Some short comments on recent baseball news.

I always wanted to not do this type of column since you can find a version of it on every other baseball website and we wanted to be different. But there are so many interesting things going on that I am breaking my rule.

It is astounding to me that Claudio Vargas was cut by the Brewers. I am thinking that we haven’t heard the whole story yet, since he is far better than many teams fourth or fifth starters, and would appear to have at least some trade value. That the Brewers simply gave him away makes me think that they have other motives.

This puts everyone’s sleeper this year, Manny Parra, in the rotation. Just remember when he pitches great this year that we were touting him even on our second radio show before spring training started! If he flops, well you can blame someone else….

C.J. Wilson won the closer’s job. As mentioned on the show on Sunday he is a strong bet to hold the job. I do not like Fukumori, and Benoit is good but C.J. is going to come into his own this year. He had a 3.03 ERA last year and yet Baseball Prospectus gives him an over 50% chance of improving and a 27% chance of a breakout. Many analysts think Fukumori is a sleeper, but he is a pitcher with middling stuff, big control problems and pitches in a great hitter’s park. Doesn’t sound like any sleeper I would want.

Kelvim Escobar is out for the season. He was on my mixed league team last year and faltered greatly in the last month. It is not surprising that he is hurt, though now his career is in jeopardy. He was always an underrated pitcher and in an alternate universe he had an excellent career. With Lackey out also (and who knows how serious his injury is) the Angels could be in trouble if Lackey is out longer than six weeks.
On the other hand, it could give Joe Saunders the chance he deserves and as I stated previously I love him as a sleeper; he could put up an ERA below four. With improvement by Ervin Santana, they could salvage the season if Lackey goes down.

The big news is the retirement of Masumi Kuwata. Who the hell is he you say? I saw him pitch in a game last year and was astounded that he was in the majors. Well, he was with the Pirates so maybe he wasn’t in the “majors.” He was without a doubt the worst pitcher in terms of stuff I have seen since Dave LaPoint.

Chris Capuano is out for the year and his career may be in jeopardy. In our high stakes league this year, Matt Finkelstein wanted to drop out of the bidding on him. My advice: “trust me let’s go for the extra dollar.” Oops.

Carlos Gomez made the team and Cameron Maybin did not. This says a lot about the team’s judgment. Florida is doing the best thing for Maybin, demoting him down to AA where he hopefully won’t be overmatched. They are to be commended for not trying to “save face” on the deal. Not so much the Twins, who are throwing Gomez into the fire when he is not ready.

At a minimum they could have given him a month in AAA just to see how he does and could have called him up. As I have said before; far better to rush Denard Span and ruin his nothing career than to play dice with Carlos Gomez’. I hope he succeeds and isn’t ruined, since he is an exciting player.

The Reds’ are starting Cueto and Volquez. With Dusty around to ruin them this could end up being a disaster. Their pen is in shambles after the closer and he will be sorely tempted to leave them in rather than go to the pen, especially if the team is showing signs of life and unexpectedly competes. Volquez probably won’t stay in the rotation all year anyway since he is a fly ball pitcher in GABP, so the best case may be an ERA around 5. The worst?? Well, you don’t need me to tell you that.

Lastly, I predicted on the radio show before spring training started that Alexei Ramirez would win the job. He has, but I am not about to pat myself on the back; were it not for Richar’s injury he may not have and his defense has apparently been so bad that Uribe may still pull it out if Ramirez struggles at all.