2012 MLB Winter Meetings and Offseason

[koodledrum]

I think that during the season the Orioles will eventually fall back, they've been playing well thus far but it's a 162 game schedule, i doubt they'll be able to hold that up. As for the Nats, well, it depends, cos they've been playing pretty well and received a shot in the arm when Harper came up (he wasn't taking any chances with his first big league blast - straight onto the grass, no need to pay a whole lot of money for that ball!) but their pitching has been immense, what worries me there is that Strasburg has a 160 innings limit, once he hits that there could be trouble.

[conscript]

I think that during the season the Orioles will eventually fall back, they've been playing well thus far but it's a 162 game schedule, i doubt they'll be able to hold that up. As for the Nats, well, it depends, cos they've been playing pretty well and received a shot in the arm when Harper came up (he wasn't taking any chances with his first big league blast - straight onto the grass, no need to pay a whole lot of money for that ball!) but their pitching has been immense, what worries me there is that Strasburg has a 160 innings limit, once he hits that there could be trouble.

If they shut him down at 160 I will be shocked. They have an incredibly great chance at a playoff spot so it would be insane to jeopardize that by shutting him down if he is having no fatigue issues at all. I could see them maybe skipping his starts here and there to get him intermediate rest, but shutting him down completely could hurt them. They have been such a good team this year. I guess it helps to be freaking terrible for a decade and draft highly touted prospects and build a great system up.

The Tigers bullpen is killing me. Smyly finally had a "bad" day giving up 4 runs in 5 innings but was still in position to win the game. Putkonen comes in and instantly gives up three runs and the Tigers lose. That is at least the 7th or 8th game the bullpen has blown this year.

[vicious796]

If they shut him down at 160 I will be shocked. They have an incredibly great chance at a playoff spot so it would be insane to jeopardize that by shutting him down if he is having no fatigue issues at all. I could see them maybe skipping his starts here and there to get him intermediate rest, but shutting him down completely could hurt them. They have been such a good team this year. I guess it helps to be freaking terrible for a decade and draft highly touted prospects and build a great system up.

Yeah - that's been the talk of the town (DC area native). Rizzo and just about everybody else has come out and said that just because Zimmerman was on a strict 160 inning limit doesn't mean they'd do that with Strassy. With the additional wildcard spot open, I just don't see them shutting him down 3/4 through the year when he's been pitching very well and has noticeably grown as a pitcher.

Most in the area think like you do - start skipping some starts within the next month or so to give him more rest.

[ItsInTheAir]

Tough to say it but I'm not looking forward to anytime Lincecum is pitching. I'm turning my back on him until he gets it together.

[Twiddly]

Strasburg should not be on an inning limit, it is an artificial barrier that makes no sense to have. Look at pitchers back in the day, throwing complete games every single game 30 times a year. They seemed to hold up just fine, the fact that they are limiting is probably weakening him and making it worse anyway.

[mrbadxampl]

Derek Lowe is now 6-1 as a Cleveland Indian. I hereby take back every nasty thing I said about the trade at the time (and it was a lot, lol)

now, I must temper my excitement slightly, as one of those 6 was against the Twins, but he did execute, induced a lot of ground balls for outs, and threw a complete game shutout...

anyone seen the Tigers? all the preseason "experts" were giving them the AL Central, they better wake up soon...

[Twiddly]

Derek Lowe is now 6-1 as a Cleveland Indian. I hereby take back every nasty thing I said about the trade at the time (and it was a lot, lol)

now, I must temper my excitement slightly, as one of those 6 was against the Twins, but he did execute, induced a lot of ground balls for outs, and threw a complete game shutout...

anyone seen the Tigers? all the preseason "experts" were giving them the AL Central, they better wake up soon...

Oh god, my twins are now so bad that wins against them do not count D: WE ARE A PUNCHLINE!!! NOOOOOOOO!

[conscript]

anyone seen the Tigers? all the preseason "experts" were giving them the AL Central, they better wake up soon...

They are two games back in the Central, their second best pitcher was hurt and missed a couple starts, their bullpen has been uncharacteristically shaky, and their hitters have gone on a cold streak. They'll be fine. Scherzer pitched poorly again yesterday but they managed to bail him out with an 10 runs in two innings, that Valverde promptly tried to give away AGAIN. What the hell is wrong with closers nowadays. There are literally like three that are consistent from year to year, Rivera, Paps, and Wilson. That is about it, along with maybe Kimbrel who is in year two of looking really good. Seems like every other closer is good for a year then completely implodes and is traded or replaced and moved to a different spot in the bullpen. Most guys can't get it together in the closer role for two years in a row, Rivera has been doing it consistently for a decade and a half.

---------- Post added 2012-05-16 at 09:21 AM ----------

Lawrie is going to get a nice hefty suspension for throwing his helmet at an ump yesterday. That was a horrible call as it certainly looked like it was high and outside, but that sort of outburst isn't necessary. Miller made two abysmal calls right in a row on strikes. Probably wanted to go home quicker.

[koodledrum]

Shouldn't have slammed the helmet but both those strike calls were bullshit and the ump knows it, they weren't even close calls either but yeah, he's gonna be sitting for 5 games, Farrell did exactly what he should have done & argued the piece with the ump too, that'll cost him a few dollars too.

Angels just sacked their hitting coach - GM deciding to make a move given how poorly their season has started. Still I'm willing to bet even the Angels & Twins are better with RISP than the Yankees! But I guess more worrying is that a 19 year old rookie with less than a month of experience at the big league level has more homers than Albert Pujols, granted that rookie happens to be Bryce Harper, but still that's a pretty depressing statistic if you're an Angels fan!

[Twiddly]

Shouldn't have slammed the helmet but both those strike calls were bullshit and the ump knows it, they weren't even close calls either but yeah, he's gonna be sitting for 5 games, Farrell did exactly what he should have done & argued the piece with the ump too, that'll cost him a few dollars too.

Angels just sacked their hitting coach - GM deciding to make a move given how poorly their season has started. Still I'm willing to bet even the Angels & Twins are better with RISP than the Yankees! But I guess more worrying is that a 19 year old rookie with less than a month of experience at the big league level has more homers than Albert Pujols, granted that rookie happens to be Bryce Harper, but still that's a pretty depressing statistic if you're an Angels fan!

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/...tting/split/39 nope! Twins and angels are both below the yankees :P Yankees are actually 10th in the leage atm.


And if I were firing anyone on the angels, it would be whoever negotiated that awful pujols contract...ouchies.

[jasonchris]

Seriously, I'm still shocked at the Pujols contract...but I'm so glad he's sucking it up, never liked him much.

[RollTide]

I think that during the season the Orioles will eventually fall back, they've been playing well thus far but it's a 162 game schedule, i doubt they'll be able to hold that up. As for the Nats, well, it depends, cos they've been playing pretty well and received a shot in the arm when Harper came up (he wasn't taking any chances with his first big league blast - straight onto the grass, no need to pay a whole lot of money for that ball!) but their pitching has been immense, what worries me there is that Strasburg has a 160 innings limit, once he hits that there could be trouble.

This whole winning thing is a very strange feeling as an Oriole fan. But I think I'm wired to assume they won't keep it up(They've had decent starts in the past and fallen apart after the AS break). The thing is, even if they do fall off, I think this team is capable of still playing solid baseball. Maybe they don't win the division or grab a wildcard, but I don't think it will be an implosion like the Pirates last year. Even .500 would be an accomplishment. As long as they stay competitive it's been a good season in Baltimore. It's been nice seeing all this talent finally come through after hearing about it for the last few years. Can't wait to see Machado and Bundy in the bigs either.

[koodledrum]

Thing is though that the AL East does have potential to have three playoff teams in it as it is - so it's gonna be a tough ask for them to keep it up, mind you if the Yankees keep swinging the bats the way they are it won't be an issue!

---------- Post added 2012-05-18 at 09:36 PM ----------

Kerry Wood hanging it up after todays game, Cubs brought him in for one hitter who he struck out and that looks like it's all for him, injuries & aches catching up with him and he wanted to go out on his own terms. Fair play to the guy & i wish him all the best.

[Rennadrel]

Man, the Mets are absolutely terrible, the Jays are just ripping into them rather badly tonight. It's going to be a really long weekend for Mets fans that's for sure.

[tbert03]

Red Sox makes me sad.

[Rennadrel]

It's kinda hilarious how bad the Yankees and Red Sox have been this season, the Yankees are only .025% above .500, being only 21 and 19 is sad, while the Red Sox are .075% below .500 with a 19 and 21 record. Just goes to show you that money doesn't always buy you victories, and this is the year for us Jays fans. And I am really liking the team as a whole so far, they'd be 2nd in the American League if Sergio Santos hadn't of blown those 3 saves for us in the first month or so of the season. The bullpen has been good for the most part, Morrow is really solidifying himself as a starting rotation pitcher, Romero is really proving to be the next big starting pitcher in the league and the hitting has been modest at times, but defensively the Jays should be charged with armed robbery as that is where they have excelled this year.

[Skarsguard]

It's just to early in the season to be stressed how far back in the standings or how far up your are in the standings. I think it's great that the O's are doing good atm but I have seen this before from then and other teams like the Royals and Pirates early in the season and then poof be back at the bottom or close to the bottom of there division.

[Rennadrel]

Well, a lot of people were expecting the Yankees to fall out of playoff contention this year, they don't have any talent developed for the major league yet and their hitting is comprised of old and under performing players. I dunno what is going on with Boston, same goes for Philadelphia this season, they have really been struggling.

[koodledrum]

Actually I'd beg to differ, we have some good players in the minors but our problem has been for a long while that they have a lack of opportunity at the big league level so wind up essentially being trade bait. When you have guys like Arod, Jeter, Cano & Teixera infront of you it's pretty much an impossible task to displace them, your best hope is to be a utility infielder who can give them DH days or off days and well, that's going to be a difficult ask - just look at Nunez's fielding woes or the fact Ramiro Pena couldn't hit water if he fell out a boat! The Yankees' biggest problem will always be pitching related, they haven't had the best of luck from the minors but when you're the Yankees that's not really going to be an issue - which is where a lot of green eyed monsters come from.

The reason the Yankees are 6 games back is simple, they have failed to execute teams when we've got men in scoring position, they've flat out sucked at that this year, our top three RBI guys are Ibanez, Swisher & Granderson, who also happen to be our top 3 home run hitters this season so far - can't win games if you can't score runs. The bats have been anemic and that's been compounded by some less than stellar pitching, when we score, we tend to score a few, when we don't we really don't, that needs to (and will) improve - what really concerns me is the fact we basically have an 8 man offense, Teixera is nullified almost totally by the shift, the guy can't hit a ground ball to the left side if his life depended on it!

Boston it's all injuries, no offense but if you lose players like Ellsbury & Youkilis you're going to struggle, take Crawford out of there too and you're looking at dropping a LOT of speed along with three above average defenders and that's being very unkind to Ellsbury who would be the starting CF for most franchises in baseball without shadow of a doubt. Couple that with early season jitters from pitchers and mix in with a healthy dose of goldfish bowl mentality and you have yourself a problem blown otu of proportion in the media - doesn't help their manager seems to have a knack for looking a bit of a clown at times too.

[belfpala]

our top three RBI guys are Ibanez, Swisher & Granderson, who also happen to be our top 3 home run hitters this season so far...

I'm just going to use this to point out the reason the Yankees are so hated by so many. None of those three came up with the Yankees system.

Sorry your team isn't doing as well as you want, though. Speaking of which... my team used its backup catcher as a pitcher today. lol.