Can you believe it? The new season starts up proper NEXT WEEK! My Astros will host the San Francisco Giants in our first game of the new season. The pitching matchup? How does THIS sound: Roy Oswalt (HOU) vs. Tim Lincecum (SF)!
What, if anything, concerns you about your favorite teams and players this upcoming season?
UPDATE The 2010 debut of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball will feature the Yankees at the Red Sox. Those are two of the only teams ESPN mostly cares about (guess the NBA that is the other in ESPN's foursomes).
Yeah ESPN is a complete joke and so is the MLB coverage.
I just spent last week in Scottsdale Arizona for Spring Training and it was pretty sweet. I got to see Pablo Sandoval shag fly balls in the outfield which awesome. He also spent a lot of time flirty with the honeys and skipping around with a big smile on his face.. It's hard not to love him. Speaking of Sandoval.. he has slimmed down a bit and now won't have sight problems like he did last year. He is also completely healthy so he will hopefully have it power stroke through out the year. Our offense looks much better this year with the addition of Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff. Huff is looking for a rebound year which would be amazing if he could do. Freddy Sanchez and Juan Uribe are also back (Sanchez to start on DL) but Uribe is scheduled to play 2nd in the mean time. If Uribe can do half of what he did last September (.325 AVG, 8 HR, 23 RBI, .596 SLG, .970 OPS) then he will be golden. He was unstoppable.
Also Buster Posey is likely to be on the club despite the fact that Bengie Molina is back with us. He is likely to start 2 games at catcher and play a couple at first every week. The kid is a cream of the crop player and needs to be played. Also it looks like John Bowker has won the job for RF which is awesome because he provides power that this club needs. (Back in 2008 he hit 4 HR's in his first week in the bigs.)
And finally our pitching I think will be even better then last year... Cain, Lincecum and Sanchez are all getting better every year and are now a year older and looking to carry this team to the playoffs. Zito is also showing signs of his past with Oakland improving his ERA to 4.03 last year. Todd Wellemeyer is our new #5 pitcher who struggled with the Cardinals last year with injuries. But it will be nice to have a solid #5 for once.
And our bullpen is just about bullet proof with no more gas cans in there with 4+ ERA's. Affeldt, Wilson both signed extensions along with Licecum and Cain. We also re-signed Medders because he was clutch as hell last year. And with the addition of Runzler another hard throwing lefty who was to nasty for the minor leagues so he went from high A in San Jose to the bigs and first outing was against the beef of the Brewers order which is one of the best in the league... He did it striking out three guys in a row. Blowing fastballs by Fielder and Braun and getting them off balance with a off speed pitch isn't as easy as typing just that.
I'm excited but the NL West is still damn good and Arizona will be back in it this year. Padres will also surprise some people but will be no where near the Rockies, D-Backs, Dodgers and Giants. Any four of those teams have a chance to win it and the Wild Card is likely to come from here AGAIN.
Oh yeah, and I'm going to opening day at AT&T next Friday against the Braves. Hell yeah!
