2010 Major League Baseball
 

Pentegarn is right. Time to talk baseball.

Phillies management is taking a lot of heat for not trying to keep Cliff Lee in addition to getting Roy Halladay. Apparently, Lee is "shocked and dismayed" that he found out he was traded just days after beginning to negotiate for a longer term deal. Fans are pissed too - the thought of having a pitching staff with two bonafide #1 starters had most people thinking dynasty. Now, there is one.

For my money, I think Amaro was given an ultimatum - one or the other, not both. But he's a good soldier, and will take the heat if Halladay has a career ending injury in preseason.\

I like the move - it will make for an excellent 1-2 punch if Hamels can regain his stride in '10 - maybe by developing that elusive curve ball. Additionally, they got some good prospects in return from the Mariners. I really liked Lee, though - he was and is a class act, and made a great impression in only half a season with Philadelphia.

The Twins started the offseason by trading away young speedster Carlos "Me Run Bases Good? Never!" Gomez to the Brewers for JJ hardy. They also traded fat ass P Boof Bonser to the Red Sox for P Chris Province.

Joe Crede, Carlos Povano, Mike Redmond, and Orlando Cabrera all entered Free Agency with Povano agreeing to arbitration.

This is a critical year for the future of the Twins franchise as it's nearing Judgement Day for re-signing Mauer. He was openly critical in the first half of last season in managements inability to bring in more talent before the deadline, and basically said they had to get their shit together or he would think twice about re-signing with the team. Personally I think he stays. He's a Minnesota kid born and raised and his entire family is based here. The guy is a god and is the face of all Minnesota sports. Moss, Santana, Hunter, Garnett, and Gaborik, all past superstars here, are all gone. Most fans can live with that but if Mauer were to leave, there would be a shit storm of epic proportions.

Almost forgot.

This beauty is set to open in April, bringing outdoor Twins baseball to Minnesota for the first time since 1981!

Target Field

That is a nice ballpark. And so are these.



Seriously, if this is similar to any of the other new venues throughout the league, then it will be all good for the Twins. Looks awesome.

Also, shameless plug for an amusing Twins/Target Field commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcxv62uUkhY

I read that it was all about money and halladay was willing to settle for less if it would get him onto a champsionship caliber team. Cliff lee wanted too much money so it was a wise move by philly financially.

MIke lowell failed the physical exam after texas rangers team doc discovered torn ligament in his thumb. So he is staying in boston. AWKWARD.

Well, you could hope they are like the Yankees last year and win it all despite a broken team chemistry

Team chemistry is over rated, if it even exists in baseball. Baseball is mainly about individual achievement. The only people who really need to have any sort of chemistry on the field are pitchers and catchers. The Yankees are a bunch of mercenaries and they win.

All that shit about hurting team chemistry only comes up when team aren't winning. When Arizona won, nobody mentioned how big a flying douche Randy Johnson actually is. This season, nobody called A-Rod a club house distraction.

In 2002, there weren't too many stories about how Barry Bonds and all his special privileges pissed off everyone else on the team. Yet, he gets blamed for everything that went wrong in SF after.

But, I digress.

The Mets seemed to make no real moves because of a claimed budget problem. This pisses me off because there was no way they didn't see that coming last year. That and the fact that the team's payroll has nothing to do with the Wilpons' personal finances.

I really just can't fucking stand the team ownership. This is why I get Brooklyn Cyclones tickets instead.

Please tell me you're kidding.

This has got to be the biggest cop-out suck monkey ass reason for not making any off-season moves since the Phillies management (Bill Giles) claimed they didn't have money for big-time free agents because they were a "small market" franchise.

I actually feel sorry for Met fans. :(

Ya, the second highest payroll in MLB in the biggest market in the world is claiming poverty. Oi.

In all honesty, if they had just said "there are no smart money deals to be made and we'd rather spend this year working internally and spend the money on next year's much better free agent market" I'd actually accept that. It shows some semblance of a plan. Also, it would be true. Bay and Holliday are way over priced simply because there is nothing better. Lackey was the only guy out there who would have improved the Mets noticably (although I still want Orlando Hudson and Rocco Bardelli)

I truly think their best bet is to give someone like Ben Sheets an incentive laden offer and see what happens.

Next year's free agent market is going to be good. I want Matt Cain.

So, Bay was introduced today. Apparently, the deal was already made, they just waited for the holiday season to pass. They got him for less money than most people thought and way less than what Holliday is apparently signing for.

I think it is a good deal in light of the Mets offensive woes last season and the terms of the contract, but it is not a panacea. Omar Minaya is talking about getting a "frontline starter" but seems to be negotiating with Joel Piniero. I'd rather see if they could get Ben Sheets for about half the guaranteed money he's asking and then load the deal with some easy to reach(if he remains healthy) incentives.

Nothing against the city of New York itself (I'm talking about the city, not its inhabitants), but there does seem to be some sort of curse, particularly against the Mets. The only people who signed with the Mets and profited were Keith Hernandez and Keith Hernandez. Therefore, historically speaking, I see no way that Jason Bay can profit from this venture. In fact, in accordance with the pattern of history, the only logical outcome from this will be that Bay blows out his ACL in May or June, misses the rest of '10 and most of '11, then gets out of his contract via an opt-out clause. The Mets will not see the post-season, and, ultimately (and justifiably), Mets fans will burn many a civilian object in protest.

Mark your calendars, people. I will be right. It's all a part of the Circling of the Drain.

Carlos Beltran has done real well here. A lot of people may not realize it, but he is the best center fielder in the game. Santana has done well in his 2 years as well.

And it's not like anyone is expecting Bay to be The Guy. That is still Beltran and Wright.

But, hey, I'm sure giving all that money to Matt Holliday won't cause Albert Pujols to try and break St Louis' bank next season.

So a World Series champions vs. Nippon Pro Baseball League champions series may be coming soon

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big...urn=mlb,212323

Generally, I think American sports do not work overseas, but this strikes me as an interesting and very good idea. I for one would like to see this sort of post world series exhibition match-up between the best teams of the world.

A series like this would have to go at least 5 games, for a decent look at both teams. That long a series might be a problem for todays prima donnas. However, if they play it people will watch.

I, for one, would. ;)

Oh, ya, because the biggest complaint about the baseball season is that it isn't long enough.

Granted, there are the winter instructional leagues, but those are for younger players working on their fundamentals. The big money players people want to see take that time off.

Plus, if you are the owner, you'd rather your championship team get the time off to rest and heal rather than take part in some silly publicity stunt.

I was just busting balls, El Blanco. But didn't they have an awful lot of injury problems last year, and wasn't Santana one of them?

For the record, I'm not happy about the Holliday deal. They threw too much money and too many years at him. I think it's insane to go beyond a five-year deal with a guy who turns 30 soon, and I don't think he deserves $16+ million a year.

As for Pujols, they'll give him whatever he wants, most likely. He's the face of the team, and the ownership wants to make a life-long Cardinal of him. I'm betting he sticks around, or Busch Stadium will have a lot of empty seats.

I would too. But the problem is, the Machine don't pitch.

Nomar Garciaparra signed a 1 day deal with the Red Sox today and promptly retired:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...html?eref=sihp

The 8th grade baseball card collector in me weeps at this news as he was a hot commodity amongst my friends in the trading circles. Seems like yesterday someone was trying to trade a Garciaparra for a Jose Cruze Jr. card.

Also, Twins closer Joe Nathan will require tommy john surgery and is out for year, leaving us with no viable candidate to replace him.

NOMAHHHHHH!

I gotta go with Rome on this one, signing a 1 day contract for the "I retired on team x" is kind of lame

Hey WR - I know Mauer is a great catcher and all, but really 8 yrs & $184M?

How much does his agent get?

He took about 5-7 million less a year than what he could have made on the open market. Yeah, it's huge money, but it HAD to be done. If he was allowed to leave the fans would have torn the new stadium down and abandoned the team in droves. He's the face of the franchise and of all sports in the state.

Now that he's locked up they just need to work on getting a closer to replace Nathan. There are a few in house candidates but only one has any experience closing (Jon Rausch closed a few with the Nats a few years ago).

............nice 2 hear

For the record, I think the Twins were smart too. I just think the money is obscene.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I really don't think it would be as big of a deal if he signed with the Yankees or Red Sox. But since it's the "small market" (btw I hate that term. Mpls-St. Paul is the 14th largest media market in the country) Twins, everyone is seemingly shocked at the amount of money he's making.

Like I said earlier, he signed for below his likely market value. Besides, the guy is 26 with 3 batting titles, an MVP, and is one of the best defensive catchers in the game.

Beisbol be bery bery good to me.



Let the season begin!

There is definitely excitement in the air this year for the Twins. The new stadium and re-signing Mauer has pushed expectations to a deep run to the World Series. Nathan is out for the year so middle reliever Jon Rausch will get the first crack at replacing him. For the first time since the late 80's/early 90's, the Twins have some actual power in the lineup with Thome, Morneau, Cuddyer, and even Mauer hit 30 dingers last year. I get the feeling that if the Twins don't win the Central there's going to be a riot at Target Field.

Hurray for new stadiums:

And the Phils with "Doc" Halladay at the helm take their first opening day victory in 4 years with an 11-1 thrashing of the lowly Nats.

Oh, would that we could play the Nationals all 162 games. :)

Congratulations on the new digs. The stadium looks pretty effing fantastic. Good luck in that AL central, dude. ;)

Tigers are 1-0, so far so good :P

I cant think of anything more insulting for the yankees to return this season as defending champs and lose at fenway park on opening day bwahaha.

Of course the sox lost last night. They haven't started the season with 2-0 record since 1999.

Yes, I was chuckling at the fact the Yanks blew a 4 run lead. :lol

My, that was satisfying after the pasting they gave my Phils last year. >:

Roy Halladay - 2-0, 0.56 ERA, 17K, 2 W 16 IP.
Cliff Lee - DL, expected back May, 2010

I realize it's still the first week of the season, but I wonder: Who in Philly is complaining about this deal now?

Yankees pitcher Chan Ho Park's explanation for his shoddy outing against the Sox:

The resemblance is uncanny:

This Philadelphia fan is why Philadelphia fans have a bad reputation. Pig. (My apologies to pigs everywhere.) :(

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5098407

This article is not safe for your stomach. :x

EDIT: This guy could be JC's evil twin. Note the shiner. (!)

Haven't caught up on Rome this week because of work, but I will this weekend, I am sure he will have a few words to say about that

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...94304317_x.htm

I devoted a separate thread to this as well

Some guy from oakland pitched a perfect game against the rays

http://m.espn.go.com/mlb/gamecast?w=...=TOP&topslot=1

I was waiting for the return of "the tongue". :)

Well, Geggy should feel a little better, after the Sox salvaged one game of the weekend series against the Yanks. They still suck, though. :(

Sox still need some more good starting pitching; is Dice-K going to get any better after coming off the DL? His first two starts were pretty pathetic.

What the hell happened to Beckett? He went from ace to batting tee in the course of an off-season.

If the Cards can plug a couple of offensive holes, they're gonna be unstoppable. Schumaker looks like he's starting to come around at the plate, but Ryan is hitting about .170 and can't seem to buy a hit. Once those guys get back to the .300 mark, where they usually are, they should coast to the division win.

Whenever the Twins need a rebound after a short slump, the Brewers come to town. Thanks Milwaukee!

I guess, being the resident Tigers fan here, it falls to me to bring this up.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/pos...all_teach.html

So what happened is Joyce screwed up the call on out 27 and called the runner safe when clearly he was out.

Joyce owned what he did, and did so in a tearful manner. Galarraga handled it with class. He accepted the apology, accepted these things happened, and moved on. Personally I think a little blame falls to him, but the majority of it belongs to Selig.

I think Selig is the real villain here because:

1) he should reverse that call, and he did not. Galarraga has every right to be pissed at Selig (and hopefully is). In this way, Selig cost Galarraga a perfect game.

2) He should never have refused to implement instant replay more fully, especially for calls like this. Selig's desire to keep the human element in the game merely inserts the human error into the game (and while I am on Selig, he's a hypocrite, he wants the human element but turns a blind eye to steroids because it was saving baseball with the HR race it created) In this way also, Selig cost Galarraga a perfect game

The real tragedy is that Gallaraga will NEVER get this chance again. :(

This is the exception that proves the rule. They should allow a manager's challenge once per game - it wouldn't be used much, probably only very rarely, but it would prevent crap like this from going down. Seriously, I've seen many calls that were pivotal in crucial games for which managers have gotten tossed arguing with the umpire. Being allowed to challenge that one call would add time, certainly, to the game, but less time arguing and more time getting the damned call right.

Once per game, Bud. Really. What harm could that cause? At least try it out during preseason and see how it works out.

Well, the Phils look to be breaking out of their May swoon. Still in 3rd place, but making some headway in the offense department.

Moyer looks like a 27 year old out there, though. Makes me feel better about my own age. :)

And as such, doesn't it grate that after the ump denied Gallaraga a perfect game, they get no-hit later in the year?

At least Garza walked one batter. :\

Funny that now that the Tigers have pitching they have cooled down bats too :(

Alex Fraudriguez hits #600 :(

Watch this fast because MLB will have it taken down

EDIT youtube embedding link broken, direct link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf52e2X0Rgk

The Reds and Cardinals decided to fight, there is a nice bit of mess that led to this

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/4...-phillips-reds

Brandon Phillips made some comments, and come game time, the Cardinals had themselves a reason to go

Now here's something you don't see everyday. A pitcher getting yanked in the seventh inning of a no-hit shutout.

Reading about it, I think that Gardenhire probably did the right thing. Still, if I were a Twin fan (WhiteRat, your thoughts?) I might want his head on a pike.

If I were a Twin fan, and I knew my manager was shielding his elbow, I would be encouraged that my manager wants our team healthy.

I would also be gripping about the bullpen giving up 2 so quickly :lol

At least they didn't give up 8 runs in 2 innings, blowing a 7-run lead.

Roidger Clemens will be indicted for perjury :lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX2yDPHhKBQ

Justice sucks don't it Roidger?

"Your honor, I mis-heard the question. I thought they were asking if I took any STEREOS."

Phils have certainly found some creative ways to lose games recently. :(

dude it was only may. it's been an odd season for the red sox. at one point of the season, 11 players were on DL. altogether 19 players have gone on DL this season. Youk, pedroia, mike cameron and possibly jacoby ellsbury are out for the season. they were 1 game behind first place yankees in the beginning of july before avalanche of injuries came. now they're 5.5 games out. something tells me there is a conspiracy by the yankees.

new york mets :lol

To state the obvious, that's baseball. Players get injured, happens to all teams all the time. (Where is Steven Strasburg?) The main thing is to get the right guys at the right time to fill in for the injured players to impact the team in as positive a way as possible. The Yanks, though I despise the franchise, do it better than most.

And the Mets do it worse than most. 3rd? highest payroll in Baseball and barely a .500 ball club. Minaya's head should have been on a platter about 18 months ago. (Where is El Blanco, anyway? :()

if everyone stayed healthy, red sox would easily be the championship contender.

the catch of the year. http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...79976&c_id=mlb

Well, it's crunch time, again, and the Phils are in the thick of a pennant race that could get real interesting later this month, as they play the Braves 6 more times, including the last series of the season. The NL West also has a bit of a logjam at the top. Could be quite the finish.

In the AL, aside from the Rays and Yanks duking it out for bragging rights, not much to talk about until the playoffs begin.

Well, doesn't this suck donkey dong.

Good luck, Tony. :(

How about good ole Brooks Conrad, not suprised if the Braves fans lynched him after the game.

Shades of Billy Buckner.

the socks are gonna win this year! :bestthread

I made the same reference on his third error of the game last night. The Buckner thing still stings a bit as a Red Sox fan but after '04 not nearly as much. I know Conrad is a fill in at second but come on they have to have someone else they can throw in for the next game.

Infante is playing second tonight, and they are up 1 - 0 early on. Seriously 4 errors over three games and it could have easily been 5, they called one a hit in game one they could have gone either way. Hopefully he didnt take a bridge home yesterday after the game.

Gotta feel for the guy. His first shot at the post-season, and he more or less loses the game single-handed.

The shame about Bill Buckner is that the error is all most people remember about him. He had a hell of a career, nearly Hall-of-Fame numbers in some categories.

I heard a funny quote about this the other day. Someone (a stand up comedian unless i am mistaken) mentioned they won't invoke instant replay because it removes the human element from the game and ruin it's purity.

Then he said, yes because steroids, birth control, the morning after pill (:lol) are a pure part of the sport. :lol

Agreed he had a great career, I think he played like 20 years and it was horrible how he was vilified considering they had other chances to win the series and didn't.

:lol :lol HOW BOUT THEM FUCKIN RANGERS! :lol :lol

I am surprised, but since I hate the Yankees I am also glad :lol

I was expecting the Yanks to take game 6 so they could be humilited by Cliff Lee in game 7.

This works too.

Too bad about the Phillies. I wanted to see them go to the World Series again. If for nothing else so I could hear Nick McIlwain bellow "THEY DID IT!"

This very far from being current but I thought you all would get a kick out of it.

Not their year. Good thing too, Texas looks like the juggernaut, BEYATCH!

Even so, that was ball 4, God DAMN YOU!!!! :explode

:(

Looking good for Game 3 so far. Gives them some hope...

Congrats to the Giants. Proof that good pitching beats good hitting.

Unfortunately now I have to listen to my brother brag about how the Giants are the champions. :(

I didn't know the Giants moved to San Francisco from New York.

Jayson Werth is a very rich man.

I'm not too fussed, actually. I just hope Ruben has a plan - after all, he know this would probably happen. The idea of a Mayberry/Brown platoon in right doesn't seem viable to me; maybe they could platoon Mayberry and Ibañez, and play Brown everyday in right.

Twins trade JJ Hardy and Brendan Harris to the Orioles for minor league pitching help. I liked Hardy but it seemed like he was injured every other week. His trade now leaves an opening for Japanese sensation Tsyuoshi Nishioka, who the Twins recently won exclusive bidding rights for. Nishioka hit .346 last year in the Japan Pacific League and Twins fans are already calling him "Baby Ichiro". We'll see if he turns out to be a fraction of what Ichiro is.

And, Cliff Lee signs with the Phils.

Didn't see that one coming. :shocked

Yeah. Kind of sucks but I like it better than him going to the Yanks.

Nobody saw that coming I daresay

Amaro is almost surely not done yet - the Phils' salary is now extremely top-heavy.

If I were GM, I would consider cutting Ibanez, even though he is a relatively solid player, and put Mayberry, Brown and Francisco in a three-man platoon. The team has got to find out, once and for all, if any of these three can play everyday at a high level. On the other hand, if they're not prepared to do this, then they absolutely must look into a solid hitting right-handed outfielder to replace Werth. And where are they going to get the bucks to do this?