Author Topic: Division-Watching (2009) (Read 56325 times)

LetsGoNats · « **Reply #300 on:** May 24, 2009, 07:35:23 pm »

NL East standings if you subtract the Nats games

NYM 21-18
ATL 18-18
PHI 16-16
FLA 13-25

Fla is 8-24 since their 11-1 start (ouch). If not for the Nats, they would be the punching bag of MLB.

sportsfan882 · « **Reply #301 on:** May 24, 2009, 07:42:24 pm »

wow, what a bad division.

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #302 on:** May 24, 2009, 10:33:55 pm »

I can't believe it is me who is saying this, but that bad division just went up against the "best division in baseball" and went 3-0 (ATL-TOR), 2-1 (PHI-NYY), 2-1 (NYM-BOS), 1-2 (TB -FLA), and 1-2 (WAS-BAL). That's beating the 3 top teams in the AL East, two in their home parks.

sportsfan882 · « **Reply #303 on:** May 28, 2009, 09:43:52 pm »

Chipper struck out 4 times last night against Randy Johnson and the Giants. It was his first career 4 K game.

sportsfan882 · « **Reply #304 on:** May 28, 2009, 10:12:40 pm »

Jordan Schafer is so overmatched up here it's unbelievable. I called it from the start.

Dude is a trash player. He's worse than Milledge.

NatsAddict · « **Reply #305 on:** May 29, 2009, 08:23:44 am »

Quote from: sportsfan882 on May 28, 2009, 09:43:52 pm

Chipper struck out 4 times last night against Randy Johnson and the Giants. It was his first career 4 K game.

Golden Sombrero

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #306 on:** May 29, 2009, 08:45:28 am »

Quote from: sportsfan882 on May 28, 2009, 10:12:40 pm

Jordan Schafer is so overmatched up here it's unbelievable. I called it from the start.

Dude is a trash player. He's worse than Milledge.

get the man some hgh

blue911 · « **Reply #307 on:** May 29, 2009, 09:00:46 am »

Quote from: sportsfan882 on May 28, 2009, 10:12:40 pm

Jordan Schafer is so overmatched up here it's unbelievable. I called it from the start.

Dude is a trash player. He's worse than Milledge.

The Braves think everybody can jump from A ball to the majors. I guess ruining Jeff Francoeur wasn't enough.

The Chief · « **Reply #308 on:** May 29, 2009, 09:05:47 am »

Quote from: blue911 on May 29, 2009, 09:00:46 am

The Braves think everybody can jump from A ball to the majors. I guess ruining Jeff Francoeur wasn't enough.

Think Rick Eckstein could fix him?

blue911 · « **Reply #309 on:** May 29, 2009, 09:17:02 am »

Quote from: The Chief on May 29, 2009, 09:05:47 am

Think Rick Eckstein could fix him?

Yes. But a lot of it depends on Francoeur. Eckstein couldn't do squat for Milledge because Milledge didn't want to learn.

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #310 on:** May 29, 2009, 09:20:27 am »

Quote from: sportsfan882 on May 28, 2009, 10:12:40 pm

Jordan Schafer is so overmatched up here it's unbelievable. I called it from the start.

Dude is a trash player. He's worse than Milledge.

Meanwhile, Josh Anderson is hitting .302 (.348 OBP) and has stolen 10 bases.

NatsAddict · « **Reply #311 on:** May 30, 2009, 11:19:49 am »

Quote

“We’d be working on it the whole game. It’s there,” Johnson told the Marlins’ official Web site of the callus.

Yahoo

So the Marlins now have an official website of the callus. Sounds like another brilliant Jeffrey Loria marketing scheme.

NatsAddict · « **Reply #312 on:** May 31, 2009, 09:32:50 pm »

Marlins prospect Caminero had a rough game last night in his season debut. He went 1/3 of an inning and gave up 2 BB, 3 H, 5 R (all earned) and 2 HR. He did have one K, who I'm sure was immediately released. His ERA is 135.00.

Unfortunately for him, everyone in South Florida knows about it because the Jupiter Hammerheads accidentally put it out on the wires as Anibal Sanchez in his rehab, causing everyone to take notice, and then made the correction.

UMDNats · « **Reply #313 on:** May 31, 2009, 11:20:36 pm »

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/05/marlins-interested-in-daniel-cabrera.html

nice

NatsAddict · « **Reply #314 on:** June 01, 2009, 09:49:55 am »

Old and false news - again another story completely fabricated by Mike "Sock Puppets" Berardino. It goes along with Mike Lowell being traded to the Yankees in June of 2003, and Pudge Rodriguez signing with Baltimore that same year - both of which he reported as confirmed by MLB. There is a reason that nobody in the clubhouse or front office ever speaks with the guy.

On Marlins board, it's considered unethical to quote or link to an article by Berardino without first posting: "WARNING - BERARDINO ARTICLE." He's about as reliable as The Onion.

Berardino works for the Sun-Sentinel, which is owned by the Tribune Co, and the Cubbie influence shows in its reporting. Berardino and another baseball reporter, Juan Rodriquez, use each other as "sources." Berardino, having no access and no other reporter even speaking to him, hasn't actually been to a regular season game in years. Rodriguez is a plagiarist, copying the online reports of Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post, almost verbatim, and then filing the same report a few hours or even a day later. Capozzi messed them up again yesterday, and his report wasn't posted until after the Sun-Sentinel went to press. This morning, on the Sun-Sentinel's website, and in the print edition, you wouldn't even know the Marlins played other than a box score, even though the game was over by 4:00 pm. Later today, under a Juan Rodriguez by-line, there will be an almost exact duplicate of Joe Capozzi's article from the Palm Beach Post.

blue911 · « **Reply #315 on:** June 01, 2009, 09:58:18 am »

Being kinda harsh on The Onion, big guy.

NatsAddict · « **Reply #316 on:** June 01, 2009, 08:06:23 pm »

Quote from: blue911 on June 01, 2009, 09:58:18 am

Being kinda harsh on The Onion, big guy.

I'll have to send them my apologies.

Oddly enough, I'm golfing in a three-some with a couple of the Sentinel's other sportswriters tomorrow.

PC · « **Reply #317 on:** June 01, 2009, 10:28:06 pm »

JJ Putz's ERA went from 3.81 to 5.08 on just his implosion in the 8th inning against the Pirates.

NatsAddict · « **Reply #318 on:** June 01, 2009, 10:56:40 pm »

Quote from: PC on June 01, 2009, 10:28:06 pm

JJ Putz's ERA went from 3.81 to 5.08 on just his implosion in the 8th inning against the Pirates.

He stunk it up against the Fish this weekend, too.

PC · « **Reply #319 on:** June 01, 2009, 11:55:34 pm »

Adrian Gonzalez just hit his 21st homer against the Phils.

PC · « **Reply #320 on:** June 01, 2009, 11:57:18 pm »

Back to back homers for the Padres!

NatsAddict · « **Reply #321 on:** June 02, 2009, 09:24:35 am »

Quote from: PC on June 01, 2009, 11:55:34 pm

Adrian Gonzalez just hit his 21st homer against the Phils.

Thank you Mr. Beinfest for trading him away for nothing.

JMUalumni · « **Reply #322 on:** June 02, 2009, 10:24:24 am »

Quote from: PC on June 01, 2009, 11:55:34 pm

Adrian Gonzalez just hit his 21st homer against the Phils.

Gonzalez is nasty. What is more is that he is crushing home runs at Petco, one of the most spacious parks out there. It wouldn't be out of the question for him to reach 60 HRs this season.

Another interesting storyline out there is the strength of Detroit's starting pitching. At the beginning of the season I thought it was going to be a mess up there. Justin Verlander has got his stuff together and has settled in as the SO machine everyone thought he would be when he was drafted. He now struck at least 8 batters in all but 2 games, over 10 batters in 3 games. He is currently averaging the fastest fastball in the league at 95.5 MPH.

Another guy that is throwing some serious heat (94.4 avg fastball) up there is Edwin Jackson. The Tigers got him in a trade from the Rays, who thought that he would never live up to the hype he generated as a young pitcher. Well, he is living up to it. He has become more economical with his pitches and is going deeper in games. His WHIP is currently sitting at 1.04 and the ERA is at 2.30. Jackson is just starting to blossom and should be a top of the rotation guy for years to come. Detroit got a steal on this one.

Then there is Rick Porcello, the youngest pitcher in the league currently and one of the leading candidates for ROY. He hasn't been going too deep into games yet, but he has been giving his team a great chance to win each game he pitches in. He has only let up 5 runs in his last 5 games. He has been relying on his fastball a lot and has been getting a bit of luck, but he should continue to improve as he gains maturity and experience.

And then there is the interesting case of Dontrelle Willis. Traded from the Marlins and signed to a huge extension by the Tigers, only to seemingly lose all ability to pitch. He was DL'ed earlier in the season because of anxiety order, but is now back with the big league. He has struggled in two of his four outings, but has showed promise in the fact that he has returned to the mechanics of old. His fastball velocity is down and the walks are still troubling, but Willis seems to be on the path to redemption.

Lastly, there is Armando Galaragga. He was a guy that emerged out of nowhere last season to have a great year. He was probably the one guy on the staff no one was worried about and in an act of irony he is struggling the most. He has been much more hittable this year and teams have gotten to him early. He is letting the long ball up more and is walking batters without discrimination. I have a feeling Galaragga will bounce back in the second half of the season, but wouldn't be surprised if he continues to struggle and even loses his spot to Bonderman when he returns.

Detroit has a good rotation that should be in place for the next few years. I have caught a couple games of theirs and it has been a pleasure to watch good pitching. Unfortunately for the Tigers, there bats are as heavy as they have been in the past and they will have to now rely on their rotation to bring in the Ws.

EDIT: oops, posted this in the wrong section; Ironically ESPN had an article about this exact same subject today, they must be stealing ideas for articles from my posts

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=4221583

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #323 on:** June 02, 2009, 10:47:12 am »

JMU - funny about the Tigers staff. Dave Cameron has been taking grief all year for ripping the Joyce / Jackson deal as dumb for the Tigers. While I think Joyce would have been useful to them this year with Guillen and Thames out, I think Jackson has been a huge surprise. Perhaps it is a great case of a coach helping a player with talent figure otu a remedy to a flaw others had not been able to do.

At my AL only roto auction, in a very deep league, most would not touch the Tigers staff. Porcello was taken last year in our Farm draft, but Jackson went for $9 (actually a high price for a #3 starter), Verlander was kept two years the beginning of last year at $24 for '08 - '10, Galarraga went for $16 (surprise to me), and Willis was available, not drafted, and finally picked up for $3 as a free agent. Miner I don't think was taken, and I forget who else had shots at their rotation earlier in the year.

I still would not put it by the Twins to make a good run this year, and Kenny Williams is always willing to try to roll the dice on moves.

PC · « **Reply #324 on:** June 03, 2009, 12:07:53 am »

I swear, I think the entire Phillies lineup is juicing! They are SMASHING homeruns at Petco Park, the most pitcher friendly park in baseball.

Especially Ibanez! He's hit two tonight!