Jacoby Ellsbury has been suffering from an “aggravated groin” (Fenway West). The other night at the ballpark, my friend asked me, “An aggravated groin? What’s an aggravated groin? How did he get an aggravated groin?” I replied, “I’ll have to get on that.” What I meant, was, I’ll have to figure that out. Badump-CHING! Tacoby Bellsbury should be back in the lineup tonight.

With Noah Lowry on the DL and Barry Zito headed to the pen, talk of a six-man rotation in San Francisco has died down. This pleases me, because six-man rotations are one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard of. Teams already have a tough enough time finding five decent starters, and as it is, the fifth slot on most teams is something of a revolving door. And the idea of a 25-man roster consisting of perhaps 13 pitchers is equally disgusting. But as Giants Win notes, the larger concern for the San Fran squad may be their utter and complete lack of offense—on pace to score fewer runs than a dead ball era team. Oh my God.

I, like many, thought Phil Hughes’ “oblique strain” was code for “needs to go work out his suckage in the minors.” But now they’re saying it’s a stress fracture in one of his ribs. Hughes says he has “no idea” how he got it. But how do you fracture a rib and not realize it? Given that he also suffered a strained hamstring and a sprained ankle last year, NYY fans have to be hoping this is nothing more than a run of bad luck. But on Bronx Banter, it sounds like hope (not to mention patience) is running out.

Lone Star Ball gives Mindy McCready’s dad an Inigo Montoya Award. Any cross-pollination between baseball and The Princess Bride is always appreciated.

I like the Brewers. I have three of them on my fantasy team. I picked them to upset the Cubs for the NL Central title. But I don’t see how they’re going to do that without Ben Sheets. His first three starts filled me with hope. His subsequent triceps strain, despair. Now I don’t know what to think. Fortunately, I have the Hardball Times and pitch FX to tell me what’s what. Unfortunately, they also think the triceps tightness could be related to a rotator cuff issue. Nooooooooooooooo…..

Did you see Frank Thomas hit that triple a few days back? Did you wonder, whoah, when does Frank Thomas hit a triple? So did MopUpDuty. My favorite nugget from this post: Mark McGwire had only 6 triples in his entire career.

This week’s Metro column, on why the Rays are for real, but the other April surprise in the AL East, the Orioles, are not.

And finally, the Nats have a song. So Bugs and Cranks came up with hilarious ditties for all the other teams, too! I will now joyfully sing along to the new, awesome, Red Sox fan song:

We’re rawkous (raucous!) for the Red Sox!
We’re rawkous for the Red Sox!
We’re crazy and we’re awesome, brah!
We’re rawkous for the Red Sox!

Sully and Fitzy and Paddy Go Bragh
We’ll cut yer fuckin’ face if you look at us wrong!
So let’s go Nation of Red Sox fans!
Let’s throw some pizza in the stands!

Let’s go Red Sox!

As the lyrics of Jonathan Papelbon’s warm-up song (that *Dropkick Murphys tune from The Departed) sort of sound to me like, “I’m a sailor BRAAAAAH! And I lost my BRAAAAAH!”, I’m happy to see the emphatic syllable making the rounds in other Sox-related shanties.

*The lyrics were actually penned by Woody Guthrie. The real lyrics are, “I’m a sailor peg and I lost my leg.” The leg part, I get—but peg? Is that like, “I’m a sailor, Peg” (as if to his girlfriend, Peggy)? Inquiring minds want to know.

Cal Ripken was on NPR this afternoon, promoting his new book, Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference. The host, Neal Conan (who kinda used to work for Ripken), asked the Hall of Fame shortstop a question that had been submitted by a reader.

The reader wanted to know the truth behind a rumor that he said had been floating around Baltimore for years: that the Orioles once canceled a night game against the Mariners because Ripken was M.I.A. and the team didn’t want his consecutive games played streak to come to an end.

What the reader didn’t say, and what Conan presumably didn’t know, is that the rumor is much juicier than that. From ESPN:

Consider Cal’s streak, which according to one outlandish rumor was supposedly kept alive by a supposed fake power outage at Camden Yards after the Iron Man supposedly was arrested for supposedly beating up Kevin Costner after supposedly catching the actor supposedly sleeping with his wife. The rumor spread enough that Costner even went on the radio to deny it.

Ripken answered the question without alluding to Costner. He called the rumor bogus and said he was at the park that night and even warmed up on the infield. And, for what it’s worth, Snopes.com agrees with Ripken’s account.

There’s no credible evidence to support the story about Ripken and Costner. Still, I think I’m going to choose to believe that story, because I love the idea of Ripken beating the snot out of Kevin Costner. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Kevin Costner the actor. He gave us Field of Dreams and Bull Durham and for that I owe him a huge debt. But Kevin Costner the human being … eeeww.

You can listen to the Ripken interview here.

Could A-Rod play shortstop while Jeter is on the shelf? Girardi won’t rule it out.

The Phils-Mets series is underway. Jayson Stark reported this winter that the Phils were talking about starting a fight with their NL East rivals. Will there be a brawl? The Mets say maybe.

The Orioles are in first place and Aubrey Huff — who went on a shock-jock radio show over the offseason and trashed Baltimore –  is jackin’ it. Any way you slice it, this is a feel-good story.

Joe Posnanski is scaling back while he goes into book mode. Don’t be a stranger, Joe.

Two blogosphere favorites face-off today: Phil Hughes vs. Brian Bannister.

This is the photo that accompanies Adam Jones’ Yahoo Sports profile. Maybe this explains Jones’ slow start to the season. Maybe he’s got narcolepsy.

Free coffee and baseball: This is a match made in heaven, from Sarah’s point of view. Two notes: 1. Jose Canseco is worried that he’ll get poisoned via free coffee. 2. Jonathan Papelbon is advertising free coffee (with purchase of either a flatbread sandwich or a pizza) at Dunkin’ Donuts, available the day after the Red Sox win. Sounds a bit complicated to me—and it’s cheap of DD to exclude their own employees. Not to mention that Paps looks like a cheeseball in this photo. Why didn’t they just go with a real post-game shot?

Speed: the Blue Jays are going to be swiping more bags this season. And speaking of speed, I enjoyed watching the A’s relievers throw over to first with Jason Varitek standing on the bag. Yes, let’s make sure the 35-year old catcher doesn’t steal.

Fans: It just goes to show you that the Dodgers really do have a special relationship with their fans, as LA hurler Brad Penny warmed up with a lucky fan yesterday. Across town, Angels owner Arte Moreno bought souvenirs for several fans. And it seems that Baltimore’s long-suffering faithful are finally abandoning their ballclub. Just don’t get mad when the Sox come to town in May and bring their hordes of free-spending fans with them, transforming Camden Yards into Fenway South. The O’s need the revenue.

No-hitters: Yesterday, ESPN.com carried a teaser for the Chicago-Detroit game saying the Dontrelle Willis was throwing a no-no through five innings. To me, that’s just false advertising. Sure, it’s technically accurate to say that D-Train ended up one-hitting the White Sox, but it would perhaps be more descriptive to say that Willis went five innings, while walking seven and striking out none. It was the least dominant no-no bid I’ve ever watched. An outing more worthy of ESPN’s hype would have been Jake Peavy’s two-hit complete game or Manny Parra’s legit seven-strikeout no-hit bid, carried through five innings.

Reds Rookies: On the heels of Johnny Cueto’s stunning debut Thursday, another Reds rookie pitcher impresses today. Edinson Volquez has pitched five innings so far, with seven K’s and one earned run. He’s scattered three hits and two walks.

Sleep: The Red Sox really do need it. Their odyssey from Florida to Japan to California to Toronto is starting to tell, and it’s most readily apparent on defense. Boston has already committed two errors halfway through today’s game. They had two errors yesterday, too, and have racked up a number of sloppy near-errors over the past few games. They have a day off tomorrow and open Fenway Park on Tuesday.

The Blue Jays debuted their throwback uniforms last night, as they plan to do for every Friday home game this season. Behold:

They look a bit silly, but isn’t that just part of the fun? The Royals have also brought their powder blues back (though only from the waist up). Last year, the Padres busted out their old all-yellow duds. What other teams could bring back some kickass vintage duds? Let’s look at the contenders:

Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of a series of posts in which we grade each team’s wily hot stove maneuvers and tragic offseason blunders.

The Orioles are going to be terrible in 2008. They’re going to be worse than they were in 2007, when they finished 69-93. And they’re not going to get any better any time soon.

Baltimore just completed its club-record ninth consecutive losing season, all of them under the leadership of owner Peter Angelos, who gained control of the franchise in 1993.

Last season, a group of fans led by a local radio personality staged a walkout to protest Angelos’ rudderless leadership of the team. Here’s what one participant had to say about the O’s under Angelos:

“We are here to show our dissatisfaction with his role, and some of the stupid decisions he has made,” said 43-year-old fan Eric Hunter. “We want someone in there who will spend the money to do the things that will bring the fans back.”

Now, there’s no doubt that Angelos has been an awful owner and that he’s made terrible, terrible decisions. But I think this comment misses the point. The problem isn’t that Angelos isn’t spending enough money. It’s that he spends his money the wrong way. He hands out big contracts to the wrong players, like Albert Belle and Miguel Tejada, all the while ignoring the farm system. The truth is he will never be able to outspend the Red Sox and Yankees, so the Orioles need a strong group of cost effective young players in order to be effetive.

That’s why this offseason was such a revelation for the Orioles. Baltimore started this offseason on the right foot trading Miguel Tejada to the Astros for OF Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate, and third-base prospect Michael Costanzo. This was an awesome trade for the following reasons:

1. Miguel Tejada was named in the Mitchell Report, told a congressional panel that he never used steroids and now faces the possibility that he could be convicted of perjury and deported.
2. Costanzo is probably just as good a 3B right now as Tejada is (even though Tejada is going to try to play SS this year, he doesn’t belong there anymore)Last season in AA Reading, Costanzo put up an OBP of .368 and a SLG of .490. He hit 27 HR and drove in 86 runs to go along with that.
3. All of the players Baltimore acquired combined make a fraction of what Tejada is paid.

The Orioles followed up the Tejada trade by trading ace pitcher Erik Bedard to Seattle. This one had to sting a little, since Bedard was home grown and still has many good (and two cheap) years ahead of him. But as we mentioned earlier, the Orioles aren’t going to be competative this year or next year, so there was no point in hanging on to Bedard. Moreover, in exchange for Bedard the O’s got top flight OF prospect Adam Jones, plus LHPs Georgeg Sherrill and Tony Butler and RHPs Chris Tillman and Kam “The Great” Mickolio (what a fantastic nickname!). Tillman, who was Seattle’s No. 3 overall prospect, struck out 184 in 166 innings but has just 20 starts at the high Class A level; Butler (No. 12) has yet to reach high Class A ball.In between blockbusters, the O’s have also made some smaller moves, like signing veteran SP Steve Trachsel to a minor league deal, just to fill out the roster.

It’s what the Orioles do next that will determine whether this was a great offseason or just a very good offseason. The team is reportedly considering trading all-star 2B Brian Roberts to the Cubs, but the deal is maybe (probably) being held up by meddling owner Peter Angelos. This trade needs to happen. Roberts is 30. He’s peaked. And he was just named in the Mitchell Report, so his PR value isn’t even what it used to be.

As of this moment, Roberts is still an Orioles. So here’s what Baltimore’s team will look like on opening day:

2B Brian Roberts .377 OBP
3B Melvin Mora .341 OBP
CF Adam Jones (rookie)
RF Nick Markakis 112 RBI
1B Kevin Millar .365 OBP
LF Luke Scott .351 OBP
DH Aubrey Huff 15 HR
C Ramon Hernandez 9 HR
SS Luis Hernandez .300 OBP

SP Jeremy Guthrie 3.70 ERA
SP Adam Loewen 3.56 ERA
SP Daniel Cabrera 5.55 ERA
SP Troy Patton / Garrett Olson
SP Steve Trachsel

Set-up Jamie Walker 3.23 ERA
CL Danys Baez / George Sherrill

Grade: B+ (will be an ‘A’ if GM Andy McPhail team trades Roberts).

The Orioles have some young players to build around. Markakis and Jones could anchor the outfield for years to come. Both Jeremy Guthrie and Adam Loewen have potential to be regulars in the O’s rotation, as do Tillman and Butler. Baltimore needs to continue to focus on youth, and only time will tell if Angelos has the patience for that kind of full-scale rebuilding. But this offseason was a step in the right direction.

- Hot Offseason Action Index -

Tampa Bay _____ Rays - Hoary wisdom

The Tampa Bay Rays have been quietly improving under the radar over the past couple of years. 2007 saw a couple of things bounce their way—finally—mostly thanks to the breakout year had by Carlos Pena. The one thing they have always really lacked is starting pitching, which should be less of a problem next year. So what do they still need to put them over the top? First, a solid bullpen, at least to save poor Scott Kazmir’s sanity. And second, veteran leadership. Sure, it’s great to have a lot of young talent and get excited about what they could do. But you need to have at least one guy in the clubhouse who can do the Crash Davis thing when necessary. Isn’t Tony Clark still available?

Baltimore Orioles - Cloning technology

The Baltimore Orioles are already a step ahead of last year, since at least they seem to have approached this hot stove season with something approaching a strategy. The O’s now need to keep dumping salary wherever and whenever they can; to move Erik Bedard before his value deteriorates; and to acquire other teams’ prospects willy-nilly. And wherever Nick Markakis came from, they need more of that.

Toronto Blue Jays - Medical breakthroughs

Speaking of Bedard, boy could the Jays use him. Their pitching staff—and in fact, most of their roster—is the definition of mediocre. Last year, they looked pretty good on paper, before their roster imploded with injuries. But this year, I look at their team and don’t see a lot of upside (newly acquired Scott Rolen is no exception). Add a pitcher? Add a big bat? Sure. Add anything. Add something. At least let the current crop of big-salary-middle-of-the-road types play out their contracts while you get a farm system in order. But considering last year’s season, maybe the one thing Toronto should add if they want to make the playoffs is some really, really good team doctors.

New York Yankees - A scary starting pitcher, or, failing that, a healthy one

In October, the Yankees folded primarily because of limited starting pitching (well, that and A-Rod’s Octoberitis and Derek Jeter’s sudden propensity for hitting into double plays). Now January is half over and the New York Yankees still need solid starting pitching. Chien-Ming Wang anchored their rotation this year, winning 19 games and barely missing the 200 innings mark. Pettitte will return as No. 2, coming off a 15-win, 200+ innings season. However, Pettitte’s ERA last year cleared the 4.00 mark, which isn’t exactly lights-out. Of greater concern is Mike Mussina, who finished the year with an ERA over 5.00. The big gamble for New York is on their young arms: Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, and Phil Hughes—who came up to great fanfare last year, only to go down with an injury almost immediately. All three younguns will be on strict innings limits. When October rolls around again, will they have enough left in the tank to make it to the postseason? And assuming they bash their way into the playoffs, do they have the dominant, ace-caliber pitching you need to reach the World Series? Right now, the answer is no.

Boston Red Sox - A craving for Coco

The World Series Champs already look pretty good for next year. They need to think about 2011. A few of their key players are oh-ell-dee old. The hardest to replace will be catcher and team captain Jason Varitek. Boston is still looking for takers for Coco Crisp, and I would love to see them deal him for a catching prospect. The Red Sox have no one inspiring coming up at the position, and will be lucky if Jason Varitek clears .250 over the next three years (assuming he accepts Boston’s 2-year, $20 mill offer of a contract extension). I’d hate to see them deal Coco, who is a Gold Glove caliber centerfielder with excellent speed and offensive upside, for just anyone. But Ellsbury is the Boston CF of the future, and Coco is not a fourth outfielder. If they can’t get a young catcher for him, well, bullpen help is always nice. But I worry that if Crisp languishes in Boston another half-season as a backup, he’ll just end up…soggy.

Every December and every July for the past few seasons, Miguel Tejada has been a standby of the trade rumor mill. No longer. The Orioles, looking to start afresh, are shopping all their big-name players this winter and today, they traded Tejada to the Astros for five younguns: Luke Scott, Matt Albers, Troy Patton, Dennis Sarfate, and Mike Constanzo. The reaction at UmpBump was swift and scathing:

Nick to UmpBump Staff - 1:52 pm

Re: Tejada to the Astros

Is there anything more fun than watching Ed Wade run the Astros into the ground?

Paul to UmpBump Staff - 2:01 pm

Re: re: Tejada to the Astros

Yes. Watching Ed Wade run the Phillies into the ground. I miss those days.

Other blogs concur. “That’s a fine haul for Baltimore,” notes MLB Trade Rumors. “The Astros pretty much cleaned out their farm system for two years of an average-hitting third baseman.” Bugs and Cranks takes a quick look at the kiddies’ numbers and concludes that “the Houston Five are a couple lefthanded bats with some pop - particularly Scott, who had 18 homers last year - and three pitchers with varying degrees of promise.” Over at the Fanhouse, the consensus is the same: “For a team that’s short on young players, the Astros dealt a lot of them for two years of Tejada. Everyone knew that the Orioles were desperate to move Tejada’s salary. To get so much in return for a player coming off a down year is a feather in the cap of Andy MacPhail.”

But in Baltimore, the reaction has been very different. On the Baltimore Sun’s blog, Bill Ordine laments:

The Orioles sent Miguel Tejada to Houston, and for all those who thought the four-time All Star shortstop would be tasty trade bait, well, think again.

There are five guys coming here — outfielder Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate and third baseman Michael Costanzo.

If there’s a household name in there, it’s Luke Scott. And if it is a household name for you, you must live in Scott’s neighborhood.

The deal must have been a hard one for O’s fans who, just a few years ago, were being offered Manny Ramirez and Matt Clement for their four-time All-Star shortstop. And some of these players aren’t exactly hot young prospects with tons of upside—Scott is 29.

But—and now it starts to get interesting—some of those who think Baltimore’s haul for Tejada is suspiciously slim think the Orioles were desperate to unload a player who is sure to be named in the Mitchell report tomorrow. Tejada was linked to Rafael Palmeiro’s steroid probe two years ago, and the blogosphere is rife with conspiracies about Baltimore dumping him today before his name became as poisoned as Barry Bonds’, who is currently out of work and under indictment. FanNation notes that Pettitte also signed his contract today—and has also been mentioned as a possible Mitchell reportee. And for its part, the Associated Press tried to ask about the timing of the deal vis-a-vis the Mitchell investigation, and got stonewalled.

So what do you say UmpBumpers? Who got the better of this deal? The Astros, who get Miguel Tejada for a bunch of guys who aren’t that good anyway? Or the Orioles, who get a cadre of new young(ish) players, divest themselves of Tejada’s salary, and manage to pull it all off just before what little value he has retained takes a nosedive?

I’m not here to harp on Dustin Pedroia’s victory in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.  In fact, we picked the diminutive one as the deserving candidate in a previous post. So while I commend the voters for not being swayed by things such as seemingly gaudy power numbers (Delmon Young) or name recognizition (Daisuke Matsuzaka), I do have to question how Jeremy Guthrie isn’t even in the top-8.

The voting went as follows: 1) Pedroia 2) D .Young 3) Brian Bannister 4) Matsuzaka 5) Reggie Willits 6) Hideki Okajima 7) Josh Fields 8) Joakim Soria

 You mean to tell me we couldn’t find a spot for a pitcher who posted a 3.70 ERA with a 1.21 WHIP over 175+ innings? Do I need to mention that he had a 2.62 K/BB ratio? The only thing I can think of as to why his name was omitted was that the voters saw he only had seven wins. But that’s not really his fault when he only received twelve decisions in 32 games pitched (26 starts).

In fact, in the months of May and June, the Oriole righty went through a stretch of ten starts during which he pitched 72 2/3 innings (that’s over seven innings per start) and allowed only 14 earned runs (1.73 ERA). He got two wins to show for it.  Sucks for him.

So where do I think he belongs on this list of also-rans? #2. Right behind Dustin Pedroia. Compared to Brian Bannister, Guthrie pitched more innings, had a lower ERA, same WHIP, with a far superior strikeout rate and K/BB ratio. The only area where Guthrie trailed? Wins. So naturally, Bannister is the #3 rookie and Guthrie’s name in nowhere to be found.

And so it goes for year-end awards.