Today's links were compiled while eating eggs and hash browns at the most beautiful restaurant in the world …
•
This business will get out of control. It will get
out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.
• By the time you read
this, the news may have been superseded already. But I can't say I'm surprised that the Red Sox dropped out of the
Mark Teixeira sweepstakes. The Red Sox obviously wanted Teixeira; with the exception of the Cardinals and a few other clubs, who wouldn't? But they don't
need Teixeira, and, in fact, if they sign Teixeira they'll actually have a bit of a problem -- trading
Mike Lowell -- on their hands. The Angels, on the other hand, do sort of need Teixeira. Remember how lame their lineup looked before they got him? I have to think the front office remembers even better.
• Then again, maybe the Red Sox haven't
really dropped out. As Adam Kilgore points out in the Boston Globe, John Henry might simply be
calling one of Scott Boras' famous bluffs. The Red Sox reportedly offered eight years and $184 million ($23 million per season). It's not hard to imagine Boras telling the Sox that another team offered $200 million, and that Teixeira would love to play for the Red Sox but only if they match that higher offer. It's not hard to imagine Boras doing this, even if that $200 million offer doesn't actually exist.
• Joe Sheehan's absolutely right about the BBWAA and the Hall of Fame: the system's broken but it
wouldn't be all that hard to fix. All you have to do is change the process and educate the voters. The former really isn't so complicated. Instead of a five-year waiting period and 15 years of eligibility, Joe suggests three years and seven years (I might suggest four and eight, but that's probably just the contrarian in me). The latter -- the education -- is a bit trickier, because it depends on how you define "educate." But I would send each voter a packet of materials that included, for each candidate, home/road splits and a list of statistically similar players.
•
Lance Niekro -- son of
Joe, nephew of
Phil -- is going to attempt a comeback next spring, at 30,
as a knuckleball pitcher. As the piece notes, "Phil and Joe Niekro had their best seasons in their 30s." I'm not sure if that's relevant, though. Phil and Joe had been throwing their knuckleballs, many thousands of them probably, since they were teenagers. That's a
lot of muscle memory that Lance doesn't have, but probably needs.
• Since the publication of
Moneyball, walks are down. You got that?
Down. Just one of the many fascinating nuggets in
Posnanski's latest opus (which I urge all of you -- and especially all of you who have Hall of Fame ballots in your hands right now, just like Joe -- to read in full).
• I'll send you out today with yet another
Cardboard Gods gutshot. Excelsior!
Rob Neyer
