It’s been a while since I have posted anything here on The Sombrero.  The last couple of weeks have been really busy and perpetually stressful.  I just finished up an exam period that consisted of 12 total tests.  It’s break now, though, and I am back home where it is dumping on the mountain.  I just got word that 15 fresh fell today, which gets the hill over 2 feet of new in the last 48, and it is supposed to pick up when the sun goes down.  Griff, our homeboys the Meyers, and I are headed up in the morning, and it has the potential to be the best Day 1 of my life.  A lot has happened since the last time I posted, but the holidays are getting underway nicely already.  My dad is home from Australia and Grandma is coming down either Thursday or Friday.

As everyone rolled out of bed today, we checked our phones like we do every morning to make sure that nothing earth-shattering happened in the world of baseball overnight.  This morning was one of those rare ones when something like that actually did (Arlo gave me a little heads up on it last night to tell you the truth).  At least it was earth-shattering for the rest of the N.L. Central, because they discovered that the Milwaukee Brewers will have the best rotation in the division next season.  If you’re from Milwaukee, Christmas came a little early this year in the form of former Cy Young winner, Donald Zackary Greinke.

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Here is a video of prospect Matt Moore, a pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays.  As you can plainly see, Moore is devastating and would be the top pitching prospect in almost any other organization.  Moore is of particular interest to me due to his New Mexican roots.

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A month or so ago, a player who played for Griff and I over the last couple of summers — as well as with Griff during the school season of 2010 — walked away from the game during the fall of his first season of college. His reasons were not unusual by any means. These included not loving the game anymore, not liking his teammates, not liking his environment, and not liking his coaches. Being of considerable intelligence, the player took the obvious logical steps and arrived at the conclusion that he never really loved the game but rather his company within his personal experiences relative to the game, be it on or off the field. Of course I encouraged him to give his decision a little time and a little reflection so that he is confident in it when he looks back at his life. I urged him to gaze beyond talent and performance and rather toward more rudimentary factors such as basic emotions like love, joy, hate, pain, etc. In the last couple of weeks he has developed a new desire to return to the field, and I think his reasoning is worth discussing.

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A few months ago we posted about our good friend, Sam Eaton (known to us as “Eat-a”; pronounced EET-uh), and his job within the Arizona Diamondbacks’ front office. Last week Eat-a was promoted. He now is the Assistant to Baseball Operations. Quite clearly in our opinion Kevin Towers is running the best front office in baseball out there in Phoenix with talents like Eat-a being recognized and rewarded so appropriately. We fully expect them back in the World Series very soon.

Congratulations, dude! We’re really proud of you and know you’re going to continue to excel in your new role. Maybe see if you can’t get them to send you to scout Matt Purke some Friday evening this spring. I will meet you out in Fort Worth after school. Lots of love from the Sombrero, man.

As we have already mentioned on this site, the selections for the Gold Glove were confusing.  With guys like Jeter winning this once prestigious award, it may be best to now consider it completely meaningless.  What a joke.  Papi’s option was picked up and will inevitably be regarded as a gross overpayment.  This is the one that baffles me, though: Cliff Lee is asking for 7 years at over $160 million.  What?  This guy is 32.

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