MLB (Baseball)

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

MLB season starts tonight with a game in Japan between the Mariners and the A's. Not a huge match-up but enough in there of interest to make it worth watching. King Felix is worth checking out and the local fans should go nuts for Ichiro. Seeing Yoenis Cespedes play his first game for the A's also.
Rest of the teams start their season's next week. I subscribed to MLB TV the other day which is a great deal for what you get.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

MLB season starts tonight with a game in Japan between the Mariners and the A's. Not a huge match-up but enough in there of interest to make it worth watching. King Felix is worth checking out and the local fans should go nuts for Ichiro. Seeing Yoenis Cespedes play his first game for the A's also.
Rest of the teams start their season's next week. I subscribed to MLB TV the other day which is a great deal for what you get.

caught some highlights of the opening 2 games, actually forgot it was on. I saw the big cuban squat his first big league homer, looks ok thus far.
They play a lot of grapefruit and cactus league games, we talk about the Nab cup being too long but this stuff is overkill.
Looking forward to the season opener against the red sox, can't come quick enough. Who have the cubs got first up?
I haven't got my subscription yet and unfortunately i'm not sure when i can so i'll have to stick to game day for a while until things improve.
All the best for the season underdog. GO TIGERS.

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

caught some highlights of the opening 2 games, actually forgot it was on. I saw the big cuban squat his first big league homer, looks ok thus far.
They play a lot of grapefruit and cactus league games, we talk about the Nab cup being too long but this stuff is overkill.
Looking forward to the season opener against the red sox, can't come quick enough. Who have the cubs got first up?
I haven't got my subscription yet and unfortunately i'm not sure when i can so i'll have to stick to game day for a while until things improve.
All the best for the season underdog. GO TIGERS.

Cubs play the Nationals at home to start the season. Strasburg's comeback on opening day,which'll be fun.
Looks positive for the Tigers coming into the season. Easily the best lineup in a weak division.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Cubs play the Nationals at home to start the season. Strasburg's comeback on opening day,which'll be fun.
Looks positive for the Tigers coming into the season. Easily the best lineup in a weak division.

tough start to the season facing Strasburg, didn't he get something like 12 SO on debut?

Yeah i'm excited about the tigers prospects this season as it does look like the central is the easiest division to win. The twins & white sox are rebuilding & the indians will be there abouts but the royals will be the one to watch. They have a lot of talent down there in KC but still a bit light on for starting pitching to pose a real threat just yet.

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

tough start to the season facing Strasburg, didn't he get something like 12 SO on debut?

Yeah i'm excited about the tigers prospects this season as it does look like the central is the easiest division to win. The twins & white sox are rebuilding & the indians will be there abouts but the royals will be the one to watch. They have a lot of talent down there in KC but still a bit light on for starting pitching to pose a real threat just yet.

Strasburg blew out his arm though and had Tommy John.

Looks like ONE will be showing MLB again. They are down to broadcast the Cards / Marlins game on Thursday from the looks.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Strasburg blew out his arm though and had Tommy John.

Looks like ONE will be showing MLB again. They are down to broadcast the Cards / Marlins game on Thursday from the looks.

yeah i know he has had issues with that arm so will be interesting to see the type of year he has.

how about we get some predictions for the upcoming season. Winners of all divisions and the wildcard.

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

yeah i know he has had issues with that arm so will be interesting to see the type of year he has.

how about we get some predictions for the upcoming season. Winners of all divisions and the wildcard.

Bit late but:

AL East: Yankees, AL Central: Tigers, AL West: Angels
Wildcard: Red Sox, Rangers (Rays to miss by a game)

NL East:: Phillies (for the last time in a while), NL Central: Cardinals, NL West: Giants
Wildcard: Braves, Reds

World Series: Angels vs Reds

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Bit late but:

AL East: Yankees, AL Central: Tigers, AL West: Angels
Wildcard: Red Sox, Rangers (Rays to miss by a game)

NL East:: Phillies (for the last time in a while), NL Central: Cardinals, NL West: Giants
Wildcard: Braves, Reds

World Series: Angels vs Reds

A bit late but 161 games to go.Valverde has his 51 game save steak ended on opening day.
I did forget that they introduced the extra wildcard this season, any idea how the post season will now be structured?

AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL West: Texas Rangers
Wildcards: New York Yankees & LA Angels
Its dangerous leaving the rays out as they always surprise and have a damn good record within their division

NL East: The Phillies again even with Miamis spending spree.
NL Central: Cincinnati Reds
NL West: Arizona
Wildcard: Giants & Cardinals

World series: The tigers to beat Kirk Gibsons Arizona Diamondbacks

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Got up yesterday morning just in time to see the Cubs blow a 1 run lead in the 8th (walking in the tying run). Also watched the Rays walk off today against the Yankees in a game with surely the worst home plate umpire in baseball ("Country" Joe West's strike zone is rubbish).
Also just watched Pujols first AB as an Angel, he scorched a couple but made an out at SS. Coincedentally was followed shortly by Trumbo's first E at 3B. The Tigers and A's may have signed the marquee 1B this offseason but their current plans at 3B ate fielding travesty's.

Looking forward to watching Hosmer for the Royals develop this season. KC will score some runs this season but their opening day pitcher is Bruce Chen for christ sake.

Recommend the following read - http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...dangerous-stat

[Raw Toast]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Also watched the Rays walk off today against the Yankees in a game with surely the worst home plate umpire in baseball ("Country" Joe West's strike zone is rubbish).

Joe West is a horrible excuse for an mlb umpire - made an appalling call against the Padres last year when he called a player out for not touching 3rd base before going home on a sacrifice fly, when he hadn't even looked, just took for granted the appeal of the fielding team (replays clearly showed West wasn't looking and the player was on the bag!).

But Umpire Dale Scott made an even more egregious call today. Scores level, top of the ninth, the Padres batting against the Dodgers had runners on first and second with no outs. The batter shaped to bunt, had a ball thrown at his chest and semi-bunted it while stumbling away. Scott also moved back, put his hands in the air signifying a dead ball and supposedly even called it foul. The ball then bounced into play (most likely off the player's body, which would make it a foul anyway), the catcher picked it up, and as he threw it to third base, umpire Scott changed his call to fair, and the Dodgers got a triple-play and then walked off in the bottom of the 9th. It was horrific, though the fan reaction has been fun in parts (Padres fans wrote his name so often in a thread about it, that its now the 3rd thing that comes up from a google search of 'Dale Scott Umpire'! The thread is: http://www.gaslampball.com/2012/4/15...eat-the-padres).

Recommend the following read - http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...dangerous-stat

This is a really interesting read.

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

But Umpire Dale Scott made an even more egregious call today. Scores level, top of the ninth, the Padres batting against the Dodgers had runners on first and second with no outs. The batter shaped to bunt, had a ball thrown at his chest and semi-bunted it while stumbling away. Scott also moved back, put his hands in the air signifying a dead ball and supposedly even called it foul. The ball then bounced into play (most likely off the player's body, which would make it a foul anyway), the catcher picked it up, and as he threw it to third base, umpire Scott changed his call to fair, and the Dodgers got a triple-play and then walked off in the bottom of the 9th. It was horrific, though the fan reaction has been fun in parts (Padres fans wrote his name so often in a thread about it, that its now the 3rd thing that comes up from a google search of 'Dale Scott Umpire'! The thread is: http://www.gaslampball.com/2012/4/15...eat-the-padres).

Looking at the play, it may ultimately have been a correct call, but given he called the ball dead initially, giving the Padres runners no chance to move up safely, he's made a massive mistake that has directly impacted the Padres opportunity to win the game. If he doesn't call it foul I think at worst it ends up a double play and the Padres probably have a man on 3rd with 2 out. The consequences of his initial call were huge.

[Raw Toast]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Looking at the play, it may ultimately have been a correct call, but given he called the ball dead initially, giving the Padres runners no chance to move up safely, he's made a massive mistake that has directly impacted the Padres opportunity to win the game. If he doesn't call it foul I think at worst it ends up a double play and the Padres probably have a man on 3rd with 2 out. The consequences of his initial call were huge.

Yup, though only the correct call if the ball didn't hit the batter, and this pic indicates it might have: http://www.gaslampball.com/2012/4/15...adres#98987311

mlb have said the ump used improper mechanics:

http://www.gaslampball.com/2012/4/16/2952975/mlb-reviews-triple-play-umpire-dale-scott-used-improper-mechanics

But as this pic shows, the call was clearly for a dead ball: http://www.gaslampball.com/2012/4/16...-said#comments

Anyway, it sucks and better fire the team up!

[Remi Moses]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Just watched Baseball tonight .
Verlander is a freak, constantly makes over 100 pitches .
Has an arm of concrete!
Mets starting well on the back of David Wright

[Remi Moses]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Melbourne Aces pitcher Travis Blackely made his debut for the Giants yesterday.
He did well, pitched 2 innings of relief work.
Sidenote. Big blow for the Yanks with Rivera doing his knee in outfield catching practice.
Fancy and hope the Rays win that division.

[Remi Moses]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

After 8,019 games the New York Mets have our first no hitter.
Johan or Nohan as he is now known pitched a No No at City Field against the Cards