Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill
Welcome to the Elysian Field Bar & Grill, where we drink a silent toast to immortal Cardinals Minor League infielder Sammy Baugh.
* Right at this moment, Nelson Cruz has played in exactly 162 games since the end of Spring Training. That includes 104 in the Minor Leagues, 31 with the Rangers and 27 in Winter Ball. He is hitting .343 (208-for-607) with 132 runs scored, 33 doubles, 52 home runs and 156 RBI in those 162 games.
* They called him "Slinging" Sammy Baugh. But the great NFL quarterback, who died this week, got the nickname from baseball, not football. A sports writer gave it to him because of his strong arm as a third baseman. That's one story anyway. He did sign with the Cardinals as a third baseman but switched to football because his chances were better.
* Ozzie Guillen on Alex Rodriguez switching from the United States to the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic: "Maybe he's got the history; the only one ever, went two uniforms, different clubs. I hope he plays for Venezuela the next one, because Venezuela will be better with him."
* You have heard of Hillerich and Bradsby, makers of the famous Louisville Slugger bats? Some players do use them but they are just one of 32 companies that supply bats to Major League players.
* By the way...Honus Wagner was the first Major League Player to ever endorse a bat.
* Greg Maddux on advice to young pitchers: "The best way to learn is screw up and not do it again. I think it's okay to make mistakes. Hopefully you learn by it and you don't make those mistakes again. I think that's probably the easiest way to learn."
* Victor Diaz - remember him? - leads the Dominican Winter League with 17 home runs and 48 RBI. Jarrod Saltalamacchia has nine home runs and 21 RBI. But Diaz has played in 46 games. Saltalamacchia just 19. Diaz has a .706 slugging percentage. Saltalamacchia has an .841 slugging percentage.
* Rangers pitcher Brian Gordon leads the Venezuelan Winter League with a 1.79 ERA.
* Maddux on what he learned from pitching with Tom Glavine: "You don't have to be 100% to win. You have to take the ball and you have to go out there. Injuries come up, and sometimes it's real easy to say, Oh, I need another day or two. But I think in Atlanta ... he showed everybody that you can go out there, and if you can throw the ball over the plate, you have a chance to win no matter how bad you feel or how good you feel."
* Matt Harrison had nine wins and a 5.49 ERA for the Rangers this year. That's the 11th highest ERA for a rookie pitcher with nine wins in one season since World War II. The highest? Colby Lewis had ten wins for the Rangers in 2003 despite a 7.30 ERA.
*Just for the heck of it: Gabe Kapler.
* Maddux on what he would change as Commissioner: "The game, it's almost perfect the way it is. I think, you know, this game has been going on now the way it was played 100 years ago. I think that's the beauty of it. I think the only difference is now it just might be a little faster. That's about it. But I think the game itself, there's really nothing wrong with it."
* Rangers third baseman Travis Metcalf and his wife Abbey spent Thursday serving lunch to children and their families at Safehaven's Fort Worth shelter. Chris Davis held a Christmas party on Tuesday for children from the Promise House in Dallas. The Rangers collected over 2,000 toys this year for Toys For Tots.
* Royals manager Trey Hillman on his first year as a Major League manager: "You know, I made a lot of the same mistakes. I made a lot of the same mistakes that I made my first year when I went to Japan. But I was so locked into needing to change our atmosphere and the expectation level within the clubhouse and on the field; I'm glad I made some of the mistakes that I made. "
I like Maddux's advice. That can apply to all of us.
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
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Going to scattershoot a little today...
There are few people whose opinion I value less than Ozzie Guillen's. Great great player, big big mouth.
I certainly don't remember THAT Victor Diaz.
I still have to root for Trey Hillman, who I hope will have success as a manager.
Not on TR's list, but while Frank Cat is a great guy, he still has no place on this team. The A's placed their shortstop Bobby Crosby (and his $5.75M salary) on waivers, and he has since cleared. It's a sunk cost. They'll eat his salary and move on - just like the Rangers should with Cat. Given the difficulty the team had due to roster inflexibility last year and Cat's negative trade value, it seems like this would be an easy call...
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Maddux is guy who had the skill and ability to pitch in the big leagues at a high level and made a ton of money doing it. However, when you get right down to it, we shouldn't be taking advice from anyone who basically has no real world experience. From the point he signed his first multi-million dollar deal he ceased to be able to identify with the real world. The bottom line is i love baseball but their is plenty wrong with it. When most of us on here were growing up Baseball was THE SPORT,#1, America's pasttime. You don't go from #1 to #3 overnight without fouling things up. Football is king, followed by Basketball then Baseball. Why did this happen? How do you go from first to third place? Again i love baseball, but i really would like to see a salary cap for this league. The amount of money being thrown around is crazee. A salary cap levels the playing field. If someone wants to play for the Yankees then take less money. I really get sick of A-Rod terminating a $25 Million @year contract so he can get $2.5 million more a year. I love the Yankees, but i hope he never wins a title, it is called team chemistry or i mean cancer. Baseball is too slow, too much shenanigans stepping in, stepping out, grabbing crotch, leading off, going back, warm up pitches. Post season in November, too many games. Lets go back to 154 games per year or even less and add some playoff teams. Do something to make the game more exciting by increasing the value of a single game.
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Baseball is too slow. What a rap!
There is indeed more speed in other pro sports. However much of what you see is inaction.
Football - changing sides, incomplete passes, huddles, offical time outs (checking yardage, moving chains, two minute warnings), half-time, running out the clock, etc.
Basketball - penalties on every other play, timeouts galore (especially in the last minute of a close game), half-time.
Hockey - Face off after face off, fights, off-sides, penalty after penalty, smoothing the ice (twice), scoring (occasionally).
I agree with the 154 game season. We need four eight team leagues. No interleague play. Each team plays 22 games with the other teams within that league (balanced schedule). Four league champions. Playoffs involve only the champs. World Series won by a championship team not a wildcard.
We don't need more NFL, NBA or NHL type playoffs where half the league makes the playoffs.
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Baseball is fine just the way it is. Don't get me wrong...Curt Flood changed the sport for the worse but you got to like it just the way it is. The criticisms for the most part are from a bunch of old farts...intent on reviving or even rewriting their youth in the "good ole days" in which truth be told things were not all that much better. Who cares about football and basketball and their place among sports watchers? All I need is some baseball! I used to own a T shirt that said "Baseball is my life"...I see no reason to change that.
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