The Monday Jog Around The AL & NL East

Here is your look at the news coming from the teams in the American League East and National League East.

Jonathan Papelbon says he will be ready to pitch if the Red Sox need him in the season opener against the Royals.

One of my radio cohorts, Anthony over at the Oriole Post, spent his Sunday at the Orioles Fan Fest and checked in with many updates throughout the day.

The Toronto Blue Jays have high hopes for this season and that includes the AL East title.

Carlos Pena has a new home after being reassigned to the Devil Rays Triple A team in Durham. He will be with the big club for opening day.

Yankees manager Joe Torre hopes the Bronx faithful stick behind Carl Pavano in the season opener.

Tom Glavine used his arm and bat to help defeat the Cardinals 6-1 spoiling the Cardinals banner raising ceremony.

If he can stay healthy, Mike Hampton hopes to return to the Braves rotation by the second week of May.

JD over at SporTech Matter has a look at your 2007 Florida Marlins.

Dontrelle Willis doesn’t think anyone should count out the young Washington Nationals.

The Philadelphia Phillies still haven’t finalized their 25 man roster. There is one spot left up for grabs.

Trump’s Dome Is Intact

Donald Trump doesn’t have to worry about being bald anytime soon as his man Bobby Lashley took care of business in the ring on Sunday night beating Umaga in the “Battle of the Billionaires” at Wrestlemania 23.

Shockingly enough, the match had many interruptions including one by Vince McMahon’s son Shane who first started out by knocking guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin out of the ring. Then Shane jumped off the top rope doing a Coast-2-Coast (a missile dropkick spanning the length of the ring) to knock out Lashley with the kick. Stone Cold then regained consciousness and gave him Shane one of his patented Stunners. Meanwhile, Trump came up and knocked out Vince. Lashley finished off Umaga with a spear and pinned him for the win.

After the match, Vince did everything in his power to escape from having his head shaved but finally Stone Cold gave him a stunner and Vince was tied to the barber chair so he couldn’t escape. Once Lashley and Trump were done shaving Vince’s head, Vince tried crawling back to the locker room, whining and crying like a big baby.

The best blow of the match came after Vince headed to the locker room when Trump decided to rain cash over the crowd again. Stone Cold obviously didn’t like this and gave Trump a Stone Cold Stunner leaving the billionaire laid out in the ring.

I was shocked to see how this turned out. I honestly thought that was some kind of April Fool’s joke by McMahon and Trump. But they didn’t pull anything other than finding ways to cheat to win the match as per the norm in the world of the WWE.

Some Japanese Baseball Terms For You

Since the Red Sox players are taking their time to learn Japanese with the addition of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hidkei “Darkman” Okajima, I figured it would be nice if we here in Red Sox Nation took the time to learn a few baseball related words in Japanese as taken from the Hartford Courant. If your not a Red Sox fan, these words will still be nice to know because Dice-K Mania may hit your town or your team may have a Japanese import playing for them.

Way With Words

In Japan, “jigoku ni ochiro jiantsu” means “Go to hell, Giants,” heard at other Central League parks because the Yomiuri Giants have long been kings in Japan. Things to know:

banto: bunt

batta: batter

fauro: a foul ball

foa boru: four ball; a walk

furu besu: bases loaded

furu kaunto: full count

gaijin or gaikokujin: foreigner, foreign player

gurobu: glove

herumetto: batting helmet

homuran: home run

kantoku: manager

kyujo: stadium

rukii: rookie

sanshin: strikeout

sayonara homuran: winning home run

sebu: a save

shinpan: umpires

shusupuritto finga fasuto boru: a split finger fastball

suraida: a slider

sutoraiku: a strike

sutoreto: straight ball, fastball

wairudo pitchi: wild pitch

yusho: victory

If you would like to see your name in Japanese, click here. This is what my name looks like:

Sunday Stroll Around The Majors

Well today is the first day of the 2007 Major League Baseball Season and normally I would look at the news coming out of spring training camps. I decided I would continue this feature and continue you to give you one news story from the 30 teams every Sunday.

  • Sunday Stroll: News from all 30 teams.
  • Monday Jog: News from the AL East and NL East.
  • Tuesday’s Half Marathon: News from the American League
  • Wednesday’s Half Marathon: News from the National League
  • Thursday’s Tiptoe: News from the AL Central and NL Central
  • Friday’s Fast Walk: News from the AL West and NL West

Everyone’s favorite Playboy Bunny-esque babe, Sooze, over at Babes Love Baseball tells us about that the Diamondbacks have placed Randy Johnson on the 15 day DL to start the season.

Jason over at My Baseball Bias tells us that Jorge Cantú’s tenure in Tampa Bay is probably over.

Angels pitchers Bartolo Colon and Jered Weaver will make their rehab starts in the warm weather of California instead of the cold weather of Salt Lake City.

Luke Scott beat out Jason Lane for the Astros’ starting right field position.

Dan Johnson will miss the first three months of the A’s season with a hip injury.

Josh Towers will be your number 5 starter in Toronto to start the season.

After being unemployed 3 weeks before the start of the season, Mark Redman will start the Braves home opener on Friday against the Mets.

A lot of reputable baseball reporters have picked the Milwaukee Brewers to win the NL Central.

The members of the St. Louis Cardinals got more than just a baseball game when they played in the Civil Rights Game in Memphis.

Cubs OF Alfonso Soriano thinks he will do just fine in his new position of center field after playing left field last season in Washington.

Dodgers 1B Nomar Garciaparra gives us an update about his new daughters, Grace and Ava.

The San Francisco Giants don’t have a player who will play regularly under the age of 31.

Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia was humbled by his visit to the Civil Rights Museum.

Jamie Burke will make his Major League debut for the Mariners at the ripe young age of 35.

Sergio Mitre thought he was going to start the season in the Marlins bullpen. Instead he will be starting their home opener.

Mets reliever Pedro Feliciano hopes to have a repeat of last year’s successful season.

Anthony over at the Oriole Post shares with us his pictures from his trip to D.C. to see the Nats and O’s play.

Chris Young of the Padres hopes to improve on his numbers from last season.

Phillies president Dave Montgomery is very optimistic about the 2007 season.

NL batting champ Freddy Sanchez will start the season on the 15 day DL for the Pirates.

The Rangers have finalized their 25 man roster and yes Sammy Sosa is on it.

The Red Sox had 6 long balls after hitting only 15 in their 29 games. Is this a sign of things to come for the season?

Eric Milton had to be scratched from his start for the Reds on Saturday with lower back stiffness.

Jeff Baker is happy to be starting the season with the Colorado Rockies.

The blister on Odalis Perez’s throwing hand will not keep him from making his start for the Royals against the Red Sox on Wednesday.

Detroit reliever Jose Mesa was suspended two games for the 2007 season for an incident that happened while he was a member of the Rockies in 2006.

Joe Mauer had three rbi’s for the Twins on Saturday in his return from his foot injury.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has depth at closer if Bobby Jenks fails.

Josh Phelps may force the Yankees to platoon him with Doug Mientkiewicz.

Matsuzaka’s Command Not There Right Now

In his first start in a Major League ballpark, Daisuke Matsuzaka had a little trouble finding the strike zone against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday afternoon. The Sox ended up winning the game 7-5. But that wasn’t the big story of the day. Neither was Pat Burrell giving the Red Sox the #1 salute.So you ask what is the story of his outing? It is his walk totals. He walked 4 in the game on Saturday bringing his total to a lofty 9 in the past two games. He did strikeout 7 Phillies hitters and only gave up 2 hits allowing 3 runs.

Should we be concerned about his high walk totals? Matsuzaka isn’t concerned about it at all.

“I feel like I have a good grasp of the Major League strike zone. As far as the number of walks, I don’t think it’s related to the strike zone.”

“I didn’t feel probably nervous for any reason,” Matsuzaka said. “I’m glad I had the opportunity to throw in a big-league park before the season.”

You really have to wonder if the adjustment to the 5 man rotation isn’t going as well as he had hoped. He is used to working in a 6 man rotation and being able to get all of his work in. He has adjusted his exercise program a little bit.

“As far as my physical condition, I changed up my routine just a little bit,” Matsuzaka said. “The result was what I expected based on the changes. … I wasn’t too concerned with lack of control or anything like that.”

So now it’s on to Kansas City for Matsuzaka and the Sox as they both prepare for the Kansas City Royals. You can bet your bottom dollar that Matsuzaka is reviewing tapes of the hitters for the Royals to prepare for his first Major League start.

Saturday’s Sprint Around Spring Training

Here is your look at the news coming out of spring training camps around the land.

The Playboy Bunny-esque Sooze over at Babes Love Baseball tells us why Kenny Rogers is out indefinitely for the Tigers.

Jason over at My Baseball Bias tells us that the Yankees officially named Carl Pavano their opening day starter.

Mets pitcher Chan Ho Park will be pitching in New Orleans to start the season with the Mets Triple-A team there.

Rob Bradford from Bradford on Baseball tells us his spring MVP for the Boston Red Sox.

In his ‘Past A Diving Jeter’ column over at The Red Sox Times, John Guszkowski gives us his predictions for all of the divisions.

John Lackey of the Angels is hoping that he has a ‘Cy Young’ type year. I hope he does too, he’s one of my fantasy league pitchers. Johan Santana and him are my two horses.

After a combined 16-2 in the minors last season, Micah Owings has been named the 5th starter by the Diamondbacks.

20 year old Felix Hernandez is your opening day starter for the Seattle Mariners.

The Atlanta Braves hope to return to their familiar spot on top of the NL East.

Carlos Zambrano hopes to get a win in his third opening day start for the Chicago Cubbies.

Charles Adds Some More Hardware

UCONN freshman sensation Tina Charles picked up another accolade on Friday as she was named the USBWA National Freshman of the Year. She is only the second Husky ever to win the award. Surprisingly enough, the other one isn’t Diana Taurasi but rather one Shea Ralph.

Charles adds this to her selection as Big East Freshman of the Year, 2nd Team All-Big East, and 2007 Honorable Mention AP All-American. She was also the only freshman named to any of the Kodak All-Region teams.

Battling a shoulder injury during the season, Charles finished up averaging 12.7 points and 8.2 rebounds a game. She also broke many freshman records (11 double-doubles, 296 rebounds, and 81 blocks). She also set the freshman record for points in a game with 34 against South Florida. She also tied the single game record for blocks in a game with 9 against Notre Dame.

This is a great honor for Charles and the UCONN Women’s Basketball program but not the one they wanted. I am sure they are wishing that they were in Cleveland this weekend battling Rutgers for a chance to win the National Championship.