This Week in Baseball

[Guest TheDon]

I am thinking it is going to be Andruw Jones. You take him out of the Braves Lineup and they finish in last place.

[sfaJack 0]

Wow the Astros are one bush league Mickey Mouse of an organization.  The team just clinched second place/wild card and the whole team acts like they won the fucking World Series.

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So a team that came back from 15-30 and fought 3 or 4 clubs all the way to the wire isn't allowed to celebrate the fact that they're one of only 4 NL teams in the playoffs? Please. If the Yankees had lost out the pennant to the Sox but won on the last day to take the WC away from Cleveland they'd be celebrating too. Stop trying to be such a fucking elitist.

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Elitist???? The Astros have players who have won world series and players who have been to the playoffs numerous times. When they won the fucking Wild Card confetti was going off all over the field as the players acted like they won the World Series. I was happy for the Yankee players that they won the division but I didn't like seeing them pour champagne all over eachother in the clubhouse. I did like how they all hugged at the end of yesterdays game on the field. In my opinion only the team that wins the World Series should celebrate like that.

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Yeah, no kidding. The Astros are calling themselves wild card champions. CHAMPIONS!

 

You're not a fucking CHAMPION if you win the wild card--you're just the best of the also-rans.

 

Plus, they really don't deserve it. They've got one of the worst owners in baseball, one of the worst managers in the NL, and maybe the worst offense of any team in the postseason. The ENTIRE reason for their success is Oswalt, Clemens, Pettitte, and Lidge. If just one of those guys had been anything less than great this year, they'd have been done back in June.

 

And yet they act like they're really fucking special or something...

[Guest Smues]

The Astros beat out everyone else, therefore they deserved it.

 

And booo to San Diego winning today and finishing with a winning record.

[The Czech Republic 0]

They've got . . . one of the worst managers in the NL,

I'll admit that a part of me was clamoring for a return of Phil "aw dang, gimme muh lineup card back" Garner to the postseason.

[devo 0]

And booo to San Diego winning today and finishing with a winning record.

 

Yeah, but they have more losses than the '73 Mets, so they're still the worst division winners ever.

 

Speaking of which, the Mets' year ends on a pretty sour note today, but all in all, not a bad season. Yeah, there are a couple little things that could have (and should have) been done over the year that would have kept them in conention, but there's no point in dwelling on that now.

 

I think the future of this franchise is very bright. If Jacobs pans out as a viable solution at first base, there are only two real holes to plug (2B and probably C) in the offseason. Reyes and Wright can only get better (and Wright's already the best bat on the team) and I guarantee you that Beltran will have a better season next year. Add that to the fact that they'll have a fairly solid rotation next year (with Seo, Trachsel, Heilman, and Zambrano to pick from to take the four and five spots) and the Mets look pretty promising in 2006.

[Guest Brian]

re. Albert Pujols

 

You can't fault a great player for being on a great team.

[MikeJordan23 0]

I am thinking it is going to be Andruw Jones.  You take him out of the Braves Lineup and they finish in last place.

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Take Pujols out the Cardinals lineup

 

Take Jones out the Braves line up

 

The Braves would lead the Cardinals in OBP, Slugging, BA, Runs Scored...

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I know this has nothing to do with the thread up until now, but I came across a crazy stat today.

 

 

During his first five seasons (01-05), Albert Pujols never had less than 590 at-bats or more than 592.

 

 

I know it isn't worth the research but I doubt anything like that has ever done before, even if it doesn't have anything to do with his abilities but more to do with chance.

 

He's the MVP, by the way...Unless you want to pick that guy in Atlanta who's hitting .207 with RISP.

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Andruw Jones singlehandedly resuscitated the Atlanta Braves, so it should be him.

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I think this is a misconception that could probably be proved wrong by stats. The emergence of the rookies is what got this team going.

[Fökai 0]

Since the other Braves fans on this board gave up on them...

 

Atlanta over Houston in 4 (Houston without Beltran = victory)

St. Louis over San Diego in 3

Boston over Chicago in 5

New York over Anaheim in 4

[Dogbert 0]

So we've got the Braves and Astros, two of the most surprising teams this year, facing each other in the first round.

 

Figures.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

So we've got the Braves and Astros, two of the most surprising teams this year, facing each other in the first round.

 

Figures.

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Shhh better be careful Dogbert, that might be construed as possibly saying something positive about the Astros. Can't have that around here. Gotta go on about how bad their offense is, how much of a sellout half their pitching staff is, and how they dare celebrate because they make the playoffs.

[The Czech Republic 0]

So we've got the Braves and Astros, two of the most surprising teams this year, facing each other in the first round.

 

Figures.

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Shhh better be careful Dogbert, that might be construed as possibly saying something positive about the Astros. Can't have that around here. Gotta go on about how bad their offense is, how much of a sellout half their pitching staff is, and how they dare celebrate because they make the playoffs.

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You forgot that Craig Biggio leans into pitches and that the fanbase is annoying

[The Czech Republic 0]

Oh, and what did Alan Trammell do to get fired? I thought he was respected in Detroit. I mean, they were only minutely worse than the Cubs, and we're giving our skipper a fuckin' extension.

 

It'd be funny if like every team fires its manager to try and get Joe Girardi. He's the Carlos Beltran of managers.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

The Astros are not that bad.

[Guest Fishyswa]

I'm gonna be rooting for 2 teams, The Yankees of course, and San Diego, who I want to make it to the WS. And not because there a pushover team that guarantees victory.....but because of the story!

 

[Fökai 0]

In recent news, if Jimmy Rollins make his streak to 57 games, it will not be recognized by Major League Baseball.

 

Agree or disagree?

[CanadianChris 0]

In recent news, if Jimmy Rollins make his streak to 57 games, it will not be recognized by Major League Baseball.

 

Agree or disagree?

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What?? That's ridiculous.

[Guest TheDon]

I believe it counts but you are going to have to wait till late april next year to find out. Even if he does break it you know everybody is going to say keep Joe D's record because that was over a single season.

[CanadianChris 0]

Did some digging...there are separate records for hitting streaks over a single season and over multiple seasons. So Rollins will be recognized if he gets to 57, but he won't erase DiMaggio's record.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Is Rollins gonna walk through a giant paper number?

[Vern Gagne 0]

Another case of the "Man" holding a brother down.

[Guest Fishyswa]

I don't really know what to think about that, on one hand, it's two entirely different seasons, different situations and all, but really, that should be more of a point towards them recognizing it, because it's one thing to go on a streak like that, it's another to keep it going after a huge layoff.

 

Put it above Joe if he makes it but make it clear it was done over 2 seasons.

[Precious Roy 0]

I really doubt Rollins can start out hot enough to get to 45, much less 57

[Boon 0]

The New York Yankees will be on the road for Game 1 of their Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels. And the Bronx Bombers are crying foul about it, directing their ire against former Yankees manager Buck Showalter.

 

Showalter removed starters Michael Young, Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock for pinch-runners in the third inning against the Angels on Sunday. The Texas Rangers led 4-1 after three innings, but the Angels rallied for a 7-4 victory and earned home-field advantage for the first round against the Yankees with the victory.

 

Young, Teixeira and Blalock went a combined 4-for-5 on Sunday, but their replacements went 0-for-6.

 

The Yankees, who lost 10-1 in Boston on Sunday, finished with an identical 95-67 record as the Angels, but Los Angeles won the tiebreaker because it won six of 10 games against New York this season.

 

Former Ranger Alex Rodriguez, who played for Showalter in Texas, was one of the Yankees who was peeved at the Rangers manager's decision.

 

"There's a code of honor when so much is on the line," Rodriguez told the New York Daily News. "You hope people do the right thing. But you can't control what people do."

 

Yankees manager Joe Torre was equally surprised.

 

"It's surprising," Torre told The New York Times. "If his team was in the playoffs, I could understand it a little bit more. It's just surprising he pulled them so soon."

 

Showalter defended his decision, saying he wanted his three young stars to get an ovation from the home crowd in the team's final game of the season.

 

"Those guys posted up every day," Showalter told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "They deserved that cookie."

 

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said told the New York Times that he didn't mind Showalter's decision, however.

 

"If we had won one more game, we wouldn't have to be worried about what anybody else did," Cashman told The Times.

 

Game 1 of the best-of-5 series between the Yankees and Angels is Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET.

[devo 0]

Man, and I thought Yankees fans were whiny.

[CanadianChris 0]

Maybe the Yankees should have thought of that before throwing Jaret Wright out for a game they supposedly had to win.

[bob_barron 0]

Maybe the Yankees shouldn't have pulled their starters.

 

Or gotten off to such a pretty bad start.

[The Czech Republic 0]

"There's a code of honor when so much is on the line," Rodriguez told the New York Daily News.

 

[CanadianChris 0]

"There's a code of honor when so much is on the line," Rodriguez told the New York Daily News.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Oh come on, I did it first.