President Bush threw out the first pitch last
week at RFK Stadium, temporary home of
the Washington Nationals,once the Montreal
Expos and baseball fever is back in the
capital.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

Lew Wolff may be the grandfather-like owner A’s fans have sought since ownership of the team passed from the hands of Walter Haas and his family in 1995. Wolff, the new Managing Partner of the A’s has responded to the concerns of fans by making two items in his agenda as owner perfectly clear.

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THE OAKLAND A’s are a much different team this year, with an almost entirely new starting rotation, but there is one constant: We’re all still wondering when Eric Chavez will finally fulfill his potential.

Players who are able to make it to the big leagues before their 21st birthday, as Chavez did in September, 1998, are usually headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame. We’re talking players like Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Ted Williams. Ken Griffey Jr. would be in the grouping, too, if it weren’t for his frequent injuries. [Read more →]

Marty; I was looking forward to spending a relaxing week, watch a few ball games and then reflect on the week’s developments. Yesterday I raised some concerns about the state of the Giants’ bullpen, additionally giving vent to the thought that managment should, sooner rather than later, consider the need to remove Rueter from a starting role. Little did I realize that within twenty-four hours what had been expressed as a portent of things to come would quickly reach calamitous proportions. [Read more →]

Marty; The season is now six games behind us. six games in a long marathon season. While these six games have undoubtedly not bequeathed additional insight to us, they may have reinforced thoughts which have been lurking since the start of spring training.

The Giants have won four of these six games, three of them coming at the expense of the hapless Rockies. In these games, not unexpectedly, the team has called on the bullpen in each of them. Leaving Benitez aside, he having performed as expected, the ”pen, in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings has failed, with dismal regularity, to get hitters out. [Read more →]

The deadline is quickly approaching to file one’s post-season prognostications. Across America, barroom banter is fully charged with patrons adjusting their visions of playoff participants and pennant champions. Now is the time to perfect their ballot, before injuries and dead arms take effect. [Read more →]

The country that once produced the first ever
Latino player in the US professional leagues,
Cuba, which was the first ever country to
be introduced to the game of baseball
by the United States in the 1860s and until
1961 had more players in the Major Leagues
than any other Latinamerican country,
has really downsize their baseball
program.

By Amaury Pi-González

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The real test for any young pitcher in the major leagues is facing a good fastball hitting team. The key to success is getting command of your off speed stuff, thus upsetting the timing of the aggressive hitters.

The Orioles, a team comprised of overly aggressive swing from your heels fastball hitters, provided a challenge for the A’s pitching staff.

Once Dan Haren got comfortable he followed the example set by Kirk Saarloos a night earlier, rarely giving the Birds a fastball over the center of the plate. Instead, the two youngsters showed some pitching chops by keeping Baltimore off balance while they were on the mound.

The real test will come when the A’s face Texas, Seattle, and Los Angeles three teams with big time smart hitters who can crush the fastball. [Read more →]

Introducing Your 2005 Washington Nationals…

“Don’t get us wrong, I understand the impossibility of running a major league baseball team in Montreal. It’s remarkable the Expos were able to last 10 years in a market where nobody really cared. But let’s set the record straight—the dissolution of the Expos wasn’t due to a lack of fan support.”

“Capitalism isn’t driven by consumers.”

Click below for more of this interesting story.

Check more from Josh at www.baseballpages.blogspot.com [Read more →]

Forget all those things you read about the players in spring training, the regular season is a totally different kettle of fish.

Javier Vazquez pitched some nice games during the exhibition season, yesterday he didn’t make it out of the second inning.

If you are an Arizona fan you have to wonder if the NY experience has scarred him for life.

Click below for more!. [Read more →]