The World Champion Phillies think they will be stronger with Raul Ibanez instead of Pat Burrell in left field. Spring Training is officially underway, and all is right with the world again. That means it’s time for us to step up our baseball coverage, starting with the completion of our free agent...

The latest on the Pirates, from Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Extension talks with Nate McLouth are dormant, but talks with Paul Maholm are not.  Maholm is arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter, so he's under team control through 2011. Doug Mientkiewicz was overw...

PNC Park | 1:35 | Snell vs. Joel Pineiro | Box Yesterday the Pirates scored a bunch of late runs to pull back into the game and eventually win it. Today the Cards scored a bunch of late runs to break the contest wide open. Neither starter lasted very long. Ian Snell’s woes continued with five ...

PNC Park | 7:05 | Duke vs. Roy Halladay | Box I don’t know if it was the Blue Jays struggling offense or if Zach Duke was actually pitching well. Either way, I’ll take it. Duke matched Roy Halladay zero for zero over seven innings. Both pitchers allowed six hits. Halladay left the game a...

Camden Yards | 7:05 | Dumatrait vs. Brian Burres | Box I believe I committed one of the seven deadly sins tonight. With the Pirates leading 6-1 after three, I began having greedy thoughts. Thoughts of a .500 club on June 13 or later for the first time since (I had to look it up) 1999 when the team w...

Randy Johnson is known to work quickly on the mound. When Doug Mientkiewicz stepped in against Johnson in the third inning this afternoon, the big left-hander had little interest in wasting precious time. Mientkiewicz took a fastball inside, running the count to 2-1. With the scorching sun blazing d...

PNC Park | 7:05 | Snell vs. Bronson Arroyo | Box I’m still waiting for the Pirates to play a clean game in which they either lose or win by a big margin. Those types of games have been few thus far in 2008. It was another tight one and another win tonight for the Buccos. And it was far from pr...

Spring training is a time for clichés. In the early moments after pitchers and catchers report, we get a daily assortment of news that we read every year around this time. Pitcher A is eager to get started. Pitcher B has been shut down due to an arm injury. The new manager will passionately preach ...