Baseball Etcetera: Players sent down or released..LaRussa arrested
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
10 Days Till Opening Day
Baseball season will be here in just 10 days and we are seeing some of the better players being sent down and some fading veterans released. This is a list of some of the better known prospects and veterans that won't be with their teams for opening day...this is just from the last few days.
Prospects
Ryan Sweeney - White Sox...No. 1 prospect for White Sox in Baseball Prospect Handbook
Hunter Pence - Astros...had best average of all hitters in spring training...will be back as soon as they find a spot in outfield for Pence
Casey McGehee - Cubs...needs trade...Aramis Ramirez ahead of him at 3B for next seven years
Cameron Maybin - Tigers...No. 1 prospect for Tigers in Baseball Prospect Handbook
Ryan Braun - Brewers...leading spring hitters with 5 home runs when sent down
Brandon Wood - Angels...had 101 extra base hits in one season in minors a couple of years ago
Hernan Iribarren - Brewers...among spring RBI leaders
Michael Garciaparra - Mariners...brother of Nomar
Adam Miller - Indians...pitched 14 scoreless innings this spring
Matt White - Dodgers...potential billionaire sent to minors (bought land from aunt that had rock quarry estimated worth a billion dollars)
Players With One Year or More in Majors
Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol - Cubs...both in starting rotation last season
Paul Wilson - Released by Reds
Pedro Astacio - Signed by Nationals to minor league contract
Scott Sauerbeck - Astros...sent to minors
Charles Thomas - Athletics...may be end of road for Thomas since Athletics have outfield prospects in minors much better than Thomas
Roger Cedeno - Orioles...sent to minors
John Koronka - Rangers...was starter last season
Chad Mottola - Blue Jays...hit 232 home runs in minors and 4 in majors and has 15 seasons in minors...125 major league at bats in 5 seasons...playing in minors since 1992...at the age of 35 wonder if he will continue to play baseball... hit .280 lifetime in minors but only .200 in majors...have world of respect for a player like this because he has to love baseball to play this long and only have played in 59 major league games
Spring Training News
Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched into the 6th inning yesterday giving up only 1 hit and 1 run while striking out 7. Have a feeling Daisuke may be even better than expected when season opens....Adam Wainwright pitches well again allowing 1 run in 5 innings and now has a 1.25 ERA...Dan Johnson is now hitting .310 after homering last night with Erubriel Durazo now hitting .314 and Daric Barton hitting .417 as all three battle for first base job. Barton deserves a chance to be on opening day roster. Manager Bob Geren could have a tough decision in the next few days as he sorts all this out at first base. Joe Blanton had a bad outing in the contest giving up 5 runs and 11 hits in 4 innings raising his ERA to 9.69 and has given up 28 hits in 13 innings. Athletics hope Blanton will do better once the season starts because they have had problems with fifth starter candidates so don't need one of the best pitchers from last season to have a bad season. There is possibility Athletics will trade for fifth starter since Joe Kennedy with 20.48 ERA and Brad Halsey with 7.11 ERA have both have not pitched well this spring with them giving up 55 hits in 23 innings combined.
Daryle Ward and Derrek Lee combined to drive in 8 runs yesterday. Both played first base in the game but Ward who drove in 5 of those runs will have to play outfield to get any playing time....Ryan Theriot former LSU player is replacing another LSU player Todd Walker at second base this season. Walker is now with the Padres. Theriot is hitting .380 this spring....Todd Linden of Giants is leading spring hitters with 24 hits and is hitting .436....Jonny Gomes has struck out 17 times in 36 at bats this spring and is hitting .167. Gomes struck out 116 times in 385 at bats in 2006 so is showing he is not lowering his strikeouts so far this spring. If he were to strikeout at this spring training pace he would have 170 strikeouts in only 360 at bats.
Hunter Pence of Astros returns to minors leading all spring hitters with .571 average. The numbers game in the Astros outfield did him in because he did all you can ask of a player this spring. If an Astros outfielder is injured we expect Pence to be called back up. Don't know why Orlando Palmeiro is still with Astros as he only has 6 home runs over the last 2 seasons and only 12 home runs in his 12 year career while Pence can post those kind of numbers for a lot less money since Palmeiro made $950,000 in 2006 and probably more this season and Pence would draw the new rookie minimum salary of $380,000....Jon Lieber who was sent to Phillies bullpen yesterday may have received a reprieve when Freddy Garcia was reported to have a biceps injury. If this injury is a serious one it may allow Lieber to rejoin the starting rotation.
Tigers lead AL standings with Yankees, Rangers and Angels a half game behind. In the NL the Reds are in first place with Astros and Diamondbacks one game back....Red Sox play the Phillies today at 1 PM EDT and 12PM CDT.
Tony LaRussa Arrested After Falling Asleep at Stoplight
Tony LaRussa has been arrested for falling asleep at stoplight and for DUI. This is not the way a major league manager should behave. A manager has to deal with players that break laws during the season and here he is the winningest active manager in baseball setting a bad example for his own players.
The next time a Cardinals player is arrested for DUI LaRussa will find him powerless to deal with the situation since he has shown he has no respect for the law himself. I am sure the Cardinals hierarchy is not happy with his behavior despite him being one of the best managers in baseball history and manager of the World Champion Cardinals.
It is a wonder there was not an accident since he had his foot on the brake at the stoplight and it could have easily slipped off and caused the car to move with him asleep unless it was in park. Managers expect their players to act responsibly off the field but with LaRussa acting so irresponsibly he is not setting the example he should be for his players.
Milton Bradley: The Other Side We Don't See
Milton Bradley has been labeled a troublemaker so am passing along this story that tells of his work with young players at his baseball academy and showing he is a much better person than his public perception shows. He is trying to address the problem of dwindling numbers of black Americans playing baseball in the majors. For instance last week it was reported C.C. Sabathia was only black on the 25 man roster for Indians last season.
Bradley is trying to revive interest in baseball among inner city kids by opening his baseball academy. Very few people know that he won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2005 for his work with the youth. Here in the local youth baseball leagues I have seen very few black players on the teams. In fact my grandson plays on a team with no black players.
You have to wonder how many potentially great baseball players are being overlooked because they are not getting out on the baseball field and playing so they can show the abilities they have.
Am surprised Bud Selig has not addressed this problem publicly that I know of so it makes the efforts of Sabathia and Bradley even more important since they are getting little help from major league baseball.
After reading the following story I have completely changed my attitude about Bradley and hope he hits as well this season as he did in playoffs last fall. I believe in second chances and believe every baseball fan whether an Athletics fan or not should rally behind Bradley in his quest to give black kids a chance to become major league baseball players.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks//articles/0312cactusfeature0312.html
