One of the great beauties of baseball is that the players come in all shapes and sizes more than in any other major sport. Even pitchers.

Case in point take a capsule look at  Anthony Swarzak of the Twins, Danny Herrera, all 5-foot-6 inches of him, of the Cincinnati Reds and the latest No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft Stephen Strasburg,  the 103 mph flame thrower from San Diego State. 

Saturday Swarzak threw seven shutout innings against the Cubbies at Wrigley and what was his reward? A return to Rochester and Triple AAA. Welcome to the Bigs kid. We have your number. 

A brunt of jokes, Herrera whose nickname is what else, (Shorty) is proving he belongs. The lefty aka “Little Red Machine” throws an 84-85 mph fastball that  always sinks or cuts. He also throws a slurve, a changeup and his out pitch, a screwball, which almost no one throws, but Herrera since 2005.

As for Strasburg time will tell. With agent Scott Boras onboard anything can and probably will happen. The Nationals will try to sign him to some huge contract, but how can they with the President living only a few blocks away?

Wouldn’t that be ironic if they break the bank to keep him?

Hopefully for all us fans, Swarzak, Herrera and Strasburg will all be slinging the pill for years to come at a ballpark near you.

-Lenn

Way to go Randy Johnson aka the “Big Unit” on winning your 300th Major League game this past Thursday against baseball’s version of the Washington Generals I mean Nationals.    

The lanky lefty fire-baller, who is second all-time in strikeouts while hurling for the Expos, Mariners, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Giants might just be the last 300 game winner in major league baseball history.

The next active  pitcher Jamie  Moyer has 250 wins,  but Moyer is 46 years old.  After that there is  Andy Pettite, Pedro Martinez or John Smoltz again father time is calling, not going to make it fellas.

As for the young guns such as Tim Hudson 33, (146), Roy Halladay 32, (140),  Roy Oswalt 31, (131), C.C. Sabathia 28, (122)  or Johan Santana 30, (116) it is not going to happen either.

The way the game is played nowdays with starters only going 5-6 innings, middle relief pitchers are eating not only innings but W’s,  I doubt the next 300-game winner has even been born.

As with all records time will tell. Anyway it was cool to see happen.

Some interesting tidbits on Johnson.  He  joined Steve Carlton and Gaylord Perry as the only two pitchers that have won their 300th game against a team they pitched for previously. Carlton and Johnson are the only pitchers to win their 300thgame against the team they began their career with.

Johnson has the fourth-best winning percentage amongst pitchers with 300 wins. Only Lefty Grove, Christy Mathewson, Roger Clemens and John Clarkson have a higher percentage.

Johnson won five Cy Youngs — four of those came as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Johnson struck out 300-plus in a season six times. All of those seasons came after Johnson turned 29.

Johnson is the first pitcher to get his 299th win and 300th win in consecutive starts since Tom Seaver did it in 1985.

Baseball and numbers you gottla love it!!!!

-Lenn

OK, I’ll say it: Rockies manager Clint Hurdle did not deserve to be fired. I’m not even a Rockies fan.

It has been less than two years since the Rockies made that incredible run and had an appearance in the World Series. Did anyone really expect Hurdle to go this soon?

Way to support your guy, general manager Dan O’Dowd. Here’s a fun O’Dowd quote: “Clint is someone who’s been a part of everything we’ve done here. He deserved the benefit of the doubt until it got to the point where we realized we needed to do something.”

Did he really get the benefit of the doubt?

Maybe we should look at why the Rockies are losing. Troy Tulowitzki, now with a big contract, has stunk it up. The team’s best player, Matt Holliday, was traded to the Athletics - and he must have been a good player since the A’s almost never sign big-name players. And, the team’s ace, Jeff Francis, has been on the shelf all season since shoulder surgery.

I know Hurdle is a no-excuse kind of guy, but those are some pretty good ones why Colorado had an 18-28 record heading into today. Before 2007, wasn’t that a pretty good start for this team?

These are the penny-pinching Rockies, now I can tell they are not the most intelligent franchise either.

But as my good coworker Lenn would say, ‘you can’t fire a team.’

- Russo

Welcome back Joe Mauer.
It took only three pitches Friday night for the MVP of the Minnesota Twins to make some noise much to the delight of  his home town fans.

Mauer, a two-time AL batting champ who happens to hail from nearby St. Paul,  cracked a home run in his first at bat of the 2009 season.
Hitting in his customary No. 3 spot in the order, the Twins won 7-5 as Mauer added a double, a walk and three runs scored.

Getting Mauer back in the lineup will help the offense for sure, but his work behind the plate is where they need him the most.

His ablility to frame pitches, calm down the pitching staff and throw out would be base stealers has been sorely missed.

Did you see the reaction his own teammates gave him when he rounded the bases? He is one of those kinds of athletes that come along every now and then.   

The Twins struggled to an 11-11 mark in April, but find themselves in the thick of things in the division, that many experts picked them to win.  
Sure it is just one game but, is there another player that means more to his team than Mauer does day in and day out?  With apologies to the Big Ticket, and Fat Albert, I beg to differ.
In the  small market world that is the Twins,  Joe Mauer is big time.
“Touch ‘em all Joe, touch ‘em all.”  

Welcome back kid indeed, Mauer Power is back.
-Lenn

Spring is here and that means BASEBALL.
What better time than to  check out this site.

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/article.aspx?articleid=ecc2af44-c624-de11-a973-001cc494dda6

As with any (best of) lists come the debates. Do you agree or disagree with these choices?

And then as Padraic pointed out, “Didn’t Dave Collins play pro ball?”  

Which of course he did.  California Angels 1975-76; Seattle Mariners 1977;  Cincinnati Reds 1978-81; New York Yankees 1982;  Toronto Blue Jays 1983-84; Oakland Athletics 1985; Detroit Tigers1986; Cincinnati Reds (1987-89; St. Louis Cardinals 1990.

The Rapid City Rabbit  led the AL in triples in 1984 with 15 and still ranks in the top 100 in all-time stolen bases.

According to the Baseball Almanac there were 39 players that played in the majors at some point from South Dakota! Including eight with ties to Rapid City.

So much for lists. Play Ball.
-Lenn

The Missouri men’s basketball team just made sure that it is now baseball season. After correctly picking all of the Final Four teams last year, I cannot look at my NCAA bracket.

But speaking of baseball, Sunday is the day of the Journal’s fantasy baseball draft. Yeah, I know, there is a fantasy sport for everything. At the Journal, we have football, hockey, auto racing, basketball and baseball leagues. It covers the whole year.

So while I am watching basketball, I am thinking about the baseball team I will pick Sunday for a 22-week league. With blizzard No. 2 slated for Monday, it seems kind of wrong.

But going through draft prep for a 14-team league - with a noon Sunday draft - I cannot decide on who is the best pick overall. It seems that this year, there are at least five guys that anyone can feel good about in that top spot. But I think Hanley Ramirez would be the best pick.

And as far as pitchers, is there any pitcher worth taking in the first three rounds not named Santana or Lincecum?

Anyone have any fantasy baseball draft strategies?

- Russo

I think I count myself as a fan of this whole World Baseball Classic thing. It’s sort of like soccer’s World Cup, only, let’s face it, way more interesting.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t without problems. Like many of Emperer Selig’s good ideas over the years, the Classic has the feel of an event thrown together at the last minute and it isn’t really looked at as anything other than an afterthought.

Some of the issues I have are the timing of the event keeps Major League Baseball’s best at home, or rather in Spring Training, instead of in some country’s uniform. Teams can cherry pick players who have never lived in their country. As we all learned with Becky Hammon, that just won’t fly here in Rapid City.

It would be nice if the powers that be got some of these issues ironed out, but in any case, the WBC remains “Must See TV” for me. Even at 5 a.m.

MLB Spring trainging games begin this week in Florida and Arizona.  Amen. Yes I know it’s only spring training, but it’s still baseball and no I am not talking about A-Fraud. 

The final rosters of the 16 teams participating in the second World Baseball Classic were released on Tuesday evening, and they include a bevy of All-Stars.

Team USA has Boston’s Dustin Pedroia, the Yankees’ Derek Jeter and San Diego’s Jake Peavy. The roster of defending champion Japan includes Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki and Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Dominican Republic brings back Boston’s David Ortiz and adds Florida’s Hanley Ramirez. Team Canada boasts Boston’s Jason Bay and Minnesota’s Justin Morneau. Mexico has San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez, and Puerto Rico the Mets’ Carlos Beltran to name a few.

The games in the Classic are set to begin next Tuesday.

Round 1 is double elimination - the first two teams to lose twice will be eliminated. The pool winners and runner ups will advance to Round 2 of the tournament. Round 2 also will be double elimination. The first two teams to lose twice will be eliminated and the remaining teams advance to the semifinal round in Los Angeles.

Although I am not a big fan of the Classic, I will be watching to see what transpires. With baseball out of the Olympics for the foreseeable future this will give one a glimpse of the Cubans, generally regarded as one of the best teams in the world, year in and year out.

After this long and windy winter it will be a breath of fresh air for me.

-Lenn    

Used to be I was one of two Seattle Mariner fans in the Journal building. This was back in the days when two M’s fans in the same proximity was worthy of note, even in Seattle.

The M’s fan base has seen its ebbs and flows. Now there’s Andrew Cutler and myself waving the Seattle banner here, and I’m sure Cutler joins me in celebrating the return of Ken Griffey, Jr. to the franchise where he acheived his greatest glory.

M’s fans–make that any fans of Seattle-based pro sports–haven’t had much to cheer about lately. I have a nephew there still steamed over the Sonics bug-out.

So Junior’s decision to return to the Great Northwest, probably close out his career, has to have brightened spirits there.

At 39, he’s obviously on the down side of his run, but if he can spark the M’s to better things in ‘09 and beyond, more power to him.

–Jim Holland–

So Jose Canseco wants an apology. And it seems the former MLB slugger, along with his team of attorneys, may have a point.

Canseco wrote two books — 2005’s “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big,” and 2008’s “Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball” — in which he made bold claims about his own involvement in injecting teammates with steroids and human growth hormone and named names of players who took drugs and inquired about buying drugs, including Alex Rodriguez.

Canseco was routinely referred to as a liar throughout the investigation process which included players appearing before Congress and the many conversations that went into the preparation of the 2007 Mitchell Report.

But now that some of the names from his books, like Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro, are coming forward and admitting that they did in fact cheat by using steroids, Canseco feels vindicated and wants an apology.

No one will ever think that what Canseco did was out of anything other than greed — myself included. But, in the end, things he said are starting to prove out true. Maybe it is time for Bud Selig, and the rest of MLB, to get down on one knee and ask for forgiveness.

Whether or that happens is another story.

Andrew