Edgar Gonzalez – UTL - I think that Baseball Prospectus’s 2009 annual summed up Edgar Gonzalez’s professional career best: “A 30th-round pick by the Rays in 2000, it took Gonzalez until he was a month shy of 30 years old to make it to the majors. In that time he’s been Rule 5′d twice and released twice, moving through six organizations before finally finding one desperate enough to call him up.” Essentially a tweener in every sense of the word, Gonzalez is a guy who is athletic enough to play just about anywhere on the diamond, but his lack of defensive skills limit his value up the middle and his lack of thumping bat make him less than ideal at the corners. Still, with an .857 OPS in AAA and having played almost every defensive position in his professional career, Gonzalez could be a nice second utility guy/pinch hitter for a team trying to save payroll. - http://www.replacementlevelbaseball.com/2011/10/secret-free-agent-men-triple-a-free-agent-hitters
Cameron Christian, a Seattle University student and captain of the school's baseball team, died in a car crash near Priest Lake, Idaho, early Sunday. A left-handed pitcher, Christian was nominated by his team this year to be captain, said baseball coach Donny Harrel. "He was an incredible young man who was just coming into his own," said Harrel, adding that he thought Christian had a future as a professional baseball player. Christian, 22, was returning alone from a wedding around 12:30 a.m. Sunday when he appeared to have swerved off the road to avoid hitting something, Harrel said. Christian was wearing a seat belt, and police say they do not believe alcohol was a factor. He died instantly in the crash, Harrel said. - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016523728_seattleustudent17m.html
Baseball, America's past past time, is a pretty quirky game with quirkier players and quirkiest traditions. Chew tobacco! Sunflower seeds! Rally caps! Seventh Inning Stretch! And even a "special mud" that gets rubbed onto every single baseball in the major and minor leagues. Huh? The mud is called Lena Blackburne Original Baseball Rubbing Mud and it comes from a secret spot in South Jersey off the Delaware River. Jim Bintliff, who owns Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud, skims the top inch layer on the muddy riverbanks for collection and then puts the mud through screens to refine it before packaging it, aging it and shipping it to all the baseball teams in the MLB. Bintliff says the texture of his special mud is like chocolate pudding. Tasty. - http://gizmodo.com/5850268/every-baseball-is-rubbed-with-this-special-mud-before-it-gets-used
The film displayed every side of Dominican baseball and how the culture ties into it. You see the poverty these kids come from, and how they view baseball as a way to give their family a better life. Baseball is not a recreational sport, its job training and failure means disappointing their family. It’s a tremendous amount of pressure to put on kids that start training as young as 10-years old. Obviously corruption is a big part of the film. When you come from that type of poverty there is a need to succeed by any means possible. You have steroids, ID fraud, and unscrupulous agents, trainers, and big league scouts. Remember, possessing skills of a 19 year old at 16 is extraordinary and could lead to riches and top prospect status with a big league club. It also brings wealth to the trainers, who take as much as 35% of the kid’s signing bonus. It may sound large, but they essentially are a benefactor for the pelotero from the minute they take them on as a student. Don’t forget the stories we have heard about scouts skimming bonuses in exchange for the kids signing with their team. In short, you see the business side of Dominican baseball which looks an awful lot like the old wild west. - http://nybaseballdigest.com/?p=40715
Not that Narveson had many people crowing, "I told you so" after he came on for Marcum in the second inning and failed to stop the bleeding. The Brewers had cut the lead in the bottom of the first via Corey Hart's leadoff homer, but while Narveson racked up three strikeouts, he also surrendered a long homer to Rafael Furcal, who one-handed an 82 mph changeup into the left-field bleachers (oddly enough, of the eight homers Furcal hit during the regular season, five came against the Brewers, three of them at Miller Park). Down 5-1, the Brewers’ offense didn't roll over; Rickie Weeks led off the second inning with a solo homer against Jackson, and Jonathan Lucroy drilled a two-run homer after Jerry Hairston Jr. reached on an infield single. Hairston had to make an awkward slide into first to reach safely, and appeared to injure his left shoulder; he dove to avoid being tagged by Pujols, who had to leap to catch Furcal’s throw. Furcal had hurried his throw after diving himself. - http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15315
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