Say what you will about Dusty Baker as a manager (and believe me, I have), I would love to spend an afternoon with him listening to baseball stories. Or Jimi Hendrix stories. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Baker has spent most of his managerial career asking players “Are you experienced?”
- People are still puzzled that last year’s National League home run champion, Chris Carter, is still unemployed and doesn’t appear to have many offers. Richard Justice thinks some team is going to get a bargain on Carter and has three suggestions.
- Jayson Stark wonders if MLB has fallen out of love with sluggers. The answer is no, but . . .
- Steven Goldman doesn’t think it’s so odd that Carter hasn’t been signed and has found several similar past free agents who had trouble finding work.
- Grant Brisbee has grown impatient and just assigns the remaining free agents to teams. I hope Ryan Howard likes kimchee.
- R.J. Anderson similarly finds homes for the remaining free agents.
- Michael Klopman thinks teams should take a flier on six remaining free agent starting pitchers.
- As I write this, David Rollins is still in the Cubs organization. That may not be true by the time you read this. But this is a fascinating piece by Jon Tayler about what the offseason is like for Rollins and Richie Shaffer and other players who bounce from team to team several times over the course of the winter.
- Dodgers second baseman Logan Forsythe talks to Doug Padilla about getting traded this past week.
- The Dodgers are looking to sign another reliever or two and are talking to Joe Blanton and Sergio Romo.
- Hoo boy, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner caused a stir when he was quoted in this article defending the signing of Aroldis Chapman, saying that the fans “love him” and “sooner or later, we forget” in reference to his domestic violence incident.
- Claire McNear says “No, we will not forget” about Chapman’s past.
- Jon Heyman reports that the Cardinals have agreed to a five-year extension for Carlos Martinez.
- The Twins have signed reliever Matt Belisle.
- The Indians signed reliever Boone Logan.
- The Reds are close to signing outfielder Desmond Jennings.
- Ken Rosenthal examines how the botched trade that sent Chris Rea to the Marlins is still having a lasting effect on three teams. This is one of the trades in which Padres general manager A.J. Preller gave a limited and misleading medical report to the Marlins.
- Jonathan Bernhardt weighs in on a hot topic around here: Can you pay too much for a championship? He’s talking about the Chapman trade for Gleyber Torres, but he uses it to make a larger point about such deals.
- In honor of Groundhog Day, Cliff Corcoran lists six players who would love to re-live 2016. There’s one Cub on the list. I’m not sure if they’d have to start the season with “I Got You, Babe” though.
- Bradford Doolittle marks his return to writing about baseball full-time by assessing the state of the ten worst teams in baseball.
- And Phil Rogers lists the six teams he thinks have improved the most over the winter.
- Japanese two-way star Shohei Ohtani will not pitch in the World Baseball Classic because of an ankle injury, but he’s still hoping to play in the Classic as a hitter.
- One guy who might play in the WBC is Yoenis Cespedes’ little brother Yoelkis Cespedes, who is currently starring for Cuba in the Caribbean Series and whom some say is better than Yoenis was at the same age.
- Eddie Matz talks to new Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton about why he’s used to pressure.
- Craig Edwards addresses the issue of whether the Cardinals deserve a competitive balance pick in the first place.
- I’ve linked to stories about this before, but here’s another one about American League Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer and his offseason career as a plumber. Despite making over $500k this past season, Fulmer is keeping his plumbing career.
- Brian P. Mangan has an explanation of why offensive totals are so high in the Pacific Coast League and it’s not because of home runs.
- Diamondbacks outfielder A.J. Pollock scaled Camelback Mountain in 27 minutes, which I’m told is a pretty impressive thing to do. Doesn’t look like anything to me.
- I get to sneak a soccer story in because the Oakland Athletics threatened to sue a semi-pro soccer team called the Tulsa Athletics over trademark infringement. Yes, the A’s threats were silly, but I like Tulsa’s new logo better anyway.
- Noah Syndergaard got his bats for the 2017 season and Mr. Met better stay far away from him.
- And finally, Mike Oz continues his series of opening 1992 baseball cards with people by opening a pack with Nats manager Dusty Baker. Dusty’s got something to say about every one of them.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.