A. L. Central Crystal Ball

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How will the AL Central Division look come October 2010….

Like it or not here are my suggestions for the fans of the AL Central teams…

Kansas City Royals fans, as I see it have just but one choice…

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….a KU Jayhawks champions t-shirt, simply this will be the only team with the words Kansas and Champion together on sports memorabilia in 2010.

The Detroit Tigers fans are going to need to group together to get enough of this….

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….because the Tigers will be nothing more than tame kitties this year, and the fans will need as much kitty litter as possible to cover the crap that they will hear from the organization as to reasons why they almost finished last.

The Cleveland Indians fans have the most to do this year if they can achieve the status I  think they can, they will need to invest twice….

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tickets…tickets…tickets…because if no one goes to the games then the front office will continue to short change the fans on players. If you are one of the few that attend an Indians game be sure to have your disposable camera and take as many pics as you can of Grady Sizemore, a good, injury free year and he has potential to compete for the AL MVP this year and should almost definitely be selected to the All Star Game, but make sure the camera is disposable, just in case you can then throw it away if things don’t work out.

The Minnesota Twins fans will need to invest in a simple….

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….selection of dice of games, so they can get used to a crap shoot style season, one that could go either way, competing for the top spot or struggling to stay a middle of the road team.

The Chicago White Sox fans, should have but one thing to purchase come October….

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….something to make sure those sox are truly whiter than white to celebrate as AL Central champs, and what will probably be a brief post-season appearance this year.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season

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A. L. West Crystal Ball….

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What will the American League West look like come October 2010. I know we are not even halfway through spring training and already I am looking to October. This is a time when I want to have a record i look back at and say “Jeeez  was I wrong” or “Wow I nailed that one”.

Like it or not here are a few suggestions for fans of the American League West teams…

Oakland A’s fans, I am suggesting that you…

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…invest some of your money in this Northwest Bolster Pillow at $19.99 Item no. 3538060 from the MLB shop, because the Oakland A’s are going to put you back to sleep this year and finish at the bottom of the division.

 L.A. Angels of Anaheim should consider reviewing the possible purchase of this….

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 Memory Company ‘Born to be’ Piggy Bank for $19.99, Item no. 3055337, from MLB shop, so you can start saving for game tickets for the 2011 season, because the Angels this year will disappoint as they struggle to stay in contention with the teams above them.

Texas Rangers fans should seriously consider splurging on the purchase of…

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Kolder Jersey Bottle Holder for $14.99, Item no. 3094273, from the MLB shop as I fear this is the only thing the Rangers will hold in 2010 as they once again fall short of the division title.

Seattle Mariners fans will need one of these….

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….Turner Licensing 2010 Box Calendar & Paper Cube for $21.99, Item no. 3785928, from the MLB shop, so that they can keep track of the post season games they will enjoy after winning the AL West division title for 2010.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season.

…..and finally so as not to generate any hard feelings with a fellow blogger I have added a link to his blog to my side bar, so now you can navigate to both of these Tampa Bay fan blogs Rays Renegade and More Cowbell from my site…..

product images above are all from the respective teams online MLB shop, no guarentees on accuracy of pricing, please visit each teams MLB shop through the specific teams official website to make any purchase or for more information on these or any other products, trademarks, trade names, copyrights and patents are the property of their respective owners.


What nationality are you ?

Does it really matter what nationality
anyone is, in normal day to day events, probably not, or it shouldn’t
anyway. So why do I ask this all non important question.

St Patrick’s Day will soon be on us,
and this means everyone who even has a glimmer of what they may think is
Irish blood in their veins, professes to be Irish. This may be a
tradition in America, but in reality it’s just dumb. I don’t care if one
or both of your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents or
some distant relative of a dog you once knew was somehow at sometime
distantly connected via blood or telephone to an Irish born person, if
you were born in the United States of America, you are NOT Irish.

I’ll agree you may be of Irish decent, but your not Irish and you
probably have no clue other than you can paint yourself green and get
drunk who St. Patrick was and why they have a St
Patrick’s Day
.

Some little known facts:

St. Patrick was most likely
British  – Americans have St
Patrick’s Day
as public holiday – in Britain it is not
Americans celebrate St Patrick’s Day
with much more vigor than the majority of Brits
.

St. Patrick, was born Maewyn Succat
to an Anglo-Roman family living in Wales – but he could have been born
in Brittany, England, Wales or Rome – In his teens he was kidnapped by
an Irish Pagan warlord, Niall of the Nine Hostag and forced into slavery
– After six years being held captive in Ireland, legend has it he had a
religious dream/vision and then he escaped to France.

He returned to Ireland to preach Christianity and convert the Pagans –
He used the Shamrock as part of his
religious teaching – the reason why the Shamrock is
the national emblem today – the original color associated with St
Patrick
was blue NOT green
St. Patrick is believed to have
been born in 415 AD an died on March 17th 493 AD.

The hype today around St. Patrick is
nothing more than the effects of the nationalism of the 18th century
when St. Patrick was a symbol used
by the Irish to differentiate themselves from the British, it was not
who he was, but more his legacy that was the element used.

It was around 1737 in Boston that many of the Irish settlers held the
first big
St
Patrick’s Day
parade,
which has developed into street parties etc, in a number of major cities
in countries around the world.

If your going to go out and celebrate this St.
Paddy’s Day
remember, Guinness, is not for everyone, green
beer
comes in many varied brands, paint
yourself green
if you wish, but there are 4 key DON’TS
you should note….

1 – DON’T drink and drive – it’s
illegal everywhere and costs lives

2 – DON’T pretend to be half Irish,
if you meet a real Irish man or woman,  and then tell them it was
on your great great grandmothers side, pretending to be any nationality
other than what you are can be an insult not a compliment to the people
that are truly from that country and could cause adverse side effects,
or even hospitalization.

3 – DON’T eat the green snow or
drink from a glass you didn’t see get filled.

4 – DON’T
tell anyone you saw a
leprechaun,
even if you think you did.

 

 any sarcasm is not meant to
offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during
the season.

 


The A-Rod Cloud….

The now famed Doctor Galea, seemed to feel it was acceptable to lay claims to assisting A-Rod with an inflamed hip following his surgery last year and denies that he prescribed or administered any HGH, PED, Steroid or any other illegal narcotic banned for use by MLB players to A-Rod. True or False, at this point it doesn’t matter, the fact that he has admitted having medical interaction with A-Rod should seriously damage A-Rods future.

WHY?

No it’s not because he’s a member of the ‘Evil Empire‘ or that miraculously he managed to start hitting the ball better at the end of the year. Simply it’s because, one lie generates another lie and escalates to a point where it’s very difficult for anyone to determine where the lies end.

What Lie? or Which Lie?

Back in 
December the Times reported that A-Rod’s representatives denied A-Rod had any dealings with Doctor Galea. It seems the team had suspicions, because they found it necessary to ask the question.

Does A-Rod have any defense, for this he could just continue to flat out deny he had any dealing with the Doctor, but if that is a lie, it will just generate more lies to cover up the first and you know sooner or later the media will get proof of some kind.

The surgeon who operated on A-Rods hip, Marc Philippon, denies having been aware of any hip problems after A-Rod left Colorado a month after the operation and again when he was cleared to play ball.

I am just curious, does anyone watch the games that the players play in, or do they just stand around sucking up the money, it was plain to everyone who actually watched any Yankees games down the stretch that A-Rod had some discomforted as this image shows from a game in August….

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…..so there you have it, if overpaid Doctors of sports teams just watch the players now and then maybe they would know more.

This in no way can excuse A-Rod, firstly for not telling anyone that he was having problems, or if he did, not clearing it with the team before seeing a non-authorized Doctor.

More claims came in that he has at least once canceled his interview with the FBI, although now he has had a chance to review what the Doctor said about him I feel sure A-Rod will make a point to get his interview out of the way.

The problem is and will always be that we will never truly know for sure, since the MLB doesn’t test for HGH, it just forbids it’s use. So whether the mighty ‘Evil Empire’ decide to make an example of A-Rod or sweep it under the carpet one thing is for sure that A-Rod will always be surrounded by that undeniable CLOUD of CONTROVERSY and MYSTERY.

arodcloud.jpg 

 


Phillies Unanswered Question…..

The Phillies and Pirates
go 10 innings and end it as a 3-3 tie. Nobody likes a tie in baseball,
but it’s spring training and lets face it, these guys are just using
each other to try new things out, tone up pitchers arms and to see how
fielders and hitters have adjusted during the off season, plus thrown
in there is the chance for minor league players to show there stuff to the
big league coaches in the hope they may be allowed out of the minors
earlier than scheduled

One of the things currently unanswered from the Phillies camp is:

“What the hell is with Jayson Werth and his beard and hair?”.
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Suggestions that have been thrown around are that he’s a keen fisherman and he’s emulating Captain Birds Eye, another is he misses Eric Bruntlett (he must be the only one)
and finally he had a gig as Santa and like it too much, but I have to
be honest these are all hype and misinformation thrown out to disguise
the real reason behind the new look. After some deep down discoveries
about some of his off season activities, my findings are that he is in
negotiations to star in some upcoming commercials for Geico as they try to give teams some extra insurance. “isn’t that what the bench players and bullpen do?” Okay
so its not Geico, even if he does look and act like a caveman, but
seriously, if you see this Jayson… “HAVE A FRICKIN SHAVE AND A HAIR
CUT, you look like a serial killer”


Around Baseball

The New York Yankees backup catcher, Francisco Cervelli, got dinged in the helmet by Jays pitcher, Zech Zinicola. Cervelli picked up his second concussion since November. The Yankees
waited till the 9th inning to retaliate, now come on guys it’s spring
training and pitchers are going to be wild, especially those in later
innings. I guess this definitely sets up some interesting meeting for
the regular season between these two clubs.

The Dodgers fans thought they were in the twilight zone Saturday when Guns ‘n’ Roses started blaring out, everybody stood up ‘standing
ovation or just checking to see if they were dreaming or had been
caught up in one of those ‘back to the future’ type movies
‘, we’ll never really know, but it was real, Eric Gagne was once again on the mound in a Dodgers uniform. I’m sure Broxton won’t lose any sleep worrying about the closers spot.


MLB obviously have there own way of doing things, and like most major corporations believe they know best, although they test for amphetamines, steroids and other PED’s they do NOT test for HGH although it is banned. In the UK recently a rugby player was banned for 2 years for testing positive for HGH, however MLB
not convinced the test is good will research themselves with their own
experts before attempting to implement a test for a substance they have
banned.

MLB
Umpires get some updates, following last years post season, and regular
season too, which for all the great plays and achievements of players
and teams will probably be the year known for ‘BAD UMPIRING’. MLB is seen to be making some changes at least, former supervisors Marty Springstead, Jim McKean and Rich Garcia have not been retained and umpires such as Randy Marsh and Charlie Reliford have been made supervisors. I am not sure this will change much other than allow MLB to to claim they are trying, and I am sure some managers will say, “Yes they are VERY TRYING at times”.
I hear people calling for more video playback, but still that’s still
based on someone’s opinion of what they see, even in the NFL
they still get it wrong after video playback. Umpires don’t have to be
perfect, just get the obviously calls right the rest is all part of the
great game of baseball.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season.
.


Friday – Double the Fun Day…..

The Phillies played the Blue Jays in two games today. A morning game saw the first outing of Jamie Moyer and a afternoon game saw the first outing of Cole Hamels.

In the morning game Jamie Moyer moyer-1.jpgshowed he still has a little something left, after enduring an off-season of operations and hospital visits, Moyer took to the mound  Friday morning in a ‘B’ game against the Blue Jays and threw three scoreless innings. Moyer gave up 3 hits and picked up 3 strikeouts in his 3 innings. The Phillies ended up losing this one 3-2, this game doesn’t affect preseason standings.

The afternoon game started by giving the Philadelphia fans a moment of anguish as Hamels second pitch was hit long by Bautista for a home run, then hamels-1.jpgHamels managed to walk the second batter, Hill, after which Hamels seemed to settle down for the remainder of his 2 innings work, striking out 2 batters. He did manage to mix in some of his newer pitches, which for Hamels is good for his first outing in preseason games. The pitching staff following Hamels didn’t fair quite so well as the 4th inning saw Toronto put 8 runs on the board, Bastardo was the only Phillies pitcher to come away with a clean slate on the day. The Phillies also managed to knock in a few runs as they ended up losing this game 14-9, needless to say both teams had pitchers and players working on the revolving door process, good luck if you kept a full score card on this one.

Around Baseball

The Tampa Bay Rays almost threw away a 7 run lead to the Yankees, but ended up holding on to win the game 12-7. For awhile in the middle innings it was touch and go as to whether the Yankees/Rays game or the Phillies/Jays game would have more runs.

The Nats and the Braves were also trying to have the highest scoring game of the day as the Braves beat the Nats 11-8, however the honor of highest score went to the Astros and Tigers as the Tigers beat the Astros 17-7. I am sure the Tigers fans will savor this achievement, since it could be the last this year.

The Mets were playing split squad games today against the Cards and the Marlins. They managed a win against the Cards, but lost to the Fish.

Of course Jose Reyes found a reason not to play in either of the Mets games, but instead flew back to New York with a possible ‘thyroid imbalance’. Speculatively speaking, the blood in his brain could just be dizzy from all the spinning, this claim could be squashed if they prove he’s not brainless,  but then who knows, now a ‘roid‘ has been attached to his name the possible outcomes are almost endless.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season.
 


Phillies & Yankees Four Months Later….

It’s about four months since the Phillies and Yankees closed out the 2009 World Series and today they stepped out onto the same baseball diamond again. Both teams looked relaxed and ready to play some spring training baseball, for the Phillies it was the first Grapefruit League game of 2010, for the Yankees it was their second.
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The Phillies fielded most of the starting players, omitted was Utley, Howard and Ibanez, it was the first time Roy Halladay would throw game time pitches in a Phillies uniform, and came out ready to show his new team mates what he could do. Halladay threw two solid hit-less innings, picking up 3 strike outs.

The Yankees surprisingly were the opposite, they fielded just 4 of their starting players, which only included the catcher and 2nd baseman in the infield behind CC Sabathia, it didn’t stop CC having a solid start over 2 innings giving up a couple of hits and a couple of walks.

The game was pretty much like that through 6 innings, both teams traded hits occasionally, but it wasn’t till the 7th inning when the Phillies scored a run. By this time both teams were down to AA and AAA players. It stayed like this till the 9th inning when the Yankees scored a couple of runs with good base running to take the lead. Bottom of the 9th the Phillies mirrored the Yankees with some hitting and running to score 2 runs and win the game.

It was good to see the Phillies out playing another major league team making the regular season even closer.

Around Baseball

Rumors that Joe Mauer may sign an extension with the Twins circulated today after his agent arrived at spring training which was called a regular visit, but could also indicate talks for extending Mauers contract.

The Nats took a double beating today, against both the Astros and the Marlins. Pence of the Astros homered twice in the 4th inning as the Astros had 9 cross the plate, in fairness to the Nats it did look like a AA squad showed up against the Astros.

Zito dinged Fielder in the back today in the 1st inning, it seems the
Giants have held a grudge since last year when Fielders home run base
trotting ended with an earthquake type celebration at home plate. It doesn’t seem to have helped much as they are currently down by 2 runs in the 4th inning. But who knows maybe the Giants will have better luck against the Brewers AA squad in later innings.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season

 


New York Mets Living in Fear….

Finally we saw some interactive baseball yesterday, the shame of it all was that it rained early in the day.

The Mets living in fear of a 2009 repeat didn’t play any of the regular squad players. I wonder what will happen should it rain everyday during springmetslogo.jpg training, will we not see the likes of Reyes and the other injury recovered players from 2009 till opening day. Yes, it is sometimes safer to play on the side of caution, but if you have to worry about multi-million dollar players getting hurt because the ground is a little wet, then all I can say to Mets fans is: “your in for a long season, which may not be like 2009, but will surely end up with the same season ending result”.

The Braves came out to play, the players looked relaxed as though it was a relief to finally play some ball against another club. The 2 key points for Atlanta had to be Tommy Hanson got through 2 scoreless innings and looked pretty good for day 1 and the other was the role of the emerging Jason Heyward, who it seems is being hyped up by the media to be something extra special, there is no doubt he has the talent to be a excellent player, but give the kid a break, the last thing he needs is extra pressure starting off a career. After all when the regular season starts he could be shown up to be just another mediocre outfielder.


The Arizona Diamondbacks look asjustin-upton_dbacks.jpg though they have managed to secure a bargain deal, should all go right they will have secured a six year deal with Justin Upton, which is expected to be worth around $50 million. This may not make the D’Backs contenders this year, but the beauty of baseball is you never know till it happens.

The Dodgers say that Manny Ramirez will make the trip to Taiwan later this month, it seems they were advised by Scott Boras that Manny would be going, mostly so Boras can make money off the endorsements he has lined up for Manny out there. So I am just curious, if Boras decides he can’t make any money in Boston this June, will Manny stay at home, or have a 3 day injury.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season.


Sync It…..

…it’s refreshing to know that in baseball
pitchers can’t ‘pitch-sync’ just sink pitches and batters can’t
‘hit-sync’ just hit sinkers

 

http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/onn_embed/embedded_player.swf
courtesy
of ‘The Onion’

…I ask this "what else does the government
‘sync’ too..?"

and in other political news, last week
the Republican Senator Jim Bunning, obviously thinks his ability
to put a million-plus Americans into destitution is all in a days work,
I ask is this retribution because he missed a basketball game, because
we all know that’s more important…
(as
reported by tpmdc)

quote: "I have missed
the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00 and it’s the only
redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they’re the only
team that has beat Kentucky this year," he said on the Senate
floor.
end quote. – 
On the same subject Politico
quotes him as saying "Tough S**t" to at least
one other senator on the floor when he was harassed for holding up the
benefits. I’m betting this is one politician that wasn’t lip-syncing…

 

 

 any
sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the
possibilities of more during the season.

 


It’s Time….

…to spring into action, players
have had a chance to wipe away the cobwebs, meets old friends, get
introduced to new ones, have their memories jogged on which base is
which, and figure out which shoe goes on which foot.

This week is the week that interaction
between teams begins, this week is the start of old and new rivalries.
It may only be spring training games, but it will give us a hint
of what’s to come, it will let us see who’s here to play and who’s here
to wing it.

The Phillies bring a core of
players which in essence is the strongest it’s had over the last few
years, some new additions, even a re-addition to what was already a
solid base of players. This is definitely the start of what should be an
interesting year all around baseball.

For the Phillies, question marks
will surround the likes of Lidge and Hamels, not just at
the start of the season, but all season long. The media will be waiting
to pounce on the first sign of anything that may show a reduced
performance, in my opinion Hamels will do just fine, for me the
one to watch will be Lidge, even though he will have a better
year than last year, (which shouldn’t be hard to do), he will
have just a mediocre year and hopefully Charlie will have him on
a shorter leash than he did last year.

I am sure it will not take Polanco
long to get his footing at 3rd base and become a dominant 3rd base
player, he is a familiar figure to the organization as are they to him.
It’s looking as if Polanco will be the only addition to last
year’s starting line-up in the field, the rest of the infield and
outfield should be more than accustomed to each other by now. We should
get a chance to see the new additions to the bench during this month and
some of the potential prospects, even though the farm system is a little
depleted with the acquisitions over the last couple of years.

We will definitely get a chance to see
the star acquisition Roy Halladay as he is set to square off against CC
in the opener against the Yankees this week, as with all spring training
games, we shouldn’t expect too much from him, after all we’d like to see
him still throwing maximum innings come October.

Around Baseball

Not too much to say at this point, just
waiting for the St Louis Cardinals to announce Pete Rose
as the players investment coach, following the announcement of McGwire
as the hitting coach, I am sure Pujols and Holliday will
be looking to him for inspiration.

 any
sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the
possibilities of more during the season.

 


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