MLB 2013

[Teleku]

So ready for baseball (even if it will be a bitch trying to watch games).

[Ingmar]

Pretty sure we will be going to spring training this year.  

EDIT: CONFIRMED 

[Teleku]

 Awesome!  Are you guys going to go to the World Baseball Classic?  I'm pissed they finally decide to have the finals in SF after I leave.     I actually went to the Japan Vs. Korea game when they held the finals for the inaugural games in San Diego.  Holy shit, the Koreans came out of the wood work, and it was the most intense baseball crowd I've ever seen.  Was a good game.

[Ingmar]

Probably not, the finals are on a Tuesday night at 5 PM, not very doable for me.

[WayAbvPar]

Chone Figgins is crying to the press about how hard it was to sign a 4 year deal and then get benched in the 2nd year. How about not sucking bodily fluids out of a dead donkey? Seriously, if you couldn't get playing time for the fucking Mariners the past 3 years you are fucking terrible at baseball. Also a whiny rich cunt.

In short-

[HaemishM]

To be fair to Mr. Figgins, when he was with the Angels, he was one of the most versatile players around, could get on base, had speed and played multiple positions. The contract wasn't a bad one based on past performance. He just happens to have forgotten how to play baseball in the great Northwest. And since baseball contracts can't be restructured like football contracts can, the Mariners were stuck with him.

[WayAbvPar]

And if he would have performed to even a small fraction of his Angels days, he would have had 600ABs every year with the Ms. Instead, he was so bad that things like Carlos Peguero were getting more looks than him. So my initial reaction stands.

[Paelos]

To be fair to Mr. Figgins, when he was with the Angels, he was one of the most versatile players around, could get on base, had speed and played multiple positions. The contract wasn't a bad one based on past performance. He just happens to have forgotten how to play baseball in the great Northwest. And since baseball contracts can't be restructured like football contracts can, the Mariners were stuck with him.

Yeah speaking of can't restructure, Dan Uggla says hi. 

[Ingmar]

Expecting any athlete to be self-aware enough to think they don't deserve to start is asking too much, that's not how most of them are wired.

As for his contract, it is 100% retarded and all the blame lies with the Mariners.

Let's take a 31 year old speed player, who has only played 1 full season out of his 3 most recent, and who is coming off a fluke season where his WAR was double his prior best (which was at this point his age 27 season, 5 years ago) - and sign him to a big money multi year contract that puts him into a park that will *predictably* depress his power and average to levels that would demoralize anyone, and on top of that we'll move him to a position he's never played regularly (and hadn't played hardly at all since that same age 27 season), *away* from a position where he had Gold Glove type numbers. What could go wrong?

The Mariners did pretty much every possible thing they could do to set him up to fail. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they made him room with Milton Bradley, too. 

[WayAbvPar]

I hope so. Those two deserve each other.

[HaemishM]

As a Cubs fan, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the Mariners' organization again for taking Milton Bradley off our hands.

[WayAbvPar]

I am actually surprised Carlos Silva didn't become Godzilla-sized with all the good eats in Chicago.

[Ashamanchill]

Sorry if this was (very likely) mentioned in here already, but the atmosphere here in Toronto regarding the club is echoing the feel of the early nineties with the Jays (obviously 92). Like everyone I'm super psyched, but I'm a bit more (okay a fucking lot more) of a pessimist than those around me, and I never count my chickens early. A sad, lonely part of me will be waiting every game for the wheels to fall off.

[Teleku]

Dominican Republic wins the World Baseball Classic!!!!!!


Ok, I know none of you care, but I still had fun following along.   

[JWIV]

Dominican Republic wins the World Baseball Classic!!!!!!


Ok, I know none of you care, but I still had fun following along.  

I cared a little bit - but mostly because I want to see if we have good Strop or WTF HAPPENED Strop coming into this season.   

From the filth he was throwing in the seventh, I think we're looking good.

[Ingmar]

I was rooting for PR (once Venezuela got knocked out, anyway.)

[murdoc]

Sorry if this was (very likely) mentioned in here already, but the atmosphere here in Toronto regarding the club is echoing the feel of the early nineties with the Jays (obviously 92). Like everyone I'm super psyched, but I'm a bit more (okay a fucking lot more) of a pessimist than those around me, and I never count my chickens early. A sad, lonely part of me will be waiting every game for the wheels to fall off.

I not a huge baseball fan, but the excitement being generated nationwide about Toronto has me interested... until I realize that they pillaged the players from a team that only won 69 games last year.

[JWIV]

God I hate the MLB.TV app pricing and blackout rules.  This is the god damn dumbest thing ever. 24.99 a month and you of course will be blacked out from any local game you want to watch.  Ended up just sucking it up and paying the $10 bucks to upgrade my cable package back to where I got MASN so I can watch the Orioles.

But seriously, this is ridiculous.

[HaemishM]

Baseball has quite possibly the WORST fucking blackout rules in existence. When I was on DirecTV, I shelled out for the sports package that had all the regional sports networks. So I paid my money but anytime there was a game IN my region, it was blacked out. But even when it wasn't in my region, it would sometimes be blacked out and I couldn't figure out what the reason was. If there's a game in San Francisco, chances are I'm not making it to the stadium to watch the game commuting all the way from Mississippi, no matter who the team is. So let me watch the fucking game on the channel I paid EXTRA to get. Hockey and basketball were the same way. It made the regionals one big fucking waste of money because they were all versions of Fox Sports, meaning they'd all show the "Best Damn Sports Show" at the same time, so if you got one of the channels you got them all.

It might have blacked out the games out of region instead of in, I don't remember. Once I figured out what they were doing, I stopped trying to watch the useless things.

[Fordel]

Yet I get every fucking Jays game ever for whatever reason. 

[JWIV]

Welp - if I believe the experts, I better enjoy today's win since apparently the Orioles are only going to win like 12 games this season. 

[Paelos]

Toronto didn't look great against the Indians.

[Teleku]

I always found trying to judge any team based on their first week or two of play pretty  .  Everything is always a bit loopy right out of spring training before reality has a chance to set in.

[Paelos]

You can't really judge a team's chance of winning the division until after memorial day.

However, you can tell if a team is going to be a greasefire in about two weeks.

[Trippy]

However, you can tell if a team is going to be a greasefire in about two weeks.

Unless it's the A's.

[WayAbvPar]

However, you can tell if a team is going to be a greasefire in about two weeks.

Unless it's the A's.

Yeah, they are making the clownshoes Mariners look good. Which will make the Ms inevitable thud into the basement all the more shocking for the vast majority of their ill-informed fans.

[Paelos]

I think the Mariners might be better than .500 this year.

[WayAbvPar]

Only if they get to play Houston 90 times. The pitching staff is hot garbage after Felix and Iwakuma. And Morse will get busted for shooting elephant testosterone into his scrotum or something any day now. He looks like a goddamned caveman.

[Paelos]

I'm not exactly scared of the AL West this year. Houston is a trashheap, I think Texas is due for some falloff, and the Angels/Oakland have some serious pitching questions coming out of training.

Seattle can go .500 there. They were only 7 short of it last year.

[Paelos]

Nice GRANDO by Chris Davis today for the Orioles to bust open the game against the Twins. That dude can rip it.

[JWIV]

Nice GRANDO by Chris Davis today for the Orioles to bust open the game against the Twins. That dude can rip it.

Davis is historically insanely hot right now. Only the 4th player in baseball history to hit four homers in his first four games.  And I CAN NOT believe they did an IW to get to him.  That's just asking for exactly what they got.   

This is so awesome to watch.

[Paelos]

Braves had a bad game going against the Cubs, but they got a late rally going. In the ninth down by 1, BJ Upton hits a jack for his first hit of the year to tie the game, and then his brother Jason hits the game winning walk off jack. Amazing!

You couldn't script it better.

[JWIV]

Thanks for taunting Chris Davis guys!  It only went to the deepest part of the park.   

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=26182399&topic_id=&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_26182399&v=3

Bonus reaction gif

[Paelos]

I see your Chris Davis and raise you Evan Gattis!

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=26193461&topic_id=&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_26193461&v=3

His shot landed in the pool at the Clevelander.

[JWIV]

I see your Chris Davis and raise you Evan Gattis!

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=26193461&topic_id=&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_26193461&v=3

His shot landed in the pool at the Clevelander.

If you're willing to jump in the pool for it, you absolutely deserve that ball too.