Don Zimmer is recovering from a small stroke suffered last month and hopes to join the Rays in spring training for what would be his 61st season in the game.

Zimmer, who turns 78 today, said Friday he is regaining the speech and mobility he lost.

“I never felt bad,” he said. “I never had anything bother me except that I’m a little wobbly and I’m slow taking a step. A week and a half ago, there’s no way I could talk to you.

”But I’m getting better.”

Using 2008 as an example, the thirty teams took in about $6 billion (not including MLB Advanced Media revenue), for an average of $200 million per team. Forty-five percent of that (the players’ share) is $90 million, which we’ll use as the midpoint between our floor and cap. If we want to make the floor 75 percent of the cap (a low-end figure, relative to the other leagues), we can use $77 million and $103 million, respectively.

With a $103 million cap, nine teams would have been affected last year, and a total of about $286 million would have had to be skimmed off the top. Since total salaries have to remain at existing levels, the bottom twenty-one teams would have had to take on this burden, which had previously been placed on the Yankees, Red Sox, et al. On the other end, fourteen teams would have been under the payroll floor, by a total of $251 million. Even discounting the Marlins‘ $22 million payroll, the other thirteen teams would have had to spend an average of $15 million more just to meet the minimum. Some of those teams might be able to afford it; most wouldn’t.

Imagine being Frank Coonelly in this situation. Coonelly, the Pirates‘ team President, has publicly supported a cap. Had our fictional cap/floor arrangement been instituted last year, the Pirates would have needed to increase their Opening Day payroll by $28 million. Not only would the team have taken a big loss, but Neal Huntington’s long-term strategy would have been sabotaged, since the team would have had to sign a number of veterans just to meet the minimum payroll.

Now fast forward to 2009. Let’s say the Pirates’ sales staff runs into major headwinds, with the team struggling and the economy sinking. The team’s top line takes a hit, falling $10 million from 2008. The Mets and Yankees, meanwhile, open their new ballparks, and each team increases its local revenue by $50 million. If the twenty-seven other teams are flat, total industry revenues rise by $90 million (not including any appreciation in national media revenue). Forty-five percent of that, of course, goes to the players. So even as the Pirates’ purchasing power decreases, the payroll floor actually rises.

Yay, salary cap!

About those defensive stats:

Among right fielders who qualified for the batting title last season, Abreu was worst in the American League with a UZR of -25.2. Yes, you read that correctly. UZR says Abreu was more than 25 runs worse than your average right fielder, and the Rockies Brad Hawpe (-37.2, oof) was the only right fielder in the majors below him.
[...]
But 2008 was not an anomaly. Abreu’s UZR in 2007 was -4.2, and it was -15.6 the year before that. In fact, he hasn’t had an above-average UZR since 2002. And it isn’t just UZR that says Abreu is clueless in right. The Hardball Times’ Revised Zone Rating measures the percentage of balls hit into a player’s zone that are converted into outs, and Bobby Abreu (.872) was 12th out of 15 qualified right fielders by that metric in 2008.

Some of my comments, back on May 2, 2008, following another Yanks loss are both prophetic and amusing:

I woke up still feeling that way, but, I can’t help but wonder if we’re watching the onset of a slow motion train wreck. The chart below summarizes my confidence in the team making the playoffs as well as it tracks the Yanks chances of winning last night’s game [see: FanGraphs chart]
[...]
But how is this team going to make the playoffs? The short answer is, unless Pettitte, Moose and Wang are going to win 3 out of every 5 games, at least, from here on out, we’re not. Joba riding in to “save” the team as a starter is an unfair burden.
[...]
So now what? It’s May 2nd. Let’s not throw our future out in the garbage by trashing them. They are just young kids, Hughes being the youngest starter in the Majors. Give them a chance. Take a deep breath. And if this year passes and we’re home in October, so be it. Next year, the albatross contracts are gone. We become a leaner organization with fiscal flexibility to make the strategic signing (hear me, CC? You too, Teix!). And hopefully, we become younger and more fun.

Except that we DID get CC and Teix and their new albatross contracts replace the expiring ones. But we’ll be younger and more fun.

“I have been swinging some and my injured wrist has not bothered me since last year,” he told The Associated Press by e-mail on Thursday. “Just as I promised, if I’m healthy, I will join the team.“

Ortiz was on the disabled list twice last season with a partially torn tendon sheath in his left wrist. Doctors had told him to rest over the offseason.

This guy is way to important to your team to have him put himself at continued risk by playing in the WBC.

As a Yanks fan, I’d say: Go for it, Papi!