2012 MLB Season Discussion: Off-Season

Rays sweep the Mariners, and now have the best record in baseball.

Mariano Rivera out for the season with torn ACL. Bummer.

Now let the crazy reliever trade rumors begin, as if the Yankees really need help with Robertson and Rafael Soriano in their bullpen.

This has been a HORRIBLE week for New York teams and people's ACL's. And fighting fire extinguishers. Ugh.

Novocain wrote:

Mariano Rivera out for the season with torn ACL. Bummer.

Now let the crazy reliever trade rumors begin, as if the Yankees really need help with Robertson and Rafael Soriano in their bullpen.

Oh man - that's awful luck - an injury is bad enough, but this wasn't even in a game situation. I've seen the footage of the injury happening, and it makes me cringe.

Crappy way for Rivera to go out. We're finally getting to the point where most of the players I watched as a kid are finally out of the Majors...

woop woop - Cubs dropped Marmol as their closer. Should have done that a long time ago.

ChrisLTD wrote:

Crappy way for Rivera to go out. We're finally getting to the point where most of the players I watched as a kid are finally out of the Majors...

I'm figuring Moyer has another 5 years left in him. At least.

ChrisLTD wrote:

Crappy way for Rivera to go out. We're finally getting to the point where most of the players I watched as a kid are finally out of the Majors...

In my first ever pack of baseball cards, Mike Cameron was in there as a Braves "Phenom Prospect." He was 22 at the time. He's 39 now, ancient in baseball years. That's when it kind of hit me, when I realized he was almost 40.

This Boston/Baltimore game was on when I went for lunch with my dad. It's now 7:30 and, hopefully, Adam Jones just hit the game winning HR. The teams have non-pitchers pitching at this point. Crazy long game.

17 innings? Wow!

Rays finally lost a series at home, to the As of all people. Thought htey were going to come back from last night's 12th inning loss when they scored 4 in the first today. And then they gave up 5 in the 3rd. And 3 more in the 5th.

Also cannot express how nice it is to see Boston and NY down there in the 4/5 spot. One of my best friends grew up an Orioles/Ripken fan, and has had a rough few years. Now here they are atop the division. He's also coming to visit in a couple weeks and going to a Rays game with me. We're just going to keep cheering each other on and hope that one of us gets the division and the other the wild card.

Both Boston and Baltimore had players pitching. Chris Davis (who was the DH for Baltimore) ended up getting the win. They brought Matusz into the bullpen for emergency purposes, but Davis did enough to get the win.

Crazy, long ass game.

Edit: With the Rangers and Rays following the Yanks and Red Sox, it's been a fun period for a Baltimore fan to see them rise to the occasion. Let's hope it lasts.

garion333 wrote:

Both Boston and Baltimore had players pitching. Chris Davis (who was the DH for Baltimore) ended up getting the win. They brought Matusz into the bullpen for emergency purposes, but Davis did enough to get the win.

Crazy, long ass game.

Edit: With the Rangers and Rays following the Yanks and Red Sox, it's been a fun period for a Baltimore fan to see them rise to the occasion. Let's hope it lasts.

Davis went 0-8 with 5 strikeouts, then ended up getting the win. Amazing.

As a sox fan, I feel that their cellar dwelling may indeed last. In fact, I see it getting worse before it gets any better. I went into this season thinking it would be a bridge year, but I'm starting to question that.

I'd hate to be the guyS that Chris Davis struck out, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Adrian Gonzalez.

Wait, I'd love to be Adrian Gonzalez.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I'd hate to be the guyS that Chris Davis struck out, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Adrian Gonzalez.

Wait, I'd love to be Adrian Gonzalez.

Both had HORRIBLE games. Especially Salty— 2 errors in the 8th which led to the Orioles taking the lead.

Yes, at $134,920 per GAME, I too would love to be Adrian Gonzalez. Even if he went 0-8.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/7G21h.jpg?1)

It's almost like the names were all flipped or something.

brouhaha wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I'd hate to be the guyS that Chris Davis struck out, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Adrian Gonzalez.

Wait, I'd love to be Adrian Gonzalez.

Both had HORRIBLE games. Especially Salty— 2 errors in the 8th which led to the Orioles taking the lead.

Yes, at $134,920 per GAME, I too would love to be Adrian Gonzalez. Even if he went 0-8.

Gonzalez needs to do something about teams putting the shift on for him. It's killing him.

Stele wrote:

17 innings? Wow!

Rays finally lost a series at home, to the As of all people. Thought htey were going to come back from last night's 12th inning loss when they scored 4 in the first today. And then they gave up 5 in the 3rd. And 3 more in the 5th.

Also cannot express how nice it is to see Boston and NY down there in the 4/5 spot. One of my best friends grew up an Orioles/Ripken fan, and has had a rough few years. Now here they are atop the division. He's also coming to visit in a couple weeks and going to a Rays game with me. We're just going to keep cheering each other on and hope that one of us gets the division and the other the wild card. ;)

The A's are much better than people think they are and that's with less money. I enjoyed them taking the series.

Nat's GM is upset that Cole Hamels hit Harper

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/79...

I was fine with Hamels hitting Harper.. hell I'm even fine with him admitting it.. Isnt that better than the fake "Pitch got away from me?" that we also hear from Pitchers? The games before I felt that Harper was getting strike zone treatment more befitting an established star rather than a rookie...and I know that didnt sit well with some of the Phillies pitchers.. so I wasn't surprised he was going to get hit..given some of the pitches up near wrists and heads we have had to endure.. I thought the back pitch was respectful and not dirty way of reminding Harper that he is still a rookie...even if the Umps don't agree.

TheGameguru wrote:

Nat's GM is upset that Cole Hamels hit Harper

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/79...

I was fine with Hamels hitting Harper.. hell I'm even fine with him admitting it.. Isnt that better than the fake "Pitch got away from me?" that we also hear from Pitchers? The games before I felt that Harper was getting strike zone treatment more befitting an established star rather than a rookie...and I know that didnt sit well with some of the Phillies pitchers.. so I wasn't surprised he was going to get hit..given some of the pitches up near wrists and heads we have had to endure.. I thought the back pitch was respectful and not dirty way of reminding Harper that he is still a rookie...even if the Umps don't agree.

Granted, Zimmerman didn't come out and say "I meant to hit Cole Hamels", but he did mean to throw at him, and he hit him. Where's HIS suspension? If you're going to suspend one pitcher for throwing at a batter, you need to do the same with the other. Even though Hamels verbally admitted it, both pitchers threw at batters intentionally, both need to be suspended.

With that said, I had no problem with Hamels throwing at Harper, but Hamels is an idiot and he should have just kept his mouth shut instead of blabbing it to the media. The minute he does that, MLB is going to step in. But is a 5-game suspension really hurting anyone in the end? His start gets pushed back a day, that's pretty much it. It's also probably why Hamels had no problem saying it.

Another reason I don't have a problem with Hamels throwing at Harper: he had to come up to the plate and face the music. He did it early, knowing full well he had to take at least 1 AB and that he was probably going to get hit. I lost respect for Roger Clemens a long time ago, who would purposely hit batters and could hide behind the DH.

It's intent, and Zimmerman did not express intent. If Hamels just said "that one got away from me" he'd be fine, just like every smart pitcher ever.

I don't mind pitchers pitching a little inside to brush a batter off the plate but in this day and age I don't like intentionally hitting someone. A broken wrist or bone to a star player can hurt a team. With the money involved in the game with these players any out time is bad.

Okay, the Texans can leave Baltimore now. This is ... bad.

Last week, Beltran had seven RBI's in the first three innings of a game.

Tonight he has six in the first two innings on two HR's, including a Grand Salami.

That gives him 10 HR's and 26 RBI's on the season.

Jayhawker wrote:

Last week, Beltran had seven RBI's in the first three innings of a game.

Tonight he has six in the first two innings on two HR's, including a Grand Salami.

That gives him 10 HR's and 26 RBI's on the season.

Good job, Mets.

Jayhawker wrote:

Last week, Beltran had seven RBI's in the first three innings of a game.

Tonight he has six in the first two innings on two HR's, including a Grand Salami.

That gives him 10 HR's and 26 RBI's on the season.

Between him this year, Berkman last year, and Pujols' struggles so far in LA, really have to wonder what the training staff does so well for aging players in STL. Furcal, too.

It's nice that the Mariner's are on a 4 game winning streak. But the way they beat (or rather the way Dotel gave the game away), Detroit last night was not very satisfying. For they didn't really beat them as much as the reliever for Detroit absolutely tanked like nothing I've ever seen.

But hat's off to our reliever's for keeping it close enough for something like this to happen. Especially the little used Iwakuma, who went for long relief after starting pitcher got a hard line drive shot from Cabrera off the his elbow in the 3rd that took him out of the game. And of course for the timely hits that brought in the tying run and then winning run in bottom of the 9th.

Woo! 4-run rally in the 9th for the Rays last night to beat the Yankees. That's 9 of the last 10 against them. Hope we get one more tonight.

Stele wrote:

Woo! 4-run rally in the 9th for the Rays last night to beat the Yankees. That's 9 of the last 10 against them. Hope we get one more tonight. :cool:

That's cute.

Still gonna be a Texas-St. Louis rematch in the World Series. No one else is even close.

Jayhawker wrote:
Stele wrote:

Woo! 4-run rally in the 9th for the Rays last night to beat the Yankees. That's 9 of the last 10 against them. Hope we get one more tonight. :cool:

That's cute.

Still gonna be a Texas-St. Louis rematch in the World Series. No one else is even close.

Texas is a whopping 8-5 against the AL East. There are at two teams in there that they've had trouble with - Toronto & Tampa. Tell me again how it's not going to be even close?

Yay for early May predictions - they're so meaningful.

Yeah I mean the Rays did take 2 of 3 in Texas a couple weeks ago. But go ahead and write them off.

Never mind what that had to do with the Rays-Yankees series I posted about. Just happy to beat other AL East teams... that's generally the key to winning your division, beating divisional teams.