About 12 years ago I worked as a designer for a big Japanese design / construction company. We had a company softball team for fun after work, but a couple of the guys who did the construction work for the company were former AA / AAA players (about 10 years earlier) who happened to be making their living in construction.

Nothing wrong with that at all, they were great guys making a pretty good living. What I’m getting at is that I asked them what their chances were at making the bigs at any point int heir careers. They both said most guys at that level have about the same skills but the difference in guys who make it the difference is mostly mental. It was stuff like mental toughness, perserverance, aggressiveness, and a commitment to continue improving your game. One guy was a bit of a ladies’ man, and he said he was more focused on the ladies than the game and he realized that was the difference in his making it or not. He wasn’t complaining … just stating the facts. His wife was HOT.

The next level of ball I played after Babe Ruth was a somewhat competitive beer league softball league. These two guys were the sickest ballplayers I ever played with or against. Their arms were unbelievable … both were protohumans. When they played SS/3B and only one guy on the team wasn’t afraid to get in the way and play 1B – me. The dilemma I faced when catching their stuff was ‘improve your glove work or wake up in the hospital’. But it was actually real fun after the first week of getting used to it. It’s hard to believe these two guys would have been just anonymous bench warmers if they made the big leagues but that’s about as far as they would have gotten. But there are hundreds upon hundreds of guys just like them who barely make it for part of a season, if at all.

I really respected those guys but it’s hard to imagine any major league team laying out millions of dollars just to talk to their bosses about negotiating a contract if there’s so many guys at about the same level, and a few hundred regular ML starters are even better than they were. If the all except a couple of the overseas players that have been posted for at millions are only a little better than these guys, it’s not worth it to post so much money just for the right to talk to them.

We all dismiss some of the guys guys who don’t make it as having no talent, but if you’re an average guy they all are far better players than you realize. A guy like Igawa, as much as everyone (including myself) dumps on him, could strike all of us out (if he could get it over the plate) most of the time. But I see him on the same level as the guys I was playing softball with (only 10 years younger) and therefore not worth laying that much money out for.

What Gardenhire is implying is that this is not so much on the player. Rather, this is on Maddon and I agree.

Maddon was right to try to back his player initially and deflect the criticism. But his reaction when asked if he needed to talk to Girardi was a real eye opener. It showed a lack of class and was not up to the standards of MLB. (Would Maddon have made light of the question if Torre was still manager? I bet he would have called Torre and apologized).

Zimmer has a point that if you are going to block the plate in ST, then you risk a collision. But that still didn’t give Johnson license to go that hard. And why did Zim open his mouth? Well, that’s Zim. Torre kept a tight lid on Zim but Zim still managed to say things that he would not have gotten away with if he were not a Yankee, a baseball icon and a special project for Torre.

Given 24 hours to reflect, the brouhaha seems less about the collision and more about Maddon’s attitude. The play was bang-bang and even Gardenhire wasn’t ready to string the kid up. But Maddon’s disrespect and failure to rein in Zim are as real an “injury” as Cervelli’s broken bones.

The bottom line, however, is how should the Yankees respond? Is it appropriate to get back at a manager by waiting 4 or 5 days and then “spontaneously” throwing at (and possibly injuring) a player in a ST game? Isn’t that the kind of thing Girardi said he didn’t think was proper? Or in this case do two wrongs make a right?

I hope Girardi thinks this one through and chooses the high road. If not, there’s an argument to be made that he’s no better than Maddon. Injuring a Rays player doesn’t bring back Cervelli. Moreover, why give the stupid Rays a motivational edge they can draw on all season? IMO, Girardi must be careful not to lead with his chin.

The top reliever in Korea is Oh Seung-Hwan, 25, of the Samsung Lions. He will be allowed to leave Korea in four years – his age 29 season. So he still has plenty of time to make an impact in either the USA or Japan if he chooses. Oh boasts some killer breaking stuff combined with a fastball that tops out around 94 mph. His nickname in Korea is “Iron Mask” because the only time his expression changes is when his team wins the championship. He’s the type of pitcher a team would want to nail down a victory.

Other top relievers in Korea are Oh’s setup man, Kwan Hyuk, 24, and Woo Kyo Min, 22, of the LG Twins. Kwan Hyuk boasts similar stuff to Oh, but doesn’t have the attitude. Woo is more of a closer and could hit American or Japanese shores as soon as 2010.

Korea’s best starting pitcher is Ryu Hwan-Jin but he’s five years away from having to make any kind of contract decision.

-according to that he’d most likely come cheap SJ, not saying it’s a slam dunk but hopefully the options are opened IDK many LHP who throw that hard in the MLB but again who knows, I do know Yankees gear in Korea is extremely popular and those counties consist of 1.7 billion in potential customers, so Korea may already have an agreement w/ the Yankees and who knows what’s next-

Sometimes, teams take flyers on guys. Those signing bonuses don’t even add up to what they paid Austin Romine. Taking those type of flyers on guys, I don’t have a problem with in the slightest.

Its the seven-eight figure investments on these players that are problematic. Those are the type of deals I prefer the Yankees avoiding in the coming years.

he was can’t miss. He missed very, very badly.

IMO, becoming a successful major league baseball player is the toughest thing to do in sports.

In football and basketball, you have a college feeder system and no minor league system. In many cases, you start off as a multi-millionaire. That forces the teams to give you every opportunity to succeed.

If you are hyped enough (remember Mike Mamula?), you can make a ton of money on your first contract, be a bust, and never work another day in your life. That is, of course, if you invest the money well.

With NBA guys, you see some of them make millions of dollars simply because they have height. Mark Blount, an average at best NBA player, will make over 50 million dollars in his career.

For you Seton Hall fans, remember Sam Dalembert? He will make over 70 million dollars in the NBA career. He is an average (at best) player.

Baseball? You get a signing bonus. Then, you start in the lower minor leagues for 700 bucks a month.

Eight-Twelve hour bus trips, nobody at your games, and you have to work your way up the ladder.

You have to stay healthy, hope the team has a real plan for you, and hope you have great coaching along the way.

That’s just to start. Then, you have to hope that when you make the majors, 4-6 years after you are drafted in some cases, you have what it takes to stay there.

Its a game of failure and making constant adjustments. You have to have the mental strength, as well as the physical ability, to handle the ups and downs of the life.

Its not easy. For every Arod, there are hundreds of guys, some very talented guys, who for whatever reason(s) never make it.

Its a very, very tough business.

I think for Asian players, between the culture changes and the difficulty of playing MLB, its a very, very tough adjustement.

Kei Igawa led the tougher of the two Japanese Leagues in strikeouts twice in his career. On the surface, for those who live for stats, that seems impressive.

Yet, when you see his style of pitching, and how it translates to the states, its easy to see how the numbers don’t add up to MLB success.

JMO but, I’d rather see the Yankees avoid another Igawa/Irabu mess. Just keep doing what you are doing. Heavily scout and invest in US and Latin American prospects, and get the payroll down to manageable levels so you can make smart moves on impending free agents.

Let the other teams waste their money on “diamonds in the rough”. These days, they are few and far between.