The first game in Petco Park history was played seven years ago today. Led by head coach Tony Gwynn, the San Diego State Aztecs defeated the University of Hawaii by a score of 4-0. The teams shattered the attendance record for a college baseball game, drawing 40,106 fans. The previous record was just short of 28,000 fans.
I don't think we're going to break any records with these links, but let's give it a shot…
- Through The Fence Baseball interviewed umpire Mike Di Muro.
- Crashburn Alley thinks about a contract extension for Jimmy Rollins.
- The Todd Van Poppel Rookie Card Retirement Plan explains why March 15th is an important date for Conor Jackson.
- Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness wishes former Dodgers assistant GM Kim Ng good luck with her new job.
- The Friarhood thinks that the Padres' desperation could hurt Mat Latos' future.
- DRays Bay lists Andrew Friedman's worst moves.
- We Should Be GMs provides some disheartening facts about the Phillies offense.
- Blue Jays Rant wonders if Jose Bautista could be traded this season.
- Cubs Billy Goat Blog explored the battle for a Cubs rotation spot.
- The Yankee Analysts looked at A.J. Burnett's pitches on a month-by-month basis.
- The Shea Faithful calls Jonathon Niese a breakout candidate.
- D'Backs Central isn't very concerned about Joe Saunders' poor spring.
- The Mennella Line discussed Carlos Beltran's gait.
- Randall on Baseball lists some AL West rookies who could contribute in 2011.
- Fantasy Baseball Recon forecasts the 2011 home run champion.
- Congrats, You Found My Blog! introduces us to Salary+, a way of comparing a player's salary to the league average.
- Beyond The Box Score tallies up the number of Major League deals each writer broke this offseason.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here. Only one email per week, please.
Jon Niese, YES!
THAT Tony Gwynn?
Nope, his evil twin. He played for the Yankees.
Ohh, everyone who plays for the Yankees is “evil”. I see.
Yes. And we can all agree that, given that the Yankees have 27 championships, we live in a pretty satanic world, don’t we?
A world full of hatred (and jealousy) of course.
Wonder if there’s a chance that “salary+” thing catches on. I can hear the stat nerds celebrating already. By my calculations, they’re celebrating approximately 9.2% less than they did for WAR+/150.
…Which is why ARod is overpaid and the Yankees suck. RIGHT?
I like that salary + calc. It’s always nice to see comparisons that control for differences in conditions over different time periods. Knowing that a guy who made $2m 20 years ago is roughly equivalent to a guy making $20m today is interesting.
I would love to see the following analysis:
— Correlation between team salaries and ticket prices
— Avg US income over the past 25 years vs avg ball player salaries
— Avg US income vs avg ticket prices
It’s all out there. I’m just too lazy to luck it up and do the math.
Unless he absolutely tears it up this year (after three years of declining numbers), Jimmy Rollins shouldn’t expect anything more than 2 years/$20 million with a club option for a third year.
I think A. J. Burnett is going to have a bounce back season. He seems like the kind of guy who has a power pitcher mentality-he ain’t giving into you-and that is exactly the kind of pitcher that Larry Rothschild does his best work with. When Larry was with the Cubs, they routinely were near the top in the NL in K’s. I see him as a good fit to fix what ailed A.J. last season.