2004 Major League Baseball Season Discussion (1 Viewer)

[Casey Trowbridg]

I'm picking the Giants because even with the problems mentioned, the holes on the other teams in that division are a lot more pronounced. When picking these things I always give the edge to the defending division champions, sometimes it is that slight edge that makes me pick them instead of another team, and this is one of those cases. I gave the same consideration to Minnesota, but picked Kansas City anyway because they impressed me more with what they've done. Oh and SF did acquire an Allstar caliber catcher so its not like they didn't do anything.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

There was almost a brawl in today's Philadelphia-Toronto spring training game, several batsmen were hit, and 4 people including both managers were ejected. So see, some things are already in midseason form.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Including the injury bug it seems.


Hey, happy birthday to me, my wife bought me a trip to NY next week and Yankee-White Sox tix. First time I will have ever been to Yankee Stadium, just weeks after my dream spring training trip. Good baseball year so far.

I'm hoping to visit friend in Houston later this year and swing by Minute Maid. It opened the weekend I moved so I didn't get to see it.

 

[Evan S]

Seth, you will love Yankee stadium..it's awesome. I have been to about 7 ballparks including Camden Yards and Yankee stadium is still my favorite...even though the amenities are not the best...but the atmosphere is. There is just something about the stadium I cannot describe.

And oh yeah, I LOATHE the Yankees.

 

[Shane Martin]

I plan to go to a Yankees game too in May. It's a Tuesday night game. Where is the best VALUE place to sit in the stadium? Looking at Yankees tickets online via their site has indicated to me that the best seats i'm going to get right now for the game is the Nosebleed for $33

Does anyone know of a good source for tickets at a reasonable price or am I going to be forced to either bendover for tickets or pay the $33 for nosebleed.
I hope you are right

Meanwhile in a preseason game last week, the new Star closer for the Phillies gave up a home run to Kevin Brown of the Yankees. That doesn't bode well me thinks for the Phills.

 

[Phil L]

I think it was literally Wagner's first pitch of the spring and he admited that it had nothing. Odd things happen in spring training, Wagner will be fine.

Nosebleed behind the plate at Yankee Stadium are pretty good seats.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Well there was some question as to whether or not Griffy would be ready for Cincinnati's opener and it turns out he will be. All I can say is I want 3 weeks in the "How long before Griffy's first stint on the DL?" pool.

Come on, fun can be had by all.

 

[Evan S]

This is from today's Cleveland Plain Dealer

The New York Mets, Los Angeles, Texas, Seattle, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Boston have interest in the disgruntled, but talented Milton Bradley. Shapiro says he's still engaged with four or five teams in "serious" negotiations.

GM Marc Shapiro is dealing with two kinds of teams - those looking for offense and outfielders.

The Mets want to upgrade their right-field platoon of former Indians Karim Garcia and Shane Spencer.

Bradley can play all three outfield positions.

The Dodgers, who scored fewer runs than Detroit last year, need offense of any kind. Paul DePodesta, the Dodgers' new GM, worked under Shapiro with the Indians.

Texas has a young center fielder in Laynce Nix. Right fielder Brian Jordan won't open the season because of an injury and David Dellucci will open in left. Outfield prospect Ramon Nivar might be available.

Boston needs outfield help and offense. Right fielder Trot Nixon might be out until May with a back injury. Shortstop Nomar Garciaparra is expected to miss the first month of the season with a right Achilles' tendon injury.

Oakland re-did its outfield over the winter, dropping Jose Guillen, Terrence Long and Chris Singleton. The Athletics might be looking for a quality defender and productive bat.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

The Mets traded Roger Cedeno to the Cardinals for Chris Widger and Wilson Delgado.
Larry Walker of Colorado and Nick Johnson of Montreal were put on the 15 day DL.
Milton Bradly has been shipped to triple A for now.
Al Liter of the Mets was hit in the head with a line drive, but is believed to be ok.

Remember tomorrow night is opening day the sequil with the trilogy being complete on Tuesday.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

 

[Andrew_Sch]

Scored tickets to tonight's season opener (on American soil at least) yesterday. Go O's!!

 

[Phil L]

Yep, Bradley to the Dodgers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1775301

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Well, L.A. needed him more than the other teams that were interested IMO.

 

[Evan S]

That Bradley news is bad for my fantasy team. The Dodgers even with Bradley have very little offense and play in a huge pitchers park. I would have liked to have seen Bradley play in Texas. Well, at least the Dodgers are a team that likes to run and perhaps Bradley will get me 20-30 stolen bases in LA...he's not much of a home run hitter anyway.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I have 2 leagues, one a keeper. I had Bradley in my non-keeper league, but its an OF position league (ie, LF, CF, RF) and I needed a backup RF since I already had Stewart as my backup CF and multi-position guys for LF and CF as well. So I dumped Bradley and picked up Cantalotto.

Maybe if it was a straight-up OF only league I might have kept him, but then he did have his run-in with Lo Duca so you have to wonder what that clubhouse will be like, especially considering the how/when that Bradley is joining the team.

 

[Seth Paxton]

That's so funny. I was going to post the outcomes/experiences at all those spring games but my post got too long even for me, which is saying something.

However, I just happened to be at the Phils/Yanks game, which was my one trip to Brightpoint Stadium. That was my 4th game and going into it there hadn't been a single HR yet in the games I went to.

I told the guys around me that I was the HR jinx and after a couple of innings they started to believe me. Then Shef planted a Millwood pitch onto the roof of the Tiki bar in left (see my spring training post). So the jinx was over. But the next inning Wags came in and having lived in Houston from 97-2000 I was all over his talent. I tell the guys next to me that the hit by Brown in the first inning was over now, as were the HRs.

First pitch, wrong. :b

BTW, the big highlight of the game was Bubba Crosby (CF, Yanks) diving ala Edmonds into the warning track dirt of the LC gap to make the catch in the farthest spot in the whole park. Phillie fans even cheered, and then applauded again when he came to bat a bit later.


However, I wouldn't read to much into it. It was still early spring and after a few batters he had worked up to speed and began to dominate. That's what makes spring stats tricky. You can't always gauge what the real effort was unless you saw it, and even then you don't know if a guy is working on a weak spot or something (like improving his curve).



Stadiums I have seen games in:
Astrodome, Ballpark in Arlington, Wrigley, New Comisky (Sox), Safeco (Seattle), Yankee Stadium (soon)

Stadium I was in while no game was going on:
Pac-Bell

Stadiums I have driven by:
Riverfront, the new Reds place, Kauffman (Royals), Busch, Three Rivers (as a kid), Dodgers Stadium

Wrigley was by far the coolest, but Pac-Bell, Safeco and The Ballpark are all really neat stadiums that have the flavor of the region. US Cell (Sox) is nice but rather bland.

Pac-Bell and Safeco both have great views of the bays they are off of including the boats, bridges, mountains, etc. Safeco is a little bit more "modern generic" than Pac-Bell, but the view from Safeco is a bit more impressive due to location, so its a wash.

From the outside Busch was very impressive and I would love to see a game there even though I don't like the Cards at all. There are so many nice stadiums now though. A friend of mine went to the Pirates new place last year and the photos were incredible. Great backdrop for a game.

And my Houston friends send me photos of Minute Maid all the time. Unfortunately for me I was moving back to Indy the weekend they opened the place. The Astrodome was cool for history but it was just old and ugly by the time I saw it. It was so dark inside and un-summer-like.


Wrigley though is the greatest thing. I mean the walls are like 20 feet high, you feel like you could just climb over and sneak in. And its right there in the middle of the neighborhood, balls coming out of the park in just about any direction could land on a passing car or pedestrian. Its like a simple little bandbox instead of a mega-structure. And of course the backdrop of the little condo-brownstone things with their seating on top across the street is super-cool. They also don't ram loud rock/rap songs down your throat every 5 minutes like the newer places tend to do. I just hate that. Stick to the organ only IMO, it feels more like classic baseball.


So now Yankee Stadium. I'll have to get Fenway in soon to complete the classic trifecta. I'm just not sure if I should wear my Yankee stuff if I get up to Boston.


Speaking of Yanks, maybe this is more local news but some DJs down in Evansville, IN (on the Ohio river way south of Indy) decided that for April Fools they would announce that Don Mattingly had died. Evansville being his hometown it caused quite some distress on his family and friends. Yeah, nice joke morons.

And on that note, I got some nice photos of Don leaning out of the dugout at Brightpoint, never got a good view of him at Legends (too far away).


Oh, one other Phils thing. Standing on the concourse during that Yanks/Phils game was John Kruk just signing away like it was no big deal just to be hanging out.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

John Miller and Joe Morgan...its good to have you back. Its been a long offseason without you, but its time to play ball!

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

You know I'm all of a sudden very sorry that Javy Lopez left Atlanta...Baltimore has broken this game open in the late innings.

 

[Dan Hine]

Eh, not a big fan of Joe Morgan. His notion that a pitcher with a 15-10 record with a 4.87 ERA is better than a 10-15 pitcher with 2.50 ERA is ridiculous. Apparently the first pitcher "knows how to win" and the second one only pitches "good enough to lose." Run support never comes up. Whatever...:rolleyes

 

[Andrew_Sch]

It was a long game for those of us sitting in the stands rather than watching at home, too. As I type this, I can only just barely feel my fingers. It was frikkin' freeeezing out there, but we stayed the whole nine innings. Nice win for the O's to start off the season.