The Baseball Desert

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Fantasy baseball

What's great about Spring Training is that teams want to give their pitchers work, regardless of the situation, the opponent or the conditions, so sometimes you get to see Mariano Rivera come into the game in the 3rd inning, as he did on Sunday against the Red Sox, and sometimes, as the poor Cincinnati hitters will testify, you get the impression that you're up against a fantasy baseball team. Yesterday, Pedro Martinez started the game for the Red Sox against the Reds and pitched two innings, and then he was relieved by Curt Schilling, who pitched a further 2 2/3 innings. Still, at the end of the day, it didn't seem to do the Reds too much harm, as they won the game 3-2.