Major League Baseball: 2008 Thread

  • Thread starter JohnBM01
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People are asking if the Yankees are done. TopHat, at this point in the season, do you think it's too early to ask if the Yankees are done? Personally, people who think the Yanks are done treat them like they are a team 20 games under .500. I don't think the Yankees are done. What about you?

One press conference comment made by the Astros last year or two said that the Astros should have more spirited announcements because they win. The Astros retired Craig Biggio's number. Then, the 'stros retired the Diamondbacks in a 3-0 victory. They got all three runs in one inning off the hot bat of Ty Wiggington. Wiggington got wiggy with it and took care of business off of his bat.

The Astros probably have no choice but to sweep the Brewers in their road series to even have SOME hope of winning the NL Wild Card. Astros will have to keep winning while everyone else in the race will have to continually screw up. Get ready for a ride through Hell, Astros. Get to Heaven (the playoffs) any way you can.
 
Like it or not, Yankees are done. Tampa Bay looks like they're gonna run away with the AL East, the Red Sox are battling the White Sox & Twins for the wild card and the Yankees are a very distant 3rd in both categories.

IMO, too many injuries have plagued the Yankees this season.
 
I honestly don't think they're done just yet. 5 games out in the wildcard != insurmountable. Even 9.5 games back in the division isn't unheard of. In 1978, the Yanks were 14 games out, behind the Red Sox, and ended up winning the division. That's the wonderful thing about baseball: Anything can happen.
 
If the Yanks are seemingly done, can they still win the AL Wild Card? Or are they out of that race as well?

Meanwhile, my Astros fell 9-3 in Milwaukee. The Astros' campaign to win the NL Wild Card is more like trying to scale up a steep hill on crutches in a heavy rain storm. We could very well be done ourselves even for someone who hasn't given up on the Astros all year long.
 
Giants blew up the Braves 5-0 yesterday, Zito getting his 8th win. The Giants hitting has been coming alive with a lot of early game runs which is helping us. Considering are late game bullpen is usually rubbish exceptions for Romo, Hinshaw, and of coarse blazin Wilson. This was the first series the Giants won in Atlanta since 1993. Which is pretty crazy but we took 3/4, we also won all the other series against them this year :)

I really hope the Giants continue playing like this. We play the Marlins in SF tonight with Correia on the mound who seems to never get run support so many this game with hot hitting Giants. We just made a few movies taking out a few strugglers and brought in 3 fresh kids and 2 of them are making some real statements and 1 (Rohlinger) is having trouble getting on base but hopefully he will find that .300 bat of his. But Rowand, Winn (who is hitting almost .450 in August), Ishikawa (new guy hitting .350) and Sandoval (back up catcher) who is hitting .417 may be able to make some runs happen. I really hope they continue playing like this, and now we are actually hitting home-runs which is making me happy as their bats have been quiet.

Looking at Zito's August and even late July pitching he has been real dominant. He went 7 shut-out innings allowing 5 hits.
 
Even though the San Francisco Giants are just about completely out of it for the NL West and even the NL Wild Card, what's the mood like in San Francisco? Do the fans still think there's a little hope left for the Giants? Can they still put together a good series of wins to work for next year? Or what's the mood like among most Giants fans at this point of the season with their kind of record?
 
JohnBM01
Even though the San Francisco Giants are just about completely out of it for the NL West and even the NL Wild Card, what's the mood like in San Francisco? Do the fans still think there's a little hope left for the Giants? Can they still put together a good series of wins to work for next year? Or what's the mood like among most Giants fans at this point of the season with their kind of record?
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Us Giants fans know we are out unless we can start hitting with some serious power. It's defiantly do-able but with a brainless manager and coach you can't count on it. We do have one guy named Nate Schierholtz who is currently playing on the USA Olympic team, and is one of the big power hitters hitting 2nd? He is most likely going to play for us in September so that could help.

Next year you could count on a good Giants team. With likely newly brought up Sandoval as catcher along with Bengie Molina both big guys that can hit the long ball. Sandoval I think can also play 3rd base. We will have Lewis likely in LF, Rowand in center and Schierholtz and Winn in left. But I doubt Winn will be with us next year so count Schierholtz. Count Cain, Lincecum, and Zito (who has been pitching great baseball as of mid July+) likely being are starting 3 pitchers. Short stop will be Ochoa who has proven to be a great young adversary to the legendary Vizquel. He also has a good bat with average speed. Then we will likely having Burriss at 2nd who has way above average speed and hits for about 280-300. 1st will likely be a new prospect or Rich Aurillia if he doesn't retire or we trade him.
 
Astros won 5-2 last night, but lose 5-2 to Milwaukee. Now a day off followed by our final trip to Shea Stadium. We may well be done now.
 
JohnBM01
Astros won 5-2 last night, but lose 5-2 to Milwaukee. Now a day off followed by our final trip to Shea Stadium. We may well be done now.
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Don't ever stop routing for your team!

I got a back up plan and thats too rout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They have a real strong team this year and I want to see them get in there and show the news that only seem to focus on the Red Sox and Yankees even when they are out that their are better teams!

No offense Top Hat, but Yankees now are not what they used to be. But the Giants aren't the same dominant team of the late 80's and early 90's or even 2000-2003.
 
Prosthetic
I got a back up plan and thats too rout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They have a real strong team this year and I want to see them get in there and show the news that only seem to focus on the Red Sox and Yankees even when they are out that their are better teams!
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Don't forget the fact that the Rays are also wanting a new stadium (to get out of that ghetto Tropicana stadium) and the fact that they're leading their division, the same division that is home to the Yanks and Red Sox is helping that cause.

Anyway, the D-backs won 7-6 last night against the struggling Padres, and with the Dodgers losing to the Rockies finally gave the d-backs a 1 game lead in the NL West for the first time in a week or so.
 
TS
Don't forget the fact that the Rays are also wanting a new stadium (to get out of that ghetto Tropicana stadium) and the fact that they're leading their division, the same division that is home to the Yanks and Red Sox is helping that cause.

Anyway, the D-backs won 7-6 last night against the struggling Padres, and with the Dodgers losing to the Rockies finally gave the d-backs a 1 game lead in the NL West for the first time in a week or so.
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Yeah thats the whole reason why I mentioned them. Tropicana isn't in that bad of an area... I've been there... well not inside but on the highway right next to it.

I saw the replay on the Padres game, and grats on a fight the Giants find easy lol... And grats to Adam Dunn who was a bit of a disappointment earlier in the year.
 
Prosthetic
Don't ever stop routing for your team!

I got a back up plan and thats too rout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They have a real strong team this year and I want to see them get in there and show the news that only seem to focus on the Red Sox and Yankees even when they are out that their are better teams!

No offense Top Hat, but Yankees now are not what they used to be. But the Giants aren't the same dominant team of the late 80's and early 90's or even 2000-2003.
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Did it hurt getting on that bandwagon?

The deal with the Yankees is that they were taken out by injuries, and a stupidly slow start. They've gone without Hideki Matsui (who's in the lineup tonight btw) Chien-Meng Wang (a guaranteed 17+game winner), now Joba Chamberlain (out for another few weeks) and they were without A-Rod for a month. If they had Wang, I'd imagine he'd be having a normal Wang year. So lets say that puts him at 16-6 on the season so far (atm his record is 8-2) His losses have obviously been put up this year by other pitchers. So that's another 8 games won for the Yankees. That would put them in second place, over the BoSox. Then Chamberlain, who hasn't pitched since earlier this month. If he had gone .500 (based on his stuff, which is stellar, he'd be well above that), the Yankees might be in first. Injuries have KILLED this team.
 
It's hard not to jump on a bandwagon in baseball, because their is one for every team. I always thought that the Cubs one was much larger.

Giants also suffered a similar fate to the Yankees. They had the bad Zito for the first half, and also had a few guys on the DL. Dave Roberts being one of them.

If we had the line-up we have been using the last few days we would most likely a contender. But I don't know for sure as it's impossible to tell.
 
Speaking of the Padres, how many of you saw that game on ESPN this past Sunday Night when the Padres had their desert fatigue uniforms on? Pretty interesting they went with this. Of course, I know San Diego for a huge Navy preseence. So I wondered why they didn't go with any kind of Navy-inspired outfits.

I still root on the Astros. Just not like last year when we were completely done. I think all we had to do to play in October was win our final game last season against the Braves, and we lost. Stranger things have happened, but the Cubs and Brewers are just too good.

It's about a month and a half of baseball left for the regular season. Time to start thinking of October soon. Some will be playing in October while others will vacation. You know... "hey, good season man. We'll get 'em next year." Time could be running out on teams desperately trying to make the postseason or even have an outside chance. It's all about who'll come to fruition come playoff time. So a team that's been impressive all season long can stumble a little bit late and still make the playoffs. We're still a month and a half away from the MLB playoffs... but time is running out...
 
I didn't watch that game but I've seen them use it before...

Giants won 2 out of 3 games against the contending Marlins! We lost the first game but one last night and this afternoon. Last night was a big thanks to Bengie Molina's walk off sac fly in the 9th.

Well the 9th today started out with Burriss getting walked (big mistake to a easy base stealer) And sure enough he stole 2nd on the 3rd pitch. (Batter eventually struck out) Then next batter hit a medium sized fly to left field and with Burriss speed it was an easy tag. Then with Burriss on 3rd and 2 outs it was non other then Bengie Molina! (G Fans call him Money) But with his numbers (265 with no runners on, 280 with runners on, 311 with runners in scoring position and 333 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs!) he got intentionally walked which is not a good move with another hot hitter Fred Lewis. A few pitches in they threw a past ball and Burriss scored easily and G men won!

Needless to say Giants are playing good ball now, thank god! :)
 
The Astros have won two straight in New York taking on the Mets. The Brew Crew are still ahead of us by nine games. Lot of people locally say that this is too little, too late. This is a four-game series, so either we win the series or have a series split for Monday.
 
My Giants have won 5 in a row now... Also we had our old neighbors over who is visiting here and they moved to England, they have come back for a visited and we ended up buying tickets for Tuesdays night game against the Colorado Rockies. Hopefully the Giants win streak will continue.
 
I think I read that the Padres have about 40 or 44 wins and 82 losses. Ouch! All the Astros can do to keep hope alive is keep winning. Our series finale at Shea Stadium takes place tonight.
 
Tough break for the D-Backs as they lost 4-2 at Petco Park in San Diego. The Padres now have a terrible 49 wins and 82-something losses. But that loss was nothing compared to the Astros falling on their faces with a 9-1 loss at Shea Stadium.

I'd like to congratulate Thome of the White Sox for being 15th all-time in home runs with at Baltimore at one of those doubleheader games. If anyone's ever been to or seen a double-header game, what's it like? Bet it has to be a long day!
 
Jon Rauch has been struggling lately, his ERA is somewhere around 6.5.

But it's nowhere near as bad as Brandon Lyon's home ERA (17.00).
 
Here's a few talking points from tonight's matches...

* My Astros lost 2-1 at home against the Reds while Milwaukee dominated St. Louis 12-0 in St. Louis. Milwaukee... do us a favor- LOSE SOME GAMES FOR A CHANGE! And eventually, we need to keep winning.

* Meanwhile, San Diego creamed Arizona 9-2 in San Diego. The Diamondbacks probably lost a few teeth after this beating.

* The Yankees tried to rally against the Red Sox, but the [Red] Sox weren't going to have it as the Yanks lose 7-3. A-Rod went 0 for 5 in this match.

* San Francisco lost 7-2 hosting Colorado. Better news for Prosthetic is that he can thank the Nationals for taking down the Dodgers 2-1 as Washington wins at home.

* The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have now won 80 games. They tamed the Oakland Athletics at home. If people think the NL West is terrible, then at least the AL West is surely hot with the Angels having a great season.

* New York Mets and Phillies now have 73 wins each as the Phillies won 8-7 in 13 innings.

* The Cubs went to beautiful PNC Park in Pittsurgh... and gave the Pirates an ugly 14-9 beating.



Hope your favorite team won while your least favorite team lost. Finally, instant replay in MLB begins as early as Thursday. It will mostly be for home run balls hitting the foul pole or just clearing the fence. No challenges by coaches. You'll have to look someplace else online for more details on Instant Replay in baseball.
 
Somebody explain to me how 5 days ago the D-Backs were able to sweep the Padres yet they just got swept themselves by the same team?
 
Giants won 4-1 in a bizzare game, but Timmy was abosult shut out tonight. Went 8 innings allowing 1 run, 10 strike outs and 132 pitches. :scared:

Help from Pablo Sandoval (rookie that is hitting .400) and Bengie Molinas back to back solo home runs.

Tim Lincincum now leads the majors with 210 strikeouts and is tide for first for ERA with 2.43!

Also they mentioned that are relievers have blown SIX! yes 6 of Tim's wins. If we had better relievers he would have a 21-3 record right now. But he has to live with his 15-3 which is amazing for his first whole season. And with the lack of power we have.
 
Yankees lost again tonight, gone is both the series and their playoff chances. 👎

EDIT: What a division those Giants play in eh? 15+ games under five hundred and they're 9 games out. Yankees are 70 and 62 or something, and we're 10 1/2 games out. :grumpy:
 
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My Astros forced a rubber game against the Reds with a 4-1 victory. The match will take place Thursday afternoon here in Houston. We still remain window shoppers as far as the NL Wild Card goes. All we can do is win.



If you all had to pick division and wild card leaders at this point... what current team leading its respective division or wild card do you think is most likely to lose the division or wild card lead when the playoffs roll around?
 
TopHat
EDIT: What a division those Giants play in eh? 15+ games under five hundred and they're 9 games out. Yankees are 70 and 62 or something, and we're 10 1/2 games out. :grumpy:
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The West is pretty bad this year... But remember that when the Yankees came to SF last year they had their ass handed to them :sly: I know, I was at the games! :)

JohnBM01
My Astros forced a rubber game against the Reds with a 4-1 victory. The match will take place Thursday afternoon here in Houston. We still remain window shoppers as far as the NL Wild Card goes. All we can do is win.



If you all had to pick division and wild card leaders at this point... what current team leading its respective division or wild card do you think is most likely to lose the division or wild card lead when the playoffs roll around?
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If I had money it would be on the Brewers.

TopHat
The Mets. Easiest question I've ever answered.
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Mets eh? Right now they are in 1st and the Phillys are only a game back. And the Phillys are a better hitting team but it's pretty close.

The Brewers are ahead of the Mets by a bit in the wild card race by 4 games...

This is how I think it will end...

NL:

East: Phillys

Central: Cubs (Now THATS the easiest question I have ever done ;) )

West: Well just for attention I'm going to say the Giants WOO!!! (YES! I did just say that)

Reason I say that is that friday they were 12 games back! We won 5 games in a row and we are now 9 games back. With both the D-Backs and LAD (LOL!) both some what struggling and the Giants playing good ball with Winn, Sandoval, Molina, Ishikawa all having hot bats, and Cain, Lincincum, Zito all completely shutting teams out. Yes Zito has only loss 1 game in August I think, he is terrific now. I'm waiting for Sanchez to get off the DL and do some nasty pitching (We don't call him Dirty for no reason) and have a good team going.

And if anytime is the time to catch up it's here in September when we have series with Arizona, LAD (Who we absolutely crushed last time YAY!) and Col, all month long we can totally do it! I have faith. OH MAH GAWD! I totally forgot about Lewis! (YES I DID!) (And omg I feel like YSSMAN with all this parenthesis talk lol!) (Did I just do 2 parenthesis in a row? Oh wait this is 3!) And hopefully Rowand comes back with a hot bat and then we got a team full of determination.

Wild Card: Brewers

AL:

East: Tampa Bay, this could possible be the best team in the league right now, and they are doing it with a bunch of injury's.

Central: White Sox, no question, even with the Twins right behind they have so much power on that team it ain't funny.

West: Angels... LOL, they are just too damn good.

Wild Card: Boston, as much as it pains me to say it, they got it, but they will lose first round in the play-offs no doubt. They just aren't the Red Sox of a few years ago.

World Series: This will be a repeat of 2002, Yes I'm saying it! :D LAA Vs. SF! It's totally going to happen and you know it :sly:

Bias Meter: Off teh chartz! :D
 
TopHat
EDIT: What a division those Giants play in eh? 15+ games under five hundred and they're 9 games out. Yankees are 70 and 62 or something, and we're 10 1/2 games out. :grumpy:
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NL West.

JohnBM01
If you all had to pick division and wild card leaders at this point... what current team leading its respective division or wild card do you think is most likely to lose the division or wild card lead when the playoffs roll around?
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NL - Mets, that bullpen is worthless without Wagner.
AL - Red Sox, that rotation is starting to fall to the same fate as the Yankee's rotation.
 
Man... Brandon Webb had a miserable night during Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN against the Dodgers. They lost 9-1 at Chase Field on Sunday Night.

Meanwhile, my Astros won 3-0 at Wrigley Field against the hot Cubs. We're still about eight games back of the Brewers.
 

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