Well, it was a frustrating season for the Cal Baseball team.  After making the NCAAs last year, there was hope of a repeat.  Unfortunately, it was not the case.  But the season is over and now the focus has turned to the draft.  It starts today at 3 PM PST and continues over the next 3 days.  Although the team was not very successful this year, there is hope for many Cal stars in the Big Show. 

You can follow all the action here at the MLB.com Draft Central.  And you can follow it in a more "urban, edgy, modern, but non-monetized" way by checking out the official MLB Draft Twitter.

One thing to note about the MLB draft:  like the NFL draft, college juniors are eligible to be drafted, but unlike with the NFL draft, they don't forfeit their college eligibility by being drafted.  Thus, if one of the players discussed below (all of them Juniors) doesn't like how much money they're offered, or what they team drafting them wants to do with them, they always have the option of not signing and returning to school for their senior season.  For players taken in the first five rounds or so, this is unlikely (unless they have unreasonable monetary demands), but for players taken in later rounds, they won't be offered much money, nor will have a great shot at making the majors, so finishing their college degree becomes a more attractive option.

After the fold learn more about some of the Cal stars ready to make the leap.

Continue reading this post »

This past Sunday, with some free time to kill (what with AndBears off in SoCal following our women's basketball team and all), I decided it was finally time to go check out Cal's 2009 Baseball team.  Baseball was the first sport that I played, and the first sport that I loved, and it always disappoints me to think that I didn't go down to Evans Diamond to catch more games as an undergraduate, when admission was free.  Even now, adult tickets are only $8, which means that if I had the time, I could attend a whole weekend series against Stanford for less than the cost of a reserved ticket to a Cal Basketball game.

Anyway, if you've never been, Cal Baseball is a fabulously relaxing way to spend an afternoon.  You can sit wherever you want (bleachers, picnic benches, even a sloped lawn behind the visitor's bench), hang out with your friends, and shoot the shit while a baseball game happens in front of you.  As baseball tends to be, sometimes it's exciting and tense, and sometimes you're waiting for something to happen while the pitcher throws over to first three times in a row, trying to keep the runner close.  If you're looking for nonstop action, the NCAA Basketball tournament was playing on big screen TVs in dingy bars across America.  But on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in early Spring, it's an absolutely fantastic way to while away a lazy day.

A fantastic afternoon for some baseball, wouldn't you agree?

As an added bonus, Cal's opponent for the weekend was Stanford.  Watching our Bears defeat the 'Furd is always a worthwhile endeavor, and it was with this hope in mind that I struck out for Berkeley.  The Bears took two out of three from the Cardinal this weekend, but I won't yet tell you which game we lost -- wouldn't want to spoil the ending for you, now would I?  Here's a quick preview, though:  the game took 12 innings and featured 4 home runs and 2 blown saves, with plenty of drama to spare.

Continue reading this post »

"If you don't know who this is, you are about to find out! via d.yimg.com

Firstly, the action has been FAST and FURIOUS here.  Almost 2 Fast 2 Furious.  And if you've Tokyo Drifted away for a moment, you might have missed something.

Yesterday, we have the internet first, landscaping liveblog, Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Coming Of The Chainsaws, Part I, Part II, and Part III.

We also had a second look at the MSU game, Will Ta'ufo'ou highlights, a discussion of the Appeals Court ruling, YouTube Thursday, Alex Mack Highlights, Q+A with our beloved CougCenter, Eating The Enemy, and the Pac10 Roundtable. 

So, don't miss a moment of this past week's coverage of not only the Michigan State and Washington State football games, but also the historic achievement 2 years in the making.  Use this thread as our first open thread of the day to live-blog all the happenings as we careen helplessly towards game-time at 3:30 PM.  We are going to try the 1 post per quarter idea floated last week and see how it goes.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!  A while back I was reading Building The Dam and I saw this post where they interviewed Mariners blog, Lookout Landing, about a former OSU baseball player currently playing for the Mariners, named Jamie Burke.  It had hilariously dickish answers like this:

Four:  If you were GM for a day and Jamie Burke demanded a trade, give us your most realistic, fair-value trade for this player and that would benefit your team the most.

If I were GM for a day and Jamie Burke came to my office demanding a trade, I would have an attendant clear out his locker, buy myself a package of Ho-Hos from the vending machine in the hallway, and declare it a done deal. Jamie Burke is a third-string catcher. He has no value to the Mariners, and he has no value to anyone else.

Five: What is the most amount of money you would pay to take batting practice, fielding practice, or play catch with Jamie?

I'd probably pay $15 to be able to play catch with Jamie Burke. $5 to play catch and $10 to try and bribe him into giving me the phone number of somebody good.

As a (self-proclaimed) hilarious dick myself, this intrigued me.  So, I tracked down this Lookout Landing and asked if they would answer some kwestions about Brandon Morrow.  He was a superstud pitcher for Cal and just made his starting debut yesterday for the Mariners (after pitching as their closer for a bit). 

We got answers to our kwestions, but with all the insanity of the trees and WSU and everything, this seemed moderately low on our list of posts.  But then Morrow forced the questions by nearly no-hitting the Yankees!  Wow!  Go Bears! 

The answers are after the jump.  Feel free to comment in this thread not only on the football games going on today, but also Brandon Morrow.  Unless you guys force us to do it earlier, about an hour before game time, we'll put up the first quarter game thread.  Until then, comment away and GO BEARS!

Continue reading this post »

With the first selection of the 16th round (the 473rd overall), the Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected Bears closer Matt Gorgen.  Congrats, Matt, and to the whole Gorgen family (Matt's twin brother Scott was taken by the Cardinals in the 4th round).

Here, now, lies an interesting choice.  I fully expect the three Bears taken yesterday to sign professional contracts (especially given that Josh Satin is a senior), but I'm not so sure that Gorgen will (or should) do the same.

Generally, players taken this far down in the draft are not really considered "prospects".  Instead, they're considered "organizational" guys, signed mostly to fill out rosters and such, so that the real prospects have someone to play against.  Yes, guys drafted this low do make the majors, and may even have great careers (Mike Piazza was famously drafted in the 52nd 62nd round), but the odds are long.

While there's no guarantee that either Cooper or Ross, taken in the top 2 rounds, will ever make the majors, they're both likely to get hefty signing bonuses to start out and a great opportunity to succeed; for them, going pro is not really a very tough decision (if the option to come back to school comes up at all, it'll only be as negotiating leverage by their agent to get more money).

Gorgen, however, is not likely to see anything resembling a financial windfall from Tampa Bay.  He can certainly leave now and chase his dream, and I don't think any of us would begrudge him that choice.  There's always a risk with returning to school of getting injured and not getting drafted at all next year, and pitchers certainly worry about that.  However, given his relatively long odds of making the majors, if he doesn't already have his degree, I might recommend he come back for his senior year and get that first.  Heck, he might even improve his draft stock, getting himself a better contract next year.  For him, there's little financial incentive to turn pro right now, so unless he's dead set on playing pro ball now, I'd suggest he return to school.

Then again, if the A's offered me a contract right now for $20K per year, I'd totally quit my job and move to Midland, TX or wherever.  Chasing your dream can be a powerful thing.

Again, congrats to Matt, and good luck!  Go Bears!

EDIT:  Looks like in my haste to get out of the Bay Area for the weekend, I missed a couple Bears that got drafted earlier on Friday.  The Rockies took pitcher Craig Benningson in the 9th round (do pitchers fear getting drafted by Colorado?), and the Cardinals took catcher/left-fielder Charlie Cutler in the 14th round.  The article goes on to say that while Cutler is definitely turning pro, Gorgen and Benningson have not yet decided to do so, although Gorgen has hinted that he would not be coming back for his senior season.

In any case, a belated congrats to both Craig and Charlie!

Hey, a third Bear gets taken on the first day of the draft!  With the 194th overall pick, the Mets select 2B Josh Satin near the end of the 6th round.  If you scroll down to the bottom here , you can see his MLB Draft Tracker Video. 

I tried to find what the Mets bloggers were saying about this pick.  All I could find was this (scroll down):

Update [8:56]: The Mets drafted Josh Satin in the sixth round. He’s an offense-first second baseman out of UC Berkeley. He’s an intelligent guy who put it all together this year, hitting .388/.508/.745 with 18 homers. I’m not convinced he’s going to keep it up; he’s a senior, and his extra-base hit total was still on the low side. He did, however, have a strong showing in the Cape Cod League last summer, a good indicator, so he’s worth the pick. Defensively, he’s not as advanced, and he’s probably going to wind up in the outfield. Both his range and glove are a little below average.

That doesn't really relate to how the Mets bloggers view Satin's role with the Mets.  But I figured it'd be a good recap of his time at Cal.  Congratulations to Josh and all the Golden Bears drafted today!

Tyson Ross, who was born in Berkeley, grew up in Oakland, went to school at Cal, now gets a chance to live his dream of playing professional baseball in the East Bay, as he was taken in the 2nd round of today's MLB draft by the Oakland Athletics!

The 58th overall pick, Ross will undoubtedly leave the East Bay for one of Oakland's minor league teams, but we hope to see him here back soon!

From MLB's DraftTracker:

Ross has all the makings of a front-of-the-rotation starter, from stuff to size. He's very imposing on the mound with a fastball that runs up to the mid-90s. He's got two other pitches that work well, albeit with an upright delivery that worries some, but it's worked for him to this point.

Perhaps that's a more glowing assessment than mine, but I wouldn't disagree about his upside.

Good luck to Tyson, and...

LET'S-GO OAK-LAND!!  (*ahem* and Go Bears!)

Cal 1B David Cooper was taken in the 1st round of today's MLB draft -- 17th overall to the Toronto Blue Jays.  ESPN's Keith Law had this instant evaluation:

Cooper is a polished hitter who should hit for a high average. He's shown home run power with metal but not so much with wood. He's a solid defensive player at first base. I think the draft pool forced a change in direction. The Jays have gone with high school bats in the first round the last two years, but the type of polished high school hitter they like wasn't there for them at No. 17.

A quick look at first base on the Jays major league depth chart

1. Lyle Overbay (who's making almost $7 million annually, btw.  what?  really?)
2. Matt Stairs
3. Brad Wilkerson (the starting right fielder)

I'm not at all familiar with the Jay's minor league system, but I don't see any signifcant roadblocks to Cooper's path to the Show currently on the major league roster.

Yes, Cooper has a year of eligibility left, and it's true that baseball players can be drafted and still return for their senior season.  Still, when you get taken in the first round as a college junior, you're pretty much gone.  Best of luck to David!

Rough day yesterday.  Cal ran into the buzzsaw known as Matusz.  :(!  Now, they have a long road to hoe.  Hopefully, they have a lot of experience hoeing roads.  Lord knows I do.  I've hoed so many roads, I can't keep track.  All hoes and roads kinda blur together for me.  If Cal baseball want any tips on either hoeing or roads, I would be the man to call. 

Long Beach State lost to FSU, 7-3 yesterday.  So, now Cal has to face LBSU.  It is do or die.  The game is on today at 2 PM.  There appears to be two ways to follow the game.

Either follow the gametracker at the Cal baseball website, found here.  Or listen to it on KALX Radio 90.7.  If you are not in the Berkeley area (or are, but hated the movie Radio so much you vowed never to own one), you can listen to it online.  They have a series of different methods to stream the feed.

I'll try to do some modicum of live-blogging, but my wife returns later tonight and I have like 2 weeks worth of cleaning to do in 5 hours.  Man do I have a long road to hoe!  GO BEARS!