The past week of Major League Baseball has all been leading up to Tuesday’s Amateur Draft.  Now, normally, we understand that the MLB draft isn’t exactly appointment viewing.  But in 2009, there’s this youngin’ named Stephen Strasburg.  Maybe you’ve heard of him?  Twenty-one year old uber-phenom, either the savior or the doom of the Washington Nationals… the man who will do for the MLB slotting system (or lack thereof) what Kevin Garnett did for the NBA’s salary structure?  Yeah… should be a big day for him.

About Chivalry…What good does that do? Ask Tommy Glavine, the guy has put about 20 years into the Braves organization (minus the years with the Mets). Still what do the Braves owe him? They paid him millions upon millions to pitch when he was good. The guy had a terrible spring and the Braves were looking to pull up super stud Tommy Hanson. Glavine would lose it if he was told he’s being regulated to the pen as a long reliever.  D Note: This is especially painful for me.  In the late 80’s I followed the Braves religiously as my “other” baseball team.  I grew up watching Glavine, Ron Gant and David Justice evolve into three potential future Hall-Of-Famers.  Seeing this incarnation of the Braves – the first since 1987 without either Glavine, John Smoltz or Greg Maddux on the pitching staff – just doesn’t feel right. Trey Note: Same here…they were the ONLY team in the couth until the Marlins reared in 1993.

Insert Titanic joke here…or is it too early? While Tony LaRussa is too busy shedding tears over Twitter-gate (dibs!!) the St. Louis Cardinals have slowly sunk into a mess of their own doing. They’ve lost 7 of their last 9 with San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Colorado (SWEEP) getting in on that action.  D Note: Brewers/Dodgers NLCS.  Let’s just start printing up those tickets right now.  Though Chris Carpenter is absolutely on pace for a Cy Young award.  Good God the man looks to be fully recovered from so many injuries that robbed him of most of the past few years.

And the judge sentenced her to death…I understand the reasoning and need to tear down Tiger Stadium, I just don’t agree with it. If you remember it was one of Sparty’s first posts on here.

And just because your team sucks doesn’t mean you start calling for your own retirement…Ya you Zambrano!

Trey – Overrated: Oakland’s 7 game win streak. Seriously, it’s nice, but Oakland has got to go for double that to even have a shot of taking the lead in the west. Underrated: Philadelphia’s recent win streak..they could run away with the East…seriously!

D – Overrated: One of the biggest misconceptions in MLB is that youth can be a great asset for a team.  Sure, young guys are less likely to get injured, and might be a little quicker, stronger, etc.  But look at the youngest teams in the Majors (by average age on Opening Day): Florida, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, Oakland, San Diego, Arizona, Cincinatti and Detroit are the ten youngest teams.  And although Texas and Detroit are first in their divisions, the other eight teams are an average of more than eight games out of first.  Throw in the next four youngest teams – Seattle, Washington, Cleveland and Baltimore – and it drops to almost nine full games out.  Underrated: It’s probably too early to start eating crow, but Oakland has won six straight and climbed back to a semi-respectable 7-games behind first place Texas.  Now, if only they were a little older… Frank Thomas anyone?

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