Last Year: 87-75 (-6)
Over/Under: 81 (-115)
Notable Gains

Robert Bono
Luis Bryan
Hunter Jones

Notable Losses

Alfredo Amezaga
Luis Ayala
Jeremy Hermida
Nick Johnson
Matt Lindstrom

Three Things To Love
Light At The End Of The Tunnel: Jeffrey Loria has convinced everyone that once the Marlins christen the new Miami Ballpark in 2012 that the Marlins income issues will cease to exist. So, hang in [...]

Last Season: 86-76 (-7)
Over/Under: 85.5 (-115)
Notable Additions

Eric Hinske
Troy Glaus
Billy Wagner
Melky Cabrera
Jesse Chavez

Notable Subtractions

Rafael Soriano (RHP)
Garrett Anderson
Javier Vazquez

Three Things To Love
1) The Return Of Tim Hudson: The most exciting thing for the Braves’ Faithful is the fact their rotation features three guys who have had ace stuff at some point in their careers. Tim [...]

My favorite west coaster recently penned a column talking about baseball’s dwindling African-American fanbase. When I was on the fourth paragraph of my own comment, I realized I had started a column. This isn’t meant to be taken as a response to Cam’s column… more of an expansion.
Cam’s marketing thought was this: Major [...]

And like that — it’s gone.
Maybe not gone, but on life support. The Mets managed to be the only one to drop their game while the Phillies and Brewers both won. The Phillies put the final nail in the Mets’ division hopes while the Brewers, at the very least, got the nail and [...]

Pedro Martinez made his last pitch for the Mets at 8:59 PM EST on September 25th, 2008. I know the exact time because as Jerry Manuel was walking out to the mound to remove him from the game, my DVR switched to Grey’s Anatomy because we had two things being recorded. In the [...]

If the baseball season is following The Script, is it possible that each game in a season follows a similar Script? It’s the only explanation that really makes sense. This game hit all four of the Mets standard game tactics. Jump in to the lead early, surrender the lead late, leave a [...]

The interesting thing about baseball is no matter how much drama has gone on over the course of a marathon season, it can still come down to the last week and have a six month emotional investment come down to a final six games. It seems like a thousand years ago that I wrote [...]

My God, I’ve been slacking this year. The season stalked up on me this year. Out of nowhere it starts in two days. I haven’t written anything about it…. haven’t really even thought about it. I guess I’ve been too busy riding on the World Champion High. I think I’m [...]

WFAN is reporting that The Giants’ Jeremy Shockey has been shipped to the Saints for a 2nd and 5th round pick. As a huge Giants’ fan, I find myself torn. I often wanted to like Shockey, but he seemed like a huge baby and a bad teammate. It seemed like the team [...]

Arguing over whether the AL is better than the NL and using the All-Star Game as a point is pretty dumb. The AL has won the last 10 that went to decisions. This is still short of the National League’s 11-year winning streak and not remotely close to the 19-1 stretch the NL [...]

I like to think I’m not naive. I realize that when people call David Eckstein a “gamer” they really just mean “white.” I understand that when the NBA pushed Steve Nash to a two-time MVP for a couple of years they were appealing to a lost fan base. I understand when that [...]

The NFL released their final schedule today. As NFL.com is still amongst the worst official websites in all of sports, they have not yet created individual team schedules, but you can view what they have here.
Some quick thoughts:

Deadspin posts a lot of content every day so you may have missed this. If you did, you should really read Drew from Deadspin’s Excellent Piece on bloggers vs. traditional journalists.

Radio Exile is one of our sister sites on this little ship we call Inside Pulse and Greg Wind is trying to kick off a write-in campaign to elect a new “sing-along song” for the 7th Inning stretch at Shea Stadium. There is a call to vote on the Mets’ site with the always-a-bad-idea [...]

What a long, strange trip it’s been. I haven’t gotten to use that quote since high school it was SO TRENDY.
Regardless, I think the feature came together pretty well and hopefully it will act as a good base to start building Tailgate Crashers back up. I was very happy to get Aaron Cameron [...]

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Tailgate Crashers predicts the future.
These will go into the locked-tight TGC Archive to be unsealed at the end of the season for bragging rights.

21) How many days into the season until Mariano Rivera blows a save that kicks off ESPN’s first “has Mariano Rivera lost it” story.
Mike Hulse: 7, no more, no less. ESPN loves this story. It’s also a waste of time. If you’d like to know what Mo’s gonna do, here [...]

16) What guy is most likely to disappoint fantasy owners after an absurd 2007?
Thomas Daniels: If Mike Lowell replicates last season, I’ll eat a Red Sox hat. Fortunately, I think most people realize this.
Chad Jorgenson: Shane Victorino. He was a borderline stud when healthy last year, and I just don’t see him [...]

Have you been reading Tailgate Crasher’s MLB Preview for the last three days? Have you been angry that comments have been closed? Here’s your chance to tell everyone how wrong they are.
Everyone’s favorite music contributor and A’s fan has the west coast covered with his AL West and NL West previews.
Tailgate Crasher’s baseball [...]

11) What was the best free-agent acquisition (note, this does NOT count the Santana deal, which was a trade)
Eugene Tierney: My favorites have been the low risk/high reward moves: Bartolo Colon signing a minor league deal with Boston could be huge with Schilling going down. He provides insurance if Lester or Buchholz aren’t [...]

Welcome back to 25 Questions Until Opening Day 2008.
6) What team is most improved over last year?
Aaron Cameron: Last year, I picked the Diamondbacks to win the NL West and lose in the NLCS way before anyone else got on board the bandwagon. This year, their awesome young roster has an additional year’s worth [...]

Atlanta Braves
Management: GM – Frank Wren; Manager – Bobby Cox
Notable Additions: Jair Jurrjens – SP, Mark Kotsay – CF
Notable Losses: Octavio Dotel – RP, Edgar Renteria – SS
Down the Road: Brandon Jones, Brent Lillibridge, Charlie Morton, Clint Sammons, Zach Schreiber.
Projected Starters:
C – Brian McCann
1B – Mark Teixeira
2B [...]

Two years ago, Aaron Cameron, Mike Hulse, and Thomas Daniels did a pre-season feature called 25 Questions Until Opening Day. As it turned out, it didn’t suck and generated more e-mail than most of the other baseball related things we did that year. As it also turned out, Cam nailed the World Series winner that [...]

Tailgate Crashers figured since we have a guy who writes a column called East Coast Bias that we should probably give him the previews for the East. If we didn’t, he threatened to whine… and it’s never fun to hear a 30-year-old whine. We give you Thomas Daniels with last year’s World Champion Division, the [...]

Along with the rest of Inside Pulse, Tailgate Crashers has gone through a bit over an over-haul these last few months. We’ve moved to Wordpress and stopped crashing along with the rest of the site. Fortunately for us, the changeover happened during the absolute worst two sports’ months. We’ve been able to [...]

Because I don’t watch college basketball, I have a very random and unscientific set of rules that I apply to the tournament every season. It is a little less random than my mother’s “where would I rather take a vacation” system which won her an office pool in 2005… but not by much.
The rules are [...]

With the upcoming release of Semi-Pro, Asylum.com has put up a feature outlining the 27 Worst Haircuts In Basketball History. My personal favorite being Bill Walton’s look. It’s picture number five and he looks like he could be an extra in a Geico commercial.
I’d also point out that any list that does not [...]

The final regular season game at Yankee Stadium will take place on September 21st against the Orioles. However, the Daily News is reporting that there is a plan in place to have the Rangers play a regular season outdoor game at Yankee Stadium before the building is taken down. The News is reporting [...]

First they were sold. Then they were definitely staying. Then they were definitely going.
Now, Microsoft’s CEO (no, not that guy) has put a plan on the table to purchase the Sonics from Clay Bennett and pay for half of the estimated $300 million to renovate and expand the Key Arena.
Of course, the super-shady [...]

Dallas News is reporting that Jerry Jones thinks there’s a decent chance of the NFL Owners opting out of the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement.
The owners have the right to opt-out of the CBA by November of this year. If that were to happen, the 2011 season would be the first uncapped season since [...]