frostwyrm

Grace could have been incredible if he did roids. He had such a natural batting eye and great bat control. All he needed was more strength.

Putting Soriano at #2 is a terrible idea, but Lou's comment makes it sound like it will be temporary. Lou doesn't want Soriano running until he's 100%. I'm guessing he'll be back at leadoff when he's ready to run.

Why did they bring back Vizquel and give him a raise if they were going to blow up the team in spring? It doesn't make sense.

WRIGLEY FIDEL. You would just have to rearrange the letters in "Field." Sully would love it.

Dusty on Joey Votto: "He needs to swing some more," Baker said. "I talked to him about that. Strikeouts aren't the only criteria. I'd like to see him more aggressive." I pity that kid.

I don't why he moaned about the horses and then he goes and gets the same ones 2 years later. God, it's so much better being on this side of the fence regarding Dusty. I can not wait to see how he handles Dunn when he watches the 3 strike go by time and time again. Or ball 4, for that matter. Cause it's called hitting, not walking. Plus Dunn's a slow dude. He's the typical base clogger. Plus he has a .248 career BA, and we all know BA is more important than OBP. Nevermind that half his hits go for extra bases.

And then the cream of the crop.....LENNY! oh God, lenny harris. that guy has to be up to a D-cup by now. He's on the Nats coaching staff. If he were available I don't doubt that Dusty would offer him a coaching job, or maybe even let him play.

people do this all the time. in the nba, do you ever see a white guy's game compared to a black guy? don't think so. if he's white, plays small forward but has pretty good height, not terribly athletic, but can shoot well, he's automatically compared to larry bird. All I know is that after the Ichiro/Matsui comments I'm going be pissed if Lou is quoted as saying Fukudome could be as good a basestealer as Kaz Matsui.

I think this is kinda ridiculous. You wrote it yourself-this is Spring Training. The whole point, especially with players a manager has never seen before, is to try various things out and see if they work. Piniella said himself: "I might drop him back down to the two-spot and see what happens." It sounds like he's tinkering with things to see what works best. The last time I checked, that's the point of practice games. Why not? I'd much rather have a manager who tries things (ESPECIALLY in Spring Training) to see what might work best over a manager who is so wedded to his stupid philosophies that he refuses to try anything new. I think his quote here is telling: "Maybe the three-hole might be asking a little much too soon. We might drop him to the two-hole, and he might be more comfortable there." I don't think this has anything to do with "protection," or anything else we flippantly label "old school." I think it has more to do with the fact that Piniella probably believes that Fukudome is trying to drive the ball too much, thus expanding his strike zone, instead of remaining patient and trying to simply get on base. Putting him in the #2 hole might be a way to allow Fukudome to re-establish those facets that make him a good hitter. Most importantly, however, I think an Allen Iverson quote is probably the most important to remember for some perspective here. Practice? You're talking about Practice... Not the games. Practice... That's all well and good, except for the fact that he apparantly tried the 3 spot for all of 7 AB and was able to determine that Fukudome in the 3 spot didn't work. Spring training should not be about trying things. Spring training should be about getting in game shape. If you want to throw guys into different defensive positions, just to get them some experience, fine, but spring training is a horrible place to "see if things work". Nothing that happens in spring training should determine who plays, and where people hit, in the regular season - with the exception of injuries or trades. Maybe with a familiar vet but Fukudome is like a rookie and Lou has to get a read on him. Lou makes me a little nervous regarding Fukudome. I've seen Lou quoted on two different occasions as saying Fuku is like a cross between Ichiro and Hideki Matsui. Can he only fathom Fuku's skillset by comparing him to other players in his ethnic group? I would hate to think that Lou can't figure out what to do with Fuku because he can't find any other yellow-skinned player to equate him with. I hear he's a Joe Morgan with an arm! I have no idea how Lou is thinking regarding this race thing. Maybe his son will give him some comparisons to all the players for Lou to use when he's asked that question again. Corey Patterson is a cross between Gary Sheffield and Kenny Lofton.

I think this is kinda ridiculous. You wrote it yourself-this is Spring Training. The whole point, especially with players a manager has never seen before, is to try various things out and see if they work. Piniella said himself: "I might drop him back down to the two-spot and see what happens." It sounds like he's tinkering with things to see what works best. The last time I checked, that's the point of practice games. Why not? I'd much rather have a manager who tries things (ESPECIALLY in Spring Training) to see what might work best over a manager who is so wedded to his stupid philosophies that he refuses to try anything new. I think his quote here is telling: "Maybe the three-hole might be asking a little much too soon. We might drop him to the two-hole, and he might be more comfortable there." I don't think this has anything to do with "protection," or anything else we flippantly label "old school." I think it has more to do with the fact that Piniella probably believes that Fukudome is trying to drive the ball too much, thus expanding his strike zone, instead of remaining patient and trying to simply get on base. Putting him in the #2 hole might be a way to allow Fukudome to re-establish those facets that make him a good hitter. Most importantly, however, I think an Allen Iverson quote is probably the most important to remember for some perspective here. Practice? You're talking about Practice... Not the games. Practice... That's all well and good, except for the fact that he apparantly tried the 3 spot for all of 7 AB and was able to determine that Fukudome in the 3 spot didn't work. Spring training should not be about trying things. Spring training should be about getting in game shape. If you want to throw guys into different defensive positions, just to get them some experience, fine, but spring training is a horrible place to "see if things work". Nothing that happens in spring training should determine who plays, and where people hit, in the regular season - with the exception of injuries or trades. Maybe with a familiar vet but Fukudome is like a rookie and Lou has to get a read on him. Lou makes me a little nervous regarding Fukudome. I've seen Lou quoted on two different occasions as saying Fuku is like a cross between Ichiro and Hideki Matsui. Can he only fathom Fuku's skillset by comparing him to other players in his ethnic group? I would hate to think that Lou can't figure out what to do with Fuku because he can't find any other yellow-skinned player to equate him with.

I'll never understand how the 2 hole got such a low status in the minds of old school managers. 2 and 8 hitters are interchangeable to people like Lou. Dusty had Neifi and Cesar Izturis batting 2nd.

I just don't see enough upside to Marquis to make me understand why anybody would covet him unless he was a LOT cheaper. Mediocrity is the best you can hope for from Marquis, and outright suckage is very likely. Too much downside risk for too little reward. If I'm paying good money for a guy to eat innings I would want at least semi-reliable mediocrity.

I don't understand this concept of an innings-eater being worth a multi-million salary when he's a bad pitcher. You can get the same result by cycling through triple A guys, and for a fraction of the price. I can see how an innings-eating would have value if you could be confident of mediocre performance at worst, but Marquis is worse than that.

Marquis is done here. Too bad he has another $16.25 mil on his contract. I'm guessing Hendry will need to send $8 mil to find a taker. What a rancid signing.

I don't understand. Hendry pays top dollar for every bit of productivity you see on the field. Anybody can do that. I would think that businessmen would want more bang for their buck. Not so sure I agree with this. He has overpaid in some instances (Soriano, Marquis) but has gotten some deals done at below market value (Lee, Ramirez) in key spots so the overspending isn't quite so glaring. I really don't see anything he's done contract wise that has crippled their ability to go out and improve. Some of the reliever's contract were a little pricey, but it's not like he gave Carl Pavano $20 mil a year. We have 8 guys getting $102M in 2009. You don't think that's a problem?

I don't understand. Hendry pays top dollar for every bit of productivity you see on the field. Anybody can do that. I would think that businessmen would want more bang for their buck.

She got hungry.

I'm guessing the Rockies are just doing this to give Neifi's career an honorable end and perhaps entice him to take a coaching job. It's actually a nice gesture, since it would have been humiliating for Neifi to end his playing days on a drug suspension.

If anyone needed motivation it's Lieber. If he's just handed a rotation slot that increases the chance he won't bother trying to lose weight.

Ya, they could dig up Hank Greenberg too and have Crawford and Baldelli carry him around like Weekend at Bernies. Na, just bring back Fred McGriff. He's as stiff as any corpse.

is that Chelsea Clinton in your avatar? yeah

Making a priority out of stealing 3rd is the type of harebrained idea I'd expect from Dusty Baker.

I would have been far more agreeable to having Willits last year, seeing as we had Cliff Floyd and Daryle Ward in the OF. Willits could have been a useful defensive sub.

Again, what use would Willits be except the short end of a CF platoon and PR? Maybe I'm out of step with the crowd here but I just don't believe in using a zero-power player as a pinch hitter unless bases are empty. If it's late in the game, you have men on base, and you need a run, then you better PH with somebody who hits the ball hard enough to move runners around the bases and hopefully get an RBI. What I would not do is put a slappy OBP guy out there in hopes that he'll get a walk.

I like it. I enjoy retro style ballparks as much as anybody but that doesn't mean modern stuff can't appeal to me. IMO too many baseball fans have become knee-jerk traditionalists about ballpark design because those horrible 70's bowl stadiums gave modern ballparks a bad name.