Author Topic: The MLB thread (Read 57709 times)

|iR|Focalor · « **on:** April 20, 2012, 09:06:59 PM »

Regular seasons been underway a week or so now.

Pretty happy with my Atlanta Braves so far. They got rid of that shitty shortstop Alex Gonzalez I was cussing the fuck out of all last season, good move there. Dude cost them so many clutch plays and a few games. So far this year, they're swinging the bats 200% better than they were last year. Last year they were pretty good on defense (with the exception of that shitty SS), and this year they seemed to have tightened it up a little bit better. But last year what was really missing was getting some good hits and driving in the runs, which they are certainly accomplishing so far this season. Was so disappointing last year. They struggled and fought and held on to that wild card spot all year only to fizzle out in the last 2 weeks of the season and let it slip away. I really didn't expect them to go anywhere once they did make it to post-season play, but I was still hoping they'd make it anyway. Last year, I would've personally ranked them about even with the New York Mets even though the Mets won most of the games in the sets of series against the Braves. But this year... with the exception of one game in the half series they played against them, they clobbered the shit outta the Mets. Made pretty easy work of them. And the Mets ain't really no joke this year either. They're doing pretty well in their at-bats. For the Braves, last year it looked like all-star catcher Brian McCann was their #1 big bat homerun hitter. Looks like last years rookie first baseman Freddie Freeman is getting even better. Saw him nail 2 homeruns against the Diamondbacks last night for a total of 5 RBIs. Not too shabby.

LA Dodgers are looking pretty good this year too. Been a good while since they've been considered dangerous.

As far as New York Yankees go... yeah, they beat the Red Sox the other night at Fennway Parks 100 year anniversary, but I still think they ain't got shit this year. Fuck em.

Sgt. Dick · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2012, 07:12:54 AM »

All of my Braves comments are based on the box scores, since all they show in FL are the marlins

The Braves offense is putting up good numbers and I think the Braves have a top 5 pitching staff.
Chipper is still playing well and his replacement has played well. I don't know much about the new SS, hopefully he is excellent on defense bacause so far he isn't hitting much.
I think injuries or lack of injuries will be the key, I don't know how deep the Braves bench is. If they can get Uggla to hit at least .250

that would be great also.

|iR|Focalor · « **Reply #2 on:** April 21, 2012, 07:55:41 AM »

Quote from: Sgt. Dick on April 21, 2012, 07:12:54 AM

All of my Braves comments are based on the box scores, since all they show in FL are the marlins

The Braves offense is putting up good numbers and I think the Braves have a top 5 pitching staff.
Chipper is still playing well and his replacement has played well. I don't know much about the new SS, hopefully he is excellent on defense bacause so far he isn't hitting much.
I think injuries or lack of injuries will be the key, I don't know how deep the Braves bench is. If they can get Uggla to hit at least .250 that would be great also.

I dunno about top 5. It's still early in the season. From what little I've seen, the new guy they brought up from the minors, Mike Minor, seems to have gotten a good bit better since last year. Only one walk for him this year in 2 appearances on the mound, and the one walk was the very first batter he faced in his first appearance of the season. That said, it's looking like he's got both the confidence AND the talent to throw some good strikes whenever he needs to. I think he ended up striking out about 10 or 12 of the Mets the other night, VERY good considering how the Mets are hitting lately. As for their notoriously tough relief and closing pitchers... I'm not impressed with them very much. Like I said, the other night Mike Minor pitched an excellent game, then Johnny Venters came in for the 9th inning, and got lucky getting 2 outs by way of fly out and ground out (simply good defense there), then the next two in a row he walked (no walks ALL NIGHT up until that point), then the 5th batter he finally struck out to end it. So hopefully that was just an off-night for Venters. Haven't seen their young gun Craig Kimbrel close one out yet this year. Last year he was firing fucking rockets to the plate. Think he's got 4-seam fastball clocked around 98 or 100mph, and and a couple of nasty diving sliders or splitters that are almost just as fast as his heater.

Not too impressed with Chipper Jones so far. He's been doing pretty much what he did last year. He gets up to bat with mainly one thing on his mind: swinging for the fence. Seems like he's only trying for homeruns rather than just trying to get on base and conserve outs.

I'm not concerned about Tyler Pastornicky's or Jack Wilson's (the 2 SS's) batting average at all. They gets hits enough to keep them in the average range as far hitting goes league-wide, which is a little better than what their SS was doing last year. And they're both playing the position well too, which more than makes up for their lack of hitting in my mind. SS is a very important position. As long as they're both keeping shit nailed down in that zone and not fucking up plays, they're alright with me.

I think Uggla will do okay this year. Last year he hit a shitty slump at the start, but came out of it towards the middle of summer. He ended up having one the longest hitting streaks in franchise history too. Something like 20 or 30 games in a row. I don't think he'll be hammering homers out of the park every single night, but he'll get the job done.

Didn't they end up moving the Marlins this year? Thought I heard something about that.

|iR|Focalor · « **Reply #3 on:** April 24, 2012, 11:19:52 AM »

Speaking of Freddie Freeman, he ended up somehow getting stuck with the NL player of the week award. Dunno how that happened. I guess his batting average was a lot better than I thought.

Figured the Braves-Dodgers game last night would be a lot better than it was, but it pretty much sucked. Nope, DID NOT PUT MONEY ON IT BECAUSE I'M A FAKE BULLSHITER or something something.

Anyway... Goes to show you what really goes into making a good team. It all starts with pitching I guess. Last year Jair Jurggens started off the year GREAT. Think he ended last year with a 12 and 3 record, looked to be a good candidate for the Cy Young until he injured his knee. So far this year, he fucking STINKS. None of his pitches have any kind of movement on them, they all sail to the plate straight as an arrow even when he's trying to throw a slider. The Dodgers were hitting the shit out of him last night until they finally had good sense enough to pull him out and stick Livan Hernandez in there to finish up. Hernandez did pretty good, held them to the 5 runs they got with Jurggens on the mound, but at that point the Dodgers were just too far ahead for Atlanta to have a chance to catch up. Hopefully the next two games will be a little closer. The Dodgers are gonna be a tough team all year, and it would be nice if Atlanta could make a statement by taking 2 of 3 in this series at Los Angeles.

Seems like what happened last year is just what happened last night. They don't have good confident pitchers on the mound, they give up hits and runs, that lack of confidence is contagious and then no one seems to be able to hit well, and when they do they just can't string together enough hits to get any runs across the plate. They got 2 runs last night, and both were 1 run homers. They had men on 3rd a few times last night, NEVER got one in. Same shit as last year.

Sgt. Dick · « **Reply #4 on:** April 24, 2012, 12:38:44 PM »

I thought from what I saw lastyear that the Braves would have a good young pitching staff. Jurrjens, Beachy, Hanson, and Minor all looked good last year, but lacked consistency. I was hoping that with another year of experience they would be even better this year. The Braves bullpen has some good young arms last year but lacked consistency also. Maybe I was just to optimistic, it is still early so I hope they step up.

|iR|Focalor · « **Reply #5 on:** April 24, 2012, 02:39:32 PM »

So far Beachy and Minor have looked pretty good. Like I said, last year Jurggens was down at the end of the season with the knee brings forward when pitching, probably has a bit to do with why he ain't getting the movement on his nasty slider like he was last year. Dunno about Hanson. Last year, Hanson started off pretty good but then turned to crap at the end of the season too. Lotta little things like that kept Atlanta from keeping the wild card spot held down. All at once, injuries and pitching slumps plagued them and they kept losing just enough games to let the runner up for the wild card pull the rug out from under them. Shouldn't be but another few days to a week before Tim Hudson comes back from the Gwinnett Braves on his post-injury duty. Not sure who he'll be replacing the pitching lineup, but hopefully having him back will help until Jurggens can get his shit working again. The announcers of the game kinda-sorta made a good point that he's a good young talent (Jair Jurggens) and they don't wanna toss him to the curb just because he's had a few unlucky games, HOWEVER... I honestly don't think he really was all that terrific last year. Just because he won 12 games as the starting pitcher doesn't always mean you pitched a great game.

|iR|Focalor · « **Reply #6 on:** April 25, 2012, 02:30:35 PM »

Well this beats all I've ever seen. Dude pays big bucks for a seat right behind home plate and then spends the game reading a fucking book.

Sgt. Dick · « **Reply #7 on:** April 25, 2012, 08:32:16 PM »

The only excuse I can think of is "its the royals"

adz1La · « **Reply #8 on:** April 25, 2012, 10:26:17 PM »

that dude is a fucking boss

|iR|Focalor · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2012, 11:08:17 PM »

WOOT! Great game tonight! Shit was close all night, both Atlanta and LA did a great job on the mound.

And then the ninth inning came.

This shit was just nuts. Braves were down 1 to 2, top of the ninth, do or die time. Freddie Freeman singles out a line drive to right field to plant himself on 1st base. Then Brian McCann nuts a rocketing line drive right the fucking motherfuck off the pitchers FACE! POW! And he lands on 1st, Freeman moves to 2nd. Damn pitcher got BITCHSLAPPED upside the jaw with the hit, but no busted teeth, no little tweety birds, and the dude KEEPS ON PITCHING! Then Uggla comes up and hits one out to right, drives Freeman home, score 2 to 2. Chipper Jones gets up, hits a line drive, knocks whoever was pinch running for McCann in, score 3 to 2 Braves. Then Jason Heyward gets up, knocks ANOTHER line drive to bring Uggla home, score 4 to 2 Braves! By this time, Dodgers say enoughs enough and send in another pitcher. First pitch the new pitcher throws beans Braves SS Tyler Pastornicky right between the shoulder blades... perhaps some payback for the shot off the other pitchers face. Next batter up, first swing he flings the fucking bat up into the stands and almost decapitates some poor lady with the fucking thing. From there on out... just outs and uneventful.

But an awesome comeback in the 9th. Especially against arguably the BEST team in the NL right now. Braves take 2 out of 3. Good series. Still can't believe that shot off the pitchers head didn't knock that dude out. That shit looked vicious.

Sgt. Dick · « **Reply #10 on:** May 04, 2012, 03:46:10 AM »

Tampa Bay currently has the best record in baseball. If I had a favorite team in FL, it would be Tampa.
They do an amazing job considering they are a low budget team compared to the other teams in their division. (Yankees, RedSox)

Sgt. Dick · « **Reply #11 on:** May 04, 2012, 03:52:25 AM »

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7888133/mariano-rivera-new-york-yankees-torn-acl

I hate to see this happen to Rivera, he has always seemed to be a class act.
I don't mind seeing something like this happen to the Yankees. I know they will just go out and buy another top closer from another team

|iR|Focalor · « **Reply #12 on:** May 28, 2012, 12:19:25 AM »

How the fuck do you lose 7 in a row? Braves lost all 4 to the Reds and 3 to the Nationals. Next 3 games are at home in Atlanta against the Cardinals, and I have little doubt they'll fucking lose those too. No pitching to speak of anymore. Mike Minor is off and on, more off lately than on. Brandon Beachy is actually doing pretty well, it just doesn't show because no one on offense can seem to get any damn hits and on bases strung together to get runs across. And this god damn relief pitcher they got, Jonny Venters... FUCK!!!!!!!!!!! Every time they send him in, I wanna shoot my fucking TV. It's fucking pathetic, he loses the game every fucking time. They have brains enough to send Jair Jurggens down to AAA ball to get his shit straightened out when he has one or two bad games in the majors, but they just ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY REFUSE to send this stupid prick down. They just keep on sending his ass in every other night in the 7th or 8th inning to turn the whole game to shit if they have the lead. It's like a fucking curse. Chipper Jones is out with a fucked up ankle, catcher Brian McCann is out with the flu or some shit, 1st baseman Freddie Freeman is out with a scratched cornea or some dumb shit, even the 2nd catcher David Ross is out with an injury,... everyone that can fucking hit is out, but for fucks sake Jonny Venters could have a piano dropped on him and then get hit by fucking herd of Greyhound buses and he'd still show up to the game to piss away another lead.

Sgt. Dick · « **Reply #13 on:** May 28, 2012, 06:30:18 AM »

I left on a cruise 1 week ago and the Brave were tied for 1st place, I come back and

Thanks for the update Foc.

|iR|Focalor · « **Reply #14 on:** May 28, 2012, 04:35:14 PM »

Quote from: Sgt. Dick on May 28, 2012, 06:30:18 AM

I left on a cruise 1 week ago and the Brave were tied for 1st place, I come back and

Thanks for the update Foc.

Exactly. Before the 4 game series with the Reds, they were about 1/2 a game ahead of Washington in 1st place in the NL east. Now they're in 4th. And yes, they lost #8 in a row today to the Cardinals. Fuck it, if we're gonna lose so fucking much, might as well go for a record losing streak. Let's see if the Braves can break the 1961 Phillies record of 23 straight loses in a row. The way they're playing lately, I have little doubt they can accomplish history. Fucking fuckheads.

Author Topic: The MLB thread (Read 57709 times)

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