2011 MLB Thread

[Chief Rum]

You are a bigger than average 37 year old. You still have, at best, "okay" speed. You are on 1B. A popup is hit into shallow center, with three players converging, and it appears that the CF, who is running toward you, is calling for the ball.

Do you:

1. Stay rooted to 1B.
2. Drift off just a few feet, recognizing you're no longer 27.
3. Go more than halfway to 2B and stand there.

If you're Bobby Abreu, apparently the answer to this question is #3, FFS.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Yeah, huge swirling winds. Still...

SI

Like I said, at the warning track. It was a very difficult catch to make. Kazmir doesn't deserve one little bit of credit for today.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Yeah, huge swirling winds. Still...

SI

It's not even swirling. The wind is steady out blowing out to left field at 30-40 MPH. I almost fell over going to my mailbox this morning. Really warm and humid too. Great day for batters, not for pitchers.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

We'll see, Troy. Texas is very good. But I think you overrate them a little here. Plus, the primary reason they could be caught isn't the lineup, but their pitching.

I'm not sure I overrated their lineup, if anything I think I underrated it.They scored 787 runs last year despite Cruz, Hamilton and Kinsler missing a combined 116 games, their 1B being a complete sinkhole until 2/3 of the year were gone (Davis and Smoak barely cracked the Mendoza line) and the catching hitters combined for about .225.

Assuming the big guns miss fewer games, I've VASTLY underrated the offense. Napoli and Moreland are monumental upgrades over the players who played in their place last year.

The pitching is the question mark, but they have a top line closer and they really only have to be average. This team is scoring 850 runs this year. And they are only going to have to win 85-87 games to get the division. I don't see anyone else in that division doing any better.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by TroyF

I'm not sure I overrated their lineup, if anything I think I underrated it.They scored 787 runs last year despite Cruz, Hamilton and Kinsler missing a combined 116 games, their 1B being a complete sinkhole until 2/3 of the year were gone (Davis and Smoak barely cracked the Mendoza line) and the catching hitters combined for about .225.

Assuming the big guns miss fewer games, I've VASTLY underrated the offense. Napoli and Moreland are monumental upgrades over the players who played in their place last year.

The pitching is the question mark, but they have a top line closer and they really only have to be average. This team is scoring 850 runs this year. And they are only going to have to win 85-87 games to get the division. I don't see anyone else in that division doing any better.

Actually my overrate comment was about your projection of Texas's overall success, not the your specific lineup comments. And if everyone stayed healthy on most teams, those teams would be much better. How much better would the Angels be with a healthy Morales?

And they're going to need more than 85-87 wins.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

It's not even swirling. The wind is steady out blowing out to left field at 30-40 MPH. I almost fell over going to my mailbox this morning. Really warm and humid too. Great day for batters, not for pitchers.

It is definitely headed out to the wall. As for the swirling, I am not there, of course; I am just repeating what the announcers are saying.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

LOL.....wind is just crazy today in KC. Balls flying out of the park.

[Chief Rum]

lol...2nd HR for Howie Kendrick. Man, such power!

It's 6-5 Royals now. Looks like we're going to get a barnstormer.

[Chief Rum]

Abreu's up right now. Looks like he's swinging for the fences. Saw Kendrick going long and again and is saying to himself, "WTF?!? If Howie can go long twice..."

[Ksyrup]

Joe Nathan might get this save, but he is getting hit hard. One ball to the fence, another in the gap that Span caught, and 1 run in already.

[mauchow]

Starlin Castro is going to be a stud for the Cubbies.

[samifan24]

The Tribe picks up its first win of the season by outlasting John Danks, who was masterful for most of the afternoon. Down in Tampa, Zach Britton earned his first MLB win with a strong outing against the Rays.

[Ksyrup]

Once again, I am reminded how great it feels to not have to root for a team that employs Fernando Rodney.

[Ksyrup]

Vernon Wells FT...WTF?

[sterlingice]

Both the Royals and Angels trying their best to not win this afternoon

SI

[Ksyrup]

Yep. This is painful to watch. Except Collins.

[molson]

The Red Sox I think decided to take an extra few spring training games, you know, just to make sure they're all warmed up and everything. Can't wait for opening day on Tuesday against Cleveland!

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by molson

The Red Sox I think decided to take an extra few spring training games, you know, just to make sure they're all warmed up and everything. Can't wait for opening day on Tuesday against Cleveland!

Les sigh.

/tk

[stevew]

Pirates got to Carlos Marmol today.

[Ksyrup]

Abreu's been on base 7 times today, I believe.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

Starlin Castro is going to be a stud for the Cubbies.

Helluva throw to first today as well.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Really good series to start the year for the Royals. Bullpen performed really well again. Watching Collins brings back memories of Flash Gordon. Really good curve ball and a stout fastball.

[stevew]

RoyalsTalk.com

[sterlingice]

I did not have Matt Treanor walk off 3-run homer in the "how will KC win today" pool

SI

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Once again, I am reminded how great it feels to not have to root for a team that employs Fernando Rodney.

I just can't stand him. It's not even just that he sucks, but he always seems like he's a cocky SOB, too. WTF have you done, Rodney? What a sad sack of shit. The sooner we get that F'er out of the closer role the better.

I knew his contract meant that he would get first crack, but the Angels have always indicated it was a tenuous hold on that spot at best. Hopefully that will be very tenuous and Rodney will shortly be shown the door.

[kingfc22]

Giants need to do something about having Huff and Burrell on the OF. Just too much given up defensively with this lineup unfortunately.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by molson

The Red Sox I think decided to take an extra few spring training games, you know, just to make sure they're all warmed up and everything. Can't wait for opening day on Tuesday against Cleveland!

Seriously. Blah.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Finally get to open a season as the defending champs

Time to move forward now and pound the bums the next 4 days.

Does one out of four work for you?

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Giants need to do something about having Huff and Burrell on the OF. Just too much given up defensively with this lineup unfortunately.

Huff + Burrell + Tejada + Sandoval = not so hot defense.

I'm actually wondering if the Giants can afford to punt offense at short and get a glove whiz (a la Bocock) to help make up some range. Then again, what do you do when Ross gets back? You have 4 guys for three positions in Burrell, Ross, Huff and Belt. And each of them seems capable at the plate. Platoon Burrell and Belt while rotating Huff from 1B to OF?

I don't think Huff's as bad in the OF as he looked tonight, but he will occasionally have games like this.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Actually my overrate comment was about your projection of Texas's overall success, not the your specific lineup comments. And if everyone stayed healthy on most teams, those teams would be much better. How much better would the Angels be with a healthy Morales?

And they're going to need more than 85-87 wins.

I'm with CR on the 85-87 wins. I think that the A's, Angels and Rangers are all contending, it's just a question of health and productivity out of the marginal players.

I also just may be including the A's because I'm buying into the hype that everyone seems to be up on recently. But I think the division is the Rangers' to lose in any case.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Does one out of four work for you?

One outta fifty has done wonders for the Giants, so I would image so

[jbergey22]

Its soooooooooooooooooo early in the season. Trying to make any sort of predictions based on what has went on over 4 days is all but meaningless. Many of the starting pitchers are still 2-3 weeks from being in top form.

Past history says the Angels will likely finish above expectations so the safe bet would be on them winning over 82 games. They are very much like the Twins that way. Its always easier to pick teams like the Rangers, White Sox or Tigers but when its all said and done you tend to see the Angels and Twins high up in the standings.

[Terps]

Originally Posted by samifan24

The Tribe picks up its first win of the season by outlasting John Danks, who was masterful for most of the afternoon. Down in Tampa, Zach Britton earned his first MLB win with a strong outing against the Rays.

Britton should have made the team out of spring training. Sucks we had to lose Matusz for him to come up. But, with his extreme ground ball tendencies he'll do well in OP@CY, and should be here to stay.

I was kind of hoping they would have him start the home opener, since I'm making the 3 hour trip down for opening day, but I'll settle for Jake Arrieta.

[fantom1979]

I think Mark Teixera is on pace for about 600 homeruns this year. I bet he is hoping that the Tigers never leave town.

[RedKingGold]

Thanks to my girlfriend's Christmas present, I was at the Cliff Lee game on Saturday night. As reported, the atmosphere was electric and the game had a decent playoff feel to it.

Overall, it's a nice three-game sweep from the Phils over the Astros, but it's hard to take too much away from it because (a) it's early season and (b) I think the Astros will stink. But the Phillies usually start really slow, so to see a strong start is a welcome surprise. It was the the first time the Phillies swept their opening season at home since 1970.

The biggest takeaway, however, is that Jimmy Rollins is playing like a man possessed (and he is...by his need for a new contract). If he can just stay healthy, this lineup is so much more productive when Rollins is playing at his peak.

[Butter]

Reds couldn't have picked a better way to open the season. The come-from-behind win on Opening Day, and then getting out to early leads in both of the final 2 games and pretty much cruising in both.

If you are Milwaukee, you've gotta be concerned about the bullpen. Axford got destroyed on Thursday, and didn't look much better in mop up duty yesterday.

Reds with Houston coming in for 3 starting tomorrow. Good chance to win 2 of 3 in that series and make it a nice 5-1 homestand to start.

Hate the way the Reds always start the year. Opening Day... Day off... 2 games... day off...

I've been waiting 5 months for baseball, why tease me so much!

[stevew]

Charlie Morton is a festering anal wart.

[stevew]

At Bat 11 is really good. The audio quality is so much better than it was a few years ago.

[stevew]

Evan Meek is starting to piss me off. Blew Game #2 and tried to lose tonight. Congrats to Morton for not sucking ass tonight.

Hanrahan will have his arm fall off by midseason at this rate.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, congrats to Morton and his 1.50 ERA with 5 walks/2 Ks. That should hold up.

[cartman]

The Rangers keep on rolling, beating Seattle 6-4. Nelson Cruz joins Willie Mays and Mark McGwire as the only players to hit a homer in their team's first four games of the season.

[stevew]

Lol. He at least had a redic GB%. If he posts greater than 9:1 all year I'm sure he will be awesome!

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by cartman

The Rangers keep on rolling, beating Seattle 6-4. Nelson Cruz joins Willie Mays and Mark McGwire as the only players to hit a homer in their team's first four games of the season.

He is scary good when he gets hot.

[jbergey22]

Does this make the Pirates 3-1?

[Butter]

Indeed it does. They are a half game behind the 3-0 Reds. Pirate Fever, catch it!

[Butter]

Speaking of, I was catching the end of their game last night rather than watch Butler miss 80% of their shots in an absolutely brutal game, and noticed that Fox Sports Pittsburgh is now something called "Root Sports". WTF happened there? Is Fox trying to get out of the regional sports game, or is this just an aberration?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Speaking of, I was catching the end of their game last night rather than watch Butler miss 80% of their shots in an absolutely brutal game, and noticed that Fox Sports Pittsburgh is now something called "Root Sports". WTF happened there? Is Fox trying to get out of the regional sports game, or is this just an aberration?

Apparently Fox Sports sold regional nets in three markets (Pittsburgh, Seattle, Denver) to something called DirectTV Sports about three years ago. They finally decided to rebrand them.

FSN Pittsburgh becomes ROOT Sports Friday | Pittsburgh Business Times

[Butter]

Hmmm. DirecTV buying regional sports networks? Wondering if they are trying to put the squeeze on their competitors this way, by taking more ownership of sports knowing how valuable of a commodity that is on a per-subscriber basis to cable and the other Dish company.

If anyone wants to explain the sense of this, feel free.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Hmmm. DirecTV buying regional sports networks? Wondering if they are trying to put the squeeze on their competitors this way, by taking more ownership of sports knowing how valuable of a commodity that is on a per-subscriber basis to cable and the other Dish company.

If anyone wants to explain the sense of this, feel free.

It's more complicated than I've ever tried to figure out. Back in '03 News Corp (aka Fox) acquired almost 40% of DirectTV. In '06, News Corp did a stock swap with Liberty Media, giving up their interest in DirectTV in return for the News Corp stock that Liberty owned.

In 2009, DirectTV Group became part of Liberty but then spun part of itself off into DirectTV, which owned their share in the three regional sports nets, Game Show Network, and online gaming company Fun Technologies. Apparently in turn that group spun the sports nets into DirectTV Sports.

In addition to all that fun stuff, some of the FSN nets were actually owned by Cablevision for a while, and then Comcast Sports nets are actually like sister-stations to the FSN's.

[Ksyrup]

I seem to have a vague recollection of DTV wanting to own regional sports networks being an issue in someone's contract negotiations. I can't remember if it even involved DTV directly. Maybe it lead to the 2006 stock swap. I really can't remember.