Baseball

After a rough start to the spring, Rays newcomer Mike Ekstrom settled in and pitched well enough to earn the team's final bullpen spot.

Manager Joe Maddon praised the control of his fastball, while a three-inning scoreless stint against Baltimore late in the spring schedule helped solidify his place on the roster.

This week I caught up with Ekstrom to talk about the spring and the upcoming season.

Watching Orioles baseball has become a recipe for disaster for most fans of this once proud franchise. 

Each and every year, fans are spoon-fed the same old weathered lines like, "They have a lineup that can compete with any team in baseball" or "they're getting younger and should be fun to watch."

Well, six games into the 2010 season and this team's lineup is far from competitive and anything but fun to watch.

So this is one fan shouting out to the Baltimore Orioles that enough is enough. This fan base deserves better.

Other than Carlos Marmol, who has yet to blow a save since he was proclaimed the closer late last season, this Cubs team offers little in the way of relief.

Sure, there is Sean Marshall, but he can't pitch every day. 

But the "cure" to the bullpen woes may not be solved by another Jason Frasor or Heath Bell rumor.

It may be eased if the team can figure out how to score more runs, so that every game is not a tightrope act.

Hey, the bullpen, except for the aforementioned Marshall and Marmol, has been bad.

The New York Yankees.  Lord of their realm, with fans who let you know it.

Talking to a Yankee fan is generally an exercise in futility, since they are programmed to utter two basic phrases:

Phrase one: “Twenty-seven rings, baby”, or a something along that vein.

One of the most hyped prospects in recent memory, Delmon Young has yet to fulfill his lofty expectations.

From a bat-tossing incident which lead to a 50-game minor league suspension in 2006, to criticizing the Rays’ upper management and refusing to take coach’s instructions, Young’s character has always been in question.

Joe West is regularly one of my least favorite umpires. He’s like that teacher you had in school who is ridiculously strict about everything you do, but cannot do those same things himself.

West complains about long game times, and then calls the Sox-Yankees game “pathetic and embarrassing,” going on to say that they were “a disgrace to baseball.”

Laugh with me.

Red Sox and Yankees are a disgrace to baseball? OK. So the two best teams in the league are what’s disgracing it?

Yesterday, once again Nationals outfielder Willie Harris made a bigger impact in Mets infamy in making a game-saving catch on Rod Barajas. With two outs in the ninth inning, Barajas was up at the plate with the bases loaded. The Mets catcher would eventually hit the ball into left field where Harris had just came in the inning before.

I’m back.  It feels good.  As  you have probably gathered, I have been a bit too busy to keep up with the site.  However, I’m going to try and do my best from this point on out.

As I write here on early Sunday afternoon, OUR Detroit Tigers sit at the top of the AL Central standings (with those pesky Twins) with a record of 4-1.  I have only been able to watch a little bit so far, but here are some of my thoughts after going through the ol’ rotation once…

As the Giants were going into the ninth inning of what would be their first loss, I told my son something:

"I would just like to see them go out fighting."

I've supported this team for four decades and have remained optimistic, but with Saturday's score 7-1 and just three outs left to do anything about it, I had serious doubts.

Despite the expected loss, I did end up getting what I'd hoped for, a fight. It came in the form of a walk and two singles, the second of which produced a run.

Oh. Oh. Charlie Morton can't pitch at night. That was the sinking feeling I got shortly after releasing the last piece about Morton's SOMETIMES stellar pitching. I almost wanted to take it back.

"Sometimes," actually held true for about two innings, probably as long as the sun was in the sky. Morton got five of his first six outs on strikeouts, and six of his first eight. Those are numbers any pitcher can be proud of.