Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Baseball is back, whether you like it or not



I have a small confession: football is not my number two sport. Shocking, I know.

For those of you that know me (my 10 or 11 friends) this isn't a big deal. I've had my fair share of reasons why I don't splurge all my sporting attention to the NFL or college football. And I also have my fair share of reasons why baseball, yes baseball, is my second favorite sport.

Instead of trifle you with mundane, nostalgic reasons of why I adore a sport that plays 162 times a year as opposed to 16, let me just trifle you with why I'm so happy baseball is back. I don't care that 75% of the people I do hate baseball.



Baseball is on everyday. No more waiting for every other day for Mavs/NBA games. No more waiting a week for football. From here till November, I'll have a sport to watch everyday.

I get to vigorously check my fantasy team an alarming, almost troubling amount. With every advanced saber metric statistic baseball has, it only fuels the growing addiction which is fantasy baseball.

I get to read all the puke worthy stories of optimism from towns like Washington and Baltimore. During football season, if you stink you know it. But for some reason, from March to May, every town has a chance. Maybe its spring season. Maybe its the fact that there is usually one fluke team every year. (Rangers of 2009, Rays of 2008, Rockies of 2007, etc.) Every down an out team is hoping maybe this is their "fluke" year.

I get to go to the Ballpark in Arlington (not Rangers Ballpark in Arlington) almost 3 times a week. Season tickets FTW.

We can see the play of the year on the opening day.

I get to watch Baseball Tonight every night before I go to sleep. Heaven.

More importantly, I get to watch one of the youngest, talented, teams in all of baseball. The Rangers very well could suck. Scott Feldman could pitch like, well, Scott Feldman this year. Rich Harden could break his arm. Juilo Borbon could be exposed now playing an entire season. Elvis Andrus could sophomore slump. Ian Kinsler could keep golf swinging on the first pitch. Josh Hamilton could continue to be mortal. Vald Guerrero could continue his old  age decline. Colby Lewis could pitch like Colby Lewis pitched when he first joined the show.

But you know what? None of that matters. It's baseball season. And as far as I know we're still in the March-May range.

Bring on the optimism.
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4 comments:

  1. What do you mean "Scott Feldman could pitch like, well, Scott Feldman this year"?

    Granted, not a dead lock to win 17 games every year, but in a small sample size where he's only started one year and done very very well, why assume it was a fluke? Overall, I don't think he will regress too severely.

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  2. I think he meant that he could return to the 5+ ERA form that he had during 07 and 08. And a 4.08 ERA could be worse last year, but that isn't number one material.

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  3. With a full scouting report and a years worth of film to study, I want to see how Feldman reacts to being "the guy"

    Teams and hitters are aware of him now. Just saying he could not adjust and revert to 2007-2008 form.

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  4. Also his BAIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) was .274. His expected last season was .304. That means he had a few breaks go his away and was one of the "luckiest" pitchers in 2009. He also had a terrible strikeout to walk ratio (1.74)

    I'm not saying he can't do well again, its just if he falls on the face of the earth, the numbers are there to prove why.

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