Month: December 2007

Prior, Cubs part ways

The Chicago Cubs released Mark Prior today.   Prior, who was eligible for arbitration, now becomes a free agent.  Talks with the Cubs have been stalled lately mostly over the option for a second year. 

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge Mark Prior fan.  Throughout his five and half years (and 42 wins) here, the Cubs have marketed him to us as someone for us to rely on.  When I look at him, I see a pitcher who came into this league with tremendous potential but only had one solid (maybe two, if you want to call 27 starts and 11 wins solid) season.

So I’m not crying too many tears for Prior though I wish him the best of luck.  In hindsight, I wish the Cubs would have taken advantage of his market value… when he had market value. 

Rowand to Giants: What now, Sox?

It’s been reported that Aaron Rowand has been signed by the San Francisco Giants.  It is believed to be a five year contract worth $90 million.  White Sox fans can cross him off their Christmas list to Santa Claus cuz he’s headed West. 

The South Side Sox has a (pre-Rowand deal) article suggesting a few ideas for what the Sox could do about their predicament in centerfield. 

"Hello Mike Cameron? Ryan Sweeney? Alexei Ramirez? Corey Patterson? Kenny Lofton? Jerry Owens? Brian Anderson?"

We talked about this during our last show and resident Sox fan CLuke seemed to think that of all the possibilities,  Rowand was the favorite among White Sox fans. 

What happens now that he is no longer available? From the comments at South Side Sox, it looks like fans are looking toward Jerry Owens.

Hot Stove APBA-Style

We’re not done with our season in our Illowa APBA League but seeing that the MLB campaign is over, that doesn’t prevent our trading from commencing. 

After recording Show #35 of Baseball Zealot Radio, Todd and I got talking and we ended up making a trade.  A real blockbuster I tell ya.  I sent Juan Uribe to him for Ray Durham.  Ironically, the subject of Uribe came up during the show and Todd went on a rant about how he would never want him on the Pirates.  Guess he fits ok on his Three Rivers Gamblers, eh?

To be fair, Uribe would only be playing 10-15 games for Todd.  Same for Durham who is backing up Orlando Hudson for me. 

I got thinking about it and I realized that this is the second time that Durham has been involved in a trade with Todd after recording a BZR show.  Last winter, we traded Durham for a draft pick. 

I emailed Todd back and told him that if you take out the Durham factor, this is kinda like me trading him Uribe for a draft pick. 

Maybe he likes Uribe more than he thinks. 

Schilling shilling for McCain

curt-schilling-action

During the off-season, Curt Schilling is getting involved in politics.  He introduced president-hopeful John McCain at town meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire. 

Schilling did say the next president has to be ready to lead on taxes and what he called "the war in the Middle East."

Some fans were going as far as to calling him "Senator Schilling". 

Eh, stick to pitching, Curt. 

Those interested can see a video of Schilling and McCain at the town meeting on YouTube.

#35 Baseball Zealot Radio- Hot Stove plus Frick Ballot, Veterans Committee HOF Selections

 

Todd and Chuck join me for episode number 35 when we discuss all the baseball that’s been in the news lately.  It’s worth a listen just to hear Chuck do his Ron Santo impression.

Thanks to Todd for the PirateFest link.  He informed me that it still only costs $10/day.  I emailed him back with some smart-a** comment about “you get what you pay for”.

He came back with something about 2 World Series in his lifetime.

Anyway, here are the show notes:

Link to Show #35

Hosts: Tom, Chuck, Todd:

Summary: It’s December but there has been a lot of baseball news lately.  Todd, Chuck and I discuss the Ford Frick ballot, the Veterans Committee selections for the HOF as well as the latest trades and signings in light of the Winter Meetiings.

Links we talked about:

2008 Cubs Convention

2008 PirateFest

2008 SoxFest

Time: 48:35

Date Recorded: 12/9/07

Download via iTunes

Other Baseball Zealot Radio Episodes

Running into Ernie Westfield

It’s pretty cool when you can say that you ran into a former Negro League player on a trip to the mall. 

I took the kids to the local mall in Urbana and ran across Ernie Westfield.  He is best known as a starting pitcher in the last East-West Game in 1960.  Westfield, a Birmingham Black Baron, pitched for the East team in that classic. 

But today, Ernie was behind a table, selling some of memorabilia.  He informed me about the Congressional act last year to make May 20th Negro League Recognition Day.

Westfield is a friendly guy and always greets everyone with a smile.  He’s a poet now and occasionally does readings. 

If anyone is interested, check out his website.  He has plenty of memorabilia available for sale. 

Rule V picks

The Boston Globe has the list of Rule V picks. 

Of interest to Cub fans, Randy Wells from the AAA Iowa Cubs was chosen by Toronto.  Wells is a righthanded fireballer.  He was tearing up single-A Daytona (10-2, 2.74 106 K in 98.2 IP) in ’05 being promoted.  Same story in ’06 when he was putting up great numbers in AA Tennessee (4-2, 1.56, 56 K in 63.1) before moving on to AAA. 

Wells’ ERA rose a bit in 2007 (4.52) but he continued his strikeout rate (101 in 95.2) at AAA Iowa.  No doubt he’s got some stuff. 

At least we won’t see him in our division ala Josh Hamilton