Will first time be a charm for Alomar?
Posted by Adrien Griffin Categories: Athletes, Editorial, MLB, Rumors,
Roberto Alomar is generally seen as one of the best defensive second basemen of his era. After breaking into the big leagues in a big way with the San Diego Padres, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays with Joe Carter in a blockbuster deal that sent Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez the other way. This turned out to be a launching point for Alomar’s career. He was an All-Star in every season during the 90’s, and in total 12 times. He won four silver slugger awards and 10 gold gloves, and is now eligible for entry into the Hall of Fame. It’s a no-brainer that he’ll make it, the question is whether or not he’ll do so in his first year of eligibility.
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September Struggles for the Baltimore Orioles
Posted by Adrien Griffin Categories: Editorial, MLB,
The Baltimore Orioles suck at playing baseball in September. The last time they had a winning record during the last month of the season was 2004, when they went an impressive 18-10. Unfortunately for the O’s of yesteryear, not even .643 baseball could get them to a winning season record – or even bring them inside of 20 games of a wild card spot this season. Since 2004, they’ve gone 10-18, 10-18, 10-19, and 5-20 down the final stretch of each year. So far in 2009, they’ve gone 0-2, dropping a pair to the New York Yankees.
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Adam Loewen’s Re-Rise to Baseball Stardom
Posted by Adrien Griffin Categories: Athletes, Injuries, MLB,
Adam Loewen was supposed to be great. He was supposed to be an ace pitcher. Once touted as the best prospect with the Baltimore Orioles, Canadian-born Loewen’s career began like no other before him. He pitched for Team Canada at the 2006 World Baseball Classic, earning a win against Team USA before Canada was eliminated. Two months later, he began his Major League Baseball career. In his first four starts, he faced off against Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, and Roy Halladay twice to become the first pitcher to face four Cy Young winners in the first four starts of his career. However, he went 0-2 as his team behind him could never seem to get the job done.
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The Toughest League in Baseball
Posted by Adrien Griffin Categories: Editorial, MLB,
Baseball has been widely criticized in recent years for its “unbalanced” schedule. Thanks to 18 interleague games per season, teams in each league face teams in other divisions an unequal amount of times, which seems unfair since every team not in first place competes for the same Wild Card playoff berth. This makes it extremely hard for some teams to compete, especially in a division such as the American League East, which is arguably not just the toughest division in baseball, but also the toughest division in professional sports.
If you’re a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, or Baltimore Orioles, you need to face a grim reality. There are 27 other teams in the majors who have a better chance at making the playoffs than your team. With money-spending powerhouses like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, teams with smaller payrolls need a lot more to go “right” for them in order to compete. A lot of people argue this with the fact that the Rays made it all the way to the World Series in 2008, but face it – that was the only AL East team in the last 11 seasons who were not the Yanks or Sox to make it into the playoffs, and it was also the first time in franchise history that the Rays had a winning record.
The Toronto Blue Jays have had six winning records in the last 11 years, but have only finished better than third once. With an 86-76 record last year, they actually finished in fourth place in the AL East. It took the Los Angeles Dodgers 84 victories to win the NL West by two full games. The Orioles haven’t been as fortunate. Ever since Cal Ripken Jr. left town, the O’s haven’t finished with more than 78 wins and have only reached as high as third place once.
It’s very likely that the AL East has three or four of the best teams in the league, but only two can get into the playoffs. The only way to make it fair – to give the four best teams a chance to be in the playoffs – is to eliminate divisional play. But we all know that isn’t going to happen. At the very least, balancing the schedule and eliminating interleague play would give every team a chance to face every other team an equal amount of times, giving value and fairness to the always important Wild Card team. But while baseball stands to make money by sending the Yankees and the Red Sox to any city in the majors, don’t hold your breath.
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Carl Pavano Returns Successfully To Yankees Rotation
Posted by Milo Taibi Categories: Athletes, MLB, Scoreboard,
Carl Pavano signed a 40 million dollar contract with the New York Yankees in late 2004. The signing has been considered a massive failure for the Yankees, as Pavano has spent much of the time on his contract on the disabled list. However, on Saturday night Pavano proved himself to be a capable big league pitcher when healthy. He earned the victory over the Baltimore Orioles, going five innings and allowing just three runs. New York won the game by a score of 5-3.
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