Youth Baseball Parks Blog

Julio Lugo will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday to repair a torn mensiscus. The Red Sox are not sure of the severity of the tear, but Julio is unlikely to make opening day, handing the starting shortstop job to Jed Lowrie.

This is a great opportunity for Jed. If he plays well while Lugo is out, he may win the job permanently. Holding him back will be Lugo’s contract, which pays him $9 million a year through 2010. (There is a vesting option for 2011, but it doesn’t look like Julio will reach the 2400 PA needed.) It’s possible that if Lowrie plays well, the Red Sox send Lugo back to the position until they can trade him.

Source:Lugo and Lowrie

The Dutch pitch another good game, but lose to Venezuela 3-1 in the second round of the WBC. The Netherlands hitters are just too weak to take advantage of a pitching staff that is delivering against major league competition.

One thing that’s becoming clear; Blyleven should be some team’s pitching coach. I like him as an announcer, but I get the feeling I would love him instructing pitchers.

Source:If They Could Just Find Some Hitters

Chris Young
Photo: Icon SMI

The series on team offense continues with the Arizona Diamondbacks. I plug the probable lineup from CBSSportsLine into the Lineup Analysis Tool, and fill in the numbers with Marcel the Monkey projections. For pitchers, I used the DBacks 2008 numbers. The results:

• Best lineup: 4.78 runs per game
• Probable lineup: 4.53 runs per game
• Worst lineup: 4.29 runs per game
• Regressed lineup: 4.36 runs per game

The Diamondbacks scored 4.44 runs per game in 2008.

I almost get the feeling Ralph Houk is managing this team. Ralph liked to lead off with his second baseman, no matter how high or low or player’s OBA. Felipe Lopez only fits the role of a leadoff man in that he has no power. Melvin compounds the mistake with Chris Young batting second. He projects to post the lowest OBA on the team. Given this poor top of the order, I’m not surprised the probable lineup ranks halfway between the best and worst lineups the Diamondbacks might assemble.

The saving grace of the team is their power. While they don’t have an outstanding slugger, seven of the players project to good slugging percentages. What they lose in failing to get on base they make up somewhat in moving the batters who do get on around the bases.

Plus, there’s a good chance that Marcels underestimate some of these hitters due to their youth. Upton, Drew and Young are all on up slope of their careers. Unless Eric Byrnes returns, none of the starting eight will have a seasonal age of 30 in 2009. With everyone either in or approaching their prime, the offense just might catch lightning in a bottle, much like the Rockies did two years ago.

Other teams in this series:

• Texas Rangers (see this entry for a full explanation of this system).
• Chicago Cubs
• Boston Red Sox
• Minnesota Twins
• Detroit Tigers
• Chicago White Sox
• Cleveland Indians
• New York Mets
• Philadelphia Phillies
• New York Yankees
• Baltimore Orioles
• St. Louis Cardinals
• Florida Marlins
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Atlanta Braves
• Milwaukee Brewers
• Colorado Rockies
• Pittsburgh Pirates

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Source:Team Offense, Arizona Diamondbacks

Bob Ruffolo got inside the new Yankee Stadium and post pictures of facility. I like the way they kept the look and feel of the old ballpark.

Source:Stadium Pictures

We’re in the process of porting the blog from Movable Type to WordPress. My goal is to have the new look in place later today. My apologies for the lack of updates today.

Source:New Look Coming

Chico Harlan presents Lastings Milledge in his own words. Milledge is talking about the Mets here:

You know, there’s always a thing where, Oh, rookies have to be here 2-1/2 or three hours before stretch. No. I’m not gonna be here three hours before stretch. If you’re here and you get your work in, it shouldn’t matter how early you’re at the field. You know what you need to do. That’s fine. You don’t have to be at the park three, four hours before the park if you don’t want. You don’t see nobody clocking in three or four hours before they have to show up to work. So, I mean, some people feel like they have to get here to read the newspaper or do crossword puzzles or get their mind ready. I feel like I come to the park, I have 45 minutes of stuff I have to do to get prepared for practice and get ready for the game. Five minutes might be watching videos. Fifteen minutes might be going in the cage. And then getting whatever other work I need.

Basically, Milledge didn’t want to go through the initiation of being a rookie. He may very well be right, but it didn’t sit well with the veterans.

Source:Lastings Impression

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Source:New RSS Feed

The Red Sox just emailed that Jon Lester signed a five-year deal. This was reported a while ago, but the contract was just finialized. Here’s the story from the Boston Herald.

Source:Long Term Lester

Mike Lowell and Chase Utley are both recovering well from their hip surgeries. Lowell played Friday night, hit a home run and started a double play in the field. Chase Utley played in a minor league intrasquad game. So far, so good for both.

In a related item, Alex Rodriguez is off crutches and will start working in a pool.

Source:Hip to Play

Robinson Cano came back from the WBC with a stiff shoulder. He knew about it before he left the Yankees camp but didn’t say anything:

I checked with Brian Cashman, who confirmed with trainers that today is the first the Yankees had heard about any problems with Cano’s shoulder. Cano doesn’t think it’s anything serious, just stiffness, but as I pointed out to him, that’s what Alex Rodriguez thought about his hip and he just had surgery.

It’s probably good for the Yankees that the Dominicans got ousted by the Dutch. (I love writing that.)

Source:Cano Stiff