Youth Baseball Parks Blog

Tuffy R sent me this link, as the Brazilian curling team calls out the Americans:

“We knew they were out there playing,” Patzke said, “but we didn’t really have them on our radar until they made the challenge.”

The best-of-five match against the United States team, beginning Friday in Bismarck, N.D., will be Brazil’s international curling debut, an appearance about as unlikely as that of the Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

“When I mention it to friends and family, the first question they ask is, ‘Are you going to Brazil?’ ” said Todd Birr, the skip, or captain, of the United States team. “No, we’re going to Bismarck. But it should be fun.”

The World Curling Federation allots two berths in the 12-team world championship to countries from the Americas, and in the 50 years of the event the lone representatives have been the United States and Canada. Only two other countries in the Americas belong to the federation: Brazil, which joined in 1998, and the United States Virgin Islands.

Canada can’t be bumped as host nation and world champs, so the Brazilians get a chance to knock off the US. It looks like you can follow the event here. Does anyone know if there will be live television coverage?

Source:Challenge from Brazil

Razzball looks at the effect a high volume of pitches has on success the next season.

Source:Pitch Volume

The Yankees reach a contract agreement with Brian Bruney. He’s the last of the outstanding contracts, and New York won’t need to deal with the arbitrator this season.

Source:Yankees Settle

There’s some confusion on the Varitek deadline. Is it Eastern or Pacific time?

Update: Or maye there’s no deadline at all.

Source:Coast to Coast

Jason Varitek blinks, returning to the Red Sox for $5 million dollars:

Varitek, who turns 37 on April 11, will earn $5 million in 2009, according to baseball sources, with the club holding a $5 million option for 2010. If the Red Sox do not pick up that option, Varitek has the choice of remaining with the club on a $3 million deal. In ‘10, he can earn another $2 million in incentives based on playing time, beginning at 80 games started.

The incentives apply to the player option only and come increments of $400,000 payable to Varitek for reaching plateaus at 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 games started in 2010.

I actually think the Red Sox would have been better off letting Jason go and hoping they get a draft choice out of a team that was willing to sign him. I guess $5 million was better than nothing for Varitek, and this will make his Boston fans happy.

Source:Varitek Agrees

Baseball Time in Arlington comments on Joaquin Benoit’s surgery:

Benoit, coincidentally, is set to earn a base salary of $3.5 million in 2009. Toss in Frank Catalanotto’s seemingly immovable $4 million salary (coupled with a $2 million buyout for 2010), and that’s suddenly more than 10 percent of the projected 2009 payroll sunk into either damaged or superfluous goods.

With the injury to Hurley, I’m betting Texas is being pushed more toward signing Ben Sheets.

Source:Off the Cuff

Lyflines examines the idea that Jason Varitek improves the Boston pitching staff.

Source:Improving Pitching?

New York Baseball Hack Dan Graziano offers his take on A-Rod:

A-Rod is actually an interesting guy to talk to about baseball. He loves the game and works so hard at it that he has a great deal to offer in terms of analysis — of his own game and other people’s. I have had many one-on-one conversations with him about baseball, and they’re almost always educational. We’ve discussed technical aspects of playing third base and of basestealing. We’ve talked about the perception of him as a poor “clutch” player, what he thinks of that and how he copes with it. When you ask him a good question about the game, he can help educate you about the game. The hardest part is finding him. Or getting him to take those stupid headphones off and talk to you.

Are we really surprised to hear, from Torre, that A-Rod “needs people to make a fuss over him?” This couldn’t be more obvious to anybody who watches the guy. Every movement is measured, every ounce of attention absorbed. When all the Madonna stuff was going down last year in late June and early July, I talked to a person in the Yankees’ clubhouse and asked how he was handling it. The answer: “Are you kidding? He loves this stuff. He loves being a big enough star to be on the cover of US Weekly. This isn’t going to bother him one bit.”

The sense I get is that A-Rod is trying to put on a front. If the real A-Rod needs attention all the time, isn’t he better off not being himself?

Source:Hacking A-Rod

Zog’s Point reveals what Joe Torre left on the cutting room floor.

Torre almost ruined David Cone’s perfect game in 1998 by trying to bring in Tanyon Sturtze, before realizing Sturtze was on the White Sox.

There’s plenty more.

Source:More Revelations

A former teammate of Barry Bonds is going testify against the slugger:

It looks like Barry Bonds has more than just a failed urine test to worry about when his perjury trial gets underway on March 2nd. According to ESPN, Bobby Estalella, a former Giant who admitted using steroids provided by Bonds’ trainer Greg Anderson, is prepared to provide “significant testimony” to back up the government’s claim that Bonds knowingly took steroids.

Estalella admitted using the same substances, as well as human growth hormone, during the same BALCO investigation that led to the Bonds statements being questioned by federal prosecutors. He’s reportedly able to provide first-hand knowledge of Bonds’ steroid use, something that would be quite damning to Bonds’ case.

The spoilers keep coming. They’re taking all the drama out of the trial!

Update: Add the Giambis to the list of people called to testify.

Specifically, the prosecutors want to use the Giambis’ testimony to establish that Anderson created doping calendars for both men. If the Giambis testify to that effect, the prosecutors will then be free to argue that Anderson created similar calendars to monitor Bonds’s use of banned substances, according to a person briefed on the government’s evidence. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his access to sensitive information.

The trial continues to leak like a sieve.

Source:Bobby and Barry