All Entries Tagged With: "AL"
Dontrelle Willis Needed This!
He needed to step onto that mound at Comerica Park and feel the evening sun shine upon him, the clouds in retreat, the swirling winds at bay. He needed to kick his right leg high into the air and bring his left arm across his body in perfect plane as the baseball left his fingertips [...]
The Rays After 40 Games
The 2009 Tampa Bay Rays played their fortieth game of the season on Monday, May 18th and in so doing got themselves back to the .500 mark at 20-20. But at this point, things that went right in 2008 so far have not in 2009, and the Rays find themselves in fourth place in their [...]
The Royals Become Relevant
Unless you are a Kansas City Royals fan or a really, really huge baseball fan in general, chances are you have not given the Royals much thought since about 1994. Even during the 2003 campaign, when Kansas City won sixteen of their first nineteen games and hung in the race until late August, they were [...]
The Texas Rangers Are In First Place Still!
The surprise Rangers are sitting in first place in the AL West! This time it’s their pitching that’s carrying them. Unlike last season, the Rangers are relying more on balance from the starting pitching and offense to win games. Last season, the Rangers lost many close games (3 runs or less) and this season, they’re [...]
Indians After Two Months = Disappointing
While the Cleveland Indians are currently on a winning streak at the time of this writing, it is the first time in nearly a month that they have won at least two games in a row. Even though there were no huge expectations coming into this season like there were in 2008 when many, including [...]
Interleague Play Q&A
Back on December 8, 2008 I posted a 10 question interview session that I conducted with 6 other baseball bloggers about their thoughts concerning Interleague play. With the first Interleague series of the year going this weekend I thought it would be a good time to post this link to it for your amusement! Enjoy! [...]
White Sox Reflections 1 ½ Months In
I’ll let Paul Konerko and Ozzie Guillen sum up the White Sox season (15-18) through the halfway point in May. “We stink.” – Guillen “We’re just not good right now, that’s it.” – Konerko That pretty much sums it up, but let’s take a look at why the Sox are struggling so much. Offense The [...]
The Blue Jays Are On Fire!
Hi from us at Bluebird Banter where, I can quite honestly say, I have never enjoyed baseball as much in my life. And I was there for the Jay’s World Series seasons. The great part of it this time is that we weren’t expected to be anywhere near this good. It really is good to [...]
April’s Top 9 Hitters By Position
Here’s a look at the top players per position for the month of April. We have included the top 3 outfielders rather than list them by LF, CF & RF. Admittedly this is a little late and next month I’ll try to get this to you quicker, but for now, I hope you enjoy this [...]
Red Sox Reflections After 25 games
After 25 games, the Red Sox found themselves with an 11 game winning streak and neck and neck for first place, with the Blue Jays who have 2 more games in hand than the Sox (both are wins). During the first few weeks of the season, we have seen the injury bug hit SS Jed [...]
O’s CF Jones Living Up to Potential
We all know that one month of success does not make a season, but early returns indicate that Baltimore Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones is indeed the real deal. When the Orioles traded ace starting pitcher Erik Bedard to the Seattle Mariners for a cast of players highlighted by Jones, there were many skeptics questioning whether [...]
Rangers Reflections: The First 3 Weeks
One month into the season and we know two things about the Rangers: their offense is picking up where it left off last season and their pitching has drastically improved from last season’s horrendous output. Though both facets of the team are virtually the same as last season’s mark, the team has managed to stay [...]
Why I’m high on this Tigers team
Before the season, I wrote that these Tigers would be a bit of a mystery. We didn’t know what to expect. Unlike the “experts,” I didn’t expect the worst. But other than that, I had no idea what we’d see out of the 2009 Detroit Tigers. Well — and knowing full well the dangers in [...]
The White Sox at Week 2
We are 2 weeks into the season and I find the White Sox right where I expected them: hanging around and in the mix. Power bats are getting them their runs, and their pitching staff has done a good job. In the AL, only Seattle has allowed less runs than the Sox. For the Sox [...]
Reflections on the Blue Jays
So spring training is over, the season is underway, and the Jays have gotten off to a decent start – not that it has changed any of the seemingly unanimous consensus around the baseball world and T-dot media that the Jays are going absolutely nowhere. I traveled from my home in Washington DC to Toronto [...]
Reflections on the Mariners
So what’s been happening in Mariner land over Spring Training? Not a lot of good. With frontline pitchers John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Kelvim Escobar and Justin Durocher out for significant amounts of playing time for the Angels and Athletics, the Mariners had an increased opportunity to steal the AL West out from the baseball world’s [...]
The Comings and Goings in Cleveland
Indians Place Dellucci on DL; Recall Crowe from Columbus With just one week until they open up against the Rangers in Texas, the Cleveland Indians tweaked their opening day roster once again to make sure that it is just right. Their basic moves are that they placed outfielder David Dellucci on the 15-day disabled list [...]
Orioles Sewing the Seeds for Future Success
After more than a decade of consistent losing, fans of the Baltimore Orioles are ready for the team to stop looking toward the future and instead start winning some baseball games. It is doubtful that the Orioles will be a contender in the tough American League East in 2009, but followers of the Birds can [...]
Indians Continue Making Moves
Starting pitcher Aaron Laffey became the most recent Cleveland Indians to be given the news that he wasn’t going to start the season with the big league club when he was optioned to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. At the beginning of camp, many thought that Laffey would be on the roster when [...]
Indians Send Some Big Names to Columbus
It’s that time of the year again, when fringe players are told whether they are going to be sent down or they get to stay with the team. On Tuesday, the Cleveland Indians optioned pitcher Jeremy Sowers and catcher Wyatt Toregas to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. The Tribe also assigned many players [...]
Rays Reflections
David Price and Andy Sonnanstine are exhibits A and B in a lesson about how valuable experience can be when making a major league roster or, more importantly, a starting rotation. Though I am a big fan of Andy’s, anyone can see that Price is likely a far more talented pitcher in every aspect of [...]
Stadium Review: Progressive Field Home of the Cleveland Indians
The Indians home ballpark was renamed Progressive Field before the 2008 season after being named Jacobs Field for the length of its existence. This did not make Tribe fans happy, and many still refuse to call the ballpark by its new name. Even though the stadium has only been around for about 15 years, it [...]
Stadium Reflections: My Experience at Fenway Park
Image via Wikipedia Baseball Reflections reader may have noticed the stadium reviews that have been featured on the site recently. While it might be a good idea to review Fenway Park, it’s so well known that we considered it would just be better if there were a few personal perspectives on the stadium. My first, [...]
Who Will Be The Tigers’ 5th Starter?
Image via Wikipedia Is Rick Porcello ready to be in a major league rotation? That is the big question right now at the Tigers’ spring headquarters in Lakeland, Fla., bigger than worries about the health of Jeremy Bonderman and Joel Zumaya, bigger than the hole in the lineup left when four of the Tigers’ top [...]
Stadium Review: Rogers Centre Home of the Toronto Blue Jays
The Rogers Centre, formerly known and still frequently called the Sky Dome, is a staple of downtown Toronto. Even if one doesn’t make a trip to the stadium itself, it is very hard to miss the structure, especially since most visitors of downtown Toronto usually stop at the CN Tower, which looks straight down on [...]
Indians Make Roster Moves; Send Rundles, Ohka and Edell Down
The Indians made their first moves of the spring on Sunday as they made some cuts to their roster. Three players will be changing locations after the decisions made by manager Eric Wedge and general manager Mark Shapiro. First, pitcher Rich Rundles was optioned to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. Then, pitchers Tomo [...]
Baseball Reflections on the Rangers
The Texas Rangers finished the 2008 season with a 79-83 record, finishing second in the AL West behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. During the season, the Rangers finished first in all offensive categories, while finishing last in all but one category in pitching. It is no secret the Rangers need to focus on [...]
Reflections on the Blue Jays
Greetings from the Great White North and man is it ever white this year. I’m sure this is the worst winter in the last several years. I’m Rincewind and a great guy named Hugo and I run a blog called Bluebird Banter where we blather on and on about the Toronto Blue Jays. It is [...]
Reflections on the Mariners Part 2: Pitching
Starting rotation 2008: Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard, Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, R.A. Dickey, Ryan Feierabend, Ryan-Rowland Smith 2009: Hernandez, Bedard, Silva, Washburn, Brandon Morrow, Rowland-Smith This time last year people were talking about the M’s rotation being one of the best in baseball until everything went haywire. Felix stagnated, Bedard gave a career-low [...]
Reflections on the Mariners
Last October, Jack Zduriencik was anointed Seattle’s next GM after a ton of success in Milwaukee as Special Assistant to the GM for Player Personnel and Director of Amateur Scouting (and you thought his name was a mouthful, whew!). He may come in with a scouting background to bolster Seattle’s already-strong scouting department, but his [...]
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