Spring Training isn't far away and right now it's Free Agents and Trades that are the talk of the town. I see that the Giants picked up Justin Verlander for 15M on a 1 year contract. I wish him well he did a lot for the Astros and I know that he is the type of player who has invested a lot of time getting healthy and figuring out what he needs to do to be successful. I have my doubts that at his age he can be even close to what he once was as a pitcher. Still no word on Astros 3rd baseman, Alex Bregman. I am sorry he won't be an Astro but I'm also glad that they didn't cave and give him the long term high dollar contract he seems to want. Let the Yankee's do that.
One of the treats of moving to Milwaukee was having the opportunity to listen to Uecker do the Brewers play by play. He was excellent calling the game and I cannot recall a game where he did not get me laughing out loud with his incredible sense of humor. Very sad day to lose a baseball icon.
Rich getting richer! Roki Sasaki, the prized Japanese pitching prospect who has had scouts drooling over his potential since high school, has chosen the Los Angeles Dodgers as his major league team, he announced on Instagram on Friday. Sasaki called this "a very difficult decision, but I will do my best to make it the right decision when I look back after my baseball career."
The best part of this picture is that one of the greatest baseball players ever was so humble that he kept his name tag on.
Billy Wagner who I saw many times in his Astros years is a HOF finally. The 2025 Baseball Writers' Association of America vote is in -- and Ichiro Suzuki (one vote shy of being a unanimous selection), CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner are the newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Carlos Beltran fell 19 votes short of the 75% threshold for enshrinement. The new Hall of Famers will join Dick Allen and Dave Parker, who were elected in December by the classic baseball era committee, in Cooperstown in July.
Are the Dodgers the new Steinbrenner Yankees? SIX YEARS AGO, when the world knew next to nothing of a gangly 17-year-old pitcher in Japan, a Los Angeles Dodgers evaluator sat in the stands at his high school games with a video camera to capture the splendor. Roki Sasaki's fastball regularly reached 100 mph, his right arm a whirling force of nature. The Dodgers were smitten. Sasaki could eventually be the best pitcher in the world, team officials told one another. And when the time came for his inevitable move to Major League Baseball, they wanted to ensure he felt as strongly about them as they did him. In the time since, the Dodgers have conquered baseball in nearly every fashion imaginable. Armed with immense wealth from their owners and buoyed by the largest local television contract in the game, the Dodgers have spared no expense in trying to win. Their major league payroll consistently ranks at the top of the game, yes, but other line items are best-in-class, too, from their technology infrastructure to their coaching staff's compensation to the quality of the food they serve their minor league players.
Astros camp is open and Alex Bregman got stupid money from the Red Sox and is no longer with us, first time in a long time. I liked Breggy and he was a leader, but 40M is way more than he's worth at this point in his career. Good luck to him, except when the Red Sox/Astros meet upl
RIP Cleveland Indians Owner Larrry Dolan. He apparently was a great man in supporting many things about Cleveland in general. He's Catholic School kid, went to St. Ignatius and then to Notre Dame for undergrad and ND Law. CLEVELAND: Cleveland Indians owner Lawrence “Larry” J. Dolan will be honored with the St. Thomas More Award by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland on Friday. The St. Thomas More Award is given out annually to an attorney who contributes to high ethical standards and spiritual growth in the practice of law. It is named in honor of the patron saint of lawyers. Dolan, a retired attorney, is a graduate of St. Ignatius High School and the University of Notre Dame, where he earned his undergraduate and law degrees. After law school, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a first lieutenant for two years. Only Stu, Don and maybe BuckeyeT can answer if he was a good owner for the Indians?
Terry, I am afraid I cannot be of much help re Dolan, the owner of the Guardians. I have not followed major league baseball since the first strike. Stu can probably shed some light on the subject.
My personal opinion is that in addition to supporting so many Cleveland projects, he and his son have been good owners of the Guardians. Many feel that they are too cheap but we are one of the smaller markets. Their way of doing things, along with other team management, has been to develop prospects and then try to get them to sign an extended contract before they hit free agency. If they can't come to an agreement before they are in their last year and they are really good, they are usually traded...for more prospects. Didn't work for Frankie Lindor who struggled in the last year of his contract, was not traded, hit it big with the Mets, then found his game again. Jose Ramirez broke the pattern by saying how happy he was in Cleveland and signing a long term contract for less than he could have gotten elsewhere. There are some other factors involved in the Guardians success, like their reputation for proper and rather successful rehabilitation of pitchers following Tommy John surgery that has drawn some veteran arms in, but anyhow, I think the Dolans are good owners, unless you are looking for the "throw money at them" kind of owner.