OT: Major League Baseball 2006 Season Discussion

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:37 pm

Big early-season series between the Twins and White Sox tonight. Worried that my squad is going to be playing without the top two hitters in the lineup, Shannon Stewart (with his wife, who had their kid) and Luis Castillo (who came up lame last game).

Great pitching match-up tonight, too--Santana vs. Beuhrle.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:12 pm

Dave wrote:Big early-season series between the Twins and White Sox tonight. Worried that my squad is going to be playing without the top two hitters in the lineup, Shannon Stewart (with his wife, who had their kid) and Luis Castillo (who came up lame last game).

Great pitching match-up tonight, too--Santana vs. Beuhrle.

Ya...should be fun...
If Im not mistaken ..Santana has had alot of success vs the Sox.

Combined with the NHL playoffs I should have a great sports weekend.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:58 pm

The good news for the Sox is that Santana usually doesn't get into a groove until June. His April and May stats are more comparable to a #4 or #5 starter than a Cy Young contender.

Programmed2Kill · Post by **Programmed2Kill** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:45 pm

I swear, the Phils have the worst manager in baseball.

Charlie Manual is a complete chucklehead. I have to believe now that he is seriously trying to sabotage Ryan Howard. He has maybe his premier slugger batting 6th and now 7th in the lineup.

WHAT?!?!?!

It's not like Howard has been playing bad, either. A .315 overall average, .408 OBP. And for a guy still trying to figure out lefties, a .250 average ain't that bad.

Plus, the last two wins the Phils had, Howard won them both.

Maybe Manuel is punishing Howard for doing good things. He has friggin' David Bell batting in front of Howard tonight, for crying out loud!

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:23 pm

Programmed2Kill wrote:Maybe Manuel is punishing Howard for doing good things. He has friggin' David Bell batting in front of Howard tonight, for crying out loud!

Probably better than behind him. Sucks for Howard, he'll see nothing but junk that far down in the lineup.

It is better than the Twins, who sent down their most promising young (non-Mauer) hitter after he struggled in his first 16 ABs this season.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:41 pm

The darn "Yankees" franchise became the 1st baseball team to be valued at $1 Billion big ones according to Forbes magazine. They had a revenue of $354 million last season, no wonder they can afford the big names.

Just to think that Steinbreinner bought the team back in 73 I believe for just $100 million. Talk about sound investment.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:10 pm

Sweet way to start the series for the White Sox....I like this team...I like it as a team...I like it in every way and in every department...They are old school asss kickers...

Bend over MLB...theses dudes werent playing last year...

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:18 pm

Troy Glaus is a monster. What an entertaining game between the Bosox and Jays. Down 6-2 in the 8th inning, I was about to concentrate full time on the NHL playoffs when all of the sudden TOR scored back to back to back homers. Then the tie it 6-6 only to win it in the 12th inning.

Ramirez and Ortiz are still hitting tons for the Soxs.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:46 pm

Pujols smacks number 11. 2 for 2 with 4 rbis. He is locked in big time. Ties Helton for the second fastest player to reach 1000 hits. Only Ichiro did it faster with 26 fewer at bats.

I really hope Cards fans appreciate this special player. He just might go down as the all time greatest Cardinal.

By the way, Cards beat the Cubbies. Without Lee in the lineup, this team is much less threatening.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:40 am

sportdan30 wrote:I really hope Cards fans appreciate this special player. He just might go down as the all time greatest Cardinal.

He's on his way to going down as one of the all-time best players, period...not just the Cards.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:30 am

dbdynsty25 wrote: He's on his way to going down as one of the all-time best players, period...not just the Cards.

Absolutely. Only player in MLB history to start their career with 5 years of 30+hrs, and the last since Ted Williams to have 100+ RBI their first 5 years.... Plenty of power, and then he's never hit under .300 either. Complete package, scary good (and not arrogant at all, which is always nice for a change).

Check out how his first 5 year stacks up against DiMaggio and other HOF'ers, it's going to be fun to watch him... I just hope he continues to remain healthy:

LINK

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:51 am

Congrats to the KC Royals!! First inning singles by Mike Sweeney and Mark Grudzielanek gave them...

...their first back-to-back hits this season!!

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:25 pm

Sooooo happy the Cards didn't sign A.J. "Injury prone" Burnett to that ridiculous contract. I was against that from the very beginning. He's all your Toronto!

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:30 pm

jondiehl wrote:
dbdynsty25 wrote: He's on his way to going down as one of the all-time best players, period...not just the Cards.
Absolutely. Only player in MLB history to start their career with 5 years of 30+hrs, and the last since Ted Williams to have 100+ RBI their first 5 years.... Plenty of power, and then he's never hit under .300 either. Complete package, scary good (and not arrogant at all, which is always nice for a change).

Check out how his first 5 year stacks up against DiMaggio and other HOF'ers, it's going to be fun to watch him... I just hope he continues to remain healthy:

LINK

I wouldn't say he's necessarily not arrogant. A few games this year he's flipped the bat and watched his homerun ball as he takes his sweet time running to first. No reason to do it when you're down by 5 or 6 runs to the Pirates. I've never really noticed it until this year.

I guess I much prefer the way Rolen goes about his approach after he hits one. Then again, Pujols has a reason to be cocky. Just hope it doesn't become common place for him every time.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:58 am

sportdan30 wrote: I wouldn't say he's necessarily not arrogant. A few games this year he's flipped the bat and watched his homerun ball as he takes his sweet time running to first. No reason to do it when you're down by 5 or 6 runs to the Pirates. I've never really noticed it until this year.

I guess I much prefer the way Rolen goes about his approach after he hits one. Then again, Pujols has a reason to be cocky. Just hope it doesn't become common place for him every time.

Yeah, the fans/media are getting on Phat Albert for that bat flip against the Pirates. That's not his normal m.o. though. I do like Rolen a bit better though, he's totally blue collar/workman like. The guy has the same composure if he gets K's looking or hits a grand slam and just puts his head down and runs the bases.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:00 am

I dont think the White Sox will ever lose again

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:00 am

The Twins are painful to watch when struggling. From the time they made their moves, I've been critical of the off-season plans to improve the offense. They are overly confident in the pitching staff (who has stunk so far) and thought moving up to next-to-worst or slightly better would turn them into a playoff team.

Can't go 0-5 to start the year against two top divisional rivals and expect to be competitive.

Tony Batista and Ruben Sierra have batted cleanup for them over the past five days. Ugh.

Hats off to the Sox for pulling off the Thome trade. Looking like quite the coup so far.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:51 pm

And the Twins continue to roll over.

Sox fans -

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:15 pm

Dave wrote:And the Twins continue to roll over.

Sox fans -

Hey, until last year it was the exact opposite.

The Sox are looking even better this year so far. After a 1-4 start they will have gone 12-1 since with a win today.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:19 pm

Yep, when the division was bad (outside of the underacheiving Southsiders), the Twins rolled.

The division got competitive, they lost last year and reacted by signing a bunch of retreads (Rondell White) and over-the-hill guys (Batista, Sierra) while the other teams made real moves. OK, the Royals didn't, but they don't count!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:34 pm

BOS takes 1 out of 3 from the Jays. Has anyone ever seen D. Ortiz place a bunt? The big guy did a perfect one today.

Programmed2Kill · Post by **Programmed2Kill** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:55 pm

Ryan Howard smacked two unbelievably long homers today in a Phils win today over the Marlins.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:40 pm

Cardinals will trade Isringhausen for a bag of used baseballs and a half eaten pretzel. He's awful.

Gives up a homerun to tie the game today against the Pirates with 2 outs in the 9th.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:46 pm

sportdan30 wrote:Cardinals will trade Isringhausen for a bag of used baseballs and a half eaten pretzel. He's awful.

Gives up a homerun to tie the game today against the Pirates with 2 outs in the 9th.

Yes, but Albert comes through again with a clutch game winning RBI in the 9th. Wow is he good.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:51 pm

jondiehl wrote:
sportdan30 wrote:Cardinals will trade Isringhausen for a bag of used baseballs and a half eaten pretzel. He's awful.

Gives up a homerun to tie the game today against the Pirates with 2 outs in the 9th.
Yes, but Albert comes through ago with a clutch game winning RBI in the 9th. Wow is he good.

Was just about to edit my post.