Today, I officially became a Brad Penny fan.

I began to like him a few years ago when he offered a Marlins batboy $500 to drink a gallon of milk in an hour without vomiting. When the Marlins fired the batboy, Penny gave the kid a week's worth of his salary (almost $100,000).

It also doesn't hurt that he's a pretty good pitcher or (as shown above) hangs out with Eliza Dushku.

But, today, I read a little article on the Dodgers' site about Penny warming up with a fan in the stands the other day. How cool is that?!

MLB needs more guys like Brad Penny...

Update! Below my predictions, I added my dad's picks too. He did them before the season started, I just wasn't able to get them up sooner because I was on vacation...

It’s that time of year! With only a few days until Opening Day (for most teams, at least), it’s time to put my money where my mouth is … time for some 2008 predictions. These have become an annual event here at StopTheWave, and this year is no exception. So, without further ado, here are my official predictions for how the season will end up.

AL East
Boston
New York
Tampa Bay
Toronto
Baltimore

Even with Curt Schilling on the shelf, Boston is just loaded and I expect them to repeat as AL East champions. However, subtle differences fill out the rest of the division, as I see 2008 as the year the Yankees miss the playoffs for the first time since 1993 and the Rays, with their new name, will finally finish over .500 and begin a stretch of officially making the East a three-team race. Toronto is a good team and could win a few other divisions, but a few too many injury concerns have me thinking they’re going to be disappointed up in Canada. And Baltimore … well, as much as I miss Adam Jones and George Sherrill, they’re in for a loooong season!

AL Central
Cleveland
Detroit*
Minnesota
Chicago
Kansas City


After making huge splashes in the offseason by trading for Edgar Renteria, Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, the Tigers are going to be the popular pick in the Central. However, Cleveland didn’t get any worse — and remember, they won 96 games last year! Chicago’s talking the talk — and while I love the addition of Nick Swisher — I don’t think they can walk the walk. So, Minnesota is the default choice for third, despite losing the best pitcher in the game. Things are looking up in Kansas City, but they’re not there yet.

AL West
Seattle
Anaheim
Texas
Oakland

Call me an optimist, call me a homer but, yes, I’m picking the hometown nine to finish first in the West. However, I still think they’ll be lucky to win 90 games. The division is weak at the top, but actually strong at the bottom. I think there will be the smallest difference between the first-place team and the last-place team. Part of that, of course, has to do with the fact that there are only four teams in the division. But it’s also due to the fact that Oakland, despite having a bit of a fire sale, is still pretty good and pretty underrated. But, back to picking Seattle to win the division — does it really matter? Let’s get serious … they’re not in the same division as Boston, Cleveland or Detroit.

NL East
New York
Atlanta*
Philadelphia
Florida
Washington

Talk about top heavy! The NL East has three good teams at the top with two very bad teams at the bottom. After getting Johan Santana, the Mets are the favorites, and rightly so. Most people will probably pick the Phillies to finish second but, top to bottom, I actually like Atlanta a little better. I hope fans in Washington like the new stadium, because there aren’t a lot of other reasons to come to the ballpark out there.

NL Central
Chicago
Milwaukee
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Houston
Pittsburgh

The Cubs are looking solid. I think Kosuke Fukudome is going to be great and I’m excited to see Rich Hill’s second full season. Milwaukee is just brimming with young talent, but the fragility of the starting rotation makes me think they’ll be golfing in October. The Reds could really surprise some people this year. With Johnny Cueto and Edison Volquez in the rotation, they’ve got some firepower on the hill that should be a lot of fun to watch. They need to wise up and get Jay Bruce in the lineup ASAP. St. Louis and Houston’s on their way down and Pittsburgh’s on the way up, but that’s how I think the bottom half of the Central will finish up.

NL West
Arizona
Los Angeles
Colorado
San Diego
San Francisco

The only thing easy about predicting how this division will finish is putting the Giants in the cellar. Despite being outscored last year, I think the Diamondbacks are for real. The young lineup is exciting and the acquisition of Dan Haren will help Brandon Webb anchor a solid rotation. Colorado, Los Angeles and San Diego could all finish second and it really seems like a coin toss at this point. Seriously … flip a coin. This is going to be a very exciting division and will promise to be a nail-biter that goes down to the wire again!

World Series: Boston Red Sox defeat New York Mets in 7 games.

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera
NL MVP: Mark Teixeira
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana
AL ROY: Daric Barton
NL ROY: Kosuke Fukudome

Bill's picks

AL East
Boston
New York
Toronto
Tampa Bay
Baltimore

AL Central
Detroit
Cleveland*
Chicago
Minnesota
Kansas City

AL West
Anaheim
Seattle
Oakland
Texas

NL East
New York
Philadelphia
Atlanta
Washington
Florida

NL Central
Chicago
St. Louis
Cincinnati
Milwaukee
Houston
Pittsburgh

NL West
Arizona
Los Angeles*
Colorado
San Diego
San Francisco

World Series: Detroit over Los Angeles

This is just pathetic...

Baseball is baaaaaack! Watch a little bit…

A spring training report on Joba Chamberlain


The top collegiate pitcher in this year’s draft is San Diego’s Brian Matusz. Here’s some footage of him warming up…


BONUS: A view from the other side! I’m not in love with his delivery, but you can’t argue with the results…


Ichiro pitching in the Japanese All-Star Game in 1996! There’s a good chance I’ve posted this before, but who’s complaining?

D’oh! Just realized the YouTube poster disabled embedding the video. Oh well, go here and watch it anyway. It’s worth it!

Tom Green at a baseball game, doing what he does best…playing dumb and acting like a jackass!


I learned from reading the awesome book, “Andy Roddick Beat Me With A Frying Pan,” that there are “pro” wiffle ball leagues out there and that the players are extremely skilled. Here’s some video to prove it…


God Bless Geoff Baker. His daily “Sights and Sounds” YouTube posts showing what’s going on at Mariners camp have been such an awesome addition. Here's some footage of the infielders doing a pop up drill. If only he could send some of the nice weather up this way…

Want to be a scout for the Cardinals? Click here!

Paul Atkinson / NPR.org

NPR did an awesome interview with the Mariners' Rule 5 selection, R.A. Dickey. Check it out, it's really interesting!

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.