Baseball Salary Caps and Revenue Sharing
by RC

Jacksonville Florida is a relatively small town with a population of only 735,000 people. The nearest large city is Atlanta and those people won't be traveling down to Jacksonville to see any Jaguar games. South of Jacksonville there are two much bigger cites, Tampa Bay and Miami who both have their own teams. Question, why is it that at the beginning of the football season do the Jaguars have a shot at winning a Super Bowl and the Kansas City Royals, a city of similar size have absolutely no shot at even sniffing a playoff spot in baseball World Series tournament?
Baseball & Politics
by RC

We all were recently treated to a gaggle of politicians who thought that in hindsight they needed to save a small number of baseball players from themselves.  To make matters worse, they trotted out two sets of parents whose sons had committed suicide while taking steroids.  Naturally, these do-gooder politicians were badgering ball players so they could "save the children."
Baseball & Steroids
by RC

Everyone needs to understand what an absolute joke the "new and improved" MBL drug testing program is.  This writer is a competitive powerlifter who competes in national competition and is regularly drug tested.  I know about steroids.  I used them in college, I've lived with numerous people that took them and I know people that currently take them. 
More...
More...
More...
Back to Home
Back to Frequent Head Thoughts
Comments?
Overstock.com Auctions! Easier, Cheaper, Friendlier!
The Road to the Major Leagues

How hard is it to make the Major Leagues?  There are 30 teams with 25 players per team.  This makes for a total of 750 players in the major leagues.  In 2004 there were 20 minor leagues with 242 teams, which make for about 7,000 players.  There is triple "A", Double "A", three levels of Class "A" and Rookie leagues.  Within these leagues there are Independent leagues that aren't associated the MLB.  In the 1930's there were twice this many minor league teams.  But, in the 30's college players rarely went to the pros and the Negro leagues weren't part of the mix and finally, prior to the 1970's MLB didn't shop out side of the country for players.  As will be later described, the pool of talent is much larger today than it used to be because MLB looks all over the globe for players.

In addition to the minor league players that are struggling for a spot there are college players who are draft eligible and thus potential prospects.  For example USC has produced 94 major leaguers.  The University of Texas has produced 91 Major leaguers.  There are Division one, Division two, Division three, NAIA and Junior Colleges that produce players.  There are currently available rankings for the top 25 teams in each of those five categories.  This makes for a legitimate pool of another 4,000 players all fighting for that elusive spot on a big league team.  Finally, there are about 50 states with another, on average 25 teams with players that potentially could at a minimum get drafted.  If we include only seniors on these high school teams, this makes for another 12,500 players to vying for a spot.

Last year there were 50 rounds in the draft with 1,500 players being chosen.  We have no idea how many free agents there were but we doubt there were many given how many players are drafted.  Most free agents come from outside of the USA.  Based on an above described pool of roughly 23,500 players your chances of getting drafted are pretty slim.

As we all know the MLB talent pool isn't limited to the players in the USA.  We now are seeing the proliferation of Asian players in the Bigs.    There are 12 professional teams in the Japanese Major Leagues and each roster is huge carrying as many as 60 players so that is another 720 players to contend with. There are also many more minor league teams that play as well.   Please see this web site for more information, http://www.japanesebaseball.com/teams/index.jsp.  In addition to the Japanese league there are eight professional Korean teams with about 20 minor league teams.  This makes for another 800 or so players.

Then we go south of the border where in Mexico there are 41 professional baseball teams that over the years have produced 100 Big league ball players.  This makes for another 1200 players to throw in the mix.  We here in Colorado should not forget about Andres Galaragga and Venezuela.  There are ten professional teams in Venezuela so toss in another 300 players.  Don't forget about all of the players in Central America that are struggling to make teams as well.  I am guessing there are another 4,000 or so players in this area trying to make a big team league team.  Also, don't forget about the many excellent players in Castro's little Utopia of Cuba.  Finally, there is a Puerto Rican winter league, Dominican Winter league and a Caribbean league.

Hopefully, by now we've painted a picture that describes a huge pool of players that could potentially make it to at least the minor leagues.  In the above paragraphs we've detailed at least 24,000 players who could conceivably be drafted or invited to play on a minor or major league team.  To add more fuel to the fire, some groups estimate that there are 60 million people playing baseball worldwide.

We've discussed how difficult it is to get drafted but how hard is to make the big leagues after being drafted.  The draft was initiated in 1965 and in that year they drafted 813 players.  There were an unlimited number of rounds as the teams continued to pick players until all teams had decided they had enough.  Baseball America tracks each draft class with latest numbers covering 1965-1995. During that period, 64.9 percent of Round 1 selections eventually played at the big league level, 41.6 percent of second-rounders make the big leagues. Including sandwich picks between the opening two rounds, the combined figure is 53.5 percent.   Of this percentage a much smaller number are players you would recognize.  To demonstrate the difficulty of evaluating players, in 1965 the Orioles chose 70 players and only three eventually made their team.
Below are the Rockies first round picks.  Only five of these picks have gone on to be regular & reliable players and one will make the Hall of Fame.  We think you can guess who that player is.


                       2004 Christopher Nelson
                       2003 Ian Stewart
                       2002 Jeff Francis
                       2001 None
                       2000 Matt Harrington - debacle
                       1999 Jason Jennings
                       1998 Matt Roney
                       1997 Mark Mangum
                       1996 Jake Westbrook (pitching for Cleveland)
                       1995 Todd Helton
                       1994 Doug Million
                       1993 Jamey Wright
                       1992 John Burke


We looked at the Yankees first round picks and only two names pop up as having become regular day to day players and they are Derek Jeter and Thurman Munson.  Obviously the Yankees are good at buying players but not so good at drafting them.  On the flip side their two successful choices are Hall of Fame candidates.


What about the best team of the last 15 years, the Braves.  This team has been only marginally better than the Yankees.  They have picked only four players what are names that anyone would readily recognize:  Chipper Jones, Kent Mercker, Bob Horner and Dale Murphy.

http://www.birdsinthebelfry.com/amateur_draft_part_four.htm - This is a nice web site that gave us a history of all first round draft picks.  As you can see only 5% of them will go on to be star players. Only 20% of them will become useful players who contribute.  40% of these first round draft picks won't even sniff the major leagues.  As you can see, even the best of the best have a brutally hard time making the "Show", can you imagine how hard it is to make a big league team if you fall lower in the draft.  Why do we only look at the first round?   Well, three reasons.  First, I don't want to bore you to death. Second, the first round of the draft represents each team's best effort, in terms of talent evaluation and its wish list.  Evaluating amateur baseball players is much more of an art than a science, but the fact remains that there is an excellent correlation between round of selection and ultimate big league success; the higher the round, the more likely a player is to make it to the big leagues and stay there.


First Round Pick Summary
Team         Picks  Years  #0 #1 #2 #3 #4   %0    %1    %2    %3    %#4  Useless  Useful
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anaheim       37     6.4    9  7  6 12  3  24.3% 18.9% 16.2% 32.4%  8.1%   59.5%   40.5%
Arizona        4      .5    3  2  0  0  0  75.0% 50.0%  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  100.0%    0.0%
Atlanta       36     4.1   15  6  7  5  3  41.7% 16.7% 19.4% 13.9%  8.3%   77.8%   22.2%
Baltimore     37     3.2   21  4  4  5  3  56.8% 10.8% 10.8% 13.5%  8.1%   78.4%   21.6%
Boston        36     4.0   19  2  6  5  4  52.8%  5.6% 16.7% 13.9% 11.1%   75.0%   25.0%
Chicago (A)   39     4.8   14  7 10  5  3  35.9% 17.9% 25.6% 12.8%  7.7%   79.5%   20.5%
Chicago (N)   41     3.5   16 11  8  4  2  39.0% 26.8% 19.5%  9.8%  4.9%   85.4%   14.6%
Cincinnati    35     3.4   18  4  4  7  2  51.4% 11.4% 11.4% 20.0%  5.7%   74.3%   25.7%
Cleveland     37     4.8   17  3  7  9  1  45.9%  8.1% 18.9% 24.3%  2.7%   73.0%   27.0%
Colorado       9     1.8    4  3  1  0  1  44.4% 33.3% 11.1%  0.0% 11.1%   88.9%   11.1%
Detroit       37     3.6   17  7  7  4  2  45.9% 18.9% 18.9% 10.8%  5.4%   83.8%   16.2%
Florida        9     2.6    4  2  1  2  0  44.4% 22.2% 11.1% 22.2%  0.0%   77.8%   22.2%
Houston       35     3.6   14  8  5  4  4  40.0% 22.9% 14.3% 11.4% 11.4%   77.1%   22.9%
Kansas City   35     4.9   12  5 12  5  1  34.3% 14.3% 34.3% 14.3%  2.9%   82.9%   17.1%
Los Angeles   34     4.4   18  3  5  7  1  52.9%  8.8% 14.7% 20.6%  2.9%   76.5%   23.5%
Milwaukee     32     5.9   11  5  2 11  3  34.4% 15.6%  6.3% 34.4%  9.4%   56.3%   43.8%
Minnesota     38     4.1   13  6 12  6  1  34.2% 15.8% 31.6% 15.8%  2.6%   81.6%   18.4%
Montreal      34     4.5   17  2  4 11  0  50.0%  5.9% 11.8% 32.4%  0.0%   67.6%   32.4%
New York (A)  28     4.4   11  4  6  5  2  39.3% 14.3% 21.4% 17.9%  7.1%   75.0%   25.0%
New York (N)  42     4.7   16  9  5 10  2  38.1% 21.4% 11.9% 23.8%  4.8%   71.4%   28.6%
Oakland       39     5.4   14  4  9  7  5  35.9% 10.3% 23.1% 17.9% 12.8%   69.2%   30.8%
Philadelphia  35     4.0   14  4  8  8  1  40.0% 11.4% 22.9% 22.9%  2.9%   74.3%   25.7%
Pittsburgh    37     3.5   21  2  7  5  2  56.8%  5.4% 18.9% 13.5%  5.4%   81.1%   18.9%
San Diego     35     5.3   11  7  7  9  1  31.4% 20.0% 20.0% 25.7%  2.9%   71.4%   28.6%
San Francisco 41     4.4   14 11  9  5  2  34.1% 26.8% 22.0% 12.2%  4.9%   82.9%   17.1%
Seattle       25     6.3    5  4  5  9  2  20.0% 16.0% 20.0% 36.0%  8.0%   56.0%   44.0%
St. Louis     42     4.9   15  3 12 11  1  35.7%  7.1% 28.6% 26.2%  2.4%   71.4%   28.6%
Tampa Bay      5     0.0    5  0  0  0  0 100.0%  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  100.0%    0.0%
Texas         34     5.5   10  7 10  6  1  29.4% 20.6% 29.4% 17.6%  2.9%   79.4%   20.6%
Toronto       27     3.1   10  8  2  6  1  37.0% 29.6%  7.4% 22.2%  3.7%   74.1%   25.9%
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL        955     4.1 388(150)181 183 54  40.6% 15.7% 19.0% 19.2%  5.7%   75.3%   24.8%

Legend:
Picks:  Total number of first round picks in draft history; Years:  Average number of years (or partial years) in big leagues for first round picks; # 0:  Number of players not reaching major leagues; #1:  number of "cup of coffee" players; #2:  number of journeyman players; #3:  number of starting/contributing players; #4:  number of star players; % 0:  percentage first round picks not reaching majors; % 1: percentage "cup of coffee" first round picks; % 2:  percentage journeyman first round picks; % 3:  percentage starting/contributing first round picks; % 4:  percentage star first round picks; Useless:  percentage first round picks in categories 0-2; Useful:  percentage first round picks in categories 3-4

Making the big leagues is a tough proposition.  In 2002 the Seattle Mariners signed an 18 year old from the Dominican Republic named Fausto Carmona.  In his first year he played in the rookie Appalachian League.  He then played in the "A" level where he recorded a 17-3 record and had an ERA of 2.00.  He is now 22 years old and still isn't on the major league team but is still working at it and plays in winter leagues as well.

Making the Major leagues is though a virtual certainty when you are the very first player chosen and all of them have made the Major Leagues except one.  In 1966 New York Mets, picking first in the June free-agent draft, pass up Arizona State OF Reggie Jackson to select C Steve Chilcott. Chilcott will retire after six years in the minors and will be the only number-one pick to never play in the major leagues. The A's take Jackson with the 2nd pick.  Mr. Chilcott is rated by most to the be the worst draft pick in Major League history.

What about Rockies players, how has their road to the big leagues been?  Garrett Atkins has worked at it a little bit.  He was drafted by the Mets in the 10th round or the 300th pick in the 1997 draft.  He instead went to play at the University of CA-Irvine and was picked by the Rockies in the 5th round (137th pick) of the 2000 draft. Mr. Atkins is now 25 years old and looks like he is the Show to stay.  He played in Portland, then Salem, then Caroline, finally with the Sky Sox and he now looks be the Rockies third basemen to stay. 

For your interest a wonderful site called "The Baseball Cube", http://thebaseballcube.com/statistics/10_2000_R.shtml has everything you could need to know about every current player, either minor or major leagues.

31 year old Aaron Miles has had a tough time getting to the Rockies.  He was the 529th player chosen in the 19th round of the 1995 draft by the Houston Astros.  He has played for the GCL Astros, Quad City, Michigan, Kissimee, Birmingham, Charlotte, Chi White Sox, Sky Sox and now the Rockies.  He spent 10 years in the minors and we promise you that even though this man may have great will power, he will not be the Rockies 2nd basemen for more than a couple years.  He is too old to be a 2nd year pro.

26 year old Clint Barmes has had a road that is similar to Mr. Atkins.  He was the 287th pick in the 10th round of the 2000 draft.  He played five years in the minor leagues before he became the full time shortstop.  Only time will tell if he is really the shortstop of the future.

The Rockies have one player that we think has the best chance to be star and a potential five tool player and that is Brad Hawpe.  This guy has a great swing and a cannon for an arm.  He was drafted out of high school.  He was the 1344th player chosen in the 1997 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays.  He went on the play at Louisiana State University and then he was chosen as the 317th player in the 2000 draft (11th round) by the Rockies.  2000 was a good year for the Dan O'Dowd.  He played five years in the Minor Leagues:  Portland, Asheville, Salem, Tulsa, Sky Sox and now the Rockies.

For endurance Preston Wilson gets a prize as he spent eight years in the minor leagues.  That is over half of his professional career.  He was a bit of disappointment as he was the 9th player chosen in the first round of the 1992 draft by the Mets.  This just proves what a dicey thing a draft pick is in baseball.

We will end our discussion with two more players who should get a prize for endurance.  The first is Scott Randall who is pitcher drafted in the 1995 draft by the Rockies.  He was the 291st player taken in the 11th round.  He has now spent 10 years in the Minors and has been shipped back and forth to 18 teams.  He has gotten to pitch part of a year in 2003 with the Reds.  Mr. Randall is now almost 30 years old and likely will never be a big leaguer. 

The final player can only be considered a failure as a pro-baseball player.  On the flip side I give him two thumbs up for effort and never giving up.  These virtues mean something and I can only say that Brian Buchanan has "the never die attitude".  In six weeks Mr. Buchanan will be 32 years old.  He was the 24th player chosen in the 1st round of the 1994 draft by the Yankees whom we've already proven don't know how to draft first round players.  He has spent all 12 of his years in professional baseball in the minor leagues.  He has spent parts of five seasons with five major league teams.    This outfielder at best can hope for a role as a pinch hitter but I doubt that he will ever make it in the major leagues.

In the end I could make similar arguments for the difficulty in making any professional sport, particularly, Hockey, football and basketball.  Baseball is unique in that it is the most global of all sports so the pool of talent that the Major Leagues can cull from is huge.  I also think the global nature of baseball is even bigger than basketball.  I also think that (with some exceptions) basketball is a unique sport in that it is limited to people over six feet tall.  Another fact that is unique to baseball is that young men at the ages of 28 - 30 years old are still struggling to make a MLB team.  Again, with exceptions this isn't true in the other pro sports.  Hockey has minor leagues but those leagues aren’t nearly as extensive.

In closing, I think the men that make the Big Leagues are mentally & physically much tougher than they are given credit for.  They've had to climb a bigger hill than their peers in other pro leagues and have earned every penny they make when they finally do make the Majors.  The truth is that Major League baseball players are great athletes who every day go to the park to give the game their best and if they don't some else is waiting in the wings to take their spot.
Final Power Rankings

                        Opening                                                       Nation Wide
   RoxHead.com                 Day        Baseball     CBS                      Baseball   Total Power   Overall
                  (Last Rank)  Ranking       Weekly   Sportsline  FOXSports.com  Prospectus    Points        Rank
1. St. Louis Cardinals (7)     3         -         -           -           -          -          -
2. Detroit Tigers (3)         27         -         -           -           -          -          -
3. New York Mets (2)          12         -         -           -           -          -          -
4. Oakland Athletics (6)      11         -         -           -           -          -          -
5. New York Yankees (1)        4         -         -           -           -          -          -
6. Minnesota Twins (5)        10         -         -           -           -          -          -
7. Chicago White Sox (4)       1         -         -           -           -          -          -
8. Los Angeles Dodgers (10)   15         -         -           -           -          -          -
9. San Diego Padres (14)      17         -         -           -           -          -          -
10. Boston Red Sox (7)         7         -         -           -           -          -          -
11. Toronto Blue Jays (8)      8         -         -           -           -          -          -
12. Los Angeles Angels (11)    2         -         -           -           -          -          -
13. Philadelphia Phillies(18) 14         -         -           -           -          -          -
14. Houston Astros (15)        9         -         -           -           -          -          -
15. Texas Rangers (12)        16         -         -           -           -          -          -
16. Cincinnati Reds (13)      28         -         -           -           -          -          -
17. San Francisco Giants (16) 13         -         -           -           -          -          -
18. Florida Marlins (17)      30         -         -           -           -          -          -
19. Seattle Mariners (19)     19         -         -           -           -          -          -
20. Milwaukee Brewers (20)    21         -         -           -           -          -          -
21. Colorado Rockies (21)     24         -        -           -           -          -          -
22. Atlanta Braves (22)        6         -         -           -           -          -          -
23. Cleveland Indians (23)     5         -         -           -           -          -          -
24. Arizona Diamondbacks (24) 25         -         -           -           -          -          -
25. Baltimore Orioles (25)    20         -         -           -           -          -          -
26. Washington Nationals (26) 22         -         -           -           -          -          -
27. Chicago Cubs (27)         18         -         -           -           -          -          -
28. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (28) 29         -         -           -           -          -          -
29. Pittsburgh Pirates (29)   23         -         -           -           -          -          -
30. Kansas City Royals (30)   26         -         -           -           -          -          -

A look into the future of baseball
HomeRun list
    Player           G    HR
  1.  H Aaron      3298  755
  2.  B Bonds*     2858  734
  3.  B Ruth       2503  714
  4.  W Mays       2992  660
  5.  S Sosa       2240  588
  6.  F Robinson   2808  586
  7.  M McGwire    1874  583
  8.  H Killebrew  2435  573
  9.  R Palmeiro   2831  569
  10.  R Jackson   2820  563
Hit List
   Player              G    H
  1.  P Rose         3562  4256
  2.  T Cobb         3035  4191
  3.  H Aaron        3298  3771
  4.  S Musial       3026  3630
  5.  T Speaker      2789  3514
  6.  C Yastrzemski  3308  3419
  7.  C Anson        2523  3418
  8.  H Wagner       2792  3415
  9.  P Molitor      2683  3319
  10.  E Collins     2826  3315
Win List
     Player         W
  1.  C Young      511
  2.  W Johnson    417
  3.  G Alexander  373
  3.  C Mathewson  373
  5.  J Galvin     365
  6.  W Spahn      363
  7.  K Nichols    361
  8.  R Clemens*   347
  9.  T Keefe      342
  10. Greg Maddux* 333
MLB News
Mostly concerning ex-Rockies

12/12/06
St. Petersburg Times: "Last year, the Rays made what turned out to be a tremendous signing when they plucked Ty Wigginton off the nontender pile for $675,000. Players reportedly under consideration to be nontendered include second baseman Marcus Giles (Braves), first baseman Ben Broussard (Mariners), ex-Rays catcher Toby Hall (Dodgers), reliever Chris Reitsma (Braves) and starters Shawn Chacon (Pirates), ex-Ray Mark Hendrickson (Dodgers), Rodrigo Lopez (Orioles) and Joel Pineiro (Mariners)."

12/11/06
Detroit Free Press: "ESPN.com reported Sunday night that the Tigers and right-handed relief pitcher Jose Mesa have agreed to a one-year, $2.5-million contract, pending a physical exam."

12/9/06
Baltimore Sun: "The Orioles' monthlong quest to acquire a starting left fielder apparently has come to an end. According to an industry source, the Orioles have reached an oral agreement on a two-year deal with Oakland Athletics free agent Jay Payton, who will become the team's only right-handed-hitting outfielder."

12/7/06
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The Brewers already have $2.8 million committed to Counsell for next season, and their offer to Jeff Cirillo is believed to be for $1.2 million, plus incentives. Cirillo, who also has offers from Minnesota and Cincinnati, is worried about how much playing time he'd get with Counsell and Graffanino on the roster."

12/6/06
Pittsburgh Tribune Review: "General manager Dave Littlefield declined to say whether the team will offer arbitration to all seven of its eligible players. His deadline is Dec. 12. The biggest decision is what to do about starter Shawn Chacon, who made $3.6 million last season."

12/5/06
Chicago Sun-Times: "Ken Williams said the club has been 'revisiting' the backup catcher role, but stressed it wasn't a top priority. While the GM wouldn't go into details on what 'revisiting' meant, it likely involved the possibility of re-signing free-agent catcher Sandy Alomar Jr."

12/3/06
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "The Marlins haven't closed the door on Joe Borowski, but even pitcher with a history of shoulder trouble coming off a 36-save season should command more on a one-year deal than what the Marlins have allocated for a closer. Though Jose Mesa is a Miramar resident, the Marlins aren't interested in him. "

12/2/06
Providence Journal: "The Boston Red Sox last night chose to offer salary arbitration to just one of their five eligible free agents. Reliever Keith Foulke was the only Sox free agent offered arbitration. The Sox chose not to offer arbitration to catcher Doug Mirabelli, infielder Mark Loretta and outfielders Trot Nixon and Gabe Kapler."
--------
Tampa Bay signed former Rockies outfielder Dustan Mohr to a minor-league contract. Post

11/28/06
Baltimore Sun: "A third could be coming shortly as the Orioles are in the process of finalizing a three-year deal with New York Mets right-handed reliever Chad Bradford... The club has been in touch with the representatives of free-agent outfielders Jay Payton, Cliff Floyd, Trot Nixon, Aubrey Huff and Jose Guillen among others, but at this point, the Orioles haven't made a concrete offer to any of them, according to industry sources."
-------------
More on the Juan Pierre silliness from FOXSports.com:

The Juan Pierre deal remains a head-scratcher, but a set of unusual circumstances help explain the Dodgers' signing of the free-agent center fielder to a five-year contract worth approximately $44 million.

The Dodgers originally offered Pierre four years and $36 million, according to a major-league source, and went to five years only after getting told that another club - believed to be the Giants - had made a similar four-year proposal.

At the time, Andre Ethier was the Dodgers' only everyday outfielder. The team had lost out on Soriano, wasn't getting Lee, and was lukewarm on Gary Matthews Jr. A trade for the Devil Rays' Baldelli or Blue Jays' Vernon Wells hardly seemed likely.

If it turns out that the Dodgers land Ramirez, G.M. Ned Colletti will look wiser for holding onto his prospects until he could make the most attractive deal.

11/27/06
Kansas City Star: "The Royals have no interest in trading David DeJesus, Mark Teahen or Ryan Shealy. Gordon and Butler are out, and it would take a can’t-refuse offer to part with prospects such as Luke Hochevar, Tyler Lumsden, Billy Buckner, Ryan Braun and Carlos Rosa."

11/23/06
Orange County Register columnist Steve Bisheff: "There have been persistent rumors of a possible Chone Figgins trade to the White Sox for third baseman Joe Crede, whose 30 home runs and 94 RBIs would give the Angels the power guy they're looking for to protect Vladimir Guerrero in the lineup..."

11/20/06
The Dodgers are close to signing free-agent center fielder Juan Pierre, possibly paving the way for free-agent outfielder Dave Roberts to sign with the Giants, Brewers or Rangers, FOXSports.com has learned.

11/17/06
Daily Herald: "Despite reports the Phillies are hot after free-agent outfielder Alfonso Soriano, expect the Cubs to make a hard push soon. Hendry has a good relationship with Soriano’s representatives. The Cubs also are interested in Cleveland pitcher Jake Westbrook and free-agent pitchers Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis"

11/4/06
Cincinnati Post: "(Reds GM Wayne Krivsky) could simultaneously address center field and the top of the order with the likes of Juan Pierre, Dave Roberts, Darin Erstad or Gary Matthews Jr. He could, in the most spectacular scenario, replace Dunn with Carlos Lee. He could power-up first base with Shea Hillenbrand or even Nomar Garciaparra."

10/25/06
Washington Post: "Former Florida Marlins manager Joe Girardi, considered for weeks the favorite to become the next manager of the Washington Nationals, took his name out of consideration for the job yesterday, saying it was a decision based on keeping his young family together but simultaneously saying he could still end up on a baseball field next season."

10/20/06
Umpires for the World Series (MLB.com)
  Name                  Previous postseason assignments
-----------------------------------------------------
Randy Marsh (Chief)   5 DS ('98-99, '01, '03, '06);
                      7 LCS ('89, '92, '95, '00, '02, '04-05);
                      4 WS ('90, '97, '99, '03)

Alfonso Marquez       4 DS ('01-02, '05-06);
                      1 LCS ('03)

Wally Bell            5 DS ('98-99, '03-04, '06);
                      3 LCS ('00-01, '05)

Mike Winters          6 DS ('98-02, '06);
                      2 LCS ('97, '04);
                      1 WS ('02)

John Hirschbeck       7 DS ('95, '98-99, '01, '03, '05-06);
                      4 LCS ('90, '97, '00, '04);
                      1 WS ('95)

Tim McClelland        5 DS ('97, '00, '02, '04, '06);
                      7 LCS ('88, '95, '99, '01, '03, '05);
                      3 WS ('93, '00, '02)

10/17/06
PhillyBurbs.com: "By hiring three former major league managers in bench coach Jimy Williams, third base coach Art Howe and first base coach Davey Lopes, immediate speculation sprung that the Phils may have Manuel's eventual successor on payroll."

10/15/06
Daily Southtown: "Hmm, an MVP-caliber right fielder for $6 million? The only way the Sox won't pick this up is if they work out a long-term deal with Dye... Sweeney and Owens are also possibilities to end up starting here, but free-agents-to-be Gary Matthews Jr., Jay Payton, Juan Pierre and Shannon Stewart could also be options."

10/13/06
Washington Times columnist Thom Loverro: " Here's a name that hasn't come up yet, but should be on the Nationals list of candidates to talk to -- someone with major league managing experience, who had worked with young players and has commanded as much respect in the game as anyone who has ever walked into a major league clubhouse. Don Baylor. "

10/8/06
Daily Southtown: "They love his glove, however, and that will probably keep Juan Uribe around for 2007. But don't be surprised if the team moves one of its starting pitchers for another shortstop. Also, free-agent-to-be Alex Gonzalez is one of Guillen's favorite shortstops."

Info..
A player with a total of three or more years of major league service but with less than six years of major league service is eligible for arbitration.

9/30/06
Chicago Sun-Times: "Juan Pierre will test free agency after the season. 'I'm not ruling out anywhere,' Pierre said, but he will be influenced by whom is chosen to manage the Cubs."
---------
Denver Post: "Pierre, who is part of a lyrical verse in Beyonce's hit 'Déjà vu,' is expected to ask for $8 million annually, with the crosstown White Sox among those likely to express interest."
---------
Daily Herald: "In as candid an interview as he's given all season, Williams addressed the status of three players who head into the off-season with uncertain futures: left fielder Scott Podsednik, shortstop Juan Uribe and center fielder Brian Anderson."

9/22/06
Joe Girardi, who guided the surprising Marlins into playoff contention despite baseball's lowest payroll, will soon be out as manager after just one season. On a scale of 1 to 10, Girardi's chances of returning next year are "zero," according to a source who has spoken with the Marlins' front office. "I don't think there is any chance," the source said. With two years left on his contract, Girardi would be owed an estimated $1.5 million if no other club picks him up. The Cubs, expected to fire Dusty Baker, have been mentioned as a possible destination. FOXSports.com

9/20/06
Kansas City Royals manager Buddy Bell is taking a leave of absence to treat a growth discovered near his left tonsil.

The Royals announced the move during the ninth inning of their game against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night, a game Bell managed.

The 55-year-old Bell will seek a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona on Thursday at the direction of his doctor, who found the growth during a routine examination Tuesday. AP

9/12/06
Los Angeles Daily News: "Chone Figgins could be part of a package to land White Sox third baseman Joe Crede, who is arbitration eligible after this season and is in the middle of a breakout season after a standout postseason."

8/27/06
Chicago Tribune: "Greg Norton, a terrific pinch-hitter for the Devil Rays who plays everywhere, should be picked up by some contender before Thursday's deadline to set postseason rosters."
-----------
New York Post: "A well-embedded Rumble mole tells us that Joe Girardi will be fired as Marlins manager at the end of the season. His likely replacement will be Braves third-base coach Fredi Gonzalez... Girardi, a former Cubs catcher, has his eyes on the Chicago job when Dusty Baker is likely canned after the season."

8/25/06
The Phillies are talking to the Orioles about a deal for Jeff Conine, who can play both infield and outfield corners.

The stumbling block is that Conine, 40, needs just 38 plate appearances to guarantee his $2 million option for next season. The Orioles, however, are willing to include cash to facilitate a deal.

The Phillies, who on Monday acquired infielder/outfielder Jose Hernandez from the Pirates in exchange for cash, still need bench help. FOXSports.com

8/20/06
AP: The Detroit Tigers acquired Neifi Perez from the Chicago Cubs on Sunday for a minor leaguer, adding infield depth less than a week after losing second baseman Placido Polanco because of a shoulder injury.

8/13/06
Houston Chronicle: "Preston Wilson, the Astros' biggest offseason acquisition, was designated for assignment prior to Saturday's game, meaning the Astros have 10 days to trade or release the outfielder... Purpura said he had talks with several clubs in recent days about trading Wilson and was hopeful he could get a deal."

8/11/06
Joe Girardi has had friends making it known in Chicago that he would like the Cubs job. The Cubs, however, aren't interested. Rocky

8/10/06
New York Daily News: "Howard Johnson is facing the possibility of losing his job - and possibly all ties with his former organization - after he left his position as hitting coach of the Triple-A Norfolk Tides without permission to attend a tournament that his son was playing in last week."

8/9/06
New York Times: "If Cliff Floyd's injury does not warrant a stay on the disabled list, the Mets are likely to release Eli Marrero, who has 15 strikeouts in 33 at-bats since being acquired from Colorado for Kazuo Matsui on June 9."
----------
Miami Herald: "Joe Girardi doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. Not only did Girardi dismiss the suggestion of a growing rift between him and Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, but also said that he plans on remaining the team's manager for the duration of his contract."

and

Chicago Sun-Times: "Speculation about Dusty Baker's future with the Cubs is reaching Florida, where rookie manager Joe Girardi is dealing with his own rumors about feuding with team owner Jeffrey Loria and eyeing a move north to his old team."

8/6/06
Chicago Tribune: "The Cubs' decision not to shop Juan Pierre appears to be a sign they want to keep him for 2007 or longer."
------------
St. Petersburg Times: "Travis Lee, Greg Norton and Tomas Perez are among the Rays believed to have cleared waivers and eligible to be traded in August."
-----------
Cleveland Plain Dealer: "GM Mark Shapiro and manager Eric Wedge aren't ready to say if they'll have to trade or sign a second baseman for next year to replace Ronnie Belliard."

7/26/06
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Like if the Rangers trade for, say, Indians pitcher Jake Westbrook, he arrives with another year at $5 million due him. Daniels explained this may hamper them in trying to re-sign Eaton, Vicente Padilla, Gary Matthews Jr. and Mark DeRosa."
---------
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "Talk continues to fly that the Mariners have an interest in veteran left-handed hitter Todd Walker... Texas is another team rumored to be in the hunt for his services."
---------
Baltimore Sun: "The Orioles could have a tough decision on their hands in the coming weeks regarding the future of Jeff Conine, who signed a one-year, $1.7 million deal in December with an option for a second season... The St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and Seattle Mariners are among the teams that are interested in Conine, who would likely bring a mid-level prospect in return."

7/25/06
Things that make you go Hmmmmmm:

Harold Reynolds, who served as an analyst on Baseball Tonight for 11 years, was fired by ESPN.  When asked for a reason, ESPN vice president Josh Krulewitz refused to comment.

7/23/06
Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro says the team will make a serious effort to re-sign second baseman Ronnie Belliard, a potential free agent."

7/21/06
Pittsburgh Tribune Review: "The Pirates can buy out Jeromy Burnitz for $700,000 at the conclusion of this season. Of course, they will try to trade him before that -- preferably before the July 31 non-tender deadline."
-----------
Rocky Mountain News: "The Cubs are looking at unloading so they can get ready for a winter of revamping. Among the names being shopped are right-handers Greg Maddux and Scott Williamson, lefties Glendon Rusch and Will Ohman, second baseman Todd Walker, center fielder Juan Pierre and first baseman Phil Nevin."

7/17/06
Indians right-hander Jake Westbrook, owner of the majors' fifth-best groundball-to-flyball ratio, is as logical a target for the Diamondbacks as he was for the Rangers, but the only way the Tribe will move him is if a trade partner overpays. The Indians plan to exercise Westbrook's $5.6 million option for next season, figuring they can't get a comparable pitcher on the free-agent market for a similar price. FOXSports.com

7/15/06
New York Post: "The Yankees have talked with Oakland about acquiring outfielder Jay Payton, The Post has learned."
-------------
New York Daily News: "A little over a week ago, the Pirates approached the Yankees with a deal that would have sent Melky Cabrera and a prospect to Pittsburgh in exchange for Jeromy Burnitz, Craig Wilson and Salomon Torres, according to sources. The Yankees flatly rejected the proposal, mostly because they believe in Cabrera. "

7/7/06
New York Daily News: "Shawn Chacon will be the Yanks' long reliever, for now. The Yankees have held internal discussions about what to do with Chacon and have considered designating him for assignment, which means that any other team could claim him off waivers."
------------
New York Post : "According to several industry sources there is a possibility the Yankees will send the slumping Chacon to the Mariners for right-hander Joel Pineiro."
-------------
Newsday: "It will also allow you to wonder: Could Joe Girardi be the man to replace Joe Torre, whenever the Yankees manager either leaves or is told to leave? ...Lou Piniella would be a slam dunk, if he were available when the time comes."

7/6/06
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Neither Jeromy Burnitz nor Joe Randa has asked the Pirates for a trade. But neither sounds as if he would be terribly troubled if one were to happen."

7/3/06
Chicago Sun-Times: "Internet reports out of Los Angeles said the Sox were interested in acquiring Angels infielder/outfielder Chone Figgins, while nationally, Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones' name has been thrown around."

7/1/06
July 2 is the start date for international free agent signings.


(Archives)
Sources: MLB.com, ESPN.com
               SI.com, TSN.com,
               ProSportsDaily.com
Player Agents

Rockies:
Garrett Atkins.. Jeff Blank
Jamey Carroll.. Jonathan Mauer
Aaron Cook... Joe Bick
Josh Fogg.. Danny Horwits
Jeff Francis... Jim Lindell
LaTroy Hawkins... Larry Reynolds
Matt Holliday.. Scott Boras
Jason Jennings.. Casey Close
Byung-Hyun Kim... Victor Lee
Tom Martin.. Mike Maas

Other teams:
Bronson Arroyo... Gregg Clifton
Pedro Astacio... Steve Schneider
Rich Aurilia... Barry Axelrod
Rod Barajas.. Dan Lozano
Miguel Batista.. Martin Arburua
Carlos Beltran.. Scott Boras
Craig Biggio... Barry Axelrod
Jeremy Bonderman.. Greg Genske
Barry Bonds... Jeff Borris
Joe Borowski.. Ron Shapiro and Michael Maas
Gary Carter (Managerial)... Paul Cohen
Shawn Chacon... Dan Horwits
Roger Clemens... Alan and Randy Hendricks
Joe Crede.. Scott Boras
Johnny Damon.. Scott Boras
Zach Day.. Brian Goldberg
David Dellucci.. Joe Longo
JD Drew.. Scott Boras
Damion Easley.. Paul Cohen
Adam Eaton.. Jim Lindell
Jim Edmonds.. Paul Cohen
Pedro Feliz.. Mike Arias
Jim Fregosi (Managerial).. Alan Meersand
Eric Gagne.. Scott Boras
Nomar Garciaparra.. Arn Tellem
Tom Glavin.. Gregg Clifton
Luis Gonzalez.. Gregg Clifton, Terry Bross
Jason Grimsley.. Joe Bick
Toby Hall.. Seth Leverson
Richard Hidalgo.. Peter Greenberg
Shea Hillenbrand.. Dan Lozano
Luke Hochevar.. Scott Boras
Akinori Iwamura.. Alan Nero
Andruw Jones.. Scott Boras
Adam Kennedy.. Paul Cohen
Sunny Kim.. Scott Boras
Dan Kolb.. Damon Lapa
Carlos Lee.. Reich, Katz, Landis
Derrek Lee... Casey Close
Ted Lilly.. Larry O'Brian
Kyle Lohse.. Scott Boras
Javy Lopez.. Chuck Berry
Mark Loretta.. Bob Garber
Greg Maddux.. Scott Boras
Pedro Martinez.. Fernando Cuza
Gary Matthews Jr.. Scott Leventhal
Daisuke Matzusaka.. Scott Boras
Brian Meadows.. Danny Horwits
Gil Meche.. Greg Landry
Kevin Millwood.. Scott Boras
Ben Molina... Alan Nero
Mark Mulder.. Greg Clifton
Mike Mussina.. Arn Tellem
Russ Ortiz.. John Boggs
Roy Oswalt.. Bob Garber
Vicente Padilla.. Paul Kinzer
Carlos Pena.. Scott Boras
Johnny Peralta.. Bill Rego
Andy Pettitte.. Alan and Randy Hendricks
Mike Piazza.. Dan Lozano
Lou Piniella (Managerial).. Alan Nero
Aramis Ramirez.. Paul Kinzer
Manny Ramirez.. Greg Genske
Pokie Reese.. Mike Nicotera
Dave Roberts.. John Boggs
Kenny Rodgers.. Scott Boras
Alex Rodriguez.. Scott Boras
Freddy Sanchez.. Matt Sosnick
Gary Sheffield.. Himself
Scott Schoeneweis.. Scott Boras
Grady Sizemore... Joe Urban
JT Snow.. Danny Horwits
Alfonso Soriano... Diego Bentz, Pat Rooney
Sammy Sosa.. Reich, Katz, Landis
Justin Speier.. Chris Arnold
Ichiro Suzuki.. Tony Attanasio
Frank Thomas.. Arn Tellem
Juan Uribe.. Martin Arburua
Jose Valentin.. Dave Elston
Ron Villone.. Scott Boras
Jeff Weaver.. Scott Boras
David Wells... Greg Clifton
Bernie Williams.. Scott Boras
Woody Williams... Barry Meister
Greg Zaun.. TR Lewis
Barry Zito.. Scott Boras
Julio Zuleta.. Mike Nicotera
Growth Hormones
BY
RC

Performing enhancing drugs (PED's) are in the news for obvious reasons.  We decided to find out how hard or easy it is to find Growth Hormone or steroids and to also give the good reader another view of these drugs that isn't available in the normal news media outlets.  There are many ways to find these drugs on the black market but most people have no interest or motivation to engage in the illegal trafficking of drugs.  Nor would most people even know who to talk to or where to look for illegal PED's.  It would also be extremely intimidating to walk into a Gold's Gym and find some hulking weightlifter and ask him "how to find steroids".


We've learned that in our vibrant capitalistic economy their are Doctors who run what are called "anti-aging clinics".  These same places can be found on the internet and we have found a few of these clinics.  These clinics sell two types of Human Growth Hormones (HGH) and a few types of "testosterone replacement therapies".  A man could even get a very powerful testosterone called "testosterone cypianate".  This drug will make the user very strong in a short amount of time.  There are many reasons for the top flight athlete to take HGH but the principle reason is that there is no drug test for this product.  So even if MLB outlaws it, it's no big deal since the player can continue to use it without risk of testing "hot" in a urine test (most testosterones will fail a drug test). The other principal reason is that HGH allows the user to maintain muscle mass during times when lifting weights is impossible, e.g. the dog days of August are just such a time.  Top flight body builders use it during the final three month stage before a contest for the same reason.  During the last three months before a contest the body builder is suffering through a very severe diet and the HGH will give the user greater energy and his muscle gains will march onward with the addition of HGH to the training regimen.


How do we find HGHs?  First of all avoid scams.  If you find a site that promises to sell four bottles of HGH for $99.99 run away, it's a scam.  HGH / Testosterone isn't cheap.  A three month cycle will cost a minimum of $1,000.  The drugs are called, Humotrope, Serostim or Saizen.  You can first find an anti-aging Doctor on the web.  They can then prescribe HGH / testosterone to us old guys, 35 years on up because we are now testosterone deficient.  A male's testosterone peak is at about 20 years of age.  When we sleep we eventually reach what is called REMS cycle sleep.  During the REMS cycle HGH is released into the body.  This is why children sleep so deeply, during REMS, gobs of HGH are being released into the  body.  As we age our REMS cycles loose their luster because our bodies are no longer releasing large doses of HGH.   These anti-aging centers want to see our testosterone levels brought back up to levels that existed when we were 20.  All men over 35 years old have the medical condition of testosterone shortage (called somatopause) so this is why these Doctors can prescribe these medications to any of us.  The first thing the center will do is a have a nurse visit you at home or work and they will take blood samples for blood work.   This is required in order to verify that a testosterone deficiency can be proven.  Trust me, everyone over 35 will pass this test.  The center will charge you on average about $750 for this blood work.  Once the blood work is completed, the Doctor will  prescribe a roughly three month "stack" of testosterone and HGH.  This "stack" of drugs will cost you at least $1,000.   As part of this "stack" they will also prescribe clomid or an estrogen blocker.  I won't get into the science of estrogen blockers but they are needed.


What are the benefits of HGH / testosterone replacement therapies?  They are numerous.

1.  Increased muscle strength & muscle size
2.  Body fat loss
3.  Increased endurance
4.  Improved skin tone
5.  Improved hair growth
6.  Resistance to common illness
7.  improved injury healing and recovery after workouts.
8.  Increased sexual potency
9.  Improved sleep which increases mood


Obviously this is good stuff and what 45 year old man would not want all of the above benefits? And yes, this drug will help the ladies as well with all of the above benefits and additionally it will assist hot flashes and the normalization of menstrual cycles.


In closing, we think it is easy to be critical of MLB players who take these drugs particularly since most of us will never have the opportunity to play MLB and earn huge sums of money.  Maybe, if you thought you had a shot at the "show" you would take this stuff.  Never forget, this stuff is legal and anyone can get these drugs and take them.  Baseball never outlawed them so technically no MLB player ever broke a rule.  Now that these drugs have been "defined" as illegal, ballplayers can be labeled cheaters should they get caught.  I am a powerlifter lifting in the USA Powerlifting federation and I sign a form stating that I have not taken any of the above drugs.  If I was to take these chemicals I would clearly be cheating.


Finally, Sports Illustrated reported that when Bobby Bonds, the father of the Giants Barry Bonds, was 35 years old he hit .216 and retired.  Barry on the other hand had a huge year on 1999, hitting 39 homers, etc.  In a five year stretch he hit 258 homers or 36% of his lifetime output after age 35.  What would Henry Aaron or Babe Ruth have hit if they had taken these "medications"?  These two sets of players can't be compared and we ultimately have to hold out hope that something happens to Barry that keeps him from breaking Aarons record.

RC
"The Strongest Rockie Fan"
4/01/06
Divisional Winners based on Team Salaries
BY
RC

You've all heard the comment "money doesn't buy happiness but it sure makes life a lot easier".  We are here at Roxhead aim to prove that the same axiom exists in baseball.

We've analyzed the 2005 and 2006 team salaries and will make a few comments and well as predict season winners based purely on 2006 salaries.  The first oddity you will notice is how little team salaries have changed from 2005 to 2006.  The are virtually identical.  We also have calculated the league wide team average and the average without the Yankees factored in.  Because the Yankees have such a ridiculous salary structure (essentially unlimited) they really should not be considered.  The team average is about $68,000,000.  The team median drops to about $63,000,000.  One half of the teams are above this median number and half of the teams are below this median number.   In 2005 only one team made the playoffs with a team salary under the average and they were the woeful Padres who barely finished above .500.  If your team salary is below the median you have no shot at the playoffs.  In fact, the Padres are a statistical aberration since they were in a very weak division. 

Spending money doesn't guarantee a winner as six teams spent over the median and still had a losing record.  Seven teams below the median had winning records and in fact the Indians almost made the playoffs.  The rule is clear, if you want to give your self a shot at getting into the playoffs, then you will have to spend more than the median salary or more than about $68,000,000.  Statistically (we baseball fans are into stats) you can't make the playoffs otherwise.  We also note that if a teams spends less than $48,500,000 their chances of even ending up over .500 are greatly reduced.  Please note the Rockies are in this category.

Last year the two lowest teams (Astros & White Sox) above the median played in the World Series, so we believe that team spending does not correlate to playoff effectiveness.  Short playoff series are very unpredictable while a 162 game season is more predictable.  Spend a lot of money to acquire good players and it is quite a bit easier to predict that a team will win.  In the NFL there is salary parity and thus team parity while in MLB there is no parity of any kind.

This year, based mostly on salary we predict the following divisional and wild card winners shown below.  With some exceptions these predictions are based entirely on team salary.  Baseball experts will write thousands of paragraphs about these teams and why they will win or not win.  We think this is a waste of time since the high salary team will likely have a reservoir of highly talented players, so the study of those players becomes a waste of time.

AL East - Yankees - highest salary team in the division
AL Central - White Sox - highest salary team in the division
AL West - LA Angles - highest salary team in the division
Wild card - Boston Red Sox - highest remaining salary team

NL East - Atlanta Braves - Mets and Phillies have higher salaries but history precludes them from winning
NL Central - St. Louis Cardinals - Highest paid team in the division
NL West - LA Dodgers - 2nd highest salary team, Giants are the highest but Barry Bonds makes 25% of the    team salary, without Bonds the Giants would probably be a $72,000,000 team.
Wild card - NY Mets, they are the highest remaining salary team.

Notice that we've picked the highest salary team in four of the six divisions.  Since Atlanta always wins it seems silly to pick against them and we've adequately explained that the Giants have dumped a lot of salary on one player who may or may not finish the season and he will be a huge distraction. We also chose the remaining highest salary teams to win the Wild Cards.

We also guarantee that some low salary teams will give it a good go and get close but we don't think any low salary teams will pull off any upsets.  We also won't be upset if we are proved wrong and some low salary team has a great year to make the summer more exciting.
---------
We've updated the 2006 salary spreadsheet based on the numbers provided by USA Today, dated April 5, 2006.

Not many changes, based purely on salary considerations, Yankees, Angels and White Sox win their division and the Red Sox win the wild card. The Braves are the high salary team so we pick this them. The Astros and Cubs actually have slightly out spent the Cards, but only a fool would pick the Cubs and the Astros can't win so we go with the Cards. The Dodgers are now the high salary team so we go with them and the Mets are the remaining high salary team so they will win the wild card. The reader will note that we have gone with the high salary team in seven of the eight play off spots.

We also point out that the Indians are a very low salary team with a very high median salary. They have managed to spread the money out amongst a greater number of above average players. They will be a low salary team to watch. The Blue Jays are an average salary team and they come in at the league median. They have a team salary median of $2,200,000. This is one of the highest salary medians in the league. This means they have very few super high salaries and have spread the wealth amongst a large group of good players. The Phillies fall into this group as well but they are an above average salary team.
The Owners
BY
RC

This is not an in depth study into each owner, but rather a thumbnail sketch of each one with some basic information.  Each one of these men deserves more scrutiny and perhaps in time I will tackle a few in more in greater depth.  You will notice, that few of them inherit their wealth, most created their own wealth.    Many did not go to or finish college, most of them will stay married to their original wife and many served in the military.  Some of these men are hard core Democrats but most are hard core Republicans and few go both ways.  On the whole I was quite impressed with most of these men and I believe they are generally decent people.  There are a few I could do with out and this will become clear in a few editorial comments I make regarding each owner.  Finally, American League owners on the whole are far better on average than the National League owner.  The quality of persona and commitment to winning is not as great with National League owners as American League and I think this will become clear.  Recently Sports Illustrated had an article about the superiority of the American League over the National League and I think I know why.  I have for years believed the most important component of any team is the owner and knowing the owner allows us to understand why some teams perpetually fail and owners win.


We are also only interested in individuals that own teams and not corporations. We will also tackle the Monforts as a stand-alone project at a later date.


Baltimore Orioles

The principle owner of this team is Peter Angelos.  After failed runs at the state senate and mayor of Baltimore in the early 60's he became one of the most feared and successful plaintiff’s litigation lawyers in the country.  He led the charge in the tobacco class action suits and his firm has made about $1 billion in fees from those suits.  His firm is also reported to have made more than $100 million in suits against asbestos companies and his firm still handles these cases.  He sues manufacturers of lead paint, diet drug fen-phen and he even has a client who reportedly got brain cancer from cell phone usage.    So while he is allegedly helping all of the world's victims and the oppressed we shudder to think how many little people are out of work thanks to his handy work.


He bought the Orioles in 1993 for a mere $173 million.  He has become notable for organizing a game with Cuba and then refusing to sign Cuban defectors.  Like all good liberals he is a lover of Fidel Castro.    During the 2000 presidential campaign he was the 7th largest contributor to political campaigns and he gave 100% of his money that amounted to $959,500 directly to Democrats.  All of this information comes from the Mother Jones magazine that is a very socialist oriented magazine.


One could spend many hours writing about this guy but he appears to be universally loathed and he appears to run Baltimore like it's his own personal fiefdom.  Google his name and read on if you like but after reading about this guy I can now understand why never wins.    He can only win when he fixes the rules to suit him, i.e. tobacco and asbestos suites.  Don't forget he threatened many lawsuits in an attempt to prevent the Nationals from going to Washington D.C.  This owner is a net bad for baseball.


Boston Red Sox

The principal owner of this club is John W. Henry who made his money as a commodities fund manager and speculator. He never graduated from college but studied philosophy while there.  Before that he was a soy bean farmer who studied futures trading and by 1980 he was a full time speculator. He invented a very successul method for trading and owns a high profile money management firm.   His first professional baseball team was the Tucson Toros, a Triple-A minor league baseball team.  He's owned a little bit of the Yankees, a larger piece of the Florida Marlins and now the principle owner of the Red Sox.  His ownership group bought the Red Sox for the staggering amount of $700 million.  He also is not your normal owner, he knows baseball, stats and stat guru Bill James. It is no wonder the Red Sox won a world series.  The man is a very good owner.


New York Yankees:

George Steinbrenner stands alone as perhaps the most successful owner in all of professional sports. He and some investors bought the team from CBS for the ridiculous price of $10 million.

With a background in football and basketball, Steinbrenner spent his early adult years as an assistant football coach at both Northwestern and Purdue Universities and also assembled multiple national champions in the National Industrial and American Basketball leagues. The son of a Great Lakes shipping tycoon, Steinbrenner went on to make his money as chairman of the Cleveland-based firm known as the American Shipbuilding Company.

He is famous for setting a Major League record of his own with seventeen managerial changes in his first seventeen seasons (including Billy Martin who was hired and fired five separate times.) Despite his reputation for wielding a "rapier-like-sword" Steinbrenner always remained true to his franchise's roots by repeatedly hiring "within the family". As a result, most of the coaches and staff members on the payroll were ex-Yankees who clearly understood the day-to-day pressures of putting on the pinstripes and playing in "The House That Ruth Built".

As will be the theme with many of these powerful owners, politics come into play.  Steinbrenner was indicted for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon and was later found guilty and suspended for two years. His legal problems don't stop there. In 1990, baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent ordered the Yankees owner to resign as the club's general partner and shockingly banned him from the day-to-day operations of the team for life. The ruling came as a direct result of Steinbrenner's $40,000 payment to confessed gambler Howie Spira for damaging information about the since-traded Dave Winfield.

I have a hard determining if this is a good owner or bad.  He has helped to destroy parity in baseball but at the same time he makes baseball more entertaining that it other wise would be.


Toronto Blue Jays:

A company called Rogers Communications owns this team.  There is no colorful owner to talk about with this team.


Tampa Bay Devil Rays:

What is interesting about this team is that Stuart Sternberg, an extremely successful Wall Street investor, headed a group that bought 48 percent of the team in May 2004 for about $60 million and he eventually become the principal owner.    This is a very private man who is only 47 and has two teenage sons and desperately wants to keep them out of the limelight.  He is clearly a huge baseball fan who stands in popcorn lines so he can talk to fans.  He has also made news for creating the youngest front office in all of baseball.  Andrew Friedman, 28, is the director of baseball operations and Matt Silverman, 29, is the club president.  He is not a very political owner and gives very little to political causes.  He appears to tilt left since he has given a little to John Kerry and John Edwards.  There is very little else to say about this man other than we wish him the best of luck.


Chicago White Sox:

Jerry Reinsdorf is the principal owner of this club and he happens to own the Bulls as well.  He led a group that purchased the White Sox in 1981 so he is in charge of the 2nd oldest ownership group in MLB.  He is famous in Chicago for donating huge amounts of money in charity and leading many charitable organizations as well as developing many down and out sections of Chicago.  Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on February 25, 1936, Reinsdorf graduated from George Washington University in Washington D.C. and earned a law degree from Northwestern University after moving to Chicago in 1957.  Reinsdorf and his wife, Martyl, have four children and seven grandchildren.   He made his money in Real Estate, not law and is also not overtly political but does tilt to the right as most of his money goes to Republicans.  By all accounts he appears to be a positive good for both baseball and society in general.


Detroit Tigers:

The owner of this team is Michael "Mike" Ilitch.  This is a rags to riches story.  He was born 1929 and began the Little Caesars Pizza empire in 1959 with one store in Garden City, Michigan. His business expanded to about 4000 stores by 1999. Ilitch invested the fortune he made in his hometown of Detroit. He owns the Detroit Red Wings and he is the sole owner of the  Detroit Tigers a team he purchased in 1992.  He spends a great deal of time attempting to revitalize the city. Which I might add, he appears to be failing in this endeavor.   He is the son of Macedonian immigrants. Ilitch's father, Sotir, worked in the automobile industry as a tool-and-die maker for the Chrysler Corp. After graduation from Cooley High School, the Detroit Tigers professional baseball team offered Ilitch a $5000 bonus to sign. Ilitch requested double that amount, which the Tigers refused to pay. Instead Ilitch spent four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, from 1948 until 1952, where he played baseball.  I note, that he has been married to the same women, Marian for about 50 years and have seven children.

He is listed in the Forbes, 400 wealthiest people in America list with assets over $600 million.  Interestingly, he never went to college.  By all accounts this appears to be a fine, well-respected and charitable family who appears to be good for baseball.  We also note that this owner is a large donator to the Republican party.


Cleveland Indians:

This team is owned by Lawrence J. Dolan opens his wallet annually to support the boys and girls and young men and woman of Cleveland.  He was also a bit a player himself and played in Class C and Class D.

Dolan's official title now is the owner, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Indians Baseball Company Limited Partnership.  He has acquired all outstanding stock.  Dolan also is president and managing partner of Thrasher, Dinsmore & Dolan, A Chardon, Ohio-based law firm.

He has invested his entire life in Cleveland.  Dolan received his bachelor's (Arts and Letters, 1955) and law degrees (1956) at the University of Notre Dame.  He then served two years (1956-58) as First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. In 1958, Dolan returned to Northeast Ohio, accepting the position of assistant county prosecutor for Geauga County.  He leans right as most of his political contributions to Republicans but he does give to local Democrats who will be useful.  He does not appear to be overtly political in any way.

For nearly 25 years, Dolan has managed his law firm's practice and professional development.  Since 1969, the firm has held the highest professional rating distinction from Martindale Hubbell.  Dolan's firm employs 11 lawyers and represents a variety of private, business and governmental clients.  He also participates in a variety of business interests and area civic efforts.  Dolan and his wife, Eva, of 49 years, also a lawyer, have three sons and three daughters, Mary, Joan, and Carol.

He bought the team in 1999 for $320 million.  He is lately receiving bad press for being a cheapskate.  His team annually makes money but he does not spend it on players.  The city is mad because the small market Twins spend more than the Indians.  There are even web sites devoted to listing the "Top Ten Reasons why Larry Dolan is Cheap".

Mr. Dolan appears to be a fine man who owns a MLB team as purely an investment with limited interest in winning.  We note that this year he has spent quite a bit more and it shows.


Minnesota Twins: 

The owner of this team is Carl R. Pohlad who is yet another, high school grad who went on to become a billionaire on the Forbes 400 list.  He is the son of a railway brakeman who quit college to sell used cars. After World War II, he built banking a empire after turning around his brother-in-law's bank in 1955.  He is said to have assets of two billion dollars.  He bought the team in 1984 for $34 million.  He is one of a few very rich owners who is dead set on having the tax payers buy him a new stadium, in spite of the fact that his team actually makes money every year due to a very good fan base in Minnesota.  Apparently he is not a popular owner and the people of Minnesota will not buy him a new stadium.  He has been widely criticised for both a seeming eagerness to allow the team to be eliminated in league contraction and a failure to spend enough of his immense wealth on improving the team.  He has even tried to sell the team to a North Carolina group that promised to move the team if they did not get a government funded stadium.  We also note that this owner is a large donator to the Republican Party.

As is the case with so many of these owners he stayed faithful to one wife and family and served in the military.  I suspect that this is a good man who sees the baseball team as an investment and not something he should risk his money on.  On the flip I can see why the loyal Twins fans would be mad as heck at an owner who has comes grubbing from money but at the same isn't willing to return the favor by spending money to try and finance a winning team. It is hard to say if this guy is good for baseball or not.


Kansas City Royals:

The owner of this team is David Glass who became Owner and Chief Executive Officer of the Kansas City Royals on April 18, 2000 after serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Royals since Sept. 23, 1993. The Board, comprised of Glass and other individuals appointed by Glass, approved his bid of $96 million for the Royals despite the fact that a competing bid by Miles Prentice was 25% higher, at $120 million.
The former President and Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Glass joined the company in 1976. In his position as Executive Vice President of Finance for Wal-Mart Stores, he administered the overall financial and accounting responsibilities of the company prior to his appointment as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer. He served in that role until 1984 when he was named President and Wal-Mart's Chief Operating Officer. In 1988 he was named Wal-Mart's Chief Executive Officer. He stepped down from the position in January of 2000.

In 1992, NBC news series Dateline interviewed Glass during an investigation into Wal-Mart's "Made in America" and "Bring It Home to the USA" marketing campaigns. The show aired footage of children working in factories in Bangladesh making clothes destined for Wal-Mart, as well as footage of Wal-Mart stores with "Made in America" signs hung over imported goods. When asked about children in Asia working in sweatshop conditions, Glass' reply was "You and I might, perhaps, define children differently," and then said that since Asians are quite short, one can't always tell how old they were. Glass was shown photographs of one factory that burned down with the children still locked inside. He responded, "Yeah...there are tragic things that happen all over the world." Glass stormed out of the interview, which was terminated immediately by Wal-Mart.

During the Major League Baseball strike of 1994-1995, Glass, who was not yet owner of the Royals but chairman of the board administering the team after Ewing Kauffman's death, was one of the most forceful voices in opposing a settlement with the players' union, and supporting the use of "replacement" players, despite a court ruling that Major League owners were in violation of Federal labor laws.

A native of Mountain View, Mo., Glass graduated from Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield and serves as a member of their alumni association. Glass and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of three children, Dan, Don and Dayna.  A recurring them with these mega rich owners, one wife for life.

Authors note: The reader may have noticed that this latest item is an important value to me.

By all accounts this is a bad owner and who knows what his motivations are for owning this team.  His market is similar to many markets in MLB but he clearly has no interest in fielding a competitive team.  I would like to know the other side of the Wal-Mart story but is doesn't look good and I don't feel like conducting the requesite research it would take to possibly exonerate this guy.

In spite of the above, the people of KC have voted to renovate the stadium at tax payer expense and it is thought that this revenue will help.  From what I can see, it won't help.


LA Angels: 

Arturo Moreno is the first Mexican-American to own a U.S. major league team. Moreno is 56 years old, married, owns part of the Phoenix Suns and is a former minority investor in the Arizona Diamondbacks. According to Forbes magazine, Moreno has an estimated net worth of $940 million. A Vietnam veteran, he graduated from Tucson's University of Arizona. He is truly a self-made billionaire. He and his partner, William Levine, built a company called Outdoor Systems, a billboard company in Phoenix. They eventually sold Outdoor Systems to Infinity Broadcast Corp. for $8.7 billion in stock in 1999. That stock was converted to Viacom stock because of a merger in 2000. In the 2002 Forbes Magazine list of the 400 wealthiest people in America, Moreno was listed as No. 246. 

Moreno is expected to have paid around $180 million for the Anaheim Angels when he bought them from Disney in 2003. Disney bought the team for $247 million in 1998 and could not get the team to make a profit.   This appears to be a fan friendly owner as he dropped the $6 beer to $4.50.  They also dropped other concession prices and they created a family pack where you can buy four hot dogs and a liter of soda with four cups of ice and a big tub of popcorn for $26.

Upon buying the team, he quickly showed his commitment to winning by signing Vladimir Guerrero to a large contract prior to the 2004 season.   There are lots of people who make a big deal out of Mr. Moreno's last name but he will state that he is a 4th generation American who does not make a big deal out of his hispanic heritage and he has no desire to do anything but increase fan base in the Los Angeles area.

As with so many of these owners he is still married to his original wife.  One thing you can't do is find anything bad to say about this guy.  He seems to be a very good man and a good owner.  Baseball seems to have improved with the addition of Mr. Moreno.


Seattle Mariners:

Nintendo owns the Seattle Mariners, so there isn't much to say about this owner.


Oakland Athletics:

Lewis Wolff bought the A's in 2005 while heading a limited partnership group and has wasted no time on putting his stamp on one of baseball's most successful and storied franchises.

Upon being introduced as the eighth owner in Athletics franchise history, Wolff extended the contracts of team President Michael Crowley and Vice President and General Manager Billy Beane through the 2008 and 2012 seasons, respectively, and named both executives limited partners in the new ownership group. Wolff remains very active on the baseball side of the organization, where he worked closely with Beane in extending the contracts of Rich Harden, Bobby Crosby, Mark Kotsay and Dan Haren along with the off-season acquisitions of Esteban Loaiza and Milton Bradley.

Stressing the importance of securing a baseball-only venue for the organization in the Bay Area, Wolff introduced a major plan to the city of Oakland and Alameda County for a multi-use, "baseball village" urban development. The exciting concept, which calls for a traditional-looking ballpark surrounded with residential and commercial real estate opportunities, is currently under discussion with local public and private interests.  Note that he isn't trying to soak the taxpayers.

Since 1994, the 65-year-old Wolff has emerged from swinging studio-property and California redevelopment deals to buy up many of the ritzier business and spa hotels in the country. These now include the Carlyle in New York, the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and the Fairmont in San Francisco. His outfit, Maritz, Wolff & Co., has a raft of big-name partners and should ring up $600 million this year in sales.

Wolff began his career in real estate economics and appraisal in his hometown of St. Louis, Mo. before relocating to Los Angeles. In addition to his real estate analysis work, he also served as the president of the 20th Century Fox Realty & Development Company where he managed Fox' worldwide real estate activities.
Wolff is a former minority owner of the St. Louis Blues, the Golden State Warriors and the San Jose Missions, a now-defunct minor league baseball team. He owns a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a master's degree in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis and is also a member of the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers (MAI).

Lew resides in the Westwood section of Los Angeles with his wife, Jeane. The Wolff's have three children and two grandchildren.

In the political realm he does not appear to have a political ideology as gives to whatever politician is serving his district.  In California it is mostly Democrats so they get most of his money.  He has given equally to John Edwards, Kerry, Gore and Bush.


Texas Rangers:

This team is owned by Thomas Hicks who also owns the Dallas Stars hockey franchise.  I have also had a brush with this man as I worked an insurance claim at his second home in Aspen, which is comprised of two 6,000 square foot mansions.  His house had a moth infestation problem.  I also worked with his "people" on the claim and never actually met Mr. Hicks.

Mr. Hicks is 60 years old and he received an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California in 1970 and a B.B.A. from the University of Texas in 1968.  He made his fortune in the cable TV business.  In 2003 he was ranked #300 on the Forbes list of richest Americans with assets of about $725 million.  He is the father of six children and is still married to his original wife, Cinda.

Mr. Hicks is a rock ribbed Republican who is almost on par with Peter Angelos in giving as his company gave $515,000 to the party during the 2000 political campaign.  If you Google his name you will find many left wing groups who seek to vilify this man.  In this respect he is much like Lewis Wolff. 

Mr. Hicks bought this team in 1998 from a group headed by President Bush.

FYI:  President Bush's initial investment was $600,000 and he walked away with a cool $15 million.  We at Roxhead believe capitalism to be a good thing so we salute President Bush for his success in that deal.

Mr. Hicks also appears to be into charitable giving as we've learned he donated a large plot of land in the Dallas area so that a school could be built.  He also gave $1 million to establish endowed scholarship fund at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology in memory of their grandfather, Dr. John H. Hicks, who was a Perkins faculty member for 35 years.

We also note that he built two stadiums, hockey and baseball using his money for about three-quarter's of both projects.   We salute any owner who does this kind of thing.  It is hard to tell if Mr. Hicks is a good owner or bad, but I don't think he is a bad owner and on the whole he appears to be a very decent person.


Atlanta Braves:

AOL Time Warner owns this team.  Ted Turner has little to do with AOL anymore and though much is to be said of him we will skip him for the time being.


Philadelphia Phillies:

David Montgomery has been the Principal owner of this team since 1997. As we've noted in many spreadsheets, this owner spends money and tries to put forth a winner on the field.  The Phillies are owned by a large ownership group led by Bill Giles and team president Dave Montgomery.  They bought the team in 1981 for $30 million.  The team is now valued at $392 million per Forbes.  They put $172 million towards the new park and saw their revenues double immediately.  In fact they had their largest payroll ever at $94 million last year.

The big question is "why does a big market team produce such consistently poor teams?"  Here is what some investigation has revealed:

  Dissent is discouraged and the corporate culture is marked by suspicion, secrecy and an unrealistically sunny view of the short-term outlook. "It's too secretive. Everything is like the CIA there," one former executive said. "If you don't trust us, fire us. Like trades. The players know. The agents know. It's paranoia. They need to get more out in the open, be a little more honest with people."

  There has been virtually no turnover among non-baseball executives. "They depend too much on their Phillies good-old-boy network," said the executive. "And I'm not talking just about the people in uniform, or who were in uniform. It's a stagnant organization. It's almost like somebody's got to die before they leave... It's the same bleepin' faces every year, from the parking-lot attendants on up."

Bill Giles was in charge prior to 1997 and it appears he did a poor job.  They have improved under Mr. Montgomery's leadership and often challenge the Braves.  They were also very slow in getting a new stadium which hurt them financially.  Montgomery unfailingly describes himself as a club president who takes no active role in baseball decisions. Many people around the team, both past and present, contradict that. They say he is a micromanager who is deeply involved in every aspect of the organization.

It was very difficult to find any personal information about this guy.


New York Mets: 

Fred Wilpon bought this team in 2002 for $394 million.  Interesting enough, he is a former teammate of Sandy Koufax's at Brooklyn's Lafayette High School.

Research seems to indicate that though Mr. Wilpon is committed to winning, he is a medalling owner much like Steinbrenner and as he has slowly assumed more power.  Over the years things have gotten worse.  He seems to make one bad decision after the next.  Recently we’ve heard these kind of statements "Omar Minaya would have " full autonomy" as the team's new general manager and president of baseball operations".

He is an a-political owner gives sparingly to whomever will win and thus be able to help his cause.  Democrats and Republicans get an equal amount of his money.

He is also the largest investor in an investment group called $2 billion Sterling Stamos investment fund. From what I can find out he is decent and likeable guy.


Florida Marlins: 

Jeffrey H. Loria bought the team in 2002 for $158 million.  Remember that the prior owner had to pay $95 million for the franchise.  The team is now valued at $206 million.  Last year they had an operating profit of $3 million.  He is an art dealer by trade who once lost in a bid to own the Orioles and he spent $75 million to own the Expos in 1999.  A MLB ownership group bought the Expos from him for $120 million.

A review of internet articles shows him to be a less than savory character. His former partners in the Montreal Expos are suing Loria for fraud. The sale of the Expos prompted a RICO lawsuit by minority shareholders of the Expos. The suit accused Loria and his staff of conduct "that effectively destroyed the economic viability of baseball in Montreal.  I think there is a long story their somewhere which will be saved for another day.   He's trying to save money by slashing the fish mascot's salary in half.  We also note that the Marlins have publicly stated that they are exploring options related to moving the team.

ESPN has ranked him number nine as one of sports 10 greediest owners.  http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/owners/greediest.html

The whole Expos-Marlins-Red Sox ownership deal looked awfully fishy. Loria failed to build a decent franchise in Montreal, so MLB bought the Expos, which Selig said were no longer worthy of existence, and then let their owner, Loria, buy another franchise. Meanwhile, Marlins owner John Henry takes his $150 million-plus chunk of change to buy a piece of the Red Sox. Is Loria interested in good teams, or just a good shell game?

Here is another article by a man who doesn’t care for Mr. Loria. http://herzy69.blogspot.com/2006/03/jeffrey-loria-is-scumbag.html

In short, while perusing the internet it's hard to find anyone who had anything nice to say about this guy and I think that means something.


Washington Nationals:

All 29 MLB owners own this team so there is no one to talk about.


St. Louis Cardinals:

William O. DeWitt, Jr is the 67 year old owner of this team. He is a noted George W. Bush campaign contributor, and is currently the managing partner and chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals.  He earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a M.B.A. from Harvard University. 

In 2000 he gave about $200,000 to Republicans.  You will find that this man is a clear enemy of the left and villified on many left wing web sites.   He is what Republicans call a "Ranger" or someone that has raised more than $200,000.  Bush appointed DeWitt to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board on Wednesday.  Known in intelligence circles as "Piffy-ab," the 16-person board is supposed to let the president know how the nation's intelligence agencies are performing and investigate where they've gone wrong.  Believe or not, this guy is a member of the Republican Electoral College.  So if a candidate wins the State of Ohio (where he lives) Mr. DeWitt gets the privilege of casting his electoral college vote for the Republican that wins.

Mr. DeWitt is a huge baseball fan and it is in his blood.  He is a Board of Director for the Hall of Fame and his father was a career baseball executive and club owner with the St. Louis Browns, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox, has also been a minority owner of the Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles and the Reds. He serves on the boards of a number of privately held companies and has worked in a number of civic and charitable organizations. DeWitt is a member of the board's Nominating and Development committees.

Dewitt joined Cincinnati investment firm Gradison & Co. in 1974. In 1979, along with Mercer Reynolds, he founded the investment firm Reynolds, DeWitt & Co.. The firm owns Arby's franchises and is an investor in Cincinnati, Ohio based U.S. Playing Card Company.

In 1995, DeWitt led a group of investors which bought the St. Louis Cardinals from the Busch family for $150 million. The franchise has since doubled in value, partially because of a surge in fan enthusiasm during and after the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

DeWitt and his wife, Kathy, live in Indian Hill, Ohio and have four children.


Milwaukee Brewers:

This team was purchased in 2004 by Mark Attanasio for $223 million and is currently worth only $208 million.  We note that the team earned $24 million in net income in 2005.  Mr. Attanasio is an investment banker who grew up in New York City, graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in 1979 and received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1982.

He recently made news towards the end of the 2005 season by giving away game tickets to ensure a sellout.  He doesn't appear to be a "butinski" type of owner and lets the manager and GM run the show.  He sets strict budget numbers but isn't locked into this  budgest strictly.  He is a dynamic owner who has figured out a way to have sold 1.3 million tickets before the season even started.  They are looking to exceed 2005 all time high of 2.2 million tickets.  Corporate sponsor ship is way up and the Brewers appear to  be a team on the move.  Everything we read involves discussion of how the Brewers are continually thinking up ways to improve, either players, stadium, whatever.

As so many of the owners, he is a hyper motivated man who is on the Board of Directors of Global Crossings, the world largest telecommunications company.  He made his millions running investment companies and he is very good at turning bad businesses around.  Bob Uecker has been very impressed with this man and every one seems to be in agreement that Mr. Attanasio is great for Milwaukee and the team.

In political matters he is relatively a-political and gives very little to anyone.  He tends to tilt to the left, as he gave John Kerry $2,000 in the 2004 primary campaign.  This is such a small amount that it is difficult to tell what he believes in the polical arena.

On this whole this man appears to be an excellent edition to the current ownership fraternity and the Brewers should be quite happy to have him.


Chicago Cubs:

This is a corporately owned team, owned by the Tribune Company.


Houston Astros:

Drayton McLane, Jr. is the owner of this team.  He bought the team in 1992 for $115 million.  By the time he was nine he was working at his dad's grocery store learning the trade.  He eventually earned a Master's degree from Michigan State in 1959.  He built a $19 billion grocery distribution business.  In 1990 he merged the company with Walmart and become a Vice Chairman at Walmart.  He is involved in a huge host of civic and charitable institutions most notably the Boy Scouts and his list of civic activities would make for a very long paragraph. Of all the owners I've investigated he seems to be the most civic minded and good works oriented.  He has two sons and is married to his original wife Elizabeth and is a Deacon at the First Baptist Church of Temple.  In 2005 he was ranked 253 on the Forbes list of 400 wealthiest Americans.

Unlike many owners he was able to convince Houston to buy him a stadium. Public financing: $180 million, or 68 percent, from a 2 percent hotel tax and a 5 percent rental-car tax.  Private financing: $52 million, or 20 percent, from Astros owners; $33 million, or 12 percent, from no-interest loan. Lease: 30 years (2000-2029); $7.1 million annually ($4.6 million rent; $2.5 million to capital improvements fund).  He is one of the great owners who threatened to move the Astros if he didn't get his new stadium.

In the political arena, about 80% of his donations go to Republicans.   He is yet another Republican owner that liberals can't stand and this is one place to go find out what he is up to politically and it turns out that it isn't much other than raise funds for Republicans.  www.whitehouseforsale.org

He appears to be a very popular owner in the Houston area, in fact the most popular one I've run into yet.


Pittsburgh Pirates:

Kevin McClatchy is the owner and formed a group to purchase the franchise on February 14, 1996 for $85 million.  He became the youngest owner in MLB.  He is one of the few owners who truly inherited wealth. The family has owned newspapers and founded "The Sacramento Bee" newspaper in 1857, and they have more than 20 different newspapers in 10 states nationwide.

He is a busy man. This 43-year executive received a degree in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Is a member of the Board of Trustees at both schools...Honored by the Diocese of Pittsburgh's Northside Schools in November of 2002...Serves on the board of Catholic Charities, Sports City in Puerto Rico, the Roberto Clemente Foundation, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, McClatchy Newspapers and the Extra Mile Education Foundation…Is also involved with the United Way Foundation, the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and Animal Friends...Served as 2002 chairman for the Greater Pittsburgh Council, Boy Scouts of America "Scouting for Food" program...Was a member of Major League Baseball's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Baseball Economics. ...Presently is a member of MLB's Executive Council and its International Committee...Completed the 2002 Pittsburgh Marathon, thus raising over $90,000 towards cancer research in memory of Patti Burns, a long-time Pittsburgh newscaster...Was Co-Chairman of the 2002 Field of Dreams Gala to benefit Children's Hospital...Is a member of Dapper Dan Charities' Inner Circle.

At one time McClatchy was considered the savior of baseball in Pittsburgh, but now he has become the owner from hell. McClatchy is the anti-Midas. Everything he touches turns to dirt.  He continually allows the best players to leave the team and he never signs any top-flight players.  As for young players, none of the good ones seem to stay either.  He is also the recipient of some very bad press.  There is following petition to get rid of this owner http://www.petitiononline.com/oustkm/   The people of Pittsburgh bought this man, what many call the best stadium in baseball and he gives them nothing in return.  There is an interesting article about the oddities of this owner, http://www.unitedstatesofbaseball.com/entry.asp?ENTRY_ID=101

He does not appear to be political and donates money equally to both parties, in fact whoever is in charge or likely to win gets his money, so he seems to be a man without any convictions.  Who ever can help him gets his money.

He's an oddity in the Major Leagues  system- someone who consistently delivers rotten baseball, only to receive lavish returns for his trouble.  This team makes at least $10 million every year because of a great stadium and fan base.  The team is worth about $218 million and makes money every year, so this owner has figured out a business that perpetually loses and wins at the same time.  This year they have crafted one of the lowest payrolls in MLB.

I don't know what to say about this guy, on one hand he appears to be a decent, civic minded person.  On the other hand he is clearly a bad owner who has no intention of putting a good product on the field and he appears to be sucking Pittsburgh dry for every penny he can get.  In the end, I think I would like to see him go.


Cincinnati Reds:

This team is owned by Bob Castellini who became the CEO on Jan, 19, 2006.  He has been involved in Major League Baseball for almost 30 years, including a minor ownership stake in the Reds as part of the Williams family interest until that interest was sold in 1984. Mr. Castellini became a partner in the Texas Rangers in 1989 and the Baltimore Orioles in 1993. Most recently, he was an investor in the St. Louis Cardinals.

He has been the chairman of Castellini Group of Companies since 1992, following tenures as executive vice president from 1967-70 and president from 1970-92. The Castellini businesses include perishable distribution, food processing, public warehousing, transportation logistics and leasing, basically a fruits and vegetables wholesaler, admittedly, not a sexy business.

He graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in economics and in 1967 received his MBA from Wharton Graduate School.  Wharton is the Rolls Royce of business schools so this guy is a real brainiac.
In the political realm is a huge Republican fund raiser and donator.  He has donated over $200,000 in the last election cycle and he is straight Republican and he donates to candidates all over the country.

He is from Cincinnati and is a lifelong Reds fan unlike many owners who are from somewhere else.  His initial rhetoric leads us to believe he is truly committed to the city and producing a winning team and only time will tell.  I have discovered that all owners talk a big game but few attempt to deliver.  This appears to be a very good addition to the city of Cincinnati and it looks like Mr. Castellini will be an excellent owner and I look for the Reds to be very competitive in the coming years.


Los Angeles Dodgers:

Frank McCourt is the owner of this team and he is from Boston and is a hard-core Democrat who in the last election cycle gave about $100,000 to a wide variety of Democrats all over the country.  He bought the team in 2004 for $371 million and it is now worth $424 million.  He made his fortune as a real estate developer.

He immediately began to irritate people in LA and the Dodger fans now claim that McCourt has sent the team in a downward spiral since he bought the team. Many fans noticed the sudden changes in the look of Dodger Stadium, as he removed the famous strobe lights and fired the much-loved organ player.

McCourt's hiring of Paul DePodesta as general manager was also one of his largest mistakes. McCourt fired Dan Evans which is regarded as his biggest mistake. Evans had done an amazing job of bringing the Dodgers' to the top, and after his firing the team started to tank. Many die-hard fans saw the firing Evans and subsequent hiring of DePodesta as another cost-cutting measure. DePodesta did make many shrewd moves, but was criticized as paying too no attention to intangible factors such as clubhouse "chemistry" and tendency towards injury. DePodesta did an awful job picking up where Evans left off, and made many bad trades within the team. After the disastrous 2005 season, during which clubhouse strife and injuries sank the Dodgers to their second-worst record since moving to Los Angeles, manager Jim Tracy resigned while citing irreconcilable differences with DePodesta. Many people believe that that the 2005 season would of been avoided if McCourt would've hired someone who actually had people skills and an experience with baseball. McCourt fired Paul DePodesta less than a month later, and hired Ned Colletti to replace him.

The firing itself was also criticized by many, in that it was very abrupt and DePodesta was only in his second year of a 5-year contract. But others argued that it was DePodesta's hiring that had been the mistake, and McCourt made the best of a bad situation by starting anew. There have been reports that McCourt has been placing increased value on the advice of Tommy Lasorda, the longtime Dodgers manager who has been a (largely symbolic) vice president of the team since his retirement in 1996. But it is unclear how significant Lasorda's influence really is, just as there is disagreement as to whether such influence would be a good thing.

Many people have heard of McCourts reason for buying the team: to tear down the stadium and build multiple housing projects.

He bought the team with a great deal of debt and immediatley raised ticket prices, concession prices and cable TV rights.  On the flip side he has spent a lot of money to develop a good team that I think will likely win the weak NL west.  Also true to his word he has completely renovated the stadium making retro colors and the newly updated stadium seems to be to every ones liking.

It is too soon to evaluate this owner but at this stage of the game he does not appear to be bad and he might have had a bad first year.  He does own the Dodgers who will always be able to outspend most teams so they should always be competive.  He might end up being a good owner.


San Francisco Giants:

This team is owned by Peter Magowan who bought the team for $100 million in 1992. The team is now valued at $386 million.  Magowan is also noted for spearheading the construction of the Giants' current home, SBC Park.  Previously, several initiatives to build tax-supported stadiums had been rejected by San Francisco voters. Magowan and the Giants proposed building a privately funded ballpark - the first in the Major Leagues in decades - and despite some opposition, the plan was passed easily by the voters. Pacific Bell Park opened in 2000, replacing the oft-criticized Candlestick Park.  Already, I like this guy for building a stadium without public money.

Prior to purchasing the Giants, Magowan served as Chairman and CEO of the Bay Area-based supermarket chain Safeway. He is also a Director of Caterpillar Inc., DaimlerChrysler AG, and Spring Group plc. Mr. Magowan has been a director of Caterpillar since 1993.  He is not a self made millionaire as his father before him was the CEO of Safeway.

His political contributions are relatively meager given his wealth, but he donates to all California politicians and since they are Democrats they get the money.  He gave small amounts to President Bush and not his opposition which leads me to believe he may be a Republican.  He appears to donate to California Democrats so as to be taken care of when the need arrises.

Mr. Magowans payroll philosphy is to break even.  As a fan I like that, don't loose money but spend enough to break even and be competitive.  Clearly, for the past five years the Giants have been quite competitive.  Note, five years equals Barry Bonds, steroid years.  Coincedence? Just think about it.  Last year without Bonds they were not competitive.  In fact the attendance has been so good because of Bonds.   Many people believe the once Bonds leaves the team value will decline.

On the whole, this appears to be a good owner who truly wants to be field a winning product, the people of San Francisco seem to like him and he recieves very little negative press.


San Diego Padres:

This team is owned by John Moores who bought the team in 1995 for $94 million. Moores is described as a prolific philanthropist, devoted family man, and committed volunteer trustee of numerous institutions, including the regents of the University of California, the Scripps Research Institute.  He is a native of Texas and received both a bachelor's and law degree from the University of Houston. He worked as a computer programmer for several companies, including IBM and Shell Oil, while completing his education. In 1980, Mr. Moores founded BMC Software. He wrote software products at BMC that improved mainframe computer operating system performance and built BMC into a significant factor in the software industry. He served as chief executive officer of BMC until 1987 and chairman until 1992.  He also founded the River Blindness Foundation in 1989 to distribute a treatment for that disease in developing countries, principally in sub-Saharan Africa.  In addition to major gifts to the University of California at San Diego, San Diego State University, the University of Houston, the Scripps Research Institute, and The Carter Center, Mr. Moores has made gifts of more than $1 million to St. Vincent de Paul of San Diego; San Diego Zoo; The Children's Clinic of the Californias, Tijuana, Mexico; San Diego Center for Children, San Diego Unified School District; National Multiple Sclerosis Society; and the American Civil Liberties Union, among other organizations. 

He and his wife, Becky, have been married since 1963 and have four children and four grandchildren.

He appears to be primarily a Democrat (has law degree, lawyers are primarily Democrats) and given about $200,000 almost exclusively to Democrats in the last two years.  He also clearly gives huge sums of money to charitable institutions and politicians who then immediately begin assisting him in obtaining a publicly funded stadium.  One political friend magically made $7,500 when she invested in one of Moore's new start up companies.  He is also involved in another company he headed called Peregrine that lost investors a great deal of money and the law suits are flying.  There are about 30 lawsuits pending and Moores stands to lose many millions of dollars.  The lawsuits add up to over $1 billion.  In fact Moores, was named the 18th "most greediest executive" in the September issue of Fortune Magazine for cashing out hundreds of millions in Peregrine stock. Between Oct. 29, 1997 to Feb. 28, 2001, Moores sold 18,815,966 shares for $611.4 million in 100 documented trades, according to SEC filings.  Still, Forbes recently estimated the team's value at $207 million and placed Moores on its list of 400 richest Americans for the first time this year, calculating his net worth at $740 million.

This owner appears to be Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde.  On the one hand he giveth and then he taketh away.  It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit play out and of course, MLB is very worried.


Arizona Diamondbacks:

This owner of the DBacks is Jeff Moorad. He made his money and name as a sports agent and the list of big name clients is quite long.  He is native of Modesto, California, Moorad earned an Associate in Arts degree from Modesto Junior College in 1976, where he served as Student Body President, a degree in Political Science (B.A.) in 1978 from UCLA, then received his law degree from Villanova University School of Law (J.D.) in 1981. Jeff and his wife, Jan, have three sons and now split their time residing both in the Valley of the Sun and Newport Beach, CA.

He took over a tough team with massive debt Moorad was brought in as CEO-elect late last season after Jerry Colangelo sold his controlling share to the current four general partners and stepped down as the team's chairman.  Moorad's participation is part of an overall financial and physical restructuring of the franchise, which is close to $200 million in debt on deferred player contracts, payments on Bank One Ballpark and other loans.  Upon his approval, Moorad will inject about $50 million in capital to the team, which also last year raised $99 million over 10 years by selling 33 minority partnerships.

Baseball is a tough sell in Phoenix and they don't have a natural fan base, but in spite of that they sell well.  The people of Phoenix originally declined to build a stadium for Colangilo and eventually under the cover of darkness, the Phoenix City council pass legislation authorizing as tax to build a stadium.  In 2002 they had 3.2 million, in 2003 they had 2.8 million, 2004 they had 2.5 million and they dropped to 2.0 million last year.  They have over the last three years out drawn the Rockies.

Mr. Moorad is a Republican who has given very small amount to Republicans only.  It will be interesting to see how an agent will control spending and at the same time develop a winning team.  My guess is that we won't see the Diamondbacks winning as much now that they have to control spending with a team salary of about $60 million.  As there attendance numbers decline they will have an even tougher time.  Mr. Moorad seems like a hypermotivated smart owner who will work diligently to produce a good product.  He is probably a net gain for MLB.


Most of the information in this article comes from Forbes magazine and these links below:

http://www.answers.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com
http://www.baseball-reference.com
http://www.newsmeat.com
http://www.commoncause.org
http://www.whitehouseforsale.org
Team Values and Operating Income:  
Per Forbes & Wikipedia
                                                           2005
                                                        operating
Team            Owner         Purchase price  2006 value   Income
Yankees    George Steinbrenner  $10 million   $1 billion ($50)
Red Sox    John Henry          $700 million $617 million ($18.5)
Mets       Fred Wilpon         $391 million $604 million ($16.1)
Dodgers    Frank McCourt       $371 million $482 million  $13.4
Cubs       Tribune Company      $21 million $448 million   $7.9
Nationals  MLB                 $120 million $440 million  $27.9
Cardinals  W. O. DeWitt, Jr.   $150 million $429 million   $7.9
Mariners   Nintendo            $106 million $428 million   $7.3
Phillies   David Montgomery     $30 million $424 million  $14.8
Astros     Drayton McLane, Jr. $103 million $416 million  $30.2
Giants     Peter Magowan       $100 million $410 million  $11.2
Braves     Time Warner         $173 million $405 million  $27.6
Angels     Arturo Moreno       $184 million $368 million  ($2.6)
Orioles    Peter Angelos       $173 million $359 million  $21
Padres     John Moores          $94 million $354 million  $13
Rangers    Thomas O. Hicks     $250 million $353 million  $24.7
Indians    Larry Dolan         $323 million $352 million  $34.6
White Sox  Jerry Reinsdorf      $20 million $315 million  $21.7
Dbacks     Jeff Moorad         $130 million $305 million  $21.8
Rockies    Charlie Monfort      $95 million $298 million  $16.3
Tigers     Mike Illitch         $82 million $292 million   $3.5
Blue Jays  Rogers Comm         $140 million $286 million  $29.7
Reds       Robert Castellini   $270 million $274 million  $17.9
Pirates    Kevin McClatchy      $92 million $250 million  $21.9
Royals     David Glass          $96 million $239 million  $20.8
Brewers    Mark Attanasio      $223 million $235 million  $22.4
Athletics  Lewis Wolff         $180 million $234 million  $16
Marlins    Jeffrey Loria       $158 million $226 million ($11.9)
Twins      Carl Pohlad          $44 million $216 million   $7
Devil Rays Stuart Stenberg     $130 million $209 million  $20.3


Top 100 Paid Players


      Player            Pos  Team      Salary          Worth it?
1. Alex Rodriguez        3B Yankees   $25,680,727       Yes
2. Derek Jeter           SS Yankees   $20,600,000       Yes
3. Jason Giambi          1B Yankees   $20,428,571       No Way
4. Barry Bonds           OF Giants    $20,000,000       Yes
5. Jeff Bagwell          1B Astros    $19,369,019       No Way
6. Mike Mussina           P Yankees   $19,000,000       No
7. Manny Ramirez         OF Red Sox   $18,279,238       Yes
8. Todd Helton           1B Rockies   $16,600,000       No
9. Andy Pettitte          P Astros    $16,428,416       No
10. Magglio Ordonez      OF Tigers    $16,200,000       No Way
11. Randy Johnson         P Yankees   $15,661,427       Yes
12. Chan Ho Park          P Padres    $15,333,679       Nope
13. Pedro Martinez        P Mets      $14,875,000       Maybe
14. Lance Berkman        OF Astros    $14,500,000       No
15. Mike Hampton          P Braves    $14,475,185       Ha Ha
16. Jim Thome            1B White Sox $14,166,667       Maybe
17. Bartolo Colon         P Angels    $14,000,000       No
(tie) Albert Pujols      1B Cardinals $14,000,000       Yes
19. Chipper Jones        3B Braves    $13,666,667       Yes
20. Bobby Abreu          OF Phillies  $13,600,000       Yes
21. Carlos Beltran       OF Mets      $13,571,429       No Way
22. Carlos Delgado       OF Mets      $13,500,000       No
(tie) Vladimir Guerrero  OF Angels    $13,500,000       Yes
(tie) Andruw Jones       OF Braves    $13,500,000       Yes
25. Johnny Damon         OF Yankees   $13,000,000       No
(tie) Hideki Matsui      OF Yankees   $13,000,000       Yes
(tie) Curt Schilling      P Red Sox   $13,000,000       Yes
(tie) Richie Sexson      1B Mariners  $13,000,000       No Way
29. Adrian Beltre        3B Mariners  $12,900,000       Ditto
30. Roy Halladay          P Blue Jays $12,750,000       Yes
31. Ichiro Suzuki        OF Mariners  $12,530,000       Yes
32. Scott Rolen          3B Phillies  $12,456,336       No
33. Paul Konerko         1B White Sox $12,000,000       No
(tie) Jorge Posada        C Yankees   $12,000,000       No
(tie) Javier Vazquez      P White Sox $12,000,000       No
(tie) Kerry Wood          P Cubs      $12,000,000       Nope
37. Jim Edmonds          OF Cardinals $11,979,548       Yes
38. Miguel Tejada        SS Orioles   $11,811,546       Yes
39. Jason Kendall         C A's       $11,571,429       No
40. J.D Drew             OF Dodgers   $11,400,000       No
41. Roy Oswalt            P Astros    $11,000,000       Yes
(tie) Aramis Ramirez     3B Cubs      $11,000,000       No
(tie) John Smoltz        OF Braves    $11,000,000       Yes
(tie) Mike Sweeney       1B Royals    $11,000,000       No
45. Gary Sheffield       OF Yankees   $10,756,171       Maybe
46. Garret Anderson      OF Angels    $10,750,000       No
(tie) Torii Hunter       OF Twins     $10,750,000       Yes
48. Luis Gonzalez        OF Dbacks    $10,673,328       Maybe
49. Ivan Rodriguez        C Tigers    $10,616,410       Yes
50. Tom Glavine           P Mets      $10,500,000       No
(tie) Mariano Rivera      P Yankees   $10,500,000       Yes
(tie) Jason Schmidt       P Giants    $10,500,000       Yes
(tie) Billy Wagner        P Mets      $10,500,000       Yes
54. Jeff Kent            2B Dodgers   $10,453,382       Yes
55. Phil Nevin           1B Rangers   $10,333,347       No Way
56. Shawn Green          OF Dbacks    $10,213,898       Ditto
57. Eric Gagne            P Dodgers   $10,000,000       No way
(tie) Troy Glaus         3B Blue Jays $10,000,000       No
(tie) Edgar Renteria     SS Braves    $10,000,000       No
(tie) Alfonso Soriano IF/OF Nationals $10,000,000       Yes
(tie) Jason Varitek       C Red Sox   $10,000,000       Maybe
62. Eric Milton           P Reds       $9,833,333       No
63. Matt Clement          P Red Sox    $9,825,000       No
64. Pat Burrell          OF Phillies   $9,750,000       No
65. Ben Sheets            P Brewers    $9,625,000       No
66. Eric Chavez          3B A's        $9,500,000       Maybe
(tie) Jose Contreras      P White Sox  $9,500,000       Yes
(tie) Derek Lowe          P Dodgers    $9,500,000       No
69. Derrek Lee           1B Cubs       $9,416,667       Yes
70. Randy Wolf            P Phillies   $9,125,000       No
71. Ken Griffey Jr.      OF Reds       $9,044,182       Yes
72. Freddy Garcia         P White Sox  $9,000,000       Yes
(tie) Ryan Klesko        OF Padres     $9,000,000       No Way
(tie) Javy Lopez          C Orioles    $9,000,000       No
(tie) Mike Lowell        3B Red Sox    $9,000,000       No
(tie) Greg Maddux         P Cubs       $9,000,000       Yes
(tie) Brad Radke          P Twins      $9,000,000       Yes
78. Darin Erstad      1B/OF Angels     $8,750,000       Yes
(tie) Jason Isringhausen  P Cardinals  $8,750,000       No
(tie) Odalis Perez        P Dodgers    $8,750,000       No
(tie) Johan Santana       P Twins      $8,750,000       Yes
82.Rafael Furcal         SS Dodgers    $8,730,196       No
83. Sean Casey           1B Reds       $8,500,000       No Way
(tie) Carlos Lee         OF Brewers    $8,500,000       Maybe
85. Kris Benson           P Orioles    $8,333,333       No
86. Jeff Weaver           P Angels     $8,325,000       No
87. Kaz Matsui           2B Mets       $8,058,333       No Way
88. Edgardo Alfonzo      3B Angels     $8,000,000       No
(tie) Mark Buehrle        P White Sox  $8,000,000       Yes
(tie) Livan Hernandez     P Nationals  $8,000,000       Yes
(tie) Carl Pavano         P Yankees    $8,000,000       No
(tie) Kenny Rogers        P Tigers     $8,000,000       No
(tie) Dmitri Young       1B Tigers     $8,000,000       Yes
94. Barry Zito            P A's        $7,900,000       Yes!
95. Russ Ortiz            P Dbacks     $7,875,000       No way!
96. Kevin Millwood        P Rangers    $7,868,893       Ditto!
97. Geoff Jenkins        OF Brewers    $7,833,333       No
98. Keith Foulke          P Red Sox    $7,750,000       No
(tie) Mark Mulder         P Cardinals  $7,750,000       Yes
100. Brian Giles         OF Padres     $7,666,667       Yes
(tie) Jaret Wright        P Yankees    $7,666,667       No
                Key Dates          
Nov 13: General Managers meeting
Nov 13-21: BBWAA Awards
Dec 4: Winter meetings
Patience Pays Off
By RC

We've talked about the important of patience.  Patience will result in better at bats, more walks and if everyone on the team is seeing 6 pitches per at bat, the opposing pitcher will not last past the fifth inning.  We've decided to look at the numbers and see what is happening.


Below is a chart that details, as of 05-10-06, the hitters who have seen the most pitches this year. You will notice that 36 of these 51 players are in the top 51 in OBP.  31 of these players are in the top 51 in Base on balls.  We are now convinced that the top hitters in the league try to see a minimum of five pitches per AB, with six being ideal.  If a team could consistently achieve this level of patience, they could conceivably see 25 pitches (this pre-supposes that two batters get on base) per inning and get the starter off the mound by the end of the 5th inning.


One of the reasons for the Rockies success this year is that they now have five of the top 51 most patient hitters in the league who are:  Hawpe, Sullivan, Atkins, Holliday and Helton, who is not on the list due to not having enough at bats.  He is though, tied for number nine in walks.  This accounts for five of the six every day players.  Barmes is one of the weak links in this story.  He has 127 AB's and sees less than three pitches per AB and has an OBP of only .252.  This ranks him #93 in the league.   Carroll is the only 2nd basemen with a patient bat.  He has 68 AB's, seen 304 pitches and has an OBP of .432.  He is seeing about 4.5 pitches per AB and has eight walks.  He is almost at the level we would like to see.    Gonzalez and Smith have been less patient and they see only 4 pitches per at bat with OBP that are on average .100 behind Carroll.  If Carroll is playing then six of the eight players on the team are working the counts.  The catchers are terrible hitters and there is not much we can do unless a trade is made.  In fact the catchers on the Tulsa Drillers are equally bad but JD Closser is having a nice season at the Sky Sox and is batting .320 the Rockies should give serious consideration to bringing him up or putting Marrero behind the plate.  Neil Wilson with the "Nuts  is batting .310 but he has a long way to go before he's ready.


The hardest change of all will have to occur at shortstop.  We've said this before, but unless Barmes gets his act together I don't think he will be around after the second half of the season.  We still think that before it is all over Tulowiski will be paying in the "show". 




   Name   # of pitches   OBA & rank      Walks & rank
1 B. Bonds Not ranked    .495, #1         32, #1
1 R. Furcal       613   Not in top 50     20, #13
2 N. Johnson      608    .436, #6         21, #9
3 B. Abreu        606    .449, #4         35, #1
4 D. Dunn         599   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
5 J. Bay          595    .420, #8         29, #5
6 A, Pujols       574    .464, #1         31, #3
7 M. Ensberg      571    .415, #9         23, #8
8 W. Taveras      570   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
9 D. Eckstein     569    .371, #34        13, #43
10 F. Lopez       568    .345, #46        13, #43
11 H. Ramirez     566    .388, #27        14, #39
12 G. Jenkins     561    .345, #46       Not in top 50
13 J. Reyes       560   Not in top 50     14, #39
14 B. Giles       559    .414, #10        25, #6
15 C. Lee         556    .393, #19        20, #13
16 C. Tracy       549   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
17 A. Kearns      547    .391, #21       Not in top 50
18 B. Hawpe       544    .433, #5         18, #17
19 R. Zimmerman   543   Not in top 50     15, #29
20 D. Wright      540    .386, #25        15, #29
21 A. Soriano     534   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
22 L. Gonzales    531    .341, #49        15, #29
23 K. Greene      531   Not in top 50     18, #17
24 J. Lane        524   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
25 O. Hudson      523   Not in top 50     13, #43
26 A. Jones       519    .354, #41        13, #43
27 L. Berkman     512    .396, #16        15, #29
28 M. Cabrera     510    .457, #2        Not in top 50
29 C. Sullivan    510    .361, #37       Not in top 50
30 C. Delgado     508    .396, #16        16, #25
31 G. Atkins      507    .399, #15        16, #25
32 J. Vidro       507    .414, #10        15, #29
33 R. Freel       506    .383, #27        20, #13
34 J. Drew        503    .387, #24        18, #17
35 C. Utley       503    .380, #29       Not in top 50
36 E. Encarnacion 501    .393, #19        15, #29
37 J. Pierre      501   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
38 M. Holliday    500   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
39 P. Wilson      499   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
40 P. Burrell     498    .400, #14        20, #13
41 J. Rollins     496   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
42 J. Hardy       495   Not in top 50    Not in top 50
43 M. Giles       494   Not in top 50    17, #21
44 P. Fielder     490    .394, #18       Not in top 50
45 R. Weeks       488    .362, #37       Not in top 50
46 R. Winn        487    .346, #44       Not in top 50
47 O. Vizquel     486    .422, #7         17, #21  
48 J. Edmonds     485   Not in top 50     15, #29
49 J. Wilson      481    .366, #35       Not in top 50
50 R. Howard      481    .366, #35       Not in top 50

*****Helton has an on base average of .467 but does not meet the 3.1 AB’s per game requirement to appear on the list, he also has 21 walks, which ties  him for ninth in the league.*****
The Scott Boras Conundrum
By RC

Now that Matt Holliday has signed with Scott Boras, we can expect to lose Matt Holliday.   Mr. Holliday is now a Rockies short timer as there is no way that the Rockies will be able to sign him in two years when he becomes eligible for free agency.  We don't know much about Mr. Boras other than he appears to cause MLB and its many owners a lot of headaches.

Wikapedia reports that Mr. Boras is a former 2nd baseman & center fielder who played in the Cubs and Cardinal organizations. After four years in the minor leagues, during which he never made it above Class AA, he retired due to three knee surgeries.  He is extraordinarily well educated as the Cubs paid for him to attend law school. He also holds a PHD in industrial pharmacology, and during his law career, he specialized in medical litigation.  He is married, 54 years old and has three children.  He is also a Democrat who seems to take a nominal interest in Politics, as his only political contribution was $2,000 in 2004 to John Kerry.

Boras started his career as an agent by representing his former minor league teammates who were entering the Majors.  Boras's first multimillion-dollar contract, a five-year, $7.5 million deal with the Blue Jays, was for his former teammate Bill Caudill. Today, Boras runs the Scott Boras Corporation, where he employs former major leaguers as scouts in Asia & Latin American. He has continued to negotiate deals for many of Major League Baseball's high-profile players in recent years, including Barry Bonds, Bernie Williams, and Alex Rodriguez to name a few.


His trouble making began when he started the escalation of signing bonuses by rookies.  It all started in 1983 when he had Tim Belcher hold out for a $150,000 bonus in lieu of the Twins offer of $100,000.  Today signing bonus's are routinely in the millions.


J. D. Drew is another of Boras's famous clients whose original team could not sign him. Boras's demanded an $11 million contract from the Phillies; the Phillies' offer was $3 million. Drew ended up having to hold out, playing the rest of the season in the independent Northern League. Drew re-entered the draft the following season and signed with the Cardinals for $8 million.  This holding out for less money the following year is a trend for many Boras' clients.


He has an amazing talent for securing contracts for his clients that appear to be far in excess of market value.  Small market teams generally don't draft Boras clients and many teams will not draft Boras clients because they don't want to deal with him.  Rick Ankiel is a good example of a player who should have been a high draft pick but ended up going as the 72nd choice of the St. Louis Cardinals.


Mr. Boras has roughly 60 baseball clients, which is a huge number and a large percentage of the league.   In the 2004 season he had 65 clients who earned $230 million in pay.  This makes Mr. Boras one of the most powerful men in baseball.  He makes 5% on these contracts so in 2004 his company made $11.5 million dollars and he has to pay about 60 employees.  Over the years he has negotiated over $2 billion worth of contracts. He has other branches of his corporation dedicated to personal finance, marketing, sports psychology and nutrition and fitness.


The truth is, a team will rarely get the value the pay out of a Boras player, but for some reason many will pay what Boras wants anyway.  This just proves our theory that owners are their own worst enemy.  Two cases in point,  Carlos Beltran is a excellent example of a poor decision by the Mets of a Boras player.  Beltran hit 38 homers in 2005 and 104 RBI with a BA of about .268.  Beltran had no track record of sustaining this kind of excellence.  In spite of no statistical history, the Mets signed him for a huge contract.  What did they get in return?  They got 16 homers, 78 RBI and a .266 BA.  He was a waste of money last year.  He's off to a very start this year, 14 homers, 38 RBI and he is batting .277.   Boras is also the agent who persuaded Texas to pay Chan Ho Park $65 million over five years. Park is 14-18 in three seasons.  We note that Mr. Hicks who is the owner of the Rangers and the Mets are famous for wasting money.


Mr. Boras makes things very difficult for teams, e.g. the Angels had a pitcher named Jeff Weaver who had a life time record of 78-87 and an era of 4.44 and Boras asked for  $10 million per season. He will even go to lengths in which he puts together a power point presentation and attempts to convince Brian Cashman of the Yankees that Kevin Millwood is better that Sandy Koufax.

Boras does two things exceptionally well. First, he knows the numbers, and where his clients fit in the marketplace. In fact, Boras appears to be something of a maniac for information. His pager receives performance updates on his clients every thirty minutes, and summaries on his desk await his arrival each morning. The fancy notebooks he compiles for teams interested in his clients are apparently ignored by them.  He has a staff of ex-major leaguers who are all over the world scouting potential players/clients.   After the games, a report with statistics and comments about what each of Boras' clients did is left on his desk. Most mornings, Boras already knows the information because he receives pager updates every 30 minutes with information like: Rodriguez 2-3, 1 RBI.

He is much mocked and we found three fun websites that do an excellent job.  What makes these stories funny is that they seemingly could be true.  One sited posted an article claiming that Scott Boras had turned down $35,000,000,000 to save a child from drowning. Another website ran another satirical piece.   "Player agent Scott Boras managed to get $7 million for an old toaster he sold on eBay last week. The 20-year old, top-loading toaster was listed with an opening price of $5, but ended up going for more than a million times that due to furious bidding throughout its 10-day list period.  "I have to admit, when the auction ended I kind of felt that I may have overpaid a little bit,  said Claire Mathis, a housewife from Sarasota, Florida who placed the winning bid. "But I'm sure this toaster will be a good fit in my kitchen.   Another spoof site talks about how Mr. Boras is looking at screwing over the Diamondbacks who drafted Stephen Drew.

The Brushback

The Sports Pickle

The Sports Goons

Baseball American confirms that Boras is advising (players can't sign with agents until after they sign their first contract so agents become advisors) eight prospects for the 2006 draft who are all college players. They are: Missouri righthander Max Scherzer (No. 3 BA rank), Southern California righty Ian Kennedy (No. 5), Florida first baseman Matt LaPorta (No. 7), Arizona shortstop Jason Donald (No. 17), Arizona State outfielder Colin Curtis (No. 19), Cal Poly righty Gary Daley (No. 24), Tulane first baseman Mark Hamilton (No. 33) and Mississippi third baseman Chris Coghlan (No. 38).   It will be interesting to see how these players fare in the draft as last years Boras draft picks fared only moderately well.  On the flip side Baseball America recently listed the top 10 holdouts for drafted players that eventually ended up signing, and it's not surprising that five of the players were advised by Boras.

A great example of a Scott Boras debacle is what happened to Luke Hochevar in last years draft.  He was a sure fire candidate to go number one.  Because of Boras he fell to number 40 and ultimately he will be back in the 2006 draft.  He wasted a year of his life and made no money thanks to Mr. Boras.

Here were was his 2005 stable of players:  Luke Hochevar should have been the first pitcher taken and was taken #40.  Mike Pelfrey should have been the second pitcher taken and went #9 overall.  Mark McCormick was to have been a first rounder who went #43.  Craig Hansen was a top ten pick who went #26.  Taylor Teagau was a late first rounder who went #99,  Taylor Greene was a first rounder who went #30, Jason Neighborgall was a first rounder who went #81, Mark Pawelek was picked #20 which was about right where he belonged.  We think it is clear that when a future draft picks signs with Boras they will immediately drop in the draft and many will not get signed.

Mr. Boras is more than an agent. When a player becomes a Boras man he becomes a total Boras man, 24/7. High beam.come gives the following information regarding the Boras corporation:

"The superagent has developed a branch of his corporation that is dedicated to his clients' year-round strength and conditioning.   Mr. Boras has started a small company to assess, monitor and even supplement his clients' in-season conditioning.  He believes that nobody knows a player better than his agent.  He wants his players to be involved in a year round training program.  He has plans to build a client-exclusive training facility that will house a locker room, lounge and all the state-of-the-art equipment they need. No, it isn't cheap. By the time the facility is completed, Boras estimates the investment in this branch of his corporation will be more than $3 million."

In the meantime, he has set up a training base at Soka University of America, a tiny school near his main offices in Orange County, Calif. At Soka, Odgers and his small staff assess players' conditioning, put together and distribute training programs and either supervise workouts or, for out-of-towners, monitor workouts closely. Though most of Boras' 65 big-league clients, such as Rodriguez, Jason Varitek and Johnny Damon, rarely if ever step foot into Soka, they still are under the watchful eyes of Boras Sports Training. "Their programs have been reviewed, and we know what they're doing," Boras says.

A few closing comments.  Boras clients generally end up at the wealthy teams and the Rockies aren't a wealthy team.  Boras will definitely over state a players value and ultimately some nit-wit owner will pay the freight.  We predict that Boras will ultimately demand at least $12 million per year for 10 years for Holliday and the Rockies won't pay that and probably should not.  Boras probably does a good job for his established clients and gets them far more than they are worth.  On the flip side he does a very bad job for the undrafted clients who end up dropping in the draft and many times not even getting signed and re-entering the draft the following season for less money.  We will follow up after the draft to see how his clients do in the draft.
                Key Dates                     
Jan 5-15, 2007: Salary arbitration filing
Feb 1-21, 2007: Salary arbitration hearings
Feb 15, 2007: Pitchers and catchers report
The Boras Stable

Last week we filed a story about Scott Boras (see above).  In that piece we had a paragraph that detailed nine players who were allowing Mr. Boras to serve as their "Advisor".  The following table details were the Boras players ended up.  As you can see it isn't good.  Luke Hochevar does not really count since he is a re-entry player who allowed himself to get screwed up last year.  There is only one player who went about where he was ranked and that is Chris Coghlan.    Matt LaPorta’s slide is interesting.  He had a poor college season this year and struggled with injuries.  He has so much potential (catcher) that many teams would still have taken him.  I think the Boras factor caused him to really slide in the draft.  Who wants to fight with Boras on a player who would be a bit of gamble in the earlier rounds.  We will follow these players signing bonuses to see how they fare. 


Player   pre-draft            Place chosen
            rank             in 2006 draft
--------------------------------------------
Luke Hockevar Re-entry        #1 - KC   
Max Scherzer    #3           #11 - Arizona
Ian Kennedy     #5           #21 - Yankees
Matt LaPorta    #7          #433 - Boston
Jason Donald   #17           #97 - Phillies
Colin Curtis   #19          #134 - Yankees
Gary Daley     #24          #106 - Cardinals
Mark Hamilton  #33           #76 - Cardinals
Chris Coghlan  #38           #36 - Marlins


7/4/06.. BA
When Hochevar went No. 1 overall in the June draft to the Royals, the assumption was that the parameters of a deal were already in place. After the saga of last Labor Day weekendHochevar switched agents and accepted a $2.98 million bonus from the Dodgers (who had made him a supplemental first-round pick), then returned to Boras and reneged on the agreement, accusing the team of trying to coerce him into signing a bad dealit figured that he couldn’t afford to hold out for another year. And at the same time, Kansas City would look more foolish than usual if it couldn't sign the top pick.

But a month later, 24 of the 30 first-rounders have signed and that group doesn't include Hochevar. The Kansas City Star reported this morning that the Royals' initial offer was in excess of $4 million, and that the team planned to raise that in the near future.

There are a number of reasons the negotiations could be lagging. There was some thought Kansas City might play hardball with Hochevar because he had less leverage than previous No. 1 overall choices, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Major League Baseball likes the bigger draft deals to be consummated later in the summer so they don't affect other negotiations, but the only other player in the first 10 picks who hasn't come to terms is Andrew Miller (No. 6, Tigers), who will command a megacontract anyway. It's also possible that Boras could be waiting to see what Miller signs for in hopes of getting Hochevar more money. Boras' clients often sign later than most other draft picks.

Hochevar's situation led to one of the funnier newspaper corrections I've ever seen posted. In a story the day after the draft, the Los Angeles Times quoted Hochevar: "Scott had a plan in this, and his master plan definitely worked. It was tough through ityou go through it and you fight itbut when it all comes down to it, Scott has a plan for you, and he definitely worked a miracle in my case."

The Times subsequently reported that they had misquoted Hochevar, who had referred to God and not his agent.

Hochevar deserves credit for overcoming a long layoff to show the stuff worthy of going No. 1 in the draft. Pitching in the independent American Association, he looked like he did early in his junior season at Tennessee. But his rhetoric is ridiculous.

First, I doubt seriously that God cares much about whether he signed for $2.98 million with the Dodgers or $4 million or more with the Royals. And second, Hochevar needs to stop acting like Los Angeles mistreated him.

"I learned a great deal of lessons (from my negotiations)," Hochevar said after the Royals took him. "I learned what people I can trust, (one of) which is Scott Boras. In the negotiations with the Dodgers, the scouting director (Logan White) felt I was not worthy to be paid with the top pitchers in the draft."

For the record, the $2.98 million bonus would have been the fifth-highest in the 2005 draft. The only pitcher who received a higher bonus was the Mets' Mike Pelfrey ($3.55 million, as part of a $5.25 million major league contract). The Red Sox' Craig Hansen got a $4 million dollar big league deal with a $1.3 million bonus.
Sensitivity Training
by RC

Ozzie Guillen recently went off and called Chicago writer, Jay Mariotti a "fag".  I don't know if Mr. Mariotti is a homosexual or not nor will I speak to the morality of this verbal jab.  I will confess that I have seen him on ESPN and could do without him.

As punishment for his crime, MLB will make Mr. Guillen attend "Sensitivity Training".  I can assure you that this is the worst kind of punishment he could have ever received.  It would have been better for him to have been banned for 15 games & fined $500,000 than to have to attend "sensitivity training".

I would though like to discuss the nit wittery of making him attend "sensitivity training".  There are number of different kinds of sensitivity training programs but they all follow the same blue print.  The victim group involved gets the opportunity to berate the verbal flame thrower, and tell them how rotten they are.  The following websites describe what goes on in many sensitivity training programs.    These training classes are nothing more than simple communist reprogramming camps.

This one of many websites and if your curious go visit many of them.  You have never read so much psychobabble in your life.  Here is another similar article with a similar explanation of a sensitivity training course.

In most cases 'facilitators' will lead a small-group encounter session.  The session will be lead by a member of the victim group in question.  Their goal is to apprise the attendees of their insensitivity to the plight of this disadvantaged group and then they examine their attitudes and behavior towards homosexuals and any other "victim group" and then change them if warranted.

       It is not uncommon for a facilitator to begin a session by informing the attendees that, "All of you are racists!"  The astounded attendees will be draped in a silence and finally someone will ask why.  The facilitator will state, "Because you are straight!"   If anyone should disagree they will be told that they are being disruptive.
      
          Welcome to the world of behavior modification via a technique that has been perfected over the past 30 years - "Sensitivity Training."  It is a technique developed steadily over the past fifty years that has proven successful in changing a person's world view, that is, his or her values, fundamental beliefs, and even religious convictions.  And, the attendee better be ready to play along or else his life will be made miserable.

       Sensitivity training has been successfully employed by behavioral scientists in the service of the Federal Government over the past thirty years to implement radical curriculum changes in K-12 education via influencing public school teachers, administrators, and school boards.  The current fad of outcome based education in our public schools has resulted from the implementation of the relativism of "values clarification" via methods developed by these behavioral scientists.  Our universities train and certify public school teachers in the methods of teaching this 'dumbed down' curriculum.

       In addition, sensitivity training has been used for years in America's business community to implement Equal Opportunity goals and guidelines (read quotas) generated by Federal Government overseers.   These small group encounter methods have been used to influence masses of people through coordinated media techniques of thought control through polls, focus groups, and other propaganda mechanisms.  Now, these techniques are being used nationwide to force people to accept the radical notion that homosexuals are absolutely no different than straights and further that all people should accept all aspects of the homosexual agenda or any other victim group agenda without question.   On a larger scale, they are being used on the American public to accept, encourage, and support such a notion.  Again, we must all be made to believe that heterosexuals and homosexuals are all exactly the same.

     People who have strong enough belief systems that enable them to challenge, refute, and oppose this change are coerced by small-group encounter techniques to conform to the 'majority' view as determined and sown by a facilitator and supported by the core group of 'believers' plus the newly recruited sheep who join the majority group for fear of confrontation.   If the challenger does not conform to the group pressure to adopt the consensus view, he is further isolated from the group and/or discarded.  He is never allowed to participate fully in the process thereafter.  Mr. Guillen will have to nod his head up and down in this training group or he will be in big trouble.

In many classes a controlled stress situation is created by a group leader ('facilitator') with the ostensible goal of achieving a consensus or agreement which has, in reality, been predetermined.  By using peer pressure in gradually increasing increments, up to and including yelling at, cursing at, and isolating the holdouts, weaker individuals are intimidated into caving in.  They emerge, facilitators hope, with a new value structure in place, and the goal is achieved. 

Make no mistake about it, Mr. Guillen is getting ready to meet true cultural Marxist social engineers.   The 1984 thought police are a reality.  In this day and age of political correctness and hyper cultural sensitivity, every word that comes out of a persons mouth has to be carefully measured or else.  We wish Mr. Guillen that best of luck in his upcoming sensitivity training class and we suspect that baseball will finally lose its most colorful personality.    We suspect that he will finally be "scared straight".
The Perfect Length
By RC

Make the base path 91' and how many more ground outs would there be in a game or make the base path 89' and how many base hits would we see.  Who ever settled on 90' should be labeled a genius because he clearly established the most perfect rule in all of sports.

We can't tell why they settled on 90' but it was a process that occurred over the course of about 50 years.  Obviously, baseball comes from an English game called cricket and in that game there are the equivalent of two posts that are 22 yards apart and from this distance begins the evolution.

During the early 1800's there were roughly four different but similar games and sets of rules that were vying for attention.  In Canada they played a game with five bases that were 63' apart.    This game quickly went the way of the dodo bird.    There was a game called the Massachusetts game which is similar to today's game and in this game they played on a rectangular field with bases that were 45' apart and 60' apart.  In some cases bases had the name of "bounders  which is why we have out of bounds or boundaries.  We aren't going to spend any time discussing the distance from the pitchers mound to the home plate but the distance has quite a history as well as it went from distances of 25' to 30' to 45' to 50' to 55' and ultimately to 60'6".

Another game of baseball was known as the New York game and in this game they played on 60' base paths that eventually became 72' apart.  In 1845 the real and virtually final change occurs and was instituted by Alexander Cartwright who founded and invented the Knickerbocker Baseball Club rules and in this game he wanted a diagonal infield with 2nd base being 42 paces away from the home Plate and third base being 42 paces away from first base and this amounts to 126' from home to 2nd base and the base paths were 89.1'.  Eventually based on the size of the bases the distance became 90'.  In 1857 a professional league settled on 90' as the distance and it has never changed since. 

The size of the strike zone changes, the size of the outfield changes, the height of the pitchers mound changes and even the size of the players change.  Their speed changes, the pitchers change but a few things don't change, nine innings, three strikes, three outs, four balls and 90' which is the oldest and longest standing rule of them all.  Rarely do we find perfection in life and we think 90' is perfect.
Head Bum's 2007 HoF Ballot

The 2007 ballot features 32 candidates, with 15 returnees and 17 newcomers. (Years on ballot)

  Harold Baines (1)                  Albert Belle (2)
  Dante Bichette (1)                 Bert Blyleven (10)
  Bobby Bonilla (1)                  Scott Brosius (1)
  Jay Buhner (1)                     Ken Caminiti (1)
  Jose Canseco (1)                   Dave Concepcion (14)
  Eric Davis (1)                     Andre Dawson (6)
  Tony Fernandez (1)                 Steve Garvey (15)
  Rich Gossage (8)                   Tony Gwynn (1)
  Orel Hershiser (2)                 Tommy John (13)
  Wally Joyner (1)                   Don Mattingly (7)
  Mark McGwire (1)                   Jack Morris (8)
  Dale Murphy (9)                    Paul O'Neill (1)
  Dave Parker (11)                   Jim Rice (13)
  Cal Ripken (1)                     Bret Saberhagen (1)
  Lee Smith (5)                      Alan Trammell (6)
  Devon White (1)                    Bobby Witt (1)

A Head Bum's Vote:

1) Cal Ripkin

Reasons why:
Holds the ML career record for consecutive games played (2,632 total; 2,216 at shortstop)… With career totals of 3,184 hits and 431 home runs, is one of eight players in ML history to amass at least 3,000 hits and 400 home runs… Two-time AL MVP (1983, 1991); Won 1983 and 1991 ML Player of the Year Awards… Named to 19 consecutive All-Star teams (1983-2001), twice winning the AS MVP Award (1991, 2001)… Won the 1982 AL Rookie of the Year Award; Won eight Silver Slugger Awards (1983-86, ’89, ’91, ’93-94).

Was considered one of the first 'big' shortstops. Consecutive game streak is enough on its own to warrant induction.

2) Tony Gwynn

Reasons why:
Eight-time National League batting champion, matching Honus Wagner for the most in NL history; Fifteen All-Star selections; Seven-time Silver Slugger Award winner…Five-time Gold Glove Award winner; Ranked among Top 10 in NL batting average during every season in which he had enough at-bats, ranking outside the top 5 only twice…Never hit lower than .309 in a full season…Five seasons with 200+ hits; Hit .371 (13-35) in 9 World Series games over 2 appearances (1984 and 1998).

Was considered the best hitter in the game during a large portion of his career. Finished with 3141 hits.


3) Rich Gossage

Reasons why:
Named to nine All-Star teams (1975-'78, '80-'82, '84-'85); Three World Series (1978, '81, '84) and owns 2.63 ERA and two saves in 13 2/3 in those WS. 310 saves.

The most intimidating reliever during the '70s. One of the best relievers in MLB for over a ten year period.


4) Andre Dawson

Reasons why:
Named NL Rookie of the Year by the BBWAA and The Sporting News in 1977; Won the NL MVP Award in 1987; Won eight Gold Glove awards (1980-85, '87-'88); Eight All-Star teams (1981-83, '87-'91). 438 homers.

Was considered one of the games best rightfielders for over ten years.


5) Dave Concepcion

Reasons why:
Played in five NL Championship Series (1970, '72, '75, '76, '79) and batted .351 in 37 at-bats... Played in four World Series (1970, '72, '75, '76) and batted .266 with 12 RBI and three triples in 64 at-bats... Member of two WS championship teams, 1975-'76.
Was credited with inventing the bounce throw from short to first on Astro turf. A valuable member of the Big Red Machine. One of the games best short stops for at least tens years.


6) Dale Murphy

Reasons why:
Won back-to-back NL MVP awards in 1982-83; Seven All-Star teams (1980, '82-'87); Shares ML record for most seasons leading the league in games played by an outfielder (6). 398 homers.

Was considered one of the best center fielders in the game for over a ten year period.


7) Dante Bichette

Reasons why:
I would give him one vote for one year just because of his contribution to the first years of the Colorado Rockies franchise.


8) Blank
9) Blank
10) Blank

--------
*Mark McGwire
I would vote Big Mac in but not on my first ballot. 583 homers.

*Bret Saberhagen
I would also vote Sabs in but not on my first ballot. 2 Cy Young awards.
10/15/06
Team Salaries
By RC

  TEAM         SALARY           Per win & WINS      PLACE          
---------------------------------------------------------------
Yankees     $194,663,079      $2,006,836   97   1ST - playoffs
Red Sox     $120,099,824      $1,396,510   86   3rd place
Angels      $103,472,000      $1,162,607   89   2nd place
White Sox   $102,750,667      $1,141,674   90   3rd place
Mets        $101,084,963      $1,042,113   97   1st - Playoffs
Dodgers     $ 98,447,187      $1,118,718   88   2nd - playoffs
Cubs        $ 94,424,499      $1,430,674   66   5th place
Astros      $ 92,551,503      $1,128,677   82   2nd place
Braves      $ 90,156,876      $1,141,226   79   3rd place
Giants      $ 90,056,419      $1,184,953   76   3rd place
Cardinals   $ 88,891,371      $1,070,980   83   1st - playoffs
Phillies    $ 88,273,333      $1,038,519   85   2nd place
Mariners    $ 87,959,833      $1,127,690   78   4th place
Tigers      $ 82,612,866      $  869,609   95   2nd - playoffs
Orioles     $ 72,585,582      $1,036,937   70   4th place
Blue Jays   $ 71,915,000      $  826,609   87   2nd place
Padres      $ 69,896,141      $  794,274   88   1st - playoffs
Rangers     $ 68,228,662      $  852,858   80   3rd place
Twins       $ 63,396,006      $  660,375   96   1st - playoffs
Nationals   $ 63,143,000      $  889,338   71   5th place
Athletics   $ 62,243,079      $  669,280   95   1st - playoffs
Reds        $ 60,909,519      $  761,369   80   3rd place
Dbacks      $ 59,684,226      $  785,319   76   4th Place
Brewers     $ 57,568,333      $  767,578   75   4th Place
Indians     $ 56,031,500      $  718,352   78   4th Place
Royals      $ 47,294,000      $  762,806   62   5th Place
Pirates     $ 46,717,750      $  697,280   67   5th Place
Rockies     $ 41,233,000      $  542,539   76   5th Place
Devil Rays  $ 35,417,967      $  580,622   61   5th Place
Marlins     $ 14,998,500      $  192,288   78   4th place


Our first comment is that the ownership will dictate whether a team wins or loses.  After that the quality of the GM becomes essential, as the GM will dictate the quality of the players that a team has and how much they pay for that set of players. Lastly, a team should have a good Manager.

We always throw the Yankees out of our study as they don't follow any serious business plan and they have no money boundaries.  They also seem to prove the point that limitless spending will at the very least land a team in the playoffs.

Some easy to see facts.  The bottom nine spending teams all spent $60,000,000 or less and placed 3rd or lower and in fact 8 of the nine teams were 4th or 5th place.   The Marlins GM and Field Manager should be given huge raises as they managed to win 78 games with a team salary of only $15 million. In spite of this Loria still fired Joe Girardi.  This goes to show that Owners dictate whether a team will win or not.  Loria almost had a good team in spite of himself.  Last year if a team spent in the bottom half of spending they had no chance of producing a winning record.  This year if a team spent in the bottom 1/3 they had no chance.  In fact, the '03 Marlins are the only National League team with a payroll in baseball's bottom third to make it into the playoffs in the past nine years. That's one out of 36. Those Marlins also are the only team in the past nine years to win the World Series with a payroll that wasn't in the top half.

We may be seeing a new trend as three division winners and one wild card had the 10th, 12th, 14th and 17th lowest team salaries with the Athletics now being in the ALCS.  This is a testimony to very good GM's and Field Managers.   The Athletics were awesome this year and spent only $670,000 for each of their 95 wins.  The Twins, Padres and the Tigers were almost as good as well.

We have written that the Orioles Owner is a loser and this year proved the point once again.  They spent $1,036,937 per win and had only 70 wins.  This guy will never win ever.   The next team that did ever more poorly was the Mariners and I would fire that GM and Manager immediately.  The Mariners are an oddity in the ML as a Japanese company corporately owns them and this hands off approach probably makes building a winning team difficult.  The Mariners spent a staggering $1,127,690 per win and ended up with only 78 wins.  That’s pathetic and it is the 2nd worst result in the league.  Next is the Red Sox who spent almost $1,400,000 per win. They were competitive and had 86 wins so it isn't terrible.  The worst team is the Cubs who spent $1,430,000 per win and managed only 66 wins and last place.  The GM and Manager should be fired and Dusty Baker has already reported that he won't be back.

We predicted that the Red Sox, Angels and White Sox would make the playoffs in 2006 which, of course, didn't happen. Though they are a disappointment, they are not a total loss as they were competitive teams who made their expenditures worthwhile.  We suspect that all three teams will continue to spend at their current rate and be competitive on a year in and year out basis.

The Mets and Cardinals spent a lot per win but they made the playoffs and both are now in the NLCS.  We can't argue with their success or the money they spent.  On the flip side the Cardinals have the 11th lowest team salary and they still managed to the win the division and make is to the NLCS.

On the whole it was a nice season in that so many low salary teams had success. For sure the AL is going to put a low salary team in the World Series and if the Cardinals make it, then no high salary team will be in the World Series.

The only thing we can tell from the spending this year is that if your team is in the bottom 1/3 in spending you have no chance of producing a winning record.  Last year, the halfway point was the demarcation line for success.  We hope this trend continues and the low spending teams continue to have some success.  Obviously, parity in baseball was present this year and it may continue to be as more "Moneyball" GM's come to find themselves running teams.

-----
Now, a discussion of the Rockies.  The Rockies performed well in the table above in terms of cost per win. And if you take away Helton's salary, then the Rockies have a team salary of only $24,000,000 which would make that cost/win figure look even better, however, this kind of spending is a recipe of consistent losing.  Granted, they are building a very good stable of players but at some time they will have to dip into the free agent pool if they want to win and they will also have to start signing some young stars to long term contracts.  None of this is happening.  Next, Helton's salary is an albatross, which further prevents the Rockies from spending money as they have so much tied up with one player.  People have a tendency to want to blame Dan O'Dowd but I think the Rockies problem is an ownership that does not want to spend any money on a winner.  Our hope is that this team can improve to 85 wins next year but a lot of that hinges on having a brilliant pitching staff and I for one don't think they can be so lucky again next year.  The hitting must improve and quite frankly I don't see the Rockies doing anything significant in the off-season.  They are basically relying on the young players to improve and they hope to find added strength in the minor league system.
Highlights of new CBA
Revenue sharing

  Under the new deal, larger-revenue clubs will continue to transfer $326 million in local revenue to smaller revenue-generating franchises. Net transfer amounts will continue to grow with revenue and changes in disparity.
  Tax rates will be reduced to 31 percent for all clubs.
  Smaller-revenue clubs must continue to invest revenue income to improve the team's on-field performance. 
Competitive balance tax
  Levels remain unchanged from the prior contract: 22.5 percent the first time a club exceeds the threshold, 30 percent the second time and 40 percent the third time. Clubs that paid at a 40 percent rate in 2006 will enter new contract at same rate.
  Thresholds reset to $148 million in 2007, $155 million in 2008, $162 million in 2009, $170 million in 2010 and $178 million in 2011.

First-Year Player and Rule 5 Drafts
  Clubs that can't sign their first- or second-round picks will be slotted in for a compensatory pick at the same slot in the following year's draft. Clubs that can't sign a third-round pick will receive a sandwich pick between the third and fourth rounds at the following year's draft.
  Clubs have an Aug. 15 deadline to sign all draft selections except college seniors.
  Minor League players can now be protected from the Rule 5 Draft for an extra year, to four or five years.

Free agency
  Dec. 7, Dec. 19, Jan. 8 and May 1 deadlines are eliminated.
  Date to tender contracts moved to Dec. 12 from Dec. 20.

Free agent compensation
  Type C free agent classification is eliminated.
  Teams that lose a Type B free agent will now earn a sandwich pick instead of taking selection from club that signed player.
  The pool of Type A players shrinks from top 30 percent of each position to top 20 percent, while the Type B player pool will be reduced from the top 31-50 percent of players to 21-40 percent.

Drug policy
  Drug-testing rules will stay unchanged.
  Both sides agreed to further discuss HGH testing in the future.
Minimum salary
  Major League minimum salary will increase to $380,000 in 2007, $390,000 in 2008, $400,000 in 2009 and to a cost-of-living increase in 2011.
  Minor League minimum salary will increse to $60,000 in 2007, $62,500 in 2008 and $65,000 in 2009.

Other highlights
  Players traded in the middle of a multi-year contract no longer have the right to demand a trade. Players who currently hold that right from the last CBA are grandfathered in and can still demand a trade.
  Salary arbitration offer deadline moves to Dec. 1, while the acceptance deadline moves to Dec. 7.
  All-Star Game winner continues to have home-field advantage in World Series.
  There will be no contraction during the term of the agreement
  The Commissioner's discretionary fund will remain at $10 million a year.
  As in the old contract, clubs cannot borrow to pay existing debt but must raise revenue or reduce expenses to pay existing non-player-related debt. 

Source: MLB.com
2007
American League Gold Glove winners
                          Times
Pos.   Name        Team    won
-------------------------------
1B Mark Teixeira  Rangers    2
2B M Grudzielanek Royals     1
3B Eric Chavez    A's        6
SS Derek Jeter    Yankees    3
OF Torii Hunter   Twins      6
OF Ichiro Suzuki  Mariners   6
OF Vernon Wells   Blue Jays  3
C Ivan Rodriguez  Tigers    12
P Kenny Rogers    Tigers     5
2007
National League Gold Glove winners
                          Times
Pos.   Name        Team    won
-------------------------------
1B A Pujols    Cards        1
2B O Hudson    DBacks       2 
3B S Rolen     Cards        7
SS O Vizquel   Giants      11
OF C Beltran   Mets         1
OF M Cameron   Padres       3
OF A Jones     Braves       9
C  B Ausmus    Astros       3
P  G Maddux    Dodgers     16
Free Agent Tracker