Sunday, February 13, 2011

Evening In The Central

First and far most importantly, happy first day of spring training everyone, it's not quite the greatest day of the year - but it's awfully close. That first day when pitchers and catchers report is like a beacon that lets everyone know baseball is near. If you're a fan of an AL Central team, odds are you're living somewhere that's still pretty cold, and will still be pretty cold for another month. But even though we aren't there, we know that somewhere, catchers mitts are popping again and that salvation from our seemingly endless winter purgatory is at hand. And since Aaron Gleeman - one of my inspirations for writing about baseball - has already done it best, let me just remind everyone, here comes the sun.

Secondly, I apologize for the lack of content around here recently. I spent a couple days this weekend with my fiance enjoying some kid-free time to ourselves. Yes it was lovely. However, I also missed writing terribly and it took an enormous amount of will-power to keep from constantly checking in various websites. I think this is probably a good thing, it means that despite the significant (heck, insane) amount of time I invest into this website, it's still a passion. Yeah, that's a good thing.

But I'm back now and I should be cranking out content in bulk again. I'm still only about half way through my prospect profiles so there is still a lot of work for me to do with those and you'll continue to see one or two a day along with hopefully at least one links post. I'm also anxiously awaiting the Twin signing of Delmon Young, which would mean that baring any new acquisitions, all five teams have essentially finalized their rosters which will allow me to get my second-to-last set of payroll estimates for all five teams up. I'll do one more set right before the season gets under way that will provide you with exact opening day information.

- As I just got done saying, opening day is a really exciting time. A time when fans of teams who's season looks bleak, and even the guys on the field who's season is likely to be bleak, can be excited. It's also a time when fans find out whether all important facial hair superhero's will still be sporting their trademark looks.

- Over at Kings Of Kauffman, they've got a couple profiles up for prospects Jeremy Jeffress and Louis Coleman, both of whom could make an impact in the Royals 2011 bullpen.

- Messing with a kid like this just isn't fair. Ironically, in the event a central team were to acquire Michael Young, I think my general reaction would be the same. While there has been some speculation about where Young might land - the Twins were one of the eight teams not on his no-trade list - there is really no reason anyone should want him. A 34 year old with a career .795 OPS and 48m (16m per annum) remaining on his  contract, he's one of the most outrageously overpaid players in the game.The guys over at The Detroit Tigers Weblog offer a good rationale for why bringing Young in makes so little sense. So does Austin Drake of Detroit Tigers Scorecard.

- If you read my site regularly, you know that I give regular shout-outs to Jeff Parker of Royally Speaking, well, I'm continuing the trend today. I'll stop as soon as his good work does. And given that he's headed into his 4th year of blogging, I'm guessing that won't be any time soon. Most recently he breaks down the Royals rotation candidates by WAR.

If somehow you're a Royals fan (or fan of the Central) and his site isn't bookmarked yet, remedy that situation quickly.

- Remember when I took exception to Dave Dombrowski trading away Armando Galarraga? Well, over at Old English D, they hit on at least part of the reason why. I like Andrew Oliver a lot and think he'll be a very solid starter someday, but odds are he's not there just yet. Unfortunately, he's probably the best option the Tigers have in the event of an injury to their rotation.

- I've already spoke my piece on the issue, but now one of my favorite Indians authorities checks in with their thoughts on the Orlando Cabrera acquisition.

- I'm one of a handful of contributors to a site called 612sports.net, which is a great catch-all site for fans of Minnesota sports and I highly recommend it. In a bit of a unique post, Andrew Bryz-Gornia suggests the Twins should place a waiver claim on the Red Sox recently designated Robert Coello.

- Hold on, what? Kurt Menchsing does a link list and I'm not on it? Hrumph. #snubbed



Did I miss anything amazingly cool? Make sure to let me know.

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