38-year-old former Tigers starter Andy Van Hekken is attempting to earn a job with an MLB club, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. Anyone calling it a comeback attempt should note this bit of context: Van Hekken hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2002 and only has five career starts at that level. Still, the Holland native is reportedly training back in his home county, and a late-thirties push for MLB has been in his plans for a while. “I’ve been thinking about it over the last few years,” he said. “I always wanted to come back and give it another try to get back to the big leagues and see if I could do it. I would love an opportunity and hopefully there will be one.” As Fenech aptly points out, Van Hekken’s timing couldn’t be worse… there are well over a hundred free agents who have yet to sign during what has been a phenomenally slow hot stove season. The left-hander is best known for throwing a complete game shutout against the Indians in his major league debut. He’s mixed a high-80’s fastball with a forkball to great success in Korea during the past half-decade or so, posting solid ground ball and strikeout rates.
Some other items from around the league as we inch closer to spring training…
- Have fans been conditioned to accept half-hearted attempts at contention? Travis Sawchik attempts to answer this question in a piece for Fangraphs. Sawchik writes that while it’s typically for business owners to take great care in running their businesses efficiently and at a profit, baseball is not a typical business. Fans invest in ballclubs both emotionally and fiscally (with their taxes), so owners have a civic duty to put a competitive product on the field. He references former Tigers owner Mike Illitch, who at times spent irrationally on his club. He even kept a General Motors advertisement above the center field batter’s eye when the company could no longer afford it, in similar spirit of upholding the city’s identity. Sawchik then turns his focus to Nutting, who has gutted the club’s core to slash payroll by $20MM this season without paying for a single free agent. Sawchik suspects that the club could cover its current payroll without selling a single ticket, and points out its $50MM BAMtech payment from Disney (that also hasn’t been reinvested in the team). He posits that fans have been trained to accept the “small-market” excuse for not spending as a reality, when in fact it may not entirely explain a given club’s low payroll.
- The Rockies have built a contending club in part by betting on its youthful rotation, Daniel Cramer of MLB.com writes. Back in spring training of 2016, GM Jeff Bridich apparently told young right-hander Jeff Hoffman that the club wasn’t seeking any veteran upgrades. Fast forward to today, and the organization hopes to build on a “blossoming pitching culture with the potential for sustained success”. Cramer describes Colorado’s blueprint for pitchers as “a power arm supplemented with a mental confidence to pitch at Coors Field.” For their part, a group consisting of German Marquez, Kyle Freeland, Tyler Chatwood, Jon Gray, Jeff Hoffman, Antonio Senzatela, Tyler Anderson and Chad Bettis combined for 11.8 fWAR last season (good for 11th in the majors), and that entire group minus Chatwood is set to return for 2018.
I don’t love “half hearted attempts at contention” but I do realize that entering into a rebuild at the right time is better than ending up like the Phillies 5 years ago, or the Giants now. The white Sox could’ve tried to contend for another year or two and pulled off 85 wins at best, but instead they now have one of the best farms in baseball, and could be set for the next decade.
Love Marquez and Jon Gray. Scott Boras played 4 years Minor League ball in the Cardinal and Cub organizations. Hit .288 but succumbed to knee problems. He has a 75 person staff and 175 clients. His first client was ex Cub Bill Caudill, 1983.
Your point?
CubsFanForLife- Watch your fingers, these windows close fast.
“the Holland native is reportedly training back in his home country”
Since when does it go without saying that Holland (pop. ~33K) is a city in Michigan?
Anyway, I don’t think this is the clearest way to say that a Holland, MICHIGAN native is training in the United States.
Haha with that last name I totally thought Kyle meant he was from the Netherlands.
I am one of the 33K and knew what was meant. By the way, His home “county” is Ottawa.
I think Andy Van Hekken is from Holland, Michigan not Holland (Netherlands).
Andy Van Hekken’s last name is probably Dutch though.
Hi everyone, the text should have read “county”, not “country”. I’ve fixed the typo for all of you, thanks for your diligence.
That wasn’t a typo though was it? Just a poorly/quickly read article instead to get some filler content up here? No one talks about going home to their home “county” and it should say “Holland, Mich.” to provide proper context and not be misleading. Own up here MLBTR.
good call rxbrgr
Just a random comment after all the Van Hekken/Holland jokes. Van Hekken’s name means “fences”. Seriously
Hard to make a good case for spending after just watching the Astros go all the way. Impossible, actually.
Did the Astros win it or the Dodgers lose it?…
I guess technically both, but to answer your question, the Astros won it
The Chicago (3rd biggest city, #3 media market) Cubs, the Houston (4th biggest city, #8 media market) Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies (6th biggest city, #4 media market) tear down to nothing and rebuild and it’s all good.
The Pittsburgh (63rd biggest city, #23 media market) Pirates retool a bit by trading two overrated players nearing the end of their contracts and it’s scandalous.
Makes sense.
Big city doesn’t always mean biggest market.
Well funny enough those two kind of prove the opposite on that tanking allowed them to go all the way but also during those years the ownership pocketed record profits, which proves that they could have put competitive teams on the field, tanking seems more to be a strategy to acquire draft positioning and gain advantages in order to put a young quality team on the field, you also see teams like the A’s that always say they can’t spend but pocket profits…
The $50MM BAMtech payment from Disney doesn’t arrive until April. Do you typically invest your money before you get it?
True.
1. If a baseball team actually has to wait on a payment, then the MLB would be investigating. Or that team is the Mets, who literally took a loan to cover payroll in the not so distant past.
2. Players don’t receive a paycheck until April.
3. Sports orgs regularly project future revenue and spend money first because they know the $ is coming (e.g. quarterly payments from sponsors, etc).
Why does the BAMTech money even enter into the conversation?
Did the players build a world class streaming media operation? Did they invest in it and are now being cheated out of their cut?
I don’t get why that is supposed to be on the table. Because it used to have “MLB” in it’s name?
It’s on the table because it’s team revenue. The BAMTech deal is like TV deals, radio deals, etc. It’s valuable, and hence sellable at great profit, because of the live content. It’s not like the owners are selling pizzas on the side or some other non-baseball thing. They just did it through a jointly owned company, and are receiving profits. Would you say selling the YES Network had nothing to do with the Yankees? With baseball? Of course not. All the author is saying is that being a small market team doesn’t automatically mean you’re as poor as an owner says, and that the Pirates might be exaggerating a bit & pocketing more than they let on. And, of course, that because of corporate welfare like stadium subsidies (if not outright city-built stadiums) and special anti-trust exemptions that companies & individuals working in a capitalist society don’t get otherwise, baseball is not simply a private business like any other.
So with over 150 players without a home this late in the off-season… i think it’s the best time to give us our team back! Lets make it
Happens in two weeks period.
MONTREAL
Rockies……..lololololololol! Just like the Padres, but just a bit better.
I’m hoping those young starters will improve since last season and with another year of experience under their belts. The Rox have added good veteran bullpen pieces to back up the younger starters. The pitching will be the key to the Rockies success this year.
I still think they need one more good hitter
Logan Morrison is still out there. He can bang and he can strikeout.
They need two more good hitters. They appear to be hoping that Dahl and McMahon are those guys.
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