Baseball Notebook: Last Post At This Site

Unless I have unforeseen problems this will be the last post at this site. I am experimenting with WordPress and so far it is much easier to use plus I can add pictures which I was unable to do at blogger.com. You can click on this link to the new site:

http://niteowl049.wordpress.com/

Baseball Notebook: 14 Hours, 21 Minutes Till Baseball

The long winter with no meaningful baseball will be over in 14 hours and 21 minutes when the Atlanta Braves play the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies in Philadelphia. Brett Myers will throw the first pitch for the Phillies and Derek Lowe will get the start for the Braves.

The game will be shown on ESPN 2 at 8:00 PM ET. After the longest spring training in history due to the WBC we finally get to see games that really matter. There will be no more stars leaving the games after a couple of at bats and heading home nor will there be closers pitching in the third inning. So it is time once again for the umpire to say "Play ball".

Spring Training Roundup

Ricky Romero allowed one run in five innings for the Blue Jays in their 1-1 tie with the Marlins. Romero had a 16.20 ERA after his first spring appearance  but has lowered his ERA with each appearance since then and ended spring training at 3.91. The two teams combined for 12 hits with all the hits being singles....Andy Pettitte 3-0 and 1.17 ERA pitched the Yankees to a 10-1 victory over the Cubs with the help of the long ball. Rich Harden 0-1 took the loss and gave up three homers with Mark Teixeira homering off of him in the third and fourth inning. The Yankees outscored the Cubs 17-5 in the two game series which christened the new Yankee Stadium.

The Twins jumped out to an early 6-1 lead then hung on to defeat the Pirates 7-6 as Glen Perkins 4-1 took the win. Craig Monroe hit his eighth homer of the spring....Matt Garza took the win despite blowing a 4-0 lead and allowing the Phillies to tie the score at 4-4. Garza finished spring training games with a 6.10 ERA....Daisuke Matsuzaka won his first game this spring when the Red Sox scored six times off of Oliver Perez in the first inning but five of the runs were unearned. Perez did allow 2 hits and 4 walks in 2/3 of an inning. The Tigers took advantage of the wildness of Kenshin Kawakami and took a 8-4 win over the Braves. Kawakami allowed seven walks in 2 2/3 innings.

Carl Pavano and Mike Hampton started the game between the Indians and the Astros. It was ironic that the two pitchers who have been injured so much in the past would start against each other. Both pitched well but didn't factor in the 4-3 win by the Indians....Josh Willingham hit a grand slam and drove in all five runs for the Nationals in their 5-4 win over the Orioles although the Orioles outhit the Nationals 16-8....The Royals edged the Rangers 5-4 as Mike Jacobs hit his seventh homer.

The Rockies defeated the Mariners 6-5 scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning....Brett Anderson 3-1 pitched well as the A's defeated the Giants 3-2 behind solo homers by Jack Cust and Eric Chavez....Jose Contreras 3-0 and Bartolo Colon pitched the White Sox to a 2-0 win over the Diamondbacks with former White Sox hurler Jon Garland 1-4 taking the loss....Brian Fuentes who was signed by the Angels to replace closer Francisco Rodriguez took the win over the Padres despite blowing the save earlier in the game. The Angels won 5-4 and the ERA of Fuentes ballooned to 8.22....The Brewers ended spring training as the best team in the NL with a 22-10 record despite Ryan Braun being away with the USA team in the WBC and then sitting out a lot of games with injuries after his return. The Brewers won their last game by scoring four times in the ninth inning to take a 7-4 win over the Dodgers.

Baseball Notebook: Ichiro On DL

Ichiro Suzuki has been placed on the disabled list by the Mariners for a bleeding ulcer. This will be the first time he will have played less than 157 games and will also probably be the first time to bat less than 647 times.

Once more the WBC has claimed another victim. If he hadn't played in the WBC he probably would not have this medical problem. If he had stayed in spring training with the Mariners he would have been playing on opening day. Do you think Bud Selig cares about this development? Of course not since it was his idea to have this tournament in the middle of spring training instead of after the season when injuries would have a whole winter to heal.  Even better would be not to have the tournament in the first place.

Spring Training Roundup

Zach Duke pitched five scoreless innings as the Pirates and Twins played to a 4-4 tie after both teams scored a run in the tenth inning....Koji Uehara outpitched former Oriole Daniel Cabrera as the Orioles defeated the Nationals 6-3....The Red Sox scored a run in the top of the eighth to take a 4-3 win over the Mets. Six of the eight hits by the Red Sox were doubles and the only other extra base hit in the game was a double by Fernando Tatis of the Mets.

Ted Lilly entered the game with the Yankees in the new Yankee Stadium with a 5.14 ERA. After the smoke had cleared from the Yankee home run bombardment he left the field with an ERA of 9.00. He gave up 7 runs, 8 hits and 3 home runs in 4 innings. The Cubs took an early 3-0 lead but the Yankees had two run homers by Robinson Cano in the second and Hideki Matsui in the third to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. Cody Ransom hit a three run homer in the fourth inning to end the scoring and gave the Yankees a 7-4 lead which they never relinquished. Kevin Gregg made his eleventh appearance of the spring and still hasn't allowed a run to score and has not allowed more than one hit in any appearance. 

Brad Lidge took the win for the Phillies in their 3-2 win over the Rays....Scott Rolen drove in four runs in the 10-4 Blue Jays defeat of the Marlins....Javier Vazquez pitched four innings of scoreless and hitless baseball as the Braves defeated the Tigers 3-1....Brian Moehler pitched the Astros to a 2-0 shutout win over the Indians as Fausto Carmona lost his first spring game after four wins....Brandon McCarthy 4-0 became the only pitcher this spring besides Joba Chamberlain to have a perfect 4-0 record. Zach Greinke took the loss and in his last two starts he has allowed 12 runs and 16 hits in 7 innings.

John Danks lowered his ERA to 2.93 after pitching five scoreless innings as the White Sox took a 6-3 win over the Diamondbacks with a 15 hit attack. Chris Getz was 3 for 5 and Alexei Ramirez was 3 for 4 to lead the White Sox offense. The White Sox win prevented them from having 21 losses which would have been the most in the AL....The Angels clinched the AL exhibition championship defeating the Padres 6-5. Their 25-8 record gives them a two game lead over the Yankees....Todd Helton with a 3 for 3 game and Ryan Spillborghs who hit his fifth homer of the spring while driving in 21 runs paced the Rockies to a 6-3 win over the Mariners. I am looking for this to be the breakout year for Spillborghs who has never played in more than 97 games in the past.

Yovani Gallardo pitched five scoreless innings of two hit baseball and Jason Kendall hit a two run homer to lead the Brewers to a 7-2 victory over the Dodgers. Kendall's homer was his third of the spring in 66 at bats. Kendall hit only two last season in 516 at bats and has not hit more than two homers in a season since 2003....The A's scored a run in the top of the tenth inning to take a 2-1 win over the Giants. Dana Eveland pitched six innings of one run baseball while Randy Johnson pitched five innings of one run baseball. Nomar Garciaparra was 2 for 3 and has had an excellent spring and has hit safely in eleven of thirteen games. I have a feeling Bob Geren will be playing Garciaparra more than anyone expected because he has been a hitting machine hitting .455 this spring.

Cubs-Yankees On MLB.TV

Again Today At 1PM ET

Rich Harden will face A.J. Burnett today in Yankee Stadium. The game will be televised on the MLB.TV network online for free at mlb.com. I watched the game last night and it is much better than watching a game on television since the screen is so close. The only problem as always with watching online video is that if an email pops up you stop watching to answer it. However if something exciting happens you can always maximize the game to catch it while it is happening. You can even go back to any inning in the game while watching the game.

The premium version allows viewers to watch four games at once. You can also pause a game if you need to refill your glass with A&W Root Beer and then pick up where you left off when you return. If you don't like the television announcing team you have the option of using the radio broadcasting team instead. For fans that don't want to watch the entire game they can watch it in a condensed version the next day. The condensed games only show pitches that result in hits or outs so only take about 30 minutes or less.

 The premium version cost $109 a year and $19.95 monthly and the unpremium version is $79 a year and $14.95 a month. However I would rather watch a game on our 27 inch television since there are no computer distractions to take your mind off the game. Our television is so old that I can't remember exactly when it was bought but it would have to be between 1992 and 1998.

For someone that likes to watch games on the computer it is worth 60 or 70 cents a day to watch the games but for me I will stick to watching games on television. The usual disclaimer applies saying that I have no connection with MLB.TV and I am not profiting from this in any way.

N.Y. Daily News Asks For Selig And Fehr To Step Down

The New York Daily News is calling for baseball commissioner Bud Selig and Don Fehr the director of the player’s union to step down. It would be beneficial for baseball to rid itself of the two most men most responsible for the proliferation of steroids in baseball. Neither Selig or Fehr made any moves to stop the use of steroids in baseball until Congress intervened. If Congress hadn’t intervened steroids would probably still be rampant in baseball today.

Selig refused to do anything about the use of steroids because it put money in the pockets of the owners as fans came out in record numbers to see muscled up sluggers hit long home runs. Fehr did likewise so that players could demand huge contracts for hitting so many homers.

The paper is conducting a poll of who should be the next commissioner and the latest results show Bob Costas and Frank Robinson leading. They are also conducting a poll for the best person to replace Fehr and Jim Kaat and Cal Ripken Jr. lead that poll.

I agree that Selig and Fehr both need to be replaced but can’t see any owners or players brave enough to call for their dismissal. All we can hope for is that both men are out of baseball sooner rather than later.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2009/04/01/2009-04-01_daily_news_plan_to_save_baseball_starts_.html

 Signature 

"I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for three-thousand dollars. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn’t have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up.” Source: San Francisco Examiner (March 29, 1984) - Bob Uecker  

Baseball Notebook: Hal Steinbrenner: Tickets Overpriced

Hal Steinbrenner has admitted that some seats in the new Yankee Stadium are overpriced. However he adds that they are looking into it. It is doubtful they will lower any prices though when they are already charging $72.97 for an average ticket while the major league average is $26.64. They have a more affluent fan base than most teams so they can get away with these exorbitant prices. 

These prices may play well in New York City but if they pulled this in Kansas City thousands of tickets would go unsold. For myself I will be happy to plunk down $8 for a seat behind the dugout to see the Tennessee Smokies with my senior discount where they still have $1 hot dog nights and the players don't have million dollar bank accounts. Minor league baseball has always been special to me because I have been going to minor league games since 1955 when I saw my first minor league game at Bringhurst Field in Alexandria, Louisiana. It was the Class C Evangeline League but it was baseball that a 11 year old kid could enjoy at an affordable price.

A few years earlier an Evangeline League player named Roy Sanner accomplished the amazing feat of winning the triple crown in batting and almost won the triple crown in pitching. He hit .386 with 34 home runs and 126 runs batted in while posting a 21-2 record striking out 251 with a 2.58 ERA as a pitcher. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2009/04/03/2009-04-03_hal_steinbrenner_some_seats_at_new_yanke.html

Spring Training Roundup

The Braves took only two hours and three minutes to defeat the Astros 2-1 as Jair Jurrjens 2-1 took the win while Kelly Johnson homered. The Braves still have five more cuts to make before the season starts and if Jordan Schafer makes the team there will be a sixth cut. They still have 16 pitchers so that number should be cut to 12 or 13 today with the first game only two days away....The Twins overcame a 3-1 deficit to record a 7-3 win over the Red Sox....Craig Monroe hit his seventh homer of the spring to tie the game at 5-5 and the Pirates scored a run in the eighth inning to edge the Reds by a 6-5 score. The Reds only list three outfielders on their active roster as of this morning so they could make room for Gary Sheffield. Signing Sheffield could ruin the chances of Jonny Gomes making the team and of Chris Dickerson being the everyday left fielder.

Colby Rasmus hit his first spring homer and drove in three runs as the Cardinals posted a 6-3 win over the 12-18 Marlins....Ryan Howard became the first player this spring to hit ten homers but it was in a losing cause as the Nationals pounded out 17 hits in their 12-10 win over the Phillies. Both starters who were Scott Olsen and Jamie Moyer gave up nine runs with Olsen giving up four earned runs among his nine runs....Mike Pelfrey gave up 8 runs and 10 hits in 4 innings but the Mets scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to take a 9-8 win over the Orioles.

The Tigers scored twice in the sixth and seventh innings to defeat the Blue Jays 8-5....Gavin Floyd and Jeff Suppan both allowed one run in five innings. The Brewers bullpen allowed one hit over the last four innings in the 2-1 win by Brewers over the White Sox. The White Sox lost their 20th game tying them with the Orioles and Reds for most losses....The Cubs blew a 7-1 lead and then scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Indians 9-8....The Rockies took a 7-4 win over the Diamondbacks....Horacio Ramirez of the Royals allowed 6 runs and 9 hits in six innings to take the loss in a 9-3 loss to the Rangers.

The Mariners pounded Chris Young and the Padres 18-3 as they had 18 hits. The game ended a terrible spring for Young who was 0-3 and had a 12.96 ERA. He allowed 9 runs and 9 hits in 3 2/3 innings and over his last two starts Young has allowed 15 runs and 16 hits while walking six in 4 1/3 innings....Randy Wolf 4-2 became the third pitcher this spring to record four wins as the Dodgers topped the Angels 6-2.... Tim Lincecum 1-0 posted his first win of the spring as the Giants defeated the A's 7-4. The Giants won their 20th game tying them with the Brewers and Braves as the only NL teams with 20 wins this spring.

Spring Leaders

Hitting

Pablo Sandoval leads all spring players with 34 hits....Kendry Morales leads in doubles with 10....Rajai Davis, Fred Lewis and Xavier Paul lead in triples with 4 each....Ryan Howard leads in homers with 10....Micah Hoffpauir and Josh Hamilton lead in runs batted in with 26 each....Hamilton also leads in total bases with 58....Michael Bourn leads in stolen bases with 11....Milton Bradley leads among hitters with at least 40 at bats in OBP with a .569 mark....Mark Teahen leads in slugging with a .981 percentage....Bradley also leads in batting average with a .500 average....Teahen also leads in OPS with a 1.498 mark....Corey Hart leads in extra base hits with 16.

Pitching

Fausto Carmona, Joba Chamberlain and Randy Wolf  lead in wins with 4 each....Cha Seung Baek and Dana Eveland lead in losses with 4 each....Cliff Lee allowed the most hits with 46 in 21 innings....He allowed 30 runs which is 5 more than any other pitcher....Scott Baker and Kyle Lohse have allowed the most home runs with 9 each....Carlos Marmol has hit the most batters with 5....Justin Verlander and Robinson Tejada have allowed the most walks with 16 each with Tejada allowing his in 15 2/3 innings while Verlander took 32 1/3 innings to walk the same number....Dan Haren has the most strikeouts with 34 in 30 innings.

Baseball Notebook: Anna Benson Returns To Majors

Anna Benson has returned to the majors after missing the last two seasons while her husband Kris was recovering from surgery. Kris will be pitching for the Rangers after posting a 2-0 record with a 4.76 ERA this spring.

Andruw Jones has made the Texas Rangers roster. Jones hit a ninth inning homer yesterday that gave the Rangers a 5-4 win over the Angels. It was the third homer of the spring for Jones who hit three homers for the Dodgers in the entire 2008 season....The Royals proved me wrong about Sidney Ponson. Instead of being sent down he has been named as the fourth starter for the Royals despite his 0-1 record and 9.58 ERA. In 10 1/3 innings he has allowed 11 earned runs and 15 hits and four walks. Horacio Ramirez will be the fifth starter despite his 1-1 record and 9.00 ERA. In 21 innings he has given up 16 earned runs and 28 hits and four walks. Royals opponents will look forward to facing Ponson and Ramirez in 2009. The Royals also sent down Brian Bannister who was 9-16 last season and had a 0-2 record and 8.53 ERA this spring.

The White Sox have sent Jerry Owens to Charlotte after he lost out in the battle for center field to Dewayne Wise and Brian Anderson. The active roster for the White Sox shows 23 players so Corky Miller and one other player among players in camp should be added to the roster soon. Miller, Brent Lillibridge, Wilson Betemit and Anderson will be the bench players to start the 2009 season in addition to one other player. Bartolo Colon and Jose Contreras should be at the back of the rotation despite being 35th and 30th respectively in ERA among White Sox pitchers this spring.

Mike Lamb has been released by the Brewers after Casey McGehee has apparently won the job as backup third baseman for Bill Hall. The Mariners have sent down Chris Shelton despite his 3 homers, 9 RBI's, .460 BA, .534 OBP and .720 slugging percentage. Mike Wilson may have taken his roster spot with a 8 homers, 19 RBI's, .274 BA, .333 OBP and .742 slugging percentage. Wilson is second among all spring players in homers with only Ryan Howard having more homers with nine.

The Mets have released Bobby Kielty. The Nationals released Willy Mo Pena while the Cubs released Paul Bako and Mike Stanton. Lou Piniella still has fourteen pitchers on the active roster. Jeff Samardzija and Angel Guzman could be sent down if Guzman has any options left. Chad Gaudin could be traded since some teams have shown interest in him. Koyie Hill, Micah Hoffpauir, Aaron Miles, Joey Gathright and Reed Johnson should be coming off the bench unless Piniella sits Fukudome despite his huge salary and then Johnson should be the starter in center field.

The A's pitching is set assuming they will be going with 12 pitchers to start the season. With the catching set with Kurt Suzuki and Landon Powell the A's will have to decide who is playing on the infield and in the outfield with nine infielders and eight outfielders still on the roster. There will be room on the roster for only eleven of these seventeen players. 

Jack Hanrahan, Cliff Pennington and possibly Bobby Crosby will probably be dropped from the roster unless an infielder starts the season on the DL. Ben Copeland will be dropped off the roster with the A's having to decide whether to drop Travis Buck and/or Rajai Davis to get down to five outfielders. That would give the A's a starting outfield of Matt Holliday, Ryan Sweeney and Jack Cust on days he doesn't DH.

Cubs Play Yankees On MLB Network

At Yankee Stadium Tomorrow Night

The Cubs will play the New York Yankees in new Yankee Stadium at 6:05 Chicago time on the MLB Network. They will play the Yankees again on Saturday at 12:05 Chicago time on the CSN Chicago Network. These two games will end the exhibition season for the Cubs and they will open the regular season on Monday in Houston against the Astros at 6:05 on CSN Chicago.

Baseball Notebook: Spring Training Recaps

Joba Chamberlain joined Fausto Carmona as the only two pitchers with 4-0 records this spring. Chamberlain pitched the Yankees to a 6-3 victory over the Reds. Micah Owings 3-1 took the loss giving up one earned run in five innings. The two teams combined for seven errors in the game with the Reds committing four errors and the Yankees having three errors....The Twins took a 11-2 lead after seven innings then hung on to defeat the Pirates 12-8....The Cardinals took a 7-3 victory over the Orioles as Chris Duncan hit a three run homer as the Cardinals moved into a second place tie in the NL exhibition standings with the Braves.

The Red Sox overcame a 7-2 deficit after six innings to score three times in the seventh and eighth innings to edge the Rays 8-7....Brandon Lyon 0-3 took the loss in a Nationals 7-2 win over the Sheffieldless Tigers. Marcus Thames who will get more at bats with Sheffield gone is hitting .171 this spring with two homers and four RBI's in 36 at bats....The rampaging Astros who started the exhibition season with a 1-16 record have been 9-2 since then and recorded a 8-3 win over Derek Lowe and the Braves. Carlos Lee drove in four runs with a double and a homer.

Carlos Delgado has been hitting well before and after playing in the WBC and is hitting .519, has a .606 OBP and a .704 slugging percentage and was 3 for 3 yesterday. The Mets posted a 9-2 victory over the Marlins as John Maine won his first game this spring and David Wright who played in the WBC finally got his first and second RBI's this spring on the last day of March....The Phillies blasted the Blue Jays 9-1 behind the pitching of Brett Myers and the hitting of Raul Ibanez who hit his first homer this spring.

The 24-6 Angels scored only eight runs in their 8-4 win over the Cubs. 

The Angels had scored 29 runs over the previous two games and had been averaging 14 runs a game in their last six wins. The Angels took an early 8-0 lead off of a struggling Sean Marshall who gave up all eight runs. Micah Hoffpauir hit a two run homer in the eighth inning for the Cubs. Hoffpauir would be playing everyday for a lot of major league clubs but he will be just another player in a logjam of outfielders for the Cubs. Unless there are some last minute changes Hoffpauir will join Reed Johnson and Joey Gathright as backup outfielders even though Hoffpauir is listed on the roster as an infielder. He is more likely to get at bats in the outfield than playing behind Derrek Lee.

Mark Buehrle 0-2 pitched well but took the loss in the Rockies 4-1 win over the White Sox. Buehrle only allowed one earned run in six innings while his mound opponent Jorge De La Rosa 2-2 took the win for the Rockies. Three White Sox errors allowed two unearned runs to score. The White Sox have lost ten of their last fourteen games....The A's won their third straight game after losing ten in a row and have scored 23 runs in those three games. The A's defeated the Royals 7-2 behind the pitching of Josh Outman who allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings. He had faced the Royals a week earlier and given up eight runs in 3 1/3 innings. Sidney Ponson 0-1 and a 9.58 ERA took the loss giving up seven runs and seven hits in five innings. I look for him to be released in the next day or two.

The Dodgers were behind the Diamondbacks 6-3 after five innings then scored six times in the sixth inning to take a 9-6 lead and then hung on to win the game 10-9. No Dodger regular that played in the game is hitting .300 or better while the Diamondbacks had five regular players hitting over .300....Ronny Cedeno hit a grand slam off of Scott Lewis to lead the Mariners to a 12-4 victory over the Indians. Lewis had been recently named to the starting rotation but gave up 10 runs and 13 hits in 3 2/3 innings. He said after the game he couldn't get a good grip on the ball in the Arizona air so I guess that is as good of an excuse as any for his horrible outing. As Simon on American Idol would say it was a horrible mess and he was getting a headache from watching Lewis pitch.

Barry Zito 3-1 pitched the Giants to a 10-3 win over the Rangers. Last spring Zito was 1-3 with a 14.92 ERA so his 3-1 record and 5.12 ERA is an improvement over last spring and may be an indication he is ready to finally have a good season with the Giants. Pablo Sandoval had a 3 for 5 game and drove in three runs and is hitting .456 this spring. Josh Hamilton hit his sixth homer of the spring for the Rangers and drove in three runs which gives him a total of 25 RBI's this spring one behind the leader Micah Hoffpauir....The Padres edged the Brewers 6-5 but the Brewers hung onto a slim half game lead over the Cardinals and Braves.

Baseball Notebook: 2009 Predictions

Predicting the order of the standings is a losing proposition but will give it a try and then try to remember to check at the end of the season to see if any of the teams finished where they were picked to finish. I don't expect anyone to agree with these picks. This is probably just an exercise in futility but will give it a shot. Readers are welcome to come up with their own predictions which will probably be a lot closer to being correct than my own.

AL East

Boston 

New York

Tampa Bay

Toronto

Baltimore

AL Central

Chicago 

Minnesota

Kansas City

Detroit

Cleveland

AL West

Los Angeles

Oakland

Texas

Seattle

NL East

Atlanta

New York

Philadelphia

Florida

Washington

NL Central

Chicago

St. Louis

Milwaukee

Houston

Pittsburgh

Cincinnati

NL West

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Arizona

Colorado

San Diego

Baseball Notebook:Ryan Howard Hits 8th Homer

Ryan Howard hit his 8th homer of the exhibition season giving him a two homer lead over all players this spring. Six players are tied with six homers. His homer came in a losing cause as the Pirates defeated the Phillies 10-4 behind a sterling performance by Ian Snell 2-1 who pitched six innings of one run baseball and allowed only two hits....Adam Eaton pitched just well enough to win allowing five runs and nine hits in five innings while his mound opponent Todd Wellemeyer pitched even worse allowing seven runs and seven hits in five innings in the Cardinals 10-6 loss to the Orioles.

Edinson Volquez 2-0 is showing he is in midseason form allowing one run in five innings and his ERA stands at 0.47. Jason Hammel pitched even better for the Rays allowing no runs in five innings. Jason Isringhausen blew the save and absorbed the loss and it is doubtful the Rays will start the season with him on the roster with his 7.20 ERA. The Reds took the win in the 5-1 contest....The Tigers beat the Blue Jays 7-1 behind the hitting of Placido Polanco and the pitching of Edwin Jackson. Polanco hit a two run homer and Jackson hurled seven innings of one run baseball....The Nationals ended the Astros winning streak at seven with a 6-3 victory and a four RBI performance by Alex Cintron.

The Red Sox scored seven times in the third inning to defeat the Twins 9-4. Rocco Baldelli hit a three run homer to lead the Red Sox attack....Mark Teixeira and Xavier Nady hit solo homers to lead the Yankees to a 6-4 win over the Braves. Jordan Schafer was 3 for 5 and could be on the opening day roster for the Braves....Jose Reyes drove in his 14th and 15th run this spring as the Mets edged the Marlins 5-4. Reyes leads the Mets in RBI's....Max Scherzer pitched the Diamondbacks to a 5-3 win over the Indians. Scherzer also drove in a run and is hitting .333 this spring.

Jeff Suppan 2-0 gave up one run in seven innings as the Brewers handed the A's a 4-2 defeat. Dana Eveland 0-4 took the loss which was the tenth consecutive loss for the A's. Earlier this month the A's had won seven of eight games....Gavin Floyd 2-1 pitched six scoreless innings as the White Sox registered a 6-1 win over the Dodgers. It was the second game in a row that the Dodgers failed to have an extra base hit. Alexei Ramirez drove in three runs for the White Sox....The Angels recovered from their 9-3 loss to the Diamondbacks in which they had only five hits on Friday to a 16-9 win over the Mariners behind a 20 hit attack. Kendry Morales is staking claim on first base with a 4 for 4 game yesterday and a .397 batting average this spring. Carlos Silva was rocked by the Angels for 9 runs, 11 hits, two walks and two homers in 3 1/3 innings as his ERA skyrocked to 16.88. Silva has had a losing record for three consecutive years and made $8.25 million last season for a 4-15 record in which he gave up 60 more hits than innings pitched.

The Padres eked out a 11-10 win over the Giants behind the hitting of Chase Headley who was 4 for 5 at the plate and drove in three runs. Chris Young only pitched a third of an inning and gave up 6 runs, 7 hits and two walks. The Giants had a 9-3 lead after two innings but had to hang on to take the one run win....Nelson Cruz hit his sixth homer of the spring and drove in his 15th and 16th runs as the Rangers defeated the Royals 9-5....The Rockies topped the Cubs 10-6 as Chris Ianetta's four RBI's proved to be the winning margin. Micah Hoffpauir drove in three runs for the Cubs to give him the spring lead among all major leaguers with 22. Only problem for Hoffpauir is that there is no position for him in the 2009 Cubs lineup. He will make the team but won't get much playing time unless Milton Bradley and Derek Lee have injuries during the season. He should get a lot of pinch hit opportunities but he is too good of a hitter to bat once a game.

Baseball Notebook: Strasburg Almost Quit Baseball

Stephen Strasburg the pitching phenom of San Diego State came close to quitting baseball at one point. A Sports Illustrated article released earlier this week tells of Strasburg being so overweight that his knees would buckle and would have to be carried off the field. Only through a vigorous workout regimen did he become the pitcher he is today as he gained velocity while he lost weight.

Kevin Towers the Padres general manager said Strasburg is as dominating as any pitcher he has seen and that Strasburg not only throws in the high 90's but can locate the ball. He has 254 strikeouts in 168 innings and only 38 walks during his college career. One scout says Strasburg doesn't need the minor leagues and is ready for majors right now.

Boras Seeking Record Contract 

My main hope is that his agent Scott Boras doesn't keep Strasburg out of baseball for a prolonged period while contract negotiations with the team that drafts him in June are going on. I can see another J.D. Drew situation developing. Drew didn't like being drafted by the Phillies so Boras let a year pass until Drew was drafted by the Cardinals. Boras will be trying to make a deal making Strasburg the highest paid draftee in the history of the major leagues.

 Hopefully Strasburg will be happy to play for whoever drafts him but Boras may let teams know ahead of time what kind of contract he is expecting for Strasburg. It may not even be legal to talk to teams in advance of the draft but if it is Boras will turn this into a bidding war.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/lee_jenkins/03/25/stephen.strasburg/index.html

Spring Training Roundup

Jeremy Guthrie is pitching no better than he did during the WBC since returning to the Orioles. He had pitched only three innings before leaving for the WBC but was 1-0 and had allowed no runs. Since then he was bombed in the WBC and is still being hit hard during spring training games. Since returning he has an 0-1 record with a 10.80 ERA and an overall ERA of 7.94. In 8 1/3 innings since returning he has given up 10 runs and 11 hits, 2 homers and five walks. In yesterdays game with the Marlins Ty Wigginton and Luke Scott combined to drive in seven runs in the 9-7 Orioles win.

Buddy Carlyle 3-0 took the win as the Braves came from behind to defeat the Tigers 3-2. Justin Verlander pitched seven scoreless innings for the Tigers and Tom Glavine pitched four scoreless innings for the Braves. Carlyle has pitched nine scoreless innings for the Braves this spring....The Astros won their seventh straight game since losing sixteen in a row to start the exhibition season after winning their first game. They defeated the Phillies 6-5 after being behind 3-1 earlier in the game....The Red Sox pounded out 21 hits in their 11-8 win over the Cardinals after scoring three times in the tenth inning. Khalil Greene of the Cardinals drove in his 17th run of the spring and is hitting .417. Only Micah Hoffpauir of the Cubs has more RBI's than Greene.

James Shields making his first start in fifteen days was rocked for 11 runs and 12 hits in 4 1/3 innings and gave up three walks and three homers. Shields entered the game with a 1.50 ERA  but left the game with a 10.45 ERA. The Twins defeated the Rays 16-2 with an eighteen hit attack with Jason Kubel having a 4 for 4 game....The Blue Jays defeated the Pirates 4-1 behind Roy Halladay who allowed one run in seven innings to take the win....Johan Santana also gave up only one run in seven innings as the Mets defeated the Nationals 4-1. 

C.C. Sabathia showed he is ready for the 2009 season by pitching 7 2/3 innings while allowing one run, four singles and struck out seven while walking none. The Yankees won the game 4-1 with Aaron Harang who pitched six innings of two run baseball taking the loss....The Diamondbacks pounded the Angels 9-3 behind a sixteen hit attack.  Mark Reynolds hit a three run homer to lead the Diamondbacks offense.

Carlos Zambrano 3-1 pitched and hit the Cubs to a 9-4 victory over the White Sox. Zambrano allowed two runs in six innings and drove in two runs. Zambrano's six RBI's this spring tie him with Derrek Lee and Milton Bradley and Aramis Ramirez only have one more RBI than Zambrano. Clayton Richard could only get one batter out before leaving the game after giving up 7 runs and 5 hits. In his last two starts Richard has given up 14 runs and 16 hits in 4 1/3 innings. Richard has little chance of becoming the fifth starter after yesterday's performance.

Cliff Lee 0-3 was battered again as the Giants crushed the Indians 10-3. Lee pitched five innings and gave up 5 runs and 12 hits. His ERA has been over 10.00 all spring and in his last three starts he has allowed 20 runs and 29 hits in 12 2/3 innings. The only positive for Lee is that he has only walked two hitters in 16 2/3 innings. The Giants may be wishing that they hadn't signed Edgar Renteria to a big contract after his 3 RBI's in 56 at bats while Juan Uribe has 12 RBI's second best on the team in 54 at bats....Rockies defeated the Mariners 8-3 behind the five RBI's of Christian Colonel who hit a grand slam. Colonel leads the Rockies in RBI's with 15.

Gil Meche 2-0 pitched the Royals to a 4-1 win over the Dodgers....Dave Bush 3-0 pitched the Brewers to a 7-4 win over the Rangers. Kevin Millwood gave up six runs but only one of them was an earned run....Jake Peavy 2-0 pitched six innings of scoreless two hit baseball as the Padres topped the A's by a score of 5-2. Nomar Garciaparra continued his hot hitting for the A's as he homered and has 5 RBI's in 20 at bats while Matt Holliday has six in 43 at bats.

Paulino Traded Twice In Same Day

Ronnie Paulino played for the Pirates in 2008 and then was traded during the offseason to the Phillies. Yesterday he was traded to the Giants who in turn traded him to the Marlins. The Marlins will make his third team since finishing the 2008 season with the Pirates and he has yet to play a regular season game for any of those three teams.

Baseball Notebook: Spring Training Roundup

Emilio Bonifacio drove in five runs to lead the Marlins to a 11-6 victory over the Orioles. Felix Pie was hitting .400 for the Orioles after the game on March 1st. Since then he has trimmed 205 points off his average and is hitting .195....Ryan Howard hit his seventh homer of the spring to become the new home run leader this spring. He hit it off of Joba Chamberlain who was the winning pitcher in the 10-2 win over the Phillies by the Yankees....The Mets defeated the Cardinals 9-5 behind a strong performance by John Maine on the mound who allowed one run in five innings. Trever Miller didn't impress Tony LaRussa with his shaky relief pitching allowing seven runs with two of them being earned, five hits and a walk in one inning.

Derek Lowe gave up only one run in six innings and left the game with a 4-1 lead but Boone Logan and Kris Medlin combined to allow six runs, six hits and three walks in two innings as the Blue Jays came back to beat the Braves 7-5....The Tigers are back on track as their players returning from the WBC picked up six of the twelve Tiger hits. Curtis Granderson doubled and homered while Miguel Cabrera hit two doubles....Micah Owings 3-0 pitched the Reds to a 6-4 defeat of the Twins. Owings pitched four innings and allowed a run but had control problems walking five. He lowered his spring ERA to 1.45. In his last start he had thrown 22 strikes in 22 pitches but yesterday threw 22 strikes in 42 pitches. For the spring Owings has an amazing 105 strikes in 133 pitches.

The red hot Angels are an amazing 22-4 this spring with a five and a half game lead over the second place Yankees after posting an 8-5 win over the Indians. The entire starting outfield of the Angels which consists of Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero and Bobby Abreu each hit a homer in the contest. The Angels had ten hitters hitting .316 or higher this spring in the game while the Indians only had one player hitting higher than .316....Brandon Webb pitched the Diamondbacks to a 3-1 win over the White Sox allowing one run in six innings. The White Sox have lost 15 games this spring and are ten games behind the Angels and the Orioles are the only AL team with more losses with 16.

Both starters were rocked in a 10-9 slugfest won by the Mariners over the Royals. Sidney Ponson allowed six runs, four of them unearned and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Royals while Felix Hernandez gave up 7 runs, 12 hits and two walks in 6 innings and finished the game with a 10.13 ERA....J.J. Hardy and Mike Lamb each drove in three runs to lead the Brewers to a 11-10 win over the Rangers. The Rangers had a 7-1 lead after three innings but the Brewers scored five times in the fourth to close the gap to 7-6 and eventually won the game after adding five more runs. It was a typical Rangers game in that their hitters couldn't outhit the lousy pitching and this problem may plague the Rangers all season.

The Dodgers topped the Rockies 8-6 as Xavier Paul drove in three runs and is still apparently in the running for the last spot in the Dodger outfield. Todd Helton is back and had two doubles and raised his average to .423 with a 3 for 3 game. Eric Milton may have ended any chance of him being on the opening day roster with the Dodgers with a disastrous performance. He allowed 6 runs and 7 hits in 2 2/3 innings and left the game with a 7.27 ERA this spring.

Barry Zito 2-1 pitched the Giants to a 5-3 win over the Cubs. Zito allowed three runs and seven hits and struck out seven in five innings. Pablo Sandoval drove in two runs and raised his average to .446 as he looks like he will be the starting third baseman for the Giants at the age of 22 but Jesus Guzman also a third baseman has hit .404 this spring with 4 homers and 14 RBI's. Milton Bradley was 2 for 2 and hit his third homer this spring raising his batting average to .500. Bradley has a .500 batting average which is second best among all major leaugers this spring and first in the NL and .906 slugging percentage which is also second and best in the NL and an on base percentage of .543 which also leads the NL. Carlos Marmol pitched like he did in the WBC blowing the save and taking the loss and allowed three runs in two innings

Marmol-Gregg Closer Battle

It is easy to check the comparative stats for Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg since Marmol has pitched 8 innings and Gregg has pitched 8 1/3 innings.

Won-Loss Record

Gregg 1-0

Marmol 1-1

ERA

Gregg 0.00

Marmol 4.50

Hits

Gregg 4

Marmol 6

Homers

Gregg 0

Marmol 1

Hit By Pitch

Gregg 0

Marmol 5

Walks 

Gregg 2

Marmol 1

Strikeouts

Gregg 10

Marmol 10

Lou Piniella won't have an easy choice but if it was my choice I would go for Gregg since Marmol hitting five batters rules him out in my book. With a game on the line in the ninth inning the Cubs don't need to give away at bats to the other team by hitting them. Of course if Gregg has one bad game then they would be almost even again so it will be interesting to see if Gregg can continue to be perfect all spring and not allow any runs.