Other Baseball

We may be seeing the golden age of young hitters succeeding right away in the MLB. Dave Cameron wrote an article yesterday breaking down the numbers between WAR and playing time for these young hitters. One note that I found interesting: "Last year, teams gave 33% of all plate appearances to hitters in the 18-25 (age) bucket, a perfectly normal allocation of playing time for young hitters. However, those hitters accounted for 39% of the total WAR produced by position players last year, the highest percentage baseball has seen since 1974...."

I tuned in to watch Jose Berrios pitch last night. I thought Jerry Layne had a horrific game last night. He must have had at least 10 ball and strike calls incorrect. Both Berrios and Dallas Keuchel were unhappy with the strike zone. And of course Murphy was ejected over this. Is there a website that grades umpires in this regard? What does MLB do about this? There doesn't seem to be anything that happens to umpires that really screw-up. What does he/MLB do to improve the situation/effectiveness between now and the next games Jerry Layne calls?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/04/dee-gordon-receives-80-game-ped-suspension.html Let's hope he hasn't been training with his brother Nick!

Our son pitches for a D1 team on the east coast. We were at his weekend games 2 weeks ago and had an interesting discussion with a guy sitting next to us. Through the game he came to learn we were from Minnesota and near the end he asked where we lived. When we told him he said he was originally from Iowa. I asked why he was at the game as he never said a word while we sat by him. He told us he was an ex AAA umpire who was hired by the conference to evaluate the performance of the game umps. Not so much balls/strikes or calls but rather how they hustled, kept the pace of the game, etc. Anyway we talked about a lot of things and I asked him about concussions and how…

So in case you haven't heard, MLB games on regional Fox Sports networks (like the Twins on Fox Sports North) are supposed to be available for in-market streaming, for the first time ever, via the Fox Sports Go site/app. It will require an authenticated cable/satellite login, but still, something is better than nothing, right? Having Twins games on any device, or while you travel around "Twins Territory", should be a pretty neat perk for cable/satellite subscribers. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/157696528/mlb-to-expand-safety-nets-in-market-streaming Well, I am a cord-cutter myself, but over the Easter holiday, I endeavored to set this up for my extended family so th…

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15305652/toronto-blue-jays-outfielder-chris-colabello-suspended-80-games-major-league-baseball The drug he used could probably use a space or two: dehydrochlormethyltestosterone.

Just curious today, so went over to check some Tiger stats, and see what an old friend might be up to--- Ouch. Pelf's off to a very familiar looking start. And, golly, there's another guy on that team not getting out of the gate too well yet either.

In baseball, there are (and certainly have been) many great names. I thought it'd be fun to have a running thread with great baseball names past and present. I'm going to start with one of each. I'll go very recent and choose one from last season's draft class, an outfielder from the Atlanta, Georgia area that went to the University of North Carolina, Oakland Athletics 4th round selection in the 2015 draft, Skye Bolt. I'd go easy on some of the ones that you know will find their way onto this post right away for a classic name, but instead, I thought I'd dip a little farther. I found a catcher/outfielder from 1881-1884 who carried the nickname "Old Iron Hands", so y…

Apparently set a record yesterday with a 105.5mph throw from the outfield: https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/aaron-hicks-unleashes-monster-105-5-mph-throw-from-the-outfield-133222104.html Out of curiousity I checked out how the rest of his game was coming along in pinstripes. Batting .095, ops of .269. Only 21 at bats though. To his credit, he has only struck out twice.

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-cardinals/post/_/id/738/eric-fryer-is-the-cardinals-latest-out-of-nowhere-story Great video and article. Happy for him. Twice as many hits as our catchers combined this season (6). Was he considered a defensive guy or offensive bat when with the Twins?

That's not really the meat of the story, but wow. Blaine Boyer and Adam LaRoche went to SE Asia to try to rescue under age girls.....wow. That's about 1/30 of this story, which is a very good read on LaRoche and his decision to retire (among other things). http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15159499/adam-laroche-goes-deep-decision-walk

Division Winners: AL Central:Royals NL Central: Cubs AL West: Texas NL West: San Fran AL East: NYY NL East; NYM AL WC Twins Orioles NL WC Cards D BACKS Giants defeat the Orioles to win it all.. What are your predictions?

None of these answers will include players who played before 1902 so you don't have to worry about a freak answer. 1) Excluding players still on the HOF ballot, which retired player threw the most innings and is not in the baseball HOF? 2) Who threw more innings - Jack Morris or Bob Feller? Both played in parts of 18 seasons. 3) Again, ignoring active players or players still on the HOF ballot, which player hit the most HR and is not in the HOF? 4) Without looking it up, can you guess the top 5 stolen base leaders in ML history? I got the first three right and 4 of the 5 for the last one.

I forgot, and with the lack of hubub lately I'm guessing most everyone else did as well, but the Twins lost Zack Jones in the Rule 5 draft this past winter and let's just say it didn't sit well with most posters. I suggested that it may not be the end of Jones in a Twins uniform as the Brewers made two choices and it would seem that they likely wouldn't keep both. Their first choice, Colin Jones has made the team. Jones on the other hand has been placed on the DL. He pitched all of 1 inning this spring, so unless his injury is season ending, I can't imagine the Brewers putting him on the 25-man right out of the gate, though I suppose a rehab outing may be allowable in t…

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.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/03/hyun-soo-kims-agency-says-he-wont-accept-minors-assignment.html Hyun Soo Kim played pretty badly but apparently has the ability to nix a AAA assignment so the Orioles might be forced to start the season with him. Kim had some pretty good numbers in the Korean league but had a horrific spring.

Maybe it's Frankie Franchise, but just a another franchise!

Interesting article. It goes right along with another article I read a few years ago about PED use, and those testing positive, a high percentage were from the DR. I think MLB needs to do its part to invest in education as much as they do into developing baseball. I think it does take advantage of those who need help the most. http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/03/472699693/baseball-is-a-field-of-dreams-and-dashed-hopes-for-dominicans?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160403

Interesting in light of our decisions with Trevor May: http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland-indians/cleveland-indians-1.282227/indians-moving-trevor-bauer-to-the-bullpen-cody-anderson-no-4-starter-josh-tomlin-no-5-1.672539 Of course, Bauer has 64 MLB starts under his belt, has never quite harnessed his control as May appeared to be doing over the first half of 2015, and the Indians have a pretty stacked rotation (although a case could definitely be made for Bauer over Cody Anderson this spring).

Nice little article at South Side Sox about Philip Humber. http://www.southsidesox.com/2016/3/30/11329584/youll-never-see-a-career-like-philip-humbers-again Some prospect guys - Klaw - really hated how Rice treated Humber but he was the #3 overall pick. Twins got him in the Santana deal. I think he had TJ surgery in there somewhere but I can't remember. I do remember arguing that the Twins should have tried to make him a relief pitcher but then he threw a perfect game for the White Sox so what do I know. I always rooted for him - he seemed like a nice guy.

Former MLB player and long time broadcaster Joe Garagiola has passed away at 90. Some of you are probably too young, but for many of us, Garagiola was one of the voices that introduced us to televised MLB, via the NBC "Game of the Week." One of the voices that will always say "baseball" to me. A good one, too. RIP, Joe.

Chase Field is less than 20 years old, and their lease runs until 2024 before they can negotiate a new stadium, but it doesn't matter to Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall. After failing to get approval for $187 million in stadium repairs, they are now threatening to sue Maricopa county and leave Chase Field unless their demands are met. Here's the link to the story.

Ryan immediately announces Arcia has made the team.

Sadly, it only happened in spring training. http://deadspin.com/yoenis-cespedes-decides-ball-thats-right-there-is-unpla-1766886124

Daily browser, infrequent poster here. I am in the medical field and have read several threads over the past couple of years on TD that discuss Tommy John surgery and related topics. In these threads, there is often a sentiment that a pitcher should undergo TJ surgery sooner than later, and that non surgical treatment is rarely successful. Certainly, there is not an abundance of data to argue this either way. However, in the March issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine (probably the most highly respected sports medicine journal) there is an article which discusses precisely this. I found the results interesting, and I thought others on this site may, too. It w…

Adam LaRoche is walking away from baseball after a 12 year career. The 36 year old was due to make $13 million this season with the Chicago White Sox, and has made over $70 million in his career. Here's the link of the story.

After sitting out 2013 & 2015 entirely and playing a mere 57 games combined between AAA/Majors in 2014, apparently Chone Figgins was the only one who didn't know he was retired. He needed a press release to confirm it to the world. Figgins is gone, ...when will come another?!

Bryce Harper is going to have a detailed piece written in ESPN the Magazine, and the article is online now. He goes in-depth about the unwritten rules of baseball, how baseball is a "tired sport", and needs more self-expression from ball players. I'm still in the middle of reading it, but so far it's a good read. Here's the link.

Is anybody else surprised Justin Morneau hasn't signed with anyone yet? I know he's pretty injury prone at this point, but he still appears to be an .800+ OPS guy. Anybody have any idea what's going on?

http://www.outsports.com/2016/3/16/11243142/gay-baseball-cardinals-tyler-dunnington Tyler Dunnington was a late draft pick by the Cards. He was in the closet in college and the pros but overheard a lot of homophobic talk that made him no longer want to play baseball. Pretty ****ty. Cardinals are looking into his story and will react accordingly.