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2009 season set to begin Yes, that first pitch is almost here. Players have been cut and major league managers have put the final touches on what they hope is a pennant winning season. Just who will stand the test of time and get a chance at glory come October. Any chance one of the bay area teams can pull a Tampa Bay and make it back to the post season. It has been a long time since the A's or the Giants were competitive, but both took steps towards fielding a more competitive team in 2009. Oakland went out and added some punch to what has been a pretty soft line up when they acquired slugging out fielder Matt Holiday from the Colorado Rockies. In 2007 he led the National League in two of three Triple Crown categories, batting .340 with 137 RBI's. Holiday can hit outside Coors Field and the A's are hoping the big man can stabilize middle of the order and hit in front of Jason Giambi, who is back for another run with the A's. Jason has been around the block and then some and he looks like he wants to put all of the steroids behind him and just play ball. the public seems to be happy that jason is back and if he brings his bat with him you could see some runs scored in Oakland this season. Add Normar Garciaparra and Orlando Hudson and the A's went from a team where you needed a program to figure out who was who to a squad of past and present all star's. The A's staff took a couple of hits when projected opening day starter Justin Duchscherer was put on the DL. Duchscherer had arthroscopic surgery to clean out the elbow on Tuesday and is projected right now to be out at least six weeks. Photo by Greg Ashman
Oakland manager was forced to pick Braden, explaining his choice by saying that it would be Braden turn come opening night. That is not quite an endorsement for Dallas who was 6-12 in 39 games (24 starts) with a 5.44 ERA for the A's during parts of the 2007 and '08 seasons. This will be his first opening day start. No pressure. Oakland will have to slug their way to more then a few wins with the pitching staff they have at the moment. Behind Braden Trevor Cahill, Dave Eveland, Brett Anderson and Josh Outman will be next in line to take the mound for Oakland. Of those four, only Eveland and Outman pitched in the Major Leagues last season. The Giants have the same problem, but in reverse. They have looks like a great rotation with Tim Lincecum, Randy Johnson, Matt Cain at the top of the rotation. Matt Cain could have the biggest impact outside of Lincecum of course. Cain will now fall to third in the rotation and he will now get the other teams third starter. Matt, at times, has pitched like a number one starter but he never gets much run support. Now when he takes the mounds the Giants hitters should hit a little better for him. The same goes for Jonathan Sanchez, a young fireballer that will be behind Cain and he should be better then most 4th or 5th starters on other ball clubs. Who will produce for San Francisco could be an issue this year. It has the look of a punch and judy line up, but their are a bunch of major league hitters on the roster. Not much power though and the lack of the long ball means the Giants will have to manufacture runs and not give up any extra runs by playing good defense when they are in the field. Edgar Renteria, Benige Molina and Aaron Rowand will be counted on to carry much of the load at the plate for San Francisco. Other then that youngster Pablo Sandoval could add a little pop to the line up. Fred Lewis should steal a few bases hitting out of the second or third spot in the batting order and San Francisco is hoping that outfielder Nate Schierholtz can continue to hit the way he has the first two years of his major league career. Schierholtz has a combined average of .310, but that is in only 187 career big league at bats.
Alex Rodriguez comes up dirty for Steroids
Rodriguez won the American League MVP that year playing for the Texas Rangers. The next season A-Rod was given a record contract to play for the New York Yankees. Alex went through a horrible slump his first season in New York and maybe it was because he could not use steroids anymore and it took him a while to get the drugs out of his system. In 2007, A-Rod went on CBS 60-minutes and flat out denied ever using steroids at anytime in his career. Lucky he was not in front of Congress when he said that like Barry Bond, or else papers might be getting filed in his criminal case like the one Bonds will face in three weeks. With baseball's spring training just a few days away, the Yankee's camp will be like a zoo with their highest profile player sitting in a fish bowl. Alex came back with his story, admitting that he used the drugs, but he did not seem like he told the truth. A-Rod is not the only name brand to get busted. Former pitching ace Roger Clemens got some bad news when a report came out linking blood DNA found on syringes with traces of steroids mixed in. Hmm.... The Rocket might want to see how that Bonds trial goes and get his defense ready.
Ageless wonders take center stage Some people say that 30 is the new 20, but in baseball several players are showing the world that 40 just might be the new 20. Look at 48-year old Julio Franco trying to stick with another team after getting cut by Atlanta at the tender age of 48. The 40-something's strutted their stuff when five pitchers took the mound Wednesday that were all over the age of 40. That has never happened before and it shows how well athlete's are taking care of themselves these days. Jamie Moyer, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Roger Clemens all laced them up and went out on the mound to show that they still had it. The five gave up a total of eight earned runs. Seven of those came from Clemens and Moyer. The old Atlanta teammates Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux gave up only one run in a combined 18-innings while walking 4 compared to 12 strikeouts. Add three wins into the mix and it was quite a day for the OG's.
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Inside Sports 1st String Magazine All Rights Reserved 2005 |
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Justin lead the team in wins and ERA last year, but Oakland will instead turn to Dallas Braden to start opening night.
