Baseball Thread April 2008

The Game Room
21

Yanks got a much reassuring good game from Moose. He went 6 innings giving up only 1 run and took only 82 pitches.

Girardi wisely let Bruney start the seventh and he looked good again.

Farnsworth pitched the 7th and actually looked good.

Hawkins had the 9th with the score being 6-1 Yanks. He did not pitch well, but got out of his own mess without giving up a run. The 4 pitch walk looked like he was going to unravel again, but he pulled himself together and gives me some hope.

The big story is Jeter left the game early with a quadriceps injury. It is unknown if he will be back in a few days or headed for DL.

The hitters look like they are ready to hit. Cano just missed a big night.

Today we are at KC.

22

Saw a post-game interview with Jeter. He doesn’t think it is serious. He wants to play today, but he’ll be held out. Jeter, Giambi, and Posada are all slightly tweaked - most likely due to the switch from playing baseball in 80° weather to playing baseball in 40° wet weather. The latter two are available for DH or late inning replacement. I don’t know about Jeter. Good that Duncan is back. With 3 people taking rosters spots who are unhealthy, and 12 pitchers, the bench isn’t very deep. Abreu is hot; Matsui and A-Rod have also been hitting well, but until last night they weren’t stringing together hits. Damon and Jeter are cold. Hawkins, I think, was trying for the save, but Girardi crushed his hopes when he had Rivera start soft-tossing. Just kidding…I think…

Despite a strong performance (2.2 scoreless innings) in Friday’s fiasco, Albaladejo has been sent back to the minors to make room for Andy Pettitte.

23

Ted Lilly and Alphonso Soriano are lining up to be the new Kerry Wood and Mark Prior in terms of overpaid and underperforming Cubbies. We managed to squeak a 12th inning win in yesterday because after we blew a 7 run lead we managed to tie it up and then have the winning runs walked in. Our offense looks alright, but Jesus, our defense is downright embarrasing. Looks to be another WTF season on the Northside of Chicago this year. Sigh.

At least we have Fukudome…

24

“Alfonso.” Sorry.

The Tigers starting 0-6 sucks for the Tigers, but probably doesn’t mean anything about how they’ll do over the next 156 games. Of course, this being baseball, it’s going to be a serious bummer if they miss the postseason by a game. I think a more meaningful start is San Francisco’s 1-6, which I think is indicative of that team’s capabilities. They really DO suck.

The Blue Jays have been precisely what I expected; great pitching, spotty offense.

25

It’s cool, I should have Googled before posting, I took a flyer on that one and missed.

26

I’m a big Cubsfan (surprise) and I do NOT like Soriano. I have NEVER liked Soriano. I think he’s a cocky, arrogant OVERPAID and OVERHYPED player. He acts like a jagoff in the field taking his glove off and not putting it back on until the ball is hit to him, tossing it around and shit. And apparently his only criteria to swing at a pitch is whether or not it will hit him. If the pitch isn’t going to bean him HE’S SWINGIN FOLKS!

Dempster is looking good. Same with Marmol. Ramierez needs to get his bat under control. Soto is looking good. Fukudome is sucking bigtime though. What a dissappointment :wink: Derek Lee is the stud of the team. He’s been my favorite Cub since he came on with the org.

I predict a 2nd place finish out of them with no wild card.

27

Come on Detroit, today would be a good day to get that first win. Really.

(Why yes, they are playing and losing to Boston 4-0)

28

5 to 0. Top of the 9th.

29

Boston wins.
Fire Millen!

30

Seeing Billy Buckner coming out to throw the first pitch brought a tear to my eye. All is forgiven, all is good!

31

LOL.

Goddamn it Reds! Back to .500 at 4-4! Despite another awesome pitching outing by Johnny Cueto!
Fuck!

32

So forget what I said about the Dodgers’ great ERA. They’ve given up 19 runs in the last two games and dropped to 4-4. On the plus side, they scored five runs in last night’s loss, so maybe there’s hope?

33

The Indians prove once again that this team doesn’t ever quit. On Monday, after an anemic day at the plate, they rally to take the lead in the top of the 9th. However, our ‘closer’ Borowski gives it all back in the bottom of the 9th.

So Tuesday rolls around and they’re once again down by a run in the top of the 9th. They rally again and take the lead on a no-doubt blast by Pronk (god, I hope it means he’s back). They just never give up. I think I saw a stat during one of the broadcasts that they had the most come from behind wins last year.

34

In an earlier thread, I picked the Cards for a couple games over .500 at the end of the year. I’m sticking with that. Like cards, I’m trying not to get too excited about their fast start. I hope it continues, but I’m betting on an upcoming stumble. Their offense is about what I imagined, but I’ve been surprised by their pitching. I don’t think the starters can keep this up long, but the good news is that the bullpen is looking stout. Mulder is due back in a few weeks. Hopefully he’ll be effective soon.

I don’t have the actual numbers handy but I read that out of the Cards ~$100M payroll, ~$35M is for players on the DL. Yikes!

35

I know! Damn that sucked.

36

Today the Tigers signed Casey Fossum to a deal (AAA). I’m happy about that.
My prediction is that Grilli is gone.

37

Except for some of our pitchers trying to blow our minds (Jake is The Man and Byrd is WTF?), it seems like the Tribe is picking up where they left off last year.

I am really loving Asdrubal at short and this new Jamey Carroll kid. If we could only get Casey Blake to not be so nervous on the field, we’d really have an infield to reckon with.

Isn’t Blake a hoot? One minute you want to kill him for making a bonehead play and the next minute he’s winning the game with his bat. That guy drives me nuts :slight_smile:

I think the Indians are just a big ball of suck on the west coast. Like they all suffer from horrible jet lag the entire time they’re there (except Tuesday night!) I am looking forward to their homecoming.

38

The Rockies’ hitting woes are over, after their 12 run flogging of the braves tonight. If the Padres lose, they could be half a game out of second place. I am now thinking that Colorado was never really having a bad start, just that Arizona is hot right now, cause they keep winning.

The Rockies core is doing very well now. Helton is still hitting consistantly. Holiday has a nice 5 game hitting streak. Taveras found his running shoes again, with two steals tonight. Torrealba and Spillbourghs are coming through with big hits. Atkins is still solid. It seems that our weakness is now the new guys, but they will come around.

ETA: ZipperJJ, take care of Jamey Carroll for us Rockies Fans. We were all sad to see him go. He has an unbeatable spirit, and he will happily play any position you put him. Hell, I think he could even pitch, if it came down to it.

39

Well Detroit fans you can sleep comfortably tonight. You finally got your win.

Your big bats showed up (Rodriguez, Polanco, Sheffield, Ordonez, Cabrera & Guillen combined 4 hits for 22 at bats) and your closer was lights out as usual (two hits and one walk). Okay, c’mon, we can still kid’ here right? Enjoy your victory, it’s about time, your team is better than your record, and I’m just happy that the Sox won our home opener in the previous game.

And about that Buckner thing, throwing out the first pitch, it was nice, but there really isn’t a true Boston baseball fan that held a grudge against him. Sure it was a stinging moment in Boston sports, but it was an error, they happen. Still nice to see the guy get a standing ovation, just so we can put all that silliness behind us. Now Grady Little on the otherhand… :smiley: .

Just to catch up with the rest of the thread, April baseball looks like April baseball. Every team seems to be still getting used to their 2008 skin. I’m happy to see Santana is working out for NY, disappointed to see Pedro injured again. I know he’s technically playing for “the enemy” but Pedro still has a huge Boston cult following (mostly Domincan), as well as people who just like to watch amazing pitching, despite his sometimes snippy attitude.

Take away the first two innings Daisuke pitched in Tokyo and the has been nearly perfect. I’m not worried about Beckett, and Lester is what Lester is, a mediocre lefty. As long as he stays consistent I’ll be happy with him. And while it’s nice to see Detroit get a win, unfortunately it may be hard to make this a streak. Tomorrow night is the knuckleballer, so any momentum in the bats from this game is going to get wonky trying to find those pitches.

Tell yah what, how about we play a Friday night doubleheader? The first game can be a minor league exhibition. Bartolo Colon vs. Casey Fossum!

Oh, and why is it that Cub’s fans can’t seem to spell the names of their players correctly? :wink:

40

The Cubs quite simply have to get Soriano out of the Leadoff Spot permanently. Nothing he does is conducive to the position aside from his ability to run and his ability to bitch and moan. He’s in a slump and doing nothing to get out of it, maybe if leading off is so important to him then taking it away from him will get him to work on plate discipline.

Unfortunately we don’t have an ideal replacement for him there but I think it’s worth giving the rookies some at bats there. Both Theriot and Pie have the speed to fill the role and they aren’t doing any worse than Soriano so maybe we’ll get lucky and catch lightning in a bottle.

The alternative is to put DeRosa in that position. He’s not prototypical of the position but he’s a veteran and theoretically should be able to adjust to the top of the order. I don’t love it but he should get an audition.

Fukudome has been lights out. Love what we are seeing out of the guy and I think he needs to be hitting in the 2-hole ahead of D-Lee. With that OBP and his being a lefty is simply perfect for the role and he needs to get more at bats. Soriano should take his place in the 5-spot behind Ramirez.

Lou needs to buckle up and make those changes. D-Lee and Fukudome can’t be counted on to carry the offense for the entire month of April, and while they are hot they would do the most damage hitting 2-3 and forcing managers to switch pitchers in the late innings.

Why do the Cubs always seem to have a pissy guy on the team who bitches about his slot in the rotation and has zero place discipline?