KLSnow is much better at this than I am, so I'm not going to borrow the "Frosty Mug" name. This is a decidedly low-rent version.
The big news for us today is obvious (unless you're seeing this in an RSS reader) ...we've got the new SportsBlogs Nation 2.0 design! I encourage everybody to poke around, try things out, and let us know what you think. It's rather overwhelming, especially after 3 years of the old site, but I think once we get adjusted, it'll be great.
There are already a handful of new features you can see on the site (the biggest differences are in the comment threads), and over the next couple of weeks, I'll tinker with the format. In addition to the "next game" widget on the lower left sidebar, there are others I might add with stats and the like. And yes, the list of external links to other baseball sites is coming back, just not immediately. The old list was seriously outdated, so I'm taking the opportunity to put together a new one.
Enough about that. On to the links!
This story at WTMJ gives me a great idea: From now on, whenever we want to talk about the park the Cubs play in, we should refer to it as "Miller Park South." Sure, that's a bit ridiculous now, but in twenty years? If we dream it, we can do it.
The J-S gives us 10 musts for the Brewers to win the Central. I hate articles like this. If the Brewers do all 10 of those things, they'll win 100 games. If we get 4 of those things, we'll probably win the central.
It isn't looking good for Opening Day. Check out the weather forecast. Oh well, as much as I want to get this season going, we probably benefit from missing a couple of early games. We have the pitching depth to manage a doubleheader or two, and the fewer games played with Gallardo is out, the better.
Man, it sucks to be the Angels. Yesterday they made the official moves to put John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar, and Scot Shields on the DL.
Alejandro de Aza got hurt in yesterday's game. The shocking thing isn't a spring training injury, it's that he hurt it on a Chad Moeller inside-the-park home run. I guess that isn't as crazy as a Chad Moeller cycle, but still.
If anybody ever makes fun of you for homerism, point them to this article. It has "Astros," "contend," and "2008" in the headline. Cecil Cooper's a great guy and all, but last I checked, contending teams need an entire starting rotation.
[Now, a personal note. I'm not digging the new MLB.com sites--they are making my browser crash on a regular basis. That just happened as I popped over to the Astros official site. Lucky for me, whether it's the new SBN, or Firefox, or whatever, I restarted Firefox, and this whole post was still here! Oh, thank heavens.]
The Rockies may have demoted Jose Capellan, but Scott Podsednik won a bench job. It's amazing how many former Brewers starters are now reserves on other teams.
Speaking of the minors-bound, Grant Balfour was DFA'd by the Rays. Something tells me he won't come back here, but another move might be in the offing.
Finally, you may have heard, it's real, USA, Opening Day today. The Nationals host the Braves at 8:05 EST in Washington's new stadium. It's Tim Hudson versus Odalis Perez. (Man, I'm out of touch, I didn't even remember that Odalis Perez was a Nat.)
That's all for today. Drink up, and don't forget to recycle your cup when you're done.
UPDATE: But wait, there's more! It's official: Brady Clark made the Mets. Maybe he and Matt Wise can be roomies.