In a few short weeks pitchers and catchers will be reporting to training camp, so Major League Baseball and its fans can try to will someone other than the evil empire (New York Yankees) to a World Series Championship.
The baseball off season has been over looked for many reasons. Two of the major reasons are the NFL and NBA seasons. Baseball was able to make front page headlines, but it wasn’t for a signing or a blockbuster trade.
Mark McGwire admitted to taking steroids, what a shocker! I guess you could call what he did an admission, its like a person who stand 5’6 weighing 300 hundred pounds saying the cookies, candy, and chocolate didn’t make me fat, they made me feel better, it was actually my slow metabolism that gave me a triple chin, love handles, and man breasts.
RIGHT!
So what has been going on outside of the movement of a couple big name pitchers? Which teams have done what, which teams haven’t done enough, and which team is still the Royals?
The Rich Get Richer
Ace and You Shall Receive
The Phillies have a great core of talent filled with the likes of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Cole Hamels that they made even stronger.
Phillies re-signed two guys that contributed heavily to the success of the past two years by retaining Shane Victorino and Carlos Ruiz.
Victorino also known as the flyin’ Hawaiian brings back speed to the base paths, a consistent stick, and fiery personality.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz is a solid piece to the Phillies recent success because he is a good bat in the line up, can steel some bases, and performs great come playoff time posting a career .303 average. In terms all men can understand, Ruiz is like a hot chick that puts out.
Although they lost Cliff Lee to Seattle, they gained arguably the best pitcher in baseball over the past several seasons in Roy Halladay. Anytime you can add a player like that than you have upgraded no matter who you had to let go.
Griffey Could Go Out a Winner
The Seattle Mariners, most east coast baseball fans forget that they have a professional baseball team until they see them on the schedule. That might not be the case anymore with off season they have thrown together.
Mariners added two big pieces to an already talented team, Cliff Lee and Chone Figgins.
Seattle finally parts ways with third basemen Adrian Beltre, the only thing more overrated than Beltre is the Snuggie. Figgins will be his replacement at third and Mariner fans are going to love this guy’s defense, average at the plate, and speed at the top of the line up.
Mariners also resigned young stud Felix Hernandez, pair him up with Lee and this could be a better combination than putting Chris Farley and David Spade in a movie.
Its a Paid Holliday
Three things I know are don’t pay to see a sequel in theaters, don’t bring a knife to a gun fight, and don’t negotiate baseball contract without Scott Boras.
Matt Holliday is a nice player but he’s not seven years 120 million nice. Holliday will definitely benefit more from playing with Albert Pujols, than Pujols will playing with Holliday. Besides was there another team willing to give Holliday, Mark Teixeira money?
Some people say Holliday will be laughing all the way to the bank, but in fact he will be laughing all the way to Social Security payments. The Contact pays Holliday through 2029.
It Was a Cold Winter
Please Play For Us
The New York Mets are like Shaq’s little brother, even people from your own family (Mets fans) love your big brother (the Yankees) more.
The Mets made big free agent acquisitions last off season and the only thing that failed worse than that was the Trail Blazers drafting Greg Oden. Ok, so the Mets signed Jason Bay but if he was really that good he would still be a Red Sox.
Not only did the Mets not get better, they also didn’t get younger. The Mets missed out on some key free agent signings by not getting Joel Pineiro, Ben Sheets, or Bengie Molina.
Maybe the Mets Mentality on spending this off season was less is more. Whatever their course of action was I can’t wait to watch it back fire resulting in a complete devastation of not making the playoffs yet again.
Far From Royalty
The Kansas City Royals, stop me if you heard this one before. They can’t compete in today’s big game free agency market and don’t have a GM like Oakland Athletics, Billy Bean to make a lot out of a little.
Royal’s big splash in this off season was the signing of outfielder Rick Ankiel. Ankiels alright, but six or seven years ago the guy was a pitcher who couldn’t find the plate with a Tom Tom GPS.
If there are any Royals fans out there I feel for you, Zack Greinke only plays once every five days and you guys have 162 games to talk about the memories that George Brett gave you.
Will Work For Food
Earlier I said I wouldn’t negotiate a baseball contract without Boras, apparently Johnny Damon feels the same way I do and probably screwed himself out of millions of dollars.
The difference between the Boras negotiations for Holliday and Damon is quite simple, you can only negotiate if you have something to offer. A 36 year old Damon now has the arm of a JV girls softball player, is a defensive liability, and doesn’t have the traditional power or on base percentage of a DH.
Damon’s current situation would suggest that he should have taken the deal with the Yankees, since he didn’t it will cost him millions of dollars and more importantly a chance at another World Series. I know one team that likes to pick up the Yankees rejects and that would be the Detroit Tigers (Gary Sheffield & Kyle Farnsworth).