The official 2008 MLB thread

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I like Rolen. The rest of the Jays are garbage (not including pitchers).

I was really happy we got Rolen, he's one of my favourite players IRL and I never liked Glaus. I hope Riccardi is cleaning out his office. He's garbage, too.

[Vince]

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Batter calls time, ump grants it as Lincecum starts his pitching motion. Lincecum stops his pitching motion, is called for a balk and the go-ahead run scores from third. Bochy is ejected (even though he looked like he was falling asleep while arguing with the ump).

Bottom of the ninth, you're down 3-2. 2 Outs, man on 2nd Base, Freddie Lewis and his .329/.412/.541 line are up (all leading the team). Obviously, the right move is to pinch hit with Dan Ortmeier and his .258/.361/.355 line.

WHAT THE FREAKING HELL.

[Vince]

Oh, just in case someone questions the move -- Fuentes (Lefty) was pitching.

Lewis vs. Lefties for his career: .306/.390/.389

Ron Wotus, you're an idiot.

[lordscarlet]

Good game for Zimmerman. Hopefully this is the signal that his slump is over.

[MikeVic]

I think this is a pretty early part of the season for me to take a break from the Jays already, but their offense is just bleh. At least when I watch. I hate seeing good pitching being wasted.

[AENeuman]

Not even a cards fan, but this is pretty cool:
ST. LOUIS -- Eight years ago, the Cardinals set a franchise record with 17 April wins, thanks in large part to pitching phenom Rick Ankiel. On Wednesday, they broke that record, thanks in large part to hitting phenom Rick Ankiel.

[Neuqua]

The Cubs are about to tie their record for wins this month too. Beating up on the Brewers, 18-5 in the 8th.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I think this is a pretty early part of the season for me to take a break from the Jays already, but their offense is just bleh. At least when I watch. I hate seeing good pitching being wasted.

And suddenly the early season enthusiasm begins to fade. Right on schedule.

[Arles]

DBacks finish the month 20-8. Their 20th win came on a get-away game where a pitcher (Micah Owings) pinch-hit for a reliever in the 6th and tied the game with a 2-run HR. When it's going good, it's going good.

[lordscarlet]

Nationals: 6 of the last 8, including a 2 game sweep of the braves and a series win against the Cubs.

[samifan24]

Greinke dominating Texas...

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

Spoke a wee bit too soon my friend.

No, even though he took the loss it was still a very strong outing. He took the loss today because Kansas City is missing its offense. Sidney Ponson? Come on...

[Chief Rum]

Buzzie Bavasi passed away.


http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/new...=.jsp&c_id=mlb


Good read on someone who was very influential in baseball for a long time, including the integration of African-Americans into baseball.

[lordscarlet]

7 of 9 for the Nats!

[Ksyrup]

Rick Ankiel continues to amaze, this time with his arm:

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/med...00805072655396

[MrBug708]

Stay hurt Nomar

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Rick Ankiel continues to amaze, this time with his arm:

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/med...00805072655396

He's more accurate throwing from the outfield than he is from 60 feet, 6 inches............

[Lathum]

Is there a better guy to listen to do a ballgame then Vin Scully?

[Booj]

Paging Seattle's offense... Paging Seattle's offense...

*crickets*

That's what I thought.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Booj

Paging Seattle's offense... Paging Seattle's offense...

*crickets*

That's what I thought.

Honestly, their offense was the biggest reason I wondered why all the dumbass experts out there picked them to win the AL West. Their offense was pedestrian last year, and they lost their best power hitter to free agency and traded away their best hitting prospect. I was pretty certain Seattle's offense would be around 8th or 9th in the AL at best, in runs scored (a spot or two down from last year), and maybe more.

The rotation, when healthy and clicking, can be terrific, but there were way too many questions on that lineup to predict a postseason visit (which may still happen, but still, not looking good right now).

[Karlifornia]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is there a better guy to listen to do a ballgame then Vin Scully?

Coming from a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan....nope.

[Booj]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Honestly, their offense was the biggest reason I wondered why all the dumbass experts out there picked them to win the AL West. Their offense was pedestrian last year, and they lost their best power hitter to free agency and traded away their best hitting prospect. I was pretty certain Seattle's offense would be around 8th or 9th in the AL at best, in runs scored (a spot or two down from last year), and maybe more.

The rotation, when healthy and clicking, can be terrific, but there were way too many questions on that lineup to predict a postseason visit (which may still happen, but still, not looking good right now).

I didn't think their offence would be outstanding, but this is almost laughable. At least offence is the easy thing to add come the offseason. The pitching has been outstanding although Felix is struggling a little.

When you use Willie Bloomqvist as a pinch hitter when the tying run is at the plate it shows that you have no bench. At all.

[samifan24]

When you're Richie Sexson and you're 6'8" and you charge the mound, what do you do? You throw your helmet, of course.

[Booj]

Hey... be easy on Sexson. I think that was the first time he made contact with something thrown at him or thrown by him in weeks...

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is there a better guy to listen to do a ballgame then Vin Scully?

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

Coming from a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan....nope.

Word.

[MrIllini]

Jim Edmonds released today by the Padres. An expected move since early this week, but sad for a Cardinals fan nonetheless.

Shameless plug for my blog here: http://www.pitchershiteighth.com/200...e-jim-edmonds/

[Lathum]

why would a pitcher need to shit eighth?

[MrIllini]

Originally Posted by Lathum

why would a pitcher need to shit eighth?

Because that's his spot in the order. Any more questions?

[JeeberD]

That Lance Berkman...he's so hot right now.

Here's his last six games.

2/4 1RBI
4/5 1 HR 4 RBI
5/5 1 RBI
2/3 1 HR 1 RBI
2/3
3/4 1 HR 2 RBI

Six games, 18/24 (.750 BA), 3 HR, 9 RBI...that's rather red hot.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Word.

You know, I respect Vin Scully. I don't really like him, but he's damned good. That being said, I do put him second to Jon Miller.

[Oilers9911]

Vernon Wells out for 6-8 weeks, Jeremey Accardo on the DL, joining BOTH shortstops. Hello last place Blue Jays. The thing that really sucks about this is that Ricciardi will be able to trot out the injury excuse again. Sigh.

[MikeVic]

Go Jays!

[Oilers9911]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Go Jays!

FIRE JP!

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Vince

You know, I respect Vin Scully. I don't really like him, but he's damned good. That being said, I do put him second to Jon Miller.

That's because you're a low-class heathen who would rather have hamburger every day than steak on Sunday.

What I say, I say out of love.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Vince

You know, I respect Vin Scully. I don't really like him, but he's damned good. That being said, I do put him second to Jon Miller.

He loses me as a fan with his retarded barking "safe" call.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Vince

You know, I respect Vin Scully. I don't really like him, but he's damned good. That being said, I do put him second to Jon Miller.

Yup. Except I kinda like the guy. Still, Jon Miller is beyond perfection for me.

[sterlingice]

We can't buy good weather for a game, I swear. This is my 3rd game this year, fourth for a guy I go with, and we can't get good weather. The first game we went to, we spent the 3rd thru 9th in the concourse the whole game since it was in the 40s and raining. He went that weekend and it snowed earlier that day before the game. Then we go a couple of weeks later, and it was 40 at game time and the temp dropped from there with gusty winds so it was bitterly cold.

Tonight, 63 at game time but threatening clouds. Sure, not bad- and it's umbrella day so not a bad thing if it rains... Right up until the 1st inning 3 run homer by the Orioles followed by the 1:52 rain delay. By then, it's dropped into the low 50s with a wind in the 20s with gusts up to 50s and a cold mist that falls the rest of the game with the temperature. So you couldn't really keep your umbrella open because it would get destroyed by the wind but it was cold and damp and extremely windy. Just not pleasant at all. By the end of the game, there were maybe 2000 fans in the seats.



SI

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Oilers9911

FIRE JP!

+2

[Buccaneer]

Congrats to Greg Maddux, my favorite pitcher of all time, for his 350th win.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Congrats to Greg Maddux, my favorite pitcher of all time, for his 350th win.

+1

As for there only being 2k fans at the game SI, I've never understood why people don't migrate down for better seats. Does security still bounce people out even if there's hardly a crowd?

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

We can't buy good weather for a game, I swear. This is my 3rd game this year, fourth for a guy I go with, and we can't get good weather. The first game we went to, we spent the 3rd thru 9th in the concourse the whole game since it was in the 40s and raining. He went that weekend and it snowed earlier that day before the game. Then we go a couple of weeks later, and it was 40 at game time and the temp dropped from there with gusty winds so it was bitterly cold.

Tonight, 63 at game time but threatening clouds. Sure, not bad- and it's umbrella day so not a bad thing if it rains... Right up until the 1st inning 3 run homer by the Orioles followed by the 1:52 rain delay. By then, it's dropped into the low 50s with a wind in the 20s with gusts up to 50s and a cold mist that falls the rest of the game with the temperature. So you couldn't really keep your umbrella open because it would get destroyed by the wind but it was cold and damp and extremely windy. Just not pleasant at all. By the end of the game, there were maybe 2000 fans in the seats.



SI

Any chance the promotion that day was the first 2,000 fans through the gates received Royals umbrellas?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Vince

As for there only being 2k fans at the game SI, I've never understood why people don't migrate down for better seats. Does security still bounce people out even if there's hardly a crowd?

At the start of the game, there was an announced attendance of 15K (MLB claims sold tickets, not turnstile numbers) and, looking at the crowd, most of them actually made it there to claim their umbrellas.

By the end of the game, yeah, pretty much everyone moved down to the lower deck. We were down in section 102 or 104, right behind home plate. There were maybe 100 people in the upper deck but we didn't decide to move down until around the 6th or 7th. It was one of those things where we had stayed in our seats for hours to keep them dry so we didn't necessarily want to give them up.

I did get a fun souvenir, tho. In the pregame warmups, some of the people in our section went to the front of the upper deck, good naturedly taunting two of the Orioles (I didn't catch who they were) who were playing long toss to see if they could throw their warmup ball into the upper deck. The player missed on his first try so he overcompensated and threw it extra hard on the second try and it made the 4th row, where I caught it on the fly right at my seat

Here's a picture of the rain:



SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Cringer

Any chance the promotion that day was the first 2,000 fans through the gates received Royals umbrellas?

Actually, yeah, that was the promotion. As one of my friends put it yesterday when I told him we were going to the game but there was a good chance of a rain out: "Take that, irony!"

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Congrats to Greg Maddux, my favorite pitcher of all time, for his 350th win.

Scary, Buc. That's another thing we have in common. Maddux is definitely my favorite. We'll never see another like him in any lifetime. He had that stretch in the 90s where he was absolutely insane (a 79 pitch complete game, what?!?)

I've already gone down the best pitcher of all time road and I think there are easy arguments to be made as to how he was better than Clemens (and that's without using the word "steroids"). He has the numbers to back it up, depending on how you frame the argument, which, in the end, is how these things are "decided".

SI

[Atocep]

Dusty shows off his managerial skills in the 9th inning today...

[Logan]

Turned it off...what happened?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Logan

Turned it off...what happened?

From what I saw, Dusty made a double switch in the bottom of the 8th, then in the top of the 9th one of the guys he switched batted out of turn, Dusty comes out to get the ruling explained to him, then the correct hitter comes up and singles, then Dusty comes out two more times to get the ruling explained to him.

[sterlingice]

Bannister with a great outing today. 8 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K with 110 pitches.

SI

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

You know, as Cringer noted, given the wonderful timing of the umbrella promotion with the rain out, this is actually an incredible picture that would be very difficult to reproduce. lmao funny, too.

[Chief Rum]

BTW, this just in: the Angels scored on the Rays today. Congratulations, guys!

(maybe tomorrow you can win the game...)