Preview/Prediction

CC Sabathia makes his second start of the year today, trying to improve on his dreadful opening day performance. He worked on a mechanical issue with pitching coach Dave Eiland in his bullpen session and believes he corrected the flaw.

It was Sabathia's footwork, especially his front foot, that hindered his performance the first game of the year, so if he has his fastball command early, we will know it should be a much better game from him.

CC is 14-10 with a 3.40 ERA in his career against the Royals, a team he has started the most games against in his career.

The first game of this series between the 2-1 San Francisco Giants and the 2-2 San Diego Padres begins today in San Diego. 

The Giants are coming into this series with hot bats where they scored nineteen runs and racked up 30 hits in the three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers.  The hottest player so far is Aaron Rowand who is batting .545 with a home run and four RBI.

I can't help but feel this is utterly trivial.

Why do we try? After 2008 and all that went into it, where is the motivation to keep going?

The Rays went to the World Series. Justin Hamilton put on one of the greatest shows in Derby history in July, then hit 130 RBI. Cliff Lee, who made the Indians 25 man roster out of Spring Training by a hair, won 22 games and the Cy Young. A 5'6 man, playing in one of the games' biggest stages, won the AL MVP.

But, we drudge on, because that's why we love baseball (although if the Pirates make the World Series in 2009, I quit).

On a miserable 37 degree, rainy and snowy day, The Mets were ready to start the new '09-'10 season.

Johan showed the critics that his surgically repaired knee and rumored-to-be-sore elbow were perfectly fine in 5 and 2/3 work, including 3 and 2/3 innings of hitless ball and seven strikeouts. The only concern was the four walks he issued, but you can chalk that up to poor weather.

After that, Sean Green finished off the next four batters and the Mets and Mets fans eagerly waited for the colossal eighth-ninth punch of the new look, New York Mets bullpen.

Here is every single divisions standings, notes after each division, and their playoff picks.

AL

East                         W          L     

New York Yankees*  98      64

Boston Red Sox*      93        69

Once teammates, and now rivals in a different country, Hideki Matsui and Koji Uehara have a ton of similarities:

• Both are 34 years old and were born in Japan.
• Both players were first round picks of the Yomiuri Giants.
• Both players showed superb skills during their playing days in Japan.
• Both players were also friends off the field.

But now the biggest difference is that one is in pinstripes and the other is an Oriole.

Now there's an image to get you pumped up for the 2009 season, eh? Am I right? Bueller?