Baseball

I recently received quite a bit of flack for one of the five points in my last article on what the Braves need to happen in order for them to win the East.

So, in the spirit of discussion, and defending myself, I have decided to elaborate on my point on what Bobby Cox needs to do to get his Braves over the hump.

Yankees position players are officially due in camp today, but they won’t start playing games until March 3. They take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 1:05 p.m. game that will be televised on the YES Network.

Join us as we’ll be hosting a live chat during the game. Watch the game with some of the Bronx Baseball Daily writers, ask us questions about the upcoming season, or just bitch about bad camera angles.

Lyle Overbay commented yesterday about how he is unlikely to return next season as a Blue Jay. He is in the last year of a deal he signed with the club in January of 2007, after he was traded to the Blue Jays from Milwaukee in 2005.

Overbay has been mentioned in multiple trade rumors this offseason, including a deal that would bring Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder to Toronto for him. Expect these rumors to continue up until the July 31st trade deadline.

There has been a lot of talk about Johnny Damon this offseason.

Nothing seems able to stop it: Not the Yankees replacing him in the lineup with Nick Johnson and signing Randy Winn, leaving no room in the outfield, or even Damon signing a contract with a different team could stop it.

When Damon says stuff like this, he becomes hard to ignore:

In a previous post, I addressed the issue of Pirates' injuries, how they held the team back, and the fact that the club's pitchers were particularly prone to this problem. Following stories about this in the local press, I'm going to develop this theme further.

Paul Maholm apparently had the flu last June, when he started against the Minnesota Twins, and gave up seven runs on 14 hits. This, along with a couple other bad outings when injured, halted the downward (good) progress in his ERA over the previous years, leaving him with a 2009 tally of 4.44.

One of the first things I said when the Yankees signed Chan Ho Park the other night was that his deal would make more sense if the Yankees moved Chad Gaudin.

Part of my reasoning was that for the past few weeks, the Yankees have been talking budget. It didn’t make sense to spend $1.2 million, even if it was a good deal, on your sixth reliever if you are being budget-conscious.

Well, it turns out that Gaudin’s contract, and Sergio Mitre’s for that matter, will only be a problem if the Yankees want it to be a problem.

Christian Garcia is a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher with a mid-90s fastball, one of the best curveball’s in the Yankees system and a strong changeup. He’s just about proven everything in the minor leagues except the ability to stay healthy.

Last night on Studio 42 With Bob Costas, the featured guest was Ernie Harwell.

Anybody who has been a Detroit Tigers' fan in the last sixty years knows who Ernie Harwell is. He was the voice of the Tigers for many, many years.

Harwell shared incredible insights into the game and the way that it has evolved over the years.

He spoke of meeting Babe Ruth and asking for an autograph and having nothing in his hands for Babe to sign.

He talked of knowing Ty Cobb and how Cobb's greatness was reduced over the years as baseball changed.

Jason Bay arrived in Port St. Lucie yesterday, and can you believe it, he was optimistic about the Mets chances in 2010.

He must be new to the system.  Something like that is almost laughable when it comes to the New York Mets.

I think some time in the mid-'70s the sitting mayor of New York made it illegal for the words “Mets” and “optimistic” to appear in the same sentence.

Have people forgotten about Mark Buehrle?

I am a Chicago White Sox fan who lives in Chicago. Naturally, many of my peers are White Sox fans as well.

They, like myself, are very excited for this year's team, which features one of the best pitching rotations in baseball.

While I am with one of my friends, he decides to bring up the upcoming season. He tries to spark up a conversation about the potential of the Sox this year, but he fails miserably by saying, "How 'bout that offense, huh?"

"Oh yeah...all that power..."