2009 MLB Regular Season Thread

[JonInMiddleGA]

Another stellar outing for the Braves today, their fifth straight loss is a 10-0 drubbing by the Pirates.

Blaine Boyer placed on waivers today to make room for call-up starter JoJo Reyes (replacing the anticipated start by aching arm Tom Glavine). 5 decent innings & then a 6th inning implosion leaves Reyes with 5 runs allowed on 7 hits & 3 walks in 5.2 IP. Sad part is that he still has a lower ERA than reliever Buddy Carlyle (9.43) who gave up 4 runs in 1.1 IP.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Looking at his stuff this year (he seems to have gotten 1-2mph on his fastball back) I'd be tempted to take the under on that ERA.

I'm a Met fan, so I have to be pessimistic.

Seriously though, he tends to give up HRs (although he's been so awesome so far, nothing has really been close) which can inflate his ERA a bit while he is basically hitless otherwise.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Another stellar outing for the Braves today, their fifth straight loss is a 10-0 drubbing by the Pirates.

Blaine Boyer placed on waivers today to make room for call-up starter JoJo Reyes (replacing the anticipated start by aching arm Tom Glavine). 5 decent innings & then a 6th inning implosion leaves Reyes with 5 runs allowed on 7 hits & 3 walks in 5.2 IP. Sad part is that he still has a lower ERA than reliever Buddy Carlyle (9.43) who gave up 4 runs in 1.1 IP.

As Boyer first into the category of "longtime Brave farmhand", I'm sure Dayton Moore will be fitting him for a Royals jersey soon enough

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

As Boyer first into the category of "longtime Brave farmhand", I'm sure Dayton Moore will be fitting him for a Royals jersey soon enough

I get the feeling that he may definitely have that opportunity (beyond just waivers). Although Boyer has to clear waivers in order to send him down to AAA since he's out of options, I think this may be intended as more permanent
"“Sometimes moving on to a different club is good for a guy,” manager Bobby Cox said. “Gets him some fresh air somewhere else.”

[JS19]

Well, that was an impressive 2nd inning for the Indians, 13 hits, 14 runs. I remember there was a thread about GMs in sports, but I once again would like to cast my vote for Brian Cashman, with over 200M to play around with I really don't understand how you have names like Phil Coke, David Robertson, Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez, Jonathan Albalajedo, Ramiro Pena on your roster. Names like that remind me of the movie Major League.

[Lathum]

enjoyable half inning

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

It's the 1.5 billion dollar Coors Field.

[MrBug708]

We want Swish-er

[SirFozzie]

20-4. holy shit

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

20-4. holy shit

You ain't kidding!

[JonInMiddleGA]

WTF is an "Anthony Claggett" and why was it pitching for the Yankees?

Judging from his line today it seems as though he'd be a perfect fit for the Braves bullpen.

[Atocep]

Wang's numbers so far this year are crazy. 3 starts, only 6 innings, 23 earned runs, .622 batting average allowed.

[LloydLungs]

Not that I don't enjoy watching the Yankees get embarrassed, but I'm just so glad I get stuck with Fox's one 20-4 game that they won't switch away from, while a 5-5 Cubs-Cards game plus three others are blacked out despite my spending 160 bucks for the MLB EI package. I knew what I was getting into, but you still gotta love it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

It's making me crazy, how hard is it to get the guy 2 runs.

Royals got Greinke two runs tonight. Turns out they only needed one to win.

[Julio Riddols]

Greinke is a maniac so far. I don't even watch baseball, but if I read that last comment right, that means 3 starts, 0.00 ERA. In the American League. Yowza.

[Julio Riddols]

20 innings, 16 hits, TWENTY SIX strikeouts, only 5 walks.

After seeing the Prime 9 on best pitching performances of all time, this one has to be number 1 all time so far. I'd love to see him keep it up. Might watch Royals games to see him pitch, which is hard to get me to do for any baseball team, let alone one I do not consider myself a fan of.

And I realize I seem to be contradicting myself as far as what I think about baseball.. I used to love it, but my interest was crushed when they had a strike while the Reds were chasing a pennant. Still haven't recovered from that.

[Danny]

I wouldn't go that far, Orel once went 59 innings without giving up a run.

[Julio Riddols]

And Orel wasn't even on the Prime 9 list for that show. Their top performance was Pedro in 2000 I believe, based on his stats versus the average stats for that season. I'm not saying Greinke has broken a record or become god yet, but if he does continue this, he will do one of those two by the end of the season. Its also a pretty good story, considering his struggles in the past.

I think if any SP these days can produce an ERA under 3 in the AL, thats almost god-like considering the power of todays hitters.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Um, Pedro produced an ERA under 2 in the AL when offense was even higher than it is today.

Greinke is off to a nice start, but there's no need to crown his ass already. And yes, if he finished the season 36-0 with an ERA of 0.00 it will be quite an accomplishment. Also if Carlos Pena ends up with 81 HRs, or Miggy ends up hitting .488 those will be records as well.

[gstelmack]

Interesting article on the fact that they may have messed up something in the design of the new Yankees park, as home runs are being hit at a 250-percent faster clip. They are averaging 5 home runs per game over the 5 games (including exhibitions) played there:

New Yankee Stadium a home run nightmare - ESPN

[Logan]

Wind tunnel...or Ching Mieng Wang?

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Interesting article on the fact that they may have messed up something in the design of the new Yankees park, as home runs are being hit at a 250-percent faster clip. They are averaging 5 home runs per game over the 5 games (including exhibitions) played there:

New Yankee Stadium a home run nightmare - ESPN

Close to half of the HRs have been down the right-field line iirc, isn't it something like 310 feet?

[Logan]

Yes, just like the old stadium.

[lighthousekeeper]

the thing i don't understand is that there looks like a ton of empty seats at the both weekend yankee games this weekend. weren't tickets selling for thousands of dollars for the new stadium? i'm completely puzzled.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Danny

I wouldn't go that far, Orel once went 59 innings without giving up a run.

Heck, no. However, Zack did just just break the Royals record last night held by Kevin Appier and is at 34 straight scoreless innings. I doubt he'll get to 59 as that's still 3 more shutouts, basically- and a little dink or dunk with a runner on or one bad pitch that ends up in the seats (Zack is a flyball pitcher somewhat) and there goes the streak.

It's still a cool accomplishment but just thinking about that makes what Hershiser did that much more impressive- it's basically going 2 months without giving up a run as a starter. We were thrilled when it took Soria until something like mid-May last year to give up a run and have an ERA above 0.00 but that's as a closer- maybe 20 innings.

SI

[Logan]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

the thing i don't understand is that there looks like a ton of empty seats at the both weekend yankee games this weekend. weren't tickets selling for thousands of dollars for the new stadium? i'm completely puzzled.

Opening day tickets were going for a premium, but they're too expensive otherwise. Not as many corporate buyers or people who think it's wise to pay $250/seat for a random game.

The Mets and Yankees are both going to have much of their premium seating unfilled this year.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Royals got Greinke two runs tonight. Turns out they only needed one to win.

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Greinke is a maniac so far. I don't even watch baseball, but if I read that last comment right, that means 3 starts, 0.00 ERA. In the American League. Yowza.

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

20 innings, 16 hits, TWENTY SIX strikeouts, only 5 walks.

After seeing the Prime 9 on best pitching performances of all time, this one has to be number 1 all time so far. I'd love to see him keep it up. Might watch Royals games to see him pitch, which is hard to get me to do for any baseball team, let alone one I do not consider myself a fan of.

And I realize I seem to be contradicting myself as far as what I think about baseball.. I used to love it, but my interest was crushed when they had a strike while the Reds were chasing a pennant. Still haven't recovered from that.

I love MLB Network.

I watched Sportscenter for about 15 minutes last night and except for the Yanks-Indians and Red Sox-Orioles, nothing got more than 45 seconds for highlights. Blue Jays-A's had a walkoff homer in the 12th and that was the only highlight they showed for that game. Oh, they did show the Bernadina breaking his ankle a couple of times for the Nats.

Then I flip over the MLB Network. They have a live look-in of Tigers-M's in the 9th. One on, Griffey the tying run at the plate facing Rodney. Showed his at bat and then Beltre before they had to cut away. They talked about the previous highlights (I think it was for San Diego-Philly) before their clock rights clock expired and they could go back to the game where we saw the 3-2 pitch and Sweeney grounding out to end the game.

Then they showed about 3 minutes of highlights of the Royals-Rangers game where Zack was lights out and Millwood was also good. Got to see quite a few pitching highlights and the two run scoring plays. Then they spent another 2 minutes doing a segment on Greinke and his pitch location this year. You'd have never seen anything like that, even on Baseball Tonight.

SI

[terpkristin]

I love it when Boston plays games that I can watch on TV, like when they play the O's or Nats, or when the games are on ESPN.

I love listening to the Boston audio on the MLB.com audio subscription and watching the game on the big screen. The ads end up being fun, though, seeing an ad for Subway, for example, and hearing an ad for Dunkin Donuts.

/tk

[terpkristin]

Dola,
OK, this is even weirder. It appears that the TV is delayed by 1-2 seconds, the audio tells me what I'm about to see. That didn't happen last night..

/tk

[Philliesfan980]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Dola,
OK, this is even weirder. It appears that the TV is delayed by 1-2 seconds, the audio tells me what I'm about to see. That didn't happen last night..

/tk

Yeah, I'm having similar sync issues when I watch the Phils on CSN and listen to the audio feed via MLB.COM. It seems that the audio is ahead of the video. so I thought I could hit the pause button on my tv for 1-2 seconds, then hit then resume, but I think there are other factors at work, as that causes the video to be 3-4 seconds ahead of the audio.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

Not that I don't enjoy watching the Yankees get embarrassed, but I'm just so glad I get stuck with Fox's one 20-4 game that they won't switch away from, while a 5-5 Cubs-Cards game plus three others are blacked out despite my spending 160 bucks for the MLB EI package. I knew what I was getting into, but you still gotta love it.

The great thing about being a subscriber overseas is that there are no blackouts, and I think we also get the playoffs as part of our MLB.tv subscriptions.

Of course, during the week the games usually start after midnight, so it is not all good news.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

The great thing about being a subscriber overseas is that there are no blackouts, and I think we also get the playoffs as part of our MLB.tv subscriptions.

Of course, during the week the games usually start after midnight, so it is not all good news.

Well then, you'll be set for tomorrow's Baltimore @ Boston game, it starts at 11:05 a.m. ET.

/tk

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I love MLB Network.

I watched Sportscenter for about 15 minutes last night and except for the Yanks-Indians and Red Sox-Orioles, nothing got more than 45 seconds for highlights. Blue Jays-A's had a walkoff homer in the 12th and that was the only highlight they showed for that game. Oh, they did show the Bernadina breaking his ankle a couple of times for the Nats.

Then I flip over the MLB Network. They have a live look-in of Tigers-M's in the 9th. One on, Griffey the tying run at the plate facing Rodney. Showed his at bat and then Beltre before they had to cut away. They talked about the previous highlights (I think it was for San Diego-Philly) before their clock rights clock expired and they could go back to the game where we saw the 3-2 pitch and Sweeney grounding out to end the game.

Then they showed about 3 minutes of highlights of the Royals-Rangers game where Zack was lights out and Millwood was also good. Got to see quite a few pitching highlights and the two run scoring plays. Then they spent another 2 minutes doing a segment on Greinke and his pitch location this year. You'd have never seen anything like that, even on Baseball Tonight.

SI

Agreed. It's nice to be able to tune in to MLB and get coverage of the sport as a whole. I've been really impressed with the MLB Network coverage thus far.

Anyone who hasn't watched a Greinke start from beginning to end is really missing out. He's an extremely special player and the sky is the limit on his potential. You could just see the frustration on the Texas hitters' faces when he'd start them off with a 95 MPH fastball at the knees, throw a 61 MPH curveball that starts at the belt and ends in the dirt, and then finish them off with another fastball or a 82 MPH slider that starts at the thigh and ends near the dirt. It's just sick.

[Jas_lov]

LOL! Replay is finally used and they still get it wrong. I thought that should have been ruled a ground rule double because the fan was clearly reaching over. I wonder what their reasoning was.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Jas_lov

LOL! Replay is finally used and they still get it wrong. I thought that should have been ruled a ground rule double because the fan was clearly reaching over. I wonder what their reasoning was.

The reasoning is that the game is in New York. If this game is in Cleveland, it's overturned in a heartbeat. Cowardly call on the replay.

[Atocep]

I think its safe to say Emilio Bonifacio has been reintroduced to reality. 13k, 1bb, 53 PAs.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by Jas_lov

LOL! Replay is finally used and they still get it wrong. I thought that should have been ruled a ground rule double because the fan was clearly reaching over. I wonder what their reasoning was.

I don't know if this is taken into account by the umpires, but it looked to me like it was going to be a home run if the fans did not get in the way. The outfielder was not going to catch the ball.

[RainMaker]

Right field is a joke at Yankee Stadium. That Posada homerun was a popup. You have a jet stream going straight out to right which is only 314 feet. This will be worse than Coors.

[Shkspr]

Could this be the month that the single season home run record falls?

[ISiddiqui]

Damn you people and your talking about MLB Network. May have to call Comcast and get the Sports Package!

[Karlifornia]

Big Unit hasn't allowed a something or other though 6 innings against his former team, the DBacks

[Shkspr]

And once again, it's 5-5 going into the bottom of the 9th. Hillman can bring in either Farnsworth or Soria. Keep in mind that if you give up even a single run, you LOSE. Who does he choose?

And of COURSE Farnsworth gives up a homer to the first batter he faces. You knew he would back in the eighth.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yeah, if Kyle Fahrnsworth (sp) isn't on waivers by the end of this week, the Royals GM should be shot. 5 losses for the Royals this year and 3 of them rest solely on the arm of Fahrnsworth.

[tucker rocky]

For all interested, Cards and Cubs, PPD. rain.

[Chief Rum]

Wish the Angels would have been rained out this whole weekend. Yes, I know they were playing in a dome.

[tucker rocky]

Originally Posted by tucker rocky

For all interested, Cards and Cubs, PPD. rain.

This is why ESPN needs a backup game just in case PPD's occur.

[Philliesfan980]

Originally Posted by tucker rocky

This is why ESPN needs a backup game just in case PPD's occur.

I'm probably in the minority, but I hate Sunday night games (including football). Sunday night is a night to get away from sports, take care of some things that I didn't get done during the weekend, and get a good nights sleep for the week. Games ending at 11:30 - 12:00 don't work for me on Sunday's.

[sooner333]

Giants and D-Backs scored fewer than half the amount of runs Cleveland scored in the 2nd yesterday in the whole series as the Giants win the series 2-1 in three consecutive 2-0 games.

[MrBug708]

Dodgers have some shaky pitching still, but if their offense sticks to how they have been playing, it won't matter much

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

And once again, it's 5-5 going into the bottom of the 9th. Hillman can bring in either Farnsworth or Soria. Keep in mind that if you give up even a single run, you LOSE. Who does he choose?

And of COURSE Farnsworth gives up a homer to the first batter he faces. You knew he would back in the eighth.

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Yeah, if Kyle Fahrnsworth (sp) isn't on waivers by the end of this week, the Royals GM should be shot. 5 losses for the Royals this year and 3 of them rest solely on the arm of Fahrnsworth.

One, Farnsworth is a sunk cost- admittedly a really stupid ass sunk cost- we all said that at the time- but a sunk cost nonetheless. Getting rid of him because he's not worth the money won't change that- he's getting his money one way or another. That said: can he be useful in the correct situation? Yes, so just jettisoning him isn't the answer. He would be one hell of a 6th inning-type guy.

If the bullpen lines up Soria-Cruz-Tejada/Mahay-Waechter/Farnsworth- would that be so bad? Who are you going to call on in the 6th in a tie game? You aren't going to Soria or Cruz for sure. You could do worse than Farnsworth. Just don't hand him the ball with the game on the line in the 8th or 9th. Hillman hasn't figured that out yet, but maybe today will finally be the day. Still not holding my breath.

Really, the stupid moves Hillman made just start at going with Farnsworth instead of Soria in the 9th. And, in the postgame, he apparently threw his defense under the bus instead of the bullpen.
-How about a 6 out save for Soria who hadn't pitched since Monday and we have an off day tomorrow?
-Why is Jacobs in there in the 8th to botch the ball hit to him? You could put TPJ in at SS, slide Aviles over to 3B, and Teahen to 1B. You get better at 2 different positions, arguably.
-What's with the weird usage patterns for Cruz and Mahay?

SI