sinicalypse Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 asm head said in my jay cutler to the bears thread that he misses sports conversation on here and wishes there was more, so in that spirit with MLB baseball officially starting on sunday night / monday and another 6 full months of regular season baseball are staring us down. so in the grand spirit of baseball, i'm going to offer up my thoughts on the forthcoming season, my predictions for division winners, the playoffs, and individual awards. i implore you guys to do the same: get on record and see if your soothsaying skills are in tact, and best of all, with ten fingers ten toes either banned/fucked-off there shouldnt be a whole lot of shit about sabermetrics and all of these long-past-VORP stats that define all kinds of archaic things and attempt to turn baseball down into a battle of statistical probabilities where things happen because they're within a certain set of numbers/values and you start becoming so mechanical it doesnt matter what you go out and see at the ballpark or watch on television, nope, there's a stat somewhere that explains why everything is happening and what will happen and why and you're clearly an ignorant undereducated neanderthal if having a sight-test matters for you. phew. that said, i live in chicago so naturally chicago is the center of my sports, let alone baseball, universe. going into 2009 we're coming off of a year where both teh cubs and the whitesox made the playoffs last year, and whilst the sox were a surprise having to go to game 163 to take the twins down in a 1-0 gem of a game that was necessary, altho screwed up their rotation to having javvy vazquez start games 1 and 4 of the sox/rays series, elading to their defeat in 5 games. meanwhile, the cubs repeated their 2007 chokejob, altho they came in high and mighty as a 97 win team that coasted to teh division title after a little threat from milwaukee which was put to rest by the beginning of july during a 4 game series up in milwaukee where the cubs came in and kicked milwaukee squarely in the nuts and said "not this year, gents" and i was actually at the game where harden pitched well and they swept the brew crew in large part thanks to a 2HR game by jim edmonds, one of them being a grand slam i think. looking at the NL Central, the cubs should win it by default. the astros are bleh, the brewers are still prolly a .500-90 win team but unlikely to encroach further than teh 90 win mark and challenge for a division crown. evne tho the cardinals got their ace back in carpenter, who knows how long he has?!@ he's always had arm problems, and you're still counting on stories like rick ankiel to be a 25/75+ HR/RBI production bat, a career minor leaguer turned middle of the order threat in ryan ludwick, and then the usual array of enh starters and a bullpen that's surprisingly solid. again, i think the carsdinals should be .500ish, not too much better or worse likely, and they're very capable of having a stretch for a month or two where they play well above or below expectations, causing people to think they're far better/worse than they really are, however they'll come back to around .500 and tony larussa can get a nip off of his flask put on the dark glasses and settle back into his throne, pretending he never saw steroids in his guys mcgwire and bonds and maybe even pujols (it's fair to speculate about anyone in MLB except for vladimir guerrero, cuz he obviously didnt do it and if you look at his #s he's having, gasp, a normal career... not one where you get diminishing returns for a year or two then miraculously he's having career years with the most power he's ever had and so on and so forth. the reds, who people want to be a darling because they're a) dusty's team and b) young will be another .500ish team, which top to bottom will make the central a very competitive division with everyone beating each other and pittsburgh up (altho with paul maholm and nate mclouth and ryan doumit and zach duke and ian snell and others they should be decent and solid, maybe even pushing 70 wins, which for them is a step forward. obviously, the NL east is going to be where the power in the NL is, because the central is going to be a very average division that beats itself up and feasts on the west somewhat, cuz the west is basically LA and then san fran taking a step up tho not to challenge for a division, arizona being the 2nd place / potential threat to LA, and then colorado maybe getting back their form of 2 years ago, and then the padres suck and will suck for a little bit and maybe the cubs go for peavy. that said, i love florida, they always seem to bring up waves and waves of young kids because, essinestially, they're the montreal expos farm system. their owner jeffrey loria used to own the expos before he sold them to MLB and bought the marlins, adn when he did that he took all of the computers officeworkers/staff and scouts/team personnell and essentially the whole farm system hiearchy down to florida, and hey surprise surprise look at florida these last coupkle'a years they've got young kids you've never heard of coming up and kicking ass, and that's because they're the zombie version of the expos farm system, which was the best farm system in baseball in teh 90s/early-00s, with the main problem being that montreal could never sign their guys once they came up and established themselves, adn then horrible trades such as 1/2 of a season of bartolo colon in a walk year when tehy had misguided dreams of a wild card berth, yeha, they traded cliff lee grady sizemore AND brandon phillips for a 1/2 season of bartolo colon. thank you omar minaya, who was rewarded for his great GMing with a job at the mets, who have choked two years in a row. still, flroida will likely be .500ish and middling with a chance to leap up at philly/the-mets, and obviously atlanta will be like that, priolly a slight notch under florida cuz their baseball people are good buyt not expos good, and while hteir MLB outfit is more robust and better (i thinks schuerholz left but he had an acolyte who became GM, and legendary pitching god leo mazzone is up in baltimore, but bobby cox knows how to manage a game a team and a season) and the nationals suck and will always suck because they're zombie baseball, teh reanimated corpse of the montreal expos (peace be upon them) and for their crimes upon humanity, let alone baseball, the nationals will always suck and i will be there to spit on tehir grave when they do. so it's philly nad the mets and the mets added more in the monster KROD and i think philly will fall off a little bit and i think this is the year the mets win the division because they're one of those teams that is powerful enough to do it, and with santana and ol dirty perez and that offense and now having two closers in their pen, and who knows if billy wagner returns, their bullpen goes from notorious weakness to strength they hold on in games and they take the phillies by about 5 games when it's all said in done. teh dodgers likely win the NL west by default, with the only challenge being the up-n-coming diamondbacks and maybe the giants if god smiles upon them, liek he hasnt already by getting rid of bonds. going to the AL, the al central is a load of hooey and i think the white sox are due to regress somewhat. i'd look for danks and gavin floyd's numbers to regress a little bit, with floyd having a 4.00-4.25 ERA and somewhere around 15 wins, and danks will have a 3.50+ era and win something like 13-16 games as well, buehrle will win 12-15ish with a 3.75-4.25 ERA and pedestrian stats and then who knows what you get from contreras and bartolo colon?!@ i'd bet on colon either getting roughed up to a ~9ish ERA in 4-5 early starts and then it's young kids in the 5th spot (jeff marquez can you hear me calling you?!@) and contreras might start off enh and get hot for a bit, or start off hto and then slow down, and he's prolly around 10 wins and a 4.50ish ERA, although if he gets it on he is indeed the most well-tenured pitcher on the chisox and look waht he did in 05 for them and even in 06 or around half of it anyways, it's easy to forget that he was like the most legendary pitcher in the history of cuba, and like, his pride will carry him. the sox' offense is aging, with jermaine dye and especially paul konerko looking older and older. konerko started off well beyond horrible last year, adn it carried on for more than 1/2 of the season until he became the old konerko for the last 1.5-2 months, and even during his peak in his career he was notorious for having a half where he'd be like .370/20/65 and then he'd slow down and end up like .314/35/110 and it'd look all good and solid at the end, but it was the tale of two halves. watching dye in the field i think he's gonna collapse like mister glass in unbreakable but he somehow stays up adn ends up like .290/35/90 and it's like HOW?!@# i hope i'm wrong about this, but i dont see carlos quention ebing like .300/36/100 in 5 months, i see him maybe being like .275/25/85 or something, but i think last year might've been somewhat flukish... and then the sox have no centefielder as starting 31 year old career minor leaguer dwayne wise, a guy who has a career OBP of like .310 IN THE MINOR LEAGUES, man, he's your leadoff centerfielder?!@ wow. it's a pity brian anderson can't hit because he's a wonderful defensive centerfielder. i love bobby jenks. le tigre should win the divsion by default, cuz cleveland's starting pitching will come back to earth, cliff lee i'm staring at you, and fausto carmona seems to have been a one year wonder, counting on carl pavano to be your third starter?! wow. just wow. beyond that are they still resurrecting jake westbrook?!@ mm-k. the twins will always be competitive for the division crown because they're a wonderful baseball organization adn even without giant gobs of money, well, they get it done. the'll compete with detroit for the crown with the small 5%ish chance that teh sox are around and competitive, altho i've got the sox penciled in for 70-80 wins, the tigers from 75-95 (they could somewhat tank to, they dont have pitchers) and the twins in the 80-90 range, with the royals between 67-75 wins. the AL east will be another juggernaught, and i'd suspect tampa will fall victim to inevitability as the yankees aren't going to be out of the playoffs two years in a row, hence why they brought in CC and burnett (who totally epitomizes middling,as his stuff/potential is always outweighed by injuries/middling-nature he ends up with an ERA around 4.00-4.50 and nice K rates like 12-15 wins on that team but yeah, whatever) joba and phil hughes maybe do nice things, and rivera is there... the lineup will always rake, esp if hideki matsui somehow comes back and is like .280/20+/80+ and posada too. even tho i dont like texiera much, after a slow start he should be his usual .280/30/100 and put that in there with a-rod when he comes back no doubt downgraded to .280/30/100 from missing a month or two, and then you've got the usual suspects they'll be around. boston is like the yankees, just with a better farm system and more homegrown talent and smoltz will be nice for them, brad penny was a f-ing steal, and if beckett has a sub-4 era he'll push 17-20 wins, matsuzaka is my fav pitcher on that team, and their hitting will keep them there with jason bay being a boon for them, cuz if they had kept manny they'd have him walking after i believe next year and nothing to replace him, nad getting a .280/30/100 bat like bay will defintiely help them much. after pedroia showed up to become the 5'6" wunderkind doing his .320/20/100 MVP season, watch someone like jed lowrie blow our minds and they'll even have that studly 1B lars anderson prospect come up and put yook to third and yeah, poor tampa will prolly win 80-85+ games and end up third in teh division, because they're good, but i think their magic was last year and they're in the wrong division at the wrong time to be a good but not great team that needs to be supershitkicking to make the playoffs. in teh west, my angels are going to take a step back but kind of liek the cubs should almost win the division by default. texas has an interesting youth movement with a bunch of kids (chris davis, nelson cruz, elvis andrus, ian kinsler, taylor teagarden) leading a potent offense that's juxtaposed with, surprise, no pitching. .500ish at best with the potential to be in the low 70s. seattle will get better and maybe be .500ish, and oakland shoudl be a 75-85 win team but like, they'll be somewhat better and all these teams being better and middling and .500ish will bring the angels down to the mid-80s to low 90s for wins, barrign a complete collapse, adn teh angels will again get in teh playoffs and get stomped in the nuts by an AL east team, just like every year sicne 2002, or they'll get out-grindered by a team like minnesota. yeah. so let's do the division winners and stuff: AL West - angels AL east - redsox AL central - twins wildcard - yankees AL champion: red sox NL west - dodgers NL east - mets NL central - cubs wildcard - phillies NL champion: mets world series redsox vs mets, with the boston red sox winning the world series. they've just got too much, they won the title 2 years ago so most of that roster has experience in the big dance, whereas the mets dont, and that'll be what it comes down to. AL MVP: miguel cabrera (especially if the tigers make the playoffs, i figure he's just too much with teh #s to not win it unless detroit is terrible) NL MVP: david wright AL cy young: roy halladay, toronto. NL cy young: johan santana, mets (he should've won last year, if he didnt... was it lincecum!>? chuckles zambrano as a dark horse, myou heard it here first) Al roy: ummm...elvis andrus?! NL roy: ummm... cameron maybin?!@ comeback players: AL - hank blalock NL - umm... fuck if i know. how about zambrano, altho he wont be considered a comeback... how about chris carpenter, cuz if he's the StL ace and wins 15+ with a sub-3.5 ERA yeah thats some stuff. so yeah, what do you all think@?!#!@ TLDR MASSIVE REPRESENT!@# Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest beatfanatic Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 TLDR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IRARI Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 TLDR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred McGriff Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 AL West - angels AL east - yankees AL central - twins wildcard - tampa AL champion: yankees NL west - arizona NL east - mets NL central - st louis wildcard - cubs NL champion: arizona world series yankees-diamondbacks, yankees win AL MVP: teixera NL MVP: pujols AL cy young: black sabathia NL cy young: lincecum (trade hiim to me sini) Al roy: wieters NL roy: dickerson (does jay bruce qualify?) comeback players: konerko (would liriano qualify?), helton synopsis: yankees are going to pee in everyone's butts and all over everyone's privates and all over everything else. arizona's rotation is going to be murder if they start running on all cylinders... webb and haren are elite and then if scherzer turns out to be a phenom it's lights out with garland getting his 10-12 wins at the end of the rotation. it pains me to put most of these picks in writing. here is my dream season: AL West - texas AL east - tampa AL central - sox wildcard - yankeees AL champion: sox NL west - SF (with lincecum going 30-0 and driving my main fantasy team to victory) NL east - no one NL central - cubs wildcard - st louis NL champion: cubs all-chicago WS with the chisox bringing home the hardware on the back of a paul konerko walk off game seven grand slam AL MVP: konerko NL MVP: braun AL cy young: greinke NL cy young: lincecum (trade hiim to me sini) comeback players: konerko, carpenter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinicalypse Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 AL West - angels AL east - yankees AL central - twins wildcard - tampa AL champion: yankees NL west - arizona NL east - mets NL central - st louis wildcard - cubs NL champion: arizona world series yankees-diamondbacks, yankees win AL MVP: teixera NL MVP: pujols AL cy young: black sabathia NL cy young: lincecum (trade hiim to me sini) Al roy: wieters NL roy: dickerson (does jay bruce qualify?) comeback players: konerko (would liriano qualify?), helton synopsis: yankees are going to pee in everyone's butts and all over everyone's privates and all over everything else. arizona's rotation is going to be murder if they start running on all cylinders... webb and haren are elite and then if scherzer turns out to be a phenom it's lights out with garland getting his 10-12 wins at the end of the rotation. it pains me to put most of these picks in writing. here is my dream season: AL West - texas AL east - tampa AL central - sox wildcard - yankeees AL champion: sox NL west - SF (with lincecum going 30-0 and driving my main fantasy team to victory) NL east - no one NL central - cubs wildcard - st louis NL champion: cubs all-chicago WS with the chisox bringing home the hardware on the back of a paul konerko walk off game seven grand slam AL MVP: konerko NL MVP: braun AL cy young: greinke NL cy young: lincecum (trade hiim to me sini) comeback players: konerko, carpenter zzzz tldr. oh wait it's fred i'm gay for fred just a little bit less than i'm gay for essines because fred mcgriff is the heart and soul of watmm. I LIVED EVERY SINGLE WORD WITH YOU, FREDDYKINS#@$%@ actually i'll give you a real response in a mintue, i'm just talking to my girl in peru (met her @ a snares show here, we shoulda fucked in the alley when we had the chance =/) and iwanted to slag off on you like everyone does on me and btw i can trade one ace.... it just has to be for something of value, cuz even yahoo which rates pitchers lower than hitters (i spose cuz in theory it's easier for a hitter to get a SB than a starter to get a save, as the top pitchers/hitters are good for four categotries, but hitters are more prone to fill up that 5th) has him ranked at 16 or something like that... i believe santana is 14, and i reckon he's the #1 pitcher in the game. i'll propose something to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 dream world series would be mets vs. angels! i think atlanta will make an impact in the nl east, but i have more faith this season than ever that the mets will take it and NOT choke in the last 2 weeks! i don't think the yankees will amount to anything even with their big aquisitions they made in the off season. it'll be boston and tampa again! i became a dodger fan as well over the off season, they got rid of some old foggies (garciaparra, kent, jones) and made way for the youngsters to thrive... and of course... manny! they will at least get in via wild card! nl central will be a toss up between stl and chicago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 damn... gary sheffield is not a met! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velazquez Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Yankees. That's all I'm gonna say. Well maybe not ... I thinks yanks will be a better team a/ A rod out, Joba is my man, Cano is going to rebound this year in a major way, Hughes will ball... In other words I see the baseball world thru Yankee colored glasses. I'm excited about their 3 major acquisitions. Watched a bit of their pre season game against cubs - who's that speedster on Chitown who jumped over a BMW? Dude has wheels. I pull for the Cubbies in NL. Yanks over cubs in series sorry Sini, it will end in tears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velazquez Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 damn... gary sheffield is not a met! I like Sheff especially when he told Pedro martinez,after Pedro buzzed him high and tight, " pedro gets one buddy card, and he's used it, he knows better not to try that again.". Or something to that effect, Pedro didn't. Sheff is bad ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PigeonSt Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 If you haven't followed the Tigers for the past three years, you probably don't realize how much Sheffield sucks these days. Good riddance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 If you haven't followed the Tigers for the past three years, you probably don't realize how much Sheffield sucks these days. Good riddance. word up! what sucks is that the mets plan to put him in right field and make ryan church the backup which sucks! don't get me wrong, i'm down with sheff and when i first heard he was coming to the mets i assumed he'd be the back up, an ok power bat from the bench. ryan church should be the logical starter at right. sheffs addition to the mets can go either way really! but his attitude is much needed at citi field! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PigeonSt Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Yeah that kills me, I have Church as my 5th outfielder in my NL only league. Oh well, I think Church will hit well and win back some of the at bats he's lost with this move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velazquez Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Sheff needs 1 more for 500 hr? He's way past his prime but I still like his bad ass mentality, miss him on the Yanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ms-dos Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 jesus colome christ. that was TL;DR even for me. i saw you diss sabermetrics and my eyes glazed over. then i saw vlad mentioned so i scanned over the next wall of text with hedged enthusiasm. then i caught sight of k-rod emblazoned in capital letters and lifted my right ass cheek to squeak out a rotten, long-overdue MGD fart. you're an angels fan. let him go. he might be the most overrated player not named derek jeter or ichiro suzuki. we'll get to watch his k/innings dip below 1:1 for the first time in his career and it'll be so, so sweet. but i did agree with every single end-of-the-year prediction of yours except AL ROY and NL champ. i'd go price>wieters>andrus. andrus has a weak stroke and below average base-running instincts. he'll probably spend some time behind vizquel too. phillies repeat as NL champs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PigeonSt Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 And the bloodletting of the 2009 Tigers staff begins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velazquez Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Sabathia was on form today, holy fuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 sabathia got rocked! cubs looked good today, carlos z is a madman! but of course, aaron hielman allowed the only run... mets did good in getting rid of that creep! and of course... mets win today! new bullpen that they lacked for the past couple of years looked like it'll pay off! i fuckin' love baseball! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velazquez Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I love Zambrano. C.C. ruined my day, I got all amped up for that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 johan and k-rod made mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred McGriff Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 liriano got rocked, that sucked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred McGriff Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 lincecum goes three innings. FML. ready for football already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alzado Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 shaky but not terrible start for buehrle today. looking forward to contreras on friday. love the three run shot from Thome, but would like to see some more opportunistic hitting and base running from the sox this year. If the staff shakes out, they'll contend with the twins for the division. fuck the yankees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velazquez Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Fuck Contreras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PigeonSt Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 More ball punching for the Tigers pitchers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 R.I.P. Adenhart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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