This will be Buehrle's 8th opening day start in Chicago, we love him here, and it would be hard to see him not start on opening day. Don't get me wrong, Peavy is an ace pitcher and would get the nod in most other starting 5 rotations.
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Mac, Santana is pitching opening day right?
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The Braves have made a splash in the international market with the signing of highly-regarded Dominican shortstop Edward Salcedo.
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He better be...who else are we gonna throw? :-) :-) 2-5 looks pretty shaky this year. Hopefully Maine is healthy and Perez gets his head out of his a$$. :-)
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Major League Baseball plans to implement blood testing for human growth hormone in the Minor Leagues later this year, an official in baseball with direct knowledge of the matter told The New York Times for a story published on its Web site late Tuesday night. It's about damn time.
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I am surprised the Union is allowing that during a current contract.
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How much control does the Union have over that issue?
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They have had lot's of control in the past. That is one of the reason it took so long to even get any steroid testing. The Union always refused to put it in the contracts. It was not until the Mitchell Report came out that the Union agreed to an addendum to the current contract.
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Anyone know the current status of testing in the majors?
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Until a minor league player is put on the 40 man roster the union does not have any say in the testing. The minors had testing years before MLB did and the guidelines were more stringent.
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Thats what I was wanting to know. Is there a separate union entity for the minors then?
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Negative, if they are not on the 40, they are directly controlled by the parent organization.
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Thanks, I never knew that.
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I have been trying to learn more about the business and minor league side of baseball the last couple of years. There are some convoluted rules.
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I was watching ESPN this afternoon and they said not to expect this on the MLB level until after the next contract. They are going to want to make sure that the 2 years of minor league testing has been proven to be effective. This is also going to cost MLB a ton of money to do.
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I am curious to see what all goes down in the next agreement. I think the Union will cave to most testing standards, but I am wondering if a salary cap is going to be back on the table. I hope so, I know owners are still making money hand over fist, but I would like to be able to still afford to got to games.
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I don't think you will see a salary cap without a salary minimum which the owners don't want.
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:-) Tell that to the Dodgers and Indians owners.
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There is somewhat since the player minimum is 400K, but you probably hit the nail on the head with the team minimum. I just hope Albert doesn't bust the Cardinals bank. By which I mean I hope Dewitt is willing to forgo some personel profit for the team/city.
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I like what Felipe Lopez has done with the bat the last couple of years, but I don't know that I see the value in adding him with the Cards current roster.
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