Clay Buchholz was put on the 15-day DL today because he broke a fingernail. I love baseball.

I would like to welcome reader Alex to Mid-Atlantic Bias. Alex now knows that this is the place for all the insight into the Mid-Atlantic Sports Scene, without that whole pesky “Mid-Atlantic” part.

I feel like if I write this, I’m going to jinx my bandwagon, but as anyone who knows me well has discovered, when it comes to prognostication, I couldn’t pick a winning horse out of a one-horse field. I’m just never right. Accordingly, I’ve decided to continue picking the team the Hornets are playing to win, in the hopes that I will be wrong. Yet, as you’ll see in my Game O’ The Day later, I’m not doing this for my actual NBA team. I don’t really make any sense.

Last night, the Orlando Magic were mercifully put out of their misery by the Pistons, thereby saving us from having to ignore this series any more than we already had.

In an actual NBA game, the Hornets continued the “Home Team” trend, by trailing to the Spurs at halftime, and winning the game by 22 points. There is no actual explanation for why the Hornets are able to dominate the Spurs in the 3rd quarter in this series. If you think it’s because Byron Scott is outcoaching Greg Popovich, you likely don’t actually watch basketball. Pop is one of the greatest coaches of the last 25 years in the NBA (perhaps this is a post idea). Byron Scott is not one of the 25 best coaches in the NBA right now. Scott just happens to have a Super-God playing Point Guard and, as I wrote back when I started driving the Hornets bandwagon in January, the most underrated player in the NBA. And did David West ever prove that last night with his 38 point offensive performance and his shutting down of Tim Duncan defensively. Yes “The Great Fundamental” had 23 rebounds, but the Spurs aren’t going to win with Timmy only scoring as much as Bruce Bowen. And the Hornets did this all while getting zero contribution from anyone on their bench not named Jannero Pargo, who will be handsomely overpaid this offseason by somebody. This series, however, seems destined to go back to NOrleans (not a typo…there’s plenty of those in other places though, I’m sure) for Game 7.

On to the meat. My 2008, MLB All-25 and Under Team. The rules are simple. You have to have actually played in the big leagues (sorry to top prospects who I think will be good) to qualify. In addition, you have to be 25 years old today, May 14, 2008. That means if you were born before May 15, 1982, you don’t qualify. On to the Team (We’re going to play our games at the best Under-25 park in Major League Baseball, that being AT&T Park in San Francisco).

C: Russell Martin-25 Years Old (LA DODGERS)
There are 3 worthy candidates here, who have had significant MLB experience: Martin, Joe Mauer, and Brian McCann. Mauer is both injury plagued, not a great defensive catcher, and has no power. So I eliminated him first, despite the fact that he’s won a batting title. This came down to Martin’s prowess as a defensive catcher, as well as a great hitter for average and a decent power/OBP guy. I like McCann, but I’ll take Martin here.

1B: Miguel Cabrera-25 Years Old (Detroit Tigers)
It’s great what a little position change can do. Casey Kotchman or James Loney would have been the choice here had the Tigers not moved Cabrera to 1st because of his terrible defense. His placement here is unarguable.

2B: Ian Kinsler-25 Years Old..barely (Texas Rangers)
Kinsler edges out BJ Upton by a slight margin. Both are good hitters. Upton is terrible defensively. Kinsler is not terrible. Howie Kenrick would get some pub, if he actually played. However, he hasn’t done that a lot yet.

SS: Hanley Ramirez-24 Years Old (Florida Marlins)
This comes down to HanRam and Jose Reyes. Hanley wins out in my mind because he has been far more consistent in his career than Reyes. Jose has struggled for about the last year of his career. Hanley continues to put up stellar numbers in a mediocre lineup. That give him the nod to me.

3B: David Wright-25 Years Old (New York Mets)
This isn’t even close. Wright is the face of a New York franchise and has delivered for years. No one at this position can touch him at this age.

RF: Justin Upton-20 Years Old (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Some will argue that this is premature. Except that he’s hitting .331, with 6 HR and 19 RBI and an OBP of .397 at the age of 20, with all the expectations that he had, being the top pick in 2006. He beats out Nick Markakis and Matt Kemp who have played longer, but don’t nearly have the ceiling that Upton does.

CF: Grady Sizemore-25 Years Old (Cleveland Indians)
It’s amazing to me that he’s still only 25 years old and has been playing at a high level for so long. He’s top tier. The next two guys are Jacoby Ellsbury and Chris Young. Neither are anywhere near Grady.

LF: Ryan Braun-24 Years Old (Milwaukee Brewers)
Braun is a level above Carlos Quentin, despite having only played for slightly less than one full season. However, in that “full season” these are Braun’s numbers (the part of last year after he was called up and this year so far, combined):

151 Games, .316 AVG., 43 HR, 126 RBI, 16 SB.

Argue that.

Starting Pitcher: Tim Lincecum-23 Years Old (San Francisco Giants)
This came down to Lincecum, Cole Hamels, Felix Hernandez, and Scott Kazmir. Then I looked at what Lincecum has done in his career with one of the worst teams in baseball. He has started 31 games for the Giants:

12-6, 3.39 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 203 K

Those are astonishing numbers when you consider that the Giants overall record since the start of last year is 88-114.

Closer: Joakim Soria-23 Years Old (Kansas City Royals)
Much like Lincecum, Soria has become one of the game’s best closers (even though you have no idea who he is or what he looks like) pitching for a doormat. In his career he has posted a 2.08 ERA and 26 saves with a .83 WHIP. For the Royals.

For the sake of it, here’s how I’d line the guys up too:

Grady Sizemore
Hanley Ramirez
David Wright
Miguel Cabrera
Ryan Braun
Russell Martin
Justin Upton
Ian Kinsley
Tim Lincecum (because a pitcher should always have to hit)

Game O’ The Day: Cleveland @ Boston. The Celtics win tonight by 12 points in front of a bananas crowd at the Garden Center.