[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
but I don’t think it’s early to make an assessment of a team. [/quote]
I agree.
I was just refuting the statement that they’re done.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
but I don’t think it’s early to make an assessment of a team. [/quote]
I agree.
I was just refuting the statement that they’re done.[/quote]
Do you have a different assessment than DB? Do you think they’re a bad team or not?
Saying it’s still too early to tell is kind of ridiculous, IMO, although obviously 2nd half turnarounds happen on occasion. I think we’ve seen enough baseball to tell which teams are bad and which teams are good.
(except the Pirates, I fully expect them to collapse any day now)
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Do you have a different assessment than DB? [/quote]
On the statement they’re done, certainly.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Do you think they’re a bad team or not? [/quote]
Probably a bad team, but so is their competition. I would also give the defending champs a lot more slack before declaring them a bad team.
Who would you pick in the NL West at this point? Is there a clear favourite?
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Saying it’s still too early to tell is kind of ridiculous, IMO, although obviously 2nd half turnarounds happen on occasion. [/quote]
Early with respect to the claim that they’re done.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
I think we’ve seen enough baseball to tell which teams are bad and which teams are good.
[/quote]
Usually 1-2 teams/year defy the halfway mark assessment. Either emerging as front runners or completely falling off.
Either way, even if the Giants are mediocre for the rest of the year, are they still not front runners in that division or very close to it?
Who would you pick?
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Do you have a different assessment than DB? [/quote]
On the statement they’re done, certainly.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Do you think they’re a bad team or not? [/quote]
Probably a bad team, but so is their competition. I would also give the defending champs a lot more slack before declaring them a bad team.
Who would you pick in the NL West at this point? Is there a clear favourite?
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Saying it’s still too early to tell is kind of ridiculous, IMO, although obviously 2nd half turnarounds happen on occasion. [/quote]
Early with respect to the claim that they’re done.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
I think we’ve seen enough baseball to tell which teams are bad and which teams are good.
[/quote]
Usually 1-2 teams/year defy the halfway mark assessment. Either emerging as front runners or completely falling off.
Either way, even if the Giants are mediocre for the rest of the year, are they still not front runners in that division or very close to it?
Who would you pick?
[/quote]
I honestly don’t watch enough of any of those teams. My gut instinct is the Dodgers, but that kinda goes against my entire argument that we’ve seen enough baseball to know which teams are good and which teams are bad. But in their case, while I think they’ve played bad baseball, they probably have the most talent and ability to turn it around.
I really have no idea.
Is anyone as sick of these interleague games every day as I am?
edit: Do we really need to see the Cubs vs A’s?
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
Is anyone as sick of these interleague games every day as I am?
edit: Do we really need to see the Cubs vs A’s?[/quote]
Wait til half the games are interleague and the NL adopts the DH.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
edit: Do we really need to see the Cubs vs A’s?[/quote]
Interleague is for seeing certain teams play each other, the trade off being these lackadaiscal matchups. I’m sure there’s a small group of ultra hardcore fans who want to see some of these teams. I for one enjoyed seeing Strasburg in person last year.
I enjoy watching the Jays hookup with their former WS matchups the Phils and Braves.
Also based on the discussions in this thread, I was excited to see the Giants and to a lesser extent the Padres.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
edit: Do we really need to see the Cubs vs A’s?[/quote]
Interleague is for seeing certain teams play each other, the trade off being these lackadaiscal matchups. I’m sure there’s a small group of ultra hardcore fans who want to see some of these teams. I for one enjoyed seeing Strasburg in person last year.
I enjoy watching the Jays hookup with their former WS matchups the Phils and Braves.
Also based on the discussions in this thread, I was excited to see the Giants and to a lesser extent the Padres.
[/quote]
I don’t feel there is a need for lackadaisical matchups. Cubs -Yankess was cool. But interleague EVERY day dilutes the product imo. I like the cross town rivalry matchups too such as cubs-sox and Yankees-mets. Hopefully next year they can relegate interleague to one month, get all the rivalry matchups in, and leave it there.
And lets hope the NL doesn’t adopt the DH sonny lol.
Congrats to Homer Bailey on the no-hitter. He was rearing back and throwing some heat in the 9th.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
I can see any team winning the NL west at this point. There is no clear standout team. All it can take is for someone to get hot at the right time.[/quote]
Honestly, and I hate admit this, but I think the Giants will grab it again. They are a good second half team and they are in it enough that a few hot streaks will put them over the top. they have the pitching and when the bats come around they will be in it. I don’t think they will run away, but I think they will be there.[/quote]
Obviously you haven’t watched the defending champs at all then. Their offense has been good enough to win all year, other than the current slump they’re in. Their pitching has been horrible and, quite frankly, they don’t have the pitching to get it done this year. Vogelsong is injured and he’s lost it anyways and Lincecum looks like shit 3 out of every 4 starts. But it’s their bullpen that’s been horrendous lately. They’re hurting from losing Casilla for most of the year, they aren’t getting shit out of anyone other than Romo and Javy Lopez (who’s only good against lefties), Affeldt has struggled mightily with inherited runners, they have no middle relief whatsoever and I’ve never been sold on Romo as a long-term solution at closer. They have several good prospects, but they’re all only about 20 and down in high A ball or AA.
They’ve also lost Pagan for most of the year and Sandoval looks like he gained about 50 fucking lbs while he was on the DL. Their defense has been absolutely fucking horrendous, too. Other than Posey and Pence, everyone on the team is having a down year or is injured. They simply aren’t a good baseball team and they don’t have the pitching to save them. In 2010, 2011 and last year they looked like shit for large parts of the year, but they were playing good baseball. They just didn’t hit much. But I knew they had a really good team because they could do out of the three main things in baseball really well, which was pitch and play defense. And really, that’s more like 75% of the game, since good pitching and good defense doesn’t go through the same swings in production that good hitting does. If you pitch and play defense well, it pretty much shows up every night. So I had confidence in those teams all three years, and I was validated two of those years.
This year, they fucking blow, period.[/quote]
In 2011 you had a post like this, declaring they were done mega early and then admitted you felt ashamed when they started playing better later on.
Lets put it in perspective how early it still is: Pittsburgh is on a 102 game win pace. That won’t happen
[/quote]
Pittsburgh probably won’t win 102 games, but it won’t surprise me to see them win 97 games.
Besides, given what you’ve argued will happen or won’t happen, I don’t think you’re very qualified to make statements about what is and is not likely to occur in the future. I seem to remember you arguing that RA Dickey was a legitimate staff ace and not a flash in the pan. He’s been one of the worst starting pitchers in all of baseball this season, despite his last two starts. And I’ve been hearing you tout the Blue Jays as the new kid in town the last three years and it simply hasn’t happened. They’re on a really nice run right now, but the season’s only half over. A lot could happen in 80 more games.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
edit: Do we really need to see the Cubs vs A’s?[/quote]
Interleague is for seeing certain teams play each other, the trade off being these lackadaiscal matchups. I’m sure there’s a small group of ultra hardcore fans who want to see some of these teams. I for one enjoyed seeing Strasburg in person last year.
I enjoy watching the Jays hookup with their former WS matchups the Phils and Braves.
Also based on the discussions in this thread, I was excited to see the Giants and to a lesser extent the Padres.
[/quote]
Interleague is for fucking hockey and basketball, not the grand old game. MLB should banish not only all the interleague matchups, but all the divisions as well. Two leagues, American and National, with the top four teams in each league going to the playoffs. None of this fucking DH bullshit in either league as well. It’s a fucking scourge on the game at all levels. Pitchers weren’t that bad at hitting at all until the DH was created and then used at literally every level, amateur and professional, from high school on up. If pitchers had to hit at every level all the way up to the majors they wouldn’t be nearly so bad. Fuck, if I had somehow made it to the pros, I would have been batting against guys throwing 90+ mph after having had maybe 20 at-bats between the ages of 16 and 21.
And that’s how it is for a lot of these guys who are pitching in the majors now. The DH has dumbed the game down so that Canadians and mongoloids can better enjoy it.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Do you have a different assessment than DB? [/quote]
On the statement they’re done, certainly.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Do you think they’re a bad team or not? [/quote]
Probably a bad team, but so is their competition. I would also give the defending champs a lot more slack before declaring them a bad team.
Who would you pick in the NL West at this point? Is there a clear favourite?
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Saying it’s still too early to tell is kind of ridiculous, IMO, although obviously 2nd half turnarounds happen on occasion. [/quote]
Early with respect to the claim that they’re done.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
I think we’ve seen enough baseball to tell which teams are bad and which teams are good.
[/quote]
Usually 1-2 teams/year defy the halfway mark assessment. Either emerging as front runners or completely falling off.
Either way, even if the Giants are mediocre for the rest of the year, are they still not front runners in that division or very close to it?
Who would you pick?
[/quote]
I wouldn’t say the Giants are the front runners at all. They fucking blow cock. They just got no-hit and it’s a miracle it hasn’t happened about three other times this year. The Dodgers have a better team and the Diamondbacks are probably the best team in the whole division. Hell, San Diego may not be better than the Giants, but I have a hard time believing that they’re worse than the Giants either. The Giants have been hit by the double whammy of multiple guys having down years and multiple key pieces spending prolonged time on the DL (Casilla, Pagan, Vogelsong). As good as Sabean has been as a GM lately, I find it absolutely fucking MADDENING that he hasn’t done shit to improve the roster the year after they won the Series, twice. In 2011 they didn’t do shit in the offseason and they paid the price, plus he made the fucking BONEHEADED move of trading Zach Wheeler for Beltran and then not even offering Beltran a contract extension in the offseason. It’s not like Wheeler suddenly appeared on the map after going to the Mets; he was the Giants’ best prospect when he was traded.
This year, Sabean literally did not add a single fucking starting player anywhere. He did nothing to address the gaping hole in left field other than bringing in Andres Fucking Torres, who must suck some of the meanest cock in the majors to still have a job. Did he even attempt to add some pitching depth? No fucking way. They signed Gaudin to a minor-league contract. If Sabean says he thought Gaudin would pitch half as good as he has so far, especially as a starter in place of Vogelsong, he’s fucking lying.
If you aren’t doing anything to get better, you’re getting worse. The Giants got worse over the offseason by not doing shit. The only thing that gives me any optimism for the future is the fact that they’re going to take Lincecum’s $22 million salary and Zito’s $20 million off the books this coming winter, and might have another $15 million to spend on top of that if they don’t resign Pence. And they’ve got a lot of good young pitching down in A-ball right now that will probably start cracking the 25-man roster by the end of next season or the 2015 season. That, and they managed to somehow sign Bumgarner for the next 5 years at only $7 million a year.
Fuck, they’re still paying Bonds a couple million per year.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Hell, San Diego may not be better than the Giants, but I have a hard time believing that they’re worse than the Giants either. [/quote]
I hope this is an exaggeration, I feel like the Padres are one of the 5 worst teams in baseball. You think the Giants are that bad?
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Pittsburgh probably won’t win 102 games, but it won’t surprise me to see them win 97 games. [/quote]
Wow
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Besides, given what you’ve argued will happen or won’t happen, I don’t think you’re very qualified to make statements about what is and is not likely to occur in the future.[/quote]
And who is exactly? It’s extremely hard to predict the future period.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
I seem to remember you arguing that RA Dickey was a legitimate staff ace and not a flash in the pan. He’s been one of the worst starting pitchers in all of baseball this season, despite his last two starts. [/quote]
He’s been hampered with injuries in the first half. They weren’t able to send him to the DL because of the other injuries but he’s finally healthy. 3 out of the last 4 of his starts have been good. Velocity is the key to his success and now it’s finally back up to 2012 levels and now surprisingly he’s pitching well. If he sucks in the second half, I’ll concede I was dead wrong.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
And I’ve been hearing you tout the Blue Jays as the new kid in town the last three years and it simply hasn’t happened. [/quote]
I said 2013 and on would be their time to compete.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
They’re on a really nice run right now, but the season’s only half over. A lot could happen in 80 more games.[/quote]
yes
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Pitchers weren’t that bad at hitting at all until the DH was created and then used at literally every level, amateur and professional, from high school on up. If pitchers had to hit at every level all the way up to the majors they wouldn’t be nearly so bad.
[/quote]
Bullshit.
Players simply do not have enough time and energy to master two very difficult crafts simultaneously. It’s hard enough being a great pitcher, how much time do you want to take away from that to also hit?
And even if they did get better, they still would not hit often enough to ever get into a real good groove like position players. Every 5th day.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Hell, San Diego may not be better than the Giants, but I have a hard time believing that they’re worse than the Giants either. [/quote]
I hope this is an exaggeration, I feel like the Padres are one of the 5 worst teams in baseball. You think the Giants are that bad?[/quote]
Yeah… my guess is he’s just deeply frustrated.
I don’t particularly care how the Giants do, but I am taking pleasure in seeing the real Zito stand up
So my hatred for the Blue Jays starting catcher JP Arencibia continues to grow. He is arguably the worst regular in all of baseball and that is saying a LOT. He’s been routinely criticized by a couple of the local analysts and this morning he lashed out at them and their careers. Both of them Gregg Zaun and Dirk Hayhurts are former players. You guys have most likely heard of Zaun.
"I think it?s very unfortunate that the fans have to hear those guys talk as much as they do, because, I know, speaking for myself and for the team, that there?s not one person in our clubhouse that respects those guys. Because they?re informing the fans the wrong way, and it?s not right. And I think, one) not a lot of us, including myself, respect a person that used performance enhancing drugs and, you know, was able to stick around as a below average player in the Major Leagues. And those who do it without that? I know I?ve worked my entire career. I?ve worked hard. I?ve never done anything, I?ve never put anything in my body, and I go out there and bust my butt every day. It?s not an easy game. And I think sometimes people forget that.
And with Dirk Hayhurst, there?s a guy who? you know, he was another guy who had below average baseball tools. And I was actually the catcher in Triple-A who was busting my butt every single day to try to get the best out of him, and he had an opportunity to go up to the Major Leagues that year, and I take a lot of pride in helping, and feeling like I?m a part of what gave the guy the opportunity. I even remember having conversations with him about how to throw the changeup inside? I thought it was better to throw the changeup in than throw him the changeup away, and he had great results with it.
And it?s tough to hear people like that criticize? I know it?s part of their job, but to sit there and inform the fans that this is wrong and this is not the way, because they quickly forget how hard this game is. Because every one of us wants to make adjustments, and no one on this earth cares more about what goes on than the players do. It?s our careers. It?s our well-being. This is what I?ve done since I was four years old. But it?s very unfortunate that those people are the ones that they have to get their information from, because they make the game sound like it?s easy, and it?s tough, because those guys are not letting the fans know what it takes and how hard it is on a day-in day-out basis, from dealing from injuries and dealing from different things to go out there and succeed in this game on a consistent level. That?s why the guys who hit .300 and the guys who pitch win 20 games are 1%, 2% of baseball. So, it?s tough, and I feel bad for fans that they have to listen to that stuff."
How stupid do you have to be to call out broadcasters (especially speaking on behalf of your team) when you are yourself one of the shittiest everyday players in the league?
Oh and since I’m confident I’ll win the Dickey/Zito bet, I came across this tumblr which would be a goldmine for punishment avatars for me.
The Padres and the Giants are battling for who can suck the most in the division right now. Padres went from being one of the hottest teams to one of the coldest teams.