Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love you Tomorrow, Spring Training's On It's Way

I can't really believe that after everything Spring Training starts tomorrow.

I can't believe, even more, that we've gone since September without any Yankee baseball.

You know how ready I am for this?

I had a nightmare last night--not about family or friends dying, or getting caught in a tornado or the world exploding or anything like that.

I had a nightmare that the tickets I ordered for the 4/18 game never arrived.



Yeah, I think I'm ready for some Spring Training.

Miguel Tejada Charged with Lying to Congress

Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada has been charged with lying to Congress about the prevalence of steroid use, ESPN is reporting.

It is going to be painfully apparent pretty soon that this goes way beyond Alex Rodriguez and perhaps strikes at the very heart of baseball.

As long as there has been a game there has been cheating, but the difference is that with the media now--TV, radio, blogs, etc--it's a hell of a lot more noticeable. Alas, many casual fans don't care if Mantle was a drunk or Cobb a racist--they care about what their players are doing now.

Is it too early to call for Selig to resign?

This did happen on his watch.

Selig's done some good for the game--look at the attendance totals and revenue sharing--but the idea that people didn't know what was going on, ranging from players to owners, is preposterous.

Oh well. Not like there are tons of things more American than a good scandal, anyway...

A-Rod's admissions create more questions

Undoubtedly, Alex admitting that he used steroids was the right course of action--ie, not doing what Clemens or Bonds did.

That says, it raises a whole host of other questions:

1) How on earth did he not know what he was taken? I'm right now only taking one prescription medication and I was damned sure I went over everything with my doctor--side effects, risks, etc. However, I'm not being paid hundreds of millions to keep my body in top shape.

2) How did Alex get the drugs? Fortunatley for us, this steroid use took place before Alex was a Yankee, but however he got them, the procurement was still illegal.

3) How many times has A-Rod been tipped off about tests since then? Did he really stop using when he came to New York? Who else was tipped off?

4) Why did Alex feel it necessary to hide this from the Yankees once Roberts told him he would be named?

There are maybe another thousand questions that we could ask, and now, only a few days before pitchers and catchers report, we are no closer to getting our answers.

Just remember this, folks: if Alex did it, chances are, your favorite probably did as well. Until that list of 103 names is made public--nearly 15% of active mlb players for that year--no player is safe.

Alex Rodriguez admits to Steroid Use

According to the handy dandy text I just recieved from ESPN.com, A-Rod has admitted to steroid use in 2003 and will make confession on the 6 PM edition of Sportscenter

I'm on my way out to do grad school stuff but I'll write more later.

Schilling: Name All 104 Positives

Curt Schilling (!) has a suggestion that is probably felt by many baseball fans right now: Name all players that tested positive, and not just A-Rod.

The tests were supposed to be anonymous, but now that someone has named Alex, is it fair to name only him? Moreover, is it fair to let others remain under suspicion when they may be innocent?

I'm keeping my opinion to myself on this one--it's a contentious issue.

A-Rod A-Ruined?

With A-Rod's situation now out in the open, there are these possible courses of action for him to take:

1) Admit whatever allegations are true, even if they aren't. The Pettitte/Hamilton/Giambi route seems to be the most successful in terms of dealing with illicit substances, although it should be noted that Hamilton's situation was different.

2) Clam up and say nothing, which solves nothing.

3) Go the Clemens/Bonds/Palmeiro route and deny everything. This, I don't need to tell you, hasn't always worked very well.

However, whatever path Alex takes, there is one basic constant--rightly or wrongly, he'll never be considered a "clean" player again.

That clean break of Hank's record?

Gonna have to wait for someone else.

It sucks for everyone involved--Alex, the team, the fans, baseball as a whole.

For every argument that the anonymous names should have remained anonymous, there's the more powerful argument that Alex shouldn't have put himself in that situation in the first place.

We want to like A-Rod. We excused the stripper in Toronto incident, and then tried not to pay too much attention when he started banging Madonna and divorced from his wife, despite their two young daughters.

For everyone that argued 2006 and 2008 were subpar, we said, look at 2005 and 2007.

We welcomed him back after the op-out fiasco and only a few dared voice complaint when he signed on for ten years.

But this, this strikes at the very heart of the game. If it's true, we can't simply brush it aside, and neither can Alex.

While we hope that it's not true, unfortunately, in public perception he's already guilty (just check out that poll on ESPN.com)

You know, I have to think, for all the wishing we did that the Torre book wouldn't be a distraction during Spring Training, I think we may have to be just a little more careful about what we wish for...

Torre's Book This Year's Fist Pump

Well, there seems to be one Spring Training question that we've already got an answer to: What will be this year's ridiculous controversy made for probably no other reason than that it involves the Yankees.

Last year, it was Joba's fist pump.

This year, it's Torre's book.

It's a controversy for a few reasons, but perhaps the biggest one is that Torre seemingly violates the unwritten code that what goes on in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse.

Now, I'm not a guy. I don't know how serious these man-codes are, and I, perhaps fortunately for everyone else, have never possessed the athletic gift to play on a team. So the entire idea of a locker-room culture is a bit foreign to me, like the idea of offering Pagan sacrifices to the gods. I understand the concept, but I will never fully understand it because I'm not a part of it.

But anyway.

Regardless of my ignorance, what did apparently happen here, is a breach of trust.

The players trusted Torre, told him things in confidence, things that were never meant for the public to here. Whether or not the players should have trusted Torre is obviously another story, but for now, what's important is that they did and Torre broke that trust.

While the Yankees might be fine moving on from now, seeing as Torre is no longer their manager, you have to wonder what's going through the mind of the LA Dodgers, whom Torre manages. The tenor in that clubhouse now will likely be somewhat awkward--I mean, what if you were a Dodger and your boss just sold out his former workers?

I was told the other night that at Torre's book signing there were crowds cheering for him, though I have to wonder what portion of the crowd were Yankee-haters or simply fed-up Yankee fans as opposed to die-hard Yankee fans. I'm not delusional; the latter probably outnumbered the former, but I'm still curious to see what the split was.

So I guess in this sense this controversy isn't perhaps as pointless as the fist pump, but, at the same time, it's destined to become a favorite distraction of the media.

2009 Super Bowl Pick(s)

So yes, I understand that having failed to update yesterday, I broke my New Year's Resolution and am thus a horrible person.

That said, let's move on to the elephant in the room: the Super Bowl is tomorrow, and I have yet to announce my pick!

Unlike last year, I haven't given a whole lot of thought to my pick for this year. The reason for that is two-fold:

1) I think the Steelers are that good

and

2) The party I'm going to is a de facto Steelers party, so regardless of my personal feelings, I have to root for Pittsburgh.

Seriously, though, on paper the Steelers should have this game in hand. However, the Cardinals are reminding a lot of people about the Giants in '07-'08: a team that sneaked into the playoffs and then got hot at the right time.

For this reason, I don't think anyone that picks Arizona is making a stupid pick; history shows that they might very well be the ones celebrating tomorrow night. Larry Fitzgerald could very well be the very best player in the game.

Both QBs have played in--and won--Super Bowls, although it's been nearly a decade since Warner won his last one in 2000.

So go on and fill up on greasy snack food--America's unofficial holiday is nearly here.

So Sick of Winter

Today, walking back from the library, I had two choices open to me:

Walk on the sheets of black ice on the sidewalks, or wade through the puddles--so dark you can't tell how deep--on the roads.

This is, of course, not a wholly new experience to me, but at least at Syracuse, once you made it to campus (and this itself was no small feat), you could count on salted sidewalks.

I love hockey and Christmas lights and all that, but we're at that part of winter where it's, baseball-wise, at least, the final stretch before Spring Training. And, yeah, so what if Spring Training doesn't include the competitive edge of the regular season? Spring Training's a time for veterans to prank the young guys, a time for stories of clubhouse bonding and, of course, the hope that this year will be THE year.

Truth is, winter's old news.

Joba and Lester Dish at Sacred Heart

Tonight I went with Andrea and her friend Jared to see Joba Chamberlain and Jon Lester do a Q+A moderated by Andrew Marchand at Sacred Heart University in Farfield, CT.

The event got off to a somewhat inauspicious start when they kept replaying country music on a loop, but the place--the William Pitt Center--was absolutely packed, and there seemed to be a majority of Yankee fans--not all of whom may have been entirely sober, mind.

Joba and Lester answered a wide array of questions, which ranged from the locker rooms, to the "welcome to the Big Leagues, kid" moment to questions about things off the field, such as Joe Torre's book, Lester's cancer and Joba's DUI.

Joba commended Lester for his conquering cancer, and, like the 12-year-old boy who asked the question, was fascinated to hear Lester talk about his no-hitter.

As concerns the DUI, Joba stated that he could either be a man and face it or run from it, and that he's chosen to face it.

The entire thing lasted maybe an hour and a half, which is good, because the bleachers were fairly uncomfortable.

Anyway, I have pictures, but my camera battery died, so they will have to wait a day or two.

Analyzing the 2009 Yankee Rotation

Now that Andy Pettitte has officially returned to the Yankees, we can construct a basic rotation and do some basic, non-statistical analysis (that will come later, hopefully).

Right now the five starting pitchers likely to be on the Opening Day Roster are CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, CM Wang, Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain.

The most common rotation construction is:

Sabathia
Burnett
Wang
Pettitte
Joba


However, I have come across arguments for this construction as well:

Sabathia
Wang
Burnett
Pettitte
Joba

There are also arguments out there to switch Joba and Pettitte, but I don't see that happening and I'll explain why.

There seems to be one set-in-stone rule about rotation construction: Sabathia is the number one guy.

Amongst the others, there are a few common themes. One of the main arguments for pitching Wang second, instead of third, is to break up the power pitching combination of Sabathia and Burnett. Another argument is that there are quite a few that believe Burnett will get hurt before it's all said and done, but the counter-argument is that when Burnett is healthy, his stuff can rival the best in the game. In some rotations, Burnett would be a number one-type starter; that the Yankees could pitch him third if they chose to shows a lot about the depth of the rotation.

At the bottom end of the rotation, there are two basic arguments for keeping Joba as the number five starter: 1) He will be on an innings limit and occasionally you do skip a five starter to keep the top guys on a regular schedule, and 2) if Pettitte was to start fifth, then you would have back-to-back lefties in the rotation.

Whatever rotation one does construct, however, there is one basic rule about the rotation's expected performance: If healthy, the 2009 rotation projects to be one of, if not the, best in baseball.

It's a big if--most of us don't need any subtle reminders of last season.

However, unlike last season, the Yankees should be able to avoid a Ponsonarian scheme: if pitcher A gets hurt, pitcher R Replacement could be Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves or Coke all before you have to start worrying about taking a flier on someone.

To put this in perspective, last year, if memory serves, the first pitcher the Yankees called up to fill a void was Rasner. Granted, Rasner performed admirably for a while, but it simply wasn't good enough in the long run.


If we are going to mention weaknesses of this rotation, we would have to say the following:

1) Sabathia was overworked at the end of last season. While it probably won't affect him, as his 2007 didn't seem to hurt his 2008, it's still something to watch.

2) Burnett's notoriously shaky injury history. Hopefully the toils and travails of Carl Pavano mean he'll do everything he can to stay healthy.

3) How CM Wang rebounds from his foot injury. He did injure his push-off foot, so there is plenty of room for concern. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, he seems to be attracting the least attention of anyone.

4) Whether Pettitte's year last year was a bloop or if he really has fallen off that much. Either way, though, Pettitte is a pretty solid guarantee to go out and pitch innings, which is ultimately what you need from a four starter.

5) Joba's shoulder. They say shoulders are the things you don't want, and Joba's injury history is one of the reasons he went as low in the draft as he did. Hopefully, by not going starter-reliever-starter with Joba, the Yankees can avoid putting undue stress on his shoulder.


Except for Pettitte, all of the other major concerns with the Yankee rotation amount to concerns over health. So, as stated before, the simple maxim for the rotation is: Stay healthy!

The Yankee pitchers are on the whole, young, and just about to hit or in their prime. It's hard to imagine any team wanting to face this rotation day in and day out. Sabathia, Burnett and Joba are all power pitchers; Wang and Pettitte are by tradition the ground-ball-pitchers-of-doom.

There's a lot to be optimistic about with this rotation--just as long as they stay healthy.

Pettitte Takes a Pay Cut

According to Buster Olney on 1050, Andy Pettitte has agreed to a $6 million deal with "easily attainable" incentives.

More on this as it develops.

[edit]:

The deal reportedly includes incentives that, if reached, will total Pettitte's salary to $12 million, more than the original $10 million offer the Yankees had on the table.

However, Pettitte is (apparently) only guaranteed $6 million, which would result in a considerable pay cut from last year.

For the Yankees, however, this deal is excellent.

Pettitte, as has often been stated, was by far the best fit for the Yankees' needs, and while the Yankees seem to have gotten the better end of the deal, from a financial point of view, Pettitte could still surpass the original offer the Yankees had made.

Whether Pettitte can pull a Mussina in '09 is another story entirely, but it seems as though now the Yankees have their rotation sorted out:

1) CC Sabathia
2) AJ Burnett
3) CM Wang
4) Andy Pettitte
5) Joba Chamberlain/Phil Hughes/Winner out of ST.

I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty sweet rotation, provided everyone stays healthy, of course...

Now, if the Yankees want to sign Sheets (I still doubt they will for reasons previously stated), they can do so without taking the risk that Sheets won't be able to pitch 200 innings. However, given Sheets' caliber, I doubt he will sign anywhere without a guaranteed rotation spot.

Ethics Breach Surfaces

According to River Ave Blues, among the many accusations surfacing in Joe Torre's new books, one is that the Steinbrenners were informed by team medical personnel about Torre's prostate cancer before Torre himself .

There are three distinct possibilities here:

1) The above is true and results in a distinct breach of medical ethics. Even if doctor-patient confidentiality, for whatever reason I don't know, doesn't exist, there isn't really a question that an adult, conscious patient of sound mind has a right to know about his or her own medical condition before anyone else, including his or her employers.

2) The above is false and results in a little fuzzier but still pretty distinct breach of journalism ethics. It is hard to believe that either Torre or a writer as respected as Verducci would blatantly make something up, so it's possible that Verducci didn't do a very good job checking his sources, which is hard to imagine when it's Torre's book! If Torre willingly and knowingly consented to let a false allegation appear, then Torre pretty much loses whatever credibility he had. If Torre willingly consented to let the allegation appear and believed that it was true, it's a different story, but that said, Torre's not an idiot. It seems hard to believe that he could let himself think such a thing.

3) The best case scenario is that it is unfounded internet rumor. In which case, there is still an ethics breach, though Torre, the team doctors and the Steinbrenners get to keep their name.

Torre Tell-All Trashes Yanks

According to this article, a tell-all book, ghost-written by Tom Verducci, has Joe Torre revealing a bitter rift with the New York Yankees.

It would have been foolish, of course, to suggest that Torre's entire 1996-2007 tenure with the New York Yankees was without fault on either side, but such a work can only harm Torre's relationship with the team that employed him for twelve years.

My brother linked me to the story, and his opinion on the situation isn't that much different than my own:

...My biggest gripe about it is that it isn't only a rip on the players, but consequently it's a rip on the fans saying like "lol you follow a scummy team." Keep some of that shit in the clubhouse Joe, you just lost a lot of my respect...and the respect from most New Yorkers who think you are a class act guy. It obviously sounds astounding to have a grudge against someone who helped brought your favorite team ... four World Series...but there was no reason to trash a former team.

A Yankees fan would have to be an idiot not to be grateful for Torre for the four World Series, but at the same time, my brother has a point--a slight on the team like this is also a slight on the fans.

Perhaps more importantly, and more unfortunately, it's a bit harder to go around calling Torre a class act right now.

I don't know about you, but for all of Jeter's faults (ie, his lack of range and tendency to GIDP), I can't see the Captain ever doing something like this...

Can a Relief Pitcher be a Prospect?

Recently, ESPN's Keith Law came out with a list of top prospects by organization.

The five on the Yankees' list:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Jesus Montero, C
3. Andrew Brackman, RHP
4. Dellin Betances, RHP
5. Zach McAllister, RHP

While one familiar with the Yankees' farm system would expect to see Jackson and Montero on the list, a notable absence is Mark Melancon-who many predict is being groomed to take over for Mariano Rivera.

In this list from Baseball Intellect, the prospects are ranked:

1. Jesus Montero
2. Dellin Betances
3. Austin Jackson
4. Andrew Brackman
5. Mark Melancon

This got me thinking:

Not too long ago, no pitcher predicted to make his career in the bullpen would ever have made anyone's top list of prospects. It used to be that relievers were simply pitchers that weren't good enough to start.

How far we've come.

To be sure, relievers are still not (usually) seen in the same light as starters, and there's a good reason for it--a good starter theoretically means a relief pitcher will not have to be used in the first place.

However, that doesn't mean that baseball today hasn't figured out a way to turn relieving into an art. Players like Mariano Rivera and Francisco Rodriguez will sell more jerseys than Melky Cabrera or Maicer Izturis.

Relief pitchers might not seem like valuable commodities, but if you ask any Yankee fan about Mariano Rivera, they will tell you that few men in pinstripes have been as valuable to the team for so long.

Even so, when asked to rank top prospects, few will list relievers. Either the relief pitcher will be that good, or the rest of the farm system will be rather mundane, and it's not hard to imagine which is more common.

Although Baseball Intellect thinks Melancon will most likely project as a solid middle reliever, the common refrain--groomed to be Rivera's successor--would seem to illustrate that expectations for him are high, indeed.

Whether Melancon should be included in the top five Yankees prospects in terms of ceiling is hard to gauge, but in terms of major-league readiness, Melancon, who could potentially see action in late 2009, if not sooner, still has to be considered at the top.

Reports: Mets Sign Garcia, Ricketts to buy Cubs

According to this report, the NY Mets have signed or will sign Freddy Garcia to a minor league deal.

Garcia had been considering the Yankees as well; had he signed, it would have likely forced Andy Pettitte out.

The closer it gets to Spring Training, the more it seems like Pettitte really is the only option the Yankees want to consider, though Pettitte apparently wants more money and the Yankees aren't biting.

***

In other news, the Ricketts family has won the bidding war to buy the Chicago Cubs.

Perhaps new ownership will spur the Cubs on to...

Eh, who am I kidding--these are the Cubs!

Just joking.

Good luck to the Ricketts family--and remember, leave the baseball to the baseball people!

Money for Arbitration, but not for Free Agents

I was talking to David Pinto last night (stay tuned for an interview with him at the end of the week!) and he posed a question that I am not sure anyone else has considered just yet:

Why is it that there is (seemingly) no money for the remaining free agents , but arbitration numbers are way, way up ?

I can't presume to offer a straight answer. I don't know nearly enough about the business of arbitration or what teams need or, most importantly, the state of teams' finances to do more than speculate.

However, given that the Hot Stove League is its own sport, speculate we will.

There are two reasons that immediately came to mind last night when the question was posed to me:

1) the caliber and positions played of arbitration-eligible players versus the caliber and positions played of remaining free agents

2) the fact that arbitration-eligible players are still under team control while free agents are not, thus making it a game of leverage.


To look at the first reason--

One has to remember that the top free agents--CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixiera--all did sign, and sign for large, long-term deals as well. The fact that they all signed for the same team might throw you, but they did, in fact, sign. They played positions that the Yankees needed to fill, are young enough to be able to sign the long-term deals, and with the exception of Burnett, are historically healthy.

If you look at some of the remaining free agents, however, you see names like Ben Sheets, Manny Ramirez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Braden Looper (there are lots of others; these are just the first four that come to mind).

With each of these, there's a decent reason for not signing them--Sheets, though good, is never healthy, Ramirez is up there in age and likely looking for more than a one or two year deal, Griffey hasn't been truly healthy since he left Seattle and Looper is just not that good (as I've learned the hard way).

In all or at least most these cases (and again, the list above is not extensive by any means), the players are (likely) looking for deals at a minimum of three years, and for many teams, the risk is simply not worth the signing.


If we look at players who have submitted arbitration figures , however, we see players like Ryan Howard, Dan Uggla, Jason Werth, Ryan Ludwick, Justin Verlander and John Maine. Again, this is not an extensive list, just a sampling.

However, some of the things you notice is that the players on the list are that 1) the players are mostly young, and 2) they are mostly healthy. Heading to arbitration means that the length of the players' contracts are not really up for question; in the case of the best players, teams will often sign them to an extension to avoid arbitration altogether. Many of the players listed would have become free agents at the end of this season or next, so while there may very well be questions about how good a player is, teams aren't risking long-term harm by having to sign them to a long term deal.

Arbitration itself is a somewhat arbitrary process (I know, I know); by its very nature players that accept it, especially those on the downswing of their career, will likely get more money than through free agency alone. Had Bobby Abreu, for example, accepted arbitration, he'd likely be looking at a salary of $16-$18 million.


Free Agency, and this goes into reason number two listed above, is by its very nature much more dependent on the market and market conditions.

As with any basic market, there are two main factors in play: supply and demand, and risk.

For a team to sign a player that's a free agent, the player must satisfy a demand of the team and not possess a risk greater than the possible outcome.

Mark Teixiera satisfied the Yankees' need for a first baseman, and he doesn't, health-wise or age-wise, possess an obvious risk that he won't be able to play most of his eight-year contract.

In one instance where there seems to be an overwhelming supply available, one can look at the available free agent catchers, who include Pudge Rodriguez, Jason Varitek and Brad Ausmus. In that group alone, you've got former all-stars--though the 'former' is perhaps more relevant than the 'all-star'. Teams want catchers that, even if they can't hit like Mike Piazza or Jorge Posada, will at least not be an automatic out. Yankees fans should be wary enough of this--for all the great defense Jose Molina provided, a line up combination last year of Cano, Molina and Cabrera was a recipe for a 1-2-3 inning.


So, the question--why are arbitration numbers way, way up and free agent numbers down--we can speculate has a three-part answer:

1) Numbers for the biggest free agent signings were not, in fact, down;

2) the corps of players accepting arbitration this year, as a whole, tend to be younger and healthier than the remaining free agents, and since most will become free agents in a year or two don't present the time-commitment risks a big free agent signing would, and,

3) the free agent market operates in an open market system (or something that closely resembles it), while arbitration is much more artificial. In a down market, like our current recession, all open markets will suffer, but arbitration can offer players some protection, even if it is artificial.

Januray 20th, 2009

In late 2001, when the TV show 24 first aired, the season's premise revolved around a plot to assassinate the first major African American candidate for the presidency. At the time, the plot seemed just incredulous enough to make a good escapist TV show without truly jarring our senses.

It's only been eight years.

A lot can change in eight years.

Teams can go from worst to first to worst again or first to worst to first again, players blossom, hit their prime and retire, new stadiums are built, new front offices are assembled, and newspapers can die while blogs are born.

As baseball fans, we know how true this is, how the days of Sosa and McGwire and Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez and Randy Johnson in his prime can simultaneously seem both like yesterday and like another era.

We can remember what it was like eight years ago, when the idea of the Red Sox winning the World Series was as unthinkable as the Yankees losing it, when Derek Jeter was hands-down the best shortstop in the game and the Seattle Mariners could win 116 games in the regular season.

Eight years ago, not many would have guessed that the Red Sox would have two more World Series rings, that Alex Rodriguez would still have none, that the Rays would seriously contend for a World Series title or that Jaime Moyer would still be pitching and pitching well.

Eight years ago, not many would have thought that we'd be here, on January 20th 2009, and hours away from inaugurating an African-American president who won his campaign with a three word phrase, albeit the powerful phrase in the English language: Yes we can.

We can't any more guess what the world will be like in 2017, although we do know that Alex Rodriguez will still be under contract for the New York Yankees (no, seriously!).

What we do know, though, is that the next four or eight years, whichever they may be, will only be as good as we can make them. If we use baseball as our barometer, we can guide ourselves by the ideas of hope, the idea that even in the bottom of the ninth with two outs the game is still not over, that on any given day the underdog can triumph. Baseball is a sport for the fearless, so, in the spirit of hope and optimism, we can stop living under a policy and a cloud of fear.

No, we don't know what will happen. Yes, things can get bad, but if you keep the optimism, if you remember that just as bad as things can get, they can also get better, that a last place team one year can be a first place team the next, then things will get better. That's the baseball way.

That's why you can win an election with hope.

WBC Provisional Rosters Released

Provisional rosters for the 2009 World Baseball Classic have been set and can be seen here.

Things you want to know:

Eight active Yankees are playing.

They include:

USA: Derek Jeter
Dominican Republic: Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Damaso Marte, Edwar Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Veras
Mexico: Alfredo Aceves, Jorge Vazquez
Panama: Jahdiel Santamaria
China: Liu, Kai , Zhang, Zhenweng (for the few unfamiliar, in Chinese, the surname comes before the first name. So if Jeter was playing for China he'd be listed as Jeter Derek on the roster).
Italy: Francisco Cervelli


Also, the Dominican roster is sick.

Seriously. Imagine fielding this line up (I have no idea if they play with the DH but if I'm Dominican then I'd fight for it just so I can have Hanley, A-Rod and Pujols hitting back-to-back-to-back):

Jose Reyes SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Hanley Ramirez DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Albert Pujols 1B
Vladimir Guerrero RF
Miguel Olivo C
Melky Cabrera CF
Alfonso Soriano LF

(So they're weak in the outfield, what can I say?)

Either way, the Dominican team has got to be considered one of the favorites.

Seriously, though, they can afford Melky Cabrera when the rest of their roster is so good anyway.

Then imagine having Ervin Santana or Edinson Volquez start with Jose Valverde (among a plethora of others) in the bullpen?

The full Dominican roster can be seen here


As for the US roster...you could put together a line up like this:

Dustin Pedroia 2B
Derek Jeter SS
Evan Longoria 3B
Carlos Quentin OF
Kevin Youkilis 1B
Chipper Jones DH
Brian McCann C (I don't really know about any of these catchers...)
Ryan Ludwick OF
Grady Sizemore OF

And then you could have Scott Kazmir or John Lackey start, with Brian Fuentes, JJ Putz and George Sherrill in the bullpen. The full US roster can be seen here

It's not a half-bad roster, but, still, the Dominican must have something in the water...

World Baseball Classic: Dominican Republic May Lose Starters

Translated from El Nuevo Dia

As before, please feel free to inform me of any errors in my translation.

clásico mundial
Posibles bajas en Dominicana

Jugadores como Pujols, Ortiz y Soriano podrían verse afectados.

World Baseball Classic Possible Scratches in the Dominican: Players like Pujols, Ortiz and soriano could be affected

SANTO DOMINGO — La República Dominicana perdería al menos seis de sus principales estelares para el Clásico Mundial de béisbol debido a problemas físicos, informó el domingo el gerente general, Stanley Javier.

The Dominican Republic will lose at least six of its principal stars for the WBC due to health problems, the team's general manager Stanley Javier said Sunday.

“Hay varios casos que serán analizados como son los de Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Fausto Carmona, Francisco Liriano, Alfonso Soriano y Carlos Peña”, dijo Javier en una entrevista con el programa La Semana Deportiva, del canal 13 de la República Dominicana.

“There are various cases that will be analyzed, like those of Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Fausto Carmona, Francisco Liriano, Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Peña”, said Javiar in an interview with the program “La Semana Deportiva (The Week in Sports), on channel 13 in the Dominican Republic.*

Los citados jugadores estuvieron en la lista de lesionados por períodos prolongados de tiempo en las temporadas del 2007 y 2008 y en los casos de Pujols y Peña, ambos fueron operados durante el receso.

The players cited above were on the DL for prolonged periods of time in the seasons of 2007 and 2008 and, in the cases of Pujols and Peña, they had surgery during the break.

MLB anunció ayer en su portal en la internet que hoy se pondrán a la venta las taquillas individuales para los Juegos del Clásico Mundial que se jugarán en Puerto Rico, Toronto, Miami, San Diego y Los Ángeles. En el caso de Puerto Rico, los boletos pueden ser adquiridos a través de Ticketpop y sus precios fluctúan entre los $12 y $96.

MLB announced yesterday on its website that today people could purchase individual tickets for the WBC games that will be played in Puerto Rico, Toronto, Miami, San Diego and Lost Angeles. In the case of Puerto Rico, tickets can be acquired through Ticketpop and the prices are fluctuating between $12 and $96.

Según Javier, el Clásico tiene una regla que establece que peloteros que hayan estado más de 90 días en la lista de lesionados en las dos temporadas previas no pueden participar en el torneo.

As Javier said, the Classic has a rule that establishes that players that spent more than 90 days on the disabled list in the two previous seasons cannot participate in the tournament.

El receptor boricua Jorge Posada confirmó el sábado que no jugará debido a dicha reglamentación.

The catcher Jorge Posada confirmed Saturday that he will not play owing to the said rule.

Esperanzado Javier

Sin embargo, el ejecutivo dominicano estableció que la regla no es absoluta.

The hope of Javier

However, the Dominican executive established that the rule is not absolute.

“Eso es algo que será analizado durante los entrenamientos de primavera y no es algo automático, por lo que nos mantenemos optimistas de que ellos estarán en el equipo”, aseguró.

"This is something that will be analyzed during Spring Training and is not something automatic, for this we remain optimistic that they will be on the team”, he reassured.

La República Dominicana integra junto a Puerto Rico, Holanda y Panamá el grupo D que jugará en el estadio Hiram Bithorn de San Juan, en la primera ronda.

The Dominican Republic is entered together with Puerto Rico, the Netherlands and Panama in group D that will play in Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan in the first round.