CC Is The Most Pinstriped Of Them All

Uniwatch has the story.  

The also have details on changes to the Red Sox, Orioles, and Rays uniforms, which you’ve probably already seen by now.  
I’m not sure if I like the hanging socks logo on Boston’s caps.  I do like the Maryland state flag patch on the O’s jerseys.  The Ray’s new alternate jersey doesn’t excite me one way or another. 

For The Rated Rookie In Your Life

This shirt from No Mas is fantastic:

yhst-17662218345253_2028_2194905.jpeg
Check it out here.
No one reading these blogs needs the greatness of this shirt explained.  How many Kevin Elster and Greg Jeffries Rated Rookie cards did you have?

How Long Until The Pirates are Competitive?

Jack Wilson wants some gamers in Pittsburgh.   Buccos GM Frank Coonnelly points out that the Rays and Phils were built with an old-school focus on drafting, depth, and development.  Both men are right.  But if the Pirates were to get serious right now about building a winner the old-school way, how long would it take for them to become competitive?  Sure, being competitive and being a winner are two different things, so how far are the Bucs from either both? I don’t know anything about their farm system (apart from Patel and Singh) so I don’t know what they’re starting out with. 

17 losing seasons. Man.  17 years ago Jamie Moyer was in his 30s.  Think about that.  That’s a long time.   

Fightin’s Get Some Love In TYIB Awards

The fans’ votes are in:

Manager of the Year:  Uncle Charlie

Executive of the Year:  Pat “The Bat” Gillick
Closer of the Year:  Brad Lidge 
Postseason Moment of the Year:  Chase Utley’s pump fake and throw home in Game 6 of the Series. 
I don’t think any of these awards could have gone any other way.  Matt Stairs’ walk-off homer in the NLCS against LA would be a very close second in the postseason category.  
Check out the rest of the “This Year In Baseball Awards” here.

No. 50 Is The Man

With the exception of the very recent moves of Burnett and Sabathia to the evil empire, things have been really quiet in the Hot Stove League this off-season, presumably because of the worsening financial crisis.  (And I’ll say it again:  the Yankees are wasting good money).

Finally, some happy news to share.   In case you haven’t heard, the 2008 World Campion Phils have signed Jaime Moyer, 46, to a 2-year deal.  Oh yes.  I love this man.  And he has a deal before Manny.  

Patel and Singh To the Bucs

I get that expanding baseball’s reach is good for the sport.  I get that promoting baseball abroad is good for the American game.  I get that all if this is good for MLB, Inc.  I get it, I get it, I get it.  
If you haven’t heard of Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, the long and the short of it is this:  Sports agent JB Bernstein organized a contest in India to see what kind of latent baseball talent has heretofore gone undiscovered in a country of 1 billion people (where none of those 1 billion people play baseball).  Specifically, the winner of Million Dollar Arm Challenge “would be the person who could throw 85 mph or higher and consistently for strikes. In addition to handing out a $100,000 cash prize to the winner of the contest, organizers also promised the winner training in the United States to prepare him to be scouted by Major League clubs” according to various MBL.com articles.  

Singh won, but Patel was impressive enough to earn a closer look and both men have been learning how to pitch for strikes over the last six months.  Both men have now been signed by the Pirates, and neither know how to play baseball.  They don’t know the game and have never actually played it.  They are becoming “pitchers” in a purely pragmatic sense, and that’s all good for now.  

I wonder, though, what a Million Dollar Arm Challenge in the the Americas, The Netherlands, or parts of Asia where baseball is played (the rest of Asia, right?) might yield.  I’m all for spreading baseball’s reach and I’m all for promoting Patel and Singh, should they be successful, as much as possible to raise interest in parts of the world where baseball isn’t already part of the culture.  But I have to think that there are thousands of unknowns in places where baseball already matters that are just as good as Patel and Singh with internalized understandings of the game.  Give them a shot, too. 

Baseball’s a game that takes lifetime to learn.  That’s why even very good players make mental and physical errors they should have outgrown in Little League.  I think it’s going to be very hard for Patel and Singh to overcome such a learning curve in a professional context alongside rookie-leaguers from, say, Southern California, the Dominican Republic, Tokyo, or, well, any other part of the baseball-playing world.  Then again, they are going to the Pirates, so maybe that won’t be such an issue.   Ouch.


People Like Mark Cuban

…and that’s what makes him different form
Martha Stewart.  Well, not just that, but that’s part of
why this won’t stick.  And he’s also probably too smart
to actually be guilty.  He’s a big target.
 

Nice job, Albert

Yes, I would have voted for Howard first and Pujols second, but this is still a much better MVP choice than the BBWAA could have made.  Pujols’ bona fides this season are precisely that, so I get it, even if I hold to the view that Howard’s contributions were more valuable because of where they enabled his team to finally go.  I get that Howard won the ’06 award even though the Phils didn’t go to the playoffs and Pujols’ Cardinals did (and, interestingly, also won the World Series).  I get it.  But don’t think that will stop the “MVP! MVP!” chants opening week in Philly this spring.

Howard, who finished second in overall balloting, wasn’t the lone Phil to make a showing.  Brad Lidge pulled 104 ballots and Chase Utley 30.   

Final MVP Prediction

My real vote is for Ryan Howard, but don’t be surprised if the public relations powers that be seal this thing for Ryan Braun or Chipper Jones.  There were many great contenders for this year’s award, and I’ve already explained why it should go to Howard.  But Baseball loves to spread things around, so we’ll wait 13 minutes and see.  Good luck, big man.

I’m Not Buying Selig on Baseball in the Olympics

Bud Selig is promising the IOC that if baseball is reinstated as an Olympic sport in 2016, the best players in the game will be on hand to play for their countries.  The IOC is saying it doesn’t expect MLB to suspend its season to accommodate said Olympics.  Where, exactly, shall these twain meet?  There’s no conceivable way to send the best players in the world to the Olympics without suspending the professional North American season.  Even the Team USA of the MLB-owned, preseason World Baseball Classic didn’t field the best American players at every position in the 2006 inaugural tournament.  

MLB has a vested interest in securing baseball as an Olympic sport, but the kind of baseball promoted needs to be real baseball (no tiebreakers) and really world class baseball (the best players on the planet need to be on the field).  How can this possibly happen in the absence of MLB’s top talent?  How can that talent be present if the season isn’t suspended every four years?   This year’s Midsummer Classic reminded us that the All-Star Break could use some retooling, but moving it to August is certainly out of the question.  If the Olympics were held in mid-July, the commissioner could expand the All-Star Break once every four years to accommodate participation.  But the Summer Games are usually held in August.  He may single-handedly be able to keep Pete Rose out of baseball, but Bud Selig cannot move mountains (or forecast the weather).  
The point here is that Selig’s statements to the IOC are more about his own ego than reality.  In the absence of a late-season hiatus every four years, the World Baseball Classic seems like the only viable place for (mostly) world class international baseball.  And that might be what Selig wants anyway.  
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