Offseason baseball Thread

The nerve of someone who has options to ... avail himself of those options!

 

He's an ingrate, obviously.

 

As far as stubbornness goes, Appel is definitely no Matt Harrington.

 

If Mark Appel does not spend at least 10 years attempting to be what I thought he would be, he has failed me. It is a mark against his character.

 

I was at a practice today and a scout was there, talking about Appel, who he had seen extensively in college. He said he was absolutely stunned he didn't make it, that he had everything in world going for him, checked all the boxes. This guy surmised that the fact he had a Stanford education, and something he could fall back on, might have dimmed his desire and work ethic.

 

It had to be that Appel didn't try hard enough, rather than the scout was wrong.

 

I wonder what the history of can’t-miss prospects who didn’t go to Stanford looks like.

 

When Clint Hurdle first came up in spring training, Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda, a dozen major league players and many scouts told me if he wasn't the next Mickey Mantle, they were all in the wrong business. Well, Clint's had a nice baseball life, but... Projecting major league talent is very difficult.

 

I remember a Hurdle quote I read in SI during his playing days, but well after people stopped calling him a phenom. Probably not accurate, but the general idea: "If I'd done everything I was supposed to do, I would have won the triple crown and a couple of World Series, given $25,000 to the Cancer Society, and married Marie Osmond."

 

Off-season is finally picking up. Russell Wilson traded to the Yankees.

 

Fucking big-market teams snatching up all the prime talent.