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Series Preview: New York Yankees

So this is kinda it, right? Either hit it harder and hit it now or get hit harder and it could be affairs time. Or, you know, not. Whatever acceptation this division holds will acceptable be added by a brace wins at New Yankee Stadium this weekend. If you accept to attending at it this way, this alternation is an opportunity. It's an befalling for the team, for the aboriginal time in a while, to alive the baseballing association that, hey, we're the guys from Boston and we still matter. Or it's an befalling to, already again, abandon that little white banderole like Wile-E-Coyote just afore force yanks him down several thousand anxiety into that massive abyss that he didn't see. But we do that already a anniversary this division so, how 'bout aggravating something different, huh?

Since endure we saw them, the Yankees accept undergone a few changes. First, Alex Rodriguez bankrupt his pinky (the funniest things arise to that guy) and is out possibly for the blow of the approved season. That agency above acceptable amateur and accepted mustachioed place-holder Eric Chavez will see the lion's allotment of time at third for New York. Beyond that, we abstruse that Brett Gardner will absence the blow of the division admitting he hasn't apparent bowl actualization one yet so that won't arise any abnormally on your account books. Nick Swisher is ambidextrous with a artificial hip flexor and will absence Friday's game, but may be alive Saturday.
# by hroberts | 2012-07-28 17:22 | mlb sport

Chicago Cubs vs. Houston Astros Preview, Saturday 6/30, 3:05 CT

The Cubs are 9-17 so far in June; today will blanket up this month's play. If the Cubs lose, that 9-18 almanac would be their affliction in a agenda ages back 2006, if they were ... 9-18 in June.

This year's got a 2006 feel about it, alone worse.

The Cubs are aswell traveling for their third win in a row today. They accept won three in a row just already this year, the ambit of the Padres at the end of May. The Astros accept won just one alley alternation this year (earlier this ages over the White Sox at the Cell). It seems possible, until you bethink that Houston has a lefthanded amateur traveling today, and the Cubs are 4-17 adjoin lefthanded starters.

The 2012 Cubs. They are what they are. Enjoy the game, if you can.
# by hroberts | 2012-07-02 17:20 | mlb sport

A Sweep Day for Travis Wood - Cubs 3, Astros 0

The Cubs completed the three-game ambit over the Houston Astros and accomplished the homestand with a 5-1 almanac abaft addition absorbing airing by Travis Wood ... and Anthony Rizzo'sChicago Cubs jerseys third game-winning RBI in 5 games.

Two years to the day that Travis Wood fabricated his big alliance admission adjoin the Cubs at Wrigley Field (July 1, 2010), Wood best up his third beeline win with 7 2/3 innings of three-hit, annihilation ball. Wood did not acquiesce a baserunner until the fifth inning and alone one concoction accomplished third abject on the afternoon. Wood did an accomplished job of anguish the bang area (104 pitches, 71 for strikes), addled out four and did not airing a batter.


Travis Wood has completed at atomic seven innings of plan in his endure two starts and has completed at atomic six innings in anniversary of his endure four outings. Wood has not accustomed a run in his endure 19 innings.

Shawn Camp bankrupt out theChicago Cubs jerseys eighth and Carlos Marmol best up his third save of the alternation with two strikeouts in the ninth. The Cubs' agents annihilation the Astros alert in the amateur afterwards acceptance 17 runs in the afterpiece adjoin the Mets.
# by hroberts | 2012-07-02 17:19 | mlb sport

2012 MLB Preview, Part 1: new Wild Card teams, and a Free-For-All

The 2012 division is the alpha of a new era of artifice with the accession of a Wild Card aggregation per league. Under the new format, there will be a do-or-die one-game, wild-card round, area the two teams with the best almanac a part of non-division winners face off. This may not be the a lot of accepted system, but it makes September baseball even abundant added exciting, if annihilation else. Coinciding with this shift, teams that accept been bottom-dwellers accept improved, accessible to abruptness and play leapfrog. Playoff contest will be tighter and added teams will be involved, authoritative for what should be an abundantly aggressive and acute season.

Under the new format, three teams in the American Alliance East could accomplish the playoffs. Year afterwards year, one of them, Joe Maddon’s small-market Rays, manages to argue with a baby payroll. The aggregation doesn’t accept abundant of a fan-base, but they continuously accept the success that deserves a abounding stadium, with humans who don’t charge cowbells to accomplish noise.

The Rays casting agents is superb, fabricated up absolutely of accomplished adolescent arms. David Price and James Shields ballast the staff, while expectations are analogously top for ascendant AL Rookie of the Year Jeremy Hellickson and 22-year-old left-hander Matt Moore, who tossed six solid innings today in his Spring Training outing. The above four pitchers accumulated for a 3.33 ERA endure season, while Moore, in his alone alpha of the season, tossed 5 annihilation innings and addled out 11 to exhausted the Yankees in New York. Moore again exhausted the Rangers in the American Alliance Division Series, shutting out the almighty breach over seven innings. Given how absorbing his addition to the majors was, there is a lot of advertising surrounding him. Considering how he carries himself and how effortless his repertoire looks, it would not be altogether hasty to see him reside up to the media’s hopes.
# by hroberts | 2012-04-10 16:47 | mlb sport

Five MLB Teams that Should Have Been in the Minor Leagues

When a amateur does not accomplish to a akin that the aggregation he plays for demands he about is beatific aback to the accessory leagues for added training, rehabilitation, etc., or is appear outright. Too bad we can’t do that with some above alliance baseball franchises. I apperceive there are some leagues that convenance this access to competitiveness in Europe but I don’t see it alive with the MLB. Regardless, actuality are my top 5 teams that are, or in a lot of cases were, so bad for so continued that they adapted demotion. These are impressionistic comments, of course, and I acceptable others advancing up with their own lists.

St. Louis Browns (1902-1953): This aggregation had been afflicted throughout a lot of of its history. It was aggressive for a abbreviate time in the 1920s but alone in 1944 did it win its one and alone American Alliance pennant. Indeed, abounding of the Browns’ admirers advised it a brand of honor—even a account of machismo—to basis for this hapless team. They took pride in the about apt descriptor, “First in shoes, aboriginal in booze, and endure in the American League.” After their pennant-winning division the Browns slid in the standings every year until they absent over 100 amateur in 1949. By this time the Browns were affecting and seemed on the alley either to impossible ruin or to addition city. One alternation with the Red Sox in 1950, accepted as the “Boston Massacre,” acicular up the atrocious straits of the team. In the aboriginal bold of the alternation on June 7, the Browns absent to the Red Sox 20-4. The next day was even worse with the Browns accident to the Red Sox, 29-4. How could the aggregation get any worse? It did in 1951, accident 102 amateur and finishing 46 amateur abaft the pennant-winning Yankees. The alone ablaze atom a part of the Browns was the casting of Ned Garver, who went 20-12 for a aggregation that won alone fifty-two games. During the next bounce if Garver capital a bacon hike, buyer Bill Veeck apprenticed Garver to assurance and quipped, “We could accept accomplished endure after you!” Few absent the Browns if the aggregation confused to Baltimore in 1954
# by hroberts | 2012-04-10 16:46 | mlb sport