Spring Training Has Begun

We are only a week away from the first spring training games of the 2015 MLB season. Story lines are surrounding all of the ball clubs in both Florida and Arizona. Josh Hamilton personal struggles continue, and he can’t shake the past that almost took his life years ago. New names with new teams, question marks surround the defending champion Giants and if they properly reloaded. Mike Trout looks to continue his dominance and protect his MVP crown.

But my focus has been on Viera, Florida and the Washington Nationals camp. New faces like, Max Scherzer, Yunel Escobar, Dan Uggla, and Mike Carp have arrived. Max will be a top of the line starter, Yunel should get most the starts at second, and you could see him shift to short to give Desmond a rare day off every once in a while. But the real news is Bryce Harper and his confidence strutting themselves all over the grounds.

Personally, I don’t mid this, it isn’t like the whole World Series thing is a secret anymore. They signed the top FA pitcher to a huge contract and added him to one of the most feared rotations in baseball. And Bryce needs to take that next step as a professional, maybe thats tough to say since he has played his short, but accomplished career with his hair on fire, and i don’t doubt that he continues to do that, but there has to be a point where not just Harper, but the whole team isn’t just happy to be there anymore, but ready to take it to the next level.

Playoff Pushes Being Made In The District

Just because it is mid-February doesn’t mean there aren’t important games taking place on a nightly basis. The Wizards and Capitals are both in the midst of one of the most important stretches of their respective seasons. Both are in the top five of their conferences and it is very likely that the Verizon Center will be pulling double duty this spring by managing Wizard and Capitals playoff contests.

The Wizards are heading into the Valentine’s Weekend/All-star break at a mesmerizing stumble. The team is broke, they need to add an extra guard capable of handling the ball not named Andre Miller and they need to hope and pray that Bradley Beal is not  seriously injured. Losers of six in their last eight, the All-Star break could not come at a better time for the players and the front office. Players need to rest, and everyone except John Wall needs to think long and hard to themselves about what they’re going to do in order to help John Wall, and the front office needs to figure out who they’re going to bring in to help John Wall. So basically this whole team revolves around JW2 and thats what should be going on with a lottery pick about to enter his prime having a MVP caliber season. The Wiz have too much fire power to keep struggling like this, look for them to bounce back the last 30 games of the regular season and end up a top three seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

The Capitals have been playing fairly consistent hockey throughout the year and are in a pretty comfortable spot as far as playoff position goes. Their three game West Coast swing got off to a good start last night as they took down the Sharks with an OT goal from the great JW42. But their back to back with the Kings and Ducks looms large, important to get at least a couple points from those two games. While the Caps are currently in one of the lower playoff spots, their fate is well within their own control. A large number of Metropolitan Division games remain including two with the Penguins, three with the Rangers, and one with the Islanders, all four teams are looking to take over the top spot in the Metropolitan. This team continues to get better, Trotz has given them the coaching leadership that hasn’t been there the past two seasons and the breakneck rate that Ovi goes about scoring goals, along with his occasional defense are positive things for this explosive team. We’ll see what happens at the trade deadline, but improving on a questionable defense would not hurt.

The Lulls of the Winter Sports Scene

To many, the Super Bowl is the climax of the sport entertainment world. Two weeks of nothing but football coverage, media interviews, controversial stories, and then finally the game. Over 14 days of talking and then two halves of American football that take roughly 75 minutes to complete, and then throw an uber entertaining halftime show in the mix and you’ve got four hours of really solid television. But then what? Then, it’s done. No more football until August, baseball doesn’t get going for the average fan until April, and both hockey and basketball are going through the motions of their nine month long season.

This will go one for a solid month, a month of nothing exciting expect your occasional top 5 matchup in college basketball, maybe an interesting UFC or Boxing match, but it is a struggle to a fan of the sport entertainment industry. It’s a drought that happens every year, except of course the Winter Olympics are going on, which, in that case we have a two week gap that can potentially save us while everyone waits for, in my opinion the most exciting sporting event in the world, March Madness.

In my opinion the two greatest sport television program happen only a month apart from each other, The Super Bowl to March Madness, and the latter even lasts a whole month! But as people were always wanting more, so maybe this month off just seems longer because it is sandwiched in between to two most exciting events of the year, or maybe a month is kind of a long time. Either way, I don’t like it.