Same as last time: This is it the general-purpose place to celebrate, gloat, bitch or moan about your team or any team.
Personally I am not happy with the way the Yanks have been playing and all of our injuries.
Jim
Did anyone see the Cubs/Brewers game last night? Cubs scored 19 runs. Their rookie catcher Geovany Soto hit two 3-run homers. Amazing.
The Tigers should sweep the Yankees in the Bronx. It’s the last time they’re ever visiting the stadium, so I’d like to see them tear it down with the Tigers sweeping them at home.
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena]
Did anyone see the Cubs/Brewers game last night? Cubs scored 19 runs. Their rookie catcher Geovany Soto hit two 3-run homers. Amazing.
[/QUOTE]
Didn’t see the game, but Soto is a damn good young catcher.
This continues the conversation in the April thread.
Well, if a step equals a win, the this is exactly what the Tigers are doing, and exactly what a Tigers fan should want. In that formulation, two steps forward and one step back will give you a record of .667, which will get you into the playoffs every single year.
Since their absolutely horrendous start (2-10), the Tigers are 11-5. The White Sox are unlikely to remain at the head of the division, and i’ll bet the Tigers reel them in within the next month.
As for why they’re not doing even better, i think it’s precisely due to crappy pitching. Check out MLB’s team pitching stats for the year. The Tigers have given up the third-most runs and the second-most walks in the majors.
And, after their awful start, they’re hitting again. Despite the fact that they could barely score a run in the first two weeks, they are now third in runs scored, fifth in home runs, fifth in walks, fourth in OBP, and sixth in SLG. If they continue hitting like that, and get the sort of pitching you expect out of guys like Verlander, they could be almost unstoppable in their division.
[QUOTE=mhendo]
This continues the conversation in the April thread.Well, if a step equals a win, the this is exactly what the Tigers are doing, and exactly what a Tigers fan should want. In that formulation, two steps forward and one step back will give you a record of .667, which will get you into the playoffs every single year.
[/QUOTE]
Unless you play in the NBA’s Western Conference. 
I’d like to think that my White Sox could run away with the division starting…um now, but crappy losses against the Twins and the Yankees last week are not keeping my hopes up. Swisher, Cabrerra (I probably spelled that wrong), Thome (at least he’s got some HRs), and Konerko are all underperforming. If it weren’t for somewhat strong pitching, the WSox would be fading fast like KC.
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]
Didn’t see the game, but Soto is a damn good young catcher.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, he looks like he is going to be a serious asset to the team. Very exciting.
Somehow, the Dodgers managed to finish April with a winning record. Lots of runs scored in the last couple of games. This despite Andruw Jones’ continued dismal showing (I believe he’s currently batting .159). It makes me really upset to see him get booed at home games because I want him to be encouraged. At the same time, I can’t blame the fans’ frustration with the one-dimensional center fielder purchases of the last two years.
I wonder what it would take to get Nomar to retire and stay with the Dodgers as a bench coach while Blake DeWitt stays on at third, having Russell Martin spelling him every so often. Have I mentioned how much I like the look of Blake DeWitt?
Anyway, here’s to May!
What percent of the population could have correctly guessed that the White Sox, Cardinals, and Marlins would be outright leading or tied for the lead in their division at the beginning of May? Granted, it’s not likely to hold for any of them, but it is pretty interesting to see so many teams viewed as potential also-rans doing fairly well.
Also, Smoltz as closer again. That’s interesting because the Braves are short of arms pretty much everywhere right now. Granted, injury potential plays a role, but I wonder just how much less valuable his skills are in limited work than they would be every 5 days.
It was good to see the Phillies end their first April in a long time with a winning record. I think that bodes well for the team. Especially, since they did it without last year’s MVP (Disabled list with a bad ankle, and there is still no sign of when he will return. Which is good, I wouldn’t want him to come back early and reinjure it) and with Howard’s bat still not quite up to his standards.
Utley has been putting up MVP numbers. I hope he is able to keep that up for the entire season. And, Burrell is making the decision to keep him a little bit tougher than it seemed to be before the season started. I think he is better suited as an American League player at this point in his career. But, he will almost certainly offer a home town discount, so it might be worth considering to keep that bat in the lineup.
I have been happy with Hamels performance, but disappointed with the run production behind him. Everyone knows that the win is an overrated statistic for a pitcher, still I like to see the ace of the staff have a winning record. And, I really had high hopes for him winning 20 this year.
Romero has been good coming out of the bullpen. And, Gordon has been a pleasant surprise after his bad opening day.
pat
I love the bottom of the ninth inning heroics by the BoSox, but can we at least get some hits in innings 1-7? Pitching duals however are still fun to watch.
[QUOTE=Asimovian]
Somehow, the Dodgers managed to finish April with a winning record.
[/QUOTE]
Sht, somehow the Giants managed to finish April with a not-losing-as-bad-as-we-thought-we-would record. I’m happy.
Dear Mr. Sabean,
No more people named “Barry.”
Love, Troy McClure SF
(I said that to my roommate and he said it’s only a matter of time until we dust off Barry Larkin and sign him for three years.)
That said, it has been fun watching these kids like Lewis & Velez. Even if the Giants don’t take the division, there’s a lot of hope for the future on those basepaths.
[QUOTE=mhendo]
This continues the conversation in the April thread.Well, if a step equals a win, the this is exactly what the Tigers are doing, and exactly what a Tigers fan should want. In that formulation, two steps forward and one step back will give you a record of .667, which will get you into the playoffs every single year.
Since their absolutely horrendous start (2-10), the Tigers are 11-5. The White Sox are unlikely to remain at the head of the division, and i’ll bet the Tigers reel them in within the next month.
As for why they’re not doing even better, i think it’s precisely due to crappy pitching. Check out MLB’s team pitching stats for the year. The Tigers have given up the third-most runs and the second-most walks in the majors.
And, after their awful start, they’re hitting again. Despite the fact that they could barely score a run in the first two weeks, they are now third in runs scored, fifth in home runs, fifth in walks, fourth in OBP, and sixth in SLG. If they continue hitting like that, and get the sort of pitching you expect out of guys like Verlander, they could be almost unstoppable in their division.
[/QUOTE]
I completely agree. They did nothing right for the first couple weeks, but they’re solidly kicking ass.
[QUOTE=Telemark]
I love the bottom of the ninth inning heroics by the BoSox, but can we at least get some hits in innings 1-7? Pitching duals however are still fun to watch.
[/QUOTE]
Speak for yourself.
I posted this on another board, on the subject of the Blue Jays, and a strange interview J.P. Ricciardi gave in which he said weird, obviously false things. It pretty much sums up my feelings right now. I’ve added some parenthetical comments so as to explain the context:
[QUOTE=RickJay, on the Blue Jays message board]
Of course, J.P. Ricciardi knows as well as anyone does that John McDonald is a better fielder than Frodo Eckstein; he’s not that stupid. (Note: Ricciardi had stated flat out that Eckstein was as good a fielder as McDonald, which is sort of like saying that Cecil Fielder was faster than Rickey Henderson.) Anyone who’s read some scouting reports knows that. He also knows as well as anyone that the ball Rios gave up on - actually, it wasn’t so much that he gave up as it is that he shied away from the wall - landed in the first row, not the seventh. (Note: Ricciardi had claimed a David Ortiz home run that Rios didn’t catch, despite just barely clearing the three-foot wall in Fenway’s right field, had “landed six or seven rows in.” It had done nothing of the sort, and quite obviously so.)
Ricciardi is saying the ridiculous nonsense he’s saying simply because he’s getting very close to losing his job. That’s also the reason he won’t fire Gibbons. I’m not normally one to criticize managers for in-game tactics - most managers all manage the same way, and most Internet complaining about it is ignorant babbling - but Gibbons has done a terrible job managing his pitching staff lately. The decision to leave Burnett in the game against the Royals was just inexplicable, and the decision to leave Downs in last night was equally bizarre. It’s also ridiculous that he won’t lift Eckstein for McDonald in the late innings, but I don’t know if that’s his call.
However, Ricciardi can’t fire Gibbons without pushing himself closer to the abyss, because Gibbons is his man. Public admission that his moves have turned out really badly would make it easier/more desirable for the brass to can him, and the likely scenario behind the cameras is that he’s already under fire for being in Year 7 of a five-year plan with a team that doesn’t look any better than the ones that limped through the last three seasons. Ricciardi has probably already taken a huge amount of flak internally for the release of Thomas - even if it made sense, it calls into question his judgment in giving Thomas a 2-plus-option deal in the first place. The Burnett and Ryan deals turned out badly, the aquisition of Stewart is clearly a mistake, and on and on, and the next landmine’s going to be Vernon Wells, who is going to turn out to be a really, really terrible extension.
If you’re Ricciardi, you’re treading on dangerous ground right now, because he’s sitting on a $95 million team that can’t hit and is in last place. So he’s in uber-defensive mode right now. That’s natural; if you’re secure in your job it’s easy to admit error and suggest corrective action, but if you feel like you’re a few inches away from professional doom, you’re going to throw up a wall of denial at every opportunity.
So, back to Gibbons; of all the things Ricciardi has done, Gibbons as manager is probably the one most personally connected to Ricciardi. They’re friends, and Ricciardi chose him and has stuck with him though mediocrity and embarrassing incidents. It’s one thing to have your injury-prone free agent continue getting injured (Burnett) or overpay for a fan favourite who wasn’t really all that great (Wells) but those things can be shrugged off as bad luck. If after all this he now drops Gibbons, he’s admitting that his entire strategy was flawed at the very core, because Gibbons IS the core, the personal stamp Ricciardi has put on the team. And that would just make it a matter of time before he himself is unemployed. From his perspective, his best hope is to deny anything’s wrong and hope the team hits a little better and makes it back into the race.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Troy McClure SF]
Sht, somehow the Giants managed to finish April with a not-losing-as-bad-as-we-thought-we-would record. I’m happy.
<snip>
That said, it has been fun watching these kids like Lewis & Velez. Even if the Giants don’t take the division, there’s a lot of hope for the future on those basepaths.
[/QUOTE]
You know, I’ve got to give that to you. They still aren’t a good team, but every time I look at the standings, the Giants are not where I (or any baseball analyst, apparently) thought they would be. I still haven’t quite figured out whether that says something about the Giants, or says that the NL West isn’t quite the powerhouse it was supposed to be this year. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, my boys just completed their second straight series sweep. Another solid offensive performance today, and a starting pitcher that got us through seven innings. It’s only May…it’s only May…
Oh, and Troy? I’ll give you…let’s see…I’ve got 32 cents and a Dodger Dog in exchange for Barry Zito right now. I want to propose a piñata night at Dodger Stadium, and I didn’t think you’d object. 
[QUOTE=Asimovian]
You know, I’ve got to give that to you. They still aren’t a good team, but every time I look at the standings, the Giants are not where I (or any baseball analyst, apparently) thought they would be. I still haven’t quite figured out whether that says something about the Giants, or says that the NL West isn’t quite the powerhouse it was supposed to be this year. Time will tell./QUOTE]
The Diamondbacks played 22 Western division games and won 17 of those. Thus, by beating so many divisional foes, that helped keep the Giants from falling too far below anyone else.
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
Personally I am not happy with the way the Yanks have been playing and all of our injuries.
[/QUOTE]
The Yankees are in a weird situation.
The negatives:
- Jeter, Posada, and A-Rod all got injured
- Catcher situation is a joke, with Posada out. They had a decent defensive catcher as a backup, now he’s #1 and their backup is either a true minor leaguer, or someone no other team wants at all.
- They had a record number of away games in April
- Giambi and Robinson Cano are both hitting well under .200, when they were expected to be solid contributors. (Giambi is hitting some dingers, so he is at least driving in a few runs)
- The young pitchers we avoided trading for Santana are crapping their diapers, 10 games started, 6 losses 0 wins with about an 8.75 ERA
The pluses:
- Chamberlain and Rivera are lights out, 22 innings pitched, 2 runs
- Wang has been really good
- They’re only 3 games back.
I don’t know what to think, will these negatives clear up, and we’ll see the team bounce back, or will the negatives continue, and finally catch up to them, driving them further behind the Sox?
BTW, I’m kind of pissed that Girardi let Chris Stewart catch Phil Hughes. Yes, let’s have the completely inexperienced catcher we just brought up from the minors catch the 21 year old phenom who’s really struggling right now.
[QUOTE=Cheesesteak]
BTW, I’m kind of pissed that Girardi let Chris Stewart catch Phil Hughes. Yes, let’s have the completely inexperienced catcher we just brought up from the minors catch the 21 year old phenom who’s really struggling right now.
[/QUOTE]
I have the same complaint, but Hughes has not pitched well with Molina so far. I doubt Girardi had a clue how awful Stewart is. I am glad he is already gone.
I’m glad Darrell Rasner is coming up, he has been lights out in Scranton and if he stays healthy should be servicible as our 5 guy. I’ve liked him in the past, but he has been a hard luck pitcher with freak injuries.
This year he is 4-0 with a .87 ERA and 31IP in 5 games for over 6 per. He has a 27K/6BB ratio. No homers and no HBP.
I was driving home from work yesterday listening to the Brewers/Cubs game on xm radio. Got to the store at the top of the ninth inning. Guess I picked the wrong time to go grocery shopping!
That was just a bad game to choke away. If you’re playing a divisional rival, you’ve got to keep your lead in the last inning.