Baseballtown, USA – Now that the Big Game is over and New York Football Giants are masters of the gridiron for the fourth time, we can get back to more important matters. Baseball is almost here. Pitchers and catchers report in less than two weeks. And soon the airwaves will be awash with the minutia of spring training. Lets take a look at what you’ll probably hear about between now and April.
We’ll hear about David Wright fielding some ground balls cleanly in warm-ups. But don’t get your hopes up, Mets fans, E5 will be back to his error prone ways once the season starts. Diminishing Returns won’t be of any help at the plate either. His decline has been more pronounced than The Office. He’ll have another below average season for his below average team. The Mets will let him go at the end of the season and he’ll go to Cincinnati or Arizona where he’ll win 3 MVPs.
We’ll hear about A-Rod taking enough time away from the mirror to hit a few weak ground balls to short. Between the bad knees, bad hip and advancing age, Rodriguez will be far from his MVP and steroid fueled best. He will put up decent numbers but will be worth nowhere near the $29 million he’ll make in 2012. Good thing for the Yankees, A-Roid only has 6 years and just over $170 mil left on his contract.
We’ll hear about the various stages of Joba Chamberlain’s rehab. He’s now throwing off of a half mound. Time will tell if he will hold up well enough to throw off of a three-quarters mound next or if he will have to throw off of the more traditional five-eighths mound. Joba should be far enough along in his rehab by late summer to get a look with the big club in September. Don’t look for him on the postseason roster, though.
We’ll hear about Johan “El Salvador” Santana back on the mound after what seemed like an eternity. Santana may finally give Mets fans something to cheer about. But if he does too well, he may become trade bait for the Mets as they look to continue to slash payroll. The Mets have already cut more payroll in the past year than any team in history. More than the ’97 or ’03 Marlins. More than the previous record holders, the ’03 Rangers who shipped A-Rod to the Yankees. Thats a lot of dough, boy.
We’ll hear about how Bobby Valentine is getting along with the Boston players, front office, press, etc. I’m not quite sure how the Red Sox will do this season. The team has pretty much the same core of players as last season. And Carl Crawford can’t be any worse than he was last year. He sucked more than Mega Maid. Look for the Red Sox to be in the playoff hunt with the Yankees come September.
As for the Mets, it’s going to be another long season. They’ll have something to be happy about every fifth day with Santana back in the rotation. That is until July when Johan gets hurt or is traded. After that, Los Mets can look forward to a lengthy rebuilding process. Just be happy that baseball is back and you don’t have to watch the same highlights of the Bobcats vs the Hawks.
Come back tomorrow because the Public Professor is going to drop some serious knowledge on you.
