New Pirates uniforms

The Pirates unveiled these last week, and I have to say I like them better than the old look. The home and road uniforms are basically the same, but the Pirates are getting rid of the sleeveless look. The team kept the pinstriped jersey and will wear it for Sunday home games. The black alternate is new. I used to like sleeveless uniforms when they started making a comeback about 10 years ago, but it gets old when half of the teams in baseball have them. I also like the new black alternate. It's also great to hear that the team has gotten rid of this awful jersey.

I would have liked to see this road jersey from the early 1990's make a comeback, but at least Pittsburgh didn't go back to these.

30 Teams in 30 Days: Toronto Blue Jays

30 Teams in 30 Days is a preseason feature to highlight the significant changes to each of the major league teams. It's meant to get everyone up to speed before our pre-season predictions in mid-March

Everybody knows the picture above. October 23, 1993, Joe Carter's walk-off home run against Mitch Williams gives Toronto its second straight World Series title. It's also the last day the Blue Jays really mattered in the world of baseball. It's been a long time since the days of Carter, Paul Molitor, Devon White, and Roberto Alomar. Sure, Toronto has had its share of seasons winning between 80 and 90 games, but have yet to play a posteason game since 1993.

There is one familiar face from the early 90's Jays still around in manager Cito Gaston. Gaston, who was the Jays' skipper for their two championships and 92-93 and also won division titles in 1989 and 1991, took over for crazy ass John Gibbons in June and went 51-37.

The Blue Jays led the AL in team ERA in 2008, but A.J. Burnett went to the Yankees and Shaun Marcum will miss all of 2009 after having Tommy John surgery.

Toronto's hitting was a different story. The Jays didn't have a player hit over 20 home runs or drive in more than 79 runs. Vernon Wells, who has underperformed since signing his big contract before the 2007 season, was the team's best offensive player which isn't saying much. Alex Rios is a decent player and rookie Travis Snider, who hit .301 as a September call up, could make an impact.

Projected lineup and rotation

C-Rod Barajas

1B-Lyle Overbay

2B-Aaron Hill

SS-John McDonald

3B-Scott Rolen

LF-Travis Snider

CF-Vernon Wells

RF-Alex Rios

DH-Adam Lind

SP-Roy Halladay

SP-Dustin McGowan

SP-Jesse Litsch

SP-David Purcey

SP-Scott Richmond

CL-B.J. Ryan

Once again, Toronto will fail to score runs. Snider will be a nice addition and should be one of the team's better offensive players, but you know your offense sucks when you get a combined 25 homers from your first and third basemen, as Toronto did last season. It looks like Toronto will see yet another season without October baseball.

30 Teams in 30 Days: Boston Red Sox

30 Teams in 30 Days is a preseason feature to highlight the significant changes to each of the major league teams. It's meant to get everyone up to speed before our pre-season predictions in mid-March

The other Evil Empire, after turning into the very thing they despised in trying to end the dominance of the Yankees at the end of the last century, has had a very productive decade. The Sawks have been one of the most successful teams in baseball over the last five years, averaging 94 wins per season with playoff appearances in four of the five last five seasons and World Series titles in 2004 and 2007. So maybe changing from the lovable underdog and thorn in the Yankees' side to the other disgustingly rich perennial power in the AL East was worth it. You really can't fault them for thriving in a broken system.

Last year, the Red Sox finished second in the East to the eventual League Champion; the Rays. They still won 95 games and earned the AL Wild Card. The Red Sox lost in the ALCS to the Rays in seven games. With seven All-Stars, six of which will return for 2009 (including the AL MVP Dustin Pedroia) the Red Sox don't look likely to fall from contention any time soon.

C-Josh Bard
1B-Kevin Youkilis
2B-Dustin Pedroia
3B-Mike Lowell
SS-Julio Lugo
LF-Jason Bay
CF-Jacoby Ellsbury
RF-J.D. Drew
DH-David Ortiz

SP-Josh Beckett
SP-Jon Lester
SP-Daisuke Matsuzaka
SP-Tim Wakefield
SP-Brad Penny

Other notable players: P John Smoltz, P Clay Buchholz, IF Jed Lowrie, OF Rocco Baldelli, and C Jason Varitek.

By all appearances, the Red Sox look poised to be one of the elite teams in the AL again this year. With experienced veterans such as Ortiz, Lowell, and Beckett along with exciting young stars like Ellsbury and Lester, the Red Sox will be 2009 favorites for many observers.

Cubs Trade for Aaron Heilman

Earlier today, the Cubs traded Ronny Cedeno and Garrett Olson to Seattle for Aaron Heilman. It's not a bad trade for Chicago, as Heilman could bounce back to his 2005-2007 form. This also helps confirm the Cubs won't be getting Jake Peavy (good news for me), as most of the pieces the Cubs were rumored to be giving up are gone (Cedeno, Pie) and the Cubs have one of the worst farm systems in baseball.

30 Teams in 30 Days: Baltimore Orioles

30 Teams in 30 Days is a preseason feature to highlight the significant changes to each of the major league teams. It's meant to get everyone up to speed before our pre-season predictions in mid-March.

Baltimore lost 90 games for the third straight year in 2008, and finished next to last in team ERA. The only decent starter the team had was Jeremy Guthrie, and the rest of the starters had an ERA over five. The team does have two good young outfielders in Adam Jones and Nick Markakis.

C-Gregg Zaun (Matt Wieters will be up in May after he dominates AAA)

1B-Aubrey Huff

2B-Brian Roberts

SS-Cesar Izturis

3B-Melvin Mora

LF-Felix Pie

CF-Adam Jones

RF-Nick Markakis

DH-Luke Scott

SP-Jeremy Guthrie

SP-Mark Hendrickson

SP-Radhames Liz (good arm)

SP-Matt Albers

SP-Danys Baez

CL-George Sherill

The Orioles will be terrible again, and will probably lose 90 games again in the AL east. The only thing Orioles fans have to look forward to this summer is Markakis, Jones, and the arrival of Wieters.

30 Teams in 30 Days: Tampa Bay Rays

30 Teams in 30 Days is a preseason feature to highlight the significant changes to each of the major league teams. It's meant to get everyone up to speed before our pre-season predictions in mid-March.

After sucking balls their first 10 years in the league, the Rays finally had a record above .500. Not only did they have a winning record, they won the AL east and made it all the way to the World Series. After going into the series as favorites, they were upset by the Phillies after Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria decided not to show up. However, it was an outstanding season for the Rays, and they won't be going away.

Tampa Bay's great farm system finally paid off with homegrown players like Longoria, B.J. Upton, James Shields, and Scott Kazmir making huge competitions to the AL winner.

C-Dioner Navarro
1B-Carlos Pena
2B-Akinori Iwamura
SS-Jason Bartlett
3B-Evan Longoria
OF-Carl Crawford
OF-Bossman Jr. Upton
OF-Gabe Gross
DH-Pat Burrell

SP-Scott Kazmir
SP-James Shields
SP-Matt Garza
SP-Andy Sonnanstine
SP-David Price
CL-Dan Wheeler

The Rays should be contenders again in 2009, and hopefully they can win the division and keep either the Yankees or Red Sox at home for the playoffs.

30 Teams in 30 Days: New York Yankees

30 Teams in 30 Days is a preseason feature to highlight the significant changes to each of the major league teams. It's meant to get everyone up to speed before our pre-season predictions in mid-March.

Last year the New York Yankees discovered that just cruising into the playoffs was a thing of the past in the AL East. A lack of pitching, streaky hitting, and a rash of injuries left the perennial power house watching the playoffs from home (boy, wasn't it a thing of beauty.) The departures of Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Bobby Abreu, Pudge Rodriguez, and Carl Pavano gave the Yankees plenty of money to spend in the off-season. I wonder if they made any meaningful moves?

C- Jorge Posada
1B- Mark Teixiera
2B- Robinson Cano
SS- Derek Jeter
3B- Alex Rodriguez
OF- Xavier Nady
OF- Johnny Damon
OF- Nick Swisher
DH- Hideki Matsui

SP- C.C. Sabathia
SP- A.J. Burnett
SP- Chien-Ming Wang
SP- Andy Pettitte
SP- Joba Chamberlain/Phil Hughes/Ian Kennedy
CL- Mariano Rivera

The Yankees have the best team on paper, but are Posada, Matsui, and Wang fully recovered? Can Nicky the Swish and Cano have bounce back years? And is A.J. Burnett the second coming of Carl Pavano? Let's all hope the answers to these questions go something like no, no, and please god yes!

Joe Torre Rips Yankees. Becomes Favorite Son of ISP.

The New York Post and Daily News are reporting today that Dodgers manager Joe Torre rips the New York Yankees in his new book "The Yankee Years." Not surprisingly, Torre reveals that many of Alex Rodriguez's teammates often mocked him by calling him "A-fraud." I first came across this delicious piece of news at the always good Big League Stew.

The most entertaining part of the post is, of course, the comments.

thats awesome. yankees suck. keep spending all that money for another losing season you idiots. A rod is over rated. cant wait to see him go 0-4 every other game just like last year. -Go Boston

Because that .302 avg, .392 OBP, 35 homers, and 102 rbi's in 138 games is just complete horseshit! Fuck, if Mike Lowell would have played in 138 games he would have put up much better numbers!

[profane] dodgers and [profane] every1 yankes own ass nd if u say they dont get ur head out of ur ass and look how many world series they won dumasses- Peter N

Peter sure is doing Yankee nation proud by lowering their collective IQ by 10 points and helping us all remember the Yankees haven't won a World Series in almost a decade.

Who cares the Twins are the only team that matters. -fuseigniter

Since when the fuck do the Twins have fans?

I think joe torres should shut up is big mouth with big nose A -rod is the best player there is in history of baseball,better than any yankees player theres was, ppl should stop hating on him. he is gettin pay alot of money because he is that good or prolly ppl are hating cuz he aint a type of skin color that they want him to b. -Mar

We should definitely make this a racial thing. First opinion up on this- Ozzie Guillen.

Clemens deserves to be in Cooperstown

I don't care if he did steroids, Roger Clemens is still one of the best pitchers of all-time and is a hall of famer. Of course, a lot of the fucktards who have votes won't vote for him.

Even if you erase all of his numbers from when he was presumably on the juice (after he left Boston), he's still a hall of famer.

From 1984-1996 (his last year with the Red Sox), Clemens was the best pitcher in baseball. Three Cy Youngs (86, 87, 91) and an MVP (86). He also should have won the Cy Young in 1990. But of course the dipshits doing the voting gave it to Bob Welch because he had six more wins and didn't care that his ERA was a run higher than the Rocket's.

When you're the best pitcher in baseball for a twelve year period, you're a hall of famer. Anyone who doesn't vote for him should have their voting privelages taken away.

Ricketts Buys Cubs- Are there changes in store?

Recently the Ricketts family purchased the Chicago Cubs. What does this mean for the rest of us? It means the ignorant Cubs fans who go around blabbing the Cubs lose because they don't spend any money have to shut their fucking mouths.

Anyone who knows anything about baseball knows the Cubs have been amongst the top few payrolls in all of Major League Baseball for several years now. Yet, I still run into ignorant bastards who are of the belief the Cubs lose because the Tribune Company is cheap.

Now onto the real baseball fans. Ricketts' purchase of the Cubs means a fresh new face to an old, losing franchise. It appears they will keep the well-known high ups in the Cubs organization in tact. Jim Hendry feels safe with his job and Lou Piniella recently signed an extension through 2011. Chairman Crane Kenney may be retained in one fashion or another.

Who knows what the Ricketts family will do with the Cubs payroll, but the Chicago Tribune reports the Cubs' 2009 salary cap is at $140 million. The Cubs are about 9-10 million below that mark and could add pitcher Jake Peavy.

What do you all think? Is Jake Peavy the way to spend the money? Or should the Cubs look to spend their money elsewhere?

Personally, I believe the Cubs should try to give up the prospects they've recently traded for and go get Jake Peavy and pray to God that he doesn't have the same sissy ass arm injuries that he always has.

After that, I would move the overrated, double-play machine Derrek Lee to the team with the best offer. Yes, this means I'm willing to deal with Micah Hoffpauir as the first baseman for all of 2009 (or at least until the deadline where Jim Hendry can work magic).

Lets be honest with ourselves, the Ricketts family, me and all of you know the Cubs are the clear-cut favorite in a lackluster division. The Brewers and Cardinals are going to be on a down year. The Reds are still young and perhaps the Astros will contend while the Pirates are still the Pirates. This season is about building a Cubs team that will not only not lose their first three playoff games but building a team that will win a championship.

Anything less is a failure to the city of Chicago and Cubs fans. To all the Ricketts, I wish you good luck.

Just Manny Being Manny

My hatred for Manny Ramirez runs long and deep. It's actually difficult for me to think of players that I've hated more in my life. Well besides Jeff Kent. Fuck Jeff Kent with the large end of a tennis racket.

Yet, he's arguably one of the best players of all-time. So why the fuck is everyone so unwilling to bring the man aboard? I offer some possible answers:

1. There is no Al Davis or Jerry Jones of MLB that is crazy enough to pay a 37 year-old $25 million a year for at least four years. Now that the elder Steinbrenner is out of power at least.

2. Maybe, just maybe, front offices have finally figured out how big of a fucktard Manny Ramirez really is. I mean, when you're the premiere player on one of the most prominent teams in all of baseball and you're not happy than you have some major fucking issues buddy. When all of your former teammates admit that playing with you was unbearable; that pretty much means you've reached a level of douchiness reserved for the likes of Barry Bonds.

So, in short, FUCK YOU MANNY RAMIREZ and have fun destroying the NL West because we all know your ass is heading back to LA.



+1 For the Boston fans that made this.

John Rocker is back

Well, kind of. He's back in the news after he supposedly got into a crazed argument with a sports radio host at an Atlanta nightclup Thursday. Of course, everybody rembembers Rocker's comments from this infamous article. Here's an experpt from the article-

"Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing."

I've ridden the subway in New York. Hey, at least Rocker wasn't lying about it. I'd say that's a pretty accurate description.

The 30-inning rule

Before last season, Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated wrote an article on the dangers of pitchers under 25 throwing over 30 innings than they did the previous season (or their previous career high). This includes time spent in the minors and the postseason. Verducci stated that a lot of the times when pitchers break this rule they either get hurt the next season or have a big drop off in production. He listed seven pitchers who broke the rule and could be in trouble for the 2008, and the season didn't prove too successfull for much of them.


Ian Kennedy-sucked balls
Fausto Carmona-missed time with a hip injury, couldn't get anyone out when he actually did pitch.
Tom Gorzellanny-went from having a decent season to having an ERA over six.
Dustin McGowan-had surgery for a torn labrum
Chad Gaudin-didn't really have much of an increase in ERA, but at least he was terrible with the Cubs.
Yovani Gallardo-missed almost the whole season with a knee injury, nothing really to do with his 2007 workload.
Ubaldo Jimenez-had a decent season in his first full year (12-12, 3.99 ERA).

Some pitchers who broke the rule in 2008 and who could be in trouble this season include John Danks, Matt Garza, Cole Hamels, and Jair Jurrjens.

Get To Know A Prospect: Elvis Andrus

Get To Know A Prospect is an ongoing feature highlighting top prospects from teams around the league. Players discussed are generally close to breaking into the big leagues and tend to have been bad ass mother fuckers in the minors.

Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus was one of five minor leaguers that Texas received for Mark Teixera in July of 2007 along with catcher Jarrod Saltalamaccia and pitchers Neftali Perez, Matt Harrison, and Beau Jones. The trade keeps looking better and better for Texas, who wouldn't have been able to pay Teixera the five trillion dollars he got this offseason anyways.

It's looking like quite a haul for the Rangers. Salty will be the team's starting catcher in 2009 and could turn into one of the better catchers in baseball. Baseball America ranked Perez as the Rangers top prospect this offseason.

BA had Andrus ranked as the 19th best prospect in all of baseball before last season. Andrus hit .295 with 54 stolen bases as a 19-year old in AA in 2008. The Rangers just signed 70-year old Omar Vizquel, who will probably be the Rangers shortsop opening day with Andrus starting out at AAA Oklahoma. But since Omar Vizquel sucks, look for Andrus to be in Arlington at some point this season should he have success in AAA.

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UPDATE: The problem has been fixed.

Jeff Kent Retirement Announcement

That's right folks, white supremacists everywhere bowed their head as one of baseball's great assholes rode off into the sunset. Kent was accused multiple times throughout his career of making racially insensitive comments and not being able to get along with his black teammates. The most prominent accusations were made by Barry Bonds and Milton Bradley. You know, since those two guys really need to be pointing fingers.














Ahh yes, they're such model athletes!

So now the debate begins. Is Jeff Kent a hall of famer?

This Story is Getting Old

I'm sick of it. I've heard the same shit over and over the past year. "Josh Hamilton is a great story, he should be everybody's favorite player. He is a great human being." Fuck that. A great human being wouldn't have became a heroin addict in the first place! He brought those problems on himself, and it's not that great of story. Why not talk about the 99% of players who weren't heroin addicts! We got to hear how insipirational his home run derby performance was. Yea, somebody hitting home runs in batting practice with juiced baseballs is great. And now he has a book out. Hey, at least if my career path doesn't work out I can become a heroin addict and write a book.

The Mariners Are Going All The Way Baby!!!!

Monumental breaking news in the baseball world today. The Seattle Mariners have acquired....


WAIT FOR IT!!!!!












DAVID AARDSMA!!!

The 28 year-old righty reliever has a sterling 5.29 in 128 career appearances with the Giants, Cubs, White Sox, and Red Sox.

As many fans of Chicago know, Aardsma has often been labeled as the destroyer of playoff dreams and the slayer of puppy dogs. Therefore, I suggest you prepare for Don Wakamatsu having a brain aneurysm during a seventh inning meltdown.

The Red Sox acquired 20 year-old Fabian Williamson who is 10-5 with a 3.55 ERA and 144 strikeouts in two minor league seasons. Actually, that causes me to feel no pity for you.

WBC Provisional Rosters Announced

With the announcement of the World Baseball Classic rosters, MLB fans everyone collectively begin to hold their breath. the WBC, ostensibly, serves to spread the appeal of baseball more globally in a format as close to soccer as they can make it without making it unwatchable. So the best baseball players in the world will represent their respective countries in a tournament to decide the answer to an age old question: Are the best baseball players those that learned to play with aluminum bats and overpriced tee ball gloves, or with balled up socks and broken fence posts?

The best part of the Classic, though, is the injury roulette that every team plays.

Its sounds unfair and irresponsible for players to compete in exhibition games when their respective teams pay millions of dollars for their services, but they're fighting for their countries! Eat that, NFL, we have dozens of Pat Tillmans! Oh, the heroism. It is fair though, when one thinks about it. The more good players a team has, the better chance they have that they could lose money and games because of an injury during an exhibition game. So, sure, your team has seven future hall of famers. That's one hell of a treat. It's only right, by my estimation, that you should have more to worry about. It's the only situation where fans of the Baltimore Nick Markakises have an advantage.

Get To Know A Prospect: Matt Wieters

Get To Know A Prospect is an ongoing feature highlighting top prospects from teams around the league. Players discussed are generally close to breaking into the big leagues and tend to have been bad ass mother fuckers in the minors.

When the Baltimore Orioles traded away Ramon Hernandez earlier this winter I just attributed that to the Orioles typically not having any fucking clue what they are doing. Little did I realize that they have the second coming of Joe Mauer in their minor league system.

Matt Wieters is a 22 year-old, 6 foot 5, switch hitting catcher. In one season of advanced Single A and Double A ball he batted a ridiculous combined .355 with 27 homers and 91 rbi's. He attended Georgia Tech where he was a two time First Team All-American.

With the departure of Hernandez, Wieters has been put on the fast track to the majors. With any luck he will be tagging American League East pitching on opening day.

And for your viewing pleasure...

Real Knowledge and Credibility has Arrived

Ladies and gentleman, you will not have to read the same lame, biased opinion from all the White Sox fans who started this blog. Luckily for all of you, I am here to counteract all of the vomit that comes out of their mouths.

Despite the fact the Cubs haven't won a world series in 100 years, these people are essentially jealous of Cub-dom. Don't worry folks, you will run into these types of people all the time. I have to admit I love my Cubbies, regardless of the worst century for any professional sports organization ever.

However, I will not allow that to taint my perspective on other major league issues, players, and teams. I plan to contribute news, non-biased opinions, awfully terrible predictions and things that will be hard for the average baseball fan to find while adding my wonderful sense of humor to all of it.

I'm kidding about those awful predictions, without question, I will prove to be the best predictor of the bunch in 2009. Just use my prediction that the Pittsburgh Pirates would win more games than the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 as an indicator to what I can do.

I hope to see you all around. Enjoy!

Felix Pie Traded

The Cubs just traded another one of their overhyped prospect busts. Chicago sent Felix Pie to Baltimore for pitchers Garrett Olson and Henry Williamson. Pie is the latest in a long line of overyhyped, disappointing Cubs prospects that includes Mark Prior, Hee-Seop Choi, Angel Guzman, and Corey Patterson.

Markakis Signs 6 Year, 66 Million Dollar Extension

Reports have it that 25 year old Orioles outfielder Nick Markakis has signed a 66 million dollar extension to remain on a last place team for another six seasons.

Coming off a year where Markakis hit .306 with 20 homers, 87 rbi's and 99 walks it is money wisely spent by the Orioles.

The long-term deal is part of a growing trend of teams locking up their young players for substantial but not overwhelming money. With teams often grossly over-paying marquee free agents it's nice to see teams making sound economic investments in their young stars. Not sure the trend is a good idea?

Just look at the American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays. Damn, that still sounds weird.

On the other hand, I don't want you to fuck yourself

If you would like some baseball analysis, but are reluctant to be burned at the stake by someone named Hitman, this could still be the place for you.

Turns out there are already sports blogs who exist with a pretty similar attitude. While I'd love to be thought of as they are, I'd like my own identity, too.

We here at ISP would like to share our love with the MLB with the blogosphere and have a little bit of fun.

My name's wimpy and if you don't feel like plummeting to your death, I'm perfectly ok with that. Just don't think that means I want to hear about how great your fanbase is, either.

Lee Elia Invites You to Join Us

Welcome to the maiden post at In Scoring Position. Unlike ESPN you won't find us sucking off the Yankees and Red Sox. As far as we are concerned the great Yankee tradition and the Red Sox mystic can fall off a fucking cliff. For future reference anyone referring to the Red Sox as "The Nation" will be burned at the stake along with your loved ones. If you don't like our views and expert analysis then talk to Mr. Elia.