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2009 MLB Thread - Page 13

post #361 of 1171
5/28/09 at 12:11pm
Thread Starter 

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
More often than not, the second place in the strongest division is a better team than the first place team in some other division.

Exactly. There have been a fair number of wildcard winners who have gone on to become World Series champions.
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post #362 of 1171
5/29/09 at 8:34pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

So what was up with all the ejections yesterday in the Sox / Twins game?

Morning Juice: Outta here! Tichenor hits an umpire's grand slam - Big Leagu... - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

I'm curious to know what Redmond said to get ejected so damn quickly. I wonder if he said something previously and Tichenorwas just waiting for anything?? I can see the other ejections, but Redmond's ejection was puzzling.
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post #363 of 1171
5/30/09 at 7:51am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkHastings
So what was up with all the ejections yesterday in the Sox / Twins game?

Morning Juice: Outta here! Tichenor hits an umpire's grand slam - Big Leagu... - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

I'm curious to know what Redmond said to get ejected so damn quickly. I wonder if he said something previously and Tichenorwas just waiting for anything?? I can see the other ejections, but Redmond's ejection was puzzling.

The SOB almost killed Francona. He was about to pass out at home plate and embarrassingly had to ask the guy he was yelling at to hold him up. The doctors had to give him an exam in the backroom, trying to get his pulse rate down. With his stomach problems, low circulation, and high blood pressure, Tito must be the most fragile manager in the league. Now I know why he always seems to keep calm; cause if he loses it, he could really lose it.
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post #364 of 1171
5/30/09 at 8:10am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

I heard that this umpire was recently called up. Is this true? Maybe he had a point to make in this game, I don't know.

I found it really odd that both catchers and managers were ejected. I can't recall that happening recently.
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post #365 of 1171
5/30/09 at 10:32am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ockeghem
I found it really odd that both catchers and managers were ejected. I can't recall that happening recently.
I can understand Tek; he was trying to cause a distraction so that Beckett wouldn't get booted (or suspended). He knew that Tichenor had a short fuse that night, which is why Tek jumped up so quickly and got in his face.

And that's exactly the reason why I supported keeping Tek when people wanted him traded at the end of last season. He doesn't wear that "C" for nothing!! That was a brilliant move on his part which helped maintain their lead and, eventually, the win.
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post #366 of 1171
5/30/09 at 10:41am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ockeghem
I heard that this umpire was recently called up. Is this true? Maybe he had a point to make in this game, I don't know.

I found it really odd that both catchers and managers were ejected. I can't recall that happening recently.

He is a AAA ump who was called up at the last minute.
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post #367 of 1171
5/31/09 at 6:48pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

If I asked you who was leading MLB in home runs, how many of you would guess the Padres' Adrian Gonzalez? Probably not many. He hit his 20th home run today. 20 HRs before June - not too shabby. He is one of the most underrrated players in baseball, because he plays in San Diego. The last two years, he's hit 30 and 36 HRs, with 100+ RBI each year but no one knows about him. East Coast bias in full effect.

And it took 11 starts, but Zach Greinke's ERA is above 1 - at a sky-high 1.10 after giving up three runs today. Looks like it may be time for KC to send him down to Triple-A.
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post #368 of 1171
5/31/09 at 8:07pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott_J
If I asked you who was leading MLB in home runs, how many of you would guess the Padres' Adrian Gonzalez? Probably not many. He hit his 20th home run today. 20 HRs before June - not too shabby. He is one of the most underrrated players in baseball, because he plays in San Diego. The last two years, he's hit 30 and 36 HRs, with 100+ RBI each year but no one knows about him. East Coast bias in full effect.

And it took 11 starts, but Zach Greinke's ERA is above 1 - at a sky-high 1.10 after giving up three runs today. Looks like it may be time for KC to send him down to Triple-A.
I would not have known about Gonzalez if I hadn't seen his accomplishments on Baseball Tonight this evening.

I was (am) also very impressed with Belisario. I didn't realize the twenty-six year old was a rookie for the Dodgers. He had some excellent stuff tonight against the Cubs.
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post #369 of 1171
5/31/09 at 10:29pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
20 HRs before June - not too shabby.

And San Diego is just about the worst place to hit homers.
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post #370 of 1171
6/1/09 at 5:50am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

San Diego has a team?? J/K
Quote:
East Coast bias in full effect.
bias? I think not. It's all about success and drama.
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post #371 of 1171
6/1/09 at 6:02am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkHastings
San Diego has a team?? J/Kbias? I think not. It's all about success and drama.

When the fans of west coast baseball start caring enough to show up before the first inning, and stay until the last, then the rest of the country may follow suit.
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post #372 of 1171
6/1/09 at 7:06am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie
When the fans of west coast baseball start caring enough to show up before the first inning, and stay until the last, then the rest of the country may follow suit.
What are you talking about? Fans of west coast baseball are filing into the Staples Center around halftime. There is a good excuse, you know.
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post #373 of 1171
6/1/09 at 8:04am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott_J
If I asked you who was leading MLB in home runs, how many of you would guess the Padres' Adrian Gonzalez? Probably not many. He hit his 20th home run today. 20 HRs before June - not too shabby. He is one of the most underrrated players in baseball, because he plays in San Diego. The last two years, he's hit 30 and 36 HRs, with 100+ RBI each year but no one knows about him. East Coast bias in full effect.

Well I would guess Gonzalez because I follow the sport and the sports stats.

I'm on the east coast so i'm not sure what east coast bias means.
the surprising part of who is leading in homers is that it's a guy from the Padres.

how many of his dingers are at home?
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post #374 of 1171
6/1/09 at 11:26am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD
I'm on the east coast so i'm not sure what east coast bias means.

"East Coast Bias" is the (valid) complaint that the national sports media tends to focus much more on East Coast teams (with a few exceptions, like the Lakers).

And by "valid complaint" I mean that the bias exists; on the other hand, the bias is understandable because people on the East Coast tend to care about sports a lot more than West Coast folks do. It's just a cultural thing.
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post #375 of 1171
6/1/09 at 11:52am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman
people on the East Coast tend to care about sports a lot more than West Coast folks do. It's just a cultural thing.
I think a lot also has to do with how close (especially in the North East) teams/fans are.

Being in CT, you can travel to probably a dozen major sporting venues in less than a few hours. Not only does that bury the area in sports, but it also breeds a lot of fan competition because of the diversity of fans that live in close proximity to each other.

I made a joke once (and actually saw it come true) that in CT, there are 3 questions you ALWAYS ask on a first date:

1) What's your name?
2) Where do you live?
3) Yankees or Red Sox?



The Red Sox and Yankees get a lot of press because the fans warrant it. Not only do we have to care about the team we're rooting for, but we also have to pay the same amount of attention to the "other team". It's practically a law around here!

Every time the Sox win, I gotta make sure the Yankees did too so I don't feel so bad. Most of my friends Facebook status's not only cheer their teams win, but it's almost a double win if the rival team loses as well: i.e. "Red Sox win / Yankees lose; it's a good day!"

Most areas just care about their teams winning...not in CT. We also celebrate the rival losses. It's pretty bizarre.
I'm not sure about other places, but around here we have T-Shirt that say stuff like:
Quote:
"I route for Boston and anyone who beats New York"
"I route for New York and anyone who beats Boston"
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post #376 of 1171
6/1/09 at 12:08pm
Thread Starter 

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

[old man mode] You gotta remember, too, that until 1958 there was no major league baseball on the west coast.

The Giants & Dodgers used to play in NY. The Athletics were in Philadelphia. And, they played actual baseball in Washington! (cheap shot...couldn't resist! First in war, first in peace, last in the American League... Yada, yada, yada.)

It used to be that a "trip west" meant going to Chicago (Cubs/White Sox) or St. Louis Cards/Browns)! Not to mention that the main mode of travel was train... [/old man mode.]

Check out this map of MLB team locations...and you can see the cluster of teams that still exists in the northeast:

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post #377 of 1171
6/1/09 at 12:20pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Looking at that map, and seeing where the Western teams are, it's no wonder why the Texas Rangers wanted out of the AL West, and would have bought into Bud's crazy realignment plan back in the late 90's.
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post #378 of 1171
6/1/09 at 12:30pm
Thread Starter 

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Walter C
Looking at that map, and seeing where the Western teams are, it's no wonder why the Texas Rangers wanted out of the AL West, and would have bought into Bud's crazy realignment plan back in the late 90's.

And don't forget the Braves used to be in the NL West!

It'll be a long time before I get used to the fact that the Brewers are in the National League.
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post #379 of 1171
6/1/09 at 1:06pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
It'll be a long time before I get used to the fact that the Brewers are in the National League.

Same here. And sometimes, I tend to think of their matchups against NL opponents as interleague games.

As for Adrain Gonzalez, he has hit 5 of his 20 home runs at Petco.
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post #380 of 1171
6/1/09 at 1:21pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
"I route for Boston and anyone who beats New York"
"I route for New York and anyone who beats Boston"

I loved the sportswriter (forgot his name) who wrote about his son's first game at Fenway. During the car ride home, the boy and his dad recounted the events of the day . . . The Sox won, his favorite hitter got a home run, and he even got a foul ball from the ball boy. But when asked by his dad what the "best part" was, the boy replied "The best part was the Yankees lost"




. . . and the Yankees weren't playing the Sox that day.
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post #381 of 1171
6/1/09 at 8:33pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
It'll be a long time before I get used to the fact that the Brewers are in the National League.
This one will continue to confuse me for years, I fear. Where are Robin Yount and Gorman Thomas when you need them?
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post #382 of 1171
6/2/09 at 8:57am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
It'll be a long time before I get used to the fact that the Brewers are in the National League.

Just think of them as "Milwaukee" (you know, Spahn, Aaron, Burdette) and it's easy to do.
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post #383 of 1171
6/2/09 at 12:37pm
Thread Starter 

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
Just think of them as "Milwaukee" (you know, Spahn, Aaron, Burdette) and it's easy to do.

Ah. But, you see, the Braves are the "natural" rivals of the Red Sox in inter-league play.

Why? Because they're from Boston, of course.

So there ain't no winning in this situation!
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post #384 of 1171
6/2/09 at 1:57pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Damn! No wonder why you have so many 'hardcore' fans in the North East...all of these those "west" teams moved around so much, you didn't get a chance to pass down team loyalties from generation to generation.
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post #385 of 1171
6/2/09 at 6:28pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Where I live is equidistant from the Mariners, Rockies, and Giants/A's.

Whom should I root for?

Is it still OK to hate those Damn Yankees?

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post #386 of 1171
6/2/09 at 8:20pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

I'm happy the BoSox won tonight, and especially so for Matsuzaka. I never thought it would be June before he got his first win of the season.

The 5-1 victory over the Tigers was Francona's 500th. That's nice for him. He becomes the third Red Sox manager to pass that mark (Cronin and Higgins).

The Yankees won again, 12-3 over the 30-21 Texas Rangers. I'm hoping the Rangers will win a couple of these games against New York.

The American League East is doing quite well, with three teams (Boston, New York, and Toronto) at thirty or more wins. And if the Orioles win tonight, it will be an AL East sweep of games today and tonight.
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post #387 of 1171
6/2/09 at 9:31pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

btw i'm planning a trip to NY this year to see new Yankee Stadium. i was just wondering if there's an alternative to Stub Hub if i wanted to order tickets? they absolutely kill you on service charges...
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post #388 of 1171
6/2/09 at 9:37pm

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
What do you mean? You don't consider home field advantage enough of a reward??

I mean, the 1st place team already has the advantage of being great. Take the Yankees in the late 90's (and early 2000's); the last thing we needed to do was to give them an extra win. That just leads to a team dominating even more so (i.e. more World Series wins = More money to spend on players).

Then how do the other teams in that division compete? It's lop sided enough without giving the 'better' team more advantages. I say give the worse teams more of an advantage.

I don't treat the playoffs and WS as a separate entity from the regular season. I view them as an extension and culmination of the search for the year's best team. A team that wins 100 games should have more than just a one-extra-home-game advantage over a team that wins, say, 83 games. That way, it will be less of a fluke if the wild card team wins.

I see no point in leveling the playing field for the playoffs -- that would cheapen the regular season into irrelevance.
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post #389 of 1171
6/3/09 at 6:01am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Got tickets to the Natinals game tonight! Hopefully the rain will hold up enough for the game to happen. Possibly I will witness baseball history.
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post #390 of 1171
6/3/09 at 7:03am

Re: 2009 MLB Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ockeghem
I'm happy the BoSox won tonight, and especially so for Matsuzaka.
And what's up with Paps? He pulled a Matsuzaka by loading the bases (with no outs) then striking out the next 3 batters.

Classic, but heartache inducing.
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