2006 MLB Thread

[Soulstation1]

manny ramirez probably makes more $$$$ than the entire marlins team

[Soulstation1]

the tribe 19-1 over the yanks last night

happy b-day steinbrenner!!!!

[Dave James]

My tiny pinstriped brain is starting to come to grips with the fact that the Yanks may not make the playoffs. Chicago and Detroit are seven and six games up in the loss column and Boston, in spite of dropping two in a row the the D-Rays, are a full four games ahead. It almost seems like a solid that the wild card is going to come out of the Central. That means if the Yanks don't win in the East, they go home. I would not want to be Torre or Cashman or anyone else associated with the ball club if that happens. George will go nuts.

Up over and out.

[Dan Gould]

My tiny pinstriped brain is starting to come to grips with the fact that the Yanks may not make the playoffs. Chicago and Detroit are seven and six games up in the loss column and Boston, in spite of dropping two in a row the the D-Rays, are a full four games ahead. It almost seems like a solid that the wild card is going to come out of the Central. That means if the Yanks don't win in the East, they go home. I would not want to be Torre or Cashman or anyone else associated with the ball club if that happens. George will go nuts.

Up over and out.

Make that three in a row to the D-Rays.

Unless Damon is going to be on the shelf for two months, we're not good enough to put your team away, not with 40% of the starting rotation on the shelf (Clement & Wells), plus the sixth starter (DiNardo), plus using cast-offs from the Indians and KC. And Schilling and Beckett can't keep the ball in the park.

And now we have one more against Tampa and three with the defending champions. Unless Tampa keeps it up against the Yanks, we could very well be out of first by the break.

[Dave James]

Dan,

Dude, what's happened to us? It's like each of us is trying to out "woe is me" the other. Remember last year when absloutely nothing could knock either of us off our collective bandwagons? Now all we're doing is rationalizing and reconciling ourselves to what might befall us between now and October. I'll admit, I liked it a lot better when we both had complete, if sometimes ill-founded faith in our teams. I could get back there if I saw even a hint of light at the end of the tunnel. Given the Yank's pitching woes, though, that's not something that's easy to come by.

Up over and out.

[BERIGAN]

Guys, guys. Quit yer whinin'!!! Watch the Braves for a few days, then you will see a team with truely deep pitching/hitting problems(though a bit better than we were in June) I have a feeling it is going to be White Sox/Mets in the WS, with the White Sox winning it in 4. I'd love to be surprised. Hell, I might have to root for the "underdog" Yankees if they faced the White Sox!

[MartyJazz]

Nice to see the Devil Rays give another AL East leader a rough time. The Yanks were surely treated rudely by them last year. And how about Crawford's steal of home?! That happens so rarely that when I saw it last night (fortunately I switched just in time from the Yankee game to see it), I realized that it has to be among the top, if not the highest, thrills in all of baseball. The audacity of the play is what makes it so special because the player is obviously completely on his own.

[Dan Gould]

Nice to see the Devil Rays give another AL East leader a rough time. The Yanks were surely treated rudely by them last year. And how about Crawford's steal of home?! That happens so rarely that when I saw it last night (fortunately I switched just in time from the Yankee game to see it), I realized that it has to be among the top, if not the highest, thrills in all of baseball. The audacity of the play is what makes it so special because the player is obviously completely on his own.

Well it is an exciting play but I don't think the audacity comes from being on your own (I think some managers have called it, surely Ozzie has the cojones). What's really audacious is the fact that its happening right in front of the pitcher, and the runner has to cover the same distance only in the amount of time it takes the pitcher to deliver the ball, rather than the delivery plus the throw across the diamond from the catcher.

[Dan Gould]

Dan,

Dude, what's happened to us? It's like each of us is trying to out "woe is me" the other. Remember last year when absloutely nothing could knock either of us off our collective bandwagons? Now all we're doing is rationalizing and reconciling ourselves to what might befall us between now and October. I'll admit, I liked it a lot better when we both had complete, if sometimes ill-founded faith in our teams. I could get back there if I saw even a hint of light at the end of the tunnel. Given the Yank's pitching woes, though, that's not something that's easy to come by.

Up over and out.

I think that it is almost entirely a function of the way Chicago and the Tigers have played and the realization that neither one of us will have the fall-back position of winning the wild card, and that total lack of a margin for error makes us take a much harder look at our teams.

Speaking of which, here is the single most important stat I know symbolizing the Yankee problems:

In games with neither Matsui nor Sheffield in the lineup, the Yanks are 24-21.

Since Matsui won't be back before late August if at all, and Sheffield will have even less time to make it back, I think its obvious that the Yanks are missing terribly that chunk of offense. Without a move that does something about it, or managing to play better with what you have, I think the Yanks will have problems the rest of the way.

[Dan Gould]

Interesting comparison between the 2005 and 2006 Red Sox, through 81 games:

2006 2005

Record 51-30 46-35

Batting avg. .285 .285

Runs 451 449

Runs per game 5.6 5.5

Home runs 104 95

Slugging pct. .456 .457

On-base pct. .367 .359

ERA 4.59 4.85

Opp. avg. .263 .274

Fielding pct. .990 .983

So a team that was supposed to be built for defense and pitching, with a presumed loss of offense, actually has matched or beaten the 2005 squad in all the important offensive categories, while clearly improving the pitching and fielding.

Maybe there is hope that they can finally stop the Yankee streak of division titles. After all, last year the Sox had terrible problems in the back end of the bullpen, and no Schilling to lead the staff. Now they've got Papelbon plus Schilling and Beckett. And the Yanks don't have Small and Chacon to save their cookies.

Edited July 6, 2006 by Dan Gould

[Soulstation1]

the indians scored all their runs in the first game vs the yanks

[Dan Gould]

the indians scored all their runs in the first game vs the yanks

Actually, they split the four game set and scored 19 runs in the second game. Too bad they couldn't keep it going.

[Dan Gould]

Anyone with observations on the season so far?

I have to say that the Yanks deserve credit for hanging in as they have, but I think its going to be a struggle with no Small or Chacon to save their cookies, and the schedule will favor the Red Sox as they have the highest number of home games left entering the second half of any team. Interesting that their deficit last year at this time wasn't as great as it is now. I guess the Red Sox got hot and the Yanks cooled off. I wonder if that will happen again, as looking ahead, the matchups seem to favor the Sox coming out of the break:

Red Sox at home against Oakland and their .245 team BA for four

Yanks at home for Chicago

Red Sox at home against KC

Yanks at home against Seattle

Red Sox at Seattle

Yanks at Toronto

With a little luck the Sox will have built up a lead by the time they go to Seattle and the Yanks and Toronto can fight for second place. And if it happens, look out, cuz the Sox don't have the bullpen issues this year, and they've got two aces instead of none like last year.

After watching the White Sox, I have to say that I am not at all convinced that they are the best team in baseball. No doubt, the offense is better with Thome, and the heart of the order is awesome. But in the Red Sox series I saw some guys at the bottom of the order that looked pretty bad, so its not as thick a lineup as you'd think, given their run production. Pitching is also a question mark, IMO. Buerhle looks awful, Garcia hasn't been great either. Contreras is the real ace, and he was lucky to avoid a loss yesterday. Its the bullpen and the offense that is critical to their chances, unless some of those pitchers regain their form.

[Soulstation1]

my boys are 18.5 games out.....

Edited July 10, 2006 by Soulstation1

[Dan Gould]

Your boys are awful and one of the biggest disappointments of the season.

[Soulstation1]

if they could somehow win 10 games in a row, they might gain 2 or 3 games

[Soulstation1]

look for my homie jim thome to have a monster year

ss1

hey can i get some on this pick

30 HRS

[Dan Gould]

look for my homie jim thome to have a monster year

ss1

hey can i get some on this pick

30 HRS

He is having a monster year. Between him and Ortiz, voters may have no choice but to pick a DH for MVP this year.

BTW, from last year's break to this year's, Ortiz has hit 57 homers - and that's with last year's break coming a week later than this year, so its not even a full 162 games. Considering how Ortiz tends to really get hot during the summer, I have to believe he has a shot at being the first non-steroid user to break Maris' mark.

[Soulstation1]

OOOOOOhhhhhhh Big Papi

i didn't know you can do it like dat

[Soulstation1]

my other boys 27.5 games out

GO GEORGE BRETT!!!!

[Dave James]

I wasn't aware of the Yank's upcoming schedule, but facing off against the White Sox and Blue Jays sandwiched around a home set with the sort-of-resurgent Mariners can't be what the doctor ordered. In theory, Matsui will be back in mid-August and Sheffield in early September, but by then, it could be too late. Guess I can only hope the Johnson's past tendency to perform better in the second than in the first half of the season holds true to form and that Mussina can pitch as well as he has so far. They are getting solid outings from Wang, but it's the Unit-sized question mark surrounding Johnson, the lack of an even marginally reliable fourth starter and shaky set-up guys who are punching too many holes in the bottom of the boat.

I'm not convinced about the White Sox either. Buehrle hasn't been very good and I still think Contreras will get shakier as the games get more important. Offensively, Thome has been more than anyone could have expected, but outside of him and Jermaine Dye, this is pretty much a bunch of banjo hitters. I'm not sold on Bobby Jenks as a closer either. His ERA is just under 3.00. Not what you want to see in a "stopper".

With regard to the Red Sox, their 3-6 go-to guys (Papi, Manny, Nixon and Varitek) had better be better than the 2 for 32 they clocked yesterday against Chicago. That's operating at just over half the Mendoza line. Why don't they do that when they play the Yanks?

Up over and out.

[Quincy]

Offensively, Thome has been more than anyone could have expected, but outside of him and Jermaine Dye, this is pretty much a bunch of banjo hitters. I'm not sold on Bobby Jenks as a closer either. His ERA is just under 3.00. Not what you want to see in a "stopper".

Banjo hitters? You forgot Konerko who's slugging .559 & Crede at .512.

Uribe is on pace to hit 20+ HR, as is 2nd baseman Iguchi. That's pretty nice power from the middle infield. A.J. will probably cool off, but hey, .320/.365/.444 from a C is pretty darn good. Not much power from LF or CF, but power isn't Pod's job anyway.

Fat boy is getting the job done in the pen. I think more important than ERA for a closer is WHIP (1.11) and AVG (.221). That'll do. The rest of the pen is pretty respectable. Buehrle & Garcia have struggled, but Garland has improved of late (he couldn't get any worse!)

But more important for the 2nd half is the mighty Mariners wiping out those east coast teams who think they're getting a few days off. We can dream!

[Dan Gould]

You can't include Konerko as a "banjo hitter" and Crede has some pop too - but I agree that there are some weak bats above and below those guys. And as great as the Thome trade was, their answer in centerfield after sending Rowand away has been an outright disaster. They do have some serious power arms setting up Jenks, which helps a lot.

As far as the Red Sox 3-6, I think we have to be thrilled that we are in first place and near the top in scoring considering how bad Varitek has been. Worst thing is, the strain of catching usually gets to him by September and if he doesn't get his average up before then, he might very well be below the Mendoza line when its all said and done.

On the positive side, I have to expect Coco to start hitting like he did for the Tribe soon. Lots of room for improvement there. Also on the plus side is Alex Gonzales, who was as the Mendoza line at the end of May and goes into the break hitting over .280. With his glove, any offensive contribution is cake, and he has stopped being an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup. Big help getting to Youks, Lorreta and Papi.

Another plus is that Wily Mo Pena should be reactivated after the break. He was out for a month plus after surgery to remove his hamate bone in his wrist (the same thing people thought was Sheffield's problem originally). He probably won't have as much power - Papi had the same surgery and said it took a year to regain his power stroke - but he's a dangerous right handed bat to have off the bench, and I have to admit I was excited by his apparent improvement while he replaced Coco. Yeah, he struck out a lot but he also took more pitches, took more walks, and showed a huge improvement in BA and OBP. At this point its obvious that we'd be better off with Arroyo, but I am hopeful that by next season it will look like we got a steal as WMP blossoms and the rest of the NL catches up to Arroyo.

[Dan Gould]

And one other thing I wanted to mention.

The bullpen has been up and down (other than Paps) for most of the first half, mainly because Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez have been nothing like what was expected. But the positive side is that it has forced Francona to bring the youngsters up and not only let them pitch, but let them pitch critical innings. Remember the names Manny DelCarmen and Craig Hansen. Their overall stats don't show it but their recent performances (since Francona gave them all a pep talk about pitching big innings, and rah rah rah) have been outstanding.

MDC is very much like Flash Gordon: mid 90s fastball, 12-6 curve that buckles knees. He's been terrific recently and if Papelbon hadn't blown the save, everyone would be talking about the two perfect innings he threw to get a 3-2 game into Pap's hands.

Hansen is a first round pick from last year, upper 90s fasball and nasty, nasty slider. Think righthanded big Unit (he's almost as tall). Just tremendous stuff, he has to keep the ball down and he's almost unhittable. Recent performances have only been marred by bloop hits and seeing eye grounders. Nobody seems to get a good swing on this guy.

IF these guys continue to develop, I think the Sox have, in-house, all the relief pitching they will need, now and for a while to come.

I gotta say, its very exciting watching these guys!

[Soulstation1]

i'm going with ryan howard in HR contest