That time of year again.

(dances in underwear)

Gotta' make sure I have everything ready for today. Sandwich making stuffs, hard lemonade, buffalo wings...

Yes, I'm that excited for a game that will feature 20 minor leaguers.

Again my team is going with veteran crap over young prospects and again they will probably have to claw their way back from 13 games down because of it.

Garza and Slowey have already pitched two scoreless innings a piece in ST while Baker and Silva have been shelled. And Silva's pretty much a lock for the opening day rotation. Should have traded Baker when he still had some stock.

ESPN blunder #1 this season: Spelling John Kruk's name wrong ("Kruck?")

Wouldn't that be #2 since Kruk has a job in the first place?

Touche.

2:53 p.m. ET. The first knock this season at Steve Phillips for being a horrible GM.

They should do that every second on the second.

He should also get punched in the face every second on the second.

Yes, Baseball Tonight is going to be really, really shitty this year with the loss of Harold Reynolds, limited Gammons, and most likely lots and lots of John Kruk, Steve Phillips and the worst of all, Jeff Brantley. Joy. Tino and that Mexican guy don't help matters, either.

I gave up on Baseball Tonight the year Kruk's fat face showed up. XM's MLB channel is ok. Minus Charlie Steiner's show as he spends 75% of his shows talking about Barry Bonds. ESPN's baseball coverage in general sucks ass. It's all about the Yankees and Red Sox.

WOOO! Listening to todays Rays game. Weird lineup, including B.J Upton at second. Also in lineup: HeeSeop Choi, Carlos Pena, Elijah Dukes, Josh Paul, and a few guys I don't remember. The only "regular" is Jonny Gomes.

Hee Sop Choi! Hopefully the Rays will play the Dodgers sometime this year... and Vin Scully can tell you all about Choi growing up on a watermelon farm. Again.

They haven't traded Gomes yet?

Why should we? As long as he can regain his form from 2005-May 2006, he should be fine (shoulder surgery). Last year I credit to a nasty injury and a sophmore slump.

See also: Jorge Cantu.

Tigers "@" Yankees on ESPN. Verlander vs. Igawa. BE THERE!

Since there's no Spring Training games on TV for the next week, it's back to watching classic games.

Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS between Seattle and New York, which ended up being the last game Don Mattingly played at Yankee Stadium. Capped it off with a nice homer, too. One thing I noticed out of the ordinary was a rowdy crowd throwing stuff onto the field afterwards... was their a beef between New York and Seattle I forgot about, because I don't remember Yankee fans doing this since.

Yeah, there was a little bit of feud between Seattle and New York in 1995. I think the teams had a few incidents when they met in August of that year. I remember watching ESPN and hearing about "baseball's hottest new feud"!

Watched a BIT (tiny bit...don't slam me) of Rockies/Diamondbacks yesterday. I decided that I wanna' grow my goatee like Todd Helton's. Did the D-backs change their jerseys, or were they just wearing some shitty new alternate Sunday home gear? They had red shirts and red hats. They looked like the Angels. Weird, because I always thought the D-backs had a nice color scheme.

New shitty look.

Yeah, they have a new logo and color scheme. Check out the photo gallery from their website. It's baaaaaaad.

A good case of "fixing" something that wasn't broke. Although the new D-backs "db" snakehead sleeve logo is kinda' neat. Hmm...with a little tweaking we could make a "dWb" logo out of that....

I'm stoked that the Reds got new uni's. They went with a "classic" look. Can't go wrong with classic.

Okay, you can, but it's harder

See, the thing is, if you hadn't told me that the Reds had new uni's, I would've thought they were the same old thing.

Cool thing about keeping the old color scheme is that, as a fan, all your crap will still match. Pirates, Phillies, Rockies, A's and others are the same way. It's tough when they switch the entire color scheme-- like the Rangers did in the mid-90's, or when San Diego ditched the brown for the blue.

Very rarely was an overhaul needed. The White Sox in the 70's and 80's defintely to go. The Expos had a unique color palette, but their old logo was so dated that their new uni's in 1992 were a huge upgrade.

You will hardly notice on the Reds until you see the Road Jerseys. The new font is more obvious there.

The Rays overhaul was far better than what we had... tropical blend with PURPLE to all green with white.

Yay, I get to see the Braves/Reds game in Sarasota on the 17th. I need to practice my heckling, incase Chipper plays. The bitch.

Heckle Adam Dunn for me every time he swings and misses.

Fucker

Will do. Anyone want to pay me to run onto the field and get my ass kicked by security? :D

Bah, that game was balls.

Atlanta had a split squad day, so we got to see the shit half of their lineup. OOOH! Matt Diaz! The only "name" of consideration was Francouer (sp), and all he did was hit a home run that hasn't landed.

Cincinnati fielded their projected opening day lineup, except for Griffey missing. Josh Hamilton got to start in center, and since Icheered for him, he struck out twice and grounded to the pitcher.

I never realized this, but there were a LOT of Cincinnati fans here. I thought only Bahston and Yank fans gave a shit about Spring Training.... speaking of Boston, one nerd had on their stupid 2004 shirt, worn out to the point of complete fading, so we had a good time ripping the guy for wearing the same shirt every day and just hating on the Sawx for being overrated losers.

BTW, I am never going to a ST game again. Damn those bleacher seats (a.k.a steel bench) are uncomfortable.... by the way Swiggy, I cheered for the "good" guys, as that White Sox broadcaster would say. :P

Yeah, Ohioans love Florida. Eventually, they'll outnumber New Yorkers in Florida

You pooper. I was in Sarasota on Thursday night. I was driving down I-75 on Saturday and encountered a bit of a traffic clusterfrick right around Englewood. For a split second, I thought "hey, I should pull off and go track down Scrooge". But a new song came on the radio and I forgot all about that.

My biggest spring training surprises were Andrew McCutchen and Paul Maholm. Everything else was just...eh. Oh yes, A-Rod is in midseason form. He went 0 for 3 with RISP. He's ready to come North.

Just heard that the Cardinals will probably start the season with an outfield of Chris Duncan, Preston Wilson/So Taguchi and Scott Spiezio. Yummy!

Good A-Rod joke. :lol:

Oh well, there's always next year for the Scrooge Hunt.

Here's a fucking surprise... Rocco is sitting out a few games because of a tight hamstring.

Also, Seth McDung still sucks. Someone just release his ass. He's an out of shape piece of shit that has one good pitch, and he can't even locate that. IT'S A FASTBALL FOR CHRIST SAKE.

Mauer has a stress reaction in his leg. Move the man to 3rd.

Griffey moves to right. Freel's now the Reds everyday CF. Dustin Hermanson is the new Reds closer

And Papelbon is the Red Sox closer, apparently.

Wow, Pineiro never got a chance, and rightfully so. I was wondering how long it would take them to realize that Joel fucking Pineiro was there fucking projected closer.

Didn't Papelbon say he didn't want to be a closer anymore? Pfft...

Their rotation just gained a FEW positive points, but still, you got 2 old men, an unproven japanese guy, someone with a 5.00 ERA that allowed 40 HR in 2006, and an injury prone one-year wonder.

I'm catalouging my Autograph Booty from my Florida trip. Unlike past years, I wasn't really looking to get autographs, but got all of these turds:

-Jerry Narron (Reds mgr. Sweetspot ball)
-Neil Walker (Pirates top prospect. Sweetspot ball)
-Andrew McCutchen (Pirates top prospect. Sweetspot ball)
-Tom Gorzellany (Pirates #4 starter. Sweetspot ball)
-Pirates/Indianapolis/Lynchburg/Altoona "Team" ball (all on one ball):
Jose Bautista
Chris Aguila
Michael Ryan
Neil Walker
Adam LaRoche
Marty McLeary
Einar Diaz
Matt Capps
John Shelby (1B coach)
Steve Lerud
John Wasdin
Yurendell DeCaster

Obviously, no big names and nothing that would be recognizable to non-Bucco fans. Wasdin, Diaz and McLeary might be out of the organization within a few days, even. But a good portion of my "Man Basement" contains Bucco crap, so it fits with my decor. I'm nothing, if not a coordinated interior decorator.

And yes, this a hook to get people curious, so I can show off pictures of my "Man Basement".

No Rays autographs? IS BOOS!

Sorry. Raymond couldn't hold a pen. But I did get a high-five from him.