Listen to The Sully Baseball Show... with guest Joel Solomon

Pirates fan Joel Solomon joins me on The Sully Baseball Show, part of the Seamheads National Podcasting Network.

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The reawakening of Vernon Wells - My latest for The Hardball Times

In my latest for The Hardball Times, I speculate about Vernon Wells and the potentially joyful season he might be having for the Angels. My reasons are not based on stats but rather emotions, which means the commenters will probably hate my guts.

Ahh well.

You can read the whole article here.

Whose opening was worse? Charlie Sheen or the Red Sox?

There wasn't a lot of "Winning" going on with either one. In fact both flopped pretty dramatically.

I would argue that the Red Sox had a worse opening. Because with Charlie, what exactly could you possibly have expected the show to be?

He wasn't going to sing. Or dance. And clearly no writers were on tour to feed him lines. (Although it is safe to say Sheen had a LOT of lines before the show.)

So if you went to the show, you were expecting to see Charlie Sheen act like a deranged lunatic. And it sounds like he delivered.

Meanwhile the Red Sox were capable of something. They could have pitched. They could have hit. They could have kept a FEW balls in the yard.

Let me put it this way, nobody was picking Sheen's show to win a Tony Award, but a lot of people thought this Sox team was ready for a parade in November.

So I guess the one with Tiger blood indeed won again.
(How could his Tigers uniform not say "Tiger Blood" on it? That could have made the whole show work!)

My friend, the brilliant Christian Finnegan, Tweeted it best regarding the Sheen refunds.

"DECREE: Anyone wanting a Charlie Sheen refund must first make a public speech explaining his rationale for purchasing the ticket."

The REAL winners?
The writers of Two and a Half Men. They can say "It's not so easy, is it Mr. Warlock?"

Let's hope the Red Sox can start being more Hot Shots, Wall Street, Major League Charlie Sheen rather than "being an expensive and humiliating public disaster" Charlie Sheen.

Oh dear, Javy

It wasn't supposed to be like this, Javier Vazquez. Wasn't the whole point of you going to Florida was that you were going to relax and NOT suck?

I got on Vazquez all last season because I thought from the start he was ill fitting in New York. But I thought a trip to Florida would be like his time in Atlanta. Relaxed and without pressure, Vazquez would revert to his All Star stuff.

Instead he got smacked around by the Mets. Yeah it is only one game... but this isn't a good start.

I wonder if my Anonymous Javy Vazquez admirer will come back.

I didn't want to win a game this weekend

I like starting a season in an 0-3 hole. It is more fun that way.

Seriously, this was a pretty lousy display by my Red Sox, picked by so many to go all the way. It was home run derby off of both Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz and frankly that makes me nervous.

I know it is against Texas and they are a good home run team. But what happened to "Good Pitching beats Good Hitting."

The Sox have an off day tomorrow and then Josh Beckett take the mound. Remember him? The guy who got lit up last year and this spring.

In terms of the "2011 Red Sox compared to hyped movies" template I made before the season started... this team is off like Superman Returns, the film where it just felt slightly off right from the beginning.

Let's hope things go up, up and away in Cleveland.

I know it is early but...

The Phillies might not lose a game all year.

I could be wrong about that. But 3 games in, my World Series winner pick looks pretty damn good.

Let's see how they do the next week.

OK Ross Ohlendorf... time to earn your money

Ross Ohlendorf won one game last year and then matched his win total in arbitration in the off season.

A lot of people made fun of that in the off season, including yours truly. But he is pitching against the Cubs today and can match his 2010 win total in early April.

Everything after that? Gravy.

Hey Giants... PACE YOURSELF

Seriously, you may want to spread the runs around a little more evenly.
The Giants have played three games this season so far, all against Los Angeles.

The champs have outscored the Dodgers, 14-6.
They've out hit the Dodgers... they've out slugged the Dodgers...
The Giants have pitched to an ERA of 1.08.
The Dodgers have a 4.67.

So naturally the Giants record in those three games is 1-2.

You may not want to score almost ALL your runs in a 10-0 rout.
Just a tip.

Hey Matt Hollday's Appendix... you aren't helping things

Seriously, the Cardinals are having a trying enough season already.

Adam Wainwright had the dreaded words Tommy John associated with his name. Plus he was on a plane that skidded off the runway. (Nobody was hurt, but there are bad vibes about this team.) So they lost their Cy Young contender. Not good.

The Cardinals are relying on big players who had some injuries (like Yadier Molina) or young guys who need to fix their attitude (I'm looking at YOU Colby Rasmus) or old players that will discover the fountain of youth (like Lance Berkman). And they need to have Dave Duncan work his magic on broken down pitchers. (Didn't work with Jake Westbrook yesterday.)

In other words the Cardinals were built on a shaky foundation, and that was BEFORE the poison bag inside of Matt Holliday's gut exploded. (Hey evolution, take your time phasing out the appendix!)

The Cardinals don't have a lot of wiggle room in their lineup and having Matt Holliday sit in a hospital bed doing crossword puzzles can be put in the "We Didn't Need This" file.

Without Holliday batting behind him, then why on Earth would a sane pitcher throw a strike to Albert Pujols? Yesterday David Freese was protecting Albert in the lineup. No offense to David who is a nice young player, but I would walk Albert intentionally with the bases loaded in the 9th inning of a 1 run game to face David Freese.

Holliday will be gone for at least a few weeks and the number of strikes Albert will see can be counted on your nose.
And that can't make the prospect of Albert sticking around any better.

I hate to keep harping on this, but Pujols' contract will hang over the Cardinals season the way that the Madoff situation will be the bane of the Mets existence.

OK, Pujols contract isn't a historic financial scam that ruined many people's lives. It is just the elephant in the room and will eventually be $300 million from some shmuck's checking account.

And I can't help but think that anything that makes Albert think St. Louis is the wrong place to stay will help add up to his taking the show on the road.

So I reiterate to Matt Holliday's appendix... you aren't helping.

This is what I was afraid of with the Red Sox

At least there was no suspense in this game.

Yeah, I know it is early. But one reason I wasn't swept up in the pre season hype was I felt like there were too many assumptions about the starting rotation. Lester and Buchholz were written in ink and the assumption was either Lackey, Beckett or Dice-K were going to be bouncing back.

Well we had better HOPE so. John Lackey became John Lacking or John Shelacky. He gave the Sox 9... sadly it was 9 earned runs against.

I would like to NOT start the season being swept, especially with and off day on Monday and Josh Beckett's potentially agonizing first start of the year on Tuesday.

I know the Red Sox will eventually win a game. I'd like to not have to wait for it.

The Jim Leyland watch begins... will he be fired or will he quit?

Less than 2 games in and it is inevitable. Jim Leyland's time in Detroit, as fun as it was in 2006 and until the last week of 2009, is going to come to an end.

Will he walk away like Lou Piniella?
Or will the Tigers just give him the axe?
Or will they "promote" him to a meaningless executive title?

But it is going to happen and probably before the All Star Break.
If they keep losing, who knows? He may not make it to May.

Make no mistake, it is going to come to a close.

I predict Jim Leyland will walk away before they can fire him, and he will do so on July 1.

Anyone else care to make a prediction?

OK, maybe the uniforms DIDN'T help the Pirates

I guess I was too quick to give the Pirates (and their bad ass black uniforms) credit for back to back wins.

Who could have seen a 5 run 8th inning from the Cubs? I didn't.
I stand by my original point: The Pirates should wear the black tops for every road game.

Listening in on a pitcher-catcher in game conversation

PITCHER KYLE DAVIES: Jesus these uniforms suck.

CATCHER MATT TREANOR: Just stop thinking about it. If we can win this game than we can give our fans the illusion that this is going to be a great year in Kansas City.

PITCHER KYLE DAVIES: Seriously... these are powder blue. We're the damn Royals. They couldn't find Royal Blue?

CATCHER MATT TREANOR: What are you, Tim Gunn? Just try not to make it too lopsided. We can't rely on that Hawaiian kid every night.

PITCHER KYLE DAVIES: What his name?

CATCHER MATT TREANOR: Kila Ka'aihue.

PITCHER KYLE DAVIES: How do you pronounce that?

CATCHER MATT TREANOR: Kila Ka'aihue.

PITCHER KYLE DAVIES: So the apostrophe is silent?

CATCHER MATT TREANOR: Yup.

PITCHER: KYLE DAVIES: OK, let's play ball.

For the second year in a row, I am writing about the Indians hats

Last year I asked the Indians to just PICK A HAT! They had so many varying caps last year that I wondered if they were going to change hats in mid game.

So what was the Indians' solution?
THEY CAME UP WITH ANOTHER HAT!

Now I still think that they should go back to the "Tomahawk C" cap that they wore in the 1970s.

It is distinct, it brings out the Native American theme and yet doesn't have a crazy racist image on it.

And yeah... sorry... I'm not the most politically correct person you will ever meet... but Chief Wahoo is kinda sorta racist.

I personally don't find the NAME Indians to be racist nor do I think the Indians should change the name.

But the logo is dated and should go. And I must say, these new red caps are kind of cool.

I still think the C is a little boring, but hey! They've tried everything else. Why not a boring C, a red cap and an off white uniform?

Maybe THAT will help the Indians win.
OK, after seeing their pitching the last few days, they maybe need more than a new cap. But if they are going to be get their butts kicked, they might as well sport an inoffensive cap.

Their pitching is offensive enough.

The Pirates take the early lead... it's GOTTA be the uniforms!

The Pirates are winning against the Cubs... again.
And once again they are doing it wearing their awesome black top uniforms. I told them to make those their regular road jerseys last year. So far so good with them THIS year.

They've tried everything else to put a winning club on the field (short of drafting well and making smart trades.) Why not keep wearing these cool tops?

How could it be worse than the last 18 seasons?

Kila Ka'aihue is pronounced Kila Ka'aihue

The Royals won their first game of the season with a walk off shot by Kila Ka'aihue... which is easier to write than say.

Truth be told, I cut and pasted it, so if I spelled it wrong, blame Yahoo Sports.

But I had no idea how to pronounce it, so I went to Wikipedia.
This is what they had for the pronunciation:


That's not helping me.
What's the point of a pronunciation guide if you need to get ANOTHER guide to figure out the first guide?

I still don't know. Maybe he'll play long enough to figure it out. If I could figure out how to pronounce Mientkiewicz then how hard can Kila Ka'aihue be?

(Truth be told, I cut and pasted Mientkiewicz as well.)

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The Pirates looked good while looking good

The Pirates won their opener. (Why were they playing in Chicago while San Francisco and San Diego are empty?)

And who knows how long they will be undefeated. But they ARE winning the awesome alternate uniforms. Last year, I urged them to make these the permanent road uniforms.

Look like winners and who knows? Maybe they will BE winners?

Just 81 more wins and they will have their first winning season since 1992.

Trust me. Wear the black tops for ALL road games.

The Giants start and fact checking

It is early... but it is also safe to say that if the Defending World Champion San Francisco Giants lose the Division by a game, these 2 one run losses in Chavez Ravine will hurt.

My dad, the biggest fan of the champs that I know, waved his hand. "We started the season last year being swept by the Astros. It turned out all right."

I didn't remember that being the case. "No, they started awfully" my dad assured me. "4 games in people were calling into KNBR screaming."

So that was going to be the general premise of this post. But before I started typing, I decided to double check it.

No, the Giants didn't get swept by the Astros to start the 2010 World Championship season.

THEY swept the Astros! And then won a 13 inning thriller in Atlanta. They started the season 4-0... 6-1... 7-3...

But that is the trust I have in my dad. He said it so convincingly that I took it on face value that the Giants started the season 0-4.

Damn facts getting in the way of what was going to be a very funny post!

King Felix is confused... What are these "Runs" you speak of?

The Mariners scored 6 runs for Felix Hernandez tonight in Oakland. Did they score 6 runs for Hernandez ALL YEAR last year? I can't remember.

It's a nice start for a Cy Young defense. He also has 1 complete game which might lead the league at the end of the year. Seriously, he's a young kid throwing a complete game and nobody is worrying that his arm might fall off.

Keep scoring these runs for your ace, Mariners. It will make the explanation of why he deserves the Cy Young award a lot easier for all of us.

I admire this young Met fan in Miami

It's going to be a long season, Met fans.
I said it... 90 losses.

89 left after today. It's going to be a year where players like Josh Johnson are in your division. And the Phillies had a great comeback that will be "Standard Operating Procedure" for the Mets' biggest tormentors.

But this kid clearly cares. He clearly WANTS to the Mets to be good. And he has no memory of 1986. I doubt he remembers the 2000 World Series. Heck, he is young enough that maybe the 2006 might be vague. His only clear memories of the Mets could very well be the collapses of 2007 and 2008 and the non factors of 2009 and 2010.

He is being brought up in the post Madoff mess and still cares.
Folks, THIS is a great sports fan. Keep this ticket stub, pal. Show people "I was THERE when things looked bad for the Mets."

Someday the Mets will be damn good again and you can smile knowing you logged in the pain before the pleasure.

This my dear readers is a GOOD fan!

Is this any way to start a potential World Series season?

Seriously... the day after I write up my "What movies will this team mirror?" post, the give us this stinker?

It started out so well. Ellsbury reaching on a 2 base error and the Sox up 2-0 before the Rangers even came to the plate. They went up 4-2 and even after Lester coughed up a bunch of homers, still had a thrill with Big Papi tying the game.

And all of that got flushed down the toilet with a disastrous 8th inning. If this is what we are going to get from Daniel Bard this year then Jonathan Papelbon might have some terrific leverage.

Well the season has begun and I will also start my "Dodged Bullet/Teeth Grinder" tally.

DODGED BULLET GAMES - 0

TEETH GRINDER GAMES - 1

April 1 - 9-5 loss in Texas. (The Sox tie Opening Day in the 8th with an Ortiz homer only to have Bard implode and the Sox let up 4 in the bottom of the 8th.)

Starting the season -1 is no way to start a season.
Then again, they lost their first game in 2004 and 2007.

Rest in Peace Lou Gorman

Lou Gorman passed away today... and had the Red Sox made that last out in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, he would have been a beloved genius. He would have been declared the great architect of the team that whipped the Curse.

And unlike the 2004 team which was cobbled together from other organizations, he would have been hailed for having a predominantly home grown squad. Rich Gedman, Marty Barrett, Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst, Al Nipper, Oil Can Boyd, Bob Stanley and Steve Crawford all contributed to the near title.

And he made the trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen down the stretch... and brought in Don Baylor to take charge of the clubhouse.

He would have been a legend.
Now before you say "Hey, he didn't draft Rice, Evans etc..." remember that Theo didn't bring in Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek, Johnny Damon nor Derek Lowe, but nobody had any trouble giving HIM credit for 2004!

If that last out was made, Gorman would have been hailed as the architect.
Alas that last out wasn't made... but Lou deserves a salute here. Nobody got the Sox closer over an 85 year stretch.

When the Red Sox DID win in 2004, the big hit in the clinching game was by Trot Nixon. Guess who drafted him?

Lou Gorman.

Thanks Lou

Did everyone on the Yankees bat .270 last year?

I was listening to John Sterling and Suzyn (sic) Waldman call Opening Day in the Bronx yesterday. It seemed like everytime they described a Yankee batter, they said "last year he hit .270." Jeter... A-Rod... Gardner... I think someone else I can't remember... all batted .270.

I am sure there is some conspiracy involving the Mayan calendar about that.

Of course they also said about each batter "He is due for a big breakout season this year." The whole damn team will break out. Unless of course the days of players in their mid 30s suddenly improving have ended.

Maybe they will all bat .271.