Baseball 2015 (3 Viewers)

[maddadicus]

Lights out bullpen is right. Miller and Betances have 24 appearances between them with 27 innings pitched. They have allowed 9 total hits and 46 K's. And 0 (zero, none, nada) runs of any sort. Not too shabby. -- Al

If you think back to the Torre/Yankees WS run was that those teams had just about the best shut down bullpen, ever...Stanton, Mendoza, Nelson, Rivera, and Wettland. They were opposing team rally killers. Back then, the Yanks were also paying top money for middle relief, before it became fashionable. It seems the formula for winning the WS today is not to load up with regular season only dominate starters, but average pitchers, who can get you to the 6th with a lead, and close out with the bullpen. Michael

 

[Warrior]

Lights out bullpen is right. Miller and Betances have 24 appearances between them with 27 innings pitched......................

Miller was a lights out lefty in the Sox bullpen, so what did they do; they acted like the Astros and dumped him to the O's instead of keeping him and signing him, crying poormouth. Then when the O's couldn't resign him, NATURALLY he lands with the MFY's and is lights out for them too.

The Royals in 2014 and the Cardinals in 2013 got to the WS with a decent staff but a lights out bullpen; neither won the WS, but the got there with that formula.

 

[lancer]

If you think back to the Torre/Yankees WS run was that those teams had just about the best shut down bullpen, ever...Stanton, Mendoza, Nelson, Rivera, and Wettland. They were opposing team rally killers. Back then, the Yanks were also paying top money for middle relief, before it became fashionable. It seems the formula for winning the WS today is not to load up with regular season only dominate starters, but average pitchers, who can get you to the 6th with a lead, and close out with the bullpen. Michael

Interesting. The Nats have taken the dominant starters formula with a so-so bullpen and that formula has been a dud, so far. Nats have to fix the bullpen as the bullpen is vital in this day of the 6-7 inning start. -- Al

 

[maddadicus]

Miller was a lights out lefty in the Sox bullpen, so what did they do; they acted like the Astros and dumped him to the O's instead of keeping him and signing him, crying poormouth. Then when the O's couldn't resign him, NATURALLY he lands with the MFY's and is lights out for them too.

The Royals in 2014 and the Cardinals in 2013 got to the WS with a decent staff but a lights out bullpen; neither won the WS, but the got there with that formula.

But even the RS WS wins turned on great relief pitching and average starting staff...^&confuse.Michael

 

[lancer]

Another beauty of a ball game tonight between the Nats and Mets. This time the Nats prevail 1-0 as both starters were outstanding. Both went 7 innings again with the Nats Gonzalez yielding 0 runs and the Mets Niese almost as good, giving up just the 1 run. This time the Nats bullpen did it's job. This series has been nothing but well pitched games, my kind of baseball. Looking forward to tomorrow's game. -- Al

 

[lancer]

The O's got a great game from their Gonzalez to win 4-0. Second shutout in a row in this series with Tampa although Tampa won last night 2-0, despite a very well pitched game by Tillman. Gonzalez is a secret weapon. He is 3-1, with a 2.59 ERA and is virtually unknown, yet has been a consistent starter for the O's over the last few seasons. With a little luck and run support, he can be a big winner. -- Al

 

[Warrior]

But even the RS WS wins turned on great relief pitching and average starting staff...^&confuse.Michael

Michael,
The 2004 Red Sox had Schilling, Martinez, Lowe and Wakefield, two legit aces and two good starters. The 2007 team had Schilling, Beckett, Lester and Wakefield; again, two aces and two good starters.

The 2013 staff had Lackey, Lester, Buchholz, Peavy; once again, two aces and two good starters.

Their closers were Foulke, Papelbon and their current closer, all three were lights out..................

 

[Panzer ace]

Mays is a class act as exemplified by his response to A-Rod tying him at 660:

"Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez on his 660th home run. Milestones in baseball are meant to be broken and I wish him continued success throughout his career."

 

[lancer]

Anyone follow the Astros and are they for real or not? Great early season story here. Lead the AL West by 6 games and they are scoring well and pitching well. I recognize a few of the players, mainly pitchers, nothing remarkable career wise, and none of the starting pitchers have a career winning record, as you might expect. I'm just ignorant of them as a team and wonder whether they can stick or if it's a classic surge and fade story. -- Al

 

[lancer]

Another beauty of a ball game tonight between the Nats and Mets. This time the Nats prevail 1-0 as both starters were outstanding. Both went 7 innings again with the Nats Gonzalez yielding 0 runs and the Mets Niese almost as good, giving up just the 1 run. This time the Nats bullpen did it's job. This series has been nothing but well pitched games, my kind of baseball. Looking forward to tomorrow's game. -- Al

Nats won again today by a 1-0 score. I can't remember the last time I saw 1-0 back-to-back shutouts like this. Nats took the series 3-1 and it was as well pitched a series as is possible these days with 3 of the games being shutouts, 8-2, 0-4, 1-0, 1-0. Nats starters gave up 3 runs in the 4 games and the Mets starters weren't far behind, yielding only 5 earned runs. In some ways the Nats were lucky as they stranded a lot of baserunners but were fortunate enough to keep the Mets from scoring in the last 2 games. The big plus for the Nats is that the bullpen finally appears to be getting it's act together. It was a pleasure towatch the pitching in this series, by both teams. -- Al

 

[jazzeum]

A win is a win, 1-0 or 8-2 or whatever, just as a loss is a loss. Whether you lose 5 zip or 1-0, doesn't matter. Nationals are obviously in their head. Just a matter of time before they are in 1st place.

 

[lancer]

First casualty of the season as the Brewers have fired Manager Ron Roenicke. 25 games in is kinda quick. {sm2} -- Al

 

[Peter Reuss]

I love how when pitchers can't pitch and hitters can't hit it's always the managers fault.

Apparently he took a mugful of stupid in the off-season. He had a pretty good, overachieving year last year. After so many had career years last year, the brilliant front office basically made no moves. Everyone came back to reality. Yup, it's all on the manager.

 

[Panzer ace]

I love how when pitchers can't pitch and hitters can't hit it's always the managers fault.

Apparently he took a mugful of stupid in the off-season. He had a pretty good, overachieving year last year. After so many had career years last year, the brilliant front office basically made no moves. Everyone came back to reality. Yup, it's all on the manager.

I guess it is cheaper to fire the manager than it is to fire a whole roster.

 

[Warrior]

The Red Sox lost to Loney, Longoria and 23 strangers tonight to slide into last place in the AL East.

Great.

Looks like the makings of another long Summer at Fenway, glad I bought the 20 game package, 18 more miserable games to look forward to and I'm off the hook.

This team flat out blows.

 

[DMNamiot]

Ah George its the good old days again, You and I have had lots of fun with our respective teams winning and stinking up the field over the years so maybe we need to let the Cubbies win one so they can go back to sleep for another 100 years...{eek3}

I want to get into the Yankees season but I think the minute I start to pay attention they will do their interpretation of the Fenway fade. Maybe we need to focus on Aroid and see if the most tested guy in MLB is back on the juice like some of the critics maintain...

Dave

 

[Warrior]

Ah George its the good old days again, You and I have had lots of fun with our respective teams winning and stinking up the field over the years so maybe we need to let the Cubbies win one so they can go back to sleep for another 100 years...{eek3}

I want to get into the Yankees season but I think the minute I start to pay attention they will do their interpretation of the Fenway fade. Maybe we need to focus on Aroid and see if the most tested guy in MLB is back on the juice like some of the critics maintain...

Dave

My expectations where pretty low this year as the starting pitching was suspect and so far, they are just awful, like Louis used to say stink on ice awful, but last place, WS title, last place, last place is not a good look.

And sorry, Aroid is 100% on something; he looked like he was toast two years ago, now he looks like an all star/MVP.

Don't tell Michael though, he'll just bring up Ortiz again; speaking of which, have you seen him lately, he's about 25 pounds overweight, I've never seen a fat guy on steroids before. If he's using, he's using the wrong stuff.

Aroid probably figures the Hell with it, if they catch me again, I'm a goner, so at least I go out on my terms.

 

[Peter Reuss]

And what manager has the best winning percentage in baseball?

Craig Counsell graduated from jr. high (man does he look young) and is now undefeated as the Brew Crew's manager. For the first time all year they came back to win a game.

At least we don't have to watch him bat. Seeing him contort himself before each pitch gave me back spasms.

 

[lancer]

My expectations where pretty low this year as the starting pitching was suspect and so far, they are just awful, like Louis used to say stink on ice awful, but last place, WS title, last place, last place is not a good look.

And sorry, Aroid is 100% on something; he looked like he was toast two years ago, now he looks like an all star/MVP.

Don't tell Michael though, he'll just bring up Ortiz again; speaking of which, have you seen him lately, he's about 25 pounds overweight, I've never seen a fat guy on steroids before. If he's using, he's using the wrong stuff.

Aroid probably figures the Hell with it, if they catch me again, I'm a goner, so at least I go out on my terms.

Oh ye of little faith. Everyone knows that A-rod is simply glad to be back and is only high on life...or some combination thereof. :wink2: -- Al

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi George,

I would tend to agree that he is on something and I wish they would just catch him again and drop a nuke on him so we can get on with the game.

As for Ortiz he has always been a big boy so whats 25lbs aside from amybe 3 deepdish pizzas...

I agree that last place is a lousy place to be this early in the season, not sure what they could do other than send all of the starters to Pawtucket and bring up that squad and see if they can get it right, couldnt do much worse could they?

Keep the faith my friend maybe they will get their acts together and start playing ball.

Dave