The Dodgers might be getting back on track. Handley Ramirez gets off to a wonderful “start” on his bobblehead night and Ryu pitches like a major leaguer. Gets his first major league RBI too.
It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Manny Ramirez on his bobblehead night, but it was still nice to see him get a couple of hits last night.
In news of my other team, could someone please continue to spike the Indians’ water with whatever they’ve been using the last few days? After getting blown out 9-0 in the first game of a double-header on Sunday, they have since scored 10, 9 and 14 runs in their last three games. Ryan Raburn had two jacks on multiple nights. We’ll see how long the Indians hang around this season, but at least it looks like they’re having fun again.
Halladay’s last 3 starts had been solid. Not last night.
Tonight will be Cliff Lee’s first game against the Indians since he was traded. I sure wish they still had him instead of Ben Francisco, Jason Donald, Carlos Carrasco, and Lou Marson.
Tigers have won five in a row, and Anibal Sanchez is making his first start since his 17 K smack-down of the Braves. The kitties’ bullpen still makes nervous, but the bats are coming to life. As long as we have a good number of runs on the board, the bullpen won’t be able to cost us as many games. Hopefully.
Agreed with that, but I’ve got to think the bullpen will simmer down and stabilize, at least a little bit. I’d like to see Dirks fully healthy to know if we need to make a move for someone in left field, though.
Tom Ricketts is 'threatening" to move the Cubs if he doesn’t get his way with the Wrigley Field renovation.
He’s full of crap. I really could care less if the owners of the rooftop business next to Wrigley have their sight lines blocked or not. But, the ideas of the Cubs moving out to Rosemont or some suburb is laughable and Ricketts is a clown for suggesting it.
I used to work with some of the Ricketts family at a previous job and I never met a Ricketts who wasn’t a jackass know nothing blowhard.
Reminds me vaguely of when the Cardinals owners were threatening to move to St. Charles or Illinois if the city/state didn’t build them a new ballpark. The voters didn’t blink, and the owners are paying most of the cost for their nice new downtown ballpark.
The Cubs are way more intertwined with their ballpark location than any team save maybe the Sox. The idea that they would be anywhere near as good a draw in some random suburb is ridiculous.
I don’t agree at all. There are scads and scads of Cubs fans who will go see them anywhere. The Cubs draw well in spring training, they draw well as a road team in Miller Park, and they would draw swarms of people to a new park with adequate access and parking in a convenient suburban location. The only limiting factor would be the capacity of the park.
The mistake that Ricketts made was not threatening to move until now. He should have had that on the table from the beginning. You don’t get stuff done in Chicago by not being a hardass. Ask Jerry Reinsdorf.
Yeah, you’re probably right. It still seems ridiculous to me that Ricketts would even consider moving the Cubs out of Wrigley. It just doesn’t make financial sense, and I think he knows it. It’s a bluff.
Lord Jesus Almighty, the Jays suck. Surely there is no more disappointing team in baseball?
Well, maybe the Angels.
Nats finally win one against the Braves. Jordan Zimmermann has had two great starts in a row: a one hit shutout of the Reds and a 3 hit shuout last night. Now, if we could just get some offense we might not suck so much.
Well, the “lowly Bucs” avoided a sweep at Milwaukee, which is a moral victory. They have freakishly bad luck there.
Now it’s 46-8!
One month into the season, and the Rockies are atop the NL West with a record of 17-11. They’ve won five of seven series within the division, and are 8-8 on the road overall. The offense is at or near the top of most NL categories, which isn’t a huge surprise; the team is outscoring its opponents by an average of a little more than a run per game. Dexter Fowler’s emergence as an offensive power has been fun to watch; I wouldn’t have guessed that he’d be leading the team in HRs (8) at this point. The team also called up prized 3B prospect Nolan Arenado earlier than they had originally indicated they would, and it’ll be interesting to see how he adjusts to big league pitching.
The Rockies’ pitching has been … average, which is something of a surprise. The rotation is 11-7; Weiss has had to lean on his bullpen, which has been very strong, quite a bit in the early going. I fear Jeff Francis isn’t long for the starting five, and Nicasio isn’t a long-term answer in the rotation either unless he can further develop something besides his fastball. Chatwood looked impressive (although he relies a lot on his fastball as well) the other night against the Dodgers, and apparently Pomeranz, who the Rockies acquired from the Indians in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade, is looking very good in AAA.
Overall, a very strong start for the Rockies – now they’ve got two series against AL opponents (TB and NYY), and don’t play another NL West team until May 16.
Indians beat Lee 6-0, behind Trevor Bauer’s 5-ugly shutout innings and the immortal Ryan Raburn’s 4 for 5 hitting. Bauer got the win despite a K/BB ratio of 0.833, which is never good. 
Oh man, a new Wrigley in Rosemont would be great! Fly into O’Hare, one blue line stop later, you’re there! After the game, one blue line stop later, you’re back at O’Hare!
On the very, VERY off chance that the Tribe can keep scoring at their current pace, they will be able to get away with a lot of ugly pitching performances.
You don’t think that popularity for the Cubs as a team has anything to do with Wrigley as a “museum” ballpark (as Ricketts called it) with relatively many day games? I sure do.
It doesn’t matter. Now that the popularity of the team is established, fans will go where the team plays. The Cubs manage the fourth-highest attendance in the Cactus League playing in a park that everyone agrees is a dump.
But for the record, I think Wrigley Field was only one factor in the long-term popularity of the Cubs, and not necessarily the most important. Other factors were that they play in the third largest city in the country, on the wealthier and whiter side of town, closer to the wealthier and whiter suburbs, and that they intelligently and aggressively took early advantage of every new medium–radio, broadcast TV, and cable TV.
Of course those were and are all factors, as was the park. They needed to have a lot working for them to overcome their ineptitude most of the time.
Real pleasant day at the ballpark in Kansas City today… The make-up dates for this would apparently be a logistical nightmare, so they’re trying to squeeze just. one. more. inning. out of this before the snow (!) arrives.