“We’re still submerged in the reality of the hurricane,” UNO coach Tom Walter said. “There still aren’t a lot of restaurants open (near campus) and the few that are have limited hours. There’s not a lot of shopping, drug stores, things like that. It’s better than it was a year ago, but it’s still slow.”

There are all sorts of complaints about the pace of recovery since the storm struck more than two years ago, but college baseball is not one of them.

Alfonso Soriano’s two-run single capped a late charge for the streaking Cubs, who won their fourth straight by beating the Colorado Rockies 8-4 Thursday night.

At 33-21, the Cubs have the best record in the majors and one more win than Boston, Tampa Bay, the Los Angeles Angels and St. Louis.

“We have a good team,” Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee said. “We expect to win. We’re just living up to our own expectations.”

In a sometimes sloppy game, the Cubs outlasted their visitors. Chicago scored five runs in the last two innings as Rockies pitchers committed two throwing errors that led to three unearned runs. Colorado lost its fourth straight and ninth in a row on the road.

At 20-34, the Rockies are tied with Seattle for the worst record in baseball.

That will change if they can beat the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.

“One more. Let’s get one more,” Adrian Gonzalez said after he and Kevin Kouzmanoff homered on consecutive pitches with two outs in the seventh inning to give the Padres a 4-2 win over the Nationals on Tuesday night in a matchup of last-place teams.

“Let’s get some of kind of winning streak and see if we can build on that,” Gonzalez said. “It’s good to get two in a row. Let’s go out there tomorrow and have the same intensity and excitement and hopefully we can get something rolling.”

The worst team in the NL, the Padres (20-33) have won consecutive games only four times this season.

Gonzalez’s opposite-field shot to left on an 0-1 pitch from Charlie Manning (0-1) was his 10th homer in May and 15th overall. He hit a three-run shot with two outs in the 18th inning on Sunday to give the Padres a 12-9 win over Cincinnati.

In most leagues 14 hitters and only 9 pitchers count towards the scoring but this is because you need 8 positions to fill and usually some utility. Simple math shows you have 55% more hitters to produce your offensive stats. The actual ratio of players who are hitters to players who are pitchers is 61:39, so perhaps this is why experts give more money to hitting, but why? This line of reasoning is completely wrong. Since there are fewer pitchers and 50% of the scoring comes from pitching, the average price of pitchers should be more than the average price of hitters.

Some common argument you hear for hitters over pitchers

•You need to draft more hitters than pitchers

So what? You can still divide your money fairly equally between them just spend a little less per hitter than per pitcher.

•Pitching performance is less predictable than hitter performance

This could be true if you were comparing the average pitcher to the average hitter, but if you draft a quality pitcher wouldn’t you be able to predict quite accurately how well they will perform. In addition some pitching categories are easier to predict than hitting categories. If he stays healthy, wouldn’t you expect Johan Santana to get alot of strikeouts?

•Pitchers get injured more than hitters do

Actually this is not true, in a study done in 2001 by Stan Conte, it states that an average pitcher has a 23.7% chance to go on the DL. A hitter on the other hand has a 27.9% chance of going on the DL. Of all those hitters the shortstop is the most likely to go on the DL with a whopping 38.4% chance!

Also when pitchers do go on the DL they tend to stay on it longer with an average of 16.6 days on the DL and conversely the hitter stays on it an average of 13.9 days.

The last thing I want to talk about strays a little bit off the topic of this page but when your trying to decide between a great starting pitcher or a great closer take the starting pitcher. For example if your staff needs a total of 7 pitchers, 4 starters, and 3 closers. If you have one great starter, 220 innings pitched and a 2.25 ERA and the rest of your staff are average, (average for starters being 220 innings pitched and a 4.00 ERA, and average for closers being 70 IP and a 3.50 ERA), then you will have a total of 430 ER, 1090 IP, and a 3.55 ERA. If you have a superior closer and the rest of your staff is average then you will have a total of 462 ER, 1090 IP, and a 3.81 ERA. Now obviously you realize the big difference in ERA but also notice the 32 ER difference, how will you make that up?

And just to highlight the importance of having a great starter even more, if you have 3 superior relievers and 4 average starters your totals will be 439 ER, 1090 IP, and 3.62 ERA. Now, superior starters can help more in wins, strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP but if your hurting in saves then choose the closer.

Votto hit his 10th homer, a three-run shot, and finished with four RBIs to lead the Cincinnati Reds to a 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night.

Other than allowing Paul McAnulty’s two-run triple in the fourth, Arroyo (3-4) held the last-place Padres in check as they tumbled to their 14th loss in 20 games. He struck out nine in 6 1-3 innings, allowing two runs and seven hits, with just one walk.

It was the second straight win for the Reds and Speier, who was filling in for manager Dusty Baker. Baker finished serving his two-game suspension for bumping umpire Eric Cooper after he was ejected in the series opener on Thursday night.

“It’s been fun. The guys played hard,” Speier said. “Two W’s is two W’s.”

Brandon Phillips had a single, double, and triple. The Reds stranded 14 runners, including leaving the bases loaded twice.

Vizquel was seeking to tie Luis Aparicio’s major league record for most games played at the position before Saturday night’s game at Florida was rained out.

The game was rescheduled to be made up as part of a double-header on Sunday.

“Some things happen that you can’t control,” Vizquel said of the rainout.

Vizquel said he planned to play in Sunday’s first game, and then would talk to Giants manager Bruce Bochy before deciding whether or not to play in the second game. Vizquel even suggested he could start the second game and come out after an inning.

Vizquel was activated from the disabled list on May 10. He missed all of spring training and the start of the season following off-season arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

“I’m more concerned about my knee than the record,” Vizquel said. “At this moment, my knee and being able to play all season is most important.”

“I just like to play,” the senior pitcher and outfielder said. “I like to be out there. Put me anyplace and I’m happy.”

And it shows. Buursma is one of the country’s top two-way players, serving as the Bison’s ace pitcher and top hitter.

Entering this weekend’s Patriot League tournament semifinal series against Army, the right-hander was 5-3 with a 3.16 ERA, 65 strikeouts, 10 walks and six complete games using an incredibly deceptive submarine-style delivery that induces lots of groundball outs. Buursma has been just as good at the plate, hitting .400 with 11 homers, 34 RBIs and 29 runs scored.

“We’ve had a couple of guys who have done both things, but maybe they were stronger in one area than another,” coach Gene Depew said. “Jason is basically at the top in both sides of it. I’ve never had anyone quite at this level.”

Base Ball is known as the Americans favorite past time sport. It has fans from all over the world. The first base ball league outside Canada and United States was formed in Cuba and was founded in 1878. It remained as a strong opponent right from 1930 since international play began. A team can be strong with good guidance and training which can be obtained at Florida baseball spring training camps. Florida baseball Spring training camps makes you compete with international teams. A by product can be obtained by right mixture of talent and training which is imparted by Florida baseball Spring training camps. Florida can be rightly said as the traditional home of the MLB (Major League Baseball’s spring training) and almost 2/3rd (MLB) people have their spring training in Florida. Florida State has two Major league Baseball teams. It also hosts minor league baseball championships. Florida baseball spring training camps have immense experience backing them up which can definitely assist you in long term. Florida Marlins and Tampa bay rays are two home teams of Florida. Dolphin stadium is the home of Florida marlins whereas Tropicana Field is the home of Tampa bay rays.

Teams are informally organized into Grape fruit league. During spring training Florida hosts the following major league teams. These are the following clubs located in Florida for Florida baseball Spring training Atlanta Braves is located in Walt Disney world; Baltimore Orioles is located in Fort Lauderdale, Boston Red Sox located in Fort Myers, Cincinnati Reds located in Sarasota, Cleveland Indians located in Winter Haven, Detroit Tigers located in Lakeland, Florida marlins located in Jupiter, Houston Astros located in Kissimmee, Minnesota Twins located in Fort Myers, New York Mets located in Port St. Lucie, New York Yankees located in Tampa, Philadelphia Phillies located in Clear water, Pittsburgh pirates located in Bradenton, Saint Louis Cardinals located in Jupiter, Toronto Blue Jays located in Dunedin and finally Washington Nationals located in Viera. These are some of the Florida baseball Spring training camps located in Florida.

I do not like the way the Yankees are playing inconsistent baseball, and even when they win, it feels like walking on shaky ground. The Yankees did hit four home runs against the Indians, courtesy of Robinson Cano, Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Wilson Betemit.

The real fan will look inside the game, and realize what is happening. At 18-18, the Yankees sit at .500, an average team so far. Just because it is the Yankee brand, does not mean anything as we have seen the past several MLB seasons. Four homers is an aberration.

When the homers do not get hit on many nights, Mike Mussina’s performance of 5 innings pitched, 3 earned runs, will not have a great chance of standing. Mussina went to 5-3, but his ERA at 4.36 is hardly worth getting excited about. Mussina did win his 4th in a row, which is a positive.

Hideki Matsui continued his wicked hitting, his average now at .345, a 17-game hit streak in fold. Jason Giambi’s average is laughable at .163, same for Robinson Cano at .172. There are injuries on the squad, to be sure. The excuses, however, are ringing hollow.

The Detroit Tigers are next, and their offense is not playing games. The Yankee pitching had better be ready.

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Don’t expect their performances to sway manager Willie Randolph one way or the other.

“Like I’ve said all spring, I don’t take a lot out of simulated games,” Randolph said. “For Duque, it’s just a matter of getting him through healthy.”

Hernandez said he felt good about his outing, the latest step in a slow process of changing his delivery to compensate for a bunion on his right foot.

“I’m very happy today,” El Duque said, adding that he threw all his pitches. “I feel very comfortable. Every time I feel better and better. I’m going up.”

Hernandez’s command improved as the game went on. He walked four and hit a batter with a pitch in his first two innings, then gave up two long homers in his final inning.

“The one inning, when they were hitting (Hernandez) around a little, we were throwing all fastballs trying to work on location,” catcher Brian Schneider said. “There are times out there when he’s working on things. Today was all about working on things.”

Any questions about Hernandez’s ability to get hitters out with his new delivery and apparent lack of velocity (his fastball was clocked between 78-81 mph Tuesday) could be answered soon enough. Randolph said Hernandez will make his spring training debut Sunday against St. Louis.

Meanwhile, Pelfrey breezed through his first four innings, giving up one run and three hits, all doubles—two to minor leaguer Rene Reyes and another to Schneider.