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Baseball Thread
gmill880
Posts: 5,947 ✭
Well next month pitchers and catchers report so its getting close . Thought maybe some of you would enjoy a baseball thread to talk about our favorite teams and terrorize each other errr ... I mean engage in some good natured trash talk.
Baltimore Oriole fan for life here. After all the losing seasons in a row I have guarded optimism for this season. For the first time in over a decade Oriole front office has made some decent acquisitions. Trading for Mark Reynolds (3rd Base) , JJ Hardy at SS, Signing Derrick Lee for 1st base, Re-signing our best reliever from last season and adding Jeremy Accardo(sp) and also Kevin Gregg today. We now have bona fide major league talent across the infield where we had rejects and fill-ins for years and now a couple of guys in Lee and Reynolds who should be able to hit at LEAST 30 homers apiece playing in hitter friendly OPACY !!! Very young pitching staff will need to step up this year and fill their potential. Bullpen should be best quality than we have had in years . First full year under manager Buck Showalter and his own coaching staff this year will help as well. BUT we still play in the A.L. East with the damn Yankees and Red Sox !!! Barring injuries though I don't think anyone will be excited about playing us and just maybe, just maybe, if all the planets and stars align just right we could squeeze in as a wildcard. That would be a dream season compared from where we have come from .
Baltimore Oriole fan for life here. After all the losing seasons in a row I have guarded optimism for this season. For the first time in over a decade Oriole front office has made some decent acquisitions. Trading for Mark Reynolds (3rd Base) , JJ Hardy at SS, Signing Derrick Lee for 1st base, Re-signing our best reliever from last season and adding Jeremy Accardo(sp) and also Kevin Gregg today. We now have bona fide major league talent across the infield where we had rejects and fill-ins for years and now a couple of guys in Lee and Reynolds who should be able to hit at LEAST 30 homers apiece playing in hitter friendly OPACY !!! Very young pitching staff will need to step up this year and fill their potential. Bullpen should be best quality than we have had in years . First full year under manager Buck Showalter and his own coaching staff this year will help as well. BUT we still play in the A.L. East with the damn Yankees and Red Sox !!! Barring injuries though I don't think anyone will be excited about playing us and just maybe, just maybe, if all the planets and stars align just right we could squeeze in as a wildcard. That would be a dream season compared from where we have come from .
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Diehard Texas Rangers fan, I'm pleased with our performance last season.
but yes, I love baseball... HUGE Giants fan, as most of you know since I rarely shut up about it...
lets put it this way... I get more excited by the release of the Baseball America Prospect Handbook and Baseball Prospectus than I do by the SI Swimsuit Issue...
Can't wait for Timmy V. Kershaw on opening day... it'll be nice to start the season with a 3-game sweep in LA...
Sure, I think Toronto has a nice team... although trading Marcum was not the best of moves... sure Lawrie is a great prospect, but starting pitching is king, especially in the AL east... their offense isn't a question... not sure Bautista (LOVED him on me Fantasy team last year btw) can hit 50 jacks again, but they have bats all over the place... the rotation has the potential to be pretty good, but they are young and could use an arm like Marcum... so that move confuses me a little... I like the arms they added to the pen...
The teams that I think really helped themselves this off season are Detroit and Oakland... Boston and philly are too obvious... but it will be nice to watch as neither team will play in the WS...
"Long ashes my friends."
Best move they have made in years. I really think that had something to do with Derek Lee and Kevin Gregg signing here , or at least it didn't hurt anyway ! Huge Cal Ripken fan as well . Here's to a turnaround year !
I still think they can mix it up with the rest of the division ... not to be taken lightly.
The Orioles will definitly not finish in last place this year , they have acquired too much talent to not be competitive barring major injuries. If you want to be realistic look at the facts versus what the baseball talking heads are spewing. Look at Showalters time as manager with the team he had last year, I think their won - lost record was 2nd best in the majors and that included beating up the Yanks and Red Sox . Now fast forward to this year signing Derrick Lee , the first bona fide major league 1st baseman we have had since Rafiel Palmeiro . Recovered from Thumb injury he should be good for 30-36 homers in their park. Mark Reynolds may strike out alot but his numbers from lasyt year would have lead the O's in 4 offensive catagories. I'll take his strikouts this year along with another 30-32 homers and close to 90 rbi's...I'm just sayin. I'll also take JJ hardy at shortstop , first time since Miguel Tejada we have a bona fide SS who can field and has some pop in his bat, looking for 12-15 homers there. Our outfield has yet to play to their potential but was not too shabby anyway . Weiters behind the plate has a full season under his belt and has proven he can handle a pitching staff , now just needs to put up a little higher offensive numbers ( he gets my vote for the breakout oriole of the year, thats right you heard it here first ! ) Pitching with the experience our young guns gained last year and under the watchful eye of Buck Showalter will be a strenght rather than a weakness , i truly believe these guys are going to take the next step ... they were awsome last 2 months of last season. The bullpen will be reliable with the re-signing of Koji and then signing Gregg we already had some damn good arms there anyway . The Orioles could very well fly under everyones radar and thats fine with me . I just don't like when people make judgements based on the past rather than the present . The Yank's don't scare me at all and we are just as good as Toronto and Tampa at this point. Now the Red Sox are going to be a handful for anyone unless the are killed by injuries. I still think we can be a wildcard contender ... I didn't say we will BE a wildcard but at least a wildcard contender play meaningful games in September for the first time in 14 years !!! You can feel free to pull this post back up in September if I'm wrong and I will eat my humble pie and mail you my rose colored glasses and some nice sticks to smoke while you wear them Volchur ... can't wait for the season to begin !!!
My Cubbies are gonna suck the big one this year. Picking up Carlos Pena is the worst waste of $10 MIL I've ever seen. They should just give ME the 10 MIL and I guarantee I get on base more than he does!
Our pitching staff is brutal. And the rest of the line-up ain't much to shake a stick at, either.
Our only saving grace every year, is that besides the Cardinals, our division sucks. So, we always have potential to make the playoffs..... albeit slim.
I like the A's this year. They're my "pick-to-click" this year.
My Cubbies are gonna suck the big one this year. Picking up Carlos Pena is the worst waste of $10 MIL I've ever seen. They should just give ME the 10 MIL and I guarantee I get on base more than he does!
Our pitching staff is brutal. And the rest of the line-up ain't much to shake a stick at, either.
Our only saving grace every year, is that besides the Cardinals, our division sucks. So, we always have potential to make the playoffs..... albeit slim.
I like the A's this year. They're my "pick-to-click" this year.
I've enjoyed watching the Angels cry as everyone they've gone after turned them down, and they're big fish in Beltre plays for the defending AL West champs now.
I can't wait for baseball. I'm climbing up the wall I'm so excited it's almost here again. And yeah, if you guys want to do a league again, I'm definitely down for it.
I'm by no means a fair weather fan, but they are just getting harder and harder to tolerate. But as long as it's a nice night, the radio works, and beer is cold, I'll sit outside with a cigar and listen to the Tribe. I prefer listening than I do on watching on tv. I get into the game more. When I watch them on tv, I flip channels during commercials and as fast as the Tribe goes through their lineup, I could miss two innings within five minutes.
It's far from a given that Gregg would be our closer. Koji Uehara is the odds favorite now to be closer although anything can happen. Uehara was lights out most of the last half of the season and rarely , rarely ever walks anyone. I see Gregg and Jim Johnson as the two set-up men at this point.
Haha I remember the year Boog Powell ( for you youngsters google it ) was traded to the Tribe , he looked like a giant bloody mary in those atrocious solid red uniforms !!!
"Long ashes my friends."
I also like seeing some of the guys play before they get called up to the Majors.
"Long ashes my friends."