Archive for the 'MLB General' Category

I absolutely love this Aquafina TV commercial with Lou Piniella:

Never fails to make me laugh.

About two years ago, I wrote this:

Either way, it can be done. And I can’t help but wonder why it hasn’t been done already. The fact that MLB.com and MLB TV offered live coverage is a step in the right direction, and I would bet we’ll see ESPN (or someone else?) doing the MLB draft live within the next 3 years.

Well, would you look at this….

Matt 1, Phil 0

Heheheheee……

Interesting feature in the latest ESPN the Magazine, where Buster Olney essentially writes a bunch of lists about many different off-season topics. Here are two that caught my eye:

5 Guys Who’ll Be Overvalued
1. Ted Lilly
2. Jason Schmidt
3. Aramis Ramirez
4. Alfonso Soriano
5. Carlos Lee

5 Guys Who’ll Be Undervalued
1. Moises Alou
2. Vicente Padilla
3. Mark Loretta
4. Dave Roberts
5. Jamie Moyer

I think Padilla is interesting. I was looking at the free agent list in today’s paper and saw his name, and thought he might be reasonably affordable and always seems to be good for 12-15 wins. I wonder if the Mariners will get in touch with him….

No surprise that the Seahawks have signed a 3rd quarterback, but it’s news to me that Gibran Hamdan was even available. I was under the impression he had stayed with the 49ers when they signed him during training camp. Kinda convenient for the Hawks to be able to grab a guy who’s been in camp the past couple years.

Speaking of the Hawks, they’re #20 in the latest Football Outsiders ratings — seems a bit low to me, but given the injury situation, maybe not. Ugh.

And you’ve likely heard about the new contract between MLB owners and players, but for a fan’s view on what it means, let me send you over to USS Mariner.

As we get close to the non-waiver trade deadline, and as we salivate over the prospect of Alfonso Soriano becoming a Mariner, the bottom line is that the Mariners need a starting pitcher as much as anything.

And that, combined with the talk of Jason Schmidt liking Seattle as a free agent destination, makes this Sean McAdam article on ESPN.com good reading.

AL teams take NL pitchers at their own risk

Consummating a deal presents enough challenges. Is the player’s contract affordable? Is the asking price reasonable? How will a new player impact a clubhouse?

Now, add to this a more basic question: Can this guy get AL hitters out? More and more, AL executives are asking themselves that question and coming away with the same answer: not likely.

ESPN has a cool baseball quiz online today — take it here. It’s 50 questions, and when you’re done it’ll show you how many you got right, all the correct answers, and what percentage of fans picked each answer.

Can ya beat my 27 correct? Oddly, I did best on the early days and modern questions — not so hot on the stuff in between.

If anyone knows where to find this stuff out, please speak up.

1.) How many bad pitches the Mariners swing at. They must be at or near the top (bottom?) of the league, right? Or do I just notice it more because it’s bad when the Mariners do it, and good when the other guys do it? If I’m right, it could be attributed in part to the M’s having more young (and undisciplined) hitters than your average team. But in reality, guys like Sexson and Beltre seem to be swinging at as many bad pitches as Betancourt and Lopez.

2.) The correlation between a team getting out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam and wins. When you escape that jam, it’s such a huge confidence booster — and the team that doesn’t score in that situation has its mojo go in the other direction. I’m thinking there has to be a correlation between the two.

3.) How many times a walk comes around to score vs. how many times a single comes around to score. It’s one of baseball’s great truths — don’t walk batters, because walks always come back to haunt you. Is that true, or is it myth? Do guys that walk score more often than guys who hit a single?

Listening to all this talk of the MLB draft finishing 50 rounds in two days, I thought about how the NFL draft takes about five hours just to get through the 1st round, and it occurred to me …

Thank God the NFL doesn’t have a 50-round draft.

(Picture Mel Kiper on-air for 6-8 days straight without a break. SHUDDER)

MLB Draft 1st day today: 14 of the Mariners 18 picks are pitchers, 11 of them at the college level. Brandon Morrow is the main guy here, the 5th overall selection. I won’t be too surprised to see him in Seattle this season. There’s a lot of hand-wringing about the M’s passing on Andrew Miller, but if the organization knows or strongly suspects it can’t sign him, or doesn’t think he’s worth the 8-figure bonus Miller wants, why waste a pick?

UW’s Tim Lincecum falls to the Giants at #10, and he’s also a good candidate to be wearing a big league uniform in 2006.

God bless Aaron Schatz of FO, who puts the Seahawks #1 in the off-season NFL power poll.

It’ll be the OSU Beavers vs. Stanford this weekend for the right to go to the College World Series. Go get ‘em, Beavs.

And finally, our old friend Ken Griffey, Jr., doesn’t want to be voted in as an All-Star starter because he already has a trip booked to the Grand Bahamas.

The Onion rocks.

Just the headline had me ROFL….

(Thx Phil for the tip.)