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Happy trails, Sean Casey.
One of the nicest and most gregarious guys in the game has called it career after twelve seasons. According to MLB.com, he has signed on with the MLB Network for role that has not been defined yet.
Casey, despite his size was known more for his ability to make contact than hit for power, left the game with a .302 career average with 130 homers and 735 RBIs.
The mayor was always nice to fans, and had universal respect amongst his peers in the game. Good luck in your future endeavors, Sean.
Meanwhile, has one player ever done more to shoot himself in the foot than Jason Varitek?
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On Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles held a press conference to announce the signing of Nick Markakis to a 6 year/$66 million extension at the Warehouse. Obviously, now a Baltimore mainstay and one of the best right fielders in all of baseball, Markakis will now be expected to be one of the faces of the franchise and keep up his progress.
Now, with the huge contract, a marriage, the 25-year old can now only focus on baseball until 2014 and be a cog in the rebuilding of the Baltimore Orioles.
Although there are some fans that have mixed reviews on the Baltimore offseason, it’s almost universal that fans are happy about Markakis finally signing an extension with the organization. Despite needing pitching, a shortstop, and perhaps more power when the 2008 season, Andy MacPhail — president of baseball operations — made extending Markakis a priority.
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Prince Fielder has been miffed for a good while because he’s gotten paid; however, this week it’s all changed.
He and the Milwaukee Brewers reached a preliminary agreement on a two-year, $18 million contract. Fielder was eligible for arbitration for the first time in 2009, and he can become a free agent after the 2011 season.
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With a new president in office, some things have not changed over the months — the economy is in a tailspin, and families are having trouble making ends meet. More often than not, when times are tough, people stop going out and attending sports events.
However, one team is trying to curb that tide — even if it includes giving fans sort of an interest-free loan to purchase season tickets.
According to the AP, the Washington Nationals have come up with a recession-friendlier way to pay for season tickets — with an installment plan.
They announced the creation of the Grand Slam E-Z Payment Plan, which allows fans to pay off their season tickets in monthly installments on their credit cards over six months. The move is the latest among several measures the team, who finished with the worst record in baseball last season at 59-102 which hopes will attract fans to Nationals Park during the tough economic climate.
In September, the Nationals announced they were lowering season-ticket prices for 7,500 seats, and Thursday they lowered individual-sale ticket prices on 14,000 seats.
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Jonathan Papelbon got a record breaking one year deal for a first-time arbitration eligible reliever as he will get $6.25 million. While happy with the victory, he did not sound like he’s loyal to the Red Sox — in fact, if a deal cannot be done long term, he might leave for greener pastures.
From MLB.com: In his first public comments since becoming the richest first-year arbitration relief pitcher, Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon told Comcast SportsNet in an interview on Wednesday night that he’s just fine with signing his one-year deal, which will be worth $6.25 million.
“I like rolling the dice a little bit,” Papelbon said, in quotes provided by The Providence Journal.
“You have to weigh so many different things [when negotiating a long-term contract], and it’s so hard to put it in perspective.”
But Papelbon did admit, “You do want that security as a player, and you do want that feeling that everything’s going to be OK.”
While speaking on a conference call regarding the Papelbon signing on Tuesday night, Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer said the club explored the idea of a long-term deal with its closer, and will continue to do so. Papelbon confirmed that, too.
“We did discuss [a multiyear deal], but I don’t think we were able to see eye-to-eye on that — which is fine,” said Papelbon.
Papelbon, who said the negotiations with the Red Sox “went a lot smoother than expected” this time around, was also asked if he’d want to stay with Boston — the team that drafted him in the fourth round of the 2003 First-Year Player Draft — for the remainder of his career. And he didn’t sound too committal.
Hot Stove
“Obviously, that’s a tough question,” Papelbon said. “It is a business, and that’s the nature of it. But if I feel like the Red Sox treat me fairly, and I’m in a good family environment with the Red Sox, I’d love to stay with them. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. That’s the way it is, and you have to move on. But we’ll see. We’ll see.”
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Although Mark McGwire denies ever using drugs in baseball and could be paying for it by being shut-out of the Hall of Fame, there’s one person who has no trouble throwing him under the bus: his own brother…
The youngest brother of Mark McGwire has written that the former Major League slugger used steroids, according to Deadspin.com.
In a proposal for a book called “The McGwire Family Secret: The Truth about Steroids, a slugger and Ultimate Redemption” that he is shopping around to publishers, Jay McGwire said his brother began taking steroids in 1994 and that he personally injected Mark with performance-enhancing drugs.
“Mark is a man I think most would like to forgive because his reason wasn’t nefarious — it was for survival,” the proposal says, according to Deadspin. “My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom — which is the only way to live.”
Jay McGwire could not be reached for comment Thursday by the Associated Press, which reported that telephone numbers for his home and fitness center in California were disconnected.
If this true, this does not help McGwire at all. At some point, you have to wonder if it would be better served for the slugger to just say whether or not if he did it. America, for the most part, is a forgiving country, and at some point, people just have to move on from this.
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Ryan Howard is a beast at the plate — ok, so he strikes out a lot — but now he wants to get paid big time.
Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard asked for $18 million in salary arbitration yesterday, the third-highest figure submitted since the process began in 1974.
Philadelphia offered $14 million to the 2006 National League Most Valuable Player, a raise of $4 million. Howard hit 48 homers and had 146 RBIs last year, helping the Phillies win their first World Series title since 1980.
Houston Astros pitcher Roger Clemens set the record for highest request in arbitration at $22million in 2005. New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is second at $18.5 million in 2001.
Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder had the second-highest request this year at $8million. In arbitration for the first time, he was offered $6million, up from $670,000 last year.
Either way, he’ll get his money; however, Philadelphia needs to lock him to a long term deal badly, or risk losing him. He’s close to 30; thus, it will be interesting to see what happens with Howard the closer he gets to free agency.
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Can this case ever go away?
According to the AP, Roger Clemens’ former personal trainer Brian McNamee was questioned for five hours yesterday by federal prosecutors and investigators building a perjury case against the seven-time Cy Young Award winner.
McNamee did not speak to reporters, only shaking his head when asked whether he would comment, when he arrived yesterday morning at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington accompanied by his lawyers, Richard Emery and Earl Ward.
McNamee has told federal agents, baseball investigator George Mitchell and a House of Representatives committee that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.
Emery would not say what was discussed and declined a request to interview McNamee. Emery said he has not been told when McNamee, a former New York police officer, will speak to the grand jury.
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Could the improbable now become possible? Yes, it looks my prediction about the Cardinals was wrong as they are headed to the Super Bowl after their 32-35 victory in the NFC Championship..
Philadelphia was off big time until the second half, while Arizona has started off well — especially Larry Fitzgerald — and still have a good size lead heading into the first half. The Eagles put up 13 points in the third quarter, but the Cardinals held on and Donovan McNabb could not finish the potential comeback.
Donovan McNabb threw for 375 yards, three TDs and an interception; however, Kurt Warner’s four TD’s lead the Cardinals to their first Super Bowl in franchise history.
Again, can anyone believe the Cardinals — a team, for the most part of their history out West that has been mediocre — are in the Super Bowl? If the Rays got to the World Series, the Cardinals can win the Super Bowl — right?
Now let’s wait to see what happens in the Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh game.
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It looks like Cole Hamels — like some other young players — chose security rather than go through arbitration; however, one cannot say the same for Ryan Howard.
Left-hander Cole Hamels signed a three-year, $20.5 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, the team confirmed Sunday.
The contract, which runs through the 2011 season, allows the 25-year-old World Series MVP winner and the Phillies to avoid an arbitration hearing.
“Cole has been an integral part of our club,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said in a statement. “Based on his 2008 and postseason performance, he has established himself as a true number one starter.”
Hamels went 4-0 in the postseason with an 1.80 ERA as the Phillies claimed their first championship since 1980. He won the first game in three playoff series and took the MVP award in the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers.
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You’ve got to give Scott Boras a lot of credit — he got Derek Lowe close to a deal that he wanted. After the Mets kicked the tires of the sinkerballer, the Braves opened up the checkbook and got a pitcher.
The Braves finalized their $60 million, four-year contract with Derek Lowe on Thursday after the right-hander passed a physical.
Lowe went 14-11 with a 3.24 ERA for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. He likely will become the top starter in Atlanta’s restructured rotation, joined by fellow newcomers Javier Vazquez and Kenshin Kawakami.
The 35-year-old Lowe will be introduced at Turner Field on Friday, capping a comeback week for the Braves after longtime starter John Smoltz signed with the Boston Red Sox, stirring up bitter complaints by fans and even star third baseman Chipper Jones about the direction of the team.
“This has been a very slow-developing offseason. I think the economy probably has a lot to do with that,” general manager Frank Wren said. “I can understand people getting a little impatient. We were getting impatient. We were wanting to get things done and have an idea what our club was going to look like.”
I think this move was made because of the aftermath of John Smoltz signing with Boston. Atlanta did what it had to do; however, this does not make them into a contender.
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Ian of Sox and Dawgs, Jason of My Baseball Bias hosted our internet radio show — “The Hits Keep Coming” — that aired on the Fantasy Sports Channel at this past Wednesday on Blog Talk Radio.
We talked about the historic week ahead of us with Barack Obama, the free agents left on the market, signings, along with the Hall Fame Votes (Henderson and Rice).
You can check it out by following the link provided at the end here or listen below. [The Hits Keep Coming - 1.14.09]
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It looks like Michael Young changed his decision about wanting to be traded, and is going along with the plans the Rangers want for him — to play third.
Michael Young will accept the Texas Rangers’ decision to move him to third base, even though the five-time All-Star shortstop initially asked to be traded and still doesn’t agree with the plan.
“In an effort not to let this thing drag out and move forward with the task at hand, which is playing winning baseball, I have decided to put an end to this and start bearing down on playing third base,” Young said Thursday. “My focus isn’t playing for any [other] team.”
Young said during a conference call that he knew a trade was unlikely and that another position switch seemed inevitable.
“I didn’t see much of a point in letting this drag on,” he said. “The last thing I want to do, especially in mid-January, is have my focus on anything other than being ready for spring training.”
A smart decision by the face of the Texas franchise…
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It looks like Kevin Youkilis is going to stay in Boston for a whole lot of money. The Red Sox got another player to sign a reasonable deal to play for perhaps a perennial contender…
Kevin Youkilis wants everyone to know he is excited about his four-year, $41 million contract extension with the Boston Red Sox.
“I think my wife and a lot of people are like, ‘You don’t seem so happy.’ I am really happy about it. It probably hasn’t hit me yet,” Youkilis said at Fenway Park on Friday as the extension was announced.
The 29-year-old gets a $1 million signing bonus, $6 million this year, $9,125,000 in 2010 and $12 million in each of the following two seasons. Boston has a $13 million option for 2013 with a $1 million buyout.
Youkilis hit .312 with 29 homers and 115 RBIs last season, but his most impressive work might have been in the field. The five-year veteran made just four errors in 125 games at first base, where he won a Gold Glove in 2007, then switched to third when Mike Lowell was injured.
Congrats, Kevin.
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Perhaps the worst free agent signing ever will more than likely have a new team if he can find a job. Andruw Jones reported to the Dodgers overweight, slow, hurt and seemingly devoid of the skills that made him a potential Future Hall of Famer in Atlanta.
Center fielder Andruw Jones — who was signed to a $36.2 million contract — was released by the team on Friday. He only hit .158 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 75 games last season.
