MLB Talk

[KowboyKoop]

Royals finally get a little luck offensively and comeback for the win. 3-3 while the offense is in a team-wide slump...I'll take it.

[Jeffy25]

Jaker why does your sig say Rockies

prolly because he copied and pasted RSR's Rockies thing but didn't notice to change it to the Cardinals

[actionjackson]

Royals finally get a little luck offensively and comeback for the win. 3-3 while the offense is in a team-wide slump...I'll take it.

I only saw highlights from that game, but the Yankees had at least two really ugly plays in the infield (at 1B/2B, and SS) that reinforced for me that their offseason strategy of getting more groundballers (Sabathia and Burnett) to go with Wang and Pettitte might not have been the best of plans. On the other hand, not too many groundballs go for homeruns, unless it splits the defense perfectly in a huge part of the ballpark and you have a runner with Emilio Bonifacio type speed flyin around the bases.

Good on your Royals to hang in there and take it to the Yankee bullpen. Looks like Hillman has found his "8th inning guy". Gee, that didn't take too long. Actually...come to think of it one appearance by Farnsworth in that kind of situation is too long.

[OregonDuck1989]

Rockies pen really blew it today. I'm upset.

[DarthJaker]

LOL

[Jeffy25]

LOL

there ya go

[200tang]

SWEPT OAKLAND

Two Aces + 2 averageish pitchers + awesome defense = Awesome

I have to say, the Mariners new fielding team makes the games a LOT more fun to watch. Every pitch means so much to the outcome of a game and watching chavez or guttierez cover the entire OF is great fun to watch. Can't wait till Ichiro gets back out there although Cedeno has actually been very good.

A nice little graph, courtesy of Lookout Landing, of what the majority of intense Mariners' games will be like


Nothing like having a bad bullpen surprise you by actually doing well in the first week

EDIT : Oh, also, I bet HGM the Mariners would sweep Oakland sooooooo you should probably get me my winnings soon. Twenty-four hours enough time?

[KowboyKoop]

I only saw highlights from that game, but the Yankees had at least two really ugly plays in the infield (at 1B/2B, and SS) that reinforced for me that their offseason strategy of getting more groundballers (Sabathia and Burnett) to go with Wang and Pettitte might not have been the best of plans. On the other hand, not too many groundballs go for homeruns, unless it splits the defense perfectly in a huge part of the ballpark and you have a runner with Emilio Bonifacio type speed flyin around the bases.

Good on your Royals to hang in there and take it to the Yankee bullpen. Looks like Hillman has found his "8th inning guy". Gee, that didn't take too long. Actually...come to think of it one appearance by Farnsworth in that kind of situation is too long.

I only listened on radio (Iowa = no TV baseball zone), but from what they said, the infield was in pretty rough shape b/c of the rain..so that contributed to some bad defense for both teams.

I'm not ready to praise Hillman for anything yet.....him trying Farnsworth again in that role won't surprise me in the least.....he also seems obsessed with starting Bloomquist in RF because __________?

[actionjackson]

I only listened on radio (Iowa = no TV baseball zone), but from what they said, the infield was in pretty rough shape b/c of the rain..so that contributed to some bad defense for both teams.

I'm not ready to praise Hillman for anything yet.....him trying Farnsworth again in that role won't surprise me in the least.....he also seems obsessed with starting Bloomquist in RF because __________?

...because he's a scrappy dirtbag full of character, grit and determination. re: Farnsworth - as long as Cruz and Soria continue to excel there's no reason for him to go to Farnsworth in that situation - other than maybe 9 million big reasons.

Despite the conditions, I still think four extreme groundball pitchers when your keystone combo is horrible is...well, frankly nuts.

[KowboyKoop]

...because he's a scrappy dirtbag full of character, grit and determination. re: Farnsworth - as long as Cruz and Soria continue to excel there's no reason for him to go to Farnsworth in that situation - other than maybe 9 million big reasons.

Despite the conditions, I still think four extreme groundball pitchers when your keystone combo is horrible is...well, frankly nuts.

You would think that was obvious...but you would also think that having Bloomquist (a natural 2B) in RF while having Teahen (more experience in RF) at 2B late in a close game would be a horrible idea...yet Hillman seems to be fond of doing just that.

When it comes to Hillman, I have no faith whatsoever. Farnsworth should be used in the 6th/7th innings in non-high leverage situations...for example, in his last outing he looked amazing...but with Hillman..I'm scared.

You're probably right about the Yanks. If they are gonna have groundball pitchers, they better invest a bit in infield defense. I mean..other than that Gold Glove shortstop of course!!!!

[actionjackson]

You would think that was obvious...but you would also think that having Bloomquist (a natural 2B) in RF while having Teahen (more experience in RF) at 2B late in a close game would be a horrible idea...yet Hillman seems to be fond of doing just that.

When it comes to Hillman, I have no faith whatsoever. Farnsworth should be used in the 6th/7th innings in non-high leverage situations...for example, in his last outing he looked amazing...but with Hillman..I'm scared.

You're probably right about the Yanks. If they are gonna have groundball pitchers, they better invest a bit in infield defense. I mean..other than that Gold Glove shortstop of course!!!!

Agreed. Re: the first bolded section, there's only one thing to say and only a smilie can do it:

The second bolded section cannot be emphasized enough when critiquing the writers' award selections:

[HoustonGM]

The second bolded section cannot be emphasized enough when critiquing the writers' award selections:

That actually wouldn't be very fair, considering the writers aren't part of the Gold Glove selections.

[actionjackson]

Please don't tell me that this is the domain of players and managers. It'll just reinforce all the "dumb jock" stereotypes for me. Please say it's the dumb writers please. How can you be on the field every day and somehow not notice that Jeter is actually a Rusted-Out Iron Gloved SS and that Palmeiro only played 29 games at 1B the year he was selected for the GG. Say it ain't so HGM. Please.

[BINGLEBOP]

I'm pretty sure it's only the managers that vote for the Gold Glove awards, but HoustonGM will know for sure.

[HoustonGM]

It's managers and coaches, and they can't vote for players on their team.