Baseball

Wednesday’s Game: Brewers 4, Giants 2

Record: 1-1 Today’s Game

Two years ago in 2007, the Colorado Rockies stumbled out of the gate in April. They finished the month 10-16, good enough for last place in the National League West.

The team found their groove in mid-May.

Those looking for this year's Josh Hamilton—a breakout slugger—look no further than teammate Nelson Cruz. Nelson, who will turn 29 this season, has made a career in the minor leagues.

He capped off his minor career last season with a bang; a bang which included blasting 37 home runs and batting in 99 runs, not to mention a .342 batting average. Last year's spectacular performance in triple-A earned him the Pacific Coast League MVP award.

Nelson's triple-A contract with Oklahoma was bought out on Aug. 25, 2008.

A lot of stuff to get too... Let's start off with this slideshow from NJ.com. It has a bunch of pics from today's workout at the new stadium.

Here's a link to some great panoramic shots of the new stadium from the New York Times.'

Here's a video tour from Sam Borden of The Journal News:

Now, I think it’s time to put some of these projections into play across the entire National League East, to give a better feel for just what the Phillies may—or may not—be up against in the NL’s toughest division this year.

To keep things consolidated, I’ll be using PECOTA Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) projections, as provided by Baseball Prospectus.

Starting Rotation

(I wrote this last Sunday, and sat on it because everyone was in Citi mode, and I like to hang onto "generic" pieces for when there is nothing going on. I'm releasing it now because Murray Chass just wrote a hatchet piece on Bobby Valentine, and I know how the blogosphere works...)