MLB Off-season Thread

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/articl...sp&c_id=fla

 

Loria should sell the team to somebody who'll move it tomorrow, just to be a dick.

 

I always felt Charlotte could use a team.

If I were a Miami resident, I'd rather cheer for a Charlotte team than a Loria-owned Miami team.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs open up their new stadium March 30 with an exhibition against the Phillies.

[Mik 0]

I'm moving back to Chapel Hill in June, most likely. I'd be beyond thrilled if that happened, but it never will.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

What's with all these rinky-dink ballparks they are building nowadays? The Marlins, A's and Rays all have stadium plans that will have max capacity in the low to mid 30s. Just because they get away with a tiny park in Boston doesn't mean the rest of the league should try it.

[NYU 0]

Because nobody goes to see the Marlins, A's, and Rays, so why bother spending money on a building for 60,000+ people when you're hardly going to fill a fifth of that on a good day? No matter how successful the team gets, they're never going to consistently sustain that support. Just look at the Marlins,

 

That would apply more to the Marlins and Rays to be honest, but it's not like the Coliseum has come close to collapsing from the swarms of Oakland fans either.

[Guest RyechnaiaSobaka]

Because nobody goes to see the Marlins, A's, and Rays, so why bother spending money on a building for 60,000+ people when you're hardly going to fill a fifth of that on a good day? No matter how successful the team gets, they're never going to consistently sustain that support. Just look at the Marlins,

 

That would apply more to the Marlins and Rays to be honest, but it's not like the Coliseum has come close to collapsing from the swarms of Oakland fans either.

 

What are the plans for the Fremont stadium?

[Guest RyechnaiaSobaka]

Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs open up their new stadium March 30 with an exhibition against the Phillies.

 

Is Pork Chop the mascot gone due to the 'ethnic slur' complaints?

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Major league park capacity should be between 38,000 and 41,000. What's the capacity for the new A's place? 28K? It's like you're conceding that at no point in the next 40 years will you ever have anybody come to your games. If the new St. Petersburg park is only going to seat 31,000 or whatever, at least figure out a way to easily expand it in later years.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

I believe (and maybe Al can confirm) he's named "Ferrous" now.

[Guest RyechnaiaSobaka]

Major league park capacity should be between 38,000 and 41,000. What's the capacity for the new A's place? 28K? It's like you're conceding that at no point in the next 40 years will you ever have anybody come to your games. If the new St. Petersburg park is only going to seat 31,000 or whatever, at least figure out a way to easily expand it in later years.

 

I see an article from November 2006 that says the Fremont stadium would be 36,000.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Wait, maybe 41,000 is too low of a maximum. Wrigley Field holds over 41,000 now. I'll have to find a chart with all the listed capacities. Comiskey Park is actually much smaller now than it was in 1991. It's gone down like 5,000 seats.

 

I hope the Rays get this park (and then fix their uniforms again to not look dull and awful). It looks like a warm-weather take on Olympic Stadium. (I feel bad that the Expos never got that really cool artsy modern Labatt Park.) I'm advocating more modern parks like this, because I am sick to death of the "retro style, with modern amenities!" movement. Camden Yards is great, PNC Park is great, Phone Park is great, but by the time we got to Busch Stadium, I think it became obvious that this style has been played out. That's not a knock on New Busch. I like New Busch, it's a huge step up from Old Busch, and I want to see a game there. I just think that there's nothing left to do with that style. The Nats' park is going to be modern, right? I'm starting to appreciate the parks that are more unique, like Petco Park, or Kauffman Stadium.

[Guest RyechnaiaSobaka]

I can't believe that the Rays managed to find a way to create a new logo, new uniforms, and everything that are gayer than the ones they had before.

 

Ridiculous.

 

That's a cool-ass stadium though.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

They're not as actively bad as the original rainbow uniforms, they're just totally uninspiring and bland in every way. It's like they didn't even care.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I believe (and maybe Al can confirm) he's named "Ferrous" now.

Correct.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I didn't see anything wrong with the current Rays uniforms. I don't see who the new ones possibly appeal to, though.

[Guest RyechnaiaSobaka]

I didn't see anything wrong with the current Rays uniforms. I don't see who the new ones possibly appeal to, though.

 

Fags.

 

Seriously, if you thought "Devil Rays" wasn't tough enough, why in the world would you change it to "Rays" and then put like a little flash of light in the logo? Do you have any idea how much some firm was paid to come up with that fagatrocious idea?

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

There's still a devil ray on the sleeve from the old identity, which makes no sense at all. lol alzado. It's not even a matter of "being tough," though. The major leagues feature baby bears, beermakers, three species of small birds, two pairs of socks, monks, angels, and people hurriedly crossing a street. "Tough names" are best suited to Double-A and lower. As long as we don't have any singular nouns, we're good.

 

I just don't get it. It represents nothing other than "this is a team." I get that they were trying to go simple and traditional, like the Dodgers or Cubs, which have no intrinsic meaning of their own, but for a 10-year-old expansion team in St. Petersburg, you have connect the graphic design to the region in some way, whether it's the art itself or even just the color palette being decidedly Floridian. They just took the navy/columbia pairing that like a third of the damn NBA uses now and wrote "RAYS" on a baseball diamond, which could be done for any team, anywhere. Barring the urine-soaked road uniforms, the Padres are a great example of "look local" done right: everything looks clean and breezy and relaxed. It communicates San Diego, to an extent. If you look at this identity, the Rays could be from Salt Lake City, Norfolk, Indianapolis, Omaha, Sacramento, Orlando, Louisville, Hartford, Charlotte, Portland, or Memphis. Given the stadium issue, perhaps this was precisely the intent.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Looks like Geoff Jenkins is set to become a Phillie. Two years, $13 million with a vesting option for 2010 ($7 million). This one made too much sense not to happen. The Phils had righty bats at both corners of the outfield and Jayson Werth is an injury risk, so a lefty bat fits right into the roster.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

That's probably about as much as Jenkins could have expected to get, so good for him.

 

I've never been a huge Jenkins fan, but it was cool when he got a standing ovation when he walked off the field officially for the last time at Miller Park. Too bad he wasn't part of some better teams. Hopefully he doesn't get booed when the Phillies come to Milwaukee.

[CanadianChris 0]

The man loves to use a phone as a weapon

So Elijah Dukes is in this abusive relationship with MikeSC?

I'm very late to this thread, but this is a high quality post.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Remember in 2004 when there was a small controversy surrounding the World Series ball that was taken by Doug Mientkiewicz? Well, we won't have to worry about that happenign to the 2007 ball. Why you ask? Well, Jonathon Papelbon's dog ate it.

 

Look, I love Paps and all he has done for the team, but he personifies country idiot, doesn't he?

[Brett Favre 0]

That's funny. Better than a mysterious disappearance.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Dontrelle Willis signed a three year, $29 million extension with the Detroit Tigers. I guess that's about the going rate for a #3 or #4 starter, but I would have wanted to see him pitch in the AL for a year before locking him up long term. The front office and scouts must believe that last year was an anomaly and he can regain the form he had a couple of years ago.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I agree, that's a tad hasty. I wouldn't trust Dontrelle to do THAT well. He can't face the Cubs over there, you know.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Buster Olney reporting that the A's are asking the Mets for Gomez, Heilman and Mulvey in exchange for Joe Blanton. That seems awfully steep to me, but we know that Minaya is desperate to add a starter. Wnder if they'll do it?

[Guest RyechnaiaSobaka]

Looks like Geoff Jenkins is set to become a Phillie. Two years, $13 million with a vesting option for 2010 ($7 million). This one made too much sense not to happen. The Phils had righty bats at both corners of the outfield and Jayson Werth is an injury risk, so a lefty bat fits right into the roster.

 

I guess Chris Snelling is already on the disabled list. Went to the store to get milk and tore both his ACLs?

[Smartly Pretty 0]

Remember in 2004 when there was a small controversy surrounding the World Series ball that was taken by Doug Mientkiewicz? Well, we won't have to worry about that happenign to the 2007 ball. Why you ask? Well, Jonathon Papelbon's dog ate it.

 

Look, I love Paps and all he has done for the team, but he personifies country idiot, doesn't he?

 

He went to our local catholic high school. I thought that was relevant for some reason.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Fuck the Chicago Cubs right about now. It comes out that Brian Roberts is juiced, he admits he's juiced, and all that notwithstanding, Jim Hendry is out of breath from chasing the guy. He doesn't just think it'd be a nice low-risk chance, he really wants Brian Roberts. This is some message we're sending to high school players. Shoot up all you want, because even if you get busted, they'll still trip over themselves to sign you. Roberts should be persona non grata, and yet here we are. Furthermore, WE STILL HAVE LIKE EIGHT SECOND BASEMEN AND ROBERTS ISN'T THAT GOOD ANYWAY. We have DeRosa at second, Theriot can be moved to second if we pick up a shortstop/Ronny Cedeno stops sucking, and as far top-of-the-order hitting, we have Soriano and whoever our CFer is, either Felix Pie or Sam Fuld. The Brian Roberts thing is not worth it, and it's a big public relations shitpile as well.

 

Here's an ideal lineup for the North Siders:

1 Fuld, CF

2 Lee, 1B

3 Soriano, LF

4 Ramirez, 3B

5 DeRosa, 2B

6 Soto, C

7 Fukudome, RF

8 Zambrano, P

9 Theriot, SS

 

I feel good about that. Fuld is supposed to be a great on-base guy, Lee is regressing from power to contact, and Soriano is just going to have to learn to bat with men on and not swing at eyebrow-high pitches, I guess. I support the La Russian batting order, by the way, at least for Zambrano and Marquis. Ted Lilly's batting stance is worse than mine.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Your going to put the pitcher directly behind your best on-base guy? That'll lead to a lot of runs.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I don't know anything about Fukudome's hitting, so it's tentative in that regard. Also, don't you ever fucking use that fucking rolleyes smiley on me or anybody else. That's the international sign for "message board toolbox."