The Bleacher Bums: April 5, 2006 Archive

Halladay much sharper than Santana

Posted at 9:16 AM on April 5, 2006 by Ben Tesch

Either Santana is in his usual beginning of the year funk, the Jays are for real, or both. Twins lose. Halladay settled down after the first inning, the Twins made it a game with solo shots by Batista and Stewart (wow, two home runs in the same game?), but then Rios' 2-run homer and new closer BJ Ryan seal the deal.

And I honestly don't think I have that much of a hometown bias, but there sure were some bad calls at home plate.

Howard Sinker's all-time Twins team

Posted at 9:24 AM on April 5, 2006 by Ben Tesch (4 Comments)

From the Midday broadcast:

1B: Kent Hrbek
2B: Rod Carew
3B: Harmon Killebrew
SS: Zoilo Versalles
LF: Bob Allison
CF: Kirby Puckett
RF: Tony Oliva
C: Earl Battey
DH: Paul Molitor

SP: Johan Santana
SP: Frank Viola
SP: Bert Blyleven
SP: Jim Kaat
SP: Camilo Pascual
RP: Al Worthington
RP: Jeff Reardon
RP: Rick Aguilera

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Time to check the payrolls

Posted at 1:36 PM on April 5, 2006 by Ben Tesch

The average major league salary has increased nearly 9% to $2.87 million, the highest increase in 5 years. (Update: The full list of players earning more than $1 million per year)

Think having a salary cap will help? Neil deMause, author of a new book called "Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game is Wrong" says here that only a little more than half of getting to the postseason is determined by team revenue.