January 2009

The Last Piece of the Puzzle

I’ll start this post by proudly admitting I’m a huge Skip Bayless fan.  Why all the hate?  That said, I’m agreeing with something Stephen A. Smith said today on 1st and 10: the Yankees should sign Manny Ramirez. 


To paraphrase, Smith said the Yanks should quit messing around with their half-evil persona and tack another 70 million bills onto their 430 million-dollar spree and make it happen, sticking it to Boston and everyone else.  If you’re going to be evil, Smith reasons, be evil all the way.  When you’re north of 400 large to begin with, what’s a straight half-billion? Be evil and win.  
Don’t think for a second that I approve of the Yankees team-assembling (notice I did not say team-building) model.  I don’t. I think it’s the soulless, gutless antithesis of baseball’s finest points. That said, Stephen A. is right about at least one thing:  the Yankees are so obviously committed to this way of doing business and have been for so long, why not finish it?  Why not embrace the role of villain fully and see how far it gets you?
As a Yankees hater, I’m all for the narrative that sets them up as the team everyone loves to hate.  Adding Manny to their piecemeal All-Star review only makes it sweeter, especially when they still don’t win this year.

Two IronPigs on Top 10 Prospects List

J.A. Happ and Carlos Carrasco, two pitchers in the Phils system that played for my own Lehigh Valley IronPigs last year, have been ranked at #2 and #9 respectively in Baseball America’s annual Top 10 list.  #1 honors went to Dominic Brown of the Fightin’s Single-A BlueClaws club in Lawewood.  Read the story here at the ‘Pigs website.

Is JC Romero Getting Sandbagged?

Are you kidding me, MLB????  If it’s true that Romero bought a legal supplement over the counter and was never informed by anyone (either before or after doing his own due diligence), that it would cause him to test positive for banned substances and, even more to the point, the player’s union didn’t even know the substance was banned, I don’t see what MLB has to stand on here.  Let me be clear: illicit PEDs have no place in baseball or anywhere.  But something I could buy at the mall?  Let’s ban vitamins while we’re at it.

Peter Gammons’ story from yesterday in which Romero tells his side of the story is linked below.  If JC is telling the truth, I don’t see how he can be held accountable.  And the lapse in communication from the union to players about what is and isn’t considered illicit (not by US law here, but by the MLB drug code), which seems to be a matter of fact, is outrageous. We don’t yet know if the MLB failed to inform the union or if the union just failed to inform the players (the people it supposedly exists to protect). 
Today’s update is odd.  If Romero is innocent, why not appeal?  First and foremost because the Phillies front office won’t support it.  Why won’t they support it?  Maybe because there’s more to the story, or maybe because the suits behind the World Champs want to draw a hard line with MLB about the taint of illicit PEDs, even going so far as to sandbag a man who won them two WS games (with no trace of any supplement whatsoever in his system) just because he tested positive a few months before for a substance that no one knew was on MLB’s black list and that had been cleared by a trainer and a nutritionist?
So either we don’t know the whole story, or the Philly front office is towing MLB’s PR line.  If it’s the later, I still have to wonder why.  Because they’re the champs?  Because they’re this year’s face of baseball?  Are they somehow being coerced?

Burrell To Tampa

From the beginning of the 2008 season I
thought this was the best fit for both parties come 2009.
 The Phils-Rays World Series underscored the point. The
Bat loves sunny climes, he won’t have to field and the Rays
need a righty and a veteran older guy to complement their
young talent.  I love that it was Pat’s last hit as a
Phil that put the winning run on against Tampa in the
Classic.  Godspeed, Pat, and thanks for everything.
 Best of luck (until next
October). 

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