Shameless plug alert
The Hot Stove Show returns to 105.7 The Fan and ESPN 1300 tonight at 8 p.m., with Jim Hunter sitting across from your favorite blogger.
I'm referring to myself, in case there was any confusion.
President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail is scheduled to call into the program at the top of the hour. Left-hander Brian Matusz will join us at 8:30 p.m.
Once I learned that MacPhail had been confirmed, I wondered if he was going to make a grand announcement. Maybe break a little news for us. Maybe give me a nice blog entry before bed. The timing of his appearance on the show - the night before FanFest - raised my suspicions.
I don't think that will be the case. I let my imagination run wild.
MacPhail was nice enough to interupt his evening and field some questions before taking part in tomorrow's forums.
Matusz will get us caught up on his winter and look ahead to the 2010 season. I'll try to find out whether he's already cleared room for his Rookie of the Year award.
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Categories (click for archive)Roch Kubatko | Roch Kubatko Orioles |
Roch,
Has the programming crew at MASN lost their minds? Why is "Hot Stove" not being televised? AHL hockey replay instead of you and Jim?????..... Give me a break MASN, just your third year and already starting to crumble.....
Matusz is my pick for RoY, definitely.
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Duke of York: Sure looks like Dick Hall to me.
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B.O. said: “My dad said he nearly threw up at the season ticket Q&As last year . . . .”
Trollboy, if I were your dad I’d feel like that every day.
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Rich: Desme joining the priesthood is a good example of why scouts, like blogs, should do a better job of screening for character. Talk about screwed up priorities. Yes, I’m kidding. Sort of.
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“sloop” john b said: “the gidp is a very miss leading stat. check out other leaders and you will find a lot of the best in the league. they all hit the ball hard and if it's at an infielder with a man on. odds are it will be a dp. punch and judy hitters don't show in this category,ex. Zimmerman Cabrera, Longoria were not far behind. miggy is still the the best left standing ,its not a long time fix,but we do need a fix.”
I’m not misled by GIDP. Yes, lots of good players ground into double plays, and one reason Miguel is among them is that he plays virtually every game (one of his two strengths) and as you note he makes good contact, which is why he has a good batting average (his other strength). Hey, if you walk as infrequently as Miguel does, you’d darn better make good contact, otherwise even an organization as dumb as Houston won’t want you. But it doesn’t matter WHY you hit into lots of DPs any more than it matters why you miscalculated on your taxes. It’s still a bad thing to do and it’ll cost you, and your team in Miguel’s case. Cabrera, Zimmerman and Longoria are very good players for other reasons -- little, incidental things like SLG and OBP. Tejada isn’t. Not anymore. Sorry, john b, but IMO Tejada isn’t a fix, even short-term, only a bigger problem.
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You know who interests me among the players left, even though I think it’s a chance in a million? I know you don't care, Brian, but I'm going to tell you anyway: Johnny Damon. Let him play first if he can, and DH and emergency back up in left if he can’t. If we could sign him cheaply and short-term, he might want to take out his frustrations within the division, which could be fun to watch, and he’s a good grinder in the two hole. Hey, as someone else mentioned, I’m just thinking outside the bun here (speaking of the priesthood.)
why won't go after fa's? When they need to fill the holes. I underrstand not going after the A class fa's. Not to lose draft pick. But when you play the top teams in baseball, you need to feel like you can win at lease half of the games. Right now we have some good young players. But not enough to beat Yankees and Red Soxs or Rays atlease 50% of the games. Bedard and possible trade for Mil. 1st baseman who is rumor to be on the market. while raising prices is not smart right now! Only when we are on the same playing field with the top teams, before you even think about raising prices. The ? is if we even get there at all!
Bummed that it's not on MASN.
Roch (& Jim),
I'm enjoying the radio broadcast from Virginia Beach and looking forward to the 2010 Tides' season.
Hey Roch,
Great show! Thanks for being so persistent with MacPhail over Tejada and Bedard. I, too, after hearing MacPhail comment on Crede's durability, think maybe Tejada is now preferred.
Anyway, just a logistics question for tomorrow: Are the autograph sessions spread out all day up till 6pm? I ask because I live 2 1/2 hrs away so thats quite a long day if I'm getting there at 10 for the season ticket holder session...
Thanks as always!
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Unfortunately, I don't know the schedule. We won't know until we get there. - Roch
Debuting against the Hope For Haiti Telethon?? lol.
Caught the last half of the show Roch. Enjoyed it. Again, can't wait for the games to start.
Roch,
I'm not sure how many GMs you have reported on, but it seems to me Andy MacPhail spends more time than any previous GM on what might be called PR. Maybe it's because the emergence of the inter-net has provided many more opportunities than there used to be.
Baldy
Doug in Dundalk - thanks! The problem is my son might not even qualify as "at all interested in baseball." Several times now I've come home from games thinking I've just spent $50 to feed him junk food and let him play on the Orioles jungle gym and Moon bounce. It's worked better when we've gotten a sitter and just my wife and I go to a game.
BaltJohn - so many questions! Yes, I think rather than label MacPhail as "cheap" it's more accurate to say he follows the payroll he's told to follow. Will that be enough here? I don't know. We've got the Yankees and Sox in our division, so we have to be smart (they both are) and lucky. I'm not an Angelos fan for all the meddling, but I suspect if you sum up his years he hasn't turned a profit (big payrolls in 90's, average ones for most of the 00's, now a bit low). What you can say is that the franchise value has grown, and he hasn't sold - perhaps to keep the Orioles in the hands of a Baltimore resident who won't threaten to move them.
ocj...Johnny Damon? What? I don't even know you anymore....
that's like, way totally crazier than my Casey Blake suggestion. Way totally more crazier. Casey can play every position. He can probably work the scoreboard and play the "clap clap clapclapclap" giant Mickey hands between innings, too. AND find time to double as Dustin Diamond when he's in full-beard season.
Johnny Damon? Really? He's played 1B exactly 7 games. Next, you're going to bring up Dan Uggla as a relief pitcher ("What? He's thrown a baseball before, that's what pitchers DO! Ergo, he can totally do that!"), aren't you?
Really good show with you and Jim last night!!
I enjoyed your harping on Andy (I call him Lee's Son around here ;-) ) about Tejada and Bedard very much.
The interview with Matusz was also great. I especially enjoyed his kind of aw shucks moment when ROY was mentioned.
I only have one complaint about the Hot stove show. Since I don't have cable or satellite, I don't care about it not being televised. I do think it should be on more than 1 hr. Having to hear Dan Patrick at 9pm was enough to make me turn the radio off and look for the slim pickings I have on TV.
Two hours would be so much better.