Brad Hawpe made a successful debut in Wednesday’s intrasquad scrimmage, doubling and throwing out Jonathan Herrera at second base.

The right fielder, who will play in today’s game, is encouraged by how his body has responded to a lighter weight (roughly 208 pounds, compared with 215 last spring) and healthier diet.

“It’s about feeling better. Having more energy and sleeping more,” said Hawpe, who eats 10 vegetables a day.

I wonder, what does “10 vegetables a day” mean? Does one broccoli floret equal one vegetable? Or must one eat the entire crown?

Is ketchup a vegetable, as Ronald Regan would have us believe?

What about french fries? Or corn on the cob?

So many veggie questions.

"I like it the twitter"

Im sure you guys are aware that, much to the dismay of his GM Kenny Williams, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is on Twitter.

Guillen says he won’t let his new micro-blogging habit interfere with baseball, and he doesn’t understand the hoopla surrounding his use of the service if so many other baseball people are on it.

In case you wondered whether or not this was the real Guillen behind the thumbs, it really is him tweeting from his phone… and as most predicted, it’s gold.

From his typos, to his use of Spanglish, to his attempts to remain politically neutral regarding his native Venezuela. So far however, the best ones are in Spanish…

To wit:

Estoy lleno un anisito no cae mal ustedes que viene prendan fosforos about 12 hours ago via txt

(I’m stuffed a little licorice drink wouldn’t hurt you guys headed over here light some matches)

Tengo 15 dias sin tomar pero provoca una polarcita about 14 hours ago via txt

(It’s been 15 days without a drink but im craving me some polar)

[Polar is like the Budweiser of Venezuela]

Esperando a joey oney y andrew jones para empezar la parrillada 4:57 PM Feb 24th via txt

(Waiting on joey oney and andrew jones to start the grill)

Despite signing the oft-underrated Randy Wolf to replace Braden Looper (who by the way did his very best to provide yet another example that a W-L record is a bad way to judge a pitcher)  the rotation still has two replacement-level starters in Jeff Suppan and Manny Parra.

Suppan especially has become a thorn in their side (yes, even Prince Fielder’s gut can feel that thorn). The 35-year old Soup was signed to a ridiculous $42M/4 deal in December of 2006 and has followed that up with one decent season (2007) and two gross ones. Assuming that the Brewers hold steady at a roughly $80M payroll in 2010, Jeff Suppan’s salary is going to take up 15.6% of that alone in 2010. And with the track record of 35-year old pitchers turning it around after a 3-year decline, no one should assume that Suppan will be much of an asset.

But there’s just that weird sentiment that seems to pervade the minds of baseball team owners that salary should dictate playing time, which never made much sense to me. And assuming that Suppan is untradeable, he’s going to stay in that rotation. So if any improvement’s going to come, it’s at the expense of Manny Parra, who’s no ace himself and constantly underperforms his FIP.

So who will it be? There seems to be talk of Jarrod Washburn, Doug Davis, or Jon Garland but unless they sign a deal for far less than what I imagine it would cost to get them (which has been happening this year), I’d say no thanks. Instead, I’d argue for trading Corey Hart, who I believe is overvalued among fans and very possibly some front offices. If Hart can be dealt (he’s a former All Star!) for a decent arm, moving Casey McGehee to right (assuming he can handle it, of course) and signing Miguel Tejada on the cheap to play third would improve the team without sacrificing much offense.

Even without such a move, the team’s defense could very well have improved despite the departures of Mike Cameron and J.J. Hardy. Cam’s replacement will be Carlos Gomez, among the best defensive CFers in the game. It’s clear that Gomez is a worse hitter than some pitchers, but his range in center should help make up for a lot of that. Another addition is prospect Alcides Escobar. He probably won’t be winning any Silver Sluggers anytime soon but his defense at short has been very highly regarded.  While Ryan Braun in left and Casey McGehee at third will still piss pitchers off every now and then, at least they can rely on the guys in center and short to help them out.

The NL Central is winnable although the Cards remain the favorites at this point. The ideal situation would be to somehow get Suppan out of the rotation but I don’t expect that to happen. But finding a cost-effective alternative to Manny Parra should help alleviate that issue some. The Brewers can live with Suppan or Parra as the fifth starter. But they won’t survive if they count on them both.

- What They Need Index -

This offseason, motivated by a desire to shed payroll, the Tigers parted ways with several of their top players. They traded Edwin Jackson to the Diamondbacks. They sent Curtis Granderson to the Yankees. They declined to offer arbitration to Placido Polanco, Brandon Lyon, and Fernando Rodney, and all departed via free agency.

So far, the Tigers have signed one free agent of note: closer Jose Valverde. They also acquired some talented young players in the aforementioned trades.

Detroit landed RHP Max Scherzer, LHP Daniel Schlereth, LHP Phil Coke, and OF Austin Jackson.

Coke and Schlereth are hard-throwing middle relievers and neither figures to make a huge splash, though both should make the opening day roster. Scherzer is a starter who misses bats and has the potential to be an ace, if he can stay healthy (though most scouts doubt that he will). Meanwhile, Austin Jackson should be a serviceable replacement for Granderson. Here’s what ESPN’s Kieth Law had to say about Jackson:

Jackson is a good-but-not-great athlete. He’s an above-average runner, but not a burner; he’s wiry, but the power that has been projected has yet to materialize. His game played up in the low minors because he controlled the strike zone well for a young, inexperienced hitter. His plate discipline has gotten worse as he’s risen the ladder, and he may need a few years in the majors before he’ll post acceptable OBPs. But he can handle center field defensively and should produce enough at the plate to be an asset even in 2010, during which he’d earn the minimum salary.

What else do the Tigers need?

Detroit’s pitching was pretty woeful in 2009 (just look at the Tigers’ FIP, which was the third-highest in the AL). The team’s ERA was greatly bolstered by excellent team defense. Scherzer has the potential to improve the team’s staff all by himself in 2010. But the big difference-maker could be Jeremy Bonderman, who has struggled with injuries the past few seasons but could be a number 3 starter if healthy. Bonderman walks a few too many batters, but he’s also capable of racking up strikeouts.

A rotation fronted by Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello, Scherzer and a healthy Bonderman would be an admirable staff, and could help the Tigers keep pace in 2010. A little of the luck they enjoyed in 2009 wouldn’t hurt either.

-What They Need Index-

But Texas has a lot going for it, too. This is a team that finished 12 games over .500 last season, in second place. Moreover, the first-place Angels are unlikely to repeat last season’s success. The Rangers’ time is now.

What does Texas need to get over the hump? Better pitching, but what else is new? Feliz looks primed to be the organization’s first decent home-grown arm in ages, but it’s unclear if he’ll start the year in the rotation. Harden misses a ton of bats when healthy, but he’s hardly ever healthy. Feldman won 17 games in 2009, but everyone projects he’ll regress. Brandon McCarthy? Yeah, he’s got potential — Bill James projects he’ll pitch 163 innings and win 9 games, 2 more than last season. Then there’s Tommy Hunter and Matt Harrison, two young arms that seem destined for mediocrity.

The Rangers have good defense and decent offense that figures to improve if Hamilton stays on the field and Davis lives up to the hype. Texas just needs good production from it’s bench and decent contributions from Feliz and Harden and they could find themselves playing meaningful baseball in October.

-What They Need Index-

Where does Alomar rank all time?

Oh well.

But in any case, after what I felt was the success of my recent experiment with “crowdsourcing” the ranking of the best players of all time to random internet websites, I decided to see where Roberto Alomar might (or might not) rank among the best second basemen of all time, at least according to the collective wisdom of ye internets.

Again, my method was, I randomly searched google to find the first top-10 lists that came up, on the presumption that if they come up first on google, than the clicks and links of millions web surfers must have decided that these are the best, and then aggregated the results.

Actually in the case of second basemen, though, I could not find even the ten top-10 lists that I was hoping to find, so I had to go with just the eight lists of top-10 all time second sackers that appear to be all that exists on the internet. So in order to make the scores similar to my shortstop ranking, and have them still be out of 1000 possible points, I “normalized” the points allocation so that each 1st place ranking would be worth 125 points, where as each 10th place ranking would be worth 116 points.

In total, only 15 second basemen were ranked across the 8 lists. Here’s what resulted…

Top 15 Second Basemen of All Time

(Total number of points out of 1000, with number of first-place votes in parentheses)

1. Eddie Collins – 992 (5)
2. Rogers Hornsby – 992 (2)
3. Joe Morgan – 984 (1)
4. Nap Lajoie – 855
5. Charlie Gehringer – 841
6. Jackie Robinson – 840
7. Ryne Sandberg – 831
8. Craig Biggio – 712
9. Roberto Alomar – 711
10. Rod Carew – 591
11. Frankie Frisch – 587
T12. Bobby Grich – 235
T12. Jeff Kent – 235
14. Bobby Doerr – 118
15. Lou Whitaker – 116

Once again the internets, at least collectively, basically got this one exactly right. The top three at second base are very close and you can almost go with any combination, but you basically can’t really argue with those three guys being on top.

There were several really close races this time. Eddie Collins and Rogers Hornsby were exactly tied on points, with Collins getting the edge due to his 5 first place votes to Hornsby’s 2. Meanwhile, Charlie Gehringer just barely edged out sentimental favorite Jackie Robinson for 5th place by one point, while Biggio’s longevity edged out Alomar’s superior peak also by just one point. Rod Carew was rightly dropped down the list for having played more games at first base than second, but he still was a heck of a second baseman for a long time, and enough people gave him credit to keep Frankie Frisch out of the top 10 by a mere 4 points.

There was a pretty big dropoff in points after Frisch at number 11, though. It seems that there is a near consensus on who the top 11 second basemen are, if not the exact order.

As for Alomar, he got ranked 9th all time, which seems about right: good enough to be in the top 10 ever and thus an easy case for the Hall of Fame, but definitely outside the true inner circle.

So yeah, it’s a good list, although soon to be outdated, obviously, if Chase Utley keeps churning out MVP-esque seasons year after year.

Original Lists

“The Best 11 Second Basemen of All Time” (Bleacher Report)
“Top 50 Second Basemen of All Time” (The Baseball Page)
“MLB’s 10 Greatest Second Basemen of All Time” (Bleacher Report)
“Top 10 Second Basemen” (About.com)
“Rating the Top Baseball Players of All Time” (The Baseball Guru)
“All-Time Top 100s: Second Base” (Seth Speaks)
“Top Keystone Sackers” (Baseball Think Factory)
“The 25 Second Basemen with the Best Careers” (Seamheads.com)

What I did was I went to Google and looked up the first ten top-10 rankings of shortstops that I could find, and tallied up their rankings to get a final top-10.

Honus is still the king.

As for the question of whether the first ten random top-10 lists I found are reliable or not, I crowdsourced that too, in a manner of speaking – because these lists were the ten highest ranking according to Google’s PageRank formula, by some definition they are the best lists, because they are the lists more people want to link to.

Taking each player’s ranking from each of the ten top-10 lists, I subtracted that number from 101 to get a point total, which I added to their score. In other words, a first place ranking on a list was worth 100 points, for a theoretical maximum of 1000 points over the 10 polls, and a 10th place ranking on a list was worth 91 points. This ensured that appearing low on two lists was still worth more than appearing high on just one list. If lists listed more than 10 players, I did not give points for any ranking after 10, in order to ensure that all lists were weighted equally.

So without further ado, here are the top ten shortstops of all time, according to the average of ten random internet top-10 lists, along with total final score and total “first place votes” in parentheses:

1. Honus Wagner – 992 (5)
2. Cal Ripken Jr. – 974 (1)
3. Alex Rodriguez – 885 (2)
4. Derek Jeter – 858
5. Ozzie Smith – 765 (2)
6. Robin Yount – 669
7. Ernie Banks – 671
8. Barry Larkin – 657
9. Luke Appling – 562
10. Arky Vaughan – 561

Amazingly, given the rather ridiculous method I used, this is not a bad list at all. In fact, it is pretty close to a list I might have made myself using some sort of advanced statstics-based measures. A-Rod got left off of one ballot on account of his time at third base, so his ranking of #3 seems fair, especially given that by the end of his career he will almost certainly have more innings played at third base than at shortstop (not to mention his admitted steroid usage).  Even if we leave A-Rod out, assuming he is going to wind up remembered more as a 3B, it’s pretty hard to argue with a top 5 of Wagner, Ripken, Jeter, Ozzie, and Yount.

Ernie Banks was similarly left off some ballots since he played more games at first base, so it’s right for him to not be in the top five, but given that he still played 1125 games at shortstop, was one of the first power-hitting shortstops, and is best remembered as a shortstop, #7 doesn’t seem like a bad spot to have him at.

All in all, I find myself quite encouraged by this little experiment in crowdsourcing, as this is really a pretty decent result. If people are interested, it might be worth doing this for other positions, and seeing what comes up.

By the way, altogether across the ten top-10 lists, 20 different players appeared at least once.  Although I was mostly interested in the top ten, where outliers were not likely to appear, in case you are interested the next best ten shortstop according to the average of these lists were:

11. Luis Aparicio – 369
12. Lou Boudreau – 373
13. Joe Cronin – 279
14. Omar Vizquel – 187
15. Alan Trammell – 184
16. Phil Rizzuto – 183
17. Dave Concepcion – 94
18. Pee Wee Reese – 93
19. Nomar Garciaparra – 93
20. George Davis – 91

Here are the ten lists I used (again, these were the first ten lists to come up on Google):

“Top 50 Shortstops of All Time” (The Baseball Page.com)
“Top 10 Greatest MLB Shortstops Of All Time” (Bleacher Report)
“Top 10 Shortstops In Baseball History” (About.com)
“Best Shortstop of All Time?” (FanIQ)
“Top Ten Shortstops of All Time” (World in Focus)
“MLB’s 10 Greatest Shortstops of All Time” (Bleacher Report)
“FSN Sports Top 10 Shortstops” (Baseball Fever)
“Greatest Major League Baseball Shortstop All-Time” (Rankopedia)
“All-Time Top 100s: Shortstops” (SethSpeaks)
“Best Shortstops in History” (RateItAll)

Larkin had the complete package. An outstanding hitter with an .815 career OPS and a 116 OPS+ at a position where offense is at a premium, he was also no slouch with the glove, was always talked about as one of the better defenders in the league, and even won three gold gloves once Ozzie Smith retired.

Plus, Larkin was outstanding on the basepaths, averaging 28 stolen bases per 162 games, and thus, with his .371 on-base percentage including a career-high .410 in 1996, Larkin was not only one of the best shortstops of his era, but also one of the best leadoff men.

The one knock against Larkin, in my view, is that he had some struggles staying healthy and on the field. Nevertheless, he managed to remain a starting shortstop in the major leagues from age 23 until his final season, at age 40 (when he put up a very respectable line of .289/.352/.419 and made the All-Star team), and his games played totals look worse than they should because two of his prime seasons were cut short by strike.

Of course, many people are comparing Larkin in their minds to guys like Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter, but Larkin played half his career in the non-steroid era whereas A-Rod is a confirmed steroid user, plus people seem to forget that A-Rod will have played well over half his career as a third baseman and not a shortstop.

As for Jeter, even if Derek Jeter retired today he is already in the top five shortstops of all time. Barry Larkin was better than about half the shortstops currently in the Hall, and is almost certainly in the top 10 of all time. He deserves to be in.

But what really seals it for me, even more than the numbers, is Larkin’s reputation at the time he played. I still remember back when Larkin signed his last big contract with the Reds in the 2000 offseason, everyone kept referring to him as “future hall-of-famer Barry Larkin.” At that time, pretty much everyone in the game thought of him as a lock for the Hall, yet somehow, in the ensuing 10 years, people have somehow forgotten Barry Larkin’s greatness, and he has somehow become not so much of a lock.

Given the eye-popping, steroid-fueled numbers of those ensuing 10-years, it kind of makes sense, but it also makes no sense at all, since we all know a lot of those numbers were created unnaturally. Barry Larkin needs to be remembered in the context of his times, in which he was the best shortstop in all of baseball for about 5 years, the best in the National League for almost a decade, and among the top 3 or 4 for his entire career.

But the Tribe does have a few things going for them. First, the Central is a weak division, and neither the Twins nor the White Sox did much to improve this winter, while the Tigers arguably got worse with the departures of Placido Polanco, Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson.

Second, Cleveland had some pretty crappy luck in 2009, under-performing their Pythagorean record and watching star CF Grady Sizemore struggle with injuries. Sizemore had season-ending elbow and

abdominal surgeries in September and will be back on the field in 2010, as will pitcher Jake Westbrook, who missed the entire 2009 season after Tommy John elbow surgery.

What else does Cleveland have to look forward to? The best player you’ve never heard of, Shin-Soo Choo, will try to improve on his 20/20 2009 season, and his .393 OBP. Carlos Santana, the Indians’ best prospect, could see a lot of action behind the plate.

Matt LaPorta should get a full season’s worth of action at first base, after struggling a bit as an outfielder during a brief call-up last season. Here’s what ESPN’s Kieth Law had to say about LaPorta (ESPN Insider required):

LaPorta’s power is prodigious, and he gets very good extension through the ball; he’s strong enough to power the ball out the other way but can get too pull-conscious. His swing is a little long, but he hasn’t had trouble making contact through Double-A, fanning in just 19 percent of his plate appearances in pro ball. To the extent that he continues that, he can be more than just a three-true-outcomes player and would elevate himself from “above-average regular” to “potential star.”

Elsewhere on the diamond, Luis Valbuena will likely get another shot at second base, though he’s yet to distinguish himself either with the bat or the glove, and this could be his last shot. Shortstop Jhonny Peralta is looking to rebound from a disappointing season, where he OBP’d just .316 and was also sub par with the glove. Meanwhile, 3B Asdrubal Cabrera is looking to prove that his 2009 was no fluke. And, for what it’s worth, Bill James doesn’t think it was.

Oh, and don’t forget about Pronk. He’ll DH until he hurts himself.

Then there’s the rotation. There’s Westbrook, who might take a while to round into form but has been a valuable innings-eater in the past. Behind Westbrook is a ton of young arms.

Let’s start with Mitch Talbot, 26, who the Tribe acquired this winter when they traded Kelly Shoppach to the Rays. Here’s what MLB Trade Rumors had to say about Talbot:

Talbot, 26, pitched mostly at Triple A this year.  He posted a 4.47 ERA, 6.6 K/9, and 3.0 BB/9 in ten starts.  He missed a few months with an elbow injury, so the Rays had him make six starts in the Arizona Fall League to get more work.  He’s out of options, so he’ll presumably compete for a spot in the Indians’ rotation.

After Talbot there’s Carlos Carrasco, who Cleveland got from Philly in the Cliff Lee trade. Carrasco has shown an ability to miss bats at the minor league level, but he’s been inconsistent. There’s Justin Masterson, who Cleveland got from the Red Sox last season, in the Victor Martinez trade. Masterson has been effective as both a starter and a reliever at the major league level. He’s pretty close to a lock to make the rotation. Then there’s Fausto Carmona, Anthony Reyes, Hector Rondon and Jess Todd — all of whom could make the team out of spring training (though Todd is more likely to land in the bullpen).

Except for the bullpen (which is always a crapshoot) that’s about it. Phew! So what do the Indians need in 2010? A little luck, a little patience, and a really good pitching coach.

In November, former pitcher Tim Belcher was named the Indians’ pitching coach after spending the last eight seasons in the organization as a Special Assistant to Baseball Operations. It’s his first coaching gig of any kind (at least, according to his Wikipedia page). Belcher might be a genius. I don’t know. But one thing’s for sure: he’ll need to get the most out of his young staff if the Indians are going to succeed.

I love this squad. The Indians are loaded with young talent. Sizemore, when healthy, is an all-star. Shin-Soo, though not flashy, is a stud. Santana looks like the second coming of Johnny Bench. And LaPorta, given time, should emerge as a slugger.

Like last year’s Oakland squad, this year’s Indians are a tough team to predict, due to a reliance on untested pitchers. And like last season’s A’s, I expect this Cleveland team to take it’s lumps. But watch out for them in 201o — and beyond!

-What They Need Index-

Power was a problem, too. Kansas City was last in home runs.

And don’t forget about the defense. Kansas City’s fielders were arguably the worst in the AL.

The truth is Kansas City needs to blow it up and start again, because they’re trying to build a winner around a bunch of mediocre talents (except for Zack Greinke and Soria, of course). For KC to contend in 2010, it’d take a miracle. It’s possible Alex Gordon will finally live up to the hype, Billy Butler will take another big leap forward, Alberto Callaspo will remember how to hit, Jose Guillen will improve his craptastic defense, Yuniesky Betancourt will crack the .300 OBP barrier, and Robinson Tejeda will pick up where he left off last September, but those are a ton of big ifs.

-What They Need Index-