2011 MLB Thread

[RedFusion]

Yeah, Brandon Phillips, who is a pretty decent infielder. Lou Marson sucks, Donald will be an excellent addition to AAA Columbus, and I haven't made my mind up about Carasco yet.

Lou Marson certainly isn't the greatest, but he looks like he can be a backup catcher at the very least. You shouldn't be so down on Carrasco though, he's got solid stuff and should be able to pan out to a 2 or 3 like EJ said.

wow. Grand Larceny who did the tribe get for phillips btw? carasco was the top rated prospect in the phils system at the time of that deal on '09. low 90s, could change speeds well, projected as a 3 and maybe a 2. i saw him pitch in the preseason but he hung a few on a windy arizona day. but i think if he continues to progress and throw innings, he may find his way.

Who did we get for Phillips...well originally he was traded for Jeff Stevens, who was turned into Mark DeRosa, who was turned into our closer Chris Perez.

 

[Scratch]

@Scratch
ibañez is a career .269 hitter against LHP

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players...KZmsKfsnjzVzWiqFCLcF?year=career&type=Batting

benny fresh is kinda struggling right now. that's probably the OF spot that charlie may want to mix up.

I'm still a fan of giving players some rest and downtime, and also trying to give young talent work. Mayberry's not a frontline prospect by any means, but he's shown some ability to swing the bat against lefties. Last year, Ibanez had a .728 OPS versus lefties, I think Mayberry would have a reasonably good chance of surpassing that in his splits versus lefty pitchers.

I realize it's not going to happen with Charlie in charge, but that's what I would like to see. Charlie has always been a manager who favors regular players and not much use of a bench.

It might not be a bad idea to give Francisco a bit of rest either.

 

[naterator]

That Mike Leake thing, if true, is about as stupid as you can be. As the article said, he's making $425,000 this year and got a 2.4 mil signing bonus; to throw it away for a few $10 t-shirts (or, more likely, a cheap thrill) is insane.

 

[El Justo]

blanton pitched well for them last night. halladay wasn't completely on tonight. that ryan braun is a hell of a hitter btw.

tribe are tryin' pretty hard to make Justo a believer

thanks for the info RedFusion

 

[Strider]

A few things I want to mention that are mostly unrelated:

1) Is it just me or have the number of doubleheaders in a season gone down a ton in the past 2-3 seasons?

2) The NL central is a mess right now. The 5th place pirates are a single game out of first.

3) The phillies have, in the past week, shown what their primary weakness is going to be. The average offense. That offense is far to explosive (AKA inconsistent) to be hugely reliable. The pitching is going to have to be pretty much dead on for them to keep it up. At this point I figure they will win the east, but I don't think their going to make it to the world series. At this point I think the Giants are a better team.

4) Mets for the worst team in baseball anyone? Finally someone to knock the lowly pirates and nationals out of their spot.

5) Boston finally picked up some steam, but they've got themselves in a 4.5 game hole. Certainly enough time to catch up as long as they don't pull another monster slump.

 

[Scratch]

About doubleheaders, I don't know whether they've gone down in recent years, but I can say that real doubleheaders, back to back games, have disappeared and that stinks. That was one of my favorite deals when I was kid, going to a afternoon doubleheader or a twilight doubleheader in the evening.

These split game doubleheaders shouldn't be called doubleheaders. They should be called money grubbing 2 separate games in a day on the schedule abominations.

 

[King of Town]

I didn't realize they still planned doubleheaders at all. I thought it was a rainout deal or nothing. If they did more, it might make the season end at a decent point in the year. It might bother pitching coaches too, to not have those extra days of rest.

 

[Strider]

I didn't realize they still planned doubleheaders at all. I thought it was a rainout deal or nothing. If they did more, it might make the season end at a decent point in the year. It might bother pitching coaches too, to not have those extra days of rest.

The announce the schedule pretty early. Teams should have plenty of time to plan for a doubleheader. They can even promote/bring in a 6th SP if need be to pitch an extra game for that week. That is, after all, part of the overall strategy of baseball?

I'm in agreement that I miss seeing doubleheaders.

 

[Petek]

What's going on with the Dodgers? Baseball commissioner Selig just announced that he's taking over their operations:

LOS ANGELES -- Major League Baseball has taken over operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Commissioner Bud Selig announced Wednesday.

"Pursuant to my authority as Commissioner, I informed Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt today that I will appoint a representative to oversee all aspects of the business and the day-to-day operations of the Club," Selig said in a statement.

Full article here.

 

[naterator]

I am SO glad McCourt wasn't able to buy the Red Sox. What a train wreck.

 

[Scratch]

What's going on with the Dodgers? Baseball commissioner Selig just announced that he's taking over their operations:



Full article here.

Maybe they'll eventually move the Dodgers to Montreal.

 

[sophie]

3) The phillies have, in the past week, shown what their primary weakness is going to be. The average offense. That offense is far to explosive (AKA inconsistent) to be hugely reliable. The pitching is going to have to be pretty much dead on for them to keep it up. At this point I figure they will win the east, but I don't think their going to make it to the world series. At this point I think the Giants are a better team.

This is pretty much exactly what the Giants were last year. Don't count out a team that learns to struggle in the regular season. I agree with you at this point, but I'd say it's much too soon to tell.

On that note, the Giants are looking good. Real good. (except for today ). Bummer Belt got sent down, but we should see his mug round these parts again in a few months. Ross is back and I still prefer Schierholtz. Lincecum is pitching like a baws and Wilson looks even filthier than he did last year. Have you seen that two seamer he's picked up?

 

[El Justo]

@Strider
have you ever heard the term "those in glass houses shall not throw rocks"? i ask b/c the cardinals offense is not lighting the world on fire right now. say what you will about the phila offense. i say talk to me at the end of the year and san fran has to deal with colorado. i love reading your lovely predictions you're quite the sage, old boy!

 

[Scratch]

The Phils' offense is going to be a pale shadow of past years. It would be kind of interesting if we could take this team back to when Citizen's Bank Park when it opened. People might be talking about how the Bank is such a pitchers' park.

Yesterday, I took a look at the 1985 Yankees page at Baseball Reference. They had some hitting on that team -- Ricky Henderson, Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly. Mattingly won the MVP in 1985, although Henderson maybe should have won it. But the most fascinating thing to me was Bob Meacham, the starting shortstop for the Yankees that year. To call Meacham an awful hitter is an understatement.

His OPS was .568. OBP of .302 and SPct of .266. His defensive stats don't appear to be anything spectacular either. Just looking at it all, he may have had one of the worst single seasons ever by a player with more than 500 PA in a season. I wonder what was going on that the Yankees didn't have anyone better to plug in there. The Yankees 2 games behind the Blue Jays that year for the division crown and it seems like Meacham's awfulness could account for those 2 games.

 

[El Justo]

i'll never forget the play where carlton fisk tagged out two yankees on the same play at home plate. it was the '85 season, too, and meacham was one of the knuckleheads (the 2nd one iirc) tagged out. he sucked

 

[downtown]

SB nation had a good solution for the Dodgers problem. Sell the team to Jay Z, have him move it to Brooklyn.

LA can have the Mets.

EVERYBODY'S A WINNAH

 

[El Justo]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Scratch]

SB nation had a good solution for the Dodgers problem. Sell the team to Jay Z, have him move it to Brooklyn.

LA can have the Mets.

EVERYBODY'S A WINNAH

That still doesn't get a team back in Montreal.

Maybe we could move Cleveland to Montreal.

 

[illram]

I am SO glad McCourt wasn't able to buy the Red Sox. What a train wreck.

My thoughts exactly! Didn't he offer more money too?

 

[downtown]

Why would we want to do that? Baseball doesn't belong in Canada.