December 25, 2012

December 25th - a VERY special day

On December 25th last year, I reflected on how that day made me remember something very special that happened a long time ago. But this year, it has a very special meaning all on its own.  Yes, as I'm sure you've all guessed already, December 25th is the Baseball Solstice.  A big thank you to Dan at The Ball Caps Blog for reminding us all of this.  As fresh as our memories are of the 2012 season, and as distant as next season seems, after the 25th we will be closer to the start of Spring Training than to the end of the World Series. It is the day the furthest away from baseball all year - and although that may be a reason for sadness and despair, we need to realize that just as everyday has already started to get longer, we are also now getting closer to baseball.  I can't wait for the smell of fresh grass, the sound of the crack of the bat, the excitement of watching our Red Sox win games.... well, regardless of what happens, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.


So remember even though the weather outside may be frightful, and with no games on, you have no place to go... it won't be long before you hear the call of "PLAY BALL!".(*)


Happy Holidays everyone :)

(*) As an umpire, I hate to perpetuate the myth that games start with this call.  Umpires only say "PLAY!" to start a game, but this phrase is more popular and traditional in our collective social consciousness so I'm going to go with it.

December 16, 2012

Another Canadian joins the Red Sox

(Greg M. Cooper / USA TODAY Sports)
British Columbia native Ryan Dempster has been signed by the Red Sox for the next two seasons. Dempster will join a long list of Canadians who have been part of the Crimson Hose in recent memory.  These include Jason Bay, Matt Stairs, Eric Gagne, George Kottaras, Adam Stern, Mike Gardiner, Erik Bedard and Chris Reitsma who was drafted in the 1st round but never played home games at Fenway.

Being Canadian myself, I usually want the Red Sox to acquire as many Canucks as possible. However, I was less then overly enthusiastic when I heard Dempster's name linked to the Red Sox.  With other free agent starting pitchers available, I did not think he was the best choice. What I knew about him, was that he has played most of his career in the National League and that his brief stint in Texas last year resulted in an ERA north of 5. And not being a fastball pitcher, we all know that when pitchers move from the NL to the AL, they get exposed as they can't dominate our hitters like they could in the National League.  Oh year, he's not getting any younger.  Sigh.  But thanks to the good folks at the Sons of Sam Horn, a bunch of very positive points have emerged about this signing:

Take a look at the 2 lines of nearly identical stats below over the past 3 seasons:.

December 02, 2012

Best Baseball Players not in the Hall of Fame

At the fine "Baseball: Past and Present" website, it is time for their annual project where readers rank the 50 best baseball players not in the Hall of Fame.  This always makes for some interesting reading, so rather than just vote this year, I am helping to spread the word.  If you want to have your say, it's simple.  Just go to this Google form and fill it out!  This reference list has over 400 names that you may want to consider.   Remember when filling out the ballot, to include a Y or N to indicate if you think they should be in the Hall of Fame or not.  For example, you may think players such as Shoeless Joe Jackson or Pete Rose are among the best players not in the Hall, but feel they don't deserve to be in.  The full details are on the original post here.

You can also take a look at The Hall of Nearly Great to read some great stories about several players that are not in Cooperstown.  This book has a compilation of some excellent writers talking about their favourite players including Dale Murphy, Keith Hernandez, Don Mattingly, John Olerud  and Fred McGriff, all of whom are worthy of consideration for top 50 missing from Cooperstown.  As well, as Red Sox fans you can read about Luis Tiant, Dwight Evans and Ellis Burks.



November 15, 2012

Blue Jays trade analysis - part deux


Dead Blue Jay
Yesterday I wrote about the Jays recent trade and warned fans not to have high expectations, based on the results of some other blockbuster deals or big signings. I outlined several examples over the past 10 or so years where teams added major parts in the offseason and didn't get the results they expected.

That's all well and good, but just because some big trades don't pan out, doesn't mean that they all won't.  So today, I'm going to look at the specific players involved in this trade, and analyze how much of an impact they can be expected to provide.

The players the Blue Jays received were Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buerhle, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio.

Blue Jays trade analysis - part deux

Yesterday I wrote about the Jays recent trade and warned fans not to have high expectations, based on the results of some other blockbuster deals or big signings. I outlined several examples over the past 10 or so years where teams added major parts in the offseason and didn't get the results they expected.

That's all well and good, but just because some big trades don't pan out, doesn't mean that they all won't.  So today, I'm going to look at the specific players involved in this trade, and analyze how much of an impact they can be expected to provide.

The players the Blue Jays received were Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buerhle, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio.

November 14, 2012

Blue Jays blockbuster = 2013 World Series?

I just wrote a post on my Baseball in Alberta blog about what impact the Blue Jays trade could have locally. As a Red Sox fan, I realize that it impacts our team as well, so I am reposting here, with a few edits.


Our division rival, the Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a blockbuster deal and have added 4 all-star players to their roster.  Money aside (Rogers still has a few excess billions), the only cost was  a controversial shortstop (whom will be replaced by one of the premier shortstops in the league), an under-performing pitcher and some prospects.  And although some of these prospects might pan out in future years, it’s not as though any of them were the kind of prospects that your average baseball fan was following in the minors – a la Bryce Harper or Jesus Montero. In fact it wasn’t even the top organizational prospects – but their consensus #2, 5 and 8 guys.

Should we concede the division right away?  Do we have no hope of competing against the re-tooled Blue Jays next season?  Not so fast.....

This trade will make Toronto a better team for the immediate future.  It may even help their chances of making the playoffs, but we're jumping to conclusions if we assume any more than that.  Remember how we felt when we added A-Gon and Carl Crawford to our already potent lineup?  It was a foregone conclusion that we would win the division, most of the chatter around the baseball message boards was if we would break the 100 win barrier or not.

Anyhow, there are two ways we can look at this:  Look at individual player's impacts, or look at what history tells us about the fate of teams that made huge acquisitions, bolstering their rosters in hope of attaining that elusive championship.  Today I'm going to start by looking at history for some parallels.  In my next post, I'll analyze this specific trade more closely.

Blue Jays blockbuster = World Series?

The Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a blockbuster deal and have added 4 all-star players to their roster.  Money aside (Rogers still has a few excess billions), the only cost was  a controversial shortstop (whom will be replaced by one of the premier shortstops in the league), an under-performing pitcher and some prospects.  And although some of these prospects might pan out in future years, it’s not as though any of them were the kind of prospects that your average baseball fan was following in the minors – a la Bryce Harper or Jesus Montero. In fact it wasn’t even the top organizational prospects – but their consensus #2, 5 and 8 guys.

What does any of this have to do with Baseball in Alberta?  Well, if these moves help the Blue Jays win the World Series, the impact will be felt at the local level.  There will be a resurgence in fan interest, like there was in the early 90s, and it will cascade all the way down to cities building more youth baseball diamonds, more revenue for independent teams, more players wanting to play, attracting more qualified coaches north of the border and so on.  So, yes, this trade could have a major impact on the baseball landscape in Alberta, from Little League to the WMBL to semi-professional franchises to potentially attracting minor league teams back to our province.

So will this trade:
- make Toronto a better team for the immediate future? Absolutely. 
- help the Jays' chances of making the playoffs? Probably
- bring the World Series trophy to Canada soon? Nope!

November 06, 2012

Baseball Bloggers Alliance Award Winners


The Baseball Bloggers Alliance has completed naming its 2012 award winners.

As you'll recall, I made my picks right after the season finished.  There were some easy choices, but I made a few controversial choices. I ignored Jim Johnson's 51 saves, and selected Fernando Rodney for top reliever.  I picked Justin Verlander and his 17 wins for top pitcher while shunning 20 game winners David Price and Jered Weaver.  More egregiously, I ignored Miguel Cabrera's triple crown and selected Mike Trout as player of the year.  I had some very good reasons for doing so as outlined in my posts, but I expected to be in the minority.   Well, I am very pleasantly surprised to see the rest of my BBA brethren (and sistren!), selected the same award winners that I did.  Below are the AL and NL winners of the Alliance, with links to their site where you can see more details on the voting.

Connie Mack Award  (Manager of the Year)
AL: Bob Melvin
NL: Davey Johnson

Willie Mays Award (Top Rookie)
AL: Mike Trout
NL: Bryce Harper

Goose Gossage Award (Top Reliever)
AL: Fernando Rodney
NL: Craig Kimbrel

Walter Johnson Award (Top Pitcher)
AL: Justin Verlander
NL: RA Dickey

Stan Musial Award (Player of the Year)
AL: Mike Trout
NL: Buster Posey

Happy offseason to all my readers.  To get you through your baseball withdrawal, you can now get the great Out of The Park Baseball game for 50% off for the rest of the offseason, through this link.


October 30, 2012

Playoff Predictions Contest Recap


Before the playoffs started, I ran a predictions contest.  The winner receives his or her choice of a sports keychain from wholesalekeychain.com.  These are nice, I have a couple and really like them.  Below are all the entries, showing the winning (green) and losing (red) picks and scores tabulated.

Click to enlarge

Congratulations to Pat S. for winning. He not only had the most total points, but was the only entrant to correctly pick the Giants as the World Series champion.  A few interesting observations on the entries:

October 12, 2012

2012 American League Awards Recap

Over the past week, I have announced my picks for the American League half of the Baseball Blogger's Alliance awards.  The BBA will announce the member's collective choices next week.  Below is a summary of my ballots:  (Click on links for full post with explanations)




Connie Mack Award (Top Manager)
#1: Bob Melvin, Oakland
#2: Buck Showalter, Baltimore
#3: Robin Ventura, Chigaco

Willie Mays Awards (Top Rookie)
#1: Mike Trout
#2: Yoenis Cespedes
#3: Will Middlebrooks

Walter Johnson Award (Top Pitcher)
#1: Justin Verlander
#2: Felix Hernandez
#3: David Price
#4: Jered Weaver
#5: Chris Sale

Goose Gossage Award (Top Reliever)
#1: Fernando Rodney
#2: Jake McGee
#3: Greg Holland

Stan Musial Award (Top Player)
#1: Mike Trout
#2: Robinson Cano
#3: Miguel Cabrera
#4: Adrian Beltre
#5: Justin Verlander
#6: Ben Zobrist
#7: Felix Hernandez
#8: Alex Gordon
#9: Adam Jones
#10: Joe Mauer

2012 AL Stan Musial Award


All week I have been selecting my AL award winners that will go in my ballot for the Baseball Blogger's Alliance year end awards.  They will announce their winners next week on their site.

I have saved the most anticipated and controversial award for last.  This is the Stan Musial Award for Player of the Year.   This ultimately comes down to two guys. Miguel Cabrera who won the Triple Crown and led the Tigers to the playoffs, and Mike Trout who had an unbelievably good season, for a rookie or otherwise. 


October 11, 2012

2012 AL Goose Gossage Award

The penultimate award I get to vote on for the Baseball Blogger's Alliance year end awards is the American League Goose Gossage award for top reliever.   Once again, a lot of good closers with some eye-popping numbers.  Baltimore's Jim Johnson led the majors in saves with 51. Rafael Soriano got 42 saves after Rivera went on the DL.  Tampa's Fernando Rodney had an ERA of 0.60(!).

There was a time when we thought the closers with the most saves were the best relievers.  This was in the dark ages of baseball statistical enlightenment. Or as it was called at the time, the 1980s (or 1990s).   But I like to look a little deeper.

October 10, 2012

2012 AL Walter Johnson Award

Yesterday I announced Mike Trout as my pick for winner of the Baseball Blogger's Alliance Willie Mays award for Rookie of the Year in the American League.  That was an extremely easy pick.  Today I tackle the Walter Johnson award for top pitcher.  This one required some more thinking.  There were several deserving candidates, and no clear cut choice.

Among the front runners there was David Price who tied for the league lead in wins with a sparkling 20-5 record and also led with a 2.56 ERA, and Jered Weaver who had the same record with a 2.81 ERA and led the majors in WHIP at 1.02.  And let's not forget Felix Hernandez who only won 13 games due partially to an anemic offense, but had 5 shutouts, an ERA of 3.06 and 223 strikeouts.  Chris Sale and Yu Darvish (just realized I forgot to mention him in my Rookie of the Year post - wouldn't matter he wouldn't beat Trout anyways) had excellent campaigns as well, and I don't want to neglect CC Sabathia who had an average season for him... aka a great season for any other pitcher.  And there were also some relievers with out of this world numbers. Baltimore's Jim Johnson saved 51 games and meanwhile Tampa's Francisco Rodney didn't give up any runs all season.  Ok, he must have given up a couple while I blinked because he has a non-zero ERA, but just barely at an incredible 0.60.

With so many deserving candidates, whose name is this blog going to put for the 2012 American League Walter Johnson Award?

October 09, 2012

Red Sox keychains review from Wholesalekeychain.com

I just received a pair of keychains from WholesaleKeychain.com and wanted to share my thoughts with my readers.   The first keychain is the bottle opener one pictured on the left.  This keychain is awesome.  It is light, yet sturdy enough to hold all my keys. It is also extremely convenient.  How many times do you grab a bottle out of a cooler at a party and it's not a twist off?  You have to find the host... interrupt them... have them track down a bottle opener... by the time you get back that cute girl you were talking with is now talking to some other guy - probably a Yankees fan. Sigh.  Well, with this in your pocket you won't have to worry about that ever again.  And when you pull it out of your pocket, everyone will know you're a diehard fan and not afraid to show off your allegiance.

The other keychain I got is the white round leather one shown to the right.  This one is a bit smaller but was still able to hold all my keys (and memory stick, and frequent shopper key tags - quite a mass of stuff I carry on it).  It seems sturdy and very well made.  As well I had it personalized on the back.  On the left is a picture of the finished product.  I apologize for the quality of the photograph, but it says



Red Sox
Nation 
RSN ALBERTA

I think it looks quite sharp!  You can get most of their keychains engraved for a small additional fee.

I just wish I had that bottle opener one while the Red Sox were still playing. Bobby V drove me to drink more times than I care to admit.   And remember the winners of the playoff prediction contest will get to choose a sports keychain of their choice from WholesaleKeychain.com.

Disclaimer: The thoughts above are entirely my own. I was given these sample keychains in return for writing a review, but this is my honest opinion and no other compensaion was received for this post.

2012 AL Willie Mays Award

Awards week continues.  After naming Oakland's Bob Melvin the winner of BBA's Connie Mack Award, today I get the honour of selecting the American League Willie Mays Award winner for best rookie.

There was a great crop of rookies in the AL this season.  Oakland's Yoenis Cespedes was a big part of the reason the A's surprised the baseball world by winning the AL West.  Chris Carter was another big part.  He only got called up in late June and hit 16 home runs in 67 games.  Boston's Will Middlebrooks got called up in May and was such a hot hitter he forced the Red Sox to trade away perennial all-star Kevin Youkilis. Baltimore called up prospect Manny Machado when they were fighting neck and neck with Tampa for the last wildcard spot. With him in the lineup they pulled away and almost caught the Yankees for the division.  In other seasons any of these players might have been good candidates to win the Rookie of the Year. But who to give it to this year?

October 08, 2012

2012 AL Connie Mack Award

As a member of the Baseball Blogger's Alliance, I have the privilege of voting for all the end-of-season awards.   The first one I am announcing this year is the Connie Mack for the Manager of the Year.

There were a lot of good candidates this year:
- Buck Showalter took a team that should have been barely .500 based on their runs scored differential, and won 93 games, and had a shot at the AL East division right up to the last day of the season.

- Bob Melvin took an Oakland team that traded away some of their best players in the offseason, and shocked the Rangers to win the AL West division.

-Robin Ventura took over the White Sox from Ozzie Guillen who failed to get them to .500, and had them atop the AL Central until the last week of the season

October 07, 2012

BBA Awards


As we settle in to watch the playoffs, it's also time to start thinking of the year end awards.  Over the next few days I will  post on this blog my ballot for each of the main awards.  As part of the Baseball Blogger's Alliance, I will be voting on the following awards for the American League:

Connie Mack Award (Best Manager)
Willie Mays Award  (Top Rookie)
Goose Gossage Award (Best Reliever)
Walter Johnson Award (Best Pitcher)
Stan Musial Award (Best Player)

There won't be a lot of suspense for some of these but I expect that there will be some that will generate some discussion and/or controversy.  I will do my best to explain why I made the choices I did in each post.
I will be disclosing one winner each day this week.  Stay tuned.

October 04, 2012

MLB Playoff predictions

Now that all the playoff matchups have been set, it is time for me to make postseason predictions.  But in keeping true to the spirit of this site, these will be based on the amount of Canadian (and bonuses for Albertan) content of the playoff rosters, as well as links to Red Sox players.

Let’s start with the American League:  The wildcard match features the Texas Rangers who will host the surprising Baltimore Orioles.  The O’s don’t have any Canadians or any former Red Sox players.  Texas has BC native Ryan Dempster as an available arm, as well as former Red Sox Adrian Beltre and David Murphy in the lineup.
This is an easy pick – Texas will advance to the LDS.

October 02, 2012

Revisiting the new playoff structure


Here we are in the first year of the new playoff structure.  Let’s see how it’s improved over the previous imperfect format.  First of all, what are the similarities?  Well, in the NL all 3 division winners, Nationals, Reds and Giants would be in the playoffs, and getting their rotations set for the LDS regardless of which system was in use.  And in the AL, the Red Sox would have been eliminated a long time ago.  This is where the similarities end. 

October 01, 2012

Playoff Prediction Contest



RSN Alberta is pleased to announce that we are  running a contest to predict who will win each of the playoff series. Like most of these types of contests, you will need to predict the winners of all the Series before the first one starts.  So an early upset might ruin your entire ballot.  Conversely, if you pick an under dog to win it all, and they do, there is a good chance you will be the grand prize winner.  Here’s a hint – Don’t pick the Red Sox.  No really.  I know they have the best team on paper, and only injuries prevented them from winning 100 games again (like they have the past 3 seasons - on paper), but this year MLB has decided to actually play the games on the field, and only the real wins and losses are being counted, so Boston will not have a team in the playoffs. I know – I also think it’s highly unfair, since we are obviously one of the top teams in the majors, but Mr. Selig has made his decision, and it doesn’t sound like we can change his mind. 

The contest is free and easy to enter.
Here are the rules:

September 19, 2012

2012 RSN watch party recap

In 2011, Red Sox Nation - Alberta, through the efforts of our governor hosted 6 RSN watch parties.   These were very successful, as our Red Sox went 6-0 in those games.   This year, we only had two parties, losing the first game to the Yankees, after blowing a 9 run lead, and sitting though 2 lengthy rain delays while losing to the Blue Jays.   But in spite of that, I will say that this year's parties were more successful.  Why?

August 21, 2012

Coaching Changes


Back in March, I wrote an article asking what’s next for Colin Moro.  The Calgary native and former Calgary Viper star had suddenly found himself without a place to play as spring neared.  Well, the phone never did ring from a team looking for an experienced hitter.  Instead he spent the spring and summer coaching a high level team with Calgary’s Pro Baseball Force.

August 18, 2012

World Cup of Women's Baseball

The IBAF World Cup of Women's Baseball has been going on all week at Telus Field in Edmonton, and the first round is now complete, and the playoffs are being played this weekend. Yes, there is girl's baseball-real baseball, not softball-and not just in the movies.  Canada has had a very impressive showing so far.  The team is made up of 20 women from across the country ranging in age from 17 to 29, including four from right here in Alberta who have been major contributors to the team's success so far.  These Albertans who are representing team Canada are Heidi Northcott, a pitcher from Rocky Mountain House, Nicole Luchanski, a second baseman (basewoman? baseperson? someone please help me out with the proper nomenclature here) playing in her hometown of Edmonton, Tara Sliwkanich a pitcher from fort Saksatchewan, and Meagan Cornelssen, an outfielder from Grande Prairie.

The squad started off strong, with their first two contests being mercy-shortened 5 inning affairs, 12-2 over China - with Luchanski going 3-4 scoring 3 runs and knocking in 2 while Cornelssen added 3 RBIs -  and 14-2 over Venezuela.

August 17, 2012

Random Sox updates

Haven't posted anything in a while.  There's a simple reason for that.... Not a lot has happened lately of interest specifically to Canadian Red Sox fans.  I could write generic articles about the Red Sox - what they did and didn't do at the trade deadline, how Bobby Valentine could be lynched,  how entertaining Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo are when games are out of reach, MLB power rankings.... no shortage of ideas on topics.   But there are a million (and one) Red Sox blogs that already cover these things, and I don't want to simply add to the noise.  I want to as much as possible focus on items of particular interest to Canadians, as well as participate in Baseball Blogger's Alliance wide topics.

I'm also not a fan of two line posts.  I save those for twitter.  However, since there is a shortage of news to report on, below are a couple of tidbits that might be of interest:

Calgary native and former Red Sox first round draft pick, Chris Reitsma, has agreed to a position with the Pro Baseball Force (PBF) Redbirds coaching staff as the organizational pitching coach.  PBF is one of the top baseball academies in the Province, and I'm sure they are excited about this addition.

August 08, 2012

Provincial Championships - Part Deux

The last weekend of July saw Baseball Alberta Championships in the Competitive Mosquito, PeeWee and Midget levels.  The August long weekend completed the rest of the Provincial championships.

Strathmore were crowned Competitive Bantam champions in Tier I, beating Grande Prairie 25-20 in a slugfest in the championship game, hosted in St. Albert.   In other Tiers, the Olds Spitfires hosted and won Tier II,  Calgary PBF hosted and won Tier III, Bawlf won Tier IV in Confederation Park and Barrhead took the Tier V title hosted by Kikino.

At the Performance level,  Red Deer hosted the PeeWee championshiops.  Sherwood Park went undefeated in pool play, while Red Deer and Spruce Grove tied for 2nd.  Due to Spruce Grove winning the head to head game, they advanced to the final to play the A's.   The Spruce Grove White Sox won the first final game 10-7, but since the A's were undefeated, a second final game was necessary.  In that one, Sherwood Park rebounded from their loss beating the White Sox 10-3 and taking home the Provincial Championship.

August 03, 2012

Provincial Championships

Last weekend Baseball Alberta crowned it's PeeWee and Midget Competitive Champions.

In Tier I PeeWee held in Grande Prairie, Camrose Red and Lacombe went undefeated in pool play, earning a berth in the semi finals. Camrose held off Leduc to advance to the finals, while Lacombe suffered their only loss to Fort McMurray, setting up a championship game between Fort McMurray and Camrose Red.  Fort Mac again handed a team their only loss of the weekend, narrowly defeating Camrose 8-7 and winning the PeeWee Tier I Provinical Championship.

August 02, 2012

Albertans in the minors... and majors too!

A while ago I posted a list of Albertan players playing in the minor leagues.  Since that time several more players have started playing, and one has gotten the long-awaited call.  Here is an update on these home province players:

Let me start with the ones mentioned in my April post:

Jim Henderson who is a Calgary native and was originally drafted by the Montreal Expos is pitching at AAA for the Nashville Sounds.  This is his second stint at AAA, having had prior experience there with the Iowa Cubs in 2008, before the Brewers organization promoted him to their AAA affiliate last year. Although a bit old to be considered a 'prospect' at age 29, he could be called up during the season and help out in Milwaukee's bullpen
As undoubtedly most of my readers have heard by now, Jim Henderson did indeed get called up, receiving the call the evening of July 25th and has appeared in 3 games so far for the Brewers and has yet to give up a run.  I don't expect him to continue to sport a 0 ERA indefinitely or even approach the success of the last pitcher from Calgary to play in the show, but he is doing his job and helping the Milwaukee bullpen.

July 18, 2012

The Hall of Nearly Great

We are all familiar with The Hall of Fame. And the endless debates about which borderline candidates should or should not be in.  Well, now a collection of some great baseball writers have created a book to celebrate those who are not in Cooperstown, but whose careers should not be lost to history.   The players we cheered for as youngsters, but didn't quite make the cut.  For Red Sox fans, there are stories on Dwight Evans, Luis TiantEllis Burks as well as other players who played home games at Fenway including some  best remembered for their times with other teams such as Frank Viola.  Writers include SI's Joe Posnanski (BBA's 2011 writer of the year), the Globe's Chad Finn, Baseball Prospectus' Hall of Fame expert Jay Jaffe and many more talented and passionate baseball writers.  They have teamed up to put together an ebook of stories about some of our favorite players.  Best of all, it's only $12.  For the price of a couple of lattes, you can enjoy endless hours of reading 300 pages of stories about your favourite players.  Click here to read more details and/or download a copy instantly.

Here is the complete list of players and writers:
Luis Tiant-Josh Wilker
Dwight Evans-David Raposa
Ellis Burks-Chad Finn
Reggie Smith-Jon Weisman
Frank Viola-The Common Man
John Olerud-Ted Berg
David Cone - Jay Jaffe
Bret Saberhagen-Marc Normandin
Ray Lankford - Marc Normandin
Dale Murphy-Joe Posnanski
Bobby Bonds-Wendy Thurm
Lonnie Smith-Jon Bois
Norm Cash-Matthew Kory
Keith Hernandez-David Roth
Brian Downing-Sam Miller
Eric Davis-Craig Fehrman
Andy Messersmith-Jeff Passan
Dennis Martinez-Jonah Keri
Fernando Valenzuela-Eric Nusbaum
Urban Shocker-Owen Good
Don Mattingly-Steven Goldman
Kenny Lofton-Cee Angi
Will Clark-Grant Brisbee
Bernie Williams-Ben Lindbergh
Graig Nettles-Cliff Corcoran
Robin Ventura-Jon Sciambi
Darrell Porter-Will Leitch
Moises Alou-R.J. Anderson
Eddie Cicotte-Rob Neyer
Buddy Bell-Jason Parks
Albert Belle-Jonathan Bernhardt
Lenny Dykstra-Emma Span
Ron Cey-King Kaufman
Bobby Grich-David Brown
Tony Phillips-Jason Wojciechowski
Dick Allen-Carson Cistulli
Fred McGriff-Tommy Bennett
Larry Hisle-Bradford Doolittle
Brad Radke-Bill Parker
Alan Trammell-Craig Calcaterra
Chuck Knoblauch-Cecilia Tan
Bob Caruthers-Old Hoss Radbourn
Rusty Greer-Craig Brown

I hope you enjoying reading this.

If (hopefully, when!) a Volume 2 is created, I am going to volunteer to write about Bill Buckner.  I have met him in person (I'm the good looking guy in the picture on the left.  He's wearing the Cowboy hat)  and he has some great stories garnered from playing the game in 4 different decades.  Stay tuned....



June 27, 2012

Baseball Is Awesome: Youkilis 1st Home Run

As all my readers already know, Kevin Youkilis was recently traded to the White Sox.  I'm not going to discuss the value of the trade, or recap Youks' career and highlights.  That's already been done on plenty of other sites.  Check out my list of Red Sox blogs if you want further reading.  What I want to highlight today is one of my personal most memorable Youkilis moments, and its Canadian connection, in the latest instalment of the Baseball Is Awesome series.

I'll start with the backstory:  Dubbed "The Greek God of Walks" in the bestseller Moneyball, he was much sought after by Billy Beane's A's but the Red Sox beat them to the punch and drafted him in 2001.  He didn't look much like an athlete, but somehow always found a way to get on base.  He rose quickly through the Sox minor league ranks, but in 2004 it didn't look like he'd have much of a chance to crack the Red Sox lineup, as Boston had the league's reigning batting champ, Bill Mueller, playing third base.

June 26, 2012

Alberta draftees:Signing updates

Earlier this month, 4 Albertan baseball players had their dreams realized when they were drafted in the MLB draft.  Players only have until July 15th to sign.  If they don't sign, they may or may not be eligible to be drafted again next year, depending on their circumstances  (If players go to college, they are only eligible after their junior year or 21st birthday, unless it's a community or junior college).

And this year, with MLB's new collective bargaining agreement, it's made it tougher for teams to sign everyone they want.  Teams no longer have an unlimited budget.  There are consequences, some severe, to spending more than an allotted bonus pool.  Anywhere from paying a "luxury tax" on the amount over the bonus they spend, to losing 2 first round draft picks in the future.  The specific details are here.

Fortunately, this has not impacted the Alberta players as they have all been signed already:

June 13, 2012

Sox draft a Canadian

I've previously lamented about the lack of Canadians on the Red Sox.  And last year, a player from a local high school was drafted, but unfortunately did not sign.   But there's hope that another Canadian will play for the hometeam at Fenway Park, as in the 24th round, the Red Sox selected Keaton Briscoe from Vancouver, BC.

Briscoe is a 21 year old left handed hitting 2nd baseman, who just finished up his junior year at the University of British Columbia.


June 06, 2012

4 Albertans taken in MLB Draft

As usual, pitchers led a strong contingent of Alberta players drafted by the MLB.  Last year 5 out of the 7 players selected were hurlers, and this year all but one is a pitcher.

Yesterday, Calgary outfielder Tyler Hollick was the only Albertan player taken, as he was selected by the Giants in the 14th round.  Today he was joined by three pitchers:  Shane Dawson, a lefty from Drayton Valley who went to his home country Blue Jays in the 17h round; righthander Adam Paulencu from Sherwood Park who was taken by Colorado in the 26th round; another righty, Logan Seifrit from Spruce Grove selected by Seattle in the 33rd round.

June 04, 2012

Will Red Sox draft any Canadians?

The draft starts tonight... in a few minutes, actually.   And the Red Sox get  picks in the 1st and supplemental rounds today.  Numbers 24, 31 and 37 overall.  I won't be holding my breath tonight to see if the Red Sox select a Canadian.  We have produced some pretty good ballplayers... the Sox themselves even took one in the 1st round one year, but none of the top Canadians are expected to go in the first couple of rounds this year.   But I will be anxiously watching tomorrow and Wednesday to see if we do draft (and sign!) a Canadian, eh?
Last year, a player who went to high school right here in Alberta was selected by Boston in the 34th round, but elected to go to Eastern Michigan instead of signing.  But there a lot of good Canadian baseball players, including several from our province who are expected to be drafted in the next couple of days.  Hoping the Red Sox select one of them.  Stay tuned.....

June 02, 2012

2012 MLB Draft: Alberta preview


With the MLB draft coming up next week, here is a quick preview of local baseball players to keep an eye on.  

Last year, sevenplayers from our province were drafted.  Stay tuned to this blog as I will post updates as Albertans are selected.  

According to the Canadian Baseball Network’s draft list, Alberta has four players ranked in the top 20 in the country and several more who may be selected.  Many of these are familiar names who have been mentioned on these pages and elsewhere previously.  

The following are among the players expected to be drafted:

May 22, 2012

Don't look now..

But things are looking up!  Stop reading if you're the type of 'fan' who revels in criticizing the team.  You know the type I'm talking about.  They can be heard calling in to WEEI every day asking for the firing of the manager or the trading of our best players because they've had a couple of bad games in a row.  They're the same guys who said Pedroia was too small to be an everyday player, and were 'proven' right, when he hit .191 in his first cup of coffee in September of 2006 and followed that up by hitting $1.82 in April of 2007.  (Of course he then went on to win Rookie of the Year and MVP the following season.)

Not resigning Papelbon was a mistake, they said.  How can you leave closing of games to Andrew Bailey and Mark Melancon?  And when Bailey went to the DL before the season started and Melancon was sent to Pawtucket with an ERA near 50(!) it looked like the naysayers knew what they were talking about.

May 05, 2012

Baseball dead in Calgary?

So go the rumours.  And looking out the window today seeing an unwelcome snowstorm serves as a reminder that this is a hockey first –  if not hockey only – town.  The Vipers folding at the end of last season helped create the perfect storm (yes, pun definitely intended) for any casual fan to believe that there is no baseball left in Calgary.

But this excellent article by the Calgary Herald's Scott Cruickshank articulates splendidly why this isn't so.  It includes the viewpoints of most of the city's baseball movers and shakers.  This includes the heads of several local programs, including Pro Baseball Force, FMBA, Babe Ruth, NSA, U of C, Little League, Okotoks Dawgs, and more.

Calgary has had several local players drafted into the MLB and there will be more soon.

Those who think that baseball is exclusively an American sport, check out Diamonds of the North or Bob Elliott's "The Northern Game: Baseball the Canadian Way" for a Canadian perspective of the game.


April 26, 2012

Albertans in the MLB... and minors

A post on Albertans in the MLB would be pretty short.    There are currently many Canadian stars in the MLB including Joey Votto,  Justin Morneau and Brett Lawrie, but there isn't a single player who hails from the Texas of Canada. In fact there haven't been too many Albertans who have played in the majors.  Chris Reitsma was the last man to appear in the show who came from Wild Rose country.

But below are a few local prospects to keep your eyes on:



Jim Henderson who is a Calgary native and was originally drafted by the Montreal Expos is pitching at AAA for the Nashville Sounds.  This is his second stint at AAA, having had prior experience there with the Iowa Cubs in 2008, before the Brewers organization promoted him to their AAA affiliate last year. Although a bit old to be considered a 'prospect' at age 29, he could be called up during the season and help out in Milwaukee's bullpen.

Also at AAA is 28 year old middle infielder Skyler Stromsmoe from Bow Island.  He is playing for the Giants' affiliate, the Fresno Grizzlies.  He is a very versatile player, spending a lot of time at 2nd, short and 3rd as well as the outfield and has even pitched on a few occasions.  He led Canada to gold in the Pan Am Games last year, and was just promoted to AAA for the first time this season.


A litte further away at AA is catcher Lars Davis from Grande Prairie.  He is in the Rockies organization playing for the Tulsa Drillers.

Sheldon McDonald, a left-handed pitcher from Spruce Grove was drafted by the Cubs last year where he pitched for their rookie and low A affiliates.  He has started this season with a  promotion to Single A Peoria Chiefs.

There are also several players who will be playing in lower levels that haven't started their season yet.  I will update this post once those leagues get underway.

It's just a matter of time before the next player from Alberta is playing in the show.


April 21, 2012

RSN Watch party recap

It started off well enough.  But in the 2nd inning some idiot decided to tweet this from the bar:

"a short afternoon for Freddy Garcia". Doesn't get out of 2nd inning and we are on way to 7th consecutive RSN watch party victory. (*)

Well, apparently that angered the The Baseball Gods and we know how the game turned out.  No need to rehash it here.   But that doesn't mean that this group of 17 or so local Red Sox fans didn't have fun.


(*) We won all 6 last year.  Some blowouts, some come from behind, but they were all great games.  Here's a recap I wrote previously on them.

Below is a pictorial recap of the afternoon:

April 09, 2012

Baseball is AWESOME! - Gives you perspective



I haven't written an article in the ongoing Baseball is AWESOME series in a while.  But today as I watch the tribute to Tanner Craswell and Mitch MacLean during the Blue Jays home opener against the Red Sox, I am once again reminded why Baseball is indeed awesome.  For the past few days I have been discussing the problems with the Red Sox.  Holes in the lineup, not enough starting pitching, shaky bullpen, Bobby the 5th is an idiot... blah, blah, blah. And after last night's loss it only got worse.

But listening to the tragedy that befell these young players and their families, helps put everything in perspective.  We watch these games to entertain us. It's really not life and death.  What happened to these boys and their friend Tabitha Steeple, as well as Shanya Conway who survived the ordeal but has to live with what she witnessed the rest of her life, is.

It sometimes takes a meaningless baseball game to remind oneself what truly is and isn't important.

April 08, 2012

How to improve on perfection?

A year ago,  I thought at this time I might be writing a post with this title about the 162-0 Red Sox who swept their way to become 2011 World Series champions.  But that didn't quite happen as planned.  However, in the baseball world I did see something that I believed was about as close to perfect as possible.  That was Out of The Park Development's OOTP12 baseball game.  It was a very realistic simulation that included all the details of running a major league franchise.  "Best game ever", I proclaimed, and many others echoed that sentiment.  Well, I recently got my hands on this year's version of the game, OOTP 13, and incredibly IT'S EVEN BETTER!

Let me start by recapping what this game does, for those of you not familiar with sports simulation games.  This is not a flashy graphics arcade action console type game, where those with the quickest reflexes can win.  It is a game of wit and strategy.  You play not in the role of a batter facing a 90 MPH slider, but rather as a GM who gets to draft players, sign free agents and make trades.

April 05, 2012

Canada Cup and Talent ID camps scheduled

The 2012 Canada Cup Team Alberta ID Camp dates have been announced. This is for 16 and 17 year old players (born in 1995/96) and those selected from the ID Camps will have the opportunity to compete as Team Alberta at the Canada Cup in London, Ontario in August. Please look here for registration and other information.

Date City Time* Location Contact
22-Apr Medicine Hat 11:00am Athletic Park Lovell McDonell
23-Apr Lethbridge 5:30pm Spitz Stadium Aaron Lavorato
4-May Calgary 6:00pm Optimist Park Miki Kawahara
7-May Okotoks 5:30pm Seaman Stadium Brett Thomas
8-May Calgary 5:30pm Inland Park Dennis Odding
14-May Sherwood Park 5:30pm SAP #4 Curtis Denney
15-May Red Deer 5:30pm Edgar Park Terry Letkeman
22-May Edmonton 5:30pm Callingwood Park Dan Rude
29-May St. Albert 5:30pm Legion Memorial Park CJ Jayasekera
31-May Grande Prairie 5:30pm Evergreen Park Mona Turner
4-Jun Ft. McMurray 5:30pm Ron Morgan Park Lou Pote
7-Jun Elk Point 6:30pm Bassett Field Doug Bassett


* The registration process will begin 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start time and run for up to 3.5 hours.


As well, below are the locations and times for the Talent ID camps for13-15 year olds interested in trying out for the Alberta Summer Games. Please look here for registration and other information.


DateCityTimeLocation
April 22ndMedicine Hat11:00amAthletic Park
April 23rdLethbridge 5:30pmSpitz Stadium
May 4thCalgary 6:00pm Optimist Park 
May 7thOkotoks 
5:30pm Seaman Stadium  
May 8thCalgary5:30pm Inland Park
May 14th Sherwood Park5:30pm Strathcona Athletic Park #1
May 15thRed Deer 5:30pm Edgar Park 
May 22ndEdmonton5:30pmCallingwood Park
May 29thSt. Albert5:30pm Legion Memorial
May 31stGrande Prairie 5:30pm Evergreen Park 
June 4thFt. McMurray 5:30pm Ron Morgan Park 
June 5thElk Point 6:00pm Basset Field