A broadcasting legend goes silent. A ballpark burns down. The debate over the Hall of Fame voting goes on. Free agency hits a snag.
Let's just go straight to the links.
Hall of Fame Padres broadcaster and former Yankees infielder Jerry Coleman died on Sunday. Coleman won the Ford C. Frick Award from the Hall of Fame in 2005 and was a middle infielder on the great Casey Stengel-led Yankees teams of the 1950s. He also served his country as a marine in both the Second World War and the Korean War.
I don't think that it's an overstatement to say that Coleman was the Padres' Ron Santo, although his playing career was in New York before the existence of the Padres. He did manage the Padres for one forgettable season. But he is perhaps best known as an announcer for his many malaprops, many of which have become part of baseball lore. You can find most of them online, but I'll just give you the one that is perhaps the most famous. "Dave Winfield goes back to the wall. He hits his head on the wall and it rolls off! It's rolling all the way back to second base! This is a terrible thing for the Padres." It wasn't real great for Dave, either.
In other sad news, a fire destroyed part of the stadium that houses the Midwest League West Michigan Whitecaps, who are the Tigers Low-A affiliate. The damage was extensive, but the team announced their intention to rebuild. Fire fighting efforts were hindered by a lack of hydrants near the ballpark.
Pretty soon all this Cooperstown nonsense will be behind us for another year. As he recalls both of their careers, Tim Kurkjian wants to see Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine go into the Hall of Fame together. I don't think there's much chance of that not happening, but if it doesn't, then the voting procedures are truly broken.
Tyler Kepner thinks the rule limiting the ballot to ten players needs to be eliminated. Although he's been a BBWAA member for over ten years, he's not allowed to vote because the New York Times has a policy against it. But he can influence what the BBWAA supports as an organization.
Jerry Crasnick looks at the plight of Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio, who have been kept out of Cooperstown because of rumors of PED use that are not backed up by any evidence. Crasnick clearly feels this whisper campaign is unfair and feels for the plight of these men.
David Schoenfield thinks that Hall of Fame voters should not hold the fact that they were mostly DHs against Frank Thomas and Edgar Martinez.
As far as the old guard's favorite candidate in Jack Morris, his former teammate Lou Whitaker says Morris "probably deserves" to go into Cooperstown. But it sure doesn't sound like he really meant it when he said "Jack Morris is no better than Alan Trammell-Lou Whitaker. If we didn't make the plays and we didn't come up with the big hits, Jack Morris wouldn't be where he was, or where he is." This is the anti-Morris argument in a nutshell. I've heard people argue that Morris should be elected because the '84 Tigers deserve a Hall of Famer other than Sparky Anderson. Well, what was stopping you from inducting Alan Trammell or even Lou Whitaker? (h/t CBS Sports)
Former Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Royals, Pirates, Red Sox (again), Cardinals, Brewers, Cardinals (again) and Padres pitcher Jeff Suppan has officially retired. Suppan last pitched in 2012.
Mike Oz says that Suppan can retire knowing that he was the 549th greatest pitcher in the history of the game. When you consider how many millions of people have played baseball throughout the past 150 years, that's actually pretty darn good.
Will Leitch has an appreciation of Suppan, noting that in his retirement announcement he said he had "squeezed everything out of my ability." As Leitch says, Suppan was never great and was only occasionally good. But he always showed up and did what he could with his modest talents.
Both Al and I discussed the new Phillies TV deal last week. Mark Townsend wonders if the Phillies will go on a spending spree with their new windfall.
Grant Brisbee thinks that the Phillies deal will turn the Atlanta Braves, with their poor, long-term TV contract, into the new Rays or Athletics. He notes that the current Braves payroll is roughly the same as it was back in 2000, despite 13 years of salary inflation.
Andrew Marchand also thinks the Mariners are the Yankees biggest competition for Masahiro Tanaka. The Yankees may have money and tradition, but the Mariners have geography and personal connections. They've also got a good amount of money as well.
James Loney finalized a three-year, $21 million deal with the Rays.
Signing Stephen Drew is a "possibility" and not a "probability" for the Mets.
The longer he doesn't sign with someone else, the more likely it is that Drew ends up back with the Red Sox.
Would Kendrys Morales be a good fit for the Royals?
In his ESPN insider column ($), Buster Olney says that the free agent compensation system needs to be fixed. Teams are simply unwilling to sacrifice a first round pick for a mid-level free agent.
Ken Rosenthal thinks we need to give the current system more time before declaring it broken, but he does think changing the system is inevitable. He also argues that the Angels are not going to be able to stay under the luxury tax cap in future years, so they might as well blow past it now.
Rosenthal also looks at the many unaddressed issues facing the Dodgers this off-season.
Reds GM Walt Jocketty confirms that that the team has "talked" to Grady Sizemore.
The Reds could re-sign Bronson Arroyo and trade Homer Bailey.
Tony Plush Nyjer Morgan wants to return to MLB after a season in Japan.
Andruw Jones also played last season in Japan, but is torn between playing another season there and attempting a comeback in MLB.
Joe Lemire makes ten predictions for the 2014 season. Angels fans will be very happy.
If you're as old as I am, or really just older than 14, you remember the promise that Rocco Baldelli had as a player. Now he's enjoying being a promising young executive in the Rays front office.
Just 18 months after he left Baseball Prospectus for a job in the Astros front office, Kevin Goldstein has been promoted to the Astros Director of Professional Scouting. So I'll guess we'll never know why his weird neighbors in DeKalb kept leaving mattresses out with the trash.
Finally, pitcher Collin McHugh writes an insightful piece on what it's like to be a fringe major leaguer. It really goes into the hardships that the players that bounce around go through. After being claimed on waivers, he now works for Goldstein's Astros, his third organization in six months. A must read, really.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.