Major League Baseball: 2011 Thread

  • Thread starter JohnBM01
  • 770 comments
  • 31,166 views
Meh. Joe Blanton got lit up again last night and is now 0-2. I know he can pitch better than that; hopefully he'll come around soon.

Good win for the Astros there, they needed it.

(I'm a closet Cubbies fan, though)
 
Is Josh Hamilton's injury his fault or the third base coach's fault? I was very surprised to see him throw his coach under the bus like that. He has always been a real stand-up guy when answering the press. Anyways in little league the first thing they teach you is to never slide head first, I understand you have to when your going all out to effectively try and deke the tag. I just feel he can't solely blame his coach like he did. IMO all major leaguers who slide head first do so at their own risk, its a reckless and exciting play but they all know better.
 
Last edited:
When I was in high school, the guy who played catcher for our team was a projected first round pick. He was good enough to garner attention to other players on the team and no one from my school ever went anywhere big to play sports. He was a five tool player behind the plate. Really a natural. (I'm pretty sure he was juicing because he hung out with other guys I knew were juicing, but I digress)

Anyways, the guy broke his neck sliding head first into home and that was the end of that story. Nowadays, I'm pretty sure he's drinking his life away in some downstate piece of crap apartment, reminiscing on what could have been.
 
HOODFIELD
Is Josh Hamilton's injury his fault or the third base coach's fault? I was very surprised to see him throw his coach under the bus like that. He has always been a real stand-up guy when answering the press. Anyways in little league the first thing they teach you is to never slide head first, I understand you have to when your going all out to effectively try and deke the tag. I just feel he can't solely blame his coach like he did. IMO all major leaguers who slide head first do so at their own risk, its a reckless and exciting play but they all know better.
Click to expand...

Can't it be both? 1st inning, 1 out, whats the point?
 
I heard that Josh Hamilton (TEX) will be out for 8 weeks due to his injury sliding for home in Detroit. Eight weeks without a beast like Hamilton. Ouch.

The Astros improved to 3-8 with their win last night. Tonight is the rubber game between the Astros and Cubs. Carlos Z. is going to be tough customer to deal with on the mound. I'm more worried about Wandy Rodriguez than I am Carlos Z. I just hope the Astros can play more consistently. Doesn't have to be 16-hit games; just win and keep winning.


Elsewhere...
* The Diamondbacks are 5-5. Not bad in the always hotly-contested NL West. I did see the D'Backs coach get into a shouting match with the umpire (guess who usually wins when it's coach vs. umpire).
* The Indians fell 2-0 in Cleveland(?) against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Tribe had an 8-game winning streak going before this close loss.
 
Epic motherf:censored:ing fail... The Astros had five runs hung on them in just the first inning (and add one more in a later inning), but the Astros closed the gap to a 6-5 spread. All the Astros needed to do was prevent the Cubs from getting any more runs, and the Astros just get lacerated. We ended up losing 9-5. My Rockets in the NBA finished their season with 43 wins in an 82-game season with no trip to the playoffs. Conversely, my Astros may finish this season with as many wins as the 2010 Rockets (or less) if we don't start winning baseball more consistently.

Having said this, I'm unimpressed with Bill Hall and Wandy Rodriguez so far for my Astros. I wouldn't be surprised if Wandy goes down to our new AAA affiliate- the Oklahoma City Redhawks (the Round Rock Express is now the Texas Rangers' AAA affiliate).

Up next for the Astros... a four-game weekend series vs. the San Diego Padres. Astros need to stop failing and start winning. At least give people hope to believe in the 2011 Astros even if we're not expected to do much of anything this season.
 
So my Dodgers lost this past series versus the Giants 2-1. We won the first game but couldn't hold onto the lead in the second two. Both games were decided by only one run, so that's a disappointing way to lose. Furcal is gone for 4-6 weeks, so our infield doesn't look too pretty. I'm not very happy with how Uribe has been performing thus far. His stats are atrocious. He'll really need to start swinging that bat more effectively during this homestand before he gets thrown out of Dodgertown in much the same way as Andruw Jones was.

Four games in a row versus the Cardinals here in LA. Kuroda is on the mound against Jamie Garcia tonight. Hopefully this homestand does good things for our performance.
 
The Astros picked up a win tonight against the Padres. It's our first shutout victory, a 1-0 decision. Bud Norris was solid on the mound from what I was able to see. Win #4 for the Houston boys. We're still looking for our first series win as well as our first winning streak. A number of wins in a row for the 'stros wouldn't hurt...
 
Padres/Astros was a 1-1 tie since the Padres won 4-2 last night. Tonight is the third game of four in this series.

I think today on MLB on FOX, it's Twins at Rays. Then on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, it's Rangers at Yankees. Hope all of you have a great weekend of baseball!
 
Keep up that success against San Diego! Lord knows, the Dodgers' need division foes to get every loss possible, we've lost four in a row :banghead:
 
Astros now lead the series 2-1 with an amazing defensive performance. We won 5-3 in come-from-behind fashion. SD was up 3-0 until we got some runs going. That even included a 2-run jack by Chris Johnson. It didn't look pretty, but there was just enough torque to bang that ball into the Crawford Boxes. Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence had TWO awesome diving attempts to limit any Padres damage late in the game. In the end, it was defense that won the game.

I think Jeff Fulchino got the win as Nelson F. got a No Decision. The finale of the series is Sunday afternoon. The box score:

SD: 3 runs, 8 hits, 0 errors
HOU: 5 runs, 6 hits, 2 errors


How's your team(s) looking today/tonight?
 
Got rained out last night, and lost Friday when Oswalt strained his lower back running out a bunt, and the bullpen racked up its first blown save of the season.
 
The Astros can't seem to chain together successive wins. We failed again in an 8-6 defeat on a day when Astros fans couldd bring their dogs out to the park. Sadly (and ironically), we dogged this effort. The Padres just played better and harder today while we failed to overtake them. We even had a Bases Loaded with a chance to tie or win in the Bottom of the 9th. Sadly, we failed. Again.

Our homestand finishes 4-6. Up next... a three-game series at the Mets starting on Tuesday. People talk about the Mets' struggles, but we're struggling ourselves. So it's not like going on the road will cure our winning woes. Then again, when is a road trip EVER an elixir for losing? This set at the Mets starts up a (I believe) six-game road trip.


It's a marathon and not a sprint, but I surely hope the Astros can hopefully string some wins together so that they don't have to come from behind like my 2010-2011 Rockets had to do. At best, the most the Astros can win is the NL Wild Card because the NL Central is too tough.
 
The Dodgers ended their 5-game skid yesterday on the backs of three players:
Chad Billingsley: 8.0IP - 2 hits, 2BB, 11Ks, and no runs allowed
Andre Ethier: 14-Game hitting streak continued with a double in the 9th inning
Matt Kemp: The hottest hitter in the game drove in Ethier with a walk-off blast to win the game 2-1.

2a0jgap.jpg



Now that the losing is over, we can move forward. 23-year-old OF Jerry Sands makes his MLB debut is LF tonight against ATL. He was hotter in AAA than Kemp is in the bigs and he led the team in OPS during Spring Training. Tonight we find out how well his talents translate. Donnie B likened Sands to Matt Holliday, and I'd take that all day everyday (twice on Sundays :D). That's at least something to feel good about while Loney and Uribe continue to be horrendous at the plate.

============
UPDATE: Welcome to the Bigs, Jerry Sands! All he did in his first AB was hit a 2-out double!
 
Timmy took a no-hitting against the Rockies last night into the 7th inning. He started having a problem with his 2-seem having too much movement and started getting behind in the count. Eventually gave up a single to CarGo.

In other news Zito has been placed on the DL for the first time in his career. Could be out at least a month with a sprained foot. Vogelsong (who was part of the 2000 Giants) will probably replace him. More and more injuries :lol: its starting to be a joke. Ross, Torres, Wilson, Zito, DeRosa, Casilla. Thank god we are very deep. Vogelsong looked good last night but lets see how he does in a start, he was a fifth round draft pick that hasn't really panned out but had a nice career in (Japan?) not sure. But I'm not too worried as we still have 4 studs, which is more then most teams can say. That and our offense is starting to heat up. Pat Burrell is starting to look better and hit his 5th HR last night and Sandoval is on a tear as is Sanchez and Rowand who seems to only be able to make an out by lining it hard straight at the third basemen. If only we were healthy...

Also Schierholtz hit a estimated 470 foot bomb last night into the third deck of Coors field something only one other Giant has done (Bonds, twice) and is the 31st(or 33rd) time its been done... Crushed. Also fun fact, Nates brother was sitting 10 feet from the guy who caught it and bought it for $25 for it. 👍

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13920179&c_id=sf
 
Three games at the Mets followed by three games at the Brewers. I wanted to chime in last night and on Monday, but Internet troubles beyond my control forced me to sit this one out.

Both the Astros and Mets came into last night's contest with 5-11(?) records. Wandy Rodriguez was unimpressive in each of his starts this season... until last night. We ended up winning 6-1. Our only goof was the solo NYM jack we gave up in the... sixth inning (I believe). Otherwise, we would have won 6-0 like the Marlins did to the Pirates last night.



Here's the weekend Nationally-televised game lineup for this weekend...

* Braves at Giants (I like this matchup)
* Reds at Cardinals
* White Sox at Tigers

ESPN Sunday Night Baseball:
* Reds at Cardinals


So Sunday Night Baseball gets its first NL feature match of the season after having seen Yankees at Red Sox and Rangers at Yankees. Enjoy some MLB baseball this week and this weekend! :)
 
Bud Selig is going to appoint an MLB Represtative to oversee all aspects of the Dodgers while they investigate the McCourt's finances. To me, this is good news. {LINK} We've referred to him and his ex-wife as the McCrooks since they first arrived.

UPDATE: The Dodgers just beat the Braves 6-1 with Andre Ethier extending his MLB-leading hit streak to 17 games (that's his new career high as well). Ethier was 3-4 and needed a triple to hit for the cycle. As much as I love Andre the Giant, that's not the big news from this game. Give the game ball to Jon Garland! In his 2nd start after being on the DL he threw a complete game (1 run, 4 hits, 2 walks, 4 Ks). Also notable: Juan Uribe is finally hitting (3-4 with 4 RBI [7 on the year]). The concern after last night's game was our bullpen (8 runs in the 9th), but it looks like at least one of those pitchers (Ramon Troncoso) will be sent down to AAA on Friday when bullpen-extraordinaire Vicente Padilla returns to make his season debut in Chicago. And, obviously, John Garland held up his end of the deal by giving the relief corps the night off. It's worth mentioning that Garland's 2012 option vests with 190 innings pitched.
 
Last edited:
For the first time this season, the Astros get themselves a win streak. We are assured at least a series victory for tomorrow night's series finale at the Mets. We won against... dare I say, New York's other team to the tune of a 4-3 victory. The Play of the Game (to me) was Bill Hall taking one for the team by catching a foul ball while running full-speed into a low wall from the front side. Dude held onto the foul ball and later left the game with a right ankle sprain after smacking the wall so hard. This loss by the Mets, by the way, makes them 1-9 at home this season. But once again- Astros get successive wins for the first time this season and are assured at least a series win at the Mets. It was a 6-1 HOU win on Tuesday, and 4-3 HOU win earlier tonight.



In addition, what about TWO doubleheaders on the same day? It was Padres at Cubs and Nationals at Reds, both with doubleheader matches.
 
My Astros failed miserably. J.A. Happ got lit up as the Mets won 9-1 at Citi Field. The Astros just couldn't get much of anything going. I stopped watching when the Mets were up 4-0. Astros were fortunate not to get blanked.

Well, we got more important business the next six of seven series. The reason why is because most of our next opponents will be NL Central opponents. This stretch begins at Milwaukee on Friday night against the Brewers (3-game set). All we can do is win and keep winning. We later return home for a three-game set against our rival Cardinals. It is even more of a rivalry with Lance Berkman wearing Cardinals' colors. Still, we can only worry about the Brew Crew.



Did your team(s) win or fail today/tonight? What happened?
 
My hometown Angels are off to a great start. Especially Jered Weaver 5-0 and leading the MLB in strikeouts.
 
Marlins crushed it. I'm so damn tired of the Phillies, man, watch the Marlins whoop them when that series comes around.
 
The all-too familiar sight of failing has returned for the Astros. We've gone from winning two straight... to [badly] losing two straight. Mets won 9-1 over us last night, and we lost by a touchdown (if I may use football speak) in a hitting war- a 14-7 defeat in Milwaukee. I guess when you have low expectations for a team, it shows. I still believe in the Astros as I always do. Still, even though the season just started, something like this is what you hope doesn't fester and manifest itself for the whole of the MLB season. There just wasn't enough for the Astros to really and realistically pull one out. Losing to division opponents, even this early in the season, is something you don't want to do.



Elsewhere, I heard there was a no-hitter... until it was denied in the 9th Inning. It was the Marlins who won 4-1 in Miami with Anibal Sanchez having to settle for a one-hitter. At least the Marlins are doing what my Astros can't- win games. The important thing is that you win the game regardless of if it's a no-hitter (you obviously win in a no-hitter unless you draw a lot of walks that lead to RBIs) or however many hits you eventually allow.
 
If our pitchers keep playing like this, we're gonna be champions. Book it. I want them to win so badly before they become the uglyass Miami Marlins. Retire that F logo in style.
 
Cole Hamels, with a bit of help from Ryan Madson, racked up the Phillies' fifth shutout 19 games into the season, and Ryan Howard's bat finally woke up again after having gone 6 for the previous 45.
 
Crazy game! The Astros were leading 3-0 before the Brewers went on offense. We led 6-5 heading into the 9th inning until the Brew Crew tied it at 6-6. We needed one extra inning, and it was enough for us to win 9-6 putting a three-spot on the Brew Crew. So we force a Rubber Game for Easter.

ASTROS: 9 runs, 14 hits, 2 errors
BREWERS: 6 runs, 15 hits, 0 errors


One crazy moment of the game is that we nearly had a Triple Play lined up! First, we got one Brewer in a run-down as we tagged. Then, we had another guy in a run-down and got him. Had one Astro caught the ball, we would have had a Triple Play. But... we settled for a double. This whole road trip has been crazy to be honest. Got to love baseball!
 

Latest Posts

Back