MLB 2008.

'cause I had that song stuck in my head at the time.

supersonic bionic robot voodoo power.

hahahahaha

This post has been edited by Burt on Jan 30 2008, 01:51 PM

thank god!

At least the Red Sox didn't get him.

i'm glad the yanks or the sox didn't get him. good day for baseball.

Even when we dumped Miggy T, we didn't even take one step forward towards getting Johan.

But hey, our starting 5 looks good enough with just Erik Bedard and Daniel Cabrera

That is, until they both leave.

And a great fucking day for the AL Central

hell yes!

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- When Trey Hillman checked in for his first Spring Training as manager of the Royals, there were some big names in camp.
Joe Randa, Willie Wilson, John Mayberry, Frank White, Kevin Seitzer, George Brett ... the makings of a pretty good lineup.

Wait a minute. That was part of the lineup at the Royals Fantasy Camp which was at full speed in the Surprise complex. Never mind, Hillman jumped right into the spirit of things and threw some batting practice for the campers.

"It was great being in uniform all day," he said. "It was a cool day."

Things were even cooler less than 24 hours later, on Thursday morning, when the Hillman Era really got under way for the Royals.

Hillman was at Surprise Stadium at the dark hour of 5:15 a.m. MT on Thursday. The sun hadn't even thought about casting its rays on the White Tank Mountains. About four hours later, though, about 20 pitchers, six catchers and a platoon of other position players were spread across the playing fields of the complex.

It wasn't a mandatory workout -- that doesn't happen until Valentine's Day -- but the volunteers poured into camp. The sun cut through the morning chill, dew covered the grass, Air Force jets thundered overhead and at 9:34 a.m., Hillman watched as a line of pitchers sprinted across the green.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" pitching coach Bob McClure said. "Away from the cold and snow."

The work went quickly. By 11:15 a.m., Gil Meche was showered, dressed and headed for the parking lot with three other pitchers.

"I started at 4 a.m.," Meche cracked.

Meche and Luke Hudson were the first pitchers to toe the rubber in the bullpen and fire baseballs into catchers' mitts.

"After I get a delivery in my mind, I'll watch these catchers as much as I do the pitchers to see early and later how much we're hitting the glove," Hillman said.

About half the pitchers threw off the mound on Thursday; the others will toss on Friday. The countdown to Opening Day on March 31 at Detroit was on for Meche and the Royals.

"I was surprised that there would be this many guys," said rookie Luke Hochevar, one of the early-arriving pitchers.

Hitting coach Mike Barnett leaned on a batting cage at an adjacent diamond where Billy Butler, Chris Lubanski and others took some hacks. Instructor Andre David called for a break in hitting in favor of fielding practice.

Sure enough, moments later there was Butler moving nimbly around first base, the position he is working to conquer.

The idea at this early stage, though, was to show some restraint, especially from the pitchers.

"One of the things that Mac emphasized, and then I doubled up on it, was 'Please don't try to impress anybody -- we can't do anything with bodies that aren't healthy.'" Hillman said.

"I like what this is going to domino into because it's going to give us a little bit of a head start, like on the 25th when we want to play those bunting games."

That's the February date that he's targeted for some lively, game-like scrimmages. Bunting games? He's already jumping a bit beyond even that concept.

"I might turn the 25th into a bunt, slash, hit-and-run game because the outfielders are involved as well defensively," Hillman said. "We'll see where we're at."

Where the Royals are at right now seems to be a bit ahead of the game. It's unofficial, it's voluntary and it's under way -- very early.

"This is the earliest ever," said pitching guru Bill Fischer, who has been coming to Spring Training since 1948.

Late in the afternoon, the Royals Fantasy Camp players were fulfilling dreams in games against the club's alumni in the stadium. Brett was pitching and a camper hit a blast to deep left -- only to have Wilson run it down near the wall.

"That was a flashback right there," said John Wathan, one of Wilson's former managers.

Randa was one of the alums who met Hillman.

"I told Trey to keep an eye on me," Randa said, grinning. "I might be moving around pretty good."

Hillman was keeping an eye on Randa and everyone else. He was right in the dugout as the Fantasy Camp games unfolded. The Hillman Era was under way and he was going to relish every possible moment.

"It's wonderful. I got here and didn't want to take the uniform off," he said.

Clemens is screwed.

good i have always hated him Nolan Ryan should be embarassed for allowing people to compare Clemens to him for so long

i know there used to be a lot of cubs fans on here, if there are any of you left, how many of you want to kill ryan dempster right now?

now?

well, always. but after he said they would make the world series. way to go buddy, not like you don't have enough pressure on your team since you haven't won it in a 100 years and haven't been in 60 some odd years, now they have the pressure of you guaranteeing it, nice work.

he is a fucking idiot

The Orioles got rid of their ace in Eric Bedard and their biggest bat in Miggy Tejada and got nothing to replace them with.

Me thinks this willl be the year Tampa doesn't finish last in the division. God we're gonna suck donkey balls this year.

De-rek

Je-ter

*clap* *clap*

*clap* *clap* *clap*

I'd let him motorboat me.

show us what you're working with

does he know you want to have sweet man love with him?


and is he weawring a KC on his hat?

I don't know if he knows it, but you'd think he'd get the point after all the letters I've written him over the years.

And yes, that does say KC. Stands for Kalamazoo Central High School.

Barry Bonds to the Rays?

high fly balls could inflate his numbers there