213 Miles From Shea

As you know by now, today the Mets will travel to the Tigers in the first official game of spring. Players on the actual roster for the Mets that are known to be playing today are Pelfry, Church, Anderson, Wise, Sosa and Feliciano.
They will be against the tough pitching of Bonderman and the familiar hitting of Miguel Cabrera and Renteria.

Its good to know that Pelfry will be pitching against some MLB caliber, and All-Star caliber batters today, lets see what he can do. There is also a bullpen subplot growing here as Sosa and Feliciano have their places, but Wise is trying to fit in. Personally, I would prefer Wise or Lugo to Schoenwies, but lets see what this spring brings.

Here is some other news in links in case you missed it:

Scott Kazmir will be out 2 weeks due to an elbow injury and will receive a MRI.
Cubs owner willing to sell the naming rights of Wrigley.
Myers will be the opening day starter for the Phillies over Hamels.
Vizquel will have knee surgury and will be out for up to 5 weeks.
TBS has National Games on Sundays now.

On February 8th, I wrote about Michel Abreu being at Spring Training this year and his previous stats. That article can be found here. His stats show that he could be a threat, but as a reader brought up in the comment section, there is question about his age.

In today's game, he hit a two-run homerun in the ninth inning. Although that was against University of Michigan, it still counts and lets see what happens as he takes AB's against actual teams. I would not be surprised to see him getting a lot of AB as Spring continues. He could be a dark horse for one of the bench spots (or an eventual trade token).

Although this statement is redundant, Abreu is one of the players that I will be keeping an eye on during Spring Training.

Here are some stat lines from today's game:
Abreu: 2-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI's
Wright: 1-2, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI's
Reyes: 1-2, 1 R
Church: 0-1, SB
Fmart: 1-2

The first real Spring Training games start tomorrow for many teams. There is a flurry of news that might get lost in the shuffle, so here are some of the tidbits that I found interesting:

Remember Francisco Liriano? He was the pitcher that was so dominant in 2006, that the Twins were thought to be starting a powerhouse dynasty in pitching with him, and Johan. Then he blew his arm out and has been out all of this time. Well he finally got his VISA issues taken care of, and should be reporting to camp soon. You can read more about it here.

The Mariners with their improved pitching staff looked to take on the Angels and recapture the AL West Championship crown. There was a story on mlb.com yesterday about how their Manager, wants and expects Ichrio to steal over 80 bases this upcoming year The most that he has ever done in a season has been 56. If he steals 80 bases, its just another reason why he is one of the great players in the game.

Foxsports.com has a video of the Marlins preparing for one of their new promotions next year. Its pretty desperate, but original. They have assembled a team they call the 2008 Marlin Manatees which is comprised of a good number of overweight, middle age men, who will be dancing to various hip hop songs.
They do have attendance issues, will this help? The video doesn't explain anything, its just 45 seconds of watching their tryouts.

In the edition of Sports Weekly on sale now (with Santana on the cover), there is a 2008 power poll. Here are the top 10 teams:
1. Boston Red Sox
2 Detroit Tigers
3. Cleveland Indians
4. New York Yankees
5. Los Angeles Angels
6. NEW YORK METS
7. Arizona Diamondbacks
8. Colorado Rockies
9. Seattle Mariners
10. Philadelphia Phillies
(16. Atlanta Braves)

So, according to USA Today, only 4 NL teams are good enough to be in the top 10 of baseball, and they all are ranked 6 or below. I feel that the Mets are better than 6 on paper, but until the NL starts winning All-Star games and World Series Rings, preseason rankings like this one will continue to be published.
Overall though, I think the argument will start to surface that talent is starting to squeeze teams closer together. Outside of teams that should win their division without much trouble (Cubs for example), there is a cluster of teams that are good enough for the Wild Card. This argument originates from just looking at the polls, there are so many teams that you look at and go, “Hmm, I think they should be listed higher than that”, but when you look at the teams above them, they are slightly better, so teams are starting to look better and better on paper.
What we saw at the end of last season, with the possibility of 3 or 4 teams going for a Wild Card playoff game, (where 2 actually made it), could be a trend starting now. Bring it, because that is great for baseball.
(Another way to look at this is that the middle-level teams are starting to grow while horrible teams and excellent teams are starting to shrink)

Who's excited for actual box scores this week? I know I am and I made a list by day, based on the schedule, of pitchers I am spending a little more attention on this week.
Monday: Niese, Lugo, Sanchez
Tuesday: Kunz
Wedensday: Pelfry, Wise, Stokes, Callazo
Thrusday: Sanchez, Lugo
Friday: Kunz, (Santana)

First off, thank you to a reader who found a very recent article from the IBL website that lists 8 players that played in the IBL last summer and are moving on to tougher leagues. The entire post and comments can be found under the article Get To Know A Prospect: Juan Feliciano.

Mlbtraderumors.com talks about the future of Ryan Howard and the Phillies. The Phillies have him until 2011, which the feeling on the site is, and I believe around baseball, is that as long as he produces, he will continue breaking arbritation records. The Phillies probably don't have the funds to sign Howard long term and would benefit, depending on the direction of the team by 2011, trading Howard for prospects. Its an interesting discussion, go check it out.

If you didn't hear yet, the Marlins new stadium got approved, the Cubs Closer position is open and has many candidates, and finally, K-rod lost his arbritation case today.

I will not be appearing on Late Hits with AG and the Beast on WUCP.
Due to a Woman's Basketball game, which could cause the show not to happen, I will probably be on the show next Thursday.

The following are my final standings predictions for the 2008 season. This is the first set I will do. There will be another set at the end of spring training (or near the end, right before the Red Sox/ Oakland game in Japan on March 25th), where I will adjust my predictions accordingly based on Spring Training and any last minute trades (like Roberts or Blanton). Without further ado, the MLB 2008 season. (later on I will do reasonings for these rankings)

AL East
1. Boston
2. NY Yankees
3. Tampa Bay
4. Toronto
5. Baltimore
AL Central
1. Detroit
2. Cleveland
3. Minnesota
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Kansas City
AL West
1. LA Angels
2. Seattle
3. Oakland
4. Texas

NL West
1. Arizona
2. San Diego
3. Colorado
4. LA Dodgers
5. San Francisco
NL Central
1. Chicago Cubs
2. Milwaukee
3. Houston
4. St. Louis
5. Cincinnati
6. Pittsburgh
NL EAST
1. New York Mets
2. Atlanta
3. Philadelphia
4. Nationals
5. Marlins

Programming Note: Tomorrow, there is a possibility that I will be on the WUCP, Late Hits with AG and the Beast Show, if it happnes, I will let you know tommorow of a link where you can hear the show and more details of what I will be saying.

The Daily News got some good quotes from the Phillies regarding
Beltran's comments on how the Mets are the team to beat. These some of
the quotes:
    “With Beltran making his statement, it sounded like, 'All right,
Jimmy, this is for you.' It's almost to the point where it's personal
more         than anything”-Victorino.
Shane was getting to the point here
that last year, Rollin's quote was said as a way to pump up the
Phillies to be a winning team and Beltran is not doing that with this
quote, instead its more of an attack on Jimmy. If this quote will pump
up the Mets, then Rollins has to be part of it because his name, his
being represents the Phillies as a whole when it comes to making
predictions before the season starts.
    “It's fun. It creates excitement.”
Hmm…Who on the Phillies would give
a classy, nonaggressive, quote like that? Yep, thats from good 'ol
Utley, who doesn't disrespect. His quote does show that the players are
ready for this new age rivalry.
    (This Quote is About the Braves) “They're probably laughing inside
not say anything – like, 'Okay just let us go to work'” – Victorino
This was in response to a question
about the rivalry between the Phillies and the Mets leaving out the
Braves. No one is talking about them, so what if they come from
surprise? Shane is stating here, and in other quotes around this one,
that no one is counting the Braves out, and by getting occupied with
this, we are letting the Braves just train harder and not be distracted
so they can go out and win the division.
That is a little fear of mine with their rotation that they just working hard right now and come out and win the division.

Over the past couple of days, I have collected a small list of notable quotes and acts in the NL East from Spring Training. As you can probably guess, the first one is one of the quotes is the one you have probably have heard a lot so far, and I am very excited and pumped to tell it to you again. (Quote cited from Metsblog.com)
    “With (Santana), I have no doubt we're going to win our division. I have no doubt about that… So this year, tell Jimmy Rollins we are         the team to beat.”
That quote from Beltran is the statement that I have been waiting for. I haven't been waiting for the specifics of the quote, to claim the Met as the team to beat, I have been waiting for Beltran to step out and saying something to grab attention. Players help embrace rivalries and this statement not only helps that put places Beltran as an assertive player.

Over on espn.com, I found three quotes from Pedro Martinez that are worth noting. They are about the steroid era, Johan, and the Phillies.
    “I dominated that era and I did it clean.”
    “I'm extremely happy to have Johan here. It's like a big glass of cold water when you're thirsty.”
    “We have to make Jimmy swallow his tongue.”
I love the second quote in that sequence. Only Pedro would equate Johan to have a glass of water.

The Phillies recently played a prank on Kyle Kendrick. You can read about here. I am not quite sure if I find this prank funny or not. They think its hilarious though.