Although tomorrow is the beginning for most teams, the Washington Nationals open up tonight against the Atlanta Braves on ESPN.  First pitch should be about 20 minutes from now.

Odalis Perez will take the hill for the Nationals.  He was 8-11 with an ERA of 5.57.  Those numbers are reflective of the team he played for, the Kansas City Royals.  I expect him to be a little better (an average major leaguer, a .500 win percentage and an ERA in the 4-4.5 range).

Perez’s counterpart will be Tim Hudson.  Hudson quietly put up respectable numbers in 2007 logging 224 innings and racking up 16 wins.  It was arguably his best season since 2001.

I just got a first look at Nationals Park on Baseball Tonight and it looks beautiful.  I hope to get out there this summer.

Most importantly, the beginning of the baseball season is upon us.  There is no other time of the year quite like this.  A new spring, full of hope.  Even for the Baltimore Orioles.

As the great Al Bundy once said “Let there be baseball….let there be life!”

Play Ball.

Seriously? Has anyone watched this guy pitch in his time as a professional?

Let’s recap:
He pitched at Wichita State where he blew hitters away with his 95 MPH fastball.  That was enough to get him drafted in the first round by the Mets.  But you watch this guy pitch and you realize pretty quickly that Pelfrey does not have first round talent.

Reviewing the 2005 draft, from a purely pitching standpoint, no other pitcher has made any major noise in the big leagues as of yet.  Matt Garza has had the most success.

However, I still wonder what the Mets were thinking.  6-foot-7, 195 pounds (at the time) and he has one pitch.

I can still remember it like it was yesterday.  Its the year 2006, I am 19 years old, it is mid-summer (July 23rd) and I am in the stands on the field level, third-base side.  Pelfrey is on the hill against the Houston Astros, one of the worst hitting teams in baseball that year.  A good day at the ballpark and a Mets win seemed to be in store for me.

I watched as Pelfrey worked through a terrible lineup one time and looked pretty good doing it.  Carlos Delgado had homered in the bottom of the first to give the Mets and Pelfrey a 3-0 lead.  Willy Taveras would hit a sacrifice fly in the Top of the 3rd to make it 3-1, but Pelfrey was cruising early on.

Then Pelfrey began going through the lineup a second time and results were much different.  Pelfrey hit Lance Berkman, gave up a single to Aubrey Huff and eventually would walk Ausmus to load the bases with two outs.  He was able to pitch out of that inning, but not the next one.

In the top of the fifth,  Roy Oswalt (the pitcher!) led off with a single, Taveras doubled,  and Mike Lamb knocked both of them in.  Chris Burke then hit a hard line drive, but David Wright made an excellent play for the out.  Berkman then doubled
in Lamb and Pelfrey was yanked for Darren Oliver.

The Mets would eventually lose that game 8-4, but what a turnaround that was for Pelfrey, to go from cruising to not even finishing the fifth inning.

When you watch the game, however, it was not so surprising.

It was Pelfrey’s third major league start, so Houston had never seen him.  But, after one time through the batting order, the word was out: He doesn’t throw anything but his fastball for a strike.  They were 100 percent right.  If he threw any kind of breaking ball it was out of the strike zone, so the Houston hitters just sat on his four-seamer and teed off.  It doesn’t matter that he was throwing 96 that day, major league hitters will catch up to it.

I’ve watched his subsequent starts since that day and it has been essentially the same story every time.   Of course, like most pitchers, Pelfrey would have been best served pitching in the minor leagues for three full seasons before being called up, but no one follows that anymore.  However, it would have been wise for someone in that organization to have him develop at least two more pitches that he can use effectively and throw for strikes.

That’s whats wrong with Mike Pelfrey.   That’s why he’s going to back to Triple-A in a matter of days.  Even his fastball is betraying him, too.  Until he finds another pitch, he won’t make it out of the minors.  Perhaps he will use this season to develop a breaking ball and a change up that he can put over the plate.  When he does that, he could be a nice back-end of the rotation pitcher, but not until then.

At 6:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, the 2008 Major League Baseball season began with a strike from Joe Blanton delivered to Dustin Pedroia. I don’t know how many others are awake to watch this, but I sure am. This is a placeholder entry. More to come on this game.

6:55 AM

Its only the bottom of the 2nd inning because Daisuke Matsuzaka can’t throw a strike to save his life thus far. Matsuzaka got the first out on the first pitch and it all went downhill from there. Mark Ellis, the next batter, hit a home run.

He just struck out Jack Cust with the bases loaded to end the second inning and he’s only given up two runs. Quite frankly it could have been much worse. Matsuzaka has thrown in the neighboorhood of 60 pitches already. Julian Tavarez has already started throwing in the bullpen for Boston.

On a side note, the sun is rising now on the East Coast, its somewhere in the morning sky, I cannot see it because my room is in the back of my house facing away from the Eastern Sky.

8:00 AM

I give Matsuzaka a lot of credit for battling through five innings and he has been justly rewarded. Manny Ramirez just drove in two runs and Brandon Moss just drove in Manny to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead here in the Top of the sixth inning. Joe Blanton, who started very well, has just been lifted for Oakland.

This was a missed opportunity for the Athletics, because they could have really blown it open in the first two innings and they couldn’t capitalize. Now, it seems, they will pay for it unless their offense can get going again.

3:00 PM

Recap after taking care of some morning and afternoon errands…

It was a back-and-forth game, and an excellent one at that.  Jack Hannahan’s sixth inning home run off Kyle Snyder brought the Athletics back ahead and it seemed that Oakland was going to walk away with this one.

Until Brandon Moss, who wasn’t even scheduled to start in right field until moments before the game stepped to the plate.

J.D. Drew’s back tightened up literally moments before the lineup cards were handed in and Francona was forced to insert Moss into the lineup.  Moss stepped up in the Top of the 9th and tied the game up with a home run off A’s closer Huston Street.

Then it was simply Manny being Manny.  Ramirez hit a long fly ball to deep center field and he posed at the plate as if he knew the ball would go out of the Tokyo Dome.  It didn’t, but it landed in the outfield for a double, knocking in two runs to put the Red Sox ahead 6-4.

Jonathan Papelbon gave up a double to Emil Brown that scored Daric Barton, but Brown was tagged out on a run-down.  Papelbon gave up two more singles to Bobby Crosby and Hannahan, but got Kurt Suzuki to end the game.

It was a wild one in Japan, certainly worth getting up at 6 AM Eastern Time to watch it.  Say what you will about the decision to start the season in Japan and the whole controversy surrounding it, but no one can deny it was an excellent game to start off the 2008 season.

From myself here at fourseamheater.com, I wish you all a very happy Easter holiday.  Here’s to baseball season (meaningful baseball) and the hope that it gets here very quickly.

Updates resume tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Mark Krulish, author of  fourseamheater.com

The baseball front has been pretty quiet as we head towards the season.  The 2008 baseball season begins in about ten days for most teams and until then, its just a matter of getting the kinks out for the new season.  However, a few notes on some young rookies trying to make their team.

Fernando Martinez has been sent to the Mets minor league camp, but overall he had a successful spring batting .340.  The Mets are taking their time with the young outfielder and have no reason to rush into the majors, but this bodes well for the future.  Martinez will likely start the season in Double-A.

Evan Longoria is hitting .313 with the Rays and is looking to stick with the big club.  He brings lots of skill and talent to the third-base position as well as in the lineup.  He provides another young piece into the Rays’ equation.

Unfortunately, another player looking to make a splash with their club is not doing so well.  Joey Votto a first baseman for the Cincinatti Reds is only hitting .158 this spring.  Votto batted .294 with 22 home runs and 92 RBIs at Triple-A last year and seems to have little to prove at the minor league level.  Votto may ultimately catch on with the big club thanks to his .321 batting average in 24 games during a September call-up last season.

Felix Pie’, my rookie of the year pick in the National League has had a fantastic spring and should be able to win the center field job at Wrigley.  Pie has hit everywhere he’s played including his September call up last season.

I am back after a brief absence, I had some temporary duties with the New Jersey Nets so my mind was focused on basketball for the entire weekend.

Out on the Spring Training Diamonds there are no major headlines, but there are some small things that are newsworthy.  So here are some diamonds notes for today.

The Yankees have not yet decided what they will do with young Joba Chamberlain, but he believes that he will start the year in the bullpen.  With Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Philip Hughes and Ian Kennedy likely to be starters, the fifth-starter role would likely go to Mike Mussina.  Chamberlain said he expects to meet with Joe Girardi and the rest of the coaching staff on Wednesday.

Stand Up Straight
Standing at an imposing 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, Daniel Cabrera certainly is not someone you would want to face in a dark alley.  However, on the mound he’s been anything but overpowering with a career record of 40-49.  Manager Dave Trembley believes Cabrera is in line for a big year, simply based on his posture.

When Baltimore’s new pitching coach Rick Krantz dug up a tape of Cabrera from 2005 he notices that Cabrera was dominating when he would stand straight up and deliver as opposed to slouching which he has done a lot of in his career.

Cabrera recently made an impressive start in an 11-3 win over the Washington Nationals that featured Cabrera’s fastball hitting the strike zone again and again.  Cabrera retired nine men in a row during his 5 1/3 inning start.

On a lighter note (no pun intended), Hideo Nomo is trying to make the Kansas City Royals squad out of Spring Training.  However, the 39-year-old has been informed that he will not be in the starting rotation if he makes the team.  There are two vacancies in the Royals rotation with Brett Tomko and Luke Hochevar likely to be the pitchers that fill out their starting five, with Jorge De La Rosa in the mix as well.

I don’t know about you, but I really just want this season to start.  Spring Training is great, but I’d imagine it would be a lot better if I was down there every day, I’d probably have more to write about too.   Oh well, its only 14 more days!

No, of course not.  While the Rays battle the Blue Jays and Orioles to be the best team not named the Yankees or Red Sox, the Yankees will be challenging their real rival for another division title.

Nevertheless, news is slow, as it typically is in this part of Spring Training, especially here in New York where there are no real position battles to speak of on either team.

Rarely do we see a Spring Training game erupt as the game between the Yankees and the Rays the other day.  Here’s a quick catch-up on what has happened.

It all began last Saturday when Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli was plowed into by Elliot Johnson, breaking his wrist.  The play was deemed “unnecessary” by Yankees manager Joe Girardi.  I’ll get to that in a minute.

Then, a couple of days ago, Shelley Duncan slid spikes-high into Rays’ second baseman Akinori Iwamura apparently taking umbrage with the collision that occured a few days earlier.  Duncan’s slide touched off a bench-clearing brawl for which Duncan, Jonny Gomes and Melky Cabrera were suspended.  Rays Manager Joe Maddon referred to this slide as “borderline criminal”.

Suspensions are rare for Spring Training, off the top of my head, I wouldn’t be able to tell you the last time someone got suspended from a Spring Training game, especially for an incident in this manner.

As far as the comments from the managers, I have to say first that I was a bit surprised by Girardi’s comment.

Girardi was a tough catcher, a gamer, a competitor and he brings the same spirit to his managing position.  Obviously Girardi has to stick up for his guy, thats a given, but it was curious to hear him say that it was completely unnecessary.  He knows what it takes to make the majors, you have to make an impression.  Perhaps Johnson could have done it in some other manner, but he is obviously not a highly-touted prospect and is looking to stay in professional baseball by any means necessary.  Again, I know Girardi has to defend his team, but I would’ve expected something a little less definite in his response.

Maddon is just flat-out over-reacting.  I would call “borderline criminal” just a tad bit extreme.  It is never good to slide at someone with your nails up and very rarely is it an accident.  This is not necessarily to accuse Shelley Duncan, because occasionally it is an accident and Duncan said that he did not do it on purpose.  Don’t immediately vilify Duncan, because by no means is he guilty of doing it on purpose, but take it with a grain of salt.

The Rays are not the Yankees new rival, but it should get interesting this year since the teams meet about 19 times.  Should be some nice cannon fodder for the tabloids while the Yankees make a playoff run and The Rays toil in obscurity.  Nothing earth-shattering here.

I actually thought it was a joke when I read the headline that the Yankees had signed Billy Crystal.  However, it is true, the 60-year-old Crystal will play for the Yankees in an exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

This sort of thing feels like something I’d find in a Roger Angell book.  The final passage of the book Late Innings is a chapter called “In The Country” which documents Angell’s contact with a man who travels everywhere in a low-level barnstorming league, in upstate New York of all places, just for a chance to pitch again.

While the signing of Crystal will be looked at as a joke by most, I can only imagine what must be going through his mind right now.  If the New York Mets called me tomorrow (or really any team for that matter) and said we want you to play for us in a game next week, I would be at a loss for words. 

To a true baseball fan (and most reporters even though they don’t care to admit) it is a dream come true.  The culmination of a child’s last thought every night before they fall asleep: Stepping up to the plate wearing your favorite team’s uniform, the crack of the bat as you hit the ball beautifully, right on the sweet spot, and watching it as it sails away.  You run as fast as you can, because in this world there is no laziness or ego, everything is at full speed, everything is done as if its the last game of  your life.  Then the crowd roars and the ball has disappeared.  You slow down, realizing the double or triple you thought you hit was actually a home run.  Rounding the bases, trying to make eye contact with those in the stands because that was once you, cheering on your heroes.  Now you are the hero as you reach home plate and all your teammates are waiting for you, because you’ve just won the game.  You jump onto home plate and you are engulfed by the team.  That is the last moment before you finally slip into a dream and go to sleep.

Call it a joke, call it a travesty, call it whatever you want.  To most people it will be just another Spring Training Game, but, for Crystal, I’m sure it is nothing short of a dream come true.

New York Arms Look Ready
Locally, three pitchers have been quite impressive in the past couple of days.  Johan Santana, Phil Hughes and John Maine have all thrown four scoreless innings in their previous outings.

Maine in particular, stood out when he pitched yesterday against the Houston Astros.  He no-hit Houston for his four innings before the bullpen came in and didn’t allow a run for a 3-0 victory.  Jose Reyes led off that game with a home run.

Hughes was also impressive in equaling  Maine’s feat that day.  He did walk two batters, but was nonetheless electric in his four innings of work.

Santana did give up two hits, but struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in his four innings earlier this afternoon.  The Mets tied the Red Sox 1-1 in 10 innings.

Noah Lowry update

The last time I wrote about Lowry it was to inform you of his dubious achievement of going through an entire lineup without any recording an official at-bat.  Lowry has had surgery on his forearm and targets mid-April for his return to game action.  He had a quick procedure that took about 10-15 minutes and he will be playing catch again in about a week.

Following the aforementioned outing against the Texas Rangers, he was diagnosed with exertional compartmental syndrome.  I had to look it up, but it is essentially a neuromuscular condition that causes pain and swelling and it is induced by exercise.

Verlander Remains Unblemished
One of my personal picks for the American League Cy Young award is Justin Verlander.  Its barely mid-March, but my prediction looks excellent so far.  He has not given up a run in eight innings of work so far this Spring.  He struck out three and walked none in three innings of work against the Nationals today.  Verlander will be Detroit’s opening-day starter.

Its windy in Florida today.  I’ve got the Mets-Marlins game on the TV and watching the wind blow the ball around in the air, it has been a difficult day for fielders.  Mike Pelfrey left with the bases loaded and then Scott Schoeneweis gave up a bases-clearing double to Jorge Cantu.  Okay, so some things never change.

Its amazing to think the Mets are one of the hottest topics of debate along with the rest of the National League East.  I was born a mere 10 months before their World Series victory in 1986 and since then, I have been used to the Mets being perennial bottom-feeders and have affectionately referred to them as the “Schmets.”

However, they are now relevant again.  On yesterday’s ESPN broadcast of the Indians-Mets games, John Kruk and another analyst revealed their picks for the National League East and both of them listed the Phillies and Braves to finish ahead of the Mets.  No surprise from Kruk, he’s a Philadelphia homer and thoroughly demonstrated that in his extremely slanted explanation of why the Phillies will finish first in the NL East.

The only problem with picking with Philadelphia is that there is too much that is unknown about them.  The lineup is solid and in the launching pad known as Citizens Bank Park, the offense will produce.  We know that already.

As a matter of fact, the Mets and the Phillies are strikingly similar.  Since the Mets have as good a lineup as the Phillies and the same pitiching question marks.

Both teams have a legitimate ace at the top of their rotation with Johan Santana and Cole Hamels.  Both teams have a pitcher near senior-citizen status that is still effective (Orlando Hernandez and Jamie Moyer).  Both teams also have a pitcher with great stuff, but questionable health (Pedro Martinez and Brett Myers.  In Myers’ case, it is mental health).

So, what makes Philadelphia so much better?

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  In fact, this year’s National League East race will undoubtedly be one of the tightest in baseball history.  From wire-to-wire, they will be battling.  All summer long the Phillies and the Mets will go back and forth.

And I can’t wait for it.