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Any baseball fans around here? Any predictions for the World Series? San Fransisco GIants vs Detroit Tigers
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@sirseanisbond, I'm sure you were very happy with the Yankees collapse. What is your feeling on your new manager?
I still say the Tigers have the better team, so I will go with Tigers in 7, but not very confidently.
Anyways, for some reason White Sox is the favourite team, along side Cardinals.
I'm happy with Farrell. He'll be a breath of fresh air in the clubhouse because use to be a part of it as the pitching coach. He's no Tedo, but I think he'll do well and frankly I couldn't think of anyone else available who could do better. Valentine was doomed to fail from the start, he was just a stopgap, a filler for an off year. Hopefully now that we have a new manager and dumped a large % of payroll by dropping under-performers (ahem, Becket) I think we can now move on and start to build a new team. 2013 will probably be another slow year but who knows, anything can happen.
And to no surprise, it looks like Jose Valverde will not make anymore appearances unless really needed. I'm fine with that. I find him to be an absolute show off who doesn't respect his opponents
Jays are in a bad place in the wake of this embarassment. I think we should have last place all to our own next year. We have no starting pitching, no manager, just a couple of older sluggers (Encarnacion and Bautista) a few prospects and not much else. :|
And Giants finally score!
Not much of a baseball fan these days. It simply doesn't generate the same level as Super Bowl or even Wrestlemania until a few years ago. The Orioles had a great side many years ago but haven't won the Series for the best part of thirty years now. Detriot have a lot of ground to make up to salvage something..
New prediction: Giants win two of three in Tigertown to take the series.
Although I wouldn't bet a nickel on any of my predictions. Baseball is much easier to predict after the fact. ;) Jays had to face a reality check this year. The GM is a kid. His team wasn't half as good as he thought it was. Now that Farrell is gone they can get a proper Manager who is committed to winning here. Seeing as the divsion is so strong, with Rays, Yanks and Orioles all coming off good years and Red Sox probably on the rebound, Jays look like the obvious choice to finish bottom, which isn't so bad if they develop talent next year, rather than delude themselves into thinking they can compete right now. Any team can be turned around in two seasons.
If I'm correct the open manager positions are
Toronto
Colorado
Miami (Poor Ozzie)
And yes @timmer, Giants are on fire. And they haven't even used Matt Cain yet!
I'm just hoping for a very good WS.
Scutaro has been amazing. What a pick up. And it looks like the Giants are going to win this one. 3-0 series lead!
Hopefully Utley and Chooch will come back better and Ryan Howard will finally straighten out his aimless hacking and start earning his paycheck. He could learn a lot from Ortiz' approach for sure. We also need middle relief and it's time to bring up Darin Ruf, he's got to be better than Delmon Young and Mayberry, he couldn't do any worse.
But something seems to have gone wrong along the way. :)
Here's what's happened in my not-so-learned opinion.
Jays rotation, which was supposed to be a huge strength, has turned out to be a bust.
Only R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle have managed to make all their starts, and they've just been hanging on, with very middling results.
Meanwhile, all of Brandon Morrow, Josh Johnson, and J.A. Happ have been hammered by combination of injuries and related poor performance, forcing the use of numerous spot-starters and not-ready call-ups.
Jose Reyes got banged up early too which was demoralizing, but the Jays at least have had enough depth to cover off the loss of his bat.
The real problem has been the hopeless starting pitching, combined with a general malaise, leading to sloppy fielding etc.
The team now seems to at least be dealing with reality. ie they are in last place. Expectations have dimished. Sorting the rotation might be hopeless though.
Josh Johnson returns this week, but Dickey and Buehrle are still very so-so. Morrow and Happ remain out of the picture and there really is no-one else. Chad Jenkins is serviceable but still developing. Maybe Dustin McGowan comes back and finds his old magic. Just limping back to 500 though might be all that's available for this team.
Glass half-full though, is that Johnson combines with Dickey and Buehrle for a respectable front 3, while others manage to hold down the back-end of the rotation.
Bats are quite good and even better if Reyes returns to give everyone a lift.
Bullpen has not been a problem. Lots of good arms there, espcially Casey Janssen, Aaron Loup, Bret Cecil, Steve Delabar, Esmil Rogers and Darren Oliver before he got hurt.
Team defence is also easily improved if players get heads out of butts, now that early season projections of greatness have been tempered by reality.
Phils vs White Sox this year, should be a good series. Your pitcher Sale is a stud, I hope when Jesse Biddle (a local Philly kid) comes up for us he does as well. Biddle struck out over 30 in 2 games just recently. The Yankees' Trenton affiliate is 5-10 minutes away so I get to see the Reading Phillies when they come into town, much less of a pain than the madhouse that is CBP plus all the I-95 construction that makes trying to get down there with rush hour twice as long. Hope to see Biddle this year in person with any kind of luck.
I like our starters, they are mostly consistent and keep us in games. Mike Adams has mostly solved the 8th inning issues so if we have a lead by then it's good, Paps has been great as our closer. Our problems are entirely with the hitting. Our 2008 core is aging and when GM Ruben Amaro went with the philosophy of signing stud free agent pitchers, he savaged our minor league hitting talent that the great Pat Gillick had picked during his tenure. Guys like Travis D'Arnaud he gave away could yet be studs, I think the Jays had him and now the Mutts do. That sucks. Darin Ruf is the closest thing we have as far as right handed power, but he's been hurt a bit lately and won't get called up because he's a first baseman and hasn't been quite able to be proficient in the outfield, although Delmon Young sure isn't very much better, they'll keep him because they paid for him. It's a joke how they treat Ruf. Guys like Galvis and Cesar Hernandez are our future infield, slick fielders and good hitters but not power guys. You need to have boppers in a small field like CBP and I guess they think noodle arms like Ben Revere (a horrible signing, they should have gotten Dennard Span) can spray the ball around and make things happen- we're still waiting for that, so far he sucks. Most Phillies games this year, offensively, have been like watching paint dry. No plate discipline. Hard to take.
I am also shocked that the Jays are this bad with all the money they spent, and feel Timmer's pain. I like their chances better than ours this year even with all that. And speaking of disappointments, who'd a-thunk the Nationals would be as bad as they are?
And as for the Blue Jays, as you can imagine I'm a huge Burehle fan so I feel very bad for him and the team. Maybe they'll bounce back next year