GM Kevin Reitmeyer, Year 5

Now that the Pirates 11-game win streak has ended and the team (and their fanbase) has fallen back to reality, let talk about how they should approach the trade deadline.

For each of the last 4 seasons I have suggested moves for Neal Huntington to make at the MLB trade deadline.

2014:
http://thereitmeyerrant.blogspot.com/2014/07/to-trade-or-not-to-trade-that-is-neal.html

2015:
http://thereitmeyerrant.blogspot.com/2015/07/3-trades-neal-huntington-should.html

2016:
http://thereitmeyerrant.blogspot.com/2016/06/time-to-trade.html

2017:
http://thereitmeyerrant.blogspot.com/2017/05/hey-pirates-3-strikes-and-youre-out.html

http://thereitmeyerrant.blogspot.com/2017/07/general-manager-kevin-reitmeyer.html

Each of the last 4 years Huntington has ignored my suggestions and now the Pirates organization is a complete mess.  You connect the dots…

Maybe he learns in Year 5.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are close to being contenders.  They have a very nice young core, with Marte, Polanco, Bell, Moran, Diaz and Meadows in the field.  This is the core you build around.  But they need more.  They don’t need a A-ball prospect that will be good in 2022.  This team is close, but they just aren’t ready this year.  If Huntington plays his hand right however, they could be in 2019.

The Pirates should not be buyers this season.  They need to sell and the sooner the better.  The Pirates have assets.  They don’t have the typical trade deadline, rental player assets, but they have assets.  They have controllable assets.  The kinds of assets that Neal Huntington LOVES to collect, so asking him to part with these assets is an uphill battle.

The Pirates do have a few of those “rental player” types, but nothing that is going to bring back any type of real return.  Josh Harrison’s trade value peaked early last season.  Harrison not being able to stay healthy has completely drained any value he had before he demanded a trade after Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole were traded.  Francisco Cervelli now has ZERO trade value due to his concussion problem.  Those are two guys that Huntington would have been targeting as possible trade chips at the beginning of the season.  Jordy Mercer and David Freese won’t get you much except a smaller payroll.  Ivan Nova, with another year left on his contract, will get you decent return, but nothing spectacular.

That brings us to the very intriguing, controllable assets I referred to earlier, Corey Dickerson and Filipe Vazquez.

Dickerson is having one of the best years of his young career this season with the Pirates with a 318/351/517.  He is currently under contract for the remainder of the 2018 season, with 2019 being his final year of arbitration.  Dickerson will turn 30 during the 2019 season.  Huntington acquired Dickerson in a salary dump trade of Daniel Hudson, so he is already playing with house money.  Now is his chance to cash in.  You won’t get a huge return for Dickerson, but you could get some MLB ready talent.

Vazquez is the golden goose in the organization.  Just days after trading away Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole, the team announced Vazquez’s new deal and said that they would build around their young closer.  The deal that he signed was an extremely team friendly deal.  Vazquez is in Year 1 of a 4-year deal paying him a total of $22M dollars.  Mark Melancon, the player the Pirates traded to the Nationals for Vazquez, is making $20M THIS YEAR!  At just $3M this year, Vazquez is the 20^th highest paid Closer in baseball.  A player of Vazquez’s caliber, with his contract would pull multiple top-level prospects from any organization that bids for him. 

“Ugh more prospects!?!?”  I can hear the complaints now.  But again, this is where Huntington must think outside his incredible small box that he works out of and be creative.

If the Pirates were to deal Vazquez, Dickerson & Nova (the only 3 with any real value) by the end of the weekend, they would then have 2 days to flip the prospects they get in these deals for MLB level talent.

A report Thursday night from Ken Rosenthal had the Texas Rangers considering four Pirate prospects, RHP Tyler Eppers, RHP Dovydas Neverauskas, SS Kevin Newman & OF Jordan Luplow as the key piece in a deal for the current Rangers closer Keone Kela. 

Among names #Rangers are considering from #Pirates in Keone Kela discussions, per sources: RHP Tyler Eppler, OF Jordan Luplow, SS Kevin Newman, RHP Dovydas Neverauskas. All are at Triple A. Newman is team’s No. 8 prospect, per @MLBPipeline, Luplow No. 22.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 26, 2018

If I am Neal Huntington, I do it.  Do it, regardless of which of those 4 the Rangers want.  And the moment the ink is dry on that deal, call the Braves and dangle Vazquez.  The Braves closer, Arodys Vizcaino last recorded a save on June 17^th, since then he has pitched just 3 times and has landed himself on the DL.  Since June 17^th, the Braves are 11-16 and have fallen out of 1^st place.  You think they might be in the need of a closer?  Vizcaino will be heading into this final season of arbitration this year.  Acquiring Vazquez not only makes sense now, but for the future too.  Oh and did I mention that the Braves have one of the best farm systems in baseball?

According to MLB.com Prospect Watch the Braves have 8 of the Top 100 prospects in baseball.  That is 2^nd only to the San Diego Padres.  Best of all for the Pirates is that the majority of these prospects are MLB ready.  6 of those 8 prospects are pitchers, with 7 of the 8 expected to be in the Majors by the end of the 2019 season.  The Braves farm system is deep too.  It doesn’t stop at those 8 players, they have plenty of depth, especially at the pitcher position.  That means they can’t possibly keep all of them and they are likely to move them. 

After the Pirates pick through the Braves farm system for some guys that can contribute immediately for the Pirates, they then turn around and call the Tampa Bay Rays.  Chris Archer is the target here.  Archer is a guy that the Pirates have liked for a long time, but the asking price has always been too high for Huntington.  Now though, with the current Pirates farm system and the return he has gotten from Dickerson, Nova and Vazquez, Huntington finally has the prospects that the Rays would desire (and the asking price has come down since he is signed his 6-year deal in 2014).  Archer is controllable for the next 3 seasons at a total of $27.66M.  The Pirates signed Ivan Nova to a 3/$26M deal before the 2017 season, so those contracts are a wash.  The difference is that Archer is a better pitcher than Nova in almost every facet of the game, and Archer is younger than Nova.

By making these moves, you are now looking at an improved rotation that would look something like Taillon, Archer, Musgrove, Williams & Kingham/Keller (or Braves prospects) for the 2019 season.  You then can finally move Chad Kuhl to the bullpen where he belongs, joining Steven Brault and Tyler Glasnow.  If you are able to move Harrison and Mercer, you then have the ability to bring up Kevin Kramer and Kevin Newman (if not traded for Kela) to get Major League AB’s for the last 2 months of the season.  Trading Dickerson also allows Austin Meadows to truly become an everyday outfielder.

There you have it.  Sell today, win tomorrow.  I am sure Huntington will ignore me for the 5^th straight season, but at least I can say I tried.

The Sports Fix: Major League Baseball

I love baseball, it is by far my favorite professional sport to watch as both a casual observer and as a crazy fan that studies every pitch or sequence, breaking down the never-ending mind games and strategy that going on during the games.   That being said, baseball does have its flaws, so today I am here to fix them.

The four issues that I want to address about Major League Baseball are the scheduling, Interleague play, the designated hitter and expansion.  I think there should be something done about a salary cap and revenue sharing as well, but that is for another time and another place.  We will knock off the last three first, and leave the biggest issue in my mind, scheduling, for last.

DESIGNATED HITTER:
This will be short and sweet; the designated hitter is no more.  There is no sense to have half the teams in baseball playing by one set of rules, while the other half plays by different rules.  This doesn’t happen in any other sport, and shouldn’t be happening in baseball.

The push back from the player’s union would be that we are cutting a job from the league.  In response to that I would expand rosters to 26, but in doing that I would also add that at no time can any roster have more than 13 pitchers on their roster at one time.  This roster expansion is created to add a bat that can be used in pinch-hitting situation and to replace the bat lost by the DH, not to booster the bullpens.

INTERLEAGUE PLAY:
In my mind Interleague play in baseball has run its course.  Sure, there are some heated rivalries in places like northern California, Chicago, New York and even in the DC-Baltimore region, but for everyone one of those series, we have places like Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Texas that have no natural rival.  In those cities, Interleague play is nothing special.  It is just another series.  Maybe the worst part about Interleague play is how the uneven scheduling effects the standings and playoff races.  You don’t think the St. Louis Cardinals, who finished 1 GB of the Giants in the wild card race this year, would have rather played the A’s as their natural rival than the defending World Series Champion Royals?  Yes, it is cool to get to see the Yankees and Red Sox come to your city every few years if you live in an NL town, or the Cubs and Dodgers if you live in an AL town, but are those few instances worth having to sit through a random series with the Marlins or Twins?  Probably not.  I liked it when guys like Greg Maddux pitched in the World Series against Derek Jeter and it was the 1^st time that those two halls of famers ever met in a game.  That doesn’t happen anymore.  Interleague was fun while it lasted and will be missed by some, but not by most.  It is no longer.

EXPANSION:
With no Interleague play, 15 team leagues don’t work.  Now we either re-align or we expand.  I vote for expansion (with maybe a little re-alignment too.)  We are expanding to 32 teams, which gives us 16 teams per league.  Now, do we have four 8-team division or do we go with eight 4-team divisions?  After that we need to decide which two cities should be getting MLB teams.  I considered returning a team to Montreal, but opted for two US cities.  Our two newest cities are Portland, OR and Charlotte, NC.    I also considered Austin and Indianapolis, but finalized on these two.  The reasoning was somewhat simple, both cities already support professional sports teams.  They both also have had very successful minor league teams over the years, which shows that there is a baseball fan base in those cities. Finally, and maybe most importantly, these are the two biggest TV markets in the US that don’t already have teams.

Now the tough part, breaking up the current division formats and recreating a better one.  For logistics stake, we put Portland in the American League and Charlotte in the National League.  I really wanted to 4 divisions of 8 teams in each division, but I think that makes the playoff situation a little more difficult.  I also factored in that with larger divisions, the playoff races aren’t as exciting and fewer teams are in contention longer in the season than with 8 divisions of 4 teams.  We will now have 8 divisions of 4 teams in each division (4 divisions in each league).  We are dividing up the divisions geographically.  Each league will have an EAST, WEST, SOUTH and CENTRAL division.  

Here are the divisions:
AMERICAN LEAGUE-

EAST                                                      WEST                                     SOUTH                                                  CENTRAL
Baltimore                                             LA                                           Arizona (flipped from NL)                  Chicago
Boston                                                  Oakland                                 Houston                                               Cleveland
New York                                             Portland                                 Kansas City                                          Detroit
Toronto                                                Seattle                                   Texas                                                      Minnesota

NATIONAL LEAGUE-

EAST                                                      WEST                                     SOUTH                                                  CENTRAL

New York                                              Colorado                               Atlanta                                                  Chicago

Philadelphia                                         LA                                           Charlotte                                              Cincinnati

Pittsburgh                                            San Diego                              Miami                                                   Milwaukee

Washington                                         San Francisco                       Tampa Bay (flipped from AL)            St. Louis

SCHEDULING:
In my mind baseball needs more days off and fewer games.  Not a ton fewer, but fewer.  This year in MLB teams played 162 games in 181 days.  My schedule is for 156 games in 175 games.  6 fewer games and still done with 19 scheduled off days.  However, my schedule includes 6 scheduled double headers.  Every teams will play will play host to their 3 division opponents in a scheduled double header throughout the season.  These double headers can be scheduled however the home team would like (Classic, Day-Night, Twi-Night).  Every teams will be able to expand their roster by 1 the day of a double header and each team will have a scheduled day off following all scheduled double headers.  This creates 6 more off days during the season for the players.

The season will always begin on the 2^nd Sunday of April.  For the 1^st week of the season, all games will be played in either a domed stadium or a warm weather climate.  For the final weekend of the season, all teams will play against teams from their division.  In September, with expanded rosters, each team will only be allowed to declare 26 players eligible for a given game (27 if playing a doubleheader).

The actual scheduling of the games will be simple.  Each team will play 48 division games, playing each opponent 16 times each (8 away, 8 home).  All divisional series will be 4-game series.  Each team will play 108 out of division games, playing each opponent 9 times each.  All non-division series will be 3-game series.

PLAYOFF SCHEDLING-

There will still be 5 playoff teams from each league making the playoffs, 4 division winners and 1 wildcard winner.  The difference in that we will no longer have a “Wild Card” game, but a “Play-In” game.  With only 1 wild card winner, it doesn’t make sense to call it a wild card game and take away from a team that won their division.  Instead the wild card winner, will play on the road at the division winner with the worst record.  Those teams will play 1 game to advance into the MLB Postseason.  The division winner with the best record hosts the winner of the Play-In game, while the other 2 division winners also play, with home field for the series decided by season record (tiebreaker would be head-to-head record).

An important change to the postseason scheduling that I am making, is doing away with travel days in the middle of the series.  This changes the structure of a series too much and allows pitcher dominant teams to rely on one or two pitchers to carry them to a series victory.  By limiting the extra off days in the middle of postseason series, it forces teams to play more like they did in the regular season, which is how they got to the postseason in the first place.  The only off days in any series (both best of 5 series and best of 7) will come after Game 4.  This also avoids the postseason carrying on into November like it is scheduled to this year if it returns to Cleveland for Games 6 and 7.

Sadly, most of these changes will probably never happen, but in my mind, they should.  Anyway, enjoy the rest of the World Series.

Reality Check For Bucco Fans

For all the Pittsburgh Pirate fans who are panicking after the Buccos' most recent home stand in which they finished 4-7 and failed to keep the opponents from scoring at least 5 runs in the final 10 games, I have one word for you.

Relax.

The Pirates aren't as good as they were the first two months of summer, and they aren't as bad as they played the past 11 games, so let's find a middle ground for this team.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that Pirate team that you just saw during this home stand is more like the real team than the team we saw take the field for most of June and July.

Let's step back and look at this team from an outsider's perspective and not as an irrational fan that has been dying for a winning team for the past 20 years.  The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 105 games just 2 years ago.  Last year, they improved that mark by 15 games.  Not many teams improve by 15 games in 1 year.  This year, they are on pace to win 88 games, once again improving, this time by 16 games.  I know that everyone in Pittsburgh would love to see this team in the playoffs come October, but why can't people just be happy that this team has continued to improve in drastic measures over the past two seasons?

When this season began, everyone that followed this club knew that they were a year or two away from being serious contenders.  That plan was set in place by drafting Jameson Taillon and Garrett Cole, two of the top young pitchers in the country, with back-to-back first round picks.  Add in signing all-star Andrew McCutchen to a long term deal, and the promising younger position players the team has in the organization (Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and Starling Marte), and the future looks bright.

Also consider the fact that all of the key players on this years team as well as all of the players acquired at the trade deadline are signed at least through the 2013 season.

Sure, making the playoffs this season would be great, but let's remember where this team was just two years ago, and be happy with the results we have seen this year.  It is about continuing to get better, and the Pirates are doing that.

The 2012 Pirates team has been really fun to watch, but this is just the start of things to come for Pirate fans if all continues to go right in the Pirates organization.  Just be patient, and relax. 

The Pirates Need A New Manager, Why Not Me?

October 4, 2010

Frank Coonelly
Pirates Team President
115 Federal Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

I am interested in the open managerial position with the Pittsburgh Pirates. As you can see from my enclosed resume, the invaluable experience I have had both coaching Brookline Little League and working a job that had me at nearly every home game has prepared me well for this position of managing the Pirates.

I am energetic, hard-working, and extremely knowledgeable of sports, something that most Pirate employees don‘t seem to be. My work background has supplied me with an understanding of the game of baseball. I also read Managing Baseball for Dummies, so I am well ahead of the game compared to your recent hires for this job. While coaching Brookline Little League, I have been a part of 7 championship teams, and I fully expect them to put a bust of me at the field entrance due to my success. Seeing how the Pirates love building statues to honor people, I thought this would be a plus for me. While watching over the past 3 seasons, I learned so much from watching every home game the team has played since I started. You know the old saying, “mistakes aren’t bad if you can learn from them.” Well, I’ve seen plenty of mistakes in the games I’ve seen and learned from all of them.

I have the skills, determination, knowledge, and natural instinct to be successful as the next manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I love baseball and there is nothing more that I would like to be a part of than turning this joke of a franchise around and making it a winner. I look forward to speaking with you about the opportunities involved in this job.

Sincerely,

Kevin Reitmeyer

Enclosures
RESUME


OBJECTIVE
To bring winning baseball back to the team and city that I love.

EXPERIENCE

AS A PLAYER:
1992 Knight of Columbus - Brookline Little League
Starting 2nd baseman and reserve centerfielder.

AS A COACH:
1998 - 2007 5 Championships - Brookline Little League
1st base coach and hitting instructor for Steve Poremski Plumbing (1998 - 2001)
Won 3 championships in 4 seasons and runner-up the 4th season.
2 straight undefeated seasons, the only time that has ever happened in 60 years of BLLA. (98-99)
Coached the BLLA All-Stars to the District Finals for the first time in 20 years.

3rd base coach and pitching coach from 2002 - 2007
Won back-to-back titles in 2006-2007 with 2 different teams.

AS A MANAGER:
2003 - 2005 Minor League Manager, 1 championship
Manager and 3rd base coach
Took over as interim Manager mid-way through the 2003 season. Led a winless team in 2003 to the championship series in 2004 before losing in the 3rd game of a best of 3 series.
2005 Champions, sweeping the Championship series.

OFF THE FIELD:
2008 - 2010 Worked in the stadium allowing me to watch every home game
My Responsiblities including paying close attention to the fine details of each and every game. I believe this experience has given me a better understanding of what not to do on the field and how to handle the players and deal with the umpires.

EDUCATION:
SELF TAUGHT
* I have learned the ins and outs of the game of baseball from my father, who at young age took me to games at 3 Rivers Stadium and taught me tendencies and strategy involved with the game.
* I have also watched baseball and studied the great managers of the game, like Jim Leyland who the Pirates let go.
* I watch the game on TV as well, listening to some of the best minds in the game dissect each and every play, including Bob Costas, Bob Uecker and other baseball announcing greats.
* I also watch Pirate baseball, almost religiously, despite how incredibly painful it is to sit through. By doing that, I feel that I have learned what NOT to do.

COACHING STYLE:
MIXED BRED STYLE
* I feel that my style is considered to be more of a small ball coach, which would work well in Pittsburgh since there is nobody on the roster that will hit more than 30 HR’s, minus Pedro.
* I like to use plate patience, good speed on the bases and the ability to advance runners to manufacture runs. This may be tough considering it does not seem that the current players on the 40 man roster have any of these capabilities.
* I like to trust my pitchers and let them fight through their struggles instead of keeping them on a strict pitch count and pulling them on the first sign of difficulties, and thereby wearing down the bullpen.

RANDOM RANTING

BASEBALL, AMERICA’S PAST PASTIME
I love baseball. As many of you know, it is my favorite professional sport. However, once again I am amazed at how poorly the sport is being run. Bud Selig is killing Major League Baseball. Not only is it the only professional sport in America in which money is the biggest factor to fielding a winning team (Yankees 2009 payroll is $201,449,189, Phillies is $113,004,046. Both in the top quarter of the league), but now Selig is apparently in support of not always getting the right call on the field.
Today Bud came out and said that he is not a fan of expanding replay, “I do like the human element and I think the human element for the last 130 years has worked pretty well.” Well that is great, let’s never move forward for the betterment of the sport. The playoffs this season have been scattered with blown calls and this is how the commissioner of the league reacts to it, unreal! What is more shocking is that the owners just extended his contract and he will continue to be in charge for another 3 season, minimum.

Hey Bud, if you are looking for things to not change about baseball due to the way it worked over the last 130 years, here is a list I have put together for you:
*Do away with the DH. It is a joke of a position and is not how the game was meant to be played.
*Don’t play until November. Who wants to sit outdoors in NY, Philly, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Denver or Chicago to watch a game that will drag on early into the night? Sorry, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Cubs fans, I know you will never play in November due to the financial set-up of the game (and for simply never winning for the Cubs fans) but those were the cold weather cities with outdoor stadiums that I could think of.
*Cool it with all the off days during the playoffs. These guys play for weeks at a time during the regular season they don’t need a day off every time they get to a new city. The Yankees will have more off days in the month of October then they will have played games by tomorrow night. Not only do they have off days every time the travel, but twice they had off days to stay in the same city.
*Speed up the game. I know that MLB will do just about anything for the TV networks, but can’t you put a limit on the length of time between innings. You know it is bad when the game ended last night, I thought to myself, “wow, that was a fast game,” and it took 3:25!

PARITY IN THE NFL IS GONE, IT WENT BACK TO COLLEGE
In the past 10 years or so the NFL has been about as even a playing field as you can get. In that time every team has had at least a little success, I mean even the Browns have made the playoffs in that time frame. In the last 10 Super Bowls 14 different teams have been represented. Not this year. This season parity has only grabbed hold of about 10 teams that are incredibly average. This season, there are more bad teams then I can ever recall at one time. We are approaching the eighth week of the season and there are still six teams that have not won more then once so far. And if it weren’t for the Washington Redskins (2-5) there may be more. Last week was the first game of the season that the Redskins opponent had a win coming into the game.

While this is happening in the NFL the college game has gone the opposite direction. What happened to the 66-3 wins that Texas and USC used to put up on teams? What happened to Urban Meyer being up by 40 on his conference rivals? What happened to Ohio State dominating every game until their BCS game? This stuff just isn’t happening anymore and I can’t decide if it is good or not for the sport. It is always fun to be able to watch a team play and be in awe of how easy they make the game look. You also can’t match the excitement and tension as you watch a team about to pull off an unthinkable upset versus someone in the top 10. Unfortunately we haven’t seen much of either this season. The dominate teams, just aren’t that dominant and the upsets aren’t happening because ranked teams seem to do just enough to squeak out a win despite playing terribly all game. Here is a brief overview of my thoughts of the BCS conferences this year and how disappointing they have been.

ACC- Minus Georgia Tech they have nothing. It is a bunch of teams that beat each other up, but nobody that could win against anybody near the elite level from another BCS conference.
Big XII- This conference was supposed to have all the fireworks and be the one to challenge the SEC, guess what, they haven’t! Texas is good, but no one really knows how good, because everyone else in the conference has just been BLAH so far. If OK State can hang with UT tomorrow we can add them into the group, but right now it is completely just a one team conference.
Big East- Cincinnati, West Virginia and Pitt are carrying the torch this year for the Big East, but after those three there is nobody. USF did its annual rise to the rankings before getting pasted by Cincy and Pitt (WVU tonight). Rutgers was a huge disappointment as well.
Big Ten- Iowa? Really you are going to give me Iowa? With all the hype behind Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State or Rich Rod at Michigan or Penn State when the season starter how is it that Iowa is the face of the Big Ten this year? And after Iowa (which looks as vulnerable as any top 5 team in history) you have a very good Penn State defense (not sure about that Spread HD this year, looks like low definition so far), a very inconsistent Ohio State offense and a RichRod led Michigan team that doesn’t know what they want their identity to be.
PAC-10- I’m going to actually utter the words, The Pac-10 is the second best conference in college football this season. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that, and that it is actually true. You can’t argue the depth though. USC, Oregon, Arizona, Stanford, Washington, Cal and Oregon State can all play with just about anyone on any given day.
SEC- Yes, we all know the SEC is the best conference in college football. I’m glad to see that the folks at Sports Illustrated are finally catching on too. But to be honest, the powers in the SEC aren’t looking so powerful. Florida is 5-0 in conference play, but four of those games have been decided by 10 points or less, compare that to the fact that their closest win in conference play last year was a 30-6 win at Tennessee. Alabama is solid too, but their offense is full of question marks. They have not scored a passing TD in their last 3 games and have struggled to beat average Tennessee and South Carolina teams. After those two, I think LSU, Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi can be good, they just haven’t been consistent enough or showed me enough to prove it.

IT’S BACK
Every year around Labor Day I get duped into believing that my favorite sport is college football. I enjoy college football as much as just about anything, except college basketball. I attended the Pitt Blue-Gold scrimmage on Tuesday and now I can’t wait for the rest of the games to get here. Sunday is their first exhibition game vs Slippery Rock. What a great way to spend a non-Steeler Sunday. Heck, in my opinion that would be a great way to spend a Steeler Sunday too. I can’t wait for all of the preseason tournaments to kickoff and all the big-time non-conference match-ups. Heck, I won’t even mind hearing Dickie V yell some incomprehensible non-sense about how AWESOME everything is for the first few times. Because for once he is right, college hoops is AWESOME BABY with a capital “A”!

A-ROID

Being someone who loves baseball, I was obviously interested in hearing what Alex Rodriguez had to say to clear the air about his steroid use. So, I watched A-Rod’s news conference on Tuesday where he publicly addresses members of the media for the first time after admitting to using steroids in 2001 – 2003. I listened to every word of the news conference. I listened to A-Rod calling himself, “stupid” (four times), “naïve,” “silly and irresponsible,” and “immature.” I watched as he had arguable the longest and most ridiculous dramatic pause in the history of dramatic pauses (39 seconds). I listened as he threw his “cousin” under the bus, all but blaming him for the fact that he cheated baseball. But most importantly I watched him avoid questions left and right. So, what was my take on the whole thing? I do not believe one word he said.

Not wanting to be too judgmental with the whole thing, I gave it a day to settle and then went back and read a transcript of the press conference to see if I had a different reaction this time.

I did not. And here are some of the reasons why.

Last Monday, eight days before reporting to Spring Training in Tampa and holding this press conference A-Rod spoke to Peter Gammons of ESPN about his steroid use. Gammons asked most of the right questions, but A-Rod answered almost none of them.

The third question that Gammons asked A-Rod was, “what kind of substances did you take?” A- Rod answers:

“Peter, that's the thing. Again, it was such a loosey-goosey era. I'm guilty for a lot of things. I'm guilty for being negligent, naive, not asking all the right questions. And to be quite honest, I don't know exactly what substance I was guilty of using.”

Okay, do I believe it? Not at all. He is a 24-year-old athlete who is getting paid $252M to play baseball, he sure as hell better know what he is doing to and putting in that $252M body. Nevertheless, he answered the question. The problem with that answer is that just three minutes into his speech that he read while addressing the media on Tuesday he completely contradicted himself with this statement:

“Going back to 2001, my cousin started telling me about a substance that you could purchased over the counter in the DR [Dominican Republic]. In the streets, it's known as 'boli' or 'bole.' It was his understanding that it would give me a dramatic energy boost and [was] otherwise harmless.”

So three minutes into this news conference we now know that he has already caught himself in a lie. Nice going!

Later he was asked this:

"Just to be clear, did you know the stuff you were getting from the Dominican was steroids, and, if so, did you consider the consequences at the time?"

"I didn't think they were steroids at the time. Again, that's part of being young and stupid. It was over the counter, it was pretty basic and it was really amateur hour. It was two guys, we couldn't go outside, who couldn't ask anyone, didn't want to ask anyone. We went outside team doctors, team trainers. It was two guys doing a very amateur and immature thing. We probably didn't even take it right. Like I said in my statement, we used to do it about two times a month. I don't even know if that is proper. So when this gentleman asked me about how it affected us -- I'm not sure we even did it right to affect us in the right way. All these years, I never thought I did anything that was wrong. Perhaps, but not wrong. And come to find out bole triggered a positive test in 2003."

Let me get this straight. So, A-Rod didn’t think he was taking steroids and thinks he may have been doing the injections incorrectly, yet you did not ask the trainers or team doctors. Alex, if you did not think they were steroids and you didn’t think they were anything more then an over the counter supplement, why didn’t you ask a trainer? Why did you keep doing it (36 times over 3 seasons)? Especially if you thought you might be doing it wrong!

A-Rod also kept talking about him being so young when he did this stuff, “I was 24, I was 25. I was pretty naive and pretty young.” Since when is 24 and 25 “pretty young”?

Another thing that I find very interesting, and I noted this during the Peter Gammons interview as well. Gammons asked A-Rod about the time frame he used, saying “You're saying that the time period was 2001, '2 and '3?"

To which A-Rod responded, “That's pretty accurate.”

Pretty accurate? Pretty accurate meaning it may have been in 2000 or 2004 also, and you were not 100% sure or pretty accurate meaning it may have been since 1994 when you came into the league until last month?

Then to top that off he admits to using “Ripped Fuel” while in Seattle which is now a banned substance in MLB, but says that his best year was when he was in Seattle. Yeah, no kidding you were juicing then too apparently.

Alex did also use maybe the worst possible choice of words imaginable when he said, “I’m here to take my medicine.” No Alex, you are here because you took some medicine. Some medicine that was illegal. Nice try though.

Apparently I was not the only one who was not believing a word of the garbage that A-Rod was feeding the media, one reporter started his question with this phrase, “Alex, if I understand the story you are telling today.”

Now I know that I said I did not believe a word that came out of Rodriguez’s mouth during this whole process, but the last thing he said I thought made the most sense and I agree with 100%. His last line of the day was this, “I screwed up big time. But I think the only thing I ask from this group today and the American people is to judge me from this day forward. That's all I can ask for."

I agree and feel that everyone should do just that. Do you hear me Hall of Fame voters? Bud Selig? Baseball record keepers everywhere? A-Rod wants us to judge him from this day forward. That sounds easy enough for me. That would make his current career home run count, um…ZERO! Thanks Alex, that was the smartest thing you said.

America's Former Pastime

The New York Yankees gave baseball fans across the country 161 more reasons to hate the Yankees on Wednesday.

The Yankees have received nearly $850M in taxpayer investments from the city and state of New York and have recently asked the city taxpayers to pitch in another $259M to complete the new teams new stadium. Then the next day the team goes out and out-bids only themselves to offer free agent pitcher CC Sabathia a record contract of $161M over seven years.

Something needs to be done in baseball to change these spending methods, not just by the Yankees but all teams. Sabathia will make more per year in this deal than the entire Florida Marlin team made last year.

I understand that the Yankees are playing by rules and are not doing anything wrong. I understand that they have the money to spend, and that is exactly what they are doing. I do not understand two things about this. First, how can Major League Baseball can sit around, watch this spending, and not see anything wrong with it? Secondly, how are the taxpayers of New York not rioting in the streets about the Yankees asking them to pay more towards their new stadium, when the they go out and spend their money like they do?

This is not good for the people of New York. Yes, the Yankees ownership has the money and can afford to do this. I understand this. The Yankees ownership is also very dependent on the people of New York City to sell out the brand new, two billion dollar stadium that will open in April. Now not only do they want to the city to come up for more money, but they will also need them to by the tickets to their stadium, tickets that cost up to $2,500 a seat. In this current economic struggle that most of America is dealing with, this is a terrible message being sent by the entire Yankee organization.

Okay, let us move past the economy factor and look at why this deal is terrible for baseball.

Sabathia is from the west coast. He is currently building a house in southern California. The Angels, Dodgers, and Giants were all very interested in his services for the next few years. They were all offering him substantially less than what the Yankees originally offered ($140M). Yet, Sabathia considered these offers (the highest reported offer excluding the Yankees was $115M). Sabathia did not want to play in New York. He did not want to be a Yankee, but the Yankees upped their offer another $21M and he took it because nobody else stepped to the plate.

Can you blame Sabathia? Not at all, I do not think anyone can blame him. However, you can blame baseball.

Baseball has not been played on an even playing field since the 1994 strike. This move by the Yankees just shows how uneven that playing field really is. The story out of Las Vegas this week during the Winter Meetings was that GM’s were told to cut back because teams were cutting back their budgets due to the economy. Not the Yankees, they did not have any competition for Sabathia so they started out-bidding themselves. How can cities like Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Cleveland compete with a team like the Yankees unless Major League Baseball steps in and does something? Cleveland offered Sabathia a $72M deal for four years during this past spring training and he turned it down. Again, do not fault Sabathia, fault the system that he knew would allow him to make much more in the open market of free agency. These smaller cities just become farm systems for the bigger market teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox and Angels.

Look at the Pirates. This year will mark their seventeenth straight season with a losing record. This will set the all-time mark by any professional team in any professional sport. During this time, the Pirates lost players like Tim Wakefield, Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Doug Drabek, Jay Bell, Denny Neagle, Esteban Loaiza, Jason Schmidt, Jeff Suppan, Brian Giles, Oliver Perez, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady because they could not afford to sign them. All of these players have gone on to very successful careers for other teams.

A signing like the Yankees made with Sabathia give little to no hope to the smaller market teams and shows everything that is wrong with the game I love. And that is exactly the reason that baseball is no longer America’s Pastime.