New Year, New Trades, and New Opinions

Happy New Year, baseball fans!  I took it upon myself to write a blog post today because it's a gazillion degrees below zero and I needed to think warm thoughts.  Realizing that Spring Training starts in less than 40 days instantly warmed me right up with thoughts of pitchers casually tossing to catchers, rookies seeking advice from veteran players, and Adam Wainwright in a Speedo - I mean, in a uniform.  So what has happened baseball-wise during the off-season?  It hasn't been as exciting as in years past, but it has definitely been productive.  Here's a run-down of who has been traded, who has been signed, and who is still unemployed.

The biggest news of the off-season was the signing of Japanese "phenom" Sohei Ohtani.  This kid can both hit and pitch, so he was annoyingly being called "the next Babe Ruth."  Don't do that, people - there's only ever going to be one overweight, difficult-to-get-along-with, womanizing alcoholic who was amazing on the field but an absolute mess in his personal life.  I didn't fall for the Ohtani craze, because I think the kid has a lot of "proving himself" to do; not that Japanese baseball is inferior to Major League Baseball talent-wise (their players are just as good), but just because you kick ass in one league doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be the best in another one.  The rumors of which team would sign Ohtani were all over the place - the Mariners need someone exciting, the Cardinals and Giants could use him as a pitcher who could actually hit, the Tigers could use him as a Designated Hitter... The kid ended up surprising everyone and signed with the Los Angeles Angels, so now he will team up with Mike Trout and Albert Pujols to provide some excitement to the American League fans in LA (by the way, do any of you still refer to this team as the California Angels or Anaheim Angels?  I know - I'm old!).  I'm OK with Ohtani being out west and I'm probably not going to see much of him because of it; I just hope he stays healthy, easily adjusts to life in the US, and if he really is as wonderful as they say he is, I hope it gives the sport of baseball a positive and uplifting boost.

Let's see... what else?  Oh, Derek Jeter decided to become CEO and part owner of the Miami Marlins, and he's not being well received by the Miami media, the fans, or the players themselves.  Those Marlins are going to be really really good... twenty years from now.  To say that this will be a "rebuilding year" for the Marlins is quite the understatement - they got rid of MVP Giancarlo Stanton (welcome to the Yankees, Giancarlo!), second baseman Dee Gordon is now a center fielder for the Mariners, and Marcell Ozuna was sent to the Cardinals.  Next on the trading block?  Rumors point to Christian Yelich and J.T. Realmuto, and many Marlins players (current and former) have let their disapproval of these trades be known (gotta love when athletes tweet!).  So who will make up the Marlins' roster this season?  Let's hope they have a lot of young talent coming up for Spring Training, otherwise they'll have to ask one of the hot dog vendors at Marlins Park to grab a glove and play the outfield for a game or two.  I personally think that Jeter secretly wants to come out of retirement as a Marlin and is getting rid of all his players in order to make room for himself.  I say bring back Ozzie Guillen as manager, but I think I'm the only human being who wants that.  Hey, Ozzie was a passionate guy - there's no denying that!

Then there's the soap opera of Manny Machado.  The Orioles' best third baseman since Brooks Robinson is rumored to be either a Yankee or a Red Sox - both "Public Enemy Number One" teams of the Orioles.  The Yankees claim that Machado wants to to be on a contending team, and the Red Sox just want him because the Yankees do.  Machado reportedly wants to move to shortstop, but will Orioles fans allow him to achieve greatness at the position that will always belong to Cal Ripken?  Here's another issue:  Machado will become a free agent at the end of the 2018 season.  What does that mean?  Well, if I was the Orioles' GM, I would keep Machado at third base, trade him before the July 31st deadline to a contending team (since the Orioles have no pitching to contend and their closer, Zack Britton, ruptured his Achilles tendon last month), and get a bunch of prospects for him (so that us Frederick Keys fans have some up-and-coming players to watch in the Minors).  I'm not bashing the O's season before it's even started; I'm just trying to be realistic.  And Machado can be like Yu Darvish was this past season with the Dodgers - go to a contending team for a couple of months, play in the World Series, and then use your free agency to get yourself a hefty contract with another team right after that.

Oh wait!  Yu Darvish is one of those free agents who hasn't been signed yet!  He joins pitchers Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn, and Alex Cobb, as well as J.D. Martinez, Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Moustakis in the list of top free agents who have yet to be signed by anyone.  And for those of you who think that free agents never re-sign with the last team they played for, pitchers CC Sabathia and Brandon Kintzler signed to continue with the Yankees and Nationals, respectively.  And rumor has it that the Nationals want to keep Bryce Harper even after he's eligible for free agency at the end of the 2018 season.  So there you go - "franchise" players are still a thing!

Still unsigned and therefore unemployed are old men Jayson Werth and Ichiro Suzuki.  Now, as much as I like Werth (my son dressed as him for Halloween one year, bearded mask and all), it's time for him to go and enjoy retirement (but don't drive too fast, Jayson; remember how that landed you in jail for a couple of days several years ago!).  But Ichiro?  Really?  No one wants a 44-year-old right fielder who batted .255 with 3 home runs in 196 at-bats for the Marlins last year?  Hey, the Marlins don't have ANYONE in the outfield - they may want to take this guy into consideration!  If the Marlins don't want him, then someone should sign him just so he can retire with dignity and every team he visits can give him a proper farewell.  Come on, Seattle Mariners - show some love to the guy who brought fans to your ballpark for many years and is likely to wear your cap in Cooperstown!

So there you have it, my friends - a recap of what has happened and what is to come for the 2018 baseball season.  If Manny Machado ends up with the Yankees, make sure to check back with me because I will surely have plenty to say about that.  In the meantime, stay warm, and please continue to pray for the people of Puerto Rico, who still suffer from plenty of power outages almost 4 months after hurricane María ripped through the island.  Gracias, amigos! :-)

Not Everyone Gets a Trophy

Post-season awards were handed out by the Baseball Writers Association of America (a group I would steal a loaf of marble rye from an old lady to be a part of!), and there weren't any real surprises.  For Rookie of the Year, voters unanimously chose Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers.  This award was a no-brainer, because both guys had great seasons (even though Judge got a bit "cold" after the all-star break).  I would have voted for both of them; no surprise there.

For the Cy Young award, the AL winner was the Indians' Corey Kluber (who won his second Cy Young award) and the Nationals' Max Scherzer for the NL.  Yes, THAT Max Scherzer - my current baseball crush!  It's Scherzer's third Cy Young, and I'm just glad that someone other than Clayton Kershaw won it this year.  It was a tough decision, because all of these guys had spent a bit of time on the Disabled List this year, so it wasn't a runaway vote like Rookie of the Year was; but hey, my man beat out Kershaw and fellow teammate Stephen Strasburg, so I'm happy about that.

For MVP, I was a bit nervous.  There was speculation that Aaron Judge would get the award for the American League, beating out the Astros' José Altuve.  I personally think it's rude to win more than one of these awards in the same year (Fred Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki have been the only ones who have done that), but as the player, you have no control over who these baseball writers are going to vote for (and I love Ichiro, but I would have voted for Roberto Alomar for MVP in 2001 so Ichiro could get one award and Alomar could get the other one).  Plus isn't Rookie of the Year a more special award because you can only win it once?  I was relieved when Altuve was named as MVP for the American League, because I had told my husband that if Altuve wasn't the winner, I would run around the neighborhood naked.  Luckily my neighbors were spared.  In the National League, the Miami Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton was the MVP, and I'm OK with that.  He hit 59 home runs (I was really rooting for him to reach 60), and he's pretty bad ass.  Congratulations to all of this year's winners.

Speaking of Giancarlo Stanton, the Miami Marlins are interested in trading him during the off season.  This is a pretty big deal, because not only does it mean that the Marlins realize they're going to suck next year and Stanton is better off playing somewhere else, but it could potentially make Stanton a very very VERY rich man.  And with Derek Jeter being part owner of the Marlins, us baseball nerds have seen a lot of video of him lately talking about how, yes, trading Stanton is a definite possibility.  The main thing I've gotten out of these videos is the fact that Jeter looks way better in a baseball uniform than he does in "real people" clothes.

Also newsworthy so far this off season are both a death and a retirement.  At 40 years old, former Blue Jays and Phillies pitcher and Cy Young award winner, Roy Halladay, died while flying his single-engine plane that crashed off the Gulf of Mexico on November 7.  I always liked Halladay when he was with Toronto, but as soon as he joined the Phillies, I automatically disliked him.  The eulogy that his wife gave at his memorial service was heart-wrenching and emotional, especially since they were just starting their new lives after Halladay's retirement in 2013.  So sad!

And after 20 years in professional baseball, Puerto Rican Carlos Beltrán announced his retirement.  Beltrán is one of those classy old-school guys you just can't help but love - he always played hard, was constantly smiling, and was always known as an excellent leader and faithful teammate.  I have a soft spot for Carlos because he threw me a baseball during batting practice when he played for the Mets and I acted like a crazy Puerto Rican to get his attention (some would say I wasn't acting).  My husband was always bothered with Beltrán being a "mouth breather," but I like him anyway (at least Beltrán probably doesn't snore, because he breathes through his mouth, which is more than I can say about my dear husband who keeps me up at night!).  Let's see if Jayson Werth and Ichiro Suzuki follow in Beltrán's footsteps and announce their retirements too - while some of us would like to think that Ichiro could play forever, he's 44 and not as marketable as he once was.  He will definitely be missed.  And Werth?  Yeah - it's time to call it quits, old man!

What else is there to look forward to during this off-season?  Let's see... Which team will sign Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani?  Apparently this kid can pitch, hit, run, and solve complex mathematical equations while mastering all levels of Candy Crush.  He's being touted as the most perfect free agent ever (which automatically means he's over-hyped) and is being compared to Babe Ruth (!!!), but he won't require a ton of money, so he'll be easy to sign once all the bureaucratic red tape has been taken care of (apparently he's still technically under the ownership of his Japanese team, so there are some "t"s to cross and "I"s to dot before he can be signed by a Major League team.  Stay tuned.  What else?  There are other free agents out there, like Yu Darvish, Wellington Castillo, Jonathan Lucroy, and yes, CC Sabathia (he's still got it at 37 years old).

This off-season promises to be interesting, with the signing of free agents and trading of players like Stanton (and will the Nationals please trade Tanner Roark so he can actually get some playing time and some respect?).  I'll be paying attention so you don't have to (unless you really want to), and I'll keep you all updated as events warrant.  In the meantime, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, support your local businesses during your holiday shopping, and enjoy your time with family and friends.

Shut Up, Pete Rose!

Earlier this week, the Miami Marlins' Ichiro Suzuki raised his career hits total to 4,257, passing Pete Rose's record Major League Baseball total.  The issue here is that 1,278 of those hits came while Ichiro was playing professional baseball in Japan; therefore, "only" 2,979 of those hits were while playing Major League Baseball here in the US.  No one really seems to care where his hits came from, because we all love Ichiro and we know that professional baseball in Japan is serious business with top-caliber talent - except for Pete Rose.

For those of you unfamiliar with Pete Rose, he was a very very very good baseball player.  He was known for his hustle, his competitiveness, and for betting on baseball.  Now, I actually read Pete Rose's autobiography, where he admits to betting on his team while he managed the Cincinnati Reds (and he also went into great detail over his time spent in prison, including how his wife snuck in a Whopper for him during a visitation), so I consider myself an unofficial authority on Pete Rose and his betting habits (which allegedly still continue, mainly with horse betting).  It was because of this betting on baseball that Rose has been banned from being inducted into the Hall of Fame, even though his name is there several times due to his impressive hitting career (and deservedly so, statistics-wise).  Rose is also kind of an ass, lacking basic decorum and always sounding like a brash redneck (though his comments are sometimes quite humorous).  So it came as no surprise to me when I read an Associated Press article in which Rose was quoted as saying "I'm not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he's had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they'll be counting his high-school hits."  Just shut up, Pete!

So what would have been a better thing for Rose to say?  Gee, let's see, how about something gracious like "I'm not sure if I would count the hits that Ichiro got while playing in Japan, but hey, he's a great baseball player and I'm so glad that he has had such a long and illustrious career," or "Good for Ichiro - I've never met the guy because I was banned from baseball for so long, and I envy the fact that he will someday be in the Hall of Fame, but it's a great accomplishment that I am happy to share with him."  Rose could have even declined to comment on the matter and that still wouldn't have sounded as whiny and sore-loser-ish as what he said.   Let's face it - Pete Rose is an idiot.  

So what's so great about Ichiro that makes him such a likable guy?  The Washington Nationals' first baseman, Ryan Zimmerman, has said that Ichiro has been his favorite player to meet at first base, because he's always friendly and chatty and has nice things to say.  At All-Star games, Ichiro is the player whom other all-stars flock to and want to meet.  For Ichiro, it's always been about his teammates and about his fans.  He is known throughout the world as a model athlete who has transcended demographics and race.  And he's a damn good baseball player.  So don't listen to Pete Rose complaining about Ichiro's Japanese hits counting towards his professional career total.  Personally, instead of worrying about what a washed-out has-been who uses way too much Grecian Formula thinks, I'm going to focus on Ichiro's next 21 hits - the amount he needs in order to tie Roberto Clemente in the all-time Major League Baseball hits list with 3,000.