Fastball Fans

*Don’t know what “Trick or Cleat” is? Want to read more about it? Then head on over to the Oddball section of this blog.*

Well, I received an email today saying that I received another envelope. The 1/3 mark has broken, in that I have received either an email or a package from more than one third of the MLB teams. Not too bad if I do say so.

It certainly wasn’t the most glamorous, containing only a booklet. The booklet contained various advertisements, stadium maps, and player information, etc.

At least they care enough about the fans to ship something out though, right? =)

Maybe the big fish is still out there waiting to arrive in the mail? We shall see…

MLB, Major League Baseball, Baseball, Fan Pack, Arizona Diamondbacks, Diamondbacks, Trick or Cleat

With only one game to go in the 5 game series against the Japan All-star team, the MLB is up 4-0. The final game of the series will be played tomorrow morning.

The game was tied until the eighth when Ryan Howard hit yet another homerun to break the tie and make the score 3-2. It quickly moved to 7-2 on numerous walks issued by the Japanese team and some timely hitting by the MLB players.

A series sweep would certainly be a nice way to come back from the lose in the World Baseball Classic. =)

Baseball, MLB, Major League Baseball, Ryan Howard, World Baseball Classic, WBC, Japan All-star, NPB

There is plenty of Big Name Player News (BNPN) now that the free agent market is pooling with them. However there are a few players making awkward leaps into the pond of free agency or even possibly jumping form the retirement pond nearby into free agency.

Now, as with most BNPN, there is always a lot of hype, exaggeration, and flat out lies.

The two players I want to focus on are Pedro and Sosa.

Now, Pedro is presently in the process of rehabbing from surgery on his rotator cuff. He has mentioned that if he can’t get back into top form by the start of the season, he would be prepared to call it quits and retire. This has got a lot of people talking, both because the Mets, as stocked as their team it, would really like him back for next season, and because people always get to talking when a great player (great = loved and hated by many) talks about leaving the game.

Mike over at Mike’sMets.com tackle’s the words of Pedro on his possible retirement and speaks of why Pedro said what he did and why people shouldn’t fault him for it.

Now onto Slammin’ Sammy Sosa.

I was never a big fan of the man, nor was I against him. He was just another big name player putting up big name player stats each year (until his last season of course).

He did not play last season, the year following his horrible offensive output of 05′. He is now thinking about coming back to MLB for one last season so that he can get the dozen homeruns he needs to get to 600 and to say his goodbye to the sport.

The people over at BaseballCrank don’t want another roided up player coming back into the game. Now, I certainly don’t want them playing either, but I highly doubt Sosa is pumping as many into his body as Bonds is (I don’t care for Bonds… can you tell?), and if Bonds is planning on coming back for at least one more season to tackle a homerun record of his own, then I feel Sosa should be able to do the same.

He may have tarnished his name with a corked bat (though I believe it was just his BP bat), and may have/be taking steroids, but the man saved baseball with his chase against Big Mac which brought countless fans’ attention back to the game of baseball after the ‘94 strike shortened season.

He deserves, in my opinion, to go out in style.

Feel free to share your opinions in a comment.

Baseball, MLB, Major League Baseball, Sammy Sosa, Sosa, Pedro Martinez, Martinez, free agent, free agency, surgery, rotator cuff, retirement

Ryan Howard upped his homerun total in the series to three, and three other MLB players, including my boy Andruw, joined him to create a homerun barrage that lead to a 10-4 win over the NPB league players of Japan.

The team that MLB put together and sent over to Japan is proving to be a potent bunch. After tying their first game, which was an exhibition against the Yomiuri Giants, they have gone on to win each of the first three in the Japan All-Star series. There are two games left, which will be played in two different cities, as opposed to the first three which were all played in Tokyo.

It really is a pity that they don’t air these games on ESPN. The only way to see them is on MLB.tv which I have heard some true horror stories about, so I don’t see me subscribing to that anytime soon.

Game four is on Tuesday, as tomorrow is their travel/rest day. Let’s see if they can try to make a five game sweep a reality.

MLB, NPB, Major League Baseball, Baseball, Ryan Howard, Andruw Jones, Japan All-Star

Ryan Howard added two more homeruns to his total and three more RBI’s in the second game of this All-Star series.

MLB was leading all the way, but the Japan All-Stars never gave in, and kept adding runs to make the final score 8-6.

Howard is proving what most people already believe, which is that his 58 HR season in ‘06 was no fluke. He has been showing the same consistent power in this series as he did throughout ALL of the series in ‘06.

Personally, I am waiting on the highlight video to be uploaded to MLB.com so I can see the catch that Andruw made that was alluded to in this article at MLB.com. I simply can’t get enough of his catches, or HR’s for that matter, but he “only” mustered up a single and double in this game. I shall try to pitch Andruw to you readers as much as possible so that you all come to love him too! =)

The MLB team will be looking to make it 3-0 on Sunday morning.

MLB, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Howard, Andruw Jones, NPB, Japan All-stars, Nippon Professional Baseball

The Gold Glove winners (for defensive excellence) have been announced for both leagues. They announced the AL winners a few days prior to the NL winners and made me wait (I follow the NL much more closely).

Here they are (Position/Player/Team/# of Gold Gloves):

NL

P Greg Maddux CHC/LAD 16
C Brad Ausmus HOU 3
1B Albert Pujols STL 1
2B Orlando Hudson ARI 2
3B Scott Rolen STL 7
SS Omar Vizquel SF 11
OF Andruw Jones ATL 9
OF Mike Cameron SD 3
OF Carlos Beltran NYM 1

AL

P Kenny Rogers DET 5
C Ivan Rodriguez DET 12
1B Mark Teixeira TEX 2
2B Mark Grudzielanek KC 1
SS Derek Jeter NYY 3
3B Eric Chavez OAK 6
OF Torii Hunter MIN 6
OF Ichiro Suzuki SEA 6
OF Vernon Wells TOR 3

How can you not love Maddog getting his 16th and tying the record for the most Gold Gloves in a career? And of course I was glad to see my boy Andruw up there with his 9th consecutive Gold Glove Award, although I can’t say I didn’t expect that.

Most of the names, in fact, were expected, however a lot of people would like to debate on who was worthy and didn’t make the cut, or who did make it but didn’t deserve to. Feel free to leave your opinions.

MLB, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Gold Glove, Gold Glove Awards

*Don’t know what “Trick or Cleat” is? Want to read more about it? Then head on over to the Oddball section of this blog.*

I think I spoke a bit too soon about this being over.

I received an envelope form the Orioles yesterday, and although it was the smallest and therefore contained the least amount of “goodies”, it was a delivery nonetheless. =)

It contained a handful of stickers of various sizes, two player cards, and one card of the mascot, all of which were the size of a postcard.

This means that I have either received an email or a package from 1/3 of the MLB teams, which is not too bad if I do say so myself.

And if this one arrived late, who knows what could still be on its way.

MLB, Major League Baseball, Baseball, Fan Pack, Baltimore Orioles, Orioles, Trick or Cleat

The MLB team may have tied the Giants, but there was no tie in this morning game against the Japanese All-stars which are made up of players from Nippon Professional Baseball.

MLB scored a run early on in the second on a Chase Utley ground ball.

They scored two more runs on a Dye homerun in the third, and held on to win 3-2 in what turned out to be a close and well played game on both sides.

Homeruns seem to be doing it for the MLB team, having had a barrage of them in the exhibition game against the Giants to tie it, and now a decisive HR by Dye to secure the win.

Let’s hope the power continues in the next four games of the series, the next game of which is tomorrow.

MLB’s record in the series against NPB: 1-0

MLB, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Utley, Dye, NPB, Japan All-stars, Nippon Professional Baseball

The pond becomes fuller yet with names like Piazza, Lofton and Mulder who joined his old A’s teammate Zito in free agency today.

Not just are there plenty of free agents to go around, but there are plenty of big name/big skill players in the bunch. The coming weeks will be very interesting; seeing who else files and who makes moves to pick all of these 161 guys up.

Fun times ahead! I will keep you all up to date.

MLB, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Free Agency, Piazza, Lofton, Mulder, Free Agent

Alright folks, it has now been well over two weeks since I first sent off the email to all of the teams. It seems that that the email responses have stopped some time ago, and although I received a package only 2 days ago, it was from a team which I had been in contact with via email. I don’t really expect anything else to come, even if teams are slow in reading the email, why would they send out a holiday goodie for a holiday that is long gone?

So… here is how things stand:

Email Responses: 5
Teams: Mariners, Astros, Royals, Giants, and Padres

Package Deliveries: 6
Teams: Indians, Yankees, Mariners, White Sox, Brewers, and Padres

Teams who sent either an email or a package: 9
Teams who DID NOT send either an email or a package: 21

All in all, I think Trick or Cleat was a success. I got some free goodies; people working for the teams got to read an odd little email of mine… we all had some fun. =)

See you all in the same place and at the same time next year!

Trick or Cleat, MLB, Fan Pack, Baseball, Major League Baseball

Ok, so the first game that the MLB played in Japan is over. It was an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants. It ended in a 7-7 tie. Yes, ties are acceptable in Japan, unlike in the US where the last one in an all-star game brought an outcry.

Now let me first brag about my boy: Andruw Jones. I don’t see how I can avoid doing so about my favorite player. He had two homeruns in the first game of this rather distant road trip. Good news for us fans of his as it shows he can’t be too sore from the regular season. I suppose his first postseason off, as sad as that is to us Braves fans, gave him ample time to rest up.

The MLB was down by three in the ninth, but Andruw’s second homer brought the Giants’ lead down to two, and Wright ended up hitting a two run shot to tie it, which is the way it ended, as strange as that is to most MLB fans.

So,

MLB record: ???
Andruw Homer total: 2

=)

MLB, Japan, Japan All-star, Andruw Jones, Major League Baseball, Baseball, Wright, Yomiuri Giants

On the first day that players could file for free agency, 59 players took the liberty to do so. Bonds, Nomar and Frank Thomas were among the biggest names to jump into the free agency pond on day one. However, they were hardly the only big fish to do so.

Yesterday they were joined by players which included Zito, Maddux, Sean Casey, Jeff Weaver, and Gagne.

Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte of the Astros have stated they will file for free agency soon, but are unsure if they will come back for another season. Both are feeling the pain of a fruitless season after having pitched so well throughout the season.

Big names are a plenty in the free agent market this year, and there will be millions upon millions of dollars thrown around to scoop these players up. But who, when and if in the case of Clemens and Pettitte are the questions we all want answered.

The tally is up to 143 fish in the pond, with a possible 50 more to join in the coming week and a half. The pond is getting awfully full in my opinion. =)

Free agent, Free agency, MLB, Major League Baseball, Baseball, Bonds, Zito, Maddux, Clemens