Eye of the Hurricane

This is the center of the storm for me which means instead of leaving at midnight or 1 am every night, I can leave at a relatively early 8-9 at night. There is nothing like sleep deprivation and no spare time to really make you want to punch someone in the forehead. It is particularly amplified by the fact that I have been given a blackberry which means that even my spare time is constantly interrupted by the earth shaking rattle of that little grey slice of hell (it is going off now even as I write this). The upside to all of this madness is that with part of the extra proceeds I am going to buy a flat screen 1080p television. Sure, I could probably spend my money in better ways but everyone needs to reward themselves every once and a while, and considering I never make big purchases I'm not going to worry too much about this. Plus, the thought of being able to watch nine innings in high definition makes me (for lack of a better word) giddy. But I digress with all of this talk of work, that isn't what this blog is about, this blog is about baseball. Since I am still honoring my moratorium on all things relating to Roger Clemens I would like to give some preliminary thoughts on the 2008 season, these by no means are my final predictions but instead just the players that I am most excited about, and worried about. Here we go:

Joba Chamberlin - I don't think that it comes as any big surprise that I am more excited to see Joba throw than to see any other player this year. Hank has hinted that Joba will be in the starting rotation which personally I think is a good idea. He at least deserves a shot at a role in the front five, worst case scenario he doesn't work out and settles into a role as a closer and becomes the next Goose or Rivera...pretty good company to keep if you ask me. However, even with Chamberlin the fact of the matter is that while the rotation looks pretty darn solid next year, you still have to give pause to the fact that three of the potential starters are all hovering around 22 years old and have limited experience in the majors.

Phil Hughes - After being injured for a large part of 2007 and then dealing with some spotlight issues I'm looking for Hughes to come back strong in 2008. He has some games under his belt now and presumably he has a better understanding of his body to know when he needs to slow it down so that he doesn't reinjure himself. Of course there is still the slight possibility that he could be in Minnesota next year, but at this point I am putting the chances of the Santana trade at less than 5%

Joe Girardi - Ok, he isn't a player but that doesn't mean I can't get excited for him to arrive in the Bronx. I've been arguing that he was the perfect man for the job for a long time and I am anxious for him to prove himself to me and the rest of the Universe. This Yankees team isn't going to be the 1996 - 2000 Yankees. This team will require micro management for the youngsters, and respect for the veterans. Certainly not an easy task, but look what he did with Florida!

Mike Mussina - Mussina tops my list of players I am most concerned about going into 2008. Last August Mussina officially jumped the shark. It remains to be seen if he can muster the strength and control to be the number 4 or 5 man for the duration of the season, but since he has a year left on his contract he is at least going to get the nod for the first month or two. It will be interesting to see how Girardi handles a flailing Moose.

(sigh) As much as I would like to keep going with this post, duty calls. My imp-Berry just won't stop vibrating. Just keep in mind, only 22 days until pitchers and catchers report (and until I can take that God awful countdown timer off my blog).

P.S. Any interest in a blogger trip to a baseball game this summer? Just throwing that out there.