2009 MLB Regular Season Thread

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

A lot of talk about the Yankees and Red Sox on here....Feels like I turned on ESPN.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Logan

What a fuckin joke. I don't know what you hear down in Pennsylvania via Idaho via Michigan, but the pressure put on these guys by the media and fans is non-existent. A team like the Yankees is the perfect place for one of these kids to come up. A guy like Hughes gets to come up last year and be the 5th starter on a rotation anchored by guys making a combined $100 million. A hitter gets to come in, bat 7th or 8th, and get protected by the likes of Matsui, Posada, Swisher, Nady, etc and is on a team where the fans die for an excuse to boo the best hitter of the generation.

How is that anywhere near the pressure faced by a kid who comes up during a team's continued shitty run and is expected to be the savior of the franchise? Think Evan Longoria had it easy just because it was Tampa? Kazmir? Think it was easy for Alex Gordon to come up? You really think the pressure Austin Jackson will face next year even remotely approaches what Strasburg will be going through in Washington?

Don't worry, the moment Alex Gordon was drafted, he wasn't immediately anointed the savior of the franchise and compared to George Brett. Oh wait, he did and was.

But, as Karlifornia pointed out, it wasn't plastered all over ESPN

SI

[Logan]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

yes I do

Guess you win.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

You all do realize you don't have to watch ESPN, right? I mean, I don't think I signed a contract or anything.

[lungs]

A little birdie tells me the Brewers are close to acquiring a starting pitcher.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by lungs

A little birdie tells me the Brewers are close to acquiring a starting pitcher.

I haven't seen anything on mlbtraderumors- any hints?

SI

[Logan]

Was Wang finally put on waivers?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I haven't seen anything on mlbtraderumors- any hints?

SI

It's from some folks at brewerfan.net that have "connections." A lot more reliable than your usual web banter.

They are hesitant to name names at this point but another person in the know said Erik Bedard and Cliff Lee have definitely been discussed recently.

Not surprising considering the draft just finished and teams know where their minor league depth with stand.

It may not happen today, but very soon we'll probably be hearing peeps from the actual media.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

Yes, Royals time!

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

You all do realize you don't have to watch ESPN, right? I mean, I don't think I signed a contract or anything.

I, for one, don't even receive ESPN.

[Jas_lov]

Originally Posted by Logan

Was Wang finally put on waivers?

No. Reports are Wang is still in the rotation and he will start Wednesday vs. the Nationals.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by Logan

Was Wang finally put on waivers?

[lungs]

Hmm... JJ Hardy wasn't used today in a key situation off the bench....

Suspicious.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

I, for one, don't even receive ESPN.

Another shameless plug for MLB Network on my part. I don't even bother with ESPN for baseball any more

(tho I'm sure that's not what you're getting at)

SI

[DaddyTorgo]

LOL

I believe that's twice in two games that Swisher has made bonehead baserunning blunders and gotten doubled-off to kill a Yankee threat (it was him last night right?)

[DaddyTorgo]

BIGGGGGGGGGGGG PAPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiii

- that's 3 HR's in the last 5 games for him. maybe he's still got a lil left in the tank.

[sterlingice]

Ok, times are tough for ticket sales but I just received an email from the Astros: Buy any of the third deck tickets for an adult and get 2 free for kids.

That's cool to build a younger base but I'm sure they're hurting a lot of ticket sales tho only because they aren't selling any- that sort of thing.

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like the old Zack is back tonight. 1 run and 5 hits through 7 innings. Chance to win a series, which has obviously not happened for KC of late.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by lungs

Hmm... JJ Hardy wasn't used today in a key situation off the bench....

Suspicious.

We'll trade you Brad Penny+ a prospect for JJ Hardy...

Originally Posted by someone

The Red Sox and Yankees always seem to overvalue their propects.

That is true of NY the past couple years and was true of the RS in the 1990's, it hasn't been true. This Santana discussion reminds me, if only we had a big long discussion about it at the time and could see how people felt these prospects ranked. Oh wait, sox soon to sign Santana? - Front Office Football Central

Allegedly, Lester/Lowrie/Masterson/Crisp/Kalish was on the table from the Red Sox and the Yankees were offering Hughes or Kennedy, but not both, the Mets eventually got him with Carlos Gomez+3 worse pitching prospects and people (other than Atocep) were arguing the Red Sox proposal was light. Add that to the Beckett trade, the Gagne trade, and all the prospects that have come up and played roles on the Red Sox and if anything RS prospects have been undervalued the past few years.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

LOL.....two errors by the Royals after Greinke exits and we have a tied game. Unbelievable.

[DaddyTorgo]

except for Manny Delcarmen - he fucking sucks. as someone else just put it - he's anti-clutch.

what a fucking meatball he just threw to a-roid

[RedKingGold]

RRRRRAAAAAAUUUUUUULLLLLLL!!!!!!

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

LOL.....two errors by the Royals after Greinke exits and we have a tied game. Unbelievable.

And he gets charged the earned runs because you can't assume the double play even tho competent defense would have turned it.

SI

[RedKingGold]

Who are the other current candidates for NL MVP (if the season ended today)?

Ibanez has to be up there.

[Ksyrup]

Going back to my comments earlier this week about the Tigers offense and Ervin Santana...Santana got hit pretty good by a good TB offense. He'll probably come around sooner or later, but the Tigers have some serious problems. They made Contreras look good on Monday, too. Heard they were in on Spillbourghs. Probably a good idea. In fact, if they can swing a deal for him and Huson Street, that would be ideal.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Going back to my comments earlier this week about the Tigers offense and Ervin Santana...Santana got hit pretty good by a good TB offense. He'll probably come around sooner or later, but the Tigers have some serious problems. They made Contreras look good on Monday, too. Heard they were in on Spillbourghs. Probably a good idea. In fact, if they can swing a deal for him and Huson Street, that would be ideal.

Yeah, but the Rays are the #1 offense in the AL, aren't they? They also beat up on Lackey yesterday.

[DaddyTorgo]

yay!!! go sox!!

[MrDNA]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

RRRRRAAAAAAUUUUUUULLLLLLL!!!!!!

To translate for the non-Phillies fans, Ibanez hits a three run dinger in the 10th to win the series for the Fightin' Phils. I can't believe how good this guy has been.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Ibanez really juiced that ball out of the park.

[EagleFan]

Sweet, 7-3 road trip.

Who would have guessed at the beginning of the season that 2 of the 3 starters in the Red Sox series would be Happ and Bastardo (and that they would be a combined 6-0 and with an ERA under 3).

[dawgfan]

Just wanted to make note, since it might be getting overlooked, that Russell Branyan has had a hell of a season so far, boasting a .317/.413/.614 line so far. Chances are those numbers will decrease a bit as it seems likely his BABIP rate of .385 will regress over the course of the season, but his power and patience should stick.

Part of his breakout is the fact that he's hit very well against lefties this year after looking terrible against them in the past. Whether that can continue or is just small sample size luck, who knows.

But combine his great hitting with defensive metrics showing him to be an average to above average first baseman defensively, and you've got a guy that ought to be getting some attention for an All-Star berth, but for the fact that Youkilis and Teixeira are also having great years and have much better track records...

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

And he gets charged the earned runs because you can't assume the double play even tho competent defense would have turned it.

SI

No mention of the Run Birded In?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

No mention of the Run Birded In?

To be fair, Coco throws like a five year old girl so he wasn't throwing out your grandmother rounding third. But the birds just add another level of comical tragedy to that game.

SI

[Butter]

I bet Kauffmann is SRO for this whole weekend Reds-Royals series coming up.

[Ksyrup]

If that game was in Toronto, Choo would have been arrested.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I bet Kauffmann is SRO for this whole weekend Reds-Royals series coming up.

I'm sure the Royals will get 40K- that's good right? ("for the entire series" "oh.")

SI

[Logan]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

We'll trade you Brad Penny+ a prospect for JJ Hardy... That is true of NY the past couple years and was true of the RS in the 1990's, it hasn't been true. This Santana discussion reminds me, if only we had a big long discussion about it at the time and could see how people felt these prospects ranked. Oh wait, sox soon to sign Santana? - Front Office Football Central

HA really got bitched around in that thread. Dontrelle Willis dominant? Really?

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

Ibanez really juiced that ball out of the park.

I give him plenty of credit, that pitch was about 3 inches HiGHer than the dirt.

[sterlingice]

Ah, Poznanski. If we didn't have such a good writer covering the beat, this would be even more unbearable. Keep in mind, this is a blog entry so the grammar is a little suspect

Seeing Seagulls by the Lakeshore* » Joe Posnanski

Originally Posted by Poz!

Seeing Seagulls by the Lakeshore*

The Kansas City Royals lost Thursday night when the game-winning hit bounced off a seagull.

Now, that sentence — as marvelously constructed as it may be — is a bit misleading. The Royals were going to lose anyway Thursday night. They really lost when, up two-runs in the eighth, they committed two errors on what looked like a double-play grounder to first and when closer Joakim Soria left a curveball up to Cleveland’s Jhonny Peralta. They really lost when reliever Kyle Farnsworth … well, do you really need to say more than that? Kyle Farnsworth is an absolutely remarkable pitcher. For the last month and a half, he has been placed into low-pressure situations and he has been virtually unhittable. League hit .148 against him! Strikeout to walk ratio of 17-2! Zero earned runs!

As soon as the Royals put him into the game on Thursday — tie score, top of the 10th inning — he immediately turned back into Kyle Farnsworth.* A leadoff seeing-eye single. A walk. A line drive hit up the middle that bounced off a seagull and skipped past centerfielder Coco Crisp. Ballgame.

No, it wouldn’t have mattered — we all know Coco isn’t throwing anyone out at the plate.

But it does matter. Because, bottom line, the top-line sentence is accurate. The Royals lost when a ball hit a seagull. And it’s just last latest addition to the list of remarkable things I have had the chance to witness since arriving in Kansas City thirteen years ago.

I have seen a manager, in an effort to inspire his team, jump into a shower with his clothes on. I have seen another manager, in an effort to inspire his team, promise to smile more. That manager also believed his team had too many milk-drinkers, not enough tequila drinkers. I have seen two managers quit in the middle of the season and a third manager get told he was fired by the reporters who covered the team. I have seen a parade of pitching coaches fired, a handful of hitting coaches fired, a couple of bullpen coaches let go and numerous bench coaches reassigned.

I have seen a centerfielder race back to the wall, set himself, time his leap and … watch the ball land 10 feet in front of him on the warning track. The ball then bounced over his head for a ground-rule double — the umpires were so confused they initially called it a home run. The call was righted eventually but one of my favorite moments as a Royals observer was watching the Royals’ manager race out to argue the call. I could only imagine the exchange.

Manager: That ball landed on the warning track. How could you miss that?
Umpire: Because your centerfielder climbed the wall?
Manager: Uh, good point. Listen, I’ll go back to the dugout. You guys work it out.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of a player named Chip Ambres, who played in only 53 games with Kansas City, but managed in that short period of time to make team history TWICE. Ambres made his first appearance for the Royals on July 20. Eight days later, on July 28, he hit his first big league home run. The Royals lost that game to Tampa 10-5 … and that was the first loss in what would become a 19-game losing streak.

Historic moment No. 1 happened on August 9th, when the Royals were leading Cleveland 7-2 going into the ninth inning. Mike MacDougal was the Royals closer then — or at least that’s what they called him — and he promptly gave up a double to Casey Blake, a double to Grady Sizemore, a single to Coco Crisp (Coco has seen the Kansas City thing from both sides now). That made it 7-4. After a strikeout, MacDougal gave up ANOTHER double to Travis Hafner. Victor Martinez singled. It was 7-5.

And then the real fun began. Ronnie Belliard popped up to short … but Angel Berroa dropped it. The Royals did get an out there on a play at second. So it was 7-6, but there were two outs.

And that’s when Jeff Liefer lifted a fly ball to Chip Ambres in left field. Anyone who heard the call by Royals announcer Denny Matthews will never forget it: “There’s a fly ball to left field and … he dropped it. Yes he did.” There was no doubt in Denny’s voice at all. The Indians ended up scoring 11 runs in the inning and winning the game.* That, incidentally, was lost No. 11 in a row for the Royals.

*Another highlight of that inning was when right fielder Emil Brown tried to kick the ball back into the infield. He was not quite successful.

Later, in historic moment No. 2 — just mentioned this the other day — Ambres (playing center) and left-fielder Terrence Long converged on a fly ball and then, each thinking the other would make the play, began jogging toward the dugout. The ball plopped down behind them. I remember going into the radio booth to ask Denny if he had ever seen anything like that before. He considered the question for a moment. And then he said: “Nope.”

Other stuff I’ve seen: I saw the Royals lose once when a pitcher, attempting to start an inning-ending double play, slipped on the rosin bag and threw the ball into centerfield. … I saw the Royals begin a game batting out of order. I mean, batting out of order is one thing, but the FIRST BATTER was out of order? … I saw a Royals baserunner literally fall off of first base on a pickoff attempt. He got back to the bag safely and then, almost in slow motion, he just fell off the base and was tagged out. … I saw the Royals lose a game when, with the bases loaded, a batter hit a ball back to Mike MacDougal. He threw home — literally. The ball had to be at least 5 feet over the catcher’s head. I remember it being 10 feet high. … I saw the Royals release a pitcher IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GAME … I saw a Royals prospect, with two runners in scoring position, look so frightened that, even though the opposing pitcher threw three batting practice fastballs right over the heart of the plate, he never even thought about swinging. … I saw the Royals try out a professional softball pitcher … I saw a Royals pitcher get hurt during spring training SLIDING practice (you might recall, the Royals are an American League club) … I saw Esteban German get hit in the face with a fly ball because (1) he was playing centerfield, (2) he’s not a centerfielder, (3) the sun was out and (4) he was not wearing his sunglasses. Fortunately, Esty was wearing his sunglasses on the flight home after the game so no one could see his shiner … I saw Tony Pena lose a ball in the sun because he wasn’t wearing sunglasses. After the game, Pena explained that he had ordered his sunglasses but “they had not come in yet.” … I saw Royals pitcher Miguel Asencio throw 16 consecutive balls to start off his major league career. … I saw the Royals draft the first high school pitcher who ever officially threw 100 mph. Apparently, nobody noticed that he did not throw strikes.

Of course, there’s the Ken Harvey oeuvre. Once, he lost a battle with a tarp. Once, as the cut-off man, he turned his back on an outfield throw and got hit in the back. Once he threw a baseball into his own pitcher’s face.*

*Harvey, you will note, was the Royals All-Star in 2004. He then played in 12 games for the Royals in 2005 and he hasn’t played a big league game since. A little while ago, he was released by the Kansas City T-Bones Independent league team.

There was the time a Royals pitcher complained because he could not get any no-decisions. … There was the time the Royals decided to call up a pitcher named Eduardo Villacis to pitch at Yankee Stadium because … well, no one knew. No one on the team had ever even heard of him. Villacis gave up 5 runs in 3 1/3 innings, walked four, struck out none, and the Royals sent him back down and then released him. He never again pitched in the big leagues. … There was the time a Royals outfield “accidentally” shot a television reporter with a pellet gun. … There was the time outfielder Mark Quinn finally walked after a long, long streak without walking. Someone set off fireworks at the stadium. … There was the time a pitcher, frustrated by a bad rehab start, broke his hand hitting a door. …

More. So much more. I’ve written about so many of these things again and again, but I cannot help it. Something bad happens and it all rushes back. This team, well, someday something good is going to happen for this team. Someday.

Tonight, though, they lost when a ball hit a seagull. Well, why not? Why the hell not?

*Alternate headline: I ran. I ran so far away. Couldn’t get away.

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

No mention of the Run Birded In?

The hilarious part was that the TV crew had been making jokes about the seagulls all night long, only to see the game winning hit bounce off one of them.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

The hilarious part was that the TV crew had been making jokes about the seagulls all night long, only to see the game winning hit bounce off one of them.

Ah ha! First the midges and now the seagulls!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I bet Kauffmann is SRO for this whole weekend Reds-Royals series coming up.

They'll have good crowds this weekend. The Annual Sky Show is tonight, which was a sellout last year. Sunday should also be a big crowd. It's Family Day including a concert by a Christian rock group after the game. Most of the local churches buy blocks of tickets for that day for their congregation, so it should be a pretty good crowd that day as well.

OK, so none of those reasons have to do with the Royals, but there will be more than 40K for the weekend as sterling implied. I've been invited to a Hall of Fame suite for the Saturday game, so I'll be out there for that. Can't pass up free food and booze.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by MrDNA

To translate for the non-Phillies fans, Ibanez hits a three run dinger in the 10th to win the series for the Fightin' Phils. I can't believe how good this guy has been.

It is awesome that the Cubs prioritized Milton Bradley instead of Ibanez in the off season.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Pearlman nails the Ibanez/steroids hullabaloo.

Jeff Pearlman: Sportswriter, Author, Blogger

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

It is awesome that the Cubs prioritized Milton Bradley instead of Ibanez in the off season.

They were targeting the board game industry....go figure.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by Logan

I give him plenty of credit, that pitch was about 3 inches HiGHer than the dirt.

So long as he keeps helping the Phils beat the Mets, he can be shooting himself up with cow manure for all I care.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

We'll trade you Brad Penny+ a prospect for JJ Hardy... .

Actually, we are looking for a rotation upgrade

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

So long as he keeps helping the Phils beat the Mets, he can be shooting himself up with cow manure for all I care.

Just stay away from the Coke...we all saw what that did to Doc Gooden and Strawberry.

[stevew]

The birds were out in full force when i was in cleveland a few weeks ago. That's funny they actually contributed this time. I was just glad they were hanging out in the upper deck, I wasn't in the mood to get shat upon.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I haven't seen anything on mlbtraderumors- any hints?

SI

Just to update this.... MLBTraderumors contacted the guys with this rumor for some more juice but it's not to the point of any news publication saying anything thus probably not worth mentioning as it would be construed as idle message board rumor mongering.

Jake Peavy is another name that might make sense and they could be keeping everything on the down low as he considers his no trade clause and to avoid a repeat of the White Sox debacle.

[Crapshoot]

Joe Poz is the single-best baseball writer in America. He ought to be in a real baseball town. *ducks*

[Atocep]

When the hell did Kevin Slowey become Tom Seaver?