The Sports Section

I will never count my baseballs before they hatch so all I'm going to say is that things in the Al East look far from settled for the upcoming season and as an O's fan I am feeling good.

The Red Sox supposedly have one of the strongest starting rotations, but they're interested in Armando Benitez because they can't seem to fill the role of the closer. The Blue Jays have that all lined up but their starting 5 are not superstars. The Yanks pitching looks good, and I'd take Pettite and Clemens for my team, no doubt. But for a team with that kind of money, they're not as intimidating a foe as they could be. And of course, the Devil Rays will continue to struggle, and recent reports indicate that Seth McClung may not be their closer of choice anymore.

What does all this mean for the birds?

Combine the youngins on the mound pitching their way to a top five spring training ERA and an $84 million dollar bullpen including a good closer by the name of Chris Ray and suddenly things in Charm City don't look so bad.

While other teams are worrying about their dynamics and who won't be at Jeter's slumber parties, we've got our core guys signed through 2009, including Brian Roberts' new two-year 14.3 million dollar deal.

We've rid ourselves of the bad karma (Palmeiro, Sosa, J. Lopez, R. Lopez, Chen) and we've accepted some guys with baggage, Wright and Traschel, hoping they can turn things around in a more welcoming environment then New York.

All in all, I feel about a million times better about this season then I did last year.

Go O's!!!!!

Posted by Snugget at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments

Alert the presses everyone...The Red Sox starting rotation looks good ON PAPER!

Just as good as the Yankees lineup looked on paper last season?

For those of you who have forgotten, last year's Yankees were the team with the most potent lineup in baseball. Of course, they taught us what we already knew, which is that the only thing that matters is how it measures up on the diamond.

Now, MLB.com asserts that this year, the Red Sox have the kind of rotation that dreams are made of.

Just to clarify, the men they are calling the 'fab five' include two forty year olds (Schilling and Wakefield), a guy with lots of potential who might not be able to cut it in the AL East (Beckett), a guy who has never pitched in a major league game (Matsuzaka) and a guy who excelled as a closer, but who's potential as a starter remains to be see (Papelbon).

I'll be the first one to say that it looks good, but it's early, REALLY early. It could not be earlier. And starting pitchers drop like flies (so do forty year olds for that matter).

The Red Sox may have a potent rotation, but I think this is an example of counting your chickens before they hatch. The season hasn't started, October is a long way from now and lots of things look good on paper and don't pan out.

Labels: AL East, pitchers, Red Sox

Posted by Snugget at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

After I got over being really annoyed about the NPR story on Barbaro's siblings' names, I did something productive and wrote a column about all the stories that I think are considerably more important.

Check it out on Bleacher Report.

Posted by Snugget at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

Every Wednesday morning I look forward to the brief yet generally thoughtful piece by Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford on NPR. I love that in the middle of the news and weather there is a little recognition from public radio that sports matter to their listeners.

This morning I wanted to cover my head with a pillow to get away from it.

If I had a weekly opportunity to talk about sports on NPR, a topic rarely covered, I would hope to be fired if I did what Deford did this morning which was chuckle for five minutes about all the crazy suggestions for naming Barbaro's siblings that listeners sent in.

That's right! Did you know that the name 'Rockets Red Glare' is already taken, and oh my god, one listener suggested a name in English and another suggested the same one in French!?!? You're kidding!

Seriously. Seriously?

The senior contributing editor to Sports Illustrated has nothing more important to say?

I have a few suggestions:

How about the bill that's going in front of the Texas State Senate today to make it mandatory for high school athletes to participate in random drug testing to prevent them from an early dependence on steroids.

How about the Canadian Football Player who just got sentenced to five and a half years in prison for having consensual sex with two women without disclosing that he is HIV positive.

How about the decision in the UK to uphold a ban that prohibited an 11 year old girl from wearing a Hijab while playing youth soccer.

As someone who wishes I had the kind of platform to talk about sports that Deford has, it is such a disappointment when that time is wasted talking about absolute drivel like naming race horses.

Posted by Snugget at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments