Lester named Opening Day Starter.

Yesterday Red Sox manager named Jon Lester the Red Sox opening day starter.  This is the 2nd year in a row that Lester has been the Opening Day starter.  Josh Beckett told the press that he told Bobby Valentine that Lester should be the opening day starter and Valentine followed up on that.  Jon Lester has been very good throughout his career but he hasn't done very well in his first starts.  Last year against the Rangers he didn't do very well. 

5.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 3 HR, 2 HB  He allowed 5 runs in 5 innings.  Also gave up a solo home run on the 2nd pitch of the game.  Hopefully he does better this year. 

This season they are playing the revamped Detroit Tigers with their Ace Justin Verlander who won the Cy Young Award, and the MVP award, along with newcomer Prince Fielder and first basemen turned third basemen Miguel Cabrera who just got hit in the face with a ball yesterday in spring training game.

Red Sox short stop situation

As some of you may know the Red Sox haven't had a consistant shortstop since Alex Gonzalez in 2009.  He was the last Red Sox shortstop to have good skills on both sides of the ball.  Yes i do agree he didnt have very much power but he had a consistant batting average .270 in 2 seasons in Boston.  After the Red Sox traded Nomar Garciaparra in '04 they have just had an endless carousel of shortstops coming and going.  The past 2 years they have had Marco Stutaro and Jed Lowrie at shortstop which was not that bad but could have been better.  As of now in spring training 3 shortstops are competing for the Opening Day starting job for shortstop. 

These 3 shortstops are Jose iglesias(left), Mike Aviles(center), and Nick Punto(right).  As of now Nick Punto is practically out of the race, leaving Jose iglesias (far left) and Mike Aviles(center) competing.  What Bobby V. might do is have Mike Aviles start and have Nick Punto be the backup and have Iglesias in the minors to polish up his hitting skills.  What I think he should do is have Jose Iglesias be the starter and just tell him to hit about a .250 batting average and save the runs in the field you dont produce at the plate.  Will this happen? Probably not.  I certainly think that Jose Iglesias has one of the top gloves in the league.  Practically all sports writers agree with that.  Will he be an All-star in 5 years?  Who knows.  He could be the next jeter for all we know.  He really needs to work on his hitting.  So far in spring training he has been doing pretty well at the plate.  He has a .300 batting average 3 RBIs in 4 games and 10 at bats.  He has incredible range on the field and has a 1.000 fielding percentage so far this spring.  Even though Nick Punto doesnt have the stats, he has the experience to be a good starting defensively minded shortstop and a great leader in the club house.

Brief Overview of Baseball

America's Past time.  I chose this topic because it is my favorite sport and it is what i love.  I'm hoping to have people learn some details about baseball they probably didn't know.   Invented in 1744 in England.  Baseball in America became the most popular sport in the 1900's.  Even with the uproar of lacrosse, Baseball is and always will be Americas Past time.  In the MLB they play 162 games in 5 months for the regular season and at most another 19 in the playoffs to get the ultimate prize, The Commissioners Trophy, which is just known as the world series trophy.

There are 30 teams in the MLB and 2 different leagues, the American league and the national league.  with in those 2 leagues are 3 divisions.  The east, central, and west.  There are 5 teams in each division except for the National League Central which has 6, and the American League West which has 4 teams.  Not really sure why they have it like this but oh well.  Last year there were 8 playoff spots.  But this year the MLB decided to add 2 more in each league for more competition.  This will help those teams that haven't been able to make the playoffs with only one "wildcard" spot in each league,which in the American League has normally been dominated by the Yankees, Red Sox, or Tampa Bay Rays.  Not really sure how i feel about more playoff spots thought.  The Wild Card makes it so one team doesnt get into the League Championship without even winning a playoff game.

Feel free to comment.