2011 MLB Season Discussion: Joey Votto MVP Edition

[Cephius]

Rays went from last place to second place in like a week, now 2.5 games (as of last night) back of the Yanks.

Feels good man.

It's almost like it's still April!

[Aksannyi]

Hush.

People were speaking doom and gloom about the Rays because of their poor start and really they just needed a bit of time to get their groove. I'll admit I was nervous after their start, too, but if anyone can work a lineup and get it right, it's Joe Maddon.

[Cephius]

Eh their offense still sucks, they got a few walkoffs and a couple amazing starts by Shields. I'm not sure that's going to keep up.

[FNH]

anyone have a free website where I can watch games?

[Demosthenes11]

who the fuck are the rays?

this is mlb discussion, not AAA baseball discussion. out with that bullshit.

[Aksannyi]

Eh their offense still sucks, they got a few walkoffs and a couple amazing starts by Shields. I'm not sure that's going to keep up.

If Fuld, Damon, and Upton can keep their shit going, we'll be better off than last year, when all we had was Pena and Upton slumping and being frustrating as all fuck all season. Also, will be nice to get Longo back.

I think more people around here are optimistic again as opposed to "sky is falling" like before. Then again, this town has sucky fans. I'm sure after the NHL playoffs are done and when the Lightning get eliminated, no one will give a fuck about hockey again.

Yeah Demo, AL East champs 2 out of 3 years aren't worth discussing.

[Demosthenes11]

hey guys the bulls the year after jordan retired and the team was gutted was totally worth talking about

[Cephius]

If Fuld, Damon, and Upton can keep their shit going, we'll be better off than last year, when all we had was Pena and Upton slumping and being frustrating as all fuck all season. Also, will be nice to get Longo back.

I think more people around here are optimistic again as opposed to "sky is falling" like before. Then again, this town has sucky fans. I'm sure after the NHL playoffs are done and when the Lightning get eliminated, no one will give a fuck about hockey again.

Yeah Demo, AL East champs 2 out of 3 years aren't worth discussing.

Sam Fuld is a nice story, don't get me wrong. But he was a career minor leaguer who didn't break an .800 OPS as a 28 year old in AAA. His fall back to Earth is going to leave a small crater. I also love Damon, but his actual performance this year is going to be more along the swing-through-everything version you saw the first couple weeks. Upton is only the legitimate candidate to have a breakout year.

[*Shinzon*]

Commissioner Bud Selig is expected to announce this afternoon that MLB will take over the Dodgers' financial operations, tweets Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times. Shaikin's colleague Dylan Hernandez adds that Selig "will appoint a representative to oversee all aspects of the business and the day-to-day operations of the Dodgers."

SI's Jon Heyman wrote earlier today that MLB is "disinclined to grant McCourt's request" for approval of a TV deal with Fox that might have allowed him to retain control of the Dodgers.

This is a pretty interesting development considering the stance they've taken on the Mets situation. We'll see if maybe this impacts the way the Wilpons operate after the season is over. with around 60m coming off the books and everyone expecting a god damn firesale, we might become the next pirates organization.

[Trichocyst]

As good (and lucky) as the Phillies offense was to start the season, it's definitely gone the other way for now. At least they squeaked out a win today.

[Aksannyi]

hey guys the bulls the year after jordan retired and the team was gutted was totally worth talking about

I don't know why you give half a shit why I like a team, and I believe they're still in the MLB so I'm well within my rights to talk about them here. Sorry I don't fap over the Yankees, Red Sox, or Phillies or some equally rich and excessively popular team.

And yeah Ceph, I'm sure they won't all be super badass all season but I'm impressed with how quickly the Rays bounced back.

[Akiyama]

Uh.. as much as the whole 'The Rays AAA offense sux, guys falling back to earth, etc" should be said.. even with a mediocre to bad offense, you can still win games as long as you've got pitching, and last I checked.. the Rays pitching isn't that bad. They're like a lesser Giants. It's not like the Giants were an offensive juggernaut last year, but they won it all didn't they? Anything can happen in baseball, as seen by a 2-9 start from the Sox (even if they have won.. 4 out of their last 5 or something another)

Sports world is all reactionary. I'd say we'd have a firmer grasp on things by Mid May.

Plus ignore Demos, assuming he's a Sox fan since he's a Pat fan, he's probably all 'oh god why do the red sux suck gawd'

[Valisk]

Texas outscored 19 to 5 over last two games against Angels moving us down to 2nd place in the AL West. Our pitching is terribad. We'll probably be looking to score another "Cliff Lee" (pitcher) deal sometime this year. Hoping we doing use Michael Young as trade bait because he's been then only consistent bat in our line up. 7th in AL batting %, 3rd in hits, 3rd in doubles, etc etc.

[Cephius]

Uh.. as much as the whole 'The Rays AAA offense sux, guys falling back to earth, etc" should be said.. even with a mediocre to bad offense, you can still win games as long as you've got pitching, and last I checked.. the Rays pitching isn't that bad. They're like a lesser Giants. It's not like the Giants were an offensive juggernaut last year, but they won it all didn't they? Anything can happen in baseball, as seen by a 2-9 start from the Sox (even if they have won.. 4 out of their last 5 or something another)

Sports world is all reactionary. I'd say we'd have a firmer grasp on things by Mid May.

Plus ignore Demos, assuming he's a Sox fan since he's a Pat fan, he's probably all 'oh god why do the red sux suck gawd'

It's not though. Who is the Matt Cain for the Rays? James Shields is not as good as he's been pitching. Hellickson is a great talent, but he's still a baby. Neimann has been bad for over half a year now, and Wade Davis is still sort of an unknown but I don't think he's a front line ALE starter either. Honestly if you match up the Rays starters to the Yankees, they're pretty much even and that's not a good thing. And as much as I hate to drop the "ALE is not the NLW" card, it kind of applies here. You can survive with good pitching and a bad offense when you're the Giants, you really can't get away with it when you play the Red Sox and Yankees 36 times a year.

[Akiyama]

Again, why I said let's wait til Mid May to see if it's Yanks/Sox/<insert other teams here> or vice-versa.. or if the Red Sox/Yanks struggle any due to pitching being iffy outside of one or two guys each. Jumping all over stuff here and now is like going to week 2 and saying "Oh, well, <insert team> is 0-2 here.. no chance for a title.

Am I saying the Rays are World Series contender level? Nah. But could they somehow win a wild card? Sure, I don't see why not.

[Cephius]

I don't need to wait til May to tell you that the Mets are a disaster, just like I don't need to wait til May to say the Rays don't have the talent to compete It's still too early to analyze records, but you can still tell what type of team the Rays are going to have, doubly so because you know they aren't going to trade for a superstar or anything.

Could they get hot, and could the Yankees/Sox suffer due to injuries or ineffecitveness? Sure, but - barring disaster - over a 162 game season I don't see how they can win enough games.

[Stiker]

Texas outscored 19 to 5 over last two games against Angels moving us down to 2nd place in the AL West. Our pitching is terribad. We'll probably be looking to score another "Cliff Lee" (pitcher) deal sometime this year. Hoping we doing use Michael Young as trade bait because he's been then only consistent bat in our line up. 7th in AL batting %, 3rd in hits, 3rd in doubles, etc etc.

Our pitching really isn't that bad...well at least the starters aren't. Lewis completely shat the bed two nights ago. Both his control and velocity were very off and he was serving meatballs up to the Angels. Harrison had another solid start last night, but Weaver flat up out-dueled him.

Our bullpen, however, is a completely different story. Feliz is the only consistent guy I would trust at this point. Strop, I hope, will be able to settle into the setup role. Beyond that O'Day is a shell of himself compared to last season. Oliver is wildly inconsistent and too old to ride heavily for an entire season. Rhodes is in that same boat as well.

I wouldn't hold my breath on anyone taking Young's contract, but even if someone did, there is no way that we'd be able to avoid eating a huge chunk of it, plus I can't see us getting a very high return in the deal...definitely not anyone of the King Felix or Josh Johnson caliber which would be the main starter targets.

There is still plenty of good on the offense. Beltre has gotten off to a great start thus far and Moreland is impressing me more and more each game. Kinsler and Cruz have cooled off a bit, but that won't last forever.

We have a lot of arms on the DL as well: Hunter, Webb, and Feldman just off the top of my head. Hunter will get back into the rotation, and hopefully pick up where he left off last season (and that'll take out an under-achieving starter, looking at you Lewis). As far as the other arms, I hope they can start plugging some of the gaping holes in the bullpen when that time comes.

tl;dr - Sky isn't falling in Texas quite yet.

[Demosthenes11]

Uh.. as much as the whole 'The Rays AAA offense sux, guys falling back to earth, etc" should be said.. even with a mediocre to bad offense, you can still win games as long as you've got pitching, and last I checked.. the Rays pitching isn't that bad. They're like a lesser Giants. It's not like the Giants were an offensive juggernaut last year, but they won it all didn't they? Anything can happen in baseball, as seen by a 2-9 start from the Sox (even if they have won.. 4 out of their last 5 or something another)

Sports world is all reactionary. I'd say we'd have a firmer grasp on things by Mid May.

Plus ignore Demos, assuming he's a Sox fan since he's a Pat fan, he's probably all 'oh god why do the red sux suck gawd'

GIANTS

The reason the rays arent worth talking about is because they are in a division with the yankees and sox. there is a 0% chance they make the playoffs. zero

[Headspace]

GIANTS

The reason the rays arent worth talking about is because they are in a division with the yankees and BUCK SHELLWATER. there is a 0% chance they make the playoffs. zero

pretty much

[Demosthenes11]

he's team 3 there for sure. rays will be battling with their rhymed rivals for last come season's end