Quick Wednesday news
DMZ · January 31, 2007 at 10:53 am · Filed Under Mariners
Barry Bonds is, to my knowledge, the first player to have a clause in his contract allowing it to be terminated if he’s indicted. His agent says it’s not enforceable. I’d bet the Giants disagree.
Yankee Stadium gets the 2008 All-Star game, and then the Yankees will inevitably get another one soon afterwards with their new stadium.
At a guess, the clause allowing the contract to be terminated is enforceable. It’s the extra language stating he gives up the right to “grieve, appeal or otherwise challenge” his termination that isn’t enforceable. Grounds for termination aren’t necessarily a collective bargaining issue, but the grievance procedure certainly is collectively bargained, and language in labor contracts that purports to contract away legal rights is generally disfavored.
I thought it was interesting that the only thing that caused the Commish to balk was “because it contained a personal-appearance provision”
Hickey
looks at the off-season (and the market factors) that made this rotation, and
Thiel puts his 2 cents in on the pitching next season.
Oh, and:
Happy birthday, Yuniesky Betancourt!
Do we know if he’s actually 25?
Yes, I think we can be confident he’s actually 25. The immigration folks aren’t too fond of people with phony papers, especially since 9/11.
#3 – Yeah that Thiel article was quite, umm, interesting. Saying that this year’s starting staff is the best that we’ve had since we had Moyer and Garcia isn’t really saying much on his part.
We basically have one possible #1 starter and a bunch of #4’s. One might argue that the 2001 starting rotation was only marginally better than that, I suppose. But, do you realistically see Ramirez, Batista, or Weaver pulling a 2001 Paul Abbott performance out of their hat?
To expand on my thoughts, I think that the starting rotation will be better than last year (subtracting Joel from the mix does that automatically IMHO). I just think that the amount of improvement that we’ll get for the amount of money that was spent will be marginal (maybe 3-4 wins difference net).
But, do you realistically see Ramirez, Batista, or Weaver pulling a 2001 Paul Abbott performance out of their hat?
One of them probably could, if the offense would pull a 2001 performance out of its hat.
Yes, I think we can be confident he’s actually 25. The immigration folks aren’t too fond of people with phony papers, especially since 9/11.
There are still prospects being caught in age-gate related scandals. It’s not as prevalent as it once was, but there’s no way it’s secure enough to assume that every player (especially Cubans) are telling the truth about their date of birth.
#8 – I suppose anything could happen, I just tend to be more of a realist (some say a pessimist). I have them pegged for an 80-82 record, 3rd place finish in the AL West, personally.
Yes, my point is that there wasn’t anything special about Abbott’s 2001 performance. He was an average-at-best pitcher even then, a mirage created by well-timed run support from a pretty good offense. That’s what being a realist means to me.
[cough]fruto[cough]
I liked how Thiel wrote in his article,
“As he showed by being a stud in St. Louis’ improbable postseason, Weaver can be a No. 2 starter.”
I don’t think that one month should reverse years of mediocre play.
George Sherrill on ‘Making it the hard way’.
oh, and Phil White has a piece on /a> 4A players, using Jack Cust as a leaping off point.
today’s “around the horn” section on the official site focuses on the starters, and says that moyer, washburn, meche, jo-el, and felix were the staff that pitched the entire season without missing a start…wasn’t it moyer, garcia, fraklin, meche and jo-el? or am i wrong here? don’t want to argue with the site, but i was sure that washburn and felix came along after…
It was Moyer, Garcia, Franklin, Meche, and Jo-El. 2003.
2003 was also the year Hasegawa threw 73 innings with a 1.48 ERA.
Remember when our pitching was better than league-average?
All Yankee games lately are like an All Star game anyway. Tons of Superstars who play in games that mean nothing in the long run.
“As he showed by being a stud in St. Louis’ improbable postseason, Weaver can be a No. 2 starter.â€
Yeah, and what about this improbable postseason appearance in 2003:
New York Yankees IP H R ER BB SO HRWeaver L(0-1) 1 1 1 1 0 0 1
Totals 11 10 4 4 1 10 2
Weaver faced 1 batter in the 12th inning
And that appearance was against a hitter who “slugged” .443 that year.
When are they going to take away Art Thiel’s keyboard?
#19: Sigh. Why doesn’t “code” do on WP what it does everywhere else? Is there a better way to post stuff here without losing tabular formatting?
Can someone please explain why people keep posting speculation that Fruto is older than he says? Is there actually any reason to believe that he’s older?
I dunno, maybe it is just that this doesn’t scream “22 year old”
Fruto isn’t quite in Greg Oden territory, though. That guy’s supposed to be a college freshmen but he looks like a 60 year old LeBron James.
it was funny noticing that Betancourt’s 25th birthday is today when I looked at the baseball-reference list — he shares a birthday with Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan, Ernie Banks, and Jackie Robinson. That’s good luck, isn’t it?
And, yeah, that’s an impressive mistake for the site to make on the 5 starters, though I don’t see the Around the Horn article — link? They had a baseball signed by all 5 guys in a display at Cooperstown following the 2003 season, even.
Fruto is heavy and has a big-boned face. So what?
I think this ridiculous speculation that Fruto — or whoever — is older than his papers say should be banned along with the steroids speculation.
They should just ban all speculation of any kind.
If you’re going to ban someone accusing Barry Bonds of taking steroids you should ban accusing Emiliano Fruto of commiting immigration fraud.
I agree. They should also ban people for accusing people of accusing people.
Then they should ban people for asking for people to be banned for accusing people of accusing people.
had a baseball signed by all 5 guys in a display at Cooperstown following the 2003 season, even.
So, what you’re sayin’ is Franklin, Meche and Piniero are all in Cooperstown already? Or did somebody already use that joke.
w/r/t comment and bans – if you’ve got an issue you wish us to consider, you can email us. Or you can start your own site and enforce your own policy.
Oh, well, you’ve won me over Thiel.
Wow….I didn’t know Fruto looked Japanese…
#33 In addition, if our rotation has grit it means that their mediocre history is already an overachievement.
#15– FWIW, the Around the horn piece opens with:
“There was a point last August when the Mariners were the lone team in the Major Leagues to have used the same five starting pitchers all season. Say what you want about the combined production Jamie Moyer, Jarrod Washburn, Joel Pineiro, Felix Hernandez and Gil Meche gave the Mariners, but no one could question their durability.”
I saw on mlb.com that the Mariners are looking at the workout of Shannon Stewart. Anyone heard anything else on this? Do we need him? Do we care?
Stewart’s knees are done. He’ll never be a quality fielder again.
If we sign Stewart it would only be to take Doyle’s place as a fourth outfielder.
Frankly, I’d rather just use Reed.
I don’t think Stewart’s problems are knee related. He’s been bothered by chronic plantar fasciitis the last two years. Unless you’ve looked at his medical reports, or talked to his doctor, I doubt you’re qualified to give an opinion about the likelihood that his feet get better.
So any further news on what Churchill’s reporting — that it’s Bazardo that’s the 40-man casualty for Weaver?
Then they should ban people for asking for people to be banned for accusing people of accusing people.
And have their children taken away!
Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked
have been sacked.