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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.

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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.

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Team USA broke though and ended a drought for Gold that had dated back to 1948 capturing the top spot in the 4-man in Vancouver.

Sadly despite my pre-Olympic excitement about the event I missed both runs today due to well… NASCAR but I’m still happy.

I would probably go into detail about how former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine reinvented the bobsled for the team but that is probably an article best saved for another day.

I don’t really have much else to say about the event since I didn’t see it  but wanted to at-least share some of my excitement with the rest of you.

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American skier Lindsey Vonn had controlled the headlines leading up to the Olympics it seemed with concerns about her bruised shin. The headlines will now read differently as the 25-year-old captured Gold in the first Alpine skiing event earlier today.

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For those hoping to see a resolution to the Johnny Damon saga that has controlled baseball headlines the last few weeks… I guess we are still waiting.

It’s Friday evening, Damon is on vacation, and Scott Boras has four teams talking to him.

It’s not going away.

Not till next week rolls around at-least and even then it’ll be a dog and pony show.

Currently it’s said that the Tigers are in at two years and $14 million. The Braves have offered a one year deal with up to $5 million in total money, the Rays have a telephone and Kenny Williams of the White Sox is doing his best to remind people that just because he said something two weeks ago it has no bearing on today since other teams are doing the same thing.

Worst of all is Monday is a holiday so… we are probably looking at Tuesday for anything near official.

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Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili died after a crash in practice. There is even talk that his death may make the country of Georgia drop out of the games but it’s likely they will remain there and take part in the opening ceremonies tonight.

Kumaritashvili was traveling at 90 mph when he lost control, flew over top the course and hit a steel rod at the finish line.

He was pronounced dead later at the hospital.

It’s certainly a black mark as the Olympics open tonight.

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Well the Olympics start today. I guess when you’re a kid you watch them more. You can’t get enough. When you get older you find an event or two you are interested in and after that you ignore them.

It’s not that the athletes aren’t talented in them. It’s just that a number of the events are well… boring. There is a ton of time in-between competitors, anything not being scored with a stopwatch is leaving open the possibility for human error/rigging and frankly having to hear the Olympic theme over and over gets on my nerves.

I’m sure NBC will post solid ratings for the event but don’t count me in. I have watched less and less in recent years and while there’s still interest of mine in much of the skiing events I likely will only make a concentrated effort to watch the bobsleigh.

I don’t know really the point of this post other then to say. It’s here. If you like it then great, if you hate it then watch something else, and if you have no opinion like myself then turn it on here or there if you got nothing else to do and maybe you’ll find something you like.

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Looks like Scott Boras and company have done things perfectly. While the market for the outfielder was once bare there now seems to be at-least three teams who have contacted the agent about Damon’s services in the last day.

It seemed Damon was looking at maybe even a contract as low as $2 million. Of course those were national sport reporters not me. I’ve steadfastly remained confident that Damon would eventually find a deal north of $5 million.

Then yesterday happened. The Tigers and Braves have been interested in Damon, everyone knows it. Then word came that the Braves were willing to offer Damon $2 million for the 2010 with an additional $2 million deferred. Some have said the deal was worth a total of $5 million but either way the wheels were in motion.

Now today the Tigers have apparently made an offer of $14 million over 2 year deals. Then Boras also threw out the White Sox’s name. Wouldn’t doubt that either.

In the matter of two days Boras has convinced three of the second tier spenders to engage in contacts with him about his client. This figures to wrap up quickly because Damon’s value can only go down from here.

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I guess I jumped the gun like everyone else in saying that Chien Ming Wang had signed with the Washington Nationals. His agent is saying that Wang and the Nationals are roughly 7-10 days away from finalizing the deal.

What exactly could be holding up the deal is a mystery to anyone. Wang who had back to back 19 win seasons in 2006 and 2007 has been injury riddled and ineffective the last two years.

There hasn’t been much reported interest around the league in Wang and the Nationals provide perhaps the best chance for him in terms of re-establishing himself as a quality major leaguer.

The deal with the Nationals is said to be worth $2 million but perhaps the Nationals or Wang are looking for some sort of perk should he revert back to the pitcher he was two years ago.

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The Washington Nationals continued their off-season of acquisitions signing former Yankee pitcher Chien-Ming Wang.

Last year Wang was one of the most disappointing players in the league compiling a 9.64 ERA and a 2.02 WHIP in 12 outings including nine starts. Wang pitched last year with shoulder pain and eventually was shutdown for the year.

Prior to that Wang had back-to-back 19 win seasons in 2006 and 2007.

While Wang may be a big question mark heading into 2010 the Nationals are taking the right approach by signing him low and hoping for success. Should Wang fail to impress they can simply release him, should he be productive he could be a candidate for a mid-season trade.

Wang fits into the Nationals plans much the way Shawn Estes does and doesn’t come with the set of rules that would be in place had Livan Hernandez been in place.

Unlike Hernandez, Wang won’t be called upon to be a workhorse. The team will hope to catch lighting in a bottle and if it doesn’t come to pass they can let him go.

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