Carlos Carrasco and J. A. Happ both turned in great performances Thursday in their first interviews for the fifth starter spot in Philly. Both pitched two scoreless innings, but Carrasco was the more impressive of the two. While not allowing a baserunner, Carlos struck out the first two batters he faced before finishing with three Ks. Happ, on the other hand, only gave up one hit while notching one K in his two frames. Zolecki has a good review of the game here.
In other Phillies news, Shane Victorino has replaced Grady Sizemore on the US’s World Baseball Classic squad. Ryan Howard, however, still said no.
The Mets have not only canceled Johan Santana’s first Spring Training game but they have now postponed his second one as well. You do not need me to tell you how big this could be.
For the past few years I have enjoyed reading Jonathan Gangi’s columns on fantasy baseball over at Rotoworld.com. Now Gangi is back; he just launched a new blog last week. Do not be confused by it’s new blog smell though, Jonathan knows his craft well. You can rest assured that the advice and tips that you get from rotorebel.com will be as solid as anything else out here, and I’ll be leaning on Gangi’s words here at TheSportsIdiot. So welcome back Gangi! Do yourself, and your fantasy team a favor and check him out.
Today marks the beginning of Spring Training games for the Phillies. Taking the hill today will be one Carlos Carrasco and J.A. Happ. The other candidates are Kyle Kendrick and Chan Ho Park. Carrasco is the one Phillies fans have been pining for, but it is unclear if he is ready or not. I guess that is what this whole Spring Training thing is for? We will be keeping our eye on how everyone is doing.
Todd Zolecki of MLB.com briefly discusses this here, as well as where the Phils are with free agents.
Also, I fought the urge to use the stupid PH for fight and fifth in the title. I hate that stuff and will do my best to not be sucked into it.
H/T to MLBTradeRumors.com for pointing us towards a Todd Zolecki article on MLB.com about the Phillies massive payroll ($132.5Mil) for the 2009 season. Interesting tid bit about the payroll is in the players they are paying that are no longer on the roster (Thome for $3Mil, and Adam Eaton for $8.5Mil).
MLBTradeRumors wonders if this high payroll will effect the Phils’ ability to add anyone midseason. I for one do not think it will come into play at all.
Just a quick update to the fantasy baseball league. As of now there are five people who have shown interest. We have plenty of time to get five more, with the league not needing to draft until sometime the week of the 22nd of March. The league will be run through Yahoo, and I’ll be sending out invites as soon as it is set up. Specifics for the league can be discussed on the message board, but it will be a standard 5×5 or 6×6 roto league.
Here are some quick hitters for today:
The AJC’s Terence Moore sits down with John Smoltz and tries to figure out what is wrong with the Braves. Funny, he mentions the failed attempts to add Peavy, Burnett and Furcal, but does not mention Griffey. He even mentions Andruw Jones like the Braves failed to bring him back, when in fact he refused a minor league deal because the Braves would not guarantee him playing time in the Majors. The true gems are from Smoltz though. Someone is pretty bitter about the breakup. I just can not figure out why he only mentioned Griffey once in this article without stating any details at all though.
Steven at Section Six breaks down NC State’s win over UVA on Saturday.
Tar Heel Fan tries to figure out what is wrong with Carolina (we can call them Carolina because we are talking about basketball) after the loss at Maryland.
The guys over at TalkingChop discuss the Braves’ addition of Garret Anderson.
The Good Phight takes a look at the roster that could have been, but I’m guessing they are okay with the one that actually is.
The Ken Griffey Jr story is getting pretty good. So good, that Atlanta Braves pitcher Tim Hudson actually confronted the AJC’s David O’Brien about it. You see, it seems that when DOB started reporting that Griffey was telling people he was going to be a Brave, Griffey did not appreciate it and cut off talks with the team. For a good run down, check out the entries on Talking Chop. Go here for some great DOB quotes on Griffey becoming a Bravo, which we now know did not happen. DOB gets a mega fail on this one.
Hey, don’t take my word for it, take Francoeur’s own words, via Ken Rosenthal:
“The way I look at it, A) I’m not going to suck and B) We have pitchers who will throw 200 innings,” Francoeur says.
K-Ros explains to us that despite the very public dismissals by Furcal, Smoltz and now Griffey Jr, coupled with the failed signing of AJ Burnett, that the Braves are a much improved team. Of course, those of you who follow this sporadically updated blog already know that.
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