The Baseball Desert

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Here Comes The Sun

It's snowing in Paris, and it's apparently snowing in Washington, but Thomas Boswell reminds us that "Pitchers & Catchers" is just three weeks away.

He has an interesting roundup of the incredible offseason we've been through, one during which the Yankees lost four-fifths of their starting rotation (a little matter of a combined 120 starts, as Boswell reminds us), the Marlins avoided the fire-sale of '97 but still dismantled the heart of their team, the Red Sox became - in Boswell's words - "the overdogs. They're so loaded and rich that they might as well wear pinstripes this season", and the Cubs and Astros became clubs with legitimate World Series hopes. All of this before a single spring training pitch has been thrown - can next season possibly live up to the hype?