Moneyball, Pitchers and catchers report

Had the pleasure of attending the Moneyball premiere at Sylvia Park last Wednesday night and must say what a thouroughly enjoyable evening it was.

The movie itself, in my opinion, was excellent and it was great to get an insight into how a franchise like Oakland is run.

While the A`s are yet to win it all under the moneyball regime it is hard to argue with their performances under Billy Beane considering their fianacial restraints. It also interesting that the A`s this off season commited $30 million to an unproven (in MLB) outfielder over the next four seasons - either Beane is extremely confident that Yoenis Cespedes will be a success or maybe we are seeing a bit more payroll flexibillity for the A`s

Where `Moneyball` will rank in terms of all time greatest baseball movie is for people far more qualified than me to judge but I will certainly be back to check it out again in the very near future.

Pitchers & catchers report

Over the weekend the spring training facillities in Florida and Arizona sprung into life as pitchers and catchers (and a few hitters) began to report for spring training.

This time of year is always an exciting one for a baseball fan. All 30 teams begin equally and all will talk up their chances for the upcoming season. Obviously most will fall away and come October there can be only one winner, but the optimism and anticpation that spring training brings makes this one of my favourites times of the year