Minor league prospects

I have to say, I like the fact that a lot of teams aren't rushing their superstar prospects up to the Major League level this year, especially the Rays and how they are handling David Price. The kid has only made twenty professional starts (professional, not major league). Why not slowly build up his arm strength so it will be comfortable throwing 200+ innings a year and so he can learn a little bit more about how to really pitch and work his off-speed stuff into outings. I think most, if not all of these teams seasoning their top prospects even the slightest bit more (Baltimore with Wieters, Atlanta with Hanson, Texas with Feliz, Holland, Smoak, etc) are going to really reap the benefits in the upcoming months and years with the play of their youngsters that they kept in the Minors as long as they could.

Back to normal

Thank goodness. The World Baseball Classic is finally over! I know that all the major sports are trying to push the whole "globalization" thing, but this is no good. The World Cup is really the only non-Olympic world-wide team sport that has really worked, basketball is trying, but nobody here really pays attention, no other country really plays football, the Ryder Cup is a fairly large joke, so baseball decides to join in on the so-called fun.

Oh well, at least everyone is back with their respective teams now and we can finally focus on the good stuff. Real MLB action!

Season preview

Spring training is coming to a close and the regular season is almost upon us. Many of the the normal powerhouse teams are very much in the World Series conversation (Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies, and Angels to name a few) with a few teams that are new to the national spotlight (mainly the Rays) but two teams that everyone should be keeping an eye on are the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers.

The Royals have very quietly upgraded over the last few years with homegrown hitters like Alex Gordon (big sleeper this year), Mark Teahen, David Dejesus, Mike Aviles, and Billy Butler, some young pitching: Zack Greinke and Luke Hochevar, and several underrated newcomers via free agency and trades: Mike Jacobs, Cocoa Crisp, Jose Guillen, and Juan Cruz. This team could surprise many people this year, and while it might not end in a playoff birth, look for them to make some serious noise and be in contention late into the year.

The Rangers, in my opinion, had the smallest risk, biggest reward winter out of all 30 teams in baseball. They signed several players who only a year or two ago would have been highly sought after free agents like Andruw Jones-a former 50 home run hitter and several time gold glove winner, Derrick Turnbow-a former near 40 save closer for the Brewers who just needs a little tweaking in arm slot and delivery to get back to that sort of dominance, a former number 1 overall pick in Kris Benson, a reliable reliver in Eddie Guardado who last time around with the Rangers netted them some nice prospects, a fairly reliable relief pitcher/starter in Jimmy Gobble and the perfect mentor for Elvis Andrus-Omar Vizquel. Jones, Turnbow, Gobble, and Vizquel were all signed to Minor League contracts meaning that if that don't pan out like they should, they cost next to nothing on the Rangers salary, but could potentially pay huge dividends down the stretch. Also, the Rangers have stocked their farm system with a ton of great talent thanks to some excellent trades and drafting. Their lineup should be one of if not the strongest in the game, their defense should be at the very least average, and their bullpen should be top notch. The only thing that concerns me about them is the rotation. If that does plague them this year though, they have plenty of young guns they could and probably should bring up in 2010 like Neftali Feliz, Derek Holland, Tommy Hunter, Eric Hurley, and Matt Harrison.