A New Baseball Season is Upon Us...
That's right... it's that time for me to start wondering when I will see Baseball Tonight. When will I see a baseball game (looking forward to turning on the TV in the middle of the afternoon and seeing a random baseball game).
This year, baseball is mired in controversy, and I intend to offer my faithful readers (or reader) my own opinions on these (and the errors of Druids in Warcraft). Oh and also my opinions on why can't the 'Cuse win in basketball. (No breakout player, right now I'd man McNamara, double Warrick, man Pace and split the other one among the other two players).
So, what should I start off with?
I think the biggest question right now is...
definitely the firesale of the Athletics Rotation (okay so this is wrong but if you actually think I'm going to start off with Steroids, lol).
Billy Beane did a lot this past offseason. He traded away Mulder to the Cardinals (for Haren, Calero and a minor league catcher). He traded away Hudson to the Braves (for pitchers Cruz, Meyer and OF Thomas). And acquired Jason Kendall from the Pirates for relief pitchers Rhodes and Redman.
Now let's think about how smart these moves are and also give to me a big question mark. The Kendall trade is a definite "attempting to play NOW" trade. Kendall within 5 years will be a DH or a 1B with dead knees. The Hudson trade definitely tries to plug in some of the holes with the departure of Redman in the Kendall deal. Cruz will fit into the bullpen as a spot guy. However, this is when I start getting confused. Meyer and Thomas are prospects which will be ready soon but perhaps not this year. Meyer only debuted last year and could be ready soon but Thomas probably will spend the year on the bench or starting in AAA. And then Mulder. Mulder, Mulder, Mulder. Mulder was probably the best pitcher of the 3 and he got Haren. Denny Haren has remarkable upside. He needs a little seasoning but will be ready to play in MLB immediately. Calero is okay but probably won't move much beyond middle relief. Barton meanwhile will need to wait (Barton is the catcher, I had to look it up). He was only in Single-A last year and will probably not be ready for two years.
Now Oakland is the model of a small market team, and these moves mostly make sense towards dumping salary, Kendall will probably cost them but their catchers currently were embarrassing, so Beane seems to be attempting to be the perfect GM, ready to play today but preparing for the future. Except for one thing: THEY TRADED AWAY 2 TOP TIER PITCHERS! One was necessary, but 2! Come on! Those 2 accounted for 104 wins in the past 3 years, about 1/3 of the total number of wins the A's had.
Filling a void like that will not be easy and I'm not sure can be done. I see the Angels tragically winning the West this year. Darn.
Up Next: Hmmmm.. I don't know...
