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Vierling w/ Lakewood in 2018, image- Jay Floyd Outfield prospect Matt Vierling took some time recently to offer some thoughts on his off-season. The 23-year-old was a 5th round draft selection by the Phillies in 2018.  This year, in his first full season in professional baseball, the Notre Dame product posted a .232 average with five home runs, 41 RBI and 22 stolen bases in 118 games with Class A Advanced Clearwater. Last week I asked Matt, a Missouri native, to offer some details on his workout routine in the fall and winter months, his thoughts on Major League Baseball's proposed elimination of certain affiliated minor league teams and plenty more.  Read ahead for that interview. - How much down time do you allow yourself before you get back to picking up a bat and/or taking swings? I try to give myself at least one to two months off from swinging. This year I was on the longer end because I was coming off of my first full year and felt like I needed the b...

This week United States Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called on the Major League Baseball Players Association to ban the use of all tobacco products on the field of play, in the dugout, and in the locker rooms at all MLB venues. As the premiere baseball league in the world is in the midst of its championship series, the politicians saw this as an opportune time to apply pressure with million of viewers, including children, tuning in nightly on television. In a recent press release, the senators stated the following: "During the upcoming negotiations over the bargaining agreement, we write to ask that the Major League Baseball Players Association agree to a prohibition on the use of all tobacco products at games and on camera at all Major League ballparks. This would send a strong message to young baseball fans, who look toward the players as role models, that tobacco use is not essential to the sport of base...

The Major League Baseball Players Association announced, via a press release , on Tuesday that the average MLB player's salary for the 2010 season will be a remarkable $3.3 million. The announcement was prompted by an inaccurate report on Monday, by USA Today, that stated that the average MLB salary was down by 17% over the opening day payrolls of just a year ago. In an obvious effort to get their brag on and put their members' big time income on blast, the MLBPA wanted to quickly let the world know that there was no way the average salary went down and that, in fact, the average salary had increased for the sixth straight season. The 2010 figure is based on the salaries of 828 players, including those who are currently on teams' disabled lists, and does not include players' bonuses. The press release also stated that the full combined payrolls of all 30 MLB teams is over 2.7 BILLION dollars, more than $55 million over opening day 2009. Looking for a moral to this story...

On Wednesday, Major League Baseball announced an upcoming initiative to test players in its minor leagues for human growth hormone this coming season. In a released statement, MLB declared, "We are consulting with our experts concerning immediate steps for our minor league drug program and the next steps for our Major League program." Random urine testing for banned substances began in 2001 in baseball's minor leagues, but blood testing is required to detect the HGH. And while MLB can institute new blood testing for players in the minor leagues, it would need to reach an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association to start blood testing for unionized players on the 40-man big league rosters. Looking forward, could this be cause for another baseball strike? Possibly. The HGH testing should be implemented. Ball players are aware of the banned drugs that are detected by the existing urine tests, and there are still players who get suspended for positive test...

So many top level talents are still free agents this offseason. Andy Pettitte finally signed an incentive laden deal with the Yankees yesterday, which can be worth as much as $12 million, but as little as $5.5 million. With under 3 weeks until pitchers and catchers report for spring training, have a look at the big names who are still available. Catchers- Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez- an eventual Hall of Famer Jason Varitek, a mainstay with the Red Sox for, well, ever...still remains unsigned Outfielders- Bobby Abreu, a steady numbers guy and former all star Adam Dunn, 40 or more homers for 4 straight years Ken Griffey Jr, more HoF names on the list Manny Ramirez, another Hall of Famer with a monster bat Garret Anderson, .296 career avg. and 84 RBI last year Jim Edmonds, 20 homers last season is worth consideration Starting pitchers- Livan Hernandez, former world champ & all star racks up innings Tom Glavine, surely another HoF lock Ben Sheets, has talent but is an injury conce...

In what continues to be a string of bad luck (Utley surgery, Amaro Jr. over-spending on Ibanez, Elton Brand's shoulder injury) since Pat Gillick retired as Phillies GM, news is unveiled tonight that JC Romero has been suspended for the first 50 games of next season. It's all very confusing, especially since the Phillies, MLB and Romero all knew about this during the post season. But it seems Romero purchased a supplement from a GNC store in Cherry Hill, NJ on July 22nd, and was told by a nutrionist, the Phillies' conditioning coach Dong Lien and MLB that the supplement was acceptable to use. 3 months later, it turns out, the supplement was not allowed. Romero was initially informed of the positive results on September 23rd. ESPN reports that during October Romero was told, by the Players' Association, that the case would be dropped because the findings of his drug screening were positive due to pills purchased over the counter. That did not prove true, obviously. Romero...