What to Watch For This Off-Season

Jason Budden: Un-Common Sense?

With the next meaningful baseball game another five months away, the true baseball addicts need something to turn to during the off-season. For me, it’s a variety of things. The NFL and College Basketball are high up on the list, but I also try to keep a close eye on the MLB free agent market.

What players are changing teams this off-season? How is this going to affect next year’s competitive landscape? Are my Orioles going to pick up a few players so that they have a chance to possibly make the playoffs in 2009? Probably not, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Here are a few players to keep an eye on during this off-season:

C.C. Sabathia – The Yankees courtship of Sabathia has started early. They have already made him a six-year, $140 million offer. Most of the experts expect Sabathia to sign with the Yankees, which will have an effect on the rest of the free agent pitcher’s market. If the Yankees don’t get Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe are the next best options. The Yankees may sign Lowe, even if they do get Sabathia. Watch for the Sabathia signing to have an effect on whether the Yanks sign Andy Pettitte, or pressure Mike Mussina to consider coming back for another year (he seems to be leaning towards retirement). There’s not much else out there, so this should be interesting. (Prediction – Anaheim Angels)

Manny Ramirez – This year, Manny “being Manny” took on quite a few different meanings. Manny was just “being Manny” when he shut down and for all intensive purposes, forced the Red Sox into trading him. Then there was Manny “being Manny” as a Dodger, which produced a .396 batting average, 17 homeruns, 53 RBI, 36 runs and an absurd 1.222 OPS in 53 regular season games. He went on to top that performance by just “being Manny” during the playoffs, hitting .520 with four homeruns, 10 RBI, nine runs and a 1.746 OPS in only eight games. Think he was playing for the last contract of his career? Regardless of his motivation, Manny put on a show last year and is going to be paid quite well because of it. But can you trust him to continue focusing and putting in this type of effort? I think the Dodgers believe in the West Coast version of Manny Ramirez. (Prediction – LA Dodgers)

Mark Teixeira – Like Manny, Teixeira went off last season after being traded. During his 54 game stint with the Angels in 2008, Teixeira hit .358 with 13 homeruns, 43 runs batted in, 39 runs and a 1.082 OPS. As if he wasn’t already a top free agent, this performance, not to mention a .467 average in the playoffs, really bumped up his stock (and asking price). Many teams are in the running including the Angels, Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers (if they don’t sign Manny). At age 28, don’t be surprised if he signs a seven+ year deal, especially with Scott Boras representing him. (Prediction – Baltimore Orioles…this might be more hope as an O’s fan, than intuition)

Francisco Rodriguez – Do you think there are a few teams out there that would like to have KRod at the end of their bullpen? Yeah, I do too. The Angels would love to keep him, but they can’t afford to and have already let him know this. The New York Mets made a splash last off-season by signing Johan Santana to a seven-year $137 million contract. He helped the front of their rotation, but the Mets still missed the playoffs, in large part because they didn’t have the pieces in their bullpen to close the door. KRod instantly provides them with consistency at the end of games. It’s a perfect fit, both on the field and off, as the Mets are ready to pay what it will take to get Francisco on the roster. (Prediction – New York Mets)

Here are the best of the rest. The top free agent players at every position, after the ones I listed above.

Catcher: Jason Varitek
First: Jason Giambi (probably more a DH, but not many 1B available after Teixeira)
Second: Orlando Hudson
Third: Casey Blake
SS: Rafael Furcal
Outfield: Raul Ibanez, Pat Burrell, Bobby Abreu
DH: Adam Dunn
Starting Pitcher: A.J. Burnett, Ben Sheets
Closer: Brian Fuentes


Jason Budden is the Vice President of Operations and Marketing at Baseball Factory. Jason joined the Baseball Factory in 1997 while still a junior in high school. After going through the Baseball Factory's college recruiting program he was placed at Johns Hopkins University where he played two years of college baseball before graduating with a degree in Economics. After working part-time at the Factory throughout college, Jason joined the team as a full-time employee in January 2002 when he was promoted to Director of Marketing. He currently oversees all marketing projects and sponsorship opportunities at Baseball Factory. He is also in charge of development and marketing for Baseball University, the leader in online baseball education and a division of Baseball Factory.

A Storm for the Ages

Jason Budden: Un-Common Sense?

What was Major League Baseball thinking last night? It was raining cats and dogs in Philadelphia, yet the game raged on as if there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There were visible puddles in the infield, but it took until the bottom of the sixth inning for the umpires to intervene.

Do you think the game would have been stopped earlier if the score was tied, and not 2-1 in favor of the Phillies? Bud Selig said after the game last night that he would not allow a team to win a World Series championship because of a rain-abbreviated game. This is much easier to say when the game was suspended in a 2-2 tie.

Selig and the MLB officials clearly did not want to deal with any controversy that would have come into play had the game been suspended in the bottom of the fifth with the Phillies leading 2-1. I don’t know if there was any video footage, but I would guess that Selig was giving out high fives to everyone in the MLB suite after Carlos Pena tied the score with a single in the top of the sixth.

I think that the situation could have been handled differently and the bigwigs within MLB should have had a “contingency” plan in effect at the start of last night’s game. But, in the end, MLB did make the right decision and have set up some great suspense heading into tonight’s re-start.

Hopefully they have analyzed all of tonight’s options and informed each team of the plans, whatever they might be. They avoided a PR nightmare last night, thanks to Pena, but if they aren’t truly prepared for tonight’s game, it may turn out that they just delayed the inevitable harsh criticism.

Only time will tell.


Jason Budden is the Vice President of Operations and Marketing at Baseball Factory. Jason joined the Baseball Factory in 1997 while still a junior in high school. After going through the Baseball Factory's college recruiting program he was placed at Johns Hopkins University where he played two years of college baseball before graduating with a degree in Economics. After working part-time at the Factory throughout college, Jason joined the team as a full-time employee in January 2002 when he was promoted to Director of Marketing. He currently oversees all marketing projects and sponsorship opportunities at Baseball Factory. He is also in charge of development and marketing for Baseball University, the leader in online baseball education and a division of Baseball Factory.

Short & Sweet

Jason Budden: Un-Common Sense?

With the holiday weekend, I wanted to keep it simple, so here's a few random notes of interest.

Short

Jon Rauch is 6’11”, the tallest player in the big leagues. David Eckstein is 5’7”, the shortest. Estimating a 6’11” wingspan for Rauch, and Eckstein standing at 5’0” when crouching down in his batting stance, Rauch would release the ball a good 4 ½ - 5 feet above Eckstein’s head when delivering a pitch to the Blue Jays shortstop. (Eckstein comes off the DL on Tuesday, May 27)

Jimmy Rollins (5’8”) is on pace to tie the Major League record for doubles in a season, and that is with an early season stint on the DL. Rollins is hitting .321, which is 43 points higher than his career average, and has 14 doubles on the season in 29 games played. With 109 games remaining in the Phillies’ schedule, Rollins is on pace for 67 doubles. At the same time, the ankle injury that sent him to the DL is clearly still affecting his power. He has hit only one homerun in the 17 games since returning from the DL and is currently on pace for 14 homeruns this season (he hit 30 in 2007). If he keeps hitting .321 with a double every other game, the Phillies shouldn’t be too concerned.

Sweet

Magglio Ordonez is up to it again. Over the past week, he is hitting .478 (11/23) with three homeruns, seven runs and nine runs batted in. Twelve games into the season he was hitting .234 with one homerun and three RBI, but he has turned it on and has raised his average to .328. The Tigers have not followed his lead, but it is still early.

How sweet it is? Just ask Scott Kazmir. He has recovered quite nicely from the strained elbow he suffered to start the year. Since returning from the disabled list, Kazmir is 4-1 with a 1.50 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 32 K’s and only 10 Walks. Last week he went 2-0 striking out 18 batters in 14 innings while giving up only seven hits and two runs. During that stretch, the Tampa Bay Rays are 5-1 and recently moved into first place in the AL East.

Finally, talk about "Sweet," the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship bracket was announced over the holiday weekend. 64 teams are still alive to dogpile in Omaha.