Management Archives

John McLaren gets the dreaded vote of confidence.

Richard Griffin criticizes the Blue Jays management for not giving players enough time to produce:

Yesterday's questionable personnel move was the knee-jerk reaction that sent 24-year-old Adam Lind to warm the bench for now and the foreseeable future, a mere 10 days after being named starting left fielder. It appears to be another chapter in the Jays' impatient history of, "What have you done for me yesterday?" And it's not even a matter of how well his replacement Shannon Stewart plays in his stead.

Lind was promoted to play left, the same week Frank Thomas was released, with Matt Stairs and Stewart to platoon at DH. A lefthanded-hitting prospect, Lind posted a .365 average at Triple-A Syracuse with 16 RBIs in 18 games and was deemed ready for primetime. But 19 failed at-bats later, he's out and Stewart is in as the everyday guy in left batting second in the order. Patience?

"We have to think about putting the best team out there," manager John Gibbons said, matter-of-factly. "He's just not getting any hits right now."

One for nineteen with one walk isn't a good start, but the Jays should know that's a really small sample size. He has nothing to prove at the minor league level. It's not like anyone else on the team is producing all that much. Give him 200 at bats before benching him.

William Gum gives Brian Sabean a very positive review, noting the wealth he created for the owner of the Giants.

Blastings! Thrillage starts a series ranking the general managers from worst to best, and starts with Brian Sabean. I think the analysis is spot on:

But how much credit can one give to an executive who over his 11-year reign has done nothing to ensure long-term competitiveness for his team? Sabean is a very unique general manager in that his entire job has been to assemble role players around a guy who is quite possibly the best baseball player ever: Barry Bonds. That Barry Bonds was so astoundingly good that he could carry a roster of aging scrubs long past their primes, is a testament to Bonds' supreme ability and unnatural career path, not Sabean's skill as a general manager. How could he have known that Bonds, who was already turning 32 in Sabean's first year as general manager, would sustain an amazing level of production through age 35, and then instead of slowly declining, become a significantly better player than he had ever been for four more years, through age 39? Sabean could not have anticipated this; no one could. He was just lucky that Bonds' insane career path masked a continually flawed and uninspired player acquisition and roster construction strategy. It is no accident that when Bonds lost most of 2005 to injury, the Giants finished under .500 for the first time since 1996.

I look forward to the rest of the series.

Evan Grant notes the Rangers have a very strange coaching staff, as Ron Washington was forced to retain coaches hired by two former managers:

These are all strong baseball minds with strong backgrounds, but they've also been thrown together in a small lockerroom and asked to work together. It's kind of like Big Brother only without Julie Chen.

It's not too much of a leap to think the same kind tensions and frustrations that exist on a reality TV show also exist in the Rangers' clubhouse. Put the best people together in such a situation and you test them. People struggle to communicate with one another, and it makes for great TV. Coaches and manager struggle to communicate with each other and with the club, and it makes for a train wreck.

If players see a coaching staff that is struggling to work together, how do you think it's going to impact their play?

Brief answer: Whatever it is, it's not good.

Oh, and when changes come, it's usually the manager and coaches who get changed, not he players.

So here they are a month into the season and the coaching staff has found itself in a leaky lifeboat searching for a place to land. They have two choices: Start rowing together or sink to the bottom.

There is definitely something dysfunctional about the Texas team. This is going to end badly for a number of people, I'm afraid.

With the acquisition of Frank Thomas, the Athletes are carrying fourteen position players. Bob Geren is making the most of his flexibility:

The A's pitching staff has made it possible, with starters getting deep into games and the bullpen working efficiently. Meanwhile, manager Bob Geren is making the most of having an extra position player, employing almost National League-type strategy. He used three pinch hitters Saturday, and Sunday, Geren sent out two pinch-runners at the same time, which is unusual.

"It was like a line change in hockey," reliever Andrew Brown said. "Next it will be a flying V."

The Athletics are third in the AL in runs per game at 4.96. Now they're using a good pitching staff to leverage their offense with an extra bench player. It's just another example of a well run organization.

Here's a criticism of Wayne Krivsky I haven't heard. He wasted money on Francisco Cordero. The Reds' closer picked up his fourth save in four opportunities tonight and is pitching well in general. However, he only has four saves. He's a perfect example of how little a great closer can do if the team can't get him the lead. Until a team can get a game to the ninth inning with a lead on a regular basis, should a GM spend a lot of money for one relief pitcher, or should he spend it on hitters or starters who make the closer necessary?

Correction: Had the wrong Cordero.

It seems Ryan Freel is suffering from miscommunication with Dusty Baker. Dusty thinks Ryan doesn't want to play every day, but Ryan denies he said that. It seems like this should be pretty easy to resolve.

Joe Posnanski makes a very good case for firing John Gibbons. I have to agree.

I've never seen a more offensive walk than Friday night. Never. Toronto trailed the Royals 5-4 in the eighth inning. The Blue Jays trailed 5-4 because that gutty shortostop David Eckstein dropped a double-play throw from the pitcher. No matter. They trailed 5-4, and the Royals had runners on second and third, and there was still one out, and Tony Pena Jr. was at the plate. I mentioned this in the last blog post, I believe -- I like Tony Pena a lot. Great kid. Got a lot of the energy and joy for baseball his old man has. And he's a terrific fielder. And he's smart enough to adjust, at least I think so. But facts is facts: Tony Pena Jr., at this moment and time, is the worst everyday Major League hitter I've ever seen. I mean the worst. There are numbers to back this up -- .148/.172/.164 would be three of those numbers -- but this is truly a case where seeing is believing. His swing is now longer than the Bill Clinton autobiography. He starts it on a Tuesday, it ends on a Thursday. It lasts longer than that "Deal or No Deal" show. It's a long, long swing.

And with that sort of swing, he's an out. That's all. An automatic out. Every so often when a pitcher lets his mind wander, Pena Jr. will fights off a bad pitch, bloop a hit the other way, but it is almost always a mistake pitch. I assume (and hope) that he will make those adjustments I mentioned, shorten the swing, punch a few balls into gaps, and all that. But right now, at this moment, if you don't make a mistake to Tony Pena Jr., he's out. Period.

And John Gibbons, after pitcher Scott Downs fell behind Pena 2-0 count, had him walked.

Going back to my earlier post on Ricciardi, one of the things he's done very poorly is hire managers. Why Moneyball GMs don't hire Dave Johnson is beyond me.

John Fay spoke with Bob Castellini about the Wayne Krivsky fiiring:

"We're not winning. We haven't started well. It was time."

Fay adds this:

I think the thing that did Krivsky in was contracts. Mike Stanton, Rheal Cormier, Juan Castro. I've also heard that he and Walt Jocketty were not getting along great.

A news conference will start in a few minutes.

The Reds fired general manager Wayne Krivsky today. I can't say I'm surprised, but I also think he's getting a bit of a raw deal. With the young talent in the Reds pitching staff, and more to come with Homer Bailey, this team was a year and a couple of hitters away from contending. They're not even near the worst team in the NL, let alone the majors. I wonder if there is something deeper than just the performance of the team.

Walt Jocketty takes over. I guess this means the Reds will see more veterans in their last useful season playing for the team.

SportsAgentBlog takes a look at how agents and scouts are affecting diversity in baseball.

The latest in a long line of Dusty Baker has no clue posts.

Brian Cashman defuses the Joba Chamberlain situation. A couple of years ago I saw a Q&A with Cashman and someone asked how he was able to work for George Steinbrenner. He said that Steinbrenner was the only boss he knew, so he thought this was normal.

Hank Steinbrenner is putting pressure on the Yankees again:

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now," Steinbrenner said Sunday by telephone. "There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."

Steinbrenner said the Yankees were working on easing Chamberlain into the rotation, but he would not be specific on a timetable. The Yankees' brain trust had wanted to limit Chamberlain's innings by having him spend at least part of the season in the bullpen. "The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever," Steinbrenner said. "I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don't rush him."

One thing I loved about George in his later years was that he wasn't afraid to put pressure on anyone in the organization, but he allowed his outbursts to be tempered later by the logic of the baseball people running the game. So I don't have a real problem with Hank spouting off like this. First, Hal seems to have some control in the tempering department. Second, this keeps the team on their toes.

Personally, I agree with him without the part about calling people idiots. I'd much rather see a good pitcher going seven innings in a game than one, and the more of those you put in the rotation, the less you need pitchers like Joba setting up the closer.

The Athletics front office, in the wake of the Miguel Tejada birthday change, tries to make it seem like age doesn't matter:

In other words, Tejada's age wasn't a big deal to the A's, except possibly when they signed him in 1993 as a teen out of the Dominican. He was much more signable at 17 than 19.

As to letting Tejada leave as a free agent, general manager Billy Beane said, "For us, losing players is not a function of age, but a function of the size of contract."

This is a team that calculated the monetary value of every ball in play. This is a team that knows the worth of every minor league player in North America. The know the exact value of age, and that certainly goes into their evaluation of what is the correct size of a contract. Nice try, Mr. Beane.

Josh Alpers suggests that Frank Thomas' benching may have more to do with his contract than his performance:

The Big Hurt has an option for $10 million in 2009 which vests after 304 more plate appearances this season. The Jays shouldn't be too surprised by his slow start. Over his long career, Thomas's April numbers are well below his work in other months.

It's also odd given the overall lack of punch in the Toronto lineup. They are slugging but .372 as a whole and have only eight homers from non-Thomas players. Shaking things up is fine but without a better option on the roster it seems pretty clear that the Jays are letting finances dictate their lineup.

While Thomas hasn't hit that well he has draw eleven walks so at least his OBA is over .300. He's not hitting great, but he hasn't lost his batting eye.

The Forbes ratings came out last night, and baseball looks like it's in pretty good shape. Only three teams, the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays are losing money via operations. Things are really upside down, since the biggest profits accrue to the Marlins and Nationals. The winners lose and the losers win. What a great sport!

Richard Justice explains the Tigers turnaround came from a well timed chewing out by Jim Leyland. It's something the manager learned to do the right way:

When he was a young whippersnapper, he routinely closed the clubhouse door in Pittsburgh and let his guys have it. Somewhere along the way, he figured out that if a manager screams every night, no one listens.

Leyland eventually got it. He got a lot of other things. No manager is better at unifying a clubhouse and making all 25 players feel part of things.

There's also a time to cuss everyone out. If nothing else, Leyland probably felt a lot better. After Sunday's 11-0 loss to the White Sox, he did just that. Reporters standing outside the clubhouse could hear him.

"I'm not going to get into what I said," he said. "That's nobody's business. There was one thing that sticks out to me right now that's going on, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back with me. And that's why I'm (ticked) off. It's glaring."

He may have been upset that some of his hitters weren't having competitive at-bats. That's the thing scouts following the Tigers have noticed.

There's a balancing point between Larry Bowa and Willie Randolph. It's a lot closer to Willie, and I believe Mets fans would like to see Randolph cross that line once in a while.

Ron Gardenhire on slumping hitters breaking helmets:

"It's not the helmet's fault. It's that head inside the helmet."

Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog.com comments on the way Willie Randolph handles the team.

...in my view, this group of players lack accountability...and they lack shame...this, not anger, is what is missing...

...instead, if a player is not focused, making mistakes and costing the team an opportunity, willie should sit him down - like he did to Jose Reyes last summer...this is not a long-term solution, of course...the Mets need their best players in the lineup if they intend to win a pennant...however, it's not enough to just have people in the lineup physically, these players must play hard and perform while on the field...if, instead, they would rather waltz around and cash a pay check, that is not going to hack it...so, from what i understand, having talked with former players, if they are shamed by getting benched, if they are pulled from a game, called out a bit in the media, etc, this will have an impact...yelling at them like children will only make them more disengaged, but embarrassing them in front of their peers could help...

...i think willie took his first shot with this sort of method last night, with his public comments and frustration after last night's game...phase two will be making an example out of some one, assuming it gets to that point...i trust that it will not...

...i realize people get on willie, and rightfully so...i have a hard time with this, because, while i do not think he is passive, as most like to write, i do think he suffers from a bad case of tunnel vision and he is very, very trusting in his players...maybe to a fault...however, i like his style of baseball, i.e., aggressive base running, having a killer mentality and playing strong defense...my fear, though, is that, while the team may have some serious, high-priced talent, it may not be the type of talent best suited for willie's style...and so, what we may be witnessing is a conflict of style playing out on the field, in the locker room and in the press...

There are two things here that might end up getting Willie fired. Given the way the Mets tanked last year, they should be coming out of the gate as crisp as possible. There's absolutely no excuse for them to lose games due to sloppy play. That rightly goes back to the managerial skills of Randolph.

Secondly, if this team is not suited to Willie's style, then he shouldn't be managing the team. A good manager will adjust his style to fit the players on the team. If you have a low power, high speed team, then little ball and emphasizing the running game makes sense. If you have a bunch of power hitter who lumber around the bases, you wait for the three-run homer. It's not good to force a style on a team that can't execute that type of baseball. It's Randolph's job to figure out what type of team he has and manage to their strengths.

Frankly, as much as I'm a fan of Randolph's, I don't think he's long for the Mets.

I really can't get over how much crap Joe Girardi is taking for pitching to Manny Ramirez on Saturday. It was a perfectly logical decision that didn't work out. Nice to see that Joe took the questioning well.

It is things like this, however, that keep some mangers from going outside the box. I've asked players in the past about a certain strategy that made sense and why managers don't use it, and I've always heard that they don't want to deal with the press if it goes wrong. In any given plate appearance, the odds are Girardi's decision is the right one. If he walks Manny and the next batter gets a hit, however, no one complains. It becomes management to avoid bad press.

I like this move by Dusty Baker:

It will be Josh Fogg's turn to pitch after the off day, but with the way Fogg pitched Wednesday against the Brewers (five innings, four hits, no walks, one earned run, three strikeouts), Baker is inclined not to skip him.

But he also wants to keep Aaron Harang on his normal four days of rest, meaning Harang pitches Tuesday in Chicago, followed by Fogg on six days of rest, then Edinson Volquez on five days of rest.

If teams do this throughout the season, they can get a couple of more starts out of their number one starter. That's two less starts from pitchers not as good, which should be better for the team in the long run.

My latest column at SportingNews.com looks at how teams change strategy when Joe Torre takes over.

I have to disagree with Jack Curry:

The decision Sunday that was probably even easier for Girardi was summoning Joba Chamberlain during a tense spot in the seventh. It is getting harder and harder to imagine the Yankees moving Chamberlain from a setup role to be a starter this season.

It makes perfect sense if the Yankees want Joba to start to give him longer bullpen assignments. At some point, I would not be surprised to see Joba get three-inning saves. He'll need the endurance to go into the rotation.

What will make the decision difficult is a lack of success by other relievers, not Chamberlain's own success.

Via the FanHouse, Dusty Baker on the walk-off home run. I didn't realize that he had Encarnacion try to sacrifice twice in that plate appearance:

"You can't let him swing in that situation," Baker said. "He was struggling. I told (coach Chris Speier), 'I kind of hope he doesn't get it down so can hit a three-run homer, and he hit a three-run homer."

Sparky Anderson used to drive me crazy. I'd hear him interviewed and was convinced the man knew nothing about baseball. However, the results on the field indicated something different. After a while, I just stopped listening to what Spark said and paid attention to what he accomplished.

I'm at that point with Dusty now. I'm no longer going to listen to crazy remarks like this. I'll just watch for the results, which for his career are good.

Bruce Bochy and Joe Torre tried to align their pitchers to the weather last night, holding their starters until later in the game. Unfortunately, you can't fool mother nature. Just after Lincecum and Billingsley entered the game, a 74 minute rain delay ensued. Bochy, unlike Torre, sent his young starter back to the mound.

In a stunning and risky move involving the young pitcher they call The Franchise, Bochy allowed Lincecum to pitch one inning then return to a cold, damp mound after sitting through the 74-minute delay. Even older, established pitchers rarely do that.

Lincecum threw 84 pitches over four innings, allowing one run and striking out four to get the win. What a turnabout from last season, when the Giants babied Lincecum so he would not overtax his valuable right arm.

Bochy defended the decision, saying, "If we thought we were going to hurt his arm, we wouldn't have done it."

Bochy conferred with Lincecum, pitching coach Dave Righetti and bullpen coach Mark Gardner during the delay. Lincecum reminded them he often sat through rain delays during high school and college games in Washington. But even Lincecum later admitted he had not returned after a delay as long as Wednesday's.

"That," he said, "was a first for me."

Lincecum went on to single and score the winning run. We'll have to wait to see if there are any long term implications to this move.

Steve Wang and I spoke on the same panel at the AAAS conference in February. I knew Alan Schwarz wanted to write an article on Wang's work, and here it is. Steve uses faces as a visual tool to show managers tendencies. You can see the faces here. Randomly, Steve chose head width as the parameter for gaining the platoon advantage. Bruce Bochy comes out with a big head by this measure, just like in real life. Joe Maddon looks appropriately sad, given his record with the Rays.

Inside Charm City hears the Orioles might be sold after this season:

We are hearing that a group of backers including politicians, investors and other businessmen may be pushing for an arrangement unique for Major League Baseball if the team is indeed sold. That arrangement currently does exist in the National Football League. Some sort of community-based group ownership like the arrangement the Green Bay Packers have is something that many in the area believe could help turn the team's flagging attendance around and help improve the product on the field as well. We wouldn't be surprised to hear that Nestor Aparicio of WNST is involved behind the scenes in such a move. There will likely be all sorts of other potential buyers coming out between now and the end of the long dismal season.

Angelos would be selling a a relatively low point. Given the success of the team through the 1990s, there's a huge upside for whoever purchases the franchise.

Joe Girardi removed the ice cream and candy from the Yankees clubhouse and replaced them with healthy treats.

Mussina jokingly said he planned to find the wayward freezer and install it in the empty locker next to his. "The candy will go on the top shelf," he said. "I can't play without some candy."

Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, being children, also were distressed.

The good new for the beat writers is that whenever we need a scoop, we can bribe the players with M&Ms.

A scoop for a scoop sounds like a good deal.

Matt Treanor defends Joe Girardi's handling of the Marlins pitching staff:

But it is a subject that has not died easily. Matt Treanor, Marlins current backup catcher for Girardi and now, said, "You know I am going to get into trouble even talking about this stuff." The implication was the front office would not like it.

However, Treanor, first baseman Mike Jacobs and second baseman Dan Uggla all praised Girardi's season managing the Marlins, describing him as passionate for the game, caring for the players and -- yes -- protective of the young pitchers.

"I don't think it was cause and effect," Treanor said. "I never saw anything that anyone was abused on the mound. Joe is not that type of guy."

Joe was the manager and the pitchers got hurt. Pitchers, unfortunately, do get hurt. We'll see how he does with the new crop of youngsters.

Tyler Kepner finds an important similarity between Joe Girardi and Yoda:

Yoda's most famous quote, of course, was: "Do, or do not. There is no try." Turns out Girardi believes the same thing.

"He expects you to get the job done," Treanor said. "One time in spring training, somebody said, 'I'm going to try to do this.' I remember his comment was, 'I can get a truck driver to try.'

"So basically that means, you're out there to do it, by whatever means you have to do it."

There you have it, the distilled wisdom of the Yankees' new manager, straight from the playbook of a three-fingered puppet.

That's enough to link to a Weird Al video:

I saw Al perform this live at the old Jonathan Swift's in Cambridge, MA in 1983. He opened with this song, and really rocked. He still has the same guitar, bass and drummer he had then.

The Wall Street Journal ranks Ron Gardenhire as the best manager in baseball. The study ranks Scioscia, Francona and Torre 14th, 16th and 17th respectively. Subjectively, I would not rank those three that low, and I'm not sure how many people would. It would be neat if someone took these 20 managers and asked people to rank them 1-20 to see how they did. My guess is that this study missed something about why these managers have been so successful over the last decade.

Dugout Central relays a great story they heard John Franco talk about on radio. Bobby Valentine used the noise from the planes flying over Shea to assist in picking off runners at second. It's a good example of how Valentine could be a very clever manager.

Correction: Sorry, I wrote Julio but I meant John.

Former manager Preston Gomez was seriously injured in a car accident:

Preston Gomez, the beloved, 84-year-old special assistant to the Angels general manager, is in critical condition at a Palm Springs hospital this morning after being hit by a pick-up truck at a gas station in Blythe.

Gomez, on his way home from spring training, had stopped at a Chevron station at about 6 a.m. this morning and told his wife he was going to take a walk to stretch his legs.

According to Detective Sgt. Jeff Wade of the Blythe Police Department, Gomez "went around the pumps into the next aisle and right in front of a large pick-up truck that was driving up to re-fuel."

Gomez, Wade said, "suffered pretty major head injuries" and is believed to have suffered internal bleeding. He was taken to a local hospital, stabilized, and then air-lifted to the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs at about 10 a.m.

I remember him as the first manager of the Padres. I hope he pulls through.

Redleg Nation corrects Dusty Baker's faulty memory.

Aaron Gleeman proposes an interesting theory on who Ron Gardenhire praises and who he criticizes.

Baseball Hot Corner discusses the balance the Yankees need to achieve between keeping prospects and trading them away. New York did make those kinds of deals during the Cashman era, the most memorable for me being the Ricky Ledee trade. They trade Ledee, Zach Day and Jake Westbrook for Dave Justice. Looking back, it was probably a bad trade. That deal, however, filled an important need for the Yankees in 2000. Ledee never became a regular, Day had a couple of good seasons, the Yankees would have needed to wait four years for Westbrook to be valuable. Sometimes winning now is more important than winning in the future, however, and Justice provided a boost in 2000, the last year the Yankees won the World Series.

The White Sox are just a mess at second base.

Voros McCracken levels criticism at Kenny Williams for waiving Juan Uribe. However, we don't know if the waviers can be pulled back yet.

I suspect David Forst's comments on Bonds will help the MLBPA's investigation of collusion against Barry Bonds:

Keri: Barry Bonds! Left field is probably the A's weakest position right now, depending on which way you decide to go at the start of the season. He's in the Bay Area already, the A's are a team that prides itself on performance analysis, and Bonds still projects to be a productive hitter. Is there just an industry-wide philosophy that says, "Wink, wink, we're not going to do this"?

Forst: You expect me to answer this on the record? [laughs]

Keri: On the record, off the record, whatever you want to do.

Forst: On the record, this team has committed to young players.

You can read the whole interview at ESPN.

Mike Lawson sends this article on how the Rangers are using Nolan Ryan to try to bring back the fans:

There are pockets of doubting fans, hesitant to air their feelings publicly, who feel that Ryan's ascendancy is nothing more than a default-driven publicity stunt casting Ryan as a living, breathing mascot. But for the most part, everyone from Zonk (you can almost hear his drumbeat getting louder) to Charley Pride (you can almost hear the echoes from his annual spring training clubhouse performance) is buying what Nolan is selling. Even if the team remains the pathetic, penny-pinching Rangers. Even if it recycles the "You Could Use Some Baseball" slogan. Even if this is another season of prospects being groomed, veterans traded to contenders for even more prospects and a finish closer to fourth place than first.

Regardless, Ryan's touch is essential to pull the Rangers out of their spiral toward utter irrelevance. It was 10 seasons ago that Texas won 95 games and drew almost 3 million fans. But in this millennium, it has finished above .500 only once and last year attracted only 2.3 million. Nothing will make the boss grasp for the past like losing 23 percent of his customers.

It's a very good article about the positives and negatives of the team, and what Ryan will face as president as he tries to fix three decades of poor play in Texas.

Mark Lamping resigns as president of the Cardinals to manage the building of the new football stadium for the Giants and Jets.

After a career as prominent sports-marketing executive at Anheuser-Busch, Lamping was hired as Cardinals president on Sept. 1, 1994.

It was a troubling time for the franchise. The 1994 Major League Baseball season was shut down because of a labor disagreement, and the Cardinals were slumping on the field.

Lamping played a substantial role in the Cardinals' reversal of fortune. In 1995, Lamping hired Walt Jocketty as general manager, and Jocketty soon hired Tony La Russa as manager. That partnership was responsible for seven trips to the postseason over a 12-year stretch, and the prizes included the 2004 National League pennant and the 2006 World Series title.

Bill DeWitt III, son of the Cardinals owner, takes over the job.

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Redleg Nation uses Dusty Baker's evaluation of Homer Bailey to point out Baker's strength as a manager, handling people.

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Flotsam Media explains why Dusty Baker hates the walk. :-)

In training, I recently told young Joey Votto to give into his aggression. I wanted him to feel the power of swinging the bat, and letting the fear of a called third strike take control. Feed your anger, I told him. Feel the power course through your veins.

Incredibly, the young man disagreed with me, saying that he preferred an approach based on patience. I find his lack of faith disturbing.

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The Texas Rangers held ball girl tryouts, and they were quite rigourous:

Major leaguers will be hitting the balls they'll be fielding, so they can't be afraid to sacrifice their bodies for the sport.

During the Sunday tryouts the players bounded and lunged across the emerald grass, stopping line drives. Then, with determined faces, they each whizzed the ball back across the field.

"To catch and throw well, that's a must," said Rangers announcer Chuck Morgan, who helped supervise the tryouts. "And you've got to pay attention to whether the ball's fair or foul."

The right candidate must be able to think quickly off the field as well.

The team is expanding the ball girl program, now in its second year, to include a more visible marketing role, including making special appearances at promotional events.

Maybe Dusty Baker should hire MIckey Hatcher?

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The Brewers owner in looking to lock up Fielder and others to long term contracts:

Attanasio said the club will pursue long-term deals with many of the young players on his roster. He said those talks will be held in private, however, to avoid having the negotiations play out in the media.

"Whether it's Prince or any of the players, we're interested in signing all of our younger players to longer-term deals," said Attanasio. "At the same time, the players have to be interested in doing it. They have to make individual decisions.

"We've decided not to comment on where we are in the process. If we don't conclude any talks, we won't announce that we didn't sign anybody. We don't want to have a daily posting."

That's good to hear. There's lots of upside to signing youngsters to long term deals.

Trey Hillman very publicly reminded his team how to run the bases after their win today:

Hillman had seen too many base-running mistakes earlier in the game.

His solution was to gather the entire team at the plate for what amounted to a 15-minute lecture in full view of the Diamondbacks and the departing crowd of 5,539. Hillman then spent another 10 minutes in discussion with veteran second baseman Mark Grudzielanek near third base before initiating his postgame news conference at the dugout.

"I was just talking about running the bases," Hillman told reporters. "We had a couple of mistakes today. I'm not displeased. We won the ballgame.

"We've got to run the bases the right way all of the time. And today, we had a couple of mistakes. We could have been in a better position."

It looks like he got through to the players:

Players also said Hillman indicated the problems were an accumulation of things over the last few days. If so, that seems odd because he made a point repeatedly to compliment the club's improving fundamentals after victories Tuesday and Wednesday over the Rockies and Giants.

If nothing else, the on-field meeting put players on notice that Hillman is willing to embarrass them in public as a penalty for sloppy play.

"At least we got it done in spring training," outfielder David DeJesus said. "Now we know. We'll take it from here, and we'll change it. He won't need to do that anymore."

Trey is going to keep this team on their toes.

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Congratulations to the Reds who realized they could sign a sixteen year old Dominican star without waiting for the official signing period to start. Juan Duran is already 6 feet 6 inches and 190 pounds, and is being compared to Juan Gonzalez and Vlad Guerrero. Here's the loophole they exploited:

Players who are 16 years old are eligible to sign with major league teams during the international signing period, which lasts from July 2 to Aug. 31. Players who turn 16 years old during the international signing period are eligible to sign with teams on their birthdays.

Duran's birthday is Sept. 2, 1991, making him a 16-year-old who seemed to have barely missed the cutoff point to sign during last year's international signing period, and it appeared he would have to wait until the commencement of the 2008 period to sign. However, the rules state that for an international player to be eligible to sign, he must be 16 years old at the time of the signing and turn 17 years old by either Sept. 1 or by the end of his first professional season.

Players signed during the international signing period are not eligible to play that same year, so their first professional season comes the following calendar year. For example, a player signed during the 2007 international signing period would have his first professional season be the 2008 season.

The Reds realized that they could sign Duran if they assigned him to their 2008 roster in Billings in the Rookie-level Pioneer League, where the regular season ends on Sept. 5. Since Duran will turn 17 before the end of the 2008 Pioneer League season, he was eligible to sign before the 2008 international signing period and was eligible to sign back on his birthday last year.

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Playing off Sunday's post about ownership winning early, or not at all, John Moores sets the 2008 goal for the Padres:

Asked if the goal this year is the franchise's first World Series championship, Moores gave a measured response.

"The goal is to play meaningful games in September," he said. "Unfortunately for us, and fortunately, the West is quite competitive. I think there are going to be four very competitive clubs, and we are one of them. I don't want to leave anybody out, but I feel pretty good about us."

Now, Padres fans, wouldn't you rather have an owner who wants to win the World Series more than anything?

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The Brewers managed to upset one of their star players:

The Milwaukee Brewers renewed the slugger's deal for $670,000 on Sunday after finishing third in NL MVP voting last season.

"I'm not happy about it at all," Fielder said. "The fact I've had to be renewed two years in a row, I'm not happy about it because there's a lot of guys who have the same amount of time that I do who have done a lot less and are getting paid a lot more.

"But my time is going to come. It's going to come quick, too."

Going to arbitration after this season, Fielder has every reason to try for a monster year. Given what Ryan Howard received, Milwaukee should be ready to see their payroll increase significantly next season. The question is, will they patch this up, or continue to upset Fielder so much he leaves as soon as he's able to become a free agent? Milwaukee should study Pittsburgh and Barry Bonds and see if they want to go down that road.

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