Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Jim Edmonds will probably miss Opening Day with a calf strain. I wish there was some casino offering a prop bet about who will miss more games in 2008 - Jim Edmonds or Mike Cameron. I'd say Edmonds misses more games even with Cameron's 25 game suspension... My reaction after reading this was to wonder if the Rays will change the name of their stadium to the Vomitorium. An all-you-can-eat menu including hot dogs, Italian sausage, popcorn, peanuts, nachos and Pepsi products? Where do I sign up?... Dusty Baker wants his players to swing at bad pitches:

"A lot of this on-base percentage is taking away the aggressiveness of some young kids," he said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Most of the time you've got to put handcuffs on a young guy to keep him from swinging. [The young players are] playing good, real good. I'd like to see them more aggressive."

Am I wrong or is that exactly what he's saying? Dusty Baker - I'm sorry Reds fans... Is it wrong that I found it humorous that ESPN has one article titled "Hampton hoping to make triumphant return to mound" and a news bit titled "Hampton leaves game; injury isn't considered serious". According to Baseball-Reference.com - Mike Hampton has already made over $106 million in his career. I know this is a contract year for Hampton but I'm doubting he's really money motivated and I won't fall into the trap of thinking this will be a big year for Hampton's comeback... I also found it interesting that Jon Heyman had an article about even the best teams having holes to fill where he rattles off a bunch of the top teams and their needs. Heyman doesn't mention the Red Sox - so either he doesn't consider the reigning World Champs a top team or the Red Sox disprove his contention...