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- Mike Trout: Oh, wow! This Mike Trout kid turns out to be pretty damned good! Who knew THAT?? In other news, it might be that Trout is ready to start leveraging his experience and getting after pitchers earlier in counts, and earlier in games. This could prove interesting...
- C.J. Wilson: Wilson got blown up in the 1st inning yesterday, and then managed to settle down and get in 5 innings of work. The result is that his team-leading WHIP was pushed up to 1.19, which would rank him 14th best in the AL among qualifiers this spring. That's three places behind Jason Vargas.
- Josh Hamilton: Hambone should finally start reckonin' on all getting all that potential ready for 2014...today. Of course, he is going to be facing Tim Lincecum, so don't panic if he fails to go 3 for 3 with 12 RBI or something.
- Joe Blanton: Also...today...baseball life hangs in the balance. Blanton takes the mound, and the Halo staff is eager to see which one shows up. Is it the one that we know, who blows chunks? Is it the one who is the 2014 CYA winner, who we saw just last week? Or is it the one that Dipoto wants to see, trade bait that can bring back farm stock and prevent Scioscia from doing something stupid over and over and over again for the next three months
- Patrick Corbin: Ex-Halo Corbin is breaking down. Completely unfortunate. Maybe no 2014, and maybe Tommy John surgery. Maybe this makes room in the D'backs rotation for...Blanton?
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[3/15/2014 Change of Art Answers: 1-Mound raised...2-More creases at right knee...3-Left sleeve extended...4-Logo missing from left sleeve...5-Cap logo turned upside down...6-Extra jersey button, just below logo...7-Left pant leg shortened...8-First base lengthened...9-Lowered right arm slot.]
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Lets' assume that you are a little lost and confused by this whole "Dodgers in Australia" thing, and need some clarification. So let's clarify. Today is March 17th, National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day, when every Gaelic themed bar yearns to be an Irish pub in much the same way that every Johnny Rockets yearns to be a real 50's diner (at least, as imagined by one of Stephen Spielberg's fantasies).
In five days the 2014 regular season is going to start. Five days. Five. That's the whole number between four and six. 5.
That's right. This upcoming weekend, the same days when the Angels will be playing ST games against the Brewers and Indians. And the Angels will then play another ST game each and every day thereafter out until March 29th. That's 6 more ST games AFTER the Official MLB 2014 Opening Day. And the last three of those Spring games will be against the Dodgers. The same Dodgers who will already have shut down their Spring and played two regular season games.
So the regular season is going to begin right in the middle of Spring Training, and two of the teams will be playing Spring Training games after they have played regular season games. In another country, half way around the world. And Budweiser wants to make this a National Holiday?
If this predicament were ours, and we would be trying to figure out how to play practice games after we had lined up our roster and rotation to play real games, would you be spitting nails? Would you be worried that your team had lost 7 whole days at the end of ST that almost all the other teams took advantage of? Has MLB gone too far trying to get too cute to as they reach too hard to further entrench the existing globalization of the sport? And what if the Dodgers or the D'Backs finish this season one game out of the playoffs?
Opening Day in Australia. Different. Cute. Lame.