Rich Hill (Courtesy of San Diego Media Relations)

I got an email today from the San Diego Media Relations department telling me that Rich Hill of the University of San Diego has been one of the eleven collegiate coaches selected to meet with scouting directors and other MLB personnel. A couple of the other big name coaches are Ray Tanner of South Carolina, Augie Garrido of Texas, and Pat Casey of Oregon State. They are going to discuss how the relationship between collegiate baseball and MLB baseball can be improved with the sharing of information on potential draftees and other issues. Read the rest of this entry »

David Price from Vanderbilt celebrates ALCS victory

Most of my readers know that I am a diehard Red Sox fan but we have to congratulate to the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays after they both advance to the 2008 World Series. The Rays ended up making the series on the arm of David Price who was the number 1 pick in the 2007 MLB draft after a standout career with the Vanderbilt Commodores. He ended up getting the final four outs in Game 7 of the ALCS protecting a two run lead. They also featured 2006 number 3 overall pick, 2005 Cape Cod League MVP, and 2006 Big West Player of the Year Evan Longoria from Long Beach State. He has played in all eleven games of the playoffs with a .262 average, six homers, and eleven RBI. Read the rest of this entry »

Pirates and Alvarez agree to a contract

Pedro Alvarez and the Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to a new contract ending a month long disagreement between the parties. Alvarez’s agent Scott Boras claimed that the contract that they signed with the Pirates was not valid because it came after the August 15th deadline. The MLBPA filed a grievance on August 27th over the issue and it was recently heard by an arbitrator on September 10th with the next two hearings were set to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The new contract will pay Alvarez 6.355 million over the next four years according to a report by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Read the rest of this entry »

Tony LaRussa visiting West Point

Tony LaRussa who is currently in the midst of his 13th season with the St. Louis Cardinals spent Monday visiting the West Point campus. He was the special guest of West Point Superintendent Buster L. Hagenbeck. He ended up touring the historic campus in upstate New York before finishing up the trip by checking out the Softball and Baseball facilities. Read the rest of this entry »

The grievance filed by the MLBPA on behalf of Pedro Alvarez will have their case heard today. The case revolves around the validity of his contract which Alvarez’s camp says came after the midnight deadline on August 15th and the Pirates say is a valid contract. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports says: Read the rest of this entry »

The Cape Cod Baseball League and Major League Baseball have ended their season long squabble over the use of MLB logos with CCBL teams. We wrote a brief article on March 3rd abour the situation saying that MLB was demanding a 100k licensing fee. (Full Article available here) The biggest issue the Cape Cod League had with entering an agreement with MLB is that all merchandise had to be bought though MLB vendors. The full press release from the CCBL is available below. Read the rest of this entry »

Assistant Editor Mark Rafferty sent me a link to a Fanhouse post about the Pedro Alvarez situation. Alvarez is currently refusing to take a physical or take part in a press conference under the advice of his agent Scott Boras.

Boras is stating that the contract signed by Pedro is void because it came after the midnight deadline on August 15th. Boras did not raise any issues when he negotiated the contract, but since has gotten the MLBPA on his side. They have filed a grievance on behalf of Mr. Alvarez claiming that the contract was signed after the deadline thus making it illegal. Read the rest of this entry »

Our good buddy Darren Heitner of The Sports Agent Blog has put out a great article on the MLB Signing Deadline which is this evening at midnight. All players must sign a deal by the deadline or go back to college. The article also talks about how a bunch of the Scott Boras clients are not signed yet and how he always waits to the last minute with some of his higher profile candidates. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone that visits this blog knows I am a big supporter of the Cape Cod Baseball League which is one of the top collegiate summer leagues in the country. MLB has decided to force the CCBL to pay them a rights fee as six of the teams use the same nicknames as MLB teams. Also, MLB wants the teams to buy merchandise from their vendor and sell it at the games instead of using the local vendors who make materials for the teams. The Cape Cod Times has a great article on this topic which can be read here. I think MLB should focus on more important things like cleaning up their own sport.