From ESPN.com ...

An arrest warrant has been issued by the Irvine Police Department for St. Louis Cardinals utilityman Scott Spiezio on six charges stemming from a crash in late December.

The warrant alleges driving under influence, driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or more, hit and run, aggravated assault, assault and battery.

Yikes!

Irvine police responded to a report of a single-car crash at 12:20 a.m. on Dec. 30 in Orange County.

Officers found a 2004 BMW registered to Spiezio had crashed into a curb and fence. The driver was seen running from the crash site, according to Lt. Rick Handfield.
Can’t fault the guy too much ... baseball players are taught to run after they hit things.

Police located a neighbor of Spiezio who told officers that he was assaulted by Spiezio at their condo complex a short distance from the crash site, Handfield said.

The neighbor said Spiezio had arrived home appearing disheveled and apparently injured. Spiezio vomited in his condo and then allegedly assaulted the neighbor, causing significant injuries, Handfield said.

Classy.

Spiezio missed more than a month last season while receiving treatment for substance abuse.

"I was out of control for a while," he said in September. "I learned a lot and I'm ready to start contributing in a good way now."

At the time, Spiezio said he'd been struggling with substance abuse for six or seven months, although he wouldn't disclose the substance, saying, "I'll save that for the book."

Please don’t.

The debate continues over whether Roger Clemens was at a party at Jose Canseco's house in June of 1998. Here's an interesting tidbit from the NY Daily News...

The Daily News has learned that in the days since the Feb. 13 public hearing on steroids in baseball, another major leaguer has informed congressional investigators that Clemens often joked in the clubhouse about a memorable account of the party - a scene in which Debbie Clemens and Canseco’s ex-wife Jessica compared the results of their surgical breast enhancements.

I wonder if Roger and Jose were comparing the size of their shrunken testicles...

Baseball is back! While Major Leaguers are fielding bunts, running laps and spitting out cliché after cliché about the upcoming season, this weekend college baseball players began playing games that count. Here are some of the players who had the best opening weekend…

Hitters
Albie Goulder – Louisianna Tech: .556/.667/1.333 over 9 AB, 1 2B, 2 HR, 1 SB
Cody Overbeck – Ole Miss: .500/.563/1.333 over 12 AB, 1 2B, 3 HR
Mike McGee – Florida State: .727/.769/1.273 over 11 AB, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR
Brett Wallace – Arizona State: .417/.533/1.167 over 12 AB, 3 HR, 9 RBI
Dustin Ackley – North Carolina: .714/.750/1.428 over 14 AB, 1 2B, 3 HR

Pitchers
Tanner Scheppers – Fresno State: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 10 K, 0 BB, 0.00 ERA, 1 W
Lance Lynn– Ole Miss: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 12 K, 0 BB, 0.00 ERA, 1 W
Kendal Volz – Baylor: 8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 10 K, 2 BB, 0.00 ERA, 1 W
Andrew Liebel – LBSU: 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 11 K, 1 BB, 0.00 ERA, No Decision
Anthony Shawler – Old Dominion: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 10 K, 2 BB, 0.00 ERA, 1 W

No time for an intro. Enjoy the videos, have a good weekend and call someone just to tell them that you love them.

Kyle Kendrick getting tricked into thinking he got traded to Japan…


Bonus: Kendrick on The Today Show the following day…


My boy, Carlos Triunfel. I wish YouTube had some footage of him hitting, though.


Jake McGee & Chris Mason at Rays camp…


Some high school kids having fun during a rain delay…


MLB 2K8 comes out in a couple weeks and I CAN’T WAIT!!

ProjectProspect.com is a site dedicated to...you guessed it...baseball prospects. The founder of the site, Adam Foster, interned for Baseball America and I like reading their content. Those guys put in a lot of hard work and churn out some good material.

They just released their Top 150 prospect list and, while I have some minor quibbles like Ian Kennedy and Aaron Laffey being ranked too high and Taylor Teagarden being too low, my biggest beef as a Mariners fan is Carlos Triunfel is ranked all the way down at number 80.

I’ve been voicing my disapproval of the ranking on ProjectProspect’s message board, but haven’t been able to sway anyone’s opinion. Here’s the case I’ve been making…

I always find it interesting to see where Triunfel ranks on prospect lists compared to other teenage SS/3B like Mike Moustakas, Josh Vitters and Angel Villalona. ProjectProspect ranked Moustakas 25th, Villalona was 29th, Vitters was at 32 and then Triunfel was all the way down at 80, behind guys like Greg Reynolds, James Simmons, Nick Weglarz and Sean O’Sullivan. I don’t understand why Triunfel is so low.

Let’s look at Moustakas, Vitters, Villalona and Triunfel, side-by-side…

Player: Age, B/T, Height, Weight
Moustakas: 19.4, L/R, 6-0, 195
Vitters: 18.4, R/R, 6-3, 195
Villalona: 17.5, R/R, 6-3, 210
Triunfel: 17.9, R/R, 5-11, 180

Now, let's see how they performed last year...
Moustakas: .293/.383/.439 over 41 ABs in Rookie ball
Vitters: .118/.164/.118 over 51 AB in Rookie/SS
Villalona: .278/.338/.434 in 212 ABs (200 in Rookie ball)
Triunfel: .296/.333/.367 over 371 ABs split between A/A+

Vitters, Moustakas and Villalona are already at third base, where Triunfel will probably end up. Villalona, with his body, will almost certainly move across the diamond to first base and some have said Moustakas will be moved to second base (because of Alex Gordon), but I think his lower half is just too thick. So, why does Triunfel get knocked so badly? Why is there such a huge difference between him and the grouping of Moustakas, Vitters and Villalona? A lot is made of the fact that Triunfel didn't hit any HRs last year, but…guess what...neither did Moustakas or Vitters.

Villalona didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball. His line of .278/.338/.434 is solid for a stateside debut, but it’s not eye popping. He hit five home runs in rookie ball. It doesn’t make your jaw drop and granted, there's no way to prove such a thing, but I would bet that Triunfel would have hit better than Villalona had he played in rookie ball all year.

But he didn’t.

If Triunfel were born in the US, he would be a high school senior this year. Think about that for a minute. The fact that Triunfel even held his own as a 17-year-old in the Cal League is outstanding. Especially considering the M’s promoted him after coming off the DL when he broke his thumb in the Midwest League. When a kid is 17 years old in High A, you have to look past the numbers a little bit. A 17-year-old even reaching High A is rare. How rare? Good question…

Since 1992 (as far back as Baseball-Reference minor league data goes), there have been only six 17-year-olds to get more than 50 ABs in High A (Cal League, Carolina League, Florida State League): Triunfel, Fernando Martinez, Derrek Lee, Adrian Beltre, Karim Garcia and some guy named Joandry Berroa. Lee and Beltre have been very good Major Leaguers, F-Mart's a top prospect, Garcia was a bust, but was a top prospect and Berroa must have been just minor-league filler, as he only played one season.

How did they do?

Triunfel: .288/.333/.356 over 208 ABs
Martinez: .193/.254/.387 over 119 ABs
Lee: .274/.361/.411 over 71 ABs
Beltre: .261/.315/.450 over 238 ABs
Garcia: .241/.298/.448 over 460 ABs
Berroa: .231/.266/.279 over 251 ABs

Of that group, Triunfel had the best batting average and the second-best on-base percentage. Others had a better slugging percentage, but, like I said, I’m not concerned about Triunfel’s (lack of) power. It will come. Power is typically the last tool to develop for hitters, so the fact that Triunfel didn’t go deep seems to be nitpicking. When Miguel Cabrera was 17 he was hitting .259/.326/.347 in rookie ball and low A. When he was 18, he hit just .268/.327/.382 in the Midwest League.

ProjectProspect’s ranking of Carlos Triunfel as the 80th-best prospect is way too low and he’s going to make them regret it. Kevin Goldstein’s list at Baseball Prospectus is the next lowest I’ve seen Triunfel — and he was still 55th. The highest I’ve seen is Keith Law’s list at ESPN.com where Triunfel was ranked 18th. While I’m not 100% sure how I would rank Triunfel in comparison to Moustakas, Vitters and Villalona, he certainly deserves to be in the same sentence.

I updated my StopTheWave store last night. Check out the new merch — there's some good looking stuff, just in time for baseball season!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a YouTube post, but it’s Friday and pitchers and catchers are in Arizona and Florida, so I thought it would be a perfect time to pick up where we left off...

Here’s Geoff Baker’s video of parts of Erik Bedard’s press conference.


Here’s some cool footage of Kaz Sasaki facing Cecil Fielder back in 1992.


Eric Hosmer is one of the best, if not the best, high school hitter in this year’s draft. Here he is belting a home run last year.


Here’s Matt Tuiasosopo in the Arizona Fall League.


And, finally, here is a funny glitch from the video game MLB 2K6...

Something struck me while driving home from work today, listening to MLB on XM. Check out these comparisons…

Which pitcher would you choose based on their three-year averages?
Pitcher A: 190 IP, 9.5 K%, 3 BB%, 47 GB%
Pitcher B: 222 IP, 12.4 K%, 8 BB%, 40 GB%

Pitcher A is 29 years old and Pitcher B is 33. I know it can be tough making a decision with only a snapshot of the two players’ stats, but it’s at least pretty close, right?

Well, their paychecks aren’t. Pitcher A is Carlos Silva, who the M’s signed to a 4-year deal worth $48 million and Pitcher B is Livan Hernandez who the Twins just signed for one year and $5 million.

Is anyone else out there surprised by how many players are without jobs just three days before pitchers and catchers are to report? Not just scrubs, either — there are some good guys still out there, former All-Stars, MVPs and Cy Young winners. While I’m not sure anyone’s going to take a chance on Barry Bonds, there are still plenty of players available that could help teams out without them having to worry that their multi-million-dollar investment might end up behind bars…
Here are some of the more notable names:

Position players
Jeff Cirillo
Tony Clark
Shawn Green
Corey Koskie
Kenny Lofton
Kevin Mench
Corey Patterson
Mike Piazza
Sammy Sosa
Shannon Stewart
Rondell White
Preston Wilson

Pitchers
Armando Benitez
Bartolo Colon
Josh Fogg
Freddy Garcia
Livan Hernandez
Byung-Hyun Kim
Kyle Lohse
Rodrigo Lopez
Jeff Weaver
Bob Wickman

Remind me again why Horacio Ramirez and Miguel Cairo have jobs…

Only a few days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training! I’m very excited for baseball season to get underway. Up until a few days ago, Erik Bedard was probably wondering whether he would be reporting to Florida or Arizona!

Because of the delay from when the trade talks started to when it was officially announced, we have all had a lot of time to ponder the Jones, et al for Bedard trade. What the hell took so long, anyway? I kept hoping that it would fall through for some reason, though I knew deep down I was probably kidding myself. During all this soul searching, I arrived at some clarity over the deal that I wish to share.

Lincoln has admittedly placed himself and Bavasi on the “hot seat” again this year. Which really means what? If they don’t win more than 88 games, they’ll fire themselves? There’s something to root for, eh? If I were making these types of decisions, I wouldn’t have traded Jones for Bedard straight up. I have been excited to see AJ roam the Mariners’ outfield full time for a while now. And then, the M’s also included Chris Tillman, Tony Butler, George Sherrill and Kam Mickolio. Unbelievable!

The Mariners’ front office has a self imposed pressure to win now and try to compete for the American League West title. Casual fans may endorse this policy, though gutting the farm system for two years service from a veteran pitcher cannot be in the best interests of the Mariners, from a long term perspective. That said, it logically follows that Lincoln and Bavasi are not in the best interest of the Mariners’ future. This “hot seat” mentality is stupid, plain and simple. Mariners’ management has been among the most inept, league wide. Are the Mariners better in 2008 because of the trade? Probably. But, I don’t believe mortgaging the future for a modest, at best, shot at success in the present was a wise decision. If this continues, the Mariners will continue to find themselves in a similar situation, but they need a front-office house cleaning to start over and begin doing things the right way. It will require a long term commitment to improve, and we must not fall prey to quick fixes.
-Bill Glassey