Here Comes The Sun

It's snowing in Paris, and it's apparently snowing in Washington, but Thomas Boswell reminds us that "Pitchers & Catchers" is just three weeks away.

He has an interesting roundup of the incredible offseason we've been through, one during which the Yankees lost four-fifths of their starting rotation (a little matter of a combined 120 starts, as Boswell reminds us), the Marlins avoided the fire-sale of '97 but still dismantled the heart of their team, the Red Sox became - in Boswell's words - "the overdogs. They're so loaded and rich that they might as well wear pinstripes this season", and the Cubs and Astros became clubs with legitimate World Series hopes. All of this before a single spring training pitch has been thrown - can next season possibly live up to the hype?

What can I say?

The man is truly astonishing...

Dreamer, nothing but a dreamer

On a grey, wet and windy morning in Paris, it seems natural for my thoughts to turn to sunnier climes. This happens to me every year, and even though I never actually get as far as Florida or Arizona, the mere thought that there will be baseball games played in just over a month's time is enough to get me through the rest of the offseason.

Playing the market

Player agent Scott Boras has rarely been out of the news this off-season, and just one day after the A-Rod-to-Boston rumours were revived and then crushed, Boras is back in the limelight. Since he is the agent for two of the biggest, as-yet-unsigned players on the market (Greg Maddux and Ivan Rodriguez), the view is that Boras is playing clubs off against each other with regard to the two players. The Detroit Free Press questions Boras' way of working both sides of the deal, whilst the Chicago Daily Herald goes one step further, saying that the Cubs should hold out against Boras and try to sign Maddux for as little money as possible, and if they can't, they should just let him walk.

Long-term view

I may not understand all the subtleties of player contracts, arbitration and free agency, but I do understand that the rumoured eight-year deal between Albert Pujols and the Cardinals would be huge.

It was interesting to read the comparison between Pujols and the Braves' Andruw Jones (who was awarded a record $8.2m in 2001):

The arbitration process is based on statistical comparisons between players who fall within one year of each other in major-league service.

Jones' landmark judgment came after his fourth complete major-league season. With one less year of service time season, Pujols' numbers in some cases surpass Jones. At the time of his record award, Jones had 116 home runs and 361 RBIs and a career .272 average. Jones had batted .300 only once (.303 in 2000). Pujols carries a .334 average and has hit 114 home runs with 381 RBI in 186 fewer games.

It's not a case of Jones and Pujols not being in the same ballpark - it's almost as if they're not even playing the same game. Those kinds of numbers go a long way to explaining why the Cardinals might be trying to acquire Pujols' services through 2012 at a time when even three- or four-year deals are making clubs wary...

Silly season

We really need to get back to the business of real baseball, because these long winter months are bringing out the ridiculous side in everybody. ESPN reports that the Met Office - Britain's meteorological service - tried (and failed) to stop the New York Mets from registering their logo in Britain.

You'd have to be a seriously confused individual to get the two brands mixed up, but there you go - these are strange times we live in...

Good karma

I haven't had much time to blog over the past few days, but I did like this article by Thomas Boswell on good karma in Baltimore.

Flying solo

I know, I gave my word, I said I wouldn't talk about it, but since this is another story on Pete Rose, it seemed kind of appropriate for my word not to mean very much. It looks like Rose's attempts to curry favour with the general public by finally admitting he bet on baseball are having just the opposite effect on his fellow former players. After Ferguson Jenkins' open letter to Rose saying that he will never support Rose's reinstatement to the game or his bid to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, it's now Hank Aaron's turn. Aaron doesn't mince his words: "During these past few days, I've looked at Pete on television, and he hasn't given any signs of an honest confession. [ ] The timing of when he said all of this was very bad. I'm still quite angry with it."

Thank you, Hank. And so say all of us.

Taking the heat

Roger Clemens is taking a lot of heat for his decision to come out of the world's shortest retirement to sign with the Astros. However, there's a good article in the New York Daily News which puts Clemens' decision into perspective, both in terms of his reasons for doing what he did (wanting to be closer to his family and the lousy way George Steinbrenner treated Clemens' buddy Andy Pettitte) and in terms of how it compares to David Wells' decision to back out of a verbal agreement (just like he did with the Diamondbacks two years ago) in order to sign with San Diego.

As I've said, I can understand people being a little put out by Clemens' going back on what he said - particularly after the final-season curtain calls and ovations he got around the country - but I still believe him when he says: "I was dead-set on retiring. If Andy Pettitte were still a Yankee, I'd still be retired."

In any case, I'm a big fan of both Clemens and Pettitte, and the deals they have signed with Houston work out great for me - I can now finally root for them both without having to root for The Dark Side Of The Pinstripe!

Even though I always describe myself as a fan of the game, rather than of any one particular team, there always comes a point in the middle of the winter - around the time when Spring Training tickets go on sale - when I wish I had a team to which I could attach my loyalty, a team whose box-score I would check religiously every morning for six months a year. Maybe the Astros are the team I'm looking for... I already have the cap, so why not...?

Baltimore and more

Sidney Ponson - who was traded by the Orioles to the Giants last July - has signed a three-year, $22.5m deal with the Orioles.

The Orioles have made a bunch of signings over the winter - Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez, Rafael Palmeiro and now Ponson - but given the strength of the AL East, it still might not be enough to win the division. However, the high-profile signings do indicate that the front-office is making a real attempt to improve and be a contender. Paul, over at the SS Mariner, points in the direction of this good Post-Intelligencer article about Angels' owner Arte Moreno, and notably how his off-season moves stack up against the moves (or rather non-moves) being made the Mariners.

"What Moreno [has] is the good will of fans and players who appreciate not only the effort but the successful conclusion of a major free-agent signing. It's an enormous gamble, just as every wallet opening by George Steinbrenner is an offering to the god of odds. Depending on how you look at it, Steinbrenner's legendary profligacy has either paid off (six World Series appearances by the Yankees in the past eight years) or not (two World Series failures in the past two appearances).

Steinbrenner probably holds the latter view. Anyone else in his right mind would be fine with the Yankees' record of winning as it relates to spending.

Not that unbridled extravagance is the only way. Even the world champion Florida Marlins made a risky splash last year, signing Ivan Rodriguez for $10 million while keeping the rest of their $53 million payroll minuscule, at least by baseball standards.

It paid off big time, though no one had any idea it would at the time Rodriguez signed. You just have to jump into the pool and hope for the best.

Besides, it's usually the splash that people appreciate most."

I totally agree - fans like to win, but there are 30 major-league teams and only one winner, so what they like most of all is to see that the owners - who hold the fates of the teams they love in their hands - are doing what they can to field teams that have at least a shot at the title.

Return of the Rocket

It's official - Roger Clemens has come out of retirement to sign a one-year deal with his hometown team, the Houston Astros. I guess I should feel a little cheated that I got all emotional over his final start at Yankee Stadium and his 'last-ever game' in Game 4 of the World Series, but I don't, because I like Clemens, and I'm happy to get the opportunity to see him pitch again. It'll be interesting to see how he fares in the National League, but his arrival does mean that the Houston rotation is shaping up nicely for 2004, with Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Wade Miller and Roy Oswalt in the top four spots. The Astros could definitely be a team to watch in the NL Central.

Texas, Boston, Baltimore - please take note

After all the non-deals and speculation that's been floating around over the past few weeks, it was a refreshing change over the weekend to see a deal come out of nowhere and get done within three days.

After weeks of hearing that the Orioles had Vladimir Guerrero on their winter shopping-list, followed by a late attempt to sign him by the New York Mets, it was the Anaheim Angels who finally swooped out of nowhere to sign Guerrero to a five-year, $70m deal.

MLB.com's John Schlegel says this signing definitely puts the Angels back in business.

Charlie Hustler

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here, because I was away in the UK over the whole Christmas / New Year period. It was a real break for me, and by that I don’t just mean getting away from Paris (I know – how blasé does that sound?) and spending some quality time with the family – I also mean thirteen consecutive days without an Internet connection (and if counting the number of days seems anal-retentive, well, what can I say? Anal-retentive is my middle name…). A lot happened over those thirteen days, but the big story of last week made me realise that, although another year had come and gone and we were eagerly looking forward to the promise of things new, in some respects it was the same old same old, with the return of The Ballplayer Who Just Wouldn’t Go Away™: Pete Rose.

A lot has been written on this subject, by better baseball minds than me, but I thought I would chip in with my thoughts, but rest assured that this will be the only post I’m going to do on here on the subject, for two reasons: 1) although I’m no great baseball analyst, I am sure of my point of view on this one, and there’s no way it’s going to change, and 2) I’m just so sick of seeing Pete Rose’s ugly mug and sad, tired old point of view plastered all over the sports press that I’m not prepared to spend any more time than is strictly necessary on the subject of his possible reinstatement.

You know, there are arguments in favour of Rose’s reinstatement, the main one being his career stats (4256 hits, lifetime, more than any other baseball player in history), but my view is that if you are willing to argue that his career stats clearly make him eligible for Cooperstown, then you ought to be willing to argue that his betting on the game when he was manager of the Reds also makes him ineligible for life. I’ve heard the case put forward that players with a drug or alcohol problem have had a far better deal than Rose, and my answer is “So they should have…”. Players with that type of problem are possibly in danger of destroying themselves, but are rarely in danger of destroying the game itself. Now maybe I’m a naive idealist, but I still feel that, even with all the millions of dollars being thrown around the game in salaries and advertising and TV rights, the game has managed to retain a certain integrity, at least between the foul lines – little has changed in fundamental terms over the years: three strikes and you’re out, four balls and you go to first base. The problem posed by betting on the game – as opposed to abusing legal (or illegal) substances – and the reason why the rules on betting are posted in every major league clubhouse in the country, is that once you set foot on that slippery slope, there’s no going back. The game either retains its integrity or it doesn’t – there’s no middle ground. If Pete Rose bet on one game (and I don’t care whether he bet on Cincinnati to win or lose – they’re both just two sides of the same coin), then he compromised the integrity of the game, casting doubt over not only every game he managed, but every major league game that is played. I’m not accusing major league players or managers of systematically betting on game, but what I am saying is that if overwhelming evidence of your doing so is found, then you forfeit the right to be in that position of responsibility. At the risk of drawing a totally unreasonable parallel, if someone is convicted of armed robbery, it’s unlikely that they’re ever going to be given a job working as a bank teller, and this is the same – Rose should never be allowed back into a position where he can commit the same kind of offence.

So, that’s the rational, “for love of the game” argument, but there’s another, possibly even more powerful argument as far as I’m concerned, and it’s a very simple one: I don’t like being treated like a fool, and that’s what Pete Rose has been doing for the last 14 or 15 years. All that time he’s been saying “I never bet on baseball when I was manager of the Cincinnati Reds”, even though everything seemed to indicate that the truth lay elsewhere. Now, all of a sudden, Pete has a Road to Damascus conversion and says: “Gee, folks, I remember now – I did bet on a whole bunch of games way back when”. Hmmmm… Now I’ve nothing against sudden religious conversions, but when it happens against the background of a big-money book-publishing deal, well excuse me, but I tend to be a little bit sceptical. It doesn’t even bother me when that kind of admission makes the person like a Grade-A fool – after all, it’s their problem – but I do object when they’ve insulted my intelligence for fifteen years trying to get me to swallow a bunch of lies that even a four-year-old child would have trouble getting away with, let alone a grown man.

Oh, and there’s one last thing, even if I were prepared to sacrifice the integrity of the game and my own pride and self-esteem at the altar of Pete Rose, I would still have to say that, on a class scale of 1 to 10, leaking rumours of these so-called ‘revelations’ in the week that the Hall Of Fame ballot results are announced is about a minus 7...

So Pete, if you’re reading this – I may not be a baseball writer or one of those people wielding the power to reinstate you, but I’m also no fool, and so I’m voicing my opinion as a fan of this great game that you managed to bring into disrepute: you screwed up, and your admissions and pseudo-apologies are just too little, too late. Take your sorry story elsewhere and find another shoulder to cry on…