2011 MLB Thread

The quote I believe sums up the Cardinals season thus far:

That's right, the Cardinals are in first place on May 2 with no Wainwright, no wins from Chris Carpenter, five one-run leads lost in the ninth-inning fire, seven errors by shortstop Ryan Theriot and a .245 batting average by The Great Pujols.

Oh.. and Freese had his hand broken when he got plunked with that pitch last night :(.
 
I think a lot of that has to do with the general mediocrity of the NL Central so far, even though the Cards have one of the best run differentials in the MLB.

The Indians just swept the Tigers, and have set themselves up for a decent AL Central cushion. I don't think their upcoming road trip will go that well (LA and Oakland always play Cleveland tough, and they're missing 2 starters and Hafner), but their play in April gives them some wiggle room.
 
I went to bed a bit after 10 last night, so I didn't see the finish of the Phils game last night or the news about Bin Laden.

Raul Ibanez is in a huge slump for sure now. In the last 10 games he's played, he's 0 for 31 with 5 walks. For the season he's hitting .154 with an OPS of .446. Ouch.
 
I think a lot of that has to do with the general mediocrity of the NL Central so far, even though the Cards have one of the best run differentials in the MLB.

The Indians just swept the Tigers, and have set themselves up for a decent AL Central cushion. I don't think their upcoming road trip will go that well (LA and Oakland always play Cleveland tough, and they're missing 2 starters and Hafner), but their play in April gives them some wiggle room.

Who would have ever thought the Indians would have a 10 game lead on May 2nd over BOTH Minnesota and Chicago! The next 9 games will be tough, with Oakland, and LA on the road, and Tampa Bay at home. I'll be happy if we can go 5-4 in that stretch (though 6-3 would be nice).
 
I went to bed a bit after 10 last night, so I didn't see the finish of the Phils game last night or the news about Bin Laden.

Raul Ibanez is in a huge slump for sure now. In the last 10 games he's played, he's 0 for 31 with 5 walks. For the season he's hitting .154 with an OPS of .446. Ouch.

He didn't do any better as the game went on :mad: . Hurry up D.Brown and Utley.
 
I think a lot of that has to do with the general mediocrity of the NL Central so far, even though the Cards have one of the best run differentials in the MLB..

St. Louis and Cincinnati are the #1 and #2 run scoring offense in the majors. To find the next closest NL team you have to drop down to Arizona at #7. All three competitive NL central teams have run into a massive amount of bad luck and/or one or two players just sucking it up badly. IE: Wainwright, Grienke, and Cuerto injuries.

A strange fact. San Diego has one of the best pitching staffs in the game (#3 in fewer ER's and #1 in lowest ERA), but the absolute worst offense in the majors (dead last in runs scored and BA).
 
Who would have ever thought the Indians would have a 10 game lead on May 2nd over BOTH Minnesota and Chicago! The next 9 games will be tough, with Oakland, and LA on the road, and Tampa Bay at home. I'll be happy if we can go 5-4 in that stretch (though 6-3 would be nice).

Yeah, that's really outstanding. 7.5 on the Tigers too i think. 5-4 in the next 9 would be a nice accomplishment, especially since KC (after a 3 game series with the Os) has some difficult games ahead.
 
A strange fact. San Diego has one of the best pitching staffs in the game (#3 in fewer ER's and #1 in lowest ERA), but the absolute worst offense in the majors (dead last in runs scored and BA).

Don't forget that Petco Park is one of the best pitchers' parks in the game. According to Baseball Reference park factors, multiyear has Petco at 91 and for one year at 95. That multiyear park factor means about a 10% decrease in runs.

But the weird thing for this season so far is this:

San Diego at home, 15 games, 33 runs scored, 62 runs allowed

San Diego, on the road, 13 games, 51 runs scored, 34 runs allowed.

Their offense is following the park effect, but their pitchers have got things completely reversed so far.
 
Have to laugh at soriano leading the league in homers in May.
 
Jayson Werth returns to town tonight. He'll probably get some attention in right field.

For El Justo, I've been doing my OOTPverse '83 replay by playing each day as it comes along. It works nicely because the 1983 calendar matches up with this year's calendar. So this morning I played the May 3rd game of the Phillies versus the Reds.

In the real life May 3, 1983, the Phils beat the Reds 13-7 and Frank Pastore was the losing starting pitcher for the Reds. Pastore pitched 2.1 innnings, gave up 9 hits and 7 runs.

This morning, in the '83 replay, Pastore got the start and pitched a perfect game. Only 1 strikeout. It was funny, after getting through 7, and with the score 3-0 in favor of the Reds, I kind of began rooting for the perfect game. If my team is going to get beat, let it be an impressive defeat, you know? Still, I used Von Hayes as a pinch hitter for Carlton as the last batter of the game.
 
cole hamels' turn tonight. he is really in a zone lately. but the big news of the night was werth's return to philpa. there were some boos but he was imo well received in south philly and rightly so. i like how he tipped his cap both in the OF and AB :cool: dude was the RF for the best phils teams ever (or the best stretch of phils teams imo). so folks recognize that, i think. seeing him strike out or misplay balls off the wall is all good though ;) we like that :lol: he looked a bit skittish out there. he must have been dreading this day since he signed for all that coin...
 
Francisco Liriano pitched a no-hitter last night.

Surprising, especially given his peripherals for the game. He's probably the last guy on the planet I'd expect to throw a no-no right now. Last night, only 66 of 123 pitches were strikes (going from memory here, so numbers could be slightly off), had 6 BB, only 2 K's, 12 groundouts and 13 fly ball outs. Just goes to show how bad the White Sox offense is right now. And poor Edwin Jackson - finally pitches well after a terrible stretch and still ends of losing to Liriano after going 8 innings. That's baseball for you.
 
It might have been one of the worst pitched no-hitters of all-time. Liriano really hasn't had a good comeback from Tommy John surgery, which is a bit surprising because that is one major surgery that usually has a very good outcome, often enough with pitchers coming back stronger.
 
Cardinals doubled Johnsons ERA from .88 to 1.68. At the moment Berkman has to be the best off season signing this year. I can't think of anyone else who was a free agent this off season who's put up the numbers he has. He now leads the NL in RBI's, is second in batting average, and tied for second with homeruns. While I'm thinking about it; does anyone want to take bets as to when Holliday's batting average falls below .400? I'm calling sometime at the end of this month, but think he can pull it off for another week or two. Is anyone else surprised that the Pirates are still hovering around .500 and are currently 3rd place in the NL central? I wonder if they can keep it up for the rest of the year. I'd be happy with a Pirates team that finishes above or slightly below .500.
 
In their first 24 starts combined, the big 4 of Philly are 16-5, 2.86 ERA, 160.1 IP, 135 HA, 9 HR, 30 BB and 162 SO.
 
Tribe win their first series in Oakland since 2002. The bottom of the order/bench has been extremely productive so far...I may have to reevaluate my opinion on Mr.Lou Marson, from "sucks" to "doesn't suck".
 
I hope if Cleveland makes the post-season, we get another bug attack like the last time.

large_yankL.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom