Author Topic: Offical MLB Thread! (Read 418417 times)

daigong · « **Reply #1020 on:** October 30, 2008, 03:28:44 AM »

AMAZING FINISH!! So much chess moves chess moves.

Congrats to 2008 World Series Champs Phillies!

Good for Brad Lidge. Boo to the Fox guy for bringing up the past. Rays sure poured it on, Rocko with the homer. DAMN. WOW...

Saburo · « **Reply #1021 on:** October 30, 2008, 07:26:19 AM »

Congrats to the Phils and their fans!

I'm just glad the game was close to the very end! The Phillies came back with everything Tampa Bay could throw their way.

The play by Chase Utley in the seventh was clutch. Bartlett on second, two out. Iwamura grounds up the middle. Utley ranges to his right, gloves the ball and pump fakes to first. Bartlett was running all the way, waved in by the third-base coach. Utley, still moving to his right near second base, threw on target home and nailed the potential go-ahead run for the third out of the inning. Philly retook the lead in the bottom of the inning and that was that.

daigong · « **Reply #1022 on:** November 18, 2008, 08:37:48 PM »

NICE. Dustin pedroia wins the MVP. So size doesn't matter! And Pujos with the MVP, I thought Man Ram would get it, with the entire media on his fuckin dick.

Wonder what other big moves is gonna drop this off season?

Saburo · « **Reply #1023 on:** November 19, 2008, 03:43:14 AM »

Post-season awards in MLB are still the most important in any pro sport in America. You can look it up.

I think most of them were "correct" this year. The Borda count point system offers flexibililty and a better consencus choice. That is, if people take their second and third and fourth, etc. place votes seriously. Most of the time, they don't.

Some of the wackier selections:

Edinson Volquez of the Reds got three 2nd place votes for NL Rookie of the Year. Nice, except HE'S NOT A ROOKIE. Joba Chamberlain might have got jobbed for getting only one 3rd vote.

Brad Lidge got more votes for NL MVP (2) than NL Cy Young (0). Huh? Same for Francisco Rodriguez in the AL: Cy Young zero first, 7 2nd; MVP 1 first, 2 2nd (!), 3 3rd. Does anyone here really think K-Rod was more valuable in 2008 than, say, A-Rod? Or even Cliff Lee, who got only 24 points for MVP to K-Rod's 143.

Newpaper writers have been voting on this "official" award since... jeez, before World War I?! And they REALLY haven't changed all THAT much. Thank goodness we can get alternative viewpoints from the net.

p.s. Joe Mauer of the Twins gets MY AL MVP vote...

Saburo · « **Reply #1024 on:** December 09, 2008, 05:05:14 PM »

Just a short blurb here, for the record, to acknowledge the retirement of Greg Maddux, one of the three or four greatest pitchers of our generation.

Pedro and Unit had great peak seasons, Clemens combined peak and longevity. Maddux was like Clemens in that he had great seasons (check out 1994-95) and longevity (EIGHTEEEN career Gold Gloves?!). He also had an amazing track record of durability, spending only a couple weeks on the DL in his career.

Yankee bloggers were babbling for weeks contemplating the Hall of Fame qualifications of Mike Mussina, twisting figures and stats. No problem with the Mad Dog: first ballot inductee.

Saburo · « **Reply #1025 on:** December 10, 2008, 05:05:11 PM »

I postwhored on another board, saying that I'd prolly rate Clemens slightly higher than Maddux. I got a response, which might have been foreseen as a matter of course:

Before or after Clemens got juiced?

Anyone else tired of this shit?

Before, after... doesn't matter to me. I think it is impossible to objectively figure out how much of a difference it made to Rocket Clemens by poking a needle in his butt and injecting himself with wacko chemicals. I don't think about it much (e.g. I still acknowledge Barry Bonds as the career MLB leader in home runs hit).

Maddux has one more career win than Clemens. But that's hardly the difference maker. Clemens's career winning percentage is better, achieved with inferior teams than Maddux (whose Braves teams probably had better defensive support than that on the BoSox/Jays). Clemens also did almost everything in the American League, which clearly became the better arena of talent in the 90s.

Of course G. Maddux was an amazing pitcher -- his stats for 1994 and 1995 are just mind-boggling for any post-WWII pitcher. One thing he has over Clemens is durability. Someone said on TV that he spent only two weeks on the disabled list in his entire 23-season MLB career. Compare that with someone like A.J. Burnett who's shopping around for big free agent buck$ right now. I think Burnett has had two or three healthy seasons, period??

Saburo · « **Reply #1026 on:** December 10, 2008, 05:07:45 PM »

Reports all over say CC Sabathia has knuckled under to inevitability and accepted a revised contract from the Bronx Bombers: seven years, $160 million-jillion.

Best of luck to the Yanks and their fans, who are probably still have upset stomachs over not getting Johan Santana this time last year.

Mets fans should be relieved about getting The Closer for '09. Mets had 20-something blown saves this past season! K-Rod can't hurt, unless of course the predictions about his arm exploding on the mound come to fruition.

Saburo · « **Reply #1027 on:** December 12, 2008, 07:27:03 AM »

OK so the winter meetings have come and gone. Where's Tex going?

Yankees REALLY should blow their wad on the first baseman but it appears they want Burnett, Lowe or both. Do they really think Nick Swisher is good enuff for first base?

Also read the Nats are offering eight years, $160 million. Orioles also in the mix (hometown team), although for less moolah. I would think the Angels need him more than the Yanks, or the Red Sox even. (Where does Lowell go if Tex signs with Boston?)

Saburo · « **Reply #1028 on:** December 13, 2008, 04:29:12 AM »

A.J. Burnett: New York Yankees..

Five years, $82.5 million.

Carl Pavano revisited?!!

daigong · « **Reply #1029 on:** December 16, 2008, 08:49:55 AM »

^ Udderly ridiculous

CC Sabathia + Burnett sure proved money talks. I thought CC would do the Dodgers and join Mannywood.

Mad props to Greg Maddux. He had the juice going down the stretch. Still the best baseball CM ever "Chicks Dig the Long Ball"

What's your take on Seattle Mariners hiring Don Wakamatsu as manager? Never heard of him? He had a decent pro career?

Saburo · « **Reply #1030 on:** December 24, 2008, 05:34:05 PM »

Totally with you on the Maddux/Glavine commercial! Underrated and underappreciated.

Wakamatsu seems like a baseball lifer. And the kind of person whose first chance in The Show is inevitably a shitty one.

Uncertain how much he will contribute to a Seattle system that has totally tanked. I think the new GM will have more of his ideas implemented than the field manager; perhaps they can coordinate together.

In other news Mark Tex gets signed by the Yankees for a buncha years and a lotta-buncha-zillion buck$. No one thought the Nats or Baltimore Birds had any chance but once again the New England Sox were pickpocketed once again. And the RAGE from the Nation ensues once again. Rich kids whining, and your American League champions play in a shitty dome that's probably worse than the one they just blew up in Indy.

Still, it's baseball -- the only game I love. And last I heard they play the games for real in April.

I. Can't. Wait.

daigong · « **Reply #1031 on:** December 25, 2008, 07:11:22 AM »

^ At least World Classic is around the corner.

The Rich get Richer!!

Who is gonna win the Man Ram Sweepstakes? Methinks LA will resign him, unless Arte Moreno pulls a fast one.

Fuck man, if I'm gonna go all out to see H&A in Seattle might as well pop by Safeco Field and see Wakamatsu and ICHIRO in action.

mini*wheat · « **Reply #1032 on:** January 10, 2009, 12:51:03 AM »

John Smoltz is leaving the Braves for the Red Sox!

Sad times!
The Red Sox are getting a good man, though.

Saburo · « **Reply #1033 on:** January 10, 2009, 01:10:48 AM »

Chipper Jones was NOT pleased at all by this turn of events. However I don't think, at this juncture, that Atlanta could afford to guarantee $5 million to Smoltz.

Boston and Atlanta always play one another in interleague so it will be interesting if Smoltz makes an appearance in Turner Field wearing the new Red Sox grays.

BTW... the MLB Network debuted with a broadcast of Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Anyone know where I can snag a copy online?

Assman · « **Reply #1034 on:** January 10, 2009, 10:25:23 AM »

Does Smoltz even have any juice left? The Rich Get Richer fuck- Yanks dropping 800 million on 3 players alone :/

Wonder if we get MLB Network up here. I'd sure love to see Rickey weekend on MLB Network! How he upstaged Lou Brock LOL

daigong · « **Reply #1035 on:** January 13, 2009, 09:15:58 AM »

Big ups to Rickey Henderson for getting inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Rickey Henderson dashed into the Hall of Fame on his first try. Jim Rice made it with a final swing.

"Today...I am the greatest!"

Henderson, who played 25 seasons, received 94.8% of the vote from the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America in balloting announced Monday, well above the 75% needed

Also going in in Jim Rice - never saw him play...but wow. got in on his final year on the ballot.

Why no Andre Dawson? Cuz he was gonna go in as a Montreal Expo?

Saburo · « **Reply #1036 on:** February 07, 2009, 09:33:46 PM »

OK A-Rod was on the juice, according to SI: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/02/07/alex-rodriguez-steroids/

Whoopie-doo...

daigong · « **Reply #1037 on:** February 09, 2009, 08:53:36 AM »

And to see Bonds exiting a SUV. Great timing.

Didn't take Manny long to say no to a 1 year 25 mil - Dodgers are making a HUGE mistake

THUNDERDUCK · « **Reply #1038 on:** February 09, 2009, 10:05:59 PM »

Leave A-Rod alone, steroids aren't illegal!

Saburo · « **Reply #1039 on:** February 09, 2009, 11:01:58 PM »

Joe Sheehan on the rampaging media and screaming skulls:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8487

Sheehan's one of the best...