Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The Yankees open the season with a 9 game road trip. That's the longest season-opening road trip in franchise history. I wonder if this was done on purpose by the scheduling folks just in case there was a couple of things about the new Yankee Stadium that needed time to fix before the first regular season game.... Today's Mariners game will not be broadcast on TV up in Seattle. It's one of three games this season that won't be on TV. This boggles this Red Sox fan's mind. If a Red Sox game was not broadcast there would be a complete uproar. People would be complaining that their civil rights were being violated... I'll be curious to watch how the Pirate's pitching staff does this season. Joe Kerrigan has joined the team as the pitching coach. I have loads of respect for Kerrigan as a pitching coach and the Pirates have some talented young starters who seem to be all over the map in terms of performance... Jamie Moyer is already in the top 50 all-time in strikeouts and wins. With another 50 innings pitched - he'll be in the top 50 all-time in that category too. Among non-active players - only Jack Morris, Jim Kaat and Tommy John are in the top 50 in all three categories and NOT in the Hall of Fame. Just tossing that out there... I'd like to sponsor the David Wells page on Baseball-reference.com and just have the words (in bold) "GET IN MY BELLY!"... The Yankees are the only team in baseball yet to make an error. Derek Jeter will fix that... Happy 37th birthday to Jason Varitek.