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McPaper Names to Know

Counting down the 100 Names You Need to Know

The McTruth Finally

Its Schafer Time

Hey BBWAA

Baseball Awards Starts Now

MLB Blog Poll Votes Week 1

The Brien Taylor Award Winner 2008?

Hamilton’s Impressive Weekend at the Great American Ballpark

Posted in Rookie Of Year, Rookies, Rotisserie, ROY, Twenty Something Stars on March 2, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Each year USA Today publishes their 100 names to know. These are the newcomers they predict will make an impact on MLB baseball for the upcoming season. I am going to list the ones available in my Dynasty keeper league.

26. Rob Brantly
33. David Holmberg
37. AJ Pollock
45. Adeiny Hechavarria
50. Jonathan Pettibone
53. Edwar Cabrera
54. Darin Ruf
58. Donn Roach
67. Alex Castellanos
69. Travis d’Arnaud
73. Didi Gregorius
76. Ryan Jackson
80. Tommy Joseph
85. Jerry Sands
90. Nick Noonan
95. Tony Cingrani
96. Justin Wilson
97. JJ Hoover

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Posted in American League, Around the Web, Minors, National League, Projections, Prospects, Rookie Of Year, Rotisserie, ROY on February 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Each year, USA Today comes out with their 100 names you need to know for the upcoming season. This is a good resource of getting to know some of the minor league players that are usually at that point of their career where they are ready make a big impact at the major league level.

Here are a few of the players making the 2011 top ten of the “100 Names You Need to Know:

#1 Aroldis Chapman

Bullpen is the answer to the first big question about the Cuban flamethrower for this season. That’s where he’ll pitch, though the Reds aren’t ruling out a future role in their rotation. The next question revolves around when and if he could take over for closer Francisco Cordero, who is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract ($12 million option for 2012) and allowed baserunners last season at the highest rate of his career.

#2 Craig Kimbrel

Kimbrel, 22, got a taste of key late-inning situations late last season and in the playoffs. His 14.4 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate through three minor league seasons was impressive enough, but he boosted that to 16.9 in his 25 combined regular season and playoff innings in the majors last year.

#3 Freddy Freeman

Freeman will show up this spring with the first base job and expectations he can be as impactful as Heyward. A lefty like his close friend Heyward, Freeman’s best attribute might be his defense, though he finished in the Class AAA International League’s top 10 in batting before turning 21 in September. His 18 homers last year dispelled concerns the 6-5, 225-pounder might not develop big-time power.

#6 Logan Morrison

Florida has plenty to chirp about with its trio of young studs on offense. Twitter-happy Morrison – and not Mike Stanton or Gaby Sanchez – remains eligible for our list thanks to his late-July 2010 call-up. Morrison moved to the outfield last year after older Sanchez beat him out for the Marlins’ first base job.

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Posted in Athletics, Cardinals, Former Player, Great Players of Past, Hall Of Fame, Hitting, Interviews, MLB, Rookie Of Year, ROY on January 12, 2010 | 1 Comment »

I can remember that miracle rookie season of 1988, Mark McGwire hitting home runs at a mammoth pace. Its hard to recall someone coming on the scene and being a slugger like we were witnessing that year. With his Bash Brother counterpart Jose Canseco, these guys were the talk of baseball.

We have heard the Jose Canseco claims that McGwire participated in steriods as they were slugging home runs together in Oakland. I don’t really believe McGwire saying he did not discuss steroids with any other players, as I believe it was Jose Canseco that introduced McGwire to the steroid lifestyle.

Sure, McGwire had been blessed with the ability to crush a baseball. However, steroids do help you. In the steroid era, the record setting numbers were enhanced like never before. I am puzzled why he took this long to come clean. I believe he did go on an exile, refusing to speak to reporters. Additionally, it’s hard to believe that reporters failed to approach him to tell his story.

As McGwire gets ready to start a job in baseball, I find it hard to believe he will not become a distraction to the St Louis Cardinals. It will be a traveling roadshow in every town he enters. Instead of the players on the field being the focus when the Cardinals come to town, the local press will replay the steroid story.

I wonder at what point McGwire fessed up to LaRussa on the steroids. Was it after he accepted the job as the hitting coach, or is it something that McGwire wanted to get off his chest before starting his new job. In a way, he did prevent alot of the negativity that was sure to come his way, as the last image we have of him is his claiming to congress that ‘We are not here to talk about the past’.

I am sure as a man, its freeing to get this out of his system and to turn the page. We’ll see how this plays out, but he sure has a lot more explaining to do.

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Posted in Braves, National League, ROY, Twenty Something Stars on April 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

What a difference a year makes. At this time last year Jordan Schafer was suspended for the “so called” HGH positive test. Now, lets fast forward a year and take you to where this remarkable journey begins again. Jordan Schafer earned a spot in the Braves starting lineup, with the second consecutive spring where he showed he does in fact have a bat to go with his fine defensive play. He did the unthinkable and homered in his first at bat. I can’t say I didnt tell you so. Now, for the guys at ESPN like Jon Miller, his name is Jordan Schafer, not Logan Schafer!

A year later, I’d still take Schafer over Maybin .

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Posted in American League, ESPN, National League, ROY on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The Baseball writers have picked the right people as Rookie of the Year winners in Geo Soto and Evan Longoria. However. it seems some writers who are part of the voting need a refresher on who is eligible to vote for. The Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez recieved votes even though he is not Rookie eligible.

Here’s a tip for the writers, ESPN provides a nice listing of players ranked by Rookie status:
batters
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?split=0&league=nl&season=2008&seasonType=2&sort=atBats&type=reg&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&state=0&college=0&country=0&hand=a&pos=rookie
pitchers
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching?split=0&league=nl&season=2008&seasonType=2&sort=thirdInnings&type=reg&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&state=0&college=0&country=0&hand=a&pos=rookie

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Posted in Cubs, MLB, Rays, ROY on November 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

After a dream season with the Rays in the World Series, it seems Rays Nation has already been rewarded. But, Baseball starts handing out its awards. Today the American and National League Rookie of the Year winners are announced. Tomorrow, the National League Cy Young winner is announced. This is followed this week by on Wednesday the Managers of the Years and Thursday the American League Cy Young. The MVP winners will not be announced until next week.

As those of you who participated in the early season blog voting, it was apparent that the award selections is not an easy thing to do . It had more to do with the body of work, rather than who was performing the best out of the box on a week to week basis. Hello Evan Longaria and Soto of the Cubs as winners.

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Posted in American League, blogpoll, Cy Young, MVP, ROY on April 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

One thing that was noted in the first installment of the MLB blog poll, is that with a small sample size of baseball stats to date, the voters may be inclined to vote for who they think will win the award. As the season progresses, the votes would tend to get closer and closer to actual production, and opinion would factor in less and less.

Moreover, should a rookie that only appears in a partial season (and a smaller sample size) be compared equally to a rookie who plays the entire season? That’s what this poll might provide is a way of counting the number of times his performance is rated high throughout the season rather than an average.

Also, if you only take one checkpoint at the end of the year, how about the player who excelled early on in the year. It seems that the player who finishes the season off strong, but struggled early on gets a higher priority by voting at the end of the year only.

Like they say in polls like on the college scene, its better to lose early in the season. It seems like teams are rewarded are not entirely rated by the entire body of work. But, the teams with success at the end of the year are weighted more heavily.

Here is the list of the actual votes for week one by the representative blogs:

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Posted in American League, Around the Web, Bad Advice, Mets, Minors, MLB, National League, Rookies, Rotisserie, ROY, Yankees on February 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The fellows In Queens got me thinking, even though we seem to focus on those prized prospects. What about the real busts over time in prospecting. The Brien Taylors‘ of the baseball world:

The Yankees were without the official services of George Steinbrenner who was serving a suspension at the time but through the media, Steinbrenner said that if the Yankees let Taylor get away, they should be “shot.” Taylor was signed for $1.55 million the day before his classes were set to begin. Further delay would have meant the deal could not be signed until after the school year ended, which coincided with the following year’s draft.

While quickly ascending up the minor league ranks in 1993, Taylor suffered a torn labrum while defending his brother in a fistfight. Unfortunately, Taylor was never the same pitcher again. He was at Double-A before the incident but spent the bulk of the remainder of his professional baseball career struggling at Single-A.

Looking over the Baseball America All-Time Top 100 prospects :

1992 #3: Roger Salkeld, rhp, Mariners [about]
1993 #9: Allen Watson, lhp, Cardinals [about]
1994 #19 : Jeff Granger, lhp, Royals [about]
1995 #2: Ruben Rivera, of, Yankees [about]
1996 #5 : Alan Benes, rhp, Cardinals
1997 #4 : Matt White, rhp, Devil Rays
1998 #13: Chad Hermansen, 2b, Pirates
1999 #7: Ryan Anderson, lhp, Mariners
2000 #6: Ruben Mateo, of, Rangers
2001 #6: Sean Burroughs, 3b, Padres
2002 #9: Drew Henson, 3b, Yankees
2003 #5: Jesse Foppert, rhp, Giants
2004 #8 : Greg Miller lhp, Dodgers
2005 #21 : Brian Dopirak, 1b, Cubs

Who is your pick to be the bust prospect of 2008?

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Josh Hamilton

Series Totals

Posted in National League, Reds, Rockies, Rookies, ROY, Rule V Draft on May 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

Josh Hamilton after some Saturday Night Fever last night, delivered again today with two home runs to help Reds take home the win. He also robbed the Rockies’ Matt Hawpe with an over-the-shoulder catch in center field.

Hamilton over the weekend just hammered the Rockies pitching. The Great American Ballpark continues to be a great hitters park. Its interesting that Josh’s hitting surge took off as a result of coming off the bench on Thursday night in a successful pinch hitting attempt. Before then, Josh had hit his first real slump of the season. Its going to be hard for Jerry Narron to take him out of the lineup now!

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