Spring Training

Just a few thoughts on the upcoming season and whats being talked about at spring training this year.



Expansion of the Playoffs -

There are now two wildcard teams bringing the grand total number of teams in the playoffs to ten. Basically what would happen is that two wildcard teams would have a playoff game to see who would get in to the playoffs. I hate it. Passionately. Eight teams is already more than enough. Ten teams with a cheezy gimmick to make the playoffs? Is this the NHL now? See this is why I no longer follow the NHL (besides the fact that it has become soccer on ice). It's a gimmick. 16 of 30 teams make the playoffs, which last 2+ months. Overtime where it's 4-4 followed by a shootout? You get a point even if you lose, so long as you take more than 3 periods to lose? This sounds like something Vince McMahon (who introduced Elvis impersonators cracking guitars over coked-out bodybuilders heads to professional sports) would come up with. Imagine baseball with the pre-1969 playoff structure. The top team of the AL and NL play eachother. 2011 would have been a Yankees/Phillies series, which would have been better than anything we got. Now that being said the wildcard and three divisions has made August and September baseball amazing, while keeping the playoff standards relatively high. Structurally baseball has the most exciting regular season format in sports. So why change it? This would mean that in practice, this year with a 10th team Boston and Atlanta would still have had a wildcard 2 berth where they'd have played St. Louis and Tampa Bay respectively in a one game playoff. Good games? yes. Good for baseball? no. The Red Sox threw away a 9 game lead in September, they shouldn't get some back door 2nd chance. However added to this is teh fact that the wildcard team can play a team in their division in the division series.
...... is this just an incredibly elaborate attempt to guarantee a Red Sox/Yankees matchup every year?



Ryan Braun -

Man is this the story that the MLB doesn't want. He tests positive for HGH and denies it, fighting it until it comes back that the sample was so badly handled that it can not be used as evidence. He is exonerated! Or is he?

Inncocent arguement: He didn't gain a pound all season and didn't get faster or stronger and his testosterone was 3x higher than normal. Braun is a class act and didn't give scripted answers, he came out fighting the way a person who knows he has been wrongly accused would do. The sample was taken Saturday night. After it was taken the guy who took it brought it back to his house and put it in the basement until Monday afternoon when he Fedexed (is that a verb?) it to be tested in Montreal. What was it doing in his basement for two days? Anyone could have tampered with it. You can't convict with procedure like that so he is innocent. Finally, he is innocent until proven guilty, Braun never was.

Guilty argument: You can start using steroids just before the playoffs and they will have an effect. 3x higher is not actually that crazy (it's what they are supposed to do after all). He made one statement and then hid away for three months, is that really "coming out fighting?" Just because the material in inadmissable doesn't mean you didn't do it. If the police bust a guy with 20 marijuana plants and it later turns out that they entered the premisis illegally the case is thrown out, but that doesn't mean the guy wasn't growing marijuana. If the guy who had taken the sample had followed procedure would Braun still be innocent? Finally, he is innocent until proven guilty, which is what the urine test determines.

Whether he did it or not is unimportant as this will hang over his head, and baseball's, for the rest of his career. Legally he is innocent but in the court of public opinion, which all sports ultimately rely on, it's a far from closed case. I think how well he plays over the next 2-3 seasons will determine how innocent he is the eye of the public. I'd like to give him teh benefit of the doubt, but we'll see.



Jason Varitek, Jorge Posada and Tim Wakefield retire -

Three huge names on two huge teams have all retired. In the case of Wakefield and Posada it's probably about time (and maybe someone should have asked Posada to take Rivera with him). Both great players but both past their prime and struggling this past season. Still both guys are legends and will leave a void. It'll be interesting to see what the Red Sox and Yankees look like without them. Varitek is the one that really surprises, but in a good way. In a generation where Abert Pujols and Prince Fielder will ditch teams that gave him everything for a few more dollars, guys like Mark Teixeira will run after any team that will pay him a bit more and guys like Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez are proven cheats it's great to see a franchise player, who played the game with integrity, retire on top. The fact is that he is probably good enough to play another season to two as a backup catcher or DH in Houston (DH after this season) or Kansas City but he opted to end his career as a member of the Red Sox. It's hard to think of too many other guys who have done that. Derek Jeter in NY, Chipper Jones in Atlanta, Ichiro Suzuki in Seattle, Yadier Molina in St. Louis. There's probably a few more but it's a rare player that will stay loyal to his team when more money is available.



Manny Ramirez* is back -

The Oakland Athletics signed Roid Ramirez to a minor league gig. He serves 50 of his 100 game suspension (not 100 for some reason...) and then he can play. It's not the dumbest move, as it's a minor league contract that will increase ticket sales and if he is as good off roids as on them he might give the A's a few good games. Still, I was happy to see another of the roid ragers gone for good. Unlike Alex Rodriguez* or Barry Bonds* or Jason Giambi* I have a soft spot for Manny just cause he cracks me up, but I have no doubt that he is bad for the game.



Houston will join the AL in 2013 -

I actually like this a lot. It balances out the three divisions, although it does assure interleague play lasts all season, which does kinda suck. However, it makes 6 divisions of five teams each and puts a team in the AL west that the Mariners may be able to beat up on. I imagine they'll be more on this next year, but for now it's great to see Selig doing something right (as opposed to wildcards for everybody).



A.J bunts a ball in to his eye-

It looked very painful, but he's gonna be fine, so it's okay to laugh now. Hope to see him in May.