Yanks and Sox in about 24 hours bitches.

Should be a great season assuming that all of baseball doesn't just grind to a halt at the first Strasburg/Heyward at-bat because of hype-based unstoppable force/immovable object factors.

much like fathers reading 'twas the night before christmas' on the eve of the holiday, let's kick this off with Ernest Thayer and Casey At The Bat.

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that —
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat;
For there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat.

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.

Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped —
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one!" the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted some one on the stand;
And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said "Strike two!"

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!"
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer has fled from Casey's lip, the teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.



also, let's go Pale Hose.

The best Twins lineup on paper in 19 years set to open a beautiful new park. All 4 playoff spots in the AL are up for grabs in what should be good races. It's going to be fun this year in the AL.

Seconded. I'm in.

My fave baseball poetry is Updike. My fave Updike is Tao in the Yankee Stadium Bleachers:

Tao in the Yankee Stadium Bleachers
by John Updike

Distance brings proportion. From here
the populated tiers
as much as players seem part of the show:
a constructed stage beast, three folds of Dante’s rose,
or a Chinese military hat
cunningly chased with bodies.
“Falling from his chariot, a drunk man is unhurt
because his soul is intact. Not knowing his fall,
he is unastonished, he is invulnerable.”
So, too, the “pure man”—“pure”
in the sense of undisturbed water.

“It is not necessary to seek out
a wasteland, swamp, or thicket.”
The opposing pitcher’s pertinent hesitations,
the sky, this meadow, Mantle’s thick baked neck,
the old men who in the changing rosters see
a personal mutability,
green slats, wet stone are all to me
as when an emperor commands
a performance with a gesture of his eyes.

“No king on his throne has the joy of the dead,”
the skull told Chuang-tzu.
The thought of death is peppermint to you
when games begin with patriotic song
and a democratic sun beats broadly down.
The Inner Journey seems unjudgeably long
when small boys purchase cups of ice
and, distant as a paradise,
experts, passionate and deft,
hold motionless while Berra flies to left.

Time to go to church. Can't wait.

I can hardly wait to haul out the guitar and run scales and then start playing some extremely lousy chops. After a long day of work, that's heaven to me, bending a note when A.J. sends one just over the right field fence. West Coast games provide for some very long practice sessions.

i've noticed quite a few more "experts" picking the white sox as their surprise prediction for the pre-season division winners. As much as I enjoy that, I agree with you that the Twins are the paper favorites. Looking forward to what is hopefully a very entertaining and competitive season across the board.

locals - "What It Means To Be A White Sox" - Past and Present members of the Chicago White Sox share their favorite moments and memories with the team. - airs on WGN about 90 minutes from now.

Some dude at msn.com picked the White Sox to win the world series in this really long article that ran a couple days ago in their sports section. I'm too lazy to dig it up right now.

yeah, it's this article, where ken rosenthal gets behind ozzie and the sox.

peter gammons, reporting from some ballpark on the MLB network, had his sunglasses on while making his 2010 predictions. guess he got some perks when he switched over from espn.

Wow, Jon Sciambi is doing a great job so far. Just to hear some sensible talk about statistics on ESPN radio is great. It's going to be sorta hard to listen to Sunday Night Baseball and then go back to the decent but sorta archaic Sox broadcasts.


Two of those are only up between three teams, though. But yeah, I agree in general.

I'm not a huge stickler for lineup formation, but wouldn't it make sense for the Yankees to hit Granderson 9th if he's not going to hit lead off? He'll still probably see 4-5 plate appearances a night and hitting in front of Jeter would seem to be the best way to fully utilize his speed. Of course, it's not like Swisher a complete slouch either.

Yeah, you're probably right on that one.

Didn't think the Red Sox or the Yankees looked all that impressive tonight. Lackluster start by Beckett and C.C. couldn't find the plate in the fifth and sixth innings.

As for line-ups go I think the Cubs finally have it right this year. Interested to see how Byrd will produce in the fifth spot. Also, don't forget that Xavier fucking Nady is on the bench for the Cubs this year. He had surgery last year but hopefully he can bounce back and end up being an important acquisition.

Are you calling Hawk Harrelson decent? We've probably had this conversation but hearing things like this breaks my heart.



These days I'd take his power over his speed. Granderson should hit out at least 35, so i like the lineup placement. But you could make an argument for either case.

Yeah, maybe they could be trickier if Gardner wasn't in the lineup, but if they want to put a speed guy in the 9 spot Brett is the obvious choice.

Was talking about radio - Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson.

I see a handful of games on TV every year. Hawk doesn't bother me but I'm certainly not a fan.

Fantasy Baseball is so much easier when you have Albert Pujols on your team.

Alright, that's fair then.

Is anyone doubting that this guy is the best player of the past 20 years?

The best thing about his performance today is that I don't think anyone is at all surprised. 4-5, 2HR, 3RBI.

Ho-hum...

That Buehrle play was ridiculous.

Another lineup qualm I have.

Angels, Kendry Morales is your best hitter. Nick Blackburn inexplicably walks the first two hitters then Torii Hunter home run cuts and missed the first pitch, then home run cuts and grounds into a double play. This isn't the only time this is going to happen this year.

Oh and I see Grandy is hitting 9th vs. Lester. Interesting way to go about it.

Nice first appearance, Stilts McNeck-tat.

helluva game tonight between my A's and those ma'fuckin mariners.

What's the beef? Morales GDP'd more times than Hunter last year.

If you believe Tom Tango and co., the third spot in the order is a bad place for your best hitter anyway...

The outcome wasn't the problem, it was the approach. Blackburn couldn't find the strike zone with the first two hitters and Torii misguidedly thought it meant it was a great time to swing hard twice on the first two pitches. If you're not going to be able to process the situational nuance of the at-bat, you are increasing your chances of taking a bad at-bat in a key spot. That's more suitable for a 5 or 6 hitter, which Torii could easily be in this lineup.

Not sure why you guys keep bumping the offseason thread. I'm just going to reply to this here.


I like Johnson much more than McGehee. Look at McGehee's minor stats - there's a reason the Brewers got him for free. Last season looks pretty flukey to me, with a pretty high BABIP and HR/FB%. Don't see him continuing to hit like that.

Johnson had a down year, but he was a very solid producer for three years prior to that. Moving to a better park and a better lineup is only going to help him this year.

Thanks for the reply. I responded to the offseason thread cause it had recently been bumped. I'm not attached to McGehee at all so we'll see what happens.

So I picked up McGehee a couple weeks ago and he's been productive and useful because he qualifies at both second and third base. But Kelly Johnson has been on a ridiculous tear and is practically leading the majors in home runs. Way to make me look stupid somb.

And guess who picked up Johnson? With Kinsler coming off the DL, I'm going have to move someone, so feel free to make your trade offers now.

You're Indier Than Thous?

Nope.

In his first game, Wilson Ramos is 3-3 and reminding the Twins that they could have had him and the annual $23 million spent on Joe Mauer for the next 8 years allocated elsewhere.

Looks like he'll have a couple weeks of at bats to prove himself.

Ended up 4-5.

It's looking like a week. It's too bad the Tigers are in town in the meantime while they're red hot, but luckily Verlander pitched today.

It's crazy to think that it may be possible for the Twins to just let Mauer and Ramos become a permanent C/DH combo for the next six years to keep them both fresh. Mauer can be the English speaking catcher and Ramos para Espanol. It would make sense as Kubel is going to get expensive very soon. But maybe not if this fad of discounting big bat/bad glove players is here to stay.

Bah, it's one game. I shouldn't be getting ahead of myself.

Holy cats! Have y'all seen the footage of the Rent-A-Cop dropping that kid in Philly with a Tazer? Whoa...his legs go limp as noodles and he just collapses, nighty night.

Philly's on a hot streak w/re to admirable behavior at the ballpark - this on the heels of that fat slob who forced himself to intentionally puke on a dude & his 11 year old daughter a few weeks ago. That's got to be assault, right? A felon of some sort, I'd hope.

...and in a much more respectful tone: caps off & Godspeed to Ernie Harwell - one of an admirably classy kind.

Hard to get choked up about a 92-year old guy who lived life to the fullest and got a chance to say goodbye to all his fans in such a public and classy way last fall. But I still did when I heard the news last night. That man's voice is still the first thing that comes to mind about when I think about summer. He will certainly be missed.

Will this change anything for Milton Bradley?

Fuck Milton Bradley.

He should write a thank you note to Jim Hendry for making him & his family fabulously wealthy off one of baseball's worst contracts in recent history. Fuck Milton Bradley.

Aaron Rowand, on the other hand, has been tearing it up in the days since he was re-activated. He & my $1 Zito holder are "giant" contributions to my roto team, har har...

edit: I hit enter & now I'm afraid it's going to be revealed that Bradley suffers from some weird brain stem condition or he's...he's got a blood infection or his uncle's still abusing him or something & I'll feel bad for having written what I wrote...but until that happens I (don't) stand by my (non)convictions!

Alan, I'm with you on this one. Fuck Milton Bradley. I do, however, think it's interesting that he seems to finally realize that HE's the issue, not the team, not the town, not the media. It's something that everyone else has known for years, but apparently he may be gaining insight into that, finally. I wonder what finally clued him in?

I can't stand Aaron Rowand. I'm glad he's helping your team Alan, but the dude looks like a hobbit. And don't get me started on that crashing into the outfield wall nonsense. What an idiot.

I just traded R. Dempster & A. Ramirez for B. Wagner and J. Cantu. I need a closer. I have no SVs in a 4x4 league...

I've got this unshakeable fear Ramirez is going to return to form with a vengeance under Jaramillo's tutelage & smack 40+ dingers w/ 120+ RBI still.

I declined a D. Storen for Y. Alonso prospect sub-swap - I'm banking on Storen panning out...I gave up on U. Jimenez awhile back & it still bugs me that he's on somebody else's roster.

I think you're right to sell on Ramirez. His plate discipline's going into the toilet. I'd be more worried that during a delivery Wagner's arm will detach from his body and soar off into the Atlanta sky.

Just trade Cantu to someone else before the All Star break. Dude can't hit in the second half.

I haven't been on for a few days, but shampoo I had every intention of rubbing some salt over the Tigers still making self-destructive plays under the Minnesota non-Teflon sky.

How ya like me now, A-Rod?

It's probably for the best that i didn't watch most of that series.

This Braves/Reds game is something else

It's really hard to believe that between Jimenez and Doc, one of them is not going to be a Cy Young Award winner and right now it would probably be Halladay to be snubbed. Though Doc does have better FIP and xFIP numbers. It's Memorial Day and Jimenez has a 0.78 ERA.

I just got offered Josh Johnson for David Price straight up in fantasy. Do I do that trade?

You'd get Johnson? I don't see how you could go wrong...and he's starting tomorrow.

Yeah, Johnson is drastically better. Look at K/BB ratio. Price is due for serious ERA regression.

Yeah I agree. Price plays for the better team and has won more games. But Josh Johnson is Josh Johnson.