MLB

With Spring Training in full swing, the Dodgers injuries are starting to tally. However, fans shouldn't panic—this sounds like the same record we have listened to for years. For the past decade, the Dodgers have had preseason injuries that make the news, and most often they make the news simply because it's Spring Training, and nothing else is going on.

Russell Martin, Casey Blake, and Cory Wade are already making headlines with reported injuries, but the Dodgers organization and the players don't seem concerned.

So the plan was to write this series of articles as the days ticked down to Opening Day. With the schedule that I was to commit to, an article on Chris Narveson should have been written a mere five days following my last posted article and 11 days ago. Suffice it to say that real life got in the way of this hobby, and I fell behind.

But fear not, loyal readers. I will catch up over the next couple of days and be right back on track.

With that said, allow me to discuss the aforementioned Chris Narveson and tell you my opinion on his prospects for the 2010 season.

The fact of the matter is this for Giants fans: Aaron Rowand is going to be the Giants center fielder on Opening Day, and he most likely is going to bat leadoff unless one of three things happen:

1. Mark DeRosa gets hurt again this Spring Training and is unable to play on Opening Day, which forces manager Bruce Bochy to play either Eugenio Velez or Andres Torres in left field (who would be slotted in at leadoff because of their speed).

For about half an hour this afternoon, Viera, Florida was the center of the baseball universe.

Stephen Strasburg, last season’s top amateur pick, took the mound and for the first time faced veteran major league players and not fuzzy-cheeked prospects.

"I was a prisoner in my own city," Milton Bradley told ESPN. But that was not all he said.

He was asked if race played a role in the "city's hatred" for Bradley. The response he gave to ESPN was repulsive.

"I got the same mail Latroy [Hawkins] probably got; the same mail Jacque [Jones] got," he told Colleen Dominguez on ESPN.

News flash Milton: Cubs fans everywhere didn't hate you because you were black. We hated you because you got paid an enormous sum of money and you sucked. You sucked beyond the acceptable level of sucking.

Last season, Joe Nathan saved 47 of Minnesota’s 87 victories.

The All-Star closer will be lucky to get one this year.

Nathan was removed from Saturday’s pre-season contest against the Red Sox after just one batter, citing elbow tightness and soreness. It was originally thought that the discomfort was due to breaking up scar tissue from an October surgery to remove bone chips from the reliever’s elbow, but an MRI showed the damage to be much more severe.

By now we’ve all heard about the injury to Joe Nathan, which has the potential to end his 2010 campaign before it even begins.  According to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minnesota Star-Tribune (click here for the full article):

Barring an injury that keeps Albert Pujols out of the line-up for any significant amount of time, the St. Louis Cardinals are the prohibited favorites to win the NL Central again this year.

Entering the 2010 season, the Cardinals top the division in several important factors. They have the best player (Pujols), the best catcher (Yadier Molina), the best manager (Tony LaRussa), the best starting rotation, and the best fans.

The Atlanta Braves have a great tradition of drafting and developing players. No other team has had the international pressence or pre-draft scouting success that the Braves have had since the late 1980's

Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, Andruw Jones, Javy Lopez, David Justice, Steve Avery, and Rafael Furcal are some names that the Braves have developed from the past.

Harry Leroy Halladay III (or simply Roy) will always have a special place in the hearts of Toronto Blue Jays fans. Despite being born and raised in Denver and bearing a nickname derived from a gunfighter of the western United States (Doc Holliday), Roy Halladay has become synonymous with baseball in Canada's largest city.