As March baseball settles in, I've completed my first Cactus League tour and learned some things:
- Major League Baseball’s drug testing program has at least one loophole, and Ryan Braun's lawyers found and exploited it to get the Milwaukee Brewers MVP out of his 50-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. Matt Kemp is coming off a stellar season in which he stole 40 bases and hit 39 home runs. (AP Photo) We also learned a whole lot about the FedEx locations in the greater Milwaukee area. We know their business hours, their pick-up and delivery schedules and how long it might take, down to the minute, for someone to drive to them from Miller Park on a Saturday evening. And we got to know Dino Laurenzi Jr., the man who collected Braun’s urine samples on that fateful October afternoon. Braun basically accused him of tampering with his sample, and Laurenzi issued a statement – one of several that have come out from just about everyone involved in this mess – saying he followed protocol.
- Another lesson: Braun tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone, and a large group of players and people in the game believe a doper was set free.
- This isn’t necessarily something anyone had to “learn” because most already knew it, but the Los Angeles Angels are a popular team. Local and national media are crawling around their Tempe, Ariz. camp and fans line the walkways and rails around their stadium waiting for a glimpse of the stars, mainly Albert Pujols. While Pujols, along with lefty C.J. Wilson, is the new major attraction for the Angels, he’s not going to be a one-man show. The Halos have the pitching, but the lineup has under-the-radar power in Kendrys Morales and Mark Trumbo. Morales was a budding star before an ankle injury kept him out all of last season, but if he can get back to form he’s capable of 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. Trumbo filled in for Morales last season and hit 29 homers and drove in 87. If the top of the order gets on, Pujols, Morales and Trumbo could do serious damage. Morales is penciled in as the everyday DH while Trumbo will fight for at-bats between third base, the corner outfield spots and DH.
- Manny Ramirez has found God, again. While Ramirez was playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to hear him reference his religious beliefs. Now, after two suspensions for using performance-enhancing drugs, or the like, and a domestic disturbance arrest, Ramirez is being given another chance by the Oakland A’s. In his introductory press conference, he said he turned to God to get himself right. If true, good for Manny. But what the A’s really want to know, and what no one has learned yet, is can Ramirez still rake at an elite level, or somewhere close to it.
- Yu Darvish is a rock star. The Japanese media is documenting his every move this spring while he trains with his new Texas Ranger teammates, and so far he’s handled it well. The next lesson people are waiting on is whether Darvish can handle major league hitters just as well.
- Staying in Ranger camp, we know Josh Hamilton doesn’t feel like he owes the club a hometown discount when it comes to his free agency or signing an extension. Sure, the Rangers have helped Hamilton with his addiction problems and his slip-ups, but Hamilton is right. He’s earned his free agency after this season and he is free to sign with the highest bidder if he wants. He’ll just have to know a new team might not be so forgiving or helpful if he relapses again.
- Matt Kemp is not here to entertain us. Those were Kemp’s words when discussing his goal of 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in one season. "I didn’t say it to entertain all of you," Kemp told a group of four reporters last week after the Los Angeles Dodgers held their first full-squad workout. That’s all fine and good, but if he gets anywhere close to 50-50, all of us will be entertained, media or not.
- Dodger manager Don Mattingly said Los Angeles is a Dodger town, and no matter what moves the Angels make, they’ll never take it over. Kemp basically said the same thing, and the Angels remained mum on the topic. But Mattingly and Kemp are correct: Los Angeles belongs to the Dodgers, and just because the city is part of the Angels’ official name, they are located in Anaheim, which is not L.A. "How many people drive from L.A. to Orange County to watch the Angels?" Mattingly asked rhetorically. "But I’m sure people drive from Orange County to L.A. to watch the Dodgers."
- San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey won’t be blocking the plate anytime soon as long as manager Bruce Bochy is writing his name in the lineup. Bochy instructed his young backstop to avoid contact with runners because that’s the way Posey suffered a season-ending leg injury last year. We’ll have to wait and see how that philosophy holds up if the Giants are in a crucial game in September and a runner comes trucking down the third-base line with the outcome in the balance.
- The Chicago White Sox still don’t know what they are doing with themselves.
- We’ll never know the kind of great player Grady Sizemore could have become. Thanks, injuries.