MLB - End of April

Its the end of the first month of the season, and what a season so far. My Braves are leading the NL East, half game up on the Mets, and the Yankees are in last place in the AL East. I’ve seen four homeruns in a row, and an unastisted tripple play, and probably most impressive, Francoeur already has 9 walks!

So, what do you think of the season so far, and how is your team doing?

The Braves are on top, the Yankees are in the cellar, and all is right with the world.

Well, the Royals are sunk in the cellar. The starting rotation that’s turned out a good number of quality starts - Gil Meche and Zach Greinke have only had one bad outing each - but the bullpen, missing Octavio Dotel who they were counting on, has been pathetic, and the offense doesn’t seem to remember what a bat is for.

I guess that’s not all bad, though. After all, the starters were considered the biggest question mark going in to the season. When Dotel returns, the bullpen ought to be much improved, and the hitters should find their groove eventually. But in the AL Central, there’s little room for error, and this bad April pretty much dooms them to another last-place finish.

The Tigers are doing well and the Yankees are in last. It’s a good year.

Cards are dead last in the Central, LaRussa got a DWI before the season began, and one of our pitchers died in a car wreck, probably from drinking too much at Mike Shannon’s restaurant before getting behind the wheel.

Not so good, but it’s hard to complain too much after last season.

Can anything, seriously, make the Cubs into a winning baseball team?

Buerhle threw a no-no, and that is about the only highlight for my World Champions (once-removed.)

I am savoring every moment of the Sox being at the top of the AL East and the Yanks being at the bottom.

Oh, Yankees fans , your tears taste so goooooood! :wink:

(This post will come back to haunt me about mid-June, I think.)

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My Reds are doing ok…Brewers look hard to beat tho.

Tigers have an unusual amount of extra inning games so far.

RIP Josh Hancock.

Woohoo! The Brewers currently have the best record in the NL! Woohoo!

Nice to see Milwaukee finally has a club that looks fairly competent (after a wait of only 15 years!). I’m not too confident though, I’m waiting for a streak of season-ending injuries to derail the promise of this season. I find it hard to believe the Cardinals won’t get back on track by June.

The Mets are keeping pace with the resurgent Braves despite their 4 and 5 hitters having been nearly completely invisible in the entire month of April and a distinct lack of punch with men in scoring position.

I look forward to seeing their bats heating up over the summer and the Braves making it an interesting race in the NL East. I just hope it doesn’t get TOO interesting with the Marlins and Phillies. On paper at least, it certainly looks like the NL East is the most competitive division in the National League.

Damn, you’re right. They’ve had a helluva rough April. And the frustrating thing is, they could be doing so much better. Except for the starting rotation, they’re much the same team they were last year.

I’m still looking for them to start doing better. There’s no real reason they can’t improve as the season wears on.

The Mariners, as of tonight, are playing .524 ball - second in their division, but also after playing 5-7 games less than anyone else, thanks to multiple rain/snow cancelled games in the first week or so of play.

Same old same old for Oakland. Tons of injuries (to the point that we traded for an outfielder who was hitting .088 this season just to have a warm body running around in center), no hitting, awesome starting pitching, and a decent bullpen. Its kind of remarkable how much of a broken record this is. I think this is like 6 straight years in a row now. The good news is we haven’t dug ourselves the giant hole we usually dig.

Unlike past years though, I really have grave fears for this lineup. Chavez looks as bad at the plate as I have ever seen him (although he is still the best defensive 3b I have ever seen, and I think he might be even better this year), Crosby just never looks comfortable, I think his back is going to give out on him any swing now. Piazza looks decent but unremarkable. Before getting injured, Swisher looked like the rookie version rather than someone building off a good year last year. There isn’t anyone in this lineup that I would fear as an opposing team. You can pitch to every single batter in this lineup in any situation.

Of course, now it is may and we just came back to win tonight against Papelbon. If you asked me to bet on this outcome yesterday, i would have demanded 20-1 odds. Thats the beauty of baseball!

You actually got a pretty good player in Langerhands. He’s a great defender, and he can hit when he gets going. At least he could when he first came up with the Braves. I’m sure once he gets the chance to play every day you’ll say he was a pretty good trade.

And now catching for the Atlanta Braves, Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

There was a thread last year about long/short player names. Yep, it’s a new record folks. While the “S” starts just by his left armpit, the “hia” dribbles down a bit on the right. On the same team with Orr and managed by Cox. That’s the long and short of it.

After a goofy start, the Tribe has hit their stride.

They’re at the top of the AL Central but uhm…well we’re missing 4 games :slight_smile:

But Grady did get an inside-the-park homerun!

Well, the Dodgers are perched atop the NLWest, which is a vast change from last year. Not to woryy…the wheels will come off after the All-Star break. We are two injuries and a trade away from finishing in the cellar. Hey Front Office! Where’s that power hitter you promised us?

Not that there will be any sympathy, but the Yanks appear to be full out snake bit this year. Young Super-Phenom Phillip Hughes was pitching a no-hitter into the 7th 2 nights ago and his Hammy popped. He is the 6th starter to be injured already in the young season and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. Karstens, another young pitcher, was already down and back from a Hammy, when on the first batter of the game the other night, a ball hit hard off his leg fracturing his right fibula. He will be out at least 15 days, I suspect more like a month or two. Matsui has also had a hamstring injury and Damon appears to be nursing injuries. The Yankees fired the New D.O.P.E.* (Strength and Conditioning Coach). Of course, Pavano is not close to pitching again, but this one is no surprise.

With all the Starters getting injured, the Yankees logged more relief innings than any team ever has for April.

Moose finally returns tonight. Pettitte pitches a 3pm make-up game for last night.

So, the Yanks need to begin the battle back to .500 and get back ahead of Tampa & Baltimore.

Jim

  • Marty Miller really held the Title of Director of performance enhancement. “Worst Title Evah”. Acronym is DOPE and using the words “performance enhancement” makes most fans these days think Steroids or HGH.