PITCHERS
AND
CATCHERS
REPORT
Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven...
Showing posts with label spring training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spring training. Show all posts
Monday, February 14, 2011
Friday, February 13, 2009
Almost here
This has been a lousy week for baseball. The news is all A-Rod all the time. Bud Selig is losing his mind. The leak of the failed test is probably a crime, and now threatens the relationship between the owners and union with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire in 2011. Meanwhile the asshats in Congress apparently have nothing better to do with their time. There there's the bizarre Roberto Alomar story. Ridiculous talk of collusion in a terrible market. Even bloggers aren't exempt as some fool threatened Mario with legal action over an anonymous comment critizising his products in a transparent attempt to create some buzz for his company and cause a chilling effect for any future critisism of his products.
This is getting really depressing.
However, the spring training ticker on the Braves page on AJC.com shows we're less than 40 hours away from pitchers and catchers reporting. The steroid mess just means we have a new hero. The NCAA and their stupid anti-athlete policies just got smacked hard. Newspapers are starting to examine the upcoming season. Our yearly MLB.com fantasy preview Baseball Card set has been released. And finally to hammer home that baseball is truly almost here, Amazon is promoting the new baseball books that are out. Actually, I think a baseball book is just what the doctor ordered.
This is getting really depressing.
However, the spring training ticker on the Braves page on AJC.com shows we're less than 40 hours away from pitchers and catchers reporting. The steroid mess just means we have a new hero. The NCAA and their stupid anti-athlete policies just got smacked hard. Newspapers are starting to examine the upcoming season. Our yearly MLB.com fantasy preview Baseball Card set has been released. And finally to hammer home that baseball is truly almost here, Amazon is promoting the new baseball books that are out. Actually, I think a baseball book is just what the doctor ordered.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Braves on the Bull
In the slight chance that there is an Atlantan reading this blog right this second that doesn't already know, The Braves - Astros Spring Training came is on 94.9 the Bull right now. Pete Van Wieren just reported a Chipper Jones single to get home Yunel Escobar. Chip Carey is paired up with Pete which is a little disappointing since Mark Lemke was doing the game last week. Nothing against Chip, I lust (should be just, but the Freudian slip is too telling to change it) love the Lemmer.
We got Braves on the radio both days this weekend and I'm loving it. I like listening to the games better then watching sometimes, especially when Skip Carey is on the job. Skip seems to get extra mischievous while on the airwaves and some of his funniest quips happen while on radio. I'm not that thrilled about the choice of radio stations though. Clear channel wrested the rights away from WSB 750 AM (aka "the blowtorch") and stuck the games on crappy 640. The signal on 750 is insane, I have actually listened to a Braves game in Nashville, St. Louis and even Chicago on that station. 640, not so much. To make up for the weak AM signal, Clear Channel put the games on 96 Rock FM. 96 rock was a decent classic rock/new rock station which was already a frequent choice on my car radio so I didn't mind all that much. Unfortunately, Clear Channel murdered the longtime station, turned it into Project 9-6-1 featuring new hard and alternative rock and decided baseball was too frumpy so they moved the Braves off that station. This is Clear Channel though so they had a bunch of other stations to choose from. Since we're talking about Clear Channel you the story I'm about to tell is going to be bad.
There was a channel, 94.9, Lite FM that played boring sludgy banal lite rock. The stuff the "You have a case of the Mondays" secretary from Office Space would listen to. It was nothing I normally listened to but every Christmas they played non stop Christmas music. And I mean NON stop. From Thanksgiving to New Years nothing but the Jingle Bells. This was pretty cool, at least when you were in a holiday mood you could turn on some Xmas pop songs. Well, the year before the Braves switched stations, Clear Channel decided that the LiteFM/Xmas station wasn't bringing in the bucks so they switched formats. To all Country Pop Sludge. A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS. You turned on the radio expecting Winter Wonderland and got a song about some dude whose girlfriend wrecked his truck, shot his dog and ran off with a Jeff Gordon fan. But dangit, he still loves her. One of the competing Lite FM stations picked up the Jingle Bell banner, Clear Channel got another PR hit and the Braves broadcasts moved to The Bull.
This was pretty awful, I don't listen to country, but I like stuff like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and some weird underground stuff like Unknown Hinson. This wasn't any of that though, this was overproduced Nashville pop crap. So now I have a bad country station programmed into my radio so I can listen to the Braves. And oh, I shall listen. Just hearing Pete right now has made my day, month, week and year. When Skip comes back I will likely die of bliss. I guess I can deal with the country music. But when the game's over I'd still rather listen to this:
We got Braves on the radio both days this weekend and I'm loving it. I like listening to the games better then watching sometimes, especially when Skip Carey is on the job. Skip seems to get extra mischievous while on the airwaves and some of his funniest quips happen while on radio. I'm not that thrilled about the choice of radio stations though. Clear channel wrested the rights away from WSB 750 AM (aka "the blowtorch") and stuck the games on crappy 640. The signal on 750 is insane, I have actually listened to a Braves game in Nashville, St. Louis and even Chicago on that station. 640, not so much. To make up for the weak AM signal, Clear Channel put the games on 96 Rock FM. 96 rock was a decent classic rock/new rock station which was already a frequent choice on my car radio so I didn't mind all that much. Unfortunately, Clear Channel murdered the longtime station, turned it into Project 9-6-1 featuring new hard and alternative rock and decided baseball was too frumpy so they moved the Braves off that station. This is Clear Channel though so they had a bunch of other stations to choose from. Since we're talking about Clear Channel you the story I'm about to tell is going to be bad.
There was a channel, 94.9, Lite FM that played boring sludgy banal lite rock. The stuff the "You have a case of the Mondays" secretary from Office Space would listen to. It was nothing I normally listened to but every Christmas they played non stop Christmas music. And I mean NON stop. From Thanksgiving to New Years nothing but the Jingle Bells. This was pretty cool, at least when you were in a holiday mood you could turn on some Xmas pop songs. Well, the year before the Braves switched stations, Clear Channel decided that the LiteFM/Xmas station wasn't bringing in the bucks so they switched formats. To all Country Pop Sludge. A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS. You turned on the radio expecting Winter Wonderland and got a song about some dude whose girlfriend wrecked his truck, shot his dog and ran off with a Jeff Gordon fan. But dangit, he still loves her. One of the competing Lite FM stations picked up the Jingle Bell banner, Clear Channel got another PR hit and the Braves broadcasts moved to The Bull.
This was pretty awful, I don't listen to country, but I like stuff like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and some weird underground stuff like Unknown Hinson. This wasn't any of that though, this was overproduced Nashville pop crap. So now I have a bad country station programmed into my radio so I can listen to the Braves. And oh, I shall listen. Just hearing Pete right now has made my day, month, week and year. When Skip comes back I will likely die of bliss. I guess I can deal with the country music. But when the game's over I'd still rather listen to this:
Monday, March 3, 2008
Great Awesome Fantastic Jeff Francoeur Interview
If Jeff Francoeur comes anywhere near the high goals he's set for himself he will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. And it sounds like he is working his ass off to meet those goals. This interview has gotten me more exited about this season than anything else I've read all year. Forget about Tex. Tex is gone after this year. I have accepted that fact and made peace with it. Lock up the Lilburn Flash now. Make Frenchy happy and watch as he ends up with his number on the outfield wall. Do it, Frank.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Braves and Dodgers on ESPN
TODAY!!!!!!!!
1 pm Eastern, 10am pacific, get ready to watch some baseball!!!
Dave O'Brien will likely be live blogging from the park and here's the Dodgers' starting lineup if you're interested. A gallery of pictures from yesterday's game where Matt DeSalvo apparently got torched can get you warmed up for today's match. I'm getting ready to watch right now, although I'll be watching the later innings on tape delay. Who else but me could possibly schedule a dentist's appointment the same time as the first Braves game of the year? D'oh!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Spring Training
Ahh, you know the long dark tea-time of the soul is almost over when pitchers and catchers report. Everyone's arm is healthy, even the ones that aren't. There are daily updates from David O'Brien. Random bloggers get their heads chewed off by same for criticizing his taste in music. The grass is green and so is the money Frank Wren needs to shell out to sign Tex and Frenchy to a long term deal. There are brief shining rays of light through the gloom of 24-7 college basketball when a random spring training game makes it on the radio or - joy of joys - TV. Rookies and fringe players actually have a shot at making the team. And some of those fringe players are ones you'd never expect to see in your team's uniform.
I was looking over the Braves depth chart and saw some weird names on there. I try to keep up with my Bravos but these guys snuck onto the team when I was distracted with '08 Topps or something. Now, Joe Borchard I knew about. I wish he could have been here 3 or 4 years ago, but at least I can put that signed baseball I got out of a box of Just Minors officially in my Braves collection now. He has no shot of making the team. Seriously no shot. Even if he hits about 80 homers in spring training, about 6 outfielders would have to be carried away by a freak tornado during a split squad game for him to make it. I don't know when Ryan Drese showed up either. I thought he was pitching for the Indians to be honest. Well, any staring pitcher is a good starting pitcher though. I wish they had ponied up for Mark Prior, Kris Benson and Bartolo Colon to be honest. Even if the rotation miraculously had no injury problems, at least Richmond could have a nice staff in their last year. The one that really threw me for a loop was Matt DeSalvo. It wasn't that long ago I was making fun of his odd fake signature on his Topps card and how he's trying to win a spot on the staff. Apparently Bobby Cox is raving about him too, although Bobby is known for raving. A lot of times raving right before we ship a guy off to some sucker for a piece we really need. Apparently Matt's a bit of a bookworm, which is ok in my book. The Braves could use an egghead or two just to balance out the lingering John Rocker karma. With all the starting pitchers on the team, maybe it's time to go to an 8 man rotation. It couldn't hurt when the average age of the top 4 starters penciled in is about 39.
I was looking over the Braves depth chart and saw some weird names on there. I try to keep up with my Bravos but these guys snuck onto the team when I was distracted with '08 Topps or something. Now, Joe Borchard I knew about. I wish he could have been here 3 or 4 years ago, but at least I can put that signed baseball I got out of a box of Just Minors officially in my Braves collection now. He has no shot of making the team. Seriously no shot. Even if he hits about 80 homers in spring training, about 6 outfielders would have to be carried away by a freak tornado during a split squad game for him to make it. I don't know when Ryan Drese showed up either. I thought he was pitching for the Indians to be honest. Well, any staring pitcher is a good starting pitcher though. I wish they had ponied up for Mark Prior, Kris Benson and Bartolo Colon to be honest. Even if the rotation miraculously had no injury problems, at least Richmond could have a nice staff in their last year. The one that really threw me for a loop was Matt DeSalvo. It wasn't that long ago I was making fun of his odd fake signature on his Topps card and how he's trying to win a spot on the staff. Apparently Bobby Cox is raving about him too, although Bobby is known for raving. A lot of times raving right before we ship a guy off to some sucker for a piece we really need. Apparently Matt's a bit of a bookworm, which is ok in my book. The Braves could use an egghead or two just to balance out the lingering John Rocker karma. With all the starting pitchers on the team, maybe it's time to go to an 8 man rotation. It couldn't hurt when the average age of the top 4 starters penciled in is about 39.
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