Ballpark Travel

I noticed earlier today that the Kansas City Royals acquired slugging first-baseman Mike Jacobs of the Florida Marlins for lefty specialist Leo Nunez. I know that Nunez was a very effective reliever this past season, posting a sub-3.00 ERA, but Jacobs has proven himself to be a very effective power hitter, he is a bat that is begging for a good lefty-hitting park. Unfortunately, he won't get that in Kansas City, but I am still very high on a guy like Jacobs and see this move as being a steal for Kansas City. This past year, in 477 at-bats (primarily against right-handed pitching), Jacobs hit 32 homers for the Marlins, also in a very spacious park. This is the perfect move for the Royals who sorely need power in a lineup that hit 120 home-runs in the entire season and the Marlins lose him as he enters his arbitration years, which is a big help to them as they try to bring that payroll down to less than half of ARod's salary in 2009. Leo Nunez will be an effective reliever with ...

I have got to hand it to the Phillies . They certainly came to play right out of the gate and won this series, to bring serious sport euphoria to the city of Philadelphia. I do however feel that the story of the Series was more that the Rays lost the series rather than the Phillies winning it. Through poor defensive play, lack of clutch hitting and lack of aggression on the base paths , the Rays did not play their game. Despite pitching performances that kept them in the games, the Rays just could not break through against Philadelphia pitching, which is a credit to the excellent preparation and scouting work that their franchise had done to prepare for the series. I really feel that the lesser team won this series and really, with four of five games being decided by two or fewer runs (Three one-run games), the Rays mistakes that led to a run or not scoring did come back to cost them the series. The best example in my view was the defense of Akinori Iwamura . This is a player that i...

Dear Family and Friends, As promised, I am deviating from baseball for just one article to include the results from my 5K. I have to admit that this was one of the harder things that I have physically done in a long time, certainly since my knee surgery. For those who do not know the landscape of the city of Ithaca, it is at the tip of Appalachia, which means hills and lots of them. In the picture above, I was off to a burning quick start, in third place of over 200 runners after the first quarter-mile. It was a great feeling. I was thinking in my head that all of the treadmill work I had done in the past two months really had worked. Then, of course, reality set in as I reached the base of a 30 degree hill that quickly felt like from the top, I would be able to see several states away. The effect of this hill was the same as attaching a fifty pound anvil to my waist for the rest of my run. Despite miserable cramps, tired and sore legs and the cold rain falling on me, I managed to fini...

Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays Alright Las Vegas, you're going to have to pay up big to anyone who picked this match up on opening day. While I have been a constant voice of Rays support, not even I thought that they would go this far with a mediocre offense, a starting rotation all under the age of 26 and a bullpen comprised of scrap-heap pickups. The Phillies have been up and down all season and have gone as their hitters have, yet they are now hot and have led their team to a convincing World Series berth. I look at the Phillies and I see a lot of offensive talent, that when hot, can dominate teams. Against mediocre pitching in Los Angeles and Milwaukee, that is exactly what happened. The Phillies offense has been firing on all cylinders and really has impressed the baseball world with their maximum capacity. They also have a dynamic starter in Cole Hamels and a better closer in Brad Lidge , yet to blow a save in nearly 50 opportunities (including the playoffs)...

While staying up until 1:30 A.M. on the east coast, Rays fans were well rewarded for watching the game well past their bedtimes of 8:00 and witnessed what great postseason moments are made of. In an epic 5 and a half hour game, the Rays and Red Sox matched great bullpen performances after their starters let them down. After the offenses cooled, Joe Maddon's bullpen pitched great, led by Dan Wheeler. Wheeler, the Rays closer, threw 3.1 innings and 48 pitches in his effort and kept the Red Sox lineup quiet in extra innings. I will give credit to Maddon for being so agressive with his best relief option to put him out for a fourth inning of work. Of course, there is reason to question using his closer for 48 pitches in Game 2, but it really was a must win situation. Time will tell if Wheeler remains effective with the coming games at Fenway, but I have to say that I like the move for now. The other Maddon move that I wish to discuss was in the bottom of the 11th when he sent Fernando ...

National League Championship Series: Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies This promises to be a very good series. Each team offers very similar style and are playing the best baseball of their season right now. They have two managers in Joe Torre and Charlie Manuel that have been in the postseason a great deal in their day, and they each have offenses that can mash the ball, with a slight advantage to Philadelphia if Pat Burrell is indeed getting his stroke back (2 HR's in Game 4 of the NLDS vs. Milwaukee). The Phillies and Dodgers both have the offensive talent but the Phillies offer something that Joe Torre cannot counter with, a bonafide ace in Cole Hamels while the Dodgers counter with one of the best postseason hitters in baseball history in Manny Ramirez. In the playoffs however, good pitching beats good hitting most of the time and the Phillies absolutely have an edge with Hamels in potentially three games if necessary. In the battle of late inning relief, ...

To start, these were four of the best consecutive games in a playoff series perhaps ever played. These four games were hard fought for each of the 39 innings and there was doubt as to who would win the game until the final out was made. This series can best be described as being intense. In the end, it came down to the Angels not being able to come up with the clutch hit while the Red Sox taking advantage of the uncharacteristic sloppy defense that the Angels played, particularly in the outfield. While the Red Sox did not play great, they did play well enough to win this series. I will give this credit to the nature of their regular season play. The Red Sox (and Rays) play in arguably the most competitive division in baseball and most competitive division in the past decade with four playoff capable teams. The nature of play in the American League East prepared the Red Sox for the playoffs better than that of the West, where two of the worst teams matched up with the Angels. Sinc...

The Cubs will be back next year, their nucleus is just too good not to in such a weak National League. Though, I'll bet that Lou Pinella does not bench his all-star starters for the entire final week to the season. I'd say that it threw off their timing just a bit. I will give credit to the Dodgers, they put on pressure and kept it on, but the Cubs have now been swept out of the playoffs in the Division Series three times in the last six years. It may be time to get a high OBP , lead off type to take over in center field for Jim Edmonds and Reed Johnson and push Alfonso Soriano down to a lower spot in the lineup. Either way, you kind of have to feel bad for the Cubs. On the cover of Sports Illustrated and ESPN's choice for World Series champions, they fell hard and their fans have got to be feeling the pain.

Sports analysts across the country have been screaming since Boston's 7-5 defeat of the Angels last evening about the post-season dominance that the Red Sox have over the Angels. Last nights win marked the 11th consecutive win for the Red Sox over the Angels in post-season play, a streak that spans back to the 1986 LCS. While those games seem unimportant, the Red Sox domanince of the Angels in October baseball is unusual and at least the 8 consecuitive victories (sweep in the LDS in '04, '07; and a 2-0 lead in '08) are relevant. This is unlike any other matchup that I have seen in my time as a follower of the game, while the 2008 series has provided some incredibly hard fought games, the Red Sox have still been winners. I find it hard to believe in professional athletes allowing for a postseason losing streak that spans two decades to get into their minds, but it does seem unreal that the best team in the playoffs may go down tomorrow night to the same team. I think in ...

It is the 3rd inning in Los Angeles this evening and already this game is shaping up to be a battle of two of the greatest and most successful managers in Major League Baseball today. Whatever happens, this is going to be an incredible series. Also, tonight is the first time I recognized Howie Kendrick's improved defensive prowess. Thanks to Buck Martinez, the stat of one error in 70+ games is a huge improvement in just one year (9 in 86 games last year).

Boston Red Sox vs. Los Angeles Angels I don't know where to begin with this series because defending champion, Boston, has history of defeating the Angels in the Divisional series in 2004 and 2007 though these teams appear to be in different situations. The Angels finished the season as the best team in the American League and did it with a solid lineup from top to bottom and great starting pitching. The Red Sox have won two championships with teams built on that premises , which is why I say that the winner of this series will be World Series champion in 2008. I said Boston back in July and I am going to have to stick with that choice here. Either way, this is going to be a great set of games and probably the best match-up in the first-round of the playoffs. Pick: Boston in 5 Chicago White Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays Oh the satisfaction that it gives me to write Tampa Bay Rays in a divisional series preview. The 11 year wait for postseason play is over for the Rays, winners of the ...