Who loves LA(A)?

Nobody in baseball. Take your average all-star and tell them they should sign with the Dodgers or Angels and apparently you have to literally twist their arm to make them sign with one of these two teams. Let's break this down ESPN News left side scroll style.

Angels
Key losses:
Mark Teixiera (Signed with the Yankees late December)
Francisco Rodriguez (Signed with Mets in early December)

Key Additions:
Brian Fuentes (signed mid January)
Bobby Abreu (signed early February)

They lost two guys rapid fire after the winter meetings at the beginning of December. The Angels pretty much took the stance that they were letting Rodriguez go, which was probably a smart idea in theory, until he signed for way under market value and his perfect storm of free agency didn't happen. Then they were sort of in on the Teixeira sweepstakes, but once the bidding started escalating slowly, they put on the brakes and said they weren't going to go any further. They remained quiet and it just didn't make sense. They have had some success in bringing up young pitchers, but not so much bringing up young bats. Remember when Dallas McPhearson was a big time prospect? What about Brandon Wood and Kendry Morales? Yes, they made the big club at the end of last season, but they were supposed to be teetering on the fence of being all-star at this point.
Brian Fuentes just doesn't make sense to me a lot the same way that Keith Foulke didn't make sense to me. He doesn't really have anything that makes him unhittable, he has a odd release point, but still looks like he's trying to throw an egg without it breaking in his hand. It's going to be interesting to see how he does, my gut tells me that by the end of the year he's either going to be Joe Borowski circa 2007 or Joe Borowski circa 2008. Either way, I'm predicting Jose Arredondo is closing by the end of the year.
The signing of Abreu was genius and the Angels got a good deal on him paying only $5 million for the season. Though coming off a season when he hit 20 homers and drove in 100 though had a dip in his batting average. As a Red Sox fan, I couldn't be happier that he is out of the Yankee lineup. He wore out Sox pitchers and drove up the pitch count with endless at bats and clutch hits. This is a good fit for the Angels because he fits their scrappy style, though this doesn't really make them that much better. They are completely void of pop in their line up, and are packed with ground ball hitters who have moderate speed. I think they are regressing and not progressing, and now they're supposed to knock off the two teams coming out of the AL East this season? It's not happening, if Matt Holliday doesn't plunge like Andruw Jones this contract year (I'm calling it, his numbers outside of Coors Field, horrible) they might have to look out for the A's.

Dodgers
The Dodgers can't even be broken down at this point. They are completely reliant on Manny Ramirez at this point there is no question that they are going to sign him but I don't know which way the contract is going to go. The last offer I heard had Ramirez (a year ago he was Manny to me, no longer on a first name basis. Bromantic break ups are tough) was for 2 years and 45 million dollars. Which as I recall is the same offer that they originally offered him back at the very beginning of December before the Winter Meetings. In between the Dodgers upped their offer, Scott Boras has called made fun of their offers and at the end of the day they are destined to reunite. It is like when you break up with your girlfriend, and they start offering you stuff to stay, clothes, food and various other relationship perks to come back to them. It's sad and we all know somebody who this has happened to. Well in this case, that's the Dodgers, they've been dumped so their boyfriend (Ramirez) can go off and play the field and get drunk with his buddies for a few months and see if he can find a better looking girl elsewhere. In the end it will come back to a backslide and the Dodgers and Ramirez will get back together like Zack and Kelly did during the middle of the College Years. That is unless those sleazy Yankees jump in like the college guy who worked at The Max and took poor Kelly Kapowski's innocence. I wouldn't put it past them, and if we have learned only one thing from the Czar of Sports, Bill Simmons, "The lesson as always is, women are just plain evil."

Sterling Pingree

If we're ever going to see a rainbow.....

Leading off, you may be asking yourself why this is the first post on this site since the end of October? The reason is simply, I just couldn't top my last post after the ALCS.

This is supposed to be the happiest week of the year, pitchers and catchers had to report by yesterday to spring training. There are stories that come out of each team's camps, stories like Jon Lester has gained 5 lbs since the end of last season, Justin Masterson and his wife drove to Fort Myers from Indiana in a Mini Cooper, (by the way, Masterson is listed at 6'5). But this week has been dominated as it seems almost every spring is, with talks about steroids and impending litigation. Alex Rodriguez being tabbed for taking banned substances for at least 3 years (I say at least because where there is smoke, 3 years, there's fire, a career) and then having an epic interview with Peter Gammons. The point of the interview that no body mentioned in my opinion was, didn't it look like A-Rod was breaking out with hives around his eyes? He had red blotches around his eyes, in hd it was mesmerizing against his yellow looking skin. Unless Kramer has been cleaning his meat slicer with A-rod's hand towel again, someones under a little stress I would say.

So here, this is supposed to be the happiest time of the year and the first rights of spring and the topic of conversation has been completely based on A-rod, steroids and Brett Favre. (Did you know he retired?)

A story is forming as we speak that could be the sun breaking through the clouds so to speak. Word is that the Seattle Mariners and living legend Ken Griffey Jr, are close to coming to terms on a one year deal with incentives that could trigger an extension. I was thinking to myself earlier this month how wrong it was that in this current economy that we are all living in, veterans and legends like Griffey Jr, Pudge Rodriguez, Sean Casey and Mike Timlin were not under contract and would probably be forced unjustly into retirement. This week however we have seen Casey retire but go directly to a nice gig with the MLB Network, and now possibly Griffey could get the homecoming that he so desperately sought back in 2000 when he signed with the Cincinnati Reds. Really though, this is a potential signing that could mean more to the fans and a generation that still believes George Kenneth Griffey Jr, was the greatest all around player they had ever seen. This is a belief that was held so easily that until McGuire and Sosa assaulted the record books in 1998 that every other player in the game could be good, but there was no argument, Griffey was the only one who was great. Yes, Ken Griffey Jr, in Seattle would help a generation (my generation) get over what has been a scared upbringing in the game of baseball. This could take us back, if only for a moment, to what we fell in love with before steroids and ugliness blurred our vision of the game. It's almost like Field of Dreams when Terrance Mann describes what people will feel when they come to the cornfield to watch baseball:

"For it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces."

Bring on the memories and perfect afternoon's that we as baseball fans from the 1990's lack these days.

~Sterling Pingree

2008 ALCS

I hate Jonny Gomes.

Sterling Pingree

Monkey see, monkey.....You're a monkey!!!!

I was planning on writing this, I really was. I have just been handed though an urgent and more substantial reason to write this column. I am a lot of things, long winded, wordy, verbose, never truncated, gregarious and ever the raconteur. However, above all else, I am one thing and that is competitive. So when I saw my compatriot Aaron Jackson wrote a recent column (which I didn't read, but I've heard it's quite good) I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I had to release one as well. Without further adu, here are my thoughts heading into the American League Championship Series tomorrow night, written however, under the influence of the Phillies-Dodgers NLCS.

(First a tangent, which I just mentioned to my buddy Sam while watching Game 1. I am predicting the Phillies beat the Dodgers in this series, I'll say six games and it'll be over. The reason for this is that the Phillies are starting to remind me of the Rockies from last season, a seemingly tough line up, but only at home, and their rotation is built around the left hander that seems to be on a run right now. Playing the Rays, I think this Phillies team could win the World Series, playing the Red Sox, I don't see it happening. Perhaps that's why I'm picking them, atleast I'm honest about it.)

~ I feel very strangely at ease with Daisuke going in game one tomorrow night. It won't be easy, it will be down right tough to watch I can guarantee you that, but he seems to win those games. (Speaking of tough, the last two season's I've had to listen to Daisuke's game 2 starts of the ALDS the last two season. Forget the 4 minute mile or Wilt's 100 point game, this might be the most difficult thing in sports.) He will get a lead, he will threaten to give up the lead, his pitch count will rise as will my blood pressure during every home half of the inning, but he will escape and when he departs after 5 or 6 inning the Red Sox will be holding a lead. I keep thinking that Daisuke isn't a very good postseason pitcher, but off the top of my head I can only remember one playoff game that the Red Sox have lost in which Matsuzaka started. That's for good reason, as it's only happened once, to Cleveland in last year's ALCS. The loss was also perhaps the best game that Daisuke pitched in his playoff career.

~ I full expect James Shields to be tough tomorrow night, but also very pumped up. The people that said all season that the Rays would cave in the second half, (me included) are the same people that are saying the Rays will cave underneath the pressure of the postseason. One thing that they definitely have in their favor is that they have home field advantage and get to start the series at home where they have been the best in baseball.

~ Going in the Angels series, I was on the Moneyball Bandwagon that said you have to match up your starting pitchers if you're the Red Sox so that you have your best home/road pitchers pitching where they have their best record. Matsuzaka is lights out on the road, Lester is lights out at Fenway and Josh Beckett has to be one of the top two starters and he has actually be better this season on the road than at home. Well going into this ALCS the Red Sox have their starters set up in just such a way, mostly because this year's Jim Lonborg (Jon Lester in case you couldn't figure it out fromt he next few words) had to pitch an extra game and best the Angels in the clinching game 3 Monday night. Even having to play the extra game in the first round (look at the Red Sox recent playoff history and playing more than 3 games in the ALDS hasn't happened since 2003, so I consider anything more than 3 extra) the Sox still have their proverbial ducks in a row and ready to take Tampa by storm starting tomorrow night.

(Side note from the NLCS: it's amazing in the NL and more specifically being personified by the Dodgers right now, that on these teams there is one guy on good teams that strikes fear in the other team. Right now Manny Ramirez is doing that at the scale that few have ever seen before. So when Manny (yes we're still on a first name basis since he left) lined out to Pedro Feliz moments ago in a one run game, the crowd cheered like Chase Utley had been rescued from cannibals. They know they just dodged a bases empty bullet, because a solo shot from Manny right now is happening more frequently than some people's bodily functions. Scary comparison, but its playoff time and all of the drug advertisement's are telling me that people are missing things and using too many restrooms or not enough restrooms. They all sort of run together, I can never really tell anymore.)

~ The bullpens will probably be the deciding factor in this series. There is a formula to the playoffs, there won' t be many if any blow outs in this series, but there will be a blown save, there will be a tide turning error at some point and somebody is going to get blamed for a loss and as always a hero will emerge. The Red Sox already saw these things happen, THIS YEAR!! (Talk about playoff experience, they're buying it in bulk now apparently.) Against the Angels, all of the aforementioned things happened, K-Rod blew a tied game at home, the tide turning error was the botched squeeze play that shifted all of the momentum of the series and Vlad will be the player blamed for the loss in game one, which is strange because I feel Erick Aybar should get much more credit for losing the series. Without a doubt the hero that emerged in the series was from Boston and to me Jed Lowrie should get more credit than he does as should JD Drew, but Jason Bay was Mr. First Week of October.

Look, I'm a complete homer and I know this. So if you're looking for objectivity, you won't find it here when talking about the remaining playoff games this year. If you want objectivity, read Aaron Jackson talk about politics. Whoops! That might be the one person and one topic that is less objective than me about the Sox.

~Sterling Pingree

I'm Baaaaaccccckkkkkk...

Following the path of the greats is never easy, but I'm certainly going to try. I will be attempting a feat only the greatest of the greats attempt, including Michael Jordan and Brett Favre. That's right, I am un-retiring from the blogosphere. Now you might be saying to yourselves, "but Aaron, you never retired in the first place!". That is true. But in order to make a dramatic comeback you have to have an ending before it, and retiring sounds a lot better than me just being lazy. So here it is, my first post as an un-retired blogger. Print it, send it to me with a check for 25 bucks and I will sign it for you if you want.

So what could I possibly talk about that would match the brilliance of my comeback? Quite simply, Boston, the best sports city in the world. It's pretty clear that with the Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, BC and even the Revolution are WILDLY successful. You can't have that many sports team be successful and not be the best sports city in the world, because in order to be that good you have to beat the other city's teams. When I break it down like that it seems simple, doesn't it.

Lets delve a little further though. There have always been individual dynasties (Lakers, Celtics, Cowboys, Yankees) and there will always be certain teams that are good year in and year out (Red Wings, Steelers, Braves, Yankees) but never has there been a combination of the two quite like what we have. We have the dynasties that we expect to win it all (Patriots, Sox), the always good teams that you can expect to contend (Celtics, Revolution) and even have the teams that are intriguing (Bruins, BC).

So now lets go into why these teams are so good. It's really a combination of two things. On one end is management; these teams front offices are committed to winning, and are willing to admit they need help to do it. Furthermore, they oftentimes think like fans, but know when to think like management. Take the Red Sox. You can tell they are passionate about the team, but they also occasionally make the decision (letting Pedro and Damon go, trading Nomar) that fans would never make. Management is also willing to spend money and take on additional payroll when needed. Now here is where the second reason comes in.

The fans. Boston fans are the best in the country. They have the passion of fans from Philly, but they have the smarts of fans from, well, Boston. There is not a fan base smarter than Boston's. Sure, you get the occasional drunken idiot that is jobless, listens to EEI all day and gets into fights constantly, but for every one of him/her there are 10 intelligent fans that love sports while staying on the right side of the line between sane and crazy. And when you have intelligent fans you have a fan base that is successful in their lives outside of their fandom. They have good jobs, they have happy lives, which means they have money to spend. And it shows. It's a give and take situation. We have some of the highest ticket prices in the country, which means the teams make more money and in turn, spend that money towards the on the field product. And while we can complain about ticket prices (trust me, I do) we set the market for them. There is such a high demand in the market that these teams can set the prices high and know they will still sell out. The day the Sox put all their tickets up for auction is the day we see your average ticket price at 150 dollars. That's just through the Sox, not including the mark ups you would see on Stubhub and other scalping sites.

So there it is. I hope my return from retirement was as good for you as it was for me. I feel invigorated. Until next time everyone...

~Aaron Jackson