Baseball - Baseball Notes - 27 March 2006

Oakland Offerings

The Oakland Athletics further strengthened their already strong pitching staff by adding Brad Halsey from the Arizona Diamondbacks.  The A's gave up a middle relief arm in Juan Cruz to get the 25-year old southpaw.  Halsey performed adequately in his first significant time in the majors last year going 8-12 with a 4.61 ERA.  He'll join Kirk Saarloos and Joe Kennedy as the Athletic's 6th, 7th and 8th starters -- now there's some great depth!

 

Frank Thomas crushed a mammoth home run today for the Athletics.  Athletic manager Ken Macha would be smart to keep this guy exclusively at the designated hitter position and mix in plenty of off-days so they can keep him healthy.  I predict a monster year for Thomas if they're careful with him.

 

Angel Halos

The Anaheim Angel's starting rotation will feature and all right-handed staff to start the season.  Bartolo Colon, John Lackey, Jeff Weaver, Kelvim Escobar and Ervin Santana will be the big five.  This is in keeping with a pattern that the Angels have had in their rotation for the past number of years.  With the exception of Jarrod Washburn, the most recent Angel left-handed starter of any significance was Scott Shoeneweis way back in 2001 when he started 32 games. 

 

Hefty Pedro

Pedro Martinez's first game action of the spring relieved much of the apprehension over how treatments on his bad toe had worked.  He threw 35 pitches over three innings and greatly exceeded the expectations of teammates and his Oriole opponents today.  The first outing also brought what appeared to be a little heavier Pedro.

 

Red Sox Stinker

There is a bit of concern in Red Sox camp over Jason Varitek's .125 batting average.  On April 12th Varitek turns 34-years old and he'll cross over the 1,000 career games caught mark by mid-May -- the traditional performance breaking point for most catchers in baseball history. 

 

Toronto's High Flyers

Toronto made a lot of noise this off-season with their free-agent signings and trades.  Much of the attention focused on the high-priced signings of starter A. J. Burnett and reliever B. J. Ryan.  But this spring two players who've been Blue Jays for the last number of years are really putting the smiles on the faces of Blue Jay rooters.  Vernon Wells and Eric Hinkse are having great springs.  Hinske's six home runs this spring may finally be a sign that the big 225-pounder will get off his rear and knock out more then the 14 homers he's been averaging over the past three years.  In limited playing time Wells has also looked good at the plate.  Three straight years of declining batting, on-base and slugging averages have worried the front office especially since it's occurred during most player's traditional years of improvement -- ages 24-26.

Be sure to compare all of the baseball betting odds during the baseball season so that you maximize your profit.