In Which I Obsess About Uniforms, Part 3

Happy St. Patrick's Day, and sorry about the delay between posts, but Spring Training is boring to write about (even if its delightfully charming to watch).  Thankfully for me (and all of you!), there were quite a few uniform changes in baseball during the off-season, and I'm thrilled to spout off my wonderful opinion about all of them.

But first thing's first... can we please put an end to holiday uniforms?

The atrocity that reminded me to even do this article in the first place were the Phillies hideous green alternates that they wore for their spring game today against Toronto (more on the Jays later).  Here is Scott Podsednik walking to first base in one of these atrocities:

He looks like Christmas... not a good look for Mid-March.  I get it if you are Boston, a city steeped in Irish heritage (and their special uniforms in Basketball and Hockey are quite alright), but everyone else should just back off.

While we are on the subject, lets just do away with those awful flag hats for Memorial Day, July 4th, etc... 

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Ok, now that I'm done with the festive nonsense invading baseball, lets move on to a more pressing matter, the hideous quality of the new-look Miami Marlins.  Their new logo looks like it belongs to a fast food chain that serves seafood.  While the regular white and grey default jersey's don't look too bad (and the Black alternate is almost kind of sharp), the home ORANGE alternate is one of the worst things I've ever seen...

But you know what?  They are so awful, they almost become awesomely bad, in the sense that the 1980's Rainbow Astros jerseys were awesomely bad, and I kinda want one... 

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The only other team that really underwent a severe Jersey makeover in the off-season (New logo, new colors, everything) was the Toronto Blue Jays, and oh my god, this is how you re-invent yourself.

Seriously you guys... Even Jeff Mathis can't look bad in these stunners.  Going back to the look and feel of the jerseys they first came into the league with, but properly avoiding light blue, while still having the freshness of a new jersey.  While they aren't the best jerseys in the league (Cardinals, Dodgers and Yankees all tie for first), they are certainly the best revamp job since the Angels switched to Red in 2002.  Not only does Toronto have maybe the best farm system, top to bottom, in all of baseball, but they are going to look good too.  The next decade of success couldn't have happened to a better group of fans.  Now we just need to fix everything about the Royals.

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One last thing I need to touch on.  While the Orioles didn't go all out in revamping their jerseys, they did bring back an old friend to all their caps and logos this year, The Bird!

I have a personal admiration of The Bird, and have always been a fan of the black cap with the white front and orange brim.  This causes problems at my home, because my wife hates The Bird.  She says he looks like a Saturday morning breakfast cereal mascot.  I don't understand why that is a problem.  He is awesome, and the caps look great.

It's going to be another rough season in Baltimore (only because the other four clubs in that division are so much better), but things are going to be looking up in the future, and they are going to continue to have some of the best caps in the league.

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Oh hey, I almost forgot to mention that the picture I led with, of the Texas Rangers throwbacks, is what the Rangers are going to be using to commemorate their 40th season.  That's right, they are ripping off our idea from last year, for a less important anniversary season.  I don't understand why they would want to look back so fondly at those hideous jerseys (the second from the left, from the late 80's/early 90's isn't so bad, the rest are awful)... they didn't make the playoffs in Texas until 1996, and didn't have a World Series appearance until 2010.  Some history.

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In actual Angels news:

- Garret Richards looked GREAT yesterday in his spring start against the Indians, I really hope he wins the 5th starter spot.  He is going to have a good season, no matter where he plays.

- Kendrys Morales is making quite a few starts for the minor league teams in spring training now.  He might actually be ready for April 6th!

- Chris Iannetta, who left the game in the 2nd inning yesterday with tenderness in his wrist, is day-to-day.

In Angels Nation news:

- A regular season preview post should pop up sometime next week full of terrible predictions that will never come true (I picked the Phillies over the Sox last year, haha).

- Angels Nation will be making its pilgrimage to Arizona for spring training next weekend, very excited.

Do Spring Injuries Dilute Opening Day?

I think its pretty obvious that in my mosaic above, The Joker (oh, that's Scott Downs? Holy Shit, Batman...) is the least important of the injuries above, but this is an Angels Blog, and he is an Angels player, and I like to keep things relative. That being said, this has been a tough Spring for some of the favorites to win it all (or at least some) this year.

Zack Greinke and Adam Wainwright, two NL Central Ace's, went down this spring, and while the Brewers (who just traded for Greinke in the offseason) are only going to miss about a month of their star pitcher, the Cardinals are going to lose Wainwright for likely the entirety of the 2011 season. These two looked to solidify the NL Central as one of the most competitive divisions in baseball, and while it still likely will be, this give the Reds a ton of room to sneak back into the discussion. If Greinke can bounce back and pitch like a Cy Young Caliber player, I still think the Brewers are the best bet, but if not... the Central is wide open.

In what seems to be an epidemic, strained obliques have put the Opening Day statuses of Yankees Outfield Curtis Granderson and Giants Closer (and Facial Hair Messiah) Brain Wilson into considerable doubt. Its just a precautionary step, but Wilson had his bullpen session yesterday cut short, and the team announced that he is doubtful for Opening Day. Similar reports are coming from Yankees camp regarding Granderson.

A little closer to home, the Angels are currently looking at two (possibly three) everyday starters beginning the season on the Disabled List. Kendrys Morales, who of course is still nursing that leg he broke into a million pieces back in May. Also on that list are guys who hurt themselves during Spring, Joel Pineiro and Scott Downs. It would seem that Pineiro would return very shortly into the season (a week or so), but Scott Downs is going to be out as long as it takes for his broken toe to heal. The toe he broke playing with his kids (great start to your Angel career, Scott).

In the case of the Angels, some of the setbacks are almost welcome, in the sense that we get to see Mark Trumbo face big league pitching to start the season, and it will continue the tale of Brandon Wood's heroic comeback. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for Kendrys to get back, but Trumbo is going to be a ton of fun to follow for the first month or so of the season. However, losing Downs to start the year is going to hurt an already thin bullpen, and god forbid Scott Kazmir start the season as horrendously as he ended 2010 and we have to move Takahashi to the Rotation.

I suppose my whole point of this article was "Do we really need 6 weeks of Spring Training?" It seems like right now, most players are ready for the season to start, and those who aren't, well, maybe they should re-evaluate their offseason routine. I'm all for watching a few innings of meaningless baseball for a couple days in March, and seeing some of the prospects face big-league pitchers is a fun distraction, but half those kids have already been sent packing back to the minors, and the other half are going soon. I like Spring Training as much as the next guy, but it seems like its been over-saturated, and cutting a week or two off could help put an end to some of these meaningless spring injuries that kinda put a wet blanket over the festivities of Opening Day.


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Coming Tomorrow: Part 1 of the 10 Greatest Seasons in Angels History