2005 MLB Regular Season Thread
 

The place to discuss teams other than the Red Sox and Yankees.

Braves run is over in 2005. Mets have Pedro and Beltran.

Beltran is overrated.

Braves run may be over (who knows) but I seriously doubt it will be the Mets who knock them off. Phils or Fish, I could see, tho.

SI

Miguel Cabrera is gonna be a full blown star this year.

How many YEARS have the EXPERTS predicted this? Great track record to this point........I'll believe it when I see it.

Definitely. I've given up on picking against the Braves. When they actually go out and lose, then I'll stop picking them. I mean, geez- they made John Thomson, Russ Ortiz, Jaret Wright, Mike Hampton, and Paul Byrd look good last year. Yeesh.

SI

The Detroit Tigers will win the AL Central, Thank you. That is all.

Forget the Mets (or the Braves.) This is the Phillies year! Their staff can compete with any staff in the division, and their lineup is potentially the most explosive. Abreu, Thome, and Burrell are great at the heart of the order. I think this is the year, Rollins fulfills his potential to be a great leadoff guy. Lofton will be a decent addition as well.

Sheesh... I'm behind the times. I didn't realize the Indians, Twins, and White Sox all got moved out of the Central.

Fixed that for ya..........oh wait, they sucked last yr too. :)

Nothing is a given in the always wild AL West, but I must admit to getting the feeling of quiet confidence from this year's Angels. It's like in the past, they had some good ballplayers, and they thought they could be good. And sometimes they were.

Now, they are past that. They know they're good, and if they just keep doing what they're doing, they will be one of the better teams in the league.

And I'm not really too worried about them being good or bad. I'm just worried about whether any of the other AL West teams will be stepping it up to stay with them, and if so, will we be competing with the Red Sox or Yanks for a wildcard spot?

It would help if we get DMac, Escobar, and AK all back by the end of April, though.

CR

So then you are of the opinion that the Braves will win the NL East forever and ever? After all, since they haven't lost it yet, you can't believe it will ever happen by your logic ;)

I see, you must not pay attention to any off season moves eithier, let alone younger pitchers getting better.

I don't know what to think about the NL West. The off-season in a nutshell...

-Giants get a bat (Alou), a closer (Benitez) and lose Bonds for an indeterminate amount of time.

-Dogers try to make the best of a bad situation (Beltre leaving), seem to get nothing but worse. They're better than they would have been if they hadn't done anything -- but they are not as good a team as they were last year.

-Padres remain largely the exact same team.

-Diamondbacks make some huge moves...but they had a long way to move up before they were considered respectable.

-Rockies...well, I don't remember much about what they did this off-season, and I think they're probably going to suck again.

I think the NL West is really a 3 team race -- the Dodgers, Giants or Padres could win it. Many people seem to think that the Giants are too old, and that they are going to all of a sudden suck this year. I don't really understand that...but hey, it could happen. The same way Derek Lowe could suck, Odalis Perez could blow out his arm, and Jeff Kent could fall off a motorcycle. A lot of people also seem to think that the Padres are going to get magically much better than they were last year. While they have a few kids who could develop further (Greene, among others), a lot of their guys are past the "getting better" phase of their career. I think that the Padres getting much better than they were last year is about as likely as the Giants all of a sudden sucking, or the Dodgers getting better after losing a 40 HR, Gold-Glove caliber 3B. That is, it could happen, but it's hardly set in stone.

So that's all basically a long-winded way of saying that I think that the Giants are going to have a tough time winning the division -- but it's definitely not outside the realm of possibility. Hope blooms eternal in the spring...

Sounds good to me :)

I agree with SI. I don't see the Mets winning the division.

Every year the Mets add 2-3 players and the NY press proclaim them to be 20-25 games better than the previous year. I admit theey're much more interesting this year, but they have a rich history of finding a way to stink.

I'll always root for the Tigers, but I just don't see any way they make the playoffs, much less win the division. The Twins are going to win it, and the Indians will be good. Maybe Detroit can do what KC did a couple of years ago and stay competitive until September, but they've got starting pitcher issues beyond Bonderman. My hope is that Robertson becomes a solid starter, but Johnson and Maroth are 5th/6th starters at best, and Ledezma is a huge question mark. The bullpen is better, but they needed to pick up 2 more solid starters to be legitimate contenders.

The Phillies over the Braves....I'll be rooting for the Phils as always, but I'll believe it when I see it.

'course I did. Of couse, the rest of the division didn't stand pat, either. Detroit will probably finish 13 out instead of 20 out... but still behind the Twins, Indians, and White Sox. Royals will improve (they almost have to), but not enough to get into contention.

Holy Dmitri Young, Batman!

I couldn't be happier that my dad has him on the bench today :)

Go Joe Randa! Walkoff homer to win it after an Adam Dunn two run shot to tie it. Good to see him doing well with his new team.

SI

MEATHOOK!

Three homers today. Unstoppable.

Sure its the Royals, but still.

Just saw the highlight of the Pirates/Brewers game. The pirates fiedling was pretty bad. These are major league baseball players right?

They shouldn't be playing baseball at high altitudes. :mad:

The Phillies won their first season-opening home game since 1980.

I smell another championship!

This is true and the Marlins will win the East.

bump

I'm starting to feel even more certain that the A's got rid of the wrong "Big 3" guy. I guess Hudson had to go, but between Mulder and Zito...Zito just hasn't looked good since 2003, and he's off to a bad start this year. Maybe they thought Mulder was the bigger injury risk.

That isn't what he said. He said "I'll believe it when I see it..." and it hasn't been seen in 13 years. He might see it this year, but I wouldn't say that is anywhere near a definite. And considering how the Mets have started the season, I don't think they'll be the ones to unseat them.

Looks like the Mets are already in mid-season form after 5 games. :D

The Dbacks have the worst bullpen in the history of time. Blew a 4-run lead in the 9th last night and a 5-run lead in the 8th tonight.

DBacks actually had a nice pitching effort tonight. Shut-out the Rockies behind Brad Halsey's 6 inning, 7 K, 1 BB and 0 run effort. The kid looks pretty good to this point.

Apparently you don't know the real story of Noah's ark. Mr. Monkey and Mr. Giraffe constantly gave up 6 or 7 run leads to the big bats of Mr. Rhino and Ms. Elephant. Admittedly, the season was stopped when the game was ruled too dangerous after the male unicorn got hit in the genitals with a wild pitch.

*groan*

SI

The Pads got Peavy and Lawrence going tomorrow against Wood and Prior. Might be the lowest scoring DH in history.

This guy has gone Ankiel/Wohlers:


Byung-Hyun Kim has been worse than bad for the Rockies: He's pitched in eight games and lost three, walking 11 and hitting another in 9 1/3 innings. Sure, opponents are hitting just .188 against him, but that's because nobody knows where the ball is going next -- and nevertheless, Kim has a 9.64 ERA.

As of now, Friday's Cubs-Astros game should be a matchup of Greg Maddux vs. Roger Clemens.
They have faced each other once before, in 2000, when neither got a decision, but the Braves beat the Sox 11-7. This one will be fun to watch. Apr. 25 - 7:08 am et

Red Sox in trouble; Wells AND Schilling now on DL. Mags on DL for an injury (hernia) which wouldn't allow Tigers to void the rest of his deal.

And my fantasy team falls apart earlier than usual

I used to like Glavine as a Brave, but now I just love him as a Met. :)

With Percival out 4-6 weeks, any team looking at Urbina as a possible closer will probably have to look elsewhere, unless Detroit completely falls apart. If they're anywhere near .500, they probably need to keep him, even if Chicago and Minnesota pull away.

I do not wish to alarm you, but Lyle Overbay has a .496 on base percentage. It's all about the O, baby.

And according to Gammons, he might be traded to make room for Prince Fielder. Since he still has one more arbitration-free year left, he could fetch some major talent.

I am trying to figure out how atlanta is doing so well, with jordan and mondesi in the outfield at the same time. I keep hoping that they will give the young guys a chance. The pitching has been great, though I am not a big fan of Kolb. For some reason, closers who can't strike anyone out worry me. LaRoche is doing well in the 4 slot, though.

I saw a story today on Cold Pizza about how HR totals are down and they say that new steroid testing is the reason why. I however know that the only reason HR totals are down is because Eric Milton has only started 7 games.

They're down 8-9% from last year. Some have suggested the cool/wet weather on the East Coast is partly responsible; others have said Bonds would have made up the 9% on his own - and I don't think they were joking, just insane.

"I think if Barry were playing, you'd probably have that nine percent," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said.

"The best hitter in baseball is on the DL," added Florida Marlins third baseman Mike Lowell. "I can't say it's steroids or the pitching. It might be a combination. If it was down 30 percent, I would say, 'Whoa, we've got to look at something.' Nine percent is a minimal variation."


2004 - 459 games, 990 HR
2005 - 460 games, 908 HR

Barry's worth HOW MANY HRs?!?!?

82

Thank you, math wiz...