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I love that the New York Yankees did not get Cliff Lee from the Seattle Mariners.

I love even more that the Yankees were livid with the Mariners because they thought they had a deal and then Seattle pulled it away from them at the last minute.

But I am confused about how the Texas Rangers, bankrupt and under the operation of Major League Baseball at the moment, can take on more than a million in salary for a pitcher they likely will not retain after the season while giving up rookie hitting phenom Justin Smoak as part of the deal.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand that Lee is an ace. And I understand that Texas is in first place. Read the rest of this entry »

Florida Marlins outfielder Mike Stanton had three hits (though one came on a questionable call in the ninth inning where it looked like he forced the runner in front of him) and scored two runs in his Major League debut. He definitely looked like he belonged, watching footage on MLB Network.

But the rookie who stole the show on Tuesday was the highly acclaimed franchise savior for the Washington Nationals, Stephen Strasburg.

The phenom, who entered professional baseball under controversial circumstances when his agent, Scott Boras, threatened to hold him out unless he got $50 million to sign, was every bit the stud he was advertised to be. He tossed seven innings, striking out 14 and walking none in getting his first MLB win. Read the rest of this entry »

Ten Golden Gloves, seven Silver Sluggers and one in-game nap is enough for Ken Griffey Jr. The all-time great Seattle Mariner probably stayed on a season too long. But he’s a clear Hall of Famer and Wednesday he decided that his career had gone on long enough.

Griffey had been brought back to Seattle last year as a veteran presence and stuck around for one final season this year as the Mariners made several aggressive moves in the offseason aimed at contending for a championship. But the Mariners got out of the gates slowly and one report indicated that he was going to retire or be released sometime last month.

He finishes 2010 with a .184 batting average and no homeruns. But he finishes his 22 year career with 630 homers and a .284 average to go along with the above-mentioned accolades. Throughout the 1990s he was regarded as one of the best – if not the best – players in the game, though his stats would undoubtedly have been even better if he had not spent most of 2002-2004 on the disabled list.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Florida Marlins got beat by Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night. Not just beat, either–Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball history, and the second already this season.

Of course, since the game was in Florida, there were only just over 25,000 fans in attendance for the game–about 8,000 more than for an average Marlins home game.

So what to do with the other 13,000+ tickets that weren’t sold (and probably were never even printed)?

Well, if you’re the money grubbing Marlins, there’s only one logical solution–sell them. At face value.

That’s right, for between (based on published ticket prices) $12 and $300+, you to can claim that you were there to witness history.

Or turn around and try to resell the ticket on eBay–try to get a Halladay autograph, package it with a Halladay trading card, make a nice little plaque, and turn yourself a nice little profit.

  

    

    

      Roy Halladay Perfect Game Ticket (5-29-2010) "Unused"

      US $9.95  (1 Bid)

      
 End Date: Friday Sep-10-2010 21:01:19 PDT


        Add to watch list
    
  



  

    

    

      Roy Halladay Perfect Game Mini-Mega Ticket - Phillies

      US $19.90 

      
 End Date: Sunday Sep-12-2010 11:23:45 PDT


        Add to watch list
    
  



  

    

    

      Roy Halladay Perfect Game Mega Ticket - Phillies

      US $79.90 

      
 End Date: Sunday Sep-12-2010 11:23:45 PDT


        Add to watch list
    
  

As an occasional collector of sports memorabilia, this seems…just dirty to me. As a fan, had I attended the game, I could see keeping that ticket stub, and making some sort of collectible. And I could see a truly passionate fan (of Halladay or the Phillies) buying some sort of memento. But in either case, having a ticket that was actually used would mean 100x more than having something printed after the fact.

What’s next, just print up an extra 50,000 tickets with May 29, 2010 on them, and sell them in the fan shop?  Maybe Commemorative Replica Tickets?

It would be slightly more palatable if the Marlins printed something extra on the ticket, indicating it was not used on game day–but the story makes no indication of that, and I doubt it would happen.

Which means, once again, the Marlins have found a way to sully MLB tradition, and the way the game should be conducted, in my eyes.

[Note: It's possible this is a regular thing with many teams in MLB, and I've just not heard of it before--if that's the case, just add it to the list of reasons for why I don't think MLB will ever reclaim the #1 spot in my heart for sports, even if the NFL does manage to screw things up by having a lockout/strike in the coming year.]

Roy Halladay pitched a five-hit shutout for the Philadelphia Phillies tonight and for the Atlanta Braves it almost wasn’t a fair game.

Halladay was on all night long, there was no question about that. He was really only challenged, according to the ESPN announcers, in one inning when the Braves had the bases loaded.

What impressed me even more was how the Phillies played around him in their 2-0 win.

I didn’t watch the whole game. But in the couple innings I did, second baseman Chase Utley made a fantastic diving stop of a hard ground ball. Had it squirted into centerfield the Braves would have scored at least two runs.

In the ninth inning, a slimmed down Ryan Howard dove to his right and snared another shot that appeared to be a base hit. He then flung the ball to Halladay covering first for yet another gem.

Earlier in the game Troy Glaus hit a deep fly to center that Shane Victorino timed, leaped for and caught with his glove over the fence, saving Halladay yet again.

The Phillies, the closest thing Major League Baseball has to a dynasty at the moment, and Halladay, probably the league’s best pitcher, appear to be made for each other at the moment. The pitcher is clearly motivated to take his game up another notch to make his first run into the playoffs.

And Philadelphia isn’t going to have to score many runs for him to win a heckuva lot of games if the team keeps playing defense for him like they did tonight.

So far he’s 4-0 with ERA and WHIP both below 0.90. He won’t be able to keep that up, but expect 22 or 23 wins for Halladay and something in the high 90s if not more for the Phightin’ Phills. It’s early and a lot could change, but I think that’s the best team I’ve seen so far in 2010.

One of the things I love about the first week of the baseball season is that DirecTV provides its MLB Extra Innings package on a trial basis. So, while I was trying to keep up with the day job at the same time there was plenty of channel surfing going on this afternoon.

I watched parts of probably three-quarters of the games. How much time I spent was largely determined by players I have on various fantasy baseball teams. One guy I wish I had on more is Atlanta rookie Jason Heyward.

Heyward has been most experts’ Spring Training Golden Child, both for his athletic skills and his solid personality. I’ve never met the man so I can’t speak to his attitude. But I watched his first at-bat against Chicago today. The 20-year-old rookie shook off any nerves he might have been feeling and took a couple pitches. He then ROCKED a pitch several rows deep into right-centerfield for a no-doubt homerun in his first Major League at-bat.

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We’re about an hour away from the 2,743rd nationally televised Yankees-Red Sox game in the last 18 months or so. This one will kick off yet another Major League Baseball season.

While I’m frequently critical of MLB’s less-than-stellar competitive balance situation and of the leadership displayed by both MLB itself and the Major League Baseball Players Union, I can’t help but be excited to see the season get underway.

Among the reasons this year, my home team, the Twins, move into a new ballpark and they spent the money to put together a truly competitive-looking team this year. By all reports, Target Field is fantastic in everything except its corporately-paid for name.

I haven’t spent a great deal of time studying divisions and the like this year but I’ll fearlessly make some predictions just for the heck of it.

AL East – Yankees
AL Central – Twins
AL West – Seattle
Wild Card – Tampa

NL East – Phillies
NL Central – Cardinals
NL West – Rockies
Wild Card – Braves

Yep, the Braves outlast the Dodgers for the Wild Card in the NL, sending Bobby Cox out with a playoff appearance … and another playoff series loss.

World Series – Phillies over Yankees

Yep, the Yanks didn’t go as crazy with the money this offseason but last season’s spending keeps them good enough to win the AL again this year. But the Phillies win their third straight NL pennant and head toward dynasty status with their second title out of the three.

Have fun everyone. Enjoy the season.

It’s been what, three weeks since pitchers and catchers started reporting to camps in Florida and Arizona?

And while I’m not following it all that closely yet one thing is conspicuously absent this spring: Things are awfully quiet with the New York Yankees.

This year around this time news of Alex Rodriguez’ past positive steroid test came to light.

Around that time there was also news of the hip injury that cost A-Rod’s the first month of his season, though it also got him out of the spotlight for awhile.

There was a constant buzz through the offseason about how Joe Girardi would do replacing Joe Torre as manager.

Throughout the offseason there was plenty of coverage of the Yankees’ maneuverings through free agency, which amounted to about a half-billion in guaranteed salaries for CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira during a time when most other teams in the league were pinching pennies.

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What a difference a week makes.

A few days ago I was thinking of writing a post praising the Minnesota Twins for being aggressive and filling nearly every hole in the team’s lineup heading into year one at Target Field.

I never quite got around to that post. And Tuesday morning the Twins’ fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse when the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that closer Joe Nathan is likely out for the year with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow.

In addition to the new ballpark, the offseason acquisitions of Orlando Hudson, Jim Thome, JJ Hardy and the Winter League performance of Francisco Liriano had enthusiasm higher than I ever recall it heading into Spring Training. The mood on Minneapolis sports talk radio  is decidedly more sanguine this morning. The Nathan injury is huge. He had some struggles at the end of the 2009 season but his numbers still put him well among the league’s elite closers.

Inside the organization the Twins did some work to solidify the bullpen late last season and during the offseason. Guys like Jon Rauch (from Arizona) and Clay Condrey (from Philadelphia) join holdovers Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, Jose Mijares, and Pat Neshek, who is returning from arm problems of his own, give the team the deepest mid-innings relief corps it’s had in years.

Read the rest of this entry »