Lets send our best talent to the minors!!

I don't understand the deal with some teams this season, or any season really because this has happened for years. Why do teams with little or no chance to win a division title this season insist on sending the best talent on their teams to triple A? There seems to be a heavy list of guys that should be playing in the big leagues that instead will toil on some small town team with a weird name like Mud Hens, Iron Pigs, Sea Dogs, or Isotopes.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia - This kid can hit and everyone knows it. Its not a secret anymore. Yet Jarrod will spend at least the start of his season as a Red Hawk, rather then a Ranger. Now this is a guy who can catch, play first base, and since they are in the AL he can DH. Well you say there must be good veterans blocking his positions, I guess if you consider Gerald Laird, Ben Broussard, and Jason Botts good veterans. I don't, and you shouldn't either.

Broussard is the only guy with any significant MLB experience, but as Cleveland, and Seattle know he is not a guy you want anchoring first base for your team all season. This is what he did last year:

G   AB  R  H  2B 3B  HR  RBI   BB   K   SB  AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS
99  240 27 66 10  0   7   29   17   50   2  .275  .330  .404  .734

Not all to impressive.

Then we have the two guys who really have almost no real time in the majors, career stats:

        G   AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  K    SB   AVG    OBP    SLG    OPS
Laird   120  407  48  91 18  3   9   47   30  103   6   .224   .278   .349   .627
Botts   48   167  19  40  8  1   2   14   19  59    1   .240   .326   .335   .662

Notice the sub .250 batting averages on both these guys, the horrible K/BB ratio, and overall poor numbers.

Finally we have Salty who did the following during his time in Atlanta and Texas last season:

G     AB    R    H    2B   3B    HR   RBI    BB    K     SB    AVG     OBP     SLG     OPS
93    308  39    82   13    1    11    33    19    75    0    .266    .310    .422    .732

Great numbers? No not really, but clearly better then the other 3 guys listed above him. Oh did I mention he is also five years YOUNGER then the youngest(Botts) of Botts, Laird, and Broussard? Its moves like this that make everyone realize why Texas hasn't won a division title since 1999.

Luke Hochevar - Anyone know where the Royals are going to end the season? Oh last place you say? Horrible team you say? Yea thats about 100% right. So what do they do? Oh send the 2006 #1 draft pick down to the Omaha Royals (who could probably beat the real Royals). Granted he is young and only has 12 innings pitched in the majors(with an ERA of 2.13 I might add), but what do the royals have to lose? Instead they are going to run out bums like Brett Tomko(career: 93-92, 4.62, 1.37), and John Bale(career: 3-3, 4.47, 1.44) rather then the guy the spent the first pick in of the 2006 draft on. Granted I can hear some of you now, "But oh great Bean Head Hater aren't you worried he could get hit hard in the bigs and be ruined?!" Um NO I AM NOT!!! Doesn't matter when he comes up, if it is now or in 5 years, if he is a weak minded guy and he gets smoked then he will be ruined. Doesn't matter if it is now or when I have kids(which is a long time away). I see the Royals being in last place, AGAIN.


Evan Longoria - Yea so here we have another very good Tampa Bay prospect who has shown great skills in the minors. Its amazing how much good hitting they have, but I guess 1000 years in last place and top draft picks will do that to you. Mr. Longoria has nothing to prove, at all, in the minors. Since 2006 he has steadily dominated the minor league levels as he moved up, and scouts love him. In 2007 his minor league stats:

       AB   R    H   2B   HR   RBI   BB   K    AVG   OBP   SLG  OPS
AA      381  78  117  21   21    76   51   81  .307  .403  .528 .931
AAA     104  19  28   8     5    19   22   29  .269  .398  .490 .888

The greatest stat on this line is his almost 1 to 1 walk to strike out ratio in triple A. That means he had no problem handling the pitching there, and any drop seen in those stats is mostly due to bad luck. This kid is ready for the big time, but who is stopping him? Oh the super star Willy Aybar(that rhymes). The Rays moved incumbent natural 3B Iwamura to second to make room for Longoria, so I am sure sometime this season we will see him him, but why wait. Willy is not a good option, I don't care how good his stats look.

Cameron Maybin - Who in Luke Skywalkers name is Alejandro De Aza?!? Oh hes the guy standing in center field for the Florida Marlins. the same guy who has a career .229 average, with 0 home runs, 8 RBI, and 2 stolen bases, in 144 AB of work. Wait, go back and read that impressive stat line. Yes this guy is blocking Maybin, a legit 20/20 threat in his rookie season, 30/30 after that. I guess the Marlins are thinking they have a chance(I don't) and De Aza is the better choice(I don't). I really do think Cameron can hit better then .229 in 144 AB, seems inevitable. Either way Cameron will start his season as a Mudcat, not a big fish.

Honorable mentions:

• Homer Baily, Reds - He is probably better off as far away from Dusty Baker as he can get.
• Jay Bruce, Reds - My main man dominated the minors more so then the above listed Evan Longoria, but has a HOF, and a guy who hits 40 HRs in his way. Its a wait to see how long it is until Griffey gets hurt.
• Steve Pearce, Pirates - Can only play the corner OF spots and he isn't moving Jason Bay or Nady anytime soon.
• Josh Fields - He should probably be listed above.
• Chase Headly - Kouzmanoff isn't great by any stretch, but he isn't bad by any stretch either. Chase better learn how to play RF before Brian Giles falls over dead in the 7th inning of some game in June.

I must say thank you to Mr. JP for getting me started with my anger of the stupidity of some of these moves, with out his bantering I might not have decided to write this.

Fairwell Chikezie and Good Job Knicks

Since the BHH hates the program and it's a competition and not exactly a sport i'll keep this short.

Although he impressed me with his rare display of relevance two weeks ago, Chikezie was usually boring. He's off Idol. The world keeps spinning.


In other shocking News, even the Knicks can't lose every game. Tonight the lowly Knicks defeated the Heat in an OT slobber knocker! Inserted into the starting lineup, my hero, David Lee score 15 points and brought in 16 monster boards. Congrats David and i apologize Zeke Thomas refuses to give you the 35 mpg you deserve on a consistent basis.

Oh by the way.... Malik Rose takes those minutes from you.

Which brings me to my question of the night. Who else still gets minutes in the NBA that shouldn't and why? I'm curious to see what any readers may think.

Why Mets Why?

First off i would like to say that the Bean Head Hater was spot on with his opinions on that article.
No human male should be employed (especially for espn) after writing such a contradictory report on on future MLB stars. I won't even touch that article since its already been analyzed and absolutely slayed by my mans and them. In closing .... Mr. Neyer .... you should be fired.

Onward to other matters. Lets discuss more baseball shall we? Yeah we shall.

I'm a Mets fan. A serious one. A good portion of my life goes into watching ballgames on pretty much a nightly basis. We got Johan but yet i still find myself down in the dumps for the upcoming season.

I'll give you two big reasons:

Ryan Church

Brian Schneider

Yeah are you kidding me with these two jokers? We all know the Mets are trying there hardest to spend as much money as the Yankees and Sox so why do we have a .230 hitter behind the dish and a platoon caliber RF (yeah yeah he hits doubles.)

Well in what i see as the *3rd worst deal in mets history (bold statement i know) we traded future superstar Lastings Milledge to the Nats for these no talent assclowns.

I know the mets are in a "win now" situation and these dudes may be able to bring leadership qualities to a team that obviously didn't have that in the final month of last season but why must we give up a future 30/30 stick to accomplish something that we have no guarantee of accomplishing.

"But Sports Don you should be happy you got Santana right?"

Not so much. My love for the tools Carlos Gomez has will never go away. Sure he is Raw, but for you fantasy players out there in deep leagues who have Gomez you can pencil in 50 swipes even if he bats .240 (which could be possible).

In closing i finish with this....

The mets should of kept the future in tact while also slightly strengthening what i thought (probably the only person alive) to be a strong staff with just the return of Pedro. Why not sign Mark Prior in the off season for a Bucket of balls and roll the dice? I mean we didn't blow it last year cause of our pitching.

We blew it because Reyes was more concerned about who's ass he was gonna kick then getting on base and the rest of the team forgot to hit too.

But if you recall the only man with a fire in his eyes pumping up the crowd and making plays was....

Yup Lastings Milledge.

Feel Free to Disagree.


*other deals i consider worse are the mets trading Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi.
and Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano.

Rob Neyer is an ignoramus

Rather then write the code I should be writing right now I am gonna comment on an article on ESPN by Rob Neyer. Here is the link to the article so you all can read it if you want.

I read this and thought through out most of it, "What in the hell is this guy smoking when he is writing?" Lets start first with the list header, "... you're not going to find any "prospects" on this list. Jay Bruce and Colby Rasmus may be great baseball players but they've not played an inning in the majors...". Granted that is very true and I would agree, but then wtf is Evan Longoria doing on this list, at number 20 more less. Above the likes of Nick Markakis(23-112-.300), Jake Peavy(19-240-2.54), Carl Crawford(11-80-50-.315), Adrian Gonzalez(30-100-.282), and a few others. Completely ludicrous. I mean this kid has ZERO at bats in the majors. If your going to include Longoria you have to include Jay Bruce, because Bruce has better minor league numbers, and is younger by about 2 years.

My next big beef with this article is that he has Jose Reyes below Ryan Zimmerman, umm what? Reyes is clearly the better player. First off lets look at Zimmermans stats for 2006 and 2007:

G AB R H HR RBI BB K SB AVG OBP SLG OPS
06 157 614 84 176 20 110 61 120 11 .287 .351 .471 .822
07 162 653 99 174 24 91 61 125 4 .266 .330 .458 .788

He clearly went backwards in 2007, and whats to say he wont continue that trend in 2008? Granted he could get better, but he is not going to be better then Reyes. The argument that Neyer gives is that Reyes is a year or so older and has a OPS(.775) below the league average. He fails to notice that Reyes led the league in steals(78), 7th in runs(119), and 3rd in triples(12). What categories did Zimmerman make the top 10 in? NONE! So it would be nice if some one would explain how Zimmerman is a better player then Reyes, because the numbers say he isn't.

I could go on forever with this horrible list, but won't. I just hope that next time Neyer gives the high school intern an article to write for him I hope he at least proof reads it.

Opening Statement

Ryan here. Later tonight after another day at the office i plan on enlightening you readers with fine literature to enjoy. I like to think that i have a solid opinion.

on a final note. Jim Rome can kiss my ass.

Welcome

Hey readers,

Welcome to the Sports Brothel! This is gonna be the space where a few guys who know more about sports then the toolbags in sports media, and are more opinionated then you could imagine do whatever we want to do. So hold on, and get ready for the ride.

Yours truly,
Me