All Entries Tagged With: "East"

Baltimore Orioles Midseason Report: Seeing Past the Ugliness

From the very beginning, the goal of the 2009 season for the Baltimore Orioles has been to be respectable on the field while continuing behind the scenes to develop the pieces needed to eventually lead the Orioles back to contention in the American League East.

With the season now three months old and nearing the mid-point, it’s time to see just how the Orioles have been doing in meeting their objectives.

It is probably…

June Reflections on the Blue Jays

When my partner in crime, Tom, penned his last epistle about our beloved azure corvidae, things were just going great in the Queen City.  He mentioned how much he was enjoying the season thus far, and confided that he wasn’t sure how long the Jays could keep it up.  The answer – not long.  Almost immediately after his missive, the Jays went into a tailspin in which they were swept in…

Pirates will remain sellers as deadline approaches

After suffering through 16 consecutive losing seasons, many Pirate fans wonder how any team’s management could be more inept; how any team’s ownership could be more stingy.  And who could blame them?  The streak of sub-.500 finishes will soon be historic.

The sudden and unexpected trade of All-Star outfielder Nate McLouth on June 3 was viewed by many as a microcosm of the past decade and…

Despite Ailments, Streaking Mets Keep NL East Tight

Really? Come on. If this is a surprise then the last few years must be a bit fuzzy to the memory. What has become an annual drama-filled, slug-fest between the New York Mets and bitter rival Philadelphia Phillies has come to fruition once again this season as the two teams remain inseparable atop the National League East. As of the morning of June 1, the Mets are just a half game behind the…

Will The Baltimore Orioles Have To Trade Aubrey Huff?

Baltimore Orioles team president Andy MacPhail made the right call in his decisions to trade Erik Bedard and Miguel Tejada and to keep Brian Roberts.  He could soon get another test as he must decide whether to keep or trade free agent-to be Aubrey Huff.

There is no question that Huff is a valuable member of a formidable lineup that with the recent additions of Nolan Reimold and Matt Wieters which ranks favorably with any offense in…

Matt Wieters Scheduled to Join the Baltimore Orioles on Friday

The wait is over.  In an interview with Gary Thorne and Buck Martinez during Tuesday night’s game between the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays, Orioles President Andy MacPhail announced that top prospect Matt Wieters will be making his major league debut on Friday, May 29, when the Detroit Tigers visit Baltimore to face the Orioles.

“We are planning on Friday to introduce him [Wieters] to Major League Baseball right here at Camden…

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 division.

Things have taken a strange turn for the Tampa Bay Rays – the 2008 team was pitching-strong…

Phillies Fans It Is Not Time To Panic

If you have been watching the Phillies lately you may be wondering just where exactly DID the offense go? Or you may be wondering how it is possible that Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were a combined 0-22 with 12 strikeouts in their series with the Dodgers this past week. This is a very tough concept to grasp after what the team showed last season.

Scoring only 24 runs in their most recent home…

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 prove the experts of the world wrong. Maybe the fun will end but we are…

For the Nats, April was Forgettable

For the Washington Nationals, April 2009 was a month to forget.

March was a bad sign of things to come. The club opened camp with the revelation that the future of the franchise, 19-year-old Esmailyn Gonzalez, was in fact 24-year-old Carlos Alverez Daniel Lugo. A resulting scandal broke out, the FBI got involved, and before you knew it, the Nats started the season without their General Manager and already on the…

New Bullpen, New Ballpark, New York Mets

The boys who used to play in Shea finally figured it out it seems. Fix the back-end of your bullpen, shorten the games to accommodate an under-performing starting rotation and find yourself leading a mildly competitive National League East. Mix all of these factors, shaken, not stirred, in a margarita shaker, along with the Mets playing in a pitcher friendly ballpark and you have a team riding a seven-game winning…

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 Lowrie, SP Daisuke Matsuzaka and OF Rocco Baldeli.

The Rotation

We have also seen great starts be Jon Lester,…

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 the then-22-year-old outfielder could parlay the potential he had showed at the minor league level into major league success.

Even though…

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 for the opening series and was treated to 4 excellent games of baseball between the Jays and the…

Atlanta Braves Looking for Rebound Season in 2009

Following their worst season since Bobby Cox became the manager in 1990, all signs point to the Atlanta Braves returning to their typical spot near the top of the National League East in 2009.

Rather than signing high profile free agents, the Braves have made strategic additions designed to solidify the weaknesses exposed during their 72-90 campaign of a year ago.

The Braves 2009 pitching staff will never be confused with their dominant rotations of…

Marlins Must Prove That Talent Trumps Experience

Considering that only the Red Sox and Yankees have won as many World Series titles in the last 12 years, you might think the young and talented Florida Marlins would be considered a trendy sleeper pick for a playoff run this season. After all, the squad did win 84 games last year and were in contention in the National League East until the final weeks of the season.

However, while economic frugality is…

World Champions Reload, Reorganize, for Repeat

The start of this offseason brought about a bevy of unwelcomed, albeit unsurprising news to the 2008 World Champions. Left-handed reliever J.C. Romero, who had a 0.00 ERA in four World Series appearances, finally learned the fate of his appeal for violating the league’s steroid-abuse policy. Romero was sentenced to a 50-game suspension to begin the 2009 regular season.

The Phillies were also faced with the departure of left fielder Pat…

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 rest assured that after a decade of mismanagement, the Orioles finally seem to have a plan designed…

NY Mets: A Look Back at 2008 & What to Expect in 2009

Coming off yet another regular season collapse in 2008 the New York Mets are looking to bounce back in 2009.  Trying to shake the monkey that is Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard off their backs and finally live up to their potential and hype.  Following their most recent regular season collapse the Mets took action in the offseason and made some key additions to their roster that could finally get them over the hump…

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 the game.  The 23 year old Price seemed major league ready when he was drafted,…

Stadium Reflections: My Experience at Fenway Park

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, and so far only, trip to Fenway was during the 2004 season (Isn’t it interesting that the…

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 the stadium. When it is a nice day outside, and the roof at the Rogers Centre…

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 time for our monthly check in here at Baseball Reflections.

A couple of weeks into spring training (the…

Reflections on the Rays

In pre-season of 2008, I picked the Tampa Bay Rays to make some noise in the American League, to win 25 more games than they had the year before, to top the Seattle Mariners by 18 games, and to make a run at the wild card in the American League. And if you managed to meet me and talk baseball for more than five minutes in the last year, you know this.…