'11 Closes Out With Cards 11th

As difficult as it was to watch the Championship Series, the Fall Classic turned out to be pretty good baseball.

Glad the Cardinals won - don't know why, just can't bring myself to root for the Rangers - plus in mind, the Cards are the Yankees of the NL, so thus my pulling for them.

As good as the games were - only true hardcore fans actually saw more than just the highlight clips on ESPN though. The games start too late. Wish something could be worked out to have the game coverage start at 6 or late afternoon like the Super Bowl. My guess is a broader audience would tune in.
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Albert Pujols is the best offensive player in Major League Baseball. Arguably has been since his arrival into the league. 3 time MVP, but also think he finished 2nd at least 3 other times to beef-roider Barry Bonds.

For several years, I think the best offensive player discussion centered on A-Rod and Pujols. That battle has been decided until further notice in my mind as A-Rod has avg. 30 HRs since joining the Yanks with a much lower batting avg. than Pujols.

More significantly though - Pujols poste season avg. is the exact same level as his regular season avg (.330'ish) - A-Rod's is right at the Mendoza line. So when it counts the most - Pujols is there.

Further, '11 marked Pujols third trip to the Fall Classic, winning two of them. A-Rod has been pysically present in more post seasons, with a better surrounding cast, but has been invisible with the bat most of the time and has only come through once in 8 seasons.

Pujols is the best - both in regular season and post season play.

Day 1 - Game 1

Opening day has arrived (even though we have the threat of it being ppd due to rain) - and so it begins with the same question I've been asking every April since the decade started - is this the year of 27?

There are a lot of positives heading into this season - about the only thing I am uncomfortable with would be the bullpen. I wish Sanchez would have been ready to go, and at this point, I'm still a believer that Joba belongs in the pen - but why bring that argument up again. Time will tell - regardless, outside of Karstens, Joba will likely turn out to be the best No. 5 starter in the league (C'mon you didn't think I was going to pass up an opening day post without mentioning my man did you!!)

I think the Yanks will win 100 plus games this season - and yes, I think (again) it is the year of 27.

While much focus on the AL East has been on the Rays, Sox, and Yanks - the team that has a chance to surprise are the Jays in my opinion. Not because of any player they have on their roster - but because of who their manager is - Simply put, Cito knows how to win.


Misc. Things I want to see in '09: Griffey go out with a bang, Pujols win the triple crown, Torre beating the Mets in the NLCS, Cincy to win the NL Central, KC to make the Wild Card, Karstens to win 20, Jeter to hit .340, Rivera to save 50, Tex to hit .300 and 35, Wang to win 24, Sabathia and AJ to win 19 each, and the Yanks to start the stadium off with a WS Championship.

Murphy's Law: Pavano wins the CY Young.


Anyway - baseball is back, and not a moment too soon.

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WBC - The Good and Bad

The WBC is imperfect but is a net positive, and certainly more entertaining than pre-season baseball.

The Bad - the DR's loss to the Netherlands is only going to fuel the increasingly accurate stereotype that players from that island have a lot of talent - but low on desire and work ethic.

The Good - enthusiastic crowds. The crowd for the Cananada v. USA game at the Sky Dome was probably the biggest it had seen in several years for a game - and would dare say they were playoff lively. The Asian games have a lot of enthusiasm in them as well. Bernie Williams had a walk in PR's win on Saturday.

The USA lineup is hard not to watch. David Wright, Chipper Jones, Jeter, Youkilis, Rollins, Pedroia to name a few. It is a good team - and hope they beat the living hell out of the field.

The DVR is set, and plan on watching a bit more of these games.
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Bombers Bits:

A-Rod to have surgery and will be out for at least two months. Probably won't be ready to join the club until late May or June. This could be a blessing in disguise. Perhaps this can be an opening for Cano to become a Yankee. With A-Rod out, it may mean a higher profile spot in the lineup for him, and if he can pick up some of the slack as a result of A-Rod being out, he can show us that he is ready to be a dependable MLBer and championship quality player.

I happened to catch both games Wang has thrown in so far. He appears to be the Wang that we knew before his season ending injury. . . at least that's what the 3 innings I saw would suggest.

Aceves appears to throwing just as good as he was last year. If Joba doesn't get his control down, perhaps he could be inserted as the #5 and Joba back to the pen - any odds takers on that?

15 Questions

1. Will Melkey or Gardner be the CF?
2. Is Xavier Nady the odd man out?
3. Will Wang be able to bounce back from his injury shortened season?
4. Will Posada be able to bound back from his injury shortened season?
5. How well will Bernie Williams do in the WBC?
6. Will Robinson Cano put forth the effort for the entire season that we saw toward the end of last season?
7. What will Jeter's season look like?
8. Can we expect Tex to give us 30 HRs, .300, and 100 RBIs?
9. How well will CC and AJ do with the burden of playing in NY and a prime time contract?
   
10. Will Damon or Matsui surprise on the upside?
11. How well and how many starts can we expect from Joba?
12. How much will we see of Phil Hughes?
13. Will the new stadium be a distraction or the ultimate in home field advantage?
14. Will Mo continue to be Mo?
15. Can A-Rod put this behind him and finally carry this team to the promise land?
    

Looking Forward

The A-Rod story is what it is. We'll a hear a little bit more about it after Jeter does his annual meet and greet with the press today, then things will calm down for a while. I think pressure will build on MLB to release the other names and then make a decision on what to do with the stats generated during the doping era of a player's career.

I"m putting this aside for now and wanting to look forward to different issues.
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I took a look at the depth chart for the starting pitchers - assuming no health issues, 4 spots are guaranteed in my view:

Sabathia, Burnett, Wang, and Pettitte.

We then have: Chamberlain, Hughes, Aceves, Ian Kennedy, and Old Prof's long time fave, J.B. Cox.

At this stage, I liked it better with Joba coming out of the pen and his ability to affect more games. I'm curious to see if Hughes can bounce back from his disappointing season last year. I liked what I saw out of Aceves limited action last season. I have no idea what to expect from Kennedy or Cox other than planning on seeing them in SWB.

Who would you guys rather see in the 5th slot? And what are you expecting for the others?

Jose Was Right (again)

Remember back to the circus that was the Mitchell Report?

While everyone else was focused on Clemens, Fox Business did a little noticed interview with Jose Conseco at the Bulls & Bears bar in Manhattan. When asked about the report Jose said that no report on steroids in baseball is complete without Alex Rodriguez in it.

Yesterday, SI releasing a report that A-Rod tested positive in 2003. What a surprise.

Any thoughts?