Here are the top 5 players at each position separated by League according to the MoneyStats Player Rater.

We use an exclusive formula to rate each player according to their MoneyStats Value.

To view our complete Player Rating System including exclusive Splits for Starting Pitchers,

please join us at www.moneystats.net.  Click on the yellow banner at the top of our homepage to sign in at no obligation.  Please send us your comments to mark@moneystats.net….

American League Catchers

National League Catchers

American League First Base

National League First Base

American League Second Base

National League Second Base

American League Third Base

National League Third Base

American League Shortstop

National League Shortstop

American League Left Field

National League Left Field

American League Center Field

National League Center Field

American League Right Field

National League Right Field

American League Starting Pitchers

National League Starting Pitchers

Got Cards?

Trade Your New & Used Cards for Smiles!

Do you have sports cardsjust sitting around collecting dust? Are you a mom who wants to get rid of your son’s cards, but doesn’t want to catch grief for throwing them out? Do you want to help put a smile on the face of a child in need? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we have a great program for you!

Cards2Kids is a charitable organization that collects sports cards and donates them to child-focused charities, organizations and hospitals. New Jerseyteen Ben Schragger is the East Coast Ambassador for this national charity which started inChicago.  Ben has loved playing baseball since age 5, and currently plays for his high school and local Babe Ruth League. As an avid card collector, Ben enjoys sharing his love of sports with kids who are less fortunate.

Sincejoining Cards2Kids in January, Ben has distributed over 10,000 cards to the various child-focused charities.

Cards2Kids recently launched a revamped website www.Cards2Kids.org, and continues to acquire fans on Facebook and Twitter (@Cards2Kids). Local collection boxes can be found at BC Sports in the King of Prussia Mall and CG Sports, 15 N. Main Street, Pennington NJ.

For donation questions, or if you know of a charity whose children would enjoy receiving packs of sports cards, please contact us at cards2kids@gmail.com.

The following post is an official press release from SABR – The Society for American Baseball Research is introducing a new publishing initiative this spring.  The SABR Digital Library will be publishing new titles as well as reviving historical SABR publications that have gone out of print.

Two books mark the inception of the library: one new release and one revival.  Can He Play? is a new book examining the world of baseball scouting.  Run, Rabbit, Run is the autobiography of Walter “Rabbit” Maranville, published once again for the first time since 1991.  Both titles are available as paperback and digital editions.

Can He Play?, a production from SABR member editors Jim Sandoval and Bill Nowlin, is a collection of accounts of the lives of scouts, containing biographies, interviews, and historical essays.  From the beginning of more informal “ivory hunting” in the early 1900s to today’s intricate network of cross-country scouting, Can He Play? is a collection of stories that shows the development of the business over the last hundred-plus years.

Run, Rabbit, Run is Walter “Rabbit” Maranville’s recollection of years of baseball stories, collected only a year before his death.  From 1912 to 1936, he spent twenty-four years playing ball and getting himself into quite a few interesting situations.  The account also contains rare photographs and an introduction and conclusion from noted baseball scholars.

Here it is again for the 1,000th time. Photo courtesy of Google Images.

This article was written by Ronni Redmond from the blog, “Garlic Fries and Baseball: Baseball Odds and Ends” and was originally posted there on 2/23/2012.

The only reason I’m bringing this up again is because Calcaterra over at Hardball Talk said Posey was told to “stop” blocking the plate.   This implies that Posey “was” blocking the plate, which he was not as the photo above clearly shows.  The runner intentionally left the baseline with a spectacular charge aimed directly towards the catcher with no intention of getting to the home plate.  The runner, Scott Cousins, said later his intention was to dislodge the ball~ which he could not, because Buster never had it.

But here’s what’s really amazing about this photo.   Notice the umpire.  No one had a better birds-eye view than this umpire, standing steadfast and staring intently at the play as it was happening and boom!  Crash!  Bam! Slam!   The play’s over and the umpire calls the runner safe, run counts, and the catcher is lying mortally wounded* (defined below) on the field.  What the heck was he thinking?  The umpire I mean.

Somehow it seems reasonable that MLB Rule 7.08 (b) could be construed to somehow apply in this situation.  A good attorney could probably make it work.  I don’t know.  I’m just saying the umpire has total charge of the game.   And in this case I think he let this one get by.  Too bad.  Would have been a real feather in his cap if he’d stepped up to the plate (no pun intended) took a stand and said something like “No more! This ain’t gonna happen on my watch”.   Like the NFL did when they made it illegal to spear with their helmets, with no intentional blows to the head.

Who knows?  An umpire taking a stand.  Might have changed the game forever.  He has the authority to do that you know. Baseball needs a little cleaning up.   It’s not just bulldozing the catcher at the plate that can get really nasty, but what about all those pitches thrown at the batter’s head, back, arm, foot, leg in retaliation for some stupid reason (there are hundreds of them) that everyone knows about, including the umpires.  They all know what’s going on.  It’s extremely rare that a pitcher gets thrown out of a game for hitting or trying to hit a batter, even though it happens regularly.  And if a pitcher does happen to be ejected for intentionally hitting a batter the minimum fine is a whopping $200! (MLB Rule 8.02)  Can you believe it?  Who makes these rules?  I mean a batter could get killed, and has, from one of those bean balls.

"The Scales of Justice"

Here in the land of fruits and nuts according to Wikipedia, “on April 6, 2006, in a case arising from a game involving community college baseball teams, the Supreme Court of California ruled that baseball players in California assume the risk of being hit by baseballs even if the balls were intentionally thrown so as to cause injury.” So I guess the message is if you’ve got the moxie to do it, do it in California.

You might notice I’ve not once tried to blame any of this on Scott Cousins (see my June 4, 2011 post).  Scott was doing what he was trained to do which is to do everything he can to win. And he did.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking"

No, this is something that falls on the Major League Umpires Association.  They’re the only ones who can get this violent aspect of the game under control and they don’t need any rule changes to do it.   If they’d start bouncing players out of the game when they resort to these retaliatory pitches and the unnecessary violence at the plate and elsewhere, the players would get the message and it would stop.  The question is, will they?  The answer is, probably not.  They’d have to move  a tad out of their comfort zone and who the heck wants to do that?

* Mortally Wounded Defined:   A mortal wound is a very severe and serious injury (almost always a form of penetration or laceration) whether accidental or inflicted intentionally…

Interview of Adrian Burgos, author of Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line By Ishmael Nunez Originally posted on19 November 2010. 

1-A single Latin-American was not voted to the all-century team?

Does that still hurt, still mad?

The absence of Roberto Clemente from the all-century team is a major issue on several levels. One matter is a logistical argument about how Major League Baseball (MLB) officials skipped over Clemente in naming Stan Musial the 25^th player to the all-century: Clemente had secured more votes among outfielders than Musial. Another more significant issue is that MLB (as well as many voters) chose not to recognize the beyond-the-statistics dimension to what Roberto Clemente represents to the history of the game and as a 20^th century figure.

Clemente was a transformative figure who pushed for respect of Latinos and their culture on and off the playing field specifically in his willing to openly denounce racist and cultural bigoted beliefs that predominated during that time inside of baseball circles as well as in US society. Whether Clemente is the greatest outfielder or rightfielder in baseball history is a debatable matter, but whether he is one of the most important baseball figures of the 20^thcentury is without debate. An all-century team without Clemente and all he represented to the game’s history is just not right. The fact that MLB had the discretion to address this oversight and opted not to is telling of the need for an understanding of baseball history through a Latino framework.

2-Focusing on the book, one thing people are not aware is that there were Latinos playing baseball long before Jackie Robinson.  Why we are not given the credit for opening the doors for other peoples of color?

The full story of Latinos in US professional baseball is unknown to the American baseball public. Many do not know that over fifty foreign-born and US-born Latinos performed in the Majors from the 1880s through 1947, when Jackie Robinson began the dismantling of organized baseball’s color line. Fewer realize that the overwhelming majority of Latinos who played in the States during the era of baseball’s segregation performed in the Negro Leagues, over 250 Latinos played in the Black baseball circuit starting in 1900.

In Playing America’s Game I argue that the manner that Major League team officials manipulated racial understandings served as a template for how Branch Rickey would approach the official launch of the racial integration of Major League Baseball: he like they placed fellow owners in the odd position of having to publicly express opposition to the inclusion of these players. Indeed, officials for teams such as the Cincinnati Reds, Boston Braves, New York Giants, and, most notably, Washington Senators, brokered access for lighter-skinned Latinos in the 1900s and by the mid-1930s began to allow increasingly darker, more racially ambiguous Latino players into the Majors. However, these Latino players were not given the same exact treatment as Jackie Robinson did, because these officials were not engaged in trying to overturn the color line system of racial division but rather to manipulate it for their own gain—signing talented Latino players for lower salaries than what they would earn if they were white Americans.

3-In your book you describe the many obstacles Latino Ballplayers had to face.  For example speaking English!  Do they still face these problems?

Language continues to be a prominent obstacle that Latinos encounter as they enter the US playing fields. This especially since MLB organizations continues to scour the Dominican and Venezuelan landscape in search of young, malleable talent. Fortunately, a number of organizations such as the Tampa Rays, Boston Red Sox, and New York Mets have developed more sophisticated approaches to dealing with the cultural adjustment that these teenagers face as they become men as minor leaguers in the United States. Even still the ability to overcome the rigors of cultural adaptation proves just about as significant a challenge as mastering hitting (or throwing) a big league curveball.

Learning to navigate the English-language press remains an extremely challenging obstacle once they “make it” in the United States. It is in the press coverage of Latinos we continue to see how Latino difference as racial beings constantly in production. For example, during last year’s American League Divisional Series Manny Ramirez became embroiled in a controversy after stating that he was not worried whether the Red Sox would defeat Cleveland, because his team had been down before and had overcome a 3-game-to-none deficit in defeating the New York Yankees a few years earlier. Some stated this was another example of “Manny being Manny,” but what really perturbed me was hearing a prominent ESPN reporter stating that Manny did not know what he was saying because he lacked mastery over the English language. What?! Manny came over from the Dominican Republic at ten years old and was schooled in the United States before graduating from George Washington High School in Washington Heights (NYC). But this reporter lumped all Latinos into a familiar stereotype, and then he used that to frame his analysis. And thus continues a practice of portraying Latino players as ignorant, dumb, or not as smart as the white American player, a practice that dates back to the earliest era of Latino participation in organized baseball.

4-Ken Burns “Baseball” documentary didn’t mention anything about the contribution of Latinos.  What should’ve been done, it’s not the first time Latinos have been excluded from his documentaries. True!

A friend once observed that in the entirety of Burns’ “Baseball” approximately five minutes focused on Latinos … and three of those were strictly about Clemente. The analogy I often make is that while the Negro Leagues received about a half inning of focused attention, Latino baseball got a couple warm-up pitches.

However, what Burns missed in 1994 is rightfully receiving its due attention. Next May the National Baseball Hall of Fame will open a permanent exhibit on Latino baseball Viva Baseball! (A project I and a number of other Latino baseball experts consulted on). Also noteworthy PBS aired an episode of American Experience on Roberto Clemente this past April. There are a number of documentaries on Latino baseball that have aired over the last several years on networks such as Spike and ESPN. And there are a few in production that are addressing this gap, including El Beisbol directed by AP Gonzalez and Nancy Ooey. Importantly, Gonzalez and Ooey’s project is seeking to present a historical interpretation of baseball through a Latino-centered focus, much like my book, they are hoping to convey how does baseball history look differently when we see Latinos as central to the story of its evolution and not as tangential where Latinos are presented are newly arrived and lacking a history.

5-In the book you mentioned Alex Pompez, who was elected the Hall of Fame.  Pompez was involved with organize crime figures, gambling.  Yet Pete Rose has been banned, excluded from the Hall.  Is there a difference?

Indeed there are important differences in terms of historical moments, racial status, and baseball.

Rose played his entire career in baseball’s integrated era, and as a white American did not have to endure what those who pioneered integration in organized baseball did or much less deal with the reality of the color line (in the negative sense) as African Americans and the overwhelming majority of Latino players did. On the other hand, Pompez participation in US professional baseball spanned the different eras of baseball. He launched his Cuban Stars team in 1916 and participated in the Negro Leagues until 1950 at which point he disbanded his team and was hired as a scout by the NY Giants, a position that evolved into becoming their director of international scouting and which until his death in 1974.

The rules against gambling were spelled out for Rose by the Major Leagues; he knew them and knowingly broke them—something he admitted to after over a decade of adamant denials. Pompez was not alone among owners in the Negro Leagues in using proceeds from the numbers scene to bankroll his baseball operation; it was a reflection of the impact and pervasiveness of racial segregation in American society and how it so shaped economic opportunities.

6-The New York Cubans won the Negro League Championship in 1947.

Same year which was the start of from 1947-57 a New York City Baseball team would win a title. Hardly no talk about this team why?

The NY Cubans were one of three NYC-based teams to enjoy a banner season in 1947, and yes they are the least discussed in part because the other two were the Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Yankees. So there is the issue of timing. The NY Cubans enjoyed their greatest success in the Negro Leagues during the same year that Jackie Robinson initiated the dismantling of organized baseball’s color line system.

Another part of the reason the Cubans team suffers today from a lack of attention is the misperception that they were not a significant team in the Negro Leagues or in New York. Much to the contrary, a look at two main Black weeklies published in NYC (the New York Age and Amsterdam News) one sees that the Cubans and not the NY Black Yankees were celebrated as “Harlem’s Own”. This also arises in the recovery of Negro League history and in the revival of interest, much of the story of Black baseball is told as just that of African Americans, leaving out the Latinos who participated in the Negro Leagues from its inception and the vital (one can even argue foundational) role that Latin American leagues had in the shaping of Black baseball in the United States. Moreover, the NY Cubans (and its predecessor the Cuban Stars) were trailblazers in bringing in talent from throughout the Americas. While operating these teams, Alex Pompez introduced the first Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Panamanian players to play in either the Negro Leagues or the Majors. The NY Cubans represent a vital part of baseball history in the Americas for they offer a different approach to diversity in US professional baseball long before “Los Mets.”

7-One player on the team you talk about highly is Martin Dihigo?

Many former Negro League Players say he was the best!

Dihigo is quite a unique figure in the annals of baseball history because he was an ace pitcher and a fabulous everyday player (and a pretty good team manager on top of that). Think of someone who was on a Hall of Fame level as a pitcher in Black baseball (the Smokey Joe Williams, Jose Mendez, and Satchel Paige type pitchers) and then think of the very best everyday players from the Negro Leagues, put that together and you begin to imagine El Maestro, El Inmortal, Martin Dihigo.

8- Roberto Clemente’s number 21should it be retired?

I am of two minds on this question. For one, I want Latino players to be a living memorial to the meaning and significance of Clemente to all Latinos. The best memorial is seeing a great Latino player chose to take the number 21, and demonstrate mastery on the field and also grace, dignity, and a willingness to speak for the cause of social justice off the field. However, I am concerned that this generation of Latino players may be losing sight of what Clemente did for them and all of baseball. How many Latinos spoke out on behalf of African American Latroy Hawkins who wanted to honor Clemente by wearing 21 and was being harassed by Yankees fans not for daring to honor Clemente but for wearing what they viewed as Paul O’Neill’s jersey number? I am distressed that Jorge Posada (born and raised in Puerto Rico) did not speak out on Hawkins behalf—what would have Clemente done on behalf of a teammate in such a case.

No greater example has been set for all of those involved in any capacity within organized baseball than what Clemente did, the ability to see beyond himself and speak for those who did not have the platform he could create—and I say could create but indeed it took proactive work. How best do we recognize that vital historical lesson? I am for a living memorial, the Latino players keeping his (and our) story on the field for all to see.

photo taken from Google Images

From 1947 to 1957, a baseball team from New York City would win the World Series. The three teams present in New York City were the New York Yankees, New York Giants, and Brooklyn Dodgers.

Some of the greatest players came out of this decade. The Yankees would win five World Series titles from 1949 to 1953, and would again win the World Series in 1956 and 1958.

The Dodgers would win their only title in 1955, while the Giants would win two in 1954 and 1957 before both teams were to move to California. Yet there remains one question: “Does anybody remember the New York Cubans??”

Yes, the New York Cubans, who won the Negro League Championship in 1947. That same year the Yankees won the first of five World Series in a row, yet no one talks about the NY Cubans. Why, because they were a Negro League team and had players who were just as good as the Major Leagues Players back then? Here are some of the players who played on this team; the average baseball fan today most likely has never heard of them, but in the hearts and minds of the Latin Community, they still exist.

Among them stands Martin Dihigo, considered by many to be the greatest ball player who ever played in the Negro Leagues. Dihigo is the only ballplayer elected to four baseball Hall of Fames; in the U.S.A, Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela.

Long before Pete Rose became an All-Star in five different positions, Dihigo had done the same. He was called “El Maestro (The Teacher, or The Master). As a pitcher he won 256 games, with a winning percentage of 653. With a bat he had a life-time batting average .303. Satchel Paige, the greatest pitcher in the Negro Leagues said this when he was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971: “I’m not the best, Martin Dihigo is! Dihigo was elected to the fame in 1977.

Tetelo Vargas (Dominican Republic,) considered by many to be the “Father of Dominican Baseball.” Long before fellow countryman Juan Marichal (elected to Hall of Fame in 1987), Manny Ramirez or Vladimir Guerrero, there was Vargas. He was known as the “Dominican Deer”! He excelled in defense, was a consistent hitter, good speed, base stealer. When you see Ramirez’s power, Guerrero’s arm, you will see Vargas in sprit!

Other outstanding players included Pedro Anibal “Perucho” Cepeda (Puerto Rico) who played shortstop. He was the father of Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda. He was on the Cubans roster in 1941. An outstanding fielder and hitter, he finished with a .325 batting average.

When you see Derek Jeter (NY Yankees), Miguel Tejada (Baltimore Orioles) or Alex Rodriguez when he played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers; representing the new prototype of power-hitting shortstops and hitting those long balls, that was Cepeda. Talk about the great hitting shortstops Honus Wagner, Ernie Banks; who knows how many records he would’ve made!

Still others included Luis Tiant, father of Cleveland and Boston All-Star pitching great Luis “El Tiante” Tiant , and Saturnino Orestes Armas “Minnie” Minoso, who would set an MLB record for appearing in games, mostly with Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, over five decades (and even attempted a sixth!)

Could this team compete with the “Golden Teams 1947 to 1957? HELL YEAH! I’ll bet all those other New York teams would’ve met their match!

299_9923 (Photo credit: dbking)

For more information about the New York Cubans and the Negro Leagues, visit the following links:

http://www.nlbpa.com/new_york_cubans.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/new-york-cubans

http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/history/teams/nycubans.html

Ismael Nunez is a BaseballdeWorld Latin Correspondent based in Puerto Rico. This article was originally posted on 31 May 2010. 

Photo taken from Google Images

This is a post written by Jeff Herbst. Jeff has had a passion for sports ever since he could first walk and enjoys writing in his spare time. He works with Phoenix Bats, a company that manufacturers wood bats and specialty composite wood bats for amateur and professional ball players around the globe.

Since 1936, the baseball Hall of Fame has inducted 296 players, managers and executives who have excelled on the field of play, behind the scenes as manager, coach or executive, or who played a part in advancing the game of baseball itself. In its induction criteria, players must have played a minimum of ten years, and have been retired for five years. A screening committee then ciphers through the list of eligible players after they have waited the mandatory five-year period after retirement. Once the screening committee clears the list of lesser-qualified players, members of the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) must then cast their votes for players on the ballot and players who receive a minimum of 75 percent of the votes cast is automatically inducted.

While the process itself may seem foolproof, there are flaws in the system and those flaws have certainly come into play during and after what has been termed as baseball’s Steroid Era.

The Steroid Era can be loosely defined as the era between the late 1980s until now, when many ballplayers were suspected to have used performance enhancing drugs to in order to increase offensive output. Many players during this time were alleged to have used PEDs, while others actually tested positive for banned PED substances after MLB implemented PED testing in 2003.

The voting bloc for baseball’s Hall of Fame, the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) has largely denied entry into the hallowed halls of baseball for players suspected of PED use, including those who have tested positive in recent years. Mark McGwire, the slugging first baseman who originally broke Roger Maris’ all-time single-season home run record in 1998, is one such player who has failed to gain enough votes for entry. In the five years that McGwire has been eligible for Hall of Fame induction, the highest number of votes he has achieved has been 23.7 percent in 2010, far short of the 75 percent required for automatic induction.

So too is the case with former designated hitter Rafael Palmeiro. Palmeiro famously declared at a Congressional hearing in 2005, “Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.” However, just four months later, Palmeiro tested positive for a banned substance, rendering his very public statement useless. Despite the fact that Palmeiro is just one of four men in baseball history who have collected 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, he only received 11 percent of the votes in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility.

Cheating is cheating, no matter what form it takes. That is exactly why Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose have been barred from entry into the Hall of Fame—they were both involved in gambling on their own teams in some way. Baseball writers in the BBWAA have taken a stand that anyone accused of, or who tested positive for PED use also cheated and also should not gain entry in baseball’s hallowed halls.

For this writer, were I eligible to vote, I too would absolutely not cast a vote for any player who willingly changed his body via unscrupulous means in order to pad his statistics. Are there players in the Hall of Fame who were not the nicest of people, or who were disliked for various reasons? Yes, but none of them were accused of cheating the game. The Hall of Fame should only be reserved for players who earned it the right and honest way.

by Buddy Biancalana

I recently returned from baseball’s Winter Meetings. Reflecting back over the three days, one conversation I had is staying with me.  The conversation of which I intentionally did more listening than speaking, included Carlos Zambrano’s agent Barry Praver, Cub’s VP, Player Personnel, Oneri Fleita and MLB.com writer Carrie Muskat. They were discussing Zambrano’s challenges.

Certainly if Carlos could harness his emotions, overcome his reoccurring shoulder issues and pitch consistently like he can, there would be more joy in Wrigleyville.

When any athlete does not understand motion from the most fundamental level, it can kick off a chain of issues such as inconsistency, injuries and in Zambrano’s case, anger.

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s take a look at the interconnectedness of Zambrano’s three challenges.

Not understanding how to access the origin of motion can be compared to driving in an unfamiliar city without a GPS. It becomes a bit of guesswork, and now and then you will most likely get lost. Getting lost can certainly cause frustration and in some cases anger.

When mechanics start to break down for an athlete, confidence can start to diminish and create some concern or fear.  Fear is at the root of all anger.  At this point an athlete can start acting out by throwing or hitting things, yelling at team mates or through other various means. 

When things go wrong around Zambrano, if he understood how to pitch as well as he ever has by having a clear understanding of how to access the origin of motion, do you think his emotions would run rampant?  It is doubtful. His confidence would remain and anger and fear would stay dormant.

So how does this tie in to Zambrano’s shoulder issues? When a pitcher is not accessing the origin of motion, the bigger, bulkier muscles in the body will play a more dominant roll. This is multiplied in the case of a maximum effort pitcher like Zambrano.  A tug of war is created between the bigger muscles and the more subtle fast twitch muscles. This tug of war leads to injuries as doctors and trainers have told me.

If Carlos understood motion from the most fundamental level, he would get to enjoy the game and his team mates as much as his financial wealth.

Buddy Biancalana
Co-author, The 7 Secrets of World Class Athletes
www.zonetraining.net

“These guys have discovered something in all sports that is going to have a huge impact wherever it is taught.”  George Brett, Baseball Hall of Fame

With US backing, the ABL is thriving, writes David Sygall

 Written by David Sygall

Field of dreams … the Sydney Blue Sox opened the Australian Baseball League season on Friday with a win over the Melbourne Aces. Photo: Anthony Johnson

A striking aspect of baseball’s opening night is the level of confidence emanating from the tight community of fans, players and officials associated with a sport that acts nothing like a domestic fringe dweller.

And, it’s not just about mimicking the stereotypical chest-pumping, too cool for school-style attitude often linked with quintessentially American sports. The Australian Baseball League and its small but dedicated band of followers have genuine reasons to feel positive about the game’s future here, as it begins its second season since relaunching.

There is plenty to be said for a game steeped in as much tradition as Test cricket, yet which somehow can effortlessly maintain a sense of relevance and modernity. Whereas cricket and many other sports keep tinkering with their rules, image and style, baseball is the same today as it was when it began in the US north-east 140 years ago. You know what you’re going to get every time you watch a game at the ol’ ball park.
”One thing I love about baseball is that it’s consistent,” says Sydney Blue Sox general manager David Balfour, whose son Grant is earning millions playing for the Oakland Athletics. ”It hasn’t changed since the day it started. I think Twenty20 cricket is basically trying to be like baseball. Cricket is baseball on valium.”

Balfour ran former incarnations of Sydney baseball teams and admits to having lost ”a lot of money”. He says the old league was ”very good, a well-run league”, but this league’s better for one enormous reason – the league is now majority owned by US Major League Baseball.

Centralised ownership means there are no owners going broke, player payment and trading issues, or arguments over how the teams should be structured and marketed. Everyone is pulling in the same direction under a sporting behemoth that definitely knows what it’s doing. Merchandise is from the same template as highly successful MLB stock, as is the game-day running sheet, right down to the seventh-inning stretch. It also means American players have a direct opening to play in Australia, setting up a mutually beneficial exchange of skills with Australia’s brightest talents, several of whom will doubtless add to the already impressive list of Australians to hit the big time in the US.

”The problem in the past was a lack of funds and pretty bad facilities,” Balfour says. ”That’s improved. To have the backing of MLB is a really big plus. It basically means we have just one owner, which makes things easier. In the old days nothing ever moved because everyone was looking after their own interests.”

It’s definitely not a bottomless pit of cash, Balfour adds, as MLB expects the ABL to be self-sufficient eventually. But the backing as the game seeks to permanently establish itself is priceless. Other practical factors add to baseball’s appeal. At the game on Friday night – which the Blue Sox won brilliantly 3-2 over the Melbourne Aces with a winning run at the bottom of the ninth inning – knowledgeable and passionate fans could hear at close proximity the whizz of the ball zooming through the air at 160 km/h. They could see its dip and swerve and feel the thud as it smacked into the catcher’s glove. Whereas cricket’s rule tinkering has nearly killed the art of bowling, the baseball pitcher’s skill remains highly celebrated. Same with the batters, who are as courageous as they are powerful.

”The standard is already there,” says Bob Turner, the former basketball identity who is now a chief advisor to Baseball NSW and the Blue Sox. ”You’ve got 20 kids who played in the Majors last year playing in the league. You’ve got five guys who played in the league last year who went on to play in the Majors this year. The fact that Major League Baseball is such a major driving force behind the ABL gives every young fellow a real chance. It’s now a case of, ‘If I show my skills, I can make it to the big league’. The success of the league will probably be based on crowds and media coverage. But I think people have accepted that it’s here to stay and will become bigger and bigger over the years.”

Greetings,

It’s been another year of wonderful success for many of our clients. We have now worked with athletes in seven professional and 13 amateur sports. We’ve also worked with a few musicians.

Following are a few of the success stories from baseball.  I am not at liberty to use some client’s names.

Philip Humber–Pitcher-Chicago White Sox:

In four call ups to the Major Leagues prior to Zone Training, Philip had a 1.82 WHIP (walks and hits to innings pitched) and a 1.11 to 1 K-BB ratio. (strikeout to walk ratio)

In the past two seasons combined following Zone Training, his WHIP was 1.19 and he had a 2.75 to 1 K-BB ratio.

Bobby Keppel–Pitcher-Nippon Ham Fighters: (Japan)

In four plus years prior to Zone Training, Bobby had a career AAA ERA of 5.42. In 20 following Zone Training , he had a 2.43 ERA in AAA and his first 14.1 innings in the Major Leagues were scoreless.

In 2010 for Nippon he was 12-8 with a 3.20 ERA and this past season was 14-6 with a 3.21 ERA.

Aaron Laffey–Pitcher-Kansas City Royals:

In two previous seasons combined prior to Zone Training, he had a 1.04 K to BB ratio. This past season with the Mariners and Yankees, his K to BB ratio was 1.66. Both ratios do not include intentional walks.

Minor League Hitter:

Increased HR and RBI totals from 5 and 35 to 18 and 97. HR to AB ratio went from 1 every 48.6 AB to 1 every 29.22.

Joey Bielek–Chapparal High School, Scottsdale AZ:

Increased batting average from .334 to .486 and had a 27 game streak without striking out.

Received scholarship from University of Cincinnati following no interest from any college prior to his senior season.

Philip Werner–St Andrews High School, Bethesda MD:

Increased batting average from approximately .400 as a sophomore to .724 as a junior.

Buddy Biancalana
www.zonetraining.net

“These guys have discovered something in all sports that is going to have a huge impact wherever it is taught.”  George Brett, Baseball Hall of Fame