colin's intertube

God Bless America is Bud Selig's favorite song, therefore we have to endure it during Sunday Major League Baseball games. But...why do people feel the need to stand and put their hand over their heart? That's the national anthem that you do those things for. God Bless America is not the national anthem, it is a crappy generic patriotic song. Would you put your hand over your heart for "Proud To Be An American"? Or perhaps that stupid "America, Fuck Yeah!" song? Hmm, I think I will do just that, from now on.

Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon attacked General Manager Ed Wade, after Wade "was basically yelling and stuff".

Was he really yelling? Or just "basically" yelling? What does "basically yelling" mean, anyway? Chacon reminds me of the guy who bought my old cell phone on ebay, and later demanded a return because it "practically fell apart" when he took it out of the box. I allowed him to return the phone for a refund, and when it showed up, surprise surprise, it did not "practically" fall apart.

Shawn Chacon, you're a funny guy, and you have made my quotefile. Keep the exaggerations coming!

Last year, we had Jack Cust. This year, we have Russell Branyan. Who will be the next AAAA journeyman to put up All-Star numbers out of nowhere? The answer probably has more to do with opportunity than anything, but I stumbled across one guy who really looks the part. Brian Myrow is a 31-year-old first baseman (he can also play 3rd base and corner outfield) in the San Diego organization. He has only 30 career Major League at bats, but he has carried an OBP well over .400 over his AAA career, now spanning 4 seasons. He has some pop too, with a SLG over .500 in those seasons.

Certain AL teams are wasting hundreds of plate appearances on sub-.700 OPS designated hitters. There is no excuse for this when you have guys like Myrow waiting patiently in AAA. If San Diego isn't going to use this guy, someone can. A DH has one job, and that is to hit. Why, then, does Seattle continue to send Jose Vidro's .587 OPS out there every day? It would take a low-level prospect at best to land Myrow in a trade. Look at Branyan, he's been traded for cash, players to be named later (some of which were never even named!), and prospects with little-to-no hope of making it to the Majors. Come on, Mariners, all it would take is some A-ball relief pitcher, and a black hole in your lineup will be filled.

Now, about that Richie Sexson character...

With reports coming out that Seattle first baseman Richie Sexson will be released, and rumors swirling about Prince Fielder's future, an obvious solution appears to me.

You know where I'm going with this. Jeff Cirillo was a great Brewer in the late 90s. He had a few more good seasons in Colorado, then moved to Seattle and fell apart. A few years later, Cirillo comes back to Milwaukee. Career resurrected. Could the same happen to Richie Sexson? Maybe. The Brewers have a solid track record in recent years with reclamation projects. Cirillo, Doug Davis, Gabe Kapler, Jason Kendall, Brady Clark and Rick Helling were all players that everyone else had given up on. I don't know if its comfort. lower pressure, or just something in the water, but these types of players always seem to do well.

Prince Fielder is a great hitter, but he's also a Scott Boras client, and a likely DH candidate in the not-so-distant future. Since he's not likely to sign a Ryan Braun-like contract, and with the Brewers need for quality starting pitching (especially if they cannot re-sign Ben Sheets), trading Fielder to an AL team doesn't seem like such a bad idea. If Sexson can come anywhere near what he was doing two years ago, we lose very little production. If he continues to struggle...well, at least its an easy position to fill. I have little doubt that Mat Gamel or Matt LaPorta could handle first base at a Major League level. Russell Branyan, Joe Dillon, and countless AAAA power hitters are deserving of playing time.

Obviously, trading Fielder based on an assumption that Richie Sexson will return to his career averages is a bad idea. If we could pick up Sexson on a minor league deal, and make it clear to him that he'll be given the opportunity to start at first base if he performs well, this stupid proposition might just work out.

When I was a kid, I used to pick up a copy of USA Today's magazine Baseball Weekly whenever I could. It was full of stats and articles that you couldn't find in normal newspapers. It was also responsible for sparking my interest in following minor league prospects.

I recall one mid-90s Brewer prospect that I was pretty excited about. Valerio De Los Santos pitched for the class-A Beloit Brewers (now known as the Snappers, a Minnesota Twins affiliate), and put up some decent numbers. It was a dark time for pitching in Milwaukee, and I would have loved to have his 3.55 ERA in the Brewers rotation. Valerio eventually made it to Milwaukee, but was a reliever by then. In 2003, after a couple of decent seasons in the major league bullpen, there was talk of moving him back to the rotation, but he was instead shipped to Philadelphia for a PTBNL (who was never named, as far as I know) in a late waiver trade. After this, he pitched bits and pieces of 2004 and 2005 with Toronto and Florida, but was never very effective.

This morning, I noticed that at age 35, Valerio De Los Santos is alive and pitching with Colorado's AAA affiliate. He's on the DL right now, but has actually done ok in relief. He was in the starting rotation briefly, where he didn't fare so well, but it would not surprise me one bit if Valerio gets one more shot in the majors as a LOOGY. Who knows, he might even have a few years of Brian Shouse-like success.

God, I feel old.