Baseball 2011 (6 Viewers)
- Thread starter lancer
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I think the guy I'm thinking about was Steve Howe, but I do remember Neil, also. -- Al
I looked Howe up and it was him I had in mind. Had numerous drug related problems/suspensions, ( 7 times!). His last year was with the NYY in 1996. Tried to go clean but died in a 2006 car accident and supposedly had meth in his system. -- Al
Warrior
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Sorry Brad, Orosco only pitched for 9 teams, not 900 and played till he was 46 not 70.
My bad.
The season is now 40% gone (give or take a game or two for some teams). No longer early and we now have a good idea of the type of seasons certain players and teams will have. If your favorites haven't gotten untracked by now, they probably won't, (except the ballplayer or team that always catches fire in the second half). Still looks like the AL East will be a season long dogfight, although the Sox could walk away with it as the NYY and Tampa have consistency problems (not to mention the NYY pitching problems). The O's are greatly improved though not as much as I had hoped. Some inconsistency in both pitching and hitting still plagues them. They have gotten LHP Matusz back (finally) and he has looked decent in his two starts so maybe the pitching will settle down. I have less hope for the hitting. At any rate, the O's are 30-32, having seen the bullpen blow last night's game (3 times) and a shot at .500 ball. Last season, it took the O's 105 games to win their 32nd game, a pace they are far ahead of this season. A BIG improvement in record and competitiveness. They are still last in the AL East but are only 7 games out instead of last year when it was 3 or 4 times that at this time.
Over in the NL, I only follow the Nats and they have been more a let down than I had hoped they would be. Their pitching has been outstanding with a team ERA of 3.64 but their hitting has been a disaster, batting only .229 as a team and averaging under 4 runs per game. To be fair, their biggest bat, Ryan Zimmerman, has missed all but the first 8 games of the season with injury. That, plus letting Hr hitter Dunn go to the White Sox and the under performance of huge contract Jason Werth, have left an unfillable hole in the batting order. The Nats are 29-36, 10 games off the pace with little hope of improvement if the hitting doesn't raise itself a level or two. Still, the pitching is good and when Zimm returns, things should improve. That's it for now.:rolleyes2: -- Al
Over in the NL, I only follow the Nats and they have been more a let down than I had hoped they would be. Their pitching has been outstanding with a team ERA of 3.64 but their hitting has been a disaster, batting only .229 as a team and averaging under 4 runs per game. To be fair, their biggest bat, Ryan Zimmerman, has missed all but the first 8 games of the season with injury. That, plus letting Hr hitter Dunn go to the White Sox and the under performance of huge contract Jason Werth, have left an unfillable hole in the batting order. The Nats are 29-36, 10 games off the pace with little hope of improvement if the hitting doesn't raise itself a level or two. Still, the pitching is good and when Zimm returns, things should improve. That's it for now.:rolleyes2: -- Al
I sure love well pitched baseball games. The Nats just finished a 3 game set (sweep) of the Padres. Now, while these are the two of the worst hitting teams in baseball, I still loved the pitching duels in this series. The Nats won 2-1, 2-1, 2-0. Just a terrific, well played, fast paced, set of baseball games. Baseball as it was meant to be. ^&grin -- Al
The Nats are on a tear, having now won 8 games in a row and moved to within a game of .500. Actually in a tie for 3rd place with the Mets. The pitching has been consistently good and the hitting has been timely, for a change. Their last 2 wins have been over the O's, who just can't build momentum right now. The O's aren't playing awful, just not good enough to stay in the race, at present. The pitching still isn't where it should be, with the exception of Britton. Guthrie has pitched to his potential, for the most part, but lack of run support and a penchant for the gopher ball have hurt his record. Arietta has a good record, but high ERA and has benefited from lots of runs in support. Still lots of ballgames to go, so no giving up. -- Al
Nats have reached .500 baseball tonight with another well pitched 2-1 win. Beat Seattle to move into 3rd place all alone. Quite a good job for the Nats, so far.^&cool -- Al
sammy719
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Well Al, our O's are playing decent ball, we're almost a 500 even ball club with a few more wins, now I know the Sox/Yank fans laugh at that but it's been along time since my team has a winning record at the all star break, speaking of which I hope to go to this year with the game being in Phoenix, so hoping we can have a second half season like last year and at least make the AL East a little more interesting...Sammy
Warrior
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Is that before or after their manager resigned?
Warrior
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And to think this bozo almost bought the Red Sox, or is it that Bozo who owns the Mets and is in financial trouble, I get those two nitwits mixed up all the time................with baseball teams in bankruptcy, football owners losing money the 2011 season on the rocks and basketball about to kiss the 2012 season goodbye, the economy has finally caught up to sports, they are all in trouble............................
The Nats actually reached .500 before Riggleman bailed. I think he hoped to use this fact as a support in his contract situation. Don't really understand the professional suicide but I guess he felt under appreciated.^&confuse Oh well. Dave Johnson isn't the worst replacement. He should do well. -- Al
Sure hope so, Sammy. The starting pitching just hasn't been as good as I thought it would be. Matusz hasn't found his footing and the fifth starter spot has been hit or miss. The failure (so far) of Tillman and Bergesen has been a big disappointment. Still time for it all to come together. At least the hitters are coming around. -- Al
Warrior
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"Don't really understand the professional suicide"............you can say that again, he obviously has zero intention of managing/coaching again at any level as he signed his own career death certificate with that move, quiting on the team and the organization and the sport like that.............
Riggleman's resignation caught everyone off guard. Had been no public hint of trouble, although all knew his contract option for next year had not been exercised by management, yet. Riggs apparently felt "disrespected" because the GM wouldn't meet to discuss the situation as rapidly as Riggs wanted to. Riggs made some sort of request/demand that a meeting be held right away to resolve the situation. When it didn't happen (at the height of the recent run of the Nat's success), Riggs quit. Can only assume he was tired of the money/game/team. He was a nice, low-key manager who knew his job, but thinking around the Nationals was that he was not the man to take them to the next level. Johnson could be that guy, but he may only be a stop-gap as he is 68 and may not be interested in a long-haul situation. The soap opera continues. Stay tuned.... -- Al
Peter Reuss
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Have I mentioned that the Brewers are in first place?? If we could play all our games at home we'd be unbeatable. That road record is a MAJOR concern....Yanks tonight!
Looks like the mid-season blahs have hit baseball if one goes by records. Over the last 10 game stretch, mediocrity seems to be the order of the day. Of 30 teams in baseball, 15 have played only .500 ball over that period. 7 teams having winning and 8 teams have losing records. Every team in the NL West has gone .500 with no progress in the race at all as a result. Likewise the top 3 teams in the AL Central. No progress there, either. Only the NYY and the Brewers have managed to make progress, each taking the leads in their divisions. The Angels who have gained 2 games on the Rangers have also made a gain. Been a pretty status quo period for the teams in the pennant races. Maybe the All-Star break will help the races recharge. -- Al
Oh, the agony of pitching for a team that can't hit. The Nats lost a 1-0 to the Angels last night. The Nats starter, Jordan Zimmerman, has been one of the better pitchers in the National League this season, but has nothing to show for it. He pitched a 4-hit, complete game and lost when the games only run (on base through error, and thus unearned), scored on a double play. Zimmerman has a stretch of 11 straight quality starts, an ERA of 1.85 during those starts, and has only 4 wins out of the effort. His season record is 5-7, with a 2.63 ERA. He should be an All-Star but probably won't be. He just gets NO run support. His run support problems mirror Guthrie of the O's problems but Zimmerman has been pitching much better, of late, than Guthrie. And, just as a matter of interest, the Nats have gone 0-3 since Johnson took over for Riggleman, who quit with the Nats at a season best 2 games over .500. Go figure. -- Al