For Arroyo, there will be much less Yacht Rock this winter If you haven't heard yet, Bronson Arroyo is not pleased with his 2011 campaign, and plans to do something about it this offseason. "It's going to be a whole mindset of taking care of myself and that being No. 1, and pushing everything else off. I've seen too many people have decent careers fade away very quickly. You're like, 'Whatever happened to that guy? He had a monster year for three or four years.' All of a sudden he's nowhere to be found. I'm not letting that happen to me."
Keith Law backs up Fay's prediction that Boxberger lands in the Reds bullpen in 2012 I'm looking more and more forward to seeing this kid. Law on Boxy's stuff: "[Boxberger] was at 90-94 with a hard curveball at 81-84. Right-handed hitters will have a hard time picking up the ball because he comes slightly across his body. I'd like to see even a show-me change-up just so left-handers, who hit him better than righties did this year but still didn't hit him well, don't take too much advantage of his delivery." As of Saturday, Boxberger's been dominating the Arizona League, allowing one run in 5.7 innings while K'ing 11.
ESPN gossips about potential OF acquisitions Just some idle speculation about a few candidates, namely Michael Cuddyer, Kosuke Fukudome, and Grady Sizemore. Pass. Mildly intriguing is a potential move for Andre Ethier, who has one more arbitration year remaining. Ethier has lost a lot of power the last two years and hasn't stayed completely healthy. Additionally, his defense in RF, by the numbers, has been well below-average. But I do have a suspicion that Ethier will blow up, in the good way, during his contract year.
BPro - When 100 Tiles Meets 27 Outs Up for Baseball Scrabble(s)? BPro guest writer Diane Firstman has shaken the dust off the familiar board game by allowing the use of baseball names in addition to, you know, actual words, like "dusty" and "baker." She scores a triple word score on her first entry - VOTTO - collecting a cool 24 points.
Bill Bray gets to collect a new stamp on his passport next month MLB selected him for the all-star squad traveling to Taiwan (or "Chinese Tapei" in case Chairman Hu is asking Commissioner Selig) for a series of upcoming exhibitions. The team is scheduled to play in three different cities -- New Taipei City (Xinzhuang Stadium) on Nov. 1, Taichung (Intercontinental Stadium) on Nov. 3-4 and Kaohsiung (Chengcing Lake Stadium) on Nov. 5-6. So if you're in the neighborhood, check it out. Meanwhile, Redleg Nation spots a growing Reds influence in "Chinese China."
The Tom Seaver trade, revisited A brief recap of the 1977 trade that was supposed to extend the Big Red Machine. The fact that it didn't was no fault of Seaver's. Tom Terrific went 14-3 with a 2.34 ERA down the stretch, but the Reds finished with only 88 wins, well behind the Dodgers. The trade almost didn't happen: "It was later revealed that the night before the trade that Seaver had second thoughts and told the Mets that he would veto being sent to the Reds. Upon reflection, he decided that he wanted out. He called the Mets to tell them that they had his approval." Davey Lopes of the Dodgers was far from pleased: "This has to be one of the biggest steals since the Babe Ruth trade."
The GABP '11 Toyota Tundra has been released to the wild Or more specifically, the Warren County Sheriff's Department, which won the Tundra on September 16 when Dusty Baker spun a prize wheel during pregame ceremonies. No player hit the "Hit It Here" sign under the Power Stacks in RF this year. I presume that a '12 Tundra will appear in the same spot next year.
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