For those looking for a brake from football and still craving baseball news check out these recent headlines:
- Great article about Alex Anthopoulos’ strategy to make the Jays competitive in the AL East. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite GMs in baseball. (credit John Tomase of the Boston Herald)
- Interesting piece about Eric Hosmer who is becoming The Man for the Royals, as its author would say. Wish I had an opportunity to go long on Hosmer. (credit Buster Olney of ESPN – requires Insider subscription)
- Looks like the Diamondbacks won’t call up Trevor Bauer before the end of the season but it still appears that they will promote Jarrod Parker. Worth tracking if you have the room for the pickup. (credit Nick Piecoro of azcentral.com)
- The Rockies are adding a humidor at their Triple A affiliate in Colorado Springs in the hopes of helping the development of their pitching prospects. (credit Dave Krieger of the Denver Post)
- Logan Morrison actually goes through with filing a grievance against the Marlins. Not sure that’s the right call on his part but his recent issues may provide a buy low opportunity for owners. (credit Amy K. Nelson of ESPN)
- Johan Santana won’t pitch this season. At the beginning of the season I thought he might be a buy low opportunity but I’m not so sure now. Something to monitor this winter as Santana could make a few starts. (credit Roger Rubin of the New York Daily News)
- 2012 may be Pedro Alvarez’s last chance in Pittsburgh. I’m on the fence on whether I should renew him. Hopefully he’ll play winter ball and start to build his case for the starting 3B. (credit Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune)
- The Dodgers are going to regret trading Trayvon Robinson. I still don’t understand why they did. Interesting article about Robinson growing up in South Central Los Angeles. (credit Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times)
After reading the article about AA, it’s just sad to think how many times the Jays would have made the playoffs if we were in the AL central.
We dont mind being in the AL east, but MLB, please balance the schedule. 40 games against the Yanks and Bosox every year is a killer. 33-37 against the AL east, 40-30 against the rest fo the league!?!?
Really interesting story. Feel bad being too hard on Alvarez without knowing the full story, but it doesn’t sound encouraging. After the team invested $6 million and he failed to produce this season, you would hope he would be really willing to work w/ the team on putting together a solid plan for how he can get better next season.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Alvarez will not play Winter Ball:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/pirates/s_757855.html
The article is very PC saying both sides made the decision but Pittsburgh Tribune beat writer Rob Biertempfel says that Alvarez said no. Not helping himself.
The article also says that Garrit Cole will play in the AFL. Looking forward to seeing him in action.
It was in a Fangraphs article on Comeback Players for 2012.
I don’t recall where, but I remember seeing recently that much of Alvarez’s troubles are due to bad luck, and that you would expect better results given the way he hits (percentages of ground balls, line drives and so on). That, plus dealing with injuries this year, makes me reasonably optimistic for the future. I do have him in two different leagues as my long-term third baseman, so I really hope it does work out for him. There has always been a concern about how long he can stick at 3B though.
That’s interesting re: Alvarez. Over the long-term, he needs to find a way to reduce his strikeout rate by at least 3-4 percent (from 30% to 26%) and continue working so he can remain at 3B (staying in shape, working on his defense, etc). I think Alvarez has the natural talent to make those goals happen, but if the problem is Alvarez being unwilling to put in the time to improve, it could be a real problem for the Pirates.
You definitely made a good move trading him before the season!
Wasn’t just his performance… it was in warm-ups as well. Reminded me of what BJ Upton’s usual pre-game routine is. Looking for women. Being completely distracted. I hope he gets his act straight because Alvarez has at least Aramis Ramirez upside.
I was pumped about Alvarez in the off-season but when I went to see him in Spring Training (Bradenton is a beautiful ballpark), I found a lazy third basement who seemed to not care, or was just having a really bad day. 0-3 2K’s and an error had me trading him and Bard for Alex Gordon and Mike Stanton the next day (although they say never judge a prospect on just one game). He had me worried.
Yeah, I hope Alvarez bounces back also! As a college baseball fan, Alvarez’s struggles have been really surprising b/c he was such an awesome player at Vanderbilt. I’ve gotta think he has enough talent to bounce back, but it’s always hard to tell.
Hey this was definaltly a change of pac! I must say I have very little free time so I didn’t read much of the article’s, but the Alvarez was very interesting, I hope he sticks! I had drafted him as my 3rd baseman of the future, so I’m hoping he turns things around!
Thought this was interesting. Apparently K-Law was not a fan of the movie “Moneyball.”
http://meadowparty.com/blog/?p=1861