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Halladay and Sabathia Face Off Today In a Potential Spring Training Preview of October

Mar 4, 2010, 5:15 PM UTC

The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees face off in what may be the most highly-anticipated Grapefruit League debut ever. Did that sound over-the-top and excited enough to you?â†µâ†µAt 1:05 p.m. ET, the Philadelphia Phillies will officially open up their spring training campaign – after a tune-up against Florida State yesterday – with newly-acquired ace Roy Halladay on the bump to face off against CC Sabathia. If this isn’t the starting match-up for Game 1 of the 2010 World Series I will eat your hat. I won’t eat my hat, because my hat is a Phillies hat and I like that hat. But chances are, your hat is from a team that’s not very good, so come October, when you don’t need that hat anymore, I’ll happily eat it if the Phillies and the Yankees aren’t playing in the World Series again. â†µ

â†µâ†µ(UPDATE: Halladay pitched two innings and threw 23 pitches, 20 for strikes, with three strikeouts and no hits. Sabathia also pitched two innings, giving up two hits and two walks. Neither gave up a run.)â†µ

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â†µI'm not alone in thinking that the defending League Champions should be the best teams in the baseball for another year. Vegas has the odds of the Yankees winning the World Series at 14/5, after the line opened at 3/1, which indicates that not only are they so sure the Yankees will win the AL Pennant (2/1), the money has moved the line, giving even worse odds to the gamblers. The Red Sox are 11/4 to win the American League, after opening at 7/2, with the Angels and White Sox at 6/1.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe sports books have the Phillies currently at 6/1 to win the Series, behind both the Yankees and Red Sox. Good thing for the Phillies, however, is that they can’t play both teams in the playoffs, putting their odds of winning back-to-back-to-back NL titles at 3/1 after opening at 13/4. The Cardinals are at 15/4 to win the NL with the Dodgers at 9/2, Braves at 11/2 and Cubs at 6/1.â†µ

â†µâ†µBut today isn’t about the World Series, it’s about the 200-odd steps it takes to get there. Halladay realizes that today, of all those steps, may be the biggest to cement his status as part of the team. From Todd Zolecki of MLB.com:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“In the eyes of everybody, I don’t think you’re 100 percent part of it until you’ve contributed,” Halladay said Wednesday afternoon. “Obviously, I understand that part of it, but as far as being around here, I feel comfortable. But yeah, you know you have to perform on the field.”â†µâ†µFor those who are interested, the game will be shown live on MLB.tv and on tape delay on MLB Network, tonight at 7:00 p.m. EST. I wouldn’t expect either starter to go more than a few innings, and by the end, like most games at the start of spring training, the rosters will be mostly unrecognizable names wearing higher numbers than the temperature at the start of the game. But it’s still the Phillies and the Yankees, and it’s Halladay and Sabathia, which means baseball is officially here.â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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