Baseball 2015

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by jumpkutz, Apr 4, 2015.

  1. SoCalJoe

    SoCalJoe Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2006
    Location:
    Walnut, CA
    Dysfunction in Anaheim finally comes to a head as GM Jerry DiPoto and Manager Mike Scioscia's relationship became untenable over advanced scouting reports. DiPoto wanted the coaching staff to use his reports. Scioscia and team leader Albert Pujols told him to stick it, and the owner sided with the guys in the clubhouse. DiPoto left his post, so who knows who will be the person making a trade before the deadline.

    Angel fans can at least say we've seen the Pujols from St. Louis. Set practically every Halo record for the month of June (HRs, RBIs, slugging %, etc) and leads the AL in homers with 24.
     
    #61
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2015
  2. jumpkutz

    jumpkutz Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2011
    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    #62
  3. SoCalJoe

    SoCalJoe Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2006
    Location:
    Walnut, CA
    All Star break, plenty of time to change a team's fortunes, but as it stands:
    NL: Best team; St. Louis is simply a well-oiled machine.
    Biggest Surprise: Thought the Cubs were a year away, but Joe Maddon has them in the hunt.
    Biggest Disappointment: This is going to sound strange, because they are in first and Bryce Harper has been a beast, but the Nats should be the best team in the NL and have been wildly inconsistent. Everyone knew the Phillies were the worst, but the Brewers and Reds shouldn't be this bad.
    Best Player: Harper starting to live up to the hype.

    AL: Best team; Kansas City has been out to prove last year wasn't a fluke.
    Biggest Surprise: Going with Encore's Twins. I had an inkling the Astros had a bunch of young talent that could put it all together. Sorry to FulhamTx about Springer getting hurt, because they haven't been the same since he went down. Maybe ES can elaborate, but did not envision the Twinkies being this good.
    Biggest Disappointment. The Red Sox and Mariners. Boston has been awful by their standards, and despite being 5 games under .500 the rest of the AL East is mediocre and they are only 6.5 games out. The M's were picked to win the division by practically everyone, but as usual they can't hit. I know Pujols' contract is bad, but he's producing, Robinson Cano flat out stinks.
    Best Player: 3+ years ago a couple gentlemen from the great city of San Antonio told me under no uncertain terms to slow my roll about Mike Trout. I repeat exactly what I said then; Mike Trout is STILL the best young player I have ever seen.
     
    #63
    encorespanish and FulhamTX like this.
  4. Dynamo

    Dynamo Member

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2013
    Location:
    Raleigh
    Baseball has actually been fun for me again since the Cubs are good, and somehow we're a power hitting team, which is also exciting. Been a solid year around the league so far, definitely fun to see pitchers starting to dominate a bit more.
     
    #64
  5. FulhamTX

    FulhamTX Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2015
    Astros need some help via trade. Having 2 guys in the line up hitting 200 just can't happen and we need another starter. With that said I'm very proud of the team and what they have done to this point. I think the break will do this team a world of good, they have looked gassed for last week, I believe they have played more games than any other team. Time to hit the reset button and push on for the rest of the year! Getting Jed lowrie back in a week or 2 will be huge for the astros as well.

    Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
     
    #65
  6. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    Joe, you say that Boston suck like it's a bad thing. My dream continues to be that Boston and the Yanks tie for the AL East cellar EVERY DAMN YEAR.

    What I've liked about the season so far -- and I'm watching more than I thought I would -- is that with the exception of the Cards, nobody has a lock. The Mets have given way to Washington, the Astros have given way to HatterMom's Angels, and the AL East seems to change pack leaders about every two weeks.

    As for the Astros, I expected them to come back to the pack, but not all at once. I'm sorry to say that I've seen one of their games this season. The stupid TV contract they have means that I can only watch them when they play the rangers -- even on ESPN or MLB. I've seen a lot of the players down in the Texas League, and I hope they do well.

    Aside from my second consecutive season of not seeing the Astros finally play exciting baseball, my biggest downer is the damn replay. It's starting to bug me more than the Designated hitter.

    The fun part is watching a couple of Padres rookies fight to become regulars. I've watched them more than one season in SA, and that's really the fun of MLB for me.
     
    #66
  7. encorespanish

    encorespanish Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2012
    Location:
    Minny
    The Twins have been surprise up in these parts as well, especially with the way they started the season. My thought at the beginning of the season was that the Twins were a year away from having Buxton and Sano (2 of the top 15 prospects in all of baseball coming into the season, according to ESPN) make an impact and a few meaningful arms short of a real pitching staff.

    Well, Buxton is up (and on the DL), Sano is mashing the ball in the bigs and the pitchers are throwing way over their heads...so I've been proven wrong on all fronts. I'm not sure the starters can sustain their current output though, so I have a feeling that the Twins will slowly come back down to Earth in the 2nd half. I do like how Paul Molitor has them playing though...the right way.
     
    #67
  8. dcheather

    dcheather Administrator

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2005
    Humph. And the reason I don't ban you is? ;)
     
    #68
  9. AggieMatt

    AggieMatt Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2008
    Location:
    Alamo City, Texas
    You'd have to ban me too.

    Have to admit I'm finding baseball more and more tedious and boring as time goes by. Unless my O's are in the mix, anyway. That's not looking likely this year. Wonder if Cruz would like a do-over on that Seattle move.
     
    #69
  10. dcheather

    dcheather Administrator

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2005
    HATERS! :)
     
    #70
  11. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    Hey, I added the Yankees!
     
    #71
  12. AggieMatt

    AggieMatt Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2008
    Location:
    Alamo City, Texas
    When it comes to the Yanks & Sawx (and Jays & Rays to a slightly lesser extent), guilty as charged!

    Isn't that the point with rivals?
     
    #72
  13. jumpkutz

    jumpkutz Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2011
    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I'll confess I don't keep up with too many teams or players that aren't connected to the Cardinals. I certainly don't think they're a lock, despite the best record at the break. The Cubs are better and I haven't figured out why the Pirates haven't won the NL Central or gotten a wild card the past couple of seasons. Our weaknesses began rearing their ugly heads in a big way the last 10 days to two weeks before the final Sunday before the ASG. I'm expecting some backup on our part, the question is how much. I'm not sure we've improved the 40 man roster enough to contend at the end of the year, but I've thought that for 2 or 3 years now and, lo and behold, Matheny and Mozeliak pull the right strings and we end up playing in October. It's one of the oldest cliches' around, but there IS a lot of baseball left. And once you make it into the post season, it's anybody's World Series to have. Just look at '06.
    Gonna try not to get too worked up about and enjoy the ride while it lasts. I think St. Louis' season will depend on pitching, defense and a key acquisition or two around the trade deadline. Mozeliak and DeWitt have been either very good or very lucky at that, so we'll see what they pull off this season.
     
    #73
  14. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    I must say that over the course of the 60 years that I've been paying attention to Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals have been the best overall organization. I'm not surprised that they're contenders every season.
     
    #74
    jumpkutz likes this.
  15. SoCalJoe

    SoCalJoe Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2006
    Location:
    Walnut, CA
    Isn't it time that someone in the Hymel household buys HatterMom a Mike Trout jersey? Best stat from last night as Trout became the first ever back to back MVP; in his first at-bat in his 4 All-Star games have gone accordingly; 2012 - single, 2013 - double, 2014 -triple, 2015 - Home Run. An ASG cycle for the kid.

    2 other thoughts; The Home Run Derby in this 'tournament' style format was great. Put me in the Red Sox Haters Club (sorry Heather & Jim)
     
    #75
    nevzter likes this.
  16. nevzter

    nevzter Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2007
    Location:
    A City by a Bay
    I'm just hoping that Trout (or Harper) wanders into the wrong locker room, or airport or whatever and pulls on the Giants' orange and black. Trout's opp o line drive homer to start the game made me forget how much I dislike the Angels (old grudges die hard). But that dude is special. I didn't get to see Mays or Mantle in their prime, but Trout can't be too far off.
     
    #76
  17. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    I just read that to The Memsahib, and she "approves of this message."
     
    #77
    SoCalJoe likes this.
  18. jumpkutz

    jumpkutz Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2011
    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    For the most part, that's true. But they did hit a couple of dry spells in that span, most notably the '70's and the '90's. Still, I'll happily agree that, for the most part, the organization has been stellar.
     
    #78
  19. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    So, I was on ESPN looking for news about The Gold Cup a couple days ago, and I saw that the Astros were involved in one of those "improve the roster by getting an experienced pitcher for down the stretch" acquisitions. It took me a second or two to realize that the Astros were the team that was BUYING not SELLING. For the first time since Drayton decided to ruin the franchise so that the current asshole could buy it cheap and then move it to the American League, the Astros are actually looking at the pennant chase as something other than a way to sell off their talent to … you know … real clubs.

    Well done, Astros, and keep beating them Red Sox and Yankees!
     
    #79
    astroevan likes this.
  20. astroevan

    astroevan Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 5, 2013
    Location:
    Virginia Beach
    And he starts off by pitching 7 scoreless innings against the AL leading Royals!

    Huge series against the Halos starting tonight.
     
    #80
Similar Threads: Baseball 2015
Forum Title Date
Miscellaneous Baseball 2023 Jan 17, 2023
Miscellaneous Baseball 2021 Jan 22, 2021
Miscellaneous Baseball 2020 Feb 6, 2020
Miscellaneous 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame selectees Jan 19, 2017
Miscellaneous Baseball 2016 Apr 12, 2016

Share This Page