The Diamondbacks have quietly done a good job of rebuilding their farm system. The Royals have fallen out of first place in a hurry. The Phillies’ bats are ice cold. Plus other news and notes out of Arizona, Kansas City, and Philadelphia.
Relocation’s gotten a lot more complicated lately.
Some time ago, baseball narrowed all the potential sites for an Expos move to Portland, Oregon, and two Washington, D.C. bidders: the District of Columbia itself, and a Northern Virginia group. These three groups have traveled to make presentations to MLB about their sites and funding packages. In short, Portland’s got no economy but a funding mechanism and sites, Northern Virginia has some money and bad sites, and D.C. has sites but is still working on money. All of them have expended a lot of effort, and have jumped through MLB’s hoops like cute, obedient doggies. So Selig decided to try and prod another bidder into the process, taking an open opportunity to say that he’d be delighted if San Juan, Puerto Rico would make a bid. This is another reason city governments shouldn’t trust MLB.
Scuffy Moehler’s career hangs in the balance; the Royals are being deterred by aches and pains; Mo Vaughn might finally hang it up; and Scott Williamson is pitching pain free. All that and much more Thursday’s titillating edition of UTK.
One of my favorite sayings–I think I first saw it in an r.s.b post back when I was in college–is “Life is not a meritocracy.” As much as we in America embrace the notion of a Horatio Alger ideal–that anyone can do anything they want to if they work hard enough–the fact is that intractable, and sometimes unfair, barriers to success do exist.
In baseball, we generally call these barriers “service time” and “financial commitments.” Players with the MLB Seal of Approval and guaranteed contracts keep their jobs long past the point of reason, while more deserving younger players toil one level below, doing everything in their power to reach The Show, but get left behind by the conservative nature of dyed-in-the-wool baseball people who would rather watch a veteran be old than take a chance on a younger player.
This column will highlight a number of the bad baseball players who are blocking the progress of better ones.