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With the College World Series coming to a close, I wanted to mention an idea I had for a potentially interesting baseball tournament. 

According to Boyd's World, California and the Carolinas account for twelve teams in the top 60 in RPI.  Five are from California and seven are from the Carolinas.  So naturally, I thought there should be a big tournament between the two regions, similar to the ACC-Big Ten challenge in NCAA basketball.  Just a thought.

You could also throw in Texas, since the Lone Star State boasts seven teams of its own.

Donald Fehr announced today that he would be stepping down as head of the Major League Baseball Players Association by 2010.  His suspected successor is Michael Weiner, the union's current general counsel and a long time union executive.

Fehr has been a contentious, yet effective, leader for many years.  He has presided over a large growth in player salaries and has been involved in the general explosion of revenues over the last few decades.

He has also brought about profound change to the game by helping usher in the era of free agency.

The lone stains on his otherwise fine career are the 1994 strike that cancelled the World Series (for which many fans blamed the union and Fehr) and his involvement in actively blocking a drug testing regime for baseball.  He's not responsible for steroids in baseball, but he's not without some blame.

Not much is known about Weiner other than he's been with the union for a long time.  Don't look for much to change.  Weiner will be faced with calls for more stringent drug testing (with more stringent penalties) along with calls for reforms to the salary-sharing structure, the luxury tax, and the possible implementation of a salary cap.  There will also be calls for reform of the draft and plenty of opportunities for the union to expand its representation beyond the United States. 

Good luck to Mr. Weiner on those fronts.

Much has been made of the run Manny Ramirez has made at the starting lineup for this year's All-Star Game.  Most pundits think, (probably rightly so), that Ramirez doesn't deserve to play.  And, they cry, if he's voted in, that he should decline to play. 

But this isn't the pundits' game.  It's the fans' game.  And if they want to see Manny play than they can.  We gave the fans the ballot; they get to choose who plays.

There have been plenty of instances in which guys were voted in who probably didn't deserve it.  The fans vote in players all the time that are at the twilight of their careers and most likely do not belong at the game on stats alone.  Ripken and Gwynn were not the best players in the game down the homestretch of their careers, yet they were always at the game.  Last year, Kosuke Fukudome was selected, despite his weak performance.  It's the fans' game, and they pick whoever they want.

I want to be clear that I recognize the difference between voting in Ripken and voting in Ramirez.  Ramirez has a stink on him that Ripken and Gwynn did not.  There is controversy in picking Manny.  I get that.  I'm just pointing out that we shouldn't demand that Ramirez sit out based on the fact that the punditry feels he should.  If he comes in in the top three in votes, he was chosen by the fans to play.  It should be up to him.  But clearly, if it comes to that, and he is voted in, then we can't say the fans are angry with him, and we can't say that the fans don't want to see him play. 

If he comes in in the top three and is forced to sit out, we'll be going against what the fans want.  If everyone is fine with that, and is fine overruling the voting public, then let's stop pretending that this is the fans' game.

Two division races stand out at this point: the ever-loaded AL East and the top-to-bottome decency of the NL Central.  These should be fun.

Just so you know, the Giants are in the wildcard hunt right now.

It is time to trade Matt Holliday.  Any takers?

It looks as if the Tigers stole Edwin Jackson at the right time in his career.  He's doing now what the Dodgers expected him to do many years ago.

The Cardinals need a bat.

The Rangers still need some pitching.

The Angels' days may be numbered.  Though hats off to their ability to cope with injury and tragedy.  They're not done yet, but they are being stalked.

The Dodgers are going to be dangerous come July.  By then, they should have Hiroki Kuroda back in full form.  Oh yeah, plus they add Manny Ramirez.

Anybody still think Juan Pierre is a worthless baseball player?

One good run and Detroit should be able to break open the AL Central.

Baltimore may be bad, but Adam Jones isn't.

 

We're a little over a third of the way through the season, and we are seeing a spirited race for the MVP in each league.  There are some very good seasons under way.

In the National League, two players stand out from the pack:  perennial candidate Albert Pujols and the newcomer to the senior circuit Raul Ibanez.  Their numbers, at this point, are nearly identical.  And they both are benefitting from being on teams in contention (which seems to matter with MVP voters).  If I had to give an edge, it would be to Pujols, since he has been here before and since the gap between Pujols and the next best player on his team is much larger than the gap between Ibanez and the next best player (assuming Ibanez is even the best player on his team, which I'm sure will start an argument).  The Nod goes to Pujols, as of today.

In the second tier in the NL resides the highly effective, yet nearly invisible Adrian Gonzalez.  He has an uphill case to make, since the Padres are pretty bad.  If he keeps hitting home runs, however, he will be tough to ignore.  Other also-rans at this point are Brewers Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, the ever-powerful Ryan Howard and teammate Chase Utley, Colorado's Brad Hawpe, and the Mets Carlos Beltran and David Wright (who barely counts statistically, but gets added weight by being a fan and writer favorite). 

The first tier in the American League is a bit more crowded.  An argument can be made for five players :  Torii Hunter, Makr Teixeira, Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, and Evan Longoria.  All have good stats, all play for good teams, and there is not much separating the best from the fifth best.  So the Nod goes to all five.  The Nod, at this time, goes to Torii Hunter.  He has the highest OPS of the five and leads in stolen bases with 11.  That is probably not going to win him the award, but right now it is the only thing that makes him stand out.

Residing in the second tier is Rays first baseman Carlos Pena, Indian Victor Martinez, and Oriole breakout Adam Jones.  All could pop into the first tier in time.

We'll see what the list looks like in a few weeks.

The Trade:

Braves get Nate McLouth for minor leaguers Charlie Morton, Gorkys Hernandez, and Jeff Locke.

On Paper:

The Braves are putting themselves in position for a wild card run. The Pirates are stocking away young talent.

Best Case Scenario for Braves:

McLouth has another all-star year and helps lead the Braves back to the postseason.

Best Case Scenario for Pirates:

McCuthchen makes McLouth expendable and Morton, Hernandez, and Locke all contribute to the NL Central winning Pirates team in 2011.

Worst Case Scenario for Braves:

McLouth was a flash in the pan and they gave up way too much talent.

Worst Case Scenario for Pirates:

This is the Xavier Nady trade all over again. The names can play, but lack upside.

Bottom Line:

McLouth is an under the radar star with the capacity to really alter the course of a team. Unfortunately, he’s not good enough alone to make the Pirates respectable, so he had to be moved. This should make the Braves a threat. As for the Pirates, they’ve moved quite a bit of major league talent for some decent minor league talent. Jose Tabata and Bryan Morris were added in trades last year, and cracked the systems top ten (according to Baseball America). Pedro Alvarez came in via the draft, and Andrew McCuthchen has already been called up to fill McLouth’s void. Add to that list Hernandez and Locke (who are in the Braves top ten), and this is starting to look like a talented system. We may need to start thinking about the Pirates’ system as decent. Now if they could only start drafting well.

Manny Ramirez will serve a 50-game suspension for using the female fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a substance on MLB's banned list.

There are plenty of places to go to get more current information about this story, so we will try to filter through the news stories and look at try to look at this as a piece of a larger issue that baseball is still dealiing with.

Right now, it seems as though Manny has accepted the suspension with little fight.  He claims to have received the medication from a doctor he saw for a "personal health issue."  It seems as though neither the doctor nor Manny checked whether the substance was banned by Major League Baseball.  The drug hCG is not a steroid, but is used to help the body boost the amount of testosterone it produces itself and is often used by people coming off steroids to get their body to begin producing its own testosterone again.

As a result of the suspension, Manny will miss approximately two months of the season, returning around July 3.  MLB Trade Rumors has a good summary of what this all means from the Dodgers persective, linked to here.  I like the idea of using the extra $7 to 8 million on another signing.

I have been planning a short series of articles about the so-called "Steroid Era" which I will begin posting soon, but this sotry gives me the opportunity to make a few comments now.

For now, let's take Manny's story at face value (see below).  If Manny had a legitimate health issue and was taking medication prescribed by a doctor in good faith, 50 games seems like an excessive penalty.  If Manny's testosterone levels were low to begin with, I don't really see taking what seems like a common medication as cheating, just trying to stabilize his own body.  It has also been noted that Manny has taken somewhere near a dozen drug tests since testing began, and he has passed every one of them.  It seems rediculous that a player who had been producing at Manny's levels the last few years would choose this off season to begin a PED regimine.

There are still a number of suspicious aspects of this story which leave one wondering exactly what Manny's motivation for taking hCG was.  The doctor he used was not an MLB doctor, and Manny did not try to get permission from Major League Baseball to take the drug as meidcation for a legitimate problem.  ESPN.com reports that hCG was the same drug Jose Canseco was caught trying to bring across the Mexican border a few months back.  It seems hard to believe that such a name (which sounds so similar to HGH) would remain under the radar in players' circles.  The allegations don't seem damning on the surface, but you never know what can of worms this might open up.

At any rate, this story gets A-Rod off the hook for a while and will give baseball writers plenty to ponder in the next few months.

As April winds down, we can do our one month check into the leaders for the postseason awards.  This time, let's look over the early frontrunners for the AL and NL Cy Young.

First off, it is tough to find many starts to a season as impressive as Zach Grienke's.  Through 36 innings, he's allowed only 2 ER and has K'd 44.  He is clearly the frontrunner.

Behind Grienke are a few names we've heard and a few we have not yet been introduced to on a national level.  Tim Wakefield and Kevin Millwod have started strong.  King Felix Hernandez and fellow Mariner Erik Bedard have pitched the M's to the top of the AL West.  And the Tigers are sporting a one-two punch in the form of Armando Galarraga and Edwin Jackson, both of whom are sporting a sub-3.00 ERA after a few turns through the rotation.  Jared Weaver, Glen Perkins, and Dallas Braden have all pitched well thus far, too. 

But the clear leader is Grienke.

There is not a clear, walk-away leader in the NL.  Former winner Johan Santana is probably in the lead, but he's followed closely by four other pitchers who have maintained a sub-2.00 ERA through April:  Dan Haren, Wandy Rodriguez, Jair Jurrjens, and Kyel Lohse.  Dan Haren being one of them is not a suprise, nor is Jair Jurrjens, who showed flashed last year.  Kyle Lohse has been amazing since teaming up with Dave Duncan.  Wandy Rodriguez?  We'll have to wait and see, but he's done well so far.

In the mix, though not off to as hot a start, are some of the perennials.  Last year's winner Tim Lincecum seems to have figured it out and has bounced back from a rough start.  Chad Billingsley looks to break into the top tier of starters.  Derek Lowe and Javier Vazquez are making the Brave's front office look like geniuses (again).  Zach Duke and Paul Maholm are doing the Pirates proud, and Johnny Cueto has the Reds feeling good.  Also to be mentioned are Yovani Gallardo and Josh Johnson.  Matt Cain looks to be on the cusp of breaking into the permanent discussion. 

There is still time to crack the list or fall way off it.  Right now its not even a list.  Next time, I'll have the top five in each league.  But for now, here are the frontrunners.

The Trade:

Florida sends Logan Kensing to the Nationals for minor leaguer Kyle Gunderson.

On Paper:

The Nationals bullpen is bad. Really bad.

Best Case Scenario for Nationals:

Kensing can be a serviceable righty that will not blow a bunch of leads. The Nationals hope he grows into a sub-4.00 ERA innings eater.

Best Case Scenario for Marlins:

Gunderson makes it to the show.

Worst Case Scenario for Nationals:

Kensing is just another bad reliever on a team that needs pitching.

Worst Case Scenario for Marlins:

Kensing finds it and becomes a good relief pitcher.

Bottom Line:

The Nationals have a desperate need for some good pitching, both at the front and the back ends of their staff. Some of the problems can be chalked up to a bad outing or two, some of them can be chalked up to inconsistency, and others to just a lack of talent. But all of the pitching woes need to be reigned in a bit for the Nats to be even remotely in the game. Kensing has some potential to slow down the hurt for the National’s bullpen, and is a good start. He will need some help, though, because he is not a savior.

There is no more interesting rebuilding story in baseball than the story of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  They have not had a winning season in sixteen years.  They have had a run of bad trades, bad drafts, and just bad management.  And they finally seem to have started a revival.

It starts with pitching.  Over the past few years, the Pirates have accumulated a lot of arms that look good on paper and could, if they can overcome expectations and potential, contribute to a winning season or even a playoff race.  But there is a gap between what players are expected to do and what players actually do.  And thus far, the Pirates staff has only looked good on paper.

That may be changing.  I noticed last year that the only person in the starting rotation for the Pirates that was older than 30 was Matt Morris, and he was only around for a little while.  This is a very young group of pitchers who lack that veteran presence. That could mean that all this staff needs is someone to give some direction.

They may have found their guy in Joe Kerrigan, who through four trips through the rotation seems to have righted some of the ships.  Zach Duke and Paul Maholm have been lights out, and Ross Ohlendorf has been good and Ian Snell is one Albert Pujols-led beating from being up there with Duke and Maholm.  That's a good core to build a decent season on.

Now, four starts do not make a good season, but four good starts in a row can build some momentum.  True, the Pirates starters have to show that they can continue this success over the course of the year.  But they're off to a good start.

As of right now, they're in playoff contention.

Check out Jerry Crasnick for more.