Any baseball fans here?

[Keith E. Watson]

Anyone care to talk a little baseball since it's that time of year again?

I belong to some of the popular baseball forums but I have a difficult time posting because I can't get anything meaningful out of it. I find that there are two classes of fans on the sites: Those who know nothing and those who think they know everything. As a result, there are no interesting conversations. The dumbees don't know anything and the know-it-alls just want to argue.

Where do you stand on the playoffs? I've been a Red Sox and Braves fan for most of my life. The Red Sox may be in a position to win it all. They look pretty strong this year despite them not having the offense that they used to have.

The Braves are interesting because it seems like they had all the tools and they way underperformed. They were 3rd in offense and defense. There is no way they should have missed this year. They seemed to find every single way to make sure they didn't make it to the playoffs. Sheesh, one stretch they didn't score in 5 straight games. Can you imagine a team that scores 800+ runs can't score AT ALL for five games???

Andruw Jones is not going to be coming back. Any comments? Personally, I think he needs to move on. Terrible year and although he will certainly come back since he doesn't perform well under pressure (he wanted to come back to the team all year and it screwed him up), he is on the downhill side of his career. The team will be better off without him putting a young speedster at 1/3 the price in CF.

I think the Braves are by far the best team in the majors at keeping from overpaying and yet still field a competitive team. They are very smart financially. They do need to spend more however to keep from being simply mediocre.

Any opinions as to why someone who consistently batted .340 is not a starter? Guess who I'm talking about? He gets ZERO respect. I think he would have won the batting title if he was the regular left fielder. And to think that they are planning to platoon him again next year!!!!

 

[Stephen McDaniel]

Screw baseball. Bunch of overpaid, synthetic testosterone saturated, whiney sissies. This is FOOTBALL season!

Ok, seriously. I grew up Reds fan, Big Red Machine and all. The strike in the early 90's or late 80's (I can't remember now) lost me as a fan forever.

BTW, have I mentioned...screw baseball?

 

[Keith E. Watson]

Screw baseball. Bunch of overpaid, synthetic testosterone saturated, whiney sissies. This is FOOTBALL season!

Ok, seriously. I grew up Reds fan, Big Red Machine and all. The strike in the early 90's or late 80's (I can't remember now) lost me as a fan forever.

BTW, have I mentioned...screw baseball?

1994.

Thanks Steve for your insights.

 

[Gary R. Bell]

Your Red Sox beat my Angels yesterday. I think you're wrong about Boston's offense. Red Sox newbies Mike Lowell and Justin Pedroia have been very productive with the other big bats still being around. David Ortiz once went by another name. What's that all about? He couldn't do that if he was an optometrist.
The Angels have the strangest hitter in the history of baseball, one Vladimir Guerrero. He breaks every rule of good htting, but still hits a ton every year. At Montreal he reportedly hit a pitch that bounced in front of the plate over the fence. Any way, good luck to your team, but I hope they lose.

 

[Keith E. Watson]

Your Red Sox beat my Angels yesterday. I think you're wrong about Boston's offense. Red Sox newbies Mike Lowell and Justin Pedroia have been very productive with the other big bats still being around. David Ortiz once went by another name. What's that all about? He couldn't do that if he was an optometrist.
The Angels have the strangest hitter in the history of baseball, one Vladimir Guerrero. He breaks every rule of good htting, but still hits a ton every year. At Montreal he reportedly hit a pitch that bounced in front of the plate over the fence. Any way, good luck to your team, but I hope they lose.

Yeah, I suppose the Red Sox offense is not that bad but I guess I'm comparing them to a few years ago when they scored well over 900 runs. This year Ortiz and Ramirez only hit 35 and 20 home runs. That's nothing compared to what they have done. In fact, the team only hit 166 homeruns, and that's very low considering the team they are fielding.

Really, I don't think Guerrero breaks every rule because there is no way he could consistently hit .330 every year without making contact. I like to think of hitters who can hit just about anything as having great balance. The reason so many hitters CAN'T hit bad balls is because they only have one swing. They only have one balance point and if they go outside of that, they will miss the ball completely. Tony Gwynn and Rod Carew were also very good bad ball hitters, althought they didn't swing at as many balls in the dirt like Guerrero.

 

[glenna waitt o.d.]

baseball fanati9c

watched the yankees and the red sox last night-i grew up in boston-went to b.u. then newenco-i'm so into it-i can't believe there are not more fans on this site-o.d.'s might suck-manny !manny !manny! -looking forward to tomorrows success!!!!

 

[Harvey Yamamoto]

Baseball?

Anyone care to talk a little baseball since it's that time of year again?

I belong to some of the popular baseball forums but I have a difficult time posting because I can't get anything meaningful out of it. I find that there are two classes of fans on the sites: Those who know nothing and those who think they know everything. As a result, there are no interesting conversations. The dumbees don't know anything and the know-it-alls just want to argue.

Where do you stand on the playoffs? I've been a Red Sox and Braves fan for most of my life. The Red Sox may be in a position to win it all. They look pretty strong this year despite them not having the offense that they used to have.

The Braves are interesting because it seems like they had all the tools and they way underperformed. They were 3rd in offense and defense. There is no way they should have missed this year. They seemed to find every single way to make sure they didn't make it to the playoffs. Sheesh, one stretch they didn't score in 5 straight games. Can you imagine a team that scores 800+ runs can't score AT ALL for five games???

Andruw Jones is not going to be coming back. Any comments? Personally, I think he needs to move on. Terrible year and although he will certainly come back since he doesn't perform well under pressure (he wanted to come back to the team all year and it screwed him up), he is on the downhill side of his career. The team will be better off without him putting a young speedster at 1/3 the price in CF.

I think the Braves are by far the best team in the majors at keeping from overpaying and yet still field a competitive team. They are very smart financially. They do need to spend more however to keep from being simply mediocre.

Any opinions as to why someone who consistently batted .340 is not a starter? Guess who I'm talking about? He gets ZERO respect. I think he would have won the batting title if he was the regular left fielder. And to think that they are planning to platoon him again next year!!!!

Dear Keith,

Thanks for taking a breather from talking about optometry. We all need a break once in a while.

My thoughts right at this moment is on Colorado. Those young guys seem to going on all cylinders. They kicked our butts (dodgers) and they are still going strong. Winning 17 out of 18 games is some sort of miracle. It will be interesting to see how they do against Arizona. Both are comprised of young players so it should make for a good time. Whichever one comes out the victor has a change to go all the way.

The Yankee's seem to be having a tough time and Boston seems to be doing a number on our Angels. I won't be placing any bets this year. Let's all keep watching baseball to see who wins it all. We might all be surprised.

 

[Keith E. Watson]

Dear Keith,

Thanks for taking a breather from talking about optometry. We all need a break once in a while.

My thoughts right at this moment is on Colorado. Those young guys seem to going on all cylinders. They kicked our butts (dodgers) and they are still going strong. Winning 17 out of 18 games is some sort of miracle. It will be interesting to see how they do against Arizona. Both are comprised of young players so it should make for a good time. Whichever one comes out the victor has a change to go all the way.

The Yankee's seem to be having a tough time and Boston seems to be doing a number on our Angels. I won't be placing any bets this year. Let's all keep watching baseball to see who wins it all. We might all be surprised.

Ever since the advent of the 3 divisions per league and the wildcard, I haven't been able to figure out who is going to win. It's nice to have parity but at the same time I don't think the winner should be determined based on who is the hottest team at the time. It seems that a team's record means absolutely nothing going into the playoffs.

When there was only one winner per league (only one pennant), it was obvious you were looking at the two best teams. When the leagues split up into two divisions, it was still more or less the best teams fighting in the World Series, but occasionally a rogue team would get in there. Now, with all the divisions and the wildcards, all bets are off. It's become a different game it seems. I really wish we could return to the days of a certain amount of predictability, then when an up-and-coming team like the Rockies came along and beat everyone, you could be sure they really deserved it. Now, simply being hot at the right time and having tremendous amount of luck can win it for you. To me, it takes a lot of the edge off the miracle season.

Look at the recent WS winners:

• Cardinals with only 84 wins during the season?
• Chicago White Sox--What in the world???
• Boston Red Sox--Can't be!
• Florida Marlins--TWICE--as the wildcard no less
• Anaheim Angles--the perinneal losers???
• Arizona Diamondbacks--who had never won anything. Weren't they only 5 years out of existence?

I don't even think that the Yankees were the best team all four years they won in 1996-2000. I think they won simply because Yankee Stadium is extremely intimidating.

Making it really hard is what is most satisfying. A good example is the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team. If during every Olympics the most unlikely team won, it sure would take the spark out of ever winning. Instead it became a true miracle.

So the season means nothing. Simply making the playoffs is all that matters...

 

[Harvey Yamamoto]

Colorado?

Keith,

Colorado won the NL title. 21 out of 22. Incredible. Indians beat Red Sox?

Colorado seems to the dark horse on this one thus far. Now they get 8 days off to recoup. Whose going to be next?

Even my wife is watching baseball these days. Now it will be whether Boston can repeat. The Indians are coming to life. Rockies vs Indians? This could become the most unexpected participants in this year's world series. Can the Rockies make it 25 out of 26? Getting interesting.

 

[Keith E. Watson]

Keith,

Colorado won the NL title. 21 out of 22. Incredible. Indians beat Red Sox?

Colorado seems to the dark horse on this one thus far. Now they get 8 days off to recoup. Whose going to be next?

Even my wife is watching baseball these days. Now it will be whether Boston can repeat. The Indians are coming to life. Rockies vs Indians? This could become the most unexpected participants in this year's world series. Can the Rockies make it 25 out of 26? Getting interesting.

I haven't watched a single game. Once again, the complete unpredictability has turned me off. I like the old baseball where it was a matter of building a team in the off season, putting together the missing elements during the season, and watching it perform. Now it's about who just happens to be the hottest at the time. That's not real baseball. If anything the 162 game season should determine who the TWO winners are and the ONE playoff series should only be for fun.

I'm telling you, Colorado is not this good. They are just on a roll. They will never be able to do this again...