Innholdsfortegnelse for February 9, 2018 i Baseball America

Baseball America first introduced Tim Teufel to readers when he appeared on the cover of the Aug. 1, 1983 issue. Teufel was late into an extraordinary season at Triple-A Toledo in the Twins organization. Teufel earned International League player of the year honors that season when he batted .323/.437/.577 with 27 home runs and 100 RBIs. That performance merited a September callup, leading to an 11-year big league career that included a World Series championship with the 1986 Mets. More than three decades later, Teufel has established himself as a baseball lifer. He has scouted, coached and managed. He currently serves as the Mets’ roving minor league infield instructor and club ambassador. “It’s provided a good living,” Teufel said. “It’s provided an opportunity to provide for my family. It’s been…

Part of the charm of college baseball is its extremely compact season. Teams play just 56 games over 15 weeks in the spring. The NCAA Tournament plays out over four weekends in June. Anything seemingly can happen. Stars are born on sun-splashed diamonds across the country throughout the spring and every June turn into legends in Omaha. For 297 teams across the country, that journey begins now. The summer ballgames played far from home, the monotonous weeks of fall ball, the long hours in the weight room in the winter—all of it in preparation for a few glorious months of spring. With Opening Day fast approaching, Baseball America presents its annual College Preview Issue. The pages that follow include the Preseason Top 25, the Preseason All-America teams voted on by…

JOEY BART, C, GEORGIA TECH Bart is the highest- ranked catcher for the 2018 draft and has seemingly answered the questions about his defensive ability. He has started 68 games behind the plate for the Yellow Jackets and has hit .296 or better as both a freshman and sophomore in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with his power showing up in 2017 with 13 home runs and a .575 slugging percentage. JEREMY EIERMAN, SS, MISSOURI STATE The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Missouri State infielder offers a tantalizing combination of power and the ability to play shortstop. That keeps teams intrigued despite Eierman’s poor summer with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, where he hit just .125 with a wood bat. Eierman was much better last spring, when he hit .313/.431/.675 with 23 home runs—elite…

@STEVERUSHIN Behold the ballpark in winter, an unsettling place, like a History Channel model of a post-apocalyptic world: field and seats covered in white, billboards advertising to nobody, dugouts devoid of Dubble Bubble, bullpens bereft of relievers. Everything looks abruptly abandoned to a desolate winter, possibly a nuclear one. And so the giant coffee cup that looms as a caffeinated colossus over Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford doesn’t jettison a spray of steam in the winter, withholding its warmth when we need it most. Let Old Faithful or the fountains of Bellaggio issue their geysers at predictable intervals year-round. The coffee cup only erupts when a Hartford Yard Goat hits a home run. It stands at the interchange of two interstates, and reminds the 275,000 motorists who pass it on…

CHICAGO CUBS For everything that went right during the rebuilding years—and that unforgettable 2016 World Series run—the Cubs still admit that they have a problem. The organization has assembled an impressive young lineup, but their issues with developing pitchers led to an organization-wide reboot. Even the Cubs admit it can’t all be written off as bad luck and injuries and the cost of using four straight first-round picks on Albert Almora, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ. “The important thing is that we recognize we haven’t been good at it,” president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said. “We’re kind of back to the drawing board.” After firing big league pitching coach Chris Bosio—one of the franchise’s biggest influences during the rebuilding years—the Cubs hope Jim Hickey’s new voice and…

Blast Motion and Zepp Labs, the makers of swing-tracking technology, have settled a patent lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California that puts Blast Motion in control of the baseball market. The court ruled in Blast Motion’s favor and issued an injunction against Zepp Labs from selling its baseball and softball sensors in the U.S., a rule that will take hold in six months. The two parties also entered into a Settlement and License Agreement that will permit the parties to continue to distribute their respective products— whether golf, tennis or otherwise—in the U.S., with the exception of the Zepp baseball and softball products. Remaining terms of the agreement between Blast Motion and Zepp remain confidential. “Here at Blast, we are pleased with the…

Never tell Tim Cate he can’t do something. Never use the word “no.” Don’t play him in 2K or The Show baseball video games, and definitely don’t try to hit his curveball. Just don’t. It’s not worth it. He’s going to win, and you’re going to lose. Connecticut head coach Jim Penders remembers when Cate called him in December 2013 about participating in one of UConn’s indoor workouts. “I need Tommy John surgery,” said Cate, then a junior at Cheney Technical High in Manchester, Conn. “But I want to come do the camp.” Penders told him “no” emphatically. But Cate came anyway. With a torn UCL, the diminutive, rail-thin lefthander touched 87 mph— several ticks higher than the UConn coaches had ever seen him throw. And his upper-70s curveball was…