CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Conspiracy theories are everywhere. From the elaborate government plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy to UFOs landing at Area 51 to suspicions of Paul McCartney's death, people are always trying to invent ways of explaining events. Sometimes, they even invent the events themselves.So, why should Ryan Howard's arbitration case be any different?
Shortly after yesterday's verdict that Howard had won a record $10 million award in his contract stalemate with the Phillies, the conspiracy theorists got busy. Howard's hearing was the sixth of 2008, and the owners had won the previous five, defeating infielders Felipe Lopez (Nationals) and Mark Loretta (Astros) and pitchers Brian Fuentes (Rockies), Jose Valverde (Astros) and Chien-Ming Wang (Yankees). The arbiters are appointed by mutual agreement between MLB and the Players' Association, and in Oliver Stone-like fashion, the idea has been floated that the arbiters feared a clean sweep in the owners' favor would result in the Players' Association pushing to have them dismissed. So, in order to keep their jobs, the arbiters sided with Howard.
Believe that? Me neither. Well, not entirely.
But nearly everyone I've spoken to around baseball is positively shocked by the Howard verdict. And you can bet that Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and other young players across the sports are rejoicing today. Their arbitration price tag just went up. Way up.
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In on-field news (yes, there's actually some baseball being played here), Charlie Manuel has been impressed with Kris Benson's progress. After seeing Benson throw twice from a mound, Manuel said, "He's starting to come on. He's taken a couple big steps the last couple days. When he's ready, we'll definitely use him."
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Carlos Beltran admits he plagiarized Jimmy Rollins.
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The past few days have featured my favorite drill of the early spring workouts: Pitchers vs. hitters in live batting practice. At what other time do you get to see Tom Gordon pitching to Rollins, Cole Hamels facing Howard or Carlos Carrasco vs. Chase Utley? It's certainly more intriguing than pitchers fielding practice (PFP, for short) or mind-numbing base running drills.
2 comments:
Any interesting tidbits about live batting practice?
Anon: The best matchup today came when Cole Hamels faced Chase Utley, Pat Burrell and Greg Dobbs. Generally, pitchers are ahead of hitters at this point in spring training. Many hitters have told me they hate the live BP drill. They'd much rather hit regular BP pitching. But I think live BP sharpens them up for when the Grapefruit League games start.
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