The Indians outfield defense is going to be really good. As Jeff Sullivan noted, the addition of Michael Bourn makes the outfield defense very good as it pushes two good center fielders (Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs) to the corners. That last part is what really struck me about the move. Over my roughly 17 years of watching baseball, I’ve always been told that a corner outfielder is a guy who can hit and hit for a lot of power, indicating that it’s an offense-first position. But during the past five years or so, we’ve seen players like Brett Gardner, Carl Crawford, Ben Revere, Brantley, and now Stubbs moved to a corner, seemingly indicating that teams are more willing to accept less power in exchange for more OBP, speed, and defense. So I decided to do a little investigating.

The first step was to look at how the offensive production of corner outfielders has changed in the recent past.

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The impossible finally happened. Miguel Cairo retired. Cairo hung on for 17 seasons — he made his debut the season after Mariano Rivera. One would be hard-pressed to find one season in which he was much good. His highest seasonal WAR came in 1998 with the good ol’ Devil Rays at 2.7, and that was mostly due to 22 Total Zone fielding runs. That season and 1999 were the only seasons in which Cairo received more than 500 plate appearances, and he only got more than 400 in one other season — 2004 with the Yankees. Cairo could not really play shortstop, he was no defensive whiz at second, and as his career .264/.314/.361 (77 wRC+) line shows, he was, outside of a few lucky seasons, a pretty lousy hitter. Yet he hung on. And on. And on. And now he is going to be a working for the Reds. I think it is safe to say that teams liked and like having Cairo around.

Despite his limitations, over 17 years Cairo managed to have some very dramatic hits. In honor of his passing on to the next phase of his career of baseball, here are three of the biggest.

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We’re still six weeks from opening day, but the first sports book over/unders were released the other day, and while this is not an endorsement of gambling, it can be fun and informative to look at how the Vegas proprietors see each team stacking up before the season. So, let’s take a look at the early numbers.

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This is a story about the business of baseball. It’s a story about the women who make up 45% of all baseball fans. And it’s a story about MLB-licensed merchandise made for and marketed to those female fans.

Revenue generated from the sale of MLB-licensed gear goes directly to the league’s “central fund” and is shared equally by all 30 teams. This includes sales of all MLB-licensed products at ballparks, team-sponsored stores and online at MLB.com. Every T-shirt, every baseball cap, every sweatshirt, every key chain, every everything with an MLB team logo benefits the fund and, in turn, every franchise.

This is a story about the diversity of interests and tastes among women baseball fans. For myself, and my 9-year-old daughter, I prefer women’s and girls’ cut clothing in traditional team colors. We are Giants fans. That means lots of orange, black, grey and white T-shirts, sweatshirts and the like. I don’t like pink baseball gear. Or “PINK” baseball gear — the brand MLB cross-markets with Victoria’s Secret. Nor do I like rhinestones or sequins on my Giants shirts.

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More than anyone else on staff, and possibly more than anyone else on the planet, I like to look at and think about pitcher Pace. I’ve written about it here on several occasions, because watchability is a major concern of mine. Of course we just want there to be baseball, but if we all had our druthers, there would more consistently be entertaining baseball, and Pace plays a part in determining entertainment value. There are times when it’s better for things to slow down, allowing tension to build. More often, we’d rather a guy go faster than slower.

As is, though, Pace is expressed in seconds. By definition, Pace is the average amount of time between each pitch, and while we can see major differences at either extreme, we’re still thinking about it in terms of seconds. Seconds feel insignificant. Drink a glass of water. That took you several seconds, assuming you followed my order. You’ll feel like it took you no time at all. Now drink several glasses of water. Practically drown yourself with water! That took you longer, assuming you followed my order again for some stupid reason.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Five Notable College Weekend Series
2. Action Footage: Sophomore Left-Hander Carlos Rodon’s Slider

Five Notable College Weekend Series
The college baseball season begins today (Friday) and continues with games through the weekend. While some — like the author’s jerky editor Dave Cameron — are impervious to the charms of the collegiate game, it’s demonstrably a fact that the best NCAA players of 2013 will become relevant major leaguers in the not very distant future. Also, in the absence of the professional game, the college one has merits as a substitute.

With that in mind, the author has provided below a collection of five series this weekend that both (a) are likely to feature actual amateur prospects and (b) are available for consumption, via streaming video, through CBS Sports’ ULive service.

The author has benefited considerably from Aaron Fitt’s top-25 college preview at Baseball America — and also Fitt’s recent weekend preview at that same site.

As noted, all games are available streaming on ULive. All times are Eastern.

Teams: Appalachian State at (8) North Carolina State
Times (Fri/Sat/Sun): 3:00 PM / 1:00 PM / 1:00 PM
Notes: NC State left-hander Carlos Rodon might actually be the best of the Friday night pitchers presently. According to Aaron Fitt, Rodon “easily reaches the mid-90s from the left side [and has] a filthy 83-86 slider.” He posted a 135:41 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 114.2 innings last season as a freshman. Also on NC State is sophomore shortstop Trea Turner, who slashed .336/.432/.459 in 2012 and went 57-for-61 on stolen-base attempts.

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When I started researching the club, I underestimated just how good the Pirates system is right now. It has impressive high-ceiling talent at the top of the list and depth. I had five or six other players outside the Top 15 that I really wanted to write about, but ultimately they fell just short of the list.

#1 Gerrit Cole (P)

Cole was the first overall selection during the 2011 draft and he reached triple-A in his first season in pro ball, securing himself as one of the best pitching prospects in the game. The right-hander’s greatest strength is his heater, which can tickle triple digits and sits in the 93-96 mph range. His second best pitch is a dominating slider. He also has a curveball and a changeup.

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Ben and Sam preview the Astros’ season with Jason Collette, and Pete talks to MLB.com correspondent Richard Justice (at 16:54).

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Episode 306
Dayn Perry, contributor to CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball and author of two books (one of them serviceable), answers questions from concerned readers.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 57 min play time.)

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