I have to admit that I giggled like a school girl when I saw Olivo nail AJ on the head. I'm surprised that Olivo didn't just turn around at the mound and floor him right there because he was the true target in this situation.

Royals are playing really well right now. It's nice to see them playing with a lot of fire and taking it out on the White Sox and Red Sox.

Wow, that's bullshit.

Are you kidding me? Delay the game in the 5th, bring the players back on the field when it's still raining to finish the inning, let the Cardinals score a run, and then delay the game again before the Dodgers come up to bat?

I will be seriously pissed off if this game gets called after five innings.

I mean, god damn.

Two batters. That's all the play they got through before the delay resumed.

You have got to think an experienced umpire crew has got better judgment than to resume play when the rain is falling hard enough that the game is going to get delayed again after those two batters.

Hi, I'm Chris Waters, and I'm going to Disneyland! :)

There are a few certainties in baseball, and here are a few of them:

1. Vin Scully. (Nothing else to add)
2. Tim McCarver is an ass.
3. Tony Gwynn can hit (yes, even now)
4. Never count the Yankees out in June.
5. Pete Rose will make some sort of news at least once in any given calendar year


and...








...wait for it...







...wait for it...






6. The Angels will make a star out of your rookie soft tosser (usually the night before or after blowing out your ace).

It's to the point where whenever I see a pitcher making his first start against the Angels, I run to my fantasy leagues to pick that pitcher up.

Reminds me of one of my favorite baseball stories.
Also, Joba takes his first of presumably many trips to see Dr. James Andrews. Yankee to visit specialist - The Boston Globe

Pretty sure the Cobb story is apocryphal. There's a similar exchange that's supposed to have taken place between two individuals after he died.

Jeff karstens flirts with a perfect game today. Hopefully he can keep it up or at least not suck as bad as the rest of the staff has.

Bizarro inning in Arizona, as the Braves score 7 in the top of the sixth to take an 9-3 lead. Brian McCann singles & tries to take second when the throw comes through to the plate, Juan Cruz throws wildly to second & Orlando Hudson jams his hand into the runner's side while trying to make a diving catch. Hudson leaves the game in obvious pain holding his wrist (or thumb, hard to tell what they were trying to keep from moving).

Next pitch McCann steals third & thanks to a wild throw Mark Reynolds is put in harm's way but stays in after getting his ankle banged up by the sliding McCann (who scored on the play).

That had to be a nightmare to watch for D-Backs fans.

edit to add: Braves telecast says that the D-Backs are saying that Hudson has either a dislocated wrist or a broken wrist.

So I heard the DBacks were close to signing Bonds, but then some season ticket holders decided to band together in an idiotic moral front to keep the front office from inking the deal.

If I was a Dbacks fan, I would be LIVID with those season ticket holders. Do these people really believe none of their players have done steroids? Are they that foolish? You're 1/2 game up on LA for a division title, and you're trying to stop your team from signing the best hitter of the past 40 years to a contract? I know he's 44. I know he's useless in the field. He's willing to play for NOTHING...literally! His agent has said he's willing to sign for the minimum, and donate his ENTIRE salary. Have him pinch hit for chrissakes. He could be the difference between a World Series and not making the playoffs at all. Just insane levels of hypocrisy and poor judgement by those season ticket holders.

I wouldn't want the Angels to sign Bonds. That said, I love your question about believeing no D'Backs players did steroids. Jason Grimsley anyone? :)

Ok, CR..and I'm sorry for being an ass in the other thread..I really do like you and think you're a very intelligent person....but..if it came down to it..would you rather have the Angels sign Bonds, or have Bonds sign with, say, Bonds?

This is a question to make my head explode, right?

As for the other thread, naw, you're fine. I don't mind the assassin comments because, really, you're on the money with your critique. I did pick and choose my target. Not with any planning, of course--JPhillips said something I thought wasn't fair or right and I responded, and I admit he is one that gets my goat, and with whom I will not just ignore. It's not fair to JPhillips because others deserve (in fact probably deserve far more) that treatment than JPhillips does, who is also very intelligent and well-spoken. If I wanted to, I could find the same sort of argumentation flaws or questionable stances with any number of posters, so why pick on JPhillips? That's because of the history.

If I could serve as a post police force with respect to debates, I suppose I could go around dinging everyone, but I don't have time for that of course. So I have to pick my spots, and those tend to happen with more emotional issues with me--and that includes posters that elicit a stronger response from me, like JPhillips.

So, you're on the dot there. No worries.

dont blame the fans, blame the front office.

Once you start making personel descions based on public scrutiny that is your first step out the door.

Braves down 6-1, but have the bases loaded and one out. Francoeur grounds into a double play. Predictable.

Send him to the minors for 3 days again! ;)

On the threat of jinxing him, I just have to say WOW about Cliff Lee! Who could have predicted this? 16-2 and a 2.45 ERA for a team that is 52-64, and especially with Lee's recent history. This is just absolutely amazing.

Triple Dola,

Congrats to the Tampa Rays for their franchise record 71st win:

ESPN - Rays vs. Mariners - Recap - August 10, 2008

And Rocco Baldelli came back, in a great story, and even got an RBI!

Just to toot my own horn I drafted Hamilton in the 14th round and picked up Lee on waivers in my fantasy money league.

I picked up both Milton Bradley and Cliff Lee on waivers ;).

It's tough to be a Red Sox fan and also route for the D-rays, but I'm doing it (especially for Baldelli).

It is awesome that he made it back! The first AB was special. I only hope that we didn't lose Crawford for the season.

Agreed. Earlier today, I was looking around at some of the top pitchers in the AL to handicap the Cy Young race and see how much of a chance Saunders or Santana would have. Yup, race is already over, short of a catastrophic collapse from Lee in the final weeks.

All the good ones are. Doesn't make them any less fun to hear imo. My favorite recent one involving Lefty Grove.

Adam Dunn to the D-Backs

I hate the Reds so damn much. We get a an A ball pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery and two PTBNL? If they weren't going to sign him why not take the two picks he'd bring as compensation? Now we have Jay Bruce, a bunch of outs, and Dusty sacrificing every time someone gets on base. But at least we signed Bill Bavasi so I have that shit to look forward to when Jocketty retires.

Well, you don't know how the PTNBL's are, so its very hard to assess. Look, Dunn's a great talent, with the old fart radio guy in Cin (Brenneman) badmouthing him at every go and a bunch of self-proclaimed baseball guys who think "gamer" is more important than being a good player, I'm not surprised. Plus, Dusty can get his Corey Patterson fetish back in the game. My only doubt for the Reds is whether the return is greater than the 2 draft picks, but they may not have wanted to pay for those.

I just know that as it currently stands we've traded our outfield from last year, Griffey, Hamilton and Dunn for Volquez and shit. Great fucking work. Now I'll get to see more of Patterson's sub 200 BA and 40 OPS+ getting four ABs a game.

I'm not sure I've ever been more discouraged as a Reds fan. Not only do we have a serious talent deficit, but out management consists of Dusty Baker, Walt Jocketty and Bill Bavasi, only two of whom shouldn't even be allowed to work for the Cape Cod League. At least we have an owner willing to spend 3 mil on Patterson and 5 mil on Mike fucking Stanton, that's surely a plus.

You forgot $12 million on Francisco Cordero. :D Because clearly, that's a better usage of funds than on Dunn.

Dola,
our idiot GM spent a $126M on Barry FUCKING Zito. So we win the bitterness sweepstakes.

I'm with you, JP.

Well, the bases can't be clogged if no one ever reaches. Sounds like Dusty has finally accomplished his goal.

And one other thing. The fucking morons on Cincy sportstalk are trying to tell me that this trade might net us a Larry Bagwell or John Smoltz. Why the hell stop there? This trade might net us Babe Fucking Ruth and Bob Gibson and the next goddamn Pope.

It's great that they're thrilled we just got rid of a .380 OBP and 40 hrs a year player. The D-Backs will really be pissed to get the MLB HR leader. Especially since I've read that Cincy is going to pay half his salary!

Yeah, the hatred for Adam Dunn is absurd, but primarily the reflection of people who don't understand that scoring runs is good, "hustle" or not.

Well apparently Manny Ramirez isn't torpedoing LA and is actually helping the Dodgers, :eek: so they had to do something to keep up.

Reds fans can hope Jarrod Parker is one of the PTBNL's - he wasn't signed until August 15th last year iirc.

At least your front office had the sense to pick Lincecum rather than Drew Stubbs. :banghead:

Arizona has already said it isn't Parker.

Cheap management didn't want to pay for draft picks, that's a few million of revenue sharing they can pocket.

That's not it, though. Castellini is spending a ton of money compared to previous ownership and he's dropped several million on Latin prospects this year.

A Cincy Enquirer blog says that the PTBNL are agreed upon, but need to clear waivers. From Red Reporter:


Not much of a list.

Haha, shoulda taken the picks. In all seriousness, that means the lists for PTBNL's are probably dependent on if he's resigned by AZ, but I don't even see many good prospects left. Gerardo Parra is supposed to be a good hitter and Scherzer's there, but maybe it'll be one of the guys at the ML level if Dunn is resigned. Probably not.[/clogging the bases joke]

EDIT - NVM, wait 2 min and JPhillips posts the lists and proves me wrong.

Hmm, Arizona gives up nobodies, gets half Dunn's salary paid for the rest of the year and gets the first round picks when he leaves next offseason. Tough not to like this deal.

One guy on Phoenix radio says none of Arizona's top 10 prospects will be included in the deal. So, it's not Parra, Scherzer, Parker or any of their recent high picks.

Arles: I've never wanted you dead more than tonight!

The Reds dumping Dunn because of his average and strikeouts is like one of us dumping Cindy Crawford (circa 1992) because of her mole.

I'm still amazed Dusty hasn't signed his lovechild Neifi Perez.

Oh, give him time.

And now Longoria is on the DL and out at least 2 weeks with a broken hand.

I don't want any other teams to complain about injuries.

Dusty is such a dumbass.

I remember listening to a game earlier this summer where he actually had the nerve to send Joey Votto up there to bunt. Votto had at least an .850 ops at that point in time. May have been the game Junior hit a walkoff.

The awesome thing is that the Reds are in pittsburgh the next 3 days and I'll get to listen to all of the games. It should be an amazing battle of the brains between Dusty and John Russel.

Today's line so far for Scott Feldman, the starter for the Texas Rangers

1 IP, 7 H, 10 R (4 Earned) 2 BB, 2K, 2HR's allowed (both of them to Big Papi in two seperate three run homers).

Poor guy. Could someone please pick up his ego, from where it hit the ground and shatterred into millions of pieces?

YouTube - Wrigley Field Evacuated - Tornado Sirens at Cubs game!

Video from the Tornado Warning at Wrigley a week or so ago (where a Tornado had actually been sighted)

They had as many lightning strikes in four hours as they normally do in SIX MONTHS.

and he mat get a no descion...

Supposedly Micah Owings is a part of the Dunn deal. Anyone know if he's as uninspiring as he appears on paper?

When I saw his name on the list, I wondered if he was one of the players to be named because it just didn't make sense to trade a player like Dunn for next to nothing.

He had a good year last year, I remember. And he hits well, but that's a bit of limited usefulness in a pitcher.

SI

14-10 in the fifth inning. In sane. Sox lead 12-2, Texas scores 8 in the fifth, and the Sox have scored two in the bottom of the fifth so far.

And now it's tied- fun game to watch on gameday (watching the Olympics on tv)

SI

15-14 rangers

19-17 final, tying the AL record for combined runs in a game. Youk 2 HR's, Papi 2 HR's (and a borderline 3rd they ruled fan interference). Both Marlon Byrd and Pedroia go 5-6. Pedroia's 5th 4-hit game of the season.

The Sox have some issues in the starting rotation...and bullpen.

i dunno - i think their starting rotation has been fine up until wakefield went down.


beckett's W-L doesn't reflect the fact that he's had a strong season (not as dominant as last year, but still strong), Dice-K is virtually unhittable (just doesn't always or often go deep into games), Lester has been phenomenal. Wakefield was pitching very Wakefield-ish before he went down, which is to say "solid #4". Bucholz has been a disaster though(a lot of people saying the blame for that goes on the FO and the organization for altering his delivery and totally fucking him up psychologically). But really he's your #5 guy.

The issue right now is that with your #4 down, and essentially a AAA-guy at #5, you are now forced to throw up 2 AAA-guys everytime through the rotation (since Colon isn't back yet). That's where hopefully the acquisition of Byrd may help out.

On a side-note, I don't understand why anyone would want to change the delivery of a pitcher. It's like fucking with the throwing-motion of a QB. These guys are elite athletes who have been doing things in that particular way since they were young kids - why organizations continue to think that they know better and can change things for the better baffles the fuck out of me.

Lots of reasons, just because it worked growing up doesn't mean it's the "best" answer. I'd also assume in a lot of cases it's either a flaw in the mechanic itself or it's done for a health related reason. Obviously it's not always the best or right answer and there'll be times where it's guys making a decision and just flat our getting it wrong. But it's pretty early to say that Bucholz won't reach his potential and if you want to go to the extreme the other way, the whole process worked out pretty well for Halladay who pretty much reset his entire career when they changed his delivery.

fair nuff travis

Heh, don't get me wrong, it's obviously the wrong answer in a lot of cases (especially if they're doing it to fit a mold vs finding a true concern in their current mechanics) as well, but in the end that's why it's important to have a good coaching staff at the major league level and in the minors. Sad to think how many careers have been wrecked because of things like that while obviously others have been greatly enhanced/prolonged due to similar decisions.

I think the bigger problem with Buchholz is they're trying to force him into their idea of an ace where he throws first-pitch fastballs for strikes and uses that to set up his off-speed stuff. It's pretty obvious his change and curveball are his two best pitches and I don't know why they're so opposed to having him lead off hitters with those. The other problem is he isn't a AAA pitcher - he dominates AAA every time he goes down, even when his fastball isn't working because they can't hit his off-speed stuff there and he really won't gain much from going down, but at the same time obviously a pennant race is not when you want him working out the issues at an MLB level. On the plus side, it seemed like Lester had problems just as big for a year+ until about May this year, but he had a knack for getting out of bases-loaded jams and getting strikeouts after getting himself in trouble while Buccholz seems to be very unlucky, both with cheap hits falling in or HR/FB ratio.

The bullpen is partly poor talent or inconsistency and partly poor managing by Francona. He insists on bringing in Delcarmen+Okajima with guys on base when they allow like 80% of inherited runners to score, and last night for example I don't understand why Masterson wasn't in the game 5th/6th inning - he can go 2-3 innings and he's an extreme GB pitcher, yet you're bringing in MDC (who is terrible with guys on) with 2 guys on instead of the guy who might get a DP and who can go more than an inning bridging the gap?

For fans of the draft, the August 15 deadline is days away, and all the overslot signings should be packed in. Rumor has the RS giving 1m+ to 4th/5th round picks Hissey and Westmoreland. Outside shot at signing Alex Meyer or Navery Moore, two 1st-round level pitchers who both are leaning heavily towards college. And, FWIW, PG just started touting Bryce Walker - a freshman in HS not eligible until 2012 - saying he could go #1 overall as a pitcher, catcher or SS and would have been a top 10 pick this year if eligible. It's starting to get like basketball where they rank 11y/o's.

Hey, if Micah Owings doesn't work out, we can always turn him into our next corner OF, Rick Ankiel style!

I heard the third and final piece to the puzzle is a catcher (Castillo maybe?), who is good defensively and has the potential to have a little pop in his bat, but will eventually never pan out to be better than replacement level.

Sweet, sounds like Jason LaRue all over again.

I'm not denying he needs fastball command, my problem is that based off quotes and pitch selection they seem to be forcing him into the Beckett/Schilling/Lester mode where the pitcher leads off with fastballs and only throws the off-speed stuff later in they count when there are plenty of pitchers who have been successful using primarily off-speed stuff early in the count and using the fastball to keep the hitters off balance. It's an academic debate at this point, as he can't locate his fastball for shit in any count and hitters can sit on the other pitches.

The Richie Sexson experiment didn't last long in NY and somewhat surprisingly Melky is going down too. Remember when the Yankees thought Melky+Ian Kennedy was too much for Santana?And for more evidence why Dusty Baker is terrible

Melky would be one of the Reds biggest offensive threats.

And yes, using Harang as he did was incredibly stupid, but that game was a tornado of stupid. I really liked when he subbed out Dunn after he'd gone 2-4 with a HR and a walk. At least he had the sense to let Corey Patterson go 0 for 8. (It was almost enough to make me cry when I realized that even after his 0 for 8, Patterson had a higher average than he has now.)

The pirates finally got a deal done with bore sss and their number one pick. 6 million on a mInor league deal. Far off of the 10m deal that was rumored. This process is friggin stupid tho as I'm sure the pirates would have been happy with that deal on june 2. Instead boras wastes 2 months development time.

Dodgers reportedly will get Maddux in trade with Padres

ESPN.com news services

Updated: August 18, 2008, 10:09 PM ET

The Dodgers addressed their offense for the stretch run by acquiring Manny Ramirez. Now it looks like they've done something about the pitching staff.

On The Move Again?

For the second time in three seasons, it looks like Greg Maddux isn't going to end the season where he started it. That would make Maddux the only pitcher to be traded twice in midseason after reaching 300-plus wins.

Traded With 300-Plus Wins 2006 2008
Traded By Cubs Padres
Traded To Dodgers Dodgers
Wins At Time 327 353
W-L with L.A. 6-3* ??
*Made postseason



The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday night that the team had agreed to the terms of a deal with the Padres for veteran right-hander Greg Maddux. Citing an anonymous person close to the deal, the newspaper did not know who San Diego would receive in return.

According to ESPN.com's Jayson Stark, no deal has been reached, but conversations are ongoing. Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch and general manager Ned Colletti would not confirm the deal to the Times either.

Maddux has a 3.99 ERA this season but is only 6-9 for a Padres team that has languished in last place in the weak NL West. The Dodgers moved into a first-place tie with the Diamondbacks in the division on Sunday.

Los Angeles had a need for another starter, however, after putting right-hander Brad Penny on the disabled list last week.

This would be Maddux's second stint with the Dodgers. The Cubs traded him to Los Angeles at the trade deadline in 2006 and he went 6-3 in the regular season for the Dodgers. Los Angeles lost to the Mets in the divisional series.

The Dodgers completed a trade for Ramirez with the Red Sox on Aug. 1, and he has batted .421 with six homers and 21 RBIs for Los Angeles.

So Maddux passed through waivers?! Or do I just not understand how things work?

Well:

a) Maddux has a no-trade clause, which he would only waive for a contending team on the West Coast. Thus,
b) any team who would place a claim, other than the Dodgers, would be doing so solely to block a move, and
c) Until yesterday, three teams in the NL East, three in the Central, and the Diamondbacks were all lower on the waiver priority list than the Dodgers were, and thus could not have blocked the Dodgers' waiver claim.

Depending on when the waiver claim was executed, none of the potential playoff teams in the NL could have blocked the Dodgers, as the weakness of the NL West worked in their favor in terms of being both competitive for the division AND trailing the rest of the contenders, record-wise.

Perfect storm.

makes sense. i didn't consider how piss-poor those nl west playoff contender's records are. at first i thought a team like the phillies or yankees should have blocked, but even they have better records than the dodgers.

so of course the diamondbacks or dodgers will win the ws this year.

Am I reading the stats right? C.C. Sabathia has taken over the NL lead for complete games already?:eek:

I am not a Braves fan but my goodness, this streak has been absolutely BRUTAL!

re: the Braves

Here's the lead from the game story in today's edition of the AJC

St. Louis — A thesaurus is as useful as a media guide for covering the Braves these days. One needs a variety of words to describe the repeated debacles.

Rays finally lose last night, on a shambolic play by the most hated man in baseball, AJ Pierzynski. Lunges with an elbow at a fielder during a run-down, gets called interference by the umps. Even worse, the commentators congratulate AJ on a good baserunning play. Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | MLB.com: Multimedia

Let me guess, Hawk Harrelson? Worst announcer in baseball.

pussy move

Tampa Bay is gonna move. No way that experiment is gonna last another decade. Especially if they can find a way to string together a few more winning seasons. It'll be like I've mapped in all of my dynasties. Especially after the Marlins get their new ballpark.

They drew 12,678 yesterday (30.7% of capacity). Maybe they should move before the season's over.

Hold that thought.

Yeah. You must have missed my tirade on the matter.

I figure if I'm not the person being pinged in the thread title, I shouldn't be reading the thread.

Ah, of course. Because steve figured Scott Boras would happen along and decided to start a thread for him to read. Good thinking, steve.

I assume that at this point all us Cubs fans are just terrified to post anything in this thread, or anywhere else, for fear that things might start to go wrong? :D

shut UP!

:shrug: I stop reading at the word "ping". I also tend to ignore the "Alright boyz" posts because anyone who would use the word "boyz" in a thread title is likely an imbecile whose opinions are merely the ravings of a slack-jawed rube. Internet memes don't HAVE to be followed.

More Dusty Baker goodness I saw on RedReporter.

2008 Reds

Caught stealing + Picked off = 59
Stolen bases = 74

Worst. Manager. Ever.

Message board snob.

Does The New Yorker have a message board? You should post over there.

Carlos Beltran cranks a bomb of a grand slam, down a run in the top of the 9th. All runners reached with 2 outs.

monster hit with the phillies going down today?

Hell the Expos did better than that when they were winning. Geez. That said, you couldn't pick a better situation to get a team moved. Awful stadium, team on the rise in a market that could care less and would rather root for the Yankees and Red Sox.

Maybe make them play home games there once series a year for the next decade or something and let Portland or Northern Jersey get a team and be done with it.

I checked; if they've got one it doesn't appear to be linked from their index page. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Luckily for y'all, I don't post much over here either.

Back on topic, I see that Eric Hosmer has been pulled out of his Pioneer League game at the commissioner's request. It's looking more and more as though MLB and the MLBPA are going to play hardball with one another over this, which has got to suck for KC fans. If Hosmer's deal is nullified, either he's going to go back into next year's draft or someone's going to outbid KC for his services. I wish Scott Boras DID post here so that JiMG could hope for him to get hit by a bus.

Except they're building a new ballpark, and it looks amazing and/or ridiculous. I don't know if the demographics of the area (City of the Living Dead and people having prior allegiances) work for having an MLB team, but they will have one of the best locations for a stadium if the deal holds up.


In other news, I don't understand how the Rays keep winning. I understand they're a very good team, but it just seems like they're coming from behind in the 8th or 9th to win every other night. And great news for Sox fans, as Beckett's elbow checked out and he doesn't need surgery (side note - what is it about Dr. James Andrews? Is he really that much better than any shoulder/arm surgeon in the US or what?) And Michael Bowden, yet another top prospect for the Sox gets the start tonight due to the injury situations. Kind of surprising, as he's only 21 and it was thought he wouldn't be ready until next year, but with the revolving door at SP he's gotta be better than Charlie Zink. His stuff isn't as good as Buchholz's, but he does have better command and he can pitch from the stretch.

EDIT - Oh wow, all 5'7 160 of Dustin Pedroia is now our cleanup hitter. What was that about injuries Mike1409?

Please tell me that monstrosity over the field is retractable.

Of course not. It's the rocket engine.

The Marlins' Cody Ross is pissed and empties the benches because he got hit by a 2-2 fastball in the 2nd inning. Fucking loser.

edit: Hahahahaha and then Pelfrey picks him off.

I guess it worked! :)

We had Ben Zobrist hitting cleanup one game a week or so ago.

The stadium deal has been pulled. It was a beautiful design with a retractable sail. A lot of the older residents don't want a new stadium 8 blocks from a supposedly good stadium, even though it was 10 years old before a baseball team played there.

If a new stadium gets built in St. Pete it will more than likely be built in the northern part for a little easier access from Tampa but without the waterfront view.

Actually, I kindof like the design if it works.

SI

lol at the delusional unnamed yankee quoted in Paul Heyman's 8/29 article about why the yankees are done.



I think that's so ludicrous that I don't even need to bother to lay out a bunch of stats to disprove it. It's laugh-out-loud funny.