The Fan's lips are starting to moisten. It's getting close now. There are only 23 days left until the season opens. Ah yes. It's almost time. The Fan can always tell when it gets this close because the box scores begin to matter again and though the games don't count, the competitions for jobs do. Here is a look around at Monday's games:
- The Fan's favorite whipping boy, Kevin Millwood was absolutely shellacked today. He gave up 14 base runners today in just three innings and gave up ten earned runs. Yeesh. In the immortal words of Marlin, the fish in Finding Nemo: "Good feeling gone."
- It looks like Brent Gardner is winning the battle of centerfield for the Yankees. He hit his third homer of the spring today and is hitting a healthy .389. Melkey Cabrera is batting .279. The third centerfielder, Austin Jackson, the future star (according to many) isn't hitting at all so far.
- In the same game, Ian Kennedy got cuffed around pretty good. Doesn't look too good for him at this point. Swisher isn't hitting yet either. His average is around .114 right now.
- Hmmm...Andruw Jones is batting .280 and played centerfield for the Rangers today. Maybe he isn't done?
- The LaRoche brothers went 2 for 6 today. The third baseman is hitting really well. The first baseman, not so much.
- In the same game that Millwood got creamed, he was relieved by Kris Benson. Remember him? The former Pirate and Met pitcher threw three strong innings meaning he could be back or the Dodgers were just too tired to keep mashing by then.
- The Cubs finally had a good offensive showing at Kansas City's expense. Poor Piniella was getting a bit worried there.
- The Reds continue to play well this spring. Arroyo hasn't looked great, but he kept them in the game. Catcher Ryan Hanigan is looking really good so far.
- Both the Tigers and the Marlins threw blanks today as both teams pitched really well. Johnson was great for the Marlins and young Porcello pitched well for the Tigers too. Dan Uggla went three for three and they were all singles. Is he feeling okay? Young Corbin Maybin is batting .318 so far this spring.
- Ryan Rohlinger might be a name to remember. The 25 year old third baseman for the Giants has hit three homers this spring and is batting .444. He's a fantastic athlete who was a terrific wide receiver in football, an all-state guard in basketball and even made the all star tennis team. He is making it hard on the Giants not to go with him. Parra pitched well for the Brewers today against the Giants.
- The supposedly weak hitting Padres pounded Arizona pitching Monday. Jon Garland got pummeled as did the aptly named Newby. The Padres' Kouzmanoff looks really good so far this spring.
- The White Sox look sluggish this spring. They don't look very good at the moment. Sizemore had a good day for Cleveland and Carmona got the win. Good news for Indians' fans: Martinez is batting .400 so far.
- Braden had another good day for the A's and Giambi finally had a good day. Saunders pitched well for the Angels but received poor fielding behind him.
- Rajai Davis (who?) is having a great spring for Oakland.
Over in the WBC:
- Korea beat Japan Monday, 1-0, in what has to be a surprise.
- It looks like Italy is going to beat Canada. That's what the Canadians get for not playing Stubby Clapp. The second base man they did play struck out twice in two at bats.
Now if only the snow would melt here and the robins would come home, things would really start to feel great!
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