Ah, spring, when a young man's thoughts turn lightly to...the big score!
Every year there are a handful of players in Major League Baseball who are accomplished enough to warrant big money but, unfortunately for them, lack the service time to qualify for free agency or even arbitration. This puts them in a position where "negotiating" a contract is a bitter illusion.
The only negotiating that goes on in the case of these players is between their team's General Manager and Chief Financial Officer. They reach an agreement on what to pay the player, then they inform the player that his contract has been renewed and what his salary will be for the upcoming season.
Most of the time, the player understands his position and not a big deal is made of it. The player knows and the team knows that as soon as the guy reaches a certain amount of service time, usually the three years required to be eligible for salary arbitration, he'll be in the big money - check that, he's already in the big money if he's making hundreds of thousands of dollars to play baseball, so he'll be in the really big money - and not a lot is said about it either way.
Every so often, though, the player has accomplished so much in such a short time that he feels cheated by getting renewed for what he views as spare change, which is the situation with Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers. He was resigned to getting renewed last year, but then, after hitting fifty home runs and driving in 119 runs in 2007, was none too happy to get renewed by Milwaukee again.
Then there's the case of Jonathan Papelbon in Boston. He made $425,500 last season, a year in which he saved 37 games in the regular season, becoming the only Sox reliever in their history to save over 30 games two years in a row, and then went 1-0 in the postseason, along with four saves, including the World Series clincher against Colorado.
Papelbon wants to negotiate a deal with the Red Sox but, like Fielder, doesn't have enough service time to give him any leverage whatsoever in negotiations. Thus, he will be renewed Thursday at whatever salary Boston's management team feels is reasonable.
Papelbon seems to understand his position, admitting, "I'm at the mercy of the club right now..." He should have stopped right there, but goes on to say he feels an "obligation not only to myself and my family to make the money that I deserve but for the game of baseball."
He then says that Mariano Rivera of the Yankees has established the salary standard for elite closers over the past ten years and that "with me coming up behind him I feel a certain obligation to do the same."
Oh, brother. As a Red Sox fan I love Jonathan Papelbon. His intimidating presence on the mound, his bulldog attitude, his outstanding fastball and splitter all make him one of the game's best closers. But please, Jonathan, don't expect me to buy into the notion that you want to make millions of dollars in order to help out the game of baseball.
For the game's owners, collectively a group of people I've torched in the past but in this instance stand behind, finding a young, outstanding player without a lot of Major League service time, is like being a kid and waking up on Christmas morning. They can get a couple of years of great baseball at a relatively bargain price before having to break the bank if they want to keep him.
Heck, for some small-market teams, this is the only way to stay competitive. Oakland and Minnesota come immediately to mind. Teams like these and others look to scouting and their minor league systems in the hopes of finding enough young talent to make a run at a playoff spot before inevitably losing their good young players to teams with deeper pockets.
So, Jonathan, close your mouth and bide your time. Another year or two like your first couple of seasons and you will replace your meager half-million dollar a year salary, which seems so miniscule to you but which the rest of us would love to experience, with the Monopoly money of the truly rich. Soon you'll be like Ryan Howard, who, after being renewed last year at $900,000 is now making more than a thousand percent more than that, or ten million dollars this season.
Ah, spring, when a young man's thoughts turn lightly to...arbitration and free agency.
If there's a bright side to baseball's Mitchell Report, and I admit it's not easy to find one, it might just be that Hall of Fame candidate Chuck Knoblauch now has a handy scapegoat upon which to blame his failure to come within a stone's throw (hereafter referred to as a Knoblauch toss from second base into the rightfield stands) of receiving enough votes for enshrinement.
The list of names sent annually to the five hundred and some-odd members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the group of people charged with the heady job of trying to determine who should receive membership in Cooperstown and who will strike out in any particular year, always contains a few head-scratchers. This year's strangest may well be Knoblauch.
Chuck Knoblauch signed with the Minnesota Twins after being drafted in June, 1989, and by 1991 was playing in the big leagues. He won Rookie of the Year honors in the American League that year, playing second base for the Twins and batting .281, with 25 stolen bases and 50 RBI. He played a total of twelve years in the majors, compiling a lifetime average of .289, and batting over .300 three years in a row, from 1994 through '96.
In 1997, Knoblauch won a Gold Glove at second base, the only time he would win the award, and that winter as a free agent, signed with the Yankees to play second. A year later he forgot how to throw to first base, and his error total skyrocketed from 13 in 1998 to 26 in 1999, dropping his fielding percentage to just .963, a hideous number for a second baseman.
A year later, his mysterious throwing woes continued, as Knoblauch committed 15 errors in only 82 games at second base, compiling the unbelievable fielding percentage of .958, before the Yankees threw in the towel, moving him to left field for the 2001 season, where it was hoped he would no longer be in danger of injuring any spectators in the first row of seats behind the dugout. Fortunately for Knoblauch, they didn't ask him to throw in the towel, undoubtedly realizing that if they did, they would likely never see the towel again.
The following year, at the age of 33, Knoblauch was finished, playing less than half a season with Kansas City and batting just .210.
It can be argued Chuck Knoblauch had a solid career as a major league player, especially offensively, I'll give you that. But is Knoblauch really a Hall of Famer? A permanent resident of Cooperstown, New York? Give me a break. If Knoblauch did indeed do steroids, as is claimed in the Mitchell Report, he should be thanking his lucky stars for the instant excuse it gives him for not garnering any votes.
Jim Rice has been on the ballot for years, and despite being the most feared offensive threat in the American League for more than a decade, has yet to receive enough votes for enshrinement. Sorry, Chuck, maybe next year. Then again, maybe not.
Looking for the perfect Christmas present for that fanatical baseball fan/amateur ornithologist on your list this year? You went out on Black Friday, braved the crowds, got trampled, pushed around, used and abused and found nothing even remotely resembling the gift that would set that special someone's heart to pounding?
Well, look no further, folks, because the fine people at MLB.com have you covered, and just in time for the holiday gift-giving season. Remember that bizarre scene at Jacobs Field during Game Two of the Yankees-Indians Division Series, where the mysterious midges swarmed the field for just a little while,only to disappear again, but during the time they were on the field so distracted Joba Chamberlain that they caused him to throw a couple of wild pitches and allowed the tying run to score for the Indians in the eighth inning o####ame Cleveland eventually won in extra innings?
Sure you do, especially if you're a Yankee fan. Heck, those tiny little bugs did something the best hitters the American League were unable to do all year long; namely, figure out how to get to Chamberlain.
Anyway, if that memory makes you smile with delight, hurry on over to MLB.com and get your credit card out, because for a limited time only, you can own an authentic can of Deep Woods Off, advertised by MLB as the "2007 Game-used Bug Spray Can from Game 2 - Indians vs. Yankees."
You had better hurry though, because bidding on this one-of-a-kind item closes a mere two weeks from now, on December 7. Oh yeah, and make sure you have the platinum card handy, because the high bid as we speak is already $180. That's right, the very same can of bug spray you can buy at the corner drugstore for, oh, I don't know, maybe $2.59, can be yours for the bargain price of (at the moment) $190, since you must bid at least ten bucks more than shoeking994, who is the proud owner of the high bid at the moment.
Why a guy who calls himself "Shoeking" is bidding on a can of ineffective bug spray when there are all sorts of other items, like game-worn cleats and used bases and bobbleheads and, well, you name it, to bid on, is beyond me. Maybe he works for the Indians and the cans of "bug spray" that were provided the Yankees that night were nothing more than atomized water with some sugar added to attract bugs, and he wants to get the evidence out of circulation. Who knows?
But the fact is, there are 454 pages of unique items to bid on inside MLB.com's site, so can there be any question that you could find something for everyone on your list this year? Need a "Torri Hunter Prime Cuts 2004 Minnisota Twins" item? One of only 699 made!
I have no idea what that even is, but hopefully poor "Torri" never sees his name misspelled like this, or the Twins for that matter, who will have to reorder all their road uniforms if "Minnisota" is actually how their home state is spelled.
Or how about a "2007 Sweet Shot Tony Perez Game-Worn Jersey Card" for the sweet opening bid of just $8.99? Just to clarify, that's for the game-worn jersey card, not an actual game-worn jersey. How a picture of a jersey on a card can be game-worn I'm not bright enough to figure out, but it's right there on the MLB.com site. And the best part is, no one has even put in a bid yet! Can you believe it?
So, folks, stop reading right now, get off Foxsports.com immediately if not sooner, and hurry your little fingers over to MLB.com. Get all your Christmas shopping done early so you can make fun of all your hapless friends as they rush around the mall trying to find the perfect gift for their family and friends.
You can sleep soundly in the knowledge that you found that "2007 Jamarcus Russell College Rookie Card" that your mom will swoon over when she gets up and looks under the tree on Christmas morning. I know, Jamarcus Russell isn't a baseball player and MLB.com is the official major leage baseball site, but trust me, it's there and it's available! Don't believe me? Look on page 232 of the auction site and see for yourself. Happy shopping!
The 2006 major league baseball interleague schedule draws to a close tonight and not a moment too soon for the National League, which collectively has been beaten up and had their lunch money taken away by the American League this year. If play had continued for much longer, the NL may have been in danger of seeing all its teams fall under .500 for the season.
As of this moment, in head-to-head competition, the American League stands a whopping 57 games over .500 for the season, at 152-95. This translates into a .615 winning percentage, or looked at another way, 100 wins in a 162-game season.
The National League has performed so woefully against the AL this season, their winning percentage would be worse than every team in the majors in 2005 with the exception of Kansas City. And it's not just the AL elite beating up on the NL's weak sisters, everyone is getting into the act. The Kansas City Royals, widely and rightfully considered one of the worst teams in baseball, have compiled a very respectable 10-8 record in this year's interleague play.
On the other hand, the three best teams in the National League based on their records to date (New York, St. Louis, and Cincinnati) managed just a 17-27 record against their American League opponents, for a pathetic .386 winning percentage.
The result of this old-fashioned butt-whupping is a statistical oddity: Of the teams with the seven best records in the major leagues to this point, only one plays in the National League. Here are the top seven teams as of July 2:
1 - Detroit Tigers, 56-26 .683 2 - Chicago White Sox, 53-28 .654 3 - Boston Red Sox, 50-29 .633 4 - New York Mets, 48-32 .600 5 - New York Yankees, 45-33 .577 6 - Toronto Blue Jays, 46-35 .568 7 - Minnesota Twins, 45-35 .563
Now, I'm no statistician, but this kind of dominance exhibited over a 247-game sample size appears pretty significant. And it shouldn't really come as a big surprise to anyone; the signs that the American League is playing a higher quality of ball than the National League have been there for quite some time.
Consider this. The American League representative has won ten of the last fourteen World Series dating back to 1992, including the last two, in which the NL representative didn't even win so much as a single game! In All-Star Game competitions, the gap is even more noticeable, with the AL winning 13 of the last 16 contests, not including the disgraceful tie game in 2002.
So what does all this mean? Is the American League so dominant that the NL players should stay home for the All-Star break licking their wounds? Of course not, but in this case the statistics most definitely do not lie - better baseball is being played right now in the American League, and has been for some time.
Hey everyone, I know it must seem like I've dropped off the face of the earth, but it's nothing like that.
I've been busy writing - two full-length novels so far, plus over a dozen short stories - and working hard to try to get an agent. If you are curious and have a few minutes, check out my website, www.allanleve rone.com.
If you're a literary agent or if you know one, by all means contact me! In the meantime, I'll be here when I can - love this forum - and as always, thank you for checking out my blog, especially considering how many great ones you could be reading instead....
Looking for the perfect Christmas present for that fanatical baseball fan/amateur ornithologist on your list this year? You went out on Black Friday, braved the crowds, got trampled, pushed around, used and abused and found nothing even remotely resembling the gift that would set that special someone's heart to pounding?
