2008 Mlb season

[cubsfan6506]

Its back. My cubbies are doing good.

 

[Strider]

Isn't it still a scoreless game?

 

[cubsfan6506]

Um no you must be thinking of those other cubs.

 

[Strider]

You spoke to soon.

How do postponements work anyway? Do they just start the game over from the first inning?

 

[King of Town]

Gee the two guys they wanted over marmol for closer give up 4 runs, hit two guys, and like 6 hits. Marmol strikes out 4 and doesn't lose the game twice. They also don't bring in their 2nd best reliever, man it is good to be a cubs fan. Here's to fukudome not becoming the next Tuffy Rhodes!

 

[Red Door]

You spoke to soon.

How do postponements work anyway? Do they just start the game over from the first inning?

It runs from whenever they postponed the game, even the count and runners stay.

 

[Son_Of_Dido]

You know it's a bad omen when you lose a Spring Training game...

...to your MINOR LEAGUE AFFILIATE.

Today was absolutely unsurprising. Only 161 games to go.

Looking forward to Matt Cain going 7 tomorrow night, giving up 1 run on 3 hits, and LOSING.

 

[dgfred]

Well B.Lidge better bring the goods when he comes off the DL for the Phils.

M.Bourne (traded for Lidge) had two SBs and a nice play in the outfield,

T.Gordon gave up 5 runs in a tie ballgame in Lidge's place . Come on

Phillies, make some good off-season moves... at least every few years or so.

 

[Son_Of_Dido]

LOL Pedro Feliz.

(You know what's sad? I wish we had him back. THAT's how bad yesterday looked.)

 

[The Yankee]

YANKEES WIN! THEEEEuhEEEEuhEEEE YANKEES WIN!!!

Glad I was able to catch the last few innings of the game (damn rain out).

 

[King of Town]

That yankees announcer is annoying man An Abomb.. by a-rod. Dude is a geek.

 

[ccAMELS73]

We got the best record in baseball!! 2-0 and #1 in the East!!
It won't be long now before we come back to earth, our closer and 2 of the best 3 outfielders we have are hurt. But hey, ......we're #1,we're #1!

 

[El Justo]

i know it may be construed as a bit sadistic but i hope that mets fans continue to reel...w/ the news about pedro. so much so that i'd wish upon every single mets fan on God's green earth (sorry T if you read this!) the same thing that befell them last Oct that was perhaps the sweetest feeling i've ever had outside of seeing one of my teams win a title! burn! burn!

 

[cubsfan6506]

I would to but I have pedro

 

[Tomoyo]

I didn't expect Pedro to provide anything anyway.

Minaya stuffs the minors with major-league capable pitchers, so when El Duque gets injured or is ineffective, we'll have guys to call up...

Pelfrey needs to have his breakout year though.

 

[Dan Fathers]

Forget it all. Baseball is a four team sport.

Baseball is sitting on a potential gold mine! It is the one sport where any team can win on any given day. So imagine if they had a salary cap and revenue sharing!!! You would go in to the season with every team having a legitimate shot at the post season!

As it is now, you have teams that spend well into 9 figures and teams that barely spend 8. So the sport is boring.

I will get so fired up about baseball and watch it like a hawk...when it become an actual league with actual competition.

 

[King of Town]

They have revenue sharing if I'm not mistaken. i don't think they need a cap, I think a minimum wouldn't be bad though.

 

[El Justo]

i just dislike pedro. he's such a punk...and wheh he tossed that old timer zimmer down to the turf like that a few years ago...that was completely uncalled for. nonetheless, i think you're right Tomoyo. i think minaya can probably fill in the gap for the time being.

 

[Strider]

I'm going to go on and call the "surprise team of the year" as the Washington Nationals. I'm not saying that they are going to take the division, but I'm hoping they manage to get a winning record.

 

[Strider]

Forget it all. Baseball is a four team sport.

Baseball is sitting on a potential gold mine! It is the one sport where any team can win on any given day. So imagine if they had a salary cap and revenue sharing!!! You would go in to the season with every team having a legitimate shot at the post season!

As it is now, you have teams that spend well into 9 figures and teams that barely spend 8. So the sport is boring.

I will get so fired up about baseball and watch it like a hawk...when it become an actual league with actual competition.

Found this interesting piece:

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to give your friendly columnist an opportunity to look like a bigger fool than usual. That’s what predictions column have become.

And that’s good news. Once upon a time, prediction columns were easy. To win in baseball you had to spend the most money.

So on the first day of spring training, an enterprising sportswriter could look at the total payrolls of each club and have a pretty good basis for predicting what the standings would look like in October.

No more. Money guarantees nothing except a better chance. Oh sure, money can cover up mistakes and increase a team’s margin of error. In the end, though, it’s no longer just about the money in major league baseball.

So if you hear your local general manager telling you he can’t play with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox because they have all the money, you should raise your hand and ask him when he stopped paying attention.
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Let’s go to the tote board. Of the eight teams that made the post-season in 2007, only four of them—the Yankees, Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs—were in the top 10 in payrolls.

Here’s something else to chew on. Of those eight, only the Yankees made the playoffs the previous year. Baseball has parity like never before. More on that later.

Of the four teams in the 2007 League Championship Series, Boston ranked second in payroll, but the Cleveland Indians ranked 23rd, Colorado Rockies 25th and Arizona Diamondbacks 26th.

Let’s put the Indians, Rockies and Diamondbacks in perspective. Their general managers had an advantage other general managers don’t. Ownership allowed them to tear their rosters apart and rebuild from the ground up. In other words, they were smart.

Free agency can’t buy a championship. It can add that one final piece to put you over the top, or it can fill a hole. But no team—not the Red Sox or Yankees, not the Diamondbacks or Astros—can win by relying solely on free agency. The Red Sox and Yankees both got a lot more competitive and a lot more interesting when their good work in player development began to pay off last summer.

It may sound hokey, but Bud Selig said his No. 1 goal as commissioner was to give every fan “faith and hope” on opening day. That is, he wanted a system that gives every team a chance.

Done. Half of baseball’s 30 teams have been in the playoffs the last two seasons. The World Series has had seven winners in eight years, the National League nine in 10 years.

In other words, any team can win. The Rockies can come from nowhere in September. The Chicago White Sox can shock the world. The Red Sox can overcome a century of frustration.

That’s baseball’s new world. This long, rambling and somewhat coherent introduction is my way of telling you that on this opening day, as many as 25 teams, maybe more, have a chance of making the playoffs.

Yes, the Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays have less money to spend than most and must depend on their minor league system and smart trades. But the Rockies ought to be the standard by which every other team measures itself.

They averaged 90 losses for the six seasons prior to 2007. They made a ton of mistakes at the big-league level, but along the way GM Dan O’Dowd was putting together a great farm system. Ownership gave him the resources to build and had the patience to see the building process through. By the beginning of the 2007 season, O’Dowd knew the Rockies were ready.

They needed a 14-1 run to make the playoffs, and as 2008 begins, they look good again. They’ve got 21 of 25 players back from the team that won the pennant, and 15 of those are homegrown.

But this column is about predictions.

American League
Division winners: Red Sox, Indians, Seattle Mariners
Wild card: Detroit Tigers
Near misses: Yankees, Angels

AL East

I like Boston. Again.

The Red Sox are beginning the season with concerns about the health of the pitching staff, especially Josh Beckett, but unless they’re decimated by injuries, they’ve got a near-perfect blend of age, experience and everything else.

They’ve got a front office that might be the smartest in the game and a manager, Terry Francona, who has finally gotten his due for being one of the best.

I’m rooting for the Yankees. GM Brian Cashman has tried to make decisions with the future of the franchise in mind. That’s why he declined to gut the farm system to get Johan Santana.

Problem is, the Yankees have a rotation built around older guys like Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina, and there’s just no way of knowing if they’ll hold up over the long haul. Some players in the team’s everyday lineup—Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi—have some wear and tear, too.

The Rays are the other interesting team in the division. They’ve stockpiled talented young kids, and if Scott Kazmir’s sore elbow isn’t serious, they’ve got a terrific chance of finishing .500.

AL Central

I’m going with the Indians. The Tigers are the popular pick, but there are just too many questions with that pitching staff. Cleveland has a deep, talented 25-man roster. As for the White Sox, Royals and Minnesota Twins, they’ll finish in some order behind the top two.

AL West

It’s popular to write that the Angels are so deep and talented that they can survive the loss of John Lackey. Don’t make that bet. The Mariners appear to be better even though some of their best offensive players are maddeningly inconsistent.

The Texas Rangers could come from nowhere. GM Jon Daniels is following the O’Dowd model, and if owner Tom Hicks stays out of the way, the Rangers aren’t far away.

National League
Division winners: New York Mets, Cubs, Diamondbacks
Wild card: Atlanta Braves
Near misses: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies

NL East

So, you thought you’d heard the last of the Braves. Go ahead and admit it. Bad news, my friend. They might just be playing longer than the Mets and Phillies. They’ve got a terrific lineup and are cautiously confident Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Mike Hampton will have productive years.

When the Mets blew the National League East last year, they were declared a dead franchise. Then Johan Santana arrives, and they’re suddenly the greatest team on earth. The truth is that the Braves, Phillies and Mets could have a wonderful season of trading body punches.

NL Central

It has been 100 years since the Cubs won a championship, and if they win one this year, there’ll be movies, books, documentaries, grad school classes and the like. And we’ll hear, “Now I can die happy” incessantly from all the long-suffering Cubs fans.

There’s no one else to pick in this sorry, no-account division. Just last week, Selig ordered the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Pirates, Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals to take a year off and regroup. Well, that’s not true, but it’s a good idea.

NL West

The San Francisco Giants can’t win it. The San Diego Padres probably can’t win it. That leaves the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Rockies. I like the Rockies to continue what they started last year, but this could be a terrific division race.

NLCS: Diamondbacks over Mets

Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and Randy Johnson are perfect for a best-of-seven series. The Diamondbacks also have a terrific lineup and a decent bullpen.

ALCS: Red Sox over Indians

There have been more imaginative picks, and the Red Sox could fall apart if Beckett can’t stay healthy. That said, they’ve got a great foundation in place and a mature, solid clubhouse.

World Series: Diamondbacks over Red Sox

Arizona’s pitching depth will be the difference from opening day. Nothing will change come October.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...g=predictingtheseasondiamo&prov=tsn&type=lgns