One more workout in the books
I'm back from the Minor League complex and it was a fairly quick day for most of the big names, who got their work in and got out. Derek Jeter stopped by to say hello and Jorge Posada was pretty busy, coming out of the crouch to throw to third base and hitting from both sides of the plate.
The words of the day came from Joba Chamberlain, and a full story will be on MLB.com later today. He's throwing all of his pitches and feels great after a winter conditioning program. For now, here's a quote to chew on:
"We're always the team to beat," Chamberlain said. "We have that in our minds from the get-go. With the year the Rays had, people are going to look at it that they're the team to beat. We always come into camp knowing that we're always going to be hunted, just because of who we are."
Many of the guys look like they've been working hard over the winter -- Brian Bruney is trimmer, as earlier reported, but Jonathan Albaladejo also looks like he's down about 15 to 20 pounds. Phil Coke, clean-shaven Nick Swisher and Dan Giese also look ready to go.
All-around good guy Shelley Duncan may not have an opening here with the Yankees (he's not even on the 40-man roster) but he was hitting some long BP home runs over the left-center field wall. Duncan is a great reminder that players are always playing for all 30 teams - the best thing the Yankees could do for him is trigger a trade in the spring.
I got a little bit - shall we say, misdirected - trying to park for the workout and wound up in a grassy construction area behind the complex. That's where workers are still deconstructing the Fan Experience from the Super Bowl. Looks like I missed one heck of a party.
The words of the day came from Joba Chamberlain, and a full story will be on MLB.com later today. He's throwing all of his pitches and feels great after a winter conditioning program. For now, here's a quote to chew on:
"We're always the team to beat," Chamberlain said. "We have that in our minds from the get-go. With the year the Rays had, people are going to look at it that they're the team to beat. We always come into camp knowing that we're always going to be hunted, just because of who we are."
Many of the guys look like they've been working hard over the winter -- Brian Bruney is trimmer, as earlier reported, but Jonathan Albaladejo also looks like he's down about 15 to 20 pounds. Phil Coke, clean-shaven Nick Swisher and Dan Giese also look ready to go.
All-around good guy Shelley Duncan may not have an opening here with the Yankees (he's not even on the 40-man roster) but he was hitting some long BP home runs over the left-center field wall. Duncan is a great reminder that players are always playing for all 30 teams - the best thing the Yankees could do for him is trigger a trade in the spring.
I got a little bit - shall we say, misdirected - trying to park for the workout and wound up in a grassy construction area behind the complex. That's where workers are still deconstructing the Fan Experience from the Super Bowl. Looks like I missed one heck of a party.
So great to read about actual baseball! Cannot wait to get down there and watch games. And good for Shelley to give it everything he's got.
- http://janeheller.mlblogs.com
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What if Selig deleted Arod's Texas stats? No HR record
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http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/yankees/2009/02/montero-is-posadas-heir-appare.html
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Austin Romine would make a better candidate for the position. He doesn't have quite the offensive abilities that Montero has but he is better defensively. Montero is likely going to be too big for the catching position, I can see him being moved over to 1B or one of the corner OF positions.
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1B is locked up by Teix, so that is probably unlikely barring Montero being used as a trading chip. There has been a lot of speculation that he could fill in the DH role perhaps subbing in once and a while at 1B.
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Just finished my fantasy draft:
C: Mauer
1B: Fielder
2B: Cano
3B: Davis
SS: Rameriez
OF: Maclouth
OF: Kemp
OF: Victorino
DH: Werth
PS: Giants
Bench: (Juston) Upton, Hafner, Blalock, Matsui, Casilla, Shopach
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Bud Selig can go blow. Penalize Arod? For what? Testing positive in a test MLB and the MLBPU agreed to and agreed would be anonymous????? ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME? Penalize him NOW for something that HAD no penalty when he did it?????? WTF???? BUD SELIG YOU'RE AN ***. You turned your head in the late 90's when Sosa and Mac were going at it. You knew what the HELL was going on. You have absolutely NO credibility here.
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Selig is trying to cover his own ***. And being an idiot about it. You can't punish A rod for this and he knows it. The only person who can be penalized is the person who leaked the info.
Plus the whole home run leader crap. Even when they banned Rose, they kept him as hits leader. All other lifetime banned players have their stats. The commisioner of baseball should know better than arbitarily messing with all time lists.
Plus, what precedent would this set? Future commisioners would have justification to start wiping stats for all kinds of things.
Ít's not that I am backing Bonds or A Rod, or that I wouldn't prefer to see a class act as Hank Aaron as home run king, but this isn't the way to do it. And Selig hasn't had credibility for a long time, basbell needs changes and they must start at the top.
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Romine also has a better throwing arm and is more nimble. In the four Charleston games I attended last year (at Lakewood Blue Claws) Montero and Romine each caught two games and was DH the other two. Montero didn't look as bulky as I expected from that "growing to big to catch' tag I heard two years ago. Since he is now listed at the same size as the Orioles Wieters, maybe that will not happen.
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NEW THREAD
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