NL East

John Maine's 2008 season was cut significantly short last year due to shoulder pain and stiffness which required surgery in late September to repair bone spurs behind his shoulder blade.

Maine missed his last seven starts, but remained with the Mets during that time to support his friends and teammates, though he was extremely frustrated that his contribution was limited to the role of dugout cheerleader.

If the Florida Marlins end up getting their new stadium, the baseball fans of this area, if there are any left, are still likely to have contempt for  the ownership. They'll probably resent them more when they find out the total cost of this project.

The proposed state-of-the-art baseball stadium and parking complex will probably cost the tax payer close to a billion dollars when completed.  We're in a recession, remember, or haven't your checked for 401K lately?

Scott Lauber covers the Phillies beat for the Wilmington News Journal.  He also runs the blog Philled In, an inside take on your WFC. 

I caught up with him, from Clearwater, to talk baseball last night.

SHAY RODDY: Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking steroids from 2001-2003. What does this mean for the game?

Team Puerto Rico reminded me of the 2008 Mets in the way they lost to Team USA.

Team Puerto Rico was leading Team USA 5-3 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. Pedro Feliciano reminded me of last year, and to most Puerto Rico fans, it wasn't good. He did not have good command and put himself in a hole.

The Puerto Rican team had a chance to get out of it with a double play, but Carlos Delgado was pulled off the bag. It was all downhill from there.

Team USA is falling apart at the seams more each passing day, and last night, they suffered another blow. The game did and will continue to go on, but with few to no reserves, it is getting scarier by the minute. Reserves can and will be called on for the semifinals this weekend, but their effectiveness in this tournament will remain to be seen in front of the world.

I suspect I'm not a whole lot different than you are in many ways. 

When 'Old Time Rock And Roll' blasts from the radio, I grab my wife's hair brush and slide across the hardwood floor wearing nothing but a white Hathaway button down and a pair of Fruit of the Looms.

The bullpen in Flushing, New York has been subject to a lot of finger pointing over the years. But with names like Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran at the top of the order, and Johan Santana at the top of the rotation, it made Aaron Heilman and Luis Ayala look all the worse.

With 29 blown saves last year (third worst in the majors), the pen left us with some bitter memories. Worse, it caved more then ever down the stretch as the Mets narrowly lost their playoff spot to the Phillies for the second straight year.

In the past few days, the Washington Nationals have made several roster moves that, in and of themselves, don't make the team that much better.

What they do show, however, is that the new management team, led by de-facto general manager Mike Rizzo, believes the Nationals are going to be much better this year than any of us believed.

The biggest move came this morning as the Nationals released Shawn Hill, as talented as any pitcher on the Nationals' 40-man roster.

With the Astros signing Ivan Rodriguez this morning, it appears as though GM Ed Wade believes that the group he has assembled could be good enough to compete.