http://www.mlbscoop.com Baseball views, news, MLB rumors and historical simulations Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:36:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A popular feature from last year returns.  Once again MLBscoop has collected the rankings of popular prospect opinion sites and averaged them out to give you a sense of a consensus  top 100 prospects in Major League Baseball farm systems.  While the top prospect lists all are very similar at ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=66 A tournament is always better when there are shocking upsets, and by that standard the 2009 World Baseball Classic has already surprised the initial WBC.  The big story so far has been the Dutch defeating the Dominicans not once but twice to advance out of Pool D against all odds.  ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=65 The Chinese national baseball team was unmercifully put to the sword this morning by the South Koreans, in a 14-0 defeat that knocks China out of the World Baseball Classic.  Regardless of emphatic nature of this loss, the 2009 WBC is an enormous success for the Chinese, simply because they ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=64 It seems like only a few years ago that Major League Baseball was considering contraction, after two expansions totaling four new franchises in the 1990s.  Baseball purists decried the dilution of the talent pool.With global development of the game shown off by the World Baseball Classic tournament and South Korea ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=63 Australia has been cited as a prime area of emerging talent in the baseball world for the past decade, but the Aussies underperformed greatly at the 2006 World Baseball Classic.  In 2009, they have been seeded alongside Mexico, Cuba and South Africa.  While this group is not easy, it is ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=62 Reports today indicated that, like in the time before the 2006 World Baseball Classic, Alex Rodriguez is leaning towards representing the Dominican Republic at the 2009 WBC.  The American-born son of Dominican immigrants, A-Rod was solicited by friends on the DR squad to represent the team of his ancestors rather ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=61 The inclusion of Panama among the 16 teams in the World Baseball Classic is based on the fact that the country has produced some significant talent in the past.  49 players have come from the Central American nation in MLB history, including Hall of Famer Rod Carew, sure-fire Hall of ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=60 The Pittsburgh Pirates today signed two young pitchers who participated in a reality TV show called "Million Dollar Arm."  That alone might sound gimmicky, but the real juice to the story is that this reality show was based in India. Southpaw Rinku Singh and righthander Dinesh Patel hit 84 MPH and ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=59 The 2006 World Baseball Classic saw Italy draft the services of Italian-American baseball players to bolster their entry into the tournament, and there is no reason to believe the 2009 squad will be any different.  Mike Piazza was the marquee name to play for Italy, with Frank Catalanotto, Dan Miceli ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=58 Mike Mussina has retired from baseball, leaving the game after one of his greatest seasons as a pitcher.  After struggling in 2007, Moose adapted his pitching style to deliver his first 20 win season in a career that is the standard of consistent excellence. Mussina could have locked up his case ... http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=57