Dojji

Oh lord, yes. Remember that inconsistency everyone slams Thomas for? Well, Rask is probably going to be much more inconsistent. Sometimes I think we don't realize just how good we have it right now with Timmy. Can you imagine having gone through the last 3 seasons with Hannu freakin' Toivonen as our main goaltender?

If you put the following roster of the into the major leagues what would its record wind up being? C: Brown 1B: Bailey 2B: Khoury SS: Diaz 3B Chavez LF: Carter CF: Van Every RF: Daeges DH: MacAnulty/Madera Backup C: Maldonado Backup 1B: Natale Backup OF: Danielson Backup IF: Green Backup 1B-C: Madera/Backup 1B-LF MacAnulty Rotation: Smoltz Buchholz Bowden Johnson Zink CL: Bard SU: James MR: Jones MR: Vaquedano LOOGY: Traber LR: Hansack The strength of that team though would clearly be in the rotation. And that's certainly not a bad place to have a strength. With a top 3 of Smoltz, Buchholz and Bowden I think a team like that could manage to not totally suck at the big league level. Obviously the big issues are a lack of production from our 3 defensive infield positions and an extreme lack of bullpen depth but I think with that rotation, a major league team with this roster could win maybe 65 games. The lineup has some pop and depth, with only one obvious black hole (Diaz) but it also has 2 other pretty vulnerable hitters who could become black holes pretty quickly at the big league level (Chavez, Khoury) The reason this is interesting to me is that each of these players (with the obvious exception of bench guys and the guys lower down in the bullpen) are what I would consider to be the first callup from the minors at their position. In the event of a real injury disaster like we had in 2006 we could be seeing multiple of these guys in our lineup and identifying where that speculative team would place in the standings and why gives us a bit of a glimpse at where the organization really need to improve its own depth.

But still in the final analysis you have the Netherlands beating the Dominican Republic at baseball. It might happen any time of the year that one team gets lucky over the course of 2-3 games. But even then the chances of this happening are still remote. I wouldn't be too surprised to see some of the younger unsigned Dutch players signed to speculative MLB contracts either. Just to see if there might be more than a coincidence here.

Embarrassing for the DR, good for baseball in the Netherlands, adds a great story to WBC history such as it is, depends on your perspective.

And Yurendel de Caster wins it for the Netherlands -- on an error... Of all the improbable things...

Wow. Schoop makes contact here it's over for the DR. EDIT: K. Quite a riveting game considering the 1-1 score.

Well that's that. It was always going to be a game of first team to score a run wins -- 1-0 DR on a Kingsale fielding error of all things.. EDIT: Or, you know, not. 1-1 on a Gene Kingsale hit.

Well these Dutch seem determined to not go quietly into that good night, at least. Frankly most of them seem to be from the Netherlands' Carribean holdings.

Game.

Dude, when it happens consistently for three games that teams with star-studded lineups cannot score against them, I think "they suck" is a pretty poor hypothesis as to why it happens.

The Dutch fundamental defense is very, very good. I'm extremely impressed. Of course it would certainly help if they had more than one guy who hits the ball out of the infield. Quick question: Where did Leon Boyd come from? And is there any chance that the Sox could sign him? I don't see him on places like Fangraphs or Baseball Reference, indicating that he is apparently not on an MLB farm roster.

Oh yes he can. Don't kid yourself, what we got out of Tek last year wasn't that far from average for a catcher. There were only five AL catchers who produced at a .750 OPS level or higher and played at least 82 games. Mauer, Napoli, Shoppach, IRod and Navarro. Three of the teams with these catchers missed the playoffs completely. A catcher who can hit is a luxury, not a necessity. Now it surely doesn't help when your guy is one of the worst offensive catchers in the American League, and Tek's down there. somewhere below Rod Barajas and Miguel Olivo but other than those 5 guys there isn't a big gap between the rest of the catchers out there. The only difference is that now we're on the outside looking in.

Right, just because he hit LHP as an RHH doesn't mean he can hit RHP On the other hand that definitely builds a case for a certain left-handed hitting catcher in Spring Training.

http://www.lolcats.com/images/u/07/43/lolcatsdotcommey08f0sfy7eppl8.jpg

Delays free agency = Yankees can't sign him as soon = bad for the Yankees = bad for baseball. I don't see why this is so difficult a concept.

Have to admit, I've been kinda rooting for that underdog Dutch team. Not much offense, but they sure look pretty out there defensively. Some of the best overall fundamental defensive baseball I've seen in a long, long time. Pity they couldn't scratch across more than the one run.

He does still kinda have a point though -- they wouldn't have taken trash back. They actually got a pretty good deal for Pena in the final analysis, although Carter will never play CF or RF he can kill the ball.

In other words: exactly what I said, only I used sources. C'mon, Gom, when I'm makin' ya look bad it's time to give it up.

"Following surgery and rehabilitation on his injured hip, it was discovered that Jackson had avascular necrosis, as a result of decreased blood supply to the head of his left femur. This caused deterioration of the femoral head, ultimately requiring that the hip be replaced. Jackson missed the entire 1992 baseball season. When he announced soon after his surgery that he would play baseball again, many thought that goal to be unrealistic, especially at the Major League level." Belle's White Sox contract had an unusual clause allowing him to demand that he would remain one of the three highest paid players in baseball. In October 1998, Belle invoked the clause, and when the White Sox declined to give him a raise, Belle immediately became a free agent. Belle again became the game's highest paid player, signing a five-year, $65 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles. However, Belle ended his career just two seasons later, retiring at age 34 as a result of degenerative osteoarthritis in his hip. However, he was kept on Baltimore's active 40-man roster for the next three years, as a condition of the insurance policy which largely reimbursed the Orioles for the remainder of Belle's contract. Source: WikiPedia Both Belle and Jackson had bone conditions. Unless his hip bone itself gets infected (the cyst, perhaps?) it's not nearly the same thing.

Even if so, medical science is more advanced now so I doubt it's a sign of anything.

What does being a better athlete have to do with recovery time?

Indeed, he only looks like Old Man Methuselah.

Robinson Cano and his largish contract extension says hi