It looks like a good week to be a major league pitcher. Almost as good is being agent Casey Close.
The Rays and LHP David Price announced a $14-million contract for 2014, the largest in franchise history. This tells me that they're all in for this season, and that Price wouldn't be available in trade unless Tampa Bay is out of the race near the trade deadline. It's also conceivable that if the team looks strong going forward, the Rays might even try to sign him to some sort of rewarding contract of medium-range length -- maybe $75 for three years, with options for additional years and reachable incentive clauses.
That might not be enough, because there are reports that the Dodgers and LHP Clayton Kershaw have agreed on a 7-year, $215-million deal that would be a record for a pitcher anywhere.
Waiting in the wings, for a contract that could be escalating by the day, is free-agent Japanese RHP Masahiro Tanaka, who also is represented by Close.
Even the remaining free-agent starting pitchers such as RHPs Matt Garza and Bronson Arroyo could see their contracts bumped up a few hundred thousand by the pitching sellers' market. You never know when a starting pitcher might fall down the stairs.
Continuing another recent trend of oldtimers/has-beens/previously enjoyed players contemplating a return to the bigs, LHP Dontrelle Willis signed a minor league contract with the Giants.
Other big news from San Francisco, via Venezuela, is that 3B Pablo "Kung Fu Panda" Sandoval has lost 42 pounds (19 kilos) while playing in the Venezuelan Winter League. It's a contract year for the gifted hitter. How much he makes might depend on how much he weighs as the 2014-15 off-season becomes a reality.
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Hockey. A couple of things, one of them not funny at all, have happened during the past few days. When I turned on my computer at the Oilers-Stars game Tuesday night, I couldn't see the screen. After a while, I could vaguely make out my sign-on prompt. Eventually, if I swirled my finger around the touch pad enough, I could find the cursor and guess whether I was clicking on the right icon. I was able to write about 300 words about the first two periods. Then I realized I would have to open AOL to send in the article to The Associated Press after I'd written.
Could not find the cursor, nor the Firefox icon. I realized I would have to write the article on my phone. It's a three-part sequence. First, write 150 words or so with the basic information and send that in. Second, add enough on to that for about 500 words and send. Third, ideally, interview some players and coaches, and add their quotes and a catchy lead for an article of about 900 words.
By the time the game ended, I hadn't even finished my 150 words. Those little keys on the Galaxy 4 are way smaller than my fingers. Got that done, but missed any interview opportunities, while I was writing the rest of the 500-worder. The Stars provided me with audio of their post-game interviews, and another freelancer sent me quotes from the Oilers' side. By the time I sent the new material and indicated where it should go, it was well past the time the article was expected in New York. I must say, though, that the editors there were very understanding.
Did some research Wednesday and discovered that it's not uncommon for the backlight on HP laptops to go out. Too bad, because generally I like the computer, but I'd never had a problem with backlighting in any of the -- I don't know, half-dozen? dozen? -- computers I've had before. I visited the Geek Squad and was preparing to have the geeks send away my computer for a couple of weeks for not-inexpensive repairs when the technician casually mentioned that they might have to wipe my computer. Wipe? Yes, as in clearing everything from the hard drive. That screech you hear is me putting the brakes on. I can't have everything erased. I have some projects and databases there that I've worked on literally for months. So the alternative, I was told was getting a VGA cable and hooking my laptop up to a TV. Next stop, Target, for a VGA cable. When I got home, that cable didn't really work, but fortunately the HDMI cable (which before seemed to have no apparent purpose) did. Thus, I'm writing this now from my dark laptop to a bright screen on our new bedroom TV. That's in part because I still find it very cumbersome to use the MacBook Pro at home, which I will be taking to tonight's Bruins-Stars game. Wish me luck.
BTW, I still have some things to clear from my HP laptop before I send it away. So by Friday, I expect to be doing all of my work on the MacBook.
Aside: if anyone from Samsung, HP or Apple wants to sponsor this blog, be my guest. You're welcome for the product placements.
Also on Wednesday, I interviewed the Stars' Brenden Dillon and Alex Goligoski about skate/foot protectors and whether those facilitate blocking shots for an article another AP writer is doing. Didn't sound like a very interesting idea to me at first, but the conversations I had with the players were very informative, dare I say enlightening, on the topic. That article is supposed to be on the wire sometime next week.
Dillon happens to be on my fantasy team, about which I have two things to say. 1) I will not write anything more about plus/minus. In the first two nights after I pointed out that I had skyrocketed within 4 of the next-higher team in plus/minus, my players combined to go minus-5 each night. I saw a note from Wednesday's game that Keith Yandle was only minus-1 or minus-2, which was an improvement because he had been minus-3 in each of the previous two games. 2) I will not write anything more about goalies until I figure them out. Don't hold your breath. With Eddie Lack giving up something like 200 goals Wednesday, I'm now at the bottom of the league in both goals against and save percentage. It helps that Steve Mason has won his last two starts, but didn't help at all that he essentially sucked in both games while the Flyers scored a bunch of goals at the other end.
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Basketball. I'm just now taking a look at Team Fresh Prints' performance Wednesday night. Be right back. ... While the teams ahead of me in the standings are playing each other, I'm leading this week 6-1-1, tied in 3-pointers and trailing in field goal percentage.
Hmmm. The Nets and Hawks are playing a Thursday afternoon game in Atlanta. How quaint. And, look, Joe Johnson has 15 of Brooklyn's first 31 points, shooting 6 for 8 from the field. Too bad, because I hadn't adjusted my roster yet today and he's on my bench. I did move my other two bench players, whose teams are playing tonight, back into the starting lineup.
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