A cautionary tale for high-profile amateur pitchers looking to get paid now.

He know works at a Costco in Palmdale.

You wonder what some of the people who were advising him were thinking.

I doubt this has anything to do with a certain college stud, but in general when there seems to be too much hype, it tends to mushroom into a whole lot of nothing if you start to believe all the attention.

Hope this hasn't been posted.

ESPN - OTL

Gives some props to a guy named Troy Percival:

"You spend a lot of time looking for ways to get better, to have an edge by studying video of yourself and of the opposing hitters, but when it comes down to asking questions about your role, who are the people you’ve talked to the most?

Well, early in my career it was Troy Percival. I was so fortunate to come into the big leagues with the Angels just about when he was about to leave. I learned a lot from him. He always allowed me to pick his brain about life in the big leagues and especially about life as a closer.

He stressed to me the importance of the everyday focus and intensity. Watching him pitch was very special to me. After Percy moved on, I started reaching out to current teammates in any role, because I’ve learned a great deal from Darren Oliver, Justin Speier and even from the starting pitchers – we always have very good ones.

To me, I try to learn from each one something about what has made them successful, and they’ve all played a role in my development with their advice. And, of course, I can’t forget about my pitching coaches, from the big leagues all the way down to the minor leagues.

Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports

I saw Spiezio going to the game Tuesday night. What was funny is an hour before I saw him walk up, I was talking to someone I knew about Hulk Hogan's son being jailed for reckless driving. I jokingly referred to Spiezio's 'little incident' during the off-season, where he crashed his vehicle into curb/fence and went fugitive for a little while, hiding from the cops [and beating up a friend].

I guess he hasn't found a job playing baseball after the Braves had released him from their AAA minor league club. Numerous personal problems aside and stupid [but lucrative] career decisions [signing with Seattle], Spiezio and Angels' fans will always have 2002 to remember.

I went to the game on Tuesday night.

Did anyone see the guy [Angels hat] who was gangtackled by security just after the game, infront of the home plate gate? The guy looked like he was being 'escorted' out of the stadium but just didn't want to leave. He was cussing back and forth towards security.

One of the security guys was escorting a player out [Huston Street of the A's] and the guy wanted to take a look at Street. He started kicking and punching, when security wouldn't let him get close to the player.

Security then had to subdue the man [it would have been nice to see him Tazered]. About 20 or so security people just huddled around the man, as he sat in the center, cuffed up.

For those who cringe for the sake of doing so, when our current closer comes in, who said former Halo god Troy Percival didn't cause his share of ninth inning jitters for fans?

It is one game, but it shows Percival had his moments, even if he still ended up closing out the game.

Via: Yahoo!

Hopefully this isn't a double post and the link works, but Kingfish was part of a four man tour with former Major League Baseball peers Jeff Nelson, Dean Palmer and Mike Remlinger in Afghanistan. On May 11, they signed autographs and posed for pictures with those men serving the United States. There is even a photo of Salmon with one of the servicemen posted and it is pretty neat for him to take a moment of his time to do what he did:

Former Big Leaguers Boost Morale In Afghanistan