Other Baseball

If a minor leaguer had a .400/.535/.916(1.451) slash line with 72 home runs and 224 RBI in 138 games, everyone would be begging for him to be called up immediately. Anyone know the story of Joe Bauman and why he didn't make it to the majors?? Baseball reference says he was playing C level baseball in 1954. Not sure what level that would correlate with today?

It's the birthday of 2008 Marlins 2nd round draft pick, Brad Hand. See my blog post on Hand here: Major Minnesotans: Brad Hand. If anyone has any cool stories or trivia about Brad Hand, please share. I'd love more information to incorporate the next time I write about him. It sounds like he's on the bubble with Miami this spring. Fingers crossed. Thanks, Matt http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160316_173242_zpsw33tqxhy.jpg

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/10/sports/how-racial-bias-can-seep-into-baseball-scouting-reports/?et_rid=24053367 This is a good read - I don't know whether folks will find a paywall (Boston Globe) in the way. A couple of snippets from the intro: “The scouting community has its vocabulary. It has its jargon that it uses to paint the picture. If you’re African-American, if you’re attuned to language, you can read a report and nine times out of 10 you can tell if the player is African-American, a minority, or not." "Disclaimers apply. Plenty of scouts work hard to avoid lapsing into stereotypes, and individual reports may not show bias. But concern exists that at…

http://www.oneatbat.com/ Just a nice story. It'd be great if it would eventually lead to something. Sometime!

Sorry if I mislead you with the thread title, but this post isn't about how I think MLB games need to be sped up. I'm going to be coaching junior high baseball this summer (practice starts today actually) and I've been reading up on strategies to prepare for the season. I came across some reading by coach Bobby Winkles about speeding up the game. He had his players constantly running no matter what they were doing, and this resulted in quicker games. Where I am coaching, junior high games are on a time limit of maybe an hour and a half, so I plan on using the same strategy as Coach Winkles to get more game experience for the players. Since they will be running most of…

The New York Times has just reported that the pristine, clean, and uber successful St. Louis Cardinals organization is being investigated for hacking into the Houston Astros internal networks to get an advantage. "The attack represents the first known case of corporate espionage in which a professional sports team has hacked the network of another team." Read the article here. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/sports/baseball/st-louis-cardinals-hack-astros-fbi.html?emc=edit_na_20150616&nlid=70197486&_r=0

I am starting to believe that Alex Rodriguez’s career and story is taking a turn into the majestic waters of “Hollywood”. Now is the right time in America’s history to call on Tinsel Town to construct “A-Rod” The Movie. Some may be skeptical of the quality of the said movie, but I believe it has all of the elements to keep the viewers strapped to their seats. Whether it be his PED situation, being benched in the ALCS, trying to pick up some lovely ladies in the stands as he rides the bench during a playoff game, his aloof egomania, his dealings with prostitutes/strippers, celebrity actresses, hanger on relatives who help him procure “Athlete Drugs”, his bromance with…

I see Alex Meyer starting for the Angels tomorrow. I hope he fares well. Not great AAA numbers at first glance, but FIP and K/BB ratio trending in the right direction.

I put together my own overall rankings of all 30 teams, based on 2012 performance vs. expected performance. For instance, the obvious surprise teams like the Orioles and A's rank very high. Teams like the White Sox that ended up better than expected also rank high even though they missed the playoffs. Teams like the Marlins and Angels which entered the season having spent tons of money on free agents and missed the playoffs are at the very bottom. Teams like the Rangers and Yankees who, even though are post-season bound, are still fighting to win their divisions with two games left and are ranked around 10th. I've put the Twins and Indians more towards the middle--…

1,000th topic in this thread, so I say we do a game. Each post in this thread names a Major League Baseball player. Let's see if we can get up to 1,000 with no duplicates. Can be current or past major leaguers, no minor leaguers. I will start: Julio Franco

1.The Dodgers will not run away with the NL West. I'll say they won't even make the playoffs. 2. The Now 5 team NL Central could be interesting and I'm certain that the Cards will be somewhere in the mix. 3. The Braves will win the AL East with pitching... Not Hitting. 4. Whoever wins the AL West will have the worst record of all the division winners. 5. The Yankees will fall hard and ESPN will have experts on every day to explain the collapse. Joe Girardi will be looking for work next year. 6. Someone... Maybe the Royals will push the Tigers hard in the AL Central... The Tigers won't runaway with it. 7. Some team that everyone thought was crap... …

http://deadspin.com/oldest-living-mlb-player-dies-at-102-1566693022 Connie Marrero played for the Twins former team, the Washington Senators. Interesting tidbit about him, after he retired, he moved back to Cuba where he didn't get his baseball pension until about 4 years ago b/c it was Cuba. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/appears-mlb-finally-pay-connie-marrero-pension-owed-article-1.948722

according to this article https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/which-teams-are-slated-to-pay-the-luxury-tax-in-2023.html There are 14 teams over $200 million in payroll for next season. I hope there is a lot of penalties for exceeding the threshold going to lower revenue teams and that they are going to spend the money on their teams so they can keep up. This makes the Twins budget so small in comparison. There is a growing divide between teams that have means and don't. At this rate the small market teams are basically farm teams for the big market teams. I wonder if this will prevent other cities from entertaining the idea of a relocation or expansion teams…

The Angels rallied for 5 in the 9th inning versus the Rangers today, to pull off a wild 11-10 win at The Ballpark in Arlington- to keep things highly unsettled going into the last day of the regular season on Sunday, both in the AL West, and for who ultimately claims the 2nd spot in the Wild Card hunt. But the craziest thing was the fact that both clubs employed 9 pitchers each, in a 9-inning game. Combined, the two teams used 43 total players, including 4 pinch runners. Both starters went 4 innings, which means that each team used 8 pitchers to throw 5 innings apiece. Surprisingly, the game actually "only" took 4 hours and 7 minutes to complete- but as exciting as …

Sorry if this was already posted, but this is some pretty cool footage of the 1965 All Star game at The Met. Being way too young to have ever seen any of these guys play it is cool to see that many Hall of Famers on one field http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/article_external/awesome_archival_footage_of_the_1965_all_star_game/16846732?linksrc=story_home_module_image_16846732

Catcher Raul Ibanez .312/.375/.486 Shortstop Alex Rodriguez .319/.379/.605

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mariners-hector-santiago-becomes-first-mlb-pitcher-ejected-under-new-foreign-substance-protocols/ OK, so if after the formal inspection, there is something found on his glove, he gets the 10 days. What if it's deemed that his glove is OK? Can't go back and re-finish the game that the umps mistakenly tossed him from. How do you fix that screwup? Really kind of unfair. I think if it is the case, the umps need to be suspended (w/o pay) for 10 days. That will make them damn sure of their decision.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/123260340/rockies-john-axfords-son-throws-out-first-pitch-vs-dodgers John Axford's son threw out the first pitch yesterday. The young kid was recovering from two serious snake bite wounds and is still in a wheelchair. Axford is the Rockies closer. His son got bit while in AZ for spring training. Hopefully, his recovery continues.

OK, when they announced the one-year format with the lower seed hosting the first two games, many (including myself) didn't like it because, as it was said repeatedly, only a small percentage of division series actually go to 5 games - in effect negating the higher seeds home-field advantage. Anybody else find it ironic that all four series this year have gone to game 5? I have to admit it's made it pretty exciting. I find myself wondering (almost against my will) if maybe, just maybe, they should keep it.

The exception is the St. Louis v Atlanta doubleheader, necessitated by yesterday's postponement. This is an interesting and positive approach taken by MLB to minimize any uncertainty involving game(s) that would take place on the 5th or 6th. As it applies to today, if the Angels beat Texas there will be a playoff game tomorrow. Without this scheduling rule I could easily picture the evil empire (a.k.a. Fox) dictating an evening start time for that game. Meanwhile, the Astros would need to know whether to travel to DFW (if they and LA both win), to Houston (if LA wins and they lose) or New York (if Texas wins).

Let's do our division picks, poll style. Today I'll post a poll for who will win the AL Central. Tomorrow we'll eliminate the winner and post a poll for who will finish second and we'll repeat on Thursday and Friday. Don't just vote - give your reasons.

Yesterday, the Tigers earned the top spot with 70% of the vote - but who's next? Just like yesterday, place your vote and then add to the thread below. We'll go again tomorrow for 3rd place honors.

The Indians edged out the Twins for second place in yesterday's poll, so let's hear who you think will win 3rd place (especially given Justin's quotes today). As usual, feel free to add a comment with your reasoning.

For anybody interested, below is a breakdown of how last December's Rule V draftees have fared so far this season. Six of the fifteen draftees are actually on opening day 25 man rosters. Six others have been returned to their original teams. The number in front of each player is their selection in the draft. On Drafting Teams’ 25 Man Roster 1. Astros: Josh Fields 2. Cubs: Hector Rondon 4. Twins: Ryan Pressly 17. White Sox: Angel Sanchez 23. Orioles: T.J. McFarland 31. A’s: Nate Freiman (drafted by Astros. Picked up on waivers by A’s) Returned to Original Team 3. Rockies: Danny Rosenbaum 5. Indians: Chris McGu…

I didn't realize that he was even still in the game, but congratulations to Mark Appel for finally getting to realize his dream! https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/06/25/mark-appel-2013-no-1-pick-called-up-mlb-first-time-career-phillies

Something I'd done on BYTO in the past that created some good commenting back and forth was annual fantasy rankings and a review at the end of the season as to how those rankings panned out. I've already posted them on another site, and I'm curious of the interest here. To save board space, I'd post them all in this thread with a new one each day.

Sean McAdam from Red Sox insider is already commenting on an early draft of the 2013 schedule. Here is is a link to the article. http://www.csnne.com/baseball-boston-redsox/redsox-talk/Red-Sox-to-open-vs-Yankees-in-draft-of-2?blockID=761293&feedID=3352 Apparently teams have been forwarded an early draft. Anyone have access to the Twin's? Interested to see how the addition of the Astro's to the AL will affect the Twins. This should be a big change with season long interleague play and the potential road trips.

As promised, some factoids from the O/U contest: Team O/U #of over picks #of under picks Arizona Diamondbacks - 80.5 17 overs - 19 unders Atlanta Braves - 87.5 18-18 Baltimore Orioles - 80.5 21-15 Boston Red Sox - 87.5 24-12 Chicago Cubs - - 69.5 14-22 Chicago White Sox - 75.5 2-34 (You like apples, Hawk?...) Cincinnati Reds - 84.5 22-14 Cleveland Indians - 80.5 20-16 Colorado Rockies - 76.5 19-17 Detroit Tigers - 89.5 26-10 Houston Astros - 62.5 26-10 Kansas City Royals - 81.5 25-11 Los Angeles Angels - 86.5 16-20 Los Angeles Dodgers - 92.5 15-21 Miami Marlins - 69.5 17-19 Milwaukee Brewers - 79.5 15-21 Minnesota Twins -…

You're a senior BBWAA writer, you get 10 votes. How does your ballot look? The candidates: • Jeff Bagwell • Craig Biggio • Barry Bonds • Roger Clemens • Tom Glavine • Jeff Kent • Greg Maddux • Edgar Martinez • Don Mattingly • Fred McGriff • Mark McGwire • Jack Morris • Mike Mussina • Rafael Palmeiro • Mike Piazza • Tim Raines • Curt Schilling • Lee Smith • Sammy Sosa • Frank Thomas • Alan Trammell • Larry Walker http://www.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/greg-maddux-tom-glavine-headline-stacked-baseball-hall-of-fame-ballot?content_id=64183074&partnerId=as_mlb_20131126_14982564&vkey=news_mlb&ymd=20131124