SAY NO RO

Geoff Young, who writes "Ducksnorts", a blog dedicated to the Padres has a good post today regarding the Bubba-Ro trade.

CUBBIES UNDER THE KNIFE

Christian Ruzich, the Cub Reporter, has an excellent post featuring one of Baseball Prospectus' head writers, Will Carroll. Both Carroll and Ruzich are top notch, and this post is well worth perusing.

CONTRERAS IMPROVING

Jose Contreras had another impressive outing yesterday after starting the spring with a thud, pitching 5 2/3 innings and striking out 8, in the Yankees 4-1 win over the Indians.

Jayson Stark covers the difficulties Cuban pitchers have had coming to the States in his latest column over at ESPN:

"At this point," says Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies' assistant GM for scouting and player development, "we'd have to think twice about making a large commitment to a Cuban pitcher, just because we're concerned about the track record. Maybe El Duque was what he was advertised to be -- at least in the short term. But by and large, none of these guys has reached the ceiling he was advertised to have."

..."I think a mystique has developed around these guys," Arbuckle says. "They're coming from Cuba, this great and mysterious place that is supposed to have a mother lode of talent. And because of that, we've tended to overevaluate them. We've been seeing them compete on a daily basis against lesser-ability players. ... But you never know how a guy is going to react when he has to go, day-in and day-out, against guys with more ability than he has."

..."After spending their whole lives eating on $10 a month," Arbuckle says, "a lot of these guys feel they've already reached the end of the rainbow just by getting here -- to a situation where there are good meals on the table every day, a nice place to live and a little money in their pocket. It's hard for them to comprehend that this is really just their starting point. When you're coming from nothing, it's easy for other things to become your priority."