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MLB General

2007 MLB Payrolls


[ 2008 Payrolls are here ]

Another year, another summer of Yankees vs Red Sox in the accounting ledger. Once again, these two teams top Major League Baseball payroll rankings. The Yankees actually dropped a few million in payroll while the Red Sox added a staggering $23M to catch up to the Bronx Bombers. ($195.2 vs $143.5) For perspective, the entire Devil Rays payroll is only $24M this year. Next time any Red Sox fans start talking about the Yankees being the Evil Empire, tell them Boston is just Evil Empire North.

Outside of the Red Sox, the Orioles added the most in payroll this year with an additional $22.5M. Their $95M 2007 payroll puts the Orioles at #10 on the list. Total payroll for baseball is $2.5B with the top 10 teams accounting for nearly half of that number. The Nationals are expected to be the worst team in the majors this year and they trimmed a cool $23M off their payroll from 2006. They still are above the Devil Rays and Marlins though, the perennial K-marts of MLB.

The entire 2007 MLB payrolls after the jump.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Slump Busters


1. One Man Show: When a stud like David Ortiz struggles the first week, you know he’s going to break out eventually. He did so yesterday as the Red Sox topped the Rangers 3-2 on Sunday Night Baseball. Ortiz hit his first two homeruns of the season, which drove in all three runs by the Sox. He got no help from his teammates in the win, as more than half their lineup went o-fer. At least Curt Schilling was able to return to his usual self after a poor first start. Schilling had one earned run in seven innings.

2. Return of the King: David Ortiz wasn’t the only star to break out of a slump yesterday. Albert Pujols had no RBIs, homeruns, or runs through five games and just one hit. But yesterday, he went 2-5 against the Astros with a homer and two RBIs. The rest of the Cardinals’ team performed too in a 10-1 rout. Scott Rolen drove in four runs, Yadier Molina had three hits and three RBIs, and starter Kip Wells allowed one hit in seven innings. The Astros are now 1-5, while the Cards aren’t much better at 2-4.

3. Losing to the Worst: The Yankees weren’t dealt the toughest opening schedule with the Devil Rays and Orioles. However, they have struggled with both teams in a 2-3 start. Yesterday, New York lost 6-4 to Baltimore despite A-Rod’s continued dominance. Rodriguez hit his fourth homerun of the season, but the O’s got round-trippers from Paul Bako and Kevin Millar. For Bako, it was his first homer since 2004. Erik Bedard rebounded from a poor first start to get the win for Baltimore.

Player of the Day: Johan Santana, Twins: 7 innings, 1 hit, no runs, 9 strikeouts in a win over the White Sox.

Stat of the Day: No Yankees starter has made it past the fifth inning this season.

Walk Off: Though the Mets were virtually handed the division in pre-season predictions, the Braves will prove once again to be a strong contender in the NL East. They just beat the Mets 2-1 in a series despite being outscored 16-7. That means the Braves’ pitching is back where it needs to be for them to be successful. Their relievers have been even better than expected, and Bob Wickman has three saves and a 0.00 ERA in the closer role.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Why isn’t there more coverage of Dice-K?


1. Dice-K’s Debut: In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past day, you would have likely heard how Daisuke Matsuzaka dominated in his debut. On a slow day for baseball, his dominant performance of the hopeless Royals was easily the most important occurrence. Dice-K struck out seven different Royals for a total of 10 K’s, just giving up a solo homerun to David DeJesus in the Red Sox’s 4-1 win. Jonathan Papelbon appeared in his first game of the year and was perfect for the save. The Royals wasted a good pitching performance of their own by Zack Greinke, who had one earned run and will be a breakout performer this season.

2. Piazza comes through: Oakland lost Frank Thomas in the offseason but was able to fill their DH role with Mike Piazza. It seemed like a good idea for the team and the former catcher, and it paid off last night. With the Angels-A’s game tied 3-3 in the ninth, Piazza hit a solo, game-winning shot off All-Star closer Francisco Rodriguez. The homer was Piazza’s first of the season and gave the Angels their first loss of the year. His 3-5 performance lifted his broke him out of a 1-12 slump to start the season.

3. Six times the payroll, still a loss: The New York Yankees’ $185 million payroll dwarfs the $24 million of the Devil Rays. Still, the D-Rays managed to expose the Yanks’ biggest weakness–the bullpen. The registered six hits and three runs off Yankees relievers including the game-winner in the eighth off a wild pitch. Veteran reliever Al Reyes provided the save for Tampa, who is looking for any productivity out of their closer position.

Player of the Day: Mike Piazza, A’s: 3-5 with the game-winning HR to beat the Angels 4-3.

Walk Off: Though Dice-K’s debut was impressive, don’t get too excited about him yet. His first major league start came against the Royals, who have one of the worst lineups in baseball. Also, none of them had ever played against him before, which obviously made it harder to adjust to Matsuzaka’s unique array of pitches. I think he’ll be a solid pitcher, just not a Cy Young-worthy one.

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MLB General

Hope Springs Eternal aka Opening Day

Ahhhh opening day, when even Cubs and Royals fans have hope for the upcoming season.  Well, in the case of the Royals, it might be delusion.  Then again, nobody thought the Tigers had much of a shot last year either.  

The Mets officially kicked it out yesterday by beating the Cards but today is the real opening day for the rest of baseball.  Here is a rundown of the 2007 MLB Predictions and Previews from major sports sites and around the blogosphere:

ESPN: 2007 Predicted Standings / Expert Picks

Fox Sports: MLB Predictions for 2007 / Team Previews

CBS Sportsline:  Expert Picks

TSN: 2007 MLB Preview

WBRS Sports:
And Finally the Long Awaited, Unsanctioned WBRS Baseball Preview

Vigilante Sports: Major League Baseball 2007 Preview and Predictions

phsports: 2007 MLB Preview: Part III of III [Predictions]

Thunder Matt’s Saloon: Baseball Preview

The House That Dewey Built: We Predictiate the 2007 Season! And Opening Day thoughts

And if that’s still not enough for you, here are more previews than you can shake a stick at.

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MLB General

Baseball gets juiced


If America’s pastime just isn’t cutting it for you anymore, you should take a look at the latest craze destined to flop all across the nation. And if you thought that the XFL was whack, just wait til you get a load of the NXBL or National Extreme Baseball League.

From what we can tell, it’s basically like having both sides playing at the same time. There are two diamonds, two batters boxes, two pitching mounds and both teams have their traditional fielding positions out on the grass. Pitchers alternate pitches and the fielders only field when their pitcher has thrown to the opposing batter.

This “revolutionary” sport was created in 2006 but the league’s official inaugural season will be in 2008 and we’re sure that the American public is eagerly anticipating the first pitch. And in case you were wondering about the legitimacy of the league, here’s the NXBL’s mission statement.

To serve the public with passion as a quality example of excellence on the field, in the office, and within the community by consistently exceeding our customers’ expectations by demonstrating the highest character, appreciation and respect for our game, customers, teammates and partners as an economical and visionary organization providing a totally unique entertainment experience.

Hey, at least they are pretending that this is an actual sport.

Links:

[N-XBL.com]: National Extreme Baseball League

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MLB General

Selig slithers, sarcastic Stern supports


Bud Selig just doesn’t get it. Or he gets it but thinks we’re so stupid that we’ll just accept whatever he says. At a panel discussion sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Selig defended the DirecTV deal.


I agonized over” the decision to go with DirecTV, Selig said. “Obviously our objective is to get our product in front of as many people as possible. … But the number of people who can’t get DirecTV is very, very small.

Yes, only about 5,000 current subscribers will not have access to DirecTV, but of the 230,000 cable customers, how many will want to toss out their entire setup which might include cable specific DVR equipment and install a dish on their roofs just to follow their favorite team?

Now we firmly believe in capitalism and free enterprise but let’s call a spade a spade. This is a move driven solely by dollars and cents. The fact that Bud Selig is trying to sell it like he “agonized” over whether to take the money and run is a slap in the face to all smart consumers. We would respect Bud more if he just said, “DirecTV offered us a deal we couldn’t refuse. We hope the great fans will switch to DirecTV but for those who cannot do so, we still have MLBTV on the internet.”

At the same panel, NBA commish David Stern said that having Congress look into the deal between MLB and DirecTV was ridiculous.

As a taxpayer, I think the most important thing the Senate should be doing is holding hearings on Bud’s DirecTV package. I don’t care about health care or … the war in Iraq.

We have to agree with David Stern (aka The Biggest Badass Commish in History) here. It’s not as much of a time waster as renaming french fries to “freedom fries” but they really should have more things to do. How is it that Stern can step into a PR fiasco for Bud Selig and sound smart?

Links:
[AZ Central]: Selig defends DirecTV deal, gets support from NBA’s Stern

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MLB General

MLB Power Rankings Roundup – Opening Day 2007 editing

Well folks, it is finally here. Baseball season is only a couple of days away and what better way to get things rolling than to check out the Power Rankings from around the league. ESPN must be too busy trying to find a new editor-in-chief and firing Joe Theisman to write their Power Rankings but everyone else is on board with their preseason ranks.

We’ll be updating this list every Friday for you. By the way, east coast bias? What east coast bias?

Rank Sportscolumn ESPN FoxSports Sportsline USA Today TSN.ca
1 Yankees Yankees Red Sox Yankees Yankees
2 Red Sox Indians Yankees Mets Mets
3 Tigers Twins Tigers Red Sox Angels
4 Phillies Red Sox Mets Tigers Blue Jays
5 White Sox Mets Phillies Dodgers Dodgers
6 Mets Tigers Blue Jays White Sox Phillies
7 Cubs D’backs Cardinals Twins Padres
8 Angels Phillies Indians Angels Tigers
9 Dodgers Padres Twins Cardinals Twins
10 Padres Angels A’s Blue Jays Braves
11-30 more more more more more more

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MLB General

Odds and Ends: Ugueth Urbina’s comeback with the Phillies will be slightly delayed


Little known fact: Ugueth Urbina throws right, bats right, but he wields a machete with his left hand. Who knew? ell… the 5 workers on his farm who were attacked by Urbina and other men. The 32-year-old “free” agent was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted murder by the Venezuelan judicial system.

His lawyer said that the punishment was too severe, probably because if he’d done that in the United States, the defense attorneys would have trotted out his coach and a teammate to say what a great guy his is and he would have only gotten four months in prison. Guess the Fightin’s have to look elsewhere to solve their bullpen problem.

In other news..

[The Offside]: Partying with P-Diddy makes you look like you belong on Faces of Meth

[NBA Fanhouse]: Jeff Van Gundy wants lottery open to all teams

[Boston Herald]: As if having their coach murdered wasn’t enough, Pakistani cricket team welcomed home with “Go to hell” chants

[Our Book of Scrap]: Want to write for SI? Better get that boob job

And finally, a couple of stories from Steroid Nation. First, HGH was found in Anna Nicole Smith‘s autopsy. (Jesus, is there anyone not on HGH? Where can we order a batch? Anyone have Jason Grimsley’s phone number?) Second, if you need your glamour photos done and Glamour Shots by Deb is all booked up, you can have Tony Mandarich do them.

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MLB General

Jose Canseco desperately needs more attention


…or money, or steroids.

According to a press release, Jose is shopping around a new reality show called “A Day With Jose”.


Contestants will “pitch” their fantasy day ideas to a panel of judges, and 6 finalists will surprise Jose with their planned activities — and compete for the ultimate prize — Jose’s 40/40 DIAMOND RING!

Wow… Joe Canseco’s 40/40 Diamond Ring. Awesome. That’s worth maybe $10k. Meanwhile, the only contestants we think will try out are reality show whores who will use it as a stepping stone to an “acting” career. We’d actually like to spend a day with Canseco and live blog the whole thing:

9:00AM: Showered. Took some steroids with Jose.
10:00AM: Got another supplement. Helped Jose pick out a see through shirt for him to wear.
11:00AM-5:00PM: Grilled Jose Canseco on how much steroids he injected into Mark McGwire’s ass.

Didn’t Canseco try this Day With Jose business 4 years ago?

Links:
[Larry Brown Sports]: Jose Canseco’s Trying For a Reality TV Show: A Day with Jose

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MLB General

Major League Baseball doesn’t care about kids with cancer



Ain’t hurtin’ nobody

[Update: According to Lopez@Large, backlash against MLB/sympathy for Sunshine Kids has increased donations today.]

Bud Selig and his minions aren’t doing a very good job of making MLB look good. First there was the whole DirecTV exclusive deal fiasco. Now they’re pissing off baseball fans, Craig Biggio, and basically anyone who has a heart.

The commissioners office told Biggio, the national spokesman for the Sunshine Kids foundation, that he has to stop wearing a Sunshine Kids logo pin during Spring Training.


I’m not a disrespectful person and I don’t disrespect the game. But I’ve been wearing this pin for 20 years because it puts smiles on 20,000-something cancer patients’ faces. Major League Baseball does a lot of good things, but this is one of the stupid things.

We understand the need to maintain uniform integrity (because next thing you know Manny Ramirez will be putting his ebay listings on his hat) but this is spring training! How much harm is Craig Biggio doing by having a small pin on his hat. From MLB’s reaction (they told him the umpires would make sure he wasn’t wearing the pin), you’d think Biggio had stitched a Nazi flag on his lid.

Look, we realize that baseball can’t just allow players to wear whatever they want. We certainly don’t want to see nine different colored ribbons out on the field for each players’ pet projects but did we mention this is spring training! Just let it slide.

Links:
[Houston Chronicle]: MLB bars Biggio from wearing pin