Around the Horn: March 1, 2010

(1) Alfonso Soriano to hit 6^th for Cubs.

(2) Troy Glaus says his shoulder is doing well.

(3) Josh Hamilton still dealing with sore shoulder.

(4) Miguel Cabrera quits drinking, ready to mash on field.

(5) Jose Reyes plays/runs with positive results for Mets.

(6) Bobby Jenks – what does 2010 hold in store? You can hear my thoughts in the video and augment that with my Breaking Down: Jenks article.

By Ray Flowers

Something in the Water?

Is there something in the water today? I’m being serious. There are a few rather off stories in the news today, and while a couple of them have nothing to do with baseball, I just couldn’t resist writing about them today.

Even if you aren’t a hockey fan, you just have to love the passion that Alexander Ovechkin shows on a nightly basis. Not just the passion mind you, but the unimaginable skills as well. If you haven’t seen The Greatest Goal Ever Scored watch it, and make sure you watch the slow-mo replay – it will blow your mind. In addition to his on ice exploits (he has won the league MVP award the past two years), you have to love, and I mean LOVE what he recently said when interviewed by a Russian journalist.

Question: How do you prepare for the game? Is it true that you can’t have sex before the match?
OVECHKIN: Sex really helps, actually.
Question: Is that before or after the match?
OVECHKIN: Before and after.

As my college Ted Carlson said when he read this report – he shoots, he scores!

One of the classicest of all classic statements — ever.
(And yes, I know I made up that word).

Football player Charles Rogers, the wide receiver who was taken second overall in the 2003 NFL Entry Draft, was a complete and total bust – probably one of the top-5 in the history of the league. The second player taken in the country out of Michigan State went on to record 36 receptions, 440 yards and four touchdowns in his three year NFL career. What happened? Were the talent evaluators that far off? Was Rogers lazy? Well, turns out that one of the main reasons was that Rogers was “high”, and I don’t mean happy, pretty much every single day of his NFL career. In a recent interview Rogers admitted that he smoked marijuana almost every day while he was an NFL player. So let’s review. (1) A potentially lucrative career filled with ladies, fame, fortune went up in smoke. (2) Rogers was so stupid, and I mean absolutely devoid of intelligence, that he actually smoked himself out of the NFL. (3) Where was the NFL and their drug testing when all of this was going on? Steroids are bad because you are “cheating,” but no one cares if you do illegal drugs as long as you don’t use them to build muscle? Do you get it? I don’t.

Back to some baseball.

Erik Bedard was looking good in his rehab work raising hope that he would be able to contribute soon. Alas, he threw 25 pitches in the bullpen on Tuesday and his shoulder started barking again. Face it. The guy is the AL’s version of Rich Harden – dominant when on, though that occurs about as often as a full moon. Bedard should be on the Mets, he would fit right in.

Jason Giambi continues to await a return from his quad injury. Hitting just .193 on the year, there is no truth to the rumor that Giambi hurt himself while pulling on his magical golden thong.

Bobby Jenks is back in the hospital with kidney stones. I’ve fortunately never had them, but I’ve heard they are about as much fun as trying to hit a Tim Lincecum fastball with a fungo bat in 22 degree weather while wearing shorts and a flip flops. I wish you well Mr. Jenks. Hurry back.

By Ray Flowers

Illness and Stupidity

Today there are a couple of odd stories in the news. A pitcher from Chicago was fined less than an hours worth of work, while another player was sent to the DL with the flu. In between we also have some possibly uncertain times for a slugger for the White Sox, as well as more concern for the health of Red Sox infielder.

Conor Jackson has been placed on the DL with a “flu-like illness.” We are trying to get more info on just what ails him, and we certainly hope its not something overly serious (has anyone ever been placed on the DL with the flu?). Still, something has to be very wrong with Jackson who is hitting just .182 with 16 Ks and just 11 walks early on, completely backwards for a guy who has hit at least .284 each of the past three years and owns a career BB/K mark of 0.90 (vs. his current 0.69 mark). Not to start rumors at all, and I have NO information about his illness, but hopefully it isn’t the swine-flu.

Updating a report from yesterday, Bobby Jenks was indeed penalized by major league baseball for throwing behind Ian Kinsler and then foolishly discussing the notion with reporters. What was the penalty? Try a $750 dollar fine. What is it, 1979? Jenks is making $5.6 million dollars. For some quick math, consider the following point. Jenks makes roughly $15,000 a day over the course of a calendar year. That means that major league baseball fined him the equivalent of roughly 30 minutes of work, or to put that in perspective, how bad would you feel if you were fined by your boss $10 for showing up late to work? Does major leagues baseball, as an entity, ever do anything right? Bud Selig, I’m sorry, but I’m beginning to side with those people who think you are a moron.

Daniel Murphy can hit, dude is batting .286 this season and owns a career batting average of .301 in his 229 at-bat big league career. However, his defense hasn’t exactly brought back memories of Roberto Clemente, so the club is considering a position switch, possibly to first base since Carlos Delgado will be a free agent at the end of the season. If Delgado does indeed end up on the DL due to lingering issues with his hip, it’s quite possible that Murphy will be able to add first base eligibility to his ledger this season.

Hey, things are improving in the world. It took all of 10 minutes for ESPN to mention Brett Favre on Sportscenter.

Carlos Quentin is on the sidelines due to an injured heel. More than that, I’m really worried about this guy, a fact that I have stated all year long, and well before the start of the 2009 baseball season. He blasted seven home runs in his first 12 games this year and everyone seemingly forgot he was coming off of wrist surgery. Alas, Quentin not only has seen his average dip to .237, he has also hit one, yes one, long ball in the last 19 games during which time he has knocked in a mere five runs. That would be poor production for a defensively minded second baseman. Amazingly, every one of his 114 ABs have come out of the third hole this year despite a mere .338 OBP and a .821 OPS. I’m gonna stick by what I said before the year started, and that is Quentin will not better his numbers from last season (.288-36-100) even if he exceeds last years games played total of 130.

Kevin Youkilis missed his seventh straight game on Tuesday do to his back/side issue (that’s an oblique injury for those of you without your medical dictionary handy). The frustrating part is that the team keeps saying it’s nothing major and that he is day-to-day. Well its turns out it has already been a week, and for those of you in weekly transaction leagues you have to be supremely frustrated with lack of anything definitive here. As of this writing Youkilis hasn’t been placed on the DL, but you have to think there is at least a 50-50 chance it will happen at this point since he has already missed a week’s worth of action. Jeff Bailey continues to fill in.

By Ray Flowers

Windy City Baseball

I ended up discussing a bunch of White Sox player’s in today’s piece (and even a Cubs’ one). Don’t worry if you aren’t a fan of Chicago baseball though as I also made sure to touch on some non-Windy City events as well.

Jose Contreras was sent to the minors after looking pitiful in six starts this season during which time he went 0-5 with a 8.19 ERA and a 1.89 WHIP. He also struck out no one (5.16 K/9) while walking everyone (4.85 BB/9). The only shock here is that he wasn’t removed from the rotation sooner. If you bought in to his hot spring, well, you should have listened to your truly who told you this would happen. By the way, the other washed up returning starting pitcher for club, Bartolo Colon, has been serviceable for those of you in AL-only leagues going 2-3 with a 4.88 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP. Of course, his K/BB is awful 1.92, and his average fastball is just 89 mph (92.5 for his career). I would be worried about the bottom falling out there as well.

Bobby Jenks sent a message to the Rangers’ Ian Kinsler on Sunday when he fired a fastball behind Kinsler. “You don’t want to see anyone getting hurt. My intentions were not to hurt the guy, like I said before, but I was protecting my guys as well.” The White Sox apparently are tired of their hitters being hit as they have been plunked 16 times this season, the fifth highest total in the majors (they have been hit by a pitch 331 times since the start of 2004 while their pitchers have only hit 270 batters). I love Jenks for standing up for his guys, but really, what does it serve to say what he did to the press? The only thing he will likely be serving is a suspension being that he admitted to throwing at Kinsler. That brings up another point – since when did throwing at a guy deserve a suspension? If that was the case back when the game was played by men, how many times would Bob Gibson have been suspended? He may never have pitched a single complete game (he amazingly threw 255 in 528 starts) if today’s rules were in effect when his menacing presence was terrorizing hitters in the 1960′s and 70′s.

Watch out for the Angels who are just half a game behind the Rangers in the AL West. The club sits about in the middle of the back in the pitching categories, but they are about to get all kinds of healthy with John Lackey and Ervin Santana likely to join the club by the end of the week. Playing .533 ball without your two best starters is certainly something. If you add into that mix two of the top-20 starting pitchers in the American League, well, you’ll have to feel pretty good about things if you cheer along with the Rally Monkey and the Angels.

Derrek Lee’s neck injury isn’t career threatening. That was the report out of the Chicago Tribune. Look, any injury to someone’s neck is extremely serious, but was the club really so concerned about Lee and his bulging disc that they thought he might have to hang up his spikes? If so, they sure did a good job of making it sound like he was merely missing a few days to rest things. He should avoid the DL and be back by mid-week according to the latest reports.

Lastings Milledge suffered a broken finger at Triple-A, an injury that will obviously remove the possibility of returning to the bigs in May, not that he deserved to be considered for a promotion anyway. Milledge is hitting only .253 in 79 at-bats as he had failed to go deep once while knocking in only four runners. Lastings did steal six bags but with an OPS of .594 it was clear that he clearly hadn’t taken the demotion as a chance to prove everyone in Washington wrong. Now it looks like a return before the end of June seems unlikely.

J.R. Towles has been sent back to the minors as the Astros are ready to activate Humberto Quintero. Towles hit only .182 with the club this year, but he was only given 11 at-bats behind Ivan Rodriguez. At some point, don’t the ‘Stros need to move this guy? Towles was hitting .344 in Triple-A this year, is just 25 years old, and owns a .302 average and .866 OPS in more than 1,100 minor-league ABs. Certainly someone can find a backup job for a bat like that behind the dish can’t they?

By Ray Flowers