12/22 Hot Stove – Holiday Gifts from MLB Network
We asked some of our talent what gift they would like to give Major League Baseball this holiday season:
Harold Reynolds – To improve the All-Star Game. First, take World Series home field advantage off the table. Finally, honor past greats like Ken Griffey Jr. this year in what could be his last game.
And while we’re giving out gifts, let’s start awarding Gold Gloves to outfielders by position.
Hazel Mae – My gift is for MLB Network and it’s to attend our production meetings down the hall in-person as opposed to calling in from my office via “conference call”. (Harold Reynolds caught me!)
Matt Vasgersian – I’ll never again mention, Turn Ahead the Clock Night, summer of 1999.
Greg Amsinger – Sideburns! Mustaches are already prevalent. MLB players need to follow my lead and focus on their chops in 2010. Also mutton chops to the lip; they can distract a pitcher and throw them off their game.
Matt Yallof – An All-Star Game that does NOT determine home field advantage in the World Series. Best record gets home field. Simple and Smart. It’ a gift that keeps giving.
Trenni Kusnierek – One year’s supply of chips to go with Mitch Williams’ Wild Thing Salsa, laser hair removal for Vasgersian’s five o’clock shadow, and extra minutes for Jon Heyman’s cell phone plan.
Mitch Williams – My Presence!
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MLB Network 
Ahh top reasons why I love MLB Network more than ESPN! lol good job crew!! A lot of fun personalities on here.
p.s. ZOMG! TRENNI I FOLLOW YOU ON TWITTER!
happy holidays!!
http://mimi.mlblogs.com
on the 12/23 edition of hot stove, Victor Rojas embarrassed himself and the network with his obvious biasd comments about how the Mets should be embarrased regarding the amount of money they spend in the mlb draft. i am sure i am not the only one who tunes in for analysys and info of the latest mlb action, but not to listen to Rojas or anyone else bash organizations business practices. Mr Rojas has lost all credibility with me. I have never left an internet comment before, but this total lack of professionalism and in the argumentative manner in which it was conducted calls for an apology from him.
F. Dowd
Love MLB Network. Happy Holidays….
Here is some Off-Season Food For Thought. Right now, most of what I see when I go to the MLB Network is old games. I understand this is cheap programming. It is also not very exciting to most people, unless they know the teams or sit still long enough to get interested.
What I wish I could see is stuff to make me a better coach and to help make my 18 year old college ballplayer better. Major League instruction. What do great players do on a daily basis in the off-season? What do they eat? Sports Psychology. The Mental Side of the Game. Linear Vs. Rotational, etc. One hour or two a day, even in the midnight hours, could be recorded and watched.
I would love to know what Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, and Ichiro doing right now, every day? How much do they lift, hit, throw, run. How do you practice hitting in the off-season so you are ready for live pitching early in the year? What goes on in Dominican Baseball schools and Academies like IMG? I would love a special for smaller players, showing how guys like David Eckstein and Dustin Pedroia make it to the big leagues, with a lot of detail.
You guys have a great network, but right now I am drifting in and leaving fast. I think there is a subculture out there of travel ball, high school and college players, and their families, spending a lot of time and money on instruction and getting told by different factions to swing down, swing rotationally, lift heavy, lift light and fast, etc. They want to hear professionals tell them what worked for them on every level, of training and preparation, with age specific regimens.
Just my two cents. My guess is you guys could pick a topic or two a day and do a show. Send some people around to interview different players while they workout in the off-season. Talk to coaches, scouts, retired players, etc. At some point I think you could compile it all into sellable packages. (Billy Ripken and Harold Reynolds already know this. People need more than drills. They want to see how players plan their daily regimens, and more insider stuff.)
Since there seems to be no other way to comment on pompous wind bag Joe Magrane’s anti Yankee outburst when they got franchise of the decade award, I would say here that his sarcastic reference to it just being Jeter Posada, as the core. On the contrary, the Yanks have Cano, Cabrera (up until a few weeks ago), Joba, Phil Hughes, David Robertson, Francisco Cervelli and others. It’s the depth of talent in their farm system that allowed them to make trades for Granderson and Vasquez.
Magrane is a Rays boy–let’s not show your vitriol on air please. You tend to lose crediblity that way, not that you had much in the first place.