f13.net

That's right, I am starting this thread already. Never too soon to talk about baseball IMO! Hot stove season nom nom nom.

So anyway, on the heels of their defensive miscues in the playoffs, the Braves turn around and trade for perhaps the worst-fielding regular second baseman in the major leagues:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5814146

There's no doubt that he's a great hitter, particularly for a middle infielder, and the Braves really needed some help there, but this really causes issues for them defensively. Prado will probably move to the OF, and unless he turns out to be a surprise there defensively it puts more stress on the CF - and of course they traded one of their better defensive options in the middle infield to get Uggla in the first place. Should be interesting.

Braves don't care about defense right now. We need somebody who's a threat to hit the long ball and drive in runs behind Heyward, Prado, and McCann.

Yeah, no doubt. I feel like the Marlins probably got back less value than they could have on a deal for Uggla, but you never know how Dunn will pan out, dude has a high ceiling.

Do I have to participate in this conversation due to my newfound appreciation for baseball? If so, does making fun of you for caring this early count?

Baseball is damn near a year round sport.  The season is so long that the offseason deals and speculation can start almost immediately after the WS.

Hell, I'm already ready for the 2011 season to be over. 

Orioles fan?

Ha.  No, I grew up a Reds and Indians fan.  I just hate the regular season.  MLB is all about the playoffs for me.  They need to shave off about 80 games to make the regular season interesting.

I don't know if anyone else here uses www.mlbtraderumors.com (http://www.mlbtraderumors.com) but I find it to be a nifty compilation of each day's news from various sources.

YES.

That is seriously the thing I find most daunting about the season coming up. I don't think I can give a shit about a season THAT long with THAT many games.

Yall are crazy. The regular season is perfect. Baseball is meant to be played every day, and the individual games aren't supposed to mean as much as the 3 game series. Winning the series gets you to the playoffs, and mentally staying strong through the day-to-day is everything.

Plus, I like having something on every single day in baseball season!

There is just too much baseball right now.  Empty ballparks speak volumes.  They need to contract a couple of teams and go to an NBA type season length.  It won't happen, but that would certainly make things better.

No, no, they are instead of contraction, talking about adding one more wild-card team to the playoffs. Have 10 teams in the playoffs total, with the first series being either 1-game playoff between the two wild cards or a 3-game series between them. I am so not in favor of this it ain't even funny. The goddamn playoffs extend way too long already, now they want to add two more scrub teams? Would this season's playoffs been helped at all by the Red Sox or Padres being added to the mix? No, unless you are talking about TV dollars which is really what this is all about. How about instead of adding two more mediocre teams to the playoffs, you fix the fucking steroid issue, remove the idiotic "All-Star game determines home field in the World Series" shit, and put in a real goddamn salary cap to keep assgoblins like the Yankees from buying their way into the playoffs every year.

Also, find a good 1st baseman and right fielder for the Cubs, kthxbai.

Uh. No. Baseball is completely stable in attendence and has been for a decade. Attendence has hovered between 72-75M people overall every year since 2001. The outlier was 2007 when the economy was riding high and we got near the 80M mark. Still, that's an abberation. Some teams don't do well, but most of that is because the fans got burned or understand that their squad is completely uncompetitive.

Florida has no future. They should just move.

I'm with Paelos, things are fine the way they are.  The endurance required to play a season is an important part of the game, from an athletic stand point and a strategic stand point.  Plus, the season has basically been this long since the beginning (they were still laying 154 games a season in 1904).  It's a part of the sport.

I'm not sure how shortening it would make things much interesting as well.  I don't give a shit about individual NBA games either (though that could also do more with the fact that they let half the damn teams into the playoffs).  Unless your playing once a week like football, with a very small amount of games in a season, your just not going to care that  intensely about individual games.

I don't mind if baseball adds two more teams to the wildcard. Purists flip out over it, but it's one of the best things to ever happen to baseball. Unless you really suck, your team has a chance until July. In the old days, half the teams could be bricks in late May.

I think you look at the NFL and ask yourself why they do so well.

1 - They get 6 teams from each conference involved, and they reward people for playing well in the regular season with byes.
2 - They adapt quickly to technology and rule changes.
3 - They have a commissioner who has no problem coming down hard on discipline issues
4 - They have parity provided by salary caps.

I think the NFL system is the absolute benchmark for how to run a professional sport. I think if baseball could get over itself a little and take those 4 things away from what the NFL does, they would be wildly successful.

The only thing I would disagree with you on is the extra wildcard teams. I actually think the NFL playoffs may have one too many teams as well. It's not as bad as hockey or the NBA, but it's still getting pretty bad from a viewer standpoint. But the TV money is too big to pass up.

Adding extra teams to the baseball playoffs doesn't bother me on purist grounds. It bothers me because there are some crappy teams that really don't need to be in the playoffs.

Last year we would have added San Diego, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis, and Boston.

I don't think anyone would have complained.

The Cubs and Padres were not good enough to deserve playoff spots last year.

Uh.  The Cubs, maybe.  But the Padres were really, really good.  The Padres lost the closest race in the last week of the season.  And they kicked the shit out of the Giants, who went on to win, all year long.  Being a Giants fan, and watching or listening to every game this season, I'd go as far as saying that the Padres were one of the best teams in baseball this year.  I pooped my pants every time we played them.

So yea.  I don't think they should add another wildcard team either.  But teams being undeserving isn't the reason.

I like the wild-card "play-in" simply because it makes the pennant races more interesting. If there's a big advantage to winning the division vs. being the wild card, "races" like the Rays and Yankees this year would have been significantly more interesting, and it wouldn't have hurt the Braves/Padres/Giants clusterfuck much because they were already playing to avoid a play-in essentially. Not having to do a 1 or 3 game play-in series would be huge. Home field advantage simply isn't important enough in baseball to be the only driver on that stuff. The other plus is it gives teams like the Blue Jays and Orioles who are stuck in a division with two big spenders a reason to try.

I think that is as far as I would want to push it though.

Also I don't know what Paelos is on, but he somehow added 3 teams from the NL and one from the AL. The plan is to only add *two* teams more than what we have now, not four. It would have been the Padres and the Red Sox. I don't know where he came up with the Cubs, they were 75-87. Presumably he meant the White Sox, who would have been the top AL team to not make the playoffs in this scenario.

Musashi - What is your reason for not adding another wild card spot, since you left us hanging?

I am also against adding more teams to the playoffs.  I like the balance of regular season to playoff play as it is now, see no compelling reason to shift it around, and I dislike change for the sake of change.

I also am strongly against there being any way for a division to send three teams to the playoffs, and no I do not care if those three teams were stronger than the rest of baseball in the regular season.

Which could actually be fixed with a well-executed salary cap, cutting the balls off of the Red Sox and the Yankees overspending. The luxury tax is just a shitty way to backdoor some kind of salary cap, but rather than help the little teams compete, it has ended up being a cash cow for some of the teams (like the Rays before the new ownership or the Marlins every time they get close to winning) to gain money without bothering to field a competitive team with that money.

They can add all the shitty teams they want to the playoffs.  It will be just like having more regular season to ignore. 

Fuck, I meant the White Sox.

Nooooo, I fucking love that! It's adorable!

You are banned from this thread.

I don't think it really hurts anything. Home field advantage is not terribly important. Once you account for the fact that the team with home field is usually the better team the impact is very low.

I think it's a bit silly, but when you don't use a neutral site or large amount of interleague play, I don't see a fairer way aside from alternating years to decide home field during the WS.

Best record of the two teams involved? Total Interleague record? League with the best team with the best record?

Total interleague record is quite good actually.  I hadn't thought of that.  That has been a very AL-leaning stat lately (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleague_play#Wins_by_league), but for reasons I'm comfortable with.

I think they shouldn't add another two teams because there's no point.  There are enough teams in it, and the baseball season is long enough as it is.  The root of the problem is the retarded salary cap.  But the Yankees and Red Sox make the league a shitload of money because of the east coast media bias.  I'm talking to you ESPN.  Yea.  It's called the West Coast, assholes.  If you'd ever shut the fuck up about the god damn Yanks and Sox, then maybe there's be some room for excitement to build in other parts of the country.  Besides, we're better than you in every possible way.  You should visit sometime.  But don't stay that long.  Dicks.  At any rate, the balance of power in the isn't likely to change no matter how many playoff teams you add, as first round exits are just about as exciting as last place finishes for teams like the Pirates, or the Blue Jays.  They should have never traded McGriff.  Dumb fucks.

As far as the All-Star game deciding home field advantage.  Well, my friends that's just a joke.  It's a joke brought to you by the same retard commissioner who thought so much of the All-Star game that he called it due to rain.  Nothing that man does is good.  I'm convinced he is Grand Moff Tarkin of Wisconsin.  Reinstate Pete Rose you gutless turd.  We fucking forgave him when he fessed up like five years ago.  God damn.  The problem with the All-Star game is that it just isn't a very good representation of what teams are deserving in a team sport.  The All-Star 'team' is only a 'team' for like three hours.  It's just a hodge podge popularity contest with the only thing more retarded than the slam dunk contest - the home run derby.  Back, back, back, fuck you.  Why not have the home run derby decide it.  Or what about flip a dog gone coin.  Or just go back to who's got the best record, like it was.  Fuck.

Speaking as an East Coaster, if you put more of your games on at 4PM, we'd watch them.

Otherwise, we're not staying up until 1AM our time. Not happening.

Pfft.  Who cares if you watch them.  I don't watch the Yankees ever.  But I god damn sure good and well know about their prospects if I watch ESPN for more than ten straight minutes - even during the off-season.

So you're saying if the ESPN HQ was in Oakland instead of Bristol, I'd somehow hear less about the Yankees and more about the Angels?

Somehow I doubt it.

The issue is much much older than ESPN.

While yes, the issue is older than ESPN, I'm still saying that.  It wasn't anywhere near as bad before ESPN hit it's stride with SportsCenter in the 90's.  Before that the Yankees mostly sucked for at least a decade.  And even before that it wasn't as bad because Billy Martin was actually news worthy.  And when he chumped Jackson in front of thousands, I have to admit that was must see TV.  Joe Girardi/Joe Torre/Derek Jeter/Bernie Williams' shitty flamenco styles/ARod's dick in a hookers ass?  Not so much. 

If ESPN were in LA, You'd have the god damn, vile, repugnant, Dodgers shoved up your ass.  If ESPN were in Oakland, they'd be insane.  But you'd probably be tired of hearing about everyone's man crush on that baseball genius Billy Beane.  Send 'em somewhere else, Billy!  That was sarcasm for those not familiar.  If they were in Seattle, HORY SHIT ICHIRO!  If they were in San Francisco, they'd be high.  And no one would care.

In fact, since the point you seem to be trying to make is that the Yankees somehow deserve the slurping they get because of their amazing feats on the field, I'll do you one further.  If ESPN was pretty much anywhere on the West Coast, you might be tired of hearing ESPN vilifying the Evil Empire.  Because the culture over here...  We really don't care for how they go about their business.  Alot.

I think they should dress a pack of monkeys up in the jerseys of each team.  Then let them loose and let them try to fuck a football.  The team that adorns the jersey of the monkey that accomplishes this goal first should get home field advantage. 

BoSox traded two of their top three prospects to San Diego for Adrian Gonzalez. Booya. Sometimes I wish I was back up north. I'd been looking forward to seeing those prospects in the majors, but Gonzalez is awesome.

Yeah the balance of power is shifting away from TB and towards Boston in the AL East now I think, especially if they also sign Werth as it sounds like they're trying to do.

Didn't Tampa Bay's GM (I think it was him) basically come out and say before the playoffs started "enjoy this year, because we're going to suck after this"? I remember all the ESPN people saying what a shame it was, that if this was a popular franchise with money and fans behind it that they would be good for a while with the young talented roster they had.

And Werth signs with the Nationals, for a long long time. Didn't see that one coming.

I'm actually relieved about that one. His batting average with runners in scoring position was well below .200 this past season. It might have been different because I've read that he has excellent opposite field power which would have been a fit for Fenway's shallow right, but still.

That is a Vernon Wells style bad contract.  Holy shit, they overpaid.

7 year, $126 million? Are they fucking nuts?

Oh right, Nationals.

Crawford to Red Sox for 7 years, $142 million.

Thoughts:

He's very good but I am not convinced he's a 20 million/year talent over the next 7 years. Thinking perhaps the Werth deal inflated his target amount a little. Then again the rumor is Adrian Gonzalez is going to get an even bigger 7 year deal from them, so maybe that's just where the numbers are these days. Still a far, far better deal than the Werth one in terms of likely performance over the lifetime of the contract. Players with Crawford's athleticism tend to age pretty well.

Has to suck for the Rays to have him move inside the division.

Miguel Olivo? The guy who hit like .150 last time he was here? Jesus fucking christ. Meet the new boss, as dumb as the old boss.

Holy shit, they paid him $7 million for 2 years based on the numbers he had in fucking Colorado? I begin to see how the Cubs unloaded Milton Bradley.

3.5 million a year is kind of chump change these days, but yeah Olivo's road splits from 2010 are brutal which is not a good sign. .211/.276/.322 away from the friendly confines.  :ye_gods:

In a hitter's park like Safeco Field, he should absolutely mash the ball.  :why_so_serious:

Welcome to life as a Seattle sports fan. It is a neverending series of kicks to the crotch.

I'll never forget when they drafted Jason Varitek and then lost him for a season of eligibility of cash. Then they traded him and Lowe to the Sox.

At least the M's have Justin Smoak to look forward to.

:drill:

Still, if they had re-signed Lee, Halladay wouldn't have come over as part of the multi-team trade which brought him to Philly. They managed to get Halladay at $20m over only three seasons when Lee was looking for something more extensive (which he'll get anyways...). I'm not a Philly fan, but I might subscribe to mlb.tv just so I can watch them pitch back-to-back. They'd be an even better combo than Johnson/Shilling.

edit: As much as I love Lester/Buchholz, I'm not keen on facing Sabathia/Lee. They'd be great games to watch, though.

2: Oh. Wow. wtg Phils.  :evil: my bad

That rotation is easily on par with the best of the 90s Braves staffs but we'll have to see if the Phillies can reinforce their lineup enough to make it matter much.

Really though, I'm glad my Angels aren't the only team to have free agent awesomeness snatched away from nowhere this week.  On a related note, what are the Yankees going to do about their rotation now, especially in light of that beefy new Red Sox lineup?

Didn't see that one coming. Little surprising, I would have expected the Phillies to spend on hitting, not more pitching.

Fucking Phillies are the Yankees of the National League now. They topped the Red Sox in payroll with these moves.

Are you fucking kidding me? Why would you take LESS money to go to Philadelphia, with some of the worst fucking fans in the world? It's like asking to get kicked in the balls every five days.

Missed this the other day, but Greinke to the Brewers really throws the NL Central into an interesting race. They better hope it pays off because their farm system has a whole lot of nothing, they traded basically every player of note for Greinke.

If you like the organization and the city well enough, the fans are pretty easy to ignore. And it is not like NY fans are paragons of virtue and social graces  :awesome_for_real:

They aren't, and yet they still aren't the giant assholes Philly fans are.

The Greinke trade is interesting, but the whole NL Central is in flux. The Cubs are an unknown quantity because they have the talent to win if they get normal performances from their stars, the Cards probably won't be anymore improved and I think the Reds may be a 1 year wonder. Both the Pirates and Astros will likely continue to suck. I don't think the Brewers were one pitcher away from respectability, and there's talk they'll get rid of Fielder which certainly won't make them better unless they get a ton back.

Fenway's shallow outfield is LF. There was a reason Ted Williams complained and successfully lobbied to get the bullpens out there (Look up "Williamsburg"). Yeah, down the line is really short, but it gets deep out there very quickly.

Ah yeah. Yeesh. The right field wall is deceiving. A dwarf could hurdle it. It's like an optical illusion, even towards the triangle. I think they saw Werth as someone with the power to drive it out there on a regular basis. I'm just glad they didn't land him. Some of Boston's free agent signings under Epstein have been head scratchers. They paid Drew $55m to hit a home run in the 2007 ALCS. Renteria was a silly replacement for Cabrera, whom they still haven't replaced. Julian Tavarez, the biggest flake in baseball. Bronson Arroyo for Willy Mo Pena? WTF were they thinking, I don't know. That's like the guy who dumps his girlfriend for the bimbo with gigantic fake tits and then finds out she's a fecal freak with permanent dragon breath.

Lackey looks like he has constant indigestion on the mound. Even SI's Peter King ragged on him this year:


Their big moves this winter have been sure things, at least. I'd love to see Beckett bounce back this year. He seems like one of those low-key guys who gives 100% but gets screwed by injuries.

The constant need to compete at the very top has hurt them in the long run. They're drafting higher than they have in a long time thanks to the Tiger's signing of Martinez, so I'd like to see more homegrown talent emerge over the next several years. It's just more fun that way.

Anyways, that was longer than I meant for it to be.

Ton of deserving players didn't get into the Hall of Fame, yet again. Lot of voters still wearing their pants on their head apparently. Jeff Bagwell should have been first ballot.

There are significant questions regarding Bagwell and steroids, from what I have heard.

The "significant questions" for Bagwell boil down to "look at his arms."

He never tested positive, wasn't in the Mitchell report, has never been named by a Canseco type accusation, etc. It is literally just the era he played in and "look at his arms."

I am just going by what I read from the local beat guy (who is one of the voters)- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/marinersblog/2013849644_jeff_bagwell_poses_new_hall_of.html

He is really wrongheaded about a lot of different topics (and gets lambasted by the guys and posters @ USSMariner.com constantly), so grain of salt and all that.

Except for the fact he was smack in the middle of the juicer problem. Can a player set his career high of HR's when he's in his 30s? Yeah. Gehrig did it at 31 and 33 with 49 HRs. The caveat is that he hit 47 when he was 25. He wasn't that far over the mark of his best season in his younger years. Bagwell went from averaging 28 HRs in his 20s to averaging 37 HRs in his 30s to the end of his career. Gehrig averaged 33 HRs in his 20s to 37 in his 30s.

You can see an increase in slugging later in your career because you understand the pitching better. What you don't see is a player skyrocketing by 10HRs a year average on playing ability alone in their 30s.

Bagwell's career high in HRs corresponds to the first year he didn't have to play in the Astrodome for half his games. You may not be aware but the Astrodome was one of the most extreme pitcher's parks in the league, and in particular had a large effect on depressing HR totals. If you use a park adjusted stat like OPS+ to evaluate him, his peak is the normal age, late 20s/early 30s.

It's no offense to him, but I think nobody who played under Bud Selig's watch from that era should get in. I take the all or nothing approach, and if we take the statements from people close to the game at face value 70% of the league was involved. Trying to sort out the other 30% just isn't worth it because they probably sucked.

I think that's fine, as long as we go back and kick out all the players in the 60s/70s who used amphetamines, everyone who ever threw a spitball, etc. The character clause is a joke, basically.

I think the roids thing was far more damaging to the game than either of those things. It was more widespread and had a more direct effect on enhanced performance. We're talking about records being shattered that would otherwise have stood test of time. I'm looking at you Barry Bonds, you worthless fucker.

That being said, baseball players are STILL on greenies. They have been all this time because they are playing 6 games a week and on cross-country flights. In 2006, players estimated about 50% of the league was on them.

In other news, the Rays traded Matt Garza to the Cubs for their entire minor league organization. I think this has definite backfire potential in the long run for the Cubs, they gave up a lot of their best prospects.

Fuck me. That was a stupid goddamn trade, even if I don't know more than one name on the list of players the Cubs gave up. Granted, 15 game winners don't come available every day, but starting pitching was not really the area I would have liked to see the Cubs trade for. They need some fucking hitting, especially someone that can either lead off or consistently drive in runs. They can't rely on Aramis Ramirez anymore, and Marlon Byrd is the only remaining proven power threat. Signing Carlos fucking Pena (.196 hitter? REALLY?) is not going to do it.

Pitchers and catchers report today!  ;D

WOOOOOOOOOOO!  :drill:

This is as close to first place as the Mariners will be all season!  :heartbreak:

I've seen them in more than one list near the top of "least improved teams".

Time for a bricks list! Who has no chance at making the playoffs this year? One point for each team you get right, minus 2 for each one you get wrong. We'll check at the end of the season:

My bricks list:

Baltimore
Toronto
Cleveland
KC
Oakland
Seattle
Florida
NY Mets
Washington
Cincy
Houston
Chicago Sox
Chicago Cubs
Pittsburgh
LA Dodgers
Arizona

I think you are cruising for a -2 or two there.

I like taking chances.

Doing this sort of blind (Prospectus isn't out yet, so I don't know how to think!) but my list would be:

Baltimore (They're improving, but...)
Toronto (See Baltimore)
Tampa Bay (I think the Rays are eating a down season this year and will bounce back when their recent prospect trades pay off. This one could bite me.)
Kansas City (in a couple years they could be quite dangerous, but they will be brutally bad this year)
Cleveland (Kansas City without the potential)
LA Angels (questionable decision after questionable decision)
Seattle (so very bad)
Florida (See Baltimore)
NY Mets (less improved than even the Mariners)
Atlanta (they took a terrible defense and added Dan Uggla to it)
Washington (That Werth deal is going to look Vernon Wells-bad within 2-3 years)
St Louis (taking a chance here as Pujols + their rotation is obviously strong, but I think the Pujols contract fail and some ugly moves at other positions (Ryan Theriot cannot field SS) mean they will fall short again)
Houston (upside nonexistent here)
Chicago Cubs (they could contend if the chips fall just right but Cincinatti and Milwaukee and St. Louis make this a tough division. Wild card probably comes out of the NL Central this year.)
Pittsburgh (they should be better than last year, at least)
San Diego (bye Adrian, was nice having you in the division)
Arizona (this *might* be the year that their young guys all click at once, in which case this could be a dangerous pick in what is still a soft division)
LA Dodgers (obligatory LA hate)

I am halfway tempted to put the Yankees on here too, just because they're all a year older, and their rotation looks really suspect. In fact, you know what, why not. Yankees on my list too.

Nixing the entire NL East except Philly? That's ballsy.

Do you really think anyone has a chance in the East besides Philly? Atlanta's offense has been anemic, the Mets are fucking awful, Florida is everyone else's farm team and the Nationals are a few years off from really contending.

My non-bricks list:

AL
Yankees
Red Sox
Detroit
Texas

NL
Phillies
Cards
Giants
Cubs (yes I had to, but this and Detroit are my least sure picks)

So we're entering every team not on that list on your bricks list then.  :awesome_for_real:

At least this year they are actually in a transition year- have a ton of young guys just breaking in to the majors, or on the cusp, and couple of huge albatross contracts that expire after the season. They didn't throw a bunch of money at old broken down free agents either. If ALL the young guys go apeshit this year they could flirt with .500 or a game or two over; if they all tank they will be close to 70 wins. Best bet is that some of them will be useful, and that they can use the next couple of off seasons to acquire some free agents to fill in the gaps. They have a good chance to be quite competitive in 2013 or so.

BRB off to find some rope. Anyone know how to fashion a useful noose?

Your kindergarten teachers hated you didn't they. Follow the rules you crazy crotch-pheasant!

Is it the post season yet?


Damn, caring about baseball is hard.  :oops:

Are we gonna have a Bat Country league this year???  :awesome_for_real:

Haemish can say he'll start one then we'll never hear of it again, like in the thread further down the page.   :awesome_for_real:

Yeah yeah fuc...

Oh right.

Remind me tomorrow and I'll set one up when I'm at work.

Pujols negotiations are done without an agreement (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2011/news/story?id=6127623).

I know that things can happen between now and the deadline, bu to me Pujols should stay a Cardinal.  I hate the fact that these guys seem to only go after the money 90% of the time. 

The Cards totally screwed themselves by giving Pujols no-trade rights. They need to trade him to bolster their waifish batting order. Pujols, Holliday & Rasmus aren't enough to assist good pitching when the other six slots have limp wrists.

Haemish, let's get the fantasy league going!

Let's be real. Pujols is asking for a 10 year deal and he SAYS he's 31 (if you believe that coming out of Santo Domingo, I have property to show you in sunny southeastern Atlanta).

Who in their right mind is going to pay a hitter until he's in his 40s? I would cut him a 6 year deal, with a one year option, guarantee 40% of the money and do it for $20M a year. Done. This ain't the fucking Yankees.

Pujols has no-trade rights because of he's played for ten years and has been with the same team for five (http://sonsofsamhorn.net/wiki/index.php/MLB_Rules_and_Procedures#10-5_Rights_.28no-trade.29).  He might have some kind of no-trade clause in his current contract, but that's superseded by his, full, automatic one.

As to his future contract, the biggest problem is that if the Cards pay him what he's worth with a "safe" deal, they turn into the Miami Heat.  He's still going to be a 7-8 WAR guy for a good many more years and the going rate is $5M/win.  Toss in that the Cards are suddenly in a very competitive division and that could jump higher.

The team could eat some (or a lot) of risk on the back-end for a discount now, but they're still looking at say, $28-30M per year, which still leaves them with a very top-heavy roster.

As for 6 years at $20M/year?  Let us compare Albert Pujols to the mere mortals who make about $20M a year. (http://www.fangraphs.com/graphsw.aspx?playerid2=1177&playerid3=2154&playerid4=1281&playerid5=432)  (Illustrative and fun comparison #2. (http://www.fangraphs.com/graphsw.aspx?playerid2=1177&playerid3=1000001&playerid4=1109&playerid5=1004598))

Hitters that start out as good as Pujols is right now are typically pretty good bets to remain valuable til they're 40, but it is still a big risk for sure.

WAR is one of those stats I don't really trust yet. It's too new for me to give it much credit. It also falls into that Sabremetrics void I could give a shit less about.

What I do know is that the top salary in baseball is $33M a year. The top 5 salaries are all in NY. The greats outside of the big city don't pull numbers above $20M, but I imagine Pujols could command $25 for a shorter period if he pushed it. He will never make $30M+ outside of NYC.

I  :heart: FanGraphs.

Anyway, Pujols is pretty clearly the best hitter in baseball right now, so if he hits the market who knows where he'll end up and for how much. The last couple times players that dominant hit the market they ended up in San Francisco (Bonds) and Texas (A-Rod) after all. I want to say that Rangers contract for A-Rod was a record-setter too.

I guess the A-Rod Yankees deal also counts, though.

Oh, the 10 & 5 rule!

Too bad, so sad, Cardinals.

Baseball is a funny sport.  You can have the best hitter in baseball and it might not even get you to .500 or the playoffs.  I think that the Cardinals should think really hard about hamstringing themselves with a 10 year contract or some obscene amount of money per year.  That being said, I believe Pujols is making enough money and should stick with this team.  

I also think Pujols is a juicer so I don't really like him anyway.

Why do you think that?  There isn't a ton of evidence, right?

There is not. I just always wondered why he went from 40+ HRs from 03-06, and then suddenly, in what would be considered the prime of his career at 27-28 years old, he hits 32 and 37, the lowest marks since he came into the majors in his rookie season. This just happened to coincide with the fact that steroids came to the forefront of the media in 2006, with more investigations going on in those years.

It's purely circumstantial.

I have often wondered how good these tests are at uncovering steroid, et. al., use.  Look at Lance Armstrong-  if there was ever enough circumstantial evidence to nail someone, it would be him.  But he's never had a positive test that has been validated.  You may be right about Pujols.

League is set. (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=20477.0)

The Cards have fucked themselves by not signing Pujols. I get that they didn't want to give him a 10-year contract, but you cannot take the chance on that fucker going free agent next year.

EDIT: As for Pujols home runs dropping, who was hitting behind him in the years when he was hitting 40 and the years after? He surely hasn't had a good #4/#5 combo since Jim Edmonds got old.

If you're suggesting he wasn't getting protected and they were pitching around him in 07-08, the numbers don't bear that out. His BB average per game was higher in 06 when he hit HRs than when he hit 32 in 07. He also hit 17 HRs less in 15 more games played, but his batting average was only 4 points different. The simple fact remains that from 06 to 07, he was hitting the ball just as much, walking less, playing more games, and the ball wasn't going out the yard.

Chalk it up to bad years if you want. Hammering Hank dropped from 44 HRs to 24 one year, but he was hurt and played less games.

The delta between the fewest HR and most HR in full seasons in his career is 17. A-Rod's for example is 34, so is Todd Helton (even if we throw out his recent old man years). Chipper Jones is 24ish, Jim Thome is over 20, etc.

Point being that for most players that are operating in the 40 HR zone, some year to year variance is perfectly normal and not really evidence of anything in particular. From the limited amount of digging I did Pujols is probably *more* consistent than most/all of these guys.

I agree he's consistent, which makes the drop all the more shocking. Looks the the HRs, tossing out the first 2 seasons: 43, 46, 41, 49, 32, 37, 47, 42.

Just looking at those numbers, not knowing anything else about them, and ask yourself, which one of these things doesn't belong?

The Yankees are the fattest team to ever play the game of baseball. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703373404576148633980571882.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth)  



I'm not sure what this says about baseball.  

You're right, Paelos, the stats don't bear out anything about the guys hitting around him in those years. But, guys who drop off because they are off the juice usually drop pretty fast and stay dropped. They don't go 2 down years then pick the homers back up to the 40+ range again. Unless he found new, undetectable juice, I tend to think he's not a juicer so much as he is a fantastic hitter. Look at the consistency of his average.

Here's my crazy theory that's probably only used by myself. He was on the juice, shit hits the fan in 06, and he gets off it. After 2008, maybe late in the season even, when it's clear baseball won't test for HGH, he starts HGH. I still think a lot of players use it. Why wouldn't you?

The problem with that theory is AFAIK the effects of HGH don't include an increase in actual muscle strength - HGH is mostly about reducing injury. I am nothing at all like an expert on it though, so grain of salt etc.

Most baseball players don't take roids to build mass either.  It's another method of augmenting recovery.

Wainwright is probably out for the season. The Cardinals are having a rough pre-season.

That really really sucks. Expect Cubs fans to be total cocks about it.

Prospectus 2011 is here.  :heart:

You have Pujols. Suck it up.  :grin:

Hey I'm a Braves fan.  :awesome_for_real:

I just think people getting injured before the season starts is awful.

Oh yeah, it sucks monkeys for Cards fans. Other than maybe Terrell Owens or Barry Bonds, there's very few guys I want to see injured ever.

Confirmed that he's going to have Tommy John surgery. I don't think it utterly rules out the Cardinals, but the Central is the toughest division in the NL and the Reds and Brewers have to be considered strong favorites over the Cardinals now. Cubs have some potential too so LaRussa will have to really get a lot of mileage out of the guys he has left.

I do not think the Brewers are going to be as good as everyone thinks. Their pitching isn't THAT impressive, they've had issues with defense for years and oh, yeah, their big time slugger is pissed off and wants to leave so they are trying to trade him. They blew their chance a few years ago. Their farm system is still ok, but they are probably another year away from a really good cycle, IMO. Houston and Pittsburgh are going to suck it this year, the Cubs are an absolute coin toss. The Reds are probably going to suffer the Dusty Baker hangover syndrome - i.e. their great young arms are about to get stretched like rubber bands with the dry rot and their offense won't cover the deficiency. I really don't see anyone beating the Cards in that division this year, but I've been wrong before.

The Reds seem to have the most balanced offense in the NL, including solid backups across the board. They have a dependable rotation and the premier set-up man in the league. With all their youth, I don't really see them going anywhere but up for the next couple years. lulz at Renteria, who just seems to follow his arch rival, Cabrera, around the league.

The Cards decided to view their second place finish as a fluke and rest on their laurels, making no improvements and keeping their pockets tight for a potential Pujols deal. Even if Berkman bounces back, there are holes in their line-up that will bore your hair grey. Just really pedestrian in some spots. An elite pitcher on a good team generally gives something like a +5 spread in the wins column, so I'd say 2nd place in the NL will be a toss-up this year as the Cards descend and others improve.

The East is where it's at in the NL right now.

I think the Phillies are a lock to win the East with Atlanta as a WC.
I think the central is a clusterfuck right now and nobody can predict how it shakes out.
I think the West is San Diego's to lose.

Don't you mean San Francisco's to lose? I kept trying to picture someone besides the Giants winning the West and with that pitching, I couldn't see anyone else taking the lead.

The Phillies are an absolute lock for the East. The Mets are terrible, the Nats are 2-3 years away from real contention, Atlanta has offensive holes Chipper can't fix even when 100% and the Marlins have a front office that enjoys stunning mediocrity.

The Central really is the only division where I think there's a possibility of surprise but it'll probably be the kind of surprise like "Wow, these fuckers are worse than I thought."

I like San Diego's bullpen, but I don't see their anemic order taking out the other two big dogs in the division. It'll go down to the wire between San Fransisco & the Rockies. Their subtle move for ultra-utility man Ty Wiggington could give Colorado the edge they need to round out their line-up.

Like Haemish says, the Giants are pretty awesome. Their pitching staff is elite and I love the homegrown aspect of it, even with the bust, Zito, gumming things up. Just imagine if he puts in a good season. I like their defense too. How will Tejada fare as Renteria's replacement?

San Diego lost Adrian Gonzalez and replaced him with Brad Hawpe. This takes an already pretty bad offense down into  :ye_gods: territory. Combine that with the fact that they had to overachieve to even get to where they were and I think the Padres have very little chance to do anything.

NL West is basically going to be Giants vs. Rockies, I agree with that.

Yall are gonna be like  :ye_gods: when San Diego is up by 6 games at the All Star break.

Is there any particular reason you have such faith in their team?

Yeah, I don't see it. Tim Stauffer could be a major sleeper, but the biggest thing SD has going for them is their General Manager at this point.

Two things. One, I love their team speed. I think that's a big key to their success this year by throwing other pitchers off their game when they get on base. Two, I love their manager. Bud Black has taken that team from 5th to 4th to 2nd divisionally in the last three years. I think they are poised to win this year.

The reviews on amazon say the quality has dropped this year. Do you agree on this? I was thinking about picking it up now that it's about $13.

I haven't noticed any particular problems with it. I'm probably only at the undergrad level with regard to sabermetrics, though, so if there are deep hidden flaws in their methodology or whatever then it is going to be above my head. I also tend to attach more value to the text analysis than to the PECOTA projections which I have always considered more of a toy than a tool.

So Brandon Belt has started off hot. If he stays this hot through spring training (could easily not happen, probably won't happen) the Giants have some tricky personnel decisions to make, as they have a pretty big logjam around 1B/OF positions.

Sure things:

- Andres Torres as the starting CF

...and that's it. The thought at the start of spring training was going to be Ross and Burrell in the corners, Torres in center, and Huff at first, with the Giants carrying Aaron Rowand and Nate Schierholz as backup OFs and Travis Ishikawa as a 1B/OF backup and left handed pinch hitter. Mark DeRosa is probably in line for some OF at-bats too but will move around the diamond. If Belt makes the starting lineup, they're going to have to trade or cut someone, it *should* be Rowand but probably will be Ishikawa or Schierholz. Nate seems a little more likely to me since Ishikawa is a better hitter and they have other choices for Burrell's defensive replacement (Nate's main role last year.) Cutting either one deprives the team of a left-handed pinch hitting option though. They may end up delaying their decision til May/June like they did with Posey, of course, but they will have a harder time making the same excuses they did with Posey as Belt really needs no defensive polish at all.

Infield is a little crowded too with Mark DeRosa healthy but I kind of expect that to just result in Fontenot getting cut. (Maybe I should say hope instead of expect, Fontenot is just not a very useful player.)

Baseball season is back.  Pick your team! (http://www.interpretationbydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/IBD_baseball_flowchart.jpg) 

That's hilarious. Also it actually lead me to the team I root for! Bonus!

Are you going to punch someone in the neck? 

That is fucking awesome.  :awesome_for_real:

God that sooooo encapsulates the majority of Mariner fans to a T. I get angry every time I think about all the poseur douchebags who go to games at Safeco but don't understand a goddamned thing about baseball. Soccer moms and socialites. God forbid you have more than 2 beers to try to entertain yourself, you drunken heathen. Don't yell at the players, or boo, or bring a negative sign- they are trying as hard as they can!

FUCK YOU.


Wow, I feel oddly better now.

Maybe you should have some Chowda instead. 

We get enough of those fuckheads when the Red Sox come to town. The bandwagon station is filled to the brim in these parts. Seattle sports fans are terrible.

Ha, no I don't think it's racist to make a race of people a mascot.  :grin:

GO BRAVES! <starts the tomahawk chop>

Elijah Dukes is a real piece of work (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6177350). 

He's absolutely fucking nuts. 

Me too, sort of! I had to punt at the 'what's in the Thermos' question.

Well at that point it's a question of "Are you a girl (or Zach Braff) or are you willing to take a Bonds joke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_cream)?"  Either way, a Raspberry Appletini does sound intriguing so it works pretty well.

Also, can someone explain to me the Nats/Orioles section?  I don't get it...

Edit: Paelos is now this kid to me, forever:

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40252/Ken%20Burns%20-%20Baseball%20-%20Inning%2009%20-%20Home%20%281970-Present%29.avi_snapshot_02.11.48_%5B2011.03.03_15.07.21%5D.jpg)

Can't stop the chop!  :awesome_for_real:

It was stopped dead in 92 bitches!

I was directed to the Oakland A's! I could see rooting for them.

I'd be more optimistic about the Jays this season if they weren't playing in the AL East.  Still, they have a nice young team, esp. their pitching staff, and if they just play as well as they're expected to, they could make a push for a wild card spot.  Could.  They'll probably need either the Red Sox or Yankees to falter, either through injury or poor performance by key players.

IMO the wild card will come out of the Central in both leagues.

Who are you picking from the AL central?  I still can't see the second team from that division beating out the second team from the east...

Twins, White Sox, Tigers, 2 out of those three will win the division and wild card, I think. The Yankees are going to faceplant a bit this year because of their rotation problems and their aging lineup, enough to keep them out of contention (they won't drop down so far as to have a losing record I think though) and I have this pegged as an in-between sort of year for the Rays. Red Sox should roll to a fairly easy East win.

Rays could always surprise me, of course, but I think there are 3 good teams in the Central so even if one of them turns out to be a sham that probably just means even more wins for the other 2.

Has it started yet? God, even spring training feels like it takes forever. Stupid baseball.  :uhrr:

Two weeks! :drill:

Man I can barely contain my jackedupedness.

I have tix to the Cards-Braves matchup on Friday and April!

Sounds like Barry Bonds is fucked (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2011/03/barry-bonds-trial-former-friend-talks-of-steroid-use-juggling-girlfriends/1). 

Don't count on it, there are various reasons that Hoskins is vulnerable to being painted as an unreliable witness with an axe to grind against Barry etc. I still think it is unlikely he ever sees the inside of a cell in any case, even if he is found guilty.

This is a huge waste of money at this point. He's never getting in the hall of fame. The best that comes out of this is he gets convicted to probation and is taken off the record books so Hank Aaron is referred to as the home run king again.

The hall of fame is already nigh-farcical at this point, if they keep Barry, Clemens, etc., out that will just complete the transition to 'total joke'.

Put me in the camp for wanting total joke then. I'd like the last decade taken off the books, but that's asking a lot.

It's already full of people who cheated (greenies, Gaylord Perry, etc.) and/or violated the 'character' clause in IMO far worse ways (hi2u Ty Cobb) so making a "stand" on this stuff is pretty seriously hypocritical on the part of the HoF and its voters. But, we've been over this ground before.

The problem is we both have a stake in our respective members of that home run debate. The bias is large here.

I have a stake in neither and want Barry Bonds to be harpooned in his giant oversized head, have all memories/records/video of his entire career erased, and then for him to be thrown into prison. Because he cheated, yes, but also because he is a complete and utter cunt. 755 or fight!

If being an utter cunt was a disqualification the HoF would have like 8 dudes in it!

Not all of them smugly cheated their way to multimillions.

I'm kind of conflicted because while I'm very much against steroid use, even if he had never taken any in his entire life, he still would have been one of the greatest batters to ever play the game.

Who knows?  It isn't even worth debating really.  He was a badass and he used roids to be that way.  I enjoyed watching him play.  That's about all I can ask for.

That's the part that annoys me about the whole thing. Dude was already really good all on his own, but now it's all tainted and gross.

I have to agree, though, being a huge douchebag alone shouldn't count against someone getting in the HoF, unless we're going to start booting dudes out (hi2u again, Ty Cobb).

We already keep people out for being douchebags. Hey hey Pete Rose.

You know, amphetamines and cocaine have been around for a long while.  I have a suspicion that some of the players in the past may have been using these drugs to help performance.  Cheating certainly isn't a new thing.  Hell, I wouldn't put it past Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb or Eddie Mercx or any other numbers of high performance athletes of the past.

Hey a bunch of other people may have done other bad things is an argument I would expect to hear from kindergarteners. If that is the best case for BB then he obviously has no case at all.

People are always willing to forgive people who aren't giant cockholsters about their mistakes when they actually own up to them. Or, in Barry's case, he can blame it all on his best friend and let him stew in jail for 13 months while he continues to berate the media for coming after him.

I don't care what other people did. I want him removed from baseball existence. I can forgive Pettite, and McGuire, and Canseco.

I for one have no problem with Bonds being in the HOF.  I also don't really give a shit about performance enhancing drugs, either.  If they're willing to shrivel up their junk and significantly shorten their lifespan to give me more entertainment value, so be it. 

I will fully admit that if I found out Chipper Jones juiced, my baseball love would die with a whimper.

Honestly, why let it get you down?  It's entertainment.  I was gloriously entertained when Sammy Sosa, McGuire and Bonds were swatting balls left and right, and so was the whole country.  Hell, half the league was juicing then so it was at least a level playing field.  A lot of "good guys" do bad stuff in secret.  I was a bit taken aback when Raphy was caught, but it didn't truly surprise me. 

I'm not that jaded yet. I'm jaded about so many other things, but not that. It's a part of my childhood I refuse to let go.

I wouldn't consider myself jaded.  I just don't really care about the steroids or other performance enhancing drugs.  Primarily because it's not a new phenomenon.  People have always cheated.  It's just a matter of who gets caught.

Here's some more of Bonds getting fucked (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/03/28/bonds.trial.ap/index.html?eref=sihp).  

  :why_so_serious:
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2011/baseball/mlb/03/28/bonds.trial.ap/barry-bonds-ap2.jpg)
 :why_so_serious: :why_so_serious: :why_so_serious:

I love it.

Opening day is tomorrow!  :yahoo:

I picked up the San Jose Giants (local class A minor league team) 'Bonus Book' ticket package for $40 on a half off Living Social deal. 10 tickets I can use for any game, plus another family weekend pass thing. Hell of a deal, and minor league baseball is awesome. Hopefully they pick good beer batters this year.

Forbes predicts Braves to win World Series! (http://blogs.forbes.com/kurtbadenhausen/2011/03/30/baseball-opening-day-business-preview-and-predictions/)

 :Love_Letters:

Ingmar predicts Braves to lead MLB in infield errors!

Paelos predicts the Giants to lead the league in stoners!

IT'S HERE!  :rock_hard:

Has anyone ever gone deep in their first at bat of the season in their first two seasons before? Until now I mean.

Haha, not sure, but it was awesome!

Ah, recently enough I should have remembered it, even. I always have a hard time thinking of veteran Japanese players as rookies, though.

Matt Holliday out 4-6 weeks after appendectomy! Cards are having a rough one of it lately.

OMG Rangers first play of season: C'Mon Man! nyuk nyuk nyuk

I am officially on the ledge over the Giants already.

You have a tough draw in the first half of April. I would only panic if you don't have more than 5 wins by the 18th.

Don't try to talk him down, on the ledge about a sports team he roots for is his natural habitat.

You play my team in two weeks when I'm out of tax season.

There will be shit talking one way or the other.

Be prepared!

I think someone replaced our infield defense with yours. (Although at least there were no errors today.)

If that's possible, I'd like to swap the Angels bullpen with someone.  Free Scott Kazmir with transaction.

Good god Texas is loaded with bats. M's have kept them from really going apeshit (unlike the Sox HA), but still can't beat them. King Felix today might be our only chance. God that kid can pitch.

Jurrjens is back on the DL again, so that means the Braves are forced to bring up Mike Minor from the Minors. It would be a steal if he gets a win against the Brew Crew on the road. I'm not holding my breathe.

What the fuck is wrong with Boston.  Wow.  0-6 is going to sting. 

Getting shut out by the Indians. Yikes.

Tomorrow, Lackey pitches for Boston. I'm still kinda shocked he's the number two man in the rotation. Should be interesting.

I hope Boston loses every game they play...except against the Yankees. I was a Boston fan growing up (they were my second love after the dreadful Mariners), but all the bandwagon fans in addition to the general douchebagginess of their local fans have made me turn on them. Sorry Yaz =(

I don't harbor any particular affection for the Red Sox, although I typically like Boston teams-  Celtics, Pats, Bruins.  I can't really claim allegiance to any baseball team.  I grew up close to the Reds and always liked Cleveland even though they were terrible when I was a kid.  Any bandwagon fans can be highly irritating.  I dislike the Cowboys for the same reasons. 

Things have definitely changed, although the fans have actually gotten better in some ways and worse in others. I remember as a kid, seeing drunken fist fights in the stands used to be kind of a side show at games, which isn't good. Those people have been priced out of seats. On the other hand, the seats are fucking expensive and nobody likes the fair-weather fans who hang out now. Plus, I remember hearing about the grinder vendors on Yawkey Way getting pushed out by Sox management which made me lose some interest in going back. I'm not even sure how things are done there now.

It's much cheaper for my family to travel to (plush) Camden Yards to watch the Sox rather than crossing the state line into Boston for a weekend.

OTOH, I now live in Miami. If the baseball atmosphere in this city could be expressed as WAR, it would something around -25.5 or worse.

Looks like "Manny being Manny" means running like a childish douchebag when you fail your 2nd drug test in the post-steroids witchhunt.

Good riddance.

That's all "Manny being Manny" ever meant.  I hate that guy.

Yeah, good luck living in obscurity, Manny. Your ass ain't never getting in the Hall of Fame.

What a shithead.

Yep, Mariners are at least as shitty as I expected. Possibly shittier. Always nice to give up on the season before April is ten days old. They will never amount to shit until Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong die (since the stupid fucks won't retire).

The Giants are being all ... Giant-y.

I need a good bandwagon team to root for.  Maybe I'll pull for the Orioles this year....

Texas or Cleveland is always a good choice.

Since I grew up going to Cleveland games and live in Texas those would be more fair-weather-fan teams, but I guess I'm cool with that.  I forgot that the Rangers were supposed to be good.

I have a hard time with NL teams, for some reason.  The Reds were close when I was a kid but NL just bores me to tears.

The NL is for baseball purists, like myself. People who love pitching duels, and games that end 2-0.

The Cubs are being pretty much what I thought they'd be this year - good one day, absolute shit the next. Losing your 4 and 5 starter to the DL after one start each is not a good sign, though Casey Coleman pitched adequately today. I don't expect they will compete this year but they won't be predictable either. And Starlin Castro is going to be a goddamn star.

DirecTv had their MLB Extra Innings preview this weekend, so I got to see some teams I'd never get to see like the Royals and Tigers. The Tigers seem deadset on stepping on their own dicks defensively. I have no idea how the Orioles have won so many games early, though I don't think it'll last. The Rays will be pretty terrible this year and the A's will be a hard luck team with some stud young arms.

Maybe I'll bandwagon on the Giants.  If I get into it enough maybe the wife will let us go out for a game, since that is where she is from.   :why_so_serious:

If you're looking for a young, exciting team to watch this year, I'd suggest following the Blue Jays.  They probably won't make the playoffs, but they'll hit a tonne of HR's and could have some nice starting pitching.

I can understand that, since I am sure your grew up watching games without the DH.  :oh_i_see:

I grew up with both. Born with the Braves, lived with the Rangers for my schooling years. I've always preferred the pitcher hitting.

I am glad the DH exists, because I think it's nice for people who have a talent to smack the everloving shit out of a ball to have someplace to play even if that's their only talent (I'm a softie!), but I am also glad it does not exist somewhere else, because pitchers batting are hilarious.

The thing about seeing a pitcher getting a hit is it can be pretty damn exciting. Kinda like watching a kicker make a tackle after a punt. Or Christy Brown writing a chalk letter "A" with his left foot.

Also, Matsuzaka. WTF, That is some bad sushi.

Wow, the depression in the Mariners' stadium is like. Tangible. It may be the most depressing thing I've seen this month.

Arrietta's meltdown vs the Rangers aside, the O's have been pitching really well.   With some solid additions in the middle of the line-up, teams can't pitch around Markakis, so he's been a RBI machine so far.     But yah, it won't last, but still, I figure there's a good chance of 85 or so wins this season if the line-up can stay reasonably healthy.

That O's lineup ain't staying healthy. Roberts, Derek Lee and Vlad Guerrero are probably all going to spend time on the DL this year. 85 wins is seriously optimistic in that division, with an improved Blue Jay team and the only real holes in the Yankees lineup being their pitching - which they have enough offense to ignore. They might get to .500 this year though. And sooner or later the Sox will pull their thumbs out and starting winning multiple games in a row.

The Red Sox don't seem to have any mojo at all this year.  I don't expect them to do a full recovery.

I still don't think the Yankees are really all that strong a team, I expect the Red Sox to be in it at the end. I may change my tune if they still don't have their shit together in May, but it is a long, long season.

Toronto has the potential to be very good. 

Yep, and honestly Baltimore is not all that far off themselves, although they won't keep this current win % up obviously.

EDIT: I'm actually WTFing a little harder at the AL Central than the AL East, honestly.

Try being a (nearly- they started playing when I was 7) life long Mariners fan. The end of the game helped, but it is way too long between fun games these seasons  :heartbreak:

This did crack me up though-

Blue Jays fall to Toronto’s bullpen

Man, that game was 7-1 when I stopped watching it. Oops.

It's amazing what an excellent manager can do for a team. Going back to last year, Showalter is 40-26 leading the O's. Reminds me a little of Leyland cracking the whip for the 2006 Tigers. The O's aren't capable of the across-the-board punch of that team, but faith and focus can go a long way.

As for Seattle, I noticed Smoak has an OBP of .381 through the first ten games. Definitely solid. Hopefully, he locates his power soon.

I checked back when I got in bed and it was 7-4, so I watched the rest. Nice way to end the night!

Re: Orioles

Interesting article about the O's and M's here (http://www.ussmariner.com/2011/04/11/the-power-of-perception/). If you are a baseball fan, that site (and especially that writer) is fantastic.

Nice article  and yah - that's the  thing about baseball -there's enough games that eventually hot streaks and cold streaks will eventually average out.

Hell, I was actually rooting for Toronto, but the despair. I couldn't help but notice it and feel bad for the Mariners. I can't even explain what it was, really, it's not like I haven't watched games where the people in the stands all look miserable and aren't into it before.

Toronto blowing that lead is pretty hilarious, though.

Toronto's bullpen is going to be their major weakness this season I predict.

Texas lost a game. PANIC!  :awesome_for_real:

That arm is something to panic about.

Yeah that's huge. That dude is never going to play a full season.

The thing I don't like about the NL is that is has adopted a very stupid style of play. Constantly running into outs, sliding into first, LaRussa using PITCHERS as pinch-runners, etc.

....really?  You can honestly look at Boston and New York and say something like that?

(http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ozzie-guillen-choke.jpg)
 
:oh_i_see:

I toned down my comment a little but yeah, I can say something like that. By stupid I mean stupid on-field decisions. A lot of the time it seems like NL teams are trying to lose.

LaRussa using pitchers as pinch-runners twice in one post-season series, with disastrous results both times, is probably the funniest example.

I still will always think of LaRussa as an AL guy. Part of the reason you see stuff like that in the NL more often, though, is there's just more for a manager to do (and thus more opportunities to fail) when he has to work around a batting pitcher.

Stuff like sliding into first is purely a culture thing. In the NL sliding into first is seen as a guy trying really hard, even though it very rarely makes any sense. (Basically only when the first baseman is going to be pulled off the bag and has to apply a tag)

Grady Little got fired from his Boston job for leaving Pedro Martinez in to pitch in the post season. La Russa kept his job after using TWO pitchers as pinch runners and having them run into two outs in the post season. Yes, La Russa was in the AL for a long time but I'm pretty sure pulling something like that in the AL would get him instantly fired. Obviously this is highly subjective but IMO the NL has a much higher tolerance for stupidity as long as the person being stupid appears to be giving their all.

La Russa is known for trying unorthodox things if he thinks it'll help his team win. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

Dude there are a lot of things you can knock the NL for, but having stupid managers isn't one of them. That's just ridiculous.

What about guys like Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, Tommy Lasorda, Dusty Baker, and Bruce Bochy? I mean let's get real.

I really don't think there's a culture that specific, these guys will all work for whoever.

Shockingly, I disagree.

Yep, he was on my fantasy team, and I already had Corey Hart on the DL. God... damnit.

Also, NL is for real baseball fans.   :why_so_serious:

Attending games in April (and sometimes into May) is a miserable experience even when the team is good. It is an outdoor stadium about 2 blocks from the Sound, so the wind is constantly blowing and it is fucking COLD. It is an amazing place to see a game when the weather cooperates though. Unfortunately the past few seasons the team has been out of the running by the time the weather turns.

 I may break my boycott of attending games in person (goes back to when they didn't fire Hargrove in the offseason on year, only to have him fuck off in the middle of the next season for whatever reason) since my son is getting old enough to think it was cool. He loves going to hockey games, even if he loses interest shortly after the actual game starts (he is only 2). Getting to go into the arena, see the Zamboni, and high five the mascot is enough for him  :grin:

That is so cute.

The "the weather probably sucks" thing did occur to me, I just didn't think it could impact the despair that much. I am insane, though, because I like going to sporting events when it is cold (it can even be cold AND rain, provided I am prepared for it). Anyway, there was this one dude in the stands I kept noticing. He had some sort of silly fan hat on (it was like ... a big yellow foam crown). But he looked like someone had run over his puppy. That pretty much summed up the whole feeling I was getting. I wanted to hug him.



Uh ... so ... baseball! It is happening.

That might have been Red (he sits behind the Mariner dugout about 6 rows deep or so). His favorite player of all time is Adrian Beltre, and he is still heartbroken that he didn't come back.

He was probably sad because the crown was for "King" Felix, the pitcher who was getting shelled when they kept showing him.

Well yes, but the real deep hurt is from AB leaving  :grin:

In other news, promising young catcher Adam Moore is out for the season for knee surgery. The way the team is playing, I think he got off better than the poor bastards that have to play every day and get their asses kicked.

Angels in first place!  I want to believe!  (I don't really, regression is a bitch.  Although if they play .500-ish ball from here on out, they probably have enough to make the division interesting.)

Okay, maybe I believe a little :drill:.

Lead picture for the local preview of the Giants-Braves series is Brooks Conrad looking sad.  :awesome_for_real:

We're going to lose game 1, or barely scratch out a 1 run win. I'm on record with that right now. Hanson has been totally erratic and our batting is horrid, not to mention having our guts ripped out in the last game.

Game 2, we're going to own the Giants. Lincecum has a bad outing and Hudson doesn't post two bad games in a row. He's our stopper.

Game 3 is a total toss-up. Beachy and Sanchez are both young. Whoever scores first probably takes it.

I dunno, Bumgarner has been pretty bad so far. I would say tonight is our most likely loss personally. Although I still don't trust Sanchez either.

Bumgarner has performed better than John Lackey this year, which is to say he's currently the second least effective starter in the game. I know because I drafted him.  :awesome_for_real:

It depends on if good Sanchez or spaz Sanchez shows up. He seems to think consistancy is for pussies.

Prediction #1 goes to you. I didn't expect Bumgardner to implode in the 3rd. That was the difference.

Prediction #2 goes to me. Lincecum walked more guys than I've ever seen him walk in a game and it cost him dearly. We have the chance for the rare road sweep!

Lincecum just couldn't find the strike zone from the first pitch.  That could have turned into a rout early had he not gotten bailed out by a failed steal attempt and a double play ball in the first.

Just a weird game for him, and my fantasy team as I have both pitchers of record and Craig Kimbrel.

That's because I think that was, in fact, the most he's ever walked in a game.

The AP agrees with you.

Once I decide to nerd about something, I go all out, baby.  :oh_i_see:

SWEEP!

Trim that Beard you hippy!

So did Ingmar throw himself into the Bay in a mighty rage after that series?

Nah, I am more just  :oh_i_see: because a lot of my misgivings about this team are coming true.

I was like  :drill: for about a day until I realized we're still not about .500, and then I was like  :oh_i_see:

Ingmar does not rage about his sport teams, he simply despairs.  :oh_i_see:

I have no thing to add, I just want to make a  :oh_i_see: too.

MLBPA says that expanded playoffs are part of the discussion (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6430121)


I'm very against this.  MLB and NBA playoffs are already too long and boring as it is. 

I dunno, I didn't find the playoffs boring at all last season. It made me like baseball!  :why_so_serious:

Baseball could maybe stand with another two wild card teams, but IMO, only if they ditch about 20 regular season games. Fuck, it's already almost November when the damn World Series is over, you want to extend that? Baseball season is crazy long and it's almost to the point where a .500 team can make the playoffs and win the Series. I don't want that.

I only pay attention to baseball for about the first week of the season and the last couple of playoff rounds as it is. 

Baseball was the last stronghold of American sport where the regular season really mattered. If you make it more like hockey and basketball, you make so much of the 162 game season completely useless. If it was like the NBA, heres what you would have:

#1 Tampa v. #8 Detroit                    #1 Philly v. #8 Dodgers
#2 Minnesota v. #7Toronto               #2 Giants v. #7 Rockies
#3 Texas v. #6 White Sox                 #3 Cincy v. #6 St. Louis
#4 Yankees v. #5 Boston                  #4 Atlanta v. #5 San Diego

Yall see how ridiculously top-heavy that gets in certain areas. The AL East and the NL West get 4 teams a piece in the playoffs, even though most of those teams don't remotely deserve a shot with their regular season play. The only one you could make a serious case for would be San Diego, but they had their shot to knock off San Fran and blew it. Boston, despite being 13 games over .500 still managed to finish 3rd in their division. Sorry, but I don't want a third place team in the playoffs.

I think baseball needs to contract and reorganize the divisions rather than expand the playoffs.

I do not understand this line of thinking at all. If that .500 team can get through the playoffs against teams that (I assume) you think are better and win the World Series, well ... I, personally, give them a mental high five. Try not to suck, other teams who lost to the .500 team!

This goes for the "waaah, I don't want a third place team in the playoffs" shit, too. Try not to suck against the third place team, other teams!

Here's why we say that, and believe me it stems from a logical place, not simply a preference.

Baseball is the ultimate grinder sport. You play everybody in your league several times over during a 162 game season that lasts six months. We know exactly how you stack up against everyone because we've already played a home and away series against you. In some cases of your own division, you will have played 18 games against the teams in question. We know who is better with a definite regularity in that division.

Baseball is also the ultimate momentum sport. The mental attitude and momentum swings happen very slowly and can carry teams through hot and cold streaks for weeks. What you don't want is a team who gets hot at the right time to hit the #1 team when their key members are worn down from slugging out a regular season and knock them off in a week. You've taken something where we know for a fact that over six months a team was dominate, and tough, and won everything, and tossed it out the window. While that's the nature of the playoffs at the highest level in some degree, look at what it does to the regular season in something like the NBA and the NFL when teams know they have things sewn up, or they know they can't make it when there's 1/4 of the season left. In the NFL that's only 4 games. In the MLB it would be 40.

So why have playoffs at all, at that point? Why not throw a little bag of confetti and tell the Rays good job, you were the best?

Because in the past you didn't play interleague, so you didn't know if the AL champion was better than the NL champion. The only way to decide that was the World Series. Then, in 1969 we had 12 teams on each side, so they opened it up to a Western and Eastern division of each league. The two division winners played for the pennant and the right to play in the World Series.

That was fine until 1994, when Selig reorganized everything and adopted the Wild Card. Purists hate it, but then again purists hated divisions back in 1969. At this point, you're pushing it, but you still get the sense of NL v. AL and the top four teams battling each other to prove they are the best. Then, in 1997 we got interleague play and this all fell apart. There is nothing more that I hate then interleague games.

So yes, Sjofn, I would love nothing more than to throw the Rays a bag of confetti, tell them to go play the Phillies in the World series and call it a day. We would have been better for the experience in my view.

Ugh, I don't feel the same at all, and not just because I got swept up in GIANTS FEVER. One of my big reasons for not liking baseball growing up is because of the no playoffs thing.

And I totally mean not even a world series. Just whoever had the best record. Good job, dudes! You won. Everyone go home. Totes exciting. WAY more fun than a playoff series where more than two teams worth of fans give a shit, with the top two from that going at it for all the marbles. You can even blab the stupid bullshit line about how the entire season is the playoffs.

I'm sort of neutral on adding 2 more teams. While I don't really like the idea of having a series as short as 3 games deciding something in the playoffs, and I don't think longer playoffs is really good, I do think that having those extra two wild card spots and the wild-card play-in series would have a couple nice benefits:

- At least two more team fanbases worth of people have a reason to pay attention to the game after August
- Winning your division has a much more tangible benefit (you don't have the chance of random fail in the short wild card series), so the race for first place will tend to matter more, which means more deadline trades etc.
- It helps with the AL East Problem.

The flip side of the good part of the long season (we really grind it out and see who is good over the long haul) is that it becomes really, really evident when you have a team that isn't going to make the playoffs, which has a bad effect on attendance for the teams that are clearly out, etc. Last year the AL had no races of interest at all, with this rule in place at least we would have had a Sox vs. Sox race for that last wild card spot to care about. I'll grant you the NL scenario last year would actually probably have become a little less exciting, but those kinds of 3 way races are pretty rare in recent history.

I don't think there's really any danger of them going to a NBA/NHL gold star for participation type playoff scenario so I'm not really buying the slippery slope argument much. Anyway, that all said I think it may actually make for worse playoff baseball to do it, since a short series is a pretty random result and the longer layoff for the other teams may screw with their momentum etc. So I'm still undecided, overall.

I like a playoff in a lot of things. Hell in most sports they make a ton of sense to have a longer playoff because you can debate who was better due to schedules.

Baseball ain't that. I knew the Phillies and the Giants were the two best teams in the NL. I knew the Rays and the Rangers were the two best teams in the AL. I think we got the World Series that was acceptable, but not the best. I am totally fine with it.

It's very rare that over 7 games the best team doesn't win. What I hate is the 5 game series. If that goes to seven, I'm cool with the current format. Don't expand it.

Why not ditch the regular season and just have a month-long tournament if you're going to invite a quarter of the league anyway?  :why_so_serious:

The regular season should have some meaning because it's so goddamn long. If a team that can't even win half its games is crowned World Series champ because they got hot in October, why did they play all 162 of those games?

I'd be in favor of doing another reorganization of divisions, mind you, into 4 divisions per league. Break up the AL East so that the Yankees and Red Sox aren't constantly keeping teams like Toronto and Tampa out of the playoffs. If it were up to me, I'd have:

AL East
New York
Boston
Baltimore

AL North
Toronto
Chicago
Minnesota
Detroit

AL South
Tampa Bay
Kansas City
Cleveland
Texas

AL West
LA Angels
Oakland
Seattle

NL East
New York Mets
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

NL North
Chicago
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Cincinnati

NL South
Atlanta
Colorado
Houston
Florida

NL West
LA Dodgers
San Francisco
Arizona
San Diego

IMO you run a much, much bigger risk of a sub-.500 team making the playoffs with a model like that. Fewer divisions/more wild cards means more teams with better records, not the other way around. Small NFL style divisions is how the Seahawks got into the playoffs this year after all.

Because the season is so long, I think having a .500 team get in and then be hot at the right time is perfectly acceptable. They clearly ground it out the longest, right? ENDURANCE IS PART OF BASEBALL, I keep hearing. They play those multi-game playoff series for a reason, I keep hearing. So again: Try not to suck so hard against the .500 team, other teams!

By the way, Paelos, if you thought the Giants and the Rangers were two of the best teams in baseball last year, you definitely kept it to yourself. Before the Phillies/Giants series started, you were whining you'd have to watch a Philly/NY world series after those bastards who limped into the playoffs knocked your dudes out.  :oh_i_see:

The vagaries of playoff baseball, a bit like playoff hockey, makes hot streaks and the like a big issue.  In hockey a hot goalie can take a bad team really far, in baseball you're able to shorten up your rotation (sometimes dramatically with a guy like Sabathia) and use the bullpen much more aggressively because you're not saving them for anything and you've got tons of extra days off because of travel.

Those vagaries also make playoff baseball really fun to watch, but less useful at determining the "best team" with each extra team added.  At the end of the day, I think that's what any sport's playoffs should be about first, finding that year's best team.  If it were practical, I'd ditch divisions and playoffs, but it's sort of not.

If only you meanies would stop making pitchers flail at the plate...

I think they should lump everyone together into national league and american league, just like the old days and have a world series.  That's your post season.  That is if they want to keep the 162 game season.  Otherwise make it 82 games or some shit and have all the playoffs you want.

They need to sell tickets to regular season games, though. The days when baseball just had the World Series and that was it were also the days where baseball was the only game in town. Sports fans have a TON more options these days, and outside of the core diehard segment they won't just keep buying tickets forever for a team that never has a chance at anything, which I guarantee will happen to a lot of teams if they ever went back to the 2 leagues, no divisions, no playoffs model.

Have you seen the stadiums lately?  They're dead.  Down in the good seats is even a ghostland.  Have fewer games, make them mean more and sell more seats to those games. 

I thought the Giants drew an easy match with the Braves because we were decimated. I wasn't about to give them any credit on the front end for beating us. As for Philly, uh, division rival much? And the Yankees? I'd rather saw off my own arm than watch them in the series due to my hatred of both programs. That doesn't mean I didn't think Philly was the best team in the NL because damned if they aren't. Giants beat them fair and square with solid pitching, which is all they really had going all season long. It was very "Braves-like" in it's own way. Still, I don't think the Giants are better.

I kept expecting Texas to fall apart because I grew up in Texas and I saw it happen over and over and over and over again. Hot start, everyone gets on the bandwagon, July heat hits, and they go in the shitter. The fact they made it to October showed how strong they were.

In short, don't confuse me hating on your program for not respecting your talent.

I'm not, I just find your "I totally thought those two teams were awesome!" amusingly convenient and not at all what you were saying back when, you know, they were playing through the playoffs. My point in the "you thought it would be Phillies/Yankees" wasn't "you sure hate the Yankees" but "you sure didn't seem to think the Rangers were in the top two until apparently 15 minutes ago."

Again, I disagree. I thought even back then that were hard players, but that they limped in. The Giants did limp in. They were also destined to face the Phillies who I still for the life of me can't believe you beat. I'm not sure how it happened, except that you actually started hitting and outpitched them.

That has nothing to do with them being 2nd best in the NL. They were by record, but MAN was it fucking close. SD folded up shop, then the Giants took forever to close them out. This was my pregame of the series, and I was totally right.

Fight!

God, even reading that I hoped errors wouldn't be costly brings up Brooks fucking Conrad again. So many missed chances in that series because our fielding was terrible.

That's ok, it reminds me of how shitty our defense is THIS season so far. I heard Jose Reyes might be available, god I want us to trade for him so badly. Guessing it won't happen since he's making $11 million.

Oh and this is what I believed about the Rangers in 2009, which is why I have/had a hard time saying anything nice about them ever (even though my secret home-town love lingers):


Texas ended up 2nd in the division, losing by 10 games to the Angels. I R SMRT.

If you go back and read all your posts, at no point do you indicate "those Giants, they are totally second best in the NL" but even more glaring to me, as you have no NL rivalry whatnot to muck you up, was your total lack of anything at all to say about the Rangers, the team you apparently knew all along was For Real, Yo, until it became abundantly clear that oh hey, they really are going to make it into the World Series. Basically, what I said, that if you did indeed think that back then, you didn't really want us to know your secret belief the Rangers were totally awesome ... that seems to be the case.

You posted a couple of wrong-in-retrospect things, it's pretty funny. This is my favorite thing you got right though:


EDIT: And just to be nice, to reassure Ingmar I'm not being mean FOR REAL or anything, my least favorite Paelos-was-right thing of THIS season:

Also if the Giants don't come back from their 10 game easy-peasy road trip with at least, like, 6 wins, I am going to go out on the ledge with Ingmar I think. There might be room, as he will probably just leap off it at that point.

It *is* the longest road trip of the year, and has no days off, so I'm guessing we may drop a couple just to fatigue. But yeah they better do well, because the Rockies are waiting for them at home (and still no days off before that, too.)

We're going to Giants/Rockies on Sunday the 8th, hopefully it won't be an exercise in despair!  :why_so_serious:

TBH, you're not going to hear much from me about any of the AL teams because I simply don't care. I like the Rangers from hometown bias and hate the Yankees. That's about it. They don't play real baseball in that league so it's not worth my time. I'll make sure to gush about the Rangers in the future if they make it past August.

As for SF, I'm not going to kiss their ass when they beat my boys. That being said, they were second best in total NL record. What were you looking for exactly? Me to confirm their placement in the standings?  :headscratch:

EDIT: If you want me to give a rundown of this year's best teams and who I think will be in the playoffs this year. I can go out on a limb for you to mock roundly later.  :woot:

Sounds like a potential rainout in Pittsburgh tonight, maybe we'll get to play our 10 games in 9 days ><

The rainouts are getting ridiculous. So many with those awful storms lately.

Clearly after they add 10 wildcard teams, they should start playing in the rain like REAL ATHLETES.  :why_so_serious:

This is the smartest fucking thing in the whole thread.   :heart:

(http://www.joesportsfan.com/jsfpics/cards/RudyLaw.jpg)

Hey, he finished 21st in the 1983 AL MVP voting (http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1983.shtml#ALmvp).  Who knew? 

You know I think I might have that card.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do too.  Good old Fleer. 

Throughout May I've decided to do some write ups on the divisions as they stand, and where I believe they will end up for the season. I've always figured that by the end of April you have a good idea who has a chance and who doesn't, so I'm going to roll with that theory to project the playoffs at the end of this year. I'm going to go West to East, starting with the NL, then moving to the AL. First up:

THE NL WEST

The NL West has provided some of the closest finishes of all the NL over the last 5 years, so this is probably the hardest division to predict going forward. At the beginning of May, Colorado has come out of the gate, guns blazing with a 17-9 record. A team known for being a late run finisher, Colorado could be extremely scary since they are starting strong as well.

As for the rest of the division, they are all under .500 and tightly packed. LA has the obvious problems with their owner and getting taken over by MLB, not to mention the emotional problems with the fan getting beaten into a coma at their stadium and the downturn in attendance. San Francisco doesn't look like the World Series Champs by their record, but there is a lot to like about their pitching staff. The Padres are pitching their asses off and can't hit the ball worth a damn. Arizona is a total greasefire.

Colorado - Colorado as a front-runner is a scary thing for other teams. They finish strong historically, so they could just put up similar numbers in May, turn on the cruise control, and run away and hide with the NL West. I'm not so sure. Colorado is 12th in batting average and 8th in slugging in the NL. How are they scoring runs then? They are a patient team who coaxes walks (2nd in the NL) and then punishes you with the long ball (6th in HRs). That won't work against teams that sport great pitching. Speaking of which, the Rockies haven't played many of those. In April, they played two series with the Pirates, two with the Cubs, and one with the D'Backs, Dodgers, Mets, Marlins, and Giants. The only team with a winning record on that list is the Marlins (shockingly). Colorado's pitching staff is pretty average. They sport a 3.70 ERA, don't really strike out many people, and give up the occasional walk. The main difference is their ability to close. They lead the NL with saves, having closed out 12 of 14 opportunities. If they are up late, forget it. Pack up the gear and head to the busses.

Dodgers - A game under .500 when you're in bankruptcy, taken over by the MLB, and attendance down 10%? That's fairly impressive. I would have expected them to go completely in the shitter at this point. However, the off-field problems mirror this team's on-field issues. They aren't patient at the plate, striking out at an alarming 217/83 K/Walk ratio. As a result, their OBP is middle of the road, saved by the fact that they can hit the ball pretty well for average. The only problem is that when they do hit the ball, it's not going for extra bases very often, and it's certainly not heading deep. The Dodgers are 11th in RBIs in the NL, and that doesn't bode well for a team who is 6th in batting average. It means they aren't getting timely hitting at all, and they are prone to striking out with runners on base. LA's Pitching isn't much better. They rely on the strikeout, which means they are also giving up a lot of big hits when they can't place the ball. They have a terrible 4.40 ERA, are tied for giving up the 3rd most HRs, and are 12th in WHIP. Simply put, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

San Francisco - There's a lot to like about the Giants. There's also a lot that leaves you scratching your head. They are a team that will drive their fans to drink. On the one hand you have a pitching staff with a respectable 3.60 ERA, the fewest HRs given up in the league, the most strikeouts in the league, #1 in opp team slugging, and top 4 in WHIP. Holy shit, you're thinking, we must be murdering teams! "NOTSOFAST!" says Lee Corso. You're also batting .240 as a team, are 13th in slugging, and you're 15th in RBIs in the NL. That's...not good. That's worse than not good. It's a wonder they are only a game under .500 when they are hitting like that. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Yes, but it revolves around the fact that they sport respectable HR numbers. I'd like to see SF play a little more small-ball, cut down on the strikeouts, and up that OBP during May. That would right the ship a bit.

Arizona - What can I say about the D'Backs? At least they don't commit that many errors? That's kind of positive. Ok now to reality. They suck ass. Can they hit? Oh yes. They are second in HRs and slugging %, and 3rd in RBIs. Wait, Paelos. I thought you said they sucked? How can a team that good at the plate be bad? Oh ho ho, says I. Their pitching is wretched, and it's pitiful to the tune of a 4.82 ERA. That's 27th in the MLB, folks. This team will win 13-2, 13-8, and 10-8. Then, they will lose 5-15, 4-8, 1-6, and 4-7. They can bomb the crap out of you, but against decent pitching they fold like bad lawn chairs. The Giants took them to task by scoring 5, 5, and 5 in their series. That's that Giants team I was telling you about earlier, that CAN'T HIT THE FUCKING BALL. This team has no chance because they are too erratic. They can and will seriously ruin someone's day down the stretch by playing spoiler though. Just hope it isn't your team.

Padres - Oh Padres. You are truly the facepalm of the NL West. You have the best ERA in the NL! How can you be in last? HOW I ASK? Oh right, it's because you have the worst batting average in the Major League. That's not an exaggeration, they are dead last. Like .211 dead last. I think Mike Bumgarner is hitting better than that. Let me look it up. Yeah he's batting .222. How does that feel Padres? A pitcher on a team that can't hit is hitting better than your entire pitiful lineup. Your best starting hitter is Chris Denorfia batting .283. Obviously, you already knew that. He's a household name. When I think Padres, I think of the mighty 5 year Vet, Chris Denorfia. Truly an all-star with his .275 career average. People all throughout San Diego are naming their dogs NORF in celebration. I hate you Padres.

Overall, the NL West is a bunch of teams who are good at something, and suck at something else. That's another reason that makes it hard to predict. So how does it all shake out? While I like San Francisco's moxy. I don't think they can hit their way to the title this year unless something changes with their approach. Colorado will always be able to outbust you if it comes down to that. Add in their ability to play great down the stretch, and I think Colorado takes the division this year.

Final Standings:
1 - COL Rockies
2 - SF Giants
3 - LA Dodgers
4 - SD Padres
5 - ARI Diamondbacks

So um, how bout dem Indians? I'm enjoying the winning while it's happening but I'm waiting for the inevitable fall.

Just look at it this way. You've started so hot that if you just win 73 games, you're gold.

I think you're right about the NL West except for Arizona. I think the Padres will finish last. A team that can't hit as badly as they can't hit is not going to be out a team that can hit as well as the D'Backs, and I have to think they'll find some serviceable arms before the end.

That's possible. The funny thing is that if you combined the Diamondbacks lineup with the Padres pitching staff, you go from two sub .500 clubs to a World Champion.

Looking at the Dbacks pitching, it seems their #1 starter is decent, and their bullpen ERA is respectable. None of their starters has more than 6 years major league experience, so it may be a matter of young arms learning how to pitch on the job. You figure by the end of the year, they'll likely be better or be gone. Those Padres' hitters though... they aren't going to suddenly starting hitting more homers in that park.

Giants are on borrowed time already IMO. Losing Sandoval for 4-6 weeks is going to kill us.

That made me laugh.  :heart:

I do want to give the Padres pitchers some hugs. They're trying so hard dammit! And for what! Clearly they should go out drinking with the Giants pitchers (who have had some issues lately but I'm pretty sure they'll all get over it except Sanchez, who I am pretty close to naming my Kerry Collins of the team).

I'm not supposed to say this, I don't think, but I think the Dodgers will finish ahead of the Giants unless the Giants get their shit together, like, yesterday.

You're really not, but it probably won't happen either way.  Once Ethier and Kemp come back down to earth (as in, not having BABIPs 100 points above their career marks), the Dodgers don't have a whole lot going.  They'll also have a tough time making moves late in the year, although that's sort of par for the course for them.

They'll get Casey Blake back in a couple months and Either and Kemp are still good hitters, but eh, I just don't see them making much of a run with their staff.

The Giants offense just makes me super fucking depressed, I suppose.

At least you didn't sign a first baseman to a 1-year contract for $10 million to be an RBI man knowing that he hit .196 last year. And oh yeah, he's hitting .159 for fuck's sake.

Really? You didn't want to sign Adam Dunn? Fuckers.

On to round 2, the NL Central. This division sports St. Louis in the lead, the Reds in second at .500, and everyone else with a losing record. The only thing that's strange is that top to bottom is only separated by 4.5 games. That's pretty tight considering the division has six teams.

NL Central:

St. Louis - The Cardinals leading the central? Stop me when you've heard this story before. They usually lead at some point in the season. However, they haven't been able to close very well down the stretch over the last 5 years. Of course, that was back when the Cubs were good. I can't believe the computer didn't explode when I typed "Cubs" and "good" in the same sentence. So what do the Cards do well? For starters, they are #1 in the majors in average, OBP, RBIs, and runs. They also lead the NL in doubles, slugging, and getting hit by pitches. I mean, damn. Even when you're not hitting, you're leaning into pitches? The Cards really want it this year. Here's the scary part: their pitching is pretty good too. A 3.38 ERA with 3 shutouts is strong. These guys have no weaknesses, right? WRONG! Their closing sucks. They have 8 saves in 16 attempts. Ryan Franklin was lights out in 2010 and 2009. Not so in this year. He has 1 save in 5 attempts. That means LaRussa has uttered the words no fan wants to hear, "Closer by Committee." Somewhere, Grady Little just shit himself. Also, 24 errors Cardinals? Chicks stop digging the long ball when you play one off your hips in the 9th.

Cincinnati - They can't do it two years in a row can they? I mean outside of Votto and Arroyo, who can you name on this team? Maybe if you're hip, you know of Jay Bruce. Other than that, this is a team of role-players who can string together wins. The Reds are a hot and cold team. They put together a 5-0 run at the beginning of the season, then went 1-6 in the middle of the season when they played the Padres and the Pirates. Um, those teams are not tough. Certainly not 1-6 tough. So what are the Reds this year? They are a solid hitting team, 2nd to the Cards in the NL for runs and OBP. The are very patient at the plate drawing over 100 walks to 200 K's. They are extremely fast and will swipe bases on you at an alarming rate. What they are not is a good pitching squad. The 4.49 ERA is bad, their starters can't go the distance, and they give up way too many walks. The saving grace is that they phenomenal in the field. Overall, they have to shore up the pitching concerns to be a contender.

Pittsburgh - The Pirates hate their fans. In fact I'm pretty sure they hate Pittsburgh in general. Why? Because they are 4-8 at home and 10-7 on the road. Nobody in the majors has that much of a swing towards road games. This team goes on the road, takes 2/3 from the Cardinals and Reds. They also lost 3/4 to the Rockies, and 2/3 to the Giants at home. They aren't big into consistency. You can pretty much throw stats out the window because the Pirates will score 14 in one series, and score 5 in another. By the way, can you name any of the Pirates off the top of your head? If I asked you who their leading hitter was, who would you guess? You'd be wrong. Neil Walker, after only one full year in the majors, is leading the team. This is a young, young team who has some years to work out the kinks before they can get the ball rolling in the right direction. As a result they committ a ton of errors. Hilarious ones at times. Check ESPN's not-top-10 for highlights. Also check out the empty stands.

Milwaukee - The Brewers haven't finished above .500 since 2008. In 2010, they were 5 games under at this date, and they finished 8 under. In 2009, they were 1 game over, and they finished 3 games under. In fact, going backwards 10 years, there isn't one season where the Brewers were under .500 on this date in May and ended up with the winning record by the end of the season. In my opinion, they are doomed. They fall into the better than average hitting, but meh pitching category. Oddly, they have five shutouts on the season. This can be attributed to the fact that Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf are really good, while Narveson and Gallardo are really bad. That fifth starter thing hasn't worked out for them either. At least they are fielding the ball well like the Reds. I supposed the coaches don't want to look like complete idiots out there.

Chicago Cubs - Ah the Cubs. The loveable losers. They don't win at home, they don't win on the road, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't win if you spotted them a run before the first pitch. The Cubs bat for a really high average, and they manage to get a lot of people on base. However, they aren't scoring many runs. Why is that? They don't strike out a lot, and they don't walk much. They put a lot of balls in play, but they aren't getting much action. That will change. I don't expect that low run total to hold because teams that put the ball in play eventually start scoring by the law of averages. Unfortunately for the Cubs, that won't matter. Their pitching is, is there a word worse than wretched? Thesaurus says calamitous. I'm going with that. It's dead last in the NL. Their ERA is practically 5.00 and getting worse. They give up homers like they are candy. In fact, if you go to a Cubs game and the opposing team doesn't hit a dinger, you win a free hat. There are plenty of hats left.

Houston - I guess the upside is that when you're dead last in the Central, you're only dead last by 4.5 games? I mean historically, Pittsburgh has to crap out eventually and Houston will move out of the cellar. So they have that going for them, which is nice. I won't even go into stats for a last place team because it's pointless. Hitting - meh. Pitching - facepalm. Fielding - E everyone. Fans going to a Houston game should treat it like going to NASCAR and hoping for a crash. You know failure is likely, you know it's going to be spectacular, and you don't really care who wins. You know what this team has in abundance? Overpaid old farts. Carlos Lee is getting paid $19M a year, and he's 34. He's also injured. Brett Myers is getting paid $8M a year, and he has 1 win in 6 starts, giving up 8 HRs. You know what I can buy in the Central for $27M a year? Joey Votto, Kyle Lohse, and Ryan Theriot. Or as Charlie Sheen would say, "Winners."

Final Standings:

1 - Cardinals
2 - Reds
3 - Brewers
4 - Cubs
5 - Astros
6 - Pirates

The Cubs pitching has been bad and should be much better. I think it will be once Wells and Cashner get healthy. But fuck, their hitting is schizo. The middle of their order cannot fucking hit the long ball if you spot them 300 feet. Ramirez has 1 fucking home run and 11 RBI. Byrd and Pena have 0 home runs. Soriano has 11 and he's hitting 6th or 7th these days, and I'm wondering why he's not hitting in one of the power spots? He's hit 3rd early in his career. They really make me sad.

The Pirates are better than you think, but they won't go far because their pitching is either too young or too crappy. The Brewers pitching was never going to be their strong point this year, despite everybody getting wet with anticipation of Greinke pitching there. And Fielder will be gone next year and it won't  matter too much because one thing they've been able to do the last few years is find guys to hit.

I think the Reds will win the division if only because the Cards pitching is going to fail them towards the end. And the Reds will fail in the playoffs because Dusty Baker will ride those young arms to death. I gather that's why their pitching has been what it is right now, he wore those arms out last year.

Houston just blows and will for a few more years.

The Reds might win, but only if the Cards take some injuries to their lineup. I don't see their pitching breaking down simply due to the fact that the Central is a 2 dog race.
The Pirates will be good in the future, but this year they are really really bad. Also playing in front of hundreds of fans doesn't inspire you to finish strong.
The fact that Houston blows so hard just brings up bad memories of how many times they knocked out the Braves in the first round of the playoffs.  :facepalm:

I'm waiting to see how Greinke looks when he comes off the DL tomorrow before I start thinking the Brewers are out of contention.

I think the injuries will hurt the Cards in the latter part of the season. That bullpen issue doesn't help.

Greinke won't be bad with the Brewers, but a lot of the sports press was sure he was going to make that team an instant contender. Even healthy, I don't think he'd do that. The Brewers pissed away their chance at contending in 2008. They are poised to be in contention for the division with some better pitching, and Greinke was a good move. But they aren't there yet.

Aaaaaand Liriano just threw a no-no against the White Sox.

Go Twins.   :heart:

Broke down and bought tickets for Mother's Day. I was bereft of ideas for my wife/mom, so this gets me off the hook. Bought them aftermarket and still came out ahead of what it would have cost me going through Ticketmaster. Season tickets are cheaper than face value, and nothing but the most premium of seats is going for anything more than face value. 4 seats on 3b/LF line 21st row for $150 all told. Definitely could have been rape-ier.

Was excited that perhaps Pineda or Felix would pitch, but no. Felix tonight, Fister tomorrow, and fucking Eric 'Mangina' Bedard on Sunday. He has been better lately, but god he is terrible. Maybe facing the White Sox will help.

We're going to the Giants on Mother's Day and getting Vogelsong I think.  :oh_i_see:

This is amazing.  It seems like prices are down all over for baseball.  Too bad the closest teams are Houston and the Rangers.  I'd love to take the boys to a game.

Braves just swept the Brewers in 4 games. I stand by my doomcasting of that Milwaukee team. A full NL East writeup inc later this evening with Wild Card predictions.

The Brewers have had some injuries that are killing them. Corey Hart's been out, not Nyjer Morgan's down for 2-4 weeks with a broken finger. That team needed the offense those guys would have provided.

Plus, you know, their pitching blows and shows no signs of getting off the deck. Atlanta put 8 and 8 on them in a double header. We haven't put two high-scoring games back to back against anybody all season, let alone in one day.

I think there were good signs in Greinke's start at least - he was hittable but 6 Ks vs only one walk after a long DL stint in his first start of the year is a pretty good sign I think.

I waited for a while on this one because it's been an odd season so far for the East. Teams are really feeling out their pitching staffs and their bats, so we've had a few games that are completely dominating while others are total headscratchers. So, without further ado, here's the NL East.

NL EAST:

Philly - The Phillies are in the lead again. That's nothing new. At this time, 3 out of the 4 last seasons Philly was in the lead or tied for it. They have taken over the spot that the Braves used to occupy in the 90s as the team to beat. It kills me as a Braves fan to admit it, but not as much as if it was the Mets. God, I hate the Mets. Anyway, I won't waste time on Philly's pitching. It's good, and you and I both know it. How's their batting? Decidely average. They are middle of the pack in scoring runs, top third in OBP, below average in slugging, and they don't hit many home runs. Overall, they are going to ride their rotation like a horse and hope for the best with the stick. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention they are defensively sound. They have the fewest errors in the MLB.

Florida - Florida is the shocker that isn't really a shocker. They sort of hang around in this mix of Philly/Altanta/Someone-else, but they don't really close down the stretch in the division. Also, do they have any fans? If they do, they don't show up. What's carried them this far is that they are the best batting team in the division. They pressure your outfield by hitting a lot of gap shots. They love doubles, and they capitalize on them. They are great off the bench with pinch hitting situational runs. Their pitching is good without being great. They give up too many walks for starters, and that usually causes them problems. For the rest of it, they are average as grits. In fact, if I had to describe the whole Florida team, I'd probably say they are the most balanced team in the NL East, but also the most average.

Atlanta - Toss the home team shit out the window. The Braves pitching is electric. Best ERA in the NL, tied for most shutouts with Philly, most quality starts, 2nd best opp batting average, etc. They are the lynchpin of the team as usual. The starting rotation is scary from Hudson to Lowe to Hanson to Jurrjens. Even the 5th starter, Beachy is improving quickly. The hitting was the problem, but it's been on the uptick since May began. Things are starting to gel, and the Braves find themselves in the top third in runs. Here's the shocking part, they are 3rd in the NL in home runs. For a team that was 11th in that category last year, that's a ridiculous turnaround. Also, the defensive issues that they had last season are gone. They have become masters of the double play, and commit fewer errors than everyone except Philly and Colorado.

Washington - Only two games under .500? That's not bad for this squad. Washington has been slowly improving, but not enough to make any legitmate run at anything this season. They have made their biggest strides on the hill, bringing in Tom Gorzelanny who is pitching well, and Jason Marquis has put 2010 behind him with a respectable 3.66 ERA. The problem is that Livan Hernandez and John Lannan are terrible. Hernandez is too old to care, but Lannan's only 26 and needs to improve or get moved somewhere else. What's their other problem? They can't hit the broad side of an aircraft carrier right now. If it wasn't for the Padres doing their best Tsunami victim impression, the Nats would be the worst hitting team in baseball. They are batting .224 as a squad. Wow. As per usual I'm going to embarrass you by comparing your team to a pitcher who is doing better. I'm going to choose Joe Saunders, a 30 year old 0-4 starter for the Dbacks who is batting .231 this season. He has a 5.72 ERA (which is total fail) but still manages to focus long enough at the plate to hit better than the Nats.

New York Mets - Holy shit, Mets. If it wasn't for that 6 game winning stretch against the Astros, Dbacks and Nats, you'd be completely in the shitter. Just don't get too high and mighty though from the bottom of the pack, because you still have to play the Yankees, Cubs, Phillies, and Pirates in mid-May, and unfortunately they aren't cellar dwellers. What's gone wrong for the Mets besides the whole Madoff thing? For starters, well, you have no idea who your starters are, and half of those are over a 4.70 ERA. Your batting is supported by 3 guys: Reyes, Beltran, and Davis. Other than that, you're begging for someone to crest .250 with any regularity. I mean Angel Pagan is batting .159! The fuck? Not that it matters because he's out with a bad oblique. Can't wait to get him back! You might be able to challenge the Nats for the four spot, but it'll require David Wright to stop sucking. Good luck!

Final Standings:
1 - Atlanta
2 - Philly (NL Wild Card winner)
3 - Florida
4 - Nationals
5 - Mets

To Recap, here are my playoff teams coming out the NL:

This is my seeded order,

1 - Rockies
2 - Braves
3 - Cardinals
4 - Phillies (Wild Card)

First round would be Rockies v. Phillies, and Braves v. Cardinals

So, Milton Bradley nearly singlehandedly loses the game Sunday, and gets his walking papers today. FINALLY. Why the fuck couldn't they do that BEFORE I bought tickets? Now we just need to dump Chone Figgins and I will be almost out of Mariners I fucking loathe.

I still can't believe you guys had Cliff Lee. Cliff Lee!

<obligatory Indians Sabathia/Lee comment>

The Giants game yesterday was hella fun, I don't even mind that I'm totally sunburned now. Vogelsong looked really good, I am sure it's because he could feel my disappointment that he was our starter. He decided to step it up!

Braves had a great weekend taking 2/3 in Philly, and they did in on national TV. We usually suck at those!

I will give our GM credit for that...brilliant move. Traded for him for some decent but not major prospects, then waited to see how the team would fare. Once it was obvious that they were going nowhere fast, he flipped him for much better prospects (including Justin Smoak, who has figured it out and is just raking). Very savvy move by GM Z.

The AL Central is literally reversed in standings from how I thought it would go.

Brandon League  :mob:

The Nationals own the Braves. No idea why. They are a terrible team and we are playing the best ball we've played, and suddenly we turn into backwater beer league players that make 4 errors and blow the game.

And Geo Soto is probably going on the fucking DL for the Cubs (and my fantasy team). His average has been fairly low (.226) but he at least has had a bit of pop and his defense is good. Fuck.

Some friends of mine from Philly went to see the game against the Marlins the other night, here in Miami. They told me every section was made up of mostly Philly fans. Sad. It's not like the Marlins have a boring team (although their tv broadcasters could sedate a cattle stampede with their deliveries). If you live in one of the safer neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County, chances are the ballpark is anywhere from 15 - 30 miles away. The shortest route from my apartment is 23 miles and I loathe driving on US-1 and I-95. Outside of the stadium is nothing but a Wal-Mart and a Dunkin' Donuts. It's been three years since I went to a game there and I only did because... the Phillies were playing.

:sad_panda:

Other than that, they have an exciting core of players. Stanton is a beast.

I don't really understand why Floridians hate baseball. I've seen it argued with a semi-straight face that they're all Yankee fan transplants from NYC, but that doesn't really hold up.

Two words - rain delay.  :awesome_for_real:

EDIT: Also - fucking humidity.

It comes down to people here being flat broke. People can barely afford gas. And I'm sure half the people rolling through Brickell in a Mercedez are driving on fumes.

Everyone loves sports down here, there's no question about it. We do have a lot of transplants. I'm a New Englander and Boston fan. But, if you love going to games, it shouldn't make a difference what city you're in. Watching games there just... sucks.

A lot of it has to do with atmosphere. Sun Life Stadium is surrounded by highways and dirty neighborhoods. At least outside of American Airlines Arena and the BankAtlantic Center, there's restauarants, bars, billiard halls. This is a huge market, but the Marlins franchise is a good example of how to execute placement poorly. Even the new park that will open next year is in the wrong spot, although the team's image will improve. It's a $1.2b makeover  :uhrr:

My goodness, the Giants are like ... on a winning streak. Even though they still can't hit the fucking ball. Exciting!

Have I mentioned that BRANDON LEAGUE FUCKING SUCKS A GIANT BAG OF PUS-FILLED SHIT COATED DEMON COCKS IN HELL yet?

I'm going to add Scott Linebrink to that list as well.

SORRY I SAID ANYTHING GIANTS, JEEZ

YOU GOT OWNED BY THE CUBS???

Our offense is a great thing for any pitcher who has been having a bad streak. You're welcome, Ryan Dempster!

I want to give Bumgarner the biggest damn hug sometimes.

And hey, four runs for the Giants is like. A lot!

Braves continue to be retarded with runners in scoring position.

The Giants fans so don't want to hear it.

Holy shit, 11 RUNS? That won't last.

I sure as fuck hope not.  :ye_gods:

Go Tribe!

I think we've had more rainouts this season so far than we've had all season last year.

Also, Braves took the series against the Phillies! It makes it all the most frustrating that we can't beat the Nationals.

Mother nature screwed you guys out of two more wins this weekend. Only way to keep the Mariners from blowing a game is not to play it.

Brain Wilson has the most wins of the Giants pitchers now.  :why_so_serious:

(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090330134020/villains/images/8/84/Pinky_brain.gif)

Braves trips out West make me stabby when they go to extras and lose. It's 1AM and I'm pissed at that point.

I don't watch or listen to baseball past 9PM.

Fucking Gonzo and this fucking bullpen.  Orioles are killing me right now.

NOT A REAL FAN!  :awesome_for_real:

Baseball is supposed to be a day sport, they shouldn't be fucking playing that late any way!   :geezer:

It's the middle of May now, so let's continue with our look at the AL. Once again I'll go West to East to discuss how the American League is going to shape up in 2011:

THE AL WEST

Texas - Yep, no shocker that the last year's AL champ is in the lead in the West. The shocker is that they aren't really playing that well. A 23-21 record is nothing to write home about, but for some reason it's good enough to lead the division so far. The Rangers are good with the stick: 5th in average, 3rd in runs, 2nd in homers, 3rd in slugging, blah blah blah. They are doing well in the AL stats. The Rangers' ability to win will not suffer because they aren't scoring runs. However...the pitching staff is average. Ogando and Feliz are incredible, Wilson is fine, Lewis is ok, and Harrison and Holland are pretty awful. I'd like to see them be more consistent between starters before giving them the absolute assured victory in the division.

Oakland - The fuck? Oakland is in second? Let me check that again. Yep, it checks out. Unreal. I figured last year was a fluke with them finishing second at 81-81. Maybe not. Anyway, why are they here? In a word, pitching. Check that, "best in the MLB" pitching. That's right, the best pitching staff in the majors isn't the Phillies or the Braves or the Giants, it's Oakland. Want to know the REALLY hilarious part? The starters for Oakland make a combined $3.1M a year. Philly pays their starting rotation $67M a year. Go figure. So why isn't Oakland winning more? Oh right, you need to score runs. Oakland is 12th in average and runs scored in the AL. I don't care how good your pitching is, you'll never win a division pulling those numbers.

Angels - Man, Angels. I remember when winning the West was a forgone conclusion for you guys. What happened? 2007, 2008, 2009, it was all you! Well for starters, being 11th in runs scored doesn't help matters. The Angels who used to club the the ball out of the park at a regular rate, are now struggling to hit a homer 2 of every 3 games. That's probably due to the second "Year of the Pitcher" we're seeing in baseball right? It has absolutely nothing to do with the crackdown on steroids. Zero. In unrelated news, ESPN baseball pundits are sponsoring a new shampoo that easily removes sand from your hair. At least your team is striking out the most in the AL. Luckily for the Angels, their pitching is also quite good. They are in the top 5 in ERA, but the problem is their closer. With 9 saves in 18 opps, fans start clawing at their eyeballs when the ninth inning rolls around. The closer issue goes back to spring training when they couldn't decide, and it hasn't improved. Until they sort that out, the Angels aren't a contender in the division.

Seattle - I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that you're almost .500 at home. The bad news is that your hitting also doubles as air conditioning for the stadium. Yep, dead last in the AL in average, 2nd to last in runs, 5th most strikeouts. It's a windmill out there. Don Quixote is showing up mid-season. Once again, I get to play my favorite game "Which pitcher is batting better than your team???" Today, it's...Jorge de la Rosa from the Colorado Rockies with a .238 average. Congrats Jorge! If that pitching thing ever goes south, you could DH for the Mariners, since he's sporting a robust .226 this season. Seriously Mariners fans, how have you not jumped off the Space Needle yet with this team in town? At least your pitchers can keep games remotely close, or this season would go from embarrassing to shameful. Still, you have no chance. Cellar dwelling, ahoy!

Final Standings:
1 - Rangers
2 - Angels
3 - Oakland
4 - Seattle

I think the Angels jump Oakland because the A's low dollar starters can't possibly keep this streak going, and the Angels will eventually start hitting. Even now, they are basically tied for 2nd.

I think the Angels are suffering from Yankee syndrome. They buy players too much, and the ones they buy are too old when they give them multi-year contracts. Oakland, OTOH, are doing it right again, developing from within the system. They won't win the division this year, but they are poised to be another perennial division contender when they get some damn offense. I have Gio Gonzalez on my fantasy team and he is a beast, and they are stocked like that 1-5. Their offense is probably a leadoff man and a power guy away from being adequate to contend.

For funsies, I did some stat checking and found that 7 of the last 20 teams to appear in the WS have been ranked 11th or worse in runs and AVG. Then I checked Oakland's updated rankings and they are 23rd & 25th in those respective stats. The only team since 2001 to have post-season success with that line is the 2005 Astros who were ranked 24th & 27th in runs and AVG. The team who swept them that year, the White Sox, were ranked 13th & 18th.

I'm more a fan of OBP and the A's are at #26 there. Matt Stairs, where are yoooouuuuuu....

Josh Willingham is their main power and RBI guy - with 6 HR and 25 RBI, avg. of .230. If you're lucky, he'll hit .260 this year and drive in 100 runs. I didn't realize how bad their offensive numbers are and they are pretty damn bad. But they are actually doing better than the teams they've played against. Their pitching really is that good.

Personally I think OBP sucks. It doesn't really translate to success like runs scored.

I think the best way to look at who will be in the finals is to look at the ERA ranking and the AVG ranking, and average the rankings. If you applied that to the numbers, here's how your championship games would look

2010   Texas v. Minnesota - Giants v. Cardinals - 2/4 right
2009   Yankees v. Angels - Dodgers v. Atlanta - 3/4 right
2008   Cubs v. Cards - Boston v. Toronto - 1/4 right

I wouldn't be so sure about the A's staff falling off, they really are that good from what I've seen.  I agree that Anaheim will swing the bat better at some point, but I still think it will be close between them at the end of the season unless one or the other makes some big deal(s) to try to catch my Rangers.

I can almost guarantee the A's won't make big deals. Looking at this team, it's not a team built to win this year, but next year. The Angels WILL make some kind of deal by the trading deadline, of course. That's just in their DNA.

So the Angels ran Tim Hudson out of the game (eight runs!).  That's great, except for the part where Tim Hudson is on my fantasy team and his ERA for tonight is like eleventy billion.

The Braves don't like the West Coast. We suck right now. We're terrible at scoring runs.

OBP is the highest indicator of a player's ability to score runs, with SLG as the next in line. Afterall, if you are making less outs, you are available to score runs more often.

Thinking back, OPS is probly a better overall indicator because it combines plate discipline with threat. High OBP orders wreak havoc on rotations and bullpens while OPS lineups can completely demoralize them.

Yeah yeah, money ball, sabermetrics, meh.

I don't buy it.

Aren't you an accountant?  :ye_gods:

For two different stats just mashed together, OPS isn't that bad at expressing how good a batter is at generating runs.  It overvalues power, but if you compare it to wOBA (http://www.fangraphs.com/library/index.php/offense/woba/) which takes how many runs each kind of hit has been worth over time, it's not far off.

(http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/woba5.png) (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/a-visual-look-at-woba/)

About to head cross town and do the walk of shame into Camden Yards after the clusterfuck that was last night.   They better be serving up free Bohs to anyone actually showing up today.

So apparently they added ads to the At Bat 11 app on Android.  Not sure what MLBAM's idea is, but I'm already paying $135 between At Bat 11 and MLB.tv and am going to be stuck with Volvo slideshows on both if they ever give me a reason to update my phone's app (like say, video support that doesn't require rebooting my phone (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12856414&postcount=13)).

(The iPhone/iPad versions haven't been updated all month although maybe their update is still making its way through Cupertino.)

 :Love_Letters: Tim :Love_Letters:

Certainly. But I don't think the old style stats have been revolutionized in a way that can prove anything beyond the idea that more tracking of things = better information.

We're just looking at things closer. I don't necessarily buy the idea that past performance automatically = future results in anything.

The Giants are continuing to Giant. I almost feel bad for the A's, usually four runs is plenty if you want to beat the Giants.  :why_so_serious:

I think you're about to find out who the Giants really are over the next 4 series. You have Florida, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Colorado all in a row. All 4 teams have winning records.

If the Giants escape that 13 game gauntlet at 7-6 or better, they may run away and hide with the division. Let it be noted right now that I don't believe that will happen.

The Cubs continue to be the Cubs. I tried to watch the game last night but holy shit, I gave up at 3-0. Marlon Byrd's out indefinitely with a broken face, their pitching is a shambles when it should have been a strength, their #4 and #5 hitters have banged 3 HR's combined and even adding in their #3 hitter, I don't think those three spots have hit over 10 combined home runs. The team has got a good looking second baseman (Barney) and shortstop (Castro) for the future but they are going to be terrible this year.

The Giants are overperforming now, no doubt. They're way, way, way ahead of the curve in winning 1 run games, and that typically won't happen over a whole season to anyone, as one run games are more a matter of luck than skill. 8 games over .500 with our run differential is... probably not sustainable.

On the plus side April/May wins are just as good as September ones.  :drill:

The Byrd injury was horrible to watch. That's what happens when you get into a pissing match that goes horribly wrong.

The Rockies have a winning record but they've been sort of iffy this month it seems to me, so I'm not particularly worried about that series, although depending on how the ones before that go, I could be ready to stab myself regardless.

I was about to sit down for dinner last night when the Sox - Indians game was delayed. ESPN switched to Yankees - Jays. I was about to turn on Netflix because the YES broadcasts can be painful if you're (a Red Sox fan) not a Yankees fan. Bautista walked into the box so I decided to wait for the outcome because, hey, this guy might hit a homer! Sure enough, he rocked Colon for over 400 ft. That dude is a wrecking crew in himself.

The Rockies are positioned to go on a home tear if they play their cards right. If they can carry that momentum through the Dodgers series, I'd wager they will overtake SF in the standings.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU


7-6 loss is a bummer but oh god they killed Buster Posey.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=15201509 (http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=15201509)

Yeah... that's pretty awful to watch.  He's apparently in for X-rays now (https://twitter.com/#!/extrabaggs/status/73644707774873600), but from the looks of it, his ankle's just gone.

That was fucking brutal.  I kind of agree with Buster's agent (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6592212). I see no reason why runners are allowed to plow over the catcher like that.  It detracts from an otherwise eloquent game. 

Yeah and they should ban sliding and pitches being thrown by the opposing team while they are at it. They might also need to ban batting as well.

None of that stuff is even close to similar to runners bowling over the catcher. 

Yeah, that replay is especially bad. There's a straight uninterrupted line from the runner to the base and he goes out of his way to hit the catcher who was fumbling with the ball and wouldn't have even been able to make the tag had he just slid in. It's a football play.

Wrong about sliding:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110411&content_id=17642700&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

As for pitching:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110522&content_id=19433902&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Edit: better links

Batting/pitching are accepted risks, whereas bowling over the catcher/trying to break up a double play are things you could get rid of. I'm not even sure what of value would be lost.

Don't turn baseball into the NFL, where apparently tackling is going to have to be a consentual activity soon.

Pete Rose crashing into Ray Fosse to score the winning run in the 1970 All-Star game is one of the most memorable moments in All-Star game history. It also permanently rearranged Fosse's left shoulder.

I disagree with that. He came back and won a Gold glove in 1970 after the injury and batted near .300, I think people just liked to blame Rose because he was a dick. It was the myriad of injuries later that ruined Fosse's career.

Maybe this is a generational problem? I was not alive when this happened, but I don't see why that would be memorable at all except as a tragedy. Potential for serious bodily harm really doesn't jack up the sports watching experience for me. I see sports more as games, and not as arenas.

Turning a double play and getting your legs swiped from underneath you is nothing compared to the home plate stuff.  The whole fucking point of the catcher blocking the plate is to knock the shit out of him.  They're not similar.  The intent with the second base plays is to get safe.  At home plate, the guy knows he is fucked so it turns into football.  As for pitching, it is illegal to deliberately throw at a batter (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/umpires/rules_interest.jsp). 

To all that I say, waaaah.

One injury always gets people's panties in a bunch.

It looks to me like the guy went out of his way to hit Posey unnecessarily. If the catcher is blocking the path to the plate entirely, that's one thing, but I don't think that was the case here.

EDIT: I should add I really doubt he was trying to hurt Posey intentionally, but rather it is just a young guy struggling at the plate trying to be a hero at the end of a game. Probably thinking along the lines of showing everyone what a gritty competitor he is etc.

I've never liked the rule or lack thereof. 

I never said Fosse couldn't play after the injury. However he clearly wasn't the same player afterwards. He hit 16 homers before the All-Star break and only 2 in the 2nd half of the season as the injury forced him to use a less powerful swing.

Fosse never played a full schedule.  The injury occurred in what was really his breakout year, so it's tough to say whether or not it affected his career.  I would assume that it would have had to though.

Sorry, it's one thing to collide with a guy when you're legitimately trying to get into the plate safe, but that guy was fucking trying to tackle the catcher. The catcher has no defense in those sorts of plays (I played catcher, goddammit, but at least I am a giantess so most assholes trying that bounced off me), and I really doubt we'd lose much if "no, you can't make a fucking diving tackle into the defenseless catcher" was a rule.

I don't want to turn baseball into football, but the players should probably not try to turn it into football either.

I disagree he's going out of his way. He sees the ball get in well ahead of him. He sees Posey attempt to field it (he didn't actually catch it). I can freeze frame it where Posey is literally about to catch the ball and the runner is still 10 feet away from the plate. At this point as a runner you know you're dead. The only option is to hit the guy. Posey turns to tag the runner like he's got the ball, and gets plowed. The problem is that he never had the ball, and his feet were in a bad position. It wasn't dirty, and the runner attempted to go in on him shoulder to shoulder. He wasn't hunting for his head or trying to take out his legs.

It could happen to anybody that was in a close play. The only difference was that Posey is a rookie and caught some bad luck with his feet getting tangled. I played catcher as well, and I've been nailed more than a few times. It's a shame he's injured, but it's not a reason to react to it as something horrid.

Bochy was a catcher too, he seems to disagree with you.

But all that aside the slide-on-the-side-sneak-your-hand-onto-the-plate-behind-the-guy thing always seems to work better. I'm not sure how they could write a rule to cover this anyway, but there's not a whole lot of good reason for the runner to smash into the catcher usually. Of course then we're talking headfirst slides, which have their own problems...

It wasn't a dirty play at all, however the rule is that if the catcher gets the ball knocked out they are safe, right?  I don't think that is the same for a play at first base, or we'd see batters plowing into the first baseman all the time.  I think it's a rule problem.

Bochy's the manager. Let's take that into account? He's absolutely never going to say a dude taking out one of his stars wasn't dirty. Ever.

I've looked at it several times from all angles. He wouldn't have snuck in if Posey has the ball. He's got him. Hell, he's got him by 3 yards. He just didn't make the catch. It irks me that we can get so reactionary based on a bad incident simply because we have the connectivity. Hell, it happened to McCann back in 2008 when the Flying fucking Hawaiian took him out on a collision that cost McCann several games with a concussion. He went for his head. THAT'S dirty. This was just extremely unfortunate leg position.

The play at first on the batter-runner is a force so the fielder with possession of the ball only needs to make contact with the base before the runner does for the batter-runner to be out.

The runner tagging up at third and going home isn't forced so he could just as easily run back to third and be safe.  This runner needs to be tagged out.  The truck move is so the catcher loses possession of the ball during the application of the tag so it doesn't count.  While the ball flies off, the runner touches home.

Right.  So could a tagged up runner plow over the third baseman in the same way that they do the catcher?

It wouldn't happen because the 3rd baseman doesn't block the bag, but yeah it's legal. Second basemen get jacked up all the time breaking up double plays.

The breaking up double plays thing is what gets me more than catchers getting trucked since the runner's already out and just making a nominal effort to touch the base.

Yeah especially when the SPIKES UP thing shows up.

My sliding link on the previous page is about injuries to fielders caused by runners sliding hard into 2nd trying to break up a double-play. Tsuyoshi Nishioka suffered a broken leg in April trying to turn a double play.

Bochy hasn't said it was dirty in anything I've read or listened to, actually. He said it's what runners are told to do and it's the way those plays unfold and he's sure the guy wasn't trying to actually hurt Posey. However, he has also said that these sorts of situations are going to get uglier as the players get bigger and stronger, that the catcher is really, really exposed and every catcher is aware they're going to usually get creamed in that situation. And honestly, he's right. Unless you like seeing catchers (and runners, that guy could've fucked himself up on that play too) have serious injuries in a largely non-contact sport, I really don't see why "no diving head fucking first into the catcher" would be a horrible thing. I'd rather, you know, keep players playing.

I don't disagree with anything Bochy said there. Honestly, I do like seeing catchers getting hit. So do tons of fans. Nobody wants to see them get injured of course, but damn if it isn't one of the absolute most exciting plays in baseball. It also happens so freaking rarely that it's awesome when it goes well.

Bochy said this:


You lost one of your best draws, but there was absolutely no problem before it happened. There will be no problem again in a week. You just have to take your medicine and move on. Hell, I have another story where McCann got bumped up to the majors because Estrada got hurt in a collision. Bobby Cox didn't cry about changing the rules. He just got the next guy in there, talked about how good McCann was, and moved on.

Was there much discussion when Ryan Kalish launched himself into the side of Carlos Santana's knee last year? Because that shit was vicious.

No, and that was worse in terms of injury. Still, Santana recovered and hit a walk-off grand slam earlier this year in April. He's struggling with a .203 average, but I chalk that up to sophomore slump rather than injury.

I suspect if it had happened in a town people pay attention to it might have generated a little more conversation.

Probably, but I still think in both of those cases you're looking at two rookies who got injured because they didn't display proper technique. Even guys like Posada who played catcher for years got hurt in collisions early because they didn't know what they were doing yet.

In other news, I am both amused and concerned the Diamondbacks have randomly started ... being good? Or something? They're in second and only a game and a half back! They've also gone 9-1 in their last 10 games? Yeesh.


(They're currently beating the Astros, maybe I just jinxed them! Probably not, though, as they're in the Giants' division so it would be worse if they won.)

Let's round this thing out. Today and tomorrow I'll finish up the AL.

THE AL CENTRAL

Cleveland - They don't make shocked faces big enough for this one. Paint one on the moon, Tribe fans, because nobody saw this coming. If they did, they are flat lying, or live in Cleveland and think, "This is our year!" every year. So why are they here? Well, for starters, they DOMINATE at home. No joke, they are 19-6 in Cleveland. That's like NBA-type ridiculousness for a home record. The only other team that is better than that is Milwaukee, and that's because nothing scares opposing teams like a bunch of boozed up fatasses in Wisconsin. They have nothing left to live for except baseball in that god-awful town. Here's my problem with Cleveland. They don't do anything really well, they do everything fine. Well rounded can win a division, but can it win in the playoffs? Usually not.

Detroit - Realistically, after a .500 season last year, you'd expect Detroit to be on the way up again. The only problem with that theory is that their pitching is awful and their hitting is bland. There is nothing impressive about the Tigers this year. They commit a lot of errors, they don't hit many home runs, and they are in the middle of the league in pretty much every offensive category. I feel like I'm wasting time talking about them. Everything about the Tigers screams vanilla, and vanilla doesn't win championships. I think you're going to go from .500 to .500 again this season.

White Sox - Chicago is like Detroit, but without the home field advantage. They lose at home, they lose on the road, and they do it all while Ozzie has hissy-fits in the dugout. They can't pitch worth a damn, and they too are extremely average at the plate. The White Sox are too damn streaky to make anybody feel comfortable. Against Texas and Toronto, they'll go 2-5. Then, in a road series against Seattle, LA and Oakland they'll go 6-3. Then, at home against the Orioles and the Twins they'll go 1-5? WTF? They have 2 winning streaks of 3 or more, and 5 losing streaks of 3 or more games. They have no idea who they are or what they are doing, and for that reason they will continue to fail unless they can find some kind of identity as a team.

Kansas City - Well for once, KC isn't dead last. That's something right? Maybe it's worth a kudos? Kudos KC! Btw, you're awful and you have no chance. You've never had a chance. There is nothing good about who you are as a team or what you do. It's by sheer will of your fans that you haven't been moved to Vegas or somewhere that could draw more than 20,000 people a game.

Minnesota - WHAT. THE. FUCK? How the hell is this team this bad. Talk about penthouse to the outhouse. Good lord, Mauer, KC is laughing at yall! The Twins have been outscored by 90 runs this season. That's 34 runs worse than anybody else in the entire league. They have the worst record in baseball. They've only won 6 home games. SIX?!?! I mean fuck, even the limp-dicked Padres have won nine at home by now. The team is hitting .238, they have the worst ERA in baseball, and their star player has some bizarre leg injury that nobody can nail down. Their infield can't hit the ball at all. Morneau, Valencia, Casilla, and Tolbert are all just terrible. The one bright spot I feel bad for is Jason Kubel. God he is trying. You have a 29 year old that's making $5M a year, 3x less than that suckass Morneau, and he's hitting .310 with 30 RBIs. Tough break, kid, since your big named draw is a pussy.

Final Standings:

1 - Cleveland
2 - White Sox
3 - Detroit
4 - Minnesota
5 - KC

Cleveland waltzes away with the division because let's be honest, the AL Central really really sucks this year.

I watched yesterday's Tigers/Twins game. The Twins are only that bad because of really bad luck and some anemic slugging. Their doubles are way down as compared to last year which usually makes up for a little bit of the fact that they don't hit a lot of home runs. But the team is missing their big time catcher who not only can hit the shit out of the ball, but he makes the pitching staff better by his presence. That's why this team is in the toilet. No power, no pitching. The Twins are going to have to face facts - Mauer cannot be an everyday catcher and be the kind of offensive threat they need. Their top homer hitter has 5 home runs at the end of May. Their bullpen is terrible untll you get to the closer too, and their starting pitching seems to be more vanilla than the Tigers hitting.

The Tigers have gotten better but yeah, I don't see them getting much above .500 or challenging. They've tried 5 different second basemen. Austin Jackson seems their only real outfield every day, every pitch player. They won't wow anyone with defense, pitching or hitting (other than Cabrera). Their team seems to lack any sort of sparkplug or pizazz.

I'm not sure I can chalk the Twins up to bad luck. I'll cherry pick a few of their choice losses:

13-3 to the Blue Jays
10-5 to the Royals
11-0 to the Orioles
15-3 to the Rays
11-2 to the Royals
10-2 to the Tigers
11-3 to the Blue Jays

Oh, and they got swept by Tampa, swept by KC, swept by Detroit, swept by Toronto, and swept by Arizona.

When they lose horribly it's cause they suck.  When they barely lose it's due to bad luck.   :grin:

Yesterday's loss was sort of bad luck. 8th inning, tied 5-5, Peralta on first and dude at the plate hits a double down the line. It carooms either off of a fan's hand or the bottom of the stands into the stands on the side and hits a fan which knocks it back into play. Instead of calling fan interference or a ground rule double, the umps let Peralta score from first for the winning run. Yes, he probably would have scored on the next batter anyway, but still. Cursed luck.

Oh and their bullpen blows monkeys.

Arizona crushed the Marlins.  :ye_gods:

Similar thing happened to the Braves recently. Martin Prado was on first with two outs, and Chipper hits one deep to right-center where a fan reaches out with a hat and knocks the ball around. Prado is running on the crack of the bat and would have easily scored if the fan doesn't touch the ball that was going off the wall. Instead, the umps call fan interference, put Prado at 3rd, and put Chip at 2nd. I think that's the wrong call because it's up to the umpire's discretion. With 1 out, and the runner not moving, that's the right call.

I watched the replay. Peralta's gonna score there if the ball just stays low and hits those barriers. There's no way you can get a ball down the line back in fast enough to get a guy going on the crack of the bat unless he's Prince Fielder's size or a catcher.

Except when the ball bounces out of the field of play and hits the guy in the orange shirt, the ball is a ground rule double whether a fan touched it or not. The umps had two chances to rule correctly on that play and they failed on both of them.

Nope. That's an extended corner of the stadium. It's not the same as a ball going into the stands and coming back out because if the orange guy isn't there, the ball can easily go over that portion of the stands and back into play. It's a judgement call by the umps, and it was called fan interference which according to rule 3.16 "Batter and runners shall be placed where in the umpire’s judgment they would have been had the interference not occurred." The only difference is where the runner would have ended up if the play was allowed to continue naturally.

If the ball landed in the stands it's a ground rule double, but it didn't.

Capping off our journey through the MLB predictions, we go now to the East:

THE AL EAST

Yankees - The Bronx Bombers are living up to the nickname. #1 in Slugging, #1 in HRs, and #1 in RBIs. Here's the scary part, they also draw the most walks in the AL, and they don't strike out very often. Without a doubt, the Yankees are the best offensive club in the majors, and nobody is shocked by that fact. They certainly paid for it. Even with the struggles by Jorge Posada, they've still managed to have 3 players with 10 or more home runs, 4 players with 30+ RBIs, and 2 players with 30+ walks. So it's over, right? Nobody can catch them? Well, maybe, but I'm not sure. The odd thing is despite the fact that the Yankees are scoring a ton, they don't actually hit the ball that well. A .254 team average puts them in the same basket as a team like Detroit. So why are the Yankees killing it, while the Tigers are suffering? Because chicks dig the long ball. Oh, and having a top 10 pitching staff doesn't hurt. CC Sabathia is ridiculous. He's gone in 12 games, averaging 7 innings per start, and has a 2.98 ERA with 6 wins. Good luck facing that guy when he's got a team of hand-cannons behind him.

Boston - After what can only be described as the worst start Boston's seen in several years, the team is only 1 game back of the Yankees. Where the Yankees rely on clubbing the ball, the Red Sox methodically get hit after hit after hit. #3 in average, #2 in doubles, #4 in HRs, #4 in RBIs. They are a great hitting team. In fact, I would say they are a much better hitting team than the Yankees, but they aren't better offensively yet. The Problem is that Boston's pitching staff isn't great or good, it's pretty bad. Lester has an ERA near 4.00, but he has 7 wins due to his benefit of a lot of run support. In fact, he's gone 4-1 in May with a 5.50 ERA. That makes no sense, and it won't last. Beckett's great, and I'm not worried about him. Buchholz is average. From there you get into the dregs of Dice-K, Wakefield, and Lackey. Lackey is especially awful this year before he went on the DL. If he can't rebound, the rotation looks really weak after the top 2.

Tampa Bay - Right on everyone's heels is that annoying little yappy dog that's been bothering the juggernaughts now for 3 years. Tampa's managed to get in everyone's business and ruined the Boston/NY playoff lockdown in 2008 and 2010. We all know the wild card is coming out of the East, so we have to consider that Tampa is legit now. It's not a fluke anymore. This is a solid club with solid pitching, and solid hitting. They are the Indians of this division. They can do it all, but they don't do anything that blows your eyeballs out of your head. Unlike they Indians, they play in the toughest division in baseball. Two things have to improve for Tampa to have a shot. 1 - they have to improve their batting average, which is 21st in the majors. 2 - their pitching staff needs to improve their K/BB ratio. Right now it's 2.03, but without outstanding hitting, you need to be closer to 2.2 or 2.3 to keep opposing teams in check.

Toronto - 3 games back but barely over .500? Should we care? In short, no, and I'll point to three reasons why. First, they can't win in their division. They are 9-13 in the East, and have scrapped together most of their wins against the subpar Central. Second, their pitching staff gives up a lot of deep shots, and they've already managed to blow 8 saves. If I know that 40% of the time they are going to give up the game late, then that's a mental boon for their opponents. Lastly, there's no all star on that team. They have no draw. They have no reason for fans to show up. Don't let that fool you, being last in percentage of attendance takes it toll late in the season when you wonder why you're getting up to play in the morning.

Baltimore - You can't hit, your pitching staff is a greasefire, and you're tied for 5th most errors in the AL. Well at least you can't fall out of last place. In fact, you've finished dead last in the AL East for the last 3 seasons. Tampa Bay getting good didn't help you out much. Maybe you can climb out of last place this year? Well, when you're getting outscored by 41 runs, survey saaaaaaaays...no! Baltimore fans need to really REALLY hope there is an NFL season this year, because that's the only thing you're going to care about come August.

Final Standings:

1 - Boston
2 - NY Yankees (Wild Card)
3 - Tampa Bay
4 - Toronto
5 - Baltimore

I think Boston jumps the Yankees because their pitching will get better, and the Yankees can't live by the long ball alone. That's too streaky. They need to get better at just simply hitting before they can get the consistent production they need.

I think you are seriously overestimating that Yankees pitching staff but looking at their stats, I can see why. As a team, their pitching has been a lot better than I expected. I don't expect that to last throughout the year. Sabathia may be a stud all year, but I don't put a lot of faith in Colon, Garcia or Burnett being as good as they've been down the stretch. Of course, the Yankees will have the ability to trade for pitching by the deadline if needed, but I'm actually leaning towards them missing the playoffs.

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I think it's wishful thinking. They are crushing the ball. Forget pitching for a second, because honestly you don't need that to get into the playoffs. You need it to win in the playoffs. When I'm picking teams to make it I'm always going to back the strongest offensive squads.

That totally changes come playoff time, and that's because with steroids gone, pitching will win a series. The Giants proved that last year against a lot of odds.

I mean look at last year, Tampa and the Yankees were clubbing people with a 150+ run differential. Texas had +100, Minnesota had +110. Philly had +132, Atlanta had +109, Cincy had +105, and SF had +114. If you didn't outscore your opponents by 100+, you missed the playoffs. That was a cutoff. It was all about scoring big runs. That flipped in the playoffs when you had Texas and SF show up in the World Series. Texas' staff was better than anybody except Tampa, and the Giants were #1 in the majors. The Giants won easily.

I think the Yankees will definitely make the post season, and look to be a decent threat to win the whole thing.  They play in the toughest division and are in first place, so they certainly aren't chopped liver.

Unless Atlanta or San Diego suddenly learn how to hit the ball, yes, the Yankees are going to be my odds on favorite to win the whole thing, followed closely by Philly.

I don't think they are a prohibitive favorite, by any stretch.  I'm continually surprised by how strong the NL teams are in the Series.

I do not see the Yankees winning the whole thing at all. Even if they make the playoffs, that pitching will kill them. Nobody scares me in a 5 or 7 game series beyond Sabathia. Is there a big name pitcher that we expect to be on the trading block come July from a losing team? Plus, I think that offense is going to tail off. I really think there's something in that locker room waiting to self-destruct this team come August. The Jeter/Posada dramas are I think an early sign of an impending if not meltdown (because that's a lot of talent to suddenly stop playing well enough to make it .500 down the stretch) at least a stumble.

Burnett is good. He's just prone to the HR. Same for Colon. Garcia is a 50/50 passable 4th guy, and Nova is just kinda there.

Am I afraid of them like I am of Philly? God no. And for good reason. Outside of CC and AJ, their starters get paid dick. Still, if they can hold down a 3.50 team ERA during the season? Forget it. What I am afraid of is pitching to Granderson, Cano, Teixeria, and ARod. Are we really going to argue that their "holes" are Jeter and Posada? Shit, I can name 20 teams that would LOVE to have that as their hitting problems. You have a DH that's hitting .170 but somehow has 16 RBIs, and a SS hitting .264 with 16 RBIS. So, your biggest problem is that your worst two plays have driven in 32? Try being the Padres where only 3 guys on your team are hitting better than that. THAT'S a problem.

No, I don't think Jeter and Posada are their holes - I think the drama around their silliness a few weeks ago are signs of a bigger clubhouse problem that's going to cause enough of a slump to leave them in 3rd place.

RBIs mean nothing except the guys ahead of you get on base. If they had decent hitters in those 2 spots they'd have a LOT more RBIs. (OK Jeter still qualifies as "decent" but they need to take that bat away from Posada.)

I don't disagree. And yet even with that space to grow, they still lead the majors. It's a little scary.

Just looking at the Yankees starters (http://www.fangraphs.com/winss.aspx?team=Yankees&pos=all&stats=bat&qual=100&type=8&season=2011&month=0&season1=2011), first, that's scary, even with Posada who stinking up the place.

Posada's lost a bit everywhere from the looks of it, but he's also been supremely unlucky.  If his luck on balls-in-play gets anywhere close to last season's mark, he should be in the same range as Jeter and Swisher: a bit (15-20%) below-league-average.  Which is plenty when five other guys in your lineup are completely destroying the ball.

I'd say my power rankings right now are as follows:

1 - Yankees
2 - Cardinals
3 - Phillies
4 - Rangers
5 - Indians
6 - Rays
7 - Red Sox
8 - Braves
9 - Diamondbacks
10 - Brewers

The Diamondbacks are making me go  :ye_gods:

Baltimore is fucking killing me this year  simply because they can't get firing on all cylinders.  You'll have great starting pitching, but then a bullpen collapse or 0 run support.  Or, the bats will be on fire, but your starting pitching can't get out of the damn 4th inning.   

But, I'm just gonna put this here, because it was awesome to see last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F8kQ1QHq7w

Can we give you Bedard back for AJ?  :heartbreak:

Lenny Dykstra charged with grand theft auto and drug possession (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6631663).  

He always struck me as super sketchy.  I guess this is it for him-  no ESPN job like his buddy Kruk.  



Edit: 

This is what Lenny looks like today.

(http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2011/04/26/450x362-alg_lenny_dykstra.jpg)


This is what Lenny looked like when playing for the Phillies

(http://media.lehighvalleylive.com/sports_impact/photo/lenny-dykstra-d10b4867479f5764.jpg)

This is what Lenny looked like when he came up with the Mets.


(http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2009/0422/pg2_g_dykstra_576.jpg)

This motherfucker was on some major roids when he played for Philadelphia, that is for sure.  And it's clearly made him fucking insane. 
 

Lenny always was just a wee bit off, whether from the roids or just being fucking crazy.

Roids certainly won't make you LESS crazy.

I mean fuck, Lenny looks like some sort of depressed English banker in that first photo.  In the Phillies photo his neck was bigger than his head. 

Wow, he looks like a douchebag in that Phillies picture.

More proof that all Philadelphia teams are evil.  :oh_i_see:

He was always a douchebag. Always comforting to know that my douchebag radar is still well calibrated.

Lenny is the very definition of douchebag.  In fact, I think it was him that they invented the word for. 

So, it's been a month and change, and I'm going to look back on some of my NL predictions so far:

NL West - I predicted Colorado, Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Dbacks.

For starters, the Rockies immediately went into a freefall, but they will rebound. They always do. The Dodgers are right there. The Giants moved up a slot b/c the Rockies suck right now. The big surprise of the first half is the Dbacks. WTF? I remain relatively sure they will fall back to earth, but their home record is impressive. The Padres are still just awful.

NL Central - I predicted Cards, Reds, Brewers, Cubs, Astros, Pirates

Brewers and Reds are reversed at the moment and the Pirates have been much better than I expected. The Astros and Cubs on the other hand have been much MUCH worse. My god. Rarely do you see two teams in the same division that have both been outscored by 60 runs before the allstar break. It doesn't matter though, because unless a comet hits Pujols, the Cards are a lock.

NL East - I predicted Atlanta, Philly, Florida, Nats, Mets

The Phillies are doing what I expected. However, I expected the Braves to actually hit the ball, and they aren't. At all. Uggla is goddamn terrible. Heyward is a pussy who is getting called out by Chipper. We won a game last night because we had 1 run on 2 hits, and our pitching staff tossed a shutout. They can't possibly not hit all season long. It's unpossible. As for the rest, it's pretty much shaking out like I thought. Nats will leap the Mets at the end because the Mets are getting thumped by everyone except the Braves, and the Braves can't beat them either.

Yeah, the Cubs are bad bad bad and getting worse because anyone who is doing well gets injured. We're playing like 4 or 5 rookies in the outfield on a rotating basis, just trying to find SOMEBODY to hit the goddamn ball. And the pitching has been woeful, something I didn't expect at all. Hell, even when we do pitch well, we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Watched Sunday's game, we're up 2-1 in the 9th with Marmol on the mound after Zambrano pitches a gem, he walks a guy, gives up a double that ties it before retiring the last guy to go to extras. Next batter is Pujols in the 10th, HOME RUN. Fuck.

The Brewers are better than I expected, but I think you're right, the Cards will win the division and blow it in the playoffs. Their pitching hasn't been stellar.

You'd be surprised.  :awesome_for_real:

I watched the end of that game. Pujols hit one that the guys in the next state knew was gone from the moment he touched it.

Joba's done. Poor Yankees.

Braves entire outfield is on the DL, we could only score 7 runs total against the Marlins yet still miraculously swept them with amazing pitching, and today they put up 11 runs with a cobbled together lineup against the Astros.

Some days, it just pays to be lucky!  :grin:

Told you so.  :why_so_serious:

Braves have started to HIT! 6 wins in a row now.

For the Mariners fan out there. Your map of baseball realignment.

http://deadspin.com/5811743/our-simple-guide-to-mlb-realignment-or-sorry-seattle-youre-losing-another-team (http://deadspin.com/5811743/our-simple-guide-to-mlb-realignment-or-sorry-seattle-youre-losing-another-team)

With their new stadium? Not a chance in the world.

Is there a more pathetic team out there than the Marlins right now? I contend, no.

(http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/astros%20patch.jpg)

I don't get it.  What is that chart trying to show?

The new proposed divisions.

Also at least the Astros are 2-8 in their last 10. The Marlins are 1-9.

Yeah but the Marlins will figure it out at some point and stop losing.

So, instead of 3 divisions and 2 leagues, 6 divisions and 1 league?   :headscratch:

I haven't been paying attention to baseball politics much.  Is this some new trend?

No, they would move one team from the NL to the AL to even up the leagues (as it currently stands there are 14 in the AL and 16 in the NL), and interleague games would be played intermittently throughout the season. At least, if I remember correctly.

That map has a hell of a lot more than just 1 team switching leagues.  All the new divisions on that map are a mish mash of teams from both leagues.

I am pretty sure that is just one dude's dumb plan, not what they are officially talking about.

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what the dumb plan is though!  It has no explanation and its bugging me.  ahhhhh

I thought he was just making a joke about the Sonics moving to Oklahoma City.

Half of San Francisco put hexes on them for killing Buster Posey, you see.

MLB wants divisional realignment. The conventional thinking is that divisions should be even (15 in each league) and that they should be based on geographical proximity. The current divisions have teams spread out all over the place and make no sense.

I'd rather see them keep the divisions even than have year-round interleague play, unless they're ditching the DH. Expand the AL to 16 or something. There are plenty of markets without MLB teams that are larger than ones with current teams that do fine.

EDIT:

Since mine was the last post I'll just edit: the San Jose Giants (high A affiliate) are 49-17.  :-o Going to have to catch a game soon.

Dustin Ackley (2nd pick behind Strasberg in 2009) finally up and should be in the lineup vs the Phillies tonight. Amazingly the Ms are missing Lee and Halladay, but still have to deal with Hamels. Really excited to see this kid play.

I listened to the end of the Pirates/Astros game last night, and the Pirates announcers were so adorable when the Pirates won because RAISE THE JOLLY ROGER (they totally said that!), THE PIRATES ARE TWO GAMES OVER .500!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then they said this is the best record the Pirates have had at this point in the season since fuckin' 1999, so it was um. More understandable. But so cute! They sounded like they had won the World Series AND the Superbowl!

From what I remember, they are talking about moving the Astros to the AL to create a Texas rivalry, which if the current trend continues will be extremely one-sided.

And the Marlins may be 1-9 in their last 10, but they still aren't as pathetic as the Cubs.

Braves won against the Mets last night with a walk-off balk.

A WALK-OFF BALK.

I'll chalk that one up under the "shit I've never seen before" file.

Oh, Giants. Way to get swept by the A's.

On the other hand, I can't help but think :why_so_serious: at the Marlins. The manager resigning will not appease the ghost of Buster Posey, guys!

The curse gets deeper. The Marlins manager quit in the middle of the night. Now they are bringing on some 80-year-old dude who's not afraid of no ghosts.

And Pujols is out for 4-6 weeks, killing one of my better players in the fantasy league.

Fuck. Worst thing is it won't make a lick of difference for the Cubs, whose season is once again over in June.

Games are still worth watching just for Starlin Castro though.

Tim Hudson did something tonight that will make headlines tomorrow. The Braves are so pitiful in runs that he had enough, so after pitching 7 innings of shutout ball, he decided he would knock in the only runs of the night with a 2 run homer.

The Braves won 2-0 against Toronto because our pitcher went yard.  :why_so_serious:

I told you so.  :why_so_serious:

Yeah, Lincecum kind of did something similar over the course of a few games last year.  I think after his first 5 starts, he had actually knocked in more runs than he had given up pitching.

I had said to Ingmar during the series with the A's that they should've just let Sanchez or Vogelsong DH since they actually fucking hit the ball from time to time.

Washington has been very congenial hosts so far for the Mariners. Let's see some more of that!

Welp. That is what I get for getting excited about the Mariners.

:heart:  Lincecum  :heart:

 :Love_Letters:

As a Braves fan, I'd like to extend a thank you to the Mariners for their hospitality.

They have had a firm grip on their ankles for quite awhile now. And now the FO is floating rumors that they don't have any payroll to add any help. They don't want to win, they just want a full happy funland family friendly ballpark to fill their pockets. It is fucking infuriating. DH, LF, 3B...not exactly tough positions to fill. A fucking monkey (or maybe even Bill Bavasi) could improve the team for a pittance.

Let's not go crazy here.

I am holding you personally responsible for my 6 game streak on ESPN.com being broken since I picked the Giants after reading this and realizing he was starting yesterday.  :mob:

I accept the blame!

Really, though, Vogelsong and Zito hogged all the runs during the doubleheader. Now the Giants will probably go on a losing streak because they used up July's run total in a single day. In June, no less.  :oh_i_see:

Cain is pitching today, I expect a 1-0 loss because the Giants hate scoring for Cain almost as much as they apparently hate scoring for Bumgarner this year.

OMG BEARD MELTDOWN IN SF!

That was really funny on SC this morning.

Yeah, last night was pretty  :ye_gods:

And somehow we managed to go into the break in the driver's seat in the NL West. Over 20% of our remaining games are against the Padres.  :awesome_for_real:

So it's the All-Star break and I like ... still give a shit about baseball. Who knew?

Well let's see why we would be still into it... who would make the playoffs today if it ended?

Philly
Milwaukee
Atlanta
SF

 :awesome_for_real:

Yeahbutstill.

Yeah, I'm in a serious sports slump. The Cubs suck monkey ass just as I feared they would, the only soccer I care about is MLS and the football offseason is a kick in the balls called a lockout. So no, I give not two shits about the All-Star game or much about baseball at the moment.

If I didn't have a team in the fight right now, I'd be a huge fan of what the Pirates are doing. In fact, a small place deep down hopes the Pirates win the shitty Central. SIX teams and none of you have 50 wins yet? Every way I slice it, that's the worst division in baseball.

Yeah, the Central's a fucking mess. The Reds are a team waiting to self-destruct, the Cardinals seem to be winning despite some of the worst injuries in the league, and the Brewers are showing themselves to be better than I thought they would be but still not good enough to win in the playoffs. When the fucking Pirates getting above .500 is your division's best story, you are fucked.

3/4 of those NL teams are what I was predicting (I thought it would be the Reds winning the Central and the Brewers in the wild card), and the AL is the same (Red Sox, Tigers, Rangers, Yankees if the playoffs were today, I had the wild card pegged as coming from the Central). So I grant myself a cookie.

The major WTFs to me for the season so far are the Reds and Twins.

The Pirates AREN'T a WTF?

Not on that level - they're just hitting their stride about a season earlier than I expected.

Ok then, they are certainly my biggest shock of this season. Here's an article I liked:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/755224-pittsburgh-pirates-the-mlbs-biggest-surprise-in-2011 (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/755224-pittsburgh-pirates-the-mlbs-biggest-surprise-in-2011)

I'm just glad the Pirates are doing alright because their radio announcer guys are so goddamn adorable about it.  :heart:

Hey look at that- the Mariners have played themselves right off my radar. I can go back to ignoring them until next season once again.  :oh_i_see:

Enjoy Johnny Gomes, Nationals.  Perhaps you'll give him a decent batting coach so he'll start hitting again.  Lord knows the Reds don't have one.  :awesome_for_real:

How about that. Posted this nearly 2 weeks ago and they haven't won A SINGLE FUCKING GAME since. I know a shitty team when I see one. Probably from decades of experience as a Seattle sports fan.

19 innings of hell for me last night. I was up till 2AM watching the Braves finally win on the worst call ever in baseball!  :why_so_serious:

Hearing we are now talking about trading Zach Wheeler or Gary Brown (or both?!) for Carlos Beltran, I think this is a mistake.

We were in negotiations but it seems we weren't willing to deal the Mets young pitching in our own division.

The Giants really really ought to be willing to bet the farm on the Beltran train. He won't be worth whatever they put up, but fuck, he'll hit better than anything they've got right now.

Can the Cubs please please please trade Fukodome? He has been an overpriced bust in my opinion. Three years of .300+ OBP built on the backs of 300 walks a year and the inability to put the bat on th eball after July.

Yep, you gave up Wheeler. We couldn't match that.

How desperate are the Mets to get rid of Beltran, because that guy hasn't been reliable since 2008. The Giants are going to pay most of his remaining salary and give up their top pitching prospect? Smells bad in the long run. Whatever happened to all that Jose Reyes rumor mongering? Now that was exciting.

I'm loving all the MLB and NFL personnel shuffling this week.  The Jays pretty much stole Colby Rasmus from the Cards, but I can see why they'd do it. La Russa's been trying to push him out the door for a while. Edwin Jackson has been traded seven times since he was 17. He's 27 now.

Suck it, Phillies.  :grin:

Wow Cubs. Way to show off the prowess against the Cards.  :oh_i_see:

There's a reason I stop watching baseball around June every year. The Cubs are PHYSICALLY painful to watch play. They are terrible this year but at least they traded Fukodome away. It may also be time to shed some of that payroll. Soriano is way too expensive for a guy that hits .247. Ramirez at third has become too streaky. Pena was just a fuckstupid signing. Zambrano can go eat a bag of dicks for all I care. I'm tired of his primadonna shit. Our pitching staff has been goddamn atrocious, and that was the one area I thought we had some depth. So next year then?

Yeah, probably not.

Wow, Indians actually went out and acquired Ubaldo Jiminez.. we're usually trading away Cy Young candidates. Although considering how he's been performing this year I'm pretty sure he'll never return to his 2010 form as long as he's wearing an Indians cap.

Curse of Chief Wahoo

Houston just dealt the Braves Michael Bourn for some magic beans.

Yeah, Houston gave away the damn house. I don't see that team getting better for YEARS. You know they won't spend in free agency, and they don't have enough to build off of anyway until some of that talent comes through the ranks. They just became the post-World Series Marlins.

The Yankees not adding anything at the deadline was weird, and looking at their pitching staff, that's not a team I'm afraid of for the playoffs. Their bullpen is average, beyond Sabathia they have guys that are #4 level starters at best. And the lineup honestly doesn't scare me that much either. It can put up a lot of runs, but it's got some serious holes. Of course, Boston doesn't much scare me either, considering Bedard was their best pickup and he's good for eating up a start and if you're lucky, you won't be 6 runs down when he leaves the game in the 6th. I think Texas really is the team that's going to come out of that AL unless something major changes in that division. Adding two big-time relievers to that team is a pretty big deal.

This year's NL playoffs are looking a lot like last year's, only with more offense. The Braves might actually be a force to be reckoned with thanks to Bourn. I think the Beltran trade was the best the Giants could get, but I don't think it'll get them back to the Series. I think the Phillies will come out of the NL this year - Starters #1-3 are electric, Pence is a good bat to add to a lineup that is not as good as it once was, but is still pretty damn good. Bullpen may be an issue with them, but I don't see Atlanta or San Fran having a better pen. Whoever comes out of the Central won't be good enough to get the Series. Pittsburgh is happy to be above .500, St. Louis' pitching doesn't scare me and Milwaukee is just not there yet.

The Marlins actually seem to have done pretty decent with that strategy.  They as many World Series as the Cubs, Indians, Phillies, Mets and Blue Jays who have all been around longer (in some cases much, much longer).  It seems like a lot of running a good club stems from managing the minor league talent appropriately.  Houston should have decent talent in the pipe as they always seem to have good players popping up. 

The Marlins get a bad rap on their roster strategy mostly because their owner is so completely odious, but they've done a good job, they just generate a lot of bad PR with their methods. They've had more winning seasons than losing since the last sell-off after 2003's win.

Hello thar, Giants. Nice to see you.   :grin:

I'm officially hitting the panic button on the Braves. We've lost our two best hitters, our pitching staff is melting down from overuse, and the fucking AAA replacements can't hit a sac-fly.

I am not pleased.

Hopefully their win today means they won't totally blow against the Phillies now.

I just thought this was funny:

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/visa-calls-indians-to-confirm-they-actually-did-in,21072/

Heh.


100+ and counting!

That last bit really got me. Fucking Cubs.

Uh, Giants? WTF! Stop brawling and win.

Speaking of the Giants, here's a weekend WTF moment:


This was in response to the bench clearing shoving match from Saturday.


Slightly more in-depth version here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/07/SPSI1KKHH2.DTL

I'm not familiar with Bruno, but that's a sleazy thing to say.

He used to have a segment with the late-morning guy on our sports talk here, I always found him to be pretty obnoxious but I don't recall anything overtly racist - sexist, at times (shocking on sports talk am i rite?)

They ended his segment like a week ago*, but I think last I heard his syndicated show was still on after hours. Probably will be gone after this considering the market, but I guess you never know.

*Possible this may have fueled a little extra anti-SF rage?

The rage was obviously too much for Beltran to handle, since he's on the DL with a wrist issue.  :awesome_for_real:

Where are you seeing DL? MRI just showed a strain and he's day-to-day AFAIK.

DTD, my bad. Article was misleading.

Well DL could still happen.  :why_so_serious:

There's a mini drama about Aaron Rowand saying he liked Chicago better than San Francisco or something too, team is clearly falling apart.

I just realized I hate the Phillies so much, I want the Dodgers to beat them. I guess I can't fully shake my NY team bias, even when I don't actually root for a NY team. Plus, you know. Fuck Philly fans.  :why_so_serious:

The Phillies are the NL Yankees, and the Braves are the NL Red Sox, without the ability to hit.

Nah, the Braves are just the Braves, they're worthy of scorn and hate all on their own without needing to be compared to an AL team.

The Braves are the light in the darkness that is the Southern sports landscape.

It's hard to hate on the Giants now that Barry Bonds is gone. They just aren't usually important enough to worry about until last year, and barely even then. I still don't know how they won!

If you stopped with that godawful chop that would be a start on the path towards redemption.

NEVAH!

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ivWX1b9wiEw/TMRUDZwGiWI/AAAAAAAACbA/yj5sH0Djcq4/s1600/chop.jpg)

The Red Sox?  Really dude?

I'm making the comparison between the races and how the Eastern divisions seem to produce the wild card.

See, I don't hate the Yankees. I am completely indifferent to them. I can understand why people hate them, but the Yankees arouse no passion in me. The Phillies, on the other hand, I fucking hate them. I am a little surprised how easily the hate has come to me, really. I am sure I will come to hate more teams as I follow baseball for longer (after all, I am a newbie!), but it took me no time at all to loathe the Phillies. The only team I hate more is ... the Eagles.

Go to hell, Philadelphia.


(I do hate the Cowboys, of course, like all right thinking Americans, but I hate the Eagles and Phillies more.)

The Phillies have had some hateable guys over the years (sup Lenny Dykstra) but I still hate the Braves more than basically any non-Dodgers team I think. Too many years of them being the only team I got a national broadcast for on TBS and listening to that stupid chant and fucking Skip Caray.

At least we can agree the Phillies suck.

Whatever, Eli lover  :awesome_for_real:

You know very well I don't love Eli Manning.  :heart:

But, but, he loves your Norse!

(http://blog.nj.com/giants_impact/2008/12/medium_eli1228.jpg)

I'll tell you what I do love, I love the Manning Face. It helps ease the pain of Eli fucking something up.


HEY HOW ABOUT THAT BASEBALL WAIT THE GIANTS LOST 9-2 TO THE FUCKING PIRATES NEVERMIND LET'S TALK ABOUT ELI SOME MORE


Actually, I could probably rant about how I hate Sanchez. Because I do. I hate him so much. He is the Kerry Collins of baseball for me. I hate Kerry Collins.

I'm ok with the Giants playing footsie with the Dbacks all the way to the end. Sorta helps that whole wildcard thing the Braves are shooting for since Philly never fucking loses anymore apparently.

EDIT: Oh and the Braves swept the Marlins in front of hundreds of Florida fans.

The Ghost of Buster Posey is a terrible thing. Also your comment on the "hundreds of fans" reminds me of this Onion article (http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/florida-marlins-delay-game-until-their-fan-shows-u,17891/). I find the disdain Florida apparently has for baseball sort of funny. Although having been in Florida in August myself, I can't really blame people for not wanting to go, regardless of how good or not good the team is.

Was it free ticket night at the A&P?

Philly has the unenviable burden of having some of the worst fucking fans in the history of sport. And now, Michael Vick.

I saw Josh Johnson beat Smoltz in front of 2,200 people once. The only buzz in the stadium was from a wasp's nest three rows behind me.

Rare game. Smoltz usually owned the Fish.

Going to the DBacks game tomorrow.  First time I've been to a game in like 5 years maybe.   My son, will be staying with grandma.  I don't think he'd make it past finding our seats. 

Giants now own the "most consecutive single shot home runs" record.  :why_so_serious:

Also I am beginning to hate Aubrey Huff. Like a lot.

You know, this just straight up pisses me off. It was not your fucking fault, Matt Cain!  :heartbreak:

Well yeah.  The very next paragraph from that AP recap, "The Giants didn't advance a runner beyond first base in the final six innings."

Also, because I can't pass an opportunity to moan about my club's terrible offense: both the Angels and Giants have three starters (Weaver/Santana/Haren and Cain/Lincecum/Bumgarner) in the top 15 for lowest run support (http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching/_/sort/runSupportAvg/type/expanded-2/order/false). :drill:

Ok small rant here, and this is directed at Haemish's Cubbies after last night's game.

It was Bobby Cox night where they retired the manager's number and the Braves responded by crushing the ball five times against Zambrano. It's the most home runs he's ever given up as a starter. The manager was going to pull him after the fifth, but instead, Zambrano decides to throw at Chipper Jones and get himself ejected. Then, he stomps off, cleans out his locker and says something about retiring.

This guy is chicken shit. For one, don't even fucking throw at someone just because you're getting lit up. That makes you a bitch. You throw at people for retaliation of punk ass stuff they pulled, or pimping home runs, or breaking the unwritten rules. Second, the Cubs are better than this. I expect more out of that organization than to harbor some dicknose that can't keep it together and flies off the handle every little time something goes wrong. I hope they toss him off the team and never look back. He walked out on the team, and they should just let him keep walking.

I'm surprised it took Zambrano that long to lose it. I've known the last four years that he's a whiny bitch douche who can't stand losing. We got the first signs of it years ago when he started a fistfight in the dugout with Michael Barrett. The Cubs should have dealt his ass in the offseason after the shit he pulled this year, but frankly, NO ONE WILL TAKE HIM. He's paid too much for #2 or #3 starter talent. He has no-trade clauses and he's a clubhouse cancer. Who the fuck would want him? We should have just Carlos Silva'ed his ass but we didn't.

Zambrano IS a douche. I haven't heard about last night because I'm just not paying attention to the Cubs until the offseason. The Cubs have a LOT of legacy contracts that are keeping them from doing a full rebuilding like they need to and Zambrano is one of them.

OTOH, throwing at Chipper Jones is always encouraged.

Heh, nah, I wouldn't say that. Fuck, even Aramis Ramirez is saying the Braves did nothing to warrant being thrown at. Zambrano is just a cockholster and I for one will be happy he's gone. Dump his ass, dump Soriano's giant contract, even get rid of Ramirez and his streaky hitting. Oh yeah, and do NOT resign Carlos fucking Pena. Break the bank on Prince Fielder or Pujols for fuck's sake, or just go into full rebuild mode, and raid your minor league teams. It's just gotten goddamn ridiculous in Chicago these days.

They should get together for drinks. It's fucking awful.

The part that killed me about yesterday's game was they had people on second and third with no outs (Cain was one of them! CAIN WAS DOING ALL HE FUCKING COULD. I want to give him a hug.). Then people on second and third with one out. Then second and third with two out. They walk Sandoval intentionally to load the bases and get to our dude batting clean up. Dang, Aubrey Huff, that there is a slap in the face! Surely you'll at least battle it out with them for a while to make them realize you're still batting clean up because you aren't terrible and not because Bochy has a bizarre mancrush on you! Oh, you'll pop out on the first pitch you see? OK then. That'll show 'em.

Oh beginning of the season optimism.  You were so cute.   So apparently by 85 wins, I meant actually 100 loses. 

*sigh*  14 years and counting! 

 :oh_i_see:

At least they're not the Astros? Right?

Giants finally broke their single shot home run streak, then promptly hit three more (two of them from Brandon Belt  :awesome_for_real:) so I almost resent that Vogelsong took a walk before Cody Ross hit his.

Fuck you, Shitty Brian Wilson. We needed Good Wilson today. ><

Thanks for the freebie, Beardo! I was there and it was awesome!  :awesome_for_real:

Tomorrow shouldn't be as exciting, unless Sanchez truly is the Kerry Collins of baseball, in which case he will own the shit out of the Braves in order to give us all Hope, so he can blow an even more important game later.

Gah, I am still shaking my head. Usually four runs is plenty! It's an OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION! :why_so_serious:

I thought we were toast. The Braves aren't known for putting up tons of late runs like last season. However, the overriding stat is that when we score first, we win like 90% of our games.

Tonight is one of those games the Giants SHOULD win, simply because we are tossing a completely untested AAA rook at their staff since Hanson is on the DL.

We are a historically bad hitting team, your AAA dude will look like an ace I'm sure. Just don't take it as any kind of evidence that he's going to be the next Greg Maddux or something. We're also throwing our worst starter at you, so we will probably lose 5-3 or so.  :why_so_serious:

My own stats have you favored while Vegas has the Braves favored. The power line stats favor the Giants. I think it's a true tossup tbh. It's going to come down to who gets the first run most likely.

Well, half the Giants being dead or in a coma is not helping them today, that's for sure. Braves scored first, so game over? :P

Well your starter sprained his labia, so despite Cody Ross pimping, we do have a decent shot to win tied late.

It's a tossup to the last!

EDIT: then again I watched a game like this against the Pirates go 19 innings...

Lawl?

I cannot decide if that was intentional or not.  :why_so_serious:


This game is going to make me throw up. I'm also afraid to find out who will get hurt tomorrow. Because you know someone will. With luck it'll be DeRosa tripping on the way to batting practice or something.

It was intentional. I was just like, ok rub some dirt on it. Then he didn't and went to the dugout.

And I was like... :oh_i_see:

Huff just committed robbery.

FREE BASEBALL!

EDIT: And to answer the earlier question, Sjofn, yes when we score first, we win most of the time.  :grin:

I am pretty sure that was a re-injury of something (the fifth stater injuries are all blurring together at this point, as Zito just re-fucked-himself-up during a rehab start), and I am pretty sure you need both ankles to pitch. I can't stand Sanchez, but I'm not going to fault him for coming out of the game. I'd much rather he go "fuck, I just broke myself AGAIN" and come out than try to rub some dirt on it and walk in a run before getting taken out anyway. I've never been a big fan of trying to make people play injured when they don't think they can anyway. They know what they're feeling way better than I do. I know I can play at X level in Y amount of pain, I'm not going to assume I know that for people not me, you know?

This is probably leftover bitterness from having a soccer coach who was positive I was just being some sort of pussy because one time (one fucking time) we were getting creamed so badly (I was the sweeper) I couldn't make it to half time before needing my inhaler. Clearly a mental issue. She seriously acted like asthma is some sort of made up disease.


Losing sucked, but ... I dunno. Considering how loltastic the injuries have gotten for the Giants at this point, I am pretty impressed it took so long to lose, you know?

It was more of "The fuck, man? Your bullpen can't handle this. They are depleted. You need to at least do some injury pitches and see."

In no small part this is due to the Braves having the exact same issue last year heading down the stretch and then we met up with the Giants, who proceeded to clean our injury-riddled clock.

Yeah, I was actually thinking about that during the game, I remembered you saying how the Braves were basically all dead going into the playoffs last season. It kinda sucks! I'm worried Cain will spontaneously combust or something on the mound next.

 :grin:  :yahoo:

PS.  Fuck the Phillies, that felt good.

At least Rasix is happy!  :awesome_for_real:

Hey I'm happy, worst that can happen is we split a series I expected to split anyway.

I'm cheering for the Dbacks for 2 more days. Then, BLOOD!

That fucking ninth inning!  :uhrr:

But otherwise, yay!  :awesome_for_real:

Thanks FanGraphs (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-morning-after-game-recaps-for-august-16th/)... I thought we were cool. :crying_panda:

It was a bad game to watch when our starter imploded in the 4th. That said, I thought for a second yall were gonna piss it away again.

It had a bit of panicked "oh shit guys we can't win a game Matt Cain pitched in by more than a run, QUICK FUCK UP" air to it.

Watching both of these clubs hit is very  :oh_i_see:

So fucking painful. Part of me is like "well, at least we get to play the Astros next" but they'll probably shut the Giants out at least once.  :why_so_serious:


EDIT: This made me laugh, then weep softly to myself:

One is the loneliest number. Unless you're playing Lincecum, then it's a win. Because the Giants don't score for him, ever.  :ye_gods:

Oh ho ho, don't be silly. The Giants don't score runs for anyone. If they're feeling generous, sometimes they'll score a couple for Vogelsong, I guess. But generally, especially since the all star break, they're giving the middle finger to all of 'em. I think Cain is still the "ha ha, fuck you, throw a perfect game if you'd like, the best you'll get is a no-decision" winner, though. Yesterday was like ... all the runs they're going to score for him for the rest of the season.

I believe Cain has a losing record for his career to go with his 3.3ish career ERA.  :why_so_serious:

Well, so much of your high priced talent isn't doing shit.

Zito's your highest paid player and a total injury disaster. Or just a disaster.
I can count $30M worth of position players that are batting under .240


Your unequivocal best hitter is making half a million. That's pretty ironic.

Zito is pretty special. You want a Giants fan to shake their head sadly, you mention him, it seems to me.

A little more Matt Cain  :awesome_for_real:-ness:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/15094/matt-cain-unluckiest-pitcher-in-history

Christmas in August for Haemish:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-cubs-hendryfired

GM Hendry fired (finally lol).

Wrong guy to fire, IMO. Get rid of fucking Zambrano and Pena, then Soriano and maybe Ramirez to start. Cut the team to pieces and start over.

Hendry made the call to hire all of those guys, though. I don't think he's a bad GM (probably above average honestly) but there comes a point when you need a fresh look at a situation when it gets as dire as this year's Cubs.

Dire Cubs :-o

I thought that yesterday's lineup was the shittiest one that was likely to be put together this season. Then today's occured. The Giants are currently losing 5-0 to the fucking Astros.  :why_so_serious:

Man. It's just not yall's year. That was us last year except we fell ass-backwards and limping into the playoffs.

The Giants may yet fall into the playoffs by accident, as the Giants get to play a lot of shitty teams at home (plus one last one versus Arizona) from here on out and the Diamondbacks decided to keep things interesting by kindly losing when the Giants did, for the most part. Hell, they got swept by the Braves. It was right neighborly of 'em.

We certainly appreciated it.

Shit at this point with your division, this is about the time I expect Colorado to come out of the shitter and give you both a run for your money.

Is age to blame for Joe Mauer's problems (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/08/23/joe.mauer/index.html?hpt=hp_t2)? 

Tom Verducci at SI seems to think so.  I like his list of folks that age has apparently caught up with: 


My suspicion is that most of these players have had to lay off of HGH due to improved testing.  Hell, there were guys hitting 50 home runs into their very late 30s as little as 5 years ago. And now we have a minor leaguer get caught doing HGH.  I think that gravy train may be over. 

Pitchers are setting records because hitters are off the sauce. The funny thing is that it will take about a decade to weed out the people that only made it to the majors because they were on chemicals. The younger up and coming talent should have to get by on actual talent, skill, and things that matter beyond hitting the long ball.

If I'm a GM, I'm doing exactly what the Braves did in their recent trade. I'm going after speed. Speed is going to be the new hot commodity in the national league in the next five years.

Speed and pitching.  A couple of good pitchers can get you to the playoffs now almost by themselves. 

If that is the case, ratings are going to TANK. Watching 3-2 nailbiters doesn't go well with Joe SixPack. Offense is exciting, not pitching duels. The only time most fans give a shit about watching pitching is when there is a no hitter on the line.

I include myself in this, btw. After watching the Mariners not be able to hit themselves out of a wet paper bag the past few years, I am bored to DEATH. They have had a bunch of good pitching, but that just means they lose 2-0. They have a crop of young guys now that are starting to hit a little bit, and they are far more entertaining to watch. They still don't win very often, but it feels like they are starting to compete, at least.

I am with you man.  I actually could care less about doping.  Some of the most exciting racing ever in the Tour de France was with doping.  Baseball was much more exciting with the Bash Brothers and crazy Barry/Sammy Sosa/etc. 

I am not endorsing doping, I am just making an observation. All the doping assholes were cheaters and need to die a horrible painful death.

I prefer pitching myself, actually. Which is a good thing, since the Giants absolutely fucking blow at hitting the ball.  :why_so_serious:

National League West 4 life.

I don't think we can chalk all those guys up to doping. Adam Dunn's falloff has affected every part of his game from walk rate to batting average, it is too much to explain by 'he's off the juice'.

Hey man, I like being judge, jury and executioner.  Leave me to my hyperbole.   :heart:

I disagree that speed and pitching make things boring. Stolen bases and people flying around is a lot of fun. Think Ricky Henderson baseball.

The problem is that most 'small ball' is actually pretty shitty strategically. Rickey stealing 100 bases worked because Rickey also rarely got caught (80% success rate for his career). Brett Butler stealing 40 and getting caught 20 times? Not so good for your expected runs. Giving up an out for a base by having someone who can actually hit (IE not a pitcher) bunt? Bad math involved there too.

Giants...

It's the Astros. Come on!

I've resorted to reading happy articles about our minor leaguers.

PS Colorado has won 5 in a row. Here they come!

The Giants won but ... barely. Against, like, the worst pitcher in baseball.

SIGH



Tomorrow their little newbie pitcher Surkamp is starting. I hope he is acceptable!

Let's take a look back at my horrible May predictions!

The NL West:

I had - The Rockies in first, the Giants coming up second.
What happened - Dbacks??? I had them last. To be fair, that shocked everyone. Colorado is winning, but I think they are too far back. Giants are in second.

The NL Central:

I had - Cards in first, Reds coming up second
What happened - Brewers started murdering the ball, and the Cards have collapsed. My prediction of Cards then Reds holds except for the Brew Crew eating it up.

The NL East:

I had - Braves then Phillies with the wild card.
What happened - Phillies then Braves holding onto the wild card. Still time for the Braves to move up, but the Phils don't show signs of stopping.

The AL West:

I had - The Rangers in first, the Angels in second.
What happened - So far, that's what's happened.

The AL Central:

I had - The Indians in first, the Tigers in second.
What happened - Right now that's flip-flopped. The Tigers are on a tear late winning 8 of the last 10. I think they will walk away with it now.

The AL East:

I had - Boston in first, Yankees in second with the wild card.
What happened - So far, that's spot on. We'll see how it breaks down since the difference in winning that division is only a game, but they are both in the playoffs.


So to recap, I'm better at predicting the AL than the NL, which is hysterical since all I watch is NL  :uhrr:

2/4 of my NL teams are going to make it, and 3/4 of my AL teams are going to be in the playoffs most likely.

Arrrrrgh, I know that the Giants shouldn't have even been IN the position they were in versus the Astros today but DeRosa was totally fucking safe arghghghghghghghghghghgh

Ahem.

Astros.  :facepalm:

Now we got owned by the Cubs.  :awesome_for_real:

Wow, that's just hard to watch.

So are the Cubs.

Braves play a series with the Nats. I'm hoping we can remember they are the Nats and not World Series contenders. We don't match up well against them historically.

Depends on your perspective.  :drill:

I am nearly certain we could score more runs with the 30 year old journeyman dudes from our AAA team.

And if you win, you get the Phillies! Congrats!

Big IF.  We're awesome at dropping tons of games in a row.  I'm not sure how the hell you're supposed to beat the Phillies in the playoffs.  Throw a bunch of shutouts?

Have some awesome pitchers and hope your hitters have a hot streak at the right time seemed to work last year! I would dearly love to see them lose in the playoffs again, they piss me off. They act like all this is a mere formality. It's sort of ... sort of like the Patriots were the year they went 18-1.  :grin:

Dammit Braves, you suck against the NATS!

GYEEEEE

(Sorry Rasix. But still.)

><

We're your Padres or something.

Did the math, it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances for the Giants to catch the Diamondbacks now, and while the Giants schedule the rest of the way is favorable, so is the Diamondbacks.

Offseason priority: fix the outfield. And maybe get a new trainer.

How about a non-assy shortstop? Crawford is good defensively but you keep telling me how bad his bat is!

Try getting people that can hit the ball, that is my expert opinion.

Well, one of the people that can hit the ball will be back next season. So that's nice! I think "people who can hit the ball" falls under Ingmar's "fix the outfield" thing, though.

I'm just saying, even with my vast knowledge of baseball (which falls between 'How many touchdowns did you shoot' and 'How u mine 4 fish') I can see how not being able to hit the ball is holding you back!  :why_so_serious:

The Giants entire problem can be summed up by "You can't score runs." You don't even have to watch a game to know this, just look at their stat line. Scrappy got them a World Series ring, but scrappy is a very flimsy commodity. They need to trade a big arm for a big bat or two medium-sized bats who can hit for average and clutch. Oh and get Buster Posey out from behind the plate before his career is over before it gets started.

I'm not going to say anything for fear of jinxing our chances.  :awesome_for_real:

Posey isn't going to be a good enough hitter to be a star level player at any of the positions he can play but catcher, so he needs to stay put. People keep saying we should move Panda to first base too but that doesn't make sense for the same reason. As a 3rd baseman, he's a plus hitter, as a first baseman he'd be average to below average. We have a bit of a 1B logjam between Belt, Huff, and now Brett Pill anyway.

In any case I don't think we need to trade a pitcher (I wouldn't cry much if we could move Sanchez for something useful but this season has really reduced his trade value), but we do need to stop giving people with mediocre career lines big free agent contracts after career years. We also need to stop jerking around the young guys; Belt needs to start every day, period. Ross and Schierholtz should be a strict lefty/righty platoon in the OF, their numbers are fine as long as we don't let them hit against their opposite number, but both are miscast as starters. I think Torres had his one good year last year but someone has to keep CF warm for Gary Brown for at least another year so if we can't get a reasonable free agent there we're stuck. That leaves one OF spot for Belt if we really think he can field it I guess, but he should really be starting at 1B where he is a plus defender, which means a good-hitting LF should really be our free agent priority. 2B/SS are the other problem areas, Crawford can field but he can't hit a lick, and Freddy Sanchez keeps getting hurt. Supposedly Pill has put in some time at 2B, but I have a hard time picturing a 6'4" 215 pound slugging first baseman type fielding second adequately.

So yeah, a left fielder and a second baseman are the priorities, and maybe a decent one year rental in CF if we can find one. The best free agent OF is probably the guy currently on the team already (Beltran) but he's old enough that I'd probably be irritated if we signed him (I doubt he'd go for a team-safe 2 year-ish deal).

If the Giants don't make the playoffs, re-signing Beltran would be an expensive mistake. He will never produce for what you pay for him.

It would be a mistake, but probably a less horrible mistake than Rowand or Huff in terms of expected performance, but that's only if we can get him for 2 years, and I'm sure he'd never sign a deal that short, he's looking for his Last Contract. Overpaying for a few marginal wins isn't the worst thing in the world when you have a reasonable expectation of the player actually delivering said wins. Plus, from what I can tell the other available alternatives are mostly your Josh Willinghams and such.

I do keep hearing about the possibility of us throwing a giant pile of cash at Jose Reyes, too. Makes me nervous, that's a high risk/high reward move.

From what I understand, Pill has played at second but he sucks at it. I kinda feel like Keppinger is going to be around next year, although he is not exactly the best defensively either, and while he's good compared to the other Giants in terms of "has decent at bats, can actually get on base occassionally," Ingmar is a hater.

Keppinger is arbitration-eligible so we will probably be cutting him loose rather than paying him whatever he'd end up with after arbitration.

Here's an interesting photo list from SI-  Baseball's meanest player (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1109/mlb.poll.meanest.player/content.1.html).

The list is led by AJ Pierzynski, who I know little about.  There are some surprises to my eyes, however.  Alex Rodriguez at 6 was definitely surprising, as was Youkalis at 10 and Beckett at 11.  Big Z looks to be about 150 in this pictorial. 

AJ is a twat for sure.

Here we go, 5 game winning streak for the Giants!  This is where we turn it all around and either die right before or right after the line into the play offs!     :why_so_serious:

I laugh when I hear that Krukow ad about reserving playoff tickets.

We just got so screwed by injuries this year. If everyone stays healthy I can easily see us being 10 games better than we are. The WAR difference on Posey vs. Whiteside alone is probably 5ish.

Whiteside's shitty defense makes me want to punch someone.

The Braves are going to give me a fucking stroke.

 :yahoo:

Rooting for Brewers mode: engaged.

Yep!

Am I supposed to root for them too?

Sure!

Have you seen the shirts Ryan Braun wears?  Why would you encourage that?

Good job Arizona.

The Braves are like 2 games away from me not wanting to kill them.

The Braves are taking "limping to the playoffs" to new and terrifyng heights.

Better than the Red Sox "We're going to implode ourselves right out of the playoffs" this month.

WOO CARDINALS!

Holy shit, Red Sox. Holy... shit.

Heh. Homer in the bottom of the 13th to put TB in.

I love you baseball.

Just got back from the Braves game. My god we were on fumes. Everyone worth a damn was hurt. We stood no chance even with Charlie Manual took his entire lineup out.

RIP 2011 Braves. Hopefully next year we don't have to play half the AAA squad in September.

Join the club.   :oh_i_see:

We were playing the AAA squad in June.  :-P

As soon as the ESPN commentator said Papelbon was locked in and there was no way he'd let the game spiral away, I knew the Sox were fucked. Just like old times!

My favorite quote was from the SUN feed out of Tampa, following their game.

"This game really happened." - Johnny Damon

Well, that was (?) fast... "[Francona] would not be fired; the Red Sox would simply decline their club options on him for 2012 and ’13." (http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/manager-terry-francona-expected-to-part-ways-with-red-sox-092911)

So my predication of Philly, Atlanta, Cards, and Rockies in the playoffs didn't pan out. For starters, Atlanta went to shit. Secondly Arizona shocked the world. Thirdly, the Brewers played amazing at home, better than any other team in the majors. So I get two in, although the wrong ways, and two dead wrong.

In the AL I had Boston, Yankees, Cleveland, and the Rangers. Similar story to my picks in the NL. Boston went to shit, Detroit shocked the world after going .500 last year on the back of Verlander, and Cleveland decided to play well under .450 ball in the second half. Nice job Indians. Two in with one the wrong way, and two dead wrong.

So an odd season of picking, but half the teams are in.

HAH! What the fuck was I thinking putting the Cubs in there. I was right about their hitting and wrong about their pitching, which sucked monkey ass. Apparently, I was also wrong about the Brewers pitching, the Giants pitching (and ability to stay healthy), and everyone was wrong about the Red Sox.

I got the NL West wrong, the NL Central sort of right (Brewers win and they provided the wild card, but I expected the Reds to be in, not the Cards), the NL East right, the AL West right, the AL Central semi-right, the AL East wrong, and the AL Wild Card really, really, really wrong. (Twins/White Sox!  :angryfist:)

I said the Mariners would be lucky to win 70 games unless everything broke their way....I was damned close.

There was ... nothing wrong with the Giants pitching. Even the best fucking pitchers in the universe were going to have a tough time with the Giants' offense. They have a bit of a fifth starter problem now, I suppose, but ... the pitching had virtually nothing to do with the Giants whimpering out this season.

I can corroborate that, Sjofn informed me of every painful 1-0 loss!  :why_so_serious:


"Fordel... WHY CAN'T THEY HIT THE BAALLLLL WHYYYYYYY"

I did, I really did. And Fordel put up with it like a champ.

What I meant was I thought the Giants' pitching could make up for their atrocious hitting over the long haul again this year. It couldn't, but to be fair to them, I'm not sure any staff could have overcome how bad that offense was, especially without Posey. Everyone has a FIFTH starter problem. Most teams also have a fourth starter problem in addition.

The Giants bullpen was pretty ridiculous too.

SIGH

Y U NO HIT BALL GIANTS


Anyway, that makes more sense.  :heart:

Baseball really needs to wake up and get rid of about 50 games of the regular season. Three reasons:

1 - There are way too many injuries late in the year that have way too much of an effect on the games
2 - You can dump interleague. It doesn't draw anymore and it unfairly punishes the teams from the NL that draw the AL East that season.
3 - You get out of the way of football. Nobody gives a shit about the baseball playoffs when football starts. The ratings back this.

I think the MLB needs to do two completely different things:

1) Get rid of the DH.  It's not baseball if every player doesn't have to hit.

2) For the love of God, make pitchers pitch the fucking ball.  The amount of time that pitchers waste on the mound turns a 9 inning game into the length of a cricket match. 

The MLB playoffs, even with the Yankees are only pulling ~3s in the ratings. Fox had a 1.8 rating on average for it's season of MLB. That's tied for the lowest ever.

Contrast that with the fact that a regular season NFL game pulls numbers in the high teens to low twenties in ratings. CBS SEC games pull numbers in the 4s and 5s.

It's embarrassing that the MLB playoffs are getting blown apart by regular season games. That's why they can't afford to go head-to-head with football. It's like how nobody will notice the NBA is on strike until February.

Not to mention the awful baseball weather you get for the World Series in November. Having a long season also means starting while some parts of the country are still experiencing winter (Didn't Cleveland have a snow-out for it's opener?).

Bud Selig needs to retire. The guy has been baseball's largest obstacle since he took over the commish seat. Looks like he'll be back for at least one more season of meandering.

I wouldn't go as far as subtracting 50 games. But a 130 game regular season would be good. MLB is talking about expanding playoffs, so something's gotta give.

I agree that a lot of games take way too long. Part of that is the umpires not enforcing expediency. Getting through an entire Red Sox game is like witnessing birthing labor without the miracles. Greg Maddux used to pitch complete games in under two hours, shit.

Baseball wants to get better ratings? They need to start hampering the Yankees ability to buy championships. That means a real salary cap. Yes, the New York market is the biggest TV market. The rest of the goddamn country is sick and tired of seeing them in the playoffs every year.

Baseball needs to fix the following issues to be relevent:

1 - Length - the biggest obstacle you hear from fans is that the games take too long and are too boring
2 - Too many games - by the time you get to the playoffs, 20 teams have been eliminated for two months prior.
3 - Instant replay - umps blow calls constantly on the bases. There should be a means to correct this like in every other sport.
4 - Salary cap - the Phillies, Red Sox, and Yankees are assured a playoff spot unless they totally fall apart due to the free agent money.
5 - Too many teams - certain franchises haven't been relevent in three decades. Others can't draw dick in their towns even when they are winning. Get rid of the teams in Florida. Put the Orioles out of their misery. Dump the last team left in Canada. Take it to 26 teams, 14 in the NL and 12 in the AL, and redo the divisions to make more georgraphic sense.
6 - Design the product around TV - Embrace changes to the game that make TV viewing better. Quicker paces, pitch clocks, make the batters stay in the box, replays, more camera angles, mic up the players, etc. Look to the NFL and do what they are doing to make it more exciting.

(http://www.firstshowing.net/img/baseketball-still-img.jpg)

Not going to happen. No Commissioner will want to be the one that says "we're throwing away all our records and stats and starting over".

While baseball is all about stats and records, most of them were shattered and even those shouldn't count.

Nothing we do today matters in comparison to 50 years ago. Pitchers don't go for complete games, the speed game has evoporated, and strikeouts are no longer maligned if you hit for power. We specialize everything, and try to hold to old traditions.

Something has to give. Baseball has to evolve a little. From 1900-1950s, it was the only real professional sport, so they could afford to have 154 games and small stadiums. Then the NBA and the NFL started to come into the fold.

Now, TV is poised to be a primary revenue generator. Fans won't continue to show up in droves when they can watch the games at home, especially if they play every damn day.

You're not asking for baseball to evolve a little, you're asking it to be completely turned on its head.  With the exception of replay, all your suggestions are based around switching it from a gate revenue sport to a TV revenue sport.

Which doesn't work when it's played nearly every day instead of being a once-a-week event with a terrible stadium experience.

People also went to baseball games not 20 years ago, watched them play for 2.5 hours, and went home. Now, you're lucky to have a 3 hour game.

You obviously have to evolve over time. A nice step would be for baseball to put in replay, dump interleague, and put in the pitch clock.

I'm all for replay in every sport.  Interleague is cool if they can balance out the schedules (realignment or whatever).

The pitch clock is a bit more complicated.  The college version cut 15-30 minutes off the average 3+ hour game.  That's non-trivial but doesn't really seem like a big enough amount to scrap one of the core concepts of the game for.

You know why cutting more than a handful of games will never happen? There's way too much money in ticket sales.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

Cutting almost a third of the season would be a huge hit to the bottom line of just about every team. You're telling the Giants, for example, to eat the revenue loss from a million tickets, on the possibility of a promise of maybe more TV money. There's not a snowball's chance of that ever happening.