Odds and Sods

1. Cleveland Indians

Cleveland should have the same swatting lineup, led by Sizemore, Peralta, and Victor Martinez.  If Travis Hafner returns to “Pronk” above the waist, look out.

The rotation will revolve around the top two.  Sabbathia pitched over 240 innings last season.  He didn’t break 200 the previous three.  Carmona has only had one season as a starter, but a spectacular one.  They will need both to put up identical numbers, because Byrd, Westbrook and Lee don’t scare anybody.

They have a great setup man in Betancourt.  They also have the non-hot dog eating Kobayashi.  Joe Borowski just isn’t a very good closer, but somehow keeps getting employment.  Look for them to pick up someone in July.

It would bother me that the Indians stood pat, but so did everyone else.

2. Detroit Tigers

The Tigers are abundant in hitting talent.  They already had Granderson, Guillen, Sheffield and Magglio, and now add Miguel Cabrera.  Even useless offensive players like J. Jones and Ivan Rodriguez won’t slow down this group.

While potent offensively, their pitching hardly intimidates.

Justin Verlander is unquestionably awesome.  But, Bonderman dwarfs compared to his hype, Kenny Rogers is 43 years old, Dontrelle Willis has declined markedly in every major pitching category for three consecutive seasons and Nate Robertson is just not very good.  This pitching staff as constituted, is not playoff caliber.

The bullpen is even worse.  Todd Jones has been running on fumes since his return.  He is now running on farts.  Even worse, Detroit is relying on Jason Grilli to set him up.  They have been throwing out feelers for bullpen help everywhere, but have yet to pounce.

If the pen was even competent, they would be hands down division winners, but it is bound to cost them multiple games.

3. Chicago White Sox

They have a creaky but competent power nucleus with Konerko, Thome and Dye, which should be supplemented by Swisher.  The rest of the lineup is ok, but not spectacular.  Anyone care to speculate how Josh Fields can hit 24 home runs last season and not even make the Opening Day Roster?

Beurhle still anchors the top slot pretty nicely.  Vazquez will hopefully hold serve after a solid ‘07 season.  But, beyond that, Contreras is a loose canon and can’t be trusted.   Neither Danks nor Floyd have shown great ability at the Major League level.

Any bullpen that has Bobby Jenks will be a good one.  Dotel and Linebrink should also nail down the setup roles.  Not a bad pen overall.

The team won 72 games last season, and that was lucky with an expected W-L of 67-95.  They may be better than last season, but does Swisher’s clubhouse presence really equal 20 games?

Saturday, in the park, it may be the fourth of July, and the White Sox will no longer be in the race.

4. Minnesota Twins

For a budget team, the nucleus of Mauer, Morneau and Delmon Young is quite decent.

The Achilles’ heel festering black hole on their resume is the rotation.  Livan may have been born a pauper to a pawn on Christmas Day when the New York Times said God is Dead and the war had begun, but he is not an adequate replacement for Johan Santana.   Even if Liriano comes back 100%, the rotation still is not right.

The bullpen is buoyed by ostentatiously overpaid Joe Nathan and swell set-up man Juan Rincon.

This is a team that could have competed for the Central Division title with Johan Santana, which makes the Mets trade look extremely foolish.

5. Kansas City Royals

The lineup is still hopeless, though Royals fans can rejoice for the rise of Alex Gordon.

The rotation, for once, is actually not that bad.  Gil Meche managed to partially justify his contract last season.  Brian Bannister is decent.  Greinke, though he has gone through some troubles, is still young and still has potential.

The bullpen has bright points as well.  Joakim Soria, flith stache and all, competed well at closer last season.  Jimmy Gobble is good as well, even if he does have the most goober-sounding name in baseball, no small feat.

Former Comerica Park scoreboard operater Reanen Maxwell has filed a sexual harassment suit against the Detroit Tigers and Illitch Holdings Inc. for being subjected to inappropriate “soft-core” videos of female fans at baseball games.

Maxwell alleges that the videos, down-blouse and upskirt shots, were shown to employees and supervisors “on a regular basis.”  She also claims physical and verbal harassment from two employees as well.

Scott Fearncombe, supervisor of crowd video during the time alleged, denies such videos existed, though he seems to have spent an inordinate amount of time working out the logistics.

“Up-skirt shots would have been technically difficult from the dugout cameras,” Fearncombe told the Detroit News, “because of the way the people are sitting and the angle of the cameras.”

Thanks to SPORTSbyBROOKS

Buster Olney is one of the best baseball writers in the business, but, perhaps, he may wish to reconsider this metaphor.

The New York Times’ Goal blog is reporting that Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool owner George Gillett’s investing interest in M.L.S. will thrust Montreal to the forefront of future expansion.

Gillett would partner with Joey Saputo, owner of the Montreal Impact in the U.S.L. First Division.  The two would reportedly split the $30 million M.L.S. entrance fee as well as the $12 million needed to add 7,000 seats to their 13,000-seat soccer-only facility.

M.L.S. will already expand into Seattle in 2009 and Philadelphia in 2010.  An additional Montreal team would make seventeen.  A likely option for evenness would be a second team in New York to be owned by the Mets.

I have two arguments against this.
One, the M.L.S. needs to look at the big picture.  Northeast teams may be more financially stable in the short-term, but the league may be better off expanding into soccer-friendly areas in the Midwest, such as Detroit and St. Louis.  The true test of the league’s viability will be the generation of fans who grow up with the sport.  Congregating at the coasts limits potential national appeal.

Second, as any Liverpool fan will say, George Gillett is not a man to do business with.  He came to Liverpool bearing roses and slick promises, only to try to skulk out the back door with fistfuls of cash at the first opportunity.  The league needs an owner, who cares about the game and is willing to nurture a long-term investment.  Gillett is not that person.