The Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros displayed Earth Day awareness this past Tuesday. The two clubs took different routes, but both clubs showed they cared. I am surprised that more teams didn’t take part in the observance simply because it was being pushed by Major League Baseball.

In a nice gesture, the Boston Red Sox wore “Go Green” patches on their left sleeves in Tuesday night’s game against the Angels. The design is pretty cool, a nice initiative by the team to make a conscious effort for Earth Day.

Over in the National League the Houston Astros wore green hats in observance of Earth Day. The caps had a message on the side that read “Play Green”. Again just like the Red Sox I find it neat to see teams making a bit of an effort to do something nice on a day like Earth Day.

All in all, I really love what the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros did. Hopefully, the actions of these two clubs start a movement for other teams to follow next year. The Red Sox “Go Green” jersey can be purchased at jersey-joe.com

Hosts: Sonny, Ryan and Rich: This episode focused entirely on the National League Central. With Kosuke Fukudome now in Chicago, can the North Siders make it two division titles in a row? Or will the Milwaukee Brewers’ youth movement come to fruition with a division crown? Also, what can we expect from the talented youngsters in Cincinnati? Can they challenge for the crown this year? Or will Tony La Russa and Albert Pujols get back to the forefront of the division. All of this and more on the Sportable Spot.

Note: We’ve recorded our podcasts for the AL Central and AL East. They will be posted in a few days after we complete the NL West team previews.

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Houston, We Have Permission To Launch Mediocrity: The Houston Astros were a major disappointment in 2007, finishing sixteen games below .500 but still somehow finishing fourth in the shitburger that is the NL Central. Pitching was a major issue for the Astros in 2007 so, as a remedy, they went out and acquired shortstop Miguel Tejada, a rapidly declining defender and an enormous distraction given his involvement in the Mitchell Report. Houston, we have a problem.

Bats. The aforementioned Tejada was the big splash that the Astros made over the off-season. Tejada simply can’t play shortstop anymore; he’s too old, his range isn’t what it used to be, and he’s not allowed to take juice to cover up the myriad of other problems with his game. That being said, he still knows how to hit a baseball and, given that Minute Maid Park has the dimensions of a little league field, Tejada should be able to put up respectable numbers in his first season in the National League. Next to him at third base is fat ass Ty Wiggington. Wiggington embodies the player who puts up good numbers but never does it when you are watching. He’s going to hit 20 home runs but you’ll never hear about it and I’ll never see it happen. Maybe someone is fudging his numbers a little bit in exchange for the plethora of fudge Wiggington undoubtedly keeps in his locker. Read the rest of this entry »

Roger Clemens needs to find a deep dark hole and climb inside of it to hibernate for a while. The newly-dubbed face of the steroids era is back to his old antics, stirring up the media and pretending nothing is wrong. Clemens showed up to Houston Astros’ training camp yesterday to work out with the team and repeatedly dodged the issue of steroids.

Look, Roger, we’ve had enough. It was bad enough when you kept flopping back and forth out of retirement and took magical “breaks” from baseball for time that, as we can see now, could have directly correlated with an underground suspension for steroids from the commissioners office. You juiced. You won’t retire. You’re becoming as stubborn as Barroid.

Up until a few months ago, Clemens legacy of being a prick didn’t extend much beyond his Brett Favre-esque indecisiveness about retirement. Now that he’s been indicted for steroid use, his legacy has only gotten worse. And don’t tell me he’s actually thinking about coming back for another season with the Astros. How long is this “door’s always open if you want to come back” policy in Houston going to last. Christ. I thought 2006 was the last time he’d play for the Astros. Probably not.

I’ve had just about enough of the Barry Bonds steroid saga and I’m not sure how willing I am to endure Clemens running the same show. He’ll go down as one of the greatest pitchers to ever toe the rubber, but that doesn’t mean he’s not an attention whore. Give it up, Roger.  If you want the media to leave you alone like you’ve said multiple times, then stop putting yourself under the spotlight.  Stop doing stupid things that grab everyone’s attention.  Go back to spending time with your family only, this time instead of parading around with “personal trainers”, actually do it.

The Houston Astros may have one of the most potentially explosive bullpens in baseball, if not the most. Dan Wheeler, who is currently their closer, got into a shoving match in the dugout with irrelevant starter Chris Sampson after Wheeler got tagged for four runs and a blown save in Wednesday’s game versus the Athletics.

Houston’s greatest mistake this millennium wasn’t letting Roger Clemens escape to the Yankees again or treating Jeff Bagwell like a pile of dirt. Their biggest mistake was letting closer Billy Wagner leave town and go to New York. Since Wagner’s departure the Astros bullpen, namely their closer situation, has been about as laughable as it gets. Brad Lidge had a great start to his career as Houston’s closer until Albert Pujols hit a ball off him that went into orbit and successfully mind-raped Lidge for a better portion of two and a half years now. That shot by Pujols still hasn’t landed, though I think German scientists recently spotted it flying somewhere over Berlin.

Enter Dan Wheeler. Wheeler’s 2005 and 2006 campaigns were great, and his outstanding ERA’s of 2.21 and 2.52 respectively had people calling for him to become the new closer. Well, they got their wish. Since assuming the closers role, Wheeler has recorded 11 saves for the Astros this year. The bad part? His ERA is a laughable 6.10 and he is currently 0-4. His abortion of a season so far in the closers role came to a culmination Wednesday when he nearly threw down with starter Chris Sampson after Sampson threw 7 innings of good baseball and was in line for a win. Nobody knows what Sampson said to Wheeler after Wheeler took his gas can of an arm out to the mound and successfully blew up the game, but it probably went something along the lines of this.

“Thanks a bunch Wheels. You know, the funny thing about baseball is, if you throw the ball right down the middle, no matter how hard it is, they’ll hit it. And they’ll hit it a long way. Thanks jack ass.”

This of course ignited the brawl that will somehow forever be linked with the Carlos Zambrano/Michael Barrett scuffle by the media through some odd connection that really doesn’t make any sense but just so happened to occur within a two week time frame of each other. This better not end up as one of those “catcher-gate” or “reliever-gate” things, as I’m pretty sure we’ve made our feelings on those titles clear. But I digress.

In the end of this all, Dan Wheeler will keep his job, Chris Sampson will return to irrelevance, and the Astros will continue to get lit up in the ninth inning. Instead of using a -gate, lets just call this one “The Curse of Billy Wagner, the one who got away.”

Warning: If you’re an NL Central homer, this article (like the current standings in that division) probably will burn your eyes out.

For the past few seasons, the NL West has taken the dubious name of the worst division in baseball. Much to the West’s glee, that title has been passed on to the NL Central, a division that has the team that spent $136 million this off season, the defending World Series champions, and only one team (the Milwaukee Brewers) over .500. Remarkable.

Believe it or not, the Milwaukee Brewers had the best record in baseball at one point this year. It was too good to be true. Since that point, the Brewers have slid and only won 10 of their last 29 games. Welcome back to earth, Milwaukee. Yet, despite the Brewers struggles over the past month, the rest of the division has been just as bad, if not worse. It took a Zambrano sucker punch and a Piniella ejection to get the Cubs going again, but the big spending Cubs are still seven games under .500, though sitting in third place but only a half game back of the Cardinals. Alfonso Soriano has decided that he wants to hit, but with the money that the Cubs have invested in him I would imagine that they would have preferred he started swinging the bat in April like everyone else.

The World Champion St Louis Cardinals continued their former 2002 Anaheim Angels circle jerk the other day when they signed Troy Percival to a minor league deal. Percival, who was once lights out, won’t do much beyond helping that bullpen. The problem that the Cardinals face is that they can’t get a lead to the bullpen because their starting pitching is atrocious. So much for that Anthony Reyes experiment. Before his ass got sent down, he was 0-7 with an ERA over 7. Mark Mulder can’t come back fast enough. And how about the productivity lack of offense from Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen so far this year. Do these guys even care anymore? Read the rest of this entry »