Heyman On Strasburg, Pedro, Byrd

I wish the Mets would stop lying to themselves, give Pedro 3 million, and kick Livan to the curb. If Pedro was on the Mets all season it wouldn't surprise me if he had outperformed every Met starter on this side of Johanland. His velocity is back up, his breaking ball looked sharp, and his changeup never left. Somebody give this man a job!

I agree on Ollie. Nothing good can come of this. I don't get how you take a guy who is totally erratic in a starters role, his two biggest weaknesses are homeruns and bases on balls, and you stick him in the bullpen, where the margin for error is even smaller then in the rotation. If he is in mop up duty, then he doesn't get the reps he needs to fix himself, and I can't see him pitching in meaningful spots right now. The only thing I can think of is that they want him around Dan Warthen and Johan Santana so they can work with him, as opposed to sending him to Buffalo to work it out on his own. I really do think Ollie will be fine, relatively speaking. He needs this as his spring training. He was on no sort of program this spring at all, like I brought up yesterday, he went a 15 day span where he threw twice, one time was for about an inning, the next, 10 or 11 days later, he threw 83 pitches for Mexico and he just has not looked right. His control is even sub par for his low standards, and his velocity is down from 92-93 to 89-90. That screams WBC to me. Let him get stretched out in the minors, just get his arm loose, and bring him back up.

Though in the meantime, now what happens, who starts? Niese? Redding? Gross. We already have Livan in the rotation can we really afford Redding in the same rotation? I am not even really panicked as a Met fan, more annoyed then anything else, I think Maine and Pelfrey will come around, and I think Perez when all is said and done will at least be a serviceable number 4 starter, regardless of whether he was paid too much for that role.

If the Mets didn't have Santana right now... oh lawdy I'd hate to be a Mets fan.

The White Sox have the 4th WORST run differential in the AL right now. I don't think getting a decent CF will solve all their problems.

The season is young still and the White Sox should be fine. However, this isn't an amazing story by any means. Let's give it another month and see where the team is.

Also, I don't think Detroit is getting too much credit. They were absolutely awful last year and have been playing decent ball. They deserve a little pub. As for Cleveland ... wow, that is just a trainwreck right now.

The standings are bound to change. The Angels have been playing better of late, you know Tampa and NY will be better. The pretenders will come back to earth and balance will be restored.

I think that pitching depth could end up killing Chicago's chances in the AL Central.

While Danks is emerging as a legitimate ace and Buehrle is a very solid 2/3 pitcher, but the rest of the rotation has some questions.

Floyd and Colon have formed a solid 3/4 combo thus far (Floyd's had some real poor luck), but Contreras REALLY doesn't belong in a MLB rotation at this point.

The White Sox need to put Clayton Richard in the rotation in place of Contreras, and they desperately need to find a new center fielder, one that actually belongs out there (If anyone on the roster should be there right now, it's Anderson, easily).

I think that unless Liriano and Baker bounce back in a big way, there's reason to believe that all five teams in the division should be pretty close. No team has shown that they're substantially better than any of the others, and each team has some nice things going for them as well.

If I were to put the teams in order of the likeliness that they'll make the playoffs, I'd probably go Tigers, White Sox, Twins, Indians, and Royals.

The Twins and Indians have some pitching issues that really need to be addressed, and the Royals don't really have enough offense.

"If I were to put the teams in order of the likeliness that they'll make the playoffs, I'd probably go Tigers, White Sox, Twins, Indians, and Royals."

I can't peg the Tigers first.

Verlander will get better, as he's actually been pitching really, really well, just running into some *horrible* luck. Nate Robertson will also probably get better as the season goes on, as he's also been unlucky. However, the rest of the Tigers' pitching staff has been incredibly lucky.

Jackson, Lyon, Perry, and Seay have some ridiculously low BABIPs. I don't know what to think about Rincon and Miner. Galarraga is still interesting, although he's somewhat proving that 2008 was not a fluke.

Although, of course, the AL Central is absolutely neck in neck. A breakout from Hochevar could really put the Royals at the top.

Yeah, I never really thought those rankings were solid at all, it's just that at this point I think that there are some pitching issues in Cleveland and some offensive
issues in Kansas City with Gordon out and no production from the shortstop position. Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota all have their holes as well, but I think they're less debilitating than those of Cleveland and Kansas City.

When it does come down to it though, Kansas City's got the pitching to stay in it to the end, and the same can be said for Cleveland thanks to a good offense, solid defense and at least one very good pitcher in Lee.

But there's little doubt that the AL East is going to be the greatest part of 2009. It looks like four of the best teams in baseball happen to be in the same division with New York, Boston, Tampa and Toronto, and I think that division race is going to be unreal this season. I'd have to be curious to see if any season had four better teams in the same division, even if at least on paper. Although it seems pretty clear that these teams are all going to end up being pretty good, at the very least.

I think that sadly for the White Sox, they're simply known as the other team in Chicago..

"I think that pitching depth could end up killing Chicago's chances in the AL Central."

Floyd, Danks and if they can manage somehow to keep Colon in the game for 5-6 innings tops per outing and healthy that way, they have the offense to maybe win this even division. Nobody else seems to have the balance of pitching/offense (other than the Twinkies) that they do that has shown it thus far this season, but the defense they have is surely lacking.

Im with The Bunk on this one..

How does Heyman figure the Toronto bullpen is in question? Having BJ Ryan gone is a blessing, not a problem.

OH wait, Im sorry, were talking about a team in the east thats not the Yankees and Red Sox which means we wont be seeing any true respect or confidence from any sports writers.

Im not in dreamland, Im aware that my Jays wont be in contention come August and I am willing to agree that sooner or later, the injuries to the rotation will end up being a big problem but picking on the bullpen is unwarranted.

Also, a friend of mine that works in the Toronto media has been told that the Jays have recently become more serious about Pedro Martinez and have also been making calls around baseball to see which starters are available at what price.

Could be interesting.