it is almost exactly 48 hours till the start of the season!

there is one game remaining. it is today against the defending world series champs, the cradinals. the game itself means little to anyone, but it does have mucho significance. it is the inaugural civil rights game. it will be played in memphis, TN. and best of all, it will be on espn, starting at 2:30 (AZ time). there is a sponsor for the game of course. i am not going to mention their name.

so, spring training has ended. spring never is an accurate indicator of success in the regular season. but you never want to have a terrible spring either. the indians record was 16-13-1. eleven teams in all of baseball had better winning percentages. conversely, that means 18 teams had worse percentages. only nine teams had more wins. let us take a look at those teams that had more wins.

21 wins was tops this spring. guess which team posted this total? yup. the detroit tigers. maybe they are for real. maybe last year was not a fluke. but they did just receive some real bad news. kenny rogers is out till at least july. this is huge. this could change the whole dynamic of the division. this could be a whole topic upon itself.

one team one 19 games. the team i have tried to make my NL team, the arizona diamondbacks. i was surprised to find out (just today as i have been typing this) that they had that good of a spring. they do have a lot of good young talent. they have last years cy young award winner as well as some other veteran pitchers. but the NL west is a tough division.

three teams won 18 games. san diego, cincy, and the angels. cincy is the only surprise team of this group. they don't even have a closer. for the regular season, that is huge. for winning spring training games, it does not matter.

four teams won 17 games. the cubbies, houston, atlanta, and the dodgers. these are all good but not great teams that maybe could win their division or take the wild card, only if things go remarkably well.

where are all the good teams you may wonder? the all powerful and mighty yankees. after a great start, they slumped badly. they finished 14-13. their imitators, the red sox. 14-12. the mighty mets. a piss poor 12-20. how about minnesota. below .500 at 13-17. and the white sox. a saved the worst for last. actually, the worst team this spring was tampa bay. surprise, surprise. the pleasant surprise was that the white sox finished with just one more win than those poor d'rays with a record of 10-21.

what does all of this mean. everything. nothing. who knows. only time will tell. and that time is soon approaching.

if hector luna makes the team, i will be pissed off!

he is asked to loose some weight in the off season. he does not have much range defensively. that is not his only problem defensively. he shows up to camp overweight. comments by wedge have indicated he was not happy about the situation. the postion luna is attempting to put up a fight for is utilty infielder. ever since the off season start, it has been stressed by management that defense will be a mandatory requirement for the utility infielder. someone especially adept at playing shortshop. after today's loss to the mets, luna now has 6 errors in 10 games! omar vizquel never has 6 errors by the all star break, spring training games included.

mike rouse and luis rivas would be the only two people i would consider for the job. sorry joe inglett. timing is everything. i love ya man, but since you are in a spring training competition for the job, how can you claim it is not fair you have lost ground because of your injury??? your injury that has prevented you from playing, hence not competeing for the job.

anyway, despite all the tribe has said, why do i feel that hector luna will be on the bench in chicago on april fools day? it won't be a joke. i can hear wedge now, 'he really turned things around since that 2 errors on one play game vs the mets'. he will make some vague comments about the other candidates having better defense, and follow them with even vaguer references about them not producing at the plate.

stick with the course. defense first! i much rather be hearing crazy thoughts that are from some alternate parallel crazy universe, than forseeing the future in this crazy universe.