Spring Training Report

Scott Chamberlain and I met in Arizona for Spring Training earlier this week to catch a couple of games in the sun. It was a little over a 5 hour trip out to the desert from LA. It is my Spring Break this week, so I took full advantage of the close vicinity to Spring Baseball and made the journey out.

Monday afternoon we saw the Cubs edge out Texas in Mesa 7-6 as Dempster looked horrible starting for Chicago. DeRosa, Lee and Ramirez all handled the bat really well for the Cubbies, but Japanese newcomer Fukudome didn't play. My boy Josh Hamilton went 1-3 with an RBI... he hit the ball hard in all 3 AB's though. He's oing to hit 35 HR this year.

Tuesday afternoon we drove up to Maryville, AZ to the Brewers Spring Training facilities and caught their game versus the "visiting" Dodgers. I use quotes because there were as many Dodgers fans out from LA-LA land as there were Brewers fans. Scott and I both got a little burn while laying out on the grass in the outfield. The game ended in a 3-3 tie. Penny looked decent only giving up 1 run on 1 hit in 5 innings, but he walked 5. Furcal, Loney and Ethier handled the bat well for the Dodgers, and Juan Pierre looked old. Pierre did have a bunt infield hit in the 8th though. Andruw Jones looked like he was at least 20 pounds overweight. Scott labeled him "chubby". That's all Scott said all day... so you know Jones looked fat.

The Brew Crew looked like a solid lineup, although they only have 1 LH bat in Prince Fielder in their lineup, which isn't much balance. Weeks looked really good though leading off. Prince looked about 280 lbs and 5'10" tall, about the same height as Weeks. He's going to hit 40+ this year though. Good player in person. Braun lost a fly-ball to left in the sun in the 3rd (which they didn't give him an error), but then redeemed himself and made a nice running catch a few innings later. He should be fine in his transition from 3B.

I'll be back next week with an update from my first week of classes for my last quarter at Fuller.