Baseball a few thoughts

The Clarion would like to offer a few thoughts, notes and observations heading into the second half of the baseball season.

How's about this for an oddity? The three leading hit getters in the National League are all shortstops. It is reminiscent of the transcendent age of A.L. shortstops a decade ago, when it looked like Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Nomar Garciparra were all Hall of Fame shortstops. Jose Reyes of the Mets and Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins are the obvious ones, and two guys who are off to great starts in their careers. The third N.L. shortstop, who is actually leading the league in hits, is much tougher to identify. It is not the Phillies MVP shortstop, Jimmy Rollins. Instead, it is the Washington Nationals shortstop, a thirty year old who has only hit .300 once before, who this season is pounding out hits, Cristian Guzman.

Switching to pitching from hitting, the Twins, as well as they are playing and pitching, have more pitching coming in the form of Francisco Liriano who is 7-0 with a 2.73 ERA. Liriano was a dominator, he went 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA in his rookie year for the Twins before he hurt his elbow and had to have Tommy John surgery. He missed all of last season, but looks ready to come back strong. Sadly for Twins fans the franchise is attempting screw Liriano financially. In the process, they are screwing their fans and the players, all to save a few bucks.

Here is the story, the Twins are trying to hold down Liriano's service time. Service time dictates when a player is eligible for salary arbitration and usually a significant pay raise. Liriano has two years and 45 days Major League service time, and players are eligible for arbitration after three years of service time. The Twins are keeping Liriano in the minors as long as possible to avoid paying him more next year. However, if they embitter Liriano badly enough, it will hurt them worse and their fans the most, especially if they fall just short of the playoffs this year. The Tampa Bay Rays, who despite their delightful Cinderella start should be contracted, played this same game at the beginning of the season with star third baseman, Evan Longoria and won when they signed him to a nine year under market value deal.

One final note, the definitely different Manny Ramirez, decided to tweak Red Sox management over the All-Star break. The Red Sox management, for a change, fired right back. At issue is Manny's concern about whether the club will pick up its $20 million contract extension option on Ramirez next season. In a year where the Red Sox are the favorite to win at least the American League again, could Manny's selfish attitude spoil the vibe and the season? Yankee fans can only hope.