I’m watching the Brewers/Indians game on MLB Network right now. Milwaukee has a guy in the minors named Zelous Wheeler.
I want very badly for that guy to make the big leagues. What a great name.
For the two teams I follow…
Giants
Stood pat (get it?!). Replaced Et tu-ribe and Renteria with another over-the-hill shortstop in Tejada. Otherwise pretty much the same team, with pretty much the same chances.
I’m guessing they’ll end up with the NL West crown, but it’s going to be a tough fight against them Rockies. The Padres will be less of a factor this coming year, as their pitchers are due for a regression and they’ve lost their sole offensive threat in Gonzalez (more on that later). Diamondbacks are still in a rebuilding phase. And the Dodgers can go die in all the fires, who cares how they do. 
Yep, that’s pretty much it on the MiSFits front. I’m cautiously optimistic about their chances, but very excited either way because, hey, the San Francisco Giants are still the World Series champions.
Red Sox
Much improved over last year, for two obvious reasons and lots of less-obvious reasons. The two biggies, of course, are Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, both of whom should be Boston mainstays for years to come. I have to admit to a bit of skittishness about giving a guy whose main weapons are his legs $20 million a year for the better part of a decade, but assuming his speed doesn’t give out, Crawford will raise merry hell on the basepaths and be, if nothing else, extremely fun to watch. On the other hand, I fully expect Gonzo to make Fenway Park look like a little league field. He’s gonna hit 40 homers easily, even with that possibly bum shoulder.
That being said, we also lost Contract Year Beltre (aka “The Other Adrian”) and his partner-in-head-rub-comedy, Victor Martinez. Their offense should be more than matched by the Crawdaddy/ A-Gon combo, but the defense may take a slight hit, as we’re replacing this:
3B Beltre (amaaaaaaaazing)
1B Youkilis (great, but not quite as holy shit unbelievable as Beltre)
C Martinez (meh)
…with this:
3B Youkilis (mediocre-to-decent)
1B Gonzo (very good)
C Saltlalaltlalallamamamalalchchchciiaiaiala (who the hell knows)
So the Crawford and Gonzalez should improve the team, but maybe not as much as people think. What may actually be a bigger factor in the success of the 2011 Red Sox is our revamped bullpen. Our relief pitching was somewhere between mediocre and execrable last year, with Dan Bard being the sole breakout, while longtime mainstays like Papelbon and Okajima had their worst seasons to date.
Sensei Theo and his Front Office Ninjas ably addressed this in the offseason by acquiring a slew of new relievers, including top arms in Bobby Jenks and Dan Wheeler, both of whom should be enormous improvements over their 2010 counterparts. To address our diminishing LOOGY contingent, we signed roughly forty five lefties. My guess based on how spring training has gone so far is that Dennys Reyes has the best shot at taking the LHP slot in the bullpen, as he’s pitched very well and has no options left (unlike, surprisingly, Okajima). Andrew Miller and Felix Doubront should both be spending at least the first half of the season in Pawtucket, working as starters.
Overall, the 2011 Red Sox look to be formidable. Of course, injuries can always happen, and you never know when Lady BABIP and her Luck Dragons will turn a player with solid peripherals into Jeff Mathis. And we’ll be playing, once again, in the toughest division in baseball. I’m more bullish on the Rays than most - if Manny and Damon have good years, they’ll be the second-best bargain in baseball after Evan Longoria. And you can never, EVER count the Mother-Effin’ Yankees out.
Not following baseball too closely, so I somehow failed to realize until now that the Mets had hired Terry Collins. So I need to stop, point, and laugh. Maybe their plan is to fire him after he thoroughly alienates his players and then hire someone else who will look like a genius motivator by comparison.
I don’t understand why the Rangers are farting around with Neftali Feliz. Either tell him he’s starting or he’s closing. How in the hell can you get halfway through spring training and not know by now which role you want him to play? Do they not have a roster of other pitchers? Can’t they just lay out a depth chart and say “Hey, we obviously need him more in Role X, let’s put him there.”
Not knowing what your job is worked out so well for Joba Chamberlain.
An oddly, I thought Ryan would push to treat pitchers smarter then most teams do now. I’m surprised they are pulling Joba style dopey stuff too.
(Though at least we’re not hearing about plans to limit his innings yet)
From what I have read the problem with Feliz is that they want him to start, he also wants to start, but they don’t like any of the other guys they have in the org as closers. This is a bit of a problem, but I think they are putting too much importance on the closer role. Just give it to one of your other guys in the pen and be done with it.
Depends though. You need the starters to get through the season but the closer’s value become magnified in the postseason and the Rangers want and expect to have a good shot at another post-season run. Thus their dilemma. I think they should have made the decision and stuck to it, one way or the other before spring training though. 160-200 innings is probably worth more to them then 60-80 innings.
Now here is the problem with starting: Max innings in a season was 2008 at 127 innings in A & AA ball. They are probably many in the organization nervous he won’t have the arm strength for even 150 innings. This is the crap Ryan wants to change in the minors. He wants to ensure the minor leagues starters have more innings pitched before they make the leap to the show. Last year was 69.1 innings and he had a little over 100 in 2009 in minors and majors.
I think Ryan’s right about that, by the way.
Keith Law was on the local sports radio channel the other day and made the observation that at the same time pitchers are being given innings and pitch limits, the teams are making them throw more often in between starts, mainly because Leo Mazzone did it in the 90s. LAw made the argument - a very strong one, I think - that that’s just plainly insane, and thatr it strains the arm just as much while reducing the amount you can use your best pitchers. Why not, he argued, cut out most of the between-starts throwing and go to a 4-man rotation? You’d get more starts and innings out of your best pitchers and could actually have them throwing no more pitches - many even fewer.
The other thing is, and this is just my observation and I’ve made no study of it, but does anyone think pitchers are any healthier than they used to be? It doesn’t seem that way to me. They seem to get hurt just as often. How is this obsession over pitch and inning limits helping?
I agree with the observation you made, but I have noticed more pitchers seem to pitcher longer than they use to. I tend to think the 230-250 innings per year might be closer to what a human arm can do long term at a high level then the old fashioned 300 plus that use to be more common. So yes, cut down the between game stuff, start training kids to for the 4 day rotation and have them see 200 innings in the minors when possible. Lets figure 100 year 1, 140 year 2 and 180 year 3 and then 200 until they reach the majors. If it is a nearly ready kid out of college, start higher year 1 of course.
I’ve heard older players that bridged the period of change mention that lineups were not as tough when they pitched and in the 90s especially there were no easy outs in the AL at all where the pitcher could coast. They used to raise the level for 1-6 and cruise through 7-9 traditionally in the lineups of the past. Jim Kaat was always big talking about this. He was also a big proponent that kids need to pitch more and not less in the minors. As a very good pitcher and successful pitching coach right as the changes were happening I tended to value what he said very highly.
…but where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well. Maybe next year.
Yeah, it is a pretty ridiculous reason not to use him as a starter. 200 inning are way more valuable than 70 innings no matter which they are. If you believe Feliz can start and be at least a 2/3 starter, then he should be starting.