Afternoon Notes, February 24, 2010

Some thoughts on a chilly Kansas afternoon.

**Poking around the website, I found this Not a Rookie I did on Yovani Gallardo two years ago. The conclusion I reached then:

I could see Gallardo being a pitcher who is best in his early-to-mid-20s, then gradually fading as he approaches 30. My guess is that his best years will be in the next five, and that eventually he'll become "just" an inning-eating starter. Assuming he stays healthy, Gallardo should be recognized as Number One starter and among the best pitchers in baseball in the 2008-2012 window, but that by 2014 he'll be more of an inning-eater type. An early peak, followed by a very gradual decline in other words. No massive sudden shock injury, but rather a slow loss of effectiveness as his arm wears down.

Do you guys think that still holds up?

**I'll do the Carlos Gonzalez Not a Rookie tomorrow.

**If current plans hold, I'm going to start hosting Rotowire's Fantasy Sports Hour podcast on Tuesdays, under the name "Down on the Farm Tuesday."  What I really want to do is get back into radio like back in the XM days. Anyone want to give me a show? lol.

**The general feeling around here right now is waiting for the exhibition games to start. I've started researching college baseball and the draft but don't have any conclusions to draw yet...talk about small sample sizes.

**So. . .amascot throws a hot dog, injures a guy, and the team gets sued. This just HAD to be the Royals, didn't it.

**In keeping with the soda discussion last week, I'm transitioning away from Coke and adopting Minute Maid light lemonade (just 5 calories per can). I gotta lose some weight and cutting out the sugar soda seems like a good place to start.

**In the Non-Baseball but Geeky department, my next role-playing book set in the Star Fleet Universe (an off-shoot of Star Trek) called Prime Directive: Federation is moving towards a publication date. This is in the same series with Prime Directive: Romulans  that I wrote a few years back.

**Then there's my book Bob Feller: Ace of the Greatest Generation. I guess I'm the only person in the history of the world to write books about both Bob Feller and Romulans.