Baseball

Detroit Tigers fans are justifiably too excited for words about the Tigers' prospects for the 2012 season.

The Tigers added Prince Fielder to an already-strong core comprised of superstars Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera. RF Brennan Boesch is back, and will play right field every day. Up and down the lineup are dangerous, powerful hitters like the aforementioned Boesch, as well as SS Jhonny Peralta, C Alex Avila, LF Delmon Young and even 2B Ryan Raburn- hitters who should do well to complement the explosiveness of Cabrera and Fielder.

Continue reading "This Year's Detroit TIgers Will Not Repeat 2008"

Second baseman Brandon Inge has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 30th. That means he'll be eligible to play on April 14th against the Chicago White Sox in Chicago. 

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To compete, a baseball team needs pitching and defense. An old adage maybe, but it exists for a reason. A team that continuously gives up runs ends up yanking their starters early in games and taxes their bullpen, lessening their effectiveness over time and thereby compounding the problem over the season. Ironically, trying to keep games close hurts the team in the long run. But with one of the best fielding percentages and team ERA’s in the league, the Toronto Blue Jays are competing.

Continue reading "Why the Jays won't compete: the importance ..."

Just picture it: it’s the top of the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays are holding a slim 2-1 lead over the New York Yankees. Up to bat is Derek Jeter with Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez on deck. Cito Gaston, in order to shut the door on the game and the series gets on the phone and brings in the big gun, Pedro Luis Lazo, winner of two Olympic Gold medals with Cuba and current closer of the Blue Jays. And even if he gives up a run its okay, because leading off the bottom of the ninth for the Jays is Alexei Bell, who hit 30 HR with 100 RBI with Santiago del Cuba last year.

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I call it "Baseball Heroin," as it's all too easy to sit for hours flipping between games, immobile, helpless to the draw of constant, and constantly changing, baseball.

This year has the added bonus of being able to watch either the home or away feed for a game, so I can tailor my watching to the team I like, or switch between the two to get a different perspective on a game. This somewhat ameliorates some of the problems DirecTV has been having this year with feeds--I'm one of the many, many people who woke up at 3AM on Opening Day in Japan . . . only to find that DirecTV's satellite problems were blacking out the broadcast. A handful of games later on in the season experienced this same problem, but these problems have been by and large small ones.

Continue reading "Saturday: The Black Hole of Baseball"

Bring back day games for the World Series. Baseball's being lost to other sports, in part because kids don't watch the games (live or in person) the way they could when the games were in the daytime. Sure, ratings are higher at night, but how much does this affect ad revenue, really? And even if it does, sometimes you've gotta sacrifice the present for the future, instead of the other way around.

Continue reading "How I'd Change Baseball"

While attending college at the University of Tampa, I noticed the awesome fact that the area is rich in professional sports! The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are relatively close to each other and easily accessible. The closest NBA was the Orlando Magic, but I got to catch a pre-season game at the Ice Palace one year. I felt really spoiled since I grew up in a place where everything was much more spread out and harder to get tickets for. To make things even better – there was plenty of golf and tennis around. I only wish the USF Bulls were as good as they are now when I was there. I didn’t complain though, I was able to go to the games free since my school didn’t have football. (They did at one time; John Matuszak is a U Tampa alum!)

Continue reading "Something's wrong with Tropicana Field?"