Baseball Etcetera...Spring training news...Bonds, Biggio, Matthews Jr.

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Spring Training News

Kyle Davies pitched well in Braves win over Phillies yesterday limiting the Phillies to 1 run and 3 hits in 6 innings. Greg Dobbs of Phillies hit his fourth homer of the spring and now has 14 RBI's. He has only 2 homers in 222 at bats in 3 years with the Mariners. Was watching this game and saw some very shoddy fielding by the Phillies as the last three runs the Braves scored were unearned....Aaron Harang had another bad outing giving up 6 runs and 8 hits in 6 innings raising his ERA to 6.97 for the spring. Devil Rays won the game 15-1 as they have started winning lately and are only a game behind the White Sox who are next worst team in AL with a 9-16 mark.

John Lackey was bombed by Mariners giving up 9 runs and 10 hits in 4 innings. He needs to pitch better than this for the Angels to have a chance of winning the AL West title....Garrett Atkins hit a grand slam homer for his second homer of the spring and gives him 17 RBI's....Dan Haren had a bad game giving up 6 runs and 11 hits in 5 innings but A's defeat Padres 8-7. Mike Piazza hit a three run homer his third of the spring and has 15 RBI's. Piazza is hitting .425. The A's lineup is loaded with hitters hitting over .300 with Shannon Stewart hitting .378...Bobby Crosby...600...Milton Bradley...424...Antonio Perez...348...Travis Buck...368...Erubriel Durazo...316...Daric Barton...417...Kurt Suzuki...438. If they hit anywhere close to these averages during season the Athletics should have a great season when you consider they have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.

Derrek Lee has taken over the doubles lead this spring with 8....Garrett Atkins and Johnny Estrada are tied in RBI's with 17....Jim Thome leads in walks with 14 and only has 2 strikeouts which is a reversal for him since he had 147 strikeouts and 107 walks last season....Hunter Spence of Astros continues to lead spring hitters with a .571 average with Ronnie Paulino of Pirates next with .514 average.

Aaron Cook of the Rockies leads all pitchers with a 4-0 mark this spring....Aaron Harang with 36 hits given up passed up Joe Kennedy who has 31. A's have three pitchers in the top five in this dubious category with Joe Blanton giving up 28 hits and Dan Haren giving up 27....Noah Lowry leads in walks allowed with 13 while surprisingly Johan Santana is second with 12....Rangers lead AL standings with a 25 percentage point lead over the Tigers....Reds have a 1/2 game lead over the Diamondbacks to lead the NL standings.

Latest Transactions

Tony Pena Jr. who was out of options with the Braves and had homered in his last game with Braves yesterday was traded to Royals for pitching prospect Eric Cordier....Clint Barmes was sent down for reassignment after losing the battle for shortstop position with Rockies to Troy Tulowitzki....Danny Graves was released by the Rockies. In 2002 Graves had 32 saves for Reds then someone in Reds organization thought he should be a starter but he posted a 4-15 record as a starter in 2003. Needless to say he never started another major league game and saved 41 games in 2004. It is probably safe to say that Graves was the only major leaguer born in Vietnam during the war being born in Saigon 34 years ago this next August. Rangers optioned Victor Diaz the former Mets outfielder to their Triple A farm club in Oklahoma City.

Players Out For The Season (Sportsline.com)

Kris Benson - Orioles Adam Bernero - Red Sox Hector Giminez - Astros Josh Kinney - Cardinals Davis Romero - Blue Jays

8 More Days Till 2007 Season Opens!!!

The long wait is almost over for baseball fans who have been waiting for opening day since the last pitch was thrown in 2006 World Series. The main event of this season should be when Barry Bonds passes Hank Aaron this summer barring injury, indictment for perjury or tax evasion or a possible suspension by baseball depending on the findings of the investigation transpiring right now by major league baseball.

If Bonds does pass Aaron it will be one of the darkest days in the history of baseball. A cheater will have broken one of the most cherished records in baseball. I personally hope that if it does happen that Hank Aaron and Bud Selig are not there and do no acknowledge the event in any way. There should be no phone calls or no letters of commendation sent. Anyone in their right mind knows that Bonds did not suddenly grow from a skinny outfielder with the Pirates to the behemoth of a man he is now with the Giants without the help of performance enhancing drugs.

On a brighter note one of the good guys in baseball who plays by the rules and is a team player unlike Bonds who doesn't even like to be photographed with his team needs 70 hits to reach 3000 hit plateau. Craig Biggio is the polar opposite of Bonds and he represents what is good about baseball. Biggio has been hit by pitches 282 times which shows he is willing to take one for the team if it means he can get on base. I am rooting for Biggio to reach 3000 hits because he exemplifies what the game of baseball is all about.

Tom Glavine will more than likely post his 300th win this season. It was beginning to look like he wouldn't reach 300 wins after a couple of bad seasons with Mets but he turned it around last season winning 15 games. In his first two seasons with Mets he was 20-28 but in his last two seasons he reversed those numbers to a 28-20 record so he is 48-48 with the Mets.

Gary Matthews Jr. will be closely watched this season after signing a 5 year contract for $50 million. Personally, I think the Angels overspent to acquire Matthews and that Matthews will revert to being the journeyman player he was before last season. Matthews didn't have a great season last year compared to the superstars of baseball. It was only a good season when it was compared to his average numbers over his career. He had only 2 more homers than the most he had hit before last season and only 24 more RBI's than in his best year for RBI's. He hit .313 last season which is 38 points above his best average in his career. His main accomplishment to me last year was having 194 hits. Hopefully he was telling the truth when he said he took none of the human growth hormone that was reportedly sent to him. If it comes out later that he was lying he can be sure the Angels will try to get out of that ridiculous contract. He is not a $10 million a year player and never will be because he is not capable of posting the kind of numbers that should go with that kind of contract.