Major League Baseball: 2008 Thread

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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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For all action of 2008... I welcome this thread. I may offer discussion of my hometown Houston Astros, who are trying to be winners with no Bagwell or Biggio. I won't update religiously, but I will offer this thread for you all to do whatever you want in talking MLB baseball. Play ball!
 
I'm not a huge fan but I am impressed with how the Detroit Tigers have rebounded from having one of the worst teams of all time into a fairly solid club. I typically pull for them whenever I catch a game mostly because they brought back a bit of spirit to Detroit.
 
Has anyone seen what the new stadium for the Nats is like? It's pretty cool. There's alot of stadium building going on right now...


Also:

Yankees will win the pennant this year over the Tigers. It'll go 6 or 7 games probably.
 
I believe Sports Illustrated has already picked the Tigers to win it all this year, which would be nice since the lat time they did it was over 20 years ago.
 
My Astros finally won their first game of the season by belting out four runs in the Top of the 9th at San Diego. We eventually won 8-5. I'm really starting to love Michael Bourn of the Astros for his defensive ability and great speed. Almost kind of made me forget about Willy Taveras before Taveras went on to Colorado.

They'll be playing day games until Monday when the Astros come home to play the St. Louis Cardinals. San Diego's currently beating the Astros 2-0 in the Bottom of the 3rd. Houston has no runs, one hit, and no errors. San Diego has two runs, three hits, and no errors.
 
I was at the Giants Vs. Padres game last where my team finally won another game. It was a good game on both sides, and even better with Bengie Molina's walk off home run :) Now we need to turn around and win games. We need a better hitting game.
 
How 'bout them Tigers, the team everyone wanted to score 1000 runs finally won last night! (before starting the season at 0-7)
 
My Astros will host the Florida Marlins this weekend. Astros have a long way to go, but they have to wake up the bats and take teams deep. Something my Astros don't get too much credit for is defense. I think we've led the league in double plays and stuff for some time. A rather underrated stat about us.

Now to go off-topic. It's not helping us get exposed that Forbes has voted Houston as the sixth most miserable sports city. Here is a list in descending order about America's Top 10 most miserable sports cities:

10 - Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota*
09 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania*
08 - Cleveland, Ohio*
07 - Denver, Colorado*
06 - Houston, Texas* (my hometown)
05 - San Diego, California*
04 - Phoenix, Arizona*
03 - Buffalo, New York
02 - Seattle, Washington*
01 - Atlanta, Georgia*

* = has MLB teams



You can read the full list here: < http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/08/sports-atlanta-seattle-biz-sports_cx_tvr_af_0408sportsmisery.html >. Of these "miserable sports cities," which city's hometown team from the list above has the best chance of going deep in the playoffs?
 
^Very surprising list for me, specially since the Padres have a really nice park. I went there when visiting my sister and it was almost as nice as my beloved AT&T Park :D

Anyways, Giants are playing really good now, even with Dave Roberts, and Omar Visquel on the disable list, and Aaron Rowand with a hurt rib cage. I just wish we got rid of Bonds earlier and got these young speedy guys to take over. And if we need a home run, we got Bengie Molina :D and he is legit!!!

I just wish Barry Zito would start pitching like a $125 million pitcher. Considering Matt Cain, Time Lincincum, and Kevin Corriera are pitching the way they are, and spending way less.

Who else is bummed out with a purchase or change their team has made?
 
Sorry for the double post but, my Giants have a new rookie that is just something else... 👍 John Bowker now has played on saturday and sunday hitting a 3 run jack to right field, then on sunday hitting a 2 run homerun to the same spot. These are his 2 first games in the major league and he stands being 4/6 thats a pretty nice start considering it's off the best team in the NL. I'm really excited to see this guy play.

Not only that but Fred Lewis another rookie hitting doubles in the games like it's batting practice.

Anyone have some good first impressions of rookies on their team?
 
God the Tigers are sucking this year and I don't know why, maybe they were cursed by SI saying they would win the World Series. Oh well there is still a lot of ball left to play so I'm not overly worried yet.
 
Well... I think back to my Houston Astros in 2005. We had that stretch run that took us all the way to the World Series. Not only did we lose the World Series, we didn't even register a World Series win over the Chicago White Sox. So I'm hopeful Detroit can get it together while the season is still young. The American League is usually regarded as being better than the National League (where my Astros play), so I'm sure the Tigers can go right back to pouncing on teams. They may even have themselves a stretch run that leads them to leading their division. The season is still young. But if the Tigers just end up being the next Kansas City Royals, then so be it. You can't win the World Series in April.
 
My Astros held the Phillies scoreless (3-0)... until Jose Valverde blew it with terrible pitching. The Phillies ended up winning the game 4-3 in the Bottom of the 9th after all the hard work Shaun Chacon put for us. I'm not sure if it was either a terrible Astros loss or a big Phillies win. Either way, it was a lack of not "finishing the fight (HALO3 reference)."
 
Exactly why my D-Backs traded Valverde to Houston.

I'm still rather puzzled by why Livan Hernandez was traded to Minnesota, but we did get Dan Haren from the A's and we have Randy Johnson back after his 2nd back surgery. (plus Micah Owings, Brandon Webb and Doug Davis)
 
I hate your D-Backs :(

Oh well, we beat Randy. But I give him more respect then any other pitcher. No but seriously if we had Lincincum play against Webb it would of been a totally different game. Zito blows now. 126 million for 7 years is a waste of trash. The only people making a difference on my team are the Rook's. Lewis, Lincincum, Bowker, Velez are hot and heating it up. Velez is turning what normal base hits into doubles, then stealing third on even the best catchers (hes fast :D ) and Bowker and Lewis are clearing the bases with triples and home runs.

Randy Winn last year had a 300+ AVG last year, he is failing this year, he needs to prove himself. I know he hast it. Jose Castillo and Bengie Molina are actually doing pretty good along with Rich Aurilia who are getting a good amount of RBI's. But you see we are wasting all are money on Barry Zito who is are worst starter. What gives? He is the 9th highest payed player in baseball. We can get 3-4 stars instead of him.

And Bocock are SS in replace of Omar Visquel (best Shorstop ever) who is on the DL. Omar doesn't have much of a bat though and hes getting old, but he makes less mistakes then pretty much any other player.

Ray Durham lost his bat 2 years ago and he needs it back, he used to be hot now hes not.

And Aaron Rowand needs to hit for the walls like he did in the first few games.


Grr... Well I think the fact that we have only played first place teams with lots of stars so far is why we are failing, but looking down the road after we play the Cardinals again (hey! we have a chance against them at least as it seems)

So yeah, hopefully my Giants can help your Astros out John and knock them down a few games and help you out.

Then it's Arizona, San Diego, Red's (I'm going to the Sunday day game woot)
So hopefully we can turn it around.
 
Man that Rockies/Padres game last night was a real marathon,
22 innings, 6 hours and 16 minutes later the Rockies won 2-1.
 
Now all of a sudden, the Astros can win games. They completed their five-game home stand by beating the San Diego Padres last night and the night before. Now the Astros will hit the road to go to Cincinnatti. Before we come home to Minute Maid Park, we have (gulp) the Arizona Diamondbacks. I'm not sure who all we're facing in the Astros' road trip. Next thing you know it, it will be interleague play. Can't wait to show the Texas Rangers who's boss. Kazuo Matsui is doing quite well for us since getting his first start. It's also nice to finally have a little Japanese prescence in Houston aside from the Chinese prescence with Yao Ming.

For my American League fix, I'm starting to watch more Rangers' games. I like the broadcast of Astros' games by Bill Brown and Jim Deshaises(?) here in Houston. The Rangers' broadcasts seem to have a bit more talking and not too much about the game. Last I checked on the Rangers, the Detroit Tigers were pounding Texas 7-1 in the bottom (or top?) of the Sixth Inning last night. I'm an Astros guy. However, I cheer on the Texas Rangers in the American League.

Let me share some of my favorite players in the MLB.
* Chase Utley - Philadelphia Phillies
* John Smoltz - Atlanta Braves (who recently got his 3,000th strikeout)
* Jake Peavy - San Diego Padres
* I'm starting to like this Fukudome for the Chicago Cubs.
* I'm staring to respect Brandon Webb for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Carry on, people!
 
My Astros can win games all of a sudden. They beat out Cincinnati 9-3 to go on a four-game winning streak. We now move to 10-12 and can go to 11-12 by winning the day game tomorrow. Congraulations to Ken Griffey Jr. for getting home run #597.

As for the other Texas team... what the hell happened? I stopped watching around the 8th Inning as the Detroit Tigers were beating the Texas Rangers 18-6 or something like that. I'm watching Rangers baseball just to catch up on American League action aside from my NL Astros. Detroit is dead last in the AL Central (correct division?), but pounded the boys from Arlington, Texas like it was nothing.
 
My Astros are in Arizona at the lovely Chase Field against the hot (not talking about the desert) Arizona Diamondbacks. They got to play tough to stay in the fight and maybe get some wins out of Arizona.

Barry Zito was recently moved to the bullpen for the San Francisco Giants. I can't really wait to see action from AT&T Park. I love AT&T Park. When I did a Google Maps view of the ballpark, I realized that AT&T Park was actually in eastern San Francisco. I often wonder where it was and where looking across the water led to. Across San Francisco bay are the cities of Oakland and Alameda.

My Astros don't take on the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park until May 12 through May 14. In fact, that will be part of a West Coast road trip that will eventually work its way into Interleague Play against our rival Texas Rangers. I'll be getting my Assocaite's in the Arts on May 17th as the Astros play Game 2 against the Texas Rangers that day.

Anyone else want to chat up on Major League Baseball this season?
 
Oh oh pick me! pick me!

Yeah I was going to mention that my team was playing yours. I should be a good series, as they are both good teams. Giants are a lot better then what there record shows.

The lead management for the Giants blows so hard it isn't funny. 7 year $126 million deal on Zito? 0-6? Gave up 8 runs in the first 3 innings? What. The. Hell. It's funny because without him in the starting rotation we have the 3rd lowest ERA in the league, and have the most strike-outs.

It's really ashame how bad we are doing when we have such strong players. Both Tim Lincecum and John Sanchez will both pass 1st place in strike outs in there next outing. Both are tied at 36k's. Lincecum has a 1.23 ERA (3rd best in the league) He also is tied for 3rd for most wins (4-0 w/l)

Some other facts, Bengie Molina (Catcher) with runners on 3rd (6 at bats) he has 6 RBI's and is hitting over 600 with runners in scoring position. He also is one of the hardest catchers to steal off of. He has a cannon of a arm and he proved that last night by picking off a runner who took a little bit to big of a lead at 1st base.

Now it's steals; Giants are one of the leading teams in steals, which has helped in getting early leads.

Don't forget to vote for your favorite players online for the all-star game.

http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp
 
Houston Rockets blew out the Utah Jazz, and now the Arizona Diamondbacks lost 6-4 in Game 2. So the Rubber Game is tomorrow. Good night for Houston pro sports.
 
3rd game of the Giants Phillies series starts in 30 minutes!! Yay I can't wait to hopefully take the series.

Even though the Giants blow this year they are actually hitting insanely good, but not just knowing how to hit those RBI's... Last game we had 13? hits and 3 runs... Phillies had 4? hits and 2 runs.

Anyways next series as in Houston so hopefully it will be a good one 👍
 
Prosthetic, do you think the Giants moving Zito to the bullpen will help him get his fastball velocity back? Or do you think he'll be their new closer?
 
TS
Prosthetic, do you think the Giants moving Zito to the bullpen will help him get his fastball velocity back? Or do you think he'll be their new closer?
Click to expand...

Closer? No! Right now we have Brian Wilson who is an amazing closer. 10 saves out of 12 opportunities. That makes him leading the NL in saves if I recall correctly.

Hopefully putting Zito into the relieving spot will give him time to figure out how to get more momentum into his fastballs... because at 84 mph it's not very fast. His curve ball isn't reliable, he doesn't have control on it and it mostly ends of being a ball...

Time will tell how he ends up throwing... But we have him for 6 more seasons so hopefully he turns into that CY Zito we knew as an A.
 
The Astros won their first-ever three-game series. They seemed to have won all three games in come-from-behind fashion. Especially when you have players like J.J. Hardy and Prince Fielder, you're bound to get pounded. My Astros reached for the stars to beat Milwaukee to head into their off-day tomorrow. The next series will be at home against the Washington Nationals. The pitching matchup for today against the Brew Crew was Ben Sheets vs. Chris Sampson. I would have liked the matchup to be Ben Sheets vs. Roy Oswalt. Roy is about the best starting pitcher we have. My second favorite is Wandy Rodriguez. Dave Borkowski does a pretty good job in bullpen pitching. It was Hunter Pence that bombed the ball into the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid Park to win in 12 innings. Both we and the Brewers will have Monday off. The Brewers will head to Miami to take on the Florida Marlins in their next series.

We used to have the Killer B's. Now we do sandwiches- the BLT ([Lance] Berkman, [Carlos] Lee, and [Miguel] Tejada). After the Nationals series, we hit a road trip that includes the L.A. Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants (love AT&T Ballpark!), and then heading back to Texas to take on the Texas Rangers in our Battle for the Silver Boot interleague series. Game two of the Astros/Rangers series will take place on the day I get my Associate's in the Arts degree from my community college. So I can hope the Astros graduate top of the class against the Rangers.



As I've been saying before, I'm starting to watch Texas Rangers baseball to see American League action. I cheer on the Texas Rangers in the AL, though the Rangers aren't really a seriously powerful team against some of the AL heavyweights. They're getting a bit better from games I've seen from the Rangers. I sometimes have to keep reminding myself which teams are in which league. But when the Rangers host the Astros, I HAVE to go with the Good Guys (Houston)!



Let me close out by congratulating the St. Louis Cardinals on their win over the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. A lot of stock rising for Kosuke Fukudome. And as a person who is cultured with Japanese, I kind of get irked when Fukudome isn't said like it would be said in Japanese. Daisuke Matsuzaka, for example, is pretty easy to say in Japanese since he's called "Dice-K." Our Japanese guy here in Houston is Kazuo Matsui, who's doing pretty well for us. It's nice to have some Chinese and Japanese diversity in Houston sports. Yao Ming for the Rockets and Kazuo Matsui for the Astros. I rarely get to meet Japanese folks here in this culturally-rich city.
 

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