Baseball season started this week. I am not into prediction business, so I will let others take their shots at predicting division leaders and ultimate WSC.
Early in the season, players usually are getting settled in their positions, managers are trying out different things and, frankly, baseball is a long a$$ season (161 games in the regular season for each team). So there is a lot of time for teams to demonstrate their abilities.
Last year’s champions Chicago White Sox lost two in a row, already.
My main focus are the two Bay Area teams, and while I have no realisitic hopes for either of them to go all the way, it should still be a fun season. I will drop in off and on and comment on the progress of San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s.
So far so good. Giants are 2 out of 3, after splitting the series with Padres on the road and beating Braves in the home opener. While A’s beat Yankees in their home series.
Seems like Bonds has figured that the best way to avoid getting into a home-run/steroid controversy/Babe Ruth record is to ... not hit any home runs at all!
Oh well. A forgettable .192 average from Bonds in his first 26 AB's has still not prevented Giants from leaping at the top of NL West and staying on there. Its interesting that even when Bonds is striking out at regular intervals, has hardly had any extra base hits and has yet to hit a single homer, and still he is intentionally walked so many times this season to keep an OBP of .488
Ahem...there are 162 games. Oh and Barry Bonds is a loser and I hope he never hits another home run and his big noggin will fall off soon due to steroids over use.
Talha, he does not deserve the record. I hope they charge him with perjury and put his arse in jail and he never ever set foot on the field much less break Babe's record or Hank Arron's record. He is steriod pumped bafoon who needs to be banished from baseball.
Lets not get carried away with the steroid blame game. There are more home runs hit in the first two weeks of this season, than ever in the history of baseball. Tells you that the pitchers who were putting all kinds of steroids in them in prior years have stopped now, and the result is a high number of home runs. Arguably a pitcher has a much more instantanous use for steroids, than a hitter, since the hitter in addition to the strength, also requires hand-eye coordination and the ability to pick the pitch. Obviously Bonds took steroids as anyone can see, in addition lets also test Schilling and Clemens... haan haan, bolo bolo.... budhay babay pitchers...
In any case, Bonds aside, Giants have problems in their bullpen. Benitez almost stopped the hearts of all Giants fans. Yesterday, the 'pen lost it. Alou has plenty to think about there.
Blue Jays doing pretty good in the early going. The new and improved offence is paying dividents, though AJ Burnett is back in the place he knows much too well...DL.
And Vernon Wells, wow. Hottest start to the season by him so far. Thankfully he had WBC to stink it up.
In any case, Bonds aside, Giants have problems in their bullpen. Benitez almost stopped the hearts of all Giants fans. Yesterday, the 'pen lost it. Alou has plenty to think about there.
Faisal, all I can say is nice try. You cannot sample first two weeks and say that the verdict is in....this is a long season as you wrongly pointed out (161) games. Now, Clemens have said on record on numerous occasion that he is ready for any test that baseball wants to throw at him. He is famous for his workout routine, there are many pitchers around the league who train with him to copy his work out regiment. Who has ever heard of Bonds working out? Other than him going over to his mistress house.
I hope he trips over and drops down in a heap …never to get back up again. Plus check this out. Even MLB does not want to celebrate his tainted record.
Crossing #2 dude is not a record. It just makes him #2. And he says there is slim chance he will even attempt to get to Aaron, anyway. So the "record" seems safe.
Whats going on with Clemens? Not playing this time around?
Faisal, that number 2 dude happens to be Babe Ruth and he did it in shorter amount of time and he pitched as well. Hank Arron was a consistent player, who hit 40 plus homers over a number of years.... he never did pitch. To me and many baseball purists Babe's 714 is a milestone that is a huge accomplishment. I hope he never gets to break his record (not likely)...one can still hope.
Clemens will be back after May 1st...plus we dont need him right now...Watch out baseball world...let me introduce Troy Buccholz to you. This kid is going to be awesome.
Blue Jays keep on owning fellow AL East competitors. Already two series wins over the Bo Sox and a good start tonight against the Yankees with a win. The hitting has been better than advertised (Vernon Wells is making opposing pitchers, especially lefties, look silly on the mound) but the pitching is quite worrisome. Roy Halladay still seems to be less than 100% whereas AJ Burnett probably won't be back for atleast a month. Good thing the bullpen has been lights out so far (BJ Ryan deserved every penny of that $47 mill contract, ERA of 0.00 in the season so far).
Reds beat Astros today, but otherwise Astros are very impressive this season thus far.
Yep, as i said, the pitching has been our achilles heel so far, which is quite surprising considering how it was our bread and butter last season. Josh Towers has been brutal (0-5 with an ERA so high that i don't even care to look it up) and the lower end of the bullpen has been pretty bad too (but today 2 out of 3 pitchers that came out of the bullpen were just called up 2 days ago).
Good thing the offence is still alive and kicking. 6 runs scored once more. If i remember correctly, i think i read somewhere that the Jays offence has the highest batting AVG and the lowest strike outs in the entire majors.
