Tis’ not mine, I heard it somewhere on Sports Talk radio. But, I am glad to pass it along.
The Indians have signed a lot of the guys from last season’s team. I’m pretty sure we’ll have the same team as before, which is great because they took it to da house.
Honestly, as a Cleveland fan I tend to expect mediocrity and enjoy being pleasantly surprised when one of our teams do well. I still listen to every game, regardless and just enjoy the season.
So, I don’t have anything exciting to say, other than I CAN’T WAIT!!! 
Not a difficult proposition, so not much pressure.
I’ve been on this board too long. My first thought on seeing that title was that it was about gay sex.
Hasn’t Carl Pavano passed Albert Belle’s record for consecutive years on the DL yet?
The Sawx are set, now that Schilling’s cleared a roster spot for Buchholz, and if they keep Crisp around. Even if they don’t, they only need some bench reinforcements, not regulars.
But that Japan trip is gonna suck. The Yankees never really reovered from it the year they went over. And Dice-K may not even go - his wife is due then.
It figures that a Red Sox fan would see a baseball term and think “gay sex.”
Just kidding! Mods, I assume there’s some leeway on non-Pit insults 'tween Yanks and Sox fans?
As a Mets fan, I’m excited about the team’s chances. With Santana, their starting pitching is solid (though they need an extra arm in case of emergencies) and their offense is going to be good. The nucleus of Wright, Beltran, and Reyes is solid, and Delgado should do well as long as he stays healthy (a look at his stats showed, he slumped in the first half of the season, but was hitting well in the second half). Church is about as good as Milledge was last year in RF, and Alou can still hit.
The big question is the bullpen, which is the main cause of the Collapse. But Santana should eat innings and if Duaner Sanchez finally makes it back, they’ll be fine.
Yes, one does associate that with the Spankees, doesn’t one?
Maybe your guys can eventually win a World Series in *this * millenium. Not until their starting rotation reaches puberty, sure, but maybe *some * year.
Here we go with the “this century” bidness… When your team only wins in the first 2 decades of a century I guess you need to hang you hat on something… (like Ted Williams’ frozen head…)
Don’t worry, everyone is allowed to insult Yankee fans in any forum.
We are allowed to insult Red Sox fans and really obnoxious Mets fans, but they seem to be missing on this board. No shortage of obnoxious Red Sox fans though.
Maybe not this year, but we are just ‘rearming’ for our next run.
Hey, we even named a highway tunnel after Ted Williams here - tubular, steel, cold, it fits.
Take a look at this article from the Sporting News: Blue Jays need the aw-shucks Rolen. If it’s a fair representation, Rolen can be a pretty good guy, but he can also be “distrustful, easily angered, carrying a grudge and eager to place blame on others when things go wrong,” which seems to be what happened in St. Louis. As far as I know, none of the other current Cardinals have a problem with LaRussa, though he does seem to be the type who’s quick to criticize players that he doesn’t think have the right attitude.
In the wake of the Rolen trade and everything else that has been going on, the Cardinals for 2008 are a huge question mark (or maybe a lot of question marks). I can imagine them doing very well indeed, but I can also imagine them doing not so well.
Thanks, that was a great article. It seems Rolen has trouble with hard-line guys like LaRussa and Bowa, but gets on okay with guys like Francona and Fregosi. Sometimes guys respond well to certain types of management, I guess. I always thought Rolen had the talent to be one of the greats. I hope he finds some success in Toronto.
sigh
My White Sox traded Jon Garland and are keeping Jose Contreras. This looks to be ugly. And I’m not talking about winnin’ ugly either.
And for the love of Og, why is Juan Uribe still on the roster when the only significant move to date has been to acquire Orlando Cabrera?
I hope for lots of surprises from the kids… but it looks like third place this year. Yuck.
Joe DiMaggio was all those things, and won the World Series nine times.
I’m sure Rolen will get along fine with John Gibbons, who isn’t quite the control freak Tony LaRussa is, but what matters in the end is whether you score more runs than the opposing team, not whether there’s warm fuzzies in the clubhouse; there’s very little evidence getting along in the locker room has much to do with success in baseball. Rolen hit 8 home runs last year. No matter how well he gets along with management, if his power production is that bad in 2008, the Blue Jays are in serious trouble.
Best hitter I ever saw.
The Rangers have made several exciting trades this off-season, but my hopes for the team this year aren’t high. (You know, set your hopes low, and then at least you won’t be disappointed…)
I’ll be at Spring Training in a month! I’m counting down the days.
Tigers have problems. Todd Jones,getting old…Zumaya …big question mark…Kenny Rogers questionable. They may not be as good as last year. Thay may still win the pennant. They are pumping up like the Yankees. Pitching wins. When the Tigers won 2 years ago they had the best pitching.
In fact, the last three American League champions all had the league’s best ERA, and it has been eight seasons since a team not in the top three won the pennant:
Boston, 2007 - #1
Detroit, 2006 - #1
Chicago, 2005 - #1 (tied with Cleveland, though Cleveland was better in ERA+)
Boston, 2004 - #3
New York, 2003 - #3
Anaheim, 2002 - #2
New York, 2001 - #3
New York, 2000 - #7
It does indeed appear that pitching (and defense; a lot of what you think is pitching is really good defense) has been winning pennants in the AL lately, which should give extra hope to Boston, Toronto and Anaheim, maybe Cleveland.
This seemed not to be quite as true in the NL.
Nah, big leaguers can almost all field very well. A good pitcher can win anywhere. I have played softball in leagues with ex major leaguers and near misses. Their skill level is amazing. And this is guys not noted for being good fielders.
Well, of course they’re all better than YOU, for God’s sake. That doesn’t mean they’re all the same at the major league level. Anyone can see that Roberto Alomar was a better fielder than Johnny Ray, or that Willie Mays was a better outfielder than Jose Canseco.
Anyone who has hit in the major leagues is a much better hitter than you, but are you saying Rafael Ramirez was just as good a hitter as Babe Ruth? Anyone who has pitched in the majors can outpitch you, but was Todd Stottlemyre pretty mjuch just as good a pitcher as Tom Seaver?
There’s a very big difference between teams in fielding ability. The Red Sox were 5% more likely to turn a batted ball into an out than the Devil Rays. That’s one out of every twenty balls in play - more than a baserunner per game. That’s a huge difference, it’s mostly due to fielding skill, and it was probably worth 5-10 games in the standings.