Pirates Select Hard Throwing Taillon With Second Overall Pick

Well the Pirates made their pick and have made me very happy, selecting the 6'7 flame throwing, Texas right hander Jameson Taillon.  Taillon was viewed as one of three can't miss guys that also included Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

Naturally Harper went first overall to the Nats and after the Bucs selected Taillon, Machado went third to the Orioles.  I would have been happy with either Taillon or Machado, but I was a little more excited to get Taillon.

As much as I liked Machado, ultimately he is viewed as a third baseman instead of a shortstop.  Unless the Pirates were committed to moving Pedro Alvarez to first base, then the pick didn't make much sense.

With Taillon, we get a guy viewed as a top of the rotation guy with a great make up and excellent stuff.  He has three plus pitches- fastball, curveball and slider.  he is also throwing a change up some now and scouts have said that is coming along very well.  It's the kid's make up though which have had scouts in awe. The guy is tough as nails and is the ultimate competitor.



Give the Pirates credit.  For a team that was running JVB, Brian Bullington, and other stiffs out to the mound just three years ago, they know have some good pitching talent in the system.  In 2-3 seasons, we could see a young rotation of Tailon, Brad Lincoln, Bryan Morris, Tim Alderson and Rudy Owens.  Things are looking much better for the future of the Pirates.

Now all we gotta do is sign the kid.

Bucs Claim Penn- Designate Moss

Today the Bucs made a roster move by claiming right hander Hayden Penn off waivers from the Florida Marlins. Four years ago Penn was once a big time prospect in the Baltimore Orioles system, but has yet to live up to the early hype.

Penn made his mlb debut before his 21st birthday.  He is 4-6 overall between stops with the O's and Marlins.  He has a good arm and good stuff and throws three plus pitches for strikes.

Both Baseball America and Tim Dierkes say it's a good pickup by NH.  Even if Penn never reaches his potental, it's worth taking a shot on him.  It's the typical low risk-high reward type of signing that NH likes to make.  Penn should most likely begin the season at AAA Indy.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Penn, the Bucs designated Brandon Moss for assignment (i can hear everyone celebrating).  Moss hit only .236 last season and honestly, the at-bats just aren't their for him.  He has been passed on the depth chart by Rule 5 guy John Raynor.

One intresting note is that NH said today that in hindsight that there was a better deal on the table for Jason Bay.  Now that Moss and likely Craig Hansen won't pan out, the deal will be judged on by how Bryan Morris and Andy Laroche do as Pirates.

The team has ten days to release or trade Moss.  He must clear waivers in order for the Bucs to send him to the minors.

Worst Team of the Decade

I've been on this wrapping up the decade kick recently, so here goes another one, since everyone seemed to enjoy the All-Decade team thread.  Here's my question.  Who was the worst franchise of the decade? The best franchise is much easier to decide- The Yankees win that. They played in four World Series, winning two. Eight division titles and nine post-season berths.  No other team belongs in the conversation.

Now for the intresting part, who was MLB's worst franchise? I have limited it down to five franchises: Baltimore, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Washington/Montreal and Cincinatti.  I will list some reasons why each should be considered the worst and why each should not (more than just overall record is considered). I will let you decide who wins.

First off is Baltimore
Why they are the worst
- losing record every season
- finished last place twice and next to last seven times
- As of 1999, the O's were second in MLB in attendence at 3.4 mil. 10 years later, they drew 1.9 mil last season

Why they aren't the worst
-The O's won 26 more games than bothe the Bucs and Royals
-O's fans got to watch Cal Ripken the first two seasons of the deacde.

Next is Cincinatti
Why they are the worst
-Nine losing seasons
-Five different managers

Why they aren't the worst
- Never finished in last place (thanks to being in same division as Buccos)
- Had one winning season
- Only three 90 loss seasons

Next is Pittsburgh
Why they are the worst
- Losing season every year
- Seven seasons of 90 plus losses
- Four managers
- Constant turnover in personnel to save money
- Complete lack of talent. They wouldn't have won even if they hadn't traded away their best players (Kendall, Ramirez, Bay, Benson,McLouth, Schmidt, Wilson, Sanchez etc.)
- Most famous hit during the decade came on a sausage (thank you Randall Simon)
-Only team to literally steal a base (Llyod McClendon)
- Incompeteant Management that made questionable moves
-They employed Dave Littlefield, enough said

Why they aren't
- Moved into best ballpark in America (Can't believe I went there.  So sad)
- In this particular discussion, they don't get credit for their previous seven losing seasons entering the decade
-Surprisingly, they don't have the majors worst record of the decade, but they are very close
-New management seems to have begun to add talent to the system

Kansas City Royals
Why they are the worst
- MLB worst 672-948, 12 games worse than the Bucs
- Averaged 95 losses per season
- A whopping four 100 loss seasons
- Finished in last 5 times.
- Lost 19 in a row at one point
- Also has incompetant management that makes questionable moves. For instance dealing a top prospect for Yuniesky Betancourt and his awful contract. Yuniesky Freakin Betancourt?

Why the aren't
- Had one winning season in 2003. They were in first place at the end of August.
-They have actually had some real talent. Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, etc.
- Cy Young Award winner Zach Grienke speaks for himself.

Finally, Washington/ Montreal/Puerto Rico
Why they are the worst
-Finished last place 6 times, more than anyone else.
-Finished with the worst record in baseball the last 2 seasons
-Began the deacde in Montreal
-Super marketing strategy by their former owner Jeffery Loria who wouldn't broadcast radio games in English and wouldn't broadcast any games on television, while they were the Expos.
- Only franchise that Bud Selig threatened to contract
- Had to be taken over and run by the league
- While still in Montreal, they played 21 home games in Puerto Rico, over 2000 miles away from their home, equalling over 100 road games
- Moved to Washington
- While there, finished last 4 out of 5 seasons
- GM Jim Bowden had to resign due to a federal investigation about skimming signing bonuses from Latin Players.
- Cut loose guys like Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips,Vlad Guerrero, etc.  Even their mascot was dismissed
- The one that seals the deal though could be that they misspelled their names wrong on their jerseys. No excuse

Why they aren't
-Had three winning seasons
- Avereaged only 91 losses, which compared to the others is good
- 39.5 games better than Kansas City
- Drafted the most coveted pitcher in recent memory- Steven Strausburg

So who's the worst?  In my opinion, I'm taking Baltimore and Cincinatti out of the conversation.  The other 3 could all be good choices.  The choice should be the Pirates, but I'm actually putting stock into what they've done in acquiring talent.

That leaves the team with the worst record in Kansas City and hands down the most disfunctional franchise in Washington.  The Royals and Pirates has lost and lost badly, but they don't have the disfunctionality that Washington has. Also being threatened with contraction is a selling point. Also when I watch the Royals and Pirates lose, their names are spelled correctly on their uniforms.

Therefore, the worst franchise of the decade is the Washington/Montreal/Puerto Rico- Nationals/Expos.  Congrats to them.  Let me know your opinions.

AL EAST Preview

Now that the WBC is over, we are under two weeks until opening day. It's time to preview each team and what we can expect in 2009. I will start with the best division in all of sports, the AL East.

Projected order of finish

1. Boston Red Sox- That was very painful to type, since I'm a Yanks fan, but I have to consider the Sox the overall best team in the game on paper. The lineup is solid all the way around. Young stars such as Jason Bay, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Kevin Youkalis mixed in with a veteran power bats David Ortiz and J.D. Drew, the Sox will not have a problem scoring runs. Add in an emerging star in Jed Lorie and a healthy Mike Lowell and the lineup is solid. The only concern with the Red Sox is health. The do have aging vets in Ortiz, Drew, Lowell and Varitek and not much depth if they get banged up.

When it comes to pitching, that is the Red Sox real strength. A top of the rotation consisting Dice-K, Josh Beckett, John Lester is as good as it gets. Lester may be the best of the 3. The bullpen is the real strength of this team. The back end is solid with Jonathen Papplebon. In front of him is a surplus of solid arms including: Justin Masterson, Hideki Okijima, Takashi Saito and once he gets healthy John Smoltz. The Sox look to be the first team since the late 90's Yankees to really be able to shorten the game effectively. All the starters need to do is give them 6 innings and the game could be over.

Down on the farm, the Sox have a surplus of great young arms that Theo Epstein has refused to deal. The best being Michael Bowden. Expect him to get the call this year and help the Red Sox already solid staff win this division.

2. Tampa Rays- No surprising anyone this season, but the Rays won't have to. This was supposed to be the year that they started to compete, but they arrived a year early. The rays won't win the division, but they will return to the post-season, holding off the Yankees to win the wild card. Offensively, they have speed and power and will score some runs, even though that's not really the blueprint of this team winning games. It's defense and pitching.

The Rays have added a couple nice pieces to last years AL Pennant winning team. Right hand power in Pat Burrell who will DH and OF Matt Joyce who is another nice young player who can hit for average and power. Add that to the great young core with Crawford, Upton, Longoria and Pena and the Rays won't be a one hit wonder. This team should be around for a while.

On the hill, this team has a surplus of young arms. the rotation featuring: Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Sonnanstine and possibly phenom David Price. All 5 will continue to get even better and expect Garza to take the largest step forward this season. The only weakness may be at the back end of the bullpen. They have good, solid arms in the pen but may be able to make a pitch for a back end kind of guy around the trading deadline. I don't think Troy Percival will hold up health-wise for a whole season, as has been the trend.

Tampa still has the best farm systems in the majors. So expect some of the young guys to keep coming up and producing for the Rays.

3. New York Yankees- After missing the playoffs last season, the Yanks went on another huge off-season spending spree, adding Mark Texiera, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. They will be in it til the very end, but when it is all said and done, the Yanks will fall a game short of the Rays for the Wild Card. They never get off to good starts in April, and having to play without A-Rod will ultimately cost them.

Offensively, the plan was to have A-Rod hitting in front of Texiera, but now Tex will have to shoulder a huge portion of the production, which has never been his strong suit. There are other problems the Yanks face offensively. At second base, which Robinson Cano will they have? The one who looks like a future batting champ or last years version? Secondly, Xavier Nady had his best season as a pro last year. Can he match or increase the production, since he will bat clean up until A-Rod returns. Who will be the center fielder, Gardner or Cabrerra? Can Posada and Damon stay healthy and produce? As you can see, there are way too many questions for a team with a 200 million dollar payroll.

One place the yanks don't have questions is the starting rotation. The additions of Sabathia and Burnett, the re-signing of Pettite added to holdovers Wang and Chamberlain and you have the best starting rotation in the game. The Yanks had a need and they filled it big time. The big question is... Who is going to get the ball to Mariano Rivera? That to me separates the Red Sox and Rays from the Yankees. The bullpen is very weak and it could cost the starters to get overworked by August.

The notion has always been that the Yankees never have a farm system, but that is simply not the case. They usually just deal them instead of bringing them up. They have spent so much money that great prospects such as Austin Jackson is buried. Despite the stellar look of the rotation, the guy with possibly the best stuff, Phil Hughes, is also buried at AAA. Don't look from any help from the Yanks farm team this season, quite frankly because there is no where to play them. If anything, expect the Yanks to try and fill a hole at the trading deadline again, by taking on a big contract for a bit of youth.

4. Baltimore Orioles- After the top 3, the final 2 teams in the division have a huge hill to climb, but if Tampa can do it, it is possible. I got the O's 4th, because the do have a ton of young talent and we should get to see some this year.

The O's committed to the future by signing Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis to long term deals. They still have Aubrey Huff and Melvin Mora who both put up solid numbers every season. They added Ryan Freel and Felix Pie via trade to add some depth and Adam Jones in his second year in the bigs should be better. Expect Matt Wieters to be up by May and win the Rookie of the Year.

The staff is a train wreck after Jeremy Guthrie for the time being. The O's have a ton of good arms progressing their way to the big club. Expect two or three to get the call this season. The O's will close games with George Sherril and Chris Ray, but there just isn't much behind that.

5. Toronto Blue Jays- The Blue Jays tried to take a run at the division the last couple of seasons, but they just didn't have the resources to compete. I pick them last this season, because I feel they will deal the work horse Roy Halladay this season, leaving them with some unproven arms in the rotation.

Offensively they still have some talent. Vets Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay and Scott Rolen could all have decent seasons. Toronto still has some youth with Alexis Rios and expect Travis Snyder to come along and make an impact. After that though, there isn't much.

The staff after Halladay has some good arms, just not top end guys. One who could make the jump is Jessie Litsch. His stuff is good, but every Blue Jay pitcher spends significant time on the DL. These guys must stay healthy. The Blue Jays rotation is that bad at the moment, that Brian Bullington has a chance to make the opening day roster.

That's how the AL East should shape up. Tomorrow, we will take a look at the AL Central.