Baseball Notebook

Winston-Salem, NC – Here are my notes on the first three weeks of the baseball season:

• Nationals Park is beautiful. With the metro stop dumping you in left field, it reminds me a bit of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The ballpark “opens up” to the downtown.

• The front office of the Nats needs to reduce the price of the “Presidential Club” suites from $300 to $100. Having a plethora of empty seats around home plate looks awful on TV.
• The Braves made a great move by not re-signing Andruw Jones. He looks awful in Los Angeles – so awful that Juan Pierre might take his job. Good move by the Dodgers to sit Pierre despite his bloated contract. Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times said it best recently when describing Colletti's frustrating approach: "The outfield overload reflects the Dodgers' approach under General Manager Ned Colletti: We won't trade our best prospects, but we won't necessarily play them. We'll import veterans and let the kids play when an opportunity arises. We won't hand a kid a job at any time, for any length of time." Sunk costs.
• The Tigers will be back. If this losing streak occurred in July and not at the opening of the season, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
• Of course C.C. Sabathia has to have an ERA close to his weight during the one year that I select him in my fantasy draft.
• Miguel Tejada is 33, not 31. Could you not tell by all of the creases on his face?
• Worst contract ever? Barry Zito or Mike Hampton? Lesson learned – don’t hand nine figure contracts out to mediocre pitchers.
• Best pitching rotation: Toronto Blue Jays? Halladay, Burnett, McGowan, Marcum could go up against anybody.
• The Braves have some injury issues to their staff – Glavine and Hampton – but nobody is separating themselves from the rest of the pack in the NL East. We’ll be ok.