Sports Then and Now

Could Josh Beckett and the Red Sox bring home another World Series title in 2010?

The final countdown to the beginning of the MLB season has begun in earnest as we are now 5 days from opening night on ESPN where the Yankees face the Red Sox in what looks to me as it should be some of the closes races for all the divisions in recent years.

CC Sabathia vs. Josh Beckett should stir even the most casual fans as the Yankees attempt to repeat in 2010. They will be missing some key elements from last years championship club. Gone are Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, and Melky Cabrera and with Joba Chamberlain losing the battle for the 5th spot in the rotation to Phil Hughes, some of the experts are concerned that age may be creeping up on them as many of their key players, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada are all 35 years old and above.

Since the steroid issue is being monitored at it’s highest level since the testing began a few years back we are seeing less and less of career seasons from this age group. It’s nice to see the playing field becoming more level than in the past decade or so.

This still won’t stop the Yankees, Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays from fighting it out for the two spots for October baseball. They will clearly be the favorites in the American League along with the two other division winners to play in the post season.

However don’t be fooled into believing that the runner up in the Central Division won’t be fighting the AL East for the lone Wild Card position. Detroit, Chicago and Minnesota are all very capable of winning 90 plus games this year so all and all this could be real fun.

The two other long shot Wild Card contenders may just come from the AL West where the Angels, Rangers and Mariners are going to have a knock em out drag down battle for that crown. Read the rest of this entry →

One week left to go!  As we head back across the Midwest for a preview of the NL Central, we examine the division that boasts the most teams and the potential for the most surprises.

1. St. Louis Cardinals

Holliday and Pujols will be featured in a lot of pitchers nightmares in 2010.

Arguably the two biggest moves this off season were for near-homonyms Roy Halliday and Matt Holliday. In face, the Holliday signing holds significance on several levels.  First of all, most of the talking heads agree that the Cards spent too much money and contracted too long with Holliday.  There is the added pressure that expenditure will make when Albert Pujols, arguably the best player in baseball, becomes a free agent after the 2011 season.  Most importantly, if Holliday has a season like his 2007 and like his time in St. Louis last season, the Cardinals taking the division is all but carved in stone.

On the mound,the Cards will look to continue and extend the success that they saw last season with Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright at the top of there rotation. Brad Penny, will try to continue the NL success that began when he was traded to the Giants last season and avoid the mediocrity that he displayed in Boston.  The Cardinals pen is not a weak spot by any means, but on a team with such positives elsewhere, the relief crew gets the worried man’s attention. The bottom line for St. Louis is that if you add up the big bats (Pujols, Holliday), big enough bats (Rassmuss, Ludwig), then factor in the very good rotation, the Cardinals will be almost impossible to topple. Read the rest of this entry →

With less than two weeks left until opening day, let’s abandon the designated hitter and take a look at the Senior Circuit, otherwise known as the National League.

In the eastern division, the NL is right up there with its AL neighbors – well, almost, anyway.  In the last 10 postseasons, the World Series representative from the National League was an eastern division team for four of them (Mets in 2000, the Marlins in 2003, and the Phillies in ’08 and ’09), winning in ’03 and ’08.  Things are looking decent for that to be the case again in 2010.

1. Philadelphia Phillies

Many predict that Halliday will have a historic year in Philadelphia.

At some point, things will have to work out in favor of someone else besides the “Phightin’ Phils, but it would be hard to make a case for it being likely this season.  As if the Phillies weren’t the odds on favorites based the fact that they are coming off of two consecutive World Series appearances, they also went out and picked up a picked up a pitcher by the name of Roy Halliday.  On paper, the Phillies getting Roy Halliday is the equivalent of the Lakers getting LeBron James.   Many already have this newest Philadelphia son pegged to be the NL Cy Young winner.  Some even mention the NL MVP, as well.  There are even a couple of optimists who think he could win 25 games now that he’s in the NL and playing for the offensive juggernaut that is Philadelphia.  While 25 seems a stretch (in 11 season, Halliday has had 25 decisions or more only three times,) AL pitchers who move to the NL seems to have great initial success.

Read the rest of this entry →

Over the last six seasons, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have been the winner of the AL West division five times, only missing the title in 2006 to Oakland.  The bad part of that for Angels fans is that in five tries, they did not reach a single World Series.  Even more bad news in Anaheim is that this year they won’t even make the playoffs.  Skillful off season moves from Seattle and a Texas squad who’s coming of age, will both keep the Angels away from October baseball.  One this seems clear, though, the whole race will be very close.

1.  Seattle Mariners

Ken Griffey Jr.’s return to Seattle may have been a lucky move on his part if the Mariners play to potential.

Chone Figgins ran away from the Angels via free agency to be a star in Seattle.

Of course, the biggest story in town (that town, anyway) over the hot stove season was the trade acquisition of Cliff Lee from Philadelphia.  His spring training has been a little rough (one toe surgery, one ejection for throwing at a batter) but never the matter. Lee is a good bet to be an AL leader in at least a couple of starting pitcher categories.

What does it mean when your pitching rotation feathers Cliff Lee as the #2 starter? Well, let’s just say it’s not to shabby.  Felix Hernandez is slated as the top of the rotation guy for the Mariners after his 19 win campaign last season that just missed him the AL Cy Young (he finished second behind Zack Grienke.) Ryan Rowland-Smith, the reliever turned starter who spent a good portion of last year in triple-A, was not too shabby upon returning the the bigs (5-4 with a 3.74 ERA. Ian Snell came to Seattle last August after posting a 2-8 record with Pittsburgh. Before the end of the season he would lose only two more decisions while winning five over twelve starts.  All together, the Mariners should be happy enough with their April rotation to hope it continues.

Seattle’s offense is looking up, as well. They have added Chone Figgins (from Anaheim) to play second base. While a certainly a good acquisition, it means that Jose Lopez will be at third, which is the position he has the least amount of experience with. Griffey will of course be the regular DH, while in the outfield we’ll see Ichiro in right, Franklin Gutierrez in center, and Milton Bradley in Left.

As far as the Bradley situation is concerned, the best anyone is hoping for is that he has a quiet year in the rainy city – though that is, as it usually is, very, very unlikely.  Bradley is a distraction wherever he has been, the most recent case being Chicago where Bradley has accused fans of racial slurs and threats to explain his lackluster performance on the North Side (.257 average, .397 slugging, 12 home runs.)

Jack Wilson and Kasey Kotchman round out the field with average plate productions and fielding to match.

Seattle’s weakest link will be at catcher.  Whether they go with Rob Johnson coming back from three off season surgeries or if the opt for rookie Adam Moore, there the outcome will be pretty much anemic. Johnson does have a rapport with Felix Hernandez and was pretty much his personal catcher all of last season. Look for Seattle to win about 85 games, which will probably be enough to take the division. Read the rest of this entry →

Jason Grilli as he prepared to make the roster of the 2010 Indians

Over the past several months, one of my wildest baseball dreams has been realized. Not blessed with an overabundance of skill on the baseball field, it is beyond my greatest expectations that I’d ever have the chance to rub elbows with one of the chosen ones who has been dually blessed with extraordinary baseball skills.

As surreal as it seems to me, Cleveland Indians pitcher, Jason Grilli, and I became buddies last November through our work with the award winning children’s baseball book, A Glove of Their Own, and have become good friends over the six or so months that have passed.

Nearly every morning, the phone rings at my house in rural Massachusetts, and the name “Jason Grilli” pops up on the Call ID. I scratch my head in amazement that a “real live baseball player” would be calling ‘lil ol’ me, answer the call and hear the voice of a bonafide major league pitcher the other end of the line. Read the rest of this entry →

The Mets must decide where Jenrry Mejia will start the season.

This is the time during Spring Training that all Major League teams starts to cut down on its rosters sending some players down to their Minor League affiliates while others are sent on their way right out of the organization.

The funny thing about this process is that there are very few surprises as to who stays and who goes. Sometimes a young player with just a little minor league experience makes such an outstanding impression the management feels that he is ready for the big leagues and they can’t see him not being with the parent club.

Steven Strasburg of the Washington Nationals comes to mind this year as he has not allowed a run in three appearances so far. It was expected that the number one overall player in last years draft would start the year perhaps even as high as AAA. He did have an advantage of playing college ball under Hall of Fame great Tony Gwynn but still there would seem to be no real reason to rush him into the fray. It’s not like the Nationals will be in the playoff hunt this year.

On Sirius/XM Radio yesterday Rob Dibble, who I love as a color commentator and sports talk show host, said when he was in his first couple of years of Spring Training and he knew he wasn’t going to make the Reds big club he actually asked the team to cut him early enough so he could get more work in the level he would be playing at. Amazing. Read the rest of this entry →