2011 MLB Thread

[illram]

Oh I misread it.

 

[El Justo]

berkman is surprising the tomatoes out of me this year. is he vintage or is this a mirage? dude looks rather svelte in '11 too

 

[Azale]

It better be a damn mirage. I am so conflicted right now, I really don't want to ponder whether I should root for him as a longtime Astro or wish for the destruction of his very being as a nowtime Cardinal

 

[El Justo]

i can surely understand that conflict. he looked shot at the end of last year. i read an article on one of those blogs about one of the houston tv announouncers who peppered berkman w/ questions this week about him letting himself go physically in the last few years in houston. tone of blog post suggested it may be rough to criticize him like that, houston icon etc. the post mentioned that berkman was affectionately referred to in houston as "Fat Elvis"

 

[dannyshenanigan]

One time fans in the bleachers of wrigley field threw twinkies at Lance Berkman. He ate one right there and stuffed a couple in his pockets . He hit a homerun in his next at bat.

 

[RedFusion]

Where did this power come from? Francisco was awful when he played for Cleveland.

Asdrubal Cabrera has 4 home runs and we all know he's not hitting 25-30 home runs this year. Don't get too caught up in April stats. Francisco is still on that line of being a career 4th outfielder (which he would be on most teams right now) and being an everyday starter. Good luck to him, but I don't expect much more than an batting average in the .260's and 15-20 home runs if he starts everyday.

 

[Scratch]

Yeah, April stats can be funny. You haven't had enough time for the random breaks to settle out.

I think it's extremely unlikely that Francisco will hit 25 home runs even if he plays full time this year. I won't call impossible, but fairly improbable. If he does hit that many homers, then we may to have to re-evaluate our estimation of him, or he could end up joining the ranks of other one-season wonders, athletes who greatly outperformed their abilities for a single season.

 

[dgfred]

One time fans in the bleachers of wrigley field threw twinkies at Lance Berkman. He ate one right there and stuffed a couple in his pockets . He hit a homerun in his next at bat.

I would of too, I love twinkies . Once when young I ate a whole box of them to keep my little sister from getting even one!

 

[Scratch]

In a surprise development, the Phils put Joe Blanton on the DL. They've called up Vance Worley to take Blanton's spot and Kendrick is staying in the bullpen.

Ozzie Guillen is going to probably get fined or something for tweeting after getting tossed from the game Wednesday night.

This one going to cost me a lot money this is patetic

 

[El Justo]

braves rhp derek lowe arrested for DUI. the obligatory mugshot:

 

[Scratch]

Time to go visit the Talking Chop blog.

 

[El Justo]

kendrick is garbage. i cringe every time he starts a game. he's perfect right where he is as the mop-up guy. the scribes have said all along that worley would be the guy if anything happened to one of the other 5 guys. so no big surprise to me. worley has a decent arm. will he supplant blanton? probably not. but he's worth a look as a no5. he can't do a whole lot worse than blanton did...

 

[Strider]

I'm going to love it if Lance Berkman makes it to the all-star game as a Cardinal.

Edit: As a point of interest; why do they advertise mascara on the MLB.com website?

 

[downtown]

CARLOS SANTANA IS DOWNRIGHT....SUPERNATURAL.

Sure, he's hitting south of .200 right now, but he just hit a walk off grand slam to win it in the 9th. Tribe now have the best record in baseball, and the best April in the club's 111 year history. Do we take them seriously now?

 

[Strider]

CARLOS SANTANA IS DOWNRIGHT....SUPERNATURAL.

Sure, he's hitting south of .200 right now, but he just hit a walk off grand slam to win it in the 9th. Tribe now have the best record in baseball, and the best April in the club's 111 year history. Do we take them seriously now?

Assuming they don't pull an epic Mets-like slide then they are a legit competitor right now. Although I wouldn't put them on track for a .680 winning percentage; I'd say an optimistic view would knock about .100 off of that winning percentage for how their end up at the end of the season. A .580 winning percentage will make their final record 94-68. A .680 will give them a final record of 110-52.

 

[Strider]

I was bored and decided to dig up my picks from the off season thread and see how good I've done so far. So here they are (my notes are in bold):

Spoiler :

AL East:
Boston

Seemed fairly certain due to their off season picks ups, but they flopped out of the door and really haven't picked up a massive amount of momentum since then. I still think to a certain extent that this one might still hold true. This team is far to good on paper to not be in contention.

AL Central:
Twins

Really. They looked a lot better before the season started, but this team has struggled. Hugely. Probably the worst pick I made.

AL West:
Rangers

Rangers are rolling and playing good ball. Although it was a fairly safe one to begin with.

AL Wild Card:
Tampa Bay

The Rays limped out of the gate much like Boston did, but picked up steam a lot faster and has played better ball. They've risen from the basement to a game and a half behind the Yankee's. Although I do find myself secretly hoping that the Blue Jays will find a way to prove me wrong.

NL East:
Phillies

Safe and Sound. With a rotation like that you're going to win a hell of a lot of games. Only concern is the one I've posted before; the offense is rather inconsistent.

NL Central:
Brewers

The Brewers are in second place without Greinke. Assuming he's fine (and there is no real reason to assume otherwise) there is a good possibility they will take the top from my beloved Cardinals.

NL West:
Giants

The Giants have been strange this season. Either they get good pitching and score no runs; or they score a ton of runs but the pitching is horrible. Contendors? Probably, but they are going to have to get more consistent to repeat as WS champions.

NL Wild Card:
Cardinals

The original pick was made before Adam Wainwright went down and was mainly chosen because I expected to see the Reds numbers drop a bit all around. What we've gotten this year is mostly lights out starting pitching, one of the best offense's in the majors, and one of the worst bullpens in the majors. They've successfully managed to blow 1/4 of their games in the 9th inning. 1/4 of their total games place; not 1/4 of just their losses. Ouch.

----------------------

I went to the Astros-Cardinals game on Thursday and it was a bit odd. I've gone to them before at Minute Maid and you almost always got boos went Pujols came up to bat. Those were almost non-existent and people screamed and yelled during both of berkman's homeruns. It was almost like most of the people there didn't care if the Astros won; they just wanted to see berkman hit.

Regardless it was a strange situation. I also managed to count 18 Berkman Cardinal shirts.

 

[naterator]

CARLOS SANTANA IS DOWNRIGHT....SUPERNATURAL.

Sure, he's hitting south of .200 right now, but he just hit a walk off grand slam to win it in the 9th. Tribe now have the best record in baseball, and the best April in the club's 111 year history. Do we take them seriously now?

You guys get the same treatment any other 'bad team makes good' story gets. Keep it up all year, if it continues next year, you start to get taken seriously. This is why the rays are taken seriously now, but you guys weren't after '07 (or the marlins after '03). If the Rangers are still in contention after the all-star break (which it appears they will), then they may be taken seriously too.

 

[KMRblue1027]

Anyone else read about the fact that Oswalt has temporally left Philly? With Blanton on DL for 15 days too the Phillies Pitching staff is starting to look shaky.

 

[Annex]

Ozzie Guillen is going to probably get fined or something for tweeting after getting tossed from the game Wednesday night.

Originally Posted by Ozzie
This one going to cost me a lot money this is patetic

Yeah 2 game suspension. It was hilarious though, when he was thrown out he immediately tweeted.

"Today a big man show up at yankee stadium." Pretty funny.

 

[Darkness]

So Ryan Franklin is no longer the closer in St. Louis, but LaRussa still puts him in in the eigth inning of a tied ballgame? Somehow I just don't get that reasoning...

Franklin was a good closer for the Cards the lasr few years, but it seems he's just not got it anymore...