MLB 2008 Season

[KCK_Halo]

Tim Lincecum

I watched Tom "wheel and deal" and blow away the Cubs last night. He truly is a pleasure to watch on the mound. As Vinny would say "And a child shall lead us!"

 

[BillD1984]

Scoreboard:


Marlins 17
Rockies 16 Bottom of 8th

 

[BillD1984]

Scoreboard:


Marlins 17
Rockies 16 Bottom of 8th

Rockies score two runs in the bottom of the 9th to win, 18-17. The two teams combined for 43 hits.

 

[SabresRule]

Marlins 17
Rockies 16 Bottom of 8th

Rockies score two runs in the bottom of the 9th to win, 18-17. The two teams combined for 43 hits.

Talk about fireworks!

BTW, failing to hold that big a lead and scoring that many runs, yet giving up so many so late in the game...

THIS is why I can't see the Marlins as a true N.L. contender.

BTW, I know you are on your "strike" towards the Red Sox, but I'm sure you saw that wacky triple over Johnny Damon's head on 'Baseball Tonight.'

Oh, and your Rays are 4-0 ever since youy switched sides.

 

[salsadancer7]

Talk about fireworks!

BTW, failing to hold that big a lead and scoring that many runs, yet giving up so many so late in the game...

THIS is why I can't see the Marlins as a true N.L. contender.

BTW, I know you are on your "strike" towards the Red Sox, but I'm sure you saw that wacky triple over Johnny Damon's head on 'Baseball Tonight.'

Oh, and your Rays are 4-0 ever since youy switched sides.

The Marlins are a contender.....because nobody will run away with the NL East. With as bad as they have played, they are still only 2 1/2 games behind and they get a great shot in the arm with Josh Johnson and Segio Mitre coming back....thats like making a trade and getting two very god and very young starting pitchers for nothing. TOO much can happen in that park in Colorado....just like Wrigley Field. You are never out of the game there. There is NO WAY that would have happened in Miami and that cavernous pit they call a baseball stadium.....regardless WHO was leading.

 

[BillD1984]

Here we are................All-Star Break. Some thoughts:


* The Mets are alive!!! The Amazin's probably didn't want the break to be here after winning their last nine games to close the first half. The Mets trail the Phillies by a half a game in the NL East.

* The NL West is putrid!!! Does anyone want to win this division? The D-Backs lead the Mild, Mild West by one game at the break..............despite having a below .500 record. UGH!!!

* If the season ended at the break here would be your LDS matchups:

American League: (1) Angels vs. (4) Rays and (2) Red Sox vs. (3) White Sox

National League: (1) Cubs vs. (3) Diamondbacks and (2) Phillies vs. (4) Cardinals

* Teams that are currently on the outside looking in, BUT don't sleep on them:

American: Yankees, Twins, and Tigers (possibly the Indians, but they have a lot of teams to climb over)

National: Mets, Marlins (LOVE their young talent), and Brewers (possibly the Dodgers, only because of the division they play in)

Back in March on the DBSForums site I predicted Detroit over Arizona in 5 games in the 2008 World Series. I changed that to Boston over the Cubs in 7 games in late May. I'm ready to lock in my postseason predictions here at the ASB, here goes nothing

ALDS: (1) Angels over (4) Yankees in 4 games
(2) Red Sox over (3) Tigers in 5 games

ALCS: Angels over Red Sox in 6 games


NLDS: (1) Cubs over (3) D-Backs in 3 games
(2) Phillies over (4) Brewers in 5 games

NLCS: Phillies over Cubs in 7 games (sorry Cubs ....I really am rooting for ya)


World Series: I've come full circle to what I predicted for the 2007 season:

Angels over Phillies in 5 games

 

[BillD1984]

He's backkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...............................Big Papi homers in his 2nd AB tonight as his rehab stint in Pawtucket gets underway. Ortiz says he's ready to rejoin the parent club next Friday night at Fenway vs. the Yankees.

 

[Jimbo]

He's backkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...............................Big Papi homers in his 2nd AB tonight as his rehab stint in Pawtucket gets underway. Ortiz says he's ready to rejoin the parent club next Friday night at Fenway vs. the Yankees.

Sorry Bill,
What they do in the minors means very little, they are only there to work the kinks out.

I'm not saying he won't do well when he comes back, I'm sure he will, but most major league players should do well when they go down.

Magglio Ordonez went down the other night for a game , they had huge drowds as expected, not sure what he did... came back tonight, looked bad the first two at bats but had a hit in the third trip.

Ortiz will do fine when he gets back and the Sox will be happy when he gets there (next Friday) .... This may but the Sox world back on it's orbital axis.

fwiw, I see Manny coming back for another year, without Manny Ortiz isn't as daunting due to the lack of protection ... same can be said for the other way around.

Jimbo

 

[BillD1984]

Sorry Bill,
What they do in the minors means very little, they are only there to work the kinks out.

I'm not saying he won't do well when he comes back, I'm sure he will, but most major league players should do well when they go down.

Magglio Ordonez went down the other night for a game , they had huge drowds as expected, not sure what he did... came back tonight, looked bad the first two at bats but had a hit in the third trip.

Ortiz will do fine when he gets back and the Sox will be happy when he gets there (next Friday) .... This may but the Sox world back on it's orbital axis.

fwiw, I see Manny coming back for another year, without Manny Ortiz isn't as daunting due to the lack of protection ... same can be said for the other way around.

Jimbo

I know. It's just good to see the big lug swinging a bat again. And unfortunately, (at least from my point of view) I think you're right about Manny coming back. That's why I was hoping against hope for the Sox to land Matt Holliday. Ortiz/Holliday may not be Papi/Manny circa 2003-2007, but the Red Sox have other complementary parts that they didn't have in most of those years.

 

[Jimbo]

Hey guy's, while I was playing around with the MLB EI package thats on FREE at the moment.
I noticed that the Tigers game was NOT listed tonight, I thought that ALL MLB games were in the EI package.

The game WAS on the RSN btw, Any idea about this ?

Also, last nights game WAS on the EI package, but ONLY one feed, don't they give you both feeds , maybe the Balt. feed was not available ?

Jimbo

 

[HD MM]

Red Sox vs. Angels

Wow. I wonder if you could call the Angels' sweep against the Sox a statement game at this point in the season?

K-Rod earned his MLB leading 40th save and the Angels now own the best record in baseball with 60 wins. They've got all the pieces to be legit come playoff time. The dominant bullpen and solid starting staff should give them the edge.

Now, my Indians go to LA for a 3 game series.

 

[Jimbo]

Wow. I wonder if you could call the Angels' sweep against the Sox a statement game at this point in the season?

K-Rod earned his MLB leading 40th save and the Angels now own the best record in baseball with 60 wins. They've got all the pieces to be legit come playoff time. The dominant bullpen and solid starting staff should give them the edge.

Now, my Indians go to LA for a 3 game series.

I've been very impressed with the Angels .
As for a statement game, they don't need a statement game, the statement they need to make will come in the playoffs, thats when it counts against the top teams.
I'm sure it gives them great confidence, but when they meet in the playoffs is when it will really matter.

Jimbo

 

[BillD1984]

I've been very impressed with the Angels .
As for a statement game, they don't need a statement game, the statement they need to make will come in the playoffs, thats when it counts against the top teams.
I'm sure it gives them great confidence, but when they meet in the playoffs is when it will really matter.

Jimbo

Me too. And I feel pretty good about my All-Star Break prediction that I made in this thread.

 

[HD MM]

Me too. And I feel pretty good about my All-Star Break prediction that I made in this thread.

Bill, I haven't heard much about Josh Beckett this year. How's he doing? He could've easily won the Cy Young in '07 and was clearly the best pitcher in the playoffs last year. Beckett single handily willed the Sox to come back from the 3-1 series deficit to the Indians last year IMO. Is he showing those same signs of dominance this year?

 

[BillD1984]

Bill, I haven't heard much about Josh Beckett this year. How's he doing? He could've easily won the Cy Young in '07 and was clearly the best pitcher in the playoffs last year. Beckett single handily willed the Sox to come back from the 3-1 series deficit to the Indians last year IMO. Is he showing those same signs of dominance this year?

Beckett is 9-6 and his ERA is around 4, nothing special really. IMO, three Red Sox starters have outpitched him so far, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Tim Wakefield. But in a big game, I'd still rather have Big Josh out there. Where the Red Sox are seriously lacking is a bridge to Jonathan Papelbon. They moved impressive rookie Justin Masterson to the bullpen to help fortify the setup role ( they also wanted to keep Masterson's innings down as he is a highly touted prospect).

 

[KCK_Halo]

Yikes!

Wow. I wonder if you could call the Angels' sweep against the Sox a statement game at this point in the season?.

The beautiful thing about the Angels organization is that they will all tell you there was no statement made in this weekend's sweep of the Sox. Mike has his people so damn focused on today that they really did not intentionally make any statements this weekend.

They are starting to scare me now. 9 games up on a team that is dismantling. There is concern that a lead of 12-15 games (which could easily happen soon) would lead to some complacency in the players no matter what Mike says. It's like a closer coming in with more than 3 runs to play with. The mental-set isn't the same.

That said, I hope that the lowly Tribe will come in and cool this Angel Juggernaut just a tad and bring them back to earth for awhile.

 

[Jimbo]

That said, I hope that the lowly Tribe will come in and cool this Angel Juggernaut just a tad and bring them back to earth for awhile.

Wow,
This from an Angels fan !

Winning or not, I'm not sure I would hope they LOSE to anyone.
I do understand your situation , there are plenty of teams that had big leads at the end of the year and flopped in the playoffs due to lack of focus, or in some cases lack of compition.

Jimbo

 

[KCK_Halo]

Wow,
This from an Angels fan !
Jimbo

Jimbo,

I am not REALLY WISHING them to lose, but more like saying it's OK if they do drop 1 of 3 to just chill this steamroller down a bit. There is ALOT of baseball to play and I don't want the team to peak too soon. (There is something I could insert here but I do not want to jinx the team!)

And look at this way...The A's are playing the Rays who REALLY need to get the ball rolling consistently again while the Tribe is here in town. The Angels could lose all three games and still be 9 games up!

Ya never know.

 

[BillD1984]

Jimbo,

I am not REALLY WISHING them to lose, but more like saying it's OK if they do drop 1 of 3 to just chill this steamroller down a bit. There is ALOT of baseball to play and I don't want the team to peak too soon. (There is something I could insert here but I do not want to jinx the team!)

And look at this way...The A's are playing the Rays who REALLY need to get the ball rolling consistently again while the Tribe is here in town. The Angels could lose all three games and still be 9 games up!

Ya never know.

KCK,

Not to jinx your team, but if there is one lock this year in baseball, it's the Angels winning the West. I can't think of another team in the Major Leagues that are a lock to make the playoffs, let alone win their division.

 

[KCK_Halo]

KCK,

Not to jinx your team, but if there is one lock this year in baseball, it's the Angels winning the West. I can't think of another team in the Major Leagues that are a lock to make the playoffs, let alone win their division.

Bill,

Thank you! In Spring Training I said (as did many) that all the Angels have to do this season is stay healthy and play good...not great...baseball and they would make it. Well, as it turns out, they have played WAY beyond what was expected of them and it is now just a tad scary as well as enjoyable.

And some people are still screaming at Tony to get us a "big bat"!!!!!