disarcina

everyone has to be pleased with CJ Wilson's great game tonight.......if he can pitch gems like this every other outing - well, things looking up.

Nice start by CJ Wilson --- hope he can keep this up tonight and all season........

let's see how Giavotella does -- the pressure is on him because I think the Halos will be making a move in May if things are not going well there. meanwhile, that second sacker up the freeway did pretty well on opening day -- no regrets -- Halos needed to move him a year too soon rather than a year too late -- but Howie's is going to be solid at 2B for the Dogs all season long.......get used to seeing the headlines and stories about his runs scored and runs driven in.......

needed that one. what are the Kings in OT shoot outs this year? something like 3-15........terrible. really needed that one.........

yep. Playoffs start now in Vancouver...... we need more than a one goal lead here.

to top it all off - Rodney gets the save..............

wasn't that King Felix on the mound today -- ? give it a rest guys.

not a bad deal for either team. Padres get closer help now and the price for that is Kimbrel's contact plus Upton's contract which they are now stuck with. they trade away two back up OF'ers who were going to complain all season about playing time and now they have both Uptons to complain in stereo. Braves lose Kimbrel a season or two too soon rather than a season too late and it will hurt them this season, no doubt. Looks like Braves are clearing salary room to re-build a bit.......... Padres need to win NOW.

kind of amazing because much of baseball marveled at the depth of the KC pen and how good it was in 2014 and is now --- and Madsen -- out of MLB for three years -- makes the team?

Nationals v. Cardinals in NLCS -- Padres with big pay roll fall short. Not sure how any one can top the Nats' rotation in a short series if everyone stays healthy. Angels vs. Seattle in ALCS -- Indians have a shot.........Pitching wins & Seattle with King Felix and others have the edge but things don't seem to work out for the M's......(well they did beat us in that, unfortunately, quite memorable Langston playoff start at the old Kingdome -- I still can conjure up images of that errant throw to first base that went down the RF line area). Nationals v. Angels in World Series -- how does any one contend with what could be a three/ four man rotation the Nats will have in a short series? Of course, we all remember when the Phillies had the 'best rotation in baseball history' a few years back and how that went.

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Ryan Madsen, who signed that big contract to be the Halos closer about what? three years ago now ?? Has made the opening day roster of the AL Defending Champion KC Royals. I don't think Madsen has pitched in a MLB game in some three years. I know we had a mini-debate here on this site as to whether Madsen ever even threw ONE warm up pitch on the sidelines in ST for the Angels before going on the DL.

A move from Tony LaRussa -- LaRussa used to do this on occasion.

Posters have it absolutely correct -- this Braves deal had ONE objective - DUMP UPTON and his lousy, lengthy, expensive contract and like kind (lousy) attitude on some one. Here they combined the GOOD (Kimbrel, best closer in baseball past four seasons and he has a contract extension through 2017 so it's no rental) with the TERRIBLE (Upton). None of the guys the Braves got in return will probably figure in their plans or help them much. This is ADDITION by SUBTRACTION for Atlanta -- and it works!!! Meanwhile - SD Padres better win this year or our pal Bud Black may be looking for a job. For the BRAVES -- they trade their closer and one of the guys in line to close for them this season starting NOW: JASON GRILLI. the other contender is Jim Johnson.

they'll miss him a lot in 2015 -- still, not a bad trade from the Angels long term perspective.

what television feed? As for Featherston -- I'll say it again -- does this guy really factor into the 2016 picture that we have to freeze a roster spot on the 25 (and 40 man) roster all season to have him see mayble 150 ABs up with the big club??? If not, let's get Grant Green back up here and let Featherston go back to Colorado -- while we are at it, might send Rutledge back to the Rockies as well -- for both of those guys might be the best thing for them -- they might wind up with the big club in Colorado and might actually get some playing time.

what was with Plaschke's rant in today's LA Times?? I like the OC Register approach a lot better -- but then that's true with most of their takes on issues of the day. the whole set up that led to this is bizarre -- you have a committee/ panel set up with an even (FOUR) number on it so a dead-lock is not only possible but almost assured given the make up of the various reps on the panel -- then you have a 'neutral' arbitrator, who I am sure is concerned about getting black-listed by the MLBPA -- so the arbitrator breaks the tie finding that because the player self-reported his use of either alcohol and/or cocaine (most likely both) that the use of these substances is NOT a violation of his strict rehab regimen that has been in place since his prior ISSUES. Amazing. So now the commissioner is apparently rendered powerless to do anything and the Halos are on the hook to pay a guy who probably can't play until as least June and probably won't be able to get an AB (at least not like the ones vs. KC in last year's playoffs) all season (Hamilton NOT playing may be the only positive aspect of this for the Halos). I think the Halos get some limited salary relief for the period of time that Hamilton is actually in a rehab program (which, again, shows the system in place is counter-intuitive -- you give the player an incentive to have as short of an actual rehab program as possible when the chances for real recovery in these situations increase the longer the length of the rehab program). anyway you cut it, not a good result for the Halos -- but then as one poster put it so well in a prior thread on this topic -- Halos knew or should have known this was the risk they took when they signed Hamilton to that contract -- I don't think there was even ONE regular poster on this board who had anything good to say about that contract from the minute it was announced. Halos/ Arte, etc. really should have know better.............oh well.

well, the Fremont proposal -- which got bogged down in local neighborhood opposition -- did involve millions of dollars in public transit/ road improvements -- I think they needed a new freeway off-ramp/ interchange or something and that was to funded through public sources........in the end, the neighborhood opposition killed the project -- especially those who were going to be displaced/ inconvenienced by the road improvements necessary to provide access to the ballpark -- I believe there was also talk of expanding the capacity of the Fremont BART station. Opponents threatened to tie the project up in court for years over environmental concerns -- not sure who gave up first, the A's ownership or the City of Fremont City Council.

"Oakland will build a stadium in Oakland before moving to Montreal." that may be so but there's no financing to get that accomplished -- Redevelopment agencies have pretty much been eliminated in California as a financing mechanism and if there's no thing certain about new ballparks almost anywhere in California -- they won't be built with public money / public financing. the A's owners don't have the money to build a new park. the Oakland Coliseum Commission is a multi-agency entity and almost lost the A's last year -- not over a new ballpark but just over extending the current lease with some new 'tenant improvement' conditions which would give the A's some rental concessions/ credit for making some (rather minimal) capital improvements........the Oakland City council approved the new lease and then the Coliseum Commission deadlocked on it and delayed approval (the Coliseum Commission includes two Oakland city council members who voted against the lease at the Commission level AFTER they voted to approve it at the city council level and send it to the Coliseum Commission -- these folks must be taking notes/ guidance from the city of Anaheim)........it was the only thing that seemed to get Bud Selig to move on the issue -- if you recall -- he sent a letter to the city and the commission saying he would approve an A's move (to where wasn't stated) to another venue IF the lease was not approved before opening day last year......... so these are the folks who need to cooperate on building a new ballpark -- the same folks who have already lost the NBA Warriors who are moving (back) to San Francisco next year in a new arena in the City and who will lose the GOLDEN STATE moniker for the San Francisco Warriors -- is Nate Thurmond still around? perhaps he can participate in the first game tip off.......then the Raiders are almost good as gone to LA -- so the A's are the only game left in town and I would not bet against the Oakland city council and the Oakland Coliseum Commission from bungling that up to the point where 90,000 folks attending an MLB exhibition game in Montreal looks pretty good........might take the A's about three home stands of games and then some to reach that attendance figure.

MLB has decided to start the season later to avoid bad weather conditions, to the extent possible, back East and in places like Chicago. apparently the powers that be got tired of watching field crews clearing snow off the ground in Chicago and other places and decided to start the season a week later. not sure how MLB is going to feel when the World Series Game 7 is played in November in freezing weather....... a better solution to the problem may have been to modify the schedule slightly to have the early April games played in warmer climate areas to the extent possible. oh well..........MLB obviously knows more than all of us............

Good for Vlad -- nice to see him get some recognition back in Montreal. It's really a shame that some of his best years when he was arguably one of the best, if not THE best, ballplayers in MLB, occurred in Montreal (not because there's anything wrong with Montreal) because the Expos weren't competitive and were so far north and East didn't get the coverage nationally and certainly not on the West Coast. A lot of baseball fans didn't really get the see a lot of Vlad during some of his best years. Vlad always played ball with a good attitude and a smile on his face --- he helped make the game even more 'international' -- his stats for his era is as good as any player who played during his era. He belongs in the Hall of Fame -- and YES - as much as it would be nice to have a Halo in there with a Halo cap -- Vlad should go in as a Montreal Expo. To do otherwise just wouldn't sit right with the facts and with a lot of folks.

not a bad choice for the Oakland A's -- they aren't getting anywhere with the Commissioner's office and MLB. Bud Selig insisted he was going to deal with this before he left office -- oh well. Meanwhile, SF Giants have (this season) moved their AAA team from Fresno (where the Giants have a huge fan base and the Fresno Giants/ Grizzlies were very popular with a nice ballpark and GREAT fan base/ following) to Sacramento (former AAA home of the Oakland A's since the inception of the River Cats ballpark some 20 years ago) -- one school of thought is that the SF Giants moved their AAA team to Sacramento (well it does make logistical sense and is closer and there's also a large SF Giants fan base in Sacramento) from a very successful situation in Fresno just to PRVENT the possibility that the Oakland A's would look to Sacramento as their new home if no Bay Area (anywhere -- Peninsula, East Bay etc.) venue could be found (or more like it -- STOPPED by the OBJECTION of the SF Giants re territorial rights issue).......... Montreal has to be just as good as Oakland and whatever the condition of Olympic Stadium (which I also thought was either torn down or about to be torn down) it can't be any worse than the Oakland Coliseum.........even call 'em the Montreal Expos again..........

this sanction of Ervin Santana will make the Hamilton penalty (whatever it might or might NOT be) very interesting. If Santana gets 80 games for PEDs -- well........... MLB has the potential to look really bad here -- let's see how the new commish handles it -- In some ways, I think he has already bungled it.

he can pitch batting practice to Josh Hamilton over the next six weeks.

great video link -- thanks for posting that. a few years ago there was link to a video to a guy who threw both left and right -- it was a minor league game (I think) and a switch hitter stepped into the box. the pitcher and the hitter did a musical chairs type of thing with each one switching one side to the other to match the other....... this merry go round went on a few times before the umps conferred and finally told pitcher and hitter each of them had to pick one (left or right) and stick with it the entire at -bat.