2009 MLB Thread (1 Viewer)

[Ockeghem]

I really am liking Buchholz more and more these days. I watched him carefully last night and thought at times that he pitched brilliantly when he needed to do so. The last three starts he's had have been against the likes of Sabathia, Verlander, and Halladay. And the Sox, while Buchholz was pitching, were in all three of those games. I believe he gave up around 2, 2, and 1 run in those starts. I hope they stick with him and make him a permanent starter next year. I think I could live with Beckett, Buchholz, Lester, Penny, and Wakefield. That being said, I'd still like to see them pick up one more quality starter.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Nats signed Rizzo on as permanent GM. With the moves he's made in the last few months, particularly the aquisition of Nyger Morgan from the Pirates, it's looking good for the Nats future! I'll be at the game tonight with my NATINALS T-shirt again. We'll see how many people notice the missing "O" this time.

 

[LewB]

Paging Mr. Mike Frezon. Haven't seen you post here in what looks like about 3 weeks.
Hope your absence is due to winning the lottery and shopping for tropical islands.
Yanks-Sawx 3 gamer starts tonight, I'll be happy with 1 Yank win, anything more is a bonus. Only lose 1 game in the standings that way A Sawx sweep puts them back in it (IMHO).

 

[Mike Frezon]

And he played many games at all the other infield positions. He even pitched in two games!

Here's a fun trivia question which Jayson Stark threw out on ESPN radio a couple of weeks ago. I'll re-word it a litttle bit. Name the seven active major leaguers who have recorded nine 100 RBI seasons. (A lot of my guesses only had eight!) I'll give the answers below...but have some fun and try to scratch-up a list before you peek!

Manny Ramirez
Alex Rodriguez
Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Jim Thome
Carlos Delgado
Albert Pujols

 

[Ockeghem]

Agreed with Lew and Mike. The BoSox must sweep. Funny, when they won the first eight games against the Yankees this year, it looked like a sweep against them (either in New York or Boston) might be a forgone conclusion. But not any more.

Go Red Sox!

 

[EricW]

Hats off to Derek (Calm Eyes) Jeter for also being lights-out lately. Picking up the career hits record for a shortstop is quite a feat.

i remember at the beginning of the season when the media kept chanting the fact that no world series team ever had a short stop that started the season at age 35 (or something like that). talk about worthless statistics. correlation vs. causation.
anyways, with the score 12-1 in the 5th, it the doesn't look like a sweep is going to happen. not for the Sox anyways heh heh.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I'd still have faith in the Sox to be able to turn it around in this game...but I guess Francona has given up--putting in his entire bench and hanging Bowden out to dry.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Well, when I wrote the above post, I think the Yanks only had 12 runs. I had told my Yankee-fan son "don't get too comfortable, the Sox'll be back." And they ended up scoring 11 runs in the game. And look at how many other scoring opportunities they had in this game. I think they left the bases loaded twice.

I am really upset my the way Francona managed this game tonight. It seems like he gave up on it very early on...letting Bowden go way too long, playing the infield back with a runner on third & one out...putting his entire bench (including Varitek) into the game very early.

What would've happened if Varitek had gotten hurt? This is your #1 catcher who has been benched the last few games with neck spasms...and suddenly he's okay to go into a game you have deemed a blow-out?

By keeping it closer, we might've forced the Yanks to go to more of their quality bullpen guys to help with the rest of the series. And we might've forced things to break a little differently.

Just awful. Francona should know as well as the next guy that you don't give up on games at Fenway because of an early deficit...no matter how large.

I cannot begin to imagine what's going to happen to the kid who's got to start tomorrow against Burnett (on national TV)...and what the Sox' game plan is if he doesn't go deep into the game.

========================

Here's another Jayson Stark trivia question. One of the answers to this question really blew my mind.

Name the three active major leaguers who have notched 1700 strikeouts since 2000.

One is obvious. One makes sense (but his career began in 2000). And the third is someone I still cannot believe qualifies for this list.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Mike,
Victor Martinez got hurt tonight fouling off a pitch on his big toe.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford I bet he got an eyeful at a couple of those line drives that flew past him down the left field line though.

Anyway, I'm surprised to see managers completely empty off their benches with innings-to-go.

 

[Ockeghem]

"I cannot begin to imagine what's going to happen to the kid who's got to start tomorrow against Burnett (on national TV)...and what the Sox' game plan is if he doesn't go deep into the game."

Mike,

I believe Tazawa will do just fine. I predict the BoSox will score about fourteen runs, and that the kid will allow no more than one run to the Yankees. In fact, I guarantee it.

I was pulling for the Rays (a rare thing for me to do) tonight. And once the Rangers-Rays series is over, Texas travels to New York to play the Yankees. Interesting who BoSox fans might find themselves pulling for in that series, depending on where teams stand in a few more days.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

Mike,
Victor Martinez got hurt tonight fouling off a pitch on his big toe.

Actually, now that I think about it...I don't remember missing much of the game. But, I did listen to the WCBS broadcast (No YES network for me any more). Maybe Sterling and Waldman didn't mention it?

Nah. I was probably on a walkabout.

Sterling was way off his game Friday night. I never heard him screw up so many baserunners and scores before. Granted, there was a lot going on...but I'm not about to start making excuses for him.

 

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

Mike,
Victor Martinez got hurt tonight fouling off a pitch on his big toe.

That's how Danny Tartabull ended his career 3 games into the season
after he signed with the Phils, I was at that game.

 

[EricW]

a while back i was complaining about Michael Kay as a commentator of the Yankees... tonight i watched the Rangers/Yanks game from the Texas booth, and they were freakin TERRIBLE... i mean, i've been critical of Kay's views, but i've always thought he was a good talker, in his rhythm and cadence. these guys tonight were like what i would imagine minor league broadcasters to be. the colour guy was passable but the play by play guy was quite annoying. he was a homer for sure, but it was just too obvious. and worse, his voice was really whiny i could not watch an entire season of that guy. and they're not the only ones. there are so many sub-par broadcasters. or maybe the good ones are just harder to notice because they let you just watch the game. Joe Buck and Joe Morgan may occasionally say stupid things (most broadcasters do), but at least they have good voices and are easy to listen to.
i remember years ago, before every major league game was avaibable to tv to anybody, i used to listen to alot of local Blue Jays games on radio and they had a GREAT duo of Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth. i could listen to those guys every night (and often did).

 

[Mike Frezon]

Why, Eric! That's Baltimore Oriole great Ken Singleton who was doing play-by-play tonight...and the color guy was none other than Yankee great David Cone. Singleton suffers from Rick Sutcliffe syndrome in that he affects a dramatic nuance which skews the actual import of events happening on the field. Cone is just plain awful. They should give him the heave-ho. Nothing against him personally...but he shares no insights of value, has an awful voice/delivery for broadcast and adds nothing of value to the telecast--except for being (as you put it) a real "homer."

I could tell they were in trouble tonight when they started the broadcast and Singleton threw a softball question at Cone about the Yanks' performance on their recent road trip. Cone instead panicked and offered up something about Derek Jeter. Singleton then fed him the question about Jeter (now out-of-order from the production meeting!) and Cone stammered his way through an answer.

As I said a while back, Kay is a real homer, too...but is able to couch it in a way that it usually isn't in-your-face. As Robert pointed out during that past discussion, he holds it in enough so that some Yankee fans feel that he doesn't actually go far enough in support of the home team.

Singleton is better as the color analyst when he's in the booth with Kay...but the Yankees should be doing so much better for broadcasters. They really missed the boat by not bringing back Jim Kaat when he became available again.

 

[EricW]

no, no, no.... i meant i was watching the Texas broadcast. i don't know those guys' names, nor do i want to.

i actually don't have a problem with Singleton or Cone. they're watchable.

i think i put more emphasis on the voice and speech patterns of a broadcaster as opposed to what they're saying. if i disagree with their points, at least that i can tune out. but the actual sound of their voice, much harder to tune out.

one broadcaster for Blue Jays games is Pat Tabler, an ex-Jay who's claim to fame is having the highest life-time batting average with the bases loaded (i think it's around .500). anyways, his way of speaking is hilarious. every time he makes a point, he speaks really slowly and over-enunciates like he's speaking to an idiot or a someone who doesn't really understand english.

like i said, i like the way Kay talks. i was suprised to learn he was an ex-player, i though his roots were in broadcasting.

 

[Mike Frezon]

And now you've misunderstood me if I gave you the impression Kay was ever a ballplayer. Nope. Broadcasting background only. I was describing Singleton & Cone as ballplayers.

But don't misunderstand me that Cone is not very good at broadcasting baseball games. He could pitch 'em from the mound...just not from the booth. And that's where the original misunderstanding came in.

 

[EricW]

OUCH, i am an idiot. you didn't give me the impression that Kay is an ex-player - Kay always talks about his playing days (especially with Paul O'Neill) but i guess it's just a running joke between them that i took literally and i never bothered to look it up.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yeah. I really kind of like the silliness & general humor of Kay & O'Neill together in the booth--although sometimes they cross the line and get a little too goofy.

The thing I like about O'Neill is that he's honest in his remarks. He doesn't try to affect anything or try to hard to over-analyze every single thing that appears on the screen (think: Joe Morgan). O'Neill tells you how he (or other players he knew) approached the game, approached particular at-bats, etc. Nothing more, nothing less.

Kay went to Fordham for broadcasting. Lots of good sportscasters came out of Fordham...including Vin Scully. Which is weird because I doubt Fordham had a broadcasting degree when Scully attended...

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

got hurt tonight fouling off a pitch on his big toe

May I ask a dumb question? Does this mean he swung and hit the top of the pitched ball so that it went straight down and hit/broke his big toe?