I like reading about new ballparks. To paraphrase Tim Kurkjian from Is This a Great Game, or What?, Baseball really sets itself apart from the other sports because every ballpark is substantially different from other ballparks, the field has different dimensions and people will actually travel to see the other parks. That really doesnt happen in the NBA and NFL.

Anyway, the Rays announced plans yesterday for a new stadium. Tropicanna is not that old, they have been playing there for 10 years. The new stadium opens up on the water, and through the graphics that have been released, very pleasing to the eye. It is open air with a retractable roof and feels like it has a sail theme, check it out on their site.

 

 

milb.com is counting down the top 50 prospects now, with the top 10 still a secret, so far Fernando Martinez for the Mets has been ranked at #17.

On the Twins website, you can view their new stadium. It looks very nice and seems to go over a freeway of some sort. The stadiumd design was approved recently.

The real nature of this post is a look at Dan Haren. In 2003 he pitched agaisnt the Phillies twice, which resulted in this line:
0-1, 2 G, 12 IP, 5.25 ERA, 7 ER, 8 SO, 2 BB
His ERA in 2003 was 5.08.

In 2004 and 2005 he pitched agaisnt the Braves twice. The line is:
2-0, 2 G, 11.2 IP, 5.40 ERA, 7 ER, 8 SO, 2 BB
His ERA in 04 was 4.50 and his ERA in 05 was 3.73.

He pitched for the Cards in 03 and 04 playing in 14 games each year, and only starting 5 of those games in 2004. His strikeout count for his seasons starting in 03 and going to 07 have been 43, 32, 163, 176, 192.

This data can bee found at baseballreference.com

The reason I feel that he would be great for the Mets is his IP totals. Since going to Oakland, he has had 3 years of over 200 innings pitched, 217, 223, and around 222. Thats really amazing.

Everyonce in a while, a strange object finds its well to MLB auctions.

http://auction.mlb.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=88837013&prmenbr=33072944&aunbr=89183723

This is one of those objects. Any of you who watched the Indians and the Yankess int eh ALDS will probably remeber the bug problem during game 2. Joba was having a lot of problems with them and this is the can of OFF from the game that the players used.

I read in The Record a few days ago that this item would be going on sale, but the craziness doesn't hit you until you actually see the object up for auction.

Peter Schmuk wrote an excellent editorial today in the Baltimore Sun, about how a combination of Hunter sigining and Miguel Cabrera on the market will effect the trading market, especially for Oriole players. To summarize in brief, the Orioles cannot trade Tejada at this moment since Cabrera is higher on the chain than Tejada. The Cabrera possibly trade is effected by the Hunter signing because the Dodgers were supposed to be big players for Hunter, and now they need to make a big splash to go along with new manager Torre. In the long run, this still means that Tejada will be traded, just it will happen after Miguel is traded.

How does this effect the Mets? In terms of a possible trade with the Twins for Santana, the Twins have to wait and see if the Dodgers trade all of their chips for Miguel, if they dont, then it will be easier for the Mets to make a move. Regarding Bedard, Oriole fans are getting frustrated and they want something to happen. The waiting will make deals that the Mets propose seem better. Also, if the Dodgers trade for Miguel Cab. that means Tejada will most likly go to the Angels. The Angels will most likely trade pitching, which means the Mets can offer Outfielders.

Now if the Doders do not get Cabera, then they will probably offere big chips like Matt Kemp for Bedard. This in turn would hurt the Mets chances for Bedard, but maybe could help their chances for Santana.

 

This is going to be a craz winter trade rumor wise.

Continuing the watch on Hunter, mlbtraderumors.com has a good list of contracts that have been offered to him. Five teams have offered contracts to him, not including the twins and you can check out those teams at www.mlbtraderumors.com

About Bedard, I feel that this trade my work:
This is not a rumor this is not a fact, this is just an IDEA that I thought of, so there is no basis behind it.

The Orioles need two broad categories: position players (non catcher) and people for the penn, they have a superfulous amount of young starters.
I feel a trade of Milledge, Gomez, A. Hernandez and Heilman might work to get Bedard and Bradford. The only player the Orioles have in the Outfield is Markakis, who plays rightfield, Milledge can play left and Gomez seems destined one day for Center due to speed, that would help the Orioles by giving them a young talented outfield.
The Orioles pen really took a hit with Ray and Baez both being DL'ed for all of 2008 and part of 2009. Chad Bradford is not popular down here either, partally he went from being a specialist, which he excelled in  with the Mets in 2006, to being a setup in 2007, which he really couldn't execute in. The Mets could use him again. Heilman would probably be a closer with the Orioles or even possibly a starter, so that works for both sides.
The Orioles are going to trade Tejada this offseason, they are going to need a shortstop. They have brandon fahey, but he really cannot play everyday. A plattoon of Hernandez and Fahey might actually work.

For the Mets, its pretty obvious. They get Bradford back as a specialist and they get a Cy Young canditate pitcher who is a power pitcher. Bedard goes for strikeouts, which will really revolutionize the rotation on the Mets.

I really have not been paying much attention to Tori recently, partially because I know he has no interest in the Mets and the Mets really have no interest in him.

As much of a soap opera as Arod was, Tori is beginning to become a soap opera as well. I was reading some of the articles about him today over at mlbtraderumors.com.

Apparently, the Chicago Tribune reported that Hunter would sign with the White Sox this week. He claims that he never said that. He was actually having dinner with the Rangers last night, who have made it known to Hunter and the rest of the league that Tori Hunter is the top priority. According to mlbtraderumors.com, they have been talking a five year deal.

The dodgers are not out of it either for Hunter. The dodgers can make a splash with Cabera at third base OR Bedard as a starter (even with their superflous amount of talent to trade, I really doubt they have enough to trade for both), and they are lookign to add a big name FA in centerfield.

The Oriole fan in me is biased here because the Orioles NEED Bedard for people to come to the ballpark. At this point, they have to construct a team around Bedard and Markakis. I feel as though the stock for Tejada is even falling now during the offseason and they have to make a trade.

Now that the Mets are interested in Eckstein, we should take a look at his stats vs two of our biggest rivals. He has played in his carear 17 games agasint the Phils and 17 agaisnt the Braves. In a regular season, we play the Phils and Braves a total of 19 times, so lets assume that out of those 19 games, Eckstein gets to play 17 each, or 34 total.

First:
Carear vs Phils: 60 AB, 6 R, 14 H, 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 SB, .233 BA
Carear vs Atl: 65 AB, 9 R, 21 H, 3 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 3 SB, .323 BA

Putting those two statistics together, we get:
125 AB, 15 R, 35 H, 5 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 5 SB, .280 BA

To put these statistics into perspective, he is a carear .286 Hitter, the last two seasons he has 3 and 2 Homers respectivly (2 of those 5 did come against these teams). Last season he had 31 RBI's, if you extrapolate these 8 RBI over how many games he played last season (117), he would have 27 RBI's.

Lets take a look at the stats of David Wright age 22-24 vs ARod age 22-24 vs Chipper Jones 23-25.

David Wright
1761 AB, 553 H, 83 HR, 71 SB, 232 BB, .314 BA

ARod
1742 AB, 531 H, 125 HR, 82 SB, 201 BB, .305 BA

Chipper Jones
1719 AB, 500 H, 74 HR, 42 SB, 236 BB, .291 BA

Here are some intresting notes from these stats:
ARod had 46 SB when he was 22, he had a lot before that as well but from 23 on, his SB have been pretty down to Earth (23 he had 21 and 24 he had 15). David over these three years increased in hits each year. Arod didnt play a full season when he was 23, but his BA took a drop from .310 to .285. Of these three Wright is the one that shows in most cases a consistant foward progress. He also shows the most balance of speed and power, but we didnt need these stats to show that.Chipper's first season was when he was 23, he played a few games at the age of 21 but none at the age of 22.

I don't know why I have been thinking about this the past few days, but remeber "Turn Ahead the Clocks" night at many ballparks in 1999. If you don't remeber these nights, this was the idea for the night. Based off of the turn back the clock nights, turn ahead the clock nights was a gimick where Baseball predicted, and sold, what uniforms would look in the year 2027.

The execution of this idea was pretty horrible. They were all pullover Jersies with wierd sholders and for the most part, a supersized logo of the team on the chest. Other teams had really old icons large on their chests or just changed their color schemes.

The Mets had to be different, very different, and they decided that in the year 2027, they would play on Mercury thus their uniforms had a picture of the planet on it, and the Mets symbol above it. The Hats had the Mercurty symbol on them.

This is a link to a You Tube video that was on ESPN. The segment really catches the uniform diaster in the right light. It also includes Robin Ventura being asked about them in the locker room.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kr8KZwf9_VI 

This is just a quick note. As I was walking into my room, someone dragged me away to show me something really terrible.
Ok not so terrible but

The devil rays are now the rays, they changed their logo to a sunray thing and their colors are now baby blue and white, and maybe an alternated navy blue.

I actually like their old uni's, both of them (the original and the recent ones)

Go to their home page to check it out.

This is just an idea. Its not a rumor, probably has limited support, it just popped into my head earlier today, and I wanted to see what other people think.

If no F.A. starting pitchers are signed or traded for, our rotation is probably like this:
Pedro
Maine
El Duque
Perez
Pelfry/Humber

 

The idea that I wanted to talk about is an interesting Spring Training Experiment the Mets can try Spring 08. Lets say that the Mets sign a few strong right handed bullpen men this offseason. So why not have a competition between Pelfry, Humber and Heilman for that final rotation spot.

Its no secret that Heilman has always wanted to be in the rotation. He has been pretty solid in the pen, but lets say the Mets get 2 good right handed bullpen guys, why not try Heilman for the rotation.

Personally, based on what I have seen the last few seasons, I would really have to be wowed for Heilman to make the rotation. He is good, but I do not think he is effective more than once around a batting order. But during Spring Training, you never know what you might discover. (And then again Spring Training is not truely accurate for how a season plays out) The likly hood of this scenario happening is very very slim, but its still a thought

I wanted to take a look at players that during the 2007 were above average agaisnt the Mets, thus having a potential impact on 2008.

In the case of Kelly Johnson, He destroyed the Mets in the first half of the 2007 baseball season. Before the All Star Break His numbers were monstrous agaisnt the Mets (his numbers took a nosedive after, so I didnt record them here)

Batting Avg Agaisnt the Mets: .370
Slugging Agaisnt the Mets: .815
OBP agaisnt the Mets: .485

These numbers for him when all of his games before the allstar break are considred fall out to be:

BA: .287
SLG:.467
OBP:. 386

Second half of the year, he hit a .200 vs the Mets, Bringing his season vs the Mets to a .274

We all know that the Braves are looking for a centerfielder, a big time player.
We also all know that Tori Hunter said that one of his qualifications for his new team is tha that they have to have a large African American population, and that he quoted Atlanta and Washington D.C. as possiby choices.

 

Recently the Braves traded Edgar Renteria. This freed up money for the Braves to make a push for a big time player. (About 9 million a year so lets say Tori gets some where around 20 a year, budget wise, its an 11 mil increase for the Braves).

According to Mlbtraderumors.com. The Nationals have been doing some work to. They have contacted Tori, and Andruw, and Rowand, and have been linked to Glavine. On the note of Tori Hunter, he likes DC because of reasons stated and Dmitri Young.

Although Glavine has said he would either pitch again with the Braves or the Mets, he has been linked to the Nationals. By the end of this offseason we could see a swap of Free Agents between teams of the East.

Personally, I would feel better with Hunter on the Nationals because that team is not a threat yet. That being said, their lineup would be noticably tougher with Zimmerman in the three spot, Dmitri in the four spot (although I expect his numbers to drop) and Hunter in the fifth spot.

There is an interesting article over at mlb.com today. Apparently Bonds is telling the Hall of Fame that he will boycott his own induction if the 756 ball is displayed with the asterisk on it. This is all I read of the article, I've had my fill of Bonds, and I am done with stories realted to him.

Mlbtraderumors.com discusses A-Rod and the giants. Basically half the team payroll will be invested in Barry Zito and A-Rod.

There is a blog over at foxsports.com that explains that the Phillies should try to get Atkins from the Rockies to fill the void they have at third base and hitting lefties.

While searching the net today for baseball news, I came across an interesting article over at mlbtraderumors.com. The article listed in order of predicted effectiveness in America, Japanese players that can come over to America this offseason. I already talked about one of them, Hiroki Kuroda, but his ranked number 3. At number 1 is Hitoki Iwase.

Mlbtraderumors.com describes him as someone that loves Okijima would love. He has a very nice slider and fastball around 93 mph. Mlb4u.com describes his slider and fastball to Otsuka. He has the most saves in a single season in Japan at 46. Over the past three years, his ERA has been 43, 40, and 46. His ERA has been 1.88, 1.30 and 2.10 (carear 1.91). He throws lefthander and is 32 years old.

Assuming that Sanchez is availble towards the begining of the season, this might not be a bad move. Sanchez the right handed setup and the Iwase the lefthanded setup. Heilman, our current setup, is also right handed. This just seems like a nice calculated risk. I normally do not like Japanese pitchers, but his ERA is so low in Japan, I really cant see him going about 3.25 in America.