Kansas City Royals Strengths: Having an all-star closer like Joakim Soria is a great luxury, but getting the ball to him with a lead will be tough for the Royals. OF Jeff Francoeur is a nice addition in the outfield, and 2B Mike Aviles is a solid all-around player.
Weaknesses: The loss of SP Zack Greinke just adds to the woes of a very depleted pitching staff, and the outfield lacks a slugger after losing Jose Guillen last season. Pick a position, and the Royals have many questions to answer about it.
Analysis: It’s been 26 years since the Royals have made the postseason, and 2011 does not look to be the year that the streak ends. Second-year manager Ned Yost is going to have his hands full with this bunch.
Prediction: 5th in AL Central
Cleveland Indians Strengths: OF Shin-Soo Choo showed that he can put together back-to-back successful seasons and lead the team far and away in all-around offense with 22 HR, 90 RBIs, and 22 SB. Closer Chris Perez returns after posting a sub 2.00 ERA and 23 saves in 2010.
Weaknesses: OF Grady Sizemore needs to stay healthy if the Tribe wants to have any chance of contending in the AL Central. The pitching staff, which wasn’t very good in 2010, returns many familiar faces, but they have another year of experience. They aren’t going to look much better in 2011 unless the young guys in the field like 1B Matt LaPorta can hit better than the .221 AVG he put up last season.
Analysis: The Indians are in a rebuilding phase and will need to add some veterans. They did not do much in the off-season, so the pickings could be slim when they realize what they have isn’t worth very much.
On the night Jim Joyce made himself a household name, what stood out to me was the reaction of Armando Galarraga. After Joyce absolutely shit all over Galarraga’s perfect game, did the pitcher freak out and accost Joyce? Did he throw his glove and act petulant, something, considering the circumstances, that would’ve been completely understandable? Nope. Instead, Galarraga offered a picture-perfect smile, one that hid a myriad of messages. Things like, “You sure?” or “Now, now. Perhaps you should take another look.”
One thing it didn’t contain was malice.
Obviously, the pitcher knew he had beaten Jason Donald to the bag — in fact, everyone besides Joyce knew what the call should’ve been — but instead of exploding in a ball of reactive emotion, Galarraga simply smiled. Joyce himself admitted he would’ve jumped in an umpire’s face if the circumstances were reversed, making Galarraga’s reaction almost as perfect as the game he was robbed of. Check out the audio below.
163 games and 9 innings weren’t enough to decide which team would win the AL Central and advance to the MLB Playoffs, where a date with the New York Yankees await. No, the Twins and the Tigers still needed extra innings to determine their fate, and after the baseline chalk cleared, the Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-5. Your hero? Carlos Gomez, who scored the winning run; although, some could argue home plate umpire Randy Marsh deserves a mention here too.
Just ask Brandon Inge.
Alas, missed hit batsmen aside, the Twins are moving on, and their award is the aforementioned Yankees. The series starts today, as a matter of fact, in about seven hours. The Twins will undoubtedly be drained after last night’s heroics, but the if they can ride the emotional high, you never know, they just might steal Game 1. Talk about a cherry on top of a delicious sundae for Twins fans. Speaking of, I hope you guys are alive enough to enjoy the start of the Yankees/Twins series.
Hopefully, the Twins nation didn’t drink themselves into oblivion after Gomez scored the winning run.
The Detroit Tigers are a popular entity now, thanks to a recent trip to the World Series and an off-season that saw them acquire players like Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. So much so, their ticket distribution has been incredibly demanding; especially for Opening Day.
For example:
Club spokesman Rob Matwick also says the team has sold the equivalent of more than 26,000 season tickets, an increase of nearly 8,000 from a year ago.
To say the Tigers are popular would be quite the understatement. Because of the demand, there are little-to-no Detroit Tigers Opening Day tickets available. Because of that, Detroit fans are looking towards to the secondary ticket market for their Tigers tickets. Rumor has it some tickets for the Tigers’ Opening Day game are going for an excess of $1000.
Opening Day? That’s not, like, the beginning of the World Series, is it?
Kansas City Royals
