2010 Season Preview
2010 Predictions (That Mean Nothing)
The 2010 season officially, and mercifully, kicked off last night with a Red Sox 9-7 victory over the defending World Series Champion, The New York Yankees. With 26 teams set to make their debuts today, the storylines of the 2010 season will start to evolve. Will the Red Sox’s emphasis on defense vault them back [...]
The Opening Day Starter Has Lost its Luster
Joe Torre opened himself up to some criticism last week when he named Vicente Padilla to be the Dodgers’ opening day starter. Padilla, a Dodger only because Texas released him for headhunting and for being a poor teammate, had an impressive run with Los Angeles last year, going 4-0 3.20 in the regular season. Padilla [...]
Cueto Must Lead the Way for Reds’ Success
For the past couple of seasons, the Cincinnati Reds have always had the look of “that” team who could rise out of the second division and be the surprise team to get into the playoffs. After all, they have a young, powerful offensive core led by Joey Votto and supported by Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, [...]
The O’s Hope their Pitchers Become Stars, But their Outfield is Already Stellar
Life in the American League East is unfair, to say the least, but the Baltimore Orioles have made their journey much more difficult because of years of mismanagement, bad contracts, and poor decision making. Finally, there has been a radical shift in philosophy in recent years, pushing the team towards building from within and hiring [...]
Nothing Wrong with Starting a Career in the Bullpen
In the era of pitch counts and innings limitations, the proper way to develop a pitcher is always a difficult subject for Major League teams. Decades ago, teams would often have their young prospects get acclimated to the Major Leagues by serving a sort of apprenticeship in the bullpen. A young Sandy Koufax made 60 [...]
Yes, The Red Sox Can Still Hit
As has been well documented, the Boston Red Sox’s offseason theme was run prevention. General Manager Theo Epstein made it a priority to help the deepest pitching staff in Baseball by bringing in defensive specialists Mike Cameron and Adrian Beltre to man centerfield and third base. He also brought in Marco Scutaro to upgrade the [...]
Should We Worry About Ben Sheets?
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of Spring Training is to determine whether or not certain extreme results are valid. Pitchers tend to work on specific pitches in games in such a manner that hitters will often know that he is only throwing a fastball in a certain spot. Results tend to get skewed. Separating reality [...]
Seven Reasons for Mets Optimism
The news is terrible for the New York Mets. After suffering through a litany of sometimes embarrassing injuries during their 70 win 2009 season, they will begin the 2010 season without Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes. It seems that everything that they suffered through in 2009 is happening all over again from the rash of [...]
