With pitchers and catchers now beginning to report, there are now two new countdowns on the side of the main page: The first is to the first spring training games (exhibitions by the Red Sox against college teams), and the second is to the 11:30 PM Eastern game between Taipei and Australia that will open the WBC on March 1.
The following things are guaranteed to happen during spring training:
1. At least one player per team will be declared to be in the best shape of his life.
2. On at least one day, basically every Grapefruit League game will be cancelled due to rain.
3. You will check the box score of every exhibition game against a college team, just to see if any MLB players were struck out by a college pitcher or a college pitcher got a hit off a MLB pitcher.
4. At least one game will be delayed due to a weird reason, like a tornado warning or a large swarm of bees.
5. At least one person will write an article questioning whether Michael Bourn‘s continued free agency is a sign of collusion, as opposed to the reality, which is that the Minnesota Twins basically removed Washington and Philadelphia- two of the most likely destinations for Bourn- when they traded Denard Span and Ben Revere, unintentionally destroying the demand for Bourn in the process.
6. Somebody will try to liken something going on in Spring Training to the going-ons in Vatican City, and it won’t make for a good metaphor.
7. A MLB player will tweet out a picture of what his NCAA bracket looks like.
8. There will be confusion when a player on a World Baseball Classic team plays an exhibition against his usual team.
9. While watching stock footage of players doing routine workouts, you will inexplicably get the theme from The Rookie stuck in your head.
10. Somebody will have an embarrassing injury that will have more to do with their own stupidity or bad luck then some sort of baseball activity.
11. After the Astros lose a Cactus League game, somebody on Twitter will declare that they have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
12. We will hear about some humorous clubhouse prank.
13. At least one notable veteran will announce their retirement.
14. The Yankees will be declared doomed, the World Series favorites and a Wild Card contender… possibly all on the same day.
15. Everyone in Tampa, at Yankees’ camp, will be on 24/7 Alex Rodriguez watch.
Sorry, but the WBC Q&A’s final part has been delayed until sometime this coming week. So, for now, here’s a preview of stuff that (probably) will also be joining it:
With Kris Medlen and Andy Pettitte out and Justin Verlander still making up his mind, the Team USA rotation was down to R.A. Dickey, Ryan Vogelsong and Derek Holland. Hardly a rotation of slouches (you could do very well in MLB with a front three that looked like that), but not exactly the names to strike fear into the hearts of the world’s hitters.
Well, yesterday, Team USA got an upgrade: Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals. Although currently under a cloud of suspicion due to his name being on the Biogenesis papers (but apparently not linked to any banned substances), Gonzalez instantly gives Team USA’s rotation a good shot in the arm. He won 21 games last season while leading the NL in strikeouts per 9 IP and fewest HR per 9 IP. He’s left-handed, young, and a two-time All-Star.
And, more importantly, it gives Team USA two aces, not just one, as well as two left-handed starters, not just one.
And, what’s more, if Verlander decides to play, it could allow Team USA to have a rotation of Verlander, Dickey, Gonzalez, Vogelsong and Holland.
And that rotation would strike fear into the hearts of the world’s hitters.
Not wanting any type of freak injury or something mess up his mega-contract negotiations, Felix Hernandez has dropped out of the World Baseball Classic.
Venezuela, which takes the WBC very seriously, is not happy. At all. How not happy are they?
Well, here’s an image of what a sports newspaper in Venezuela looks like today. According to Google Translate, that headline basically says that Felix has devalued Venezuela, or no longer appreciates Venezuela, or something like that. The news also is on the front page of the two Venezuelan newspapers on the Newseum website, and Venezuelan journalist Efrain Ruiz Pantin tweeted that for many Venezuelans it was a bigger deal than that country’s recent currency devaluation. Another Venezuelan journalist reported that the chairman of the Venezuelan Baseball Federation wants to veto/ban any teams from signing Venezuelans if they won’t collaborate with international competitions. It is presumably only a matter of time before Hugo Chavez himself comments on the situation, assuming that he isn’t in the hospital again.
And this is what leads to a tough situation for Latino players in the WBC: they have left their homelands, where they often lived in poverty, for riches in America. They are literally playing for a way to have their families have a better way of life. So they cannot be blamed for passing on the WBC when it could possibly endanger the riches that could keep help their family for generations. This is (more or less) what Felix Hernandez himself tweeted out shortly after the news came out: the financial security of his family was what was coming first.
But, on the other hand, the WBC is a big deal in the Caribbean, and if a player backs out, they appear ungrateful to the nation that had been supporting them and has been holding the player as a national hero. You could not blame a player for risking a big contract to play for such passionate fans.
And so, players like King Felix are in a no-win situation. Don’t play in the WBC, and an entire nation questions his patriotism (or worse). Play in the WBC, and you could run a risk- however small- of ruining the chance to have yourself and your family being set for life.
Felix made his choice. It will be interesting to see what follows.
If Felix Hernandez is worth $175 million dollars over 7 years…
… just how much will Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander be worth?
(The answer: At least that.)
Okay, if you saw yesterday’s post, you are no doubt prepared for another round of questions and answers about the World Baseball Classic. Today, we look at some of the rules and regulations of the tournament… after the jump:
Another image from the Library of Congress Flickr stream, this one is of Walter Johnson receiving a car.
But why is he receiving a car? Well, from 1911 to 1914, the MVP was awarded a car from Chalmers Automobile. The winner of the AL MVP in 1913? Walter Johnson. This is him receiving that car.
The Baseball Continuum 