EVIL~! alkeiper

Nick Johnson was an injury risk going in, so this kind of thing should be expected.

I took the plunge and bought the game yesterday. I'm loving the AAA/AA teams. There's something great about playing as the hometown Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. And for you Simpsons fans, the Albaquerqe (sp?) Isotopes live!

I think Kendall's far from being a weakness at catcher.

Tomorrow the first official game of the MLB season kicks off as the Yankees face the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The game starts at 5am, eastern time. Of course I'm watching live, even though I'm not a fan of either time. Its quite amusing trying to explain this to friends...... ME: "Yeah, I'm waking up at 5am to catch the game." Friend: "Why don't you just tape it and watch it later." ME: "You just don't GET it, do you?" Game is on ESPN2, except for those of you in the NYC and Tampa Bay areas, who get the local feeds. Usually the YES broadcast is annoying as fuck, but they are at least sending an actual crew to broadcast the game. ESPN2 is just taking the Japanese feed and commentating from Bristol.

Personally, I think the posting of editorials has gotten out of hand.

The Padres could really use Bradley, as their outfield defense is suspect. I think the Athletics could use him as well.

"I pity the fool who don't gradulate (sic) high school"

Al's TSM Baseball Preview Rest assured this will not become a regular occurance, but I wanted to get some thoughts on my first TSM baseball column. Anything I missed, got wrong? What did you like about it?

I had heard some concerns about Schmidt, but nothing quotable. I wrote up the bulk two weeks ago, before the injuries emerged. I felt it best not to go in and edit stuff, as I'd end up changing things every six minutes at some point. As for the NL West, I think the Padres could emerge, or even the Diamondbacks. The teams don't suck outright at least.

Don't forget the Dodgers in 1963!

And its the Angels' fault that the Yankees sucked?

Right. I got over senseless hatred of the other teams a long long time ago. About the same time I turned 12. Seeing your mortal enemy win is one thing, but the Angels? I think after 1986 and 1995, they deserved some good fortune for once.

I mean its difficult to produce consistantly without drawing walks. Batting average is subject to variations. He hit .311 last year. What happens when the batting average drops 30 points? He becomes an out machine. We now have 2500 at bats to evaluate Guillen, and those last 500 are seriously out of line. I don't see why we should expect him to maintain that production.

Absolutely its just spring training. I've seen two hitters in the last twenty years hold high production without drawing walks. I don't think Jose Guillen is at that level.

I doubt it. Just the classic case of believing the best case scenario, which is understandable.

On another note, players have now been DL'ed. So its time to pick through the scraps on the waivers to fill your openings.

It occurs to me that by simply dropping Urbina, he hits waivers. So get your claims in on Yahoo, pronto.

He doesn't have to be better than Wilson. He just has to be league-average, and let the hitters do their work. As for Haren, I believe he is headed towards AAA. He was rushed into the big leagues last season, so some minor league experience should do him good. He's a hell of a pitcher.

That "election" theme is downright nausiating. I will never understand why the Cubs are always the sure favorites, and the Astros are sure contenders. Especially since the Cubs might miss Prior for a few months. As for the Marlins, it comes down to one simple rule. "When a team improves sharply one season they will almost always decline in the next." Its called the Plexiglass Principle. It doesn't ALWAYS occur, but it has to be taken into consideration.

Well, take a close look at that rotation from last season...... Williams (13 Win Shares) Tomko (6) Morris (10) Stephenson (5) Simontacci (2) Haren (1) Six starters with more than 10 starts. Only two of them earned more than six Win Shares. That's incredibly bad. They're keeping Morris and Williams. They added Jeff Suppan (14 Win Shares). That's 12 better than Simontacci, so four wins right there. Suppan's not an all-star, but the point is that he is better than the scrubs of last season.

Well, hits allowed are subject to random variation. Weaver's BB and K numbers are still relatively good, and that's a better indicator of future success. Rest assured, I assumed that.

Oddly enough, I got an email defending the Mariners.

The pitching being decent is still well behind the other three. Acevedo is indeed a real sleeper. But no one else is going to pitch lights out on that team. As for the Cardinals, they got horrible production from almost everyone. They are one of those teams who will improve simply by plugging the holes. While I don't think the Reds are winning the division. I'm not in the ship that rates them among the worst. I think they have a good shot at .500 at least.

Weaver should rebound. Take a close look at his 2003 stats. 211 hits in 159.3 innings. Recent research has shown pitchers have little control over hits allowed. I would presume Weaver allowed a large number of hits due to poor infield defense, and Bernie Williams' decreasing range. Now he's going to a pitchers park, with the Dodgers behind him (Defense is the one thing they do well). He'll be much better.

They did indeed. I just wrote up the article in basic html and shipped it to Tom, so blame him. As for Clemens, I was glad to see him stay in baseball. Not to screw the Yankees, but that he is just too good to retire at this point. People don't realize exactly how bad the Dodgers offense was. The TIGERS scored more runs last season! They traded Kevin Brown for Jeff Weaver. Weaver has never had a season as good as Brown's 2003. And except for Shawn Green, I don't see a player we should EXPECT to get better. There's no reason to put faith in this team. I should note that the Dodgers have picked up Jason Grabowski and Jayson Werth in the last week. Werth could play center, and Grabowski could play right field and allow Green to move to first base. Whether they do this or not is speculative, but I think its a small step in the right direction.