baseball 2008

[odun]

lets get the discussion going..

it is way too early for me to predict a world series champion.

the red sox basically return everyone.

the tigers are going to be fantastic. they made some great off season moves. and i still think curtis granderson is one of the most underrated players in the game.

things are a little more muddled in the nl. i hope my cubs can make some noise. arizona and san diego will have very tough teams...as will the rockies.

[PGVan]

I hope the Jays are still shopping Rios around for another arm. I think a lot of the Jays success will depend on how Rolen does.

That, and who doesn't want to see the old retro baby blues!!!

[brimontz]

The Indians retrun everyone as well. The Tigers did improve, but pitching is still a big question mark for them.

Brian

[Tungsten]

It would be a good story if the Cubs could win the World Series, being the 100th anniversary of the 1908 team, although I like the Mets chances with Santana. NL West should be a good 4 team race.
The AL looks like 4 teams for 3 spots again, with the Angeles printing playoff tickets by July. I know Seattle added Bedard, but their offense doesn't look very strong and I think they're going to regret trading Adam Jones. Bos/NYY & Cle/Det, flip a coin. Look out for Tampa Bay, I think this may be the year they finally reach .500.

[beanman80]

well I know my Red Sox are going to the playoffs and I see a high possibility of a world series ring again. But yeah sooner or later the cubs really need to win a world series, I mean I feel bad for them since I suffered for sooo long as an avid red sox fans.

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by PGVan

I hope the Jays are still shopping Rios around for another arm. I think a lot of the Jays success will depend on how Rolen does.

I think this team will pitch extremely well. So far that's been borne out in the first eleven games. How the Jays ultimately do depends entirely on how well they hit, I think.

That, and who doesn't want to see the old retro baby blues!!!

[brimontz]

The Tigers certainly aren't living up to their payroll thus far. Cleveland's not doing much better at 5-7, but at least they aren't paying as much as Detroit is for a 2-9 record that is deceiving -- they could just as easily be 0-11.

Brian

[sully20]

Originally Posted by brimontz

The Tigers certainly aren't living up to their payroll thus far. Cleveland's not doing much better at 5-7, but at least they aren't paying as much as Detroit is for a 2-9 record that is deceiving -- they could just as easily be 0-11.

It's a nice change to see the Royals and White Sox on top of the divison so far this season.

[brimontz]

Well, I'm not a fan of Chicago -- it wasn't that long ago that they won it all, but I've been a fan of KC since the 70s when Brett was at his peak. Chicago is too big of a market for me to root for in this sport where the top markets can still outspend everyone else.

Brian

[odun]

Originally Posted by brimontz

Well, I'm not a fan of Chicago -- it wasn't that long ago that they won it all, but I've been a fan of KC since the 70s when Brett was at his peak. Chicago is too big of a market for me to root for in this sport where the top markets can still outspend everyone else.

Brian

i am a fan of chicago...the cubs.

i do like the royals, as i like most small market teams. i remember brett. i even remember the pine tar incident and the sitting out of a game due to hemmorhoids!

[Gerard]

I have no favorite this season yet.

And of course, San Francisco is not doing well.

Ok. You can throw your Barry Zito jokes now.

[WineKitty]

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BeachGaBulldog]

The Braves are my team. Escobar has played great. Chipper, well, what else can you say? AWESOME! Everybody has played pretty well, and the pitching has been solid. The bullpen has pulled its weight. Kotsay was a great addition. I never liked Andruw "Mr. Strikeout" Jones, and was praying the Bravos wouldn't resign him. He is stubborn, and always tries to pull everything. The competition between the Marlins, Phillies, Mets and us will be fun all season. GO BRAVOS!

[conscious]

im a met fan, i don't think they will do much this year. we dont even have a minor league to look forward to.

[Tungsten]

Originally Posted by conscious

im a met fan, i don't think they will do much this year. we dont even have a minor league to look forward to.

It's still early. I think they'll get into a hot streak at some point but it sounds like Willie could be in trouble if they don't turn it around soon.

[Zephyr]

Figure I'd revive this thread now that it's August...

Originally Posted by Zephyr

I think this team will pitch extremely well. So far that's been borne out in the first eleven games. How the Jays ultimately do depends entirely on how well they hit, I think.

Jeez I hate being right. One of these decades the Jays will get their hitting and pitching together. It's got to happen by chance sometime, right? This staff was good enough.

Well, what else is going on? Tampa's still leading the AL East. Boston trades Ramirez. Minnesota has come out of nowhere to lead a division. Detroit's been a flop. Seattle's been a bigger flop (though I thought they were overrated at the beginning of the year).

In the NL we have the Cubs doing well, but I'm sure they'll be Bartmanned at some point. Milwaukee, for the first time in what must be twenty years, actually seems kind of interesting.

Any picks for for ROY, Cy Young, MVPs? What'll you think will happen going down the stretch? I open the floor to you.......

[Tungsten]

The Jays definitely have good pitching but it's kind of a problem when your leading HR threat is Matt Stairs. In retrospect they probably should have just kept Glaus and Thomas
I'd love to see the Rays win the east but the team that's surprised me the most is the Twins. I didn't expect them to still be in it this late, but now that they've had the sense to dump Livan for Liriano I think they can be taken seriously. Especially since their main competition is a team that thinks Ken Griffey Jr. can still play centerfield!

[brimontz]

I lost interest in this season the moment the Indians lost their Number 2 and 3 starters and their 3 and 4 hitters to injuries and then gave up and traded away their Number 1 starter (Sabathia) and their 5th or 6th hitter (Blake).

Brian

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by Tungsten

The Jays definitely have good pitching but it's kind of a problem when your leading HR threat is Matt Stairs. In retrospect they probably should have just kept Glaus and Thomas

Glaus wanted out because the field turf here exacerbated his foot problem. LaRussa didn't like Rolen in St. Louis so it just became a one-for-one challenge trade. It was all contingent on the condition of Rolen's shoulder: as most people know he had been a terrific hitter as well as an astonishing fielder for years, but has had three separate surgeries on his shoulder in as many years. Two of the last three seasons he hasn't hit well at all either, ostensibly because of that. He started out well here but really hit tough times in July and now he's missed several games lately because, you guessed it, the shoulder's acting up. He's still a GG calibre fielder but it's too bad that he might never be the hitter he was. He was better than Glaus at his peak. Frank Thomas got off to his typical horrible start, wouldn't accept a demotion in the order, so the Jays cut him. There's a feeling that it also had to do with avoiding an incentive clause, whereby he would have made several million more dollars had he reached a certain number of plate appearances. As it was Oakland picked him up, he started hitting well, then injured himself on a double and just came back recently. Who knows how that would have played out. The Jays lineup is in a weird place...no obvious horrible holes, but no studs either. It's a whole lot of meh. It's a tough thing to fix.

I'd love to see the Rays win the east but the team that's surprised me the most is the Twins. I didn't expect them to still be in it this late, but now that they've had the sense to dump Livan for Liriano I think they can be taken seriously. Especially since their main competition is a team that thinks Ken Griffey Jr. can still play centerfield!

One thing that's really helped Minnesota is their situational hitting, which has simply been through the roof. They're hitting 278/335/411 overall, but 316/387/467 with RISP. As anyone who's studied the issue will tell you, having that much of a difference between RISP and overall numbers is bound to be luck (of the good variety, in this case). Twins blogger extraordinaire Aaron Gleeman has a good piece on it here:

http://www.aarongleeman.com/2008_07_...g_archive.html
Just scroll down to the July 7 entry. Of course, (finally) dumping Livan Hernandez for Liriano is going to help.

[Tungsten]

Originally Posted by Zephyr

One thing that's really helped Minnesota is their situational hitting, which has simply been through the roof. They're hitting 278/335/411 overall, but 316/387/467 with RISP. As anyone who's studied the issue will tell you, having that much of a difference between RISP and overall numbers is bound to be luck (of the good variety, in this case). Twins blogger extraordinaire Aaron Gleeman has a good piece on it here:

http://www.aarongleeman.com/2008_07_...g_archive.html
Just scroll down to the July 7 entry. Of course, (finally) dumping Livan Hernandez for Liriano is going to help.

That's interesting about the Twins, I didn't know that they were hitting so well with RISP. I was looking over their lineup and thought it was strange that they were 5th in the league in runs scored considering that their lineup, other than C and 1B, is pretty bad.
One interesting thing I found was that their team ERA is 3.29 at home and 5.65 on the road. Any clue on why this is? I thought the Metrodome was supposed to be a hitters park. At least it used to be.
Anyway, their pythag record is still 60-54, so they're still a decent team, even if they've been a bit lucky so far. Now that Livan is gone and they've started to bench Lamb I think they're probably an 88-90 win team, which could be enough.