Other Baseball

It's 5 minutes, and I gotta say, it's pretty cool. I did not realize that all those baseballs are hand-stitched. I also never thought about what they do with the ends of the thread. [video=youtube_share;mfPuRoStEdw]http://youtu.be/mfPuRoStEdw

Eric Fisher of the SportsBusiness Journal tweeted today that the Cleveland Indians will be slashing prices on concessions at their ballpark this year, dropping hot dogs to $3 and beers to $4, among other items. Fisher said the Indians were inspired to lower prices after research showed that the cost of concessions was a major inhibitor towards purchasing tickets so they are knocking a buck-fifty off the foamy sticker price. Meanwhile, heading into the 2012 season, at $7 a cup, the Minnesota Twins had the third-highest beer prices among all MLB teams - only the Marlins, Phillies and Tigers charged more for their brew on average. With the Twins projecting another decr…

Another Japanese middle infielder might not be working out...who could have seen that coming? Don?t be surprised to see A?s shortstop Hiro Nakajima open season with Triple-A Sacramento | Oakland Athletics : The Drumbeat | an SFGate.com blog

I've never seen this before. In a spring training game between the Cards and Brewers this week, one umpire broke his hand when he was hit by a pitch. While another umpire changed into the home plate gear, the remaining two umpires decided to keep the game moving. So, one of them called balls and strikes from behind the pitcher, instead of behind the catcher. Tim McClelland did so for three batters before the fully-suited home plate umpire appeared during the fourth batter. In related news, I love spring training. Umps calls pitches from behind mound, Pujols at 1B | StarTribune.com

Grantland.com's Jonah Keri takes an extremely in-depth look at base larceny with notably thief Coco Crisp. Keri and Crisp review video of Crisp swiping bases and the A's center fielder describes his thought process and what he is seeing in each pitcher's moves. One example happened to come against the Minnesota Twins' Brian Duensing in August of last year. Duensing (and his catching mate) allowed five steals on six attempts in 2012 and Crisp explain a little bit about why: As a team which allowed the highest swipe percentage in baseball (82% success rate), the 2013 Twins need to limit the damage on the base paths.

My fantasy league has 3 spots remaining (a few dropouts from last season) and we are drafting Thursday evening at 8pm CT. Most everyone in the league is a Twins fan and from MN (except me in TX). Send me your e-mail and I'll send you an invite! Yahoo Rotisserie style 12 teams $10 buy-in (LeagueSafe) $70/$30/$20 payout Sorry if this doesn't fall within the guidelines of forum postings.

First and foremost, the Babe Ruth of Girl Scout Cookies is Samoas. CASE CLOSED. Second, I have been super impressed by the passion and play of the Dominican Republic baseball team in the WBC. If I have been lulled to sleep by the play of some of the WBC participating teams, the DR is making up for it big time. Even though the DR has a talented team, they are playing with a swagger that has been unmatched. Their confidence and national pride are laid out for all to see. Watching the games they have played is the kind of baseball I would like to see played on a daily basis. I know that is not possible in a MLB 162 game schedule, but I really have not seen it in the post…

I'm actually hyped to watch this game. The whole Mexico-Canada fiasco energized my interest in the WBC. I guess David Wright is out with a sore back.

I was wondering how long possibly into the season will the team that finally signs Kyle Lohse have to give up draft pick compensation? I mean if he is still unsigned and strikes a deal on May 1st does he still cost a pick? Or would it be that after the draft there would be no compensation?

Who would have predicted $7MM per year for Carlos Gomez.....that wasn't an Onion article, right? Next time someone says "name one FA that got better when he left....", this looks like one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Puntohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Punto Some one edited it to read, "In 2005 Nick Punto batted .239, with a career high 4 home runs, and 26 runs batted in over the duration of 112 games. He led the league with a 7.8 grit above replacement value (GAR)."

With Mariano Rivera announcing his retirement this weekend, the game will lose its most legendary specialist at the conclusion of the 2013 season. Looking back, Rivera dominating the Twins for nearly two decades, throwing mid-90s cutters to shatter an entire forest of bats, and was only shackled with the loss to the Twins just three times in his career: (1) Denny Hocking singled up the middle at Yankee Stadium to score Torii Hunter in the top of the 9th for a 2-1 victory. (2) In 2001, once again at the big ballpark in the Bronx, Yankees catcher Joe Oliver allowed a Rivera pitch to scoot by him and AJ Pierzynski scooted home for the go-ahead run. (3) At the Dome in…

Sorry, I didn't see it, so I'll need to hear the details from those who did. I gotta guess that this isn't what Selig had in mind (though it might be the best possible thing for the popularity of the WBC): Holy cow! Are we at the Met? Is this 1974? Canada-Mexico brawl breaks out in WBC game - ESPN

Revisiting Trout vs. Cabrera MVP debate ? with a twist | HardballTalk Joe Posnanski writes that the Oakland A's internal "WAR" calculator rated Cabrera slightly ahead of Trout. fWAR and bWAR had Trout plowing Cabrera out of the water.

It will be interesting to see if this a prediction or if there is some substance to this. I really don't care about steroids in baseball at this point but there could be some pretty big effects this season if these guys are out. Source: Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and Curtis Granderson To Be Suspended - Dog and Pony Show

The Strib's Michael Rand publishes a proposal from one of his friends. To make the season shorter, why not play day-night doubleheaders on Saturdays during the summer? He lists other benefits, too. Actually, there are a million ways to use that extra time - a longer All-Star break, or a true WBC tournament or more playoffs. Read the story and give us your thoughts. I'm real intrigued. A modest proposal: MLB doubleheaders every Saturday | StarTribune.com

Delmon Young apparently arrived the other day to spring training and met with the Philly media for the first time. City Pages has it in it's glory.

Yeah, Colabello! Step right up with Butera. Twins are getting it done for Italy. (3 Run HR)

http://fpbaseballoutsider.blogspot.com/2013/02/thome-resisting-inevitable.html?spref=tw Edward Thoma of the Mankato Free Press blogged this morning about former Twins DH Jim Thome.

Early reports indicate he was cut off by a woman after leaving the Yankees spring training complex in Tampa. Police reports state he did nothing wrong. Hopefully he remembers we drive on the right side of the road in this country. Yankees outfielder Ichiro Suzuki gets in car crash after leaving Steinbrenner Field, walks away OK - NY Daily News

http://www.news-press.com/article/20130303/SPRINGTRAINING/303030047/The-hidden-history-Roberto-Clemente David Dorsey is a sports writer for the News-Press down in Ft. Myers. He is doing a series on players who have come through Ft. Myers and had an impact. Today's is a very interesting look at one of baseball's greats, Roberto Clemente. What a player and what a person!

Josh Willingham is currently hitting .727 in spring training. I wonder what the highest batting average a player has ever had at any point during a season under 1.000? Anyone can go 1-for-1 and carry a 1.000 average, but has any player ever started a season 9-for-10 and had a .900 average? Does anyone have any ideas for finding such information out?

Does anybody know if there is any correlation between how well a team does in Spring Training and how they do in the Regular Season?

Twins fans have all heard the story before about why Michael Cuddyer has such a nice autograph, but Troy Renck of the Denver Post tells his readers: http://blogs.denverpost.com/rockies/2013/02/21/michael-cuddyers-story-behind-his-impeccable-autograph/13403/ I miss Cuddyer's presence on the Twins, and I certainly hope he returns to health this year with the Rockies.

Win total for the year? With the ****ty division that is the AL Central (outside of them of course) I believe they could hit 100 wins this season.

So says somebody on one of these threads somewhere. I think having played can help your baseball knowledge, but you can pick up an awful lot about the game by watching, listening and reading. For this thread, please state your highest level of baseball played. No softball or kittenball stats, please. No school-affiliated ball, but I played summers and my last year was the summer of my age 15 year in the Babe Ruth league. I was a 6'0, 140 pound, R/R 3B/OF. All glove, no hit, with a questionable glove. I played in the All-Star game because the third baseman who was supposed to be there got sick and I was home when they called. I also pitched one game and threw a 2-hitte…

Gophers Knock Off No. 2 UCLA in 10 Innings to Open Season - GOPHERSPORTS.COM - The Official Athletic Site of the Minnesota Gophers Big season-opening win for the Gophers baseball program. Tom Windle, a pitcher who will likely be drafted quite high in the 2013 draft, started for the Gophers and went the first four innings. They then got 6 scoreless innings of relief and some really good defense.

In the 1965 season, a threshold was passed on big league pitching mounds that had never been exceeded in the history of baseball up to that point. No pitcher throwing 200 innings or more - whether he be Bob Feller, Herb Score, Walter Johnson, or Rube Waddell - had ever struck out 10 or more batters per 9 innings. In 1965, both "Sudden" Sam McDowell and Sandy Koufax eclipsed that mark, ushering in a new era of strikeout proficiency in which the threshold would be surpassed 39 more times. What had changed from Feller's years to Koufax's? In the 1930's and 40's, the average pitcher making 30 or more starts in a season pitched around 255 innings and completed nearly 18 of…

"Reports" saying he's getting 7 years/ $175M from the M's. Somehow, I really can't find a lot to complain about with the payday. He's one of the best pitchers in the game, a total workhorse who stays healthy, and ridiculously he won't turn 27 for a few more months, so really should just be entering his peak years. As someone whose "second" team is the Mariners due to family in the area and my own Seattle residence in the past, I'm happy for him and M's fans who get to see him stay in town for the long haul.

Former Braves' star Otis Nixon accused in scam - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5 It appears that former Twins outfielder Otis Nixon has been caught by a hidden camera in a bit of a scheme. Hopefully we can see the rest of the video online soon!