Welcome to round 1 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest blogger contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.Voting has closed in our second pairing with the Cardinals’ highly touted Rick Ankiel winning over the Cubs’ Sam Fuld. You’re almost out of time to find a bunch of people to vote for Brandon Backe vote in our Battle of the Brandons, if you actually want to try and change anything.

Tonight we consider the Reds’ Joey Votto, the only player who was actually nominated in this contest (thank you, BubbaFan) and the Brewers’ JJ Hardy.

Joey Votto
ht: 6-3 wt: 220 dob: 09/10/1983

Votto, from Ontario, gives us a little Canadian flavor to the contest, but we won’t hold that against him. The guy can hit: in 84 ABs with the Reds team he’s put up a .321 AVG and a .548 SLG. Plus, you gotta love those four long balls.

JJ Hardy
ht: 6-2 wt: 190 dob: 08/19/1982

Hardy has perhaps the best player profile on Brewers.com. It covers all the important stuff, like the fact that he’s single, his favorite food is steak, he likes to vacation in Montana, and his parents were both professional athletes, his father in tennis, his mother in golf. You also might be interested to see his write-up in this article “Hotties of the Milwaukee Brewers.” Apparently we weren’t the only ones with this idea.

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In our first episode of the new year, the Crack Technical Staff and I show a degree of enthusiasm about the sport of baseball unseen in these parts of a while now. It must be the promise of a new year, a new third baseman for the Cardinals, a new South American baseball academy for the Pirates, and a new not-GM for the Reds.

We also talk a bit about American Gladiators, so you won’t want to miss that.

The show covered the teams in alphabetical order by team name this week:

Astros

• Brandon Backe signed to avoid arbitration, can’t avoid losing in the hottest NLC baller contest
• Roger Clemens never shuts up

Brewers

• Mike Cameron signs with Brewers and will start the season off right: with a 25-game drug suspension
• Because of Cameron, Bill Hall will move to 3B and Ryan Braun will move to left field

Cardinals

• Traded Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus, giving the Blue Jays’ every child’s Christmas wish: the same right side of the infield as the Cardinals had last year
• Signed Matt Clement to incentive-laden deal ($1.5 Million)

Cubs

• Plans to rename Wrigley Field not received well, unless they sell them to Wrigley
• Andre Dawson was not voted in to hall of fame
• Goose Gossage, who pitched for the Cubs one year and probably would have taken steroids, was voted in

Pirates

• Academy in Dominican Republic
• Signed Elmer Dessens and several other players to minor league deals

Reds

• Walt Jocketty joins Reds
• Bronson and his love affair with Beantown

What a surprise to see the Pirates spending money on something. I mean, this specific project is great, and I’m excited to think that the Pirates facility could attract some up-and-coming talent, but just in general it is such a breath of fresh air to see the Pirates spending money on anything at all. This could herald good things for the organization.

Here’s the press release:

Pittsburgh Pirates Chairman of the Board Bob Nutting announced today that the ballclub will officially break ground on a new Latin American headquarters and baseball training academy in the Dominican Republic on January 22. The Pirates recently purchased a 46 acre property located in the municipality of El Toro in the Dominican Republic that will be the site of the new complex.

The new academy will serve as the headquarters for the Pirates Latin American Baseball Operations, as well as a housing and training complex for the players on the ballclub’s Dominican Summer League roster and other players invited to train at the academy.

Shortly after taking control of the ballclub less than a year ago, Nutting made his first trip to the Dominican Republic to assess its Latin American operations. Following the trip Nutting believed it was critical that the ballclub improve its current operations in the Dominican Republic and has been working toward that goal since.

“Latin America needs to be an even greater priority for our ballclub,” said Nutting. “The Pirates have had a great history of Latino ballplayers making a significant impact at the major league level, including the great Roberto Clemente. Today, no team has more opportunity or, frankly, a greater need to acquire and develop quality players from this region than we do.”

The Dominican Republic continues to be a growing hotbed for finding major league talent, with more than 40 percent of all foreign born players on 2007 Opening Day rosters born in the Dominican Republic, according to Major League Baseball. The new facility will provide the Pirates with a competitive advantage in the region and illustrates the Club’s long-term commitment to building a ballclub that can consistently compete.

“This facility will help our baseball operations staff attract, retain and teach the best players, coaches and scouts in the region,” said Nutting. “I am committed to providing our Baseball Operations staff with the tools necessary to sign and develop the best talent not only in Latin America, but domestically and in other international markets as well. This new facility and our renewed commitment to the international markets are critically important to achieving our goal of building a ballclub that can compete on a regular basis.”

The Pirates are well into the final design stages for the new complex and plan to unveil those designs to the Pittsburgh media on Monday, January 21 and again at the official groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, January 22 in the Dominican Republic.

“Once completed this facility will have a significant and immediate impact on our scouting and player development operations in Latin America,” said Neal Huntington, Pirates General Manager. “This complex will provide us with an advantage in recruiting players, while providing an optimal setting to teach our young players not only baseball skills, but life skills. It is a tangible demonstration of the organization’s commitment to provide us with the tools needed to build and sustain a consistently competitive major league team.”

Fox Sports is reporting that former Reds OF Mike Cameron and the Milwaukee Brewers have agreed to a one-year, $7 million contract that includes performance bonuses as well as a club option for 2009.

Which I find hilarious, considering that Cameron will start the season on a 25-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, and considering that the Brewers were already getting numbers similar to the .242/.328/.431 Cameron put up for the Padres last season from their own Gabe Gross (.235/.329/.437) for a fraction of that money.

Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers added another former Red to their own collection, signing “Everyday” Eddie Guardado to a one-year contract featuring a $2 million base salary with another $4 million available in incentives.

That move at least makes some sense to me. If the season started today, the Rangers’ closer would probably be C.J. Wilson, the guy who inherited the role last season after Texas traded Eric Gagne. Wilson, however, was not a closer before that, and has only been in the majors for three years. He’d have to be considered closer to Travis Wilson than Don Wilson at this point. If Guardado’s arm is healthy, the Rangers at least have some relatively cheap (bearing in mind that they were paying Gagne $6 million last year) insurance, just in case Wilson ducks into a phone booth and turns into R.A. Dickey.

The Cincinnati Reds this afternoon announced that former St. Louis Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty has been hired by the Reds as a special advisor to owner Bob Castellini.

The official press release notes that in 13 years as the St. Louis GM,  Jocketty’s Cardinals teams went to the playoffs seven times, winning the NL Central Division six times and the 2001 NL Wild Card while producing two NL pennants and the 2006 World Series title.

An article by John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that current GM Wayne Krivsky will remain in his position, and will continue to report to Castellini. There are also some quotes from Castellini, Jocketty and Krivsky in that article and on Fay’s blog regarding the move.

Welcome to round 1 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest blogger contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Voting has closed in our first pairing, finding veteran hottie Jason LaRue victorious over underdog Manny Parra. There’s still time to vote in our second match, between Sam Fuld and Rick Ankiel.

Our third pairing sets the Astros’ Brandon Backe against the Reds’ Brandon Phillips. I suspect that this is the 1-16 seed game, but maybe Backe will surprise me.

Brandon Backe
ht: 6-0 wt: 195 dob: 4/5/1978

OK, so this battle of the Brandons might be more fair if it were Brandon Claussen representing the Reds, but Backe isn’t bad, especially by Astros standards. And his 3-1 record in 5 games last season would have trounced Claussen.

Brandon Phillips
ht: 6-0 wt: 195 dob: 6/28/1981

A new member of the 30-30 club, a spectacular fielder, and the subject of debate over his parental status, Phillips may be the single-most exciting player on the Reds right now. And that includes Mike Stanton!

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In yet another affectionate display of loyalty to the team that traded his home-town discount ass to Cincinnati, Bronson Arroyo was seen gushing at a concert in the Boston area:

But near the end of Bronson’s set, he threw a zinger into the music: a cover of Augustana’s 2007 summer ballad “Boston.” And what did the guy do, knowing that former GM Theo Epstein was watching from the backstage wings?

Dude totally modified the lyrics, making what one could view as either a nostalgic gesture toward the old crowd or, as we’d like to think, a plea for his old job!

“I think I need to get back to Boston,” he sings. (We couldn’t hear the next couple of lines because some of the women of the crowd were freaking out) “I need to get out of Cincinnati, I think I need the Olde Towne to fill my heart again.”

Seriously, what is this guy like when women dump him?

I had every intention of getting this up on Sunday, but my ISP wasn’t cooperating (hard to post when you can’t connect at anything better than 21.6KBPS). Here are the player transactions in the NL Central that have occurred since the last update, as reported on the official web site of Major League Baseball.

Astros GM Ed Wade must have finally taken his holiday this week, as the Astros reported no transactions since I last updated you on these proceedings.

On Thursday 1/3, the Cardinals signed Matt Clement to an incentive-laden one-year contract with a club option for 2009. I reported on this in another thread. Also on Thursday, the Brewers invited OF Laynce Nix and RHP Steve Bray to spring training. A cursory search turned up no indication that Steve Bray and the Reds’ Bill Bray are relatives.

On Friday, the Cardinals signed IF Aaron Miles to a one-year contract, while the Reds – as previously reported by BubbaFan – claimed OF Jeff Fiorentino off waivers from the Orioles; and signed RHP Jim Brower, INF Jolbert Cabrera, INF Andy Green, INF Andy Phillips and LHP Adam Pettyjohn to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training.

On Saturday 1/5, the Cubs traded IF Angel Pagan to the Mets for a couple of minor leaguers, RHP Ryan Meyers and OF Corey Coles.

On Monday 1/7, the Brewers signed OF Drew Anderson, RHP Tim Dillard, 1B/OF Brad Nelson, LHP Manny Parra and RHP Luis Pena to one-year contracts. Also, the Pirates signed RHPs Adam Bernero and Elmer Dessens (a former Pirate, Red, and Brewer) to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training (Zeldink already told us about Dessens).

Note that there are two other Drew Andersons who have played recently in the minor leagues, one who was with the Reds’ organization the past three years and another who played in the Astros’ farm system last year. The Drew Anderson the Brewers signed on Monday spent all of last year at Class-AA and Class-AAA in the Brewers’ minor league system. Also, the Brad Nelson they signed is not the same Brad Nelson who pitched in the Braves’ farm system last year, and Luis Pena is not the same Luis Pena who pitched in the White Sox farm system a few years ago. The Brewers must be running out of names for their players and have to beg, borrow, and steal them from other teams…which, come to think of it, is pretty much the same approach they’ve used this winter in populating their bullpen.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed 37 year-old journeyman pitcher Elmer Dessens to a minor-league contract.

It’s a cheap, low-risk move for the Pirates, who will undoubtedly see if the right-hander has any gas left to help their bullpen. At the same time, though, it does make you question the team’s leadership. I know they have to field a team in 2008, but they’re not going to compete. Their energy would be better spent on building a young team ready to compete in 2 to 3 years. Dessens won’t be a part of that.

As an aside, how depressing must it be for Dessens to sign a minor league contract with the Pirates? A sure sign your career is nearing completion.

Welcome to round 1 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest blogger contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

If you haven’t already voted in our first pairing–the Jason LaRue/Manny Parra contest–take a gander at those hotties as well.

Our second pairing pits a couple of newbies against each other as the Cubs’ Sam Fuld (or as I like to think of him, “the honey with the light eyes”) and the Cardinals’ Rick Ankiel (or as I like to think of him, “the guy I included in the tourney specifically for Bellyscratcher’s husband to vote for) face off.

Sam Fuld
ht: 5-10 wt: 180 dob: 11/20/1981

Fuld’s only appeared in 14 games, so we have to forgive him his .000 average for the moment. He has the distinction of being the only Cubs’ profile picture that actually make me say, “oh!”

Rick Ankiel
ht: 6-1 wt: 210 dob: 7/19/1979

OK, calling Ankiel a newbie isn’t exactly accurate, but he’s new to the outfield after fighting back from forgetting how to pitch exactly when it mattered. He’s also been subjected to some steroid-related scrutiny lately. But he’s kinda cute, so he’s got that going for him.

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