Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
Zealot friend Brian DeCaussin from the excellent site Big Ten Hardball takes a turn at reviewing the University of Illinois squad.
He does a quite thorough job. His take on the Illini?
The good thing for Illinois is that outside of Michigan, the remainder of the conference appears to be very close. The hunch here is the Illini finish in the middle of the pack in 2008. However, if McMurray and Chmielewski explode onto the Big Ten scene, all bets are off.
If you think this year was interesting, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors has the list of free agents for 2009.
Seventeen of the pitchers are over 40 so don’t hold your breath.
As he intimates, it should be an interesting off-season.
The Seattle Mariners closed the deal for Erik Bedard solidifying their rotation. In return, they sent the Baltimore Orioles five young prospects.
A few of those prospects didn’t look too bad either. Adam Jones you probably already know about. Jones has been touted as “can’t miss” which is sometimes of kiss of death but with Jones, he might play through the hype. He’s had two very solid seasons in AAA Tacoma before being brought up last year.
Chris Tillman (left) is young (he’s still a teenager), tall (6 foot 5 inches) and boy, the word is he can pitch. He was Seattle’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year last year. He threw 139 strikeouts in 133 2/3 innings.
In George Sherrill’s case, “young” may be a misnomer. He’s 30 years old. For that matter, so might “prospect” though he did pitch his way to a 2.36 ERA last year.
Holy cow, Kam Mickolio is 6’9″! His minor league numbers are a drastic improvement over his college stats. That’s good, I think.
Finally, there is Tony Butler. No, not the British broadcaster. Tony, the starting pitcher, has been in minors for only a couple years seeing as he’s only 19 but again, he has some fire. He has 150 Ks in 141 plus innings.
As with the Twins and the Santana deal, we won’t know if this helps the Mariners for another year or two down the road. At least with this deal, they have one player that can play at the major league level and perhaps excel.
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to root for Michigan so much.
The Michigan Wolverines are set to play the New York Mets in an exhibition game at Port St Lucie during the pro team’s spring training.
Michigan, currently ranked in the top 10 in the nation, may have their work cut out for them playing a powerhouse NL team. However, at that point, the Mets won’t necessarily be playing their A team.
Go Blue! (?)
It’s spooky enough that a Red Sox fan and a Yankee fan can get together and accomplish anything but the book Haunted Baseball (which has its own brand of spookiness) is proof enough that it can happen.
Dan Gordon (the Red Sox fan) is my guest this week on Baseball Zealot Radio and he’s talking up the book. Here are the show notes:
Show Notes for Episode 37:
Hosts: Tom:
Summary: In this week’s show, I interview author Dan Gordon who has just come out with his book, Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends and Eerie Events with co-author Mickey Bradley. Dan talks about the impetus to write his book and relates some of the stories he heard when he and Mickey interviewed hundreds of baseball players in researching the book.
Links:
Haunted Baseball book web site
Haunted Baseball review on The Baseball Zealot
Time: 22:28
Date Recorded: 2/5/08
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From the MLB.com St Louis Cardinals mailbag (emphasis mine):
The discussion of Pujols’ health was, in some places, lost amidst his other comments at the Winter Warm-Up, so this is a good time to take a look at the situation.
First, it’s worth noting that Pujols has played with this elbow problem for nearly five years now — so he knows how to manage it. But if he did in fact aggravate it and require surgery, it would be a major procedure.
Buh-buh-buh-buh…
As a lifetime owner of Pujols in my APBA league (drafted with my first pick in his rookie year), talk like this makes my eye tick come back and I start mumbling nonsensical words.
Unfortunately, Tim D from RotoAuthority sees a little room for concern, too.
In light of new information, I wonder if maybe we should bump Miguel Cabrera ahead of Pujols on our draft sheets. It could be dangerous to underestimate Albert, but he admitted to playing through elbow pain in 2007. It probably won’t be 100% again unless he has surgery, but he’s trying rest instead this winter. He also had hamstring and calf maladies in ’07.
Buh-buh buh…
I’m just about finishing a book called Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends and Eerie Events by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon.
I’m not much of a believer in the paranormal but I still found the book pretty interesting. Don’t get scared by the title (no pun intended). While there are plenty of stories of sightings of apparitions at ballparks and such, Haunted Baseball also details some other interesting anecdotes.
My favorite was the section on Curses. In today’s growing cynical society the idea of curses seems antiquated. But I think they have a place in baseball tradition. Of course, my Cubbies feature prominently in THAT section. There is a whole chapter on the Curse of the Billy Goat.
Haunted Baseball details unexplained oddities, rare coincidences, and how the memories of those who have passed on (spirits, if you will) have manifested themselves in the thoughts of the living.
There is also a very thoughtful chapter on how the events of September 11, 2001 had affected the game of baseball. That chapter is a definite read.
The most humorous part for me was reading about Ellis Burks’ pranks he would play on the rookies. I won’t give away too much other than say that it involves a “haunted” elevator.
I encourage any baseball fan, especially one who enjoys the history of baseball, to give this a read. The anecdotes in this book run the gamut from early 20th century to modern day baseball. I ran the premise of this book by my friend Brando and he says it’s the kind of book that’s right up his alley.
If you want to find out more about this book, I’ll be interviewing one of the authors, Dan Gordon, on our podcast, Baseball Zealot Radio this week. I’ll post a link once it is up.
Here are the details:
Authors: Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon
Publisher: The Lyons Press (an Imprint of The Globe Pequot Press)
Apparently, the Mariners’ deal for Erik Bedard is very close.
Mariners OF Adam Jones is the key player in the deal and he’s been ordered to report to Baltimore for a physical.
Assuming this deal goes through, this would give the M’s a rotation of Bedard, King Felix, Washburn, Silva, and uhh, Horatio Ramirez. Some Seattle fans say that might be enough to compete with the Angels.
Pitching-wise, maybe. Offense is another story.
After Curtis Granderson’s breakout season in 2007, the Detroit Tigers have seen fit to lock him up for five years. Granderson’s contract will earn him $30.25 million over that period. With a club option, the contract could be worth up to $43.25 million.
“The Tigers held all the chips and didn’t have to do anything,” Granderson said. “I’m very happy with the way everything happened.”
Granderson hit .302 with 24 homeruns and 74 rbis in 2007 not to mention 23 triples and 26 stolen bases.
Curtis graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s sister campus) and so far is the the only one from there to make the majors. One thing I didn’t know till today: He graduated with two degrees.
Roark (right) will be sitting out 2008
Some bad news for the Illini baseball team. Tanner Roark, who led the team in wins last year, won’t be playing this spring because of “academic reasons”.
Roark was integral in last year’s season for Illinois. He was a second team All Big Ten selection and led (or tied) the team in wins, strikeouts, games started, and innings pitched.
This is obviously a tough blow for the team and I suppose, it isn’t easy for Roark either. The Illinois baseball team is known for paying attention to the academics. Last year, Ryan Hastings and Ryan Snowden were named to ESPN Magazine’s Academic All-District team.
Coach Hartleb did his best to put a positive spin on the situation. In an interview with the Big Ten Network, Hartleb said, “It is an unfortunate situation. But we have a number of talented, experienced pitchers who will be able to step up for us this season.”
(hat tip to Big Ten Hardball)