1992: Toronto-Atlanta
1993: Toronto-Philadelphia

Is there any hope for Toronto fans being in a league with the Yankees and Red Sox?

The age old question.

There are several "has to happens" to make that possible:

1) Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells must bounce back from terrible years at the plate. Wells was in the first year of a huge contract and only hit 16 home runs, whereas Overbay was hurt for several months, but struggled outside of that. Wells is really the key as he will probably be called upon to be the primary run producer something that he hasn't necessarily succeeded in.

2) The promising pitching of Shawn Marcum and Dustin McGowan has to continue. With Roy Halladay, a healthy A.J Burnett and the two listed above there is the potential for a strong front four in the rotation.

The Jays signed David Eckstein and traded for Scott Rolen so we'll see how that works out, but I think the Jays will win more than 83 games this year, but I don't know how much closer to the Yankees or Red Sox they get.

You're suddenly one of my favorite members on the board here I respect anyone who is a die-hard fan of the Blue Jays, Orioles and Rays (are there any die-hard fans of the Rays?). I'll be rooting for Toronto for you.

Klydon, what do you think of the Phillies signing Pedro Feliz at third base? I'm actually a little sad to see him officially leave the Giants but I'm in the minority. He has a great glove at third with a cannon for an arm. His hitting though will drive you crazy.

In fact he made comments about how Giants fans didn't appreciate him and gave him a hard time. I have a feeling he's going to truly find out what it means to be criticized when he gets to Philly and consistently strikes out and hits grounders to shortstop four double plays. San Francisco fans and media are about as laid back as can be when it comes to getting on players. He might regret his decisions because I hear Philly fans and media can be brutal.

Thanks! We've had a better go at it than the Orioles and Rays lately. At least we've sort of been in contention...sort of...

Blibble, Philadelphia needed an everyday thirdbaseman. The Phillies platooned three players last year, and didn't get much production. I think with a good thirdbaseman, they'd have the best all around infield in baseball with MVPs Rollins and Howard and the front runner for MVP last year, Chase Utley (until he got hurt).

I think Feliz has good power, and I think he can be an upgrade, but honestly I wasn't too excited. He has never hit for a high average over his career, and he'll probably continue in the .250s. He has cut down on his strikeouts, which is important. The Phillies probably struck out more than any team in baseball last year with Howard, Burrell and Rowand.

I'm glad to hear about his fielding. I couldn't remember how he did in the field. By the way, you're right about the Philly fans. If he struggles from the start, he'll be crucified.

I hope you enjoy Aaron Rowand. Although I referenced his strikeouts, he had a career year last year. While he may not duplicate his same numbers in SF, he'll win praises with his fielding.

Pitchers and Catchers report today!!!

Can spring be far behind?

Since The Orioles have no pitchers or catchers to speak of I won't be keeping up. I'll just have to pick another team to hitch my wagon too.

As Jeter's future m-i-l, dare I hope that you become an ardent Yankees fan???

Is that m-i-l or milf?

Come down here to Baltimore when The Yanks are in town and try to talk me into it.

I have a ways to go before I'm a milf.

Ah, you're just a kid.

I wasn't talking about age.

Oops, hope I didn't offend you.

I didn't even know what it meant until a few months ago when my nephew told me. I guess I still don't know the proper context (if there is one).

Basically what dontommasino said. It's good to see another Blue Jay fan on the boards.

David Eckstein is the most overrated player in MLB and defensively John "The Prime Minister" McDonald is the best shortstop in the game. Hopefully Eckstein can get on base at a reasonable clip and hit for a little more power than he usually does over the course of a season. Also I hope and pray that Scott Rolen can duplicate his 2004 season if only once over the next three years. Really, if we get super lucky and the Red Sox and the Yankees fall vicitm to the plague we've got a pretty good shot this year.

Baltimore sure is closer than Toronto, so you never know.

Two Toronto fans here

Awesome.

Who holds the MLB record among pitchers for pitching appearances in a career without having a single relief appearance? He is an active pitcher.

Baseball season is creeping up on us, so I thought it was time for trivia.

Greg Maddox?

If Irishman is wrong, then I'm going to guess Greg Maddux?

Or possibly David Wells?

Maddux had 4 relief appearances early in his career, and Wells pretty much started his career as a reliever.

HINT:

This pitcher was drafted to play another sport, in which he was highly regarded, the same year he was selected in the MLB draft.

Tom Glavine?

Correct.

After your hint I figured it was Glavine as he was quite the hockey player and was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings I believe. For his 300th win he got a call of congratulations from Bobby Orr.

Klydon, where do you get all this trivia? Do you have a giant trivia book? Or are you a genius when it comes to remembering baseball stats and facts? Keep the trivia coming as usual

[quote=Blibbleblabble]Klydon, where do you get all this trivia?

Basically, I make it up.

In truth, there are some baseball web sites that have search engines that allow you to plug in searches to get useless bits of information, like the Glavine thing.

Keeping on Glavine, I did a search and found out the batter he faced most in his career is Biggio; the guy with most hits against him is Jay Bell; and Mike Piazza, Gary Sheffield and Jimmy Rollins have hit the most homers off him (6). The batter he walked the most is Jeff Bagwell and he has struck out Andres Galarraga more times than any other hitter (19).

I'll post another question soon for those who like useless trivia like me.

Gina,

I thought you might find this amusing if you haven't already heard about it. Hunter Pence injured himself because he walked through a sliding glass door that he thought was open. I've bumped into closed sliding glass doors before as a kid but they didn't break. That must have been quite shocking

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/artic...t=.jsp&c_id=hou

Here's a trivia question for Mets fans (although anyone can answer).

Who is the only player to hit three homers in a game that he had entered as a substitute?

Hint: He played part of his career for the Mets, but did this while playing for another team.