Opinion

Fresh off an AL Central division championship and an offseason that showed underachievers and liabilities like Javier Vazquez, Nick Swisher, and Joe Crede the door, the Chicago White Sox thought they had a 2009 club young and balanced enough to repeat the success of last season. 

National media outlets were not impressed though, as they saw this team of having done little in the offseason to improve the parent club. 

Sure, they had signed Bartolo Colon, but he had been a liability over the past few seasons and was past his prime. 

It all started with events that could be described as nothing less dramatic than New York’s worst nightmare.

Not only had the Yankees lost starting catcher and offensive juggernaut Jorge Posada to a leg injury, but they had also been forced to add his underappreciated backup to a long list of wounded teammates.

Jose Reyes has sat out the last five games and is not showing any true signs of either coming back to the lineup or going on the disabled list to let his leg heal properly.

The Mets have been enduring an incredible amount of injury news of late, mostly the news of Carlos Delgado requiring hip surgery which will sideline him for approximately  ten weeks.

Injuries do occur during the season, and no player wants to sit on the sidelines, but how these injuries are handled by the team can make or break a player and his season and in some cases, his career.

On Saturday the Phillies won a double-header in route to a series sweep, and a filly ran the Preakness in route to a sweep of the field. 

What’s the difference?

Nothing really, until you look at the failure of Chan Ho Park. 

When Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez tested positive for steroids last week, the only real surprise was that the news seemed to shock a good number of people in the baseball world.

Despite the hideous scar that the drug use of baseball stars, such as Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, and Barry Bonds, has inflicted on the face of baseball, the general public still tends to assume their innocence.

Last October the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies piled on top of their perfect closer in celebration of his forty eighth save in forty eight chances. 

Carlos Ruiz was the first to wrap his arms around perfection and then the rest of the team ensued. The pile on began a celebration that had been almost thirty years in the making. However, it brought out the flaws in a closer who went through a full season and postseason perfect. That closer was Brad Lidge.

If you are anything like me, you probably cringe whenever Rich Harden throws a baseball. While I will not pretend to be a pitching coach who knows the nuances of pitching mechanics, his delivery sure seems a bit unconventional.

The power he draws from his legs is exceptional, but his arm seems to lag behind the rest of his body. This possibly causes extra torque or pull on the arm, weakening the shoulder.

Billy Beane used too make great decisions and make trades that benefited the Oakland A's, but lately, Beane's genius has backfired on him, and it hasn't been pretty for the Oakland A's.

No one could make the argument that the hiring of Ken Macha was the beginning of the end for the A's run, but at least Macha had teams that made the playoffs and had a winning record.

You do not win with a mixture of inexperience, awful starting pitching and extremely old baseball players.  It just does not work.  Lucky for the White Sox, they have the possibility of a bright future, but the present is going to be hard to put in the past.

With every new baseball season comes a renewed sense of hope for baseball fans everywhere. With everyone's record tied at 0 - 0 every fan of every team can imagine a scenario in which their favorite team finds a way to make it to the playoffs and, with a little luck, the World Series.
Behind these hopes there is often times a prediction of a breakout performance by a young player, a return to form by a veteran, or simply a continued dominance by a team's superstar.
2009 has already seen examples of all of these and teams like the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers are reaping the rewards.