The Morning Fix

Many players have bonuses written into their contracts paying them a (for us, anyway) hefty sum if they participate in a certain amount of club-sponsored off-season workouts. So far, at least, there have been no such workouts and there won’t be until the owners lift the lockout, if they ever do.

So Eric Berry shouldn’t count on that $300,000 he otherwise would have been paid. But don’t feel bad for Berry, who made $2.6 million last year as a rookie in base salary.

A diehard basketball fan and champion of the city’s Recreation and Parks department, Young said his first impression of Turgeon “was just amazing.” There was plenty of talk about basketball players staying in school and earning their degrees. And there was some good-natured chiding from Young, a Ravens fan, related to Turgeon’s Kansas City Chiefs.

Young said they didn’t discuss specific high school players from Baltimore – which would include City shooting guard Nick Faust, whose signing Young attended and who the city council president considers a “surrogate” nephew. But Young did share his feelings with Turgeon about where he’d like to see Charm City’s top talent end up in college.

32 Will Ebner (Senior), LB, 6’1″ 230

Definitely not a flashy linebacker prospect, but a guy who has played for a long time and has a good head on his shoulders. Twice second team all-academic Big 12 performer. Not a tackling machine by any means, but makes smart plays and always improving as a player. Likely will be a special teams guy in the NFL, and missed quite a bit of time last year due to injury. If he can show some serious improvement and durability this year, he could sneak into the 4th-5th round range.

For the most part though, if the #8 spot leads off the inning (and Getz is in the #1 spot) it’s almost a free inning for the opposing team. Sure, most studies show that a lineup isn’t that big of a factor, but when the Royals have four regulars with an OPS above .800 (with Melky Cabrera close at .789 entering today) and Mike Aviles at .802 playing part time, it’s a killer when Escobar and Getz can’t get their OPS above .600.

Tonight it didn’t matter. Tomorrow, there may be a rally that dies at the bottom of the order.