MLB: How's your team doing? How about vs. what you expected?

Cafe Society
#1

I’m a Yankee fan, they are hovering around .500 and at exactly .500 today. They are 10 games behind the Red Sox and have to jump three teams for the Wild card. They still have a chance as the team’s pitching is finally looking better but this is probably the year they fail to make the post season.

They are playing way below spring training expectations.

The Yanks will start getting some young pitching back over the next month. Hughes and Karstens and maybe Rasner. If the lefties in the line-up start hitting and Giambi stays aways, I think the team really has a chance to come back. I am also hoping and praying* for the “Annual Red Sox August Swoon”.

I should add in: Are you happy with the Yankees being out of it, or does it make the season slightly less exciting for you?


**Team        	W	L	PCT	GB	L10**	
Cleveland	53	37	.589	-	5-5	
Seattle     	51	37	.580	1.0	6-4	
Minnesota	48	43	.527	5.5	6-4	
New York	44	44	.500	8.0	7-3	
Toronto     	44	46	.489	9.0	5-5	
Oakland    	44	47	.484	9.5	2-8

Jim

  • I am an agnostic except for baseball, where I celebrate the baseball saints like Gehrig and Christy Mattewson.
#2

The Cubs are my team (not that I care one whit about baseball…but they’re still my team). They’re doing very well at the moment.

#3

Let’s go Red Sox! So far, so good, but I’m not getting comfortable yet.

#4

Nationals are mine. They are horrible by any standard.

Considering the season started with stories headlined (kidding but honestly not wildly exaggerating) **Will the 2007 Nationals Clearly Be the Worst Team Ever or Will They Be Able to Be Good Enough to Struggle to Simply Make Everyone’s list of all-Time Worst Teams? **- considering that and since a reasonable person could make the case that there are 4ish MLB Teams worse than they are *THIS *year - I am happy to be patient.

#5

Lifelong Red Sox fan (well, except for a few years after the '94 strike, but then I wasn’t a fan of any MLB team). Can’t say I ever expected them to be doing this well, and I’m pretty much expecting a slide back in August and September. They should still make it to the play-offs, though.

#6

Mets fan. Although they’re in first, they’re still performing below expectations. It reminds me of the 70s – if they don’t get great pitching, they lose, and every win seems to be 2-1 or 3-2. The Braves and Phillies (both arguably better teams than last year) can catch them easily, although they’ve been underperforming too of late. Injured players are starting to drift back in, for what it’s worth. (I miss Endy Chavez. And Carlos Gomez. I don’t really miss Moises Alou, but he sure can hit when he’s healthy.) Plus without Julio Franco the average age of the team has gone down ten years.

Pedro, Pedro, Pedro. I don’t really expect him to dominate. I think Glavine-Duque-Maine-Perez can do it in the postseason, against the NL anyway. The team just needs to hit.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the Yankees miss the postseason, just to remind those Yankee fans under 25 that such a thing is possible. And to see how the Daily News and the Post will contrive to put the Yankees on the back page ahead of the Mets when they’re not even playing. I’d also like Clemens not to win any more games because I’m tired of him. I would like the Yanks to at least make a convincing run for it, though, rather than just drop out, because I listen to sports radio in NY sometimes and it makes for better listening.

Meanwhile, is this the worst Yankee bench ever? You know you’re in trouble when you’re looking forward to Doug Mientkiewicz coming back.

#7

Back in first place, after last night’s 12 innings against the Giants. I’m hoping for another sweep. At .560 (best percentage in the NL), we’re doing right about where should be. The difficulty is going to be getting past the Padres at the end of the season. They have better pitching than we do, and that’s saying a lot. Betemit is really producing as a pinch-hitter, Loney is coming along nicely at first. Martin is showing amazing skill at catcher for so young a player, and the pitching staff is coming along nicely. I don’t see the Dodgers making many moves come the trade deadline unless somebody gets hurt in the next week or so. Maybe another starting pitcher, just to be sure. Wolf and Schmidt are spending too much time on the DL.
Go Big Blue!

#8

Isn’t every baseball fan who isn’t a Yankee fan happy the Yankees are out of it?

Baseball was far, far more interesting when no teams made the playoffs every year, and the Yankees are doubly boring in that they’ve just been buying their way in for so many years now. Nobody finds them exciting, or likes them being in the playoffs, unless they’re actually Yankee fans. Truth be told, they’ve been a very good team but it’s dull to watch a team that makes the playoffs because they spend as much as three normal teams. There’s no struggle or interest in it, no real baseball story to it. Ho-hum, the Yankees bought another player. The Red Sox could get that way too.

As for my team, the Blue Jays have pretty much been, well, just like the Yankees, as in “maybe this team would be good if there weren’t so many injuries.” But having said that, the team is the author of its own demise. It can’t surprise anyone that Burnett is hurt. It can’t surprise anyone that guys who had career years in 2006 are not having career years in 2007. It can’t surprise anyone the 39-year-old DH is declining. It can’t surprise anyone that a team with no shortstops who can hit is at a disadvantage. Reed Johnson should have been traded; everyone knew 2006 was a fluke, and yet they kept him, and now his value is down, as of course it obviously would be. There’s nothing unfair about their situation; they put themselves there.

#9

The Tigers are doing very well. They’re up there for the best record in the majors. I didn’t know that the Tigers would be this good this year, at least, record-wise. The Indians, Twins, and White Sox are all capable of making a run and turning the division into a mess.
I think you know how I feel about the Yankees. It’s still shitty how they get shoved down our throats on ESPN on Sunday nights even though they’re pretty much useless. (If memory serves me right, outside of the big three, the Red Sox, Mets, and Yankees, the Tigers are the next most televised team on Sunday night.) Additionally, Roger Clemens is to win no more games. I think they’ll go on a little bit of a winning streak, just enough to get some hopes high, but they’ll quickly fizzle.

Premonition: The Tigers will strongly court Alex Rodriguez this offseason.

#10

Mets fan. A little disappointed – the past month and a half as been brutal – but they’re still in first place, so there’s time to fix things.

#11

The Posts & News will spend September and October writing about A-Rod, Torre and Cashman if they fail to be in the running.

Yes, this is the worst bench in a long, long time for the Yanks, and no, I am not looking forward to seeing Dougie Fresh return. :wink:

Probably, I was really wondering if there were any exceptions.

I do know how you and **Silenus ** feel about the Yanks.

As far as A-Rod, the Tigers will not be serious contenders. Expect the Angels, Dodgers and maybe the Cubs if they have an owner to be the big players.

He will not be a Yank next year, which will be a testament to the **stupidity ** of some of my fellow Yankee fans, that ruined his stay here.

Jim

#12

I’m not so sure about that. The Tigers have a top five payroll as it is, and have a bunch coming off the books. They’ll move Carlos Guillen to first and offer Mr. Rodriguez the position of shortstop.

You heard it here first.
Edited to Add: If Mark Cuban gets the Cubs, well, then all bets are off.

#13

I’d love to have A-Rod become a Dodger, but I don’t think I’d like what we’d have to give up to get him. I’m quite happy with our infield as it is, so no trade-meat there. My fear is that the Dodgers might end up making a deal that puts A-Rod at third, shifts Nomar back to first, and screws Loney, who is a player I’m looking forward to blossoming over the next few years.

Hmmmm…I wonder if we could trade our outfield for A-Rod?

#14

A-Rod will be a free agent at the end of the season. He has an opt out in the contract and most of the Baseball press is talking about him picking up a $30 million per year contract.

Jim

#15

Then we just trade away Pierre, who is grossly overpaid anyway, and maybe Furcal, just to clear out the shortstop position. Then out comes the checkbook. We’ll treat A-Rod right out here, and it would be nice to see him blot Barry Bonds out as home run leader as a Dodger.

#16

Pshaw. We’d treat him good here in Detroit.

#17

Well outside of NYC, Philly & Boston who would not treat him well if he played for them?

BTW: Anyone want Joe Torre or Bobby Abreu, it looks like they will be available too?

Jim

#18

Hell, will they be cheap and looking for revenge against anything in pinstripes? If so, then yeah, I’ll find a place for them in my heart.

#19

Food for thought: as of today, even if the Red Sox play .500 ball for the rest of the season, the Yankees would still have to play .616. That said, I’m anticipating the Red Sox collapse almost as much as you, obviously in the other direction.

Hard to say, actually. My immediate reaction is that I’d always rather the Yankees be out, but on the other hand, 2004 wouldn’t have been a fraction of what it was if the Yankees hadn’t been there. In retrospect, I’m glad the Yankees made it then, and there continues to be the remote possibility of the same sort of thing as long as they’re in it. I enjoy watching the Yankees lose almost as much as I enjoy watching the Sawx win (the 2001 Series was my second favorite of all time). Of course, if they’re in the playoffs, there’s always the possibility they’ll win it all, and that’s just unacceptable.

#20

The Royals are doing better than I would have expected, and coupled with the White Sox’s collapse, might actually climb out of the cellar. The two things about them that has been worse than expected have been Alex Gordon and Ryan Shealy, and I can’t help but wonder how much better the team would have been doing if they hit to expectations.