Opinion

Baseball justice has become skewed in favor of forgiving and forgetting. In doing that, however, it has forgotten eight players who probably deserve a little bit of forgiveness by now.

Every baseball fan, it seems, knows the story.

It begins with the utter dominance of the 1919 Chicago White Sox in the American League. The freight train that was the White Sox stormed through junior circuit, winning 88 of 140 games (a winning percentage of .629, or roughly 102 wins today). 

I don't know what is worse, having both Peavy and Hoffman (twice) on the mound when all we needed was three outs to secure a playoff berth in 2007, or losing 99 games in 2008.

It's been an ugly run since that horrible weekend in Milwaukee.  Hoffman blowing the save, getting beat by Tony Gwynn Jr.  Peavy on the mound the following night, only to show that for as good as he really is, and the guy is that good, that the October spotlight on him just might be a bit too bright. 

Ahh! The wonders of the modern age. I changed my cable service to include the MLB Network yesterday. I'll let you know what I think of it in days to come, but for now, let me fill you in on the whereabouts of Dr. Mike Marshall, expert kinesiologist and former Cy Young winning closer.

It's time for another editorial shift before I finish up my fantasy approach to the 2009 Major League Baseball season. Having assessed the infielders, attention now moves to the outfielders and pitchers—two groups that I tend to dismiss to a degree, so my analysis will be a tad superficial.

I'll deal with the pitchers separately. Here, I'll focus on the guys roaming the big real estate.

I haven't been this excited about an upcoming Mariner's season in a very long time. In my last article, I begged the Mariner's brass to hire Dave & DMZ* as the new Co-GM's before it became far too depressing to write about the M's flailing on a daily, weekly or any other basis.

Well, I don't know how to put this, but apparently I'm kind of a big deal because they did the next best thing. They ended the draconian rule of Bavasi and now the shining light reflecting off of the dome of our new GM Jack Zduriencik (or Z for the tongue-tied or drunk) has begun thawing my heart.

Josh Hamilton is a special player. We all know that by now. In his first big league season as a starter, Hamilton wowed the Rangers and baseball fans the world over by hitting .304 with 32 home runs and 130 RBI. The sky seems to be the limit for the 27-year-old Hamilton, as his power and consistency should only improve with time.

After a four game series in Toronto to begin the season, the Tigers return to Comerica Park for a 1:05 p.m. showdown against the Texas Rangers to open the home schedule on Friday, April 10.

This year, April 10 might just be another day to some. For me, it is my 23rd birthday. For Tiger fans it is the home opener. To many others the prime importance of April 10 is that it is Good Friday.

I read an article earlier today that I linked to my Facebook profile. That post sparked a war of words amongst a few of my friends and inspired me to write this article.