Posts filed under 'Players'
Masahide Kobayashi debuted for the Cleveland Indians in a spring training match on Friday and did impress his fans as well as the people responsible for bringing him into the side with his throwing skills. Many feel that he will be a big asset to the Indians this season and his throws which are a bit harder will surely give some goose bumps to the hitting rivals. The Japanese pitcher who has a history of making more than 200 saves got into the Indian team by signing a free agent contract after serving for nine long years for the Japanese Pacific League side, Chiba Lotte Marines. Kobayashi was a member of the Japanese team for the 2004 Olympic Games and led the Japanese League with 34 saves in the 2005 season.
The Indian manager, Eric Wedge, feels that the Japanese pitcher is very much a focused player and knows what his task is. He made an impression in the mind of the manger when he pitched out of a jam against the Astros in the Friday’s match. Kobayashi said that he needed to be nervous to stay focused throughout the game and said that his main aim was to get outs one by one. After his amazing display, the think tank of the Cleveland Indians must feel proud for signing Kobayashi.
March 3rd, 2008
Roger Clemens visited the spring training complex of Astros early this week and has decided to spend some time in Kissimmee during the spring season. He announced that within two Days he will start giving batting practice to the young campers. Clemens said that he enjoys working with the mini-campers and the draftees has become more familiar with him in the past 2 or 3 years and are feeling free to ask more relevant questions about the play. Roger Clemens, who is 45 years of age, has signed a contract of extending his personal services to the Astros, when he retires from the game. But, for the past several years he has been helping the Minor Leaguers of Astro during their spring training sessions.
Clemens willingly had a talk with the reporters whom, he was avoiding after the controversy about the performance - enhancing drugs was started. Clemens was careful enough to avoid the references about the controversy. He expressed his wish to focus his time and mind on his duties at the Minor –league camp. His eldest son Koby is also a member of the training camp. Drayton McLane, Astro club owner welcomed Clemens to Astros’ facilities two weeks ago and wanted Clemens to come back to the game in this sprin
February 29th, 2008
The sort of media attention and publicity that the talented Japanese pitcher Matsuzaka got in his rookie season for the Red Sox was tremendous and this year the spring training sessions for the Red Sox is much calmer as the media craze on the Japanese player is over. Only a handful of about 20 reporters talked to Matasuzaka about his second year in Major League Baseball and the $103 million worth Red Sox pitcher was pretty confident of putting up a big show this season in the Major League Baseball. He said that he aware of the playing conditions and the facilities as opposed to last year when he was a rookie.
Matsuzaka is pretty much aware that he will have to fill a large void left by Curt Schilling’s injury and he is determined to give his best shot this season. The gyroball pitcher is Japan’s best ever pitcher and has lived up to the expectations of the Red Sox fans last year. Matsuzaka is currently going through his second spring training session and is slated to play in Tokyo in March 25th and 26th where the Red Sox will take on the Oakland Athletics. Matsuzaka’s participation is yet not confirmed as his wife is expected to give birth somewhere around that time.
February 13th, 2008
The Detroit Tigers are talking with Curtis Granderson about a long-term contract extension. Curtis Granderson is not set to became a free agent until the end of the 2011 season, however. Last year Granderson made $410,000 and was thinking that maybe the team could sign him a likeminded contract for the 2008 season. The club now has more of a reason to sign Curtis to a long-term contract over the next few months after he was almost selected for his first All-Star game. The Detroit Tigers would prefer the contract to stretch a minimum of one season. At this point contract length or salary have not been discussed.
January 28th, 2008
At this time he Houston Astros have not determined whether they will take action with Miguel Tejada or not after he was targeted for lying in front of a congressional committee. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said during its hearing on steroids Tuesday that it had called for and investigation by the Justice Department after Tejada lied to the committee in 2005 about his steroid use. George Mitchell’s report issued last month included Adam Piatt saying that he talked about steroids with Tejada and that was provided with steroids and human growth hormone in 2003.
January 17th, 2008
Atlanta Braves reached a tentative deal to acquire the oft-injured Kotsay from the Oakland Athletics for reliever Joey Devine. The trade is contingent on Kotsay passing a physical and the commissioner’s office approving the money involved in the deal. Kotsay hit .214 with one homer and 20 RBIs in 56 games last year. He is a career .282 hitter in 11 seasons in the majors.
He had surgery last spring and missed the first two months of the season unfortunately.
January 14th, 2008
The San Diego Padres have purchased the contract of third baseman Gary Schneidmiller from the Amarillo Dillas. Schneidmiller will report to Spring Training in Peoria, AZ with a chance to make the Double-A San Antonio Missions. Schneidmiller had 33 extra base hits this past season and with the departure of David Freese to St. Louis in a deal that netted Jim Edmonds there is little competition at the hot corner in Double-A.
January 10th, 2008
Former general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Dave Littlefield has joined the Chicago Cubs as an advanced scout. Littlefield aged 47, was fired by Pittsburgh after the Pirates went 442-581 for a .432 winning percentage in his six-plus seasons as general manager. During his long career, Dave with the Pirates, Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers. Hopefully, he will manage to do much for the Cubs this season.
December 24th, 2007
Mariano Rivera is one of those people who is not indifferent to baseball. He tries to stay away from everything connected with the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the game. Therefore he was not that much interested in the last week’s report from the former Senator George J. Mitchell. To prevent such things Rivera prefers to counsel teammates and speak up in meetings, but he prepares on his own and keeps things simple.
December 18th, 2007
Famous baseball players Bowie Kuhn (who died in March at the age of 80), Walter O’Malleyand 3 more were featured on the Baseball Hall of Fame while Marvin Miller, who faces different attitudes from different people, was snubbed. The reaction was quite ambiguous. The five elected will be incorporated into the Hall on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y. They will be joined by any players elected in traditional voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to be announced Jan. 8.
December 4th, 2007
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