Metal Sludge Gossip Board

ST has arrived. WOW! Not quite ready for baseball, are you?

TAMPA, Fla. -- Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher are joining the guest instructors at New York Yankees' spring training.
A-Rod and Swisher were both instructors with the Yankees' instructional league team in the fall. This is the first time they'll be in the coaching role at spring training.
The pair joins holdovers that include Goose Gossage, Reggie Jackson, Hideki Matsui, Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, Stump Merrill and Lee Mazzilli.

killeverything wrote:
Only 3m for Carter? That's chump change, especially for the MFY.

3M is chump change for that much much power.

johnk5150 wrote:

killeverything wrote:
Only 3m for Carter? That's chump change, especially for the MFY.

3M is chump change for that much much power.

With those strikeouts though?

I don't know, it's not like they're gonna have another Sanchez waiting in the wings. He makes me think of Wily Mo Pena for some reason.

If he gets it he "hit ball far." The problem though is if he gets it. 3m is pretty cheap, but the "what do we have here" wonder he had in Houston has dimmed considerably IMO.

The "hit ball far" comment also made me think of Jobu.

I loves me some Jobu.

killeverything wrote:

johnk5150 wrote:

killeverything wrote:
Only 3m for Carter? That's chump change, especially for the MFY.

3M is chump change for that much much power.

With those strikeouts though?

I don't know, it's not like they're gonna have another Sanchez waiting in the wings. He makes me think of Wily Mo Pena for some reason.

If he gets it he "hit ball far." The problem though is if he gets it. 3m is pretty cheap, but the "what do we have here" wonder he had in Houston has dimmed considerably IMO.

The "hit ball far" comment also made me think of Jobu.

I loves me some Jobu.

Since my original post I have read a bit more about the signing and what his role could be on the time.
Bird is scheduled to take most of the at bats at 1b, but Carter could start some against LH pitching and maybe
get some at bats at DH. With Holliday and Sanchez there, those guys also could get many ab's at DH, limiting
the role of Carter.
IMO, I would rather have Bird get about 500 ab's at 1B vs seeing Carter get a lot of ab's. I like Bird and he's young
and could be a nice replacement for Tex.

St. Louis pitcher Alex Reyes ( possibly the top prospect in all of baseball ) has ulnar tear. Tommy John surgery likely.

killeverything wrote:St. Louis pitcher Alex Reyes ( possibly the top prospect in all of baseball ) has ulnar tear. Tommy John surgery likely.

remember when news of this injury used to be slightly rare. it would make the front page of the sports section, etc.
these days the injury is typical and expected. every team will likely have multiple players suffer this injury during camp,
the reg season or the playoffs. there has to be a solution and i think what Tom House is doing down at USC is the man with the answer.

Machado wrote:

killeverything wrote:St. Louis pitcher Alex Reyes ( possibly the top prospect in all of baseball ) has ulnar tear. Tommy John surgery likely.

remember when news of this injury used to be slightly rare. it would make the front page of the sports section, etc.
these days the injury is typical and expected. every team will likely have multiple players suffer this injury during camp,
the reg season or the playoffs. there has to be a solution and i think what Tom House is doing down at USC is the man with the answer.

I have no idea. I think I recall reading the rise can be attributed to pitcher's throwing more breaking pitches now.

They banned the forkball because it fucked up arms. Back in the Cy Young days, in the deadball era when pitchers only threw fastballs they could pitch forever. The tear on arms now, especially with the rise of competition and scouting videos, etc. Is pretty gnarly.

Real-ish baseball soon! Who's watching the WBC? Not me, really, I mean I'll check out the USA/DR game and then the semifinals and the final.

MurrayFiend wrote:Real-ish baseball soon! Who's watching the WBC? Not me, really, I mean I'll check out the USA/DR game and then the semifinals and the final.

the WBC is lame. was fun the first time around but that's about it.
i haven't even looked up the rosters. GO CUBA!!!

anyway, exhibition season begins tomorrow. seems so soon. no wonder their arms are injured so often. they throw 9 months or so out of the year.

i know the exhibition season is for the hurler's but that season should be shortened by 2 weeks, minimum.

Spring training is a bore, I agree that there are too many damn games. I think Ortiz expressed similar views and I'm sure there are other players who feel it's a bit of a grind.

At least we get to hear who's in the best shape of his life, who's tinkering with his delivery/stance/a new pitch, etc. Beat writers need to warm up too!

MurrayFiend wrote:Spring training is a bore, I agree that there are too many damn games. I think Ortiz expressed similar views and I'm sure there are other players who feel it's a bit of a grind.

At least we get to hear who's in the best shape of his life, who's tinkering with his delivery/stance/a new pitch, etc. Beat writers need to warm up too!

the pitchers need the work. not the regular players. even though the pitchers arrive to camp well in advance of the report date,
those arms still need time to get into shape. the timeline is ridiculous. having the 1st ST games on Feb 24 is a joke.
at the earliest these games should be played Mar 1. the players are already in shape when they arrive to camp.
not like 40 years ago when those fat asses needed 7 weeks to quit smoking and lose 15 lbs

There ain't been much going on and I haven't been around as much because of work.

Let's see. Matt Wieters signed a two year deal with the Nats. Manfred is intent on making baseball appeal to the special demographic with a war to speed up the games. The IBB is out. Basically you just call it. Good job, commish! That's 30 fucking seconds of my life I have back now.

Oh and King Felix is on a warpath to reclaim his throne. I can't wait to see his season.

killeverything wrote:There ain't been much going on and I haven't been around as much because of work.

Let's see. Matt Wieters signed a two year deal with the Nats. Manfred is intent on making baseball appeal to the special demographic with a war to speed up the games. The IBB is out. Basically you just call it. Good job, commish! That's 30 fucking seconds of my life I have back now.

Oh and King Felix is on a warpath to reclaim his throne. I can't wait to see his season.

I have some simple solutions to the problem with the pace of the game.
1)eliminating the IBB is fine with me. who cares about those 4 pitches
2)limit the amount of times a position player can visit the mound per game. time after time you see a catcher walk towards the mound in the middle of a count. a ball is fouled off and the catcher
once again walks to the mound to discuss the next pitch. NO MORE. stay behind the plate and let's get on with the game
3)keep the hitter in the box. do not let the hitter take a stroll after each pitch or after the batter fouls a ball off to stay alive. stay in the box. limit the time the batter
has to roam around before the next pitch

David Price going in for MRI after experiencing elbow soreness.

This is or could be huge. Boston's rotation is terrifying ( Sale? Holy shit ). I was expecting things to regress to the mean this season.

Meaning Price pitches like Price and "I pitched in front of a 9.8 runs per game offense" erroneous Cy Young winner Rick Porcello to be whom he has always been.

Losing Price would negate that.

I still think Cleveland is the team to beat in AL though. Even with Price healthy.

Price goes down? Who's going to eat those innings?

johnk5150 wrote:Price goes down? Who's going to eat those innings?

I have no idea. I haven't looked at their pitching prospects since Rodriguez. He was one of those guys that had potential ace written all over him. Make a trade?

Pirates 3B Jung Ho Kang gets suspended 8 month prison sentence for 3rd DUI arrest. He can still play, but I think mlb is going to come down hard on him.

Tmobile is doing a free mlb.tv premium subscription on 04/04 for customers.

And I just left tmobile a few months ago. Fuck.

Isreal beats South Korea 2-1 in 10 innings to win first WBC game.

David Price doesn't need surgery.

I don't hold out any hope that Price is o.k.
Ask Carson Smith and Christian Vazquez how that worked out for them.

Tim Tebow had his debut today and went 0-3. I can't wait for this publicity stunt to be over.

killeverything wrote:Tim Tebow had his debut today and went 0-3. I can't wait for this publicity stunt to be over.

after the fact i heard there were sportsbook(s) that were taking bets on how well he might do or not do. i probably would
have bet he was not going to get a hit and he did not. funny that he took a HBP but was later doubled off on a soft line drive to 2nd base.

yeah, the sooner this bum is given his unconditional release, the better.

this news would even make the casual fan wonder if he had a problem with alcohol or
was abusing cocaine for an extender period of time.

An investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has determined that former Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez was responsible for the violent boat crash that killed him and two others off the coast of South Beach last September.

According to David Ovalle of the Miami Herald, the investigation determined that Fernandez was driving the boat at top speed (65 mph) the night it crashed, and he was intoxicated while doing it. Those two findings ultimately led to the conclusion that Fernandez was responsible for the accident.

“Fernandez operated [the boat] with his normal faculties impaired, in a reckless manner, at an extreme high rate of speed, in the darkness of the night, in an area with known navigational hazards such as rock jetties and channel markers,” the report concluded.
Since the crash on Sept. 25, Fernandez’s attorney has maintained that Fernandez was not driving the boat that night, pointing to a phone conversation between Fernandez and nightclub manager Yuri Perez that was supposedly taking place when the crash occurred. But phone records show that call happened more than ten minutes before the time of the accident. Additionally, investigators say Fernandez’s injuries prove that he was behind the wheel.

Investigators made the conclusion because the physical damage to Fernandez’s body matched the damage on the boat’s center console. His DNA was also found on the throttle and steering wheel.

Machado wrote:this news would even make the casual fan wonder if he had a problem with alcohol or
was abusing cocaine for an extender period of time.

Actually, while the story makes it pretty clear he made some stupid, and ultimately tragic, decisions that night, it provides absolutely no evidence one way or the other about sustained use of or addiction to drugs or alcohol. Not every drunk driver is an alcoholic.

Of course, people may still wonder,'but if they do, I don't see what their degree of fandom has to do with it.

USA to face Puerto Rico in the WBC Final game.

Aside from the rules being stupid ( runner on second to start the tenth inning, etc ) the WBC has been good this year.

Puerto Rico's infield defense is something to behold. I'm curious if with USA going so far if that's goimg to open it's popularity up in the State's more.

killeverything wrote:USA to face Puerto Rico in the WBC Final game.

Aside from the rules being stupid ( runner on second to start the tenth inning, etc ) the WBC has been good this year.

Puerto Rico's infield defense is something to behold. I'm curious if with USA going so far if that's goimg to open it's popularity up in the State's more.

I have not tuned in at all but have seen a few highlights. Why does PR celebrate so much? They are acting as if the more they celebrate, the more runs will
be added to the scoreboard. I don't know which country Profar plays for but it was entertaining to see him getting thrown out by Yadier while celebrating
a single. He took his time showboating after rounding 1st base and was thrown out by 1/2 step trying to get back to the bag.
GOOD
If I was the manager of that team I would have sat him down and told him to watch for the remainder of the series.
Sick and tired of players celebrating after a base hit or a blooper to shallow left or reaching first on a swinging bunt

Machado wrote:

killeverything wrote:USA to face Puerto Rico in the WBC Final game.

Aside from the rules being stupid ( runner on second to start the tenth inning, etc ) the WBC has been good this year.

Puerto Rico's infield defense is something to behold. I'm curious if with USA going so far if that's goimg to open it's popularity up in the State's more.

I have not tuned in at all but have seen a few highlights. Why does PR celebrate so much? They are acting as if the more they celebrate, the more runs will
be added to the scoreboard. I don't know which country Profar plays for but it was entertaining to see him getting thrown out by Yadier while celebrating
a single. He took his time showboating after rounding 1st base and was thrown out by 1/2 step trying to get back to the bag.
GOOD
If I was the manager of that team I would have sat him down and told him to watch for the remainder of the series.
Sick and tired of players celebrating after a base hit or a blooper to shallow left or reaching first on a swinging bunt

He plays for Puerto Rico and picked off the Netherlands. Posey and Molina are the best two catchers in baseball right now with Molina's pickoffs unparalled by anyone. Sanchez has shown signs of the skill. He's the only other I've seen that might be comparable some day.

That said Molina is the type to make you pay for anything. Mistake or not. I love those kinds of plays.

Team USA beats Puerto Rico 8-0 to win WBC. Marcus Stroman threw a no-hitter through 6.

Speaking of the WBC. Here's some silly drama.

Yadier Molina rips Adam Jones for postgame comments.

File this one under "Unfinished Business".

​After the United States victory over Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, Adam Jones claimed to have gained some ​extra motivation over the fact that the Puerto Rican players had flights booked back to Puerto Rico and a parade scheduled upon their return.

Jones felt as if the Puerto Rican team was acting as if they had already won.

Yadier Molina, catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and Puerto Rico's emotional leader, ripped Adam Jones over jumping to such conclusions.
Yadier Molina told Adam Jones off for speaking publicly without knowing what the scheduled parade meant for Puerto Rico's people and players
— Stan (@Crewsett) March 23, 2017
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​​
Molina says Jones needs to relate himself more to the other players before speaking ill of them publicly.
— Stan (@Crewsett) March 23, 2017
​​It's not wrong to attack Jones if he went off the deep end, but all he said was that America used the parade plans as motivation. He didn't really bring "care" level into it.

But Yadi certainly did.
Molina: "Jones needs to apologize to the Puerto Rican people because he doesn't know what this means to them."
— Stan (@Crewsett) March 23, 2017
​​
Molina: "l want to send Jones this message: you're in ST with gold working for yourself and we're here with silver embracing our people."
— Stan (@Crewsett) March 23, 2017
Wow. Adam Jones did some embracing of his people too, surely.

That...suddenly got very personal.
Molina: "Obviously I wanted to win. He shouldn't have taken to the public with that because he doesn't know what this means to these people"
— Stan (@Crewsett) March 23, 2017
​​
Molina had a lot to say to Jones, including requesting an apology from the Orioles outfielder to the people of Puerto Rico. Molina also called out Jones and the rest of the USA team for winning the Championship and then returning to Spring Training, rather than celebrating the victory as a country, as they did with the second-place finish in Puerto Rico.

This feels quite personal and won't be smoothed over overnight. Yeah.

Is Molina really that mad at Jones or butthurt that Stroman completely schooled them in the championship game?

Pagan looked more than signable in the WBC. I'd take a chance on him.

And yeah, Stroman killed it! Would be nice to see him break out this year following that wonderful bit of spring momentum.

MurrayFiend wrote:Pagan looked more than signable in the WBC. I'd take a chance on him.

And yeah, Stroman killed it! Would be nice to see him break out this year following that wonderful bit of spring momentum.

I think the reason he's without a home ( also why SF let him walk ) is that he's injured a lot.