The Baseball Thread 2007

[Chalupa]

That FireJoeMorgan.com website is a scream!! Check out this entry....

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2007/05/maybe...uit-up-and.html

This is why my blood boils when people cite All Star Game Appearances as a measure of a player's abilities. Take it away, Bruce Jenkins:

One of the game's most astute writers, Jayson Stark of espn.com, marveled this week at the National League's candidates to start the All-Star game at shortstop. Narrowing it down to a statistical analysis of his top five candidates -- J.J. Hardy, Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins and Edgar Renteria -- he still found it a difficult choice. No kidding. Here's an even better way to go: Omar Vizquel. He's the greatest defensive shortstop in the history of the game. He may well wind up with 3,000 hits. The game is in San Francisco. And not one of those guys would have a problem with it. They all bow to the master.

First of all, Omar is 40 years old and has 2508 hits. If he gets 3000, I will buy Bruce Jenkins a new car -- his choice of model -- and I will personally chauffeur him to the game when Vizquel reaches the milestone. I will pay for the tickets to the game, all the hot dogs Jenkins can eat, and I will perform a striptease for him after the game. I will then hang myself in the public square of Jenkins' choosing, with "I'm an Idiot" spraypainted across my chest.

[Dan Gould]

Check out the discussion of the lame-brained NY writer who asked the question, "How has Tim Wakefield drawn a Major League salary for 15 years?" Complete and total uninformed idiot.

The best part of the site remains the way they pick apart Joe Morgan chat transcripts and broadcasts. Here's an absolute classic:

Here's a play I just wrote:

(Scene: Joe is the blind Greek seer Tiresias. Oedipus approaches.)

Oedipus: Tiresias, priest of Zeus. I come to you to gain knowledge of the slaying of King Laius.

Joe Tiresias: Well, I knew Laius pretty well, but I don't want to say I know who killed him.

Oedipus: But your visions are never wrong, great seer. You see all.

Joe Tiresias: I have seen a lot of things happen, yes. I have been a seer for a long time, so don't tell me I don't know what's gonna happen in Greece.

Oedipus: (confused) ...I wasn't saying that. I am saying the opposite of that. I am asking you for your help in learning the identity of the slayer of King Laius.

Joe Tiresias: I knew Laius. I watched him be King for a long time. He was a great veteran King.

Oedipus: ...What?

Joe Tiresias: If you're saying that he is not as good a King as you, I wouldn't say that. You just started as King, and he did it for a lot of years. He knew how to rule.

Oedipus: ...Yikes. Okay. Listen. I want you to use your wisdom and sight and the power of the Gods to tell me who killed him.

Joe Tiresias: Well, I didn't watch him rule every day, so I don't want to comment. I don't want to say one way or the other.

Oedipus: (Blinds self out of frustration)

[Tim McG]

Elijah Dukes looks way scary and intense in the linked picture.

$380,000 bucks a year playing in the MLB and he still relates everything from da 'Hood, yo.

Five children from four different women.

The dude never got out of the ghetto, apparently.

What a moron.

WTF? You think that $380,000 goes to diction lessons instead of bling?

Well, duh.

You would think he could conduct himself better then that, fer crissakes....that is a shit-load of money, big guy.

Geez, Dan...don't you care at all about the quality of character?

The leading and only defender of Barry Bonds is now concerned with character?

That is rich. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? That news report didn't offer any evidence that it was Dukes' voice on the recording. It just said "a voice" - doesn't that make it "hearsay"?

To answer your question, yes I care about "character". However, I do not believe or expect the minimum major league salary to be used to buy it. You either have it or you don't. Dukes is a 22 year old without it; Bonds is 44 year old without it.

Dan you are so full of crap it is clouding your vision.

Hearsay my rosy red ass.

You are all about hearsay and you are willing to convict a man on the basis of shoddy evidence illegally obtained from Grand Jury testimony and what his ex-girlfriend said.

Buddy, you are a walking-talking hypocrisy.

We are done here.

See you in the Funny Papers.

Wow.

Edited May 27, 2007 by GoodSpeak

[Big Al]

I was just looking at the ballgame scores on ESPN.com and saw this headline for the Angels/Yanks game today....

"Angels jump on Wang early......"

My inner 12 year old had a good laugh at that one.

The FireJoeMorgan.com website had a blog entry about this headline:

Yankees' Wang Hit Hard By Rangers

I know I've got a head cold & not thinking straight, but does that really say RANGERS? Other than the occasional outburst, I don't think they've hit anyone hard this year. Certainly not anyone on the Yankees!

[donald byrd 4 EVA]

here in sd, im concerned as trevor hoffman is reported to have a "cranky arm." Sure hope its nothing serious, since hes five saves away from 500

[Chalupa]

Well it took them until May 26th but the Fightin' Phils have finally made over the .500 mark for the first time this season.

[Dan Gould]

Elijah Dukes looks way scary and intense in the linked picture.

$380,000 bucks a year playing in the MLB and he still relates everything from da 'Hood, yo.

Five children from four different women.

The dude never got out of the ghetto, apparently.

What a moron.

WTF? You think that $380,000 goes to diction lessons instead of bling?

Well, duh.

You would think he could conduct himself better then that, fer crissakes....that is a shit-load of money, big guy.

Geez, Dan...don't you care at all about the quality of character?

The leading and only defender of Barry Bonds is now concerned with character?

That is rich. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? That news report didn't offer any evidence that it was Dukes' voice on the recording. It just said "a voice" - doesn't that make it "hearsay"?

To answer your question, yes I care about "character". However, I do not believe or expect the minimum major league salary to be used to buy it. You either have it or you don't. Dukes is a 22 year old without it; Bonds is 44 year old without it.

Dan you are so full of crap it is clouding your vision.

Hearsay my rosy red ass.

You are all about hearsay and you are willing to convict a man on the basis of shoddy evidence illegally obtained from Grand Jury testimony and what his ex-girlfriend said.

Buddy, you are a walking-talking hypocrisy.

We are done here.

See you in the Funny Papers.

Wow.

You are truly, sadly, pathetically hysterical.

[Tim McG]

Yeah, whatever.

Same to ya, Pal.

[Soulstation1]

TRIBE SLAPPIN' AROUND THE TIGERS

[Patrick]

Tribe definitely having a nicer visit to Motor City than the Cavs. Hopefully Fausto will prevail this evening.

[Tim McG]

Bonds hits a two-run jack to deep center field.... #746!!!

Edited May 27, 2007 by GoodSpeak

[Aggie87]

Bonds hits a two-run jack to deep center field.... #746!!!

[Dan Gould]

But I thought testicles shrink during heavy steroid use.

******************************

Well, I guess this weekend is a good example of "when things are going bad" vs "when things are going good". The Sox can't do anything wrong, the Yanks can't do anything right. Now the Yanks go to Toronto for three and with two rookies lined up to pitch, then Boston for three and the White Sox for four. And they are 9-14 on the road.

The Sox do get Cleveland at home before hosting the Yanks but they do manage to miss Carmona, have Schilling, Beckett and Dice-K lined up, and of course the Indians aren't nearly as impressive on the road as they have been at home. After the Yanks they go to Oakland for four, so they do have a pretty tough stretch coming up.

But an 11 1/2 game lead in the division makes it pretty easy not to worry too much.

The question now is, what do the Yankees do? It sounds like Cashman could be fired by the time Clemens makes his first start - but what does that do about this year's team? That only impacts who might be traded for and what happens next offseason. And I can't see any big trade to shake up the roster, simply because so many of the players having bad years are unmoveable (Giambi) not worth anything to another a team (Abreu) or too young to give away (Cano and Melky). Packaging the prospects doesn't make sense because there aren't a lot of teams that are in sell mode yet (unless the Rangers would part with Teixera).

That leaves the traditional, and frankly obvious move to shake up a roster and hope it works as a kick in the rear: Fire the manager. But Clemens made it clear that he came back because of his respect for Mr. T. You gonna fire him before Clemens even comes back?

[Chuck Nessa]

Why on earth does anyone pay attention to any sport beyond the JV level anymore?

[Patrick]

Fausto did deliver against Tigers, and the lineup got to Maroth early (4 runs in the first), so a sweep was had in Detroit. Fausto had more trouble keeping the ball down--hopefully not a trend. That ballpark is so large Travis Hafner managed to hit a triple there this weekend (and I see that Jim Thome has hit two there as well). Too bad Wakefield won't be available for Indians BP. In addition to missing Carmona, Bosox also dodge Sabathia. Lee and Sowers have been the weak links so far (Sowers had his first good outing of the season against KC in his last start). Byrd had been solid if not dazzling--still has more wins (5) than walks allowed (3). So given the pitching matchups, realistically Tribe should be unhappy only if they get swept at the Fens. Then return to the Jake and hopefully take care of the Tigers again...

[Dan Gould]

Well it should be a good early season test for both teams - can Cleveland show the same spark on the road? Will Beckett pick up where he left off or be rusty and get into trouble against that lineup? What continues to amaze me that is the Sox keep scoring runs with Drew hitting terribly and Manny just recently showing signs of getting going. A great example of how well they are doing is Julio Lugo, who is hitting something like .240 or less but has almost 30 RBIs, as many as Jeter who is hitting .350. The difference is that Lugo is hitting .310 with runners on and even better with runners in scoring position and two outs.

[Quincy]

Trot Nixon returns to Fenway too. He's playing as expected over there, killing (to a degree) RHP and getting killed by LHP, but adding some needed depth & hustle. I'd be curious if the Boston press does "value for the dollar" comparisons of his season vs. Drew.

[Dan Gould]

Trot Nixon returns to Fenway too. He's playing as expected over there, killing (to a degree) RHP and getting killed by LHP, but adding some needed depth & hustle. I'd be curious if the Boston press does "value for the dollar" comparisons of his season vs. Drew.

Oh, they've already written short pieces about his return and mentioning the difference in batting stats between the two. Clearly Drew is lucky that the team has kept winning without him, but what I've seen, I don't get the complaints about his style of play. He runs everything out; has played very well in RF; and only missed a couple of games when he crashed into the top of the wall. What I've seen, he's a gamer just like Trot only he doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve the way Trot does.

Frankly, Sox fans are smart enough to recognize and applaud people who play hard. You don't have to yell and cuss and throw your bat to convince people.

Its possible though that the fans won't get a chance to compare Trot to Drew in the first game (and maybe the second) because the Tribe has two lefties starting and that is when Tito likes to give Wily Mo some ABs (and also to rest Drew - they think that it can help to avoid nagging injuries if they give him regular rest every 10-12 games.)

[Tim McG]

Giants take the day off...they can't lose today.

[Dan Gould]

Well if Sox-Indians is a preview of the ALCS as some commentators have said, we're in for a doozy of a series based on the first game. Schilling had a major bounce back game, 1 run on six hits in seven innings with ten K's, Youklis actually hit an inside the park homer (can't wait for the highlights on Baseball Tonite) and the suddenly super hot Dustin Pedroia went three for three with two doubles and sparked a two out rally in the eighth to give Papelbon a three run lead to close. Dustin is hitting .298 after being around .170 a month ago.

Then it got scary. Walk. Double. Double. Second and third, no one out, 5-3.

Then Paps went pop out, strikeout, strikeout, and all was right with the world.

20 games over .500. 11 1/2 game lead over the O's, 12 over the Blue Jays, 13 1/2 over the Yanks, who fall into a tie for last place with the D-Rays after they staged a two run walk-off rally off of Todd Jones.

See Tribe fans? Its not such a big deal taking a loss today. No change in the Central standings.

[Tim McG]

....and all was right with the world.

You stole my line, Dan.

So....I guess it's true.

Immitation is the highest form of flattery.

[zen archer]

Well if Sox-Indians is a preview of the ALCS as some commentators have said, we're in for a doozy of a series based on the first game. Schilling had a major bounce back game, 1 run on six hits in seven innings with ten K's, Youklis actually hit an inside the park homer (can't wait for the highlights on Baseball Tonite) and the suddenly super hot Dustin Pedroia went three for three with two doubles and sparked a two out rally in the eighth to give Papelbon a three run lead to close. Dustin is hitting .298 after being around .170 a month ago.

Then it got scary. Walk. Double. Double. Second and third, no one out, 5-3.

Then Paps went pop out, strikeout, strikeout, and all was right with the world.

20 games over .500. 11 1/2 game lead over the O's, 12 over the Blue Jays, 13 1/2 over the Yanks, who fall into a tie for last place with the D-Rays after they staged a two run walk-off rally off of Todd Jones.

See Tribe fans? Its not such a big deal taking a loss today. No change in the Central standings.

They just showed Clemens on baseball tonight and he was limping off the mound after the first.

he looked gassed after 6 innings and the guys on espn were wondering if the yanks might try and get out of the deal ?

[donald byrd 4 EVA]

while the rest of you talk about bonds and dice-k and all things roger clemens and whatever else the mainstream sports media feeds you, peavy again registered 7 innings of shut out baseball which of course receives no notice since it doesnt occur on the east coast or on either the yankees or redsox. cy young here we come...

[Patrick]

Schilling was tough Monday night. Cliff Lee struggled through 5. Papelbon did his best Borowski imitation in the 9th--not only was it second and third, no out, but the top of the Tribe order was up to bat. I think Hafner will welcome the arrival of June (he has had a tough month, including 4 K's Monday). Thank you D-Rays.

Go Peavy go! Mainstream media ain't feeding me a whole lotta Tribe, unless they're playing Tigers or Bosox. Go Fausto!

[Dan Gould]

They just showed Clemens on baseball tonight and he was limping off the mound after the first.

he looked gassed after 6 innings and the guys on espn were wondering if the yanks might try and get out of the deal ?

That was BS. Number one, Clemens pitched five more innings after that. Obviously while he did look like his groin was a little ouchy for a second or two, its not anything serious.

Number two, the idea of giving up on the season is so antithetical to everything the Yankees preach that it is ludicrous to even discuss. And beyond that is the fact that the contract would certainly be considered legally enforceable anyway. Honestly it was one of the dumbest discussions I've ever heard on that network.