Ballpark Travel

To those who have taken an interest in my career in baseball, I wanted to send a brief update as to how things have been progressing in my seasonal position with the Atlanta Braves. March 26 th marked my second month of being a trainee with the Braves and I look back on these two months and I just cannot believe how much I have learned about myself and about the industry in this time. During my time at Ithaca College, I prepared and developed my own opinions about sports and spent a great deal of time thinking about the business of baseball and how teams are successful money makers. Since arriving, I have finally realized the importance of ticket sales. Everything does truly return to ticket sales. In a year where the economy is in flux, selling becomes even more of a priority and as a result I have been encouraged just about every day to develop ideas that could sell tickets. So far, I have only come up with ideas, but hopefully by the end of the season I will be able to show that I

1.) Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2.) Texas Rangers 3.) Oakland A's 4.) Seattle Mariners The Angels have looked great thus far in Spring Training, but there is reason to believe that they have gotten significantly worse this season after losing Mark Teixeira, which means that the rest of the division catches up after the Angels won the division 2008 by more than 20 games. The Angels remain the favorites because of all around depth, but the Rangers and A's have closed the gap significantly. The Rangers offense is young and improving every day. There is a good chance that this offense could be record setting assuming good health. The A's will have their offensive struggles, but like the Rangers offense, the A's pitching is also young and looking like a staff that is maturing with every start. When the A's and Rangers get together, it'll be fun seeing which gets the upperhand. The Mariners are going to be a little better in 2009, but it may not be until 2011 until

Overview: The Texas Rangers are another intriguing team from the AL West, much like the Oakland A's. As is always the question with the Rangers, will their starting pitching be adequate enough to push them into the playoffs. They have a fantastic looking offense and a bullpen that has FIVE pitchers with closers experience. They have incredible depth on their bench as well. Nobody has been talking about the Rangers, but I really think that this could be a team that is going to surprise a lot of people this year and contend in the AL West all season long. Starting Pitching: Kevin Millwood , Vincente Padilla, Matt Harrison, Brandon McCarthy and Jason Jennings are currently slotted in the Rangers starting rotation. That's not exactly the best news for Rangers fans because that rotation is definitley not getting better. Watching Edinson Volquez dominate the National League hurts too, but the Rangers do have a good amount of young pitchers, so if any of the last three starters

Overview: The 2008 Seattle Mariners were one of the most disappointing teams in baseball history. Coming off a season in which they won 87 games and with a team payroll at $117 million, this was a team that was supposed to win, yet they finished a terrible 61-101. In the process of this historical failure, the Mariners dropped GM Bill Bavasi after numerous big number free agent signings that will haunt the club for years to come. Now under the leadership of GM Jack Zduriencik and manager Don Wakamatsu , the Mariners look to turn the page slowly on the mess that is the Seattle Mariners. They brought back Ken Griffey Jr. for marketing purposes, because even if this is Griffey from the late 1990's, this is still not a contender. 2009 will also see the Mariners giving some long looks to prospects Jeff Clement, Mike Karp , Wladimir Balentin and Matt Tuiasosopo . None of whom appear to have big impact potential this season. They do have Felix Herandez and Erik Bedard atop thei

Overview: The new variety of the Oakland Athletics promises to be a bit more interesting to watch for A's fans than the team that Oakland produced in 2008. Billy Beane had a very agressive start to his offseason, acquiring Matt Holliday from the Colorado Rockies. Then Beane made some excellent maneuvers to bring in some of the best bargains of the winter. Jason Giambi (1 year, 5.25M w/2010 club option), Orlando Cabrera (1 year, 4M) and Nomar Garciaparra (1 year, 1M) all came in at very reasonable prices and provide the A's with leadership that they needed. It is going to be particularly fun watching to see if Giambi or Garciaparra still have another season left in their bats. Those four moves certainly do change the way that teams will look at the A's, but there are still plenty of holes to fill on this team and plenty of new faces that fans will have to acquaint ourselves with over the summer. One thing is for certain, the 2009 A's are going to be interesting to watch

Overview: The Angels were widely regarded as being the best team in the American League in 2008, yet they were unable to make it past the Boston Red Sox again in a playoff series. The Angels had a tough offseason as well, losing both their best offensive player and closer to the New York teams (Mark Teixeira to the Yankees and Francisco Rodriguez to the Mets ). The Angels replaced those two with Bobby Abreu and Brian Fuentes, certainly a downgrade. Also in recent news, Vladimir Guerrero told reporters that he was 34 years old, as opposed to the 33 that he was believed to be. Perhaps that explains his severe decline as he no longer appears to be a major impact hitter at this stage in his career anymore. This does not bode well for the Angels as all of the other three teams in the division made improvements during the offseason . This team is going to live and die by their pitching and ability to play small-ball. A Mike Scoscia team will do all of the right things and play small b

Predicted Results: Atlanta Braves New York Mets (Wild Card winner) Philadelphia Phillies Florida Marlins Washington Nationals This appears to me to be the strongest division in the National League, by quite a good margin. I pick the Braves to outlast the Mets and Phillies in quite a dog fight because they have depth and will get Tim Hudson back for the stretch. Also given the Mets recent struggles in closing out the season and the Phillies starting pitching, the Braves look like they are going to be consistent all season. Injuries will be a huge factor in who wins this division with three very evenly balanced teams. Last season, the Braves were hit hard with injuries and added nothing but depth and durable veterans this offseason, in doing so, they are in great position to outlast their opponets this season. It will be important to watch the Marlins and Nationals, each of whom have legitimate talent and will be pesky to close out. One final reason why the Braves are going to be the NL

Overview: In their brief history in Washington, the Nationals have never made the playoffs. There is no reason for much of a reason to expect that to change in 2009. On the positive for the Nationals is that Jim Bowden is no longer in charge of that franchise after resigning during the middle of an ugly political issue where Bowden is being investigated for poor signing tactics of Dominican players. Prior to leaving, Bowden stacked the Nationals with slow, poor defensive corner players. The Nationals should be better in 2009 and will absolutely factor into who wins the division, but they should be well out of the race by June. This franchise needs athleticism all over the diamond and a makeover to the pitching staff. They will likely make some trades before the season starts, but even with those trades, the Nationals are in trouble. Starting Pitching: Garrett Olson, Daniel Cabrera, John Lannan , Shawn Hill and Colin Balester are the five pitchers that are currently slated in the N

As a baseball fan, I regret to admit that I have not been able to see the Baseball documentary until after my 22 nd birth date . I came home this afternoon from work with the Braves to turn on the Ken Burns documentary on baseball. Not that I needed it all that much, but it forced me to see the beauty of the game once again. If you claim to be a baseball fan and have not seen this documentary, you need to immediately. I am on the first DVD courtesy of Netflix , and can't wait to get through the next 9. Here is a sample of some quotes that beautifully articulate the nature of the game. "I think that there are three things that America will be known for 2000 years from now when they study ancient cultures: The Constitution, Jazz Music and Baseball. Those are the three most beautifully designed things that this culture has done." "There is no parameter that prohibits you from performing more excellently" "It's a very peaceful thing, there's grass ther

Overview: The 2008 World Series Champions will be back to challenge for the NL East crown once again. This offseason , the Phillies added Raul Ibanez , while subtracting Pat Burrell and that was about the only big change that was made so theoretically , they should be in contention again. I am not sold on the Phillies and was not last October either. It came down to the Phillies getting hot at the right time and they took the World Series. With a weaker pitching staff than the other top two teams in their division and an injury concern to their best hitter, Chase Utley , I am very doubtful about the staying power of the Philadelphia Phillies . Starting Pitching: The Phillies rotation, led by Cole Hamels should be fairly solid. Hamels should be in conversation for the Cy Young award this season, every season for the next several years for that matter. After him however, the Phillies are stretched pretty thin on 4 th starters. Brett Myers showed last season that he can still

Overview: The New York Mets continued their dedication towards making big name additions in the free agent market this offseason by adding Francisco Rodriguez the season after his record breaking number of saves. Within a week, the Mets acquired an even better closer, by my estimation, in JJ Putz. Now the Mets have put together the best back end of the rotation in Major League Baseball, though it is inverted. Everything else will stay the same, which may not be good for the team that has left its fans nothing short of heartbroken. The New York Mets offense is as inconsistent as they come, with the exception of David Wright. There are times when Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran are locked in and are some of the most frightening hitters in all of baseball, but that does not happen often enough, and it hardly ever happens when they click at the same time. This is a team that is full of talent that just does not seem to be able to put it together. They have improved the

Overview: The 2009 Florida Marlins are full of players that are going to take 2 months for even the most avid MLB fans to be able to answer the question: who was that? Yet, this continues the Marlins historical trend of being able to take young players and build competitive teams with them. The Marlins also have one of the best players in baseball. Hanley Ramirez blew up last season into being considered the most valuable fantasy player in the game by many including Yahoo! sports. It's really a shame that Ramirez is a Marlin because he would be a superstar in many other markets. Though as their 2008 offseason shows, it will only be another 2 more seasons before he is traded because they cannot (or is it will not?) afford his services after that. The Marlins should field another competitive team, but it will most likely not be enough to keep in touch with the top three NL East teams. Starting Pitching : This is a staff of guys that are incredibly talented, yet nobody has gotten to