I have a bunch of things I want to clear from my clipboard today; and to start things off, I want you to put yourself in the role of a baseball arbitrator. A player and a team have not agreed on a contract and you have two salary numbers in front of you. According to the rules set down by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, you must pick one of them; you cannot “split the difference”.
The player in question is a starting pitcher. Last season, his record was 1-5 with an ERA of 5.83 in 12 starts. His season was cut short by a visit to the disabled list, which saw him have “minor” elbow surgery to remove some bone spurs and calcium deposits. He is ready to report to spring training.
The team has offered him a 24% raise over last year. The player seeks a 93% raise over last year. You are the arbitrator … what sayeth you?
Reality is that the pitcher in question is Shawn Hill of the Washington Nationals and he got his 93% raise. If he has a great spring training, he might be the #4 starter for the Nats; more than likely, he will fight for the #5 starting slot; whatever he does for the Nats this year, he will do it while pulling down $775K.
Speaking of pitching “uncertainty”, the Milwaukee Brewers made the NL playoffs last year with CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets in the starting rotation – at least most of the time when Sheets was healthy. Both are gone in the off-season and I read somewhere that the Brewers’ GM has been told by the owner that the team is pretty much at the budget mark for this year. I went to the Brewers roster to see what their rotation looked like without Sheets and Sabathia. In alphabetical order, here are six starters for their rotation:
Dave Bush
Yovani Gallardo
Seth McClung
Manny Parra
Jeff Suppan
Carlos Villanueva
If the Brewers are going to make it to the playoffs again this year, they are going to need some major improvement from at least two of these guys…
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays signed a Japanese pitcher to a minor league contract. Unless this guy is a conduit for some of his teammates also to sign with the Blue Jays, I do not understand why it is worth the time and effort to sign Ken Takahashi at all. Two weeks after the season starts, Takahashi will be 40 years old. He has been a pitcher for the Hiroshima Carp for 14 seasons; and in that time, he has a record of 66-87 with a career ERA of 4.23. I guess the Blue Jays really thought the needed a wily old lefthander but they found out that Warren Spahn is still dead. Ergo…
As the days go by, many writers/commentators keep returning to the idea that the SF Giants and Manny Ramirez might make a deal. Now, from the standpoint of taking a huge piece of the LA Dodgers’ offense away from the Dodgers by signing Ramirez, this concept makes sense for the Giants. However, from lots of other perspectives, it makes no sense.
The Giants’ lineup is a weak one. If you put Manny Ramirez in the middle of it, he might not see a ball intentionally thrown in the strike zone until Flag Day. Remember the kind of pitches that Barry Bonds got in his final seasons in SF and there were better hitters in the lineup near him than the Giants can put in the lineup now. There is a likelihood that kind of situation would frustrate Ramirez and the memory of how a frustrated Manny Ramirez behaves with his teammates (Kevin Youkilis) and team staff members (Red Sox traveling secretary) should be front and center in the minds of the Giants’ officials. Oh, and if Manny decides he really wants to be traded to get away from that kind of situation, they can review how he behaves to assure that a trade will have to happen.
I have to say a few things about the Sports Illustrated story saying that Alex Rodriguez failed a drug test in 2003 – those screening tests that were supposed to be anonymous because all they were to do was to ascertain if expanded testing was necessary.
1. All the “A-Fraud” and “A-Roid” and “A-testoste-Rod” jokes that need to be made have been made.
2. MLB says it cannot comment because the results of these test were supposed to remain private.
3. The MLBPA refused to comment on the matter other than to say that the sanctity of the privacy of these tests is paramount.
4. Alex Rodriguez and Scott Boras said to go talk to the union.
5. If – I said IF – MLB and the MLBPA have any real concerns with cleaning up the game then they have to stop this legalspeak/bull [rhymes with spit].
6. Does the allegation that MLBPA deputy Gene Orza was tipping off players as to when their random test was due to happen bother you at least as much as the prospect that yet another star player may have used steroids? It does me.
7. Can we now recognize the Mitchell Report for what it was? It was a shallow, incomplete investigative report and investigative process that had lots of self-serving verbiage in it. Then again, a former wrote US Senator it so why should we be surprised about that?
Greg Cote is ready for baseball to begin. Here is a recent comment in the Miami Herald:
“The Marlins are set to open spring training next week, and the artist renderings of the team’s new stadium are out. I can attest to the accuracy of the drawings, because in them all of the seats are empty.”
Some folks are now expressing shock at the draconian 3-month suspension of Michael Phelps by the Lords of Swimming. Excuse me, will any of those hand-wringers please give me the list of the major swimming events that Phelps will be denied participation in between now and Mothers’ Day? Is there some kind of “shadow-Olympic competition” scheduled that I have not heard anything about? If not, then this punishment is as meaningful as sending a kid to his room for a timeout where he can spend the time with his Xbox.
Finally, here is an item from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:
“Starting forward Dominique “Niki” McCoy has been suspended from the Bowling Green women’s basketball team, the Toledo Blade reported, after she was charged with:
• DUI (police say she blew a 0.178),
• driving with a suspended license,
• failure to use turn signals, and
• open liquor container in her car.“School publicists say it’s her first quadruple-trouble.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…