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Not a lot of people out there remember the name Ryan Minor. The few who do probably remember him as the man who replaced Cal Ripken Jr. in the lineup when the Ironman decided to end his streak. (Some others may remember him as one of the few athletes in recent memory to be drafted in both the NBA and MLB drafts. Coincidentally, in the 1996 NBA draft he was picked one spot after Mark Hendrickson, one of the few athletes to actually play both professional basketball and professional baseball)

But there’s more to the Ryan Minor story. For three years (circa 1997-1999) he was hailed as the heir apparent to Cal Ripken Jr., the man who would be the face of the Orioles for the next decade.

It didn’t quite turn out that way. As the strikeouts piled up and his batting averaged failed to climb past .200, it became clear the Minor would never be the player the Orioles hoped. Even worse, it soon became clear that the Orioles future would never be what the team hoped it would be.

That’s why I will always remember Ryan Minor. In my mind he represents the beginning of this recent dark age for Orioles baseball. The man who was going to take over for the face of the Orioles (and hit even more home runs!!!) just never panned out. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the Orioles had gone through 10 straight losing season.

So what’s the point of all of this? Well, this weekend Ryan Minor rejoined the Orioles organization—he will be part of the staff at Single-A Delmarva. For some reason this news brought me great joy. Part of it is that it’s always nice to see a guy who doesn’t pan out in the big leagues stay in the game and become a successful coach. But maybe there’s something else going on. Maybe Minor rejoining the organization will complete the circle and close the book on this forgettable age in Orioles history. I hope that’s it.

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The fantasy sports craze won’t last forever. At some point people will want something that adds even more importance to meaningless sporting events. And by that I mean people will want something that makes games even more exciting to gamble on.

On that note, I introduce you to Indians farmhand Randy Newsom. The 25 year-old pitcher is offering 4% of all his future major league earnings for $50,000. If you don’t have that kind of money, you can buy a share of that 4% for $20.

Think about how this takes sports gambling to the next level. If you’ve got a piece of Newsom it won’t matter if he comes in with his team down 12 runs. Every single pitch he throws will be like the spinning of a roulette wheel. Fantasy sports can’t provide that kind of excitement.

The sort of thing Newsom is doing is already fairly common in other industries. Right now the most popular form of “selling yourself” is offering a percentage your future earnings to whoever pays your grad school tuition.

Clearly there’s a bright future for sports gambling, fantasy games, stocks, and all that other good stuff. Don’t be surprised if in five or ten years you can bet on any professional athlete’s career the way you can bet on Newsom’s. Maybe college athletes will even begin selling a piece of their booster payments.

(Via Marginal Revolution…again)

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New White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin doesn’t just have all five conventional baseball tools, he has a 6th tool—perspective.

The above video aside, I love the deal for the White Sox. Anytime you can trade a guy in single A for a legitimate major league-ready outfield prospect, it’s a good deal.

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As I watched the Orioles surrender run after run last night there was only one thought that kept popping into my head. “This is what happens when one of your key relievers hasn’t been an effective pitcher since Carlos Baerga was an all-star.”

Paul Shuey’s suckiness aside, it is now a golden age for semi-retired journeyman relievers. Team’s are so desperate for pitching they’re willing to give anybody a chance. This season Shuey (along with Troy Percival) is just one of numerous other pitchers attempting to work their way back to the big leagues after a lengthy hiatus.

First and foremost, there’s the great Alan Mills. Until this season the 40 year-old righthander hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2001. Now he’s attempting to make a comeback with the Tigers, and so far its going fairly well. In 25 innings with Double A Erie Mills has and ERA of 1.42 and opponents are batting just .122 against him. Joel Zumaya had better watch his back.

Not far behind Mills is 34 year-old Jose Paniagua. This summer the Pirates decided to give Paniagua another chance despite the fact that he last pitched in the major leagues in 2003. After dominating hitters half is age in five rookie league innings, Paniagua was promoted to Double A Altoona. He pitched a scoreless inning in his one appearance since the promotion.

Unfortunately, not all comeback attempts end with the thrill of minor league bus rides and daily meal money. This season former Cardinals reliever Dave Veres was attempting to become the first man to pitch in the major leagues with an artificial hip. The 40 year-old Veres hadn’t pitched anywhere since 2004, but the Rockies decided to give him a chance. That chance would be shortlived—after five games and a 9.64 ERA with Triple A Colorado Springs, the Rockies released him.

All of this has left me excitedly wondering what former hurler will reappear next.  Rob Nen? Billy Koch? Matt Mantei?  Somebody get their agents on the phone–there are lucrative minor league contracts to be signed.

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The MLB draft is usually Scott Boras’ time to shine. Not this year.

Going into Wednesday’s signing deadline, 5th overall pick Matt Wieters was Boras’ marquee unsigned client. Boras was seeking a major league contract worth at least $10-11 million. The Orioles were offering a signing bonus in the area of $5-6 million. When the midnight deadline finally approached Boras caved and Wieters signed for a $6 million bonus.

The worst part for Boras is that #1 overall pick David Price got an $11.25 million major league contract from the Devil Rays. There’s a chance that money (or a similar amount) would have gone to Wieters if Boras hadn’t scared off the first four teams in the draft with rumors of his $10 million contract demands. Once Wieters fell to 5th, it was harder for Boras to make the case that he deserved an eight figure contract.

I will give Boras credit for at least taking what the Orioles offered. There is no doubt that the best thing for Wieters is to start his MLB career right now, and Boras did the right thing by not brainwashing Wieters into thinking he was better off going back into the draft next year. If only Boras had done the same thing in 2001 with Matt Harrington.

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Somebody in the Braves front office must have a sense of humor.

Earlier this month the team designated Julio Franco for assignment. The intention was for Franco to clear waivers, spend a few weeks in the minors, and then rejoin the Braves when rosters expand in September. Last week Franco cleared waivers, but instead of assigning him to Triple A, the Braves assigned him to their Low A team in Rome.

If it wasn’t weird enough for the 48 year-old Franco to be playing with 25 and 30 year-old teammates, now he’ll get the chance to play with 19 and 20 year-olds. Relative to his situation last month, he is now a good 5-10 years older. Fortunately, Franco will only have to be in Rome for another two weeks. Then he’ll be back in a Major League dugout in the comfort of teammates who are at least half his age.

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No matter how talented they are, some people just aren’t fit to be baseball managers. Wally Backman is probably one of those people.

In 2004 Backman was memorably fired by the Diamondbacks after just four days on the job when reports surfaced about his serious legal and financial problems. Backman bounced back this season with the South Georgia Peanuts of the South Coast League, leading them to the first half title. Still, the success wasn’t enough for Backman to keep his job.

Backman resigned Tuesday as manager of the South Georgia Peanuts after run-ins with umpires, a press box argument with another team’s radio announcer and a forfeited game when his team refused to return to the field after a brawl with rival Macon.

The final straw came on Monday when Backman protested the 10 game suspensions given to two of his players for having masking agents in their urine samples. Backman accused the league’s medical director of “not doing his job properly” and a league official responded saying they “have a manager who cannot control his players.” Backman and league officials had lunch on Tuesday and both decided it would be better if he resigned.

The really bad news for Backman is that he’s a lifelong baseball guy who has pretty much fallen of the last wrung of the baseball coaching ladder—there’s really not a lot of places you can go after proving to be unfit to manage in the independent leagues. Hopefully sometime in the near future a group of lucky high school kids will have the honor of calling Backman “coach.”

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On Monday the Yankees are expected to call up uber-prospect Joba Chamberlain (9-2, 2.50 ERA, 130 K in 86.1 IP) and stick him in their struggling bullpen. If you’re wondering how the Yankees came about acquiring this 21 year-old flamethrower, the answer is that in an effort to help small market teams, Major League Baseball gave him to them.

Ok, so that’s not exactly the case, but the Yankees did get him with a compensation first round pick in the 2006 draft (their reward for signing Tom Gordon and then letting him leave as a free agent), and compensation picks were originally created to help small market teams. The idea behind the system was to “compensate” small market teams who lost key free agents by giving them a first round pick in the next year’s draft. Unfortunately, Major League Baseball has turned a blind eye as this archaic and outdated system has begun to predominantly benefit the richest teams.

The reason this has happened is that over the last decade small market teams have begun to wise up to the fact that they cannot afford to let their star players leave as free agents. Nowadays, before they hit the open market teams either trade them (Josh Beckett, Aramis Ramirez, Tim Hudson etc.) or sign them to long term contracts (Jason Bay, Travis Hafner, Ben Sheets etc.) The result is that most compensation picks go to big market teams who are being compensated for losing free agents they signed only a few years before.

Just take a look at the nine teams who have had the most first round compensation picks over the last six years. (# of picks in parentheses)

Boston (8)

San Diego (7)

Atlanta(6)

Oakland (6)

San Francisco (5)

L.A. Dodgers (4)

St. Louis (4)

Toronto (4)

Arizona (4)

That’s not exactly a list of teams who need baseball’s help in order to compete. On the other hand, the only teams that didn’t have any compensation picks over that span are Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and Milwaukee, while Kansas city had just one selection. Those are the teams that need some help.

It’s clear that this policy no longer benefits the teams it was designed to benefit. If in the off-season the Red Sox sign Jeff Kent away from the Dodgers and the Dodgers sign Curt Schilling away from the Red Sox, then guess what? Each team has earned itself an extra first round pick for throwing around $80 million and further distancing themselves from small market teams. And it’s not even like they earned the picks by shrewdly drafting and developing those players—the teams only had them because they signed them to rich free agent contracts just a few years ago. I don’t really see how this helps the Pirates compete.

The time has come for baseball to put the kibosh on its faulty system of compensation draft picks. Hopefully it won’t take Joba Chamberlain helping the Yankees overtake Cleveland for the Wild Card for Major League Baseball to figure it out.

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–Michael Vick is already corrupting America’s youth. [Doberman on the Diamond]

–Snoop Dog is coming for Les Miles. [100% Injury Rate]

–Major League Baseball wants to put their logo on everything. [Deuce of Davenport]

–The NFL doesn’t mind making fun of the Raiders. [San Jose Mercury News via L.A. Times]

–First there was Anna Kournikova. Then Maria Sharapova came along and added winning the equation. One day the same thing could happen with Danica Patrick and this girl. [New York Times]

–Everything you need to know about what’s going on at the British Open. [Sons of Sam Malone]

–Be careful of what you put on your french fries at minor league baseball games. [The Big Picture]

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The strangest mascot in professional baseball may belong to the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League. Nobody remembers exactly why he was created seven years ago, but his name is Mr. Trash and he…well….he picks up trash.

“When the music fades, Mr. Trash whips out a plastic garbage bag - as if producing a dove from thin air. Then, as if that needed topping, he proceeds. To. Pick. Up. Trash. Slowly. He goes fan to fan, collecting mustard-smeared wrappers and empty cups.”

A now 22 year-old man from New Jersey has played Mr. Trash since his inception, a Lou Gehrig-like streak when considering the short tenure of most mascots. Over that time he has undoubtedly taught numerous youngsters the importance of waste disposal. Now he just has to find a way to clean up the rest of New Jersey like has cleaned the Rivershark’s stadium.

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