MLB Season 2011

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1001

[quote]eeu743 wrote:
Talk more about baseball! I love it but I don’t know anybody who is really in to it in real life.

Anybody else watch the whole Rays-Red Sox game? I guess a lot of people think baseball is more boring when it’s low-scoring, but I personally like a game like last night’s every once in a while. and I really like listening to Dan Shulman call a baseball game, even if he is Canadian.[/quote]
You’re at the right place if you want to talk baseball. Because I can rip off some LONG fucking posts about it.

I assume you’re talking about the 16 inning affair the other night (I didn’t see the date on your post). I like low-scoring games as well, but that game could have used a LITTLE more offense at least. I pretty much always enjoy a 1-0 game, but it’s more exciting to me if there are a few scoring opportunities and the game comes down to the team that pitches out of them better. In that game there wasn’t really much going on for most of the game.

Games can always unfold differently and a 1-0 game can be less exciting than a 4-1 game sometimes, but going strictly by scores I generally prefer a 2-1 to a 1-0 game and a 3-2 game about the same as a 1-0 game. That’s what’s exciting about watching the Giants’ pitchers most of the time. One, they’re always in close, low-scoring affairs anyways, but since they tend to walk a lot of batters, but don’t give up a lot of hits and strike a lot of guys out, they pitch their way into and out of trouble much, much more than the other really good-pitching teams.

I think their NL ranks in the aforementioned categories are 3rd most walks allowed, 1st in avg against, 1st in K’s and also 1st in ERA and total hits allowed (lowest). And they HAVE to be that good with hitting as anemic as theirs. But it makes for a lot of those close, low-scoring games. And the team that best performs in those situations in the playoffs (and also the team that can keep it close to begin with) always wins.

1002

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]eeu743 wrote:
Talk more about baseball! I love it but I don’t know anybody who is really in to it in real life.

Anybody else watch the whole Rays-Red Sox game? I guess a lot of people think baseball is more boring when it’s low-scoring, but I personally like a game like last night’s every once in a while. and I really like listening to Dan Shulman call a baseball game, even if he is Canadian.[/quote]

?

Rays and Yankees were playing each other today.

Yeah, I miss Dan Shulman, he use to be the Play-by-Play guy for the Jays. He is my favourite baseball commentator for nationally broadcasted games, I’m not a fan of Joe Buck.[/quote]

The Rays and Red Sox played last night…or two nights ago technically, although it ended about 24 hours ago. 16 inning game.

I think Shulman just has a fantastic voice. Perfect.

I just looked at my post and I even said that the game was “last night.” Don’t be question marking me without even reading my post!

1003

[quote]eeu743 wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]eeu743 wrote:
Talk more about baseball! I love it but I don’t know anybody who is really in to it in real life.

Anybody else watch the whole Rays-Red Sox game? I guess a lot of people think baseball is more boring when it’s low-scoring, but I personally like a game like last night’s every once in a while. and I really like listening to Dan Shulman call a baseball game, even if he is Canadian.[/quote]

?

Rays and Yankees were playing each other today.

Yeah, I miss Dan Shulman, he use to be the Play-by-Play guy for the Jays. He is my favourite baseball commentator for nationally broadcasted games, I’m not a fan of Joe Buck.[/quote]

The Rays and Red Sox played last night…or two nights ago technically, although it ended about 24 hours ago. 16 inning game.

I think Shulman just has a fantastic voice. Perfect.

I just looked at my post and I even said that the game was “last night.” Don’t be question marking me without even reading my post![/quote]

Do you have a favourite team?

1004

So what trades do you guys expect your teams to pull off if any?

What trade rumours do you think will actually end up being true?

Will Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes be moved?

1005

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Hey, what do you guys think about a possible rule change? Don’t you think it’s fucked that sometimes a runner who is on base isn’t allowed to score on a ground-rule double? Now, I don’t support a whole lot of rules changes in general and I certainly don’t support replay, but this rule is fucked and has to change.

Why punish a hitter for hitting the ball hard enough to get past the outfielders and out of the field of play? I know sometimes that a slow runner who maybe didn’t get a good jump will not be allowed to score at the ump’s discretion, but it seems like they don’t let a lot of runners who look like they would have scored score. A good way to just eliminate the whole judgment call portion of the play from the ump’s perspective is to give a runner on first the run scored if he is going on contact. That’s it. The ump at first base can be responsible for making the call. It’s an easy one for him to make from where he’ll be, right behind 1st base.

You’re not going to see a lot of runners just going on contact with less than two outs, so when a team is aggressive enough to do that with less than two outs (hit-and-run or maybe a straight steal and a hit or he just gets a good read on the ball off the crack of the bat) they get rewarded. They should. And with two outs the umps will always allow them to score anyways because with two outs the runners are going on contact anyways. In the Giants/Dodgers game tonight I just saw a Dodger hit a ground-rule 2b with 2 outs and they didn’t allow the runner to score.

That’s fucked. They should reward the hitter and/or the aggressive play w/ less than 2 outs.[/quote]

I haven’t really thought about it enough and do not feel strongly either way.

The only thing I will say is I would prefer not to increase the role of umps in the game. More human error. At least with the ground rule double there’s no room for interpretation.

1006

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Hey, what do you guys think about a possible rule change? Don’t you think it’s fucked that sometimes a runner who is on base isn’t allowed to score on a ground-rule double? Now, I don’t support a whole lot of rules changes in general and I certainly don’t support replay, but this rule is fucked and has to change.

Why punish a hitter for hitting the ball hard enough to get past the outfielders and out of the field of play? I know sometimes that a slow runner who maybe didn’t get a good jump will not be allowed to score at the ump’s discretion, but it seems like they don’t let a lot of runners who look like they would have scored score. A good way to just eliminate the whole judgment call portion of the play from the ump’s perspective is to give a runner on first the run scored if he is going on contact. That’s it. The ump at first base can be responsible for making the call. It’s an easy one for him to make from where he’ll be, right behind 1st base.

You’re not going to see a lot of runners just going on contact with less than two outs, so when a team is aggressive enough to do that with less than two outs (hit-and-run or maybe a straight steal and a hit or he just gets a good read on the ball off the crack of the bat) they get rewarded. They should. And with two outs the umps will always allow them to score anyways because with two outs the runners are going on contact anyways. In the Giants/Dodgers game tonight I just saw a Dodger hit a ground-rule 2b with 2 outs and they didn’t allow the runner to score.

That’s fucked. They should reward the hitter and/or the aggressive play w/ less than 2 outs.[/quote]

I share the feeling, and I think your suggestion is actually pretty reasonable. Nearly everything in baseball is left to the discretion and judgment of the officials anyway. I think if the change was made, people would get used to it pretty quick. It would get argued sometimes, just like balls and strikes, safe and out, etc. get argued, but it would probably be a pretty easy call most of the time.

Don’t think it will happen though, not any time soon, if at all. Bud Selig doesn’t exactly seem to be big on change.

1007

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]eeu743 wrote:
Talk more about baseball! I love it but I don’t know anybody who is really in to it in real life.

Anybody else watch the whole Rays-Red Sox game? I guess a lot of people think baseball is more boring when it’s low-scoring, but I personally like a game like last night’s every once in a while. and I really like listening to Dan Shulman call a baseball game, even if he is Canadian.[/quote]
You’re at the right place if you want to talk baseball. Because I can rip off some LONG fucking posts about it.

I assume you’re talking about the 16 inning affair the other night (I didn’t see the date on your post). I like low-scoring games as well, but that game could have used a LITTLE more offense at least. I pretty much always enjoy a 1-0 game, but it’s more exciting to me if there are a few scoring opportunities and the game comes down to the team that pitches out of them better. In that game there wasn’t really much going on for most of the game.

Games can always unfold differently and a 1-0 game can be less exciting than a 4-1 game sometimes, but going strictly by scores I generally prefer a 2-1 to a 1-0 game and a 3-2 game about the same as a 1-0 game. That’s what’s exciting about watching the Giants’ pitchers most of the time. One, they’re always in close, low-scoring affairs anyways, but since they tend to walk a lot of batters, but don’t give up a lot of hits and strike a lot of guys out, they pitch their way into and out of trouble much, much more than the other really good-pitching teams.

I think their NL ranks in the aforementioned categories are 3rd most walks allowed, 1st in avg against, 1st in K’s and also 1st in ERA and total hits allowed (lowest). And they HAVE to be that good with hitting as anemic as theirs. But it makes for a lot of those close, low-scoring games. And the team that best performs in those situations in the playoffs (and also the team that can keep it close to begin with) always wins. [/quote]

That is what I want lol. The only people I talk about baseball in real life are just politely humoring me, nobody I know really gives a shit. I actually watched the Giants-Dodgers game last night. Saw Vogelsong get in to some trouble and get his way out. You’re a Giants fan right? How about him? Leading the NL in ERA, right? I love all the stories every year, relative unknowns or previously unremarkable players who come out of nowhere and play lights out. Brett Meyers with the Astros was kinda like that last year, had some ridiculous amount of quality starts in a row, and he’s back to mediocrity this year.

1008

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]eeu743 wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]eeu743 wrote:
Talk more about baseball! I love it but I don’t know anybody who is really in to it in real life.

Anybody else watch the whole Rays-Red Sox game? I guess a lot of people think baseball is more boring when it’s low-scoring, but I personally like a game like last night’s every once in a while. and I really like listening to Dan Shulman call a baseball game, even if he is Canadian.[/quote]

?

Rays and Yankees were playing each other today.

Yeah, I miss Dan Shulman, he use to be the Play-by-Play guy for the Jays. He is my favourite baseball commentator for nationally broadcasted games, I’m not a fan of Joe Buck.[/quote]

The Rays and Red Sox played last night…or two nights ago technically, although it ended about 24 hours ago. 16 inning game.

I think Shulman just has a fantastic voice. Perfect.

I just looked at my post and I even said that the game was “last night.” Don’t be question marking me without even reading my post![/quote]

Do you have a favourite team?

[/quote]

Not in the MLB. I live in a college town (Gainesville, FL) and have my entire life, so I was never seriously exposed to any professional sports teams growing up. I watched games, went to a couple, but I don’t consider myself a “fan” of any one team, be it NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. The only team I consider myself a fan of is the Gators, in all sports. I cheer for any former Gators in any professional sport. Other than that, I really enjoy Fantasy Baseball, so I have a bit of a rooting interest when I watch MLB games there, but for the most part, I just love the game itself and I just root for an enjoyable game to watch. Baseball is the only sport that I really love watching, even if I have absolutely no interest in who wins. I’ll sit down and watch 3 hours of any two college baseball teams playing a regular season game, and enjoy every minute of it.

1009

[quote]therajraj wrote:
So what trades do you guys expect your teams to pull off if any?

What trade rumours do you think will actually end up being true?

Will Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes be moved?

[/quote]

I’d like to see the Giants take a run at Melky Cabrera. I think he’s still only 26 and arbitration eligible, so the Giants could end up with him for more than just the 2nd half. He does everything well and I think his hitting style would be a good fit in AT&T Park.

I’d also like to see the Giants pick up a catcher, a real catcher. I know Ramon Hernandez has been a player of interest for them, but who knows? Eli Whiteside and Chris Stewart between the two of them barely add up to one major league catcher. They have GOT to do something there.

1010

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So I went to the 14 inning affair last night, great game but holy fuck it was long. Once a year my dad gets really good corporate tickets from one of his colleagues, it’s normally a weekday night against a non-premium team.

Check out my view of the game - killer.

1011

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1012

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Shot from top of the stairs, was sitting right by the dugout

1013

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A bunch of people left after the 9th inning so I ended up moving down and watching the game from EVEN closer in extras.

1014

That’s a first class piece of hitting right there (Bautista single against Pineda).

1015

Vote no for expanding umpire discretion with regards to grounds rule doubles.

Unnecessary. It’s not a flaw, it’s just a quirk of the game depending on the park.

1016

Just watched the future pitcher of the Yankees or Red Soxs. His name is Clayton Kershaw.

1017

SF giants are close to getting a deal done with beltran!

http://espn.go.com/newyork/conversations/_/id/6808543/san-francisco-giants-closer-deal-new-york-mets-carlos-beltran-sources-say

1018

Holy fuck the Blue Jays have been busy. Adding Colby Rasmus

1019

Wow they gave up minimal talent too - only real decent piece is Marc Rzepczynski and Jason Frasor isn’t bad either.

GREAT deal for the Jays.

1020

link to deal:

Jays get: Colby Rasmus - HUGE ceiling, but having a shitty year. Classic buy low sell high

They give up: 3 decent veteran relief pitchers and a projected 5th rotation typer starter who is currently in the minor leagues.

I can’t believe the Cards didn’t hold out for more.