FanNation

Spell Relief with the O's

Don't look now but the Orioles' bullpen isn't half bad. In fact, Baltimore's revamped group of relievers is the AL's best through the first week of the season.

Led by a combination of holdovers, Jamie Walker and Chad Bradford, along with newcomers George Sherrill, Matt Albers, Dennis Sarfate and Randor Bierd, O's relievers have allowed a major league low .132 opponents batting average, and a second-best 0.84 ERA through their first 21 innings. They've also accounted for four of the team's five victories, including two by Sarfate, the former Brewers prospect who was acquired from Houston (with Albers and OF Luke Scott) and has regularly hit the high 90s with his fastball. Sherrill is the closer right now, but Sarfate has the makeup and stuff to take over the role at any minute, and he's already passed Greg Aquino as the next-best choice to close, so don't delay picking him up.

Play Ball: MLB 2008

I've finally gotten out from under the Sports Illustrated preview issue so it's back to the blogosphere. Thanks again for reading along with my spring training tour and please look for my upcoming weekly baseball stats column on SI.com tentatively titled "Diamond Digits."

Since else everybody gives their predicted standings, I wanted to get my picks on record after studying every team so closely over the last two months. So here's how I see the season going down as we stand today.

NL West    1. Rockies  2. Dodgers 3. Diamondbacks 4. Padres 5. Giants

NL Central   1. Brewers 2. Cubs 3. Reds  4. Astros 5. Pirates 6. Cardinals 

NL East  1. Mets  2. Phillies  3. Braves  4. Nationals  5. Marlins

NL Wild Card:  Phillies

NLDS  Mets over Rockies, Phillies over Rockies

NLCS Mets over Phillies

Dodgers-Cardinals Recap

Operative description of the day: It turned out to be a beautiful day for baseball, especially for Dodgers fans who saw their team unmercifully take the Cardinals pitching staff out to the shed for 20 runs, 20 hits and seven walks in a 20-6 win. There wasn’t an empty seat in the house as 7,227 mostly Cardinals fans turned out for this classic matchup that turned into a three hour, 15 minute marathon that featured nearly 50 players.

However the highlight of the day for me came before the game when I found myself at the pre-game media buffet line with none other than Hall of Fame Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, one of the true giants of broadcasting. Coming from the Bronx and having a sister and good friends who went to Fordham, we struck up a conversation over St. Louis style barbecue ribs. Like that wasn’t big enough, who else did I walk right by on my way back to my seat? It was Tony La Russa’s close friend Bill Parcells, now the boss of the Miami Dolphins. Also spotted in the pressbox were broadcasters Jaime Jarrin, Mike Shannon, Charley Steiner and Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst. And for the Cardinals, bringing out the lineup card to home plate was Hall of Famer and alltime great pitcher, Bob Gibson, a very close friend of Dodgers skipper Joe Torre. As basketball players like to say; “I went out on a make.”

Day 11: Dodgers vs. Cardinals at Jupiter

It’s the 11th and final day of my journey through the Grapefruit League, and I’m back in Jupiter for two of the NL’s most storied franchises, the Dodgers and Cardinals. The ride up Florida’s Turnpike from Fort Lauderdale was quite pleasant although the weather I left and the weather here in Northern Palm Beach County are iffy at best, with a cool breeze and lots of cloud cover. In other words, if you’re not sitting in those few spots where the sun is shining, it’s going to be brisk. Luckily today I beat the rush and have a pretty good seat in the pressbox (which luckily is fully protected by a screen). One other thing about the ride which would have to go under the “mixed impression” heading. The Turnpike is the corridor where all of South Florida’s trash is sent to spend eternity as part of a landfill. While the odor emanating from them is reminiscent of Eau du Dirty Diaper, the thousands of birds, big and small, predator and prey, that they attract is worth dealing with the stench. Hawks, eagles, vultures, and dozens of other species circleing around looking for a meal and it’s, pardon the pun, breathtaking (but no where near as cool as the Dolphin in Tampa).

Red Sox-Orioles Recap

Operative description of the day:

As the seats began to fill up you could tell that Red Sox Nation would be out in force. Although parts of the stadium were surprisingly sparse, a vast majority of those in attendance were clad in Sox red which outnumbered Orioles Orange by easily a 10-to-1 ratio, and many of the orange folks were the elderly ushers and security personnel who are employed here at the stadium. The Boston backers even got in a prerequisite “Yankees Suck” chant in, although the timing of it, trailing 9-2 in the top of the eighth inning of a split squad road game was curious.