A little bad news for the Braves this year, Hampton will be out for the rest of the year. Looks like we might be stuck with Redman for awhile. Well, 4 good starting pitchers out of 5 isn’t too bad.
Still mourning Expos fan here. They said the team could only prosper by moving. Now look at them Nats. 
Mike Hampton? Injured?
Yeah, right. :rolleyes:
Next thing you’ll tell us is that the Pope wears a funny hat. Think we’ll believe that as well? 
Dear Atlanta Braves -
Something called a Scott Thorman is your first baseman.
Call back in September.
Yours truly,
The Mets and Phillies
Dear Mets and Phillies,
Maybe. But we have these other five guys named Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Brian McCann, Jeff Francouer, and Edgar Renteria.
We’ll call back in October.
Sincerely,
The Atlanta Braves
P.S. Bobby Cox says “Hey.”
Don’t feel too bad. It was just my Miserable Mariners. You can mentally count 3 of the 4 games as virtual wins. 
This is going to be a fun season, isn’t it?
My fantasy baseball team is undefeated, so far. The Phillies? Not so much. But the Crab Fries at Citizens Bank Park have been primo this year, so there’s always that. (Hey, I’ll take what I can get.)
C’mon, now!
Our Mariners are in second in the AL west with a 2-1 record!
Woot!
Of course, the forecast for the game in Boston is rain/snow.
Gotta love springtime ball.
You make it sound as if having Jeff Francoeur is an advantage.
Okay, okay, he’s only 23 and he might get better. He’d better learn the strike zone soon, though.
He was preposterously wild and a real major league team would have torn him apart. Not very promising at all.
Josh Towers tonight, which could make AJ Burnett look like Walter Johnson. I find it puzzling, after watching Casey Janssen pitch so well early this year, that Janssen wasn’t given the #5 starter’s job, but he doesn’t have a big contract for J.P. Ricciardi to justify, does he?
I’m a Cubs fan. So far what I’ve seen this year is what I saw last year. Some hitting, but not *timely * hitting. Bullpen gives up walks and runs. See yesterday’s game. We come back to tie late and the very next inning the bullpen gives up 2 more runs. Demoralizing.
My fantasy tem is no good either. I had trouble getting a closer. Short and middle relief is fine, but I need a guy to rack up saves. I passed on Dempster b/c the “people in the know” said he was kryptonite. Sure he blew a few last year, but I was near the top of my league in that category. This time I picked up Brad Lidge. He’s already melted down and demoted. After 1 week! (And Dempster has 2 saves already and looks sharp. Last time I listen to the prognosticators. Grrr.)
I wonder if a fantasy team can go through an entire season with no saves?
Tomorrow will be interesting, Ichiro leading off against Dice K for the first start Dice K has in Fenway.
I am of course rooting for the Mariner’s tomorrow.
Jim
Checking in from the AL West.
Eight games down now, and the A’s have yet to have a bad outing by a starting pitcher. They’re only problem at the moment is the bats are cold. Piazza tore the cover off the ball over the weekend (against the Angels, no less), but everyone else is not making much contact. They’ll eventually settle in and get their share of hits and runs. And they have some important cogs on the DL (Kotsay and Loaiza, specifically). So, typical A’s April: slow start, with lots of room and promise for improvement. Another grind it out year ahead.
Isn’t SOP for Janssen to be lights-out the first time through the order, OK the second, and terrible after that? I seem to recall the opposing team’s average ballooned over .500 the third time through the order. Or maybe that was some other pitcher. We used so many starters last year I lost track.
My Chicago White Sox actually won a game in Oakland (against Rich Harden!). This makes 5 wins in their last 28 games by the bay. That is not a typo.
7 and 7 last year, the Tigers did start.
Bleh. I’m not concerned. Pitching always starts off slow-ish, although Robertson had a monster game tonight.
This would be as opposed to the Towers pattern of being hammered the first time through the order, pasted the second time through the order, and crushed the third time through the order.
He wasn’t TOO bad tonight, and had his moments, but still lost.
Boof Bonser pitch very poorly tonight as A-Rod jacked his 6th homer and 15 RBI of the young season.
As a Yankee fan this is great, as a baseball fan I look forward to the game later this year when some poor announcer needs to say “Boof Bonser is now pitching to Coco Crisp”. Will he be able to say it without laughing.
Jim
Believe it or not, that is actually his full legal name. Boof Bonser. That’s it. No middle name, and Boof isn’t a nickname or short for anything. Boof Bonser.
Coco Crisp’s given names are Covelli Loyce, so I guess Coco isn’t that bad.