Brian Walton
January 13, 2005
Walton’s Wanderings
By Brian Walton
No News on Marquis and Ankiel Deals
John Mozeliak, Assistant General Manager, would not comment on whether or not progress has been made in signing Jason Marquis and Rick Ankiel to 2005 contracts. If the players are unable to come to terms with the team, each has the right to an arbitration hearing next month to set their 2005 compensation. However, in this tenure with the Cardinals, Walt Jocketty has had only one case actually proceed all the way to the hearing. So, expect both players to sign. How soon remains the open question.
Good, but Not Enough
MLB is expected to announce a new steroids policy today that includes an initial ten game suspension, year-round testing and an expanded list of banned substances. The new pact, while an improvement, still falls short of other major sports. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1965565
Hot Stove Rankings
In a two-part article on teams’ off-season maneuvering to-date, CNNSI ranks the Cardinals tenth.
Hardball Times Data Soft on La Russa
Even more interesting, in the above CNNSI story, they linked to a study from The Hardball Times. It shows that Tony La Russa’s team got 54 outs in 54 one-pitcher-for-one-batter situations last season. La Russa’s frequency of setting up these situations was second highest in baseball, while his team’s efficiency was in the top six. Not bad at all, but I wonder what the next hitters did… Ray King, Julian Tavarez and Steve Kline were the top Cardinals individuals in this situation. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/one-batter-pitchers/
Tigers TV
The first announcement of a Cardinals spring TV game has occurred. It is a split squad game against the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland on Sunday, March 20 at 1pm Eastern. While it will be on Fox Sports Detroit, more telecasts on ESPN, FSMW and perhaps WB11 will be announced soon and I’ll post them as I get more information.
Gall Struggling
Playing for the Mazatlan Deer in the Mexican League playoffs, John Gall is still looking for his first hit in 22 playoff at-bats after batting .222 in the regular season. He had no homers and three RBI in 27 regular-season at-bats. Recently, Gall has been holding down the DH position for the Deer. Less than 50 at-bats is a small sample size, but it isn’t a very encouraging campaign to-date.
Majors and Minors Simpatico
MLB and Minor League Baseball (National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues) approved an agreement on a new 10-year Professional Baseball Agreement (PBA), extending through the 2014 season. The PBA defines the working relationship between the two organizations. Among the highlights: The agreement guarantees that Major League teams will field at least 160 Minor League teams through the life of the agreement and access to all Minor League content is granted for a baseball-only television channel, owned and operated by MLB.
