Baseball Etcetera

by user Niteowl049

Monday, March 19, 2007

Baseball Notebook and Etcetera

13 Days to Opening Day!!!!!!

Spring Training News

With the season only 13 days away this week should see a lot of players sent to minor league camps or released. It is time to pitch starters in rotation more regularly so they can be ready for the upcoming season. Decisions will be made on positional battles so the player who will be the everyday starter at a position can get more at bats before the season. The boxscores shouldn't have quite as many players in each game.

Braves defeated the Tigers and Reds in split squad games. Tim Hudson pitched 5 scoreless innings in the contest so maybe he is finally ready to pitch as well as he did with the Athletics in 2000 and 2001 when he had a combined 38-15 record. So far with Braves he is 27-21....Starting pitching for Cardinals could be a strong point if Kip Wells, Anthony Reyes and Adam Wainwright pitch as well as they have this spring. The three pitchers have combined to give up only 3 runs in 38 innings this spring....Chris Shelton who started so well for Tigers last season then hit so badly he was sent down to minors has a .353 average this spring so maybe he will get another chance to start the season with Tigers.

Hunter Pence of Astros hit a triple in his only at bat yesterday raising his average to .593. He is forcing the Astros to make a hard decision by his play this spring of whether to send him back down or let him start the season with Astros....Akinori Iwamura has had a bad spring so far with Devil Rays hitting .133. The team's leader in RBI's this spring is Brendan Harris with 5 which is not many after playing 29 games....Nine players lead in home runs this spring 4 with Brad Hawpe of Rockies who has hit 3 homers in last 2 games and Jose Reyes hitting their fourth homers of the spring yesterday.

Howie Kendrick and Jose Reyes lead in total bases with 31....Jonny Gomes and Ryan Langerhans lead in strikeouts with 15 but Gomes is hitting .182 while Langerhans is hitting .378 this spring....The top 3 hitters with at least 20 at bats this spring are Hunter Pence at .593....Placido Polanco at .567 and Prince Fielder hitting .520....Aaron Harang NL strikeout leader last season is struggling this spring giving up 10 runs and 28 hits in 14 innings but does have 14 strikeouts and no walks so he does still have his control....Rich Harden leads all spring training pitchers with 18 strikeouts.

Reds and Indians lead in standings. Cardinals and Astros have combined for a 21-12 record this spring while the other teams in the NL Central...the Brewers, Cubs and Pirates have a combined 23-32 record. Know it is only spring training but Cubs have to worried with Mark Prior not pitching well with an ERA of 18.90 after 3 innings and Kerry Wood with a 12.00 ERA after 3 innings. Bright spot for starting rotation is that newcomers Ted Lilly has a 2.08 ERA and Jason Marquis has a 2.00 ERA. This may be the year Rich Hill finally stays in majors all season since he has struck out 10 in 10 innings. With Carlos Zambrano being the ace this season it looks like Wade Miller may win a spot in the rotation after striking out 9 in 9 innings.

Alfonso Soriano has only one home run and 2 RBI's in 37 at bats this spring but once the opening bell rings he should be ready to hit better. Mark DeRosa has no homers and 1 RBI in 27 at bats and hitting .222. Derrek Lee is hitting well this spring with a .471 average and 2 home runs and 7 RBI's. Lee is crucial to the success of the Cubs this year. If he can team up with Soriano and Aramis Ramirez to hit 100 home runs and drive in 300 runs beteween them the Cubs could challenge for the NL Central crown.

40 Top Free Agents

AOL.com has a very good rundown of the top 40 free agents signed this last offseason and what to expect from them this season:

http://sports.aol.com/mlb/story/_a/top-40-free-agents/20061220205809990001

More Spring Training News

Ken Rosenthal has more information from spring training in this report from foxsports.com:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6584822

Art Lopatka Dies at 87

Art Lopatka of the Cardinals has died at the age of 87. Lopatka had a very short career comprising of a total of 8 games pitched for Cardinals and Phillies. He started well for Cardinals giving up only 2 runs in 11 innings but the the next season for Phillies gave up 10 earned runs in 5 innings.

http://baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=lopatar01

Yankees Opening Day Streak

Yankees have only lost once on opening day since 1991 loss to the White Sox. They didn't lose again till 1997 when Athletics defeated them but haven't lost on opening day since then having won 9 straight Opening Day contests.