MLB 2012

[Paelos]

Didn't he just implode against the Padres? 

[Sjofn]

After having a ridiculously long stretch of quality starts. Seriously, if there's a dude in the rotation TO trust, it's Vogelsong.

[ghost]

Hey, don't mess with the Padres.  They have camo uniforms and will fuck your shit up.

[HaemishM]

I think the Reds will implode in the playoffs. Their pitching will fall to the usual Dusty Baker "pitch til their arm falls off" routine.

[ghost]

The Reds, as an organization, have decent history of winning a series once every 15-20 years.  They're due and playing well. 

[Sjofn]

Braves got Zito'd. 

The bullpen tried to make me cry, though. 

[Paelos]

Braves got Zito'd. 

The bullpen tried to make me cry, though. 

Yeah I didn't see it because I went to bed. After we put back to back singles together to lead off the 2nd and didn't score, I knew we were done. I fully blame that one on the first game of a west coast trip. We'll see how it goes tonight.

[ghost]

There's possibly a big fucking deal brewing between the Red Sox and Dodgers that would send Beckett, Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto to LA.  I think Beckett would fit in perfectly in LA.

[Ingmar]

That deal looks nonsensical. Maybe one or two, but all 4 of those guys going on waivers to the same team?

[Paelos]

That deal looks nonsensical. Maybe one or two, but all 4 of those guys going on waivers to the same team?

The Dodgers seem intent on throwing money at the division. We'll see how far they go.

The trade makes sense to me except for Beckett, who I think is a total mess.

[JWIV]

I have nothing to add to this conversation other than apparently I am going to be drinking heavily between now and October, and after October, I'll mostly be drinking heavily on Sundays, with a random Thursday and Monday at some point.  GOD DAMN IT. Seriously, I was all, oh hey, I can watch a little baseball and chill the fuck out after the all star break and it'll be a nice break before football season since that god damn clusterfuck of a championship between Lee Evans, Billy Cundiff, and John Harbaugh. But oh no.  This is the year the O's decide to stop shitting the bed and make a legit run for it.  Seriously, we're at 68 wins after tonight. One more win ties last year. Which we did by giving a giant fuck you to the Red Sox.    Which was awesome, but it was also, our 69th win to end the season, which um yeah, sorta really sucks.   

[caladein]

I think the Reds will implode in the playoffs. Their pitching will fall to the usual Dusty Baker "pitch til their arm falls off" routine.

It's really not fair for two Cy Young candidate-level guys to have him as their manager. Well, more potentially sad than anything.

[ghost]

I have nothing to add to this conversation other than apparently I am going to be drinking heavily between now and October

You can watch baseball any other way?   

[Paelos]

The Pagan pickup looks to be pretty huge for the Giants being actually able to score.

[Ingmar]

He picked the right time to come out of his massive slump certainly.

[JWIV]

I have nothing to add to this conversation other than apparently I am going to be drinking heavily between now and October

You can watch baseball any other way?   

Heh - it used to be a nice calm sport.  Both of my kids usually had a 7pm'ish bottle feeding, so I'd go up, have the game on low, and catch a few innings while rocking them down.  Since we usually imploded sometime around the 5th-7th innings (Either the starter getting pulled too late or the bullpen sucking as was their norm), turning off the game an hour or so into it was  usually the right call anyhow.   

[ghost]

Who's your team? 

I grew up pulling for the Reds and the Indians, so mostly they were awful although the Reds were good about once every 7 or 8 years. 

[JWIV]

Who's your team? 

I grew up pulling for the Reds and the Indians, so mostly they were awful although the Reds were good about once every 7 or 8 years. 

Orioles - Hence why I'm usually safe in figuring a little bit of excitement in May and June only to be crushed by everyone in the AL East and completely out of contention by July.  This playing meaningful games in August and September thing is nerve wracking.

[ghost]

I used to love Eddie Murray, and Ripkin is a pretty likable guy too.  It would be nice to see the O's pick things up and field a decent team.  It's been a long time since 1983......

[Teleku]

Wow, Dodgers are going all in I guess.

Oh, it will be so nice if we still top the division.   

[ghost]

Yeah, I don't understand all the Josh Beckett love.  The Dodgers are making a mistake taking him. 

[cmlancas]

Anyone want to make any World Series predictions?  

I'll go with Reds versus Rangers with the Reds winning in 6.

Rays Giants, Rays in 7.

Shields thows a gem in 7 that leaves the Rays wanting more Big Game James.

But, then he signs with an NL team and has a steady decline for the rest of his career (I'm looking at you, Matt Garza).

[HaemishM]

Yeah, I don't understand all the Josh Beckett love.  The Dodgers are making a mistake taking him. 

They have fond memories of 2003, I guess. He seems to have finally just broken completely down though. Crawford is also a bit nonsensical, since he's been an expensive bust and is injured right now. Gonzalez is really the big part of that deal. He's shown he can hit in the National League, and is a good 3/4/5 hitter if need be. Seems like an awful lot of money to take on though.

[WayAbvPar]

Crawford and Beckett were the price to get Gonzalez, obviously. I think Crawford is better fit for the NL game anyway, so he might not be as completely worthless as he was in Boston.

[Paelos]

I wish during broadcasts of the Giants and Braves, they didn't refer to Melky Cabrera that he "went down" or "yeah, since Melky went down"

He'd not fucking injured. He's a cheater. Even Bruce Bochy said that once in an interview. Just stop.

[Teleku]

That's just you being picky on words.  Thats how people naturally want to phrase it.  Everybody I've heard says it that way.  It's a common way to describe somebody dropping out of something for any reason.

[Paelos]

That's just you being picky on words.  Thats how people naturally want to phrase it.  Everybody I've heard says it that way.  It's a common way to describe somebody dropping out of something for any reason.

Nobody referred to Manny as "going down" when he was suspended. So no, it's not common.

[Slayerik]

Tigers are finally starting to play some good ball. Verlander is top notch, Scherzer is a freakin' beast, and is becoming that consistant K machine we've been waiting for. Fielder is quietly looking like the player they paid him all that money to be, and is starting to get a handle on some of these AL pitchers.

Bullpen and defense will end their run, but I think they'll make playoffs.



Too bad the White Sox decided they aren't going to lose anymore games this year 

[Ingmar]

Giants schedule the rest of the way is extremely advantageous vs. what the Dodgers are up against. By my reckoning they play 22 games against good teams, we play only 15 (that includes 6 more head to head games.) 6 of their 'good team' games are on the road against the Reds and Nats; meanwhile we go to Houston and Chicago, and while we have 9 games left against the Diamondbacks, 6 of them are at home.

We *really* should be able to hold this lead pretty easily; blowing it would be a pretty epic failure (not that I'm ruling it out.)

[caladein]

.516 opponent's winning percentage for the Dodgers the rest of the way versus .455 for the Giants, so you're right on. Still, six games against each other so that's what it'll come down to.

And I regret looking this up because I was again reminded of how far back the Angels are, and they have one of the tougher schedules remaining of the WC teams.

[JWIV]

Beginning to really hate trading Lindstrom away for Saunders.  If we wanted to let the other team score 7+ runs, we could have just kept Tommy Hunter in the starting rotation.

[Ingmar]

Catching A's fever here. I think they're pretty clearly the better team in the Bay Area right now, and the Giants are looking really solid. (A week against the Astros and Cubs will do that though.)

Seeing a guy as good as Jurickson Profar get called up by the best team in the LA and instantly hit a home run must be really demoralizing for, say, Mariners fans. They're reloading before they even need to reload.

[ghost]

Tigers/ White Sox is a pretty compelling race this late in the year. 

[cmlancas]

Rays game tomorrow, and it's still a tight one out in the East.  Love being a TB fan in any sport--our races are always close.

[JWIV]

Rays game tomorrow, and it's still a tight one out in the East.  Love being a TB fan in any sport--our races are always close.

I love Tampa this week! (next week is a different story

My god, about to be tied for first in the division in September!