Killeverything's (New)NeverEndingBaseballThread

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

There are also rumblings that the Phils might trade Jayson Werth to the Yankees for Vasquez. I'd rather see them make a play for Roy Oswalt but who knows? It seems like he's gone in any event.

[JakeYonkel]

I doubt it'll happen now... I would think it would have if Lee was taking his spot in the rotation. If they traded Vazquez they're short a starter.

[dtmfs]

it'll suck to see werth go, but i'd love to see them get oswalt and bring up dominic brown, wouldn't that be the plan if werth gets traded?

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

it'll suck to see werth go, but i'd love to see them get oswalt and bring up dominic brown, wouldn't that be the plan if werth gets traded?

Ruben Amaro is hesitant to bring Brown up for any number of reasons. If/When Werth gets dealt, I would imagine they will either A) get a serviceable OF back in the deal or B) make Ben Francisco an everyday player and bring Brown up when the roster expands in September. The thing with Chase Utley complicates things also as they may want to try and pick up a decent 2b also (rumors are hot/cold about Dan Uggla from Florida).

[bang]

Varitek has a broken foot and will be out 4-6 weeks. MDC is on the 15 day disabled list. I don't think I can remember seeing this many guys on the Sox get hurt in such a short period of time.

Unfuckingbelieveable. Oh well we'll see how the replacement players do.....in the AL East.

And on top of that both catchers at AAA - Wagner and Brown - are on the 7 day DL too and the PawSox had to bring up Apodaca to catch for them. Cash is the only catcher in the entire system over AA at this point, and he just got here today. As of right now there is nobody in the organization familiar with the Sox pitchers unless you count Cash catching Wakefield. As much as they have weathered all the injuries I think the injury to Varitek will be the one to sink them.

Add another,
Adrian Beltre left todays game with hamstring problems.

Another one for disabled list that already has 14 players on it??
Amazing this team has won 50+ games so far.

[MurrayFiend]

Man, the Too Gays are a bitch to follow. If they're not hitting home runs, they're not scoring, and some of these starters are looking worse with each start. Aaron Hill stays playing with his .190 average (same guy from last year?), and Encarnacion, Lind, et al aren't faring much better. The bullpen is solid and I've seen many games where they hold the other team scoreless or close to it but the Jays just can't catch up offensively.

They looked good in May.

I saw that Cincinnati starter go perfect through 8 and then his team ended up losing the game. That's rough.

[johnk5150]

Has anyone been paying attention to the White Sox last 30 games?

[Machado]

Yup... evidently he really wants to test the market.

I know the Yankees are hot for him, and based on what I just read about him having made a few calls to CC Sabathia over the past day about coming over to them, he'll probably wind up there. Not like money is ever an issue but he probably wants to play with his buddy.

Vazquez and potentially Pettitte off the books frees up money for Lee who *should* command about $14M per year but is probably going to hit a lot closer to $20M.

I really thought the YANKEES trade was a done deal.
If the Yankees could not trade for Lee, I'm happy nobody else in their division did.
The rangers can have him and his bloated career numbers in Arlington.

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

Yup... evidently he really wants to test the market.

I know the Yankees are hot for him, and based on what I just read about him having made a few calls to CC Sabathia over the past day about coming over to them, he'll probably wind up there. Not like money is ever an issue but he probably wants to play with his buddy.

Vazquez and potentially Pettitte off the books frees up money for Lee who *should* command about $14M per year but is probably going to hit a lot closer to $20M.

I really thought the YANKEES trade was a done deal.
If the Yankees could not trade for Lee, I'm happy nobody else in their division did.
The rangers can have him and his bloated career numbers in Arlington.

LOL, you'd have him first ballot with those "bloated" numbers if he was in pinstripes.

[Machado]

Yup... evidently he really wants to test the market.

I know the Yankees are hot for him, and based on what I just read about him having made a few calls to CC Sabathia over the past day about coming over to them, he'll probably wind up there. Not like money is ever an issue but he probably wants to play with his buddy.

Vazquez and potentially Pettitte off the books frees up money for Lee who *should* command about $14M per year but is probably going to hit a lot closer to $20M.

I really thought the YANKEES trade was a done deal.
If the Yankees could not trade for Lee, I'm happy nobody else in their division did.
The rangers can have him and his bloated career numbers in Arlington.

LOL, you'd have him first ballot with those "bloated" numbers if he was in pinstripes.

damn you're dumb.
his career numbers in Arlington are very "bloated"
i never said his career numbers were "bloated" when pitching at Yankee Stadium.
Lee could very well be wearing pinstripes next year.
like someone else already said, Javy and/or Andy might be off the books in 2011.

[johnk5150]

Is there a reason Ortiz was running the bases last night with Gay-Rod sitting on the bench?

[SkyDog112046]

Is there a reason Ortiz was running the bases last night with Gay-Rod sitting on the bench?

Because Girardi is retarded.

[MurrayFiend]

Article I just peeped:

There comes a time when the All-Star Game simply makes your points for you. That time was last night in Anaheim, where what could have been a tense, dramatic, exciting ninth inning was reduced to just another July baseball game by, well, a distinct lack of All-Stars. This has been the problem for the All-Star Game for a long time now, as the best players in baseball play fewer innings, take fewer at-bats, do fewer heroic, memorable things. As the rosters have expanded, and the managerial approach to the game has changed, we've been given about half an All-Star Game, and half a "All-Best-Stats-Through-About-June-20" Game. Now, for some people, the two terms are equal, but the problem with that mindset was on display last night.

Cut to the ninth inning, a 3-1 ballgame, National League leading, trying to win for the first time since 1996. That was a very, very long time ago; VORP didn't exist. Elvis Andrus wasn't in school yet. Sports was reality TV. Charlie Manuel called upon Jonathan Broxton, the best closer in the NL, to pin down the win. Joe Girardi, in an AL dugout bursting at the seams with the best players in baseball, countered with...David Ortiz. Ortiz was a superstar four years ago; now, he's an aging platoon player on the team because the rules say a backup DH gets elected to the AL team. Those "best players in baseball" were long out of the game.

Ortiz reached on a bloop single, and Girardi turned to Adrian Beltre. Beltre was one of the best players in baseball in 2004, then spent five years in Seattle as a league-average batter and plus defender, never sniffing an All-Star invitation. A big three months got him on this year's team. He struck out on three pitches as Alex Rodriguez, one of the 15 or so best players in baseball history, named to the team by Girardi, watched from the dugout.

Next up, John Buck. Buck as a career OBP of .299. He's an All-Star because he hit some homers in the first half, Victor Martinez was hurt and the AL is pretty thin in catching right now. Nonetheless he was batting as the tying run against a power right-hander in a game that, I've been told, counts. Buck popped to short right-center, the ball landed for what should have been a hit, but the safety was wiped out when Ortiz was forced out at second base. The decision to not run for Ortiz was widely criticized, but I'll absolve Girardi here; pinch-running for a player carrying a non-essential run, as Ortiz was, is wasteful and is just the kind of thing I'd criticize a manager for in a real game. Ortiz would have to score if the AL were to tie or win, and any runner in that situation is not going to take chances on the bases. It just so happened that there was a play, an unusual one, where Ortiz's lack of speed came into play. Not running for Ortiz was the standard play, and Girardi doesn't deserve blame for the outcome.

Finally, with Buck on first and two out, Ian Kinsler came up. Kinsler, like Buck, was an injury replacement, the third-highest vote-getter among AL second basemen. Kinsler is having a good year; after missing almost all of April, he batted .310 with more walks than strikeouts, though without his customary power. He's been an All-Star before, in 2008, and is certainly a notch above Buck in terms of career achievement. On the other hand, he was the third-highest vote-getter among AL second basemen and only there because of Dustin Pedroia's broken foot, which is a thin standard.

Think about the NBA All-Star Game for a second. Yeah, they spend 42 minutes in a glorified layup line, running the :04 Seconds or Less offense, alley-ooping their way up and down the court all the way to the 120s. When the game is close, though, and we get down to the final minutes, the 10 best basketball players in the world get on the floor and bust their tails trying to win the game. I'm not saying the entire process is optimal, but the moments of highest tension are met with the greatest talent, and the combination produces riveting endings.

The MLB All-Star Game does the converse. The very best players, the brightest stars, are in the game at the beginning, and while we do get some entertaining matchups, there's a lack of game-level tension to drive intensity. Soon enough, as early as the fourth inning, the players the fans most want to see are exiting the game, usually in favor of the second-highest finisher in the player balloting. Over a couple of innings, we move from an All-Star Game to an All-First-Half Game, and just when you feel yourself caring about the outcome, you look up and you find a bunch of guys who bat sixth or lower for their own team taking the biggest ABs of the night.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem with the All-Star Game. The AL sent three guys to the plate as the tying run in the ninth, and those three players had combined for one All-Star appearance in 22 seasons prior to 2010. One bats ninth for his team, another sixth (seventh when everyone's healthy). Of the three, two were only there because better players were injured. Where the NBA All-Star Game gets good, the MLB All-Star Game just gets random.

For all the rules changes, from "This Time it Counts" to roster expansion to in-game manipulation, MLB still isn't addressing the biggest reason its All-Star Game falls flat. And until the starters go deeper into the game, until we see Albert Pujols and Evan Longoria and Ichiro Suzuki in the spots we see LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade, the game will always fall flat. The star players have to commit to playing more, the non-stars have to accept that being named to the team is its own reward, and the managers have to act as if those two things are in play.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/w ... z0tg2QCPuz

And the Blue Jays trade shortstops with the Braves. This isn't as exciting as Cliff Lee to you folks?!

[killeverything]

Is there a reason Ortiz was running the bases last night with Gay-Rod sitting on the bench?

Because Girardi is retarded.

I'm not arguing Girardi's intelligence ( or lack there of ), but with the way Ortiz has been hitting lately. It's not guaranteed that Arod would've hit better in that situation.

As for the force out at second. With the way that hit fell, and how close Byrd was to catching it, while Arod is no doubt faster than Papi. I think he too would've jumped back toward first when it looked like an F8 also. And with Byrd's reaction time ( I think that play should've netted him the Ted Williams Award personally ), he more than likely would've been gunned down at second too.

Kinda a catch-22 if ya ask me.

[johnk5150]

Is the White Sox the least publicized 25-5 run in their last 30 games in history?

[johnk5150]

Just checking out the pitching matchups for tonight, I noticed Jamie Moyer is 47 fucking years old? 47?

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

Just checking out the pitching matchups for tonight, I noticed Jamie Moyer is 47 fucking years old? 47?

Unless he loses a few digits on his fastball, I believe he will pitch into his 50s.

[Machado]

2010 All-Star game t.v. rating were down this year.

I believe the number was 7.5.
Last year the number was 8.9


I recorded the game on my DVR and was very disappointed to learn the "pre-game" took almost 50 minutes.

What a joke!
MLB offices still does not have a grasp on what the t.v. viewer wants.
So much for primetime ratings.

The MLB All-Star game is no longer special.
Players come n go within a few innings.
We will never see a starter hit a game winning HOME RUN in the 12th inning. Why? Because that player was removed from the game back in the 4th or 5th inning.

The game is still treated as an exhibition by the managers/players, but Bud won't accept that.

[bane]

2010 All-Star game t.v. rating were down this year.

I believe the number was 7.5.
Last year the number was 8.9


I recorded the game on my DVR and was very disappointed to learn the "pre-game" took almost 50 minutes.

What a joke!
MLB offices still does not have a grasp on what the t.v. viewer wants.
So much for primetime ratings.

The MLB All-Star game is no longer special.
Players come n go within a few innings.
We will never see a starter hit a game winning HOME RUN in the 12th inning. Why? Because that player was removed from the game back in the 4th or 5th inning.

The game is still treated as an exhibition by the managers/players, but Bud won't accept that.

I think it has more to do with a decline of the interest in MLB than it does with that particular game. '98 was a long time and a lot of steroids ago.

[Machado]

2010 All-Star game t.v. rating were down this year.

I believe the number was 7.5.
Last year the number was 8.9


I recorded the game on my DVR and was very disappointed to learn the "pre-game" took almost 50 minutes.

What a joke!
MLB offices still does not have a grasp on what the t.v. viewer wants.
So much for primetime ratings.

The MLB All-Star game is no longer special.
Players come n go within a few innings.
We will never see a starter hit a game winning HOME RUN in the 12th inning. Why? Because that player was removed from the game back in the 4th or 5th inning.

The game is still treated as an exhibition by the managers/players, but Bud won't accept that.

I think it has more to do with a decline of the interest in MLB than it does with that particular game. '98 was a long time and a lot of steroids ago.

Not sure how accurate this is, but I'd like to think beginning all the WORLD SERIES games after 8 pm eastern time has finally caught up to MLB.
Children that lived on the east coast were more than likely unable to stay awake long enough to see the final=losing interest in the game all together.

[bane]

2010 All-Star game t.v. rating were down this year.

I believe the number was 7.5.
Last year the number was 8.9


I recorded the game on my DVR and was very disappointed to learn the "pre-game" took almost 50 minutes.

What a joke!
MLB offices still does not have a grasp on what the t.v. viewer wants.
So much for primetime ratings.

The MLB All-Star game is no longer special.
Players come n go within a few innings.
We will never see a starter hit a game winning HOME RUN in the 12th inning. Why? Because that player was removed from the game back in the 4th or 5th inning.

The game is still treated as an exhibition by the managers/players, but Bud won't accept that.

I think it has more to do with a decline of the interest in MLB than it does with that particular game. '98 was a long time and a lot of steroids ago.

Not sure how accurate this is, but I'd like to think beginning all the WORLD SERIES games after 8 pm eastern time has finally caught up to MLB.
Children that lived on the east coast were more than likely unable to stay awake long enough to see the final=losing interest in the game all together.

That may be a contributor. I think there are a lot of factors that have led to it's demise. The strike took a lot of people away. 98 brought a lot of them back but the 'roids scandal turned a lot of people off again. There's also the slow pace of the game in an instant gratification society, the rising popularity of other sports not only competing for viewer interest but taking the best athletes, and the lack of parrity in the league. Put all that together and you have a recipe for the end. It sure isn't America's pasttime any more.

[JakeYonkel]

I disagree, I think it's still the best and most popular American sport.

The media makes so much about steroids yet guys in the NFL are busted weekly and nobody gives a shit.

Non-guaranteed contracts in the NFL are a joke and it seems like the roster turnover in the NBA is fairly high too wth all the trading of expiring contracts to maneuver around the salary cap.

No one watches the All Star Game just like no one watches NBA All Star Weekend or the Pro Bowl... because no one cares. I'm a huuuuuuuge baseball fan and the All Star Game is a waste of time, despite Bud assignig significance to it.

[Machado]

Andy Pettitte injured his groin yesterday.
I've heard reports he could be on the DL for approx 4 weeks

Sergio Mitre will be actived tomorrow and take his slot in the rotation

Yankees played a fine series vs the rays. Taking 2 out of 3.
The game yesterday vs price was a nice comeback.
Down 3-0 after the 1st, facing a very, very tough lefty, the game looked like a sure loss.
Yesterday was the first time I saw price start a game this year.
The kid has so much talent. No wonder he has won so many games already this season.
I noticed his fastball was being thrown harder as the game went on.
During the first 2 innings his heater was between 92-94.
Then he turned that up and was hitting 97.
Also noticed that he followed a beckett pattern vs the Yankees-Almost all fastballs the first time through the line-up.
Saving the breaking ball for the second time through.

[Tenacious_Dio]

I disagree, I think it's still the best and most popular American sport.

I'd put it 3rd, behind Pro Football and College Football.

[bane]

I disagree, I think it's still the best and most popular American sport.

I'd put it 3rd, behind Pro Football and College Football.

I'm not sure about college ball, but it doesn't touch the NFL for popularity. Your perspective might depend on what part of the country you live in, but nationally baseball isn't close to what it once was.

[Heenan Snuka]

The game is still treated as an exhibition by the managers/players

thats the way it should be

unlike the Pro Bowl and NBA, I like the baseball All-Star game

[SkyDog112046]

I disagree, I think it's still the best and most popular American sport.

I'd put it 3rd, behind Pro Football and College Football.

I'm not sure about college ball, but it doesn't touch the NFL for popularity. Your perspective might depend on what part of the country you live in, but nationally baseball isn't close to what it once was.

That's because a bunch of the teams are not competitive or are only competitive one season every 4 or 5 years. People from places that were once baseball hotbeds such as KC or Pittsburgh have no reason to watch. Why get involved when your team is eliminated by the allstar break every year?

The NFL has 32 teams. Over the past 5 seasons, 25 of them have made the playoffs at least once. And 16 of them have gone on to play in the conference finals. Just about every team has had at least one season over the past 5 years when they were a potential playoff team coming into the last 2-3 weeks of the season. When 85% of your teams are competitive it gets people from all cities involved. And for those who would say that it's because 12 NFL teams get in as opposed to 8 MLB teams - 50% of the league played in their conference finals over the past 5 years.

[Machado]

Tim McCarver still believes the New York Yankees didn't treat Joe Torre fairly after he left the team. But he now says he was wrong in comparing Torre's treatment after his departure to how Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin treated generals who had fallen out of favor.

McCarver, a Fox Sports analyst and former Torre teammate, blasted the Yankees during Saturday's national telecast of the Yankees' game against the Tampa Bay Rays, saying the team had "airbrushed" Torre out of its history, and compared that treatment to how Nazi and Soviet leaders dealt with generals when they became dissatisfied with their performances.

"Although my analogy was inappropriate, in my opinion the underlying point remains true," McCarver said, according to the New York Daily News. "That Yankee management -- not the players, they have embraced Joe Torre and always will -- has erased Joe Torre from their history, for the most part."

A Yankees spokesman declined comment, according to the report.

The Anti-Defamation League, which advocates against anti-Semitism and bigotry, also believed McCarver's comments went too far.

"No matter what one thinks of the Yankees' treatment of Joe Torre, likening it to how Germany and Russia treated their generals who fell out of favor is an inappropriate comparison," the organization said in a statement.

In the fourth inning of Fox's broadcast, McCarver -- who was Torre's teammate with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1969 -- accused the Yankees of "corporate childishness" in their dealings with Torre.

The Yankees did not mention their former manager, who led the team to 12 postseason appearances and four World Series titles, during ceremonies honoring the team's remarkable history at the last game at the old Yankee Stadium in 2008.

"You remember some of those despotic leaders in World War II, primarily in Russia and Germany, where they used to take those pictures that they had ... taken of former generals who were no longer alive, they had shot 'em," McCarver said Saturday. "They would airbrush the pictures, and airbrushed the generals out of the pictures. In a sense, that's what the Yankees have done with Joe Torre. They have airbrushed his legacy. I mean, there's no sign of Joe Torre at the Stadium. And that's ridiculous. I don't understand it."

There is a large photo of Torre with late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner at one of the new stadium's gates. Torre, now manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, also appeared on a tribute video shown on the stadium scoreboard during a pregame ceremony Friday for Steinbrenner, who died July 6.

[tin00can]

A-Rod trying to get HR number 600: seriously, does anybody really give a flying fuck?

[TawnyVonJagger]

KILL BULLPEN KILL BULLPEN KILL BULLPEN