2006 MLB Thread

[HolyStitt]

Anyone know a easy and simple way for a Post Season BB pool?

The only one I have used was like the NBA pool.

[Soulstation1]

in BB are the teams re-seeded after the first round?

[tatifan]

Not looking too good for the Phillies

Progression of moods trying to watch last night's game until past 1am CST!

[HolyStitt]

When I did it through work, in the first round you picked the winners, then picked the winners in the 2nd round, and who the winner would be in the World Series. The points for each round of right picks increased with each round and you had points for the correct number of games played.

[ghost of miles]

I hear a fair amount of grumbling about the steroid scandals from baseball-loving friends of mine, but looks like it hasn't had a negative impact at the gate. In fact, we're back to 1993, pre-lockout (something that certainly did have a negative impact) numbers:

Baseball breaks attendance record

By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer

September 30, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Baseball broke its season attendance record Saturday and was on track to finish with the second-highest per-game average in the sport's history.

Through Friday night, the 30 major league teams had drawn 74,922,200, just shy of the 74,926,174 fans who attended games in 2005, and the record was broken when Minnesota drew 46,219 against the Chicago White Sox in Saturday's first game. The average of 31,348 through Friday was on track to be the highest for a full season, topping 1993's 31,337. The only higher average was in the strike-shortened 1994 season, when baseball averaged 31,632 before players walked out in mid-August.

"Yes, the wild card has worked. Yes, interleague play has worked. Yes, revenue sharing has produced parity, which has produced increased attendance in a lot of places," commissioner Bud Selig said. "It's all of the above."

The New York Yankees broke their own American League record, drawing 4,138,605 with two games remaining to top last year's 4,090,692. They joined Toronto (1991-92) as the only major league teams to draw 4 million twice and will finish with the second-highest total for a big league club behind Colorado's record of 4,483,350, set at Denver's Mile High Stadium in 1993, the Rockies' first season.

Six NL teams topped 3 million through Friday: the Los Angeles Dodgers (3,758,545), New York Mets (3,379,535), St. Louis (3,318,677), San Francisco (3,044,713), Chicago Cubs (3,044,123) and Houston (3,022,763). The Los Angeles Angels (3,318,739) were the only other AL team to break 3 million.

Florida (1,106,374) and Pittsburgh (1,801,031) were the only NL teams that failed to draw 2 million. Tampa Bay (1,368,950), Kansas City (1,372,638) and Oakland (1,976,625) fell short in the AL, with Cleveland set to top 2 million on the final weekend.

Selig credited the increased revenue sharing in the current labor contract, which expires Dec. 19, for keeping more teams competitive for playoff berths later into the season.

"A huge factor. You couldn't have seen Detroit or Minnesota, if you were back in the 90s, trying to do it," he said. "Labor peace has also been a huge positive factor. The fact that there is not all the anger there was for years. People got tired of reading all that stuff and hearing about it."

[Dan Gould]

What a stunning bit of news:

Pedro Martinez To Have Surgery on Torn Rotator Cuff, Won't Pitch Off a Mound Before June 2007

About the only thing that would surprise the Red Sox front office was that it was the rotator cuff and not the labrum. But they certainly look smart for being so hesitant to guarantee three years and never match four. I wonder if this is a classic "Dizzy Dean situation" where a leg injury led to a change in mechanics and a screwed up arm. Boy, if Pedro was already becoming a soft-tossing nibbler, he's really going to be one now.

Barry Zito and his spawn of satan agent are salivating right now, as you can absolutely positively count on the Mets outbidding anyone else for his services. He might get 18 mil a year by the time the bidding is over.

Edited October 1, 2006 by Dan Gould

[chris olivarez]

(1)Is Scott Boras Barry Zito's agent? (2)Dodgers!!!!!

[GregK]

wow, the tigers truly suck

[Neal Pomea]

in BB are the teams re-seeded after the first round?

After the first round, in which there are 4 teams in each league, there are two teams left to play a 7 game series for the league championship. They play 2 games at one team's home, 3 at the other team's home, then the remaining 2 games at the first team's home. The 4-3 advantage goes to the team with the best record that season.

In the World Series, the 4-3 advantage goes to the league whose team won the All-Star game.

[Dan Gould]

While the Cardinals are getting shut out, the Astros are down to their last three outs, trailing the Braves.

How appropriate that these two deeply flawed teams are stumbling around when a playoff spot is on the line. I guess the '64 Phils can rest easy. But it would have been cool, for the sake of underdogs everywhere, if the Cards had completed their collapse.

[Big Al]

Well, it looks like they're gonna get in on the basis of Houston's loss only, as they're still being shut out in the 9th. They should be out by the first round.

[Dan Gould]

Well, it looks like they're gonna get in on the basis of Houston's loss only, as they're still being shut out in the 9th. They should be out by the first round.

Yup. Along with the Mets, methinks.

Meanwhile, how 'bout those TWINS?!!!

All the way back to snag the division championship on the final day of the season. Now its the Twins-A's and Yanks-Tigers, the last combination I wanted to see. I'd much rather see the Yanks have to get past both the Twins and the A's but instead they get the reeling Tigers, who they've already whupped during the season. Tigers aren't patient enough at the plate and have a "closer" with a 5+ ERA (I assume its still that high). The Tigers are going to join the Mets as major post-season disappointments, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, congratulations, Twins fans!

[HolyStitt]

It was a wonderful afternoon.

A unseasonably warm day that was spent at the cabin switching back and forth between the Twins/Vikings games and updating the cellphone to find out the status of the Tiger's game. At one point, Detroit was up 6-0.

After the Twins game, on TV they had the Tigers/Royals game on next to footage of fans and the Twins players in the dugout at the dome waiting for the resultswith from the Tigers/Royals game.

Sure has been a nice comeback to the Central Division.

... and all I was hoping for was a over .500 season!

[ghost of miles]

Well, it looks like they're gonna get in on the basis of Houston's loss only, as they're still being shut out in the 9th. They should be out by the first round.

Yup. Along with the Mets, methinks.

I know it's unlikely, but I'm still pulling for another Subway Series.

[GregK]

Yup. Along with the Mets, methinks.

Meanwhile, how 'bout those TWINS?!!!

All the way back to snag the division championship on the final day of the season. Now its the Twins-A's and Yanks-Tigers, the last combination I wanted to see. I'd much rather see the Yanks have to get past both the Twins and the A's but instead they get the reeling Tigers, who they've already whupped during the season. Tigers aren't patient enough at the plate and have a "closer" with a 5+ ERA (I assume its still that high). The Tigers are going to join the Mets as major post-season disappointments, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, congratulations, Twins fans!

Well, at least the Red Sox didn't make it!! . Hopefully the Tigers can wake up and start pitching again once they hit NY-maybe Verlander is rested enough to find the strike zone again.

Why is Jones STILL the closer??

[Dan Gould]

What exactly are the rules about getting credit for a no-hitter?

The Sox threw a Nicaraguan who they found playing in Europe a year ago, Devern Hansack, and he's thrown five innings, allowing no hits, 1 walk and six K's.

And now the rains have come again.

Would be way cool for a rookie to toss a no-no on the last day of the season - even if the O's hitters were hacking at the first pitch just to get started on their vacation even sooner.

[Tjazz]

Wow, the TWINS and PADRES in the WS.

Will anybody watch?

[Neal Pomea]

He can record a win (game needs to go only 5 innings), but not a no-hitter.

No hitter defined as follows:

"An official no-hit game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings. In a no-hit game, a batter may reach base via a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, a passed ball or wild pitch on strike three, or catcher's interference."

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official...regulations.jsp

[BERIGAN]

Well, it looks like they're gonna get in on the basis of Houston's loss only, as they're still being shut out in the 9th. They should be out by the first round.

Yup. Along with the Mets, methinks.

I know it's unlikely, but I'm still pulling for another Subway Series.

Yeah, wouldn't that be great? Two scrappy NY teams with small budgets somehow making it to the WS?

Edited October 2, 2006 by BERIGAN

[BERIGAN]

A better use of resources would be to use the money to acquire whatever they'd lose in trying to the SS back from Florida. (Whew that kid is amazing.) But that's not going to happen.

Ramierez? Pretty darn good for a rookie but, not amazing - yet. Good bat but, a so-so fielder. He just committed his 25th error of the season last night. Lots of potential though, he's only 22.

How about them Phils??

Hanley should be a lock for ROY honors. About the only problem are rookie errors in the field, though he still makes plenty of spectacular plays, too. But he's got 50+ SB and 40+ doubles, and the sky is the limit. I'm sure he'll settle down defensively and make all the routine plays, too.

I was going to argue about Uggla having a great year, setting records for home runs for a rookie 2nd baseman, etc...somehow missed how many RBI's Zimmerman had for the Nationals. 287 batting average, 20 homers and 110 RBIs!!!!! Only highlights I saw from National games were Soriano.....

[Dan Gould]

A better use of resources would be to use the money to acquire whatever they'd lose in trying to the SS back from Florida. (Whew that kid is amazing.) But that's not going to happen.

Ramierez? Pretty darn good for a rookie but, not amazing - yet. Good bat but, a so-so fielder. He just committed his 25th error of the season last night. Lots of potential though, he's only 22.

How about them Phils??

Hanley should be a lock for ROY honors. About the only problem are rookie errors in the field, though he still makes plenty of spectacular plays, too. But he's got 50+ SB and 40+ doubles, and the sky is the limit. I'm sure he'll settle down defensively and make all the routine plays, too.

I was going to argue about Uggla having a great year, setting records for home runs for a rookie 2nd baseman, etc...somehow missed how many RBI's Zimmerman had for the Nationals. 287 batting average, 20 homers and 110 RBIs!!!!! Only highlights I saw from National games were Soriano.....

Yeah, I slept on Zimmerman, too. Definitely ROY in the NL.

[Dan Gould]

He can record a win (game needs to go only 5 innings), but not a no-hitter.

No hitter defined as follows:

"An official no-hit game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings. In a no-hit game, a batter may reach base via a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, a passed ball or wild pitch on strike three, or catcher's interference."

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official...regulations.jsp

I was afraid of that. The rule changed in 1991 - before that any official game with no hits allowed was an official "no-no". Too bad it didn't happen 16 years ago.

[Big Al]

Can you imagine the riot in Detroit right now had another team made the wild card? What a colossal choke to end the season: getting swept by the lowly Royals! And then, to top it off, coming in second after leading the division all season!

Hard to call a playoff team a disappointment, but man, what a way to end the season!

[GregK]

Can you imagine the riot in Detroit right now had another team made the wild card? What a colossal choke to end the season: getting swept by the lowly Royals! And then, to top it off, coming in second after leading the division all season!

Hard to call a playoff team a disappointment, but man, what a way to end the season!

A colossal collapse. They won, 95, 96 games? The lost 21 of their last 50! I don't know if they overachieved all season and simply fell back to where they should have played all season, or if they choked at the end, or what, but that was absolutely a terrible way to finish an otherwise great season. Man, even the Braves never choked like that!!

[Dan Gould]

This probably belongs in the Hot Stove thread but its a bit too early for that, so:

The first two casualties of the Red Sox failures have been announced: Batting coach Ron "Papa Jack" Jackson and pitching coach Dave Wallace, who battled a nearly fatal staph infection and a second hip replacement surgery to return ahead of schedule in July, only to get the boot now. I have to strongly suspect that Al Nipper will be officially named pitching coach, all with an eye toward getting Clemens to sign next year.

As for Papa Jack, count me as one who is pretty surprised. His teams led the league in scoring and OBP every year until this one, and Ortiz made it a point to present him with the bat used to hit his team-record home run, with an inscription calling him the greatest batting coach ever. Yet, the Boston media was reporting that some players privately complained about him, that he was great when you were going good but incapable of spotting flaws and bad habits to get people out of slumps. Last year they hired a "video specialist" seemingly to help in that regard but he wasn't retained because Jackson didn't like him invading his turf. So now Papa Jack is gone.

Edited October 2, 2006 by Dan Gould