex Rodriguez
OF Grady Sizemore
OF Carlos Lee
OF Rocco Baldelli
OF Nick Markakis
OF Carlos Quentin
U Prince Fielder
U Mark Teahen

SP Scott Kazmir
SP CC Sabathia
SP Chris Capuano
SP Rich Hill
SP Jeff Francis
RP JJ Putz
RP Francisco Cordero
RP Eric Gagne
RP Akinori Otsuka

Got sniped way too much. Guys I wanted came off the board two picks ahead of me more times than I care to think about.

[Clockwork Orange]

I swear, I think I'm about to set some kind of record for bull**** trade offers received before a season even starts. I've been sent about ten trade offers in just over a week in one league and none of them even remotely close to anything I'd accept. Take a look at the two beauties I got today.

One guy offered me Joe Crede, Adam Dunn & Justin Verlander for Miguel Cabrera & Johnny Damon. Another guy offered me Greg Maddux & Brian Giles for Johnny Damon.



Those are about on par with the other offers I've received. I want to strangle some of these people, I really do.

Sorry, just needed to vent. Carry on.

[-Slap-]

Its easy to see why some organizations are dismal failures year after year. BJ Upton of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays would probably be starting full time already if he hadn't proven himself a certified butcher at shortstop. Unfortunately, he's shown to be a below average defensive third baseman as well. The Rays don't seem to want to let him concentrate on becoming proficient at either position.

In the first week of spring games, Upton played second base, third base, shortstop, center field and right field. Now the Jays figure his best chance to make the 25 man roster is as a super utility guy. If this kid sucks playing the same position every day, how bad will he suck when he's bouncing all over the field?

[Clockwork Orange]

Speaking of futile franchises, the Rockies released Javy Lopez today. His bat wasn't bad, but I guess he couldn't throw out my 87 year old grandmother if she was trying to steal second, so he's been given his walking papers.

Looks like Chris Iannetta will be the opening day catcher.

[Taco John]

I drafted from the 5th spot today...

C Victor Martinez
1B Carlos Delgado
2B Jose Lopez
SS Jimmy Rollins
3B Joe Crede
OF Jason Bay
OF Carlos Beltran
OF Matt Holliday

Util David Ortiz
Util Prince Fielder
(we start two Utility guys)

SP Jeremy Bonderman
SP Danny Haren
SP Chris Young
RP BJ Ryan
RP Bob Wickman
P Jason Isringhausen
P Eric Bedard
P Brett Meyers

Bench Players

3B, OF Bill Hall
OF Carlos Quentin
SP Josh Johnson
3B Mark Teahan
SS Orlando Cabrera
P Matt Cain
C Mike Napoli

[Jens1893]

Boston is moving Papelbon back to the bullpen

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring...ory?id=2808345

[Clockwork Orange]

Originally Posted by Jens1893

Boston is moving Papelbon back to the bullpen

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring...ory?id=2808345

Great news for people who drafted him in the middle to later rounds.

[-Slap-]

Originally Posted by Clockwork Orange

Great news for people who drafted him in the middle to later rounds.

He's going to have some limitations, though. He was still coming off the board in second tier closer range of most of my drafts as a starter anyway.

Quentin has a minor shoulder injury and they're talking like he'll miss the first week. That really sucks because he was tattooing the ball this spring.

[Clockwork Orange]

Originally Posted by -Slap-

He's going to have some limitations, though. He was still coming off the board in second tier closer range of most of my drafts as a starter anyway.

Quentin has a minor shoulder injury and they're talking like he'll miss the first week. That really sucks because he was tattooing the ball this spring.

I also saw that Rafael Furcal was carted off the field with an ankle injury today. That and the Quentin shoulder injury means two unfortunate hits on my best team. Dammit.

[OrangeShadow]

I was looking forward to pap starting but its nice to know that when that ninth inning comes you know the game is over

[Taco John]

Dammit, I missed Paps by a round. He'd make a nice pair with BJ on my roster. Set it and forget it.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by -Slap-

AL Only draft. Same format, I picked tenth this time.

I named this team 714.


14/131 Akinori Otsuka (P TEX)

Looks like you've got about as much faith for Gagne to stay healthy as I do.

Otsuka will be a good closer for you if they handing him the 9th again.

[MechanicalBull]

Where on avg is Barry Zito being drafted? On one side he is now in the NL but on the other he is tinkering with that new delivery.

[phisig150]

Call your bookies. My boys in blue are taking it this year. 1988 redux. Go Dodgers. And what do your Rockies (Rookies?) have against Helton? He's probably the one Rockie I ever even remotely rooted for.

[-Slap-]

In my last two roto drafts (ten team leagues), Zito came off the board in round eight (too high) and round 11 (about right).