AGRI Biz

You'd think I was a Twins fan if you'd only read my last four articles: Three of them have been about Minnesota's baseball franchise. But hey, that's why my columns are called "Here's a Thought:" I just write about things that happen to strike my interest, and this week, minor league slugger Josmil Pinto , lefty reliever Jose Mijares , and lefty starter Glen Perkins have intrigued me. Perkins' 2009 season sure ...

Twins left-handed relief pitcher Jose Mijares has long been a highly-rated prospect, with a low-90s fastball and an excellent slider. He appeared to live up to the hype as a rookie in 2009, posting a 2.34 ERA. Ah, but wait. Mijares' FIP was 4.01 last year. His xFIP was even worse at 4.43. Those numbers suggest that Mijares was one of the luckier pitchers in baseball last year. So, is Mijares a very good ...

When one thinks of the Giants' top prospects, he or she typically thinks of the promise of Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Thomas Neal, or perhaps the horrific downfall of Angel Villalona. But the team's sixth-round pick in 2008, left-handed pitcher Eric Surkamp, deserves to be discussed as well. Surkamp is a tall lefty out of NC State, standing 6'5". He was 21 years old during the 2009 season. Surkamp isn't the hardest ...

While my bio claims that I know about 2000 players currently in affiliated baseball (and I stand by that claim), my knowledge begins to fracture as you get lower and lower in the minors. I have a decent sense of almost everyone in Triple-A and a good amount of Double-A, but particularly when you get to Low-A and short-season leagues, all I know are top prospects, high draft picks, and A's ...

Earlier in the offseason, I broke down the catchers in the A's organization. That article can be found at http://bleacherreport.com/articles/307963-heres-a-thought-breaking-down-the-oakland-as-major-and-minor-league-catchers. That was followed up with http://bleacherreport.com/articles/310700-heres-a-thought-breaking-down-the-oakland-as-major-and-minor-league-first-basemen. Without further ado, I present the second base installment of the positional series.Begin Slideshow

My writing has recently been somewhat derogatory toward the Nationals pitching staff. In the past week, I pointed out how lefty reliever Sean Burnett got far more defensive support than anyone in baseball in 2009 , and is thus likely to regress in 2010, and I also took a quick sideswipe at the Jason Marquis signing when discussing the Giants overpaying for Mark DeRosa . But the news isn't all bad for ...

The Athletics signed Justin Duchscherer to a one-year deal earlier this week, and I praised the move. Of course, Duchscherer's signing took up a 40-man roster spot, and someone thus had to go. It turns out that the odd man out is LHP Jay Marshall, who was a Rule 5 draft pick in 2007 by Oakland. He stuck with the A's in a low-leverage role that year, and briefly resurfaced in the ...

It's unbelievable to me how quickly time flies. I started writing here at Bleacher Report just before the 2008 MLB season started, in late March, and here we are, two days short of 2010. A lot has happened in nearly two years. I wasn't even here for most of it--I was almost immediately hired by OaklandClubhouse.com (after 18 articles here) and took my work there, but decided to come back here when ...

The San Francisco Giants wound up making the mistake. But if they hadn't, someone elseáwould have. For some reason unbeknownst to me, baseball execs throughout MLB thought Mark DeRosa was worth several million dollars a year. DeRosa wound up getting six million dollars for two years: a two-year, $12 million deal. This is the sort of move that, as an analyst, drives me up the wall. Mark DeRosa doesn't do anything particularly well. ...

The Oakland Athletics signed Justin Duchscherer to a one-year, $5.5 million deal earlier this week. This is the sort of move I've been hoping the A's would make for weeks. It's no secret around Bleacher Report that I think Trevor Cahill and Vince Mazzaro need to start 2010 in Triple-A, and that the A's, prior to signing Duchscherer, only had three true MLB-level starters: Brett Anderson, Dallas Braden, and Gio Gonzalez. They also ...