Ok so I’ve been away from the site for a long time. Far too long. Sorry about that. I recently got married and that was taking up a large chunk of my time. Add a full-time job and school and you see why it was somewhat difficult for me to write regularly. But as we reach the All-Star break I can assure you that Ground Rule Double will have regular posts for the remainder of the season.
So what did I miss in the first half?
- The Tigers are not in first. What?! This one definitely has all of us in Michigan scratching our heads. The Tigers finished the first half 47-47 nowhere near expections. They have lost pitchers Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis for the season and have had injuries to OF Curtis Granderson, OF Magglio Ordonez, DH Gary Sheffield, 2B Placido Polanco and recently had relievers Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney return. If the Tigers come back healthy and make a move for a pitcher before the trading deadline I’m still not going to count them out just yet.
- CC Sabathia is a Milwaukee Brewer, and Rich Harden a Chicago Cub. In a bit of keeping up with the Joneses the Brewers went out and are probably renting Sabathia for the remainder of the season before he signs a big contract elsewhere. This move scared the Cubs so much they went and snagged Harden away from the Oakland A’s. This should make the NL Central race one of the most interesting for the rest of the season.
- Willie Randolph fired by the Mets. You knew that Randolph was on thin ice after the team’s collapse at the end of last season. His firing wouldn’t have been all that shocking except for the way it was handled by the Mets. By firing Randolph by email at 3AM showed little class on the part of the Mets. The team did react by going 16-9 under new manager Jerry Manuel, and are only a game back of the Phillies in the NL East.
- Tampa Bay is in 2nd? Now I did say that Tampa Bay was going to be a team to watch this season, but I honestly did not think they would be in second place and only a half game out of first. The young core of this team may be their downfall, but they are very exciting to watch right now. Let’s hope that they can keep nipping at the Red Sox heals for the rest of the season.
Those are just some of the highlights of the first half for me. I’ll be back on Tuesday with some All-Star writings, and keep on posting until the end of the season and into the off-season. For those who kept coming back hoping to read something new I hope you are still hanging around.
