Baseball - Selig's Retirement, Rounders, Yorvit, Gio, Bobby Ramos

An upcoming phase of Selig's own story in theory would be his retirement, when his current term in office is finished at the end of 2012. Selig insists that he will retire as planned, but there are, he acknowledges, large numbers of doubters on this topic. "There are a lot of people who are doubting it, including members of my own family," the Commissioner said. "But I am looking forward to doing some of the things I want to do; teaching in Madison [at the University of Wisconsin, his alma mater], writing a book. Apparently I'm a minority of one who believes that." If Selig does retire, he will leave behind a game that is in better shape than the one he inherited in 1992. The 2011 season, a success on so many different levels, offers direct proof of that notion. - http://paper.li/DraftProspectus/1314645714

Baseball was based on the English game of rounders. Rounders becomes popular in the United States in the early 19th century, where the game was called “townball”, “base”, or “baseball”. Cartwright formalized the modern rules of baseball. The first recorded baseball game in 1846 when Alexander Cartwright’s Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club. The game was held at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first organized baseball league was formed. People used to think that Abner Doubleday invented baseball but, historians proved them wrong because he was at war at the time when baseball was invented. So in the study in 1905 people really believed that he invented it because some man said that while he was growing up with Doubleday he remembers hitting a ball with a bat, then running to bags with sand in them. Sometime later, an old, rotting baseball found among Doubleday’s personal effects. This was viewed, as proof of that man’s story was true. Today, the very same ball is on display at the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown  http://www.askussports.com/

Texas Rangers backup catcher Yorvit Torrealba has been suspended 66 games by the Venezuelan League for striking an umpire, league president Jose Grasso Vecchio announced Monday morning on Twitter.  Torrealba struck a home plate umpire after striking out in a game Friday. Shortly after Torrealba, who plays for Leones del Caracas, swung and missed at strike three, he got in the face of the umpire and eventually hit him in the face mask with an open hand. The suspension covers the rest of this season and all of next season in the Venezuelan League. Penalties in winter ball do not carry over to Major League Baseball.  http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7390132/texas-rangers-yorvit-torrealba-suspended-66-games-venezuela-hitting-ump?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Still, having the expectation of being a +3 win pitcher even without improvement, and the chance to be something more if the command comes along, makes for a pretty nice piece overall. While I’d prefer Latos’ overall skillset thanks to his ability to get swings and misses while pounding the strike zone, it’s clear that Gio Gonzalez can succeed even while missing the strike zone with regularity. He might not be as good as the Nationals are hoping for, especially if they are buying into his ERAs from the past two seasons, but the ground balls and strikeouts do generally make up for the command issues. That flaw holds him back from being a great pitcher, but it shouldn’t stop him from being a pretty good one.    Did the Nationals get an ace? Probably not. Did they pay too much for Gonzalez? It depends on what you think of the kids they gave up. Overall, though, they did acquire a good starting pitcher, although they might want to realize that he’s going to provide some frustration over the next few years as well http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/how-good-is-gio-gonzalez/

The Marlins have hired former Rays bullpen coach Bobby Ramos to be their Latin American player development coordinator. It’s a new position, one the Marlins felt they needed because none of their minor league coordinators are of Hispanic decent. Those guys do a great job, but it’s imperative to have a Spanish speaker for kids from the Dominican, Venezuela, etc., coming to the States for the first time. Ramos is a great fit for the job. He has extensive experience managing in the Gulf Coast League and should be a great resource.  http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_baseball_marlins/2011/12/miami-marlins-bobby-ramos-new-latin-american-player-development-coordinator.html