MLB National Baseball League West Division Preview

Spring training is well under way in Florida and Arizona though most regulars still haven’t played more than a few innings in their games. Pitchers are working out the kinks and working through sore muscles and hope does spring eternal in the daily papers of almost every home cities team. Today’s topic, the National League West is a darn good competitive division and the one race that is sure to go down to the wire with the runerup probably taking the wild card. 4 out of the 5 teams in the west seemed to have improved if that’s possible, the one exception is the Giants who will play the season without superstar slugger Barry Bonds. Bonds, possibly blackballed, seems to be out of baseball for good, despite the general consensus that the man can still hit and produce runs at a very high level. Irregardless of my thoughts on his legal issues and steroids, I will miss the excitement that he generated by standing in the batters box, staring out at a usually over-matched and jittery hurler. Bonds in the last several years exhibited prodigious and frequent power and was so often pitched around that his on base percentage was about 1 out of 2 times up or .500, unheard of. He was that good!

Countdown to Major League Baseball opening day! 17 days 8 hr 51 min 33 sec

The Colorado Rockies are my pick to win the division. They may not make it to the World Series but they sure do have a good young team led by young superstar shortstop Troy Tulowitski and slugging left fielder Roy Holliday. Helton with Hall of Fame like numbers and Atkins at 3rd make for solid corner men and if Marcus Giles has a good year and the decent but not great pitching comes through it will be all good at Coors field this summer. Pass me another frosty one please. Rockies tickets.

The Arizona Diamondbacks added an AllStar pitcher in Dan Haren and if Randy Johnson can come back and be a big winner along with ace Brandon Webb this could be the year for the D Backs. A possible question mark is Brandon Lyon now entrusted with the closers role. I like him though and with kids Juston Upton and Chris Young patrolling the outfield with sparkplug Eric Byrnes and a decent infield the pitching and defense should help offset the lack of power. Diamondbacks tickets.

The San Diego Padres have potentially a great starting pitching staff of veteran proven winners and so far this spring they have looked sharp. The problem is new center fielder Jim Edmunds is hurting allready and he isn’t getting any younger. Additionally other than slugging first sacker Adrian Gonzalez there isn’t much pop anywhere else unless you want to count  star shortstop Kalil Greene’s bat. Peavy, Young, Maddox, Prior, Wolf and pray for rain I mean hits. Padres tickets.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to be great and alot of fun to watch but it will take them a year to mature and meld under new manager Joe Torre. However if phenom Clayton Kershaw comes through and the veterans like Kemp, Garciaparra, Pierre and 20 million dollar man Andruw Jones have great years which is conceivable,( I mean really now do you think Jones is a 226 hitter,) and  then AllStar catcher Martin, and kids Loney and Kemp etc perform like expected these guys are the sleeper team of the whole league! But thats alot of buts and ifs.. Dodgers tickets.

The San Francisco Giantshave a new center fielder in Aaron Rowland and 2 young stud pitchers in Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain to go along with Barry Zito. umm Randy Winn is ok and Benji Molina of the flying and famous Molina catching brothers is terrific for sure but Durham and Vizquel are getting older and they need to replace Bonds in the lineup and because that’s impossible this team will settle into the cellar at some point before June and probably that’s where they will stay..Giants tickets.

So that concludes my Major League Baseball preseason preview. If your in Florida or Arizona support your team and see the kids up close and personal. Gets some autographs, get some sun and get into baseball mode. It’s a timeless and true game, baseball now and then is much the same. That there is occasionally problems is a shame, but all is fair for fortune and fame!

Step right up and get your red hot tickets for wherever you want to sit at any park in the nation at National Ticket Agency. Joe Ticket is always standing by ready to assist you in your purchasing with advice and tall tales of men and mice and stories that yearn to be told of ballparks and players of old.

Baseball’s Spring Training Means, Play Ball!

As I said in yesterdays blog, the baseball season is now upon us. Full sqaud workouts have begun in Florida where the Grapefruit League hosts 18 teams and in Arizona where the Cactus League hosts the other 12 ball-clubs. Generally speaking spring training is open to the public to watch the early workouts before the games begin and even then sometimes you can check out the minor league-rs at the secondary fields and that can be quite entertaining and free. Put it this way, they’re pros. It’s not like watching a high school or college club workout. All these guys have ability and the potential to advance to the Major Leagues or they wouldn’t have been signed in the first place. So pull up a beach chair and watch the drills, take note of the studs and maybe cop an autograph or two and who knows you may have a future stars signature and you can say I told you I knew. And as a bonus generally speaking in the spring the atmosphere is light and casual and your able to easily shoot the breeze with these guys and that’s always fun and in fact can be done even on the main field with the big league ballplayers , even the superstars, before and after their games and workouts.

Once the exhibition season starts you’ll need to buy tickets to watch the games. The first couple of weeks the games are dominated by mostly a mix of rookies and minor league-rs vying for a roster spot or showcasing their skills for a late season call up or a higher placement on the minor league rung. As spring training progresses the core players , the regulars start to play more innings, pitchers that were at first working out the kinks now start to throw harder and use all of their pitching arsonal. Obtaining tickets to 90% of the pre season games should be no problem and mostly any seat in these small stadiums is a good one and for the most part you can easily move around and see from different vantage points even up to the front rows. I particularly am partial to sitting behind the plate where you will often see the scouts with their radar guns and stop watches, charting pitches, observing swings etc. If you look like you belong and stride confidently to an open seat often you should be safe and able to stay. I have even engaged in conversations with scouts at a fairly high level like damn that catcher takes along time to release the ball, he aint gonna make it huh or that’s his curve ball wow mine is better than that haha …Now why you may need Joe Ticket and National Ticket Agency in the spring is if you want to see one either the Yankees or the Red Sox, clearly the two teams with the most loyal and aggressive fan base. The Yankees and the Red Sox not only sell out at their home fields, Legends Field in Tampa and City Of Palms Field in Fort Meyers, but they are mostly sold out at every other ballpark in Florida too. Allot of folks from up north take their vacations in Florida during spring training so these games and tickets are a big deal. I myself waited online for hours only to be able to get standing room only seats in Jupiter for the Red Sox / Marlins game on March 3rd.But the weather is so pleasant that SRO isnt too bad at all and having a couple of 6.50 beers with the faithful legions all asking each other hey where you from?  Worcester oh ya I’m from Swampscott bla bla….it’s wicked pissa fun. Also good tickets are hard to find for the Mets in Port St Lucie at Tradition Field.  I’ll list the links to tickets for those 3 clubs here now and tomorrow when I give a full capsule preview of the American League I will have a link to tickets for those teams as well both preseason and regular season..Can’t say I have ever been to Arizona so I really cannot comment on the state of spring training there, vis a vis tickets, but a quick search at NTA’s website reveals that plenty of tickets seem to be available for most games. I would doubt you would have to go to a secondary source..but if you did, call me

Just another note: It looks like the Dodgers long standing tenure in Vero Beach is coming to an end this season. It’s likely that either the Indians or the Orioles will be moving up there next season and somehow it just won’t be the same. Dodgertown is what they call it and that stadium Holman Field is a throwback to the days when baseball and life was a lot simpler and less stressful and such things as steroids and HGH didn’t exist. Not that they didn’t have their issues with drinking and carousing etc Anyways if you can fit it in check out Dodgertown, where the players sit on a long bench without a dugout much like your local high school team.

For tickets to the New York Yankees click here – Yankee Tickets

For tickets to the Boston Red Sox click here – Red Sox Tickets

For tickets to the New York Mets click here -  Mets Tickets