Thanksgiving Thoughts

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed the extended weekend. A few things that are floating around my head on this Monday morning:

-After five days off of work, it's hard to get back into the flow on a Monday morning.

-Making it even harder is the fact that I threw out my back yesterday. Technically, I don't know what it means "to throw out your back", but I've done it. Thank God for Bengay.

-What is it about Thanksgiving that causes people to eat until they are uncomfortable? 364 days a year, we eat until we are content and full, and then stop. On Thanksgiving, we reach the point of being full and just keep on eating until we are completely miserable.

-If your family is anything like mine, there is always a game played over the holidays. This year, like many before, the game of choice was Trivial Pursuit. As always, it was the guys against the girls. I'm pleased to report that the guys won 2 out of 3.

-Trivial Pursuit is a great game, but there is one glaring omission: A TIMER. Seriously, when an entire group of guys is sitting around the table humming the Jeopardy! music, there's something wrong.

-I tried a new dessert this weekend that was a combination of pretzels, jello, and whipped cream. I don't know about you, but if jello is involved, I'm on board.

-Isn't it time we allow someone else other than the Lions to play on Thanksgiving? I realize it's tradition and all, but for the better part of a decade, no one wants to watch the Lions.

I'll try to get some baseball-related stuff up later today or tomorrow. Right now though, I'm just trying to survive the pains in my back.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll be back on Monday with more posts (unless something major happens between now and then), but in the meantime, enjoy your Thanksgiving everybody. Eat 'til your full, watch football 'til you fall asleep, and be thankful for all that you have.

Cape Cod League

I have never been to Cape Cod, nor have I ever seen an inning of a game played there. For those of you that don't know about the league, it's the premiere wooden bat summer league for college players. A.J. Pollock and Marc Krauss (among others) are two of the 2009 Silver Hawks that played in the league.

Will Geoghegan has a blog all about the Cape Cod League that you can find here: http://www.rightfieldfog.com.

Will is actually a college buddy of mine, as we both attended the University of Dayton in the early part of this decade.

Will is also in the process of counting down the top 50 players to have played in the CCL in the last 10 years. There will be a lot of names you recognize, and it's worth checking out occasionally to catch up on the latest results.

If I notice a Silver Hawks player on the list, I'll post it here too, but again, click the link and check out his great work.

Brewers Top 10

Baseball America has the Brewers Top 10 Prospects available here. Again, you'll see some names you recognize since Milwaukee has the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers as their single-A affiliate.

If you're so inclined, and want to read more about the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, I encourage you to check out the blog of their broadcaster, Chris Mehring.

Mauer Wins AL MVP

In probably the least surprising vote of all-time, Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins has won the MVP award.

That's not why I'm posting. If you head over to www.bbwaa.com, they have the full breakdown of every player who earned a vote.

You see, the writers who vote on the AL MVP have to rank their top 10, with 10 points going to a first place vote, nine for a second, and so on. That's fine, and it creates an interesting list of players receiving votes who probably don't deserve any real mention of MVP (I'm looking your way Placido Polanco).

Anyhow, it's always fun to look at the complete list, so head over to the link and check it out.

Tomorrow: The Albert Pujols Award for Excellence, errrrr, I mean the NL MVP will be awarded to Albert Pujols. If it goes to anyone else, consider it the upset of the century.

Diamondbacks 40 Man Roster Set

Click here to read the story about the new additions, including former Silver Hawks Daniel Stange and Jordan Norberto.

Or just click here for the 40 man roster list.

This had to be set by the weekend to prepare for the Rule 5 draft coming up soon.

Bourquin Suspended

Tigers farmhand and West Michigan Whitecaps alum Ronnie Bourquin has been suspended 50 games for testing positive for amphetamine use.

Bourquin was the "Star of Stars" for the Midwest League All-Star Game this summer at Clinton.

Reds Top 10 Prospects

I'm a couple days late on this, but Baseball America has ranked the Reds Top 10 Prospects. The Cincinnati Reds are the parent club to the Dayton Dragons, so there are some names you should recognize on this list.

Having worked for Dayton, I've seen a lot of the guys listed, but since this is a Silver Hawks blog, I won't bore you with my thoughts.

Heilman Trade: A Link to some Links

Want to know the various reactions to the Diamondbacks acquiring Aaron Heilman? I'll link you to MLB Trade Rumors, and allow them to link you to the reactions from across the country.

Also, as Pete pointed out in the comments of the last post, I neglected to mention where Aaron Heilman went to college. Most are aware, but some aren't, that Heilman is indeed a former star for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

So between Heilman playing at Notre Dame and having been on the Cubs, Ryne White playing for the Silver Hawks and having gone to school at Purdue, and of course, the Diamondbacks being the other team involved in the trade, this story has an angle for just about everyone who reads this blog.

Ryne White Traded to Cubs

The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired Aaron Heilman today in a trade with the Chicago Cubs, and in the process, sent former South Bend Silver Hawks first baseman Ryne White to the Cubs organization.

White joined the Silver Hawks for the end of the 2008 regular season, playing in 12 games. He hit .358 with 13 RBIs in 12 regular season games with the Hawks. White also played in all seven postseason games for South Bend last season, batting .222 with a home run and three RBIs.

White was born in Chicago and played collegiately at Purdue University.

Renovations for Time Warner Cable Field

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers have announced that they are going to renovate their stadium through the offseason, adding in some new seating areas and moving the bullpens from their current location.

The link above has the full story and a new seating diagram for what it will look like. To be honest, as the broadcaster, I don't care about the new seating areas. What I'm fascinated by is the fact that the bullpens are going to be moved to the outfield.

Remember, the Timber Rattlers had arguably the most unique bullpens in the league. Below are the pictures I took of the bullpens when we were there in July.



As you can see, the bullpens were sort of "carved" into the seating area, making for a unique experience for the fans, but also giving players more room to catch foul balls (or more room for wild throws to get caught up in).

Now, the bullpens are going to be beyond the outfield wall, which might make announcing who is warming up somewhat difficult. However, there's something to be said about watching a door in the wall open up, and having a flame-throwing reliever come running in while his music plays to excite the fans and intimidate the opponents.

Need an example? Watch below....and yes, I know it's in Spanish. I couldn't find it in English anywhere, but somehow, I think it's better in a different language.



Then again, the Silver Hawks don't go to Wisconsin this year, so I guess it doesn't matter.

MLB Managers of the Year

I've always felt that Manager of the Year Awards were silly. I'm thinking about this because it was just announced that Jim Tracy of the Colorado Rockies won the award in the NL this year, whereas Mike Scioscia won after leading the Angels to the ALCS.

Now, I don't want to discount what each of these managers achieved, but does anyone really know how good of a manager these guys are? For example, there are plenty of managers who never received a vote for the award when they were one team, then they go to a new team with better players and all of a sudden they are the best in the league? Or Joe Maddon of Tampa Bay and Lou Piniella of the Cubs won last season, but this year neither one got a single vote? Did they forget how to manage over the offseason?

A telling example in the Midwest League was the fact that Doug Dascenzo won the Manager of the Year Award this season. I like Doug, and I think he's a fine manager, but isn't it amazing that a guy who had missed the playoffs for two straight seasons is suddenly the best manager in the league when he gets a team full of top prospects?

With all that being said, I actually think that this year, the MLB Managers of the Year are probably the most legitimate that this award has ever been.

Consider that the Rockies were a train wreck through the first month of the season, they fire the manager, bring in Jim Tracy, and they end up making the playoffs. Same players, same ownership, but a new manager and they start winning. I think that goes a long way to proving he was deserving this season.

In the AL, the Angels dealt with more injuries than most teams, and had to overcome the death of Nick Adenhart. Perhaps Scioscia best managing job this season wasn't calling for the hit-and-run or knowing when to go to the bullpen, but rather keeping this team united and focused despite the tragic loss of a teammate.

So while the award itself is still a bit overrated, I think they got it right this season.

Minor League Free Agents

A big part of offseason player movement involves free agents at the Minor League level. There are a lot of players available, and even if these guys aren't necessarily going to help the big league club, they could be very valuable at various levels of the minors. Baseball America has a huge list of free agents from MiLB. To save you a little time, here are the Diamondbacks:

Arizona Diamondbacks (15)
RHP: Scott Dohmann (AAA), Seth Etherton (AAA), Bobby Korecky (AAA), Ramon Sanchez (Hi A)
LHP: Jon Coutlangus+ (AAA)
C: Orlando Mercado (AA), Matt Tupman (AA)
2B: Guillermo Reyes (AA)
3B: Ruben Gotay (AAA), Agustin Murillo (AAA)
SS: Abraham Nunez (AAA), Ed Rogers (AAA)
OF: Trent Oeltjen (AAA), Chris Roberson (AAA), Brandon Watson (AAA)

Diamondbacks CEO Chats with Fans

I think anytime you take the time to respond to questions from fans, you're doing something right. Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall understands that, and the result is a live webchat that he does from time to time on mlb.com. I missed it when it was happening live, but the whole chat is posted here for everything you wanted to know about the parent club.

More Top 10 Rankings

As mentioned last week, Baseball America is working their way through ranking the top 10 prospects in each team's farm system. I figure most of you are smart enough to go to www.baseballamerica.com and find the rankings, but when a team that has an affiliate in the Midwest League is posted, I'll try to link you.

Today, the Chicago Cubs are up, and of course, the Peoria Chiefs are their low-A affiliate. There are a handful of players in the top 10 that were in Peoria this last season, including Josh Vitters and Brett Jackson.

Owen's Football Blog?

A few football thoughts today, since there wasn't anything that happened over the weekend in baseball that I feel compelled to write about:

-How about my Bengals? 7-2 overall, 5-0 in the division, season sweeps of the Ravens and the Steelers. I'm clearly excited, but being a lifelong Cincinnati fan, I can't help but think "how will they screw this up?" Hopefully, they won't.

-For all you Colts fans out there, congrats on the 9-0 start. The Colts found a way to win again, even though Bill Belichick made one of the dumbest decisions of all time (you can argue with me if you want, but there is no way you go for it on 4th and 2 from your own 29 with two minutes to play). Peyton Manning is fun to watch.

-I don't know if firing Charlie Weis is the answer for Notre Dame, but I feel strongly it's going to happen now. Losing @ Pitt is not the crushing loss either. However, losing @ Pitt AFTER losing to both Michigan and Navy (not to mention USC) is what is going to cost him. Well, that, and the fact that he doesn't ever seem to win big games.

-Since we're talking about sports other than baseball, I couldn't be more excited about the start of college basketball season. Should be a good year for Notre Dame, but hopefully it'll be an even bigger year for my beloved Kentucky Wildcats.

That's all for now. Sorry for drifting away from baseball, but we all need that every once in a while.

Diamondbacks and GM Meetings

If you haven't already, you should probably just go ahead and bookmark Nick Piecoro's blog at the Arizona Republic. It tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Today, I'm linking you to Nick's blog for all the news from the recently completed GM meetings that relates to the Diamondbacks.

Silver Hawks 2010 Field Staff Announced

In my last post this morning, I said that hopefully the Silver Hawks field staff would be announced in the next few weeks. Clearly, I should have said "in the next few hours."

Head on over to www.silverhawks.com to find out who will be leading the squad in 2010.

Dragons Name Field Staff

Tony Benzinger is back as manager. Tony Fossas returns as pitching coach. But the real story is the new hitting coach: Ken Griffey Sr.

I've had the chance to meet Ken Griffey, Sr. on a handful of occasions when I was working for the Dragons as he would often come up to Fifth Third Field as a special advisor while working for the Cincinnati Reds. He was always very outgoing and polite, and I hope he does well as a hitting coach.

No news yet on the Silver Hawks Field Staff. Hopefully that'll be announced in the next few weeks.

Diamondbacks Coaching News

Rico Brogna has been named the manager of the double-A squad in Mobile. I think this is a great hire. I interviewed Rico during the season and he seemed very knowledgeable and certainly gave me the impression that he wanted to do more coaching as opposed to the coordinator role he was in at the time.

No news yet on the Silver Hawks staff for next year. Obviously, when we get word from the Diamondbacks, it will be posted here and on http://www.silverhawks.com/.

Also, the big league club has added a few coaches, including former Diamondbacks star Matt Williams. You can read that story here.

Good for the Clubhouse, but Good for the Team?

The Arizona Diamondbacks are thinking about bringing back Livan Hernandez, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.

Hernandez had an ERA north of five last season, but they cite how he'd be good in the clubhouse and works well with Miguel Montero.

I'm always torn on players like this. I think there is something to be said to have good clubhouse chemistry, and veterans bring that with them (most times). However, how much of a leader in the clubhouse can you be if you aren't a leader on the field? And how can you lead on the field if you lose more than you win and have horrible stats?

Movin' On Up

No, I'm not moving up. But former West Michigan Whitecaps manager Tom Brookens is. Brookens has been named the first base coach for the Detroit Tigers. Click the link and read the full article. It tells an interesting story about how Brookens has learned twice from the same guy that he's going to the majors.

Dan Uggla Anyone?

Dan Uggla, a former South Bend Silver Hawk, has been a star for the Florida Marlins for the last few seasons. As the Marlins do with all their stars lately, they are apparently looking to trade Uggla away (most likely for some prospects).

Any interest in bringing Uggla back to the Diamondbacks organization? Are you content with Ryan Roberts at second? Do you think Tony Abreu is the answer (he was acquired as the player to be named in the Jon Garland deal)?

More on Competitive Balance

There used to be a website called FireJoeMorgan.com, which would take an article written by someone, and just completely destroy it paragraph by paragraph. I'm going to do something similar with this article from MLB.com about competitive balance in baseball. The article will be in bold and italics. My comments will be in normal font.

Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer, spoke about the sport's "enormous competitive balance" on an ESPN radio appearance Monday morning.

Already we have a problem if Dupuy really thinks that there is enormous competitive balance in baseball.

As a guest on "Mike & Mike in the Morning," DuPuy responded to fan criticism that the newly crowned World Series-champion Yankees "bought" a title with their $200 million payroll.

I wouldn't say they bought their title. They bought the players that won the title. There's a difference.

"I don't think that's a fair statement. Competitive balance has been a hallmark of the entire tenure of Commissioner [Bud] Selig," DuPuy said. "The numbers tell an awfully compelling story.

You know what else has been a hallmark of Selig's entire tenure? Steroids, an all-star game that ended in a tie, an ongoing feud with Pete Rose, games that start way too late for anyone to watch the whole thing, etc. I don't know that we want to use Selig's tenure as a good thing in this argument.

"Twenty of the 30 clubs have made the playoffs the last 10 years, when we've had eight different World Series champions."

I don't even know where to begin here. First of all, while 2/3rds have made the playoffs in the last decade, that's still 33% of your league that has experienced a decade of awfulness. Given that the playoffs now welcome in 8 teams a year instead of just four, that's 33% of your league that hasn't sniffed the top 8 spots for 10 years (and in most cases, much longer).

Secondly, as we talked about last week, the eight different World Series winners largely came from huge markets and huge payrolls (below are the teams payroll ranks when they won, according to baseball-reference.com)

2000 - Yankees (1st),

2001 - Diamondbacks (8th),

2002 - Angels (15th),

2003 - Marlins (24th),

2004 - Red Sox (2nd),

2005 - White Sox (13th),

2006 - Cardinals (10th),

2007 - Red Sox (2nd),

2008 - Phillies (12th),

2009 - Yankees (1st)

Even the teams that didn't rank top 10 are from huge markets (Philly, LA, Chicago). The lone exception is the Marlins, and again, they couldn't keep any of their players from that team and haven't been to the playoffs since.

The show's hosts, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg, referred to having been "overwhelmed by the reactions coming in from people bemoaning the fact the Yankees have been able to buy a championship."

That's because most of the country realizes the huge problem. There are two places that they don't really care (From Philadelphia to the northeast, and the southern California area). Everyone else in this country hates the way baseball is set up, because the teams in the south, midwest, and northwest don't have a chance to compete anymore.

Listeners apparently have alluded to New York's signings last winter of the three top free agents, pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and first baseman Mark Teixeira, all of whom played major roles as the Yankees won their first World Series since 2000.

Adding that trio yielded a payroll approximately equal to the combined payrolls of the five teams on the bottom of the list.

Thus, the problem! When three players make the same as five teams combined, that's a major issue.

"There is too much disparity," DuPuy said. "We'd like to see that gap close. That's why we've been pushing revenue sharing. But if you look beyond the Yankees, that ratio is more compressed than people realize.

Here's my issue with that statement: You can't look beyond the Yankees. They are the champions. They have been in the playoffs 9 out of the last 10 years. That's like saying "If you look beyond the murders, New York City is the safest place to live."

"Every team wants to have faith and hope it can make the playoffs."

Exactly. But every team doesn't have faith and hope. The Pirates, Reds, Royals, Orioles, Brewers, and others really don't have faith. Sure they all have hope, but that goes away by the all-star break, if not sooner.

DuPuy touched on a couple of ways in which baseball and its teams can continue to seek a more level playing field.

"Mid-market teams are signing their young stars to long-term contracts and we'll see those young stars with those franchises for years, and they'll build around them," said DuPuy, referring to such players as Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies and Ryan Braun of the Brewers.

Good point DuPuy. Should we also point out that in choosing to sign Ryan Braun to a long term deal, it meant the Brewers couldn't sign CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, or a number of other free agents, many of which ended up with teams like the Yankees and Red Sox?

"Second," DuPuy added, "all clubs agree that we need to reform the Draft. The idea is for the best players to go to the teams with the worst records, and that has not been the case."

DuPuy was referring to the increasingly consequential global talent supply, which is not subject to the First-Year Player Draft. International players are free to sign with any team.

"We need a world-wide Draft," DuPuy said, "to assure that the best go to the weaker teams."

I agree, but what you need and what you have are two entirely different things.

DuPuy said the negotiation in 2011 of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with players will afford baseball another opportunity to "look at our revenue-sharing formulas," while defending the way those disbursements are currently being used by receiving clubs.

"We've had over $400 million transferred, and the rule is you have to use that money to improve your club. And the Commissioner tracks that every year," DuPuy said.

Again, great rule. But it's clearly not working.

On another subject, DuPuy dismissed a need to expand the use of instant replay, a subject that became a focus in the wake of a seemingly high number of incorrect calls by umpires in the postseason.

"Our job is to get the very best umpires on the field and for them to get the calls right," said DuPuy, who added that some of the calls in the postseason were "frankly inexplicable."

So if the job is to get the calls right...and there were calls this postseason that were "frankly inexplicable"...and the use of instant replay would eliminate both of these...then why are we dismissing instant replay so quickly? No one wants to get rid of the umpires, they just want to know that the game they are watching is going to be ruled correctly.

They Tried to Bring Him Back

Apparently the Arizona Diamondbacks made a push over the weekend to acquire former Silver Hawk Lyle Overbay from the Blue Jays in exchange for catcher Chris Snyder. Concerns over Snyder's back issues stopped the deal from happening.

I love the second comment underneath the post at the link above: "Wouldn't this have been easier if we just didn't trade Overbay when we first had him? Oh hindsight..."

Webb Staying with Diamondbacks

ESPN.com (and other sources now) are reporting that Brandon Webb's option has been picked up by the Arizona Diamondbacks for the 2010 season. I think this is a good move for Arizona, given that it would have cost them $2 million to decline the option.

Arizona ultimately had 3 options here:

1) Pick up his option and pay him 8.5 million for next season.
2) Decline the option, pay him 2 million, and let him go pitch for someone else.
3) Try to restructure the deal and reach a different agreement.

They chose the first option. The second option doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so it's easy to see why they declined that one. The third option probably would have been preferred by the Diamondbacks, but Webb (or his agent) is smart. After having been hurt for virtually the entire 2009 season, a restructured deal would mean a paycut. They basically refused to restructure, saying paying me my 8.5 million option, or let me try free agency with the 2 million buyout.

Arizona chose wisely.

Hitting The Links

No, I'm not golfing (although I certainly wish I was). Instead, here are a bunch of links to fill your baseball fix for today.

-MLB Trade Rumors has a list of all the 2010 Free Agents. This list is constantly changing and updated, so feel free to bookmark it.

-The Diamondbacks were busy yesterday...buying out Chad Tracy, passing three players through waivers and sending them to AAA, and losing Yusmeiro Petit and Doug Slaten to waiver claims. I have to admit, I'm not sad to see Petit go...I could never get his name right on the air.

-A big ole oops for Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum. He's a great picher, but this isn't smart.

-In a story related to my post yesterday about big markets teams buying up the smaller markets best players, the Marlins have traded Jeremy Hermida to the Red Sox. I'd say the Marlins wanted to trade him to get something for him before losing him to free agency. Peter Gammons has more.

-Finally, the Mets and Braves don't have teams in the Midwest League, but Baseball America has published the top 10 prospects for each team.

The Yankees Win

As you all know by now, the New York Yankees are the 2009 World Series Champions. The Yankees brought home their 27th title in franchise history last night, behind the six-RBI performance from series MVP Hideki Matsui.

The Yankees winning again has reignited all the talk about Major League Baseball having serious problems in terms of competitive balance. In fact, that's been the focus of the morning sports talk shows (in particular, Mike and Mike in the Morning).

I wanted to share a few of my thoughts on it, and then I'd love to have you leave your comments below.

*First and foremost, don't blame the Yankees. It's easy for everyone to say "I hate the Yankees" because they are the symbol of all that is wrong with baseball's disparity between the high payroll teams and the low payroll teams. However, they aren't doing anything wrong. They are operating under a different budget than everyone else because of the market they are in and their owner's willingness to pay for big time free agents. What do you want the Yankees to do? Stop trying to win? That's absurd.

*Also, if you are going to "hate" the Yankees for being at the top end of this, then you should also hate the Pirates and Royals for being at the low end. Again, it's not the teams, it's the system. So if you hate the team at the top of the system, then shouldn't you also hate the teams on the other end?

*Now that being said, something needs to be done. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world that those that spend the most, win the most. That's the American way usually. The problem comes in when those that don't or can't spend that kind of money, don't have a chance to compete.

*Look at this way: Since the playoffs expanded in 1995, the Yankees and Red Sox have combined to make the playoffs 23 times. Obviously, those are the two teams with the highest payrolls and both come from major media markets. Since 1995, the Blue Jays, Royals, Pirates, Expos/Nationals, Rays, Tigers, Brewers, Reds, Marlins, and Orioles have combined to make the playoffs eight times. With the exception of the Tigers, these are all smaller market teams with small payrolls.

*Those are probably all numbers that you've heard before. Let me give you two final pieces of information that I think better illustrates the problem.

-Major League Baseball loves to tell everyone that 23 of the 30 teams have made the postseason this decade. One of those teams is the Brewers, who traded four prospects to get CC Sabathia for the second half of the season. The Brewers made the playoffs, losing in the first round. The two biggest pieces of the puzzle that got them there (Sabathia and Ben Sheets) left in the offseason (Sabathia to the Yankees where he won a ring, Sheets is an injured free agent). Milwaukee missed the playoffs by 11 games this year, finishing under .500. Most expect it will be a while before they have any chance of the postseason again.

-Two days ago, the Pirates traded for Akinori Iwamura, and will pay him 4.85 million dollars in 2010, making him the highest paid Pirates player. If Iwamura went to the Yankees, he'd be the 13th highest paid player. That just doesn't seem right to me.

Listen, I don't have the answers. I don't even know if I have the questions right. I just know that the numbers can be staggering at times. It just seems as if 10 teams know they are going to compete every year, 10 teams hope to catch lightning in a bottle and make that one or two year run, and 10 teams don't have a prayer.

Your thoughts? Is there an issue here? Is there something that can be done to fix it? Or is this just the way it works?

Broadcasters Aren't Biased

I read this great article today online at the New York Times website about baseball announcers and how fans perceive them to all be biased against their teams.

Obviously this hits home with me because of the job I do, but you'd be amazed at how many people hate announcers because they feel the announcers have something against their team. In an attempt at full disclosure, I will admit that I'm guilty of this at times as well.

The article makes an excellent reference to a series between Boston and New York years ago where NBC got 1,800 calls complaining about the announcers. There were 1,000 calls from New York complaining that the announcers were biased against their team, and there were 800 calls from Boston saying that the announcers hated the Red Sox. Oh, and if you are wondering about the 200 call difference...it was a toll call from Boston.

On a personal note, I was accused by a South Bend fan this year of rooting against the Silver Hawks in a game against Fort Wayne because I got "too excited" about a great diving play by a TinCaps player. I also received an email from a Beloit fan two years ago, saying that I talked too much about the Dayton Dragons on the air (I was broadcasting for the Dragons at the time). I realize that the Snappers didn't have a radio broadcast, but I politely reminded the fan that I was employed by the Dragons, and my broadcast was on the radio in Dayton! It's simply amazing.

Or then there are the comments that I get whenever I tell someone what I do for a living. My favorite is "I hate listening to Joe Buck. What do you think about him?" First of all, you can replace the name with whatever announcer floats your boat (Dick Vitale, Brad Nessler, etc.). Secondly, these guys are paid millions of dollars because they are good at what they do. My opinion on all of these guys is that I would love to have their jobs, because they are the best of the best.

I'm not writing this to criticize fans for their opinions -- and again, as I mentioned earlier, I have some broadcasters that bother me for the same reasons. However, I think it is important to realize that very rarely is a broadcaster truly biased against a team. As a line in the article says, the bias is not in the voice, it's in the ears.

Baseball America on MWL Shortstops

Two of the better shortstops in the Midwest League were the subject of a question in today's "Ask BA" segment. Click the link for the full article, or read below for the blurb about the players we all watched this past season:

Shortstops Dee Gordon (Dodgers) and Gustavo Nunez (Tigers) played in the low Class A Midwest League at age 21, are close to the same small size and posted very similar numbers as top-of-the-order dynamos. Both are fast, though Gordon is faster. Nunez is a better defender right now, with a strong arm and quick release. Is Nunez a legitimate prospect?

Chris Drouillard
Toledo

Though Gordon ranked No. 2 on our MWL Top 20 Prospects list and Nunez didn't make it, he is a prospect.

The biggest difference between the two is that Gordon projects to provide much more offense. He has less baseball experience, and thus more room to grow as a hitter. He has more speed and a better idea of how to use it, so he projects as a big-time basestealer, while Nunez got caught in 36 percent of his attempts. Gordon also projects to add more strength and hit for more pop, and he has more patience at the plate.

While some wonder if Gordon can smooth out his rough edges defensively, there's no doubt that Nunez will stay at shortstop. He's a good defender, and his ability to become a big league regular will depend on how much he hits. Most of his offensive value will come from his batting average, though he can steal a few bases.

Zavada Wins an Award

Thanks to our official scorer Pete for notifying me of the incredible accomplishments of former Silver Hawks pitcher Clay Zavada. He is officially the "Mustached American of the Year."

He won the award at something called 'Stache Bash 2009, which sounds like one heck of an event. Believe it or not, the award even has a sponsor (Thank you Quicken).

The Silver Hawks get a mention in the story at the link, although they spelled it wrong (Silver Hawks is two words, both capitalized, not one). Also, former teammate Josh Collmenter gets credit for his awesome stache as well.

Finally, Zavada beat out a number of other contestants for the award, including Sully Sullenberger, the pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson River.