2006 spring training jests, jibes, rumors, trashtalking, and general hullabaloo

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step away from the dining table edgar!

Kyle Farnsworth attributed his strong 2005 season -- he gave up only 44 hits and 27 walks in 70 innings for the Tigers and Braves -- to a "mental book" he read every day.

Darren Dreifort: Calls it Quits

RotoWire.com Staff - RotoWire.com
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Update: Dreifort announced his retirement, the Associated Press reports. He's set to have arthroscopic surgery on his knee in a few weeks - his 16th surgery since his playing career began.

Recommendation: Dreifort's five-year, $55 million contract stands as the primary example of the risk of signing promising pitchers to long-term deals without a proven track record. Still, he was a dominant pitcher in the few months of his career when he was fully healthy.

Greinke was not at Sunday morning's workout and the Royals said he had returned to his Orlando, Fla., home.

There was no indication when Greinke might return.

"I talked to him [Saturday]," manager Buddy Bell said. "He's gone home for personal matters. That's all I can say about it."

Bell declined to say if the matters were related to baseball or family or something else.

"It's none of my business, really," Bell said. "He's just got permission to go home and take care of a few things."

Sources said the Greinke departure was not the result of club discipline nor was it drug-related.

One interesting side effect of the WBC is with the top-quality players leaving camp to play, someone will have to play the spring training games. That will give opportunities for several younger players to showcase what they can do and could go a long way in helping us get an early read on some prospects.

Talked to several folks in baseball yesterday about Zack Greinke's departure from Kansas City's camp. Greinke, according to these sources, was going through some drills halfheartedly last week, and K.C. manager Buddy Bell got on him, pushing him to improve his effort; Greinke, displeased, later met with Bell. And then, a couple of days later, he packed up and walked out of camp. According to one source, Greinke indicated that he felt the team's new pitching coach had nothing to offer him. Greinke's discontent was felt last year, as well, when he repeatedly indicated to others that he was fed up with the way his baseball career was going. He told others he was ready to walk away.

I called Aaron Babcock, who oversees media relations for the Royals, and Babcock generally maintained the club's party line on Greinke's situation: The pitcher has left for personal reasons, and Babcock added that there are a lot of stories floating around that are not true.

The Royals' pitching coach is new to his job, but not to the big leagues.

     HOME RUNS:  OAK - BOBBY KIELTY (1) OFF BRYAN COREY IN THE 5TH
                       MARK ELLIS (1) OFF BRYAN COREY IN THE 5TH
                       BOBBY CROSBY (1) OFF BRYAN COREY IN THE 5TH

he has a 7.20 era over five major league innings.

Recommendation: Several high-ranking officials have said privately that they'd prefer that Markakis begin the season in the minor leagues. Even after he hit .339 for Double-A Bowie in 33 games, some team officials want Markakis to dominate Triple-A pitching before donning an Orioles uniform. He's forcing the Orioles' hand more and more with every at-bat, however, and now that Richard Hidalgo isn't expected to rejoin the team Markakis only probably has to beat out Jeff Conine or Kevin Millar to make the team.

jay, i said POTENTIAL. Check out Tom Glavine's first couple years with the bad Braves. He's what, 21 or 22?

Eric Gagne: pitched one inning, consisting of 5 pitches.

is that right?

I went to a Cubs-Brewers game in Maryvale, Arizona last weekend. Maryvale is a nice facility. Feliz Pie and Jack Fox signed my ball.

There were a bunch of drunk "girls gone wild" types acting really raunchy in the grass field area beyond the outfield. I think they might have gotten lost on the way to the White Sox game.

...and the sawx also signed juan gone to a minor league kontrakt.

!!!!!!!!

The only downside: Wily's lack of plate patience. But that's a minor thing - you can teach a hitter plate discipline, but you can't teach a hitter how to make Tacos Grande. Wily's only 24, has oodles of upside, & is a Red Sock for the next 3 or 4 years. I am totally having a McGriddles for dinner tonight.

xpost

also, i heard wily mo played some first in winter ball and if lowell's bat never comes back look for wily mo at first and youkilis splitting time between 1st and 3rd.

Uh I don't think you can teach a guy who strikes out 5 TIMES as much as he walks much plate discipline.

i'd wager if you can teach anyone to be MORE disciplined it's the guy who k's 5x as much as he walks.

Jesse Barfield
Rocky Colavito
Pete Incaviglia
Bobby Bonds
Dave Kingman
Willie Montanez
Billy Conigliaro
Willie Horton
Harmon Killebrew
Roger Maris

Pick a side, any side!

maybe they can give him belhorn's uni.
except for the eye part i guess.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein called into Boston sports radio station WEEI this afternoon to discuss the trade that sent pitcher Bronson Arroyo to the Reds for Wily Mo Pena. A summary of his comments (not direct quotes) follow:

Wily Mo Pena brings something for now and he brings a lot of potential for the future. Now, he has the ability to hit left-handed pitching and brings raw power. At his age, 24, he can get whole lot better.

In the future, Pena has the potential to be a legitimate middle-of-the-order power hitter. He strikes out a lot, and has not had a traditional development curve. The track record for players this young with this power is pretty good. If he hits his potential, he’s got a chance to be an impact guy but there is risk involved with this skill set.

He’s under our control this year, 2007, 2008 ... he was so good at 16 years old, such a physical freak, that was signed to major league contract out of the Dominican Republic.

Because he was signed so young, he eventually ran out of options and had to play at the major league level before he was ready. He’s been in big leagues for four years, with 850 at bats. We understand he’s a little behind. He has incredible raw tools. He is 6-foot-4, 245 pounds, is an above average runner, has a lot of power and a fantastic throwing arm. He hasn’t realized his full potential.

Strikeouts. There is no way around them. He’s No. 1 in strikeout ratio, that’s something that will decline with age but will always be a part of his game. The strikeouts are going to come. The pitch that gives him trouble: sliders from right-handed pitchers, chases them away ... hits left-handed pitching so much better. Very common for young hitters to chase away breaking balls. He’s got to learn to make pitchers come into the strike zone. He’s started to figure out how to make pitchers throw strikes in winter ball. He’s not going have a great walk rate, strike out rate, overnight, but had great winter ball.

Even if improvement doesn’t come right away, the way he hits left-handed pitching is an asset for us. His defense is like his offense. He can play center field, too. It’s up to Terry Francona to implement him into the lineup. We want him to get at-bats, to continue development.

I talked to him. We’re going to get him as much playing time as we can. He’s a hard worker who wants to get better. We think he’s coming into a nurturing environment.

"yeah, (those AL pitchers, t)he(y)'(re )s(o) fucked."

HI DERE DOMREP PLAYERS LYING ABOUT THEIR AGE

unless Theo's saying WMP was better as a 19 year old 16 year old than the rest of the 19 year old 16 year olds.

Sox deal Borchard

By Mark Gonzales
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 20, 2006, 11:00 AM CST

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The White Sox closed the door on 2000 No. 1 pick Joe Borchard by trading the switch-hitting outfielder to Seattle Monday morning for left-handed reliever Matt Thornton.

Borchard, 27, failed to live up to the promise the Sox projected for him after receiving a $5.3 million bonus and was out of minor league options.

The 6-foot-6 Thornton, 29, was 0-4 with a 5.21 ERA in 55 appearances for the Mariners last season. Thornton will compete for a left-handed relief spot.

if you'd been in chicago from 2001 to 2004 you'd know that borchard was hyped to be the greatest al power hitter of the next (or, uh, current) 10 years. he was the sox top minor league prospect 3 years straight. too bad he can't hit.

he does own the us celluar field distance record for a homer, he belted one more than 500 feet against the phils 2 years ago.

Roffle.

Unfortunately the GOOD names on that list are really poor comparables mostly cuz all those guys drew a lot more walks before they were 24 than Pena has!

I can't do any serious number crunching (or, um, basic subtraction) right now, but I'm guessing total plate appearances might have something to do w/ that discrepancy, Alex.

I am looking at Killebrew, Maris, Colavito and Bonds walks, walk-rate, and walk/strikeout ratio and they are all significantly better than pre-25 than Pena has any right to expect to ever be.

“They have their plans, and they have their computers, and they believe that’s right,” Damon said. “Unfortunately, computers don’t judge a person’s heart."

gag!

(and clearly, the former unfrozen caveman centerfielder is not familiar w/ modern medicine)

There is an intersting article about mishandled players using Dave Kingman as the example at the Hardball Times site.

With an 8-1 record in the Western Division of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and a 19-8 record overall, the [Prairie View A&M] Panthers have hit like a team of Rickey Hendersons this year. In 27 games, the team has scored 253 runs (9.4 per game) with a composite average of .312/.448/.441. In 817 at-bats, the team has drawn 158 walks and stolen 147 bases (5.4 per game) at a blistering 87% success rate. Their cleanup hitter, shortstop Michael Richard, is batting .411/.541/.547 with 32 runs and 28 stolen bases.

Player 	        W	L	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
A Benitez	0	1	25.41	5.2	16	17	16	2	6	4

2005 salary $4.1MM (2.5 + 1.6 bonus)
2006 salary $6.6MM (4 + 2.6 bonus)
2007 salary $7.6MM
2008 bonus $1.6MM
2009 bonus $1.6MM

     HOME RUNS:  STL - ALBERT PUJOLS (3) OFF PEDRO MARTINEZ IN THE 3RD
                       ALBERT PUJOLS (4) OFF VICTOR ZAMBRANO IN THE 5TH
                       ALBERT PUJOLS (5) OFF VICTOR ZAMBRANO IN THE 7TH

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (AP) -- Minnesota Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano was arrested and charged with drunken driving, but his team said he still could begin the season with the club.

The 22-year-old left-hander was released on bond and is to return to Cape Coral for an undetermined court date.

"He's a young man who made a mistake," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. "He's embarrassed and I'm embarrassed."

Liriano was going 56 mph in a 35 mph zone and drifting between lanes early Thursday, Cape Coral police spokesman Angelo Bitsis said Friday. An officer smelled alcohol and gave Liriano a field sobriety test, Bitsis said. Liriano registered a .133 blood-alcohol level, he added. Florida's unlawful blood-alcohol level for drivers is .08.

Liriano made his major league debut in September and went 1-2 with a 5.70 ERA in 23 2-3 innings. The Dominican is expected to start the season in the bullpen.