Eric Byrnes is back on the DL and, if previous severe hamstring injuries can be any indication, he may be done for a month or longer.  While the current plan appears to be putting Conor Jackson in left and Chad Tracy at 1st, I'm concerned about Tracy's ever-falling stats to this point.  I know he basically didn't have a spring training, but how long can we wait around for him to maybe figure it out.

Barry Bonds is on the FA market and his agent has publically stated that he would not only accept a league minimum deal, but he would donate all money to buy tickets for kids to come to games.

So, my question is a simple one.  I'm not asking if Barry should be signed.  Feel free to give reasons why he should or shouldn't be signed, but for the poll I'm much more interested in what you would do if he was?

The NT stands for New Trades... it's a computer joke, sorry.

Anyway... it was a busy week/weekend.

The A's signed LF Emil Brown.  I'm guessing this is because they just traded for a lot of younger and likely more capable players, so they needed that obligatory veteran cork to stop up the flow.

The Brewers signed Mike Cameron to a 1 year deal. I've read reports that it's worth $7 mil.  I hope they're kidding.  This likely slides Bill Hall back to 3rd where he's just slightly less of a butcher then Ryan Braun, who moves to LF.  Cameron is no longer an elite CF defensively and is even worse with the bat.  Thumbs down from me on this one.

The Braves, apparently desperate for a CF, traded very promising RP prospect Joey Devine to the A's for CF Mark Kotsay.  Kotsay was one of my favorites for a long time, but this guy just doesn't have anything left in the tank.  I suspect the Braves will regret not just giving the job to Josh Anderson or moving Kelly Johnson to CF.  The only bright side for the Braves is that the A's are reportedly going to pay $5 mil of the $7 mil that Kotsay is owed this year.

The Cardinals and Blue Jays traded for eachother's problems at 3rd base.  Scott Rolen and his shredded shoulder go to Toronto while Troy Glaus and his bad left foot will move on to St Louis.  There is money involved in this deal somewhere, but I haven't seen final word on how much and to where.  This is a 100% win for the Cardinals.  Rolen was a cancer in their locker room and quite honestly is a waste of roster space at this point.  Glaus, if he can get the foot issue sorted, is still one of the best power hitting third basemen in the game (for those that like that sort of thing).

My commentary from the Scherzer diary:

"I found this awesome animated GIF on Baseball Think Factory.  The story is actually an interesting observation about the differences in Webb's delivery in '06 compared to '04.

Regardless, I think the GIF shows that Webb starts wonderfully by dropping his pitching hand and elbow very low out of the glove, and despite what the poster on BTF thinks, his early break out of the glove is a good thing.

However, once Webb starts cocking for delivery, things go a little haywire.  His body, which had been in a downward trajectory towards home plate, starts to stand back up and he starts to raise his elbows into that "upside-down W" position.

He follows that with a nice flare of the hips, which cause his shoulders to follow around.  His front foot comes around to a good landing position.  He doesn't land on his heel, but on the whole foot.

It's hard to tell for sure at this angle, but it seems to me that his elbow is high when it comes around for delivery.  It also appears to me that Brandon starts to pronate his upper arm, which isn't good.  However, it does look to me like he has very nice weight transfer to his front foot and his back foot slides off the rubber nicely.

I emailed Chris O'Leary last night... it'll be interesting if he responds.  In my extremely un-educated opinion (which, let's face it, O'Leary's opinion is more studied, but just as un-educated) I'd say that Webb does almost everything right, but the upside-down W and early pronation could be putting stress on his shoulder and elbow."

I asked and I received:  Chris O'Leary blogs about Brandon Webb's mechanics.

He comes to the conclusions I thought he might, but adds that he locks his glove-side knee on follow-through, which could raise the chance of hip and knee problems.

Browsing around Chris O'Leary's site, I came across a little blurb about Max Scherzer:

"Max Scherzer (Mizzou) - 2/17/2006
Injury Risk Rating = Worse Than Average
Over the weekend I came across an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talking about Mizzou pitcher Max Scherzer. I managed to find a few pictures of him and feel that he resembles Mark Prior in the he makes what some call an Upside-Down W as he turns his pitching arm over. In doing this, he brings his elbows above the level of his shoulders. As a result, I expect that Max Scherzer will have serious elbow problems as well as shoulder (especially rotator cuff) problems.

    * Max Scherzer Update 5/2/2006: Over the course of the season shoulder tendonitis caused Scherzer to miss three starts. I believe that this is related to the fact that Scherzer takes his elbows both above and behind his shoulders."

It's an interesting observation and it wasn't very hard to find visual evidence.  I was also able to find some evidence of what O'Leary calls "hyperabduction".  For an example of good mechanics, he points to Greg Maddux.  Take a look at the difference in elbow height at the fully cocked position.  Maddux is way lower.

Does anyone have any pictures of Scherzer pitching this year?  AFL or otherwise?  It'd be interesting to see if his mechanics have changed at all since his college days.

On the bright side, O'Leary really likes Haren's mechanics.

I don't have any proof, but I think that Owings throws a lot like Haren.  I'd be interesting if O'Leary did an analysis of Webb.  Maybe if he got a nudge from a well known blog-o-sphereian...

I think we all completely missed this after the season, but Doug Slaten underwent microfracture surgery after the season and is questionable for Opening Day.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0108dbacks.html
(near the bottom)

Even with all of the guys waiting in AAA, they're going to watch Keith Foulke throw later this month.  I would seriously hope that there's no interest there.

If he has a strong spring, does this open the door for Scherzer?  Or does it open the door for one of Bill Murphy, Emiliano Fruto, Leo Rosales, Juan Guiterrez, or even Bill Buckner?

Continuing the Hot Stove series, the A's today traded another major league player for a smattering of young "talent".  They sent Nick Swisher to the White Sox for AA LHP Gio Gonzalez, A+ RHP Fautino De Los Santos, and AAA OF Ryan Sweeney.  The White Sox continue to make baffling moves and the A's continue to stockpile (very) young talent.  

Matt Clement has also signed with the Cardinals, adding to their stable of injured and highly talentless pitchers.  Is this enough to push them over the Pirates for second to last in the NL Central?  I can't wait to find out.

Looks like the other diary got locked, so I'll start up a new one.

Stories that Josh Byrnes is offering Brian Anderson, Carlos Gonzalez, and Emilio Bonifacio for Dan Haren won't die.

I still don't see Beane taking these 3 mid-high level prospects for him.  Not unless the "package including" means that it's those 3 and a major leaguer.

There are those that are crazy high on Haren and those who call him a good #3 that had a career year.  The question I have is: How many strike-out/fly ball pitchers have come to Arizona and succeeded?  Johnson... Schilling...  I'm not saying he'll be Claudio Vargas, but I think it could be something close to Javier Vasquez.

Saw this piece on the East Valley Tribune site:  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/102881

The jist, as far as I can tell, is that they don't mind spending more this year because they are going to (somehow) lump the costs of the next 3 years together.  I had heard that the payroll for this year was going to be in the 70-75 range.  Isn't 230 divided by 3, 76.6?  What's the difference?

Someone smarter then me want to explain this?  Sounds a whole lot like what Colangelo did to me.

The people at Fielding Bible gave out their 2007 awards.

Somehow, Eric Byrnes won for LF.  He "was the Major League leader in left field in plus/minus (+28) as well as one of the leaders in Good Fielding Plays (23)." I can only assume that Good Fielding Plays are how they track "poor routes to balls resulting in spectacular looking catches."