The last sunset of 2003 turned out to be a real beauty. My wife Marilyn captured it from our back yard (click on the picture for a larger view):
Happy New Year to all!
Posted by David Pinto at 8:57 pm | Other | Permalink | 1 Comment
December 31, 2003
Well, Wells
Looks like David Wells crossed up the Yankees and is headed for warmer climes:
“David agreed verbally to a deal,” Cashman said. “There was one component to be completed, a weigh-in. We didn’t get it finalized, but we had the financials in place.
“Right now, we’re waiting to find out if Boomer honors his commitment. If not, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:55 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 5 Comments
December 30, 2003
Ephedra Banned
The US government has announced a ban of ephedra, an herbal supplement linked to the death of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler. I’m not crazy about bans like this. The people who want to use ephedra will get it; and since they will get it illegally, I suspect it won’t be as good as [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:57 pm | Cheating | Permalink | 9 Comments
December 30, 2003
Bird to Mammal
Jason Johnson, non-tendered by Orioles, has signed with the Detroit Tigers. Not exactly a great career move, but he earned 11 win shares last year, and the best pitcher on the Tigers, Nate Cornejo, earned only 8. Johnson’s not a great pitcher; he walks to many and doesn’t strike out enough. The [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:32 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
December 30, 2003
Clayton to Rockies?
According to the Rocky Mountain News, Royce Clayton is close to signing with the Colorado Rockies.
The Rockies have had interest all along in Clayton, who played last season in Milwaukee, feeling he could fit as a super utility infielder or protection at second base if they signed shortstop Rich Aurilia. In the past week, however, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:19 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 2 Comments
December 29, 2003
Calderon Killed
Ivan Calderon was shot and killed over the weekend in Puerto Rico.
Witnesses said Calderon was in a store when two people entered and, without a word, shot the former outfielder multiple times in the back, said police Sgt. Maribel Arzuaga.
Like the Dernell Stenson case, this sounds like an execution to me. I wonder if [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 7:31 am | Crime | Permalink | 1 Comment
December 27, 2003
Career Over?
One person I’m hearing very little buzz about this off season is Roberto Alomar. I did a search of google news, and the only tidbit I found that was the least bit interesting was in this assessment of the Cardinals moves:
Meanwhile, left field and second base remain unsettled, and the club still needs a [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:51 am | Free Agents | Permalink | 9 Comments
December 26, 2003
Duquette Returns
Dan Duquette is back in action running a team. This time, he’ll be running a collegiate summer team:
Duquette told the Berkshire Eagle that he’s received preliminary approval from the New England Collegiate Baseball League to move the Thread City Tides of Willimantic, Conn., to the Dan Duquette Sports Academy in Hinsdale.
NECBL officials did not [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:13 pm | Management | Permalink | 4 Comments
December 25, 2003
Puppy Picture
Phoebe got a Christmas present, too:
Click on the photo for a larger view.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:46 am | Other | Permalink | 1 Comment
December 24, 2003
Merry Christmas!
A Christmas Card for you!
Posted by David Pinto at 10:31 pm | Other | Permalink | 3 Comments
December 24, 2003
Steve Finley
To help out with a study comparing my probabilistic model of range to MGL’s UZR, here’s Steve Finely broken down by field slice and by batted ball type (in the field slice, C would be the third base line and X would be first base. MN is straight away center field):
Steve Finley, 2003 by [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 6:28 pm | Defense | Permalink | No Comments
December 23, 2003
Poor Deal is Dead
The mega-deal of the millenium is no more. The Rangers are going to have to live with the best player in the game, and the Red Sox are going to have to live with two great hitters in their lineup.
Posted by David Pinto at 5:48 pm | Trades | Permalink | 3 Comments
December 23, 2003
Old Folks Home
The Yankees have signed Kenny Lofton to a two-year deal. I’m sure he’ll play center while Williams moves to designated hitter. He’s going to improve the Yankees defense in center, although he’s not the fielder he once was.
My question is, will he lead off? He had a .352 OBA last year, .381 [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 3:28 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 10 Comments
December 23, 2003
Baseball Ballet
A number of baseball celebrities participated in this year’s Oakland Ballet “2003 All-Star Nutcracker.” Alysse Minkoff has details, including why it’s great to be Barry Zito.
Posted by David Pinto at 2:07 pm | Other | Permalink | 1 Comment
December 23, 2003
UZR
MGL’s UZR study for 2003 is up at Baseball Primer. In the disscussion, there’s a link that compares my probabilistic system rankings of CF’s to UZR.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:18 am | Defense | Permalink | 1 Comment
December 23, 2003
DBacks Rotation
Don Ketchum of the Arizona Republic is reporting that the DBacks will fill out their rotation with knuckleballer Steve Sparks and former Astro Shane Reynolds. These are the pitcher replacing Schilling and Batista.
Sparks has not had a stellar career. He did have a good year in 2001 for the Tigers, going 14-9 with [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:13 am | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
December 22, 2003
Flooded Market
Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star looks at how non-tenders help flood the free agent market, and bring Charlie Finley’s dream closer to reality. (Link via Baseball Primer.)
Posted by David Pinto at 10:54 am | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
December 22, 2003
Terminology
Someone pointed out this site to me today. If you ever wanted to know what a “can of corn” was, or what “catcher obstruction” was, you can find it there.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:43 am | Baseball | Permalink | 2 Comments
December 22, 2003
Catching On
I had wondered why the A’s picked up Michael Barrett from the Expos. It turns out they wanted Damien Miller, and they knew the Cubs wanted Barrett. So they traded a young, poor hitting catcher for an older, somewhat better hitting catcher. I assume Miller is a stop gap until Jeremy Brown [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:36 am | Free Agents, Trades | Permalink | 6 Comments
December 21, 2003
Non-Tenders
ESPN has a list of the players who were not offered contracts by yesterday’s deadline and have become free agents. Looks like Randall Simon and Braden Looper are the best of the bunch.
Posted by David Pinto at 1:29 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 5 Comments
December 21, 2003
Brew Ha-Ha
Jan from Wellesley send a link to this NY Times article by baseball business expert Andrew Zimbalist:
“The Brewers made it clear that if we built a modern, state-of-the-art stadium, it would provide them with the resources to field a winning baseball team,” Thompson, now the secretary of health and human services, said. “The Brewers need [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:20 pm | Management | Permalink | 6 Comments
December 20, 2003
Angel in the Outfield
Jose Guillen became an Angel yesterday. He’ll play right field and Tim Salmon will move to designated hitter. The Angels are hoping last year wasn’t a fluke for Guillen, but even if it was, they are only paying him $3 million a year for two years. That won’t break them.
Anaheim now turns [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:48 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
December 20, 2003
Rhodes Show
The Oakland A’s are finalizing a contract to bring Arthur Rhodes to town to replace Keith Foulke. At first glance, it seems like Beane’s streak of finding cheap closers is coming to an end. After all, he lost a pitcher who posted 21 win shares and is replacing him with someone who only [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:07 am | Free Agents | Permalink | 4 Comments
December 19, 2003
Mill a Phill
Kevin Millwood has accepted the Phillies offer of arbitration. That gives the Phillies a very solid pitching staff going into the 2004 season.
It was a surprise when the Phillies made the arbitration offer Dec. 7, but general manager Ed Wade said the team was willing to take on Millwood’s salary for one year, even [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 3:47 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 10 Comments
December 19, 2003
More Thoughts on the A-Rod Non-Deal
Tom Fevola sends this thoughtful letter:
I’ve come to the conclusion that I was a bit hasty yesterday in chastising the MLBPA. Maybe we all were. I am beginning to see the picture clearer now.
Firstly, I understand why the MLBPA did what they did. Actually, I understood it yesterday too, but I just didn’t agree with [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:25 pm | Trades, Union | Permalink | 3 Comments
December 19, 2003
Blog Party
I attended a party of Western Massachusetts bloggers last night, many of whom blog for MassLive. I met Scott, Greg (who organized the party), Jennifer, Catherine, Sarah, The Suki, Rick, another Jennifer, Kristen and Lou, whose blog I can’t find at the moment (Lou, if you see this, write me). There were many [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:21 pm | Blogs | Permalink | No Comments
December 19, 2003
Cold War II
Brian Schnack writes:
Here?s the ultimate in AL East maneuvers?.
In a move sure to escalate the AL East race, the Red Sox announced the surprise signing of 64-year old Soo Yung Kim, a little-used North Korean lefty. Kim has reportedly pitched off and on for 3 decades in the Pyongyang Nuclear Research Eternal Sunshine League, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 12:58 pm | Fan Rant | Permalink | No Comments
December 19, 2003
No Bad Publicity
If nothing else, the Red Sox trade, the Sheffield story, the various free agent signings have kept baseball news on the front burner. There aren’t too many times that I go to ESPN.com’s front page and not see a baseball story up for part of the time. Even my blog traffic hasn’t [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:38 am | Other | Permalink | 2 Comments
December 19, 2003
A Yankees Fan in Boston
Jan from Wellesley writes:
Most folks feel this is going to get done anyway, right? So why all the righteous indignation from the Sox camp and some of their fans? So they got spanked for all the tampering in which they’ve been allowed to engage, so all the favored treatment they’ve received from their [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:55 am | Fan Rant | Permalink | 3 Comments
December 19, 2003
The Morning After
Doug’s Business of Baseball Weblog has a roundup of links both pro and con on the union’s handling of the trade. Doug is quoted in the CNN/SI article:
“The union can’t allow this to set a precedent,” said Doug Pappas, a New York attorney and an expert in baseball salary structure and economics.
If players could [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:15 am | Trades | Permalink | 3 Comments
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