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It’s been a little while since I last made a Daily Jason Heyward note because the outfielder had been out with a sore back.

I guess a few days off and a rub down will get you back to swinging the lumber as the 20-year-old collected two doubles in a spring outing against the Toronto Blue Jays.

In total the youngster has done nothing to give the Braves reason to keep him off the roster as he’s 8-f0r-18 with  five extra-base hits and six walks in exhibition play.

Popularity: 3% [?]

I have to admit I hadn’t looked at the Oakland A’s list of non roster invitees but judging from their usual front office antics I figured there would be at-least 2-3 veterans looking to hang on that could actually contribute to the club for a full season.

Boy was I wrong. Aside from Lenny DiNardo, Jason Jennings and the Triple-A monster known as Dallas McPherson the roster is highlighted by their minor league system.

The lack of veterans leaves me with a real problem here. This is Oakland and they are cheap it’s quite possible that none of their minor league talent even get called up even in September.

As much as I thought about taking Jason Jennings as the pick I just couldn’t go down that road for a second straight season. Likewise for DiNardo.

Instead I have to say I’m going with Gregorio Petit. Considering the fantasy outlook on the A’s site is less then thrilling for 25-year-old I’m starting to question why I even both with writing these reports.

Rushed to the bigs after a slew of injuries took its toll on an already thin Oakland infield, Petit struggled to a .226 average and a .484 OPS during his brief time with the big club. Designated for assignment by the A’s in early February, the 25-year-old infielder has yet to flash the kind of skills needed to flourish on the fantasy scene, and barring a short stint or two as an injury fill-in at the Major League level, he’ll likely spend his third straight season in Triple-A working on his offensive approach.

In short Petit has spent very small parts of the last two seasons with the A’s and hasn’t hit much. Truth is Petit hasn’t been thought of much by anyone as Baseball America has never listed him among the organizations top prospects and only briefly mentioned him as the top defensive infielder.

Petit can still handle the glove quite well at second base and shortstop which makes him an asset to most teams epically the Oakland A’s who have the combination of injury prone Mark Ellis and Cliff Pennington. An injury to either makes Petit a guy who will amass a few at-bats.

I’ll sum up Petit quickly since I don’t think there’s a huge reader base on this one. Great defender who can’t hit. He’d make Omar Vizquel look like Cal Ripken with the bat.

Petit has shown he can steal a base or two so should he get considerable playing time I suppose he could be an option in AL only or deep fantasy leagues looking for steals. He offers little power and won’t help you if OBP or walks are an asset to have.

	Non-Roster Invitees
	Pitchers	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	57 Cedrick Bowers	R/L	6-2	220	02/10/78
	70 Sam Demel	R/R	6-0	215	10/23/85
	52 Lenny DiNardo	L/L	6-2	220	09/19/79
	36 Fernando Hernandez	R/R	5-11	210	07/31/84
	77 Jason Jennings	L/R	6-2	235	07/17/78
	66 Tyson Ross	R/R	6-6	225	04/22/87
	59 Matt Wright	R/R	6-4	270	03/13/82
	Catchers	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	71 Josh Donaldson	R/R	6-0	215	12/08/85
	72 Joel Galarraga	R/R	5-11	185	03/20/82
	19 Anthony Recker	R/R	6-1	245	08/29/83
	68 Max Stassi	R/R	5-10	190	03/15/91
	Infielders	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	61 Adrian Cardenas	L/R	6-0	205	10/10/87
	76 Grant Green	R/R	6-3	180	09/27/87
	18 Dallas McPherson	L/R	6-4	225	07/23/80
	2 Gregorio Petit	R/R	5-10	195	12/10/84
	16 Eric Sogard	L/R	5-10	185	05/22/86
	73 Jemile Weeks	S/R	5-9	170	01/26/87
	75 Matthew Whitney	R/R	6-3	215	02/13/84
	Outfielders	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	74 Corey Brown	L/L	6-1	205	11/26/85
	25 Matt Carson	R/R	6-2	200	07/01/81
	23 Michael Taylor	R/R	6-6	260	12/19/85
	67 Corey Wimberly	S/R	5-8	174	10/26/83

Popularity: 3% [?]

With the recent news that Lance Berkman is out for the start of the season I almost certainly have to pick Chris Johnson as the Houston Astros non roster invitee. Johnson is actually hitting this spring with a .313 average and 2 home runs and three doubles in just 16 at-bats.

Of course the Astros signed Pedro Feliz to be their third basemen this season since well… Johnson didn’t exactly do himself any favors last spring or during his time with the team.

The simple solution may be to slide Feliz over to first base in Berkman’s absence allowing the Astros an extended chance to evaluate whether Johnson or Feliz is the answer at third base.

Personally even with Johnson’s hot spring numbers I’m not sure he’s much of a major league option. He’s shown inconsistencies at the plate, he can’t draw a walk and his power swing is only what you’d consider about average when you compare him to other players at the corners.

Then again I also picked him as the teams non roster invitee so there ya go.

***

I really wanted to write about Jason Bourgeois but considering the injury to Berkman and the fact that Chris Johnson is actually hitting I couldn’t take the risk.

Anyway here’s what I originally wrote.

Jason Bourgeois has cracked the major leagues the last two years and the 28-year-old utility player is hoping that he can make that three in a row as he looks to make the hometown Houston Astros.

Bourgeois was originally drafted by the Texas Rangers back in 2000 but he never quite hit enough to be considered a pivotal part of the organization. He found himself bouncing from Richmond (Atlanta) and San Antonio (Seattle) the next two years as part of waiver claims and the Rule 5 draft.

In 2007 he was picked up by the Chicago White Sox and suddenly things came together for him at the plate.  He stuck with the team for the 2008 season earning a cup of coffee and then headed to Milwaukee for the 2009 season. At the Triple-A level he continued to hit for a good overage and found his way on base enough to again get a crack at the majors. Sadly he didn’t exactly produce and finds himself again looking to latch on.

In his minor league career he’s found himself lined up at every defensive position except catcher and while he may not be the best option at each position he does give a major league manager flexibility should he need to rest a player or complete a double switch.

The biggest obstacle for Bourgeois making the Astros appears to be the presence of Geoff Blum, a similarly tooled player, already on the roster. The injury to Lance Berkman likely leaves open one roster spot for either Chris Johnson or another non roster invitee but Bourgeois has yet to capitalize on the opportunity.

Popularity: 7% [?]

It’s time to start the non roster invitee report, a yearly regular here at tireball.com. First on the list is the Los Angeles Angels who really have always provided a tough challenge for me. The Angels have one of the weaker classes of non roster invitees year in and out as there’s little room for cracking the roster of this team out of spring training.

Many of the players on this list are hoping to impress for later on or are hoping to get a shot to stay around for some action in Triple-A.

With that being said the Angels haven’t showed any real qualms with calling up a player from their minor leagues for a cup of coffee at any point in the season.

So with all that being said I was really tempted to just go with Robb Quinlan here as if he says around it’s almost guaranteed he’d get called up at some point but I opted to go with 21-year-old pitcher Trevor Reckling.

Hank Conger and Peter Bourjous may be ranked higher then him in the prospect department but they also have more in front of them preventing them from being on the team this season.

Reckling was an 8th round pick in the 2007 draft who made his way up to Double-A last season. In 23 starts in the Texas League the youngster was 8-7 with a 2.93 ERA in 135.1 innings. The biggest concern with Reckling is that he’s a little wreck-less. His strike out numbers are fair but he really had trouble with walks last season as he had a BB/9 of 5 at Double-A. In addition he threw 14 wild pitches and over three minor league seasons has hit 19 batters.

He’ll need to improve on all three of those if he’s to be successful in Triple-A this year and earn a call up with the Angels. Most see him projecting as a 2-3 pitcher if he can fix his kinks of course it’s just as likely he’d be a 4-5 if he can’t.

For fun I’ve went ahead and posted the entire list of Angel non roster invitees should Reckling not make it I will be able to see who did.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Jair Jurrjens was scheduled to make his spring debut today but with rain in the air it’s been pushed back until tomorrow.

I have little else to say about the matter other then I was really hoping to read accounts of his first outing since there still seems to be concerns about his arm whether or not the Braves are saying so publicly.

I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Brian Giles is the latest former big league star to announce his retirement. Giles was once a pretty good player for the Pittsburg Pirates and San Diego Padres until injuries caught up with him.

He had 1,897 career hits and a .291/.400/.502 batting line.

This follows the same announcement by Nomar Garciaparra yesterday and similar ones from Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas, who while they didn’t play last year had never announced retirement.

Giles best asset during his big league career was his ability to get on base. He was a bit of a late bloomer not getting an everyday role until he was traded by Cleveland to Pittsburgh in 1999. He went on to hit 30-plus homers for four consecutive seasons before he was traded to San Diego midway though the 2003 at which point his power swing disappeared again.

Last season he appeared in just 61 games compiling a dreadful .191/.277/.271 line.

It’s been a tough last sixteen months for Giles. Aside from his knee trouble, his name was recently named in Jason Kendall’s divorce papers as anadderall junkie. He’s also being sued by his former girlfriend for more then $10 million as she alleges he began abusing her in 2002 and battered her while she was pregnant with Giles’ child, and caused her to have a miscarriage.

Popularity: 7% [?]

The Washington Nationals made their first round of cuts and two of the names on the list are left handed pitchers Eddie Guardado and Shawn Estes.

Guardado was signed to a minor league deal but given his previous success in the majors many thought he had a pretty good shot at making the club but after allowing seven runs of which four were earned in two innings of work this spring the team has decided to go ahead and release him. At 39 years of age it’s uncertain if Guardado will look for work else where or retire. Guardado had most of his success during his time with the Minnesota Twins and had bounced around the league the last couple of seasons. He had a 4.46 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP last year in 38.1 innings of work while with Texas.

While Guardado’s release may be a bit of a surprise the release of Shawn Estes probably isn’t.

The 37-year-old Estes pretty much seemed destined to be cut when the Nationals resigned Livan Hernandez and picked up Miguel Batista on a minor league deal.

Estes pitched one inning and allowed two runs on three hits, of of which was a homer, and walked a batter. Estes last appeared in a major league game in 2008 when he was 2-3 with a 4.74 ERA in 9 appearances for the San Diego Padres. There doesn’t figure to be must interest for him and he too could choose to retire.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I know I’m not an expert on all things football but I’ll just go ahead and say that Ben Roethlisberger is stupid. A while back he was the target of a sexual assault charge and apparently he hasn’t changed.

Maybe it’s from the lack of his helmet while riding a motorcycle.

Looks like Roethlisberger has admitted to having some sort of sexual contact with his accuser but says it wasn’t intercourse. Apparently the woman is one of the worst blowjob givers in the world as according to Roethlisberger she manged to slip, fall and injure her head in the process.

Give me a break already.

The fact is Ben Roethlisberger is as dangerous to the image of the NFL as Michael Vick’s buried dogs. He’s a loaded gun…ok bad choice of words… ready to attack, assault and maim.

You’d think some of these guys would learn what associating with whores gets you. Look what it got Steve McNair. Dead. Bang!

Which reminds me. Where was any of the outrage that McNair was having an affair?

I guess that’s what being an NFL QB gets you. Frankly, I hope they nail this jerk.

Popularity: 13% [?]

The playing days of Nomar Garciaparra are over. For eight seasons Nomar was a member of the Boston Red Sox until a noteworthy confrontation over a contract eventually saw the team send him to Chicago during their 2004 World Series season.

He played as a part of the Cubs, Dodgers and A’s following that time but those times were more highlighted on the disabled list rather then his contributions in the lineup.

The Red Sox are having a  press conference this morning to officially announce the one day contract and subsequent retirement.

While there has been rampant reports that Garciaparra used steroids during his time in Boston there hasn’t been any official comment on the matter by the athlete himself. He finishes a 14 year career with a .313/.361/.521 line with 229 home runs and 936 RBI. He finishes with 1747 career hits.

Some will remember Nomar for things like his name is Ramon, his fathers name, spelled backwards. His constant toe taps inside the batters box which was from his childhood playing days where his shoes were too big for his feet.

But for me the career of Nomar Garciaparra is filled with more questions. Did he use steroids? What would his number be like had he not been so injured at the end of his career? How come the Red Sox couldn’t win a World Series until the year they traded him?

Popularity: 6% [?]

For what appears to be many of the same reasons I mentioned in an article yesterday NASCAR has opted to not suspend Carl Edwards the driver of the #99 Ford Fusion.

Citing discussions with the drivers, car owners and others Mike Helton announced during a press conference that Edwards would be placed on probation but no further penalties would come at this time.

This means Edwards and Keselowski will both be on track when the series heads to Atlanta next weekend.

Popularity: 6% [?]