2011 Baseball Season/Off-Season Discussion

[Jayster]

well....crap...my Cubbies didnt have a good day today....however, one positive i took away was that Castro looked good, and i was happy with what i saw in pena....outside of that, i still hate that Byrd is batting 3rd in the order...and if i were Quade knowing Dempsters history...i would have put Marhsall in the pen the second demp walked the first batter...then when he walked the second batter, out demp goes because he does not pitch well in pressure situations...as seen with the grand slam..

oh well, its just game one today, long season ahead...i do give Quade some props for taking the redline train to the game today.

[AxlsMainMan]

How about those Blue Jays

[Falcon]

The Cards look even more flawed than I had thought and now Matt Holliday goes under the knife for an emergency apendectomy.

This is gonna be a long season...

[GeorgeSteele]

How about them Mets!  Defying all the naysayers and clearly establishing themselves as early World Series favorites.  Sorry, I know, just reveling in any minor success they have this year. 

Kidding aside, I am expecting wildcard contention -- with a healthy Bay and Beltran, they actually have a very good offense.  As for their starters, Pelfrey will be what he always is, a high 3's ERA guy, which I think will translate into 15 wins with this lineup.  Niese still troubles me, way too inconsistent and seems immature.  Dickey, love him, the true ace of the staff (sad, I know), but I think he can pull off another sub-3 ERA year and win 17-18 games this time around.  Chris Young, was a very good pitcher (a mid-3 ERA guy) before arm troubles derailed him the last 2 seasons.  He's playing to save his pro career and that coupled with his arm staying on his shoulder may add up to a big year out of him.  As for Chris Capuano, not much to say about him other than I don't think he's any worse than most other teams' #5.  The bullpen is a good veteran group and, as crazy as our closer is, he's still one of the better ones out there. 

Of course, the organization is mired in a legal and financial mess, but I think the on-field impact of that will be minimal.  Granted, if they trade David Wright mid-season for 10 cents on the dollar, my opinion of that may change.

[tim_m]

How about them Red Sox? Oh wait.. they are in a whole mess of trouble early and history is not on their side. Every time they've started at least 0-6 they've never been even .500.

[LongGoneDay]

How about them Red Sox? Oh wait.. they are in a whole mess of trouble early and history is not on their side. Every time they've started at least 0-6 they've never been even .500.

I for one, thought they were overhyped coming into the season. Questions marks at catcher position and starting rotation. I'm not as big on Crawford as everyone else seems to be. He's gonna help, no doubt, but that's gonna be an ugly contract at the back end. Lackey in the AL East is a match made in hell. He has no business being #2 starter.

All that said, they are going to fine. No way in hell they finish under .500.
The AL East is going to be weaker than years past. Rays lost a lot in the offseason, and Yanks didn't do much to improve. Jeter, Mo, Arod, Posada aint getting any younger.

Adrian Gonzalez is going to wear out Fenway Park, and Ortiz looks decent so far, which is a good sign since he was invisible early on the past couple seasons.
Salty scares me, and Scutaro sucks, but other than that, it's a pretty solid lineup.

[faldor]

How about them Red Sox? Oh wait.. they are in a whole mess of trouble early and history is not on their side. Every time they've started at least 0-6 they've never been even .500.

I for one, thought they were overhyped coming into the season. Questions marks at catcher position and starting rotation. I'm not as big on Crawford as everyone else seems to be. He's gonna help, no doubt, but that's gonna be an ugly contract at the back end. Lackey in the AL East is a match made in hell. He has no business being #2 starter.

All that said, they are going to fine. No way in hell they finish under .500.
The AL East is going to be weaker than years past. Rays lost a lot in the offseason, and Yanks didn't do much to improve. Jeter, Mo, Arod, Posada aint getting any younger.

Adrian Gonzalez is going to wear out Fenway Park, and Ortiz looks decent so far, which is a good sign since he was invisible early on the past couple seasons.
Salty scares me, and Scutaro sucks, but other than that, it's a pretty solid lineup.

I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up until now.  I wasn't going to be the one to bring it up.  This 0-6 start has been atrocious.  Worse than I could've ever imagined.  When they got swept by Texas I figured they just ran into a buzzsaw of a good team.  But losing three to Cleveland.  There's no excuse for that.

With that being said, I'm not about to hit the panic button.  That will be pressed firmly if they lose tomorrow's home opener, but until then, it is what it is.  An AWFUL start.

How do the rosters of the previous Sox teams that started 0-6 stack up to this one?  I doubt they matchup very well.  They will be fine.  Though I do agree with LongGoneDay, they were a bit overhyped heading into the season.  People were talking about 100 wins.  Now all that could still happen, but their pitching is still filled with question marks.  I think their lineup will be fine.  They will eventually hit.  They just seem to be in a team wide slump right now.  Hopefully some Fenway home cooking will right the ship.  They've been a markedly better offensive team at home than on the road over the years.  Who wouldn't be at Fenway?  That's why I won't allow myself to get alarmed until they show they can't win or play well at home.  Every team goes through bad stretches.  This just happens to be right out of the gate.

And I agree, Lackey doesn't instill much confidence in me, and unfortunately he starts the home opener tomorrow.  Hopefully Phil Hughes struggles with his velocity again and the Sox take advantage.

I think Crawford will be fine.  Did they overpay for him?  Sure they did.  But he's a good player, and he's worth 6 million more per year than JD Drew from where I'm sitting.

[tim_m]

I agree completely about the rotation. Coming into the season everyone said it was oh so great. Like one of the best ever which boggled my mind. You got Beckett coming off his worst year, Lackey wasn't good last year. Dice-K is hit and miss. They should score enough runs to turn it around but they have huge issues in that rotation. Early on the yankees staff has looked much better. Sabathia has been good in two starts. Burnett has looked good so far. I'm not ready to say he's turned it around just yet but what i've seen so far is encouraging. Nova i'm not sure yet he seems to struggle second and third time through the lineup. I think a lot of that is he just hasn't learned how to make adjustments to facing big league hitters a second, third time etc. He's young though so thats to be expected. Hughes i expect to be fine the velocity will be there. We haven't seen Garcia yet but he looked good in the spring so we'll see

[pilferk]

The Yanks and Sox have VERY similar issues.  They both have lineups that should score plenty of runs.  They both have rotations that, beyond their #1, have legit chances to struggle.

I said it before (not sure if it was in the old thread or if it was part of another discussion on another board):  The media was wetting themselves over the Sox rotation....and I don't see why, given recent history.  Lester is a legit ace.  Lackey is a career mediocure pitcher, good for maybe 12 - 15 wins and a 3.75 - 4.00 ERA in the AL East.  Bucholz had ONE really good year, and I think it's more likely you see the guy you saw in previuos years than that you see the sub 3.00 ERA guy from last year.  Beckett's numbers have steadily declined since 2007.  Dice K is an inconsistent mess.

Their lineup is very good....but if you look at what the new pieces "replaced" from last year....those players had VERY good (like, career aberration good) years.  Yes....the new guys will provide consistency where you were NOT likely going to find it.  But the upgrades, in terms of actual production/numbers year over year, will likely be marginal on offense.  The REAL improvements to the Sox are going to be from getting guys BACK from injury.

As much as I'd like to needle faldor and the rest of the Sox fans about their horrible start.....I'm going to be nice and refrain.  As I've said in years past concerning the Yanks: It's April, not September.  Heck, it's not even June yet.  Sure, it's an uncomfortable hole to dig yourself, but I have few doubts that the Sox will find their way above ground.

The 1998 Yanks lost their first 3 games..and ended up winning 125 (including the playoffs).  If you want to be REALLY pessimistic, going from 0-6, say the Sox only have a chance of winning 123.

If the Sox are 0-9 at the end of the weekend (and I would be shocked if you were, unfotunately), THEN maybe it's time to see some dark clouds on the horizen.  Even then...there would be 153 games left to make up something like 7 games in the standings.  Hardly insurmountable.

[faldor]

The Sox are just a mess right now overall.  In Texas their pitching was terrible.  In Cleveland, their bats went to sleep.  I think they're all pressing right now, searching for answers.  All they need is ONE game where they put everything together and they'll snap out of it.  Lackey was awful his first time out and I have a hard time believing he'll be great today against a great Yankee lineup at Fenway.  So the lineup has to wake up.  They have 5 starters batting below .200.  Only one guy (Gonzalez) is hitting over .300.  All that adds up to an overall team batting average of .181.  That is not going to get it done.

Their lineup was supposed to carry this team.  There was potential on the pitching staff.  Lester will be fine.  I do think Buchholz will be good again as well.  I was hoping for improvements from both Beckett and Lackey, but from what I saw from John in his first start, I'm not holding out much hope.  We'll see how he does today and going forward.  He WAS better in the second half of last year though.  I'm talking Lackey like numbers, nothing Cy Young worthy.  I do believe Beckett will be better than he was last year too, because he was just awful last year.  I can't see him having an ERA up around 6.  Although so far, he's right on track.

I'm not expecting them to have a GREAT pitching staff.  I'm expecting them to keep their team in the game and for the offense to score enough runs to win a majority of the time.  So far, neither has happened.  You could actually argue that the pitching staff has kept them in 5 of the 6 games.  The Lackey start was the only game they had no chance at winning right from the start.  The bullpen (Bard) blew the game on opening day and the Dice-K start the other night (Reyes).  But they've had 3 games where they've scored ONE run or less, and they haven't topped 5 runs yet.  This from a lineup that was supposed to average over 6 runs a game.

All teams go through bad stretches, even the great ones.  If they can win 3 out of the next 4, they'll be 3-7.  Obviously still horrible, but a lot of teams go through 3-7 stretches during the season and it doesn't kill their chances.  With that being said, not many great teams lose SIX in a row.  A great team should never go all the way through their rotation, PLUS one game, and not come up with a win.  I'm sure the home crowd will be behind them 100% (I hope) today.  But they have to win today, or they will turn on them quickly.

[Jdog0830]

Things could be worse with the White Sox hopefully the win at home gets morale up enough to win some series.

[tim_m]

Manny gets caught cheating using PEDs again and instead of facing it like a man quits on his team and retires. What a pussy ass loser bitch.

[LongGoneDay]

Manny gets caught cheating using PEDs again and instead of facing it like a man quits on his team and retires. What a pussy ass loser bitch.

Haha. just saw that. Was looking forward to him and Johnny coming to Fenway.
Oh well. He was a beast, but how the mighty have fallen.

[tim_m]

They're talking about it right now during the Sox/Yankee game.

[faldor]

Man, I was looking forward to seeing Manny play against the Sox 19 times this year. I somewhat feel for the guy, but he obviously did it to himself. Sheer stupidity. HOF is in serious question now, and I kind of doubt he'd get in. At least not right away. Getting caught twice? Come on now Manny!

[pilferk]

And there, ladies (any ladies out there) and gents is a sure fire way to cure a 6 game losing streak:

Facing Phil Hughes.

He's starting to remind me of Javier Vasquez about 365 days ago.

[tim_m]

I wouldn't worry about Hughes just yet after only two starts.

[tim_m]

Man, I was looking forward to seeing Manny play against the Sox 19 times this year. I somewhat feel for the guy, but he obviously did it to himself. Sheer stupidity. HOF is in serious question now, and I kind of doubt he'd get in. At least not right away. Getting caught twice? Come on now Manny!

I can't see how you can feel at all for the guy. Despite being a great hitter he has been douchebag turd countless times.

[Falcon]

Convicted baseball felon, bad teammate, quitter.

"Manny being Manny" has never been more apropos.

[tim_m]

Convicted baseball felon, bad teammate, quitter.

"Manny being Manny" has never been more apropos.

Well said.