Reds Agree to two-year deal with Jose Arredondo

January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’m really bullish on Jose Arredondo. I am telling you, the guy can flat out pitch and you’re going to see it in the not too distant future. About the time the Reds are closing out the NL Central this season and getting ready to earn their pennant flag to decorate the ballpark, Arredondo will have emerged as a key cog in the Reds bullpen. I think he’s the set-up man in waiting and I also believe he’s going to be the designated ‘save vulture’ in the Reds pen.

The Reds agreed to a two-year compact with terms undisclosed with the Dominican born right-hander yesterday to avoid arbitration.

Sometimes it just takes time for a seed to grow. The Reds went out and signed Arredondo a couple winters ago coming off his 2008 in which he had a 1.62 ERA in 61 innings with the Angels, knowing that he would need Tommy John surgery. Arredondo had the Tommy John, missed a year recuperating and then returned last year to post a 3.53 ERA in 53 innings for the Reds. The road back from Tommy John is  slow one but this guy flat out has the stuff to be a big time arm for the Reds over the next few seasons.

Again, I’m bullish on Arredondo. He will be an impact guy in the Queen City.

Filed Under: Cincinnati Reds, Tommy John surgery Tagged With:

Francisco Cordero heads North of the Border

January 25, 2012 By 1 Comment

The man logged 150 saves for the Cincinnati Reds after many in baseball thought he was done. He’ll be 37 years old this season. Today, three-time All-Star Francisco “Coco” Cordero signed a one year, $4.5 million dollar contract with the Toronto Blue Jays in a move that bolsters their bullpen to one of the top pens in the American League.

Last season the Blue Jays had a stable of guys to pick from to close out ballgames. None of those guys were very good. They’ve re-stocked the cupboard with Cordero, Darren Oliver, Jason Frasor, Casey Janssen, and Sergio Santos this offseason.

While Santos is the big horse in the pen that figures to get the bulk of save opportunities, a baseball season is long and at some point the temptation to see what Cordero does in a save situation will be there. There’s likely to be a stretch of games in which Santos falters and Cordero gets an opportunity.

And that’s when Blue Jays fans will receive the feeling of horrifying dread that only a Coco Cordero blown save opportunity can evoke. Toronto, you have fun. He’s now your problem.

Filed Under: Free Agency, Toronto Blue Jays Tagged With:

Detroit adds a Prince

January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Detroit Tigers signed Prince Fielder to a monster, 9-year $214 million dollar contract today. While you were busy thinking of him in a lineup that already contains Miguel Cabrera, or where the Tigers will put Fielder, Cabrera, and Victor Martinez once Martinez returns from injury in a year or so; you probably didn’t realize that this deal brought Fielder to the city where the Fielder name gained fame and notoriety in the baseball world.

Prince is going to the city where his daddy Cecil hit 284 big league home runs. The Tigers were the forgotten team all along while everyone seemed to speculate about Prince signing with the Nationals, Mariners and Rangers. All the while, this move makes perfect sense for the Tigers who were likely to jump into the sweepstakes once Victor Martinez went down with season ending surgery on his knee last week.

Our opinion is while it’s a great signing for the immediate term–Fielder got too much money. He’s not like an Albert Pujols in the sense that he’s likely always to remain in peak physical condition into his middle and late 30′s. By the time this deal is done, Fielder probably won’t be worth the value. This deal is really going to see the value come to the Tigers within the first four to five years of the contract. This is not unique for a lot of baseball contracts that are signed today. How many 9-year contracts ever even see the player live out the life of the contract in the same place?

It was that same length and money amount that got Prince Fielder through the door in Motown. And while we all thought the market for Prince Fielder was becoming extremely thin with the Rangers throwing big money at Yu Darvish, the market all along was very much alive.

Filed Under: Detroit Tigers, Free Agency Tagged With: , ,

Kenny Powers returns in Eastbound & Down Season 3

January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ever since the series Eastbound & Down began on HBO, readers have found their way to this site by searching for “Rod Beck/Kenny Powers” or similar searches. People, I guess I kind of see the similarity, but why the curiosity or association?

Anyhow, Eastbound & Down Season Three: Getting Wet In Myrtle Beach premieres Sunday February 19th at 10 PM on HBO. Here’s a trailer to wet your appetite:

 

Filed Under: Television Tagged With: ,

The Baseball Show: If You Could Have a Beer With ________ Edition

January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last night on another thrilling edition in the saga of The Baseball Show, Mike Rosenbaum of The Golden Sombrero and M.J. Lloyd of Halo Hangout and Off Base Percentage and I discuss the following topics:

-The Yu Darvish signing
-M.J.’s ProGUESTus Debut at Baseball Prospectus
-The Pineda for Montero trade
-Fausto Carmona is Roberto Heredia. If you had a faux name, who would you be?
-The best prospect haul for a pitcher this off-season
-ASK M.J.

As always we had some laughs and got a good idea for next week’s show; memorabilia talk and Mickey Mantle stories. If you have some time to listen to this week’s show on a Friday in the office or over the weekend we will hopefully make you laugh or enlighten your day by talking baseball and a lot of other topics.

Filed Under: The Baseball Show by Diamond Hoggers Tagged With: , , , , ,

Your MLB the Show ’12 Cover

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This is hot off the press–the MLB the Show ’12 cover boy will be Adrian Gonzalez. This would only be known by those who follow the Official MLB the Show Facebook Fan Page like I do. And lets be honest, I probably beat you to it for reasons I’m not entirely proud of.

Adrian replaces the cover boy for two years running Joe Mauer. It was probably time. I thought SCEA missed the boat not having Joey Votto on the cover after his 2010 MVP season, but I’m only one man.

I cannot wait until that March 6th release date when I can roll into work all red eyed because I’ve played 54 innings of Playstation 3 baseball. It’s almost like Opening Day before Opening Day, for us video game wizard folks.

 

Filed Under: MLB the Show, Video Games Tagged With: ,

ESPN Releases Sunday Night Baseball Schedule

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Yesterday ESPN released their Sunday Night Baseball telecast schedule for the first half of the season. The Cincinnati Reds will host a mid-July contest at Great American Ballpark to give fans that rare Sunday game under the lights.

It seems as a whole ESPN tried to buck the typical ways of throwing the Yankees, Red Sox, or Cubs on every Sunday Night. This schedule features good variability between teams which is partly in response to the playoff field containing teams like the Rangers and Rays last season.

April 8 Chicago White Sox at Texas
April 15 L.A. Angels at N.Y. Yankees
April 22 Yankees at Boston
April 29 Tampa Bay at Texas
May 6 Philadelphia at Washington
May 13 Angels at Texas
May 20 St. Louis at L.A. Dodgers
May 27 Washington at Atlanta
June 3-July 1 TBD
July 8 Yankees at Boston
July 15 St. Louis at Cincinnati
July 22-Sept 23 TBD

I like what I’m seeing here. As usual we’ll be doing the Sunday Night Liveblogs here at Diamond Hoggers, so we do hope you’ll make a habit of joining us and commenting on the action or at least having a few new dick jokes we can all add to our repertoire.

Filed Under: ESPN Biases Tagged With:

The Return of Polygon Jay Bruce (MLB 2K12 Related)

January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s happening again. Just the mere look at that clear depiction of Jay Bruce in the batter’s box at GABP in video game format is making me want to check out MLB 2K12 on the Playstation 3 this spring. This is not good folks. I will already buy MLB The Show because it’s the best sports game on the planet, but if 2k Sports can somehow pull off any semblance of what they say they will I’m going to be in big trouble with the wife and spending nights on the couch with the dog.

They’re still giving away $1 million dollars you’ll never win, and they still promise to be the most realistic baseball game on the planet. Nothing we haven’t heard before. But these images are definitely sucking me in and intriguing me to the point where I might rent the game and if it’s bearable–without any game breaking glitches–I’ll buy it.

Filed Under: Video Games Tagged With:

Friend of Diamond Hoggers Debuts at Baseball Prospectus

January 17, 2012 By 1 Comment

It’s a proud day for us here at Diamond Hoggers because our buddy M.J. Lloyd (co-host of The Baseball Show Podcast) and editor of Off-Base Percentage and Halo Hangout made his debut over at Baseball Prospectus.

M.J. brings it strong, writing about The Pitfalls of Prospect Worship; something that we can relate to pretty easily.

He begins:

Prospects are like new car smell. They’re exciting and intoxicating. They make it seem like your favorite team is about to turn the corner.

From there, M.J. brings it strong. If you’ve got a few minutes today, head over to BP and read his debut post. Way to go “MTD”. We look forward to more of it’s type.

Filed Under: Baseball Prospectus, Prospects Tagged With:

BREAKING: Reds sign Ryan Ludwick

January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This according to Ken Rosenthal’s tweet some 20 odd minutes ago.

Source: Ludwick deal with #Reds is one year with a mutual option for 2013. #MLB

Good old Uncle Walt really is gearing up for 2013. The guy hit 37 long ones four years ago as a 29 year old. Is 25-30 in Great American too much to ask?

Filed Under: Cincinnati Reds Tagged With:
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