With April drawing to a close, some teams are smiling, while others are wondering if their April woes will continue into May.

Let’s take a look at the American league and check the ups and downs from the first month of play.

Angels: Injury to Bartolo Colon beginning to take toll on the staff. Starter Jeff Weaver very erratic. Angels bull pen working smoothly so far. The Halos don’t hit for much power, but find a way to score runs. Club has problems at catcher and first base. Rookies Jeff Mathis and Casey Kotchman soon heading to the bench. [Read more →]

Charlie Dressen, one of the most astute baseball managers of all time managed the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks for three seasons. Dressen piloted the Oaks during the 1949-50 campaigns, before returning in 1954.

In between his stints in the PCL, the colorful Dressen headed the Brooklyn Dodger club three years, winning NL pennants in 1952 and 53.

Dressen had a favorite saying. He would tell his players in a very brash way,
“Fellas, just hold ‘em for seven innings and I’ll think of something”.

In 2006 the managers in the AL West may soon be echoing Dressen’s confident words. [Read more →]

There has been much speculation within the national and local media as to whether or not the American league is the superior of the two major leagues.

It’s time for everyone to wake up and smell the coffee.

The American League has been the better of the two leagues for some time now.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

The baseball season can be divided into three stages.

First, everybody comes out of spring training raring to go. Pitching rotations are set. Optimism abounds. Everyone is with striking distance of the leaders.

It takes about two months for the flawed teams to be fully exposed. In the meantime the lesser squads are healthy enough to sneak up on the better teams, winning games they won’t win later in the year. [Read more →]

Choosing which teams will make the playoffs in 2006 is a very risky proposition.

As I analyze the opening day rosters all the teams look better. Starting pitching has been upgraded throughout all of baseball.

Teams with deep starting rotations and balanced bullpens must be feared over the course of the taxing 162 game season.

Now the “if” factor comes into play.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Now that the World Baseball Classic has come and gone, I can unequivocally say that I enjoyed the tournament.

Bud Selig wanted the game showcased all over the world. He succeeded. Television ratings were super worldwide, although in the US viewers were limited by ESPN’s spotty cable coverage.

Additionally, in this country fans won’t pass up watching an episode of “American Idol” to see unknown baseball players compete for world supremacy. [Read more →]

What a difference a year makes. In 2005, the Angels were clearly the best team in the Cactus League.

This spring the A’s can match the Halos position for position. Both teams have excellent starting pitching, deep bull pens, talented veterans, and exciting young players.

For Oakland, youngsters Dan Johnson, Nick Swisher, and Bobby Crosby all are swinging the bat very well this spring. [Read more →]

Inside Baseball, the winter version will air this Friday night beginning at 5:30 PM on 1550 AM KYCY.

I’ll be live from Crogan’s Montclair. Expected guests
include Tyler Blezynski from Athleticsnation.com, Shooty Babitt, Glenn Dickey, and a surprise or two, perhaps Ken Korach’s new A’s radio partner for 2006.

We’ll also have Carl Foster who will break down the Cal-Stanford basketball game that will follow the show.

Marty [Read more →]

When I compiled my list of the top stories of 2005 it hit me that I really hadn’t anticipated most of them.

Which leads me to the conclusion: baseball is the one sport where the unexpected happens no matter how carefully one prepares for the season.

Two reasons: one is the injury factor, you never know who is going to get hurt during the season. Two, the length of the baseball season, which in actuality begins in February, gives plenty of opportunity for things to happen correct themselves, then happen again.

My number one story for 2005 is the White Sox world championship. I said last winter that they had made the most definitive moves of the off season, but who saw the dominance from day one in April all the way through to the dismantling of the Astros in the world series in late October for their first crown since 1917.

Click below for the remainder of my top 10 list of the most significant stories of 2005. [Read more →]

Miguel Tejada, Manny Ramirez, and Troy Glaus all will have new homes in 2006.

Glaus is first to relocate.

Looks like Glaus will end up in Toronto for Orlando Hudson, one of the best fielding second basemen in the game plus the versatile Miguel Batista (to Arizona).

So with Glaus coming aboard, what do the Blue Jays do with Corey Koskie, Shea Hillebrand, and Eric Hinske, players who are all DH/1B/3B?

JP Ricciardi could look to his pal in Oakland and send Hillebrand this way giving Ken Macha that righthanded bat he still craves for his lineup.

Certainly would be less messy than staying in the Tejada hunt.

The Red Sox and Cubs have extra money to burn because of the near miss on Rafael Furcal by Chicago and the defection of Johnny Damon to NY, they will spend that money, you can count on it.

Kevin Millwood likely will cash in in Boston, while the Cubs are dead serious about going after Tejada.

Where does this leave Jeff Weaver, a very serviceable righthander?

Could be back in LA with the Dodgers or maybe with the Angels joining his brother Jared who is close to pitching in the big leagues.

The Weavers won’t make you think of Dizzy and Paul Dean or the Niekros, Phil and Joe, but in todays game they appear healthy enough to throw 200 innings which is worth 8 million per year.

Crazy but true.

Happy holidays,

Marty
[Read more →]