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© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4,215 comments Add your comment
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
4:48 pm
cab_
Is it a MacBook Pro, or Air?
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
4:49 pm
Red Sox’s seem to be digging deep for a started. Who do they have in outfield that would help us out?
He was traded to Oakland earlier this offseason.
cabravesfan
January 16th, 2012
4:53 pm
Bat-
MacBook Pro
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
4:54 pm
nice machine
cabravesfan
January 16th, 2012
4:56 pm
Appears to be. Literally got it about half an hour ago
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
4:57 pm
I meant half glass empty……
Fairbrave
January 16th, 2012
4:59 pm
Maybe Braves trade Prado to Oakland for Reddick and Seth Smith.
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
5:02 pm
MLB.com’s John Mayo listed Julio Teheran as the #1 RH pitching prospect in the minors: http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120112&content_id=26330142&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
5:04 pm
Maybe Braves trade Prado to Oakland for Reddick and Seth Smith.
Oakland isn’t in that business right now. I think they traded two assets in Moscoso and Outman that they didn’t really think much of for Smith, who they may flip at some point, but for 2012 they felt they needed a LH hitter with some power.
Coach (2012 Fredi's beisbol fandango)
January 16th, 2012
5:04 pm
Julio Teheran to the Angels for Mike Trout and Alexi Amarista……
BOOOOOOOOOM!
McFann O O o
January 16th, 2012
5:05 pm
cabravesfan although I have no idea how to get my e-mail to work on it
Bleh, that’s annoying—but I’m sure you’ll get it soon.
MacBook Pro, though, eh? Mine’s just plain ol’ MacBook
(don’t think the Pro came in white, plus it would have cost more…) How big is it? 13-inch?
DS1 But my wife’s laptop is a very “pretty’ dark red shell.
Oooo! Fun! One of my cousins has a shell for hers, I think…I’ve just got stickers on the back of mine…
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
5:07 pm
I get a call from Directv at about 4 pm and they inform me that I can watch the FOX Network on another regions’ feed. (NYC) And they don’t even mention that their spat with the Miami station caused me not to be able to see Sat and Sun’s NFC playoff games.
I would have threatened to go buy an antennae if my TV had a place to hook an antennae to.
Russell Bell
January 16th, 2012
5:09 pm
Julio Teheran to the Angels for Mike Trout and Alexi Amarista……
That is some loller-skates type stuff. Trout might take the entire latin trio to wrestle away from the Angels, if not more.
cabravesfan
January 16th, 2012
5:10 pm
McFann-
15 inch. I actually didn’t pick it- my boss just went ahead and ordered it when I mentioned that my old one was dying.
ChattTownBrian (CTB)
January 16th, 2012
5:11 pm
Braves will end up with an OF before or during ST. Not just any OF, a guy like Corey Patterson, who is what you call Wren territory.
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
5:14 pm
Mayo’s Top 10 RH pitching prospects:
1. Julio Teheran, ATL
2. Shelby Miller, STL
3. Jameson Taillon, PIT
4. Trevor Bauer, ARI
5. Dylan Bundy, BAL
6. Gerrit Cole, PIT, PIT
7. Jacob Turner, DET
8. Taijuan Walker, SEA
9. Archie Bradley, ARI
10. Jarrod Parker, OAK
Others to watch, imo: Arodys Vizcaino, Randall Delgado, Carlos Martinez, Dellin Betances, Anthony Renaudo, Jake Odorizzi, Drew Hutchinson, Noah Synndergard, Aaron Sanchez, Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey, Trevor May, A.J. Cole, Allen Webster, etc.
Coach (2012 Fredi's beisbol fandango)
January 16th, 2012
5:17 pm
That is some loller-skates type stuff. Trout might take the entire latin trio to wrestle away from the Angels, if not more.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
And you are smoking dope
Ward
January 16th, 2012
5:17 pm
Glad to hear the Seth Smith thing put to rest. That was getting old fast…….Good to hear J.J. is staying too,and for now.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
5:18 pm
Hey, let’s don’t go dissing Corey Patterson. He’s the Alex Gonzalez of outfielders.
Coach (2012 Fredi's beisbol fandango)
January 16th, 2012
5:24 pm
The defense provided by Alex Gonzalez is going to be sorely missed.
Ward
January 16th, 2012
5:24 pm
Some guy’s that could be playing during regular season. Earnesto Mejia 1st baseman invited to Spring Training,as non roster player,and Adam Russell,was invited too,as non roster player.Just some guys we might want to keep an eye on in Spring Traning.
Murph
January 16th, 2012
5:26 pm
cab, you need one of these for your new computer:
http://www.skinit.com/skins/sports/mlb/braves
Ward
January 16th, 2012
5:26 pm
Agon is dead,and wont miss his hitting at all,and his little child fits either.
Bayou Brave
January 16th, 2012
5:27 pm
flange1 @ 4:34
Fo realz
Ward
January 16th, 2012
5:27 pm
Murph-How’s it going buddy?
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
5:27 pm
Trout is going no where and neither is Teheran. I’d rather trade a lesser pitcher and get a lesser young position player. Heck, we have enough young position players for 2012 – three 22 year olds in Heyward, Freeman and Pastornicky.
Coach (2012 Fredi's beisbol fandango)
January 16th, 2012
5:29 pm
Ward
January 16th, 2012
5:26 pm
Agon is dead,and wont miss his hitting at all,and his little child fits either.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
Yea, you keep telling yourself that until Pastornicky boots a couple of ground balls, and cost’s us the game.
Ward
January 16th, 2012
5:30 pm
I’m excited to see how the preacher man does! I must be the only one excited I guess?
cabravesfan
January 16th, 2012
5:31 pm
Murph-
I wish
Coach (2012 Fredi's beisbol fandango)
January 16th, 2012
5:31 pm
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
5:27 pm
Trout is going no where and neither is Teheran. I’d rather trade a lesser pitcher and get a lesser young position player. Heck, we have enough young position players for 2012 – three 22 year olds in Heyward, Freeman and Pastornicky.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>……
Geesh Efrim, you’re starting to sound like me more everyday
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
5:31 pm
Efrim – I have no idea what the real story is on the upside of the Braves arms but as of now, I like Randell Delgado as much as anyone. Let me repeat I am not saying he is the best and has the best future, but as of what I saw of him last year, he is as good as any prospect.
Russell Bell
January 16th, 2012
5:34 pm
I don’t have to be high to know Trout ain’t goin no place Coach.
Murph
January 16th, 2012
5:39 pm
Hello Ward. I am good. How are you?
DS1
January 16th, 2012
5:39 pm
As an older (we can call it mature) baseball fan, I will definitely be pulling for a big comeback by Jamie Moyer! He might be the perfect pitcher for Colorado.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
5:41 pm
In his starts in the bigs, Delgado seemed more confident and polished than Teheran. The good news is this: FW isn’t going to let ANY of our big young arms to go unless we get a haul!
I love me some good young pitching!
Lemke's Knuckler
January 16th, 2012
5:41 pm
I’m excited about Teheran, but just to temper expectations…
Pedro Martinez got his first callup at age 20, just like Teheran. He pitched well in his first 4 full seasons, but didn’t really take off and become a dominant pitcher until his 5th full season. Splits are below…
Age 20-24: 48-31, 3.39 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 8.9 K/9 (not bad by any definition)
Age 25-33: 149-53, 2.47 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 10.7 K/9 (one of the best 9-yr stretches ever)
My point is that Teheran may very well be the next Pedro, but it could take a few years before he develops into that ace. It’ll be a fun process to watch though. This is kind of sad to admit, but I really hope the regular starters spend a little time on the DL so I can see Teheran and the other kids start a few games. Just not after July.
Murph
January 16th, 2012
5:48 pm
I like Delgado more than Teheran, not based on anything other than the few starts of theirs I saw last season. Delgado seemed poised and confident down the stretch, way more mature than his age would indicate.
Boonie27
January 16th, 2012
5:53 pm
I agree Murph. I feel like Delgado will have the better career of the two.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
5:58 pm
If I were a betting man, I’d put $20 on Teheran over any of the others we have in the next 5 years.
Just because I trust our scouting folks.
McFann O O o
January 16th, 2012
6:03 pm
cabravesfan—
Ah! Gotcha.
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:03 pm
Enter your comments here
Murph
January 16th, 2012
6:10 pm
If I were a betting man, I’d put $20 on Teheran over any of the others we have in the next 5 years.
I would put $5 on Delgado… I believe in the kid, but not enough to risk a twenty.
Has there been any indication what Vizcaino will be doing (starting and/or relief) in ST this year?
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:14 pm
I’m pretty sure I read some comment from the Braves that Visciano would be in the bullpen.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
6:14 pm
Murph
I have determined that we will not need Vizcaino in ANY capacity this year. We are so deep. So he is going to come out west and be my driver and confidant this summer. You’ll see him in the spring of 2013, unless he likes hanging with me better…………..
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:15 pm
Not sure enough to bet 20 bucks on it, though. Not even 5
Murph
January 16th, 2012
6:15 pm
DS1, you’re going to turn Vizcaino into your own personal Ronnie The Limo Driver?
I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
6:15 pm
I do not think Delgado will be better than Teheran. Teheran has a better fastball and changeup, imo. I think of Delgado as a friggin workhorse though, and I really hope he isn’t traded.
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
6:19 pm
And I’d take Viz over Delgado too.
nolie
January 16th, 2012
6:20 pm
I love it, y’all watch 5 games and anoint one pitcher over another who is much more respected by all in baseball. Everybody thinks they are an expert from their keyboard.
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
6:21 pm
It was 7 games Nolie.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
6:21 pm
But I AM an expert…………..
I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night………….
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:23 pm
Some of us don’t think, we know.
nolie
January 16th, 2012
6:23 pm
I stand corrected KL
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
6:24 pm
I wrote Frank a letter and told him to trade Teheran to Oakland for Seth Smith since we have Delgado. Expect the move to happen.
ncgary
January 16th, 2012
6:29 pm
i wrote liberty media a letter and said the blog members have decided to purchase the braves and we have come up with 27 dollars and 18 cents and expect the sale to go through this week
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:31 pm
5 games for Teheran, 3 starts, 19& 2/3 innings.
Murph
January 16th, 2012
6:31 pm
Might have something to do with the two and a half run difference in their ERA this past season, nolie. Small sample sizes be damned, Delgado looked like a pitcher in command while Teheran looked like a guy throwing it down the heart of the plate.
Teheran was lights-out in Gwinnett this season, but I didn’t see him pitch in Gwinnett this season, so I can’t comment on how he looked while being lights-out there..
DS1
January 16th, 2012
6:31 pm
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.
It is a tale told by “and” idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:37 pm
ncgary_
Convince them there is a billion dollar tax break in it for them and I think you can sell it.
nolie
January 16th, 2012
6:40 pm
Small sample sizes be damned Murph
yup, that would be one of the main reasons that you are usually wrong
nolie
January 16th, 2012
6:42 pm
I’ll speak to it though Hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
6:44 pm
ncgary – is that money collected or pledged? I know we have a few, uh, people who become “happier” (or impaired) as the night goes on. They may not remember their charitable contributions.
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
6:46 pm
I still like Delgado, but I don’t think I’ve read one analyst who puts him close to Teheran, and to be honest, if you see Vizcaino as a starter(I do), he has a higher ceiling as well.
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:47 pm
Considering all the walks and homeruns with few Ks, Degado got good results.
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
6:47 pm
jaysonst Jayson Stark
That’s been dead for long time RT @wunce @jaysonst with Seth smith traded to A’s, are the Rockies now out of Martin Prado sweepstakes?
DS1
January 16th, 2012
6:51 pm
or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
Murph
January 16th, 2012
6:52 pm
nolie, you can’t get under my skin. I thought the last year and half of trying to do so on a daily basis would have proven that to you by now.
I look at your posts the same way I’d probably look at you if I were stuck behind you doing 20 in a 40mph zone. I just shake my head, yell something like “f’ing old people” out my window, and move on with my day.
nolie
January 16th, 2012
6:53 pm
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
nolie
January 16th, 2012
6:54 pm
look at your posts the same way I’d probably look at you if I were stuck behind you doing 20 in a 40mph zone…Murph
another reason that you are usually wrong, cause you ignore someone who is almost always right…….
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
6:56 pm
Why follow, pass on the shoulder, isn’t that what they are there for.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
6:57 pm
8 wins, 4 losses……………
The new look, Utah Jazz. Playing defense since their 1-3 start in December.
Going to our 3rd game tomorrow to see Blake Griffin and hopefully CP3.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
6:58 pm
I love slowing down in front of impatient young people………..
Ward
January 16th, 2012
6:59 pm
Murph- After the Giants beating Packers.I feel real good,and been doing good.I think Wren is going with Pastornicky this year,or until Simmons is ready,and it’s the right move. Also looking forward to see the Terd at 3rd base soon after Chipper.
nolie
January 16th, 2012
7:01 pm
see y’all later.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
7:02 pm
later nolie………
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
7:02 pm
See ya, nolie.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
7:03 pm
Ward
We’ll probably find out this year if Terdoslavich has the bat and/or glove to handle third base.
Moe Berg
January 16th, 2012
7:07 pm
Here’s an interesting article on the declining number of Puerto Rican players in MLB.
Puerto Rico Traces Decline in Prospects to Baseball Draft
By JORGE CASTILLO
SAN JUAN, P.R. — This used to be the climax of baseball’s peak season in Puerto Rico. The storied winter league lured many of Major League Baseball’s biggest Puerto Rican stars back to the island — from Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda to Roberto Alomar and Bernie Williams — and they would regularly play before tens of thousands of fans during what was otherwise their off-season.
But that scene no longer exists. Four years after being forced to cancel an entire season, the league has only four teams. And for the first time in its history, which dates to 1938, the Puerto Rican Baseball League does not have a team based in San Juan, the capital.
The league’s struggles are merely the most vivid manifestation of a more profound, and surprising, phenomenon playing out here: the general decline of baseball in a place where it was long considered the national pastime, if not a religion. After decades of populating major league rosters with All-Star players at every position, Puerto Rico had only 20 players on Major League Baseball rosters on opening day last season. Only two of them made the All-Star team. (By contrast, the 1997 All-Star Game included eight Puerto Ricans.)
“We can’t even compete in the Pan American Games anymore,” said the major leaguer Alex Cora, referring to Puerto Rico’s seventh-place finish in the eight-team tournament in October.
No one here disputes the diminished stature of baseball in Puerto Rico, and most agree on the culprit: the decision by Major League Baseball, in 1990, to include Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, in its First-Year Player Draft. This means Puerto Rican players must wait until they turn 18 to enter the major leagues, and then they are going up against players from the United States and Canada in the draft. Also, perhaps more important, major league teams have less incentive to cultivate talent in Puerto Rico since those players may end up with another team through the draft.
Catcher Ivan Rodriguez, 41, currently a free agent and playing for one of the Puerto Rican Winter League’s four teams, is the last active Puerto Rican major leaguer to avoid the draft. Rodriguez, a likely Hall of Famer, signed with the Texas Rangers in 1988 at age 16.
“What is the difference between 1980 and 2011? The draft,” David Bernier, the former secretary of sport and recreation of Puerto Rico, said in an interview in his office here. “Nothing has changed but the draft. Everything else is the same.”
Caribbean nations like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic have not been forced to be part of the draft, and players from many other nations can sign with major league teams as free agents as young as 16. As a result, teams have abandoned Puerto Rico for Venezuela and the Dominican, where they invest hundreds of millions of dollars in academies.
“The draft has had a large effect on the Puerto Rican baseball player,” said Alomar, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in July. “A lot of youngsters don’t have the economic resources to play and go to college. For me, it isn’t what is best for us. But I hope that [M.L.B.] realizes what is happening with the talent here and they give us the opportunity to be like the Dominican Republic is and Venezuela is so we can have more players signed.”
Only a handful of major league teams have full-time scouts on the island, and most clubs rely on a couple of tournaments a year to scout players. The limited exposure for Puerto Ricans means players outside the metro area are more likely to be overlooked.
“They abandoned us a little, and we fell hard,” said Tony Rodriguez, a former major leaguer who is an instructor at Puerto Rico’s first baseball academy.
Baseball officials here note that Puerto Rico has a major disadvantage when competing against American talent because high school baseball is almost nonexistent on the island. Instead, players hone their craft on recreational teams in American Legion ball and the Pony League. Many players in rural areas are forced to travel to cities where the better teams and leagues play. Bernier said Puerto Rico was not prepared to be included in the draft, but even if it were given time, there was not much it could do to change its current model of development.
“We have had the same model here for 60 years,” said Bernier, now the president of the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee. “We can’t change our model to what they have in the United States. We don’t have enough space on the island for baseball fields for high schools. This island is full.”
In 2007 Bernier met with Major League Baseball officials over the topic and suggested a 10-year exclusion from the draft. He maintains his stance.
“That’s the only way we’ll know if the problem is the draft or not,” Bernier said. “And I guarantee you we would do a lot better. No one has been able to counter my argument about the draft, and that would prove the problem is the draft.”
But not everyone believes the draft is the main issue. Some, like Sandy Alderson, the general manager of the Mets and a former consultant for Major League Baseball who handled issues in Latin America, said Puerto Rico’s socioeconomic status — somewhere between the United States and the Dominican Republic — left it in a peculiar position.
“From a socioeconomic standpoint, things have changed quite a bit in Puerto Rico,” Alderson said. “There are lots of other ways to spend your time. In the Dominican Republic, on the other hand, unfortunately, poor kids who are playing ball and who are from the lowest economic strata in that country, baseball is a way to escape, so there’s a greater concentration of players and effort. I think they’re just very different dynamics than Puerto Rico.”
Like Alderson, Cora, a 12-year veteran in the major leagues, believes the draft is only part of the problem. Cora said more needed to be done to develop Puerto Rican talent: better coaching, more structure in leagues across the island, and more aid from the government, for example. He did concede that the system has hurt Puerto Ricans’ exposure to major league clubs.
“It’s an excuse,” Cora said of blaming the draft. “This is the situation we’re in, and we have to deal with it. We need to make adjustments and prepare our prospects.”
Adjusting to the situation has proved difficult for Puerto Rico. One attempt has been the creation of baseball academies.
Unlike those in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, the Puerto Rican Baseball Academy and High School, which began in August 2002, is financed by Major League Baseball as a whole, not by individual franchises.
Situated in Gurabo, a northeastern city, the academy has high schoolers from all over the island descend on the modest one-building campus.
Aspiring students go through a set of competitive tryouts and evaluations before gaining admission into the baseball-centric school. The students go to class from 8 in the morning until noon, eat lunch, then board buses to various baseball fields in the surrounding areas — the academy does not have its own fields — to practice until 4 p.m.
The academy, which has 12 teachers and 16 baseball instructors, has had 70 players drafted upon graduation and more than 400 sent to colleges in the United States. But it has yet to produce a prospect who reached the major leagues.
This year the academy has two senior shortstops projected to go in the first round of June’s draft: Jesmuel Valentín and Edwin Correa.
“We identified that Puerto Rico needed more structure for talent,” the headmaster Lucy Batista said. “Not everyone will play professionally, but almost all can play collegiate and study to become a professional in something else.”
The academy receives $400,000 annually from Major League Baseball.
“There’s no question the model works,” said Lou Melendez, the vice president for international baseball operations for Major League Baseball. “The problem is those models are very expensive because when you start operating an academic school, it costs a lot of money.”
An academy may not be necessary if M.L.B. removes Puerto Rico’s apparent competitive disadvantage by going to a worldwide draft, in which players from every country must go through the draft. The original intent behind including Puerto Rico in the draft was that it was the initial step toward such a draft. Because Puerto Rico is an American territory, it was the obvious location to begin.
The expansion of the draft has not taken place, but the major leagues may still be drifting in that direction. The new collective bargaining agreement, signed in November, establishes limits on the amount of money clubs can spend in a country. In addition, Melendez said, a committee has been created to explore the possibility of putting an international draft in place.
“You may see one in a year or two — in 2013 or 2014,” he said.
Meanwhile, baseball officials in Puerto Rico are watching the sport deteriorate. Bernier, Puerto Rico’s former secretary of sport, said the number of children who play baseball had not declined, but the diminished winter league and the relative dearth of Puerto Ricans in the major leagues are cause for concern.
“I think M.L.B. recognizes the problem, and they have every right to include us in the draft,” Bernier said. “It’s their decision, and we have to try to adjust accordingly. But with the way things are, Puerto Ricans are slowly becoming less enthusiastic about baseball, and that can become a vicious cycle.”
Ward
January 16th, 2012
7:08 pm
Nice to have today off. Wonder if anyone will put teepe out in the bleachers in Centerfield . That would be cool to see on T.V. Like on Major League.
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
7:08 pm
DS1 – I remember Jerry Sloane as a hard nosed Chicago Bulls defensive specialist. He led the NBA in “diving for balls” his entire career. I had to look this line up from his biography, but it pretty well qualifies his intensity on defense.
Born and raised in Gobbler’s Knob, fifteen miles south of McLeansboro, Illinois,[4] Sloan was one of ten children being raised by a single mother.
Mom evidently has some periods where she wasn’t single.
Ward
January 16th, 2012
7:10 pm
We might not have to worry about many moves for a while with all the depth the Braves have in the Farm system,and with the good scouting.
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
7:28 pm
Here is where the Caribbean players are coming from – the total number from here is stunning from a country with 18,000 sq miles. GA is 59,441 sq miles.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/D-R-_born.shtml
jeffrey doo doo
January 16th, 2012
7:31 pm
Here is where the Caribbean players are coming from – the total number from here is stunning from a country with 18,000 sq miles. GA is 59,441 sq miles.
We’ve just got Francoeur, McCann, and Wieters
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
7:35 pm
Isn’t the McCann kid from Somalia?
richbrave
January 16th, 2012
7:35 pm
How many from HAITI the smaller western end of HISPANOLA?
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
7:35 pm
Ty Cobb too.
jeffrey doo doo
January 16th, 2012
7:36 pm
How many from HAITI
Good point…it seems that some of baseball’s best players come from the DR. Haiti’s on the same island, why don’t they have more stars?
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
7:42 pm
Haiti is much poorer than the DR. Probably no equipment, leagues or fields.
Bat Masterson
January 16th, 2012
7:42 pm
Page marker
jeffrey doo doo
January 16th, 2012
7:43 pm
But I mean, the DR isn’t exactly overflowing with riches
jeffrey doo doo
January 16th, 2012
7:47 pm
Page marker?
keylargo
January 16th, 2012
7:48 pm
Any fan interested in how the Dominican Republic came to be the world’s leading per capita producer of Major Leaguers needs to read Rob Ruck’s 1991 book, “The Tropic of Baseball.” Part history, part travelogue, the University of Pittsburgh professor’s book holds up well nearly two decades later.
DS1
January 16th, 2012
7:49 pm
keylargo
Yeah, Jerry was definitely a no nonsense player and coach. No headbands. And work the system.
If his players played defense and moved the ball around, they played like a championship team, oft times when the talent was not there.
The team this year is doing the same thing under Ty Corbin, who has served as Sloan’s assistant for a long time.
When we were living in the Houston area in the early 90’s, the Rockets team was coached by Rudy T. He was a similar coach. When they started playing tough D was when they took off and won big. Title team. (thanks in no small part to MJ “retiring” early from basketball)
cabravesfan
January 16th, 2012
7:54 pm
jeffrey-
The Dominican Republic has a thriving tourist industry and a pretty solid infrastructure, whereas Haiti doesn’t and doesn’t. Not that the DR is overflowing with wealth, but compared to Haiti, it is…
Plus, there are quite a few baseball academies in the DR that are run by MLB teams (at least there used to be)- certainly that would contribute to the development of so many young players
Efrim
January 16th, 2012
7:54 pm
I keep reading about the restricted draft budget that teams will have to sign players picked in the first 10 rounds. But what about players picked from round 11 on? Does that remain a free for all, or is there some sort of limit on what teams can spend after the 10th round?
Stephen Cope
Ithaca, N.Y.
Jim Callis: Every pick in the first 10 rounds is assigned a value, which ranges from $7.2 million for the No. 1 overall choice to $125,000 for the final pick in the 10th round. Those values are totaled to determine each team’s draft pool. If a club exceeds its draft pool, it will receive penalties ranging from a 75-percent tax on the overage (for a 0-5 percent overage) to the loss of two first-round picks and a 100-percent tax on the overage (for an overage of 15 percent or more).
After the 10th round, teams can sign players for up to $100,000 without it affecting their draft pool. Any bonus money over $100,000 will count against the draft pool.
Under the old rules, the Cubs merely drew the commissioner’s office’s ire when they gave 14th-rounder Dillon Maples $2.5 million last August. With the new system, that bonus would count as $2.4 million toward Chicago’s draft pool for the first 10 rounds. That almost certainly would cost the Cubs a pair of first-round choices, a price they probably wouldn’t be willing to pay.
jeffrey doo doo
January 16th, 2012
7:56 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3rhQc666Sg
DS1
January 16th, 2012
8:06 pm
Anybody up for applying to be Josh Hamilton’s “Accountability” coach for the 2012 season?
I wonder if they pay the major league player minimum salary with all the team perks? I could do that for 2-3 years and be set for life.
Ward
January 16th, 2012
8:07 pm
Being that Domican Republic has great hitters,and in a Tropic Region. Does the Ball carry well after being hit in that air?Could the players be like the Rockies hitters?Just look good,because of the Air.
Ward
January 16th, 2012
8:08 pm
Also should we care really?
DS1
January 16th, 2012
8:10 pm
Hey Nolan, give me a ring, eh?