All Entries Tagged With: "Central"
Ahhh, the Astros
Coming off a year in which almost the entire team was overhauled and still were one big hurricane away from carrying a playoff chase into the final days of the season, the Astros were the first team this off-season to plead economic downturn, and it showed. GM Ed Wade, under orders from legendarily hands-on owner [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Stadium Review: PNC Park Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates
Even though the Pittsburgh Pirates carry a history that goes back to 1887, they are often forgotten in historical conversations about baseball these days, perhaps because they haven’t really done anything of consequence in decades. This may be the reason, then that their immaculately built stadium seems to be overlooked when discussions about the great [...]
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 [...]
What to Expect From The Cubs in 2009
To say that this is probably the beginning of the end for Derrek Lee would miss the point – we have likely reached the end of the beginning of the end. The beginning of the end came in 2006, when he broke his wrist in a collision with Rafael Furcal. Lee has had two good [...]
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 [...]
Baseball Reflections on the Cardinals
The 2008 offseason promised to be an exciting one for Cardinal fans. There was quite a bit of salary coming off the payroll, there were surpluses to trade from, and GM John Mozeliak promised to be “aggressive,” taking care of the “low-hanging fruit” first and moving on to other things. That was before the worst [...]
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 Brewers
Any preview of the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers will invariably contain the names CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets early and often. The two combined for 24 wins in 2008 and the run CC went on after his trade from Cleveland has been well documented. With the “workhorse” Sabathia now in New York, and the oft-injured Sheets [...]
Reflections on the Cub’s Off Season
The Chicago Cubs and their fans can congratulate themselves on a page-turning 2008 season. In what was the centennial year of World Series drought for the lovable losers, the Cubs managed to convince their fans that this was “The Year” before being summarily dismissed from the post-season by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the process, [...]
Reflections On the White Sox
2008 was an odd year in the AL Central. A lot of people–this commentator included– thought that the Tigers had the division won before pitchers and catchers even reported to camp. Oops. They ended up in last place. And while it took an extra game, the Chicago White Sox were your AL Central champs. Cue [...]
Tribe Signs Graffanino to Minor League Deal
With a busy, yet slow off season still yet to end, even though pitchers and catchers have already reported to spring training, the Indians decided that they didn’t have enough veteran talent with minor league contracts and major league invites to spring training, so they signed Tony Graffanino to one. Graffanino was originally drafted in [...]
Kurt’s Reflections on the Tigers Off Season
With the difficult economic situation in Detroit, we (recognize) that people will turn to our team for three hours of daily relief from the stress of everyday life. The Detroit Tigers have filled that role through World Wars, depressions and riots. With the bedrock industry of the city struggling to survive, our fans want to [...]
The Indians Add Another Cy Young Award Winner
The Cleveland Indians have added another Cy Young Award winner to their staff. Well, sort of. Frank Viola, who won the award with the Minnesota Twins in 1988, has signed on to work with the Indians’ pitchers during spring training in Goodyear Arizona. The former big leaguer will work along side pitching coach Carl Willis. [...]
Indians Sign Chulk to Minor League Deal
On Tuesday the Indians signed pitcher Vinnie Chulk to a minor league contract. The right hander was originally a 12th round draft pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2000. The reliever made his major league debut on September 8, 2003 as an end of the season call up to the Jays. He has spent [...]
Tribe Signs Catcher Shoppach to One Year Deal
The Indians recently signed their current back-up catcher Kelly Shoppach to a one year deal. Shoppach has been with the Tribe since the 2006 season when he was traded from the Boston Red Sox in an off season deal involving outfielder Coco Crisp and third baseman Andy Marte. Shoppach’s role has grown since 2006 and [...]
Tribe Trades with Cubs; Acquire DeRosa
Cleveland Indians general manager Mark Shapiro made yet another move to bolster his infield this off season as he pulled the trigger on a trade with the Chicago Cubs to bring right handed hitter Mark DeRosa to Cleveland. In exchange for the infielder, the Indians gave up three of their highly regarded minor league pitchers. [...]
St. Louis Cardinals off Season Report
Season Wrap Up The Cardinals won as many games in 2008 as they did when they won the World Series just two seasons earlier, but they found themselves outside of the playoff picture when the season ended. With an 86-76 record, the Cards once again had a very solid season with Tony La Russa at [...]
Houston Astros off Season Report
Season Wrap Up The Astros last left us by missing the playoffs with an 86-75 record to finish third in the National League Central. Although they were in the heat of the race for a while, they dropped off at the end when they were forced to play home games in Milwaukee because of the [...]
Cincinnati Reds off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Cincinnati had a dismal season once again, going 74-88 and finishing fifth in the National league Central. After the hire of manager Dusty Baker in the off season, many believed the Reds would improve this year and while they received some good individual performances from some young talent, they were still disappointing [...]
Chicago Cubs off Season Report
Season Wrap Up The team from the North Side of Chicago acted like they were finally going to break the all encompassing Billy Goat Curse last season, but that all ended when they got to the playoffs. While they were the darlings of analysts during the regular season, once the post season game around, they [...]
Kansas City Royals off Season Report
Season Wrap Up For many other teams, posting a 75 win season isn’t exactly a cause for excitement, but for the first time in a while, the Royals were able to dig themselves out of the bottom spot in the American League Central. They finished fourth, but some improvement is better than none. The good [...]
Minnesota Twins off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Baseball fans last saw the Twins in a one game playoff with the Chicago White Sox for the Central Division crown and a spot in the playoffs. Although they did not win that game, they still had an impressive season. After losing Torii Hunter to free agency and trading away Johan Santana, [...]
Detroit Tigers Season Wrap Up
Everyone in baseball was surprised the Tigers did not vie for a playoff spot last year. In fact, they played more like house cats than Tigers. While their payroll ballooned, their play on the field greatly decreased. Despite having many previous and potential All Stars on their team, Detroit was unable to stay in the [...]
Chicago White Sox off Season Report
Season Wrap-up Baseball fans last saw the White Sox lose to the Rays in the divisional round of the playoffs. They were by no means a power during the season, but they play in a weak division and were able to stay above water enough to make it to the playoffs. Holes to Fill Their [...]
The Baseball Reflections Annual Team Analysis
This off season Bill and I will tackle the task of analyzing the needs of each team going into the 2009 season. Last year I did it all myself and I think I forgot 1 or 2 teams along the way. Plus, I went overboard with details and the task took me two days worth [...]
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