February, 2010 | The Baseball Zealot

Fair value for Ryan Theriot

Ryan Theriot and the Cubs will be heading to arbitration it seems. Which is probably doesn’t bode well for The Riot, as much as I like him, doesn’t look so great on paper. My bet is that arbitration will go down in favor of the Cubs and the $2.6 million figure.

Which in a way, is a shame. The Cubs have gotten a steal the past two years with Theriot and his sub-mil salary. He’s been a solid, full-time infielder. His average took a dip last year mostly because (rumors say) he was taking swings for the fences). True enough, the homers increased (from 1 to 7) but so did the strikeouts (58 to 93) and the OBP dipped (.387 to .343). Management has reportedly talked to Theriot at the end of last season about reverting to making more contact.

When I read that Skip Schumaker signed recently with the Cardinals for a two-year deal worth $4.7 million I was reminded immediately of Theriot’s situation. Ok, they’re not of exactly the same value but they are close. Young middle infielders who hit for decent average.

I’m not about to take sides in this battle but at the same time, I will say this: the Cubs have gotten more than fair value from Theriot the last few years. Maybe it’s time for payback.

Around the Zealot horn: Lou Boudreau and APBA

I’m feeling lazy on this cold Saturday night so here are a couple good articles from the Zealot network from the past few days worth reading:

As you may have already read, I took part in the Kiwanis Sports Trivia Championship last weekend. What I didn’t mention in my article was that there was only one University of Illinois baseball trivia question asked all day. Being a huge UI baseball fan, you would think I would have gotten it right but Murphy’s Law took effect here.

Sheepishly, I’m learning all I can about the question’s topic and writing about it. It’s all there in Lou Boudreau and Darrin Fletcher: not a trivial mistake at the Illinois Baseball Report.

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If you are an APBA Baseball fan, you might want to check out The APBA Blog’s 10 Tips for Trading in an APBA League. It’s getting to be that “hot stove” time of year for our league not to mention many other APBA leagues around the nation. It’s not rocket science but some of us (myself included) need to be reminded of some of the basic tips and suggestions on how to deal with others when trading in an APBA league.

Though this piece is geared toward the APBA game, I’d wager that 90% of it applies to traditional fantasy leagues as well.

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Speaking of APBA baseball and APBA leagues, our Illowa APBA League is finishing up its 35th season. I’ve finally redone and updated our league web site. IAL awards winners have just been announced and playoff spots determined.

If you’re a fellow APBA player, check us out.

Another chapter in the Upper Deck story

Last August, I wrote about the deal between MLB and Topps and how it was arranged that Topps would have exclusive rights to MLB logos and graphics.

Now there seems to be another chapter to the story.

MLB is now suing Upper Deck for trademark infringement for using its logos on its cards without permission.

It said Upper Deck’s cards improperly feature various sport and team logos, and that some 2010 packaging featuring New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter may confuse consumers because of its similarity to authorized packaging used in 2009.

MLB wants to halt sales of the cards and seeks “triple and punitive damages”.

I’m all in Upper Deck’s corner for the non-competitive deal that MLB made with Topps last year but surely Upper Deck didn’t think they could get away with this. MLB (and Topps for that matter) would be keeping their eyes on them for any trademark infringement. And sure enough, they caught them with their hand in the figurative cookie jar.

Kiwanis Sports Trivia Championship: Wait till next year

Shawn and I took part in today’s C-U Kiwanis Sports Trivia Championship at the Hilton Garden Inn. There were a few words we could use to describe our performance today. Among the printable ones are “humiliating”, “pitiful”, and “put in our place”.

No, we didn’t do very well.

But we DID have fun and the Kiwanis event’s purpose was to raise money for a couple good causes, most notably the Don Moyer’s Boys and Girls Club.

“Captain”. I like the sound of that.

Here’s page 1 of the General Baseball round questions (click to enlarge).

Shawn and I did pretty well on the General Baseball round. I’m embarrassed to say we did better on the St Louis Cardinals round than the Chicago Cubs round (ouch). I was happy I got this one right: “What are the dimensions to centerfield in Wrigley Field?” 400 feet.

The judges tabulating the scores.

A representative from the “Dave’s Guys” team accepting the $1000 check prize.

Kudos to “Dave’s Guys” who won it all. It was a good fight. It came down to a two-way tie at the end and a tie-breaker was necessary. The tie-breaker was brutal, it seemed. Ten questions, no multiple choice. We knew that both teams had deserved to be there because the Championship came down to one question. “Dave’s Guys” had to answer EVERY question in order to win it all. Congratulations to them.

Event Organizer Jim Sheppard

MC Brian Barnhart

Thanks to the Kiwanis for a great time. Jim Sheppard (former PA announcer of the Illini) did a great job organizing the event. Brian Barnhart (broadcaster for the Illini and former broadcaster for the Angels) used his awesome voice as the MC. Thanks also to my good friend and teammate Shawn, who at least made it fun and answered the questions I couldn’t.

The Kiwanis say they plan to do this again so we plan to avenge our mediocre performance.