Baseball

Did you hear? Sounds like Magglio Ordonez is going to have a big year.

Literally sounds like.

The audible feeling is that Maggs is going to look more like the Ordonez of 2006-07 than the impostor who wore his uniform for all but the final month of the 2009 season.

More than once this spring training Manager Jim Leyland and GM Dave Dombrowski have alluded to the sound that Ordonez’s bat is making when it connects with the baseball.

Rejoice, fellow Mets fans! It's 2000 all over again....

Well, sort of...

It appears the Chicago Cubs will carry a rookie, Tyler Colvin, as their fifth outfielder when the come north for the regular season. And to me, it might be a shame.

The Cubs have a lot of money tied up in their outfield. Between the albatross contracts of Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome, the corner outfield spots are pretty well locked up because of financial obligation.

Meanwhile, the Cubs brought in Marlon Byrd and Xavier Nady as free agents this winter to replace "Baseball's Kanye West," Milton Bradley. More money spent on veterans.

The Tigers have a pitching conundrum on their hands.

Two rotation spots remain for three players: Jeremy Bonderman, Dontrelle Willis, and Nate Robertson. All three have had impressive moments in the spring, but all three carry scars of a couple seasons of ineffectiveness.

The question of which two to take has racked my brain the past two weeks, but I think Zac summed it up best a few days ago by saying:

Yesterday I took a look at which batters were ripping up the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues.

So naturally, today I will look at which pitchers are in midseason form.

Here are the spring training All-Star pitchers. Stats are through March 25, 2010.

SP: Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves—3-1 with a 1.35 ERA and 17 K’s in 20.1 IP

Hudson is fully recovered now from Tommy John surgery and could turn into the Braves’ ace as the season moves along. Last time Hudson was completely healthy, he did win 16 games.

Believe it or not, the New York Yankees have had a very quiet offseason. There has been nobody busted for steroids, the manager isn’t on a short leash, and there is no drama surrounding the team.

And in other news of the bizarre, the University of Kentucky has dropped their basketball program.

Just because the Yankees have had a quiet offseason by their standards, doesn’t mean things are happening in Yankee land. Here are some news and notes from Yankees’ camp.

Phil Hughes is named No. 5 starter

As Phillies fans, we all remember Joe Blanton going yard against the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series.

Looking at the batting averages, however, Blanton is only a .111 lifetime hitter, so he musta been feed a real juicy fastball to hit.

Most Phillies historians remember that Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton was traded for Rick Wise.

Both however, were pretty good hitting pitchers.

In his presentation, I will pick the top Phillies pitching hitters.

Criteria includes that they played for more than one season for the Phillies and unless they had an awesome display of power one game,

Dan McCutchen has won the "fifth starter" job for the Pittsburgh Pirates beating out Kevin Hart. The FIRST fifth starter role, that is.

But if history holds, there will be plenty more "fifth starter" chances for people like Hart, and even Jeff Karstens.

Last year, according to FanGraph's Marc Hulet, only two teams, the Colorado Rockies and Chicago Cubs, had five full time starters who all pitched in 24 or more games.

Like the American League East, I expect the West to be much of a three-horse race.

You've got three clubs that could all win the division and would all be decent playoff teams if they did so, because everything would have come together.

Unlike the East though, the West may only have one representative in the playoffs, which makes this division race all the more interesting. Los Angeles, Seattle, and Texas all had great seasons, winning 85 games or more.

BUSTER POSEY, SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

Posey has the tools, but it’s a matter of opportunity.

He did struggle with his brief taste of the bigs last year going 2-for-17 (.118). He did however, go a combined 137-for-422 (.325) for A+ San Jose and Triple-A Fresno last year.