(Not Too Much) Fun in the Sun

post from ChicagoCubsOnline.com on 29 February 2008 11:00:00 PM. © ChicagoCubsOnline.com

Spring Training Game Two - Cubs 6 Giants (ss) 8
WP - Vinnie Chulk (1-0) LP - Les Walrond (0-1, BS 1) Save - Sergio Romo (1)

A day after an impressive offensive output in Scottsdale, the Cubs dropped their Cactus League home opener against a Giants split squad. As with all Spring Training games the final score is a mere technicality and is not a good way to judge the play on the field. It is the performances and execution of the players that will be with the Cubs come Opening Day that is important.

Carlos Zambrano and Rich Hill both had productive outings. Zambrano allowed a run on 2 hits with 2 strikeouts in his 2 innings of work. His error and wild pitch in the 1st inning led to an unearned run. Hill gave up a run on 3 hits in 2 innings with 3 strikeouts. Both pitchers threw better in their second inning of work. Five of the Giants' eight runs were scored off of Shingo Takatsu and Les Walrond, two pitchers that will likely not be with the Cubs 25-man roster on March 31st.

Kosuke Fukudome continued clogging the bases. He walked twice, scored 2 runs and lined out hard to center in his third trip to the plate. Mike Fontenot continued to impress on Friday. His ground rule double over the centerfield wall scored a run in the 1st and he walked in his other two at bats. Alex Cintron was 2-for-2 with 2 RBI's.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Chicagocubsonlinecom/~3/243691974/2008springame2.p
hp

Digg this

Chicago White Sox Man of Mystery: Alexei Ramirez

post from Center of the Diamond on 29 February 2008 10:31:00 PM. © Center of the Diamond

Read The Full Article:
http://centerofthediamond.blogspot.com/2008/02/chicago-white-sox-man-of-mystery-a
lexei.html

Digg this

Hank Steinbrenner goes all Darth Vader

post from Rangerfans.com on 29 February 2008 09:55:00 PM. © Rangerfans.com

In a quite from Hank Steinbrenner that looks right out of the late 70's/early 80's George Steinbrenner playbook, Hank appears to have mouthed off pretty well. This sounds a lot like all the stuff the Daddy George used to say 25-30 years ago.

What do you think of this? Kind of makes me think that the more they mouth off, the bigger the fall there will be.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.rangerfans.com/archives/2008/02/hank_steinbrenner_goes_all_dar.html

Digg this

Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello Impress In Tigers
Third Straight Spring Win

post from TigerBlog on 29 February 2008 09:17:47 PM. © TigerBlog

I finally splurged and picked up the MLB.TV premium package. I’m watching the Red Sox/Twins game on my desktop computer right now while I write on the laptop. Very nice and this game doesn’t even have the premium feed.Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello both threw two shutout innings as the Tigers took another spring training [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.tigerblog.net/justin-verlander-rick-porcello-impress-in-tigers-third-s
traight-spring-win/

Digg this

Federal judge to Barry Bonds prosecutors: Try
again; 2003 grand jury testimony also unsealed (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 29 February 2008 09:15:48 PM. © MLB News Blog

A federal judge told prosecutors Friday to redraft their indictment of Barry Bonds and made public his grand jury testimony, revealing a previously unpublicized drug test from seven years ago that showed an elevated testosterone level. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston ordered prosecutors to amend Bonds’ indictment so that each of the five counts [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://mlbnewsblog.com/2008/02/29/federal-judge-to-barry-bonds%e2%80%99-prosecuto
rs-try-again-2003-grand-jury-testimony-also-unsealed-ap/

Digg this

Johan Santana and Erik Bedard touched up in
debuts for new teams (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 29 February 2008 08:25:53 PM. © MLB News Blog

Johan Santana and Erik Bedard definitely showed something in their debuts for new teams: Even baseball’s best pitchers need time to tune up in spring training. Acquired in a blockbuster trade this offseason, Santana gave up a three-run homer to Juan Gonzalez in the first inning of his first start with the Mets on [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://mlbnewsblog.com/2008/02/29/johan-santana-and-erik-bedard-touched-up-in-deb
uts-for-new-teams-ap/

Digg this

Ahh... Braves Spring Baseball... in HD!

post from Talking Chop on 29 February 2008 08:07:22 PM. © Talking Chop

I got off work early, stopped by the deli and picked up a sandwich, got home and got comfy, and sat down to watch the Braves and Dodgers go at it on ESPNHD (I had recorded it from earlier in the day). Let me just say that baseball in HD looks AWESOME!

We didn't get to hear Joe Morgan doing the color commentary for ESPN, so sad. The announcers were the always-monotone Gary Thorne with John Kruk and Steve Phillips (meh). Those two have some good things to say as well as some stupid stuff, but with the ESPN requirement that all their announcers fill every available moment of air time with chatter it's got to be tough to constantly come up with interesting stuff to say. (Say, could that be Morgan's problem? Nah.)

Jair Jurrjens started the game for the Braves and looked pretty good. I liked seeing how he kept most every pitch down in the zone, and when he missed with a pitch he usually missed low. The only high pitch I noticed from him was a 94 MPH heater at the shoulders that got a swing and a miss (from Repko, I think). Jurrjens got into some two-out trouble in the first inning after an infield single to the hole between short and third. He seemed to lose his concentration with a runner on base and allowed a stolen base then a walk. The other LaRoche then came up and smacked a hanger to deep center for a grounds rule double. Jurrjens showed a bit of his youth by letting the first get out of hand with two outs, but he came back in the second inning and looked solid.

In the third inning Javy Lopez took a 1-0 pitch on the outside corner and pulled it over the right field fence for a two-run homerun in his first at-bat. The pitch was a lazy 82 MPH and looked to be a hanging breaking ball - Javy really tagged it.

Gammons interviewed Cox in the top of the fourth, and Cox said that Mike Gonzalez was ahead of schedule in his rehab and set to return on June 1st - good news.

Jeff Francoeur had an opposite field run scoring single in the fourth - very good to see Frenchy hitting the ball where it's pitched and going the other way to drive in runs.

The top of the fifth got a bit messy. Brandon Jones misplayed a ball on a sinking fly ball (and then didn't really hustle after the ball to get it back into the infield). Javy Lopez threw a ball into centerfield on a double steal attempt when no infielder covered the base. The announcers thought it was probably a missed sign by Javy. The pitcher that inning was Peter Moylan, and he didn't look too sharp. He was topping out at 91 MPH, and last year he was topping out in the mid-90's. Perhaps it takes him longer in the spring to get up to full velocity.

In the bottom of the fifth it was the Braves turn to pick on the Dodgers mistakes and bad pitching. Jordan Schafer got an at-bat, and boy is he an aggressive. With him, Francoeur, and Escobar on the same team, games might take less than two hours. Joe Borchard had a nice opposite field double. I must say I like his approach at the plate. Amazingly, Scott Thorman drew two walks in the inning - that's how bad the Dodger pitching was in the fifth when the Braves batted around and scored seven runs.

A good game overall, even for this early in spring training. Kelly Johnson looks like he's ready for the season to start. Of course, Francoeur was ready a couple of weeks ago. Chipper had a bit of a target on him today with a ground ball off his chest and a dicey play on a throw in the dirt to him at third with the runner bearing down on him, but he seemed to escape unscathed. While Moylan looked a little shaky, the rest of the relievers competing for spots looked pretty good. Buddy Carlyle breezed through two innings of work, and Yates and Ohman pitched well. Damian Moss also had a pretty good inning of work.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Braves. Even though most of the regulars were out of the game by the fifth inning, I like seeing all the young rookies playing in Atlanta Braves uniforms (despite jersey numbers ranging into the 90's). Hopefully we'll get a few more televised games (in HD) before the end of spring.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.talkingchop.com/story/2008/2/29/20722/5284

Digg this

Screwed Up Indictment

post from Baseball Musings on 29 February 2008 07:20:00 PM. © Baseball Musings

Your tax dollars at work: A federal judge on Friday told the government to re-craft its perjury case against Barry Bonds, saying prosecutors had improperly lumped multiple alleged offenses into each of four counts of its indictment of the former...

Read The Full Article:
http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/025059.php

Digg this

P2 - Rationale behind the numbers

post from 2 Think Good - Bad Grammar, Worthy Goal on 29 February 2008 07:10:00 PM. © 2 Think Good - Bad Grammar, Worthy Goal

Hey don't all those highlighted amounts on your P&L Financial Statement mean you are guessing?

Yes.

But do me a favor, please print out the P&L and follow me here - it won't hurt.

Each of the amounts highlighted ties into the Forbes Total Revenue amount. So, the guess is about the breakdown of the highlighted amounts only. For example, if one of the estimates were changed to be $3 million higher, another one of the estimates would have to be lowered by $3 million. Within the highlighted amounts, it's a zero-sum game.

Think of this as a puzzle for which Forbes has already provided every key piece [Gate Receipts, Total Revenues, Total Player Expenses and Operating Income or Loss]. To the extent to which additional information can be uncovered, there is less which has to be guessed at or approximated to fill in the individual revenue items.

For example, there was a State of Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau review report released in 2004 [see page 6], which provided the MLB Central Fund revenues for 1998 through 2003.

For our purposes, the year 2005 was a very good year. Apparently due to the CBA negotiations ongoing in 2006, MLB Central Fund and Revenue Sharing amounts for 2005 were disclosed in various reports - see list of articles below. So the only guesses involved the Marlins Local Revenues. Using the USA Today 2001 forecasts for each revenue line item, allowed me to approximate the Local Revenues which tied into the Forbes Total Revenue amount. While their attendance has obviously been low, the Marlins have had good ratings for their local broadcasts and likely benefited from an aggressive Fox Sports regional sports network [RSN] efforts to acquire MLB broadcast rights and dissuade teams from setting up their own team-owned RSN.

Note re Revenue Sharing - In the world of MLB finances, Revenue Sharing [based on Local Media revenues] and Luxury [based on payroll] Taxes are all part of the revenues which are redistributed from one MLB team to another. I lump them together for convenience.

Those differ from MLB Central Fund revenues [National broadcast & cable contracts, MLB Advanced Media, merchandise, etc] which are derived from external sources and distributed equally among all the teams.

In the case of MLB Central Fund revenues, there is a strong basis to assume that each team's share has been growing consistently. Revenue Sharing amounts are the revenue item subject to the most fluctuation. Therefore, other than in 2005, I treated it as the last component and plugged the amount needed to match Forbes Total Revenues.

MLB Central Fund & Revenue Sharing info - NYT - Murray Chass

MLB Central Fund & Revenue Sharing info - WSJ - Stefan Fatsis

MLB Central Fund & Revenue Sharing info - NYT - Michael Lewis

MLB Yearly Attendance info - ESPN

MLB Yearly Major League Player Salaries info - USA Today

Read The Full Article:
http://www.2thinkgood.com/2008/04/q4-het-dont-all-those-green-lines-on.html

Digg this

P1 - Rationale behind the numbers

post from 2 think good - bad grammar, worthy goal on 29 February 2008 07:10:00 PM. © 2 think good - bad grammar, worthy goal

Hey don't those highlighted amounts on your P&L Financial Statement mean you are guessing?

Yes.

But do me a favor, please print out the P&L and follow me here - it won't hurt.

Each of the amounts highlighted ties into the Forbes Total Revenue amount. So, the guess is about the breakdown of the highlighted amounts only. For example, if one of the estimates were changed to be $3 million higher, another one of the estimates would have to be lowered by $3 million. Within the highlighted amounts, it's a zero-sum game.

Think of this as a puzzle for which Forbes has already provided every key piece [Gate Receipts, Total Revenues, Total Player Expenses and Operating Income or Loss]. To the extent to which additional information can be uncovered, there is less which has to be approximated to fill in the individual revenue items.

For example, there was a State of Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau review report released in 2004 [see page 7 of report], which provided the MLB Central Fund revenues for 1998 through 2003. In addition, Rob Manfred, chief labor executive for MLB, disclosed that the Marlins had received $41 million in Revenue Sharing monies across the two years ending in 2003.

For our purposes, the year 2005 was a very good year. Apparently due to the CBA negotiations ongoing in 2006, MLB Central Fund and Revenue Sharing amounts for 2005 were disclosed in various reports - see list of articles below. So the only guesses involved the Marlins Local Revenues. Using the USA Today 2001 forecasts for each revenue line item, allowed me to approximate the Local Revenues which tied into the Forbes Total Revenue amount. While their attendance has obviously been low, the Marlins have had good ratings for their local broadcasts and likely benefited from an aggressive Fox Sports regional sports network [RSN] efforts to acquire MLB broadcast rights and dissuade teams from setting up their own team-owned RSN.

Note re Revenue Sharing - In the world of MLB finances, Revenue Sharing [based on Local Media revenues] and Luxury [based on payroll] Taxes are all part of the revenues which are redistributed from one MLB team to another. I lump them together for convenience.

Those differ from MLB Central Fund revenues [National broadcast & cable contracts, MLB Advanced Media, merchandise, etc] which are derived from external sources and distributed equally among all the teams.

In the case of MLB Central Fund revenues, there is a strong basis to assume that each team's share has been growing consistently. Revenue Sharing amounts are the revenue item subject to the most fluctuation. Therefore, other than in 2005, I treated it as the last component and plugged the amount needed to match Forbes Total Revenues.