Other Baseball

Chapman is joining the back of the Dodgers bullpen. Was hoping we would take a shot at him, but he probably isn't worth the price for one year of service (at least that's what I'm telling myself to feel better). Not sure on the prospects they gave up to get him yet. Talk about a nasty 1-2 punch!

Barry Bonds was hired as the hitting coach for the Miami Marlins today, joining Don Mattingly's staff. Mattingly certainly isn't shying away from suspected or convicted PED users, as Mark McGwire was the hitting coach for the Dodgers the last 3 seasons with him. How will he be viewed by MLB fans now that he's back full-time as a coach? Has enough time passed where there won't be any backlash when they're on the road? I don't know anything about his coaching ability, but he's got a very interesting protege to mentor in Giancarlo Stanton....

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/12/mark-trumbo-steve-clevenger-trade-mariners-orioles.html#comments Trumbo and apparently someone else from Seattle's 40 man roster have been traded to Baltimore for the Orioles back-up catcher, Steve Clevenger. Clevenger is 30 and has 416 ML at-bats, is out of options and has a bad defensive rep but is worth two players - admittedly, two very flawed players. Catchers are a lot more valuable than I think.

Mentioned in ESPN's chat today - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sean-doolittle-eireann-dolan-syrian-refugees-thanksgiving_565c5303e4b08e945feb9cc6 Sean Doolittle and his girlfriend hosted 17 Syrian refugee families for Thanksgiving in Chicago. Very nice move by them.

This was off a recent Joe Posnanski column - name the 4 men who hit 50 or more home runs on a world series winning team. I got two right (and most will guess those two) but I was wrong on my guesses of Jimmie Foxx and Pujols (who peaked at 49 home runs).

With the news that Kenta Maeda has asked to be posted, and with Fangraphs speculating teams could spend anywhere between 65 million and 127 million I started thinking about former Twin Kris Johnson and his success pitching in Japan this year as Maeda's teammate. Maeda went 15-8 with a 2.09 ERA and 175 strikeouts in 206.1 innings pitched while Johnson went 14-7 with a 1.85 ERA and 150 strikeouts in 194.1 innings pitched. Does anyone think that selling Kris Johnson to the Carp was a bad idea? It seems that he had a very similar season to a pitcher worth somewhere around 90 million with a posting fee, and we could have had him for much less at $500,000.

According to hardball times at least. That's an odd fit. I'd be curious what his role would be in that scenario.

http://deadspin.com/the-jose-fernandez-trade-rumors-just-started-and-report-1743497841 Sounds like Fernandez might be on the block. Healthy, he's a real ace and under team control for a few more years. But he's had health issues - 19 starts the last two years - and, apparently, an attitude issue. Miami has made a lot of trades for good prospects and I doubt the Twins could start a conversation without at least including Berrios. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Korean outfielder has been. postedhttp://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/ah-seop-son-posted-november.html Do the Twins want to acquire another Korean player? Probably not, but it will be interesting to see where he goes.

Byung-Ho Park came to the plate for South Korea in the top of the 4th inning. His team was already ahead 4-0 against the USA team in the Premier12 championship game. Park got a pitch over the middle of the plate, and hit it approximately 700 feet, into the left field seats for a three-run homer to give the Korean team a 7-0 lead. They went on to win 8-0. Here is a video of the majestic blast. Check it out Minnesota Twins fans....Park Byung-ho crushed a 3-run home run against the USA tonight https://t.co/Mx2YupRzJO — Dan (@MyKBO) https://twitter.com/MyKBO/status/668051934666866688 Another angle: The catcher for Team USA was former Twins minor leaguer Dan R…

As per Paul Hoynes, beat writer for the Indians.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/mariners-designate-danny-hultzen-for-assignment.html Seattle's drafting issues continue. Hultzen was the "safe" choice in the 2011 draft after Cole. Rendon was the best bat and HS arms Bradley and Bundy were thought to have higher upside but Hultzen was probably the safest pick. But he couldn't stay healthy and never made the majors. He'll be 26 next year and someone will probably claim him based on his pedigree.

Nothing else to do. I didn't know the answer to this but I guessed right. Nolan Ryan pitched for 27 seasons. He's the all time leader in strike outs and he's #5 all-time in IP (and three of the guys ahead of him pitched in the deadball era). So, here's the question. Did Ryan have more 200 strike out seasons or more 200 ip seasons?

Interesting to see Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez traded to Detroit: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/tigers-to-acquire-francisco-rodriguez.html Suggests Milwaukee is moving further toward a rebuild, and that Detroit perhaps isn't? A modest cost in trade (A-ball 2B, most recently graded C+ by Sickels), a modest contract with two years of control remaining -- should the Twins have been in on this? Rodriguez has been pretty darn good the past few years, a few times even in setup roles, and apparently happy playing in the midwest. He could have closed or setup Perkins, or alternated based on match ups. Crazy to think K-Rod is only a year older than Perkins too! …

After the 2016 season. See what I did there? Getting clicks with a misleading headline! David Ortiz must be looking for the Mariano Rivera / Derek Jeter retirement tour of extravagant gifts at each stadium he visits. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/11/17/david-ortiz-retiring-red-sox-big-papi/75931862/

Colby Rasmus today accepted the qualifying offer. Will other players/agent now start to think this is sometimes a good option?

Probably the best bullpen arm on the block was moved to Boston for 4 top 30 Red Sox prospects including two in the top 100. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/red-sox-to-acquire-craig-kimbrel.html A similar trade, value-wise, by the Twins might be something like Berrios, Polanco, Wheeler and Landa, maybe?

I'm not sure if he was a reasonable possibility anyway, but Matt Weiters is accepting his qualifying offer from the O's. Since I doubt Suzuki is going anywhere, Murphy must be our 'Big Move' to address the backstop position. Who gets more AB's in 2016, Zuke or JR?

Former Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson has passed away of multiple organ failure. He was 29. Plenty of rumors and hearsay on what happened to put him in the hospital, but the real thing to worry about in this right now is that a life was lost much too young.

What would happen if a team treated its pitching staff as a lineup, with the best pitcher leading off, 2nd best going 2nd, etc. with no regard for score, inning, "save situations," matchups, etc. If each man went until he ran out of gas, then the next guy in line took over.. Would that allow more/less frequent appearances by the best pitchers, and more/fewer appearances by the worst? Would it allow for a more/less efficient distribution of rest days and workload? Would it require a team to carry more/less pitchers? Would pitchers be happier/sadder? Would it lead to more/less wins? edit: just realized this should probably be in the Other Baseball forum, sorry.

Monday, on Facebook, Andrew McCutchen posted a letter he received from a young man he had visited at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh this summer. I can't add anything to the letter.

Predictions? Analysis? I like the Royals in six. Much better BP and deeper lineup overcomes Mets SP advantage.

As per MLB Trade Rumors he rejected a 5 year extension and is leaving the team. I gotta say this is a shocking one to me.

Pretty good: http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/seattle-mariners-manager-scott-servais-no-experience-mike-matheny-walt-weiss-brad-ausmus-102515

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/lenny-dykstra-blackmail-umps-walks-plate-article-1.2413364?utm_content=buffere0ae2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw Lenny Dykstra claims on the Colin Cowherd show that he hired PIs to get dirt on umpires and get favorable treatment on ball/strike calls. That claim is ridiculous on it's face, and only looks more ridiculous if you take 5 minutes and give two thoughts to the particulars. I'm not sure what I draw most fom this... - another data point confirming that Dykstra is a terrible human being, or - that Cowherd has a national radio show is another data point confirmi…

http://nypost.com/2015/10/23/inside-the-frenzied-cespedes-trade-that-launched-mets-into-contenders/ Interesting, on several levels.

http://js.mlblogs.com/2015/10/23/next-top-cuban-pitcher-shines/ Mid 90's fastball, a nice slider, a change up and "extremely polished". Contract is expected to compete with the Reds Rasiel Iglasis $27M for 7 deal last year. I know nothing else about this guy. Sign me up, sounds like a no-brainier to me!

So, after hours upon hours of video research and emailing, today, the first 20 of my top 100 Atlanta Braves prospects goes live. I'm not assuming you all would have a ton of interest in this, but it's been a heck of a project for me, and I'd appreciate any feedback that anyone would care to share. The first 20 (or last 20, depending on how you want to look at it) launches at 4pm EST today on Tomahawk Take, but here's a link to the schedule and the first post highlighting the graduates of the system this year: http://tomahawktake.com/2015/10/12/atlanta-braves-top-100-graduates-and-schedule/ Obviously pimping my own stuff here, but I do appreciate the baseball insigh…

“It was terrible. It was terrible. It changed the whole game,” Revere said while shaking his head back and forth. “It [would have put] me in a 3-1 count and now he has to throw me a strike. Then, [Nelson] says 2-2, and that puts me in a hole and now I’m battling. “It was a terrible call. I know these guys are battling, but in that situation, that’s just, you can’t call that. It puts me in a bad situation. It changes the whole game.”

I had an umpire friend of mine call me up during the Blues Jays/Royals game to tell me that Marco Estrada was committing an illegal pitch on every pitch he made whenever there were no men on base. I took a look and I think my friend is correct. Estrada starts out in the windup position then without taking his pivot foot off the rubber, he transitions into the set position. https://youtu.be/iy3iT3FOSwQ The rule, 5.07.8.01[a] and is quite clear: The Windup Position The pitcher shall stand facing the batter, his pivot foot in con- tact with the pitcher’s plate and the other foot free. From this position any natural movement associated with his delivery of the ball to…