Baseball Historians

GAME 1
The good news? The Pirates are in 1st place…. The bad? If they play 161 more games like this, John Russell and all of the fans might be dead…..
First, the key- we won-12-11 in 12 innings. This game will not make the instructional DVD series but was entertaining to say the least.
Pirates made Braves […]

The 84th opener of the house that Ruth built was postponed today due to rain.  It has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 1 at 7:05 pm. 
As exciting as it was to consider the fan fare amounted to open this, the last, season at Yankee Stadium, the rain would not let up, and those fans were […]

Playing in the earliest home opener in Cleveland’s history, the White Sox came up short in a 10-8 loss against the Indians.  After giving up seven runs in the second inning, the Sox battled back against reigning AL Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia and tied the game up at 7-7.  Thome fueled the Sox with […]

With the glitz and glam of Opening Day over, tomorrow will be back to the regular ball games. The Dodgers will have their second of three games with the Giants. Derek Lowe is set to face the young Matt Cain at 7:10 PM.

In case you haven’t heard, which is hard to imagine considering Penny’s potent performance and the rest of the team at the plate to back him up, the Dodgers won their Opening Day game by shutting out the Giants, 5-0.
Penny went a strong six and 2/3 innings, retiring 13 batters before giving up only four hits. […]

The Washington Nationals, fresh off of their opening night win at home, took to the road for Monday’s game in Philadelphia.  The Nationals looked sharp, scoring 5 runs in the top of the 9th to defeat the Phillies by a score of 11-6.  The Nationals are now 2-0 on the young season.
Matt Chico got the […]

While the snow raged outside, the Twins were able to stay dry and win their home opener 3-2 over the Angels. Though the team only scored 3 runs, they were able to collect 10 hits off of Halo youngster Jered Weaver. Perhaps the most anticipated event was the return of Torii Hunter which was emotional, […]

The Rays kicked off 2008 differently than any of their past seven seasons; with a win.  The Rays defeated the Baltimore Orioles in their season opener at Camden Yards, 6-2.  Obviously the Rays record is now 1-0.
James Shields was the story on the mound for the Rays today.  Shields, along with Scott Kazmir was the […]

          After waiting half a year, the San Francisco Giants are back in regular season action. As exciting as opening day always is, the Giants appeared weak, being shutout by the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0. The starting lineup looked something like this: Dave Roberts (LF), Rich Aurilia (1B), Randy Winn (RF), Bengie Molina (C), Ray Durham […]

The Marlins lost their home opener but there’s not a lot of shame in losing to the best pitcher in baseball.  Josh Willingham tagged Johan for a two run homer in the fourth inning but that’s all they could manage in the 7-2 loss.  Luis Gonzalez was the only regular who didn’t strike out in […]

Yes, yes, yes, I know this is just one game.  Grrr, the problem is, this is how a lot of the Reds games went this year.  Two runs on three (cue Bob Uecker impersonation from Major League) freaking hits is all they can manage.  Thankfully Brandon Phillips actually got a hit for extra bases and […]

The Tigers lost to the Royals today 5-4 in a game where the Tigers definitely had some nice moments.  Miguel Cabrera belted his first homerun as a Tiger, Carlos Guillen belted a huge eighth inning homer to tie the game and then Brandon Inge gunned down a runner at the plate in the top of […]

Brandon Webb started off the 2008 campaign with a strong six inning performance in a 4-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Webb had six strikeouts, and only surrendered two runs on three hits to the Reds offense on the day.
The offense was provided on three solo homers. Chris Young got it started with a homer […]

Pittsburgh Pirates-
Cf- Nate McLouth
2b- Freddy Sanchez
LF-Jason Bay
1b-Adam Laroche
Rf-Xavier Nady
C- Ryan Doumit
3b-Jose Bautista
SS-Jack Wilson
P- Ian Snell
Atlanta Braves
2b- Kelly Johnson
SS- Yunel Escobar
3b-Chipper Jones
1b- Mark Teixeira
C- Brian McCann
Rf-Jeff Francoeur
Cf- Mark Kotsay
Lf-Matt Diaz
P- Tom Glavine
Team News…LHP Paul Maholm thru a 50 pitch session recently and reported no back issues… he is good to go

The Cardinals jumped all over the defending National League Champion Colorado Rockies on opening day only to have the game postponed due to rain. For what it’s worth, the Cards scored 4 in the first and Albert Pujols added a solo home run in the 2nd, while starter Adam Wainwright gave up only one run […]

AL CENTRAL
1-Cleveland
2- Detroit
3- Kansas City
4-White Sox
5- Minnesota
1- Cleveland
Good-Tremendous high end talent at CF and C in Sizemore and Victor Martinez plus the top 2 SPs in Sabathia and Carmona….. deep bullpen…. deep, versatile lineup— good athletes and underrated D….. GM Shapiro and Coach Wedge have been together for a while— 3-4-5 SPs are solid
Bad-Closer terrifies […]

The Phillies lost to the Washington Nationals today 11-6.  Jimmy Rollins tied the game at 6 in the bottom of the seventh with a 2-run homerun, but Tom Gordon gave up 4 runs in the top of the 9th while only getting one out.  Clay Condrey came in to give up another run.  The Phillies […]

Brandon Inge just gunned down Mark Teahan at the plate in the top of the eleventh.  If the Tigers pull this one out, that’s the play of the game.

The Rangers traded minor leaguer pitcher Jose Marte to the Arizona Diamondbacks for 26-year-old reliever Dustin Nippert. Nippert is a big boy at 6′8 and weighing in at 225 lbs. and has a hard fastball, but struggled this spring, posting an 0-2 mark with a 14.40 ERA in eight appearances. He gave up 24 hits […]

The AL East clash between the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays has been postponed due to rain and the fact that the forecast says more to come. The game has been rescheduled for Tuesday at 7:05pm.
This delay will put a hold on the 84th and final opening day at Yankee Stadium, the […]

I’m a day late here, but it’s opening day so there’s no better day then to talk about baseball.  Anyway, there’s quite a few debuts this week so let’s get to the list.
1) Baseball Prospectus 2008
2) Vindicated
3) Moneyball
4) The 33 Year Old Rookie
5) Bill James Goldmine 2008
6) Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective
7) Red Sox Rule
[…]

AL Preview
Division standing predictions…..
AL East
1- Boston
Good-Excellent lineup that should be better with Pedroia and Ellsbury in year 2, Papi Ortiz healthy after offseason surgery plus ManRam and Varitek in contract/option years…. Best 8-9th inning combo in MLB in Okajima and Papelbon…. Underrated manager in Tito Francona…. very good clubhouse with winning atmosphere… bright GM in […]

Miguel Cabrera hit his first homer as a Tiger.  Tigers lead 3-0 and Justin Verlander has looked very sharp.  I like our chances in this one.
***UPDATE***
Ooops, hope I didn’t speak too soon.  Alex Gordon just went yard with a two run shot.

RHP Ian Snell vs LHP Tom Glavine tonight… I will post the lineups pregame….
Braves had that late night loss to the Nationals on a walkoff HR by 3b Ryan Zimmerman, so they should be in a good mood….
Game 2 pitchers- LHP Tom Gorzelanny vs RHP Jair Jurrjens
Game 3 LHP Zach Duke vs LHP Mike Hampton
RHP […]

Well the first pitch of the 2008 season is about an hour and a half away, and the Phillies look poised to challenge for the NL East crown once again. 
Today the Phillies go up against the Washington Nationals 24 year old lefthander Matt Chico.  Chico is in his second season out of USC.  Last year […]

In the season opener last night against the Washington Nationals at the new Nationals Park, the Braves lost 3-2 in the Ninth.  Tim Hudson started the game struggling, allowing two runs in the First, before finding his rhythm and retiring 19 straight to end the Seventh.  Chipper Jones hit the first ever home run at […]

The Red Sox finished their exhibition schedule with an 8-0 loss to the Dodgers, only managing one hit, Bobby Kielty’s one-out single in the eighth, while punching out a dozen times against three Dodger pitchers; Hiroki Kuroda, Clayon Kershaw and Brian Falkenborg. Clay Buchholz started and pitched three innings, allowing five hits, four earned runs while […]

You can check out my predictions over at the Hardball Times this morning.  People will call me crazy for picking the Reds to win the National League pennant but I really think this team has some talent (although some of it got kicked down to Triple A to start the season).  I also think giving […]

The Washington Nationals opened up their new park tonight with a victory.  The sellout crowd was able to see President George W. Bush throw out the ceremonial first pitch (it was a bit high) and got to see their Nationals get on the board in the first inning on their way to a dramatic 3-2 […]

Spring training is officially behind us as focus shifts now to the regular season, with the Dodgers’ Opening Day tomorrow at 1:10pm against the Giants.
Opening Day lineup:
1 Rafael Furcal, SS
2 Andre Ethier, LF
3 Matt Kemp, RF
4 Jeff Kent, 2B
5 Andruw Jones, CF
6 Russell Martin, C
7 James Loney, 1B
8 Blake DeWitt, 3B
9 Brad Penny, SP
Notice there’s no […]