SB Nation - Bruce Chen

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:18:55 -0000

by Jim Prisching - AP

Craig Counsell is expected to re-sign today.

Some things to read while John Tesh rocks the NBA on NBC theme (h/t Amy K. Nelson).

Randy Wolf is expected to undergo a physical this morning and once he does, expect his contract to become official sometime later today. That might not be today's only announcement, though: the Brewers are also expected to finalize a deal with Craig Counsell today. With Counsell, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Alcides Escobar, Mat Gamel and Casey McGehee all on the roster, the Brewers' Opening Day infield is probably set, barring injury or trade.

Meanwhile, Mike Rivera is surprised to be looking for work after being non-tendered over the weekend. He thought the decision not to retain Jason Kendall would give him an edge as the only returning catcher familiar with the Brewer pitching staff.

As of this writing, roughly 4% of voters in the poll on your right listed the decision to offer Dave bush a 2010 contract as the one Brewer move from this weekend they would change. That's not exactly a large chunk of the fanbase, but In-Between Hops is taking on that vocal minority, making the case that the Brewers made the right move by giving Bush another shot.

If you missed Morineko's Weekend Mug, follow the link over to it for full coverage of the Brewers' arbitration decisions, and a link to this list of all the non-tenders leaguewide.

Looking back at last week, Jon Heyman ranked the Brewers among the Winter Meeting winners. Meanwhile, Marc Hulet of The Baseball Analysts listed Rule 5 selection Chuck Lofgren in the "Why Bother?" category.

The more I think about it, the more I think Lofgren will have a tough task ahead of him if he's going to make the team out of spring training. With Trevor Hoffman, LaTroy Hawkins, Todd Coffey, Claudio Vargas and Mitch Stetter back, there's only two bullpen spots left that are potentially available (barring injury), and Chris Smith, John Axford, Chris Narveson, Zach Braddock and now Lofgren fighting for them. I like Lofgren's potential and hope the Brewers will get an opportunity to realize it, but right now he might be the third or fourth best lefty in the bullpen competition.

If you have a vague interest in Brewer baseball, but wish there was less analysis and more profanity on this site, then Miller Park Drunk's RUNNING series might be just the ticket for you. Follow these links for bad Prince Fielder jokes, some fan fiction involving Ryan Braun trying to rap, and a vague musical reference to Rickie Weeks.

In the minors: Baseball Intellect has video footage of some at bats featuring Cameron Garfield, Cutter Dykstra and Josh Prince from a Pioneer League game back in July. They're pay-only, but there are worse ways to spend $2.95.

If you were gone this weekend, you didn't miss the opportunity to help select a center fielder and catcher for the BCB All Decade Team. Voting closes at 4 pm today for center fielders and 4 pm tomorrow for catchers. We'll open the voting for the final starting outfield spot later today.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Signed catcher John Buck to a one-year deal worth $2 million, signed Joey Gathright to a minor league deal,
Braves: Signed Matt Diaz to a one year, $2.55 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
D-Backs: Re-signed infielder Augie Ojeda to a one year deal, and avoided arbitration with Blaine Boyer.
Dodgers: Signed pitcher Josh Towers to a minor league deal.
Giants: Signed shortstop-turned-pitcher Tony Pena Jr. to a minor league deal.
Indians: Re-signed pitchers Adam Miller and Anthony Reyes to minor league deals.
Marlins: Signed catcher Ronny Paulino to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Nationals: Re-signed Scott Olsen to a one year deal. Also signed pitcher Ryan Speier to a minor league deal.
Padres: Signed pitcher Kevin Correia to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Pirates: Signed Ronny Cedeno to a one year, $1.125 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rangers: Signed infielder Esteban German to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rays: Avoided arbitration with catcher Dioner Navarro and pitchers Grant Balfour, Rafael Soriano, Lance Cormier and Randy Choate.
Royals: Avoided arbitration with pitchers Brian Bannister and Kyle Davies. They also signed pitcher Bruce Chen and catcher Vance Wilson to minor league deals.
White Sox: Signed J.J. Putz to a one year deal.

Meanwhile, the market heated up immediately for Yankees non-tender Chien-Ming Wang, with Ken Rosenthal reporting that six teams have already expressed interest. He doesn't list the teams, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover the Brewers are one of them.

I promise, I'm not going to mention it every time someone says something new about Jason Kendall. In fact, I might try to go the rest of the week without mentioning him at all. With that said, I thought these three links about him were interesting:

Joe Posnanski has a look at the potential Opening Day lineup for the 2010 Royals, now including Kendall.
He also compares Kendall to a superball on the field at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
Reminding us all how far and how fast Kendall has fallen, Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? named Kendall the Pirate Catcher of the Decade.

Weeks ago I linked to a post from minor league veteran Garrett Broshuis, mentioning the challenges in finding quality, healthy food in minor league clubhouses. It looks like that problem may be on its way to being resolved: After discussing it at the Winter Meetings, several teams are making an effort to provide healthier options, and remove the constant flow of junk.

If you're a fan of sabermetrics, or just want to learn more about them, I've got two links for you today:

TangoTiger has a look at OPS+, and some minor adjustments that could be made to it to make it more useful than some other advanced metrics.
That post links to this one, Big League Stew's beginner's guide to wOBA. I learned a fair amount by reading that one.

Gorman Thomas celebrated a birthday over the weekend, and while this probably isn't what he had in mind for a gift, David Chalk of Seventh Inning 'Stache has inducted him into the MLB Mustache Hall of Fame.

On this day in 1998, the Brewers acquired Alex Ochoa from the Twins for a minor leaguer named Darrell Nicholas. Ochoa spent one season as a Brewer, hitting .300/.404/.466 before being traded to the Reds for Mark Sweeney after the season.

Happy birthday today to:

Former Seattle Pilot and 1970 Brewer Greg Goossen, who turns 64.
Dave Nilsson, who appeared in 837 games as a Brewer and turns 40.
Marcus Jensen, who appeared in 18 games over two tours as a Brewer and turns 37.

Sean Forman, founder of Baseball Reference, is also celebrating his birthday today. You can help him celebrate by sponsoring a page. I know someone around here will want this one.

Drink up.

Royals sign more ex-Braves players

gondeee — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:16:59 -0000

I read the MLBTR headline that listed ex-Braves pitcher Bruce Chen as one of six players the Royals signed to minor league deals, and I said to myself, there's got to be at least one more ex-Braves player in that group. Sure enough, first baseman Ernesto Mejia also signed a minor league deal.

I thought he was still with the Braves organization, but then I searched back through our archives and realized he was a minor league free agent. He had a breakout year in 2008, but didn't do much after injuring his wrist in 2009. With the Braves set at first base in the minors, he's not much of a loss. It would be interesting to see if the Royals can actually graduate any of our ex-prospects to the majors.

We ranked Mejia as our third-best first base prospect before he became a free agent.

The Value of Prospects Revisited

Eli Greenspan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:32:14 -0000

More photos » by Jim Cole - AP

Browse more photos »

1. J.D. Drew
2. Rick Ankiel (as a pitcher)
3. Eric Chavez
4. Bruce Chen
5. Brad Penny
6. Michael Barrett
7. Ryan Anderson
8. Pablo Ozuna
9. Ruben Mateo
10. Matt Clement

Does this list mean anything to you? Joe Posnanski at Inside Baseball for SI.com tells us that it is the Baseball America's Top Ten prospect list from 10 years ago. How many guys on this list, he asks would you not have risked giving up for a superstar Cy Young pitcher? It kind of makes you think the value of prospects has gotten skewed lately in placing too much value in them. But, and it's a big but-the second 10 names on that same list include Roy Halladay, Lance Berkman and Carlos Beltran. So, trading away prospects by a team wanting to win today is always a risk.

The reason you see John Smoltz's picture in this post is to bring home the never-resolved issue of prospects-for-stars debate. In 1987 the Tigers were in a tight race but needed a proven starter to bolster their rotation. They traded prospect Smoltz for 36-year old Doyle Alexander.

He had not pitched particularly well for almost two years. He had played for eight teams in his Magellan-like career, and he played for the Yankees twice. On top of that, he was not exactly known for his clutch pitching*. There were a lot of reasons to think that Alexander would not be much of a factor.

*Alexander's postseason numbers were abominable -- he was 0-3 with a 7.65 ERA in the playoffs and World Series. And that year in the playoffs, he would get bombed in both his starts.

Instead, he was THE factor. Alexander was great -- in the regular season at least. He started 11 times in the final month and a half as Detroit and Toronto went back and forth in the standings. And ... Detroit won all 11 times he started. It was remarkable. He threw three complete-game shutouts. He punched up a 1.53 ERA. On Sept. 27, with the Tigers 2 1/2 games behind Toronto, he threw 10 2/3 innings and gave up only one earned run to beat the Blue Jays. His next start, he beat the Jays again to push the Tigers into first place to stay.

It was one of the greatest pennant race performances in the history of the game. You never want to give too much credit to one player, but Detroit won the American League East in 1987 because of the Doyle Alexander trade. There was much joy in Detroit. Then the Tigers lost the ALCS to Minnesota in five games.

The Tigers did not win the pennant that year but they undeniably got as far as they did with the sizable contribution they got from Alexander. Smoltz, of course went on to have an impressive career but he was not ready at that time to fill the role Doyle Alexander did.

The way prospects are brought along by teams now, with signing bonuses and what-not, it's not as easy to give them up unless the post-season is in sight-and even then....

This debate never ends. Feel free to weigh in with your opinions..

Royals 5, Orioles 3. So, Bruce Chen, huh?

duck — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:41:05 -0000

More photos » by Gail Burton - AP

Rich Hill prepares for yet another awful pitch. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

Browse more photos »

Losing teams find ways to lose. And tonight, the Orioles found a way to lose to Bruce Chen and the Royals. Yup, Bruce Chen, ex-Oriole, last seen getting whiplash watching balls fly over the fence in 2006. He of the 6.58 ERA, the 1.462 WHIP and measly 5.5 K/9 in 2009.

And sure enough, the O's scored in each of the first two innings. Granted, KC scored in the first as well, but the O's couldn't lose to Bruce Chen, could they?

Rich Hill answered the question rather convincingly. Hill, who knew, stone cold knew, that his pitching career could be decided by tonight's effort, lasted seven outs. He gave up three runs, four hits, walked three, struck out one and generally looked clueless. His delivery looked awful, he had no idea where the ball was going, and didn't even bother throwing his glove in the dugout when Dave Trembley came out to yank him. And if corporal punishment was legal for pitchers, I do believe Diamond Dave would have taken him behind the nearest woodshed.

Oh, the lineup doesn't get a pass tonight. Did I mention we lost to Bruce Chen? Sure enough, aside from Adam Jones hitting a solo HR and getting hit at an opportune time, the Orioles just didn't get much going. The other RBI was the result of a Matt Wieters single that scored Aubrey Huff, but then third-base coach Juan "Windmill" Samuel had Nolan Reimold try for home, where he was out by about 700 feet, roughly. Maybe 600. Looked like 700 to me.

I could recite the offensive futility of the Orioles in this game, but much like Nickelback songs, it's the same tune, just different details. The bullpen did its job, for the most part, with Brian Bass going scoreless for 3.1 and although single runs were scored against Matt Albers and Danys Baez (whose trade values sinks like a rock with every appearence), Cla Meredith came in and threw a shutout inning to finish the 9th. But the bullpen didn't really lose this one. Rich Hill did.

Losing teams find a way to lose, and having a starter like Rich Hill in the rotation certainly increases the odds. And it's getting damn frustrating to watch.

Poll

Who was the Most Birdland Player for Monday, July 27, 2009?

Nolan Reimold (2-3, 1 BB)

41 votes

Adam Jones (1-3, HR, HBP)

33 votes

Aubrey Huff (2-4, 1BB)

3 votes

Brian Bass (3.1 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 K)

36 votes

No one - 3 runs against Bruce Chen? Are you kidding me?

138 votes

251 votes | Poll has closed

31-42

NHZ — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:02:41 -0000

The Royals lose again. Everyone does realize that when myself and others were talking about the National League not being very good, none of actually said "but the Royals are much, much better!"? Good, glad we have that cleared up. Because right now more than ever, as the Royals drop a series to the NL Central cellar-dwellers, this team really isn't very good at baseball.

Bruce Chen made it through six-and-two-thirds, and would have had a quality start if the bullpen could've picked him up. Kyle Davies, you recall, had about negative three quality starts. I guess I should be encouraged, but it's hard to be when you're talking about a guy whose only good year came when he used voodoo, smoke and mirrors to go from journeyman to good starter in the AL East. Since then, Chen has reverted to journeyman. At least he'll always have 2005? But realistically, this was the Pirates he faced today.
"Journeyman" may actually have a hidden meaning "better than Kyle Davies, anyway."
Chen was 1-for-1 with a walk. He was infinitely better than DDJ, Olivo, Teahen, and Hernandez.
I know Trey doesn't care, but you could make a case for having neither Tony Pena Jr. or Little Luis on this team. And it'd be a pretty good one, too. We certainly don't need two utility guys who can't hit their hat size. Really, couldn't we at least give some of their PAs to someone marginally interesting such as Hulett. Oh right, he's not scrubby enough to be Willie Ballgame. Sorry, Tug.
Speaking of which, Bloomquist and Billy Butler had two hits each. The latter had two RBI, but he is terrible because he has clearly already peaked.
Brayan Pena had another hit in his only PA. With Olivo not going to be part of the next Royals competitive team, it's hard to see why BPJ shouldn't get more playing time. He's earned the right to fail, if he's going to fail.
I have only one thing to say about John Bale's pitching: was Terminator: Salvation any good?
Everyone congratulate Warden11 for correctly guessing Luis Hernandez's career SLG. It was .285 coming into this game.

Minor League Wrap -- June 13

Josh77 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:57:46 -0000

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs split a double-header with the Omaha Royals, winning the first 6-2 and getting shut out in the second game, 2-0.

In the first game, Mitch Atkins had his second straight solid start after a month of bad ones, going six innings and allowing only two runs on four hits. Atkins walked two and struck out five.

Center fielder Sam Fuld was 2 for 2 with a double and a walk. He scored twice, batted two in and stole a base.

In the second game, starter Esmailin Caridad pitched well but took the hard-luck loss. He pitched four innings and allowed only one run on five hits. He didn't walk a batter and struck out two.

The I-Cubs were held to only two hits by Royals pitcher Bruce Chen, whom I had no idea was still playing.

Tennessee Smokies

The Smokies came from behind tonight to edge the Mobile Bay Bears, 6-5.

Starter Hung-Wen Chen ran into some trouble in the fourth and fifth innings tonight. When he was removed from the game after throwing 4.1 innings, he had surrendered five runs on six hits. Chen also had poor control for him, as he walked two and only struck out one.

Jeremy Papelbon got the win in relief, allowing no runs of his own in 2.2 innings, although he did allow two baserunnners inherited from Chen to score. Papelbon allowed five hits, but didn't walk anyone. Papelbon struck out one.

Brian Schlitter has been pitching better lately, and he notched his tenth save for the Smokies tonight with a perfect ninth inning.

Center fielder James Adduci was 2 for 3 with a double and two walks tonight. Adduci had two RBI and scored twice.

First baseman Blake Lalli was 2 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI. Shortstop Jonathan Mota was 3 for 4.

Daytona Cubs

Rained out.

Peoria Chiefs

The Chiefs troubles continued as they were cut down by the Clinton Lumber Kings, 4-2.

Chris Archer got into trouble in the fifth inning tonight, which left him with the loss. Archer allowed three runs on four hits over 4.1 innings. He walked three and struck out four.

Second baseman Ryan Flaherty was 2 for 4 with an RBI. Left fielder Kyler Burke had another double tonight in a 1 for 4 game. Burke now has 26 doubles on the year, which leads the Midwest League by six.

Josh Vitters snapped his hitless streak with a 1 for 4 game.

If the Royals Were Nations: The Pitchers

royalsreview — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:26:13 -0000

Continuing our geographical examination of the Kansas City roster. (The position players can be found here.) Hopefully, the players themselves can use this analysis, especially if they ever become NFL football players, play in the Super Bowl, and get asked "What country would you be?" by a wisecracking journalist from Italy.

John Bale: He's mostly imaginary at this point (just like Arod's cousin, right...), or at least, a scenario in which he's useful is. Since the Royals acquired him -- a move I liked at the time -- he's been mostly hurt and ineffective/unlucky. He also sent himself to the DL for punching a wall, so he's an effective problem solver. All this makes him the Sealand of the roster: an imaginary "nation" off the coast of England, that's little more than an old military platform and some insane people in weird uniforms. So far Dayton Moore's brought in three guys from East Asia: Bale, Yabuta and manager Trey Hillman. Maybe he should just stick to the US South.

The John Bale of the world.

Brian Bannister: Is there an auto-text generator somewhere on my computer for Bannister? There should be. It's always the same thing: he's smart, he likes stats, he has average stuff, he's a Born Again Christian, his dad was also a ballplayer, JoePo likes him, etc. So what country is he? I've got Finland, which always ranks well on educational charts and has oodles of Scandanavian efficiency, which could be related to handling the numbers well. Finland's also the least blonde, least visited, most vulerable to Russia, and least good at soccer Scandinavian country. They even speak a weird language. So in sum, Bannister/Finland: a mix of good and bad, with a lot going for it, danegrously close to being too expensive at this point, on the precipice of failure, works best as an underdog.

Bruce Chen: Chen's been around forever, lost more battles than he's won, but every so often is sorta ok. He's even been completely off the map for long periods of time. Sounds like Poland.

Juan Cruz: One of the newest Royals, Cruz isn't exactly young or old. He's in the middle of his career, and while everyone seems to have always loved him, he's been on more than a few teams. As a reliever, Cruz's overall impact is going to be somewhat limited, but he's a nice feather in your cap, and a great place to be for a few innings. In all these ways, he's resembles the lovely island of Bermuda. Much like Bermuda, he's also set apart from the other islands of the Carribean (which he truly isn't a part of), much like Cruz isn't really part of Dayton Moore's off-season horribilis.

Kyle Davies: Davies is Georgia. Not Georgia the country, Georgia the state. Davies is just a big ole white boy with a good southern white boy name: Kyle. (There's even the bizarre, Old Testament name of Hiram thrown in for good measure.) If you exclude Florida, which is admittedly kinda a geographic exception, Georgia is the most populous state in the Old South, and Davies is the best former Brave brought in by Moore. Davies may not quite be ready for prime time yet, but you know if something happened, he'd be sure to beat the hell out of Brian Bannister.

Kyle Farnsworth: Yea, there are worse guys out there, just like there are probably a few places worse than the Central African Republic. Like, the Congo (both of them) and... and... well, the Sudan. Probably Chad too. So before we criticize the fact that the Royals are paying a premium for Farnsworth -- he's one of the highest paid non-closers in baseball -- just imagine how expensive it would be to visit the C.A.R. Sometimes, you gotta pay for the privilege. And if it works out? Well, you can strut around your block for years on the story.

It isn't fair if we only talk about the negatives of the Farnsworth signing.

Jimmy Gobble: Somehow lovable, in spite of being nearly entirely pointless at this point, Jimmy Gobble is the Bolivia of the pitching staff. Bolivia is Venezuela without the baseball and oil, Chile without the coastline, Argentina without the cafes, Brazil without Rio or the Amazon and Columbia without the beaches or drug money. Gobble can't start, can't get right-handers out, and wasn't used as a lefty-specialist by his manager last season. Which makes him sorta like the Bolivian Navy... a group of men in out-dated boats in a land-locked country. He's not even cheap anymore, and neither is Bolivia, thanks to their socialist leadership. Still, we love him. I mean, he's Gobble! He's like the last survivor of the 2003 team. In much the same way, Bolivia has an incredibly short guy called "Evo" running the country.

Zack Greinke: Poised to begin a reign of dominance, and in many ways already there, Greinke is like the USA, circa 1945. He's rebounded from some rough patches and a somewhat delayed breakout (hey, joining WWII in late 1941 was no problem at all... England was managing things fine there, it was all good) to world power status. Sure, not everyone quite knows it yet, and some still assign an out-dated dominance to bloated entities like France/CC Sabathia. But Greinke is right there, and still has room to grow. We're hitting the boundless optimism, not too decadent phase now folks, with 2011-12 the Kennedy years.

Luke Hochevar: So imagine you could travel anywhere in the world. You had top choice, and even some price controls in place. The airports won't be crowded, you'll have a nice seat on the plane, and whatever hotel room you want. You survey your options and go with... Argentina. Uh, ok. Sure, Buenas Aires is nice, and the tango is fun, and there's surely a lot of guys walking around with long hair who would probably be considered attractive. Still, that was your top choice? No South Pacific? No real Paris as opposed to "the Paris of South America"? Meh. I can only see it making sense if you wanted to do a hardcore Patagonia/wilderness/edge of the Earth thing, but we all know the Royals aren't into that. So back to Hochevar... Hochevar's rounded into a solid middle of the rotation pitcher, but it looks like that's all he'll ever be. Considering where the Royals selected him, it's hard to complain, yet hard to feel satisfied.

Ron Mahay: Sure, he's a journeyman reliever (seven teams in twelve years) that's currently well-paid and injured (remember when we all thought Moore = mad genius as a bullpen builder). But of that troubled lot, the journeyman middle relievers of the world, he's one of the best. He's even lacking the John Bale self-destruction gene, and has had a modicum of stability, serving all those years in Texas. Add it up, and he's the Montenegro of the staff: the quasi-stable, non-horrible journeyman, just as Montenegro is the rich, peaceful, beautiful jewel of the Balkans. Mahay earning $4 million last season is the equivalent of that hardcore poker tournament in Montenegro that was featured in Casino Royale, his years in Arlington, equalling Monty's time with Yugoslavia.

Gil Meche: He's not the fastest worker and he has a reputation for being inefficient. He's at once a little under-rated, yet also acknowledged, now, to be "solid". Gil Meche is the non-fun parts of Brazil of the Royals. Brazil dominates South America in basically every way, and shows up on a lot of world leaderboards for various things, yet is still kinda that weird country with the funky flag. It's about as powerful as you can be without deserving a spot on the UN Security Council in anyway. Is it even in the G8? All sounds like Meche really, right there as an asset, but not quite a force. Meche has non of Brazil's flair, he's got not an ounce of Rio in his game. Meche might finish his career with the highest ratio in history of money earned or WARP numbers posted in relation to jersey sales. No, he's a modernist office park in Brasilia, staffed with guys who take forever to do anything because they're planning their next weekend trip or watching soccer on TV or because they're surrounded by hot women.

Can you find Gil?

Joel Peralta: Peralta allowed the most homers per nine innings last season of any reliever in baseball, making him the Gaza Strip. As in, he's frequently bombed. zing!

Horacio Ramirez: Hmm... Farnsy is the C.A.R., Bale is a nonexistent micronation, so where does that love lovable old former Brave and pointless Royal retread Horacio Ramirez? Ho-Ram's a proven poor starter, but was actually decent last season, as a Royal at least, out of the 'pen. Of course, doing the same thing with Chicago in the same season, he was then awful again. And he doesn't make the league minimum... You know what? I'm gonna be nice with this one. Ho-Ram is Kyrgyzstan, a nearly entirely unknown nation in Central Asia. Honorable mention for Ho-Ram is Thailand. Can you guess why?

Joakim Soria: Probably the coolest Royals player since Bo Jackson, and easily one of the ten best relievers in baseball, and that's being conservative. Somehow, he's able to look like the guy from Malcolm in the Middle yet legitimately carry the nickname "The Mexicutioner". As a closer, he's not really a heavy lifter, and he isn't placed in a position where he can carry a team. What he can do is, well, finish the job. All in all, this makes him Great Britain in a James Bond Movie. Look, Britain can't win the Cold War for you, and really can't even defend Europe, but if you need to send in one man to execute a bad guy, sleep with three beautiful Romanian women, defuse multiple bombs, survive a poisoning, and climb up the side of a building over one weekend, somehow it just makes sense that a British guy is better suited to pull this off than someone from, oh I dunno, Georgia. Kyle Davies is gonna drink too much beer, punch the wrong person, and screw up the mission, even though you'd think he'd make a better fighter. Corollary: Mike MacDougal is Great Britain during the Spice Girls era.

Robinson Tejeda: I suppose if Ho-Ram is Kyrgyzstan (which actually looks cool as hell, oh well, let's keep it) then that would make Robinson Tejeda... what's left of the Aral Sea. I understand that this is not actually a nation.

Doug Waechter: Really, Waechter has got to be Florida. Have you ever heard of someone pitching for the Devil Rays (as they were at the time) for four straight seasons? He was a longtime Devil Ray! Do you know how many pitchers have passed through the Trop in this decade? And the most amazing part was that he was never even really good. Better still, after washing out in Tampa, he resurfaced with, that's right, the Marlins. So, let's honor this dedicated Florida man. Obviously, he's another great pickup by Moore, as he had an ERA+ in the 70s three out of four seasons (and all of the last three) then one good year in Florida, pitching in a swamp. I think his numbers will translate well to a neutral field in the stronger league!

Yasuhiko Yabuta: Every other team gets to bring in a guy from Japan who, for three months (aka his first time through the league) is completely baffling and unhittable. Not the Royals. Yabuta was, from the start, hittable. But hey, everything else from Japan has worked out: Bale's a team leader and inspirational dynamo and Hillman's the best manager in the game.Yabuta: a concept that has worked out for everyone else, but in this case went disastrously wrong. He's the Clipperton Island of the Royals. Every other tropical island in the world turned out to be a nice place to live, and many even turned into profitable little trade centers or sources of cheap labor making one product. Not Clipperton, which is now uninhabited. In the early twentieth century however, a guano company (make joke here) tried to establish a colony there. Problem was, the relied on ships from Mexico for supplies every few months, only the Mexican ships eventually stopped coming due to, you guessed it, internal strife. The settlement was founded in 1906, and by 1915, nearly everyone was dead. In the end, there was one male left, and fifteen women and children. You can probably figure what happened next: after a reign of terror, the man was finally killed. The last survivors were picked up in 1917. All this is a long way of saying, Yabuta!

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:03:13 -0000

Some things to read while writing a pleonasm about volumating.

Braden Looper will be examined by team doctors today after a tight oblique muscle caused him to miss Saturday's scheduled start and he didn't feel any better yesterday. It's a long spring and one missed start shouldn't impact Looper's status for the regular season. Hopefully we'll get good news today. Shysterball notes that one of Looper's idols, Goose Gossage, also suffered a similar injury while sneezing.

Trevor Hoffman didn't pitch in Saturday's game either, opting instead to throw in the bullpen. Hoffman has been doing this for a long time so I'm trying to trust his judgment, but the similarity between Eric Gagne's 2008 spring and Hoffman's 2009 continue to haunt me.

Carlos Villanueva, on the other hand, got his work in yesterday. He pitched a scoreless inning that included a 14 pitch at bat against Giants prospect Pablo Sandoval.

There were some rumblings over the weekend that Corey Hart might be invited to play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic as an injury replacement, but that speculation ended when Adam Dunn was added to the roster instead. The Junkball Blues projects Hart for a .274/.314/.459 2009 season.

It's another sad day for the mainstream media and those of us who follow it, as the Rocky Mountain News closed down over the weekend. This sparked a conversation that caused Three Days of Cryin' to write an important note in defense of beat writers. As a blogger, I'll be the first to admit I rely on beat writers every day to break the news that we discuss in this space. It's problematic, however, when beat writers become increasingly unreliable, as demonstrated this weekend. Here are two examples from the Journal Sentinel in three days. First, here is an excerpt from Friday's camp report (published Saturday):

Scoreboard: Brewers 8, Athletics 5. Record: 1-1-1. Today: Brewers vs. Dodgers. RHP Braden Looper vs. RHP Shane Loux. Broadcast: AM-620 radio."

The problem, if you haven't already noticed it, is that the Brewers played the Angels on Saturday, not the Dodgers. Here's the opening line from this morning's camp report:

ON THE FIELD: Giants probable opening day starter Tim Lincecum threw two perfect innings against the team he would face to start the regular season, although he threw to only three expected starters.

This one is closer to accurate. Lincecum did throw two perfect innings...and a third one. Yes, before you ask, both notes were written by Anthony Witrado. Doesn't anyone proofread his stuff?

UPDATE: Turns out, that wasn't the only mistake in Sunday's camp report. Witrado has the Brewers facing Padres RHP Josh Greer today. His last name is Geer.

Mat Gamel became a father for the first time over the weekend. His daughter's name is Audrey Maddox, and since all is going well he's expected back in camp today.

Winning can be hard, but the Brewers are doing it the right way: Baseball Analysts has the Brewers in the most desirable quadrant of a graph comparing team spending to winning. This strategy is paying off, as the Brewers set a record for single day ticket sales, selling 104,000 on the first day of single game availability last week. (h/t FanShot)

A couple of nice profile pieces were written over the weekend. Manny Parra was the focus of the Journal-Sentinel's latest profile and Vinny Rottino sat down for a Q&A with MiLB.com's Lisa Winston. I haven't had a chance to check yet, but I'm hoping both players will be featured in Jamie in LA's photo gallery of spring training snapshots.

Speaking of players I'd like to see featured, CZwief took a look at Mark DiFelice.

Also, in response to last week's post about Tony Gwynn, Two-Fisted Slopper compared Gwynn to Tom Goodwin.

A couple of projections to pass along:

Viva La Vidro is projecting the Brewers to finish 79-83, which would leave them fourth in the Central.
Viva El Birdos projects the Brewers' starting pitchers to produce 9 wins above replacement, fourth best in the division.

Now, some shameless self promotion: Beyond the Box Score is holding a chat at 1 pm tomorrow to discuss the NL Central, and I'll be one of the guests. Also, Baseball Digest Daily has a look at Twitter, which gives me an excuse you remind you that BCB has a Twitter feed.

Corey Koskie was going to play in the World Baseball Classic as a showcase in the hopes of getting an offer from a team, but apparently he won't have to wait that long. Koskie signed with the Cubs over the weekend (noted in FanShot).

Other notes from other camps:

Athletics: Nomar Garciaparra will reportedly play for the A's, if he doesn't decide to retire.
Diamondbacks: Brandon Webb was scratched from his start over the weekend, but it's not believed to be serious.
Dodgers: Signed Doug Mientkiewicz to a minor league deal.
Mets: Signed Ron Villone to a minor league deal.
Orioles: Signed Adam Eaton, who was released by the Phillies last week.
Royals: Signed Juan Cruz to a two year, $6 million deal. They also signed Bruce Chen.

I had previously mentioned the visa problems for Mariners OF Wladimir Balentien. Turns out Balentien's passport got wet, so he tore the wet pages out, then attempted to use said passport to leave the country. Not a good idea.

The Cardinals agreed to terms over the weekend with Mitch Harris, their 13th round pick in the 2008 draft, but at this point it doesn't much matter: Harris graduated from the Naval Academy and is required to serve for five years. Harris, already 23, will be 28 when he's finished his commitment and can report to the Cardinals. I understand that a commitment is a commitment, but wouldn't it be a much better PR move for the Navy to let this guy out, instead of destroying his hope for a big league career?

Speaking of things that don't make sense, the White Sox raised $330,000 at their benefit dinner for scouts in January. If you're not so good with math, that's about $11,000 per major league team, a pittance, and it's still the baseball equivalent of Wal Mart holding a charity dinner for their underpaid employees.

It appears the daily updates on the Nationals' saga are nearly complete: Jim Bowden resigned over the weekend, finally noting he was becoming a distraction to his team.

Oh, and former Brewer manager Jim Lefebvre once played a cannibal on Gilligan's Island.

Drink up.