AL East

Filed:March 23rd, 2009

Micah Hoffpauir (left), with Henry Blanco and Koyie Hill (Cubbie Nation/File)

No, I'm not going to pile on.

The vast improvement of the Baltimore Orioles’ minor league system brings much hope for an organization trying to break a string of 11-straight losing seasons and return to contention in the cutthroat American League East.

However, two decisions made over the weekend signal a harsh reality of the present, and the need for more patience as the organization waits for its bumper crop of starting pitching to mature in the minor leagues.

Curt Schilling, the man who returned to Boston and brought home a World Series in 2004, has officially announced his retirement.

Here's a portion of Schilling's retirement post at 38Pitches.com:

Officially there are now just 14 days left until the 2009 MLB season opens. Who will be this year's Tampa Bay Rays?

Last year's Rays went from celler dweller to World Series runners-up. So who will be this year's Rays?

Being a 44-year Cubs fan, can't remember anything before age 5, of course we all hope this will be the year.

And why not? Lilly, Dempster, Harden and Zambrano all return. Gone is oft-injured closer Kerry Wood. Hopefully Kevin Gregg will suffice.

After 100 years, we've gotta be close. But enough about my hopes and dreams.

I had to edit this article all over again because editor John Mccurdy made me look like a fool and he made me look stupid. Thank you John. Do me a favor and stay away from my articles.

You can't win every game in spring training, and the Yankees didn't have their best players playing. They lost to the Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 5-0.

Here are my individual player performance grades:

You can’t win every game in spring training and the Yankees didn’t have their best players playing. The Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 5-0.

Remember the other day when I posted this about the grass as the old stadium being ripped up? Some of you speculated that the grass would be sold, and it turns out those people were right.

From the AP:

A New Jersey grass farm that has supplied turf to Yankee Stadium since the 1960s plans to sell officially licensed grass in the form of sod or seeds.

Coming off of a 4-3 victory yesterday over the Tigers, Alfredo Aceves and the Yankees will look to make it 10 spring training wins in a row (whoopty doo...).

This has been discussed several times before during this offseason, including on this blog, and if you ask me this is a tough call. But let's look at what someone else had to say. Tyler Hissey over at Dugout Central posted this article today and he thinks the Yanks would be better off letting Jeter walk after his contract runs out in 2010.

After reading a recent blog post by Greg over at Sliding Into Home, contrasting recent quotes by Randy Johnson and Jason Giambi, we feel the need to get something off our chest.

All you need to know about our bone of contention is that Yankee fans have happy memories of Jason Giambi's ringless time in Pinstripes, but rue the day that Randy Johnson toed the rubber at the "House That Ruth Built."

Last year I made a bet with a friend of mine about Major League Baseball.

The bet was: Who could more accurately predict the 2008 Major League Baseball season's final standings, league champions, and World Series winner?