2010 MLB Season

[BERIGAN]

When do we play you guys? It looks like it could be a real battle this year for the NL East.

Just checked espn, your team comes to town the 20th to the 22nd, then we play you all in Philly the 7th thru the 9th of May.

I'm just glad the Phils traded Cliff Lee, or there wouldn't even be a race! Still, it's going to be very tough to top you guys...and teams like the Marlins and the Nats are going to be teams no one wants to face later in the season.

Thank God the Mets didn't makes any good free agent signings short of Bay. They may end up in last place this year!

[WorldB3]

Seattle has their home opener today, I like the way the A's rotation matches up for this series. I have no clue how Duke will do tonight but I love Anderson and Gonzalez at the 4 and 5. If Ben Sheets returns to decent the A's may have a legit rotation.

Edited April 12, 2010 by WorldB3

[Dan Gould]

You have to go back to pre-cancer-diagnosis Jon Lester to find such an utterly appalling, pathetic performance. He better get his shit together soon.

[Quincy]

You have to go back to pre-cancer-diagnosis Jon Lester to find such an utterly appalling, pathetic performance. He better get his shit together soon.

He's didn't pitch well vs. MIN last year or the year before that. Next start is Tampa, so you might have to wait for Baltimore after that for a nice stat line.

[Tim McG]

Hey J.H., the other J.H., after hitting yet another homer last night(2nd night opposite field homer off of the same lefty reliever) he's on pace for 81 HR's 216 RBI's and only 243 Strikeouts!

Weird series in San Fran. Giants need to stop swinging at everything, and the braves need to stop Booby Cox from making decisions...but that won't happen til next year!

Melky has 3 hits in 25 AB's. I kept reading how he was really going to benefit from coming over to the NL

I dunno.

Personally, I kinda liked the outcome, myself

[Aggie87]

Or is that the Astros just really suck, especially without Berkman?

This.

Nope.

This: SWEEP!

Astros are 0-7. Can you take off your black & orange blinders and believe me that they suck now?

Edited April 13, 2010 by Aggie87

[Chalupa]

Braves getting spanked by the Padres. Right now in the bottom of the 7th it's 17-2.

Edited April 13, 2010 by J.H. Deeley

[Chalupa]

Or is that the Astros just really suck, especially without Berkman?

This.

Nope.

This: SWEEP!

Astros are 0-7. Can you take off your black & orange blinders and believe me that they suck now?

The Astros are better than their record indicates. They also had the misfortune of going up against the Giants & Phillies for the first 7 games.

[Tim McG]

Or is that the Astros just really suck, especially without Berkman?

This.

Nope.

This: SWEEP!

Astros are 0-7. Can you take off your black & orange blinders and believe me that they suck now?

Nope.

I'll just take the Sweep!!!

Edited April 13, 2010 by GoodSpeak

[Matthew]

The Mariners look flat-out terrible right now, offense stinks to high heaven, Bradley's not doing a thing, no one is doing anything decent. Awful.

[Tim McG]

Or is that the Astros just really suck, especially without Berkman?

This.

Nope.

This: SWEEP!

Astros are 0-7. Can you take off your black & orange blinders and believe me that they suck now?

The Astros are better than their record indicates. They also had the misfortune of going up against the Giants & Phillies for the first 7 games.

Music to this long suffering Giants' fan's ears.

Edited April 13, 2010 by GoodSpeak

[WorldB3]

The Mariners look flat-out terrible right now, offense stinks to high heaven, Bradley's not doing a thing, no one is doing anything decent. Awful.

The M's deserved to lose tonight just for having Death Cab For Cutie play opening ceremonies and do covers of Take Me Out To The Ball Game and Centerfield. Really? All that great musical talent in Seattle and they give you Death Cab doing Centerfield?

Speaking of left field, its too early to get worked up and I have seen him at his best and carry a team but the Bradley experiment doesn't seem to be working out too good so far.

A's are showing some signs of life which I haven't seen in years which is nice for a change. Probably won't mean a thing two months from now when they are back under 500 but I will enjoy this while I can.

[Quincy]

The M's deserved to lose tonight just for having Death Cab For Cutie play opening ceremonies and do covers of Take Me Out To The Ball Game and Centerfield. Really? All that great musical talent in Seattle and they give you Death Cab doing Centerfield?

It could have been worse. Soundgarden reunion. (Shudder.) And at least it wasn't Neil Diamond. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

A's are showing some signs of life which I haven't seen in years which is nice for a change. Probably won't mean a thing two months from now when they are back under 500 but I will enjoy this while I can.

Though rooting for the M's I kind of like it too - at least for now. The M's got so much "they're going to win" attention when they got Lee, and the Angels have earned the fear & respect so talk of them winning isn't out of line. The Rangers have young pitching that looks promising (which is weird) to go with some talented position players, so it's not unreasonable to think they could win the west. But I don't think anyone was thinking the A's would do much and even had a few snide Moneyball jokes tossed their way in preseason articles and such. Just 2 weeks in and things look different!

[WorldB3]

Though rooting for the M's I kind of like it too - at least for now. The M's got so much "they're going to win" attention when they got Lee, and the Angels have earned the fear & respect so talk of them winning isn't out of line. The Rangers have young pitching that looks promising (which is weird) to go with some talented position players, so it's not unreasonable to think they could win the west. But I don't think anyone was thinking the A's would do much and even had a few snide Moneyball jokes tossed their way in preseason articles and such. Just 2 weeks in and things look different!

If Lee and Bedard come back healthy that is a great 1-2-3 with King Felix in the rotation. Looking from the outside the three issues with the M's that may need to be addressed asap are (knowing that the 3rd one won't be addressed because the last time it was brought up Mike Hargrove lost his job over it):

1. Is Griffey done? Too early to tell but has he lost bat speed?

2. Milton, hope for the best or cut ties with him before he loses it.

3. Ichiro moving from the lead off spot to third. Now that they have Figgins who is one of the best lead off batters in the AL will Ichiro give up on his I only bat lead off, hit 330 w/ 200 hits and move to 3rd in the order and become a 25 hr - 90 rbi guy which he is very capable of doing and help the team out to score runs and win games.

[Dave James]

I'm not sure you can fix what ails the Mariner's offense by tweaking the batting order. I think Franklin Gutierrez is going to have a break out season both at the plate and in the field, but if you look at the rest of their line up, it's not going to strike fear into the hearts of many opposing pitchers. Not to mention that the M's are already having to deal with the curse that is Milton Bradley. A mere eight games into the season, he's already had his first one on one time out with Dan Wakamatsu. That's not a good sign. Neither is his .045 batting average. While there's no arguing that a healthy return of Lee and Bedard would make the M's staff among the strongest in either league, you still have to score runs to win games. I think it may be a long year for Seattle fans.

[ghost of miles]

Cripes, Dave, a bit of a meltdown by Dave Robertson this afternoon sure made the Angels-Yanks game interesting at the end...we ended up having to pull in Mo, who got Matsui for the last out. Good thing Posada and Granderson bagged a couple of insurance runs for us in the bottom of the 8th.

[ghost of miles]

Jerry Hairston Jr. took a red-eye flight so that he could be at Yankee Stadium today to get his ring along with other members of the 2009 team. Great picture in the Times of him and the other players greeting Matsui after he got his ring too (nice coincidence that Matsui's new team was on the bill for NY's home opener):

DaveJames, marty, Paul, other NY fans--the video is even better...really beautiful at the end when they all rush over to hug Matsui. Man, that was a special team we had last year! I can understand why Hairston, who was only on it for half a season, wanted to fly back for the ceremony today:

Video of ring ceremony

...and some article links:

To get ring, Hairston flies all night

Yankees raise World Series flag

Edited April 13, 2010 by ghost of miles

[Dave James]

Cripes, Dave, a bit of a meltdown by Dave Robertson this afternoon sure made the Angels-Yanks game interesting at the end...we ended up having to pull in Mo, who got Matsui for the last out. Good thing Posada and Granderson bagged a couple of insurance runs for us in the bottom of the 8th.

I was just perusing the box score. A win is a win, but with the exception of Rivera, the Yank's bullpen remains a question mark. I sure wish they hadn't ruined Joba Chamberlain. If they'd just left him alone and let him work as the set up guy and eventual successor to Mo, I'm not sure we'd be having this discussion.

[Chalupa]

The Ortiz Watch...

After struggling mightily the first two months of last season, Ortiz is off to another slow start in 2010. He is hitting .136 (3 for 22) with just 2 RBIs and 11 strikeouts. He has missed on 44 percent of his swings this season, more than double the league average of 20 percent.

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/mlb/news/story?id=5082185

[Tim McG]

OK.

I know it's way too early in the season, but it sure feels nice to be on the winning side of things for a change.

Go Giants!!!

[Brad]

Looks like the wheels have already come off the Mets bus and my guess is that Manuel will soon be thrown under that bus.

[Quincy]

Okay, credit where it's due. Thanks for the 3 R HR last night Milton. You're #1!

[Dan Gould]

Looks like the wheels have already come off the Mets bus and my guess is that Manuel will soon be thrown under that bus.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving GM, that's for sure, but Manuel will catch the flak first I am sure. Here's hoping Jason Bay will be happy having held out for every last dollar.

[Tim McG]

Cain got beat yesterday [E6] but Sanchez sure looked sharp!

Go Giants!!!

[Dave James]

Wecome to Loserville. Population? Javier Vazquez. If you need an object lesson in the difference between pitching in the National and the American League, look no further than this bozo and his nearly double digit ERA. Dynamite in one league and a pop gun in the other. I'm not sure what the Yankees and Brian Cashman were thinking when they made this move, but whatever it was, they missed by a country mile.