The 2010 MLB Season Thread

[RedKingGold]

(And yes, I am joking...kind of).

[RedKingGold]

Yup, looks like Washington's long-suffering fan base of five years is going to face another long stetch of futility.

[RedKingGold]

Wait, seriously? You're basing fan reaction to an injury based on that?

You realize the fans don't see what is shown on TV, right? Maybe, just maybe, they were happy that Strasburg was getting pulled because he was killing us.

Wow, way to leap to conclusions there apeshit.

[RedKingGold]

Hey, believe what you want to believe.

[Suicane75]

How the hell can you watch that video and take away anything from it but the crowd giving him a pat on the back cheer at how good he's been? I mean seriously.

[stevew]

Strained flexor tendon. MRI tomorrow. Via twitter

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

How the hell can you watch that video and take away anything from it but the crowd giving him a pat on the back cheer at how good he's been? I mean seriously.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

Yes, this is horrible, this idea.

[JPhillips]

My God, some of them even gave a standing ovation to the injury!

[panerd]

Just saw the clip and all I saw was respectiful clapping. Sorry I have no horse in this race and you do Hi-Fi. Your post is very misleading and innaccurate.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

hxxp://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100821&content_id=13756146&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

As soon as Riggleman comes out you hear the positive murmur from the Philly crowd. At approximately 1:05, once Stras leaves the mound, you hear the audible rise in cheering to what was easily the highest level in the game for the ignorant cocksuckers in the stands.

I was all excited to see a legit reason for some philly fan bashing and this is what is what has you so pissed?

Should they have booed when he came off the field? It was respectful clapping/cheering and anyone that thinks otherwise needs to take their blind homerism glasses off.

I feel like punching myself in the face for saying this, but if this is anywhere other than Philly you don't think for a second that they're cheering the injury.

[jbergey22]

Sounded like a library at Philly tonight during the clip so basically any reaction at all was probably heard. It seemed like a few people may have been cheering that he got hurt but it sounded like more were clapping out of respect for him. Kind of hard to speculate on that clip. Nothing seemed terrible to me about how Philly fans were acting.

[JetsIn06]

Yea...I see nothing but a standard "you gut hurt and can walk off under your own power" clap here.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Lou Piniella will retire sooner than expected, effective at the conclusion of today's game.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Lou Piniella will retire sooner than expected, effective at the conclusion of today's game.

Goodnight, sweet Lou.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Dodgers pick up Rod Barajas from the Mets off waivers.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tough day for ol' Lou to go out, 16-5 Braves including Infante & Heyward combining to go 8/10 with 4 HR's between them.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Lou Piniella will retire sooner than expected, effective at the conclusion of today's game.

[Scoobz0202]

I wouldn't mind if the season ended today. If it did, the Reds would play the Braves. No offense meant to Braves fans, but I'd much rather see the Reds face them then the Padres or the Phillies pitching staff.

[Scoobz0202]

dola -

and I'd imagine Braves fans feel the same way about facing the Reds

[RedKingGold]

Interesting series coming up for the Philadelphia-Houston. Both Brett Myers and J.A. Happ, among many other former Phillies, are scheduled to appear over the next four games.

I fear the Phils will need to win at least 3 of these 4 because then starts a West Coast road trip against both the Padres and Dodgers and a one-game make up at Colorado over the last week of August/first week of September.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Dodgers pick up Rod Barajas from the Mets off waivers.

And according to Vin Scully, that's why he's coming back for a 62nd season next year, so I'm okay with that.

(Yeah, I know Vin said that in jest.)

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

I wouldn't mind if the season ended today. If it did, the Reds would play the Braves. No offense meant to Braves fans, but I'd much rather see the Reds face them then the Padres or the Phillies pitching staff.

Plus if the season ended today Cinci would avoid playing in September. We will see your guys September 3rd after our road trip consisting of Houston, Pittsburgh, and Washington.

[Scoobz0202]

Yea, right after our HOME trip of the Cubs and Brewers

Good luck on the road, Team With A Below .500 Road Record

[Vince, Pt. II]

Cody Ross. I thought MLB had positional limits...he's the Giants 26th OF on the 25-man roster.

[Suicane75]

So glad Scully is coming back. I ordered the MLB package this year and I can say without a doubt that the biggest joy i've had from it are the nights I can just sit and listen to him call Dodgers home games.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Cody Ross. I thought MLB had positional limits...he's the Giants 26th OF on the 25-man roster.

Seriously!

Giants need to sweep the Reds just to go 6-6 over this 12 game stretch against playoff contenders. They need to go at minimum 6-3 on this homestand IMO.

[Butter]

Reds won 2 of 3 in LA (which I thought was a sign of the apocalypse, but no black hole swallowed me up this morning, so...). I'm pretty sure the Giants have a good chance at winning 2 of 3, if not completing the outright sweep.

[SackAttack]

Apparently Strasburg is headed back to the DL.

I wonder, is he still working out when they put him on there, or are they shutting him down entirely?

If the latter, it would seem as if overprotectiveness might catch up with them eventually because he'd always be in a position if needing to regain at least some modicum of fitness before he'd be "right" again after a DL stint.

[sovereignstar]

Twins are about to be no-hit by Harden and Co. Only the Top of the 9th to go.

[Atocep]

They should have let Harden go for history. He was only at 111 pitches through 6 2/3 innings.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Reds won 2 of 3 in LA (which I thought was a sign of the apocalypse, but no black hole swallowed me up this morning, so...). I'm pretty sure the Giants have a good chance at winning 2 of 3, if not completing the outright sweep.

Worst case scenario is a 5-4 West coast trip. Pretty good way to come back from the Cardinals debacle.

[kingfc22]

Hopefully, the Giants can carry this over for the next few days.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Atocep

They should have let Harden go for history. He was only at 111 pitches through 6 2/3 innings.

Except that he had just come off of the DL earlier in the day.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Hopefully, the Giants can carry this over for the next few days.

nah - If I had to bet money, they will be shutout tomorrow.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by cartman

Except that he had just come off of the DL earlier in the day.

I think he was being sarcastic.

[stevew]

I'm just curious if anyone here is a degenerate gambler on baseball. Like the type who would go +150 on the Pirates daily "cause they have to win one day and the odds are too good to pass up"

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

No comment from the poverty claimers on Deadspin's leaked MLB financial data?

hxxp://deadspin.com/5615096/mlb-confidential-the-financial-documents-baseball-doesnt-want-you-to-see-part-1?skyline=true&s=i

[Logan]

I'm sure they're all fake.

[Ksyrup]

Meh, the financial thing is like steroids to me. I just don't care. Who's problem is it, and is it really a problem? If you don't like the product on the field, don't go. If it doesn't bother the league into taking action, then it's obviously not that big a deal to them.

And then there's the chicken/egg thing. Why should the Marlins double their payroll when they still wouldn't get many people to come to the games? What's the incentive? Look at TB. If the league insists on playing there, then what else are you going to do? Mandating spending would be silly, and it would ignore the way that baseball teams are constructed.

The only thing of interest this information shows is that in a perfect world, we'd get back to 24 or 26 teams - 2 leagues, 2 6/7 teams divisions in each league. Perfect structure. Dump the cities that can't support baseball, ensure a couple dozen strong franchises in good cities/regions, and fuck the Yankees. That would be my 3-prong attack for "fixing" baseball.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

No comment from the poverty claimers on Deadspin's leaked MLB financial data?

hxxp://deadspin.com/5615096/mlb-confidential-the-financial-documents-baseball-doesnt-want-you-to-see-part-1?skyline=true&s=i

I thought one of the Pirates blog had a pretty simple explanation of some of their numbers.

Nutting Opens the Books, But Will It Make a Difference?*|*Pirates Prospects

I was a bit surprised at how much the Pirates made from broadcast rights.

I thought that the Marlins, in particular, were egregious. But I think we all know that.

Also, I'm trying to determine how to read some of these financial documents. I don't quite understand some of the "numbers behind the numbers". I know one can make financial numbers say anything and you get a lot of bookkeeping shenanigans where you take a loss with one entity so you can profit at another, etc. For instance, is there a line that accounts for the increased value of the franchise as that's where the money is really to be made with a professional sports franchise?

Detailed Financial Info from Pirates, Rays, Marlins, Angels, and Mariners Sees Light of Day

This had a decent twenty thousand foot analysis but, again, doesn't address some of what I was talking about above. I don't think the teams selected was an accident as you had quite the cross-section: the large market Angels, the mid-market Mariners, the mid-market-parading-as-small-market Marlins (really, Miami is the #9 MSA in the country), the mid-edging-towards-small market Rays and the small market Pirates (MSA size list).

What I really found interesting is that pretty much every team on the list with the exceptions of the Marlins, the World Series year for the Rays, and the money losing season for the Mariners- every team each year ran an operating income within a stone's throw of $15M. Even adjusting for net, except for the Marlins team, no team made above $17M per year on a total budget of between $130M and $250M

SI

[panerd]

Originally Posted by stevew

I'm just curious if anyone here is a degenerate gambler on baseball. Like the type who would go +150 on the Pirates daily "cause they have to win one day and the odds are too good to pass up"

Yes but the other way around. I will easily go -200 to -250 on a great pitcher because I know they are most likely going to win. Baseball is a lot more predictible than other sports in that way. (I guess NBA is sort of the same but I stay far away from that sport)

[cartman]

Originally Posted by panerd

Yes but the other way around. I will easily go -200 to -250 on a great pitcher because I know they are most likely going to win. Baseball is a lot more predictible than other sports in that way. (I guess NBA is sort of the same but I stay far away from that sport)

You'd go broke betting on Cliff Lee

[miked]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Meh, the financial thing is like steroids to me. I just don't care. Who's problem is it, and is it really a problem? If you don't like the product on the field, don't go. If it doesn't bother the league into taking action, then it's obviously not that big a deal to them.

And then there's the chicken/egg thing. Why should the Marlins double their payroll when they still wouldn't get many people to come to the games? What's the incentive? Look at TB. If the league insists on playing there, then what else are you going to do? Mandating spending would be silly, and it would ignore the way that baseball teams are constructed.

It's a problem I guess for teams like the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox (and other bigger spenders) that give money to teams like PIT and KC to help them sign talent, when all those teams do is pocket it for profit. So yes, while the front offices of KC and PIT put out shitty teams and their fans are well within their rights to boycott, it's being subsidized by quite a few other teams.

The Rays have increased average attendance 35% since their last losing season, so winning does equate to more butts in the seat, which likely equates to more luxury and merchandising revenue. In their last winning season (1993 and shortened 1994), the Royals averaged nearly 24k fans per game...their payroll was over 40M. Then apparently after the strike, the front office decided they could win with a 20M payroll, the team has stunk ever since and so has attendance. If you look at payroll vs. attendance, there is quite a correlation and the team is now up from 17k per game (a few years ago) to nearly 23k per game, without any major change in performance.

[Ksyrup]

See, I don't buy any of that, either. Lost in the "PIRATES MADE A PROFIIT" headlines is this:

Although the club operated at a profit in 2007, '08 and '09, the figures showed that no dividends were paid to partners in the ownership group over those years and the majority of that profit went into capital expenditures, such as the recently opened Dominican Academy, improvements to the Spring Training facility in Bradenton, Fla., and the purchase of the Class A Advanced Bradenton Marauders to expand the Minor League system.

That's investing in the team, no matter how you categorize it. No one took a cut of the profits (aside from salary, I presume) and more than half of the money went into areas od need - just not direct payroll. Maybe not every team is doing it like that, but the point is, very few people are accurately reporting any of this stuff, either. The teams are businesses, so they can't be made (or expected) to operate at a loss.

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Atocep

They should have let Harden go for history. He was only at 111 pitches through 6 2/3 innings.

I really hope this was sarcasm. The guy just got off the DL for a bad shoulder. 111 pitches was probably pushing it.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Tasan

I really hope this was sarcasm. The guy just got off the DL for a bad shoulder. 111 pitches was probably pushing it.

It was sarcasm, a response to the hoopla over the Twins pulling Kevin Slowey from a no-hitter.