wade

Law rated Heyward as the best free agent available two years ago. Granted, he mostly praised his defensive abilities, but suggested that Heyward could return to hitting with more power and even cited "more mechanical work" as a way to get there. Nobody is right every time. Hopefully he was right two years ago and wrong two days ago.

There may be a more recent analysis of Tebow's swing, but it's pretty bad in the video above. And, what's interesting to me, is that it looks a lot like Heyward's from last year. Spinning on his back foot, fully extended arms at contact instead of after, and the bat wrapped back around his head during his load. Just about everything that the guy doing the analysis points out in Donaldson's swing appears to be the exact changes that Heyward is working on. I'd love to see something recent regarding Tebow and see if he's making changes as well.

This will draw me out on the dance floor after being a wallflower for 5 years. I think Heyward will bounce back at the plate this year. First, he almost has to- he could hardly have a worse year than last season. But, I also think the changes in his swing mechanics were absolutely necessary for him to be more productive. The following is my opinion, based on my personal understanding of a good, fundamental baseball swing. (If you want to skip the rest, just know that I think he will be quicker to the ball and actually be able to hit for more power this year) There are two main camps of hitting mechanics instruction. They are rotational and linear. Some popular proponents of each believe that the other is totally wrong. However, the best hitting coaches use components of both hitting philosophies and don't try to put every athlete into the same cookie-cutter methodology. Heyward, according to what I've seen on video, has always be a very rotational hitter. That's not always a bad thing. Ted Williams was a pretty decent hitter, and he is a rotational poster boy. But it looks like, especially this past season, Heyward got "too rotational". The Sean Casey analysis was very good- Heyward hardly off got off his backside last year and to compensate, sped up his hands. If you rotate too much on your backside, you lose power. You can also end up with a longer path to contact. Heyward's swing last year was very long to the ball and short through it. You want the opposite. And that's what it looks like he's working on in these new videos. Like Casey said, he's now making a bit of a linear (Casey didn't use that word, but that's what he's doing) move toward the pitcher and getting off his back side. Now, he still needs to keep his head behind the ball and rotate against his front leg, and his changes seem to be helping him with that. In other words, you can't ONLY laterally shift your weight, you still rotate. Again, I agree with what Casey said in his video, and I think this change will give him more power. Power that he should have, since he is built like Jack Reacher (book version, not Tom Cruise) The other thing his new swing has that's different is a quicker path to the ball. Casey didn't mention this, but I'm sure he'd agree with me (haha). Last year, Heyward let the bat wrap back around his head during his load. This meant he had to swing it way back around to get to contact. Sometimes players will do this in a misguided attempt to get more power. He's now (at least in that workout video) keeping the barrel more upright during his load and therefore will have a much quicker and shorter swing to the ball, as well as being longer through the zone, as his extension should now come after contact, whereas before he'd sometimes be fully extended at contact with the ball, which is a much weaker position. The other benefit of being quick to the ball is that you have an additional couple of split seconds to judge a pitch. Doesn't sound like much, but for these guys, that's gold, both with pitch recognition and having power to all fields because you can "let it travel" a little deeper. There you have it. He can print this out and put it next to his comeback player of the year award in 8 months.

Samesies

Go Cubs!

Angels management will probably get over it when Pujols passes A-Rod on the all-time home run list.

Oh yeah, well, you're ugly.

Maybe I can use a poor example from another sport! This one time, I was watching a Bears-Packers game. Just before the half, there was some sort of question about a punt or kickoff, or reception, can't remember exactly what. Anyway, red flags fly, commercials run. After the break, the broadcast station has the N.F.L.s head official in charge of replays in the booth- right there in the booth- and he is breaking down the 17th replay and telling us that yes, this will be overturned. The guy in the replay booth, working as masterfully as Chris Nolan's film editor, freezes on the frame which contains the evidence, asserted by Head Replay Guy, that will cause this to be overturned. After about a 10 minute break in action, the official comes out and says the play will stand, directly contradicting what the head guy saw while in the booth. That is all-too common in the N.F.L. and I hate it. I don't know that MLB would have similar problems, but I hate the idea of it even if I'm assured they wouldn't. I hate it. No robots.

I am against robot umpires, but cannot list exactly why, which is frustrating.

Hmm. I don't think this works like it used to.

http://frontline.purchasenow5.tickets.com/buy/MLBEventInfo?tfl=Chicago_Cubs-Tickets-Single_Game_Tickets-upcomingseriespromos-b2&agency=MLB&pid=6897299&roomid=5 I think that's it. Found it my ownself.

O.K., here is my annual request for the link that enables you to open a bunch of windows in the virtual waiting room for single game tickets. Much obliged.

Uh oh. Looks like Old Style's source may be confirmed.

Does everyone who battles an addiction have to do it under the spotlight of news organizations pointing out each slip up? Yeah mighten this whole "he got drunk once recently" thing be overblown a bit? Are you wondering why it's a big deal? The guy pissed away all he had from his addiction, and then finally got his life back on track. It's not a big deal because he speaks about addiction at churches. It's a big deal because one night out drinking for him could turn into weeks getting high on cocaine and whiskey. For us baseball fans, his falling off the wagon could mean we miss out on watching him play the game. For him, it could literally mean life and death. Or, maybe I'm just one of the ones overblowing the whole thing.

As with Lou Gehrig, it's the other disease- the real one- that may kill Hamilton.

Hamilton said he drank, then called Ian Kinsler to hang with him. He did not tell Kinsler he'd been drinking and said he was very good at hiding it. They talked, Kinsler dropped him off, Hamilton said he was going home, then went back out drinking instead. This is going to sound glib, but I sure am glad I can drink beer and whiskey and not lose my mind. One trip to a bar could send this guy (and any addict) to all types of awfullness.

Hamilton is going to hold a press conference at 2:00 at the ballpark.

Does everyone who battles an addiction have to do it under the spotlight of news organizations pointing out each slip up? When you author a book, detailing your triumph over addiction, are not you at least partly responsible for part of that spotlight? http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Belief-Finding-Strength-Come/dp/1599951614 At least he can write part II now. The book does not detail a triumph over addiction.

It is a battle every single day for this guy. Hopefully he can rebound again.

I don't doubt they'll try it and intend it to be a solution. The only question is how long it will take for them to abandon that strategy. It took about 10 games in '09, but i think they had Carlos Guillen playing first at that time.

Holy [expletive]. That's really not that crazy. I looked on the Tigers website (which only has 5 guys listed over 230, by the way). If anyone wants to argue the weights listed are incorrect, then they'd probably have a pretty good case (Miggy at 240?). Anyway, looking past the fact that the heights and weights could be a little off- and that goes for any player in MLB, you still have these factors that I find intersting- Two of those over 230 (one is actually listed at 230, but I'll let that slide) are 6'4" outfielders. I am 6'4". I am about 220-225 on a given day. I am not fat. I'm actually equal parts twisted steel and sex appeal. 6'4" 230 is somewhere around NFL quarterback size, and not Daunte Culpepper either. One is 6'4" Jose Valverde, who is fat. One is 6'4" Miggy, who is listed at 240 and makes the whole thing I said a second ago about looking at their listed weights as true-they aren't gospel to say the least. The other is Prince. Using the same arbitrary cutoff of 230+, I did a google search on the first team I thought of (the Angels, maybe becasue I kind of think alphabetically) and found they do have 6 players on the 40 man roster listed on their site that are 230 or more. I wish I had thought of the Yankees first, because I looked them up and found that they have 13 players listed at 230 or more on the 40 man roster posted on their website. In short, that's a dumb stat for that guy to post. Methinks I'll respond to him on twitter about it in hopes I can become mildly famous.

Yes! I haven't seen many address this on twitter and on sites I that I read. They lost a DH, so just let Fielder and Cabrera rotate between DH and 1B for 2012. They can worry about 2013 when it gets here, and when Martinez is going to be 30-something years old and coming off ACL surgery. I mean, that guy is not gonna be a lock to be a great performer by that point, I wouldn't think. I actually saw a projected lineup that had Ryan Rayburn at DH and Miggy at 3B. If he's in the lineup, why in the world wouldn't they just put Rayburn at 3B? A lot of players don't wan't to DH and prefer playing the field as well. We've only known for a week or so that V Mart would be out for the season, but the Tigers must have had a pretty good idea for a while that it could happen. Therefore, I'm betting that they'd been negotiating with him for a while, probably with similar 5-6 deals as the Nats and Rangers, but once they learned for fact that V Mart would be out, it accelerated the process, and they offered the contract that they did to get him to agree to at least a part time DH role. I know that would give them 2 1st basemen and 2 catchers with only 1 DH spot in 2013, but if Avila has another season like he did last year, they should have no problem trading him. So you think the Tigers had a pretty good idea that Martinez was going to tear his ACL in offseason workouts for a while before it happened? They weren't in on Prince until that injury, is what I'm betting.

Yes! I haven't seen many address this on twitter and on sites I that I read. They lost a DH, so just let Fielder and Cabrera rotate between DH and 1B for 2012. They can worry about 2013 when it gets here, and when Martinez is going to be 30-something years old and coming off ACL surgery. I mean, that guy is not gonna be a lock to be a great performer by that point, I wouldn't think. I actually saw a projected lineup that had Ryan Rayburn at DH and Miggy at 3B. If he's in the lineup, why in the world wouldn't they just put Rayburn at 3B? Maybe they just want him to play some 3B in spring training just to maintain some flexibility. I can't imagine they will actually line up that way in real games. That's true, and I suppose the interleague games will factor in as well.

Yes! I haven't seen many address this on twitter and on sites I that I read. They lost a DH, so just let Fielder and Cabrera rotate between DH and 1B for 2012. They can worry about 2013 when it gets here, and when Martinez is going to be 30-something years old and coming off ACL surgery. I mean, that guy is not gonna be a lock to be a great performer by that point, I wouldn't think. I actually saw a projected lineup that had Ryan Rayburn at DH and Miggy at 3B. If he's in the lineup, why in the world wouldn't they just put Rayburn at 3B?

So, I know that Vegas odds are a reflection of who bookmakers feel the best teams are. But, they are also a reflection of who the most popular teams are. For instance, nationally popular teams like the Dallas Cowboys often see their lines skewed simply because they have a ton of fans who will bet them no matter what. It's possible that after over a hundred years, the Cubs' odds are consistently driven down to win the World Series because they are nationally popular and that people would love to have a bet on them the year they finally win the World Series. That said, this has to be a misprint. http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/7177016/theo-epstein-lowered-odds-chicago-cubs-winning-world-series This article is from back in November and shows that the Epstein hire lowered the Cubs to 25-1 in a futures bet. I can't believe it's been bet down that much since then.