Baseball 2007
 

It's about that time again. What's the prognosis for your favorite team?

I predict that my favorite team, the Kansas City Royals, will once again be the worst team in professional baseball...and probably amateur baseball, as well.

I will steadfastly root for the Cubs, as always. Not expect much, despite ever high hopes, but root just the same.

KC really frustrates be Elspode. Yes, I know their payroll is minuscule but they have not done much to warrant success. They finally spend some cash and it's to land... GIL MECHE?! Develop the farm, sign somebody that will draw fans or help the team. Geez.

It'll be interesting to see how the Cubs do this year. With a good manager and healthy arms they could be good. But as you say, Wolf, never expect much with them.

I think the Cubs have a pretty good shot at winning their pennant.
In the East the Mets will have an even easier year than last.
The Dodgers are kinda iffy, but still, you'd have to like them over the other teams in the division.
Watch for Clevland this year to have its nose in front in the American central, despite Detroit, Minnesota and the white sox looking so strong. The east is always interesting, Yankees, boston and Toronto will be tighter this year than last, with Toronto this year putting in a serious challenge.
I'm an Angels fan, and I have to say that the team is world series material.
Personally, i will go to at least 20 games this year, mostly early in the season.

I intend to hit some games in Scranton /Wilkes-Barre. They are the new Yankee AAA club. There will be very good pitching there early this year. When the oldsters start breaking down, the Yanks will be bringing folks up. One way or another the Yanks need to get younger. It may take a bunch of broken down pitchers...

If the whole year were spring training I'd say the Reds have a good chance!

Cardinals...of course. Walt Jocketty is a fucking genius...the most mundane pickups wind up becoming extraordinary here.

Here's what I see (not factoring in unexpected injuries)...

NL West - Does anybody really care? I'm leaning Padres although the Dodgers could take it.

NL Central - Cardinals. I believe the Texas ballparks diminish the impact of good players there; consequently they'll be good but not good enough to overcome the world series champs. Cincy could make second place interesting however. The Cubs have too many question marks although if everything falls right they could do well.

NL East - Mets, although it will be more competitive. Atlanta should do a bit better and Philly will be over .500.

AL East - It's all money. Depending on injury it will be Red Sox or Yankees with Toronto keeping close.

AL Central - Wow, so many good teams. I thought Cleveland would do better last year but their pitching gave out. They'll improve but it's still a Tigers / Twins race in my eyes. Tigers take it having the best pitching staff in baseball.

AL West - I positively hate the Angels but can't let that color the forecast. The A's will be competitive as always but the Angels simply have better bats and pitching. It will all be for naught if they don't learn to field however. Rangers have made good moves again, but once again do the Texas ballpark effect it won't do that much good. Seattle on the bottom again.

Right now I live in Minnesota so a lot of the people around me are rooting for the Twins so I will tend to follow them but not necessarily root for them. When I go back to Wisconsin I will be around fake Brewers fan so then I will actually cheer for the Twins.

I can truly understand where you're coming from

H-Town
 

I think there's something about Houston, TX, an otherwise busy, bustling, upbeat city, that forces professional sports general managers and owners to suffer irreversible brain damage. It seems that utter stupidity is a requirement for these positions. The Astros have literally traded away several allstar teams over the years, but I foolishly cling to hope. If Willie Taveras and Jason Schmidt become allstars, I think I'll take up golf.

Ugh, ever actually been there? There's nothing upbeat about that place. Aggressive, desperate, and soul-crushing, yes...

“If I owned Hell and Texas I would rent out Texas and live in Hell”
Philip Henry Sheridan

Lived and earned an above average salary there for some twenty five years. Sorry to hear you had such a tough time of it. Maybe it was the traffic. Try the roundabouts in Leeds, England, if you think H-Town's rough.

It really is a terrific sports town, if one can suffer the fools that run the pro teams.

I still believe the nature of the ballparks coupled with the long hot Texas summers will normalize the contributions of any star added to the baseball teams there.

Minute Maid Park has a roof, Jeb. And A/C. And plumbing.

Thanks for trying to help, though.

Yeah, they have to pay you more to make up for the living conditions. :) What made you leave?

They had to pay me more for the conditions in Celle, Leeds, Macae, Pau, and on and on. I suppose the big city was fascinating to a wide-eyed kid, but it does get old after a quarter of a century. Garrison now has 846 citizens since the spouse and I moved in and thus far, we're wallowing in the contrast. It's the traffic that turns you off.....has to be. You can't possibly run out of things to do in Houston......but you do have to adjust to the often ridiculously rude drivers.

Did you get to catch a 'Stros game?

I admit that I've never actually lived in Houston, I've only visited relatives several times a year and nowadays my stepkids' mom lives there so we're in the neighborhood a couple of times a month. Traffic is certainly awful, but it's more the terrible humidity, lack of trees, general urban grunginess, and unpleasant people I've encountered. I'm sure there are lots of pleasant people there too (two less now though, right?) :)

Oh sure, keep trying to drag us back on topic... I saw one once, it was okay, no better or worse than any other major league baseball game.

That's it. I'm writing to my senator to demand your state be disallowed the use of plumbing :P

The fact still remains it's a hitters park. Also I'm of the mind just living (not playing) in a hot climate can have a taxing effect on some players. You can blame the Cardinals all you want but the Astros, like the Rangers, haven't lived up to their billing in recent years.

Humidity
 

Clod and Jeb.........you're both right as rain. Most of us that have lived in Houston for any length of time don't need plumbing, we've grown gills. And yes, there's a lot of urban sprawl but the real problem is the number of lawyers per capita. Almost as many as Austin ;)

I don't blame the Cards for the 'Stros shortcomings. I blame Jim Edmonds. The man must hate us. If it were me, I'd tell whoever was on the mound at the time to throw four pitches out into the Crawford boxes, else Edmonds is gonna put it there for you.

Tony La Russa apparently had a bit too much fun last night.

Going to Opening Day!! Behind first base, twenty rows up. Me, MrsV and SonofV The Younger! We'll be taking our gloves, of course.

Are the M's actually going to do something good this year? ;)

What, you mean like donate to charity? :)

M's are scheduled to suck, although I don't think it will be as bad as last year. Angels are projected for 1st in the AL West, which I begrudgingly agree with. I call A's for 2nd even though there is good talk about Texas. Texas just never lives up to their billing. Needless to say there is a lot that can happen during the season.

If Oakland is a charity...

Who the hell knows? I promise they will exceed my expectations and fall short of my hopes. I've been *so* discouraged by the performance of the last two years, that my baseball interests have grown a big protective callus of indifference. This was reinforced by yesterday's sports headlines "M's not negotiating with Ichiro". Great, thanks for nothin.

We'll see. I really love baseball, but there's been no fire in this years hot stove and it'll take a while to warm up.

Jason Hirsch
 

Hirsh, Jason Hirsh, not Schmidt. Hyoi's a senile old hross.

As I posted earlier, the Astro management is terminally stupid. They traded Jason Hirsch and the kid's gonna be an All-star:

Making his Rockies debut, the towering right-hander allowed just one run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out a career-high eight and walked one as the Rockies won 4-3 for their third straight victory. Denver Post 7 April 2007

Still can't top the all time worst trade ever. Giants trade Liriano, Joe Nathan and Boof Bosner to the Twins for Pierzynski. Ouch.

At this time, I would like to take back any and all anti-A-Rod cracks I have made. Wow just wow.

It's only April 20th...you'll be complaining about him again soon I'm sure. ;)

Jeb, I can't help but think that my idiots are bigger idiots than your idiots. This is but one example:

"Little Joe" Morgan, Hall of Fame second baseman:

November 1, 1962: Signed by the Houston Colt .45's as an amateur free agent; November 29, 1971: Traded by the Houston Astros with Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo, and Denis Menke to the Cincinnati Reds for Lee May, Tommy Helms, and Jimmy Stewart

Painfully stupid.

Jason Hirsh update (Denver Post, 22 April 2007)


With a daunting trip to the Big Apple staring them in the face and an ugly, three-game losing streak sitting heavy on their shoulders, the Rockies needed a special performance Sunday afternoon.
Rookie pitcher Jason Hirsh gave it to them. The rookie right-hander out-Madduxed Greg Maddux for the second time this season as the Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 4-2 at Coors Field.
Creatively mixing his fastball, curve and changeup, Hirsh allowed two earned runs on just four hits in seven innings. Hirsh struck out seven and walked two, improving to 2-1 and whittling his ERA to 3.16. "Tip your hat to the other guy," said Maddux, the four-time Cy Young winner.

I fully believe the pink bats were corked.

I don't know, it didn't help the Yankees temporary power shortage.

One thing I like about the Yankees is entertaining nonsense like the Roger episode when things are not going well on the field. Unfortunately, for once the Yanks have about three excellent young arms that should be getting more major league work and Roger is gonna take a spot. Of course, all the old guys could be broken down by the end of next week. *shrug* Boston is unbelievable right now. Will they stay healthy?

We went to the Mariners - Yankees game on Saturday. We had the **BEST** seats ever. Ever. Second row behind the Mariners first base dugout. I was closer to the left handed batters than the pitcher was. It was awesome! MrsV scored the company tickets, and it was glorious. Of course, Hargrove is having a little trouble with the bullpen phone and so when our starter began throwing bp for the Yankees, he didn't rescue him until seven freakin runs were across the plate in the inning. Soured me on the game, but the seats were de-luxe. Honestly. Actually padded seats. omg.

I still think the Chicago Cubs will win their division.
The Brewers, although off to a good start are not half the team that the cubs are this year, you can't forget last year they started the year without lee and ramirez due to injury, this year they're fine.
The addition of Soriano is huge, add to that the great pitching staff they've got, you have to see them as contenders in the NL alongside the Mets.

Sure the line-ups of the braves and the phillies are good,
but they cannot compare to that of the New York Mets.
Reyes is off to a record breaking start in stolen bases and is easily the greatest in baseball. Just wait for Beltran, Wright and Delgado to start swinging the bat and the Mets will run away with it.

Obviously the Los Angelos Dodgers are the best team in their division.
Their pitching and line-up are just a class above the rest.
Arizona looks like the #2 contender. The Padres line-up is amongst the worst in all baseball for them to even contemplate competing for it. they may even be surpased by the Giants who suprisingly are not as bad as last year. Colorado on the other hand probably remove KC from the pit of the MLB.

The Clevland Indians are proving me right as they we're ranked 4th in their division and yet seem to be the easy favorites to win their pennant.
The line-up is on fire and does not look like cooling off anytime soon.
Verlander and the tigers will have another year in the spotlight
and will fight with the white-sox for 2nd place.
Poor Minnesota without Liriano and now with Mauer on the DL look pretty bad. Next year maybe.

It looked like a tight one between Boston Toronto and the Yankees, but sometimes things change during the year. Toronto lost their Closer Ryan, and now have Halladay on the DL, looks like they'll be out of this race. Boston looked like the clear favorite until the Yankees picked up Clemens. Mussina, Pettite and Roger are not bad at all when you've got the line-up that New York's got.
IMO, it won't matter who wins it, they'll both make it past the regualr season 1st and 2nd. So who cares?

My Los Angelos Angels suprisingly are only 2 games up on Seattle so far.
I thought they would have run away with it.
Ichiro is starting to pick it up , and the Mariners pitching staff is actually looking decent, not to mention their closer Putz who has picked up exatly where he left off last year(elite RP).
Oakland's bats are just getting worse, and now with Street on the DL, Oakland cannot close out their 1 run leads anymore. Watchout, texas may steal third with their amazing line-up.

The world series?
New York Mets or Chicago Cubs
............................VS...........................
Los Angelos Angels or Clevland Indians

I hope you're right about the Brewers.

I hate Brewer fans...

As a fan, I actually favour the Brewers over the cubs, but they way the division looks today is a false reality.
Barring injury, the Cubs will run away with it once they catch up.
I think it'll be sooner than later.

Figured I'd resurrect the thread following the passing of the trade deadline - the NEW Midsummer Classic.

What's your thoughts? Happy with the moves your team made? Pissed? Think they should have stayed pat or made a move at all? Who should get the Xavier Nady Memorial "Poor Bastard" fruit basket? Can the Yankees still see first place in the AL East with the help of a magnifying glass, or are they past even that?

I'm glad the Yankees didn't lose Melky Cabrera for a short term bull pen fix. They have a ton of AAA pitching talent and we'll see them now. They are also getting younger, I was hoping they'd move Giambi because the offense is better with the youngsters in. That said, Boston is a lot stronger with Gagne in the pen. I still think the Red Sox are beatable... that's why they play the games. I wonder if Gagne will stay happy as a set-up/ occasional closer.

Boston is more than just beatable. They're not much at all.
Gagne was obtained so that Papelbon could eventually become a starter. Okajima is good enough to close in his place, but the red sox's bullpen kinda sucks beyond that. The teams got a couple good bats, but the rest is less than mediocre. The yankees are by far a better team, but still not good enough to win the American league. There are a few teams that are easily superior from the two mentioned above.
The main reason the Yankees are where they are now is their catcher Posada who is the leader of the team when they're up at bat, but even more so when they're pitching. He has surpassed Mauer and Martinez this year in the catcher position on every level.
Plus, the man has the true yankee spirit. Kinda like what Shockey is to the Giants.
Texeira was a huge trade, but i don't believe it will help the braves this year ...the Mets are too good.

All this is nil compared to the Boston/Garnett trade in the NBA.
Can you imagine Pierce and Garnett on the same team? What a defence!

Cardinals have won 5 of their last 6, including a 4-game sweep of Milwaukee. I don't want to get too hyped, but they're only 6 out in a very crappy division. We'll see...

I don't know about the Cards - Milwaukee looks like it's in a repeat of the '06 swan dive right now and the Cubs are charging. Plus, as a survivor of Braden Looper myownself, I can't put much stock in a team that looks at the guy and thinks "#2 starter".

I agree the Sox haven't shown much offensively to date, but from what I'm seeing, that's on the change. Their pitching is still a major force in the League, and Ortiz/Manny are starting to wake up, bringing the rest of the lineup with them. They're averaging about 6 runs a game since the break, if I remember right. The Yanks have a legit shot at the wild card (2 back of Cleveland, 1.5 of Seattle), but the division? Nah.

I like the Mets grabbing Castillo for peanuts, will love it when Beltran gets back and makes a middle of Reyes-Castillo-Beltran. Liked the pickup of Marlon Anderson off waivers a few days before the deadline - the guy is a phenomenal bench presence, and I really regretted losing both him and Woodward over the last couple years. I will now spend the rest of the day in front of my baseball altar praying that my faith in Pedro's return has not been spent in vain. :ipray: