2011 MLB Season

[Matthew]

...and too late for a new owner to make any difference this season.

Really, the divorce case produced more that enough evidence of financial mismanagement, yet Bud did nothing. Color me completely pissed-off at Bud and his turning a blind eye. Steroids, crappy umpiring, baseball strikes, and now this. :angry: A day late, a dollar short. He got his wish when he got the McCourt's to buy the Dodgers, all because he did not want an owner who could produce a high payroll, but he wanted someone with no money, who would be unable to do a thing to improve the Dodgers, and that way, kiss up to the small-market teams. Retire already, you cheap, old man. :tdown

Now hold on there, Matthew.

McCourt was taking out $30 million dollar loans from Fox Network in order to pay his monthly payroll obligations. At some point, the bottom will fall out and players would go unpaid.

Selig, as much of a yutz I think he is, did the right thing by stepping in at this point.

I agree Goodie, that Selig had to step in, but it was Selig who allowed McCourt to buy the Dodgers for basically 9 million.

[Chalupa]

Ryan Howard is 0-8 lifetime vs. San Diego's Mat Latos with 8 strikeouts.

[Dan Gould]

Well the Sox caught a break with the Angels series, seeing as Jered Weaver pitched Wednesday. And Beckett continues to pitch like its 2007 again. But for me to sustain hope they need to get just as hot as they had been cold, and that means Buchholz, Lackey and Dice have to prove that their recently decent performances aren't flukes. Five wins in six games is nice but its only half way to making up for 2-10.

One positive I do see: After his traditional shitty first start, Lester seems to have forgetten that he's supposed to follow that up with a generally crappy April. Instead he's been showing his usual May-and-later form, which means maybe a big year is in the offing.

[Neal Pomea]

MLB needs to step up and help with vaccinations for recruits from poor countries.

Death of Dominican Prospect Sparks Changes

[JSngry]

Well the Sox caught a break with the Angels series, seeing as Jered Weaver pitched Wednesday.

Boy, did he...

[JSngry]

MLB needs to step up and help with vaccinations for recruits from poor countries.

Death of Dominican Prospect Sparks Changes

What a heartbreaking story...sounds like a lack of awareness more than anything else..also sounds like the Nationals are doing right by the family in the aftermath of this tragedy...sure hope so.

[JSngry]

Wow...D-Wreck Holland falters, sputters, collapses, and then comes back like a BAAAAAADDDDDD mofo. Still young, still developing, if my heart doesn't attack me by season's end, I hope to see him blossom into an A-1 starter.

But that bullpen...geez. that shit would kill a dead man. You can't ride Arthur Rhodes & Darren Oliver all year long, not at their age, but right now, that's all we got that is dependable (except Feliz, and after his last outing, I'm not too sure about him).

Nevertheless, Kinsler & Andrus are getting it back together, and Nelson Cruz is starting to see the ball again, so... GO RED SOX (for tonight & Sunday, and every other time they play the Angels)!!!

[Chalupa]

The Phillies pitching staff just threw their 5 shutout in 19 games. The last time that was done by any team was in 1913 by the Dodgers.

[JSngry]

But that bullpen...geez. that shit would kill a dead man. You can't ride Arthur Rhodes & Darren Oliver all year long, not at their age, but right now, that's all we got that is dependable (except Feliz, and after his last outing, I'm not too sure about him).

Shoulder inflammation forces Feliz to DL

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110423&content_id=18161608&vkey=news_tex&c_id=tex

Not really, but...

[JSngry]

First day of Bullpen/Closer by Committee goes ok. Ogando give 6 strong (actually, 3 tough and then 3 strong), Wash gives him the 7th, but he's not that strong yet, gives up a lead-off homer, so out he comes. In come Major League Debutee Cody Eppley, who throws two strong innings, then Oldest Old Man Darren Oliver closes it out for a 3-1 win that will look in the box scores to be a lot more boring than it was, since until proven otherwise, no lead is safely regarded, nor no opponent's score comfortably set as long as a Rangers' pitcher is on the mound. These guys can change direction faster a school of minnows when they see ol' Sam Bass.

[JSngry]

Oh, btw, Royals reliever is one of the more interesting people I've seen playing baseball in a long time, both in appearance & in performance. Look out for this guy!

[Dan Gould]

I assume you're talking about the guy who is like 5'6" and averages more than a strikeout an inning. Haven't seen him yet but I'd like to see what he's got.

Meanwhile what is more shocking?

• 
  
  
• The Red Sox crawling out of last place
  
• Dice-K throwing another eight innings of 1-hit shutout ball
  

I don't know which is more shocking but Dice-K stringing together some dominant starts will go a long way toward restoring some hope in this household.

[PHILLYQ]

If you have Dice-K pitching weel with Beckett on his game and Lester pitching well the Bosox may have quite a rotation considering nobody else in the AL has a great rotation.

[ghost of miles]

I'll say one thing about this year's Yankees: they can jack HRs like nobody's business. Great poetic justice that even Brett Gardner knocked one out right after Rupe drilled Russell Martin, he of the home runs in his two previous at-bats, between the shoulder blades.

Dan, Boston's coming around quite quickly...only four games back of New York with a week of April still to play. If you keep ticking along like this you'll be in first before the end of May. Interesting quote from jscape at PA:

The way the Yankees have gotten to the top of the AL East is by winning (or splitting) every series they've played so far, and by never losing consecutive games. They hold a 4-2 record in 1-run games, and they've recorded a save in 8 of their 10 wins.

Logically, this pace and this rhythm is unsustainable. There's too much luck involved in winning close games, no matter how good your bullpen is.

Too much riding on A.J. Burnett, Bartolo Colon, and Freddie Garcia as well (not to mention The Incredible Shrinking Phil Hughes). Going into tonight's game, the Yankee starters were last in the league in innings completed. As for Boston's rotation, imagine if Lackey starts getting it together in any kind of consistent fashion.

The Phillies pitching staff just threw their 5 shutout in 19 games. The last time that was done by any team was in 1913 by the Dodgers.

They're certainly living up to their pre-season buzz so far. A rotation like that will always keep you in the game, even if your offense goes lackluster.

Edited April 24, 2011 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

Robinson Cano sure likes going to bat in Baltimore:

Since 2009, Cano is hitting .526 (41 for 78) at Camden Yards. And over his career, he has the second-highest average, .381 (77 for 202), among players with at least 120 plate appearances at the ballpark, according to Stats LLC. Only Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle (.388) surpassed him, and Cano joked that he hoped to overtake Suzuki by Sunday night.

[JSngry]

I assume you're talking about the guy who is like 5'6" and averages more than a strikeout an inning. Haven't seen him yet but I'd like to see what he's got.

Yeah, duh, the cat's name is Tim Collins, and you should have a look at him. His hat's too big for his head, it seems, and the name and numbers on the back of his uniform are almost bigger than the uniform itself. But the guy's got this old-school high-kick full windup reminiscent of Juan Marichal, and yeah, the cat deals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzbqRet5bvk

Here's hoping him an excellent career, with at least some of it spent pitching for the Rangers (as in, BOY COULD WE USE HIM NOW!!!).

[MartyJazz]

Robinson Cano sure likes going to bat in Baltimore:

Since 2009, Cano is hitting .526 (41 for 78) at Camden Yards. And over his career, he has the second-highest average, .381 (77 for 202), among players with at least 120 plate appearances at the ballpark, according to Stats LLC. Only Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle (.388) surpassed him, and Cano joked that he hoped to overtake Suzuki by Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Swisher is not long for this team if he keeps up his anemic hitting. 35 HRs already by the Yanks and nary a one by Nick. Jeter is getting a lot of heat but the spotlight will fall eventually on Swisher if he keeps this up.

[JSngry]

Brett Tomko makes it back to the bigs, throws 1 2/3 really nice, near-flawless, actually, innings in relief, then gives up two singles & a homer, forcing Arthur Rhodes (the actual Oldest Old Man, not Darren Oliver as mistakenly claimed earlier) to come in to get the last out & the save. No reason on earth why this game should have ended at 8-7, but the Royals have a very pesky offense, and the Rangers have Bullpen/Closer By Committee, so hey. It is what it is.

Tomorrow is Colby Lewis' turn in the rotation, and unless he found where Easter Bunny hid his Inner Colby Lewis, it should be a long night. Torontoians, be expectant!

Edited April 24, 2011 by JSngry

[ghost of miles]

As for Boston's rotation, imagine if Lackey starts getting it together in any kind of consistent fashion.

Sunday Bosox-Angels recap

Dan, you have to be happy with the way Boston's playing right now--they look like the team everybody expected them to be.

NY, meanwhile, won in ugly fashion against the Orioles today... they can thank the baseball gods that they still have Baltimore to beat up on, especially with another mediocre bullpen performance (including a second, worrisome blown save from Mo, who was lucky not to lose the game altogether, aided immensely by a great catch by Brett Gardner in the 8th and Swisher/Cano's throw to the plate in the bottom of the 9th). The only positives for the Yanks in today's game were another excellent start by Freddie Garcia, some great defense by Gardner, and a 4-6 showing at the plate from Jeter, even if two of his hits were of the infield variety. (DJ is running up some monstrous grounder numbers this year.) Well, and Curtis Granderson's 7th home run... dude is on a tear.

MartyJazz, I'm not worried about Swisher's HRs; he's only 30, and he's hit 21-35 HRs every year since 2005, so I think he'll start knocking out a few very soon, unless there's some sort of injury or mechanical issue that we're not aware of. The bullpen, though, does worry me, what with Joba starting to make me think he can't handle being a 7th-inning pitcher either, and Mo looking increasingly mortal. OTOH what a boon it will be to the rotation if we can get 12+ wins apiece out of Garcia and Colon... but I have to wonder how well they'll hold up across the long stretch of a season. Anyway, still very early to really get a strong sense of what long-running problems we might be forced to deal with this year.

[Dan Gould]

No one could have predicted that the Sox would wipe out their W-L deficit in virtually the same time it took to create it, but if they can play enough in Baltimore to get back to Fenway with a .500 record I'll take it.

Of course it has to be remembered that you're never as good as you look on a hot streak as it is that you're never as bad as you look on a cold streak.

[Tim McG]

Giants played some piss poor baseball against the Brav-os this weekend. The Mad Bum looked terrible at the game we attended Friday night. Gone by the 3rd.

One good thing though...I got to stand right next to the World Series trophy.

It was awesome!

Edited April 26, 2011 by GoodSpeak

[JSngry]

Tomorrow is Colby Lewis' turn in the rotation, and unless he found where Easter Bunny hid his Inner Colby Lewis, it should be a long night. Torontoians, be expectant!

I hope that wasn't the Inner Colby Lewis that people spent the top of the 5th inning looking for in the right field bleachers...

This man is having troubles, this Colby Lewis man is.

[Dan Gould]

Carl Everett out of baseball, still an all-world asshole.

[Dave James]

I'm tickled pinker every day with Raphael Soriano. Last night he doesn't bother catching a fly ball just behind the mound that a LIttle League pitcher could have handled. This results in an extra, unnecessary run for the White Sox. Tonight, he follows up that effort with a one inning outing during which he surrenders two hits, two runs and a walk and blows the hold. Boy. What a find this guy was.

[ghost of miles]

I'm tickled pinker every day with Raphael Soriano. Last night he doesn't bother catching a fly ball just behind the mound that a LIttle League pitcher could have handled. This results in an extra, unnecessary run for the White Sox. Tonight, he follows up that effort with a one inning outing during which he surrenders two hits, two runs and a walk and blows the hold. Boy. What a find this guy was.

Yes, starting to look like Cashman was right to balk at signing him. Hopefully he turns it around, but the signs so far don't look good.

And WFT with Brent Lillibridge, eh? Dude robbed us of two game-tying or winning hits from A-Rod and Cano in the bottom of the 9th. Gotta doff your cap to that, though it doesn't tickle me to do so. (My realtime reaction was kind of blue, to put it mildly.)