Monday, March 02, 2009

STILL TOO EARLY FOR REAL BASEBALL

***BOWDEN QUITS NATIONALS***
And not a moment too soon. Bowden was fired from the Cincinnati Reds in 2003, who have yet to recover from his "leadership". How did he leave Washington? Well, they now have 4 corner outfielders and 3 first basemen. I suppose if opposing hitters only pull the ball they'll be okay. They let their best pitcher get away and signed Adam Dunn. With all those cream puffs hitting around him, Adam will only see good pitches in batting practice. Bowden did lead the league in signing players with aliases.

***MANNY VERSUS THE DODGERS***
Everybody knows how Scott Boras plays the game: wait, wait, wait and then wait some more. This works, because: 1. eventually teams panic and give in, 2. sometimes (just sometimes), Scott pulls off a coup and goes with another team (see the Teixeira soap opera). It's not working now because there is NO surprise team and Ned Colletti loves to play hard ball. One un-named executive says he has the answer: Tell Scott, here is our offer. We can't say how long it will stay on the table. Let us know. And WALK AWAY. There is also a 2nd idea: Since Boras always goes for the most money, tell him here's our offer; in 48 hours we're taking off one million dollars. In 72 hours, we're taking off another million, and so forth. Money always gets Manny's attention.

Picasner would also tell Scott, "We're looking at a 'mystery' outfielder." This is fun.

***STATISTICAL STEROID DEPARTMENT***
Here's another beauty: Matthew Hooker has come up with Leverage Index (LI) in conjunction with Win Probability Added (WPA) to chart the accomplishments of the Baltimore Orioles bullpen last year. Rob Neyer says, "I don't know what I'm looking at, but it's pretty." Picasner says, "They finished LAST, with the 2nd worst percentage in the AL ." I don't need no stinkin' statistics.

***KANSAS CITY HAS A NEW STADIUM***
Well, not really. They are spending $250 million renovating the old stadium "FOR THEIR FANS." The renovations include: a new restaurant, a game room, miniature golf, more bars more brands of beer, more luxury suites...oh, and more restrooms. Interesting how all this might translate into more income for the Royals. On the other hand, they did re-institute general admission seating at $7 a pop. That's good, thank you. By the way, there will be only 475 of them, about 1% of the total seating capacity. I wonder if they're all 'Obstructed Views'? Kansas City Royals: last in the American League but first in line at the bank. Having seen a game there, Picasner will say their attendants are the nicest he's ever seen.

***BILL MADDEN - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS***
Madden, who writes (and I use the term loosely) for the NY Daily News, says that A-Rod met with MLB officials last night "...and they had questions for him." Really? I thought it was for tea and crumpets. No reports on the meeting yet, but Mike Lupica has already said A-Rod was lying.

I think both NY papers should include an emblem of a vulture in their mastheads.

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