Last season Marlin rookie pitching standout Josh Johnson found out the other day that he will be missing the first two months of the season with an irritated ulnar nerve in his elbow. He and the team are thankful that it isn’t more serious and he’ll only be a few months behind.

This is a bad start for new Marlin manager Fredi Gonzalez. You never want to have one of your start pitchers hurt at the beginning of the season, although it’s better than having your pitcher hurt during the playoff race. The Marlins have a good set of young arms that will be able to fill in for the hurt pitcher. Wes Obermueller, Sergio Mitre, and Chris George have the most experience of the group of hopefuls to take his spot, but with different teams. Obermueller has made almost 40 starts from 2003-2005 with the Brewers. Mitre was up and down with the Cubs the same years mostly working in long relief but has made about 20 starts over the years. Finally, George with the Royals has had a 14-20 record with an ERA over 6 from 2001-2004, but has not been on a major league roster the last two…

Continue Reading »

Jon Lester pitched his first inning of baseball since being diagnosised with anaplastic large cell lymphoma last in the season last year. Lester as a bright spot in the Sox’s rotation last year after being called up last June. This man finished up his last cancer treatment only two weeks ago. He went through six sessions of chemotherapy. After his fifth treatment, a cat scan showed there was no cancer left in him. He begun throwing shortly there after. He even reported to training camp two weeks even before pitchers and catchers were to report.

To me this show what Jon Lester is really made of. To comeback and pitch in a “real game” situation so soon after going through cancer treatments, is a major achievement in somebodies life, as well as show just how much character they are made of.

This may only have been a ‘B’ game, but Lester cruised through his inning, just needing 8 pitches to retire his three batters, all with ground outs. The good thing for Lester, is the rotation is pretty much set with the addition of Matsusaka, a healthy Schilling, and Papelbon moving into the rotation. This means he will not need to be rushed…

Continue Reading »

I got to check out my first Spring Training game yesterday afternoon, albeit on television. The Cubs were playing the White Sox in Mesa, Arizona in HoHoKam Park. In front of a sellout crowd of about 13,000 people, there were a few brights spots in the Cubs team even though loosing 13-2. The White Sox are showing that they’re continuing to mash the ball much as they did last season. They pitched really well to. It looks like the White Sox are going to be right in the thick of things again in the AL Central.

Rich Hill pitched really well yesterday for his first time on the hill this spring. He only made the one mistake to Paul Konerko (Happy Birthday Paul today by the way) that got mashed over the left field wall. He struck out 3 in his two innings of work, including the first two batters that he saw. Hopefully Hill can continue his great pitching from the end of last season.

Alfonso Soriano, who is starting his 8 year $136 million contract with the Cubs this season, ended up the day 3 for 3 with one of the Cubs two RBIs. Derrek Lee had the other with…

Continue Reading »

I was reading an article this morning where Terry Francona, the manager of the Boston Red Sox, bet Larry Lucchino, President and CEO of the same team, that he could quit his tobacco habit. The loser of the bet will donate $20,000 to Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Hopefully the coach wins, and quits his bad tobacco habit. I would be a good start to showing other in the league that smokeless tobacco isn’t need to be a Major League Baseball Player or coach.

It’s just a small step in the right direction, but the real winner here is the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.