The Official MERB 2010 Baseball Thread.

[rumpleforeskiin]

AL Awards as of the moment:

Here's how the voting should go, if the season ended today:

Cy Young:
1. Jon Lester
2. David Price
3. CC Sabathia
4. Carl Pavano

MVP:
1. Miguel Cabrera
2. Josh Hamilton
3. Robinson Cano
4. Kevin Youkilis

 

[Doc Holliday]

Jays going for their 12th win in a row against the Orioles tonight.....is there a better streak in the majors against a particular team?

 

[lgna69xxx]

Love it! Keep putting the pressure on the Rays and sox boys! .......

Jays going for their 12th win in a row against the Orioles tonight.....is there a better streak in the majors against a particular team?

 

[Special K]

Jays going for their 12th win in a row against the Orioles tonight.....is there a better streak in the majors against a particular team?

Sox won something like 19 in a row against the O's before losing one.

 

[Jman47]

'Nuff said...

Have fun,

Jman

PS Maybe ARod* can buy a vowel and hit # 600* soon...shame that club just ain't what it used to be...

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

I'm not long on predictions, but here's a couple for the balance of the season:

1. Ryan Kalish will help the Red Sox more than the corpse of Lance "Fat Elvis" Berkman will help the Yankees.
2. Kerry Wood will make the Yankees miss Chan Ho Park.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I'm not long on predictions, but here's a couple for the balance of the season:

1. Ryan Kalish will help the Red Sox more than the corpse of Lance "Fat Elvis" Berkman will help the Yankees.
2. Kerry Wood will make the Yankees miss Chan Ho Park.

LOL!!! I totally agree with you.

 

[lgna69xxx]

thats Lance "Tony Stewart" Berkman FYI....

I'm not long on predictions, but here's a couple for the balance of the season:

1. Ryan Kalish will help the Red Sox more than the corpse of Lance "Fat Elvis" Berkman will help the Yankees.
2. Kerry Wood will make the Yankees miss Chan Ho Park.

 

[Jman47]

WARNING: My reply contains sarcasm. If you are not mature enough to handle sarcasm, joking or fun...then look away now. It in no way contains insults or negative remarks towards any known members of this board. It is intended for those with mental and emotional IQ's older than 18. You have been warned.

I'm not long on predictions, but here's a couple for the balance of the season:
1. Ryan Kalish will help the Red Sox more than the corpse of Lance "Fat Elvis" Berkman will help the Yankees.
2. Kerry Wood will make the Yankees miss Chan Ho Park.

Hello rumples,

Its simply really....more of the Cashman master plan(invoked since he has NO farm system)...

1. Berkman will make Yankee fans appreciate Nick Johnson
2. Wood will make Yankee fans LOVE Joba

You have to look at it like Brain(lol) does...LOL

Have fun,

Jman

 

[Jman47]

A-Rod gets day off from quest for No. 600

WARNING: My reply contains sarcasm. If you are not mature enough to handle sarcasm, joking or fun...then look away now. It in no way contains insults or negative remarks towards any known members of this board. It is intended for those with mental and emotional IQ's older than 18. You have been warned.



SHHHHH....everybody quiet, Alex is trying to hit....

A-Rod gets day off from quest for No. 600
Yankees slugger has gone nine games since hitting No. 599
fan comments (12)print this pagee-mail this pagepost on facebook
By Spencer Fordin / MLB.com

08/01/10 11:21 AM ET

The milestone may have to wait another day. Alex Rodriguez stands on the verge of becoming the seventh player in big league history to hit 600 home runs, but he's not in Sunday's starting lineup for the Yankees.

The Yankees next play Monday night at 7:05 ET at Yankee Stadium against the Toronto Blue Jays, who will start right-hander Brandon Morrow. Rodriguez has hit .267 (4-for-15) against Morrow with one home run and two walks.

Rodriguez, who hit home run No. 599 on July 22, is batting .222 (8-for-36) over his last nine games. He has just two extra-base hits over that span -- both doubles -- but he's been able to drive in seven runs. Rodriguez has hit 16 home runs this season, and he's on pace for the lowest slugging percentage (.479) of any full season in his career.

"The way I'm swinging now, it's probably going to take a while -- everybody get comfortable," Rodriguez said after Saturday night's game, in which he went 0-for-3 with a walk. "I'm just glad to be out there helping the team somehow. I scored a run.

"People are asking me about home runs. I'm asking for a hit-by-pitch, infield hit, bunt single, error. I'll get on base anyhow. The home run will come."

The Yankees have Ramiro Pena starting at third base on Sunday, and new acquisition Lance Berkman is slated to play first base. Mark Teixeira is listed as the starter at designated hitter.

 

[Jman47]

Most walk off hits since 2003 (regular season)...

1. David Ortiz 15 - (actually has 18 now with the post season) 17 shown here... http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/gallery/ortizwalkoffs/
2. Albert Pujols 12

'Nuff said...again...

 

[Merlot]

A-Rod's 600th...WHO CARES!

Hello All,


For A-Rod and others, 600 just doesn't add up

http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/massarotti/2010/07/for_a-rod_and_others_600_just.html

Alex Rodriguez is sitting on 599, but raise your hand if you are also among those who do not give a hoot. From the owners to the players, baseball wanted it this way, after all. Now, as the game is being detoxified, shame on them if they are disappointed by our reaction.

Six hundred homers? It was once sacred ground in baseball, a place reserved for Aaron, Ruth and Mays. Then came the steroid era. Baseball owners and players took the most awe-inspiring sanctuary in sports and built condos on it, all with the idea of restoring value in the cold, hard American dollar. That is when baseball officially became a business more than our national pastime. Gordon Gekko became commissioner.

So now A-Rod is on the cusp of 600, an event that should be cause for national celebration. Well whoop-de-do. For those keeping score at home, Rodriguez has hit all 599 of his career home runs after the 1994-95 work stoppage, the official starting line of chemical breeding in baseball. A-Rod might as well be Dolly, the genetically engineered sheep. If he breaks down anytime before eclipsing the equally mutated Barry Bonds, fear not. We can always make another one.

Wisecracking aside, we crunched some numbers here. From 1920 to 1994, throughout the major leagues, home runs were hit at an average pace of one for roughly 48.5 at-bats. From 1970 to 1994, the number was roughly one homer for every 43 at-bats. Since the start of the 1995 campaign, homers have come at the stratospheric rate of one for every 32 at-bats, a preposterous increase that has made a mockery of the record book. Men like Aaron, Ruth and Mays worked far, far harder for their accomplishments than men like Rodriguez and Bonds did for theirs, a fact that requires some obvious adjustment. A home run now does not equal a home run then. Think of it as comparing the yen to the dollar.

So, using our currency converter to compare Rodriguez's numbers to those who came before him, here’s what we came up with: Depending on which standard you elect to use – the 1920-94 average or the one from 1970-94 – Rodriguez actually has somewhere between 389 and 446 home runs. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and call it 446. That leaves him more than 300 homers short of Aaron on the morning after his 35th birthday, all in the wake of hip surgery and coming at a time when Rodriguez seems to be deteriorating at a rapid pace.

Don’t misunderstand. Rodriguez was and forever will be one of the game’s greatest players. This has nothing to do with him personally. (Using the same formula, Bonds would have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 home runs.) Rather, it has to do with the complete lack of respect owners and players simultaneously had for a game that, as James Earl Jones told us as Terrence Mann in "Field of Dreams," has marked the time. Baseball was a relatively rare constant in our history, at least until the historic work stoppage of 1994-95. Owners and players both understood the damage that resulted from that debacle, so they both looked the other way when Dr. Feelgood walked into the room and stuck a needle into the game’s behind.

Voila. Just like that, Ivan Drago was hitting cleanup for just about every team in the major leagues and the game was back, feeling better than ever. Attendance went up and the game hasn’t had a labor issue since.

The damage, in retrospect, was considerable. Can we honestly look at anyone in baseball the same way now? Can we really mention A-Rod in the same breath as Aaron, Ruth and Mays? Can we truly regard David Ortiz’ club record of 54 home runs in the same way we looked at, say, Jim Rice’s 46 (in 1978) during a week that marks the one-year anniversary of the news that Ortiz's name was on the famed 2003 steroids list? The answers are obvious. No way, no chance, not ever. More than anything else, baseball wanted to restore its business in the wake of the strike. In the short term, the game got it. In the long term, the game sold its credibility, or at least a good percentage of it, which is why A-Rod homer total needs to now suffer a hefty tax.

Rodriguez, in particular, quite literally sold his soul. As part of Rodriguez’ epic, $275 million deal with the Yankees, the player has $6 million bonuses when he hits career home run Nos. 660 (Mays), 714 (Ruth) and 755 (Aaron). He will earn an additional $6 million each for both tying and passing Bonds (762), meaning he could earn an additional $30 million that would bring the total value of the contract to in excess of $305 million.

For Rodriguez, that is the potential reward for being baseball’s home run king.

If only in title.


pfffssssst,

Merlot

 

[Jman47]

Alex Rodriguez is sitting on 599, but raise your hand if you are also among those who do not give a hoot.

So, using our currency converter to compare Rodriguez's numbers to those who came before him, here’s what we came up with: Depending on which standard you elect to use – the 1920-94 average or the one from 1970-94 – Rodriguez actually has somewhere between 389 and 446 home runs. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and call it 446. That leaves him more than 300 homers short of Aaron on the morning after his 35th birthday, all in the wake of hip surgery and coming at a time when Rodriguez seems to be deteriorating at a rapid pace.

Don’t misunderstand. Rodriguez was and forever will be one of the game’s greatest players. This has nothing to do with him personally. (Using the same formula, Bonds would have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 home runs.) Rather, it has to do with the complete lack of respect owners and players simultaneously had for a game that, as James Earl Jones told us as Terrence Mann in "Field of Dreams," has marked the time. Baseball was a relatively rare constant in our history, at least until the historic work stoppage of 1994-95. Owners and players both understood the damage that resulted from that debacle, so they both looked the other way when Dr. Feelgood walked into the room and stuck a needle into the game’s behind.



pfffssssst,

Merlot

Great piece Merlot. Says it all. I particularly like to the pieces I bolded. And no owner sold out to Dr Feelgood more that the idiot who was "born on third base, deluded that he'd hit a triple, and convinced he had to tell the whole world how he'd done it".

Have fun,

Jman

 

[Doc Holliday]

How about that A.J. Burnett?

 

[lgna69xxx]

I agree, he has some issues right now, all season really. same with these guys, but at least they play for the enemy

and dont forget old faithfull, the dancing queen himself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbzBTgYOoIg

How about that A.J. Burnett?

 

[Doc Holliday]

I agree, he has some issues right now, all season really.

This bum has had issues his entire career. The only time i can recall that he had a good season was in his final year with the Jays. He probably pitched decently because he knew he could opt out of his contract at the end of that season & become a free agent, signing with the highest bidder (guess who?).

The best thing that has happened to the Jays in this decade was Burnett opting out of that same contract & signing with the Yankees.

p.s. The link you posted doesn't work.

 

[lgna69xxx]

thanks, i made it even better

p.s. The link you posted doesn't work.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

1. Ryan Kalish will help the Red Sox more than the corpse of Lance "Fat Elvis" Berkman will help the Yankees.
2. Kerry Wood will make the Yankees miss Chan Ho Park.

Four days later:
1. Berkman is already on the bench; Kalish is hitting .538 and has an outfield assist.
3. Kerry Wood still sucks.

 

[Merlot]

Hello all,

Ellsbury Returning? Pedroia AND Youk Out.

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pl...news.asp?sport=MLB&id=4207&line=299899&spln=1

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said that Jacoby Ellsbury (ribs) should be activated from the disabled list "in the next day or two."

"He played today, played well, and he's getting real close to coming back," Epstein said of Ellsbury, who went 3-for-5 with Triple-A Pawtucket on Tuesday. "We're going to sit down and talk to him today. We have nothing to announce yet, but, given how he's performed on the rehab and how he's feeling about things, it's certainly days and not weeks before he'll be ready -- and, hopefully, not too many days." It sounds like patient fantasy owners are about to be rewarded. Aug. 3 - 6:46 pm et

Source: http://soxblog.projo.com/2010/08/ellsbury-days-n.html

Hey isn't that great. Oops, Pedroia is still out for a while, Youkilis has just been put on the 15 day disabled list with a possible tear in his hand (surgery being currently considered) , Lowell is in a lineup that looks like a combination of minor leaguers and one-year resume builders. The starting pitching is now back, but middle relief is a running Vaudeville Show with a bombs away theme, and Papelbon...well...the comfort of a sure save closer has become a stomach knotting drama. Not to mention an injury parade in the mode of a game of hot potato...often several potatoes at a time. All this with while facing a schedule stretch including the Rays, Yankees, Angels, and Rangers. Oh yea, sorry Doc. Lets mention the Blue Jays too. If the Red Sox come out of this month still with a chance to get to the playoffs Francona should get Manager of the Year in the AL. This has got to be one of the most difficult years any manager has ever faced and to still be in the playoff hunt right now is almost miraculous.

Cheers,

Merlot

 

[lgna69xxx]

AND boston STILL on the outside looking in!

Four days later:
1. Berkman is already on the bench; Kalish is hitting .538 and has an outfield assist.
3. Kerry Wood still sucks.