Archive for the ‘General’ Category

To say that Bobby Valentine’s tenure as manager of the Boston Red Sox was entertaining would be a fairly accurate statement. Of course, if you were a Red Sox fan then something along the lines of “cataclysm” would probably be more accurate. Bobby Valentine likes to say a lot of things. Bobby Valentine has a propensity to ruffle feathers when he gets to saying things. One might say that Bobby Valentine is better suited for the airwaves of sports talk radio as opposed to making day-to-day decisions for a Major League Baseball team.

Well, would you look at that, Bobby Valentine has found himself employment in sports talk radio. Richard Deitsch has the details on Valentine’s return to sports media as a radio host for NBC Sports. Bobby V will co-host a baseball show beginning in April.

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Kyle Lohse set career bests in innings pitched, wins, strikeouts, ERA, FIP, xFIP, and WHIP in 2012. The man wants to get paid. The only offer Kyle Lohse has received so far this winter was the $13.3 million qualifying offer from the St. Louis Cardinals that he and his agent, Scott Boras, rejected. Like the navy Cardinals cap, Kyle Lohse may no longer have a future in St. Louis, thanks in large part to the qualifying offer that his most recent employer floated his way. By ensuring themselves that they would receive a compensatory draft choice from any team that elects to sign Kyle Lohse, the Cardinals hold all the leverage in any potential reunion with the right handed pitcher. So Kyle Lohse waits.

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It has almost become an offseason ritual. Semi-retired/oft-injured/tired old guy/PED shamed hurler mulls a comeback, will throw for prospective teams. Occasionally, we’re treated to such nostalgia driven spectacles mid-season, like the minor league reemergence of Rogers Clemens and Ben Sheets crawling out of his grave in 2012. Hey, they made for great stories, regardless of how prosperous the results were. Enter Javier Vazquez and usual suspect Brandon Webb as the front runners in this winter’s back-from-the-dead pitcher campaign.

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The Boston Red Sox are having “serious discussions” with free agent pitcher Ryan Dempster, Ken Rosenthal reports. Just how serious said discussions are remains a mystery. Surely, they’re not regarding a long-term contract for a pitcher who will turn 36 next season. That’s just silly.

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Despite what Billy Beane wrote in Moneyball way back in 2009, scouts are important. Players do not just materialize out of thin air. There are no open tryouts from which a 25 man roster is selected. Scouts scour the world for talent and, with some luck and an unimaginable amount of hard work, some of that talent rises to become the best players in the big leagues.

Scouting is valuable. Scouts dug up Miguel Cabrera and scouts insisted that drafting Mike Trout was a good idea. No matter how much results vary (thanks in no small part to the benevolence baseball Gods), scouts make the game go ’round. It is a really tough gig, as the differences between “star in high school” and “washed out in A-ball” are nearly imperceptible.

Scouting in real time is hard. Scouting after the fact? Easy as pie!

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