You people really need to watch more baseball.

[Klostrophobic]

Really, you do. It's quite a sport.

• Travis Hafner is the MVP of the AL and it is not debatable in the slightest imaginable way.
• Carlos Beltran is the MVP of the NL.
• Johan Santana is the Cy Young of the AL and it's not up to debate.
• Brandon Webb is the Cy Young of the NL, although it is up to debate if you would like to name Chris Carpenter or Roy Oswalt.
• The Bronson Arroyo for Wily Mo Pena trade was a coup. For the Red Sox.
• Alex Rodriguez will have the best September of his career and fans will be chanting MVP by the end of the season.
• Tony LaRussa is an awful manager.
• Felix Hernandez is better than all the hype. He will win the Cy Young next year.
• Chris Young, the CF for the Diamondbacks will be the best CF in baseball for the next decade. Grady Sizemore be damned. Also, the White Sox are going to regret trading him for the rest of his career.
• The Minnesota Twins are the best team in baseball.
• Despite their terrible record, the Cleveland Indians are one of the three or four best teams in baseball. They are a product of horrible, horrible, horrible luck.
• Mark Loretta is an awful baseball player.
• David Ortiz is overhyped to an unhealthy degree. Manny Ramirez is an infinitely more potent offensive force.
• Francisco Liriano is the AL Rookie of the Year and I don't care if he's missed so much time.
• Hanley Ramirez is the NL Rookie of the Year and his only competition comes from his own teammates--Dan Uggla and Josh Johnson.
• Howie Kendrick will hit .370 next season.

 

[Max Powers]

It's not much of a sport if you're a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

The only thing to get excited about is Freddy Sanchez possibly winning the batting title.

 

[Klostrophobic]

What about Jason Bay being ****ing awesome? And Andrew McCutchen in the minors? Neil Walker has beast written all over him. I really like Mike Gonzalez and Ian Snell. Jose Castillo isn't so bad. Paul Maholm will be a very valuable #3 starter and Tom Gorzelanny is awesome.

Zach Day continues to be badly overrated, though.

 

[Speedy Samurai]

Carlos Beltran the NL MVP? The Mets have many reasons for their success. Glavine, Martinez, Delgado, Reyes, Wright, etc.

What about Ryan Howard? The Phillies have Mr. Howard, and Chase Utley and.. well.. I guess Jimmy Rollins. But any team that has to trade for a Jamie Moyer is not in a good spot yet Ryan Howard's bat seems to be keeping them in it. They could even afford to get rid of Thome knowing they had Howard.

Johan Santana is the Cy Young of the AL and it's not up to debate

What about Halliday? Santana plays on a good Minnesota team while Halliday plays for the Jays. Although, Santana's strikeout numbers are impressive.

Brandon Webb is the Cy Young of the NL, although it is up to debate if you would like to name Chris Carpenter or Roy Oswalt

Oswalt! Oswalt! He plays for the team that has Lance Berkman at first and a bunch of mannequins manning the other positions. No run support. Just ask Clemens. Yes, I am an Astro's fan. Damn you Podsednik!

David Ortiz is overhyped to an unhealthy degree. Manny Ramirez is an infinitely more potent offensive force.

Here! Here! Ramirez is a BIG part of Ortiz's success. People have to pitch to Ortiz out of fear of Ramirez. Ramirez gets knocked on for his fielding, but I don't see Ortiz out in left field, or anywhere on the field for that matter.

Hanley Ramirez is the NL Rookie of the Year and his only competition comes from his own teammates--Dan Uggla and Josh Johnson

(and now Sanchez with a no-hitter to his credit)
Are the Florida Marlins the Athletics of the NL? Great young pitching, and good young position players.

I like baseball.

 

[OZZYGT]

Me too.

This is what I was waiting for...people posting about baseball!

The NY Mets (my team ) has not only the players, but the confidence and determination that it takes to win the WS. Carlos Beltran should be the NL MVP because trust me, if it wasn't for him, the Phillies would be a lot closer to our record by now. Ryan Howard is indeed a candidate for the NL MVP, but remember that an MVP is not only a player who hits a lot of home runs in a season, but the player that delivers when needed...in fielding, running, and hitting of course...and Beltran meets all those characteristics of a good player.
Beltran also made a good comeback after he had problems with his right leg at the beggining of the season.

Johan Santana should be the winner of the CY young award once again. He leads the majors with an astonishing 2.84 ERA, 219 strikeouts and 17 Wins.
Roy Oswalt has always been a good pitcher and a candidate for the award but 13 wins and ERA of over 3.00 can make it...

I'll post more tomorow, now i gotta go to sleep..




Ciao!

 

[Kylehnat]

But any team that has to trade for a Jamie Moyer is not in a good spot

That's what we said about the Mariners in 1996. They then won the division in 1997... And, 10 years, and 150 wins later, everyone agreed it was a good trade .

 

[Klostrophobic]

Carlos Beltran the NL MVP? The Mets have many reasons for their success. Glavine, Martinez, Delgado, Reyes, Wright, etc.

What about Ryan Howard? The Phillies have Mr. Howard, and Chase Utley and.. well.. I guess Jimmy Rollins. But any team that has to trade for a Jamie Moyer is not in a good spot yet Ryan Howard's bat seems to be keeping them in it. They could even afford to get rid of Thome knowing they had Howard.

Carlos Beltran play elite CF defense and his offensive numbers are fantastic. Ryan Howard plays first base. I have Beltran, Pujols and potentially even Miguel Cabrera ahead of Howard.

I'd bore you with the nerd stats, but I'll just say that Beltran is more valuable in the sense that he's better. I don't care about how good the teams are. If the best player in baseball is playing for the Royals, he gets the MVP in my book.

What about Halliday? Santana plays on a good Minnesota team while Halliday plays for the Jays. Although, Santana's strikeout numbers are impressive.

Team success or failure is irrelevent to individual rewards. Halladay is great, but Santana is otherworldly.

 

[Speedy Samurai]

Team success or failure is irrelevent to individual rewards. Halladay is great, but Santana is otherworldly.

I don't know if I agree with this statement. To be the most valuable player in a league you need to make a massive impact on your team. Such massive impact will relate to a teams position in the standings. I would argue that the whole point of being most valuable means you would make a significant difference in how your team finishes.

Would the phillies be competing without Howard's league leading RBIs? Would the Mets still be able to compile an impressive record without Beltran? Considering the other impact players on the team, I would say yes. How many games would the Mets have won without Beltran and how many would the Phillies have won without Howard? That should be the definition of valuable.

I do like Beltran, he is the best center fielder in baseball. I just wished he stayed on the 'Stros.

Yay baseball!

 

[Kylehnat]

I don't know if I agree with this statement. To be the most valuable player in a league you need to make a massive impact on your team. Such massive impact will relate to a teams position in the standings. I would argue that the whole point of being most valuable means you would make a significant difference in how your team finishes.

This is the crux that always comes up. However, the voters don't seem to care, hence the reason that A-Rod (TRAITOR-ROD) won in 2003 with cellar-dwelling Texas. It's a stat-race, really. The true impact to the team is merely a tie-breaker.

Would the phillies be competing without Howard's league leading RBIs? Would the Mets still be able to compile an impressive record without Beltran?

No and probably, respectively. I'd vote for Howard, because without him, the Phillies would be nowhere. Without Beltran, the Mets woud still be somewhere. Funny how the two biggest MVP candidates play in arguably the weakest division .

Tangential A-Rod (aka Derek Jeter's boyfriend) story: At the store last week, I wanted to buy a box of Wheaties. I love Wheaties. Probably my favorite cereal. However, the store only had Wheaties with a picture of A-"I wipe my butt with a picture of Mariners fans"-Rod on the box. I refused to buy it out of principle, and bought frosted wheat instead.

 

[Speedy Samurai]

Enjoy your frosted wheaties. The taste of 'sticking to your principles' is delicious. Being an attender of many Mariners games during the A-rod era I can say I was rather disappointed when he left and definitely disgusted when he put on the pinstripes. I think that karma has somewhat taken him down a few pegs. His MVP awards, however, still peeve me

 

[OZZYGT]

Talk about a traitor, Johnny Damon was the father of all. He even said "i'll keep the curse alive" when he arrived at Yankee Stadium. He's a good player though.

A-Rod seems like a NY guy, all the controversy and show business that goes around the yankee club house fits him very well. NOw, Houston fans are still booing Beltran everytime the mets play at Houston, but IMO, that's a stupid reaction from astros fans. Come one man, the guy had always been good, and at the time he was at Kansas City...he never really recieved much recognition from the media; and was never a candidate fro the MVP weven though he had the caliber. Once he moved to Houston and started amusing everybody with his fielding skills and hitting as well, he got big.
He deserved a 100 Million contract for all his effort, astros fans don't seem to appreciate what he did in the postseason prior moving to NY.
They had Clemens didn't they? And Clemens really deserved to be booed because of the fact that he was actually going to retire and left the Yankees because of that.




Ciao!

 

[Klostrophobic]

I don't know if I agree with this statement. To be the most valuable player in a league you need to make a massive impact on your team. Such massive impact will relate to a teams position in the standings. I would argue that the whole point of being most valuable means you would make a significant difference in how your team finishes.

Would the phillies be competing without Howard's league leading RBIs? Would the Mets still be able to compile an impressive record without Beltran? Considering the other impact players on the team, I would say yes. How many games would the Mets have won without Beltran and how many would the Phillies have won without Howard? That should be the definition of valuable.

I do like Beltran, he is the best center fielder in baseball. I just wished he stayed on the 'Stros.

Yay baseball!

Take Albert Pujols/Carlos Beltran from the Cards/Metropolitans and they lose more than if you take Ryan Howard from the Phillies.

RBI is a largely useless stat on an individual basis. It relies so heavily on other teammates. It really doesn't tell you that much other than that the guy has come to the plate with a lot of men on base. Jeff Francoeur, the worst regular position player in baseball, is going to drive in 100 runs this year.

 

[Kylehnat]

Talk about a traitor, Johnny Damon was the father of all. He even said "i'll keep the curse alive" when he arrived at Yankee Stadium.

What curse would that be? The same curse that has kept the Yankees from winning since 2000? The "over-rated, over-paid, soon to be washed-up player" curse?

 

[Klostrophobic]

Well, they have a good shot at winning it all this year. And they have a few nice young players--Cano, Wang, and Phillip Hughes is going to be up in 2007. I know I'm scared.

 

[OZZYGT]

If you're gonna be afraid of a New York team..be afraid of the Mets..not the Yanks...they're cursed

I think Mets will pull it off this year



Ciao!

 

[Kylehnat]

Too bad the NL is like a league full of AAA teams.

 

[OZZYGT]

I wouldn't say that. Perhaps the DH rule favors the American League teams a little bit.

Let me guess....Mariner fan?




Ciao!

 

[Kylehnat]

I think the interleague play record for the two leagues speaks for itself. Hell, even the M's went 14-4 against NL teams (well, the AA quality NL West). And since there is no reason to talk about the Mariners (or pay attention to what they're doing), I'll just sit here and bash other teams with impunity .

 

[OZZYGT]

Who's this year's best manager for you guys?

I'd of course, say Willie Randolph, but I give more credit to Omar Minaya for making the right choice of pulling him out of the Yanks and being able to bring new great players to the team. Agressiveness doesn't do any bad in a team.

The astros manager has been good also.


HOw about the braves no tittle this year huh?

man I love this sport.





Ciao!

 

[OZZYGT]

Yeah....I look at the thread tittle "You people really need to watch more baseball" and I say...it's true. Almost nobody likes this sport....





Ciao!

 

[Kylehnat]

I love baseball, but a mid-September game between the M's and Royals isn't exactly captivating when football is on. The Seahawks own this town now. I don't really feel very strongly for any of the playoff-bound teams (except AGAINST the Yankees), so I'm not sure how excited I'll be when the playoffs roll around.

Baseball is only fun to watch if you're willing to put the effort forth to learn the game. It's a shame that most people aren't, because fundamentally, it's probably the most pure game there is (sports, with no clock??? ). It's also great fun to play (even if you're stuck in the outfield, you can at least get a nice tan ).