Another Saturday night drinking with the scout at the Barleymoe

       Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by  Jack Daniels, Jose Cuervo and Hiram Walker

Elijah: Well fellas we made it through the Free Agent period and there is very little left to sign at the big league level.

Hiram: I amazed at how many left handed pitchers are still available.

Jose: There are a lot of marginal left-handers still available but they are MARGINAL.

Hiram: Marginal or not left handers are just different.

Jose: I'm left handed and I don't feel different. Would you like to tell me why I'm different.

Hiram: Jose, no offense meant but it's built into the game. For a long time people have discriminated against left handed people. Parents used to train their left handed children to be right handed. Abner Doubleday insisted that his children be right handed. So when he codified the rules of baseball obviously he thought of things for right handers. We run the bases counter clockwise because our first forward step after hitting the ball is with our right foot. Hell even the term southpaw is derogatory.

Jose: Do you know what you're talking about? I mean Doubleday and all that.

Hiram: Jose, we're here drinking in a bar and you think I would embellish the history of baseball-REALLY. Back to the point there are a lot of left-handed pitchers available and some of them probably would have a good season; it's just hard to decide which one is due for a good year.

Jack: Among hitters, a couple of left fielders are still available; Socks Gross and Jeff Brinkley. Gross is a type B free agent. I believe he is last guy that would give draft compensation to his former team.

Elijah: Why don't you guys talk about the signings.

Jack: Sammy Oliva got the biggest contract. He got $60 million for 5 years; with this season counting for $22 million.

Hiram: So Boise, gave up a $22 mil and a second round pick for Sammy.

Jack : Yea, Dover got a complimentary pick also, so they will be have 48th pick and 70th pick for losing Sammy.

Jose:  Dover signed Clyde Dickerson, from El Paso, to take Sammy's spot in their rotation.

Hiram: What did it cost sportsguy93?

Jack: $7 mil another 2nd round pick. The second biggest contract went to Jose Lee. He got $14.25 from Colorado. Stickman signed three pitchers for $27.25 mil; Russell Evers, Adam Waltman, and Jose Lee.

Jose: Colorado scored 981 runs last year but gave up 903. Seems like they moved their money to try to cut down on runs scored.

Jack: The $27.25mil spent on pitching kept them from resigning Stolmy Castro, who went to Washington D.C. for $5.5mil.

Hiram: Stickman is taking big gamble in that park.He has spent 36 of his 51 seasons in Colorado and has only had 4 years with a runs against lower than 903.

Jose: Is your point that his pitching was unusually good last season and you doubt the new guys will improve his team that much.

Hiram: My point was that you don't spend money on pitching at altitude.  Stolmy Castro had a runs created last season of .199 per at-bat. That's about a run per game. He could have resigned Stolmy and kept his run scoring high.

Elijah: That's something that will be interesting to look back on at the end of the season. Mr._Stickball has a .530 winning percentage, I would say that's a lot higher than your's Hiram.

Elijah: Who wants to talk about Jose Cordero and the $13.75mil he got from Hartford?

Jose: Elijah, mannytanner got the ace he needed for his pitching staff. Cordero will be on the Blue Frogs when stud minor league pitcher Angel Camacho  joins the big league team. The Blue Frogs have a stable of high quality  young bullpen arms. By season 55 the Blue Frogs should be ready to make  arun in that division. I think it's funny that mike1184 replaced his Cuban ace, Cordero, with another Cuban ace Renato Viriato. 

Jack: I want to talk about Seattle signing Marcell Sanchez. jc44 won 118 games last season and he added Sanchez to replace long time ace Ydwin Brinkley. jc44 got younger but it will be hard for Sanchez to match Brinkley's 19 wins last season .

Hiram: Ydwin Brinkley started the season with 173 wins. That was enough that vegascowboy offered him $12.5mil to join a strong pitching staff.

Elijah: It seems like you guys could go on about the free agents all night. I'm worn out trying to keep all this straight. Call the uber let's go home.