Pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

Really, is there anything that sounds quite so great in the middle of winter? It may be freezing outside our windows, but the promise of a long, exciting summer (unless you live in Milwaukee) beckons.

A few random thoughts:

* Every profession should have spring training, where you go somewhere warm for a month, practice your basic skills, and get a chance to show your employer that you deserve a better position.

* Folks who get sick of the Boston-vs-New York factor that inevitably pervades every baseball thread here, well, get used to it - even more than usual, it's going to be nuts this year, with a bitter off-season fight for Contreras, dueling Giambis, a much-improved (and less injury-prone) Red Sox team to make the race more interesting, the Sox' "we don't care about saves" bullpen (including ex-Yank Mendoza) under scrutiny, and, oh, Roger Clemens potentially going for win #300 while pitching for the Forces Of Evil on a trip to Fenway.

* Pretty much every division seems wide-open this year. Sure, the aforementioned AL East is a two-team show, but it seems like anybody can win the NL East, NL West, and AL West, and both Centrals should be competitive.

 

[Doug Miller]

I can't believe no one replied to this yet! I've been COUNTING the freaking days (especially since the end of College Football) I spend the majority of my days off just listening to sports radio -- the time from Jan 2nd until now is murder, all anyone talks about is basketball. (I was a big basketball fan up until a few years ago, but that's a different story.)

I can't wait to see how this season pans out. I'm really interested in seeing how the Yankees pan out, it seems like each year the team chemistry takes a hit. (NO, I'm NOT a Yankees fan.) I think everyone likes to think they have some kind of rivalry with the Yankees, but ever since 1995, the Mariners/Yankees rivalry has been one of the best (NO, NOT better than the Red Sox, I'm not even trying to compare them.) It drives me BANANAS to see the Mariners go toe to toe with the Yanks during the regular season, if only it could pan out after the season.

I think this is going to be a really intersting season to watch, and I know personally I'm counting the days until May 2nd. What's May 2nd you ask? My wife finally caved, we're going to Boston so I can see Fenway. Yay! Not a huge Red Sox fan (although I had a great fan experience with former outfielder Jimmy Piersall years back.) I just can't wait to see the oldest park in baseball. If it's HALF as cool as the time I had at Wrigley, it will be a good day.

PLAY BALL!
Doug

 

[Jack Briggs]

"Forces of Evil"? Just because your hometown boys haven't won The Big One since 1918 doesn't give you the right to call The Greatest Club in the History of the Game "evil."

My annual wishlist:

• Put in an end to regular-season interleague play.

• Ditch the DH.

• Raise the pitching mound back to fifteen inches now that the hitting is again overpowering the diluted pitching talent.

• Shorten the regular season back to 154 games in order to compensate for the additional layers of post-season playoffs.

• Destroy all remaining multisports cylinder-shaped "ball parks"—well, that's already happening.

• Do something about the absurd concession-stand prices at Dodger Stadium. Seven dollars for a bottle of warm, flat Crudweiser don't make it, man.

 

[Christopher P]

The best 4-word sentence in sports...pitchers and catchers report. And I agree with my fellow East King County-ite Doug...sports radio is just a wasteland now.

Chris

 

[Jason Seaver]

Jack,

The First Ammendment gives me the right to do so, and George Steinbrenner (along with the boors who invade my town during Sox-Yanks series) gives me the reason to do so.

And, hey, it's not just me and other folks from New England - haven't you noticed that any time a baseball movie is made, it's always the Yankees that are the monolithic, unlikable team that the scrappy underdogs must overcome (unless it's about a real-life member of the Yankees). The old saying that "rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel" (I suppose it would be updated to Microsoft nowadays) didn't come from nowhere. The Yankees exist to be disliked.

(And, really, aren't we glad to have them for that purpose? Isn't it nice to know year in and year out that they'll be there to loathe and at the same time to aspire to, so that when your team does bump them out of the running, it means something?)

What's May 2nd you ask? My wife finally caved, we're going to Boston so I can see Fenway... just can't wait to see the oldest park in baseball. If it's HALF as cool as the time I had at Wrigley, it will be a good day.

Cool, I've got tickets for the next day. I've never been to Wrigley, but Fenway's a shrine. It's just about my favorite place in the world, and the reason I can't imagine moving away from Boston. It's far from perfect (I love it until I go to a game and re-experience how small the seats are), but the way it exists as part of a city is amazing: There's nothing seperating it from the rest of Boston - indeed, there's a bowling alley in the basement, so tight is the fit - but on game day, there's no question that the place and the area around it exists for the sole purpose of playing and watching baseball.

One of my goals in life is to try to go to as many MLB parks as I can. I saw the two in SF/Oakland a couple years ago, but my plans for Seattle and Montreal last year were scuttled (Seattle because I didn't have a roommate for half the year and thus funds went elsewhere; Montreal because the Fantasia Film Festival I was also planning to see was cancelled). Then I can say authoritatively that Boston's the best.

 

[Phil L]

>haven't won The Big One since 1918

Jack,

We may be in trouble. I don't see any stopping the RS now with their acquisition of Kevin Millar

 

[Phil L]

>along with the boors who invade my town during Sox-Yanks >
>series

That street goes both ways Jason.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Not having been to a game at Yankee Stadium, I obviously can't comment first-hand, but I've never heard stories of drunken, disruptive Red Sox fans making trouble in NY. Heck, most Sox fans I know who've made a trip there say they feel the need to keep their heads down so that they're not attacked, or they'll have their Sox hats & stuff swiped and destroyed. We just verbally abuse Yankees fans.

And you may make light of Millar, but he looks like a pretty useful guy to have around. Hey, he keeps Jeremy Giambi DH-ing and makes Ortiz into a weapon off the bench. Looking at the teams from top to bottom, both the Sox and Yankees look like very good (and potentially outstanding) teams this year. It will be a very, very exciting summer, both on Landsdowne Street and in the Bronx.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Spring training hasn't even started yet and we're already at each other's throats!

 

[Phil L]

Jason,

Things at the stadium are usually very civil at Sox-Yanks games. Not even much verbal abuse from Yankee fans. We know we're going to win Most Red Sox fans are fine at the games but I've seen some start fights at the stadium and especially at nearby bars before the game.

I wasn't trying to make fun of Millar, just the drama it took to get him.

>Hey, he keeps Jeremy Giambi DH-ing

I think you'll find the same thing that Yankee fans found out about Jason- his defense isn't nearly as bad as you think. That said with Nick Johnson around Jason should be DH'ing but its an imperfect world.

>Looking at the teams from top to bottom, both the Sox and >Yankees look like very good (and potentially outstanding) >teams this year.

I agree. I think the Sox rotation is a little over-rated though. I like Wakefield but anything can happen with a knuckleballer. I like Fossum's arm but to survive as a starter I think he needs to go on Lowe's weight training program. I don't like Burkett.

I think this year the Yanks may be hurt from having so many veteran (well paid) players. I don't want to see Mondesi/White/Ziele take at bats away from Nick Johnson and Juan Rivera but I think it might happen. Especially since Torre likes Ziele so much.

I think the Yanks have made some good moves for the bullpen, Osuna and Acevedo are good pick-ups. Who knows about Hammond? I think we can get along without Mendoza seeing as Weaver/Contreras will be in that role.

Mendoza-I don't look forward to seeing him pitch against the Yankees. The only reason that we didn't bring him back was the poor infield defense. "Dozer" is a ground ball machine.

Jack,

>Put in an end to regular-season inter league play.

I kind of like inter league games but I'd like to see the Yanks-Mets series canceled for 2-5 seasons. When benches clear and fights start in the seats after Sterling Hitchcock beaned Jeromy Burnitz with a 80mph change-up it was clear to me that its gotten too vitriolic.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Just let me go on record to say that the Yankees will leave the Red Sox in the dust again this year and may I be a little bolder and predict that the Red Sox won't even make the playoffs as a wild card. Except for the loyal Red Sox Nation, most baseball experts don't think much of the Red Sox chances this year and neither do I.




Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Crawford]

He used to be a ground ball machine. Last year, I say some wear and tear on both him and Stanton which is the real reason why they're not back with the Yankees.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Jack,
It's been like that for years especially in my case growing up in split personality state of Connecticut. Nothing gets my blood running faster than the mere mention of the words, "Red Sox". However, a friend of mine mentioned to me that in reality the rivalry doesn't really exist if you review the record of both teams over the last 80 years or so. True rivalries supposed to have close competition, but it hasn't been that way with these two teams.




Crawdaddy

 

[Brian Lawrence]

I'm pumped for the new baseball season. Granted the outlook for my Braves is very much up in the air right now. But I will say that if (A very big if) the new rotation leads the league in ERA again and Mike Hampton wins 15 games , then Leo Mazzone should be getting A-Rod type money.

I can't wait to see Glavine's first game at "The Ted" as a stinking Met, I hope he gets lit up bigtime.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Me too.

 

[Phil L]

>He used to be a ground ball machine.

Still is. Yanks lousy defense made him look bad. In the 2002 season he had a GO/AO of 2.11 (the second best of his career-the best? 2.17 in 1999), had he pitched 8.1 more innings to qualify for innings pitched he would have had the 3rd best GO/AO in the AL. He did that and still put up 62 appearances (the most of his career), posted an ERA of 3.45 (the second lowest of his career), the second lowest WHIP and SLG of his career, 4th lowest AVG against, a career high K/BB (3.39), and a career low BB/9 (1.59).

Still think Mendoza has lost it? Mendoza is gone because the Yanks need strikeout relievers.

Stanton is gone because his strikeout rate fell of a cliff last year.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Phil,
Yes, I still think Mendoza has lost some of his effectiveness. I saw too many games in key situations last season in which batters hit too many balls off of him that were line drives to the outfield or beyond.

 

[Jason Seaver]

However, a friend of mine mentioned to me that in reality the rivalry doesn't really exist if you review the record of both teams over the last 80 years or so. True rivalries supposed to have close competition, but it hasn't been that way with these two teams.

Oh, sure, cut it off right after the Red Sox' complete and utter domination of the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Looking at baseball-reference.com that does seem to be the case, although it's not as though Boston has many dark periods in its history. But that's a pretty goofy way to define a rivalry; isn't it the impassioned response that makes it a rivalry?

 

[Brandon_T]

I think after all of the big free agents the my Tigers have landed I feel they are really gonna make a play for the AL championship!!

Oh wait, no I don't. The only thing they will be competing for is to not loose 100 games again!! :frowning:

Brandon

 

[Robert Crawford]

Take a look at both, Street & Smith's Baseball Yearbook and Sporting News Baseball Magazine. Both publications are the premier preseason magazines for baseball fans and they predicted the Yankees finishing ahead of the Red Sox. Matter of fact, I'm willing to bet that outside of Peter Gammons, a known Red Sox fan, you won't find too many baseball experts outside of Boston predicting otherwise.




Crawdaddy