MLB Baseball Thread

[Rondoraymundo]

Originally Posted by JJI

The Braves have some talent and look pretty darn good this year

Every team has "talent." The Braves don't have good enough talent to win the division. Adding a couple of pitchers who are over 40 years old to a team that only won 68 games last year is just not going to cut it. For three years running I've posed this question to delusional Braves fans that I've met: How are you ever going to win a World Serious, or a playoff series, or even a division if you can't play .500 ball???????

Liberty Media bought the team from Thyme Warmer in 2006. Since then, how many playoff games have they won?

I don't think 6-9 is "pretty darn good." I think it's pretty dam bad. I know it's early in the season, but nothing predicts future results better than past results.

[David M123]

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

Hi Dru,
Yep. Listen to WEEI most days. Die hard Redsox fan, naturally.

We may have a complete offense tomorrow.

This is going to be the year of Benantendi.

Red Sox fan here also. Benintendi has been looking good. Mitch Moreland has also been a pleasant surprise at the plate.

But what about Chris Sale!!!!! 0.91 ERA after 4 games, he goes deep every start, should have finished the game last night, but for a stupid (and almost game-losing) decision by Farrell. If I were Chris I'd be getting more than a little annoyed at the lack of run support. It's almost as if the Sox batters have a mental block. "Oh, Chris is on the mound, we can relax today."

[JJI]

Originally Posted by Rondoraymundo

Every team has "talent." The Braves don't have good enough talent to win the division. Adding a couple of pitchers who are over 40 years old to a team that only won 68 games last year is just not going to cut it. For three years running I've posed this question to delusional Braves fans that I've met: How are you ever going to win a World Serious, or a playoff series, or even a division if you can't play .500 ball???????

Liberty Media bought the team from Thyme Warmer in 2006. Since then, how many playoff games have they won?

I don't think 6-9 is "pretty darn good." I think it's pretty dam bad. I know it's early in the season, but nothing predicts future results better than past results.

Well ok then.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by jpd

OK Dru.....take a guess

It's gotta be the Tigers, JPD .

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

Hi Dru,
Yep. Listen to WEEI most days. Die hard Redsox fan, naturally.

We may have a complete offense tomorrow.

This is going to be the year of Benantendi.

I've heard many a Red Sox game on a staticy AM radio station on a Fri night driving through Nova Scotia. Gotta love Joe Castiglione.

Watch for Benintendi to be a Rookie of the Year candidate.

[reeve21]

Red Sox fan here. But it took me a while to figure that out.

Spent my whole life half way between NYC and Boston, so I root for the Giants in football. The Patriots were not in the NFL when I was a young kid, then there was that whole debacle when they played our twice convicted former CT governor in order to get Mass to build them a new stadium, but I digress.

Anyway, the Sox broke my heart when I was a kid in the 1967 world series. I literally cried over it (I turned 9 years old during the series). I was so upset I decided to join my grandfather and become the only Yankee fan in the family!

I became a Yankee fan just in time for the "glory" years of Jake Gibbs and Horace "no neck" Clark. I loved those guys, but the team stunk. Then they got a new owner and the team got better, but I had a hard time with all the drama. I stuck with them through several managers, some of whom were hired and fired more than once!

The last straw for me was when Steinbrenner fired Yogi Berra in 1985. I had just married into a family of diehard Red Sox fans, my grandfather had just passed on, and I was working for a guy who had a piece of a season ticket 6 rows behind the plate at Fenway Park (right behind the players' families). It was great to sit there and watch a young Roger Clemens as the scouts registered his fastball speed on handheld radar guns.

So I was weak and went back to the Sox. Not sure my marriage would have survived otherwise :-)

[jdmulli]

Regardless off ownership... I'm a Braves fan. Always have been. Always will be.

I grew up watching Braves games with my Grandpa. All the statistics in the world can't take away those memories.

[Greg Rappleye]

The Detroit Tigers, here.

And things were going okay this year until we put on a demonstration of fielding-bloopers at Tampa Bay and were swept in three.

See: Unhappy face, supra.

Greg Rappleye

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by Rondoraymundo

I've slowly lost interest in baseball through the years. I used to follow the Braves and did so for over 50 years. But I stopped a few years ago when I saw their cause was hopeless. You see, the Braves will never again contend for the division because the odds are stacked against them. What stands in the way of their success, is it the Fillies, the Muts or the Gnats? Nope! The Braves will never win a playoff series or get into the World Serious as long as they are owned by Liberty Media.

With TV and Licensing revenues no team actually has to win games to make a profit. Why spend the money on talent good enough to win when it's not required? Besides, as one of the few corporate owned teams, spending money on talent eats into the quarterly profits to the stockholders......and we can't have that now can we?

When team talent decisions are made by a media company and not baseball minds quess what you get?

79-83
67-95
68-93

Say what you want about Ted Turner. At least he was interested in winning.

Exactly. Pittsburgh owner has a background in newspapers so I understand the mindset of being cheap since nobody reads newspapers anymore. It also means he can be eloquent when he lies about wanting to be competitive. The fact of the matter is that they are making money hand over fist with revenue sharing and TV deals while the local tax base pays off his ball park.

[Dru Edwards]

Red Sox / Yankees just kicked off their first meeting of the year. Hopefully Porcello can pitch a little better today.

[Jim Owen]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Red Sox / Yankees just kicked off their first meeting of the year. Hopefully Porcello can pitch a little better today.

Yepper. He's given up a couple, so far. He will find the sinker.

[ras1500]

Nope, not a fan of baseball. Come to think of it, I don't get excited over football, basketball or hockey either. The rest of my family seem to follow the NY Yankees.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

Yepper. He's given up a couple, so far. He will find the sinker.

Let's see how Chris Sale does. He's had an amazing start to the year even though he isn't getting the Wins.