That looks healthy.
The Tampa Bay Rays are offering fans an opportunity to win two free tickets to a game, along with a shirt. However, in order for them to win, they have to eat a massive four-pound burger along with a pound of fries.
Good luck, everyone.
[Twitter, h/t The Consumerist]
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Major League Baseball and its players association announced significant changes to the league’s current drug program that are expected to be finalized in the coming days, according to a press release provided by MLB on Friday.
According to the release, the new policy will make for stiffer drug penalties and allow for more widespread testing across the league. The changes will also allow for blood testing for human growth hormone.
MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark credits the players for helping initiate the change, per MLB.com:
Experience proves that increased penalties alone are not sufficient; that’s why the Players pushed for a dramatic increase in the frequency and sophistication of our tests, as well as comprehensive changes in a number of other areas of the program that will serve as a deterrent. Make no mistake, this agreement underscores the undisputed reality that the Players put forward many of the most significant changes reached in these negotiations because they want a fair and clean game.
The MLB’s public relations department released the following highlights of the new program on Friday:
New York Post baseball columnist Joel Sherman points out the penalties for players who test positive under the new joint drug policy:
First-time offenders will be suspended 80 games and second-time offenders will be suspended for an entire season (162 games). Those numbers are up significantly from the previous policy, which suspended players 50 games for a first-time offense and 100 games for a second-time offense.
A third offense will warrant a lifetime ban or “permanent suspension from baseball,” per the league’s press release.
The league also announced that a second violation will result in a loss of 183 days of salary.
NBC Sports breaks down another key addition to the program:
According to Fox Sports MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal, players who test positive under the new policy will be subject to unannounced testing:
By cracking down on performance-enhancing drugs, the MLB is making positive steps toward fielding a more credible product. And the majority, including NBC Sports’ Patrick Daugherty, believe that doing so is what’s best for baseball:
It remains to be seen how effective the league’s new policy will be once finalized, but there’s no doubt that the increased penalties for violating the program and thorough testing are sure to discourage players from experimenting with banned substances.
Last season’s Biogenesis scandal was a major black eye on baseball, and although it will take time for the league to restore its reputation, this new drug policy is clearly a step in the right direction.
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R.A. Dickey has played the part of beguiling knuckleball artist to the tune of a Cy Young Award. However, if all goes according to plan, his entire life could just captivate a movie audience.
Deadline Hollywood’s Mike Fleming Jr. (h/t CBS Sports, For the Win) reports initial proceedings are underway to turn Dickey’s Wherever I Wind Up memoir into a Hollywood retelling.
Actors Ben McKenzie and Logan Marshall-Green have joined forces to launch the shingle A Thing Or Two Productions. They come to the table in a big way. Tom Rothman’s TriStar Pictures has made a deal on a baseball memoir which the duo will produce with Michael De Luca. TriStar has optioned Wherever I Wind Up, the memoir by pitcher R.A. Dickey about his unusual life journey. Buzz Bissinger has been set to write the script. It becomes another eclectic project for Rothman’s upstart division.
Bissinger’s work spans a wide swath of publications, but he may be most famous for his work Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, which later became a movie and hit television series.
Baseball fans may be well acquainted with the subject matter of Dickey’s life. The Toronto Blue Jays pitcher struggled last season but was absolutely brilliant in 2012, winning the NL Cy Young after posting 20 wins and a 2.73 ERA.
It’s the journey that led him to that pinnacle that really resonates with fans and more than likely enthralled Hollywood to come calling.
Fleming writes:
His memoir was critically acclaimed as he told a tale of overcoming adversity that included being molested as an 8-year old and nearly losing his dream of becoming a pro pitcher. He was drafted by the Texas Rangers and offered a huge signing bonus, only to see the latter get taken away when the team discovered that Dickey was missing an important ligament in his pitching elbow.
In a 2012 Sports Illustrated interview, Dickey relayed to L. Jon Wertheim on his initial throes into writing his memoir: “I had to write what was true, even if it meant going to some dark places.”
If the movie makes its way to the screen, one can assume it will be as honest a script as possible. In the same interview, Dickey offers about his own memoir, “I couldn’t share my story and not share the most difficult parts of it. As a reader, I can tell when someone is skating around the truth.”
Fleming reports Dickey had other offers, but McKenzie (The O.C., Southland, Gotham) and Marshall-Green (Devil, Prometheus) decided it was best to meet the star pitcher in person, which paid off handsomely for the duo and their budding production company.
There is no guarantee that Dickey’s tale makes it to the big screen. With a poignant and gripping story that already inspires, you have to absolutely love its chances.
It’s the honesty that grabs fans regardless of their allegiances, so a story so enthralling deserves its day in movie theaters around the country.
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The Detroit Tigers signed two-time MVP Miguel Cabrera on Thursday to the highest payout in MLB history per Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.
Heyman wrote that the extension was worth $248 million over eight years, which means he will be paid $292 million over the next 10 years with the two years he had remaining on his old deal. The deal was made just a few days after contract talks ceased with Cy Young winner Max Scherzer.
Should the deal with Cabrera influence Scherzer to test the open market after this season?
Scherzer is fresh off his best season as a big leaguer, setting career-highs in wins (21), ERA (2.90) and WHIP (0.970), including taking home his first Cy Young award. The 29-year-old is currently on the books for a one-year, $15.53 million deal.
Jon Morosi of Fox Sports tweeted on March 23 that the Tigers offered Scherzer six years and $144 million but the right-hander was looking for eight years, per ESPN’s Jim Bowden. The club did not help its cause when it issued a statement making their Cy Young winner sound difficult to negotiate with.
The Detroit Tigers have made a substantial, long-term contract extension offer to Max Scherzer that would have placed him among the highest paid pitchers in baseball, and the offer was rejected. As we have reiterated, it has been the organization’s intent to extend Max’s contract and keep him in a Tigers uniform well beyond the 2014 season. While this offer would have accomplished that, the ballclub’s focus remains on the start of the upcoming season, and competing for a World Championship. Moving forward there will be no further in-season negotiation and the organization will refrain from commenting on this matter.
With Scherzer set to be a free-agent, it would not be a bad idea to look for a new club to pitch for. The Tiger’s will be paying four players at least $16 million each in 2015, including Cabrera and Justin Verlander, who will make $22 million and $28 million respectively.
In a rotation that already features Verlander and Annibal Sanchez, why not give Scherzer the money he wants? It seems odd that the Tigers wouldn’t fork over the deal he is looking for and keep one of the best rotations in baseball intact.
Not giving him eight years gives Scherzer an incentive to get out of town. It gives an impression that the organization doesn’t value him as much as they value Verlander. Especially considering the performances of each righty last season.
That doesn’t mean that Detroit wouldn’t be willing to give $24 million annually to Scherzer, which is what the deal that was offered would be worth. The eight-year deal he wants would put the contract number at $192 million.
But for a guy who has improved his numbers over the past three seasons, as seen in the chart below, can you argue with him wanting eight years? Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports argues that Scherzer’s total pitch count after six major league seasons is far lower than other aces when they received their big extensions.
“Of course, he and agent Scott Boras can argue his wear and tear pales compared to those peers and thus positions him in the proper place to seek more,” wrote Passan.
It would make perfect sense for Scherzer to test the open market. There would be no shortage in teams interested in his services. He has pitched at least 30 games each season over the past five years and has a career strike out rate of 9.4 per nine innings.
On top of that, Bowden says Scherzer has injury protection through an insurance policy. It would make the former Missouri Tiger more willing to test free agency if he doesn’t get the deal he wants.
Scherzer has been one of the top pitchers in baseball over the past couple of years. He should test the open market and get the deal he is looking for after this season.
All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com
You can follow Trey on Twitter @treydwarren
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There has never been a book that chronicled the entire history of a baseball park by the year. That is, not until now. Author Sam Pathy spent the last 25 years of his life researching for Wrigley Field Year by Year, spending between 10,000 and 12,000 hours on it. His passion for the project matches the passion that so many devoted Cubs fans have for the magical ballpark.
Along with a rich written history of the park, the book also uses pictures from every era, which add historical context to already famous events. In fact, most of the stories told in the book have never been told to the general public before.
“There’s the most complete historical list of advertisers on the billboard on the roof across Sheffield Avenue. There is a list of the 60 longest home runs in park history. I’ve done enough research to logically repudiate the ‘goat curse’ folktale,” Pathy says.
Clearly, the fact that Wrigley Field has even survived as long as it has is a long shot, which makes its 100th birthday something worth celebrating and appreciating. Only Fenway Park has been around longer than Wrigley Field, and the next oldest stadium is Dodger Stadium, which is 48 years younger than Wrigley.
Included in the book are several features in every year and every chapter including “Home Opener,” “Games of the Year” and “Quote of the Year.” These go more in-depth and provide an even richer history of the park than has ever been seen before.
For someone who has spent over half his life researching for this book, Pathy realizes as well as anyone that Wrigley Field provides a certain constant in people’s lives that the team on the field can’t always provide.
“You never know what the Cubs will do—they may be good occasionally, but it’s never constant. But Wrigley Field is a constant. I know that I will always see the marquee at Clark and Addison, that the ivy always sprouts in early May, and that numbers are always twirling on the scoreboard.”
The fact that Wrigley Field has been able to be a comfort to so many for so long is pretty amazing. This book, which will be available on April 1, commemorates the countless amazing moments the park has seen over its improbable century-long history.
Like so many others, Pathy is obsessed with the ballpark and the team that plays in it. Pretty much every Cubs fan can remember their first game at the famous park no matter how long ago that was and Pathy‘s tale is no different.
“I can still visit the place where I saw my first ballgame in 1969. Only five ballparks from that year still exist. So I have this thing that few other baseball fans can claim—and I savor it.”
Every other Cubs fan should savor it too: 25 years worth of research, 100 years worth of history, a lifetime worth of memories. Wrigley Field Year by Year will help fans to relive those moments and perhaps learn about some new ones along the way.
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While 2015 and the return of Matt Harvey will likely be the realistic time to start discussing playoff odds for the New York Mets, this team has plenty of exciting individuals that should keep fans watching throughout the season.
Through the rest of this slideshow, I have made five bold predictions about the Mets 2014 season. Some of these predictions you might agree with, while others you may find absurd, but that is what makes them bold predictions.
Also, as these are bold predictions, I don’t necessarily think they will come to fruition, I am just arguing why they are within the realm of possibility.
So, without further ado, here are five bold predictions for the 2014 Mets.
All statistics courtesy Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs.
The Los Angeles Dodgers began the defending of their 2013 NL West division title by pummeling the Arizona Diamondbacks in their two-game series in Sydney, Australia, last Saturday. The 3-1 and 7-5 victories were an ideal start to a campaign filled with champagne dreams. However, Dodgers fans should resist the urge to start waiving World Series championship flags with 160 games still left on the schedule.
The Dodgers will look to remain undefeated when they face the San Diego Padres on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball this weekend.
Here are five takeaways from the opening series against Arizona that Dodgers fans would do well to forget by Sunday night.
Hank the Ballpark Pup made the Milwaukee Brewers out of spring training, and the club has wasted no time in honoring the fan favorite.
Milwaukee recently announced the dog will be honored with a bobblehead when the Brewers host the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 13, which has been named Wisconsin Humane Society Day at Miller Park:
One fan has to be excited about the “BobbleHank”:
The stray dog wandered into the Brewers’ spring training clubhouse back on Feb. 17. Since then, he has become a beloved member of the organization.
“They [fans] associate the Brewers with Hank—even those who couldn’t name a single player,” Brewers chief operating officer Rick Schlesinger recently said.
The pup hung out with the players throughout the spring, but now he is back in Milwaukee waiting for the start of the regular season.
After he became the story of the spring for Brewers fans, Hank will be given the ultimate sign of respect by getting a bobblehead night in his honor.
[Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukeee Journal Sentinel; h/t SI’s Extra Mustard]
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It’s never a good thing when the skipper walks to the mound, unless the manager is Terry Francona and he is meandering over to the bump to relay that you made the team.
Fox Sports’ Joe Reedy (h/t Deadspin) reports the Indians manager decided to inform pitcher Blake Wood that he had made it to The Show with a trip to the mound on Monday.
Here is what Francona had to say about the brief exchange on the field he had with the 28-year-old, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2012:
When I went to take him out, (catcher Luke) Carlin was coming and I told him to stay back there a little bit…I went out there and asked (Wood) if he ever made the team on the mound? He was like no. I go ‘well, you just did.’ After that we came and talked to him the dugout but you could tell he was pretty excited.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t spot any video of the poignant moment, but Twitter, thankfully, has an image of the meeting Wood will never forget, via Indians president Mark Shapiro:
Go ahead and stick that bad boy in your back pocket and bust it out on a rainy day, because it is just too wonderful.
As Northeast Ohio Media Group Indians beat writer Paul Hoynes reminds, “The Indians claimed Wood on waivers in 2012 after he had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow with the Royals.” In the end, two more appearances during spring were enough to really welcome Wood into the fold.
There is hardly a more wonderful way to find out you made it into the bigs. The Akron Beacon Journal’s Marla Ridenour provides a video of Wood explaining his feelings on making the Indians roster:
When asked about the team’s patience, Wood offered, “It’s meant a lot. Initially just giving me a chance is probably what I’ve been more appreciative of them than anything.”
Reedy reports Francona had his phone on him in the dugout, staying in touch with general manager Chris Antonetti on the possibility of keeping Wood with the squad.
When Tito received word that Wood was on the team, he decided to do more than relieve his pitcher from the mound; he put any anxiety to rest as well.
The right-hander, in just 9.2 innings of work this spring, gave up just one earned run and six hits, according to Baseball Reference.
It’s a small sample size, to be sure, but it was more than enough to convince Francona and Antonetti that Wood would be an asset from day one.
Hoynes reports that Wood will sit somewhere amid the eight pitchers the Indians will carry in the bullpen. With a brilliant fastball, don’t expect Wood to get completely lost in the shuffle of arms.
However, with the likes of John Axford, Marc Rzepczynski, a hopefully classic Vinnie Pestano, as well as Cody Allen and Bryan Shaw, both of whom featured heavily last season, it’s going to be tough to crack into the regular rotation. Then again, Wood understands challenges quite well.
Antonetti states, “He had great arm strength and when healthy we knew he was going to be an effective major league pitcher. We were trying to see that process through.”
Wood’s velocity is up, at times touching triple digits, and Francona, via Reedy, was gracious with his praise, “He not only got better but he got really good at it to the point where it is going to be hard to run on him because he is so quick.”
Of course, the rookie is pleased with the results: “It has been a long road but I’m here now. You don’t know what is going to happen coming back from major surgery. With the Indians sticking with me and giving me a shot, I’m happy they did that.”
Beyond the remarkable recovery and the faith the Indians had in the hard-throwing kid coming off Tommy John surgery is the beautiful manner Francona chose to deliver the good news.
Getting ripped from the game has never felt so good.
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Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout have become the Larry Bird and Magic Johnson of modern baseball debate and conversation. Rarely will analysts utter one without the other. In light of Miguel Cabrera’s record-breaking contract extension, an obvious question emerges: What about Mike Trout?
No, not about Trout’s contract status. In time, baseball’s best all-around player and the Los Angeles Angels will sort things out, through a long-term agreement or year-to-year arbitration figures.
Instead, Cabrera’s extension sheds new light on just what a younger—some may argue better—superstar deserves when signing a life-changing deal. If the two-time reigning AL MVP is truly worth a $248 million extension—not set to kick in until 2016—what can Trout command from the Angels?
To put it bluntly: much, much more.
On Opening Day 2014, Trout will be entering his age-22 season. Cabrera will be swinging his way into the record books during his age-31 season. No matter what, nine years will always separate two different, yet similar stars. Soon, the gap between their salaries will look drastically different.
The Tigers can cite Cabrera’s hitting genius, maturity and eventual soft-landing spot that the American League’s designated hitter position provides, but baseball experts raised a collective eyebrow when the news broke on Thursday night, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
While the yearly and headache-inducing AL MVP debate is fun, this time Cabrera vs. Trout isn’t about the present. Instead, it’s about future worth, dollars and sense.
According to Detroit decision-makers—or the wallet of Tigers owner Mike Illitch, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports—Cabrera is going to be worth nearly $300 million over the next 10 years. Furthermore, the deal could be worth over $350 million if vesting options are reached in years 11 and 12 of the pact, per Heyman.
Needless to say, Cabrera was quite thrilled about the deal and staying in Detroit for the next decade:
If Cabrera continues to hit through his 30s, the Tigers will look smart. Still, at some point—just like every great hitter—Cabrera will decline. That’s a reality for the Tigers, this deal and any long-term contract for a player over the age of 30.
According to FanGraphs, Cabrera has been worth $68.4 million to the Tigers over the last two seasons en route to back-to-back MVP trophies. Using that model—along with factoring in increased revenue and inflation—the first few years of this deal could be a boon to Detroit’s bottom line.
Eventually, that won’t be the case.
On the other hand, Mike Trout’s game should only grow, potentially giving the Angels one of the best young players in the history of the sport.
After two sterling seasons in Los Angeles, Trout can easily rebuff any contract overtures unless it makes fiscal sense. After all, if Trout continues to dominate the sport, his year-by-year dances with arbitration—eligible for the first time in 2015—will net the great outfielder significant money before free agency even arrives.
However, if the Angels try to buy out those arbitration years and keep their best player in tow beyond his first year of free-agent eligibility (2018), the process just became more difficult thanks to the Detroit Tigers’ disregard for an important tenet of negotiations in professional sports: Pay for what a player will do, not what he’s done.
Trout himself does not seem overly concerned with getting paid as soon as possible, according to Mike DiGiovanna of The Los Angeles Times:
“It doesn’t matter to me,” said Trout, who signed for $1 million this season but is expected to command well over $100 million in an extension. “Nothing bothers me. I go out there and play, man. I don’t worry about any of that stuff.”
Cabrera has accomplished more than most players. In just two full seasons, Trout has superseded careers of some players. Head-to-head, the difference has been in the eye of the beholder.
Yet, it’s hard to find one reasonable baseball observer who wouldn’t expect Trout to pass (if he hasn’t already) Cabrera in the very near future. FanGraphs’ Oliver Projections sees a major divide in how the two stars will perform over the next five seasons.
If that’s close to accurate, Trout shouldn’t sign a significant long-term deal for anything less than $300 million.
Rosenthal used the WAR and value argument in his column on Detroit’s decision, citing that industry sources typically value the cost of a win (in player value, not the standings) between $6 and $8 million.
Per Rosenthal: “These endless contracts always work the same way — teams pay a premium for the early years, knowing their asset will depreciate over time. The expected value of a win varies from club to club, year to year. One executive, however, said the current number generally is between $6 million and $8 million.”
Using those figures and Oliver Projections, Trout could be worth between $300 and $400 million over the next five seasons.
Granted, both the Angels and Trout’s representation likely understand and are privy to those same figures. Yet, before this week, no team had ever committed so much money to an older player with two years left on a deal.
The Detroit Tigers didn’t just leave the industry speechless. They gave Trout the leverage to ask for what he’s worth now and what he could be worth in the coming years. If his team balks at the asking price, a 26-year-old Trout will hit the open market in 2018 poised to become the richest player in the history of professional sports.
Agree? Disagree?
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Statistics are from Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted. All contract figures courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Roster projections via MLB Depth Charts.
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