Don

I love Trout, but they never should have given him number 27. Vlad deserved to have it retired. He was THE Angel from 2004 to 2009.

I'm with you man. He was the best player the Angels had post-Baylor and pre-Trout.

I'm all for having him throw the first pitch from the RF foul pole. I remember going to a game several years ago and sitting on the LF line. Before the game, Vlad was warming up with Figgins, standing roughly on the line, about 25 feet past third base. When they were done warming up, Vlad just launched a ball into the RF pavilion. It was just a ridiculous throw, and he did it like it was a totally normal, casual thing.

Democrats will sweep this under the rug and say, "But, but... Republicans are worse!"

That may happen, but it's not really an issue of Republicans do this or Democrats do that. It's just straight up criminal level corruption. It's been happening since the idea of government was invented, and it happens on all sides.

Go to tabacon in arenal. Google it and see why.

Hike in the jungle. Go whitewater rafting.

The Guanacaste region is the least green and most touristy. For best combo of beach and jungle and tourist infrastructure I'd recommend the Manuel Antonio area. Lots of monkeys.

San Jose kinda sucks but you probably won't be spending significant time there.

Rent a car and get ready for some crappy roads.

Costa Rica is awesome. Have fun.

Thanks man. We're all still planning our itinerary, and I think we'll only be in San Jose for the last two days before we fly out of there. We've talked about seeing the volcano at Arenal or Paos, and we've also talked about spending a day or two in Puntarenas. Jungle zip lining seems to be a popular idea as well.

Mother****ing Rick is BACK! 

Watch your asses, cannibals!

I loved the ending. They've got a fine collection of bad asses moving forward.

Speeding up the game would be a great thing for current fans, and also get more fans to watch. 

 

The pace of most games is tedious.  

 

Even tennis put in rules severely limiting time between serves because matches were getting so drawn out, and it was nothing compared to the little broadway show that goes on between each pitch in a MLB at bat.

I don't see why we couldn't limit the number of timeouts a team is allowed in any given game, and also institute an NFL-style play clock that is strictly adhered to. Maybe some thing like five timeouts, plus two non-pitching-change mound visits per game, and then a 15 second play clock that starts whenever the ball gets back to a pitcher after a play or pitch.

I just found out on Friday that I'll be going to Costa Rica for a week (roughly the 6th-13th). Anyhow, I was wondering if any of you had ever been, and if you guys have any tips/suggestions. All I know right now is that I'm going with three other people (all adults), and that we're flying into Liberia (the good Liberia), renting a car, and will eventually end up in San Jose.

if i were the pitching coach, i'd be in skaggs ear telling him, "keep the ball down." as long as he pitches down his stuff is going to work for him, but he seems to lose his mechanics, as tall pitchers seem to do, and his stuff is very hittable up in the zone.

You're dead on right. I'm really impressed by his stuff. If he can stay down consistently, and perhaps work on a change or splitter, he'll be a great addition to the staff.

That sucks. I'd say that JB proved himself last year. Good defender, smart baseball player, solid on base guy with good situational skills. Seems like a good fourth outfielder/NL game pinch hitter.

94-95 mph fastball.. nasty curve... lefty.. loving it

This is the first time I've seen him throw. From a pure talent perspective I'm pretty impressed.

PEDs aren't a static thing. I'm not sure what the muscle building drugs that come in the next few decades will be, but I'm sure they're coming. The same thing goes with amphetamines, pain killers, and psychoactive drugs. What I'm getting at is that there will always be PED users in baseball. It's just the way the world works. Greenies were huge in the 60s/70s, and adderal is big now. The same goes for anabolics-to-andro-to-HGH story. The truth is that people will always look for an edge. People always do human stuff.

This seems like a pretty fair deal all around. The Angels buy out 3 or 4 years of free agency, Trout gets a huge insurance policy, and the Angels get a $35m/year player for roughly $24m/year. Good job by all involved.

First, how do we know you're not on steroids? We can go crazy with unverifiable speculation all you want, but it doesn't help much of anything. I think the anecdotal evidence is enough to figure out what (likely) happened with Bonds.

The dramatic body change that happened to Bonds between the 98 and 99 seasons seems to point to him starting some sort of PED regimen after the end of the 98 season. I understand that a guy's body can change quite a bit as one approaches middle age, but most people don't go from the body of a wide receiver to the body of defensive end in five months. This also fits with the narrative that went around about a decade ago saying that Bonds was jealous of all the attention McGwire and Sosa got during the 98 season, and he wanted to show the world that he was the best player on the planet (which he was, whether you consider him a terrible human or not).

I think the reason that Bonds is so vilified is pretty just. He's one of the guys that knowingly sought out a chemical edge, and it was only to stroke his own ego. I don't really hold anything against someone who is given bad advice by a less-than-professional trainer, or some guy that wanted to pack on some muscle so that he wouldn't have to spend his fourth straight year in AA. Those are issues of ignorance and livelihood, respectively. With Barry though, it was none of those. He had enough money, and if he had retired at the end of 98, he'd probably be in the HOF right now. Barry did it simply because he was jealous of the attention received by players he thought were inferior to him. And that's pretty despicable.

I'm shocked that the MLBPA agreed to this.

I'm a bit surprised too, as these new penalties are significantly stricter than the older ones. Then again, maybe the MLBPA has reached a point where they see PED use as a health issue, and are just as motivated to get rid of them as MLB itself. I remember one clause that pointed to that in a way....

"The parties established a program in which players will have year-round access to supplements that will not cause a positive test result and which will improve home and visiting weight rooms."

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/detroit-tigers-sign-miguel-cabrera-to-historic-contract/

 

Jonah Keri recaps exactly why this deal was terrible. Mostly due to the timing. He also gives a list of guys who lived up to being paid $30 million a year (adjusted for inflation) for their older years. The list was pretty much inner circle HoFers like Ruth, Mays, Aaron, Bonds* and then Ortiz. And that was in the history of baseball.

Thanks for posting that. IMO, Keri is the best baseball writer currently working. A lifetime fan, but not a stodgy "back in the day" type, as well as a really intelligent guy that does very good research.

I found these three both interesting and sensible:

· A first-time performance-enhancing substance violation of the Joint Drug Program will now result in an unpaid 80-game suspension, increased from 50 games. A player's second violation will result in an unpaid 162-game suspension (and a loss of 183 days of pay), increased from 100 games. A third violation will result in a permanent suspension from Baseball.

· A Player who is suspended for a violation involving a performance-enhancing substance will be ineligible to participate in the Postseason, and will not be eligible for an automatic share of the Player's Pool provided to players on Clubs who participate in the Postseason. (Such Players are already ineligible to participate in the All-Star Game.)

· Every Player whose suspension for a performance-enhancing substance is upheld will be subject to six additional unannounced urine collections, and three additional unannounced blood collections, during every subsequent year of his entire career.

The fact that they're similar builds that don't seem to age well is also concerning.

 

People mention Ortiz being able to maintain great production late in his 30s, but is there any other examples post steroids?

Similar builds, yes, but Miggy isn't nearly as "in shape" as Pujols was at his age. Also, Miggy has put on like 70 pounds since he started playing. I could see him struggling with his weight at some point in the near future.

I'll also add that most college students are adults... with voting rights and stuff.

I don't understand the possible benefit of forbidding shaved heads.

If we let kids shave their heads, we'd effectively destroy the lice-removal-industrial-complex.

By the way, this is not a new or unique thing (I'm sure you're all shocked). I remember my high school German teacher telling me about getting fired from her GTA position at the University of Colorado for refusing to adjust grades for certain athletes... And that was in the 70s.

My guess is that the NCAA isn't interested. After all, it's not like this dude used university water to wash his car.

Kind of ironic (per wikipedia): The university was chartered by an [/size]Act of Congress on February 24, 1893.  [/size]

 

Also: The Princeton Review voted American University the most politically active university in the country in 2008, 2010 and 2012.  [/size]

 

That really says a lot if students enrolled in the nation's most politically active university can't name a single senator...  [/size]

I wonder what criteria the PR uses to determine how "politically active" a school is.

This is worse than Pujols' deal.    M-Cab has never been in good shape the past few years to start with, and turns 31 soon.   Combine that with this being his 12th MLB season, and thus having 10 remaining seasons with Detroit for $292 million is stupid money.

 

That must mean that Scherzer is out of there after 2014? 

 

Heck knows what Trout can command, but I think we can limit his time here to probably at most 7 more seasons?

Let's not forget about him having some alcohol issues as well. That might start taking its toll before too long.

I would love to be told, "We don't need your services anymore. Here is a check for $8.5 million. Don't come back to work."

I know man. It sounds like one heck of a severance package. I mean, I'd happily pitch in a few games that didn't matter, get shelled like my name was Dresden, and take some heat on a message board for $8.5 million.

Not complaining here, but isn't it crazy that someone like Blanton can basically be fired for poor job performance and still make $8.5 million for not working for the next six months? Is there another industry that treats it's non-executive employees this way?