Arlington

Wonder if it could be said that conditioning cost the Tigers a WS in the Verlander - Miggy era. If VMart Fields and Miggy were fit and trim, maybe a WS or two in there.

Crap, someone pushed my Miggy button again. Miggy's decline was so long, yet every year there was hope that he would put it together and give some semblence to a good hitter. Sometimes he did for short periods. But overall he simply sucked. They kept running him out in the heart of the order, using up a roster spot and filling the DH. I was so relieved when they started benching him in his last two seasons and moving him down in the order. Truly wished they just parted ways in 3 years into that contract.

Keith Law keeps dropping HOF creds into his McGonigle reviews. Forgot exactly what he said last year but it referenced a reasonable chance to see something like 2500 or 3000 hits. This year he threw in a Rogers Hornsby reference. He's hedging the comments, but I'm sure he's looking forward to a told you if he does get inducted into the HOF class of 2051.

Yet Harmon is reportedly the batter in the MLB logo

Anderson being a hard ass was well known. But no one is saying they got rid of Jason Thompson because of his influence on Trammel.

Agree, for the most part. Pujols was a veteran producer from his first year on. Miggy took a few years of brilliant but no consistently brilliant play to get to Pujols level and I believe he exceed Pujols at their peak. Miggy then was a shell of himself for more than the end of his career. It was more like a third of his career. His accumulated WAR actually decreased over his final 7 seasons. It was -2.5. That should never have been allowed to happen.

The purple dinosaur killed the name Barney for a few generations of human parents.

Did Sparky really move LaFlore because he was a bad role model for Whitaker? I never heard that before. I couldn't find anything that supports that idea. It sounds more like group think grounded on stereotype to me.

What are the objectives here? It's a big world with a lot of variety. Would this be for more equity amongst the major league teams or would this be devised to provide a more beneficial program for the communities. Is it better to integrate into communities as they are or would have a more formal development system be better for the kids? When I was looking into the make-up of this year's playoff teams, there really was not a lot of international players so the vast majority of kids involved are not going to get significant money. To mix metaphors, once the cream of the crop is drawn, what would become of the chaff? Would the system be designed to benefit all the participants or would it focus solely on harvesting the best players. Would it become political? Would Venezuelan kids suddenly be on the out because of oil? More formal programs tend to be centralized. Would pulling 14, 15 and 16 year olds out of their communities be beneficial? Can MLB invest in communities all over or does focusing were talent is identified work better?

It seems like it was settled quite a few years ago, but if Wenceel was over the yips and could field 2nd more than adequately he'd be a valuable asset for some team.

It's hard to find a balance when posting. I think I could be more dynamic.

No. Teams often cozy up to a player when they are very young and help develop them. Having a draft would hinder that type of investment. Also, the bonus allotments already level the playing field for weaker ML teams pretty much the same as a draft would do.

I'm sure he took the best deal he could get. When would a team insist on a longer term offer.

So was Mr. Kaline's, as I am sure you are aware. Mine is 7 days prior as was Tyrus'. We shared one birthday on the earth together and then he passed on my wife's birthday in 1961.

They need to put 1200 of the best players in the game in a park. Team GMs toss a bat to each other and through a few rounds of this (there are 30 teams so one bat wouldn't do it) determine which team gets to pick first, second and so forth, and then call out the player you want on your team through 40 rounds. Once you have your group of 40 players, you all huddle and work out what your team name will be for that year. Everyone gets paid the same base salary which is still far more than any reasonable person should expect to be paid for playing a game. Some might call this socialism or communism or make up some new term for this disarrangement, but in the end most teams will be competitive and the result will give nearly all fans a really interesting season.