Of course the big news this week was Sammy Sosa's positive testing for steroids. It seems this has become a popular trend lately, big stars suddenly getting busted for jacking up their stats with performance enhancers instead of the old fashion way of actually relying on talent and hard work. And to tell you the truth I'm sick and tired of it. So instead of writing about how this generation of baseball is starting to implode, I'm going to write about the hopes for the next generation of elite players in the MLB draft.
In one of my previous blogs I wrote about Steven Stransburg so in this one I'm going to avoid him completely. Instead I'm going to give a preview on some of the prospects that even the most dedicated baseball fans don't know much about.
Drew Storen- is originally from Stanford but now will be playing in D.C. with the Nationals after he was taken #10 overall by them. He was drafted as a closer, something rare in the first round, but has the potential to start in the big leagues. He pitched 42.2 innings this year, allowing 18 runs making his ERA 3.80. He tied for 5th in Stanford history with 15 saves over his two-year stay in California. What I found interesting about him is in his senior year in high school he stroke out 86 batters and had a .89 ERA, while managing to have a .400 batting average and 33 RBIs. That same year he was also was a Louisville Slugger first-team All-America.
Chad Jenkins- is a big (225 lbs), powerful (throws 90-94 mph fastball), right hand pitcher for Kenesaw State University. With this knowledge, Toronto decided to take him 20th overall. In his senior year he had 5 wins, 78 strikeouts, and 3.96 ERA. What impressed me about him was in his final year in high school at Cherokee, he was not only named Cherokee county player of the year, but also finished in the top 5% of his graduating class in academics.
Aaron Crow- was selected 9th overall by the Washington Nationals. Oh wait that was last year, this year he was selected 12th by the Kansas City Royals after not signing with the Nationals and playing in an independent league to show scouts what he was really made of. He has a sinking fastball in the lower 90's and a nasty slider as his best pitch. He played for Missou in 2007 with good success, having nine wins and averaging about 1.3 strikeouts per inning he pitched.
THE WAY I SEE IT- There isn't a whole lot to give a perspective on here, but I do think it's interesting to learn and hear about some of the league's upcoming star's stats and background stories. So here's to a better, less drug reliant, generation of baseball. HERE, HERE!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Money Can Only Get You So Much
The top three most paid players for the Yankees (A-Rod = $33,000,000, Jeter = $21,600,00, and Teixeira = $20,625,000) have a combined salary of $75,225,000, which means the Yankees would still have the eightieth highest payroll in baseball if those three players were the only ones getting paid. But some how there are four teams better then the big spending Yankees and the Yankees are also second in their division. But trading $201,449,189 for fifth place in the league isn't a terrible deal considering some other teams spending blunders. For example Houston's payroll is $102,996,414, and they are ninth in the league, and some how they are last in a very tough NL Central with a below .500 record. A similar case is with the Chicago Cubs, who spent the third most in the league at $134,809,000, but are now resting at a .500 record and in the middle of the pack for the NL Central Pennant and World Series trophy.
After doing this research I was perplexed at how teams who dole out so much money could still not being as well as they should. So I did some more research on the teams with spending problems: the Cubs, Astros, and Yankees. I came up with this. Many problems with teams not getting their money’s worth out of players has nothing to do with if the player is producing but actually, what the manager is doing with the player. I'll first start with the biggest spenders: the Yankees. There are obvious problems like giving so much money to the top feeders, but also little ones like giving Nick Swisher $5,400,000, which is $100,000 less than what Hanley Ramirez gets. Also giving Jose Molina $2,125,000, and only playing him 16 games is probably not a smart decision. As for Houston, their problems have more to do with their players not producing and getting injured then the other teams, but it may not be smart to give $1,750,000 to Darin Erstad a guy who is hitting .130, which is more then three times what Evan Longoria gets paid. And finally, the Cubs pay their top four starting pitchers a combined 47 million dollars, which means that the average starter for the Cubs is getting around $12,000,000.
THE WAY I SEE IT- I'm no GM or team owner so I can't tell you exactly what teams should do. What I do know is that teams have to stop giving the player that is very good that year a ton of money, and start investing in their farm systems where teams like Tampa Bay drafted and coached talented rookies into MLB Champions.
After doing this research I was perplexed at how teams who dole out so much money could still not being as well as they should. So I did some more research on the teams with spending problems: the Cubs, Astros, and Yankees. I came up with this. Many problems with teams not getting their money’s worth out of players has nothing to do with if the player is producing but actually, what the manager is doing with the player. I'll first start with the biggest spenders: the Yankees. There are obvious problems like giving so much money to the top feeders, but also little ones like giving Nick Swisher $5,400,000, which is $100,000 less than what Hanley Ramirez gets. Also giving Jose Molina $2,125,000, and only playing him 16 games is probably not a smart decision. As for Houston, their problems have more to do with their players not producing and getting injured then the other teams, but it may not be smart to give $1,750,000 to Darin Erstad a guy who is hitting .130, which is more then three times what Evan Longoria gets paid. And finally, the Cubs pay their top four starting pitchers a combined 47 million dollars, which means that the average starter for the Cubs is getting around $12,000,000.
THE WAY I SEE IT- I'm no GM or team owner so I can't tell you exactly what teams should do. What I do know is that teams have to stop giving the player that is very good that year a ton of money, and start investing in their farm systems where teams like Tampa Bay drafted and coached talented rookies into MLB Champions.
Monday, June 8, 2009
The College World Series of Baseball
The NCAA baseball World Series is very much like march madness. Kids who have given their all the entire season now play against each other to become the champion of collegiate world. Now it isn't the quality of the players or the intensity of the World Series' games that amaze me, but the fact that these young men put everything they have into a sport they love for nothing more than their love of the game. There is of course a trophy and bragging rights that come along with it but after that what's left? A select few will actually have a career in baseball. Others will try to follow their dreams by playing in the minors just because of the strand of hope that one day they'll play for thousands of screaming fans.
Mostly though, these players will soon have the lives of normal people, maybe they'll raise a family, maybe they'll go to law school, maybe this, maybe that, but what it all comes down to is ten years from now the only part of baseball that will still be in their lives will be the few jerseys in their closet, a baseball game here and there, and of coarse their college uniform and the memories that come along with it. Also, it isn't like college football or basketball where even if you don't become a pro your name can still be know by thousands because both sports are so widely publicized in the USA, most sports fans, including myself, couldn't name more than three, if that, college players.
THE WAY I SEE IT- So what it comes down to in collegiate baseball is a bunch of college kids, who could of been going to parties, making some extra money, or studying for finals all spring and summer, who have decided to dedicate themselves to a sport they just because of their love of the game.
Mostly though, these players will soon have the lives of normal people, maybe they'll raise a family, maybe they'll go to law school, maybe this, maybe that, but what it all comes down to is ten years from now the only part of baseball that will still be in their lives will be the few jerseys in their closet, a baseball game here and there, and of coarse their college uniform and the memories that come along with it. Also, it isn't like college football or basketball where even if you don't become a pro your name can still be know by thousands because both sports are so widely publicized in the USA, most sports fans, including myself, couldn't name more than three, if that, college players.
THE WAY I SEE IT- So what it comes down to in collegiate baseball is a bunch of college kids, who could of been going to parties, making some extra money, or studying for finals all spring and summer, who have decided to dedicate themselves to a sport they just because of their love of the game.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
ALLSTAR VOTING
The polls are now open an its time to vote for this years lucky sixty-four players (eight starting fielders, twelve pitchers, and twelve reserves) who will be heading to the Major League Baseball All Star Game. This means around 9% of the league will be participating (just including the players on the roster in the actually game with reserves and based on every team having a 25 man active roster) with fans voting sixteen or 2% of the league in.
The MLB All Star Game and BCS Bowl Games are probably the two sporting events that get the worst rep. But in the end when the game(s) start everybody just stops arguing and watches some of the best sports they're going to see all year.
THE WAY I SEE IT- The reason everyone argues about All Star game is because its voting system is corrupt and it's way to easy to stuff ballots and vote players in who you like but don't really deserve it. Heck, I've even done it myself. And now two weeks in to the voting you can already see it happening. Evan Longoria is the leading vote getter with 1,036,071 votes. Come on Evan Longoria? That's who America thinks is the best American League player right now? Longoria? If he was the best in the league won't he be in the top five for the AL in OBS, AVG, OBP, or HR, because he's not. So do you think that he should be leading the third most vote getter in the AL by 248,452 votes or be leading the second place vote getter for third base by 594,159, and by the way, the person he's beating is A-Rod a three time MVP winner, the last on being in 2007.
There are things wrong with the player selection for the All Star game but not enough wrong not to make it one of the highlights of the year. This was just an example of bad voting which hopeful anyone who reads this won't do. So if you vote smart, America should be position for some great baseball in a month.
The MLB All Star Game and BCS Bowl Games are probably the two sporting events that get the worst rep. But in the end when the game(s) start everybody just stops arguing and watches some of the best sports they're going to see all year.
THE WAY I SEE IT- The reason everyone argues about All Star game is because its voting system is corrupt and it's way to easy to stuff ballots and vote players in who you like but don't really deserve it. Heck, I've even done it myself. And now two weeks in to the voting you can already see it happening. Evan Longoria is the leading vote getter with 1,036,071 votes. Come on Evan Longoria? That's who America thinks is the best American League player right now? Longoria? If he was the best in the league won't he be in the top five for the AL in OBS, AVG, OBP, or HR, because he's not. So do you think that he should be leading the third most vote getter in the AL by 248,452 votes or be leading the second place vote getter for third base by 594,159, and by the way, the person he's beating is A-Rod a three time MVP winner, the last on being in 2007.
There are things wrong with the player selection for the All Star game but not enough wrong not to make it one of the highlights of the year. This was just an example of bad voting which hopeful anyone who reads this won't do. So if you vote smart, America should be position for some great baseball in a month.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Are Steriods Completely Bad for Baseball?
I went to the Red Sox game last night and had a great time, even though they lost. As always I got so lost in the experience of the game that I completely forgot all my school problems, to do list for tomorrow, and all my other worries outside the safe heaven of Fenway Park. The only thing that was bothering me this night was that David Ortiz, he doesn't deserve the name Big Papi right now, had strucken out three times when he should have been creating the offensive spark the team so needed so badly being down the entire game. I looked at him as he walked back to the dugout after he went for the last "k" that night. He looked tired, not as bulky, not even really like a baseball player. He probably took the roids, I thought to myself. This doesn't mean I'm positive that he did but if I had to guess, him with about 70% of the league has taken steroids at one point. And now look at all the supposedly great power hitters who are hitting around .200 and on a pace to hit 10 home runs the entire season like David Ortiz, Jason Giambi, and Adrian Beltran. So I made up a little scenario if David Ortiz had taken steroids the past few years.
2004 is when he first made a big name for himself in baseball. He carried the Red Sox on his shoulders most of the playoffs and developed the name "Big Papi". Then between and including the years of 2004 and 2006 he amassed 143 home runs. In 2006, a year the Sox didn't even make the playoffs, he was the one of the man reasons that Fenway was sold out every night, so that people could witness his historic run to breaking the Red Sox franchise record for most home runs. " Big Papi" didn't just make baseball interesting for Red Sox fans, but all of baseball loved him. He hit tons of walk off homeruns and RBI's with his powerful bat and huge smile. He made the MLB better, improved it. But say that this year or next year someone finds out that he took steroids. The very same steroids that allowed him to win over Boston, New England, and eventually the Nation. Does this mean that him making baseball more exciting, more entertaining, and him making more money for the MLB was bad because he took performance enhancers?
THE WAY I SEE IT- This is just one scenario, the same type of questions could be asked about Manny, A-Rod, Barry Bonds, the list goes on. And to tell you the truth I don't 100% know the answer. One thing that has been ingrained in my head from, I guess the media, is that any type of steroids are bad. And I do agree that they take away from the sport, but does this mean that everything associated with these drugs makes baseball worse? I don't know but you could argue they allow players to take baseball to new levels of ability and excitement. I'm not sure and no one else is who I’ve asked, so I guess only time will tell.
2004 is when he first made a big name for himself in baseball. He carried the Red Sox on his shoulders most of the playoffs and developed the name "Big Papi". Then between and including the years of 2004 and 2006 he amassed 143 home runs. In 2006, a year the Sox didn't even make the playoffs, he was the one of the man reasons that Fenway was sold out every night, so that people could witness his historic run to breaking the Red Sox franchise record for most home runs. " Big Papi" didn't just make baseball interesting for Red Sox fans, but all of baseball loved him. He hit tons of walk off homeruns and RBI's with his powerful bat and huge smile. He made the MLB better, improved it. But say that this year or next year someone finds out that he took steroids. The very same steroids that allowed him to win over Boston, New England, and eventually the Nation. Does this mean that him making baseball more exciting, more entertaining, and him making more money for the MLB was bad because he took performance enhancers?
THE WAY I SEE IT- This is just one scenario, the same type of questions could be asked about Manny, A-Rod, Barry Bonds, the list goes on. And to tell you the truth I don't 100% know the answer. One thing that has been ingrained in my head from, I guess the media, is that any type of steroids are bad. And I do agree that they take away from the sport, but does this mean that everything associated with these drugs makes baseball worse? I don't know but you could argue they allow players to take baseball to new levels of ability and excitement. I'm not sure and no one else is who I’ve asked, so I guess only time will tell.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Joe Torre
Last night I was searching around ESPN.com, looking at the baseball headlines, and I came across ESPN's "20 years of baseball" allstar team. I took the ballot and submitted it to the website. After I had done so the voting percentages came up and I scrolled down the list. Albert Pujols 70% for first base, yup I voted for him too, a tight race for third between A-Rod, Wade Boggs, and Chipper Jones, don't know about that one it's definitely a toss up, and after looking at few other results I finally I came to the Managers. And some how Joe Torre had gotten the top spot by, at least for me, a stunning 13%. This made me wonder how a man with such high caliber of talent every year, maybe not as much with the Dodgers but definitely with the Yankees, could not win a championship for the last eight seasons, and still be the top manager in the past 20 years. Now before I go any further I just want to point out why an idea like this would pop into my head. First, he hasn't won a championship since I was four when I didn't care about baseball, and second he was a Yankee, a team I despised my entire life (yes I can tell that in the future I'll hate them too). But then I started looking back and realized it wasn't everybody else who was voting who was wrong it was me.
The guy had won four World Series Championships in the period of five years, had .605 wining percentage, and top it off had won almost every award in baseball. That includes a gold glove, nine all star appearances, two managers of the year, the Hutch Award (honestly I don't know what it is either), and finally a NL MVP.
THE WAY I SEE IT- My half an hour of research has lead me to believe that Joe Torre is not only a fantastic Manager but also a great baseball player. His work is still showing this very day with his Dodgers sitting first in the MLB with 25 wins. He'll be a sure Hall of Famer and might even add a fifth championship ring to his already impressive resume.
By the way the link for that all star voting thing is http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3817
The guy had won four World Series Championships in the period of five years, had .605 wining percentage, and top it off had won almost every award in baseball. That includes a gold glove, nine all star appearances, two managers of the year, the Hutch Award (honestly I don't know what it is either), and finally a NL MVP.
THE WAY I SEE IT- My half an hour of research has lead me to believe that Joe Torre is not only a fantastic Manager but also a great baseball player. His work is still showing this very day with his Dodgers sitting first in the MLB with 25 wins. He'll be a sure Hall of Famer and might even add a fifth championship ring to his already impressive resume.
By the way the link for that all star voting thing is http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3817
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Steven Stransburg: The Greatest MLB Prospect Ever
How is it that a kid at SDSU (San Diego State University) can throw 99 mile per hour with accuracy, have a 11-0 season so far, pitch an average of 7.24 innings per game and still have a 1.24 ERA, while having 164 strikeouts. That last number alone seems almost impossible. But some how a 20 year old from SDSU has an astounding 164 strikeouts over 12 appearances, averaging 13 per game. Most baseball fans know that some guy in Caly had 23 strikeouts in one game this year and that he's baseball's number one prospect, but did you also know that he has around a 1/10 walks to strikeout ratio, or that out of the 299 batters that faced him this year only 11 of them got past second base on a single hit, or finally that the end of the year strike out leader last year only had 141 strikeouts while this year Stransburg already, as I said before, has 164 (even though Matusz, the leader last year, had made three more appearances).
THE WAY I SEE IT- So when draft day comes around this year and Steven goes number one, like everyone predicts he will, please don't get too mad, shocked, or what ever else you feel when someone gets a giant paycheck thanks to Scott Boras, simply because this guy deserves it. He's a freak of nature who already looks to be a great, if not that, then definitely a very good pitcher of the upcoming years. So Washington, the place of many mistakes on and off the baseball diamond over the past few year, cough... the white house...cough, please don't make another one by trying to get a cheaper player. Because you guys really need this guy. Steven Stransburg, a name that you'll keep hearing for a very long time.
THE WAY I SEE IT- So when draft day comes around this year and Steven goes number one, like everyone predicts he will, please don't get too mad, shocked, or what ever else you feel when someone gets a giant paycheck thanks to Scott Boras, simply because this guy deserves it. He's a freak of nature who already looks to be a great, if not that, then definitely a very good pitcher of the upcoming years. So Washington, the place of many mistakes on and off the baseball diamond over the past few year, cough... the white house...cough, please don't make another one by trying to get a cheaper player. Because you guys really need this guy. Steven Stransburg, a name that you'll keep hearing for a very long time.
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