With his outing on Wednesday, Rodriguez has now caught 2,227 games. The former record holder was Carlton Fisk. Bob Boone is third on the list with 2,225 games, while Gary Carter is fourth with 2,056 games.

The now 37-year-old native of Puerto Rico originally broke into Major League Baseball when he was 19. Nicknamed Pudge, Rodriguez has numerous accolades to his name including 14 All-Star game selections, 13 Gold Glove Awards, seven Silver Slugger Awards, an AL MVP award in 1999 and a World Series championship while with the Florida Marlins in 2003.

This season, Rodriguez is hitting .246 with six homers and 27 RBI. Whenever he decides to end his days behind the plate, he’ll have a place in Cooperstown.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Rodriguez has played well as the starting catcher for the Astros. On Sunday, Rodriguez hit the 300th home run of his career to help the Astros beat the Chicago Cubs by a final count of 6-5.

The 300th blast for Rodriguez came in the top of the fourth inning. His two-run shot was off of Rich Harden and gave the Astros a 4-2 lead they would never relinquish.

The 37-year-old catcher is hitting .286 on the season with five homers and 19 RBI. In his career, Rodriguez has a .301 batting average to go with 1,236 RBI, 1,268 runs and 2,637 hits.

When the book is closed on Pudge Rodriguez’s career, expect him to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Last season, Rodriguez had an underwhelming campaign as he split time between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees. Although interest in his was lukewarm in recent months, the Florida Marlins were said to be interested. However, after playing well for the Puerto Rico in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, the Astros came calling.

The contract reportedly guarantees Rodriguez at least $1.5 million. He could earn another $1.5 million through performance bonuses.

The Astros were ready to go young at catcher with Humberto Quintero and J.R. Towles. The signing of Rodriguez gives Houston a veteran presence who should help the team win right away. If his play for Puerto Rico is any indication, he could very well have a bounce back season.

Source: Newscom

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Rodriguez has a history with the Marlins. Not only does he live in Miami, he spent one season of his career with team. That happened to be in 2003 when the Marlins won the World Series while Rodriguez was one of the team’s biggest stars.

After that season, he signed a big free agent deal with the Detroit Tigers. Last year, the Tigers traded Rodriguez to the New York Yankees. After a less than stellar campaign, the Yankees haven’t shown any interest in signing the 37-year-old catcher.

Once a fierce hitter, Rodriguez hasn’t had at least 15 homers or 70 RBIs since the 2004 campaign. He’s also not nearly as good behind the plate as he used to be in his prime.

If he ends up signing with the Marlins, Rodriguez will likely start and serve as a mentor on a team with a lot of young players. Although Florida doesn’t have many people picking them for a spot in the World Series, that was the case in 2003 as well.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Manny Ramirez
A lot of insiders have expected the New York Mets to make a run at Manny Ramirez but that doesn’t appear to be happening. The Mets instead are looking around for pitching. Ramirez looks like he has a couple suitors, with the San Francisco Giants showing the most interest. A new darkhorse? The Texas Rangers.

Ivan Rodriguez
The interesting news about Ivan Rodriguez is that there is virtually no news. The future Hall of Famer hasn’t drawn much attention from anyone and his hopes of landing a starting gig appear to be declining by the day.

Randy Wolf
Right now, it appears as if the Los Angeles Dodgers are the favorites to win the Randy Wolf sweepstakes. The other team to show a lot of interest was the Mets, who might actually prefer Wolf if Oliver Perez asks for too much money.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Here is a breakdown of who got traded and to where.

• Manny Ramirez traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers
• Ken Griffey, Jr. traded to the Chicago White Sox
• Ivan Rodriguez traded to the New York Yankees
• Jason Bay traded to the Boston Red Sox
• Kyle Farnsworth traded to the Detroit Tigers
• Arthur Rhodes traded to the Florida Marlins

Manny Ramirez and his bat are headed to the Dodgers.

Photo: Newscom

Post from: Knuckle Curve

J.D. Arney at Red Reporter has written a great post about exciting players he’s seen over the years. As you might expect, his list contains a fair amount of Reds. Actually, it contains only Reds, because — well, he’s the Red Reporter. Get it?

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to take this concept and extend it. Here are the most exciting players I’ve ever seen:

C: I’m not sure that I’ve encountered any “exciting” catchers. (I’m guessing Ivan Rodriguez, but I’ve only seen him play once or twice.) Maybe early Benito Santiago. I enjoyed watching Mike Piazza play for the Padres in 2006, even though he was well past his prime by then. My all-time favorite at the position is probably Mike Scioscia, who I grew up watching.

1B: Rod Carew was near the end of his career when I saw him play for the Angels, as was Eddie Murray when he played for the Dodgers. I’m going to call this a toss-up between Fred McGriff (’91-’92) and Adrian Gonzalez. I also really loved the way Andres Galarraga handled himself at the position, although I didn’t get to see him nearly as often. Great footwork for such a big dude.

2B: Technically, Steve Sax was pretty exciting, but I don’t think that’s quite what we’re going for here. I have only vague recollections of Bobby Grich toward the end of his career and Roberto Alomar at the beginning of his. I grew up in an era of very unexciting second basemen — Glenn Hubbard, Ron Oester, Tommy Herr, Johnny Ray, etc. I’ll go with Craig Biggio, with an honorable mention to Ryne Sandberg. If I’d watched more of the American League, I’m sure that Frank White and Lou Whitaker would be here as well.

3B: Ken Caminiti. Yeah, it may have been tainted by PEDs, but he carried the ‘96 Padres on his back. I’ll always have fond memories of that. Honorable mention goes to Mike Schmidt, who obviously was the much better player but whom I didn’t see nearly as often.

SS: I almost feel obligated to say Ozzie Smith, but I didn’t see him play a lot. The guy I grew up watching, Bill Russell, may have been the least exciting I’ve ever seen at the position. Alfredo Griffin was exciting, but not always in a good way. Tony Fernandez? Eh, not quite. Dick Schofield? No. Cal Ripken? Robin Yount? Alan Trammell? Didn’t see them enough. Same with Barry Larkin. You know who I’m going to say? This is almost by default and he was a terrible hitter, but I think it might be Shawon Dunston. Wait, how about Omar Vizquel. Way to commit, huh?

OF: Rickey Henderson. Dude was playing a completely different game.

OF: Tim Raines. Not just because of all the Hall of Fame attention. He wasn’t quite as disruptive as Henderson, but pretty much everyone in the history of baseball falls short by that standard. Raines was plenty troublesome.

OF: Tony Gwynn. Easily the best hitter I’ve ever seen.

OF: Eric Davis. I’m stealing one from J.D.’s list here because, man, Davis was unreal in the outfield. Probably the best defensive outfielder I’ve seen.

OF: Kenny Lofton. Yeah, Lofton. I’m thinking specifically of his playoff performances with the Indians in the mid-’90s. Electric player.

OF: Bo Jackson. Probably the best athlete I’ve ever seen play baseball. He had holes in his swing the size of Montana, but the guy could hit the ball a mile. He’s also the fastest man I’ve seen from the right side. I distinctly remember him knocking three infield singles in one of his first big-league games. My recollection is that at least two of those were routine grounders that would have been outs with anyone else at the plate.

Well, that was fun. How about you? Who makes your list?

Post from: Knuckle Curve