2009 MLB season discussion*

[Headspace]

Cueto does it again. Not too many Ks, but it's the Cardinals.

[Pringles]

Curtis Granderson made an amazing catch off a would be home run of Grady Sizemore. That play was awesome to watch, unbelievable luck.

[Cephius]

Curtis Granderson made an amazing catch off a would be home run of Grady Sizemore. That play was awesome to watch, unbelievable luck.

I think outside of Beltran and Sizemore, Granderson is the best center fielder in the majors. Amazing defense, speed, and power.

Sabathia with a complete game shut out (yay for my fantasy team!) and A-Rod parks the first pitch he sees since coming off the DL. At least for one night, things were set right in Yankeeland.

[Pringles]

I was amazed at his game for Detroit saving the game with that catch. Look on Sizemore's face was priceless. He looked as if he was saying "wtf..."

When I heard the 3 run homer by Arod, I came a little. Sabathia was actually on his game today, but gotta hand it to Guthrie, after the first he handled the Yankees and kept them down like they've been the last few weeks. 8 strikes outs after giving up a 3 run homer to Arod. Yankees still have a ways to go, but I'll take a win where we can get one.

[fren.]

The ARod book was 177th on Amazon yesterday, 238th today. Crash and burn.

and take this with a grain of salt.

http://www.bostondirtdogs.com/

Sat. May 9, 2009, Lou Merloni on Comcast SportsNet's The Baseball Show: "I'm in spring training, and I got an 8:30-9:00 meeting in the morning. I walk into that office, and this happened while I was with the Boston Red Sox before this last regime, I'm sitting in the meeting. There's a doctor up there and he's talking about steroids, and everyone was like 'here we go, we're gonna sit here and get the whole thing -- they're bad for you.' No. He spins it and says 'you know what, if you take steroids and sit on the couch all winter long, you can actually get stronger than someone who works out clean, if you're going to take steroids, one cycle won't hurt you, abusing steroids it will.'...

Edit: Longoria is fucking insane.

[Akiyama]

Agreed. Longoria loves playing the BoSox.

[Kang]

Looking forward to Halladay vs. Burnett on Tuesday and looking forward moreso to A.J. getting creamed. I told you guys before the season that Burnett sucks.

[Cephius]

Looking forward to Halladay vs. Burnett on Tuesday and looking forward moreso to A.J. getting creamed. I told you guys before the season that Burnett sucks.

Except he's probably been our most consistent starter and he came an inning away from no-hitting Tampa Bay... I think we'll keep him.

[Akiyama]

Yeah... an "inning away" doesn't mean anything. Didn't he end up giving two runs after that in that start? I could be mistaken.

Also, Hughes not looking too hot.

[Cephius]

Point was he has that kind of stuff. When he's on, he's practically unhittable. He probably has the best stuff out of all the Yankees starters. And yeah, Hughes reverts back to his 2008 form. Further need for Burnett in the rotation. I think he's had 6 starts and 5 were quality... something like that.

[Headspace]

Harang helps his .1 lifetime batting average by getting his first hit of the year with the bases loaded.

Reds are 4 games over .500 for the first time in 3 years and will still be in 3rd place after the Brewers win, but hey, the NL Central is really close atm.

[Akiyama]

Point was he has that kind of stuff. When he's on, he's practically unhittable. He probably has the best stuff out of all the Yankees starters. And yeah, Hughes reverts back to his 2008 form. Further need for Burnett in the rotation. I think he's had 6 starts and 5 were quality... something like that.

Haha. Oh man, no kidding. I wasn't saying "GET BURNETT OUTTA THE MLB" or anything like that. I was just saying that I still don't think he's a #1 stud sort of guy. Sort of like Jordan/Pippen in the NBA, I think Halladay/Burnett was correct as far as #1/#2 sort of thing. Burnett is a #2 this year behind CC. Know what I mean? He's great when he's on... but it's just so hard to tell with him due to his track record.

[Kang]

I was afraid when I made that comment about Burnett that it was going to turn into another shitstorm like last time lol. I agree with both you guys that Burnett is decent when he's on, but that's been his problem through out his whole career, his consistency. So far, this season he's doing okay. How he has zero losses with the way that bullpen is something else. I know you can't judge how the season is going to go in early May, so we'll see how things go.

I'm just psyched for this game on Tuesday because it will be like it always is when a former player comes back to town, he'll be the villain.

I still think he needs to develop another pitch to be successful and overcome his consistency problems. I haven't seen him pitch much this year, is he still just focusing on his fast and curve?

[jmc]

The ARod book was 177th on Amazon yesterday, 238th today. Crash and burn.

and take this with a grain of salt.

Boston Red Sox Nation - Ortiz, Matsuzaka, Lester, Pedroia, Youkilis, Bay, Beckett, Papelbon, Drew, Varitek, Lugo, Lowell, Wakefield, Ellsbury



Edit: Longoria is fucking insane.

Speaking of LOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU


Did he simply just retire or what?

[Headspace]

wtf, I just realized I had all 4 top NL central teams pitchers starting on my two fantasy teams. (Lohse, Harang, Gallardo and Dempster) I've got to quit that.

[fren.]

http://www.hdlounge.net/?cat=1:

Games in streaming HD. Not a lot of games yet, but I think its a new site, beats the fuck out of SopCast.

[Viq]

Probably won't be long before it gets shut down, but God bless 'em in the meantime.

[Cephius]

lol, my Yankee friends and I are playing "how many times will ESPN mention the Yankees in a negative way when they aren't even playing", we're in the 2nd inning and they've mentioned the Yankees 4 times, and the Ellsbury steal of home 6 times and shown the video of it. Good thing we're not taking shots (yet)

EDIT: Also, has anyone on ESPN actually read Moneyball? I don't think they have. They continually refer to "the Moneyball philosophy" as "OBP, stealing bases, doing the little things". That couldn't be more incorrect, and they'd know if they actually read the book. It's about taking qualities that are undervalued in the market and buying up those undervalued players in order to compete with the high payroll teams in the league. There is no "moneyball philosophy" in terms of style of baseball - it could be hitting HRs, it could be walking, it could be bunting skill - whatever isn't valued at the time.

Just continuously astounds me how the #1 baseball show on the #1 network neither has read nor understands the most influential baseball book in the last 100 years.

[Akiyama]

While they are technically the #1 baseball show on the #1 network, I don't think it's widely viewed as such. MLB Network is really rushing in and attracting a shit ton attention. That Network has actually grown just as, if not more popular than the NFL Network was. I know it's on more cable networks than NFL-N. It's great to have a channel solely devoted to baseball. It sucks shit that Baseball Tonight is 80% BoSox/Yankees, and you get like.. 1-1.5 minute highlights of all your favorite teams, but the BoSox/Yanks somehow get 3-4 minute clips and then breakdowns, Haha. I guess they do know what snags bigger ratings though.

I like MLB-N because I remember a Padres/Giants game getting like 3-4 minutes of breakdown. They try to split time with everything.

Either way, everyone knows how ESPN is. We just have to look past it.

[Headspace]

Seriously. NL Central had its top 4 teams facing each other the whole weekend (with the two underrated teams winning their respective series, and all we got was a 3 minute segment on the Sunday morning Baseball tonight.

I wish I had MLB-N.