If you've been hanging around Da Box the last two weeks, you've no doubt tired of me talking about Extra Innings, and how great the world suddenly is because of it. (The Extra Innings package, that is, not my relentless jabbering about it.) Truth be told, it's a gift from my wife, who wants my transition from "carefree bum" to "father" to be as easy as possible when she gives birth sometime in July. No doubt the idea of me becoming a father sends shivers through loyal Bauxites, and in that we are kindred spirits, because not a day goes by that I do not shake with fear at some point.

Now that my disclaimer is over, let me say again how much Extra Innings rocks. Like the Internet, porn, and Internet porn, Extra Innings is at once the greatest and the worst thing imaginable. The best part, I'm learning, is not so much seeing more of Albert Pujols, Carlos Delgado, Kerry Wood, Barry Bonds, and other superstars, though that of course has obvious appeal. It's seeing more of Carlos Beltran, Doug Mientkiewicz, Aubrey Huff, Miguel Cabrera, David Eckstein, Vladimir Guerrero, Mark Teixeira, Brandon Webb, and many, many others who I didn't see much last year and who I like to watch for different reasons. And even more than the young, future stars, it's getting to see players like Scott Podsednik -- a left-handed, faster, better Reed Johnson. Podsednik is not a Hall-of-Famer by any stretch, and he could yet regress to Eric Owens status, but he is not just one of those "scrappy" players like Willie Bloomquist, Eric Byrnes, and others. He simply knows how to play baseball.

In addition to enjoying the hell out of all the baseball, one thing I'll be analysing is defensive ability. Seeing games in person is a better way to do this, because you can see the whole field, not just as the play unfolds but before. For instance, you can see the preparations of individual players. Does the third baseman creep in, a la Eric Chavez? Is he stationary, a la Scott Rolen? What kind of break does the shortstop get on the ball hit to his left or right, something you can't always see on TV? How about outfielders? Standing around between pitches, hands on their hips? Jabbering with the crowd, scoping out the girls, etc.? But I'm not a master of interspatial dynamics -- yet -- so I'm limited by time and place to attending one game in person per day, unless I'm in a two-team market and both teams happen to be in town and playing the same day, at different times, yadda yadda yadda.

Here again Extra Innings offers its merits. It's not perfect, but thanks to instant replay and the sheer volume of games one can watch, I plan on taking as many notes as I can, passing them on to Tangotiger, and adding my voice to the never-ending debate about defense and the best way to come up with some metric, any metric, that we can all agree on.

But first to some observations after my first 10 days of baseball, baseball, baseball. Here are only a few of dozens of highlights, in no particular order.

1) PETCO, as I mentioned in an earlier thread, is going to kill San Diego's power numbers. Shawn Green managed to get one over the centre-field wall Tuesday night, and Vin Scully -- just the mention of Vin's name is enough to soothe me -- commented, as the ball was heading over the wall, "If that doesn't get out of here, nothing will." We'll know more at the end of the year, of course, and even more after two or three years, but for now, PETCO looks tough for power hitters.

2) Rafael Soriano, who most of us thought could either be an elite starter or closer this season, is throwing about five-to-seven MPH slower than last year, due in part to the injury he incurred in spring training. Here's hoping Soriano gets that arm strength back, because he's fun to watch.

3) As Craig B. has been mentioning, already Morgan Ensberg is losing at-bats to the powerful Mike Lamb, which is bad, and the equally as craptastic Jose Vizcaino, which is possibly a prosecutable offense. OK, so Ensberg is off to a slow start. Lamb, meanwhile, is off to a slow career, and is "best" used as a pinch hitter. He's basically Wade Boggs without the walks, power, batting average, or defensive ability. It's easy to criticize Jimy Williams -- fun, too -- but the Astros are going to be one of those teams that wins despite their manager, as the A's did with Art Howe and Dr. LaRussa, Esq. In other Astro-related happenings, the boys on Baseball Tonight were speculating that Brad Lidge would be given save opportunities because "Octavio Dotel has never proven he can handle the job." I must be forgetting all those saves Lidge has piled up.

4) Did anyone see Vlad's home run Tuesday night? It came off a Joel Pineiro curve ball which was a few inches outside and was closer to the ground than the strike zone, and Vlad just reached out and jacked it 390 feet to left centre. Pineiro turned, watched the ball go, then looked back at home plate and threw his arms in the air. Don't worry, Joel: nobody else knows how he hit it, either. If you don't love Vlad, you don't love baseball.

5) As for that old guy in San Francisco? No, not former mayor Willie Brown, who's no doubt scheming his way back into politics. That other old guy, Lord Bonds. Right before B-squared took Matt Kinney for a swim, Giants' announcer Mike Krukow praised Kinney for "going after Bonds." As Bonds reached second base, Krukow said, jokingly, "They should have walked him."

6) One of Colorado's announcers said that Todd Helton was "in some ways a more dangerous hitter than Bonds," in that Helton will go out of the strike zone with men on base, to, we presume, drive in runs rather than taking a walk. I don't know how true that is or not, but Bonds, assuming he actually sees another non-intentional ball this season, would be well-served to expand his zone, considering Edgardo Alfonzo and A.J. Pierzynski have been his primary "protection." Those guys aren't terrible, and probably even Pujols couldn't protect Bonds -- well, maybe, but you get the point -- but if I was a manager, I would never let Bonds beat me.

7) Jake Peavy is going to win the NL Cy Young in 2005. You read it here first.

So, to sum up: if you have been thinking about taking a weekend trip to the coast, or visiting Banff in the summer, don't, or at least cut your trip short a day or two. Get Extra Innings instead, and never look back. You'll learn more about baseball than you thought you could. True, if you're married, you could also possibly learn more about divorce attorneys than you'd ever care to know, but any number of Bauxites can help you in that event.

This the last time you will hear from me re: Extra Innings. I promise.