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A little over five months ago, Philadelphia Phillies fans were revelling in the ecstasy of a long-awaited World Series title. Today, mercifully for those of us who pour over the grand old game, cheap hotel in jersey city winter is behind us and a new baseball season begins on Sunday.For the other 29 teams who didn't win it all in 2008, the old saying applies: "Hope springs eternal." It's a phrase that may seem cliched, but there is no falsity in its optimism. Just ask the Tampa Bay Rays, a team with a tiny payroll who emerged from baseball's darkest basement to become improbable American League pennant winners last season.
There have been eight World Series champions since the millennium, hailing from big, middle and small markets – a parity that makes the game more attractive than ever. Yes, big bucks certainly help, but a smart, cheap kids soccer jerseys forward-thinking front office can also make a splash. Pirates and Royals fans, believe: it could happen to you.What will 2009 bring? Let's take a quick bounce around Major League Baseball and throw in a few predictions just for fun. Perhaps I can surpass my sensational 0–7 play-off tipping record.
This division is a bloodbath, without question the toughest in all of baseball. After losing the World Series, Tampa didn't rest on their laurels, inking the former Phillies outfielder Pat Burrell for a reasonable price. With their wealth of pitching, there's no reason why the Rays can't repeat.
The New York Yankees, embarrassed by missing the play-offs, were not about to forego their annual off-season spending spree just because of some silly global financial meltdown. wholesale cheap jerseys china They spent over $440m on three men, including the ace pitcher CC Sabathia and slugging first baseman Mark Teixeira, ritzy players that will fit perfectly inside their new $1.5bn Yankee Stadium. Overall, the Bombers actually lowered their payroll, but their spending flies in the face of a league that has substantially tightened its purse strings in this gloomy economy.
The pinstripes signature slugger, Alex Rodriguez, capped a quiet off-season in which he was exposed as "A-Fraud" in a book co-authored by the former Yankees manager Joe Torre, admitted to steroid use and was linked to escorts. Hip surgery will keep him out until mid-May. The Yanks' revamped starting pitching staff should support a lighter hitting line-up until then.Then there's the 2007 champions, cheap youth basketball jerseys the Boston Red Sox, who will begin their first full season without Manny Ramirez since the millennium. His former partner in crime, David Ortiz, is healthy and hopeful that he can lead their well-rounded offence and the pitching staff, led by Josh Beckett, is deep.
This division is more wide open than a North Korean boulevard, but with steady pitching the Chicago White Sox, cheap rangers jersey last year's AL Central champs, seem to be in a good position to repeat, even if their hitting is suspect. They should be boosted by the return of Carlos Quentin, who may have won the MVP award if he had not suffered a broken wrist last September.
The Cleveland Indians, without a title since 1948, disappointed their patient fans last season. Their line-up could thrive if the one-time slugger Travis Hafner can scrape together a decent season. packers jersey cheap Their bullpen, anchored by the new closer Kerry Wood, will have to pick up the slack for the questionable starting rotation to compete.
Don't count out the lean and mean Minnesota Twins, a team capable of making a tasty salad even if they don't have the best ingredients. I would love to see the much-improved Kansas City Royals finally make the climb to respectability. The Detroit Tigers have less of a chance of reviving than their city's auto industry.
If the Oakland A's had any kind of proven pitching in their young staff, flag football jerseys cheap which is packed with prospects, they'd be in a great spot to unseat the Los Angeles Angels as division champs. The usually miserly A's, led by GM extraordinaire Billy Beane and their pockets deepened in the off-season, acquired the hefty salary of the power-hitting Matt Holliday in addition to other rag-tag vets. Without proven arms, however, you have to wonder what their chances are.
The Angels will begin the season with three of their starting pitchers injured and without Mark Teixeira, cheap flag football jerseys who left for New York. It won't matter, as the Anaheim factory, led by manager Mike Scioscia, continue to fill the gaps with enough talent to lose in the first-round of the play-offs, again.
The New York Mets have suffered a lot of bad news over the past two years. Highlights include two catastrophic late-season collapses, a PR debacle surrounding the naming rights of their new ballpark, Citi Field, atlanta falcons jerseys cheap and Bernie Madoff making off with a whole bunch of the owners' money. There's plenty more to their epic story, but the short story is that the bullpen which tanked in 2008 is fixed thanks to the closers Francisco Rodriguez and JJ Putz coming to Queens, but the starting rotation is somewhat rickety and the line-up needs help.
There have been eight World Series champions since the millennium, hailing from big, middle and small markets – a parity that makes the game more attractive than ever. Yes, big bucks certainly help, but a smart, cheap kids soccer jerseys forward-thinking front office can also make a splash. Pirates and Royals fans, believe: it could happen to you.What will 2009 bring? Let's take a quick bounce around Major League Baseball and throw in a few predictions just for fun. Perhaps I can surpass my sensational 0–7 play-off tipping record.
This division is a bloodbath, without question the toughest in all of baseball. After losing the World Series, Tampa didn't rest on their laurels, inking the former Phillies outfielder Pat Burrell for a reasonable price. With their wealth of pitching, there's no reason why the Rays can't repeat.
The New York Yankees, embarrassed by missing the play-offs, were not about to forego their annual off-season spending spree just because of some silly global financial meltdown. wholesale cheap jerseys china They spent over $440m on three men, including the ace pitcher CC Sabathia and slugging first baseman Mark Teixeira, ritzy players that will fit perfectly inside their new $1.5bn Yankee Stadium. Overall, the Bombers actually lowered their payroll, but their spending flies in the face of a league that has substantially tightened its purse strings in this gloomy economy.
The pinstripes signature slugger, Alex Rodriguez, capped a quiet off-season in which he was exposed as "A-Fraud" in a book co-authored by the former Yankees manager Joe Torre, admitted to steroid use and was linked to escorts. Hip surgery will keep him out until mid-May. The Yanks' revamped starting pitching staff should support a lighter hitting line-up until then.Then there's the 2007 champions, cheap youth basketball jerseys the Boston Red Sox, who will begin their first full season without Manny Ramirez since the millennium. His former partner in crime, David Ortiz, is healthy and hopeful that he can lead their well-rounded offence and the pitching staff, led by Josh Beckett, is deep.
This division is more wide open than a North Korean boulevard, but with steady pitching the Chicago White Sox, cheap rangers jersey last year's AL Central champs, seem to be in a good position to repeat, even if their hitting is suspect. They should be boosted by the return of Carlos Quentin, who may have won the MVP award if he had not suffered a broken wrist last September.
The Cleveland Indians, without a title since 1948, disappointed their patient fans last season. Their line-up could thrive if the one-time slugger Travis Hafner can scrape together a decent season. packers jersey cheap Their bullpen, anchored by the new closer Kerry Wood, will have to pick up the slack for the questionable starting rotation to compete.
Don't count out the lean and mean Minnesota Twins, a team capable of making a tasty salad even if they don't have the best ingredients. I would love to see the much-improved Kansas City Royals finally make the climb to respectability. The Detroit Tigers have less of a chance of reviving than their city's auto industry.
If the Oakland A's had any kind of proven pitching in their young staff, flag football jerseys cheap which is packed with prospects, they'd be in a great spot to unseat the Los Angeles Angels as division champs. The usually miserly A's, led by GM extraordinaire Billy Beane and their pockets deepened in the off-season, acquired the hefty salary of the power-hitting Matt Holliday in addition to other rag-tag vets. Without proven arms, however, you have to wonder what their chances are.
The Angels will begin the season with three of their starting pitchers injured and without Mark Teixeira, cheap flag football jerseys who left for New York. It won't matter, as the Anaheim factory, led by manager Mike Scioscia, continue to fill the gaps with enough talent to lose in the first-round of the play-offs, again.
The New York Mets have suffered a lot of bad news over the past two years. Highlights include two catastrophic late-season collapses, a PR debacle surrounding the naming rights of their new ballpark, Citi Field, atlanta falcons jerseys cheap and Bernie Madoff making off with a whole bunch of the owners' money. There's plenty more to their epic story, but the short story is that the bullpen which tanked in 2008 is fixed thanks to the closers Francisco Rodriguez and JJ Putz coming to Queens, but the starting rotation is somewhat rickety and the line-up needs help.
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