spring training 2014

Who wants to go to AZ?

http://cactusleague.com/

http://www.floridagrapefruitleague.com/

wow, all absorbed in the Oscars huh

http://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/pablo-sandoval.jpeg?w=576&h=576

AL NR invitees

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/43993/a-look-at-non-roster-invitees-al

redbirds CF platoon is going to be PB & Jay. that's all i got.

Chone Figgins has been invited to Dodger camp

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/44011/a-look-at-non-roster-invitees-nl

all begins in 9 days

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/2/3/5336858/spring-training-2014-mlb-reporting-dates-grapefruit-league-florida

MLB over/under win totals from Atlantis Casino in Reno:

Los Angeles Dodgers 92.5
Detroit Tigers 91.5
Washington Nationals 90.5
St. Louis Cardinals 90.5
Tampa Bay Rays 88.5
Boston Red Sox 87.5
Cincinnati Reds 87.5
San Francisco Giants 86.5
Texas Rangers 86.5
Atlanta Braves 86.5
Oakland A's 86.5
Pittsburgh Pirates 86.5
Kansas City Royals 85.5
Los Angeles Angels 84.5
New York Yankees 83.5
Cleveland Indians 82.5
Seattle Mariners 81.5
Arizona Diamondbacks 81
Baltimore Orioles 80.5
Milwaukee Brewers 78.5
Philadelphia Phillies 78
Toronto Blue Jays 77.5
Colorado Rockies 76.5
San Diego Padres 76.5
Chicago White Sox 76.5
New York Mets 71.5
Miami Marlins 66.5
Chicago Cubs 65.5
Minnesota Twins 65.5
Houston Astros 57.5

not really sure why they have the rays > red sox

also royals are awfully close to the second wild-card spot

def wd take over on Astros, under on Nats and Phils

also c'mon, the Mets won 74 each of the last two years, they're not likely to be worse

the Nats at 90.5%... I have no idea how over/unders work but I'll take it.

it means bookies think the nats will win 90.5 games (and you can bet on them to do better or worse)

oic. thank you for explaining. they will probably be under.

Oakland A's surprisingly low.

So Andre Ethier hit Sandy Koufax in the head with a foul ball during BP

http://www.truebluela.com/2014/2/21/5433998/sandy-koufax-hit-line-drive-batting-practice-andre-ethier

He's ok..

geez Mr K, I don't care how good you look for 77, gtfo the action

getting lasordad is a rite of passage for a dodger legend

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/7a50dfe1f69b236c06f58afc1c8b96aeadff1c82/c=0-110-3264-2565&r=x513&c=680x510/local/-/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2014/02/24//1393293379007-USP-MLB-Cleveland-Indians-Photo-Day-003.jpg

@beckjason
Jim Leyland enters Joker Marchant Stadium with a moonwalk.

already tired of 'shut down' being used for 'taking the afternoon off'

Mets shoppin' hard for a new SS as Tejada is still outta shape, it seems.

would you prefer nick franklin or brad miller

I know next to nuthin about either; whoever has the higher OBP

Franklin has more hype behind him for some reason (i don't know much about the minors/prospects), while Miller has put up better numbers. i think the M's have Miller slated as their opening day SS, although that could change during spring training.

yeah BP projects Franklin for 2.8 WAR this year, i'll take that

no sorry that's Miller!

Watching the (delayed?) Reds-Indians broadcast. Votto just swung at a 3-2 pitch out of the zone with runners on first and third. Strike 'em out, throw 'em out. Next batter: out. Could have had the bases loaded with none out. Imagining Votto yelling, "Welp -- there you go, assholes."

josh reddick's catch(es)

Joba smiley scar

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/2/27/5454938/joba-chamberlain-smiley-face-tattoo-surgery-scar

tanaka debut tomorrow @ 1pm

this is the coolest outfield wall of all time:

http://mlb.mlb.com/assets/images/0/8/8/68403088/cuts/AP215152552690_0cpef9nn_5n9t0pja.jpg

also, the first use of expanded replay happened today (toronto vs. minnesota): http://m.mlb.com/video/v31426205/tormin-rahl-reaches-on-first-use-of-expanded-replay

ian kinsler says nolan ryan 'shits gold', hopes rangers 'go 0-162'

both of those seem unlikely

@Tom_Gage
#Tigers Kinsler about wanting #Rangers to go 0-162 - "I've told my ex-teammates that to their face. It's a matter of telling a joke."

Oh, missed this:

"Daniels is a sleazeball," he says. "He got in good with the owners and straight pushed Ryan out. He thought all the things he should get credit for, Ryan got credit for. It's just ego. Once we went to the World Series, everybody's ego got huge, except for Nolan's."

Hot dirtbag-on-sleazeball action

https://twitter.com/thejoshhamilton/statuses/440928342821175296

:(

can someone explain to me how this replay shit isn't going to tack on at least 10 minutes to every game?

you in a hurry?

http://giant.gfycat.com/PositiveMarvelousFlies.gif

Brian Wilson breaks off a knuckleball for the first pitch of the Dodgers/Mariners game yesterday.

Keep stretching him out.

i've always wondered why more fireballers don't try to add a knuckleball to the repertoire. the most successful knuckleballers were always really one dimensional (right? i guess i could be wrong) and pretty much threw it exclusively. seems like someone who could mix in 90+ heat would be almost unstoppable.

Vicente Padilla used to throw a majestic 50-60 mph eephus curve every now and again for strikes. You could usually hear the fans react to it too...

the knuckleball is difficult to master and hard to predict -- no one seriously tries it until they've exhausted their other options. if you can throw 90+, no current manager is going to let you concentrate on doing anything else.

i'm guessing that it also has to do with the fact that pitching coaches don't know how to coach it. the knuckleballers have their own little society -- dickey and niekro and wakefield and candiotti and steven wright etc. communicate all the time, but no one else really knows enough to help them fix problems.

I'm sure clemenza can enlighten us further, but apparently Bill James speculated in the last year about why some team hasn't tried to develop an all-knuckleballer staff. (The BP daily podcast has mused on some reasons against, like mook's above; also, catchers wouldn't like it.)

Sounds like a job for AJ Pierzynski.

irony: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/06/the-marlins-are-upset-about-the-red-soxs-travel-roster

just watched a bit of angels-dodgers, puig at bat... batting gloves in pocket. why have them if you're not using them?

The Phillies are shifting!

http://www.thegoodphight.com/2014/3/6/5477034/phillies-defensive-philosophy-shifting-see-what-i-did-there

burnett's gonna be pissed

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/06/video-yasiel-puig-throws-out-mike-trout-on-inside-the-park-home-run-attempt/

unghhhhh let the season start

yasiel-puig-throws-out-mike-trout-on-inside-the-park-home-run-attempt

seriously

*jonesing*

Angels manager Mike Scioscia immediately came out to challenge the play. However, while it was originally assumed that he was arguing that Trout’s hand touched home plate before Ellis’ tag, he was actually contesting whether the new home-plate collisions rule was being followed properly. Trout would have been awarded home plate if Ellis was found to be in violation of the rule, but the umpires found no wrong-doing after looking at the replay. According to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com, the play at home was reviewed as a “crew-chief challenge,” so Scioscia didn’t use his challenge in the situation. Yes, this new system is going to take some getting used to.

how in the world would ellis be in violation of the collision rule?

thought he was safe tbh

it was v close

from another article:

Third-base umpire Patrick Hoberg rotated to make the out call at the plate. Angels manager Mike Scioscia came out to argue. After a huddle of umpires, the call was reviewed and upheld, with Trout ruled out.

"That was an umpire challenge because he questioned [Rule] 7.13, which is blocking the plate," said crew chief Gerry Davis. "The first thing we look at when there's an umpire challenge is whether he's blocking the plate or not, or if the runner deviates from his path trying to score. But once we go for that reason, we can review the whole play."

Ellis said he did not impede Trout's path to the plate.

"I was playing the baseball," he said. "I have to play the baseball."

1) interesting that if the manager challenges on certain grounds (in this case blocking the plate, which wasn't even close to the case) they still review the entire call for accuracy. i guess that's logical but i hadn't really thought about if it was codified until now.

2) "I was playing the baseball," he said. "I have to play the baseball."

yet another entry in the annals of great baseball player quotes

the knuckleball is difficult to master and hard to predict -- no one seriously tries it until they've exhausted their other options. if you can throw 90+, no current manager is going to let you concentrate on doing anything else.

nah, after dickeymania i'm pretty sure at least a few teams toyed with converting minor leaguers to knuckleballers. the orioles did with two guys, got niekro to come in and assist and one of them (eddie gamboa) is in camp and getting in games. well, they're 29 and 30 years old, but still. it was a big deal "experiment" that probably wouldn't have happened if GMs didn't start to realize that knuckleballers can have success and anyone can be a knuckleballer. makes sense.

there was also a whole reality competition show on MLBN about it lol

"well, they're 29 and 30 years old" = "no one seriously tries it until they've exhausted their other options"

eddie gamboa is a prime example

yeah i thought they both were younger until i checked, but my bigger point is that the o's made a concerted effort to break into the knuckleball game and it wouldn't have happened without dickey, who at least temporarily legitimized the pitch and seems to have clubs thinking differently about it. it wouldn't surprise me if clubs start to get younger with it. it definitely wouldn't have if dickey was anywhere near as good last year as he was in 2012, but w/e.

breaking into the knuckleball game is cool; my bigger point is that they're gonna do it with the eddie gamboas of the world, not the dylan bundys

ya in dickey's future utopia bundy will've already mastered the knuckle by the draft

tbf bobby bundy's a good candidate

lol he's trying to get fully healthy for the first time since 2011 when he happened to look really good, so never gonna happen, but yeah

i guess this would go in the regular season thread if we had one already, but here are the projected strength of schedules, going by fangraph's projected WAR:

http://cdn.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014projectedsos.png

along the same lines, the projected strength of each division:

http://cdn.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/divisionalwar2014.png

poor astros

the Astros spring unis are the best I've ever seen.

apparently shane victorino is no longer a switch-hitter

Sabathia's last 3 FBs in first: 86, 86, 85 according to MASN gun.

start eating, CC

Grady Sizemore "on track" to be the Boston CF?

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/3/12/5498662/red-sox-depth-chart-grady-sizemore-jackie-bradley

royals' yordano ventura hit 102mph today, according to the a's gun

When I was in Clearwater last week Sandberg had the entire team out on the field on a gameday doing cutoff and infield drills on the main field. It was noted by some around me — people who have observed the Phillies for several years — that it was pretty unusual for them to do that, and that perhaps Sandberg was trying to send a message or make a point at best, trying way too hard at worst. That it was a little drill sergeanty for the first week of March with a veteran team.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/13/jimmy-rollins-on-ryne-sandberg-everyone-is-allowed-to-have-their-opinion-that-doesnt-make-it-right/

EASE THE FUCK UP, Josh Reddick.

nobody's elbow is safe from exploding

http://outsidepitchmlb.com/2014/03/14/athletics-will-have-to-start-season-without-griffin-parker/

grady sizemore is Having a Day

also i kind of like the red sox's green unis

Sensitive baseball players

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/cle/anthony-castrovince-indians-bond-unquestioned?ymd=20140317&content_id=69498922

This was a verbal battle, a semantical struggle, all relating to the meaning of the word "playoffs."

On one end, you had Lofton insisting, as he had done in a sitdown with reporters a short time earlier, that the 2013 Indians were not a playoff team, because, in Lofton's eyes, one Wild Card Game dropped at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays does not a traditional postseason entry make.

"A playoff is a series, not one game," Lofton had said. "It's not the Super Bowl."

And on the other end, you had Swisher, living up to the leadership role he signed up for as a free agent a year earlier in a manner that went beyond anything he contributes on the field.

When word spread of Lofton's remarks, reliever Vinnie Pestano took to Twitter to say there was "no need to cheapen" what the Indians had accomplished, adding the hashtag "SitdownKenny."

Swisher took it a step further. He sought Lofton out at the event, got in the grill of the member of the team Hall of Fame, and told him, in so many words, that the Indians are trying to build something special, and that if Lofton didn't want to be a part of it, he ought to board the first flight back to Los Angeles.

Tellingly, when Lofton arrived to the Tribe's Spring Training camp in Goodyear, Ariz., last month, he was given the cold shoulder by multiple members of the current club. His stay was a particularly short one.

Asked about Lofton's comments now, Swisher was pretty straightforward.

"That was handled," he said. "We handled that."

someone needs to check on lofton's whereabouts i do not trust nick swisher

2014 indians, a semantical struggle

When word spread of Lofton's remarks, reliever Vinnie Pestano took to Twitter to say there was "no need to cheapen" what the Indians had accomplished, adding the hashtag "SitdownKenny" while wearing his 2013 AL Wild Card Play-In shirt and hat.

yankees-red sox currently delayed due to a swarm of bees

FLY MY PRETTYS

― brownie, Friday, October 5, 2007 6:52 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bees want diff games on ESPN

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/3/18/5522826/BEES-red-sox-yankees

hah I'd want swisher on my side in an argument. he seems like a dude who refuses to listen to reason.

http://thebiglead.com/2014/03/18/adrian-gonzalez-hung-out-with-some-cool-guys-on-an-australian-beach/

jason bartlett is now 0-for-26 this spring

Haren is getting shelled.

Trout just homered. This is basically BP.