Posted on 08/15/2005 4:00:00 PM PDT by ken5050
Hi all..sorry for the delay..we had a violent T-storm pass through last night..lost cable and internet until a little while ago...Interesting week that just was..races are starting to shape up..some of the pretenders have given up the ghost, and we're gonna purge them from our lists. My Metsies are burnt toast..they had a very, very, VERY bad week..the collision probably keeps Beltran and Cameron out for the season..and yesterday, in a few pitches, Pedro went from a near no-no, to a big Oh NO!!..so..let's begin...
The best thing about the NL West is it keeps down all those "Cardinals are in the worst division in the major leagues" comments we always hear when the Cards lead the Central.
If the "purists" had their way there wouldn't be frickin' four-team divisions, and the Padres would trail the Astros (at least) for the NL West division lead. I don't know of any "purists" arguing for three divisions and no wild card. Three (six total) is not a great number to form a bracket with.
No, no! Brewskies in Chapaqua! (Or Greenwich)
I share the hope that Papelbon will be the fourth setup guy we need to go with Timlin, Bradford, and Myers, but I'd rather not count too many chickens quite yet. (Somehow I haven't been quite convinced Mike Remlinger is the answer.)
Manny Delcarmen was sent down.
Papelbon may have a live fastball but his 2nd and third pitches need major work. The Twins hit his stuff fairly well and no one can say that they are a dangerous line up/
It certainly doesn't hurt for young guys to see what the big leagues are like but both Papelbon and Delcarmen are a year away.
But Papelbon was pretty awesome his first couple innings, which may speak to his effectiveness as a reliever, at least at this point in his career.
1: K, K, fly out
2: single, HBP, pop up, K, K
3: ground out, K, BB, force out
4: ground out, ground out, HR, K
5: ground out, BB, pop up, BB, BB, fly to deep right
6: HR, K, single, BB, done for the day
Only four balls hit out of the infield in his first five innings. 7K, 2 pop ups -- that's some pretty darn good stuff.
Look at what happened with the White Sox the other night. Their reliever can top out at 100 miles an hour and Ortiz still hit it out. He had thrown nothing but heat and gave Ortiz no reason to look at least think about something else coming his way.
Papelbon has talent but without a second pitch he's got no chance. Three Red Sox players were watching Jenks from CWS throwing his fastball and all thought that they could hit it. When they saw his curve one was quoted as saying that they would have no chance against him if he dropped that on them.
So Papi takes some kid deep and therefore Papelbon isn't a major leaguer. Right .....
If you are going to show up on this thread then at least try and offer up something approaching intelligent debate...
If you are in the big leagues then you can hit a fastball. If the pitcher doesn't have a second or even third pitch that you need to think about then you can sit on the guy's pitch and take it out.
What, like "our bullpen sucks we should release them all" -- I'm afraid I can't raise my rhetoric to such soaring heights, lol
The purists (I think) would rather go back to the "good old days" when there were eight teams in each league, and the league winner automatically went to the World Series.
While I consider myself to be a traditionalist in most aspects of life, I think that certain changes in baseball have been needed, such as expansion. With expansion comes the need for league playoffs, and ultimately the wild card.
The reason why there is a four team division is because there are 30 teams, and the only way they can be divided into two leagues without having an uneven number of teams is to have it 16-14, which requires a four-divison team.
I think baseball should be expanded (for, hopefully the last time for a very long time) to 32 teams. Put both in the AL, and either have each league set up as two 5-team and one six-team divisions, or just create two eight-team divisions. , and have the winners advance to the ALCS. It would eliminate the need for the wild card, because then winning a division would actually mean something because there would be increased competition, with more teams.
At some point I agree, MLB should expand to 32, ideally with at least one fur'n franchise, or, you know, P.R.
Schilling let that one get away. That was ugly.
"That was ugly."
It wasn't nearly as ugly as Randy Johnson giving up 9 runs to the Tigers in June.
I'm glad the Tigers are starting to take advantage of those situations. About next year they're going to become a formidable team to face.
It looked like the tigers might take another one until about 5 minutes ago when David hammered one into the seats.
Tonights game was a little closer than it should have been - Remlinger should go. He's 39; it's not like he's going to develop into a great pitcher.
Monroes grand slam was nice to take a few back anyway. Good game.
Is there a flight tonight from Tampa to Columbus....? Proctor walks in the winning run..Yankees LOSE, t-th-the Yankees LOSE!!!!
The Tigers starter deserved the win to be honest.
Maybe Remlinger can join him. I would be willing to bet a large sum of cash he will be designated for assignment by Friday. He has looked awfull.
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