http://tourforthecure.org/

Think Danny Haren pitched a good game against the M's yesterday? Give him a present! http://www.crateandbarrel.com/gr/guest/viewRegistry.aspx?grid=805394 I wonder if you buy him a gift, if he'll send you a thank you note... Also, please note that I'm posting on my new MacBook for the first time (Yay!), and it's not letting me make links like I used to...hence, the big URL in the post. I'll have to tinker with this...

Ugh...sorry there haven't been any posts lately. I've been busy painting, moving and writing thank you notes. Hopefully I'll be back to reading, writing and playing video games soon!

I’m really tired from my trip and all the craziness that’s happened lately, but I just wanted to get a quick post up to let everyone know that…I’m alive! Not only am I still alive, but I’m now a married man with a nice little tan from Kauai. Life is good right now, but I’m exhausted from the trip and posting might still be a little sparse around here for the next few weeks. The new Mrs. Glassey and I are moving into our new condo, so that will be taking up a bunch of time. However, I’ll be able to post here and there and once we get everything set up, it will be much more regular (I can’t wait!!). I love writing here and if you enjoy reading this little blog, keep checking back…I won’t fade away, I promise.

 

I have the Home Run Derby, All Star Game and Futures Game waiting for me on my TiVo, so hopefully I’ll get to watch those soon. I’m going to the Aquasox on Thursday and hopefully a M’s/Red Sox game this weekend (Saturday?).

 

I seriously don’t feel like blabbing about all the other stuff that happened while I was gone, so I’ll just make a quick little list…

 

-The Reds got robbed. Seriously, they should be embarrassed. Oh, and Jonah Keri's the man...but that's not news!

- My man Doug Fister is still pitching well. Though, he's been pitching out of relief now, which bothers me. But, another Fister gush-fest is probably on the way!

- I’m about halfway through Sam Walker’s Fantasyland and it’s fantastic! I really can’t wait for August’s book club with Deanna and friends! Yay!

- Speaking of fantasy baseball…my team sucks. Boo!

-When is Hargrove going to get fired? It sounds like I missed some awful games during my vacation and I almost intentionally swerved into oncoming traffic today when he let Bloomquist make the final out of the game, as the potential go-ahead run, with his All-Star second baseman on the bench! Seriously, I sounded like Ren yelling at Stimpy while listening to that crap. And is anything more annoying than listening to a Yankees radio broadcast? Barf.

*Around the M's blogosphere, everyone has already weighed in on the Eduardo Perez for Asdrubal Cabrera trade the M's made this morning. This is exactly the kind of move I was afraid Bavasi would make. Sure, it makes the big club better right now. But, it also sacrifices the future (and you know how much the M's love those sacrifices!). Bavasi knows he could be canned this winter if the M's finish with a losing record for the third year in a row and I really didn’t want to see him make a move like this. So, I'm really torn on this one. I love it because maybe, just maybe, the M's can squeak into the playoffs - at which point anything can happen. But I hate it because I think it's a tad irresponsible. Sure, with the awesome middle-infield combo of YuBet and J-Lo, Cabrera was blocked for the time being. But, heaven forbid, what if either of them gets hurt in the near future? Who plays shortstop in their absence? Mike Morse? Willie Bloomquist? Barf! Depth isn't a bad thing. Let's just hope Bavasi doesn't any more of these up his sleeve. </rant>

 

*Anyway…I was bummed all day about that deal, but the move that really got my attention was that the Padres hired Paul DePodesta as a special assistant. This squashes my attempt at writing parody lyrics to the tune of "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" because I was wondering why DePo went unemployed for so long. According to this article, it sounds like he enjoyed it though...

 

For the better part of Paul DePodesta's adult life, the 7 p.m. hour meant it was five minutes from first pitch. These days, that's bathing time for his 2-year-old son and 5-month-old daughter, and DePodesta is happy to spend the time with his family in their Los Angeles home.

...He just enjoys the extended time he's spending with his family, because the hours required to run a baseball club made that so difficult in the past.

...and is happy to do some volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity in the greater Los Angeles area, doing mostly construction.

About once a week, DePodesta hammers nails, pours concrete, puts up dry wall, or "whatever else they tell me to do."

Nobody around him knows he used to run the Dodgers.

"I'm just like anybody else," DePodesta said by telephone from Los Angeles. "Just another guy wearing a baseball hat and safety goggles." 

 

But, seriously, having Kevin Towers, Sandy Alderson, Grady Fuson and Paul DePodesta in the same front office? That's just not fair!

 

*Tomorrow I'm going to Spokane for the weekend for my bachelor party. I'm bummed I had to miss the SABR convention in Seattle, but I'll be having a blast, hanging with my friends, playing some golf and watching my favorite band (Gatsby's American Dream) play a show. I'm getting married next Saturday (!) and then going on my honeymoon to Kauai. So, if I don't post too much during the next couple weeks, that's why...

 

Go Mariners!

Now that Felix has graduated, I have a new favorite pitching prospect in the M's system...

The M's 7th-round pick this year out of Fresno State, Doug Fister.

Fister was awesome (again!) in his second start of the season. Facing the Yakima Bears, the big righty went 5 innings, giving up 5 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), striking out 3 and walking 1. It doesn’t look like a dominating performance until you see his GB/FB ratio: 13/2!! Although we’re still dealing with a small sample size, Fister looks to be a groundball machine. Here is his line for the season…

 

GS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	GB/FB	ERA
2	10	5	2	1	1	12	0	4.50	0.90

 

I hope I get to see Fister in Everett, but he might not be there much longer if he continues to just dominate like this!

Dodgers GM Ned Colletti got absolutely worked by Tampa Bay’s Andrew Friedman yesterday.

 

Which pitcher would you rather have?

A) A 32-year-old lefty (6’9”, 230 lbs.) with a 4.52 K/9, 2.57 BB/9 and a 1.30 GB/FB over the past three seasons. His salary is $1.95 million.

B) A 29-year-old righty (6’0”, 228 lbs.) with a 5.24 K/9, 2.94 BB/9 and a 0.94 GB/FB over the past three seasons. His salary is $350,000.

 

How about this one…

Which catcher would you rather have?

A) A 30-year-old currently hitting .231/.261/.398 from the right-side of the plate while making $2.25 million.

B) A 22-year-old switch hitter making close to the minimum and currently hitting .280/.372/.387, but projects for more power.

 

You’d choose Player B both times, right? Not if you’re Ned Colletti, who traded Jae Seo, Dioner Navarro AND a player to be named later to Tampa Bay for Mark Hendrickson, Toby Hall and $1 million. Big props to Friedman on this one…another very shrewd move by the young GM. Talk about buying low on Jae Seo and selling high on Hendrickson. Hey...maybe he just hates players from Washington (Hendrickson is from Mount Vernon and went to WSU, and Hall was born in Tacoma)!

 

Colletti hasn’t impressed me so far at all. Sure, acquiring Seo from the Mets in the first place was a good deal. The Milton Bradley trade is probably a coin flip at this point, dealing Edwin Jackson and Chuck Tiffany for Danys Baez and Lance Carter was a bad decision and this is even worse.

Today the Mariners signed this guy...

I think he needs a new hat.

I know this isn't exactly news, as people were talking about it a week ago. But, I finally got around to reading the article about the Rockies using video iPods so that their players can watch video of their swings or opposing pitchers anytime, anywhere, and it's really cool. It was also encouraging to see that the Mariners were one of the teams (along with the Marlins) that contacted the Rockies about doing this as well.

Brian Jones is the Rockies' assistant video coordinator. He said in the article, "We're always trying to figure out the easiest way to help our players." That's awesome. The Rockies aren't only using them for players, either. General Manager, Dan O'Dowd has one, as do other guys in the front office.

Colorado's minor league hitting coordinator, Jimmy Johnson, has an iPod filled with video of players in the farm system. If a player is struggling, Johnson can compare his swing from the past with his current swing, and fix it accordingly.

The iPods came in handy before June's baseball draft, too.

"That way the scouts could compare a prospective draft pick in North Carolina with one in California," Hamilton said. "You'd have a real good comparison. The game is so visual now. This helps."

What a great idea!

                                                                                                from collegian.csufresno.edu

Doug Fister, the M's 7th round pick out of Fresno State, pitched very well in his Everett debut tonight against the Tri-Cities Dust Devils. The 6'8" righty went 5 innings, allowed only one hitter to reach base (on error!), struck out NINE and had a GB/FB ratio of 2.5:1. I don't know what his GB numbers looked like in college, but this will certainly be something to track!