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2016 Official Major League Baseball Thread

EagerBeaver

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Jose Bautista interview below. He is a smart guy and gives the best answer of all time to a question about whether he would take a "hometown discount":

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14825722/jose-bautista-toronto-blue-jays-my-number-budge

I think he is right, and he was clearly the best player on the Jays team in the playoffs last year, both offensively and defensively. Whenever the Yankees play the Jays, he is the one guy I don't want to see coming to the plate in a big situation. However, he is going to be 36 this year, and that is an age when guys are usually past their peak, although if I were the Jays, I would give him a 3 year deal, and overpay him slightly, just based on his leadership in dugout:
 

Robert 21

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The Panda is just Big Boned.

The fat problem with Pablo Sandoval only begins with his weight....

Boston.com said:
Fat athletes can be fun.

There’s a long list of portly players throughout history that fans have gravitated towards whether it be due to their relatable shape, or a spirit just as large as the frame that envelops he aura. Rich Garces, Vince Wilfork, and Glen Davis are only a few of the beloved bellies Boston fans have embraced over the years. Tony Gwynn and Babe Ruth were two of baseball’s most renowned hitters. John Kruk created a persona surrounded by the fact that his weight and off-field habits didn’t necessarily affect his athletic ability. Bartolo Colon is fat and fabulous at the age of 42.

Pablo Sandoval is no fun.

The Red Sox third baseman punched in for duty at spring training in Fort Myers, Fla. Sunday morning and immediately became the punchline of camp. Sandoval, coming off a season during which he hit .245 with a .658 OPS after signing a five-year, $95 million contract with Boston, arrived in Florida looking just as large as he ended his first campaign with the Red Sox. The Boston Globe’s Jim Davis had the money shot of Sandoval working out at third, his girth protruding over his shorts, seemingly boasting of an offseason flirting with Sara Lee and Colonel Sanders.

Wasn’t it just last month Red Sox manager John Farrell said that Sandoval had lost 20 pounds over the winter? Either Farrell was greatly exaggerating the weight loss, or Sandoval went really hard at the turkey legs during his recent visit to Walt Disney World.

The man is fat. This should be of no real revelation to anyone.

Except maybe, that is, Pablo Sandoval.

“I don’t try to lose weight or nothing. I just do my work, feel better,” Sandoval told reporters Sunday. “I don’t weigh in at all…I just do my work, try to do everything I can. I don’t weigh in all offseason. I just try to get better, be in better position, be an athlete.”

Had Sandoval performed anywhere close to how he did in San Francisco over seven years, perhaps this wouldn’t all be as big of an issue. It’s not like the guy was a perennial MVP candidate with the Giants, but the free agent attractiveness for Boston lay in his postseason numbers (.344, .935 OPS) and the undeniable yet dubious thought that the Red Sox could market his “Panda” personality.

Red Sox fans thought they were getting a solid solution at third with a gregarious personality to inject into what had become a tedious team to root for. They got neither.

Sandoval insisted on Sunday that the team didn’t request that he lose weight during the offseason, which had Farrell trying to cover for his “20-pound” suggestion in January.

“We told him we needed him to come back in better condition,” Farrell said. “Along with that, you anticipate there’s some potential for weight to be dropped. But there wasn’t a specific number given where we said, ‘We want you to come in at this weight.’”

Potential for weight to be dropped?

It was at the Red Sox’ Winter Carnival at Foxwoods just a few, short weeks ago when Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that the team had been in “constant contact” with Sandoval, and reiterated that Farrell said the third baseman had lost weight.

“Again, they call him ‘Panda Bear’ for a reason. He’s not going to be real skinny. But he’s also one where we think he’ll move around better with where he is, and he’s worked very hard this winter,” Dombrowski said. “Nutrition’s been important for him, and I think he’s out to show he’s a better player than he performed last year.”

Well, he’s off to a good start then.

But whose fault is all this, really? The Red Sox knew what they were getting into when they signed Sandoval, listed at 5-foot-11, 255 pounds, but their covering for his hyperbolic offseason regimen is embarrassing for both the team and player. Sandoval looks no different than he did last spring, and his attitude suggests that he’s completely unaware of his surroundings, despite Farrell’s decree that the player wants to make amends after his awful, debut season in Boston.

Nobody was expecting Channing Tatum to waltz into camp on Sunday, but the fact that Sandoval looked as if he just finished a Netflix binge session didn’t ease any fears that he might not be as committed to improving as the Red Sox want everybody to believe.

Sandoval had 15 errors at third base in 2015. Guess how much he worked on his fielding during the offseason.

“I did no work in the field, nothing,” he said.

He says he has nothing to prove, except to prove to the fans that he “can be a better defensive player and offensive player to win games.” It’s a message of inconsistency that both Sandoval and the Red Sox are selling, making Farrell and Dombrowski look foolish in their misrepresentations of the player’s offseason.

“I can’t tell you if he got on the scale or not,” Farrell said. “I can tell you that after visiting him in January, he looked like he was in better condition. I will say that when we met with every player at the end of last season, each player was given a specific plan, a workout routine, to go into the offseason.”

“Better condition” is the new “lost weight.”

Whatever phrase you use, it’s inaccurate. Pablo Sandoval is as fat as he ever was.

If I were the Red Sox, I’d be more concerned about the fact that he doesn’t seem to give a damn rather than at what he tips the scales. The guy has $71.8 million still coming, and no takers on the market for his services. Everybody else is laughing at the Red Sox.

Why do they get to have all the fun?


***DO YOUR JOB***
 

EagerBeaver

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Sandoval gave up switch hitting from the right side last year after a 2 for 60 slump, and then batted .255 hitting lefty vs. lefties the rest of the way. If you are a switch hitter, you should want to hit right-handed as much as possible in Fenway.

Sandoval said he is ready to resume switch hitting this season, but what happens if he starts spring training 2 for 60 batting righty?
 

smuler

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Why didnt he have bariatric surgery in the offseason ?

Everyday people have had great success with it

Best Regards

Smuler
 

Joe.t

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Here is CBS Sports' MLB preseason power ratings, which seems fairly reasonable to me:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/powerrankings

It's amazing how far the Braves have sunk, to now being the worst team in MLB.

If you go by their rankings here is how the season in the East will end which looks just about right to me.

1. Toronto.
2. Yankees.
3. Boston.
4. Baltimore.
5. Tampa.

I saw an interesting report the other day don't remember where, where they predicted a break out year for Pineda, they predicted that he will be the Yankees best starter and will lead the charge this year.
 

EagerBeaver

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Pineda reportedly ran a sub 6 minute mile and beat all of his group of pitchers, which included the extremely fast and athletic Aroldis Chapman, in wind sprints up the newly constructed hill at the Yankees complex. When you consider that Pineda is 6'7" and a huge man, this is impressive, although the even bigger Betances kept up with Pineda and ran a sub 6 minute mile as well.

Good to see the big guys are in shape. Being in shape is part of being a Yankee, CC Sabathia notwithstanding.
 

EagerBeaver

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By the way- I will be departing to see the Yankees in spring training down in Florida in a few weeks. I already have tickets to one of the games. I saw them down there each of the last two spring trainings. It's fun watching those games. The Yankees always draw huge crowds along the Gulf Coast because there are many transplanted, older fans from the NYC area who are now living down in the Tampa area. These old timers know their baseball and they fill those little parks up. I have not been down to see the Red Sox play in Fort Myers (almost got tickets to see Red Sox-Yankees down their last year but settled for Yankees-Braves in Tampa). The Red Sox' field in Ft. Myers is an exact replica of Fenway with the Pesky Pole but I heard that traffic in and out of that stadium is nightmarish. Have also been to the Sarasota and Bradenton parks. I really like McKechnie Field in Bradenton. It has an old school feel to it.

I will sit in foul ball territory with my Darryl Strawberry autographed glove and hope to spear a foul ball line drive. I have come close a few times but always end up in battles for loose balls with kids and I never get aggressive trying to beat a kid to a foul ball. If it is someone over 18 they are fair game and I will go all out, so look out.
 

Special K

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I will sit in foul ball territory with my Darryl Strawberry autographed glove and hope to spear a foul ball line drive. I have come close a few times but always end up in battles for loose balls with kids and I never get aggressive trying to beat a kid to a foul ball. If it is someone over 18 they are fair game and I will go all out, so look out.

Beav...Please, for the love of God, don't be that 50ish year old guy that brings a glove to the park, PLEASE!!!!
 

EagerBeaver

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I haven't decided whether or not to pack the glove. However I will not pack the Darryl Strawberry autographed baseball bat.

The tickets we bought are third base side so you have to pay attention and keep your eyes open for liners. Part of bringing a glove is to spear a line drive headed for another fan's head. I think a female fan at Fenway last year was seriously injured by a foul ball. It happens from time to time and with fans now on their smartphones half the game, or drinking and chatting and otherwise not paying attention to the action, you have to watch out for fellow fans, which in this case will also include my father who is in his 70s, and likely to be inattentive during parts of the game.
 

Doc Holliday

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Pablo Sandoval didn't lose his appetite during the off-season

 

EagerBeaver

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Cespedes Grand Champion Hog Sent To Butcher, PETA not happy

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...enis-cespedes-grand-champion-hog-sent-butcher

Looks like the grand champion hog that Yoennis Cespedes purchased for $7,000 at auction is going to be served as bacon and eggs to someone in the near future. Honestly pigs are pigs and bacon is bacon, not sure if the fact that this pig won some contests with others makes his bacon any more tasty. It's probably leaner if he is such a fit hog.
 

Special K

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daydreamer41

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Here is a listing of odds on winning the World Series:

http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id...er-spring-training-favorites-win-world-series

Cubs 4-1
Astros 10-1
Dodgers 10-1
Mets 12-1
Red Sox 12-1
Giants 12-1
Yankees 14-1
Jays 14-1

To me KC at 18-1 with their championship team essentially intact is a no brainer if betting those odds.

The bookie who made these odds is way off putting the Cubs at 4-1 and the Pirates and Cardinals at 18-1. Last year, the Cardinals finished first in the NL Central winning 100 games, Pirates won 98 games and Cubs won 97 games. None of these teams changed much from last year.

And this wacko bookie is putting the Red Sox at 12-1 and the Yankees at 14-1? This guy has been drinking the sauce before making up these odds.
 
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