Baseball

For those who were hoping there might be some new blood in the Blue Jays manager's office next year, you're going to have to hold your breath for yet another season.

According to MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart, the Houston Astros have named Brad Arnsberg as their new pitching coach.

Arnsberg, who served as Toronto’s pitching coach the last five seasons, is the final piece to the coaching puzzle, as Houston hired Bobby Meacham as the first-base coach and Al Pedrique as the bench coach earlier today.

In addition, McTaggart is reporting that the Astros have reached an agreement with infielder Geoff Blum (one year, $1.5 million contract for 2010, with mutual option for 2011 worth $1.65 million).

In case you’re wondering, “Who’s Your Daddy!” chants rained down in a hurry on a villain still wearing Jheri curls and bearing frightening fastballs. His return to New York wasn’t too lenient, including an unbearable crowd that had waited to avenge cruel remarks that dated back to the days when Pedro Martinez faced the New York Yankees as a member of the archrival Red Sox.

In his press conference today, Philadelphia Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel announced that RHP Joe Blanton will start Game Four of the World Series. Cliff Lee will start Game Five.

When asked why he will go with Blanton in Game Four, Manuel said, "I think Blanton fits for us because I think we want to keep [J.A.] Happ right now in the bullpen, especially kind of in the middle where he could do some innings, and also Joe pitched last year in the World Series, and he’s got a little bit more experience."

Filed:October 30th, 2009

Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts

And with one 20 minute press conference this morning, an historic event has come and gone, with the Ricketts family officially announced as the Cubs owners.

It doesn’t matter who he says is his daddy.

Pedro Martinez is a first ballot Hall of Famer.

The 38-year-old from the Dominican Republic may not have the mid-90s fastball he once displayed, but he still has the prowess on the bump to take over a contest on the game’s biggest stage.

Just look at the way he navigated through Game Two against the New York Yankees on Thursday night.

"It's going to be a big difference between family ownership and corporate ownership. For one thing, as you can tell from talking to us, we all have the same agenda, which may not always be happening inside a corporation. We just want to win. We want to bring a championship back here ." -Tom Ricketts in his first press conference as owner of the Cubs.

According to the Houston Chronicle’s Richard Justice (as well as MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart), the Houston Astros have added two new faces to their 2010 coaching staff.

Beyond the hiring of new manager Brad Mills (along with the return of Sean Berry as hitting coach and Dave Clark as third base coach), the Astros have announced the addition of Al Pedrique [pictured] as bench coach and Bobby Meacham as first base coach.

The Astros' new pitching coach is also planned to be unveiled sometime in the very near future.

Upon watching the first two games of the 2009 World Series, I was astonished at the number of empty seats at Yankee Stadium.

Sportswriters constantly claim that New York Yankee fans are the best in baseball. I am not here to disagree with them, but just question it from their support?

It amazes me how Yankee fans needed the Yankees to lower ticket prices in order to "fill" the stadium. BRAND NEW Yankee Stadium tickets are as low as $277 on Stubhub.com, while the cheapest ticket for Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park is $395.

To some degree, I sympathize with New York Yankee fans. Granted, my tears are largely of the crocodile variety because I readily acknowledge they bring a lot of the exploitation on themselves.

Few fan bases are so quick to turn on their players when performance dips.