Baseball

What I’m Reading

• The Braves’ 20-year old monster prospect Jason Heyward is already turning heads in camp . The feeling around Kissimmee is that he’ll continue this trend all the way into the regular season. The major league regular season.

The greatest time of the year is upon us. As the weather warms up, so does that spot in our heart for baseball. Spring Training has finally begun!

Thirty MLB teams now begin their preseason games knowing that in under a month, it finally counts again.

So if your favorite team's dreams were crushed last season, you once again have reason to hope. Embrace this chance because, come October, you may just have to wait another year.

It's finally March.

Baseball is in the air as the 2010 season is looming.

Now, in the offseason, there were many discussions on the potential 2010-2011 free agent class because the 2009-2010 free agent class was such a disappointing one.

One of the top names of the list is the 2009 American League MVP Joe Mauer, who is in the final year of his contract with the Twins.

I have been looking forward to writing this piece for a long time.  I wanted to do it weeks ago when teams reported to camp, but I decided to be patient.  However, we are less than a month away from opening day, and with games in spring training leagues starting this week, it is time to talk baseball.

One of the few question marks for the Yankees entering the 2010 season is who will fill the fifth starter's role.

While the obvious choice would be Joba Chamberlain because of how the organization has babied the right-hander in preparation for what should be his coming-out party this year, manager Joe Girardi has decided to extend the saga by announcing that five hurlers have a shot at the job.

How important is Manny Parra to the Milwaukee Brewers?

To many fans, he is nothing more than an erratic left-hander that will be lucky to make the starting rotation in 2010.

His 2009 stats bare that out to be true: Parra finished the season 11-11 with a 6.36 ERA in 140 innings, spending time in the minors due to ineffectiveness.

In three seasons with the Brewers, Parra has become the ultimate underachiever.

No one will argue with the talent the 27-year-old possesses, but he has yet to put together any significant stretches of success.

The New York Yankees played their first spring training game at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa on Wednesday.

Their opponent was the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, who have remade their team hoping to have their first winning season in 18 years.

The remarks here are just some impressions from watching the game.

 It’s no secret that Jason Heyward and Tommy Hanson are being touted as the future stalwarts of the Atlanta Braves.

In Tuesday’s 4-2 Grapefruit League opening loss to the New York Mets, the young guns lived up to the billing.

Making his spring debut, Major League Baseball’s top prospect made an immediate impact in his 4 1/2 innings of work.

Major League Baseball is an interesting animal. On the one hand it is entrenched in its history and trying to move it forward into a new century is like pushing a rope. This of course has positive and negative implications.

On the one hand, it is that historical perspective that brings continuity to the game that spans generations. It makes it possible for children, parents, and grandparents to all speak the same language of baseball comparing players and games from very different eras.

Professional baseball leagues and ballclubs have long scouted Japan for hidden talent.  Attaining pitchers like Hideo Nomo and Daisuke Matsuzaka, and bats like Ichiro and Hideki Matsui have long been the goal of big league clubs searching for those diamonds in the rough.

The Chico Outlaws of the Independent Golden Baseball League are reportedly interested in signing Japanese knuckleballer Eri Yoshida, according to the Japan Times.