213 Miles From Shea

Some Baseball News from Sporting News:

This week they ranked shortstops in fantasy terms, as you can guess first place was Jose Reyes. In a surprising second place is Rollins, which is a blood boiler.

We all know know that Pelfry developed a splitter in the AFL this year. He is going to replace his curve with his splitter and is now developing a changeup to go with his fastball.

So here are the Nationals numbers:

38 pitchers in camp

23 were in the majors last year

1.3 average wins per person

I will finish the list later. Its very funny.

Teahan was a rookie third baseman for the Royals this year who hit a nice.290.

However, he had to be moved this off season to the outfield for one of the most anticipated prospects in a long time, Alex Gordon.

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He hit a nice .325 in the minors last year and is ready to make his big league debut.

Most baseball fans didn’t even hear of him until late in the season last year or until all the guides for the 2007 season came out this year.

However baseball card collectors knew his name very well due to Topps Series 1 from last March. Last year, the MLB player union made new rules regarding when a rookie card can be made. The rules are complex, and prospect cards have to be in an insert set now. Topps did this all right except for Alex Gordon. His rookie card was made, and Topps tried to pull it from the line, but some of the cards slipped out to Walmart.

Three versions actually made it in the market, a full version, a version with a hole in it, and all white with name version were all sought after and sold for thousands. Basically, they became legends.

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Another old pitcher will be a free agent after this season. Schilling told a Boston Radio station that he will be a free agent after this season

I wonder what type of season he will have this year

Clemens worked out in Astors gear today, still insistant that he is leaning towards retirement. He worked with prospects like his son and did some groundball hitting and did some batting practice pitching.

I posted earlier that El Duque has arthiritis in his sholuder. ITs actually in his neck, my bad.

All found on mlb.com

MLB.com has a spring training write up about Piazza now, I'm not going to go into too much depth about it. Basically Piazza is unfazed about switching to DH and just sees it as an adjustment.

We all know Piazza is not the best defensivly, and really his offense is where it is at, so this will be good for him. Im going to say 28-33 homeruns

As probably reported everywhere by now, El Duque is out for five days with arthrities in his shoulder.

Chris Gomez had a write up in the Baltimore Sun today where he said that when he was in fourth and fifth grade, he was in the same class as the rapper Snoop Dog. He claimes he beat him in basketball. Chris Gomez is a ulitily player for the orioles.

MLB.com reports that Billy Wagner arrived with something new this spring.

He has a new pitch.

Apparently Wagner is now throwing a split finger fastball, the reason he cites is that this new pitch will allow him to have more fuel in the tank come october, and be able to perform better in October.

According to Wagner and “The Jacket”, the spreading of his fingers has developed another sinkerball like break, that has a moderate splitter feel to it, so they determine, because it looks different, for it to be a new pitch.

I AM going to post some of the stuff i typed soon, really I will, I am almost done a 2007 Draft Preview with David Price, P from Vanderbelt, who will be the first topic in the series.

Former Met, Brian Bannister, says he is prepared to make the Royals starting rotation. Assisting him will be his new pitch that he developed in the offseason in Mexico, a two-seamer.

As another Bannister fact, his father, Floyd Bannister played for the Royals as part of his 15 year career

Bannister is another young arm in the majors that I like. Am i sorry he is gone? Well a little, however i cant see him becoming a number 1 starter soon, unless this new pitch is amazing. However I also see amazing promise and untapped power in 22 year old Burgos.

Nationals closer, Cordero, won his arbritation case today, and now will make 4.15 million this season.

Podsednik has reported to camp with a new psylogical attitude in order to get over his surgury recovery (sports hernia)

All from mlb.com

During the first day of Mariners practice, Ichiro announced that testing free agency and moving will be due to how the Mariners perfom.

I think they will do a lot better than last year, largely in part because i believe that Felix Hernadez had a mistake year, he was bad, but hes gonna live up to expectations this year, he already is 20 pounds lighter than last year.

Another outfielder on the market this year, is Andruw Jones. Jones has come to camp also down in weight and says that contract talks will not distract him. He looks like he is preparing himself for a monster year, bad for the Mets but no too bad, and is going to try to raise his stock as much as possible.

I completed a few articles today about the 2006 preview guides, and starting really soon i will start positng them, and we can see if they were right or not (some really were, others were not)

I also completed three more full circle things, which should be up soon.

The Cubs today spent more money by resigning Carlos Zambrano to a one year, 12.4 million dollar deal.

More important than the Cubs now spending well over 300 million this offseason is the current affect on the 2007-08 offseason. Now Zambrano, unless he reaches an extention later, is going to free agency

As reported on milb.com, minor league baseball if you dont know, reports that former Mets prospect Lindstrom is in the mix to become the closer for the Marlins

Good for him, i really liked him, i wish him the best. And, if you have never been to a minor league game before, go, cause u are really missing out.

Now about the Barry's in San Fran, well they decided to where shirts with arrows pointing at each other that said “I dont know, ask Barry”

Spring Training, Baseball is fun again

The Spring Training Minute on Sports Center this morning was about the Mets. All the stuff about Pedro they said we already know. However they spent a lot about Milledge. He is stronger than how he was last season. He hit a homer the opposite way, something he said he couldnt do last season. He says he contributes the power and the “loss” of weight to only having one hamburger a week.

Ah Milledge, I still think u have potentional. U have the bad luck to be in a system who has produced studs like Reyes and Wright who delivered immediatly. We all know u have a lot of potential.

On to some Orioles News. Tejada has come back to camp in great shape. Amazing shape. He had a great winter too. Ramon Hernandez (Orioles Catcher) has already decided that the Tejada is going to have a monster year. Tejada said today in the Baltimore Sun that he is ready, loves Baltimore, and wants a title

So we know that there is such a slim chance for the Orioles to do well in the division, but they can be competitive, they have young guys in the system that can produce later. Bedard and Lowen are their young pitching studs. Nick Markakis should have a great year. And they got two more guys in the system that can redifine them in a few years. First off they have Jim Hoey, who is a young pitcher. And their best, young prospect, Billy Rowell, who is believed to have potential power a little less then David Wright and the potential to have Defense like Zimmeran. Ok, that was a long Orioles Minute.

There is a big auction later this weekend in Penn. that has a lot of amazing pieces up for auction. Some of the highlights include:

Personal Letter with auto of Babe Ruth

Roger Marris and Mantle Auto Ball together

Lou Gerig auto pic

I have articals that I have typed and saved on the comp that i should start to release during the week. They are all look back articals about what papers and magazines predicted for last year…should be a fun look back as we move foward into 2007.

Drafted by the Mets in 1980, John Gibbons played for the championship New York Mets team.

As many know he has been the manager for the Blue Jays for a while and today got an extension as manager through the 2008 season as reported on ESPN.

He is most rembered for last year punching or getting into a fight with Pitcher Ted Lilly

Which brings us to the first edition of the FULL CIRCLE GAME

METS

Draft John Gibbons in 1980

Becomes the Manager of the Blue Jays

Punches Ted Lilly

Who then signs with the Cubs

And now is teammates with Cliff Floyd

Who used to play for the METS

Ok so that was not so impressive, ill try to make some more impressive ones later in the season.

Also, later this week, for real, Im going to start previewing the 2007 Draft with NCAA players. This will be a start for next year when I will expand to cover NCAA baseball as well.

Why next year, well next year i will be  a freshman in college so ill get the info easier