Harrison Stanfill
The offseason is always hard for sports fans.
There is usually some type of withdrawal that comes immediately after the championship game of your favorite sport.
You scramble around trying to talk your self into watching sports you don’t really care about. You’re really trying to get involved in the Australian Open, except you don’t know any of the players and are wondering where Pete Sampras is.
It’s OK. It happens to everyone.
If you are a baseball fan, though, you have no idea what I’m talking about.
Baseball is a 24/7 sport. Every day there is some new stat that comes out to changes the way the game is played, there is always a Japanese prospect that is supposed to revolutionize the game, there are always big players up for grabs at the right price, there is young talent that is being transplanted across the league and then there is one of the most holy experiences in sports, spring training.
This season’s hot stove has been as active as ever.
Every year around this time of the year I will turn on ESPN one morning to hear about the next big thing out of Japan who will completely change the way the game is played. This year it is Yu Darvish.
Before you wet yourself Texas Rangers fans, be forewarned — Darvish has Dice-K written all over him. Japanese pitcher who throws mysterious pitch that nobody in the MLB will be able to figure out?
Hmm sounds a little like the 5.30 ERA Matsuzaka that was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread.
Every season there are big names that jump from the teams that have built around them and cash in on the big checks that the big market teams are willing to write.
This year the top two prizes of free agency were Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols, both of them left their mid-market teams in Milwaukee and St. Louis and headed for the big markets of Detroit and Los Angeles. Both of them signed contracts for over 200 million dollars.
The offseason is also a time to address the needs of your team.
The New York Yankees lacked pitching.
C.C. Sabathia can’t pitch every night and once you get past C.C. in the rotation the Yanks were down to Fat Freddy Garcia and crazy AJ Burnett. Luckily Ivan Nova started to play better towards the end of the season, but if the Yankees were going to make any kind of run in the playoffs they were going to need pitching.
So they went knocking on the Seattle Mariners door, who lacked anything that resembled an offense last season. They worked out a trade where they sent their young power-hitting catcher, Jesus Montero, to the Mariners for their phenomenal young pitcher, AL Rookie of the Year, Micheal Pineda. Whenever young prospects are involved and it helps out needs it can change the direction of a franchise.
One of the best things about baseball in the offseason is spring training.
There is nothing like it in sports. Sure there is training camp for football and basketball, but in baseball all you have to say is spring training and people get it.
It is a glorious time spent in the warm weather of Arizona and Florida. It is a chance to see your favorite players and get a look at some of the up and coming talent.
You can walk around and watch players take batting practice and pitch bullpens. For a baseball fanatic it is an experience that you will never forget.
The offseason is a tough time for sports fans, but for baseball it is a time where fortunes are changed and teams have the ability to climb out of the cellar. It is a fresh start for teams and fans alike.
During these cold winter months the action in Major League Baseball really starts to heat up.
Harrison Stanfill is a staff writer for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Monday.