Friday, February 27, 2009

MLB Roundup Feb. 26-27

It's been a little bit since we last posted so there a few more things to mention than usual today.

Manny Ramirez is just being Manny man. Or something like that. It was announced earlier this morning that Manny had rejected the Dodgers offer of $45 million for two years. How much is going to be enough for him? If you are a Dodgers fan, or really whoever signs him, do you feel like he is being greedy and does that make you dislike him? I'm not sure when he will sign but it will be for a crazy amount of money.

Barry Bonds former trainer Greg Anderson is still refusing to testify against Bonds in court. Anyone else see this coming? Anderson has already spent time in prison for refusing to testify and could be making another trip to the slammer for the same thing.

Giants ace and NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum has agreed to a one-year $650,000 contract. Lincecum had a breakout year last year going 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA and led the majors with 265 K's in 227 innings. The Giants website says this is likely the last time they will be able to contain his salary as it is likely he will be eligible for arbitration after this season. As long as he continues to put up solid numbers, he will have a big payday very soon.

Mets pitcher Johan Santana was scratched from a Friday start against Italy due to tenderness in his pitching elbow. He should make his exhibition season debut on Tuesday.

Another player is out of the WBC. Grady Sizemore because of a sore left groin. Sizemore doesn't sit out much so he was quoted saying "This was something I was looking forward to, I was excited to get a chance to play for my country." Just want to add that he was on my fantasy team that won the league by 40.5 games, but that is really unimportant right now. Coming to the WBC now however will be Miguel Tejada who will play for the Dominican Republic. He initially declined an offer to play in the WBC because the team wanted to use him at first base. It seems all worked out now and Tejada seems happier.

For the record, at the time this is being written there is just over 37 days til Opening Night.

Please post your comments and make your opinions heard on all MLB topics!

zack.blbb@gmail.com

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

MLB Roundup Feb. 25

Let get a few administrative things out of the way first here. Here at the Big League Baseball Blog we will be looking at all the teams in the MLB but we do have writers that will write about specific teams. You saw that today with Jim's recap of the Pirates/Phillies game. Jim is our Pirates writer, Michael will write about his beloved Reds, Alex is writing about the Chicago White Sox, Zack will write about the Cardinals, and Paul is representing the Royals. So, that's it for the administrative stuff, just want to keep the readers informed.

Today was the first day of spring training exhibititon games with a total of 16 games on the schedule. Check out the scores below.

Cactus League
White Sox 3 v Angels 12
Giants 10 v Indians 7
Athletics 3 v Brewers 3 (10 innings)
Royals 7 v Rangers 12
Dodgers 3 v Cubs 5
Mariners 3 v Padres 4
D'Backs 5 v Rockies 3

Grapefruit League
Marlins 5 v Cardinals 5 (10 innings)
Mets 9 v Orioles 3
Boston College 1 v Red Sox 7
Braves 4 v Tigers 5
Yankees 6 v Blue Jays 1
Nationals 3 v Astros 6
Phillies 2 v Pirates 8 (see post below for game recap)
Reds 7 v Rays 0
Red Sox 2 v Twins 5

A-Rod hit a home run in the Yankees game against the Blue Jays, obviously his first game since he admitted to taking steroids while with the Texas Rangers. It will definitely be interesting to see how he plays this year with the steroids issue in the back of everyone's minds.

As reported on ESPN.com, the LA Dodgers have made a new offer to resign Manny Ramirez. The numbers are just ridiculous, 2 years for $45 million dollars. Manny is 36 and I guess my question is is he worth almost $25 million a year at that age. Look at his numbers in LA last year though and that shows you why he has a big price tag.

If you are itching for some baseball action tune in to ESPN tomorrow at 1:05 Eastern as the Astros take on the Braves.

bigleaguebaseballblog@gmail.com

Bucs beat Phillies 8-2 in spring opener

The Pirates took the field today in their spring training opener against the defending World Series champions and pounced all over them. The Bucs used 9 pitchers, each pitching one inning in an 8-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

The 2nd base position definitely filled up the box score today as Freddy Sanchez was 2-2 with a double and an RBI. His backup, prospect Shelby Ford was 1-3 with a 3-run homer. Jack Wilson, Steve Pearce, Neil Walker, and Anderson Machado all had an RBI.

Pitchers Chris Bootcheck, Matt Capps, Donald Veal, Juan Mateo, Craig Hansen, and Evan Meek all tossed a scoreless inning. Romulo Sanchez and Jesse Chavez each gave up 1 ER.

The Bucs' top 3 prospects didn't do much today. Pedro Alvarez was 0-1 with a strikeout. Andrew McCutchen was 0-2. And Jose Tabata didn't get a plate appearance.

The Pirates play the Boston Red Sox tomorrow at 1:05 PM.

[photo: ESPN]

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

MLB Roundup Feb. 24

The players have reported to camp, unless of course your name is Odalis Perez, and spring training exhibition games start tomorrow in both leagues. Check out the games below to see who your team is kicking off against.

A few bits of older news here but it's worth mentioning:

Vernon Wells looks set to be out for about four weeks after injuring his left hamstring in drills on Monday. The Blue Jays CF was hampered by the same injury last year and missed a month of the season. Jose Bautista will replace him while he recovers.

After dealing with shoulder problems last season and spending time on the DL Carlos Zambrano says he "Feels the best I've ever felt in spring training." The Cubs want to be conservative with him though and rightly so.

And finally ESPN is reporting that the Atlanta Braves have agreed on a one-year deal worth $2.5 million with OF Garret Anderson after missing out of Ken Griffey Jr., who returned to Seattle. The 36-year old Anderson won the World Series in 2002 and will likely team with Matt Diaz in left for the Braves.

Cactus League
White Sox v Angels - 3:05pm
Athletics v Brewers - 3:05pm
Royals v Rangers - 3:05pm
Dodgers v Cubs - 3:05pm
Mariners v Padres - 3:05pm
D'backs v Rockies - 3:10pm

Grapefruit League
Mets v Orioles - 1:05pm
Boston College v Boston Red Sox - 1:05pm
Braves v Tigers - 1:05pm
Yankees v Blue Jays - 1:05pm
Nationals v Astros - 1:05pm
Phillies v Pirates - 1:05pm
Marlins v Cardinals - 1:05pm
Reds v Rays - 1:05pm
Giants v Indians - 3:05pm
Red Sox v Twins - 7:05pm

(All times Eastern, Home team listed second)

zack.blbb@gmail.com

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Japan Announces Roster for 2009 WBC

The Japanese team realeased their roster for the 2009 WBC. Included in the roster are five MLB players: Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, Red Sox ace Daisuke Matsuzaka, Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima, Rays infielder Akinori Iwamura, and outfielder Kosuke Fukudome of the Cubs.

Japan kicks off their title defense of March 5th at the Tokyo Dome. The other teams in Group A are South Korea, Taiwan, and China. The top two teams in each of the four groups will advance to the 2nd round and the WBC final will be played on March 23rd at Dodger Stadium.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Welcome to the Big League Baseball Blog

Welcome to the Big League Baseball Blog! It feels good to finally have a home. The Big League Blog has been in the works for awhile in the minds of the creators and has finally come to realization.

Let me get this in the open early. We are baseball fans first and foremost and that is where the idea for this blog came from. We don't have much training and use mostly our knowledge of the game from what we hear and talk about on a daily basis. So here at the BLBB we are aiming to provide you with fan's look at what is going on in the baseball world. We want to know what the fans think of trades, wins/losses, and everything else in America's Pastime. Since you are reading this now I'm going to assume you are a baseball fan as well. With this in mind, I encourage you to voice your opinion (keep it clean of course) in our comments section and help make the blog the best it can be.

Remember, email any questions, suggestions, or opinions of baseball and the blog to bigleaguebaseballblog@gmail.com.
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