- Marcus Giles literally did a '180', just as he was about to reach Las Vegas to play for the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, for a shot at playing third base for the West Coast club.
The plan was for Giles to go to Las Vegas, reacquaint himself with 3B, where he has just nine career appearances and none since 2005, prove that he could play there for about 10 days, then get called up and share time with Blake DeWitt until Nomar or Abreu comes back. ... And then, as Giles was in his car driving to Las Vegas from his home near San Diego, HE CHANGED HIS MIND. Just decided he wasn't coming. Turned the car around and went home. ... And the worst part is, the Dodgers passed on two other players they could have signed because they were convinced they had Giles, and neither of those players is still available.
- Curtis Granderson has a new journal published on ESPN, in which he talked, among other things, about the performance on Brandon Inge in center field:
Brandon Inge made the start in center field and played great, both offensively and defensively. Inge also showed off his cannon of an arm to throw out the Royals' Mark Teahen at the plate in the top of the 11th inning. Before and after the game, the media had been going to Inge and I asking if I had given him any tips on what to do out there in center field. I'm not sure if people have forgotten, but Inge had played center field already in the past at Comerica Park, had played this spring in center, and also is very athletic. I think if we had a game and could afford to do it, Inge could play every position on the field in a nine-inning game. Once Inge is out on the field, his abilities take over and he makes great plays just like he did with that amazing throw.
With a Baseball-Reference research, I could find the following ranking of center fielders with the most strikeouts in one season since 1901 (they had to have 90% of their playing time in CF):
Preston Wilson (2000) - 187 K
Mike Cameron (2002) - 176 K
Gorman Thomas (1979) - 175 K
Curtis Granderson (2006) - 175 K
And which center fielder posted the best OBP in a single season since 1901?
Mickey Mantle (1957) - .512, a full .26 point above the closest player (Ty Cobb, .486). Tris Speaker holds the 3 through 6 positions of the ranking.
Baseball manager Tris Speaker, Cleveland Indians, crouching on the
field at Comiskey Park (1923) They would finish the season in
third place, with a 81-71 record (Library of Congress)
- David Chase put up 'The Ultimate Guide to Minor League Baseball'. According to him, you'll find this ressource helpful if you:
* Want to put MLB prospects' production into context.
* Want a quick reference to MLB teams' and their minor league affiliates.
* Want to know which leagues those affiliates compete in, and
* Want to benchmark the performance of those affiliates' ballparks.
- The following was sent to me by a friend. It's an article from a 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated (they have opened the vault over there!) about Sidd Finch:
The phenomenon the three young batters faced, and about whom only Reynolds, Stottlemyre and a few members of the Mets' front office know, is a 28-year-old, somewhat eccentric mystic named Hayden (Sidd) Finch. He may well change the course of baseball history. On St. Patrick's Day, to make sure they were not all victims of a crazy hallucination, the Mets brought in a radar gun to measure the speed of Finch's fastball. The model used was a JUGS Supergun II. It looks like a black space gun with a big snout, weighs about five pounds and is usually pointed at the pitcher from behind the catcher. A glass plate in the back of the gun shows the pitch's velocity—accurate, so the manufacturer claims, to within plus or minus 1 mph. The figure at the top of the gauge is 200 mph.
The fastest projectile ever measured by the JUGS (which is named after the oldtimer's descriptive—the "jug-handled" curveball) was a Roscoe Tanner serve that registered 153 mph. The highest number that the JUGS had ever turned for a baseball was 103 mph, which it did, curiously, twice on one day, July 11, at the 1978 All-Star game when both Goose Gossage and Nolan Ryan threw the ball at that speed. On March 17, the gun was handled by Stottlemyre. He heard the pop of the ball in Reynolds's mitt and the little squeak of pain from the catcher. Then the astonishing figure 168 appeared on the glass plate. Stottlemyre remembers whistling in amazement, and then he heard Reynolds say, "Don't tell me, Mel, I don't want to know...."
The Met front office is reluctant to talk about Finch. The fact is, they know very little about him. He has had no baseball career. Most of his life has been spent abroad, except for a short period at Harvard University.
The registrar's office at Harvard will release no information about Finch except that in the spring of 1976 he withdrew from the college in midterm. The alumni records in Harvard's Holyoke Center indicate slightly more. Finch spent his early childhood in an orphanage in Leicester, England and was adopted by a foster parent, the eminent archaeologist Francis Whyte-Finch, who was killed in an airplane crash while on an expedition in the Dhaulagiri mountain area of Nepal. At the time of the tragedy, Finch was in his last year at the Stowe School in Buckingham, England, from which he had been accepted into Harvard.
Apparently, though, the boy decided to spend a year in the general area of the plane crash in the Himalayas (the plane was never actually found) before he returned to the West and entered Harvard in 1975, dropping for unknown reasons the "Whyte" from his name. Hayden Finch's picture is not in the freshman yearbook. Nor, of course, did he play baseball at Harvard, having departed before the start of the spring season.
- Following the Sun-Sentinel column yesterday about the Marlins payroll being ridiculously low and wondering all the money goes (in the pockets of Samson and Loria, formidable human beings), we are now treated to this:
Boosted by his new deal with the New York Yankees, A-Rod tops the major league baseball salary list at US$28 million, according to a study of contract terms by The Associated Press. The 33 players on the Marlins' opening-day roster and disabled list total $21.8 million.
"The Marlins? It's amazing," Rodriguez said. "And they still seem to find a way to be very competitive.
(...)
Florida's highest earner doesn't even make the average. Pitcher Kevin Gregg tops the Marlins at $2.5 million.
"My best friend came into town, and he mentioned something about Johan Santana making $15 million more than our five starters combined," Marlins catcher Matt Treanor said. "It's something to laugh at, but at the same time, it is what it is.
"Those guys put on the uniform like us. When it comes time to start the game, it doesn't matter how much money the Yankees or whoever make."
It was also announced yesterday that the average salary in the majors has now reached $3 M.
To be perfectly honest with you, I could not care less that the salaries increase that much every year, because from the mouth of the chef d'orchestre himself, baseball has never been in a better financial situation, with revenues that reached $6.7 B last year. For the players to get 55-60% of that amount is perfectly reasonable.
What I don't get is when #2-3 starters like Barry Zito get about $20 M per year and at the same time, these executives make the playing field uneven when the time comes to sign free agents.
Good news for me though, because San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean forgot to put a team together to support that investment and it could dictate a few things in the future for big-name free agent: take $2 M less per year, for example, and go where you see the future is bright and the front office wants to put you into a competitive environment.
For all the dollars that will pile up in Zito's bank account in the next 6 years, it will not buy the team a championship...not even close.
But hey, money talks they say.
- LA Dodgers' third base coach, Larry Bowa, was ejected by an umpire yesterday after not respecting a previous notice to stay within the limits of the coaching box on the field.
Major League Baseball announced in late February that starting this year, first- and third-base coaches must not cross the lines toward home plate or the field until batted balls pass them. Only then can they take up other spots to guide runners.
"We got a memo and an edict, and they're adamant about the box and stuff," Montague said. "Don't go up in front of the box toward home plate, and don't get any closer to the foul lines. I told Bo in the bottom of the fifth, because he got up close. And that's what caught my eye. And I just told him, 'Bo, you got the memo, we got the memo, and you've got to stay back.' I went over and told Joe in-between innings what I told Bo. And Bo just said, 'I'm going to do it the way I've always been doing it.'
"I said, 'Bo, if you go up, I'm going to have to run you.' And he said, 'Do what you've got to do, and it is what it is.' When he got up in front of it again, I said, 'Bo, I told you once, now get back in the box.' He argued it, and finally I said, 'You're gone.' So I gave him every chance in the book and he defied it.
"It's probably one of the dumbest ejections I've had."
Bowa unleashed a profanity-laced tirade regarding the rule as he left the Dodger Stadium.
- The Biz of Baseball has a list of all 239 players born outside the United States.
Overall, 28.0 percent of the 855 Major League players (749 active 25-man roster players, 106 disabled or restricted Major League players) on March 30th rosters were born outside the 50 United States, representing 16 different countries or territories. In 2007, a record 246 players were born outside the United States, amounting to 29.0 percent of players on Opening Day rosters and disabled lists. The highest percentage of foreign-born players occurred in 2005, when 29.2 percent of those on Opening Day rosters and disabled lists were born outside the United States.
The Dominican Republic has produced the most Major League players born outside the U.S. with 88. Veneuela (52 players) and Puerto Rico (29) have the next most, followed by Japan (16), Canada (14), Mexico (11) and Cuba (8). Other countries or territories represented include Australia, Colombia, Curacao, Korea, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Taiwan and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- The New York Post reports that Jose Canseco revealed other things about A-Rod and his ex-wife:
Jose Canseco fired another shot at Alex Rodriguez yesterday, saying he believes the Yankees star did more than just lust after his ex-wife, Jessica. "I believe they had an affair," Canseco said during a book-signing in Ridgewood, N.J. "I'm pretty sure of it. I spoke with Alex and he denied it, but the way he denied it, it wasn't reassuring. I spoke to my ex-wife last year about it and I'm not going to say she acknowledged that they did, but she did not say that they did not." Canseco wrote in his new book "Vindicated" that Rodriguez was smitten with his then-wife and constantly called her. Canseco has said this is the reason he hates Rodriguez and decided to include him in his new book, including allegations that he introduced the Yankees third baseman to a steroid dealer in the late 1990s.
Canseco was on Letterman last night:
- David Sabino, editor/writer for Sport Illustrated, wrote the following in today's SI email to subscribers:
The Mets' Pedro Martinez -- who has battled foot, hip, calf and shoulder injuries over the past two seasons -- allowed home runs in each of the first two innings of last night's loss to the Marlins, the first time in his major league career that happened, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Martinez left after 57 pitches last night with what the team said was a strained left hamstring.
- Brian McNamee is selling Roger Clemens and other player autographed items (50 to 60) on eBay, through a dealer.
The story was first reported by the Boston Herald.
Items signed by Jose Canseco, Andy Pettitte and Jason Grimsley are also part of the sale.
Castinetti believes the items, including signed hats, jerseys, photographs and baseballs, could fetch as much as $75,000. He has already starting listing them on the Internet auction site eBay.
"He was going to throw this stuff away," Castinetti told the New York Daily News. "Because of the hard feelings between him and Clemens, he wanted nothing to do with it."
The Daily News reported neither Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, nor his agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, returned calls seeking comment.
Steve Cardillo, a mutual friend of McNamee and Castinetti, said he convinced McNamee to sell the items rather than discard them and possibly donate the proceeds for juvenile diabetes research, the Daily News reported.
- Dugout Central asks an excellent question: "Could Ozzie Smith Have Played in Today's Game?"
So what would Ozzie Smith do today? He would have a hard time keeping a job. This isn't to say that Smith wasn't a great player or that he doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
The reason Ozzie Smith enjoyed a long career is because he was a tremendously talented fielder who was given ample time to develop into an effective hitter. Although it took Smith years to hone his hitting skills, he played at a time when teams expected shortstops to generate far less offense.
There's a point where a player, no matter how talented in the field, becomes such an offensive burden that he loses his job. That's why there are no .100 hitting gold glove shortstops.
Early in his career Smith was a horrible batter, especially his second through fourth seasons in San Diego. But he kept his job because of his fielding proficiency. However, the level of tolerance has changed. With so much more offense expected from shortstops, most teams wouldn't be patient enough to suffer through Smith's early struggles.
- With the postponed game in Yankee Stadium and the enjoyable blackout restrictions of MLBTV, I found myself without a game to see yesterday. So, I'm currently watching the Toronto-New York game:
*Baseball Gods at work: if the game had been played Monday, it would have been the first Opening Day in Yankee Stadium history to be played in March.
*Alex Rios has a 21-game hitting streak going against the Yankees.
*Roy Halladay struck out Johnny Damon on three pitches to open the 2008 season for the Blue Jays. Paul O'Neill (YES commentator with Michael Kay) says: "I remember the first time I faced him. As a left-handed hitter, he has that cutter and it's very tough to go up there against him."
*Last 6 Yankees bench coaches: Rob Thomson (2008), Don Mattingly (2007), Lee Mazzilli (2006), Joe Girardi (2005), Willie Randolph (2004) and Don Zimmer (2003).
- Tracy Ringlosby tells us that former Royals starter Jorge De La Rosa has cleared waivers and accepted to be sent to the minors, clearing the way for him to go to Colorado, as the Player To Be Named Later in the RHP Ramon Ramirez deal.
They agreed to send him to the Royals for a player to be determined. De la Rosa was the Rockies' No. 1 target, but they wanted him to get through waivers and take the minor league assignment because they want him to pitch at Triple-A Colorado Springs. The agreement on Ramirez technically said the Rockies had until June 15 to finalize the deal.
De la Rosa, who turns 26 on Saturday, is a lefty who has a fastball in the mid-90s, but he has been inconsistent with strikes. He was 8-12 with a 5.82 ERA as a starter for the Royals last year. He has a $1 million salary.
- Here are the Opening Day payroll in major league baseball:
N.Y. Yankees -- $209,081,579
Detroit -- 138,685,197
New York Mets -- 138,293,378
Boston -- 133,440,037
Chicago White Sox -- 121,152,667
Los Angeles Angels -- 119,216,333
Chicago Cubs -- 118,595,833
Los Angeles Dodgers -- 118,536,038
Seattle -- 117,993,982
Atlanta -- 102,424,018
St. Louis -- 100,624,450
Toronto -- 98,641,957
Philadelphia -- 98,269,881
Houston -- 88,930,415
Milwaukee -- 81,004,167
Cleveland -- 78,970,067
San Francisco -- 76,904,500
Cincinnati -- 74,277,695
San Diego -- 73,677,617
Colorado -- 68,655,500
Texas -- 68,239,551
Baltimore -- 67,196,248
Arizona -- 66,202,713
Minnesota -- 62,182,767
Kansas City -- 58,245,500
Washington -- 54,961,000
Pittsburgh -- 49,365,283
Oakland -- 47,967,126
Tampa Bay -- 43,820,598
Florida -- 21,836,500
Want to offer an interesting link or simply reach me? drouleau@baseballdigestdaily.com
* Want to put MLB prospects' production into context.
* Want a quick reference to MLB teams' and their minor league affiliates.
* Want to know which leagues those affiliates compete in, and
* Want to benchmark the performance of those affiliates' ballparks.
- The following was sent to me by a friend. It's an article from a 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated (they have opened the vault over there!) about Sidd Finch:
The phenomenon the three young batters faced, and about whom only Reynolds, Stottlemyre and a few members of the Mets' front office know, is a 28-year-old, somewhat eccentric mystic named Hayden (Sidd) Finch. He may well change the course of baseball history. On St. Patrick's Day, to make sure they were not all victims of a crazy hallucination, the Mets brought in a radar gun to measure the speed of Finch's fastball. The model used was a JUGS Supergun II. It looks like a black space gun with a big snout, weighs about five pounds and is usually pointed at the pitcher from behind the catcher. A glass plate in the back of the gun shows the pitch's velocity—accurate, so the manufacturer claims, to within plus or minus 1 mph. The figure at the top of the gauge is 200 mph.
The fastest projectile ever measured by the JUGS (which is named after the oldtimer's descriptive—the "jug-handled" curveball) was a Roscoe Tanner serve that registered 153 mph. The highest number that the JUGS had ever turned for a baseball was 103 mph, which it did, curiously, twice on one day, July 11, at the 1978 All-Star game when both Goose Gossage and Nolan Ryan threw the ball at that speed. On March 17, the gun was handled by Stottlemyre. He heard the pop of the ball in Reynolds's mitt and the little squeak of pain from the catcher. Then the astonishing figure 168 appeared on the glass plate. Stottlemyre remembers whistling in amazement, and then he heard Reynolds say, "Don't tell me, Mel, I don't want to know...."
The Met front office is reluctant to talk about Finch. The fact is, they know very little about him. He has had no baseball career. Most of his life has been spent abroad, except for a short period at Harvard University.
The registrar's office at Harvard will release no information about Finch except that in the spring of 1976 he withdrew from the college in midterm. The alumni records in Harvard's Holyoke Center indicate slightly more. Finch spent his early childhood in an orphanage in Leicester, England and was adopted by a foster parent, the eminent archaeologist Francis Whyte-Finch, who was killed in an airplane crash while on an expedition in the Dhaulagiri mountain area of Nepal. At the time of the tragedy, Finch was in his last year at the Stowe School in Buckingham, England, from which he had been accepted into Harvard.
Apparently, though, the boy decided to spend a year in the general area of the plane crash in the Himalayas (the plane was never actually found) before he returned to the West and entered Harvard in 1975, dropping for unknown reasons the "Whyte" from his name. Hayden Finch's picture is not in the freshman yearbook. Nor, of course, did he play baseball at Harvard, having departed before the start of the spring season.
- Following the Sun-Sentinel column yesterday about the Marlins payroll being ridiculously low and wondering all the money goes (in the pockets of Samson and Loria, formidable human beings), we are now treated to this:
Boosted by his new deal with the New York Yankees, A-Rod tops the major league baseball salary list at US$28 million, according to a study of contract terms by The Associated Press. The 33 players on the Marlins' opening-day roster and disabled list total $21.8 million.
"The Marlins? It's amazing," Rodriguez said. "And they still seem to find a way to be very competitive.
(...)
Florida's highest earner doesn't even make the average. Pitcher Kevin Gregg tops the Marlins at $2.5 million.
"My best friend came into town, and he mentioned something about Johan Santana making $15 million more than our five starters combined," Marlins catcher Matt Treanor said. "It's something to laugh at, but at the same time, it is what it is.
"Those guys put on the uniform like us. When it comes time to start the game, it doesn't matter how much money the Yankees or whoever make."
It was also announced yesterday that the average salary in the majors has now reached $3 M.
To be perfectly honest with you, I could not care less that the salaries increase that much every year, because from the mouth of the chef d'orchestre himself, baseball has never been in a better financial situation, with revenues that reached $6.7 B last year. For the players to get 55-60% of that amount is perfectly reasonable.
What I don't get is when #2-3 starters like Barry Zito get about $20 M per year and at the same time, these executives make the playing field uneven when the time comes to sign free agents.
Good news for me though, because San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean forgot to put a team together to support that investment and it could dictate a few things in the future for big-name free agent: take $2 M less per year, for example, and go where you see the future is bright and the front office wants to put you into a competitive environment.
For all the dollars that will pile up in Zito's bank account in the next 6 years, it will not buy the team a championship...not even close.
But hey, money talks they say.
- LA Dodgers' third base coach, Larry Bowa, was ejected by an umpire yesterday after not respecting a previous notice to stay within the limits of the coaching box on the field.
Major League Baseball announced in late February that starting this year, first- and third-base coaches must not cross the lines toward home plate or the field until batted balls pass them. Only then can they take up other spots to guide runners.
"We got a memo and an edict, and they're adamant about the box and stuff," Montague said. "Don't go up in front of the box toward home plate, and don't get any closer to the foul lines. I told Bo in the bottom of the fifth, because he got up close. And that's what caught my eye. And I just told him, 'Bo, you got the memo, we got the memo, and you've got to stay back.' I went over and told Joe in-between innings what I told Bo. And Bo just said, 'I'm going to do it the way I've always been doing it.'
"I said, 'Bo, if you go up, I'm going to have to run you.' And he said, 'Do what you've got to do, and it is what it is.' When he got up in front of it again, I said, 'Bo, I told you once, now get back in the box.' He argued it, and finally I said, 'You're gone.' So I gave him every chance in the book and he defied it.
"It's probably one of the dumbest ejections I've had."
Bowa unleashed a profanity-laced tirade regarding the rule as he left the Dodger Stadium.
- The Biz of Baseball has a list of all 239 players born outside the United States.
Overall, 28.0 percent of the 855 Major League players (749 active 25-man roster players, 106 disabled or restricted Major League players) on March 30th rosters were born outside the 50 United States, representing 16 different countries or territories. In 2007, a record 246 players were born outside the United States, amounting to 29.0 percent of players on Opening Day rosters and disabled lists. The highest percentage of foreign-born players occurred in 2005, when 29.2 percent of those on Opening Day rosters and disabled lists were born outside the United States.
The Dominican Republic has produced the most Major League players born outside the U.S. with 88. Veneuela (52 players) and Puerto Rico (29) have the next most, followed by Japan (16), Canada (14), Mexico (11) and Cuba (8). Other countries or territories represented include Australia, Colombia, Curacao, Korea, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Taiwan and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- The New York Post reports that Jose Canseco revealed other things about A-Rod and his ex-wife:
Jose Canseco fired another shot at Alex Rodriguez yesterday, saying he believes the Yankees star did more than just lust after his ex-wife, Jessica. "I believe they had an affair," Canseco said during a book-signing in Ridgewood, N.J. "I'm pretty sure of it. I spoke with Alex and he denied it, but the way he denied it, it wasn't reassuring. I spoke to my ex-wife last year about it and I'm not going to say she acknowledged that they did, but she did not say that they did not." Canseco wrote in his new book "Vindicated" that Rodriguez was smitten with his then-wife and constantly called her. Canseco has said this is the reason he hates Rodriguez and decided to include him in his new book, including allegations that he introduced the Yankees third baseman to a steroid dealer in the late 1990s.
Canseco was on Letterman last night:
This video is now also available on the Baseball Digest Daily Channel.
- David Sabino, editor/writer for Sport Illustrated, wrote the following in today's SI email to subscribers:
The Mets' Pedro Martinez -- who has battled foot, hip, calf and shoulder injuries over the past two seasons -- allowed home runs in each of the first two innings of last night's loss to the Marlins, the first time in his major league career that happened, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Martinez left after 57 pitches last night with what the team said was a strained left hamstring.
- Brian McNamee is selling Roger Clemens and other player autographed items (50 to 60) on eBay, through a dealer.
The story was first reported by the Boston Herald.
Items signed by Jose Canseco, Andy Pettitte and Jason Grimsley are also part of the sale.
Castinetti believes the items, including signed hats, jerseys, photographs and baseballs, could fetch as much as $75,000. He has already starting listing them on the Internet auction site eBay.
"He was going to throw this stuff away," Castinetti told the New York Daily News. "Because of the hard feelings between him and Clemens, he wanted nothing to do with it."
The Daily News reported neither Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, nor his agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, returned calls seeking comment.
Steve Cardillo, a mutual friend of McNamee and Castinetti, said he convinced McNamee to sell the items rather than discard them and possibly donate the proceeds for juvenile diabetes research, the Daily News reported.
- Dugout Central asks an excellent question: "Could Ozzie Smith Have Played in Today's Game?"
So what would Ozzie Smith do today? He would have a hard time keeping a job. This isn't to say that Smith wasn't a great player or that he doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
The reason Ozzie Smith enjoyed a long career is because he was a tremendously talented fielder who was given ample time to develop into an effective hitter. Although it took Smith years to hone his hitting skills, he played at a time when teams expected shortstops to generate far less offense.
There's a point where a player, no matter how talented in the field, becomes such an offensive burden that he loses his job. That's why there are no .100 hitting gold glove shortstops.
Early in his career Smith was a horrible batter, especially his second through fourth seasons in San Diego. But he kept his job because of his fielding proficiency. However, the level of tolerance has changed. With so much more offense expected from shortstops, most teams wouldn't be patient enough to suffer through Smith's early struggles.
- With the postponed game in Yankee Stadium and the enjoyable blackout restrictions of MLBTV, I found myself without a game to see yesterday. So, I'm currently watching the Toronto-New York game:
*Baseball Gods at work: if the game had been played Monday, it would have been the first Opening Day in Yankee Stadium history to be played in March.
*Alex Rios has a 21-game hitting streak going against the Yankees.
*Roy Halladay struck out Johnny Damon on three pitches to open the 2008 season for the Blue Jays. Paul O'Neill (YES commentator with Michael Kay) says: "I remember the first time I faced him. As a left-handed hitter, he has that cutter and it's very tough to go up there against him."
*Last 6 Yankees bench coaches: Rob Thomson (2008), Don Mattingly (2007), Lee Mazzilli (2006), Joe Girardi (2005), Willie Randolph (2004) and Don Zimmer (2003).
- Tracy Ringlosby tells us that former Royals starter Jorge De La Rosa has cleared waivers and accepted to be sent to the minors, clearing the way for him to go to Colorado, as the Player To Be Named Later in the RHP Ramon Ramirez deal.
They agreed to send him to the Royals for a player to be determined. De la Rosa was the Rockies' No. 1 target, but they wanted him to get through waivers and take the minor league assignment because they want him to pitch at Triple-A Colorado Springs. The agreement on Ramirez technically said the Rockies had until June 15 to finalize the deal.
De la Rosa, who turns 26 on Saturday, is a lefty who has a fastball in the mid-90s, but he has been inconsistent with strikes. He was 8-12 with a 5.82 ERA as a starter for the Royals last year. He has a $1 million salary.
- Here are the Opening Day payroll in major league baseball:
N.Y. Yankees -- $209,081,579
Detroit -- 138,685,197
New York Mets -- 138,293,378
Boston -- 133,440,037
Chicago White Sox -- 121,152,667
Los Angeles Angels -- 119,216,333
Chicago Cubs -- 118,595,833
Los Angeles Dodgers -- 118,536,038
Seattle -- 117,993,982
Atlanta -- 102,424,018
St. Louis -- 100,624,450
Toronto -- 98,641,957
Philadelphia -- 98,269,881
Houston -- 88,930,415
Milwaukee -- 81,004,167
Cleveland -- 78,970,067
San Francisco -- 76,904,500
Cincinnati -- 74,277,695
San Diego -- 73,677,617
Colorado -- 68,655,500
Texas -- 68,239,551
Baltimore -- 67,196,248
Arizona -- 66,202,713
Minnesota -- 62,182,767
Kansas City -- 58,245,500
Washington -- 54,961,000
Pittsburgh -- 49,365,283
Oakland -- 47,967,126
Tampa Bay -- 43,820,598
Florida -- 21,836,500
Want to offer an interesting link or simply reach me? drouleau@baseballdigestdaily.com