YFSF

ASGamer: Halladay and Lincecum

If you are a true baseball fan, the only thing that matters about this gathering is that you get to see Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum on the stage in close contest at an "exhibition" that has had a farcical construction of gravity because trading off or flipping a coin was a supposed bad idea. But, like I said, witness Halladay and Lincecum. Everything else is gravy until we get back to the ball.

Comment away.

Commish

Why did no major league baseball team sign Barry Bonds? At any point last season, Bonds could have stepped into any lineup on any team in the game and arguably improved it. Smells.

Bud sez "I can't fathom" which I totally believe.

HRD "Gamer" Thread

The best part of the HRD is the kids in the field shagging flies. Other than that, it's a lame substitute for an actual baseball game. I'd rather watch the Nats play the Pirates from bad seats in the rain than this contest, but I'll probably tune in for a bit anyway, just because I like to watch baseball on my birthday and cruel fate conspired to make it a non-starter most years because of the silly ASG. attackgerbil is 40 today, which is pretty darn old for a gerbil.

Consider this your happy homer thread to cheer on Nelson Cruz, Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Howard, Brandon Inge, Joe Mauer, Carlos Pena, and Albert Pujols; hopefully one of them will do a Josh Hamilton impression so this thing isn't a total time sink.

Retro Predictions

Prior to opening day, your intrepid authors were responsible to tender me their predictions for the season. Such has been the tradition for most every baseball outlet since web time immemorial, if only to show how the authors crib other sites. Due to circumstances somewhat beyond my control (it's not my fault I'm lazy), I was not able to perform my sworn duty to put those predictions into our annual summary "Predictaroo" post for then-and-future ridicule prior to the first pitch of the season. As there are no beast games today, I thought it may be good fun to post those predictions and reflect upon the virtues of their authors 69 games in.

Updated to reflect Nick's '09 predictions as well as sort the attributions properly (some of Nick's words ended up on John's section).

Just To Be Sure

Re-tweeted RAB already (what, no twitter?) but this is just too cool.

Tough Run

The Sox are on a 12 game dash through what are (were?) four first place teams - the Tigers, Rangers, Yanks, then Phillies.  What a stretch.  We wonder if this has happened before, at least since the advent of interleague play, where a team plays four consecutive series against division leaders.  Paging Elias!

Danny Almonte At 22

Julian Garcia has a story in the Daily News about Danny Almonte and his aspirations to play professional baseball.

Trade Agreement

Peavy to the Sox.

EDIT - 9:00pm:  Teams agree, Peavy rejects deal.  Still a Padre.

Take a Hike, Redux

Lest we be charged with being a partisan hack, we thought it important to offer the Boston version of Phil Mushnick's cost-comparison.

For the same cost of sitting in the cushiest spot at Fenway, one could catch a Greyhound bus to Cleveland, sit in the Diamond Box at the Jake , and have a meal at Beard Prize nominee Michael Symon's Lola. No hotel, though, you need to get right back on the bus to Beantown.

Paper Trail

The curtain has been pulled back a little further and Dan Duquette starts shoveling. Thank you, Lou.

One question: who are MLB's Jay Bybee, Stephen Bradbury, and John Yoo? There's gotta be a memo somewhere.