Snooze Button

Hey, it's been a while, and while my audience of one has been bitching at me to write again, truth is there just isn't much action going on in the baseball world right this minute. Yes, it's only six days from pitchers and catchers reporting to camp, and then official spring training starts a few weeks after that, but I'm now in this lull where no significant baseball news is coming out, and what did or does come out is the same ol', same ol'. I don't care where Johnny Damon is going to end up. In fact, his career is probably going to take a monstrous tumble after leaving the hitting-haven that the new Yankee stadium has become. So what should we talk about? How about a little off-season assessing. Ok good.
Now in an earlier blog I mentioned that Seattle has been cleaning up in the American League, and they have even made a few more tidy pickups that may help down the line. They signed Eric Bedard back to the team for the measily sum of $1.5 million, and yes he won't be ready until June or July, but if he can recapture some dominant stuff and stay healthy the rest of the way, imagine how good Seattle's late-season rotation could be. Sick, that's what it could be.
However, other than Seattle, most other teams in the AL haven't been too quick to drop the hammer on big deals. In fact, neither have the National League teams. The fact is, this was a slow off-season, with a somewhat less than stellar free-agent market, and an economy that has taken a bite out of most owners' wallets. The Nationals made some improvemtnts, adding Jason Marquis, Matt Capps, and Brian Bruney to bolster a young pitching squad, which is going to get even younger when the Nats rush Stephen Strasburg through their system. They've also added a couple position players as well, to help aid the offensive woes. Adam Kennedy and Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez are both well past their primes, but they are still wily veterans who can put together decent enough stats while possibly tutoring youngsters. And I think this will be Ryan Zimmerman's truly breakout year, becoming possibly the best third-baseman in the NL. But for all these moves, the Nationals will still probably finish last in the NL East.
Other teams have added a piece here or there, such as Milwaukee adding Randy Wolf, Doug Davis, and LaTroy Hawkins, while trading to add Carlos Gomez, a speedy outfielder. But these are not game-changing moves people. Even the Phillies, who made the biggest splash of the off-season when they traded to get Roy Halladay, then gave away Cliff Lee to rebuild their farm team. So they are only slightly better off than they were. The Mets signed Jason Bay, but is he going to make or break that team? Hardly. The Red Sox picked up an overpriced John Lackey, which might keep them from retaining Josh Beckett's services next year. That doesn't now make the Red Sox rotation unbeatable, and might even be a bad deal in the long run. The Cardinals kept Matt Holliday around, but put themselves in a similar boat as the Red Sox in that they may have a hard time finding money to keep Albert Pujols around next year. I personally believe the owners would sooner cut off their arms than let him go, but who knows. If Fat Albert asks for $25 million, or maybe even $30 million, do the Cardinals have that kind of money? Who the hell does?
Miguel Tejada went back to Baltimore. Wow. The "O-Dawg" Orlando Hudson went to the Twins. Ok. Ben Sheets is back and signed with the Athletics for....what?! That was a minor splash for it's utter stupidity. Guess what, he's going to break down. But I mean nothing changed the game. The Phillies, Yankees, and Cardinals are still the teams to beat in their divisions. The Cubs got rid of a bad contract, but haven't added anything. The Giants could've caught up to the non-spending Dodgers by getting a hitter or two, but instead thought a utility man would fix all their problems. And the AL Central is still pretty much anyone's game. I mean, other than Seattle possibly taken the title of AL West favorite away from the Angels, not much has changed. As far as I can tell, the most likely predictions for the 2010 World Series will be the Yankees and Phillies. Boring.
You know what I'm most looking forward to this season? The rookies. I think most teams have decided to hold off spending on a mediocre free-agent list, and instead put effort into building up farm systems. I love this idea, but it's often behind closed doors. Unless you follow baseball with the attention of an uber-nerd anaylyst, you won't get to find out how the prospects from every team are doing, and therefore the game on the Major League level stays somewhat stagnant. Some notable players may make the jump and create a stir in their divisions this year, but until that actually happens, there's no point saying this person is the next so and so, or this guy is going to change the franchise, because honestly, we just don't know yet. So while I'm excited for young talent, I also have to sit on my hands and wait to see who will actually perform and who's going to be the next big dud. You heard me Delmon Young.
In short, this off-season wasn't terrible, but it was lame overall. My team will still suck. The teams I don't want to be good will still go on being good. And the lesser teams will go on being lesser. I love the game and look forward to the start of the season with the anticipation of a fat guy passing a Burger King. But I'm just slightly bummed that more didn't occur. Maybe I'm asking too much, who knows. I just know that there's two feet of snow on the ground, so baseball is stuck on the back burner right now. At least the picture is something to get excited about. Yowza!