Chimpanzee Rodeo...it's been a wild ride!

Hey there loyal fans...sike!

I've been on a hiatus from this account because of issues with my account. But in the meanwhile, I have been keeping an AL East blog for a class I am taking with Kevin Blackistone at the University of Maryland. Some of the topics I've covered recently:

1) The Yankees third base battle (read here)

2) Appreciating the World Baseball Classic (here)

3) Curt Schilling's retirement (here)

4) David Price being sent to the minors (here)

5) Boston's depth (here)

and my most recent one:

6) Jeter and Damon being switched in the batting order for the Yankees (here)

Hope you guys enjoy and I will keep linking to Chimpanzee Rodeo while I am writing there...

All the best,

       Nick

WBC Provisionals Star-Studded, Irrelevant, or Cuban

The World Baseball Classic provides Major League Baseball fans with a new periodic reminder of the status of baseball around the globe. Some teams, like the Dominican Republic and the United States, are comparable to All-Star teams in overall big name talent. Japan mixes stars from MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball. Others, like the Netherlands, Australia and Italy have a few familiar names, but simply don't have the talent to compete with the top class of the world's teams. And then there are the surprises...like Cuba, Taiwan and Korea, who use mainly unknown players, but come from rich baseball-playing cultures.

Here are my breakdowns of the familiar names, by position:

USA

SP- Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt, Scott Kazmir, Justin Verlander, John Danks

RP- Jonathan Broxton, Scot Shields, Brian Fuentes, J.P. Howell, Joe Nathan, J.J. Putz, B.J. Ryan

C- Brian McCann, Chris Iannetta, A.J. Pierzynski

1B- Kevin Youkilis, Derrek Lee

2B- Dustin Pedroia, Brian Roberts

3B- Chipper Jones, Evan Longoria, David Wright

SS- Derek Jeter, Jimmy Rollins

OF- Grady Sizemore, Ryan Braun, Carlos Quentin, Curtis Granderson, Ryan Ludwick, Vernon Wells

My take: Solid all around. One of the best two bullpens in the Classic. Disappointing rotation given the depth of American starters, but there is less patriotism with American pitchers than with other countries. Salary is the primary concern, so why play for free and risk injury? And I thought that John Lackey was on this roster. What happened? He would really help. Another question is who will get the lion's share at third? If it's Chipper, can you honestly say he's the best out of the group? They could use one of those guys at another position, if someone played one. Rollins is better than Jeter at this point, but won't play as much supposedly. Great hitting outfield. They will undoubtedly be good. But come on, boys, win this one for Obama.

Dominican Republic

SP- Edinson Volquez, Ervin Santana, Francisco Liriano, Fausto Carmona, Pedro Martinez

RP- Juan Cruz, Damaso Marte, Rafael Perez, Jose Arredondo, Carlos Marmol, Fernando Rodney, Jose Valverde, Francisco Cordero

C- Miguel Olivo

1B- Albert Pujols, Carlos Pena

2B- Robinson Cano, Placido Polanco

3B- Alex Rodriguez, Aramis Ramirez

SS- Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes

OF- Vladimir Guerrero, Alfonso Soriano, Jose Guillen, Willy Taveras

My take: Scary-high potential in that rotation. Better bullpen than the USA. Weaker at catcher, outfield and at second, probably better everywhere else. This is my favorite team in the Classic, but then again, they were last time, too.

Puerto Rico

SP- Javier Vazquez, Ian Snell, Jonathan Sanchez, Joel Pineiro

RP- Kiko Calero, Javier Lopez, Pedro Feliciano, J.C. Romero

C- Geovany Soto, Bengie Molina, Ivan Rodriguez, Yadier Molina

1B- Carlos Delgado

2B- Felipe Lopez

3B- Mike Lowell, Ramon Vazquez

SS- Mike Aviles

OF- Carlos  Beltran, Alex Rios, Bernie Williams

My Take: Solid players everywhere, but not top-flight on the world stage.

Venezuela

SP- Johan Santana, Carlos Zambrano, Felix Hernandez, Anibal Sanchez, Armando Galarraga

RP- Cesar Jimenez, Renyel Pinto, Rafael Betancourt, Jorge Julio, Francisco Rodriguez

C- Dioner Navarro, Ramon Hernandez, Max Ramirez

1B- Miguel Cabrera

2B- Jose Lopez

3B- Carlos Guillen, Melvin Mora

SS- Omar Vizquel, Cesar Izturis

OF- Magglio Ordonez, Bobby Abreu, Juan Rivera, Carlos Gonzalez

My take: That rotation is filthy. Besides Rodriguez, the bullpen is short. Weak at shortstop, and slightly weak in the outfield. This team is a contender. They would probably win it all if the pitch limits were not so strict strictly due to the presence of Johan, Zambrano and King Felix. 

Mexico

SP- Matt Garza, Yovani Gallardo, Oliver Perez, Alfredo Aceves, Jorge De La Rosa

RP- Dennys Reyes, Oscar Villarreal, Eddie Guardado, Joakim Soria

C- Rod Barajas

1B- Adrian Gonzalez

2B- Edgar Gonzalez

3B- Jorge Cantu

SS- Jerry Hairston, Jr.

OF- Scott Hairston, Karim Garcia, Alfredo Amezaga

My Take: This team is not a joke, but they aren't going to go that far either.

Canada

SP- Rich Harden, Jeff Francis

RP- Jesse Crain, Eric Gagne

C- Russell Martin

Infield- Justin Morneau, Joey Votto

Outfield- Jason Bay, Mark Teahen, Matt Stairs

My take: Some really solid players have crossed the border to the South to play in the bigs. Unfortunately, some of the best ones they have seem to be concentrated in redundant positions. 

Japan

SP- Daisuke Matsuzaka

RP- Masa Kobayashi, Hideki Okajima

C- Kenji Johjima

Infield- Akinori Iwamura

Outfield- Ichiro Suzuki, Kosuke Fukudome

My take: This list may look short, but don't let it fool you. At least not again. It is no fluke that Japan won the last WBC. Okay, maybe it was a fluke, because they didn't look like the best team to me. But the Japan League is very good, and some unknowns (at least for us) will definitely shine a la Dice-K in '06. Everyone seems to be betting it's Yu Darvish this time.

Panama

Manny Corpas, Carlos Ruiz, Carlos Lee

My take: No Mariano Rivera, no chance. In fact, no chance anyway.

Korea

Jae Seo, Byung-Hyun Kim

My take: Boring. But they will probably win some games, because they were strong last time with a similarly snore-inducing squad.

Taiwan

Zilch

My take: They need to clone Chien-Ming Wang and teach some of his clones how to hit. And I don't care how many times you call it Taipei. It's Taiwan to me, because that's what the products I love say.

Italy

Lenny Dinardo, Jason Grilli, Mike Napoli, Frank Catalonotto, Robert Fick, Nick Punto, Chris Denorfia.

My take: Ragtag assortment of never-weres and Mike Napoli. Not promising.

Australia

Grant Balfour.

They aren't winning the World Baseball Classic. But I bet they'd have a pretty good shot in a drinking contest.

Netherlands

Jair Jurrjens.

My take: When colonialism ends, so too does the Dutch baseball enterprise. Well, it's not all that alive anymore now that Andruw Jones can't hit a moose with a Jeep.

Cuba

Nobody who made it to the USA...guaranteed.

My take: Cuba is fascinating. When they play in international tourneys, we get a glimpse of some very talented players who would otherwise likely not be known to us. Well, barring a succesful defection and a minor league contract.

South Africa

Yuck.

My take: No. There will not be a South Africa in the second round this year.

China

No one you would know.

My take: Do I need to write about this one?

Remember, these rosters will be cut down to 28 by the time the Classic starts. And some big names will likely be barred by their employers.

Jeter, A-Rod headline Yankees' WBC Provisionals

The 45-man provisional rosters for the teams that will compete in the World Baseball Classic have been announced.

Derek Jeter, also known as Captain America, will indeed be just that this spring when the games kick off. As the veteran captain and starting shortstop for the U.S. squad, Jeter carries the weight of the team's success on his back even though he is nowhere near the best player.

Alex Rodriguez will play Benedict Arnold to Derek Jeter's George Washington in the 2009 Classic. Rodriguez will be playing for the Dominican Republic this season, despite playing for the States in the '06 tournament and spending much of his childhood on our shores.

The provisional rosters will be pared down before the start of play.

Other Yankees listed on the provisional rosters included: Pitcher Alfredo Aceves (Mexico), outfielder Melky Cabrera, second baseman Robinson Cano and pitchers Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras and Damaso Marte (Dominican Republic) and catcher Francisco Cervelli (Italy).

Former Yankees on the list include: catcher Dioner Navarro and outfielders Juan Rivera and Bobby Abreu (Venezuela), pitcher Octavio Dotel (Dominican Republic), catcher Sal Fasano (Italy), outfielder Karim Garcia (Mexico), pitcher Ted Lilly (USA), third baseman Mike Lowell, outfielder Bernie Williams, pitcher Javier Vazquez and catcher Ivan Rodriguez (Puerto Rico), pitcher Ramiro Mendoza and outfielder Ruben Rivera (Panama) and pitcher Sidney Ponson (Netherlands).

Bernie's Comeback Could be Done

Former Yankees' great center fielder Bernie Williams injured his quad in a Puerto Rican Winter League game.

Williams, 40, was using a stint with Carolina of the Puerto Rican league to get in shape and had hoped to play for Puerto Rico in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, as previously reported on this site.

The injury makes the possibility of his playing in the WBC a dubious one.

After hitting a single in his first at-bat for Carolina, Williams had gone hitless over three games worth of at-bats.

Williams, who patrolled center for the Yankees for 16 years, never officially retired, but hasn't played in the majors since the 2006 season.

For his career, Williams hit .297 with 287 home runs in 2,076 games.

His life in baseball may finally be done forever, but his second jazz album comes out in April.

Bernie Back in Action

It's winter league season, and a Yankees center fielder picked up an important hit today.

No, my eyes weren't on the Dominican Winter League, where Melky Cabrera has put up some solid numbers through 93 at-bats with the Aguilas Cibaenas. I'm eyeing Bernie Williams, who singled off Jerome Williams of the Oakland Athletics in his first at-bat with Carolina of the Puerto Rican Winter League. He would finish one-for-three. 

Granted, Jerome Williams hasn't done much since 2005, but he was impressive from 2003-05 and has only pitched 42 terrible innings since at the big league level.

But what a joy for Yankees fans to know that Bernie is out there, still capable of hitting a liner up the middle. It reminds us of how he was unceremoniously voted off the island after the 2006 season, when he hit .281 with 12 homers and 61 RBI in 420 AB (two-thirds of a full season, which suggests around 18 homers and 80-90 RBI in 600 AB). For the record, how do you think they would feel about that kind of production out of the Melkman next year? Bernie was slipping on defense...but I still think they could have kept him somewhere...I mean Jesus, were Doug Mientkiewicz, Josh Phelps and Wil Nieves really better on the bench? I know we needed Nieves as a second catcher...and Mientkiewicz to man first...but Josh Phelps stunk and hardly played for the team at all, but I digress.

Bernie is trying to play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. I really hope he makes the team and is able to start at DH, at least sometimes. I never thought I'd be this excited to see #51 in another uniform.