MLB 2016

blondie wrote:

A month in and not only are we NOT in last place, we are only 2.5 out of first, swept the last 2 series (Washington and Cleveland) and have a better record than the entire NL West.

Our pitching is turning out to be one of the better staffs in baseball; that includes the bullpen who had a very rough start.

We finished April with the 5th best record.  We are 15-10 right now.

I saw that, youth is the way to go, and it looks like Philly may have finally figured that out. I'm pleased with the way the Sox are playing right now, as a team with everyone contributing.

It's all pitching - we only have 1 veteran guy in Hellickson; the rest are up and comers. They've been great. They set a new strike out record for April.

Our offense is doing just enough but we have guys in AAA that should fix that eventually.

I just know I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

The Cardinals can't seem to beat above 500 teams...but we sure did shut down Brat Harper.

JJ wrote:

The Cardinals can't seem to beat above 500 teams...but we sure did shut down Brat Harper.

That's reason enough to celebrate

I still can't stand that kid

he's amouthy punk....but he is a great baseball player.

Big test for the sox the next few days, 3 games against the surprisingly strong Chicago whit sox, owners of the best record in the AL. The good part is we miss there 2 best starters, but they are still a formidable team, and we put owens , wright and bucholz up against them

I just pencil in Bucholz days as losses. Easier to make it through those days, and then if he some how pulls off a win, then it's a nice surprise.

Ez wrote:

I just pencil in Bucholz days as losses. Easier to make it through those days, and then if he some how pulls off a win, then it's a nice surprise.

yeah, I kinda do too. Plus it's hard to watch, even if he is having a great game, he gets a guy or two on base, then the game goes into super slow motion, and you just wait on the edge of your seat for the inevitable meatball to come and break open a game. he is a talented pitcher with some serious flaws in his game, one of which is the confidence to just go after a hitter when there's a runner on base.

the Phillies are looking goood...they have something going on there..looks like some people are there to build around that wont break the bank either...

I'm not used to all of this Cubs stuff..being a top team and throwing no hitters and being the "target"...catching a lot of haters etc....it's def something we havent felt in a century lol...its weird because our team is on pace or breaking records that date back to 1908 and 1945 when they won and went to the World Series...its scary ...I must ask JJ how to handle such things lol..

RedSox fans..is this how you felt when you guys started crushing it with Theo?? makes me nervous

No, we are fickle, it didn't feel real until game 7 of the ALCS.

Derek wrote:

the Phillies are looking goood...they have something going on there..looks like some people are there to build around that wont break the bank either...

I'm not used to all of this Cubs stuff..being a top team and throwing no hitters and being the "target"...catching a lot of haters etc....it's def something we havent felt in a century lol...its weird because our team is on pace or breaking records that date back to 1908 and 1945 when they won and went to the World Series...its scary ...I must ask JJ how to handle such things lol..

RedSox fans..is this how you felt when you guys started crushing it with Theo??  makes me nervous

it's ALL pitching so far but they are all youngsters who will lead us going forward. Our rotation is play-off ready even if the offense is not.

Derek wrote:

the Phillies are looking goood...they have something going on there..looks like some people are there to build around that wont break the bank either...

I'm not used to all of this Cubs stuff..being a top team and throwing no hitters and being the "target"...catching a lot of haters etc....it's def something we havent felt in a century lol...its weird because our team is on pace or breaking records that date back to 1908 and 1945 when they won and went to the World Series...its scary ...I must ask JJ how to handle such things lol..

RedSox fans..is this how you felt when you guys started crushing it with Theo??  makes me nervous

Not just saying this because I'm a Cardinal fan but until September hits, I wouldn't get too wild about it. Everything can change....baseball is a marathon. Arrieta is a stud, though. He's refreshing to watch.

Phillies have great pitching, Blondie.

blondie wrote:

Derek wrote:

the Phillies are looking goood...they have something going on there..looks like some people are there to build around that wont break the bank either...

I'm not used to all of this Cubs stuff..being a top team and throwing no hitters and being the "target"...catching a lot of haters etc....it's def something we havent felt in a century lol...its weird because our team is on pace or breaking records that date back to 1908 and 1945 when they won and went to the World Series...its scary ...I must ask JJ how to handle such things lol..

RedSox fans..is this how you felt when you guys started crushing it with Theo??  makes me nervous

it's ALL pitching so far but they are all youngsters who will lead us going forward.  Our rotation is play-off ready even if the offense is not.  

Helllloooo Blonde girl....thats good though..young pitching...we have the opposite issue..young hitters and no young pitchers coming up...it'll save a lot of money to build around the young pitchers...i see a bright future and present for the phills ...i still dont like their fans (not you) lol...at the park at least they are pretty mean :)

JJ wrote:

Derek wrote:

the Phillies are looking goood...they have something going on there..looks like some people are there to build around that wont break the bank either...

I'm not used to all of this Cubs stuff..being a top team and throwing no hitters and being the "target"...catching a lot of haters etc....it's def something we havent felt in a century lol...its weird because our team is on pace or breaking records that date back to 1908 and 1945 when they won and went to the World Series...its scary ...I must ask JJ how to handle such things lol..

RedSox fans..is this how you felt when you guys started crushing it with Theo??  makes me nervous

Not just saying this because I'm a Cardinal fan but until September hits, I wouldn't get too wild about it. Everything can change....baseball is a marathon. Arrieta is a stud, though. He's refreshing to watch.

Phillies have great pitching, Blondie.

You are right JJ...you just know baseball and i dont take it as a Cardinal fan thing ...its just the best start we've had since my existence lol....we had the home run years with Sosa and them but I disregard that for obvious reasons...its just nice to see my team play good all around ball..field, bullpen, offense, small ball..etc...its fun...never got to do this before haha.....I seen that the NL central still has the top three records in baseball since last year combined...its a fun time! What are your feelings on JHey? I know most of you hate him for his comments...

Derek wrote:

blondie wrote:

Derek wrote:

the Phillies are looking goood...they have something going on there..looks like some people are there to build around that wont break the bank either...

I'm not used to all of this Cubs stuff..being a top team and throwing no hitters and being the "target"...catching a lot of haters etc....it's def something we havent felt in a century lol...its weird because our team is on pace or breaking records that date back to 1908 and 1945 when they won and went to the World Series...its scary ...I must ask JJ how to handle such things lol..

RedSox fans..is this how you felt when you guys started crushing it with Theo??  makes me nervous

it's ALL pitching so far but they are all youngsters who will lead us going forward.  Our rotation is play-off ready even if the offense is not.  

Helllloooo Blonde girl....thats good though..young pitching...we have the opposite issue..young hitters and no young pitchers coming up...it'll save a lot of money to build around the young pitchers...i see a bright future and present for the phills ...i still dont like their fans (not you) lol...at the park at least they are pretty mean :)  

it cost a lot of $$ to get those pitchers. We've paid off most of the contracts on the guys we traded. Most teams rebuild a lot slower. I think the Phillies understand that they need to put asses in the seats again.

I'm hoping they bring up some of the position players this year - you'd think if the pitching keeps up they'd have to.

Derek wrote:

JJ wrote:

Derek wrote:

the Phillies are looking goood...they have something going on there..looks like some people are there to build around that wont break the bank either...

I'm not used to all of this Cubs stuff..being a top team and throwing no hitters and being the "target"...catching a lot of haters etc....it's def something we havent felt in a century lol...its weird because our team is on pace or breaking records that date back to 1908 and 1945 when they won and went to the World Series...its scary ...I must ask JJ how to handle such things lol..

RedSox fans..is this how you felt when you guys started crushing it with Theo??  makes me nervous

Not just saying this because I'm a Cardinal fan but until September hits, I wouldn't get too wild about it. Everything can change....baseball is a marathon. Arrieta is a stud, though. He's refreshing to watch.

Phillies have great pitching, Blondie.

You are right JJ...you just know baseball and i dont take it as a Cardinal fan thing ...its just the best start we've had since my existence lol....we had the home run years with Sosa and them but I disregard that for obvious reasons...its just nice to see my team play good all around ball..field, bullpen, offense, small ball..etc...its fun...never got to do this before haha.....I seen that the NL central still has the top three records in baseball since last year combined...its a fun time!  What are your feelings on JHey?  I know most of you hate him for his comments...

I'm indifferent towards Heyward. I think we have plenty of talent in the outfield and didn't need to offer him that much anyway. I don't think his comments were meant to be taken the way they were. He's fairly young and to be on a team making a good go at the WS is what he thought was best for him. I think a lot of cardinal fans were just frustrated that he turned down the offer when the Cardinals have proven themselves time and time again and he added insult to injury mentioning an "aging team".

thank you~!! That is what I thought, but my opinion doesnt matter as a Cub fan....I thought the same thing....

I think he just had a one year deal..and had a new deal at his plate..and took it...he apologized a million times for that comment...

us Cubs fans love Yadi and Wain...etc...

yay!1 we got a 'Bucholz bonus" game and a win against a left hander and a good team!!!!

And in 1st place!

OK, First off the sox got rooked on friday, that should have been a tie game with one out and the bases loaded in the ninth, and who knows what happens after that. second, Price better figure out WTF he's doing wrong soon, that was another terrible outing. But wright pitched awesome last night and Papi should think about foregoing retirement for another year.

Papi should forego Retirement for the foreseeable future, just saying, he may have 50 hr's this year!

Ez wrote:

Papi should forego Retirement for the foreseeable future, just saying, he may have 50 hr's this year!

at this rate maybe more, he's on fire.

for the most part I'm overjoyed at how they are playing, Porcello pitched well enough to win that game friday, wright has been unbelievable and offense is great, much better than i thought. i'll take it, but 31 million for an ERA over 6 isn't gonna cut it, Price has me a bit worried, he better not be hurt

I officially decided I'm ok with trading places with the Cubs as long as the Blues win the Stanley Cup. This is a one year only deal.

PS. I went to the game yesterday with my mom. I enjoyed seeing David Freese again, even as a Pirate. I also liked the pink uniforms...those shoes were bright.

I was a little confused by those floral sleeves though - we had a couple of guys sporting them

But I did like how the names were in pink - it makes the rest of it almost blend in

iwantmycrayons wrote:

Ez wrote:

Papi should forego Retirement for the foreseeable future, just saying, he may have 50 hr's this year!

at this rate maybe more, he's on fire.  

for the most part I'm overjoyed at how they are playing, Porcello pitched well enough to win that game friday, wright has been unbelievable and offense is great, much better than i thought.   i'll take it, but 31 million for an ERA over 6 isn't gonna cut it, Price has me a bit worried, he better not be hurt

I think we way overspent for Price, I still would have rather had Greinke.

Ez wrote:

iwantmycrayons wrote:

Ez wrote:

Papi should forego Retirement for the foreseeable future, just saying, he may have 50 hr's this year!

at this rate maybe more, he's on fire.  

for the most part I'm overjoyed at how they are playing, Porcello pitched well enough to win that game friday, wright has been unbelievable and offense is great, much better than i thought.   i'll take it, but 31 million for an ERA over 6 isn't gonna cut it, Price has me a bit worried, he better not be hurt

I think we way overspent for Price, I still would have rather had Greinke.

overspending is relative, if he was performing I would be fine, I mean if Porcello pitched last year like he is now noone would have questioned the contract, to me it's all monoply money but if you are gonna spend it you better get something for it. I have faith he will turn it around and be a decent pitcher but nobody is worth 30 million a year.

well with the way bartolo colon can hit and pitch, maybe he is but nobody else

Ez wrote:

iwantmycrayons wrote:

Ez wrote:

Papi should forego Retirement for the foreseeable future, just saying, he may have 50 hr's this year!

at this rate maybe more, he's on fire.  

for the most part I'm overjoyed at how they are playing, Porcello pitched well enough to win that game friday, wright has been unbelievable and offense is great, much better than i thought.   i'll take it, but 31 million for an ERA over 6 isn't gonna cut it, Price has me a bit worried, he better not be hurt

I think we way overspent for Price, I still would have rather had Greinke.

I think Arizona feels the same way right now. Greinke isn't exactly repeating his stellar year out there.

iwantmycrayons wrote:

Ez wrote:

iwantmycrayons wrote:

Ez wrote:

Papi should forego Retirement for the foreseeable future, just saying, he may have 50 hr's this year!

at this rate maybe more, he's on fire.  

for the most part I'm overjoyed at how they are playing, Porcello pitched well enough to win that game friday, wright has been unbelievable and offense is great, much better than i thought.   i'll take it, but 31 million for an ERA over 6 isn't gonna cut it, Price has me a bit worried, he better not be hurt

I think we way overspent for Price, I still would have rather had Greinke.

overspending is relative, if he was performing I would be fine, I mean if Porcello pitched last year like he is now noone would have questioned the contract, to me it's all monoply money but if you are gonna spend it you better get something for it.  I have faith he will turn it around and be a decent pitcher but nobody is worth 30 million a year.

 well with the way  bartolo colon can hit and pitch, maybe he is but nobody else

we've seen him a lot lately and they make fun of him so much but in an admirable sort of way. Like his warm up tosses - he just lazily throws it once or twice, then done. He doesn't like to use any unnecessary energy

blondie wrote:

iwantmycrayons wrote:

Ez wrote:

iwantmycrayons wrote:

Ez wrote:

Papi should forego Retirement for the foreseeable future, just saying, he may have 50 hr's this year!

at this rate maybe more, he's on fire.  

for the most part I'm overjoyed at how they are playing, Porcello pitched well enough to win that game friday, wright has been unbelievable and offense is great, much better than i thought.   i'll take it, but 31 million for an ERA over 6 isn't gonna cut it, Price has me a bit worried, he better not be hurt

I think we way overspent for Price, I still would have rather had Greinke.

overspending is relative, if he was performing I would be fine, I mean if Porcello pitched last year like he is now noone would have questioned the contract, to me it's all monoply money but if you are gonna spend it you better get something for it.  I have faith he will turn it around and be a decent pitcher but nobody is worth 30 million a year.

 well with the way  bartolo colon can hit and pitch, maybe he is but nobody else

we've seen him a lot lately and they make fun of him so much but in an admirable sort of way.  Like his warm up tosses - he just lazily throws it once or twice, then done.  He doesn't like to use any unnecessary energy

he's 43, at least, he has what 10-12 more years in the league

at least

I think Jamie Moyer was 48 when he retired

I think of him everytime someone hits a pop-up. You could hear him yell "two hands!" loud and clear

it's a good thing the Sox can hit, Bucholz was back to the "other than the homerun and solid double I gave up to lead off inning, I felt pretty good' speech. yeah other than the 4 runs in five innings , with runs in the 1st,2nd and 3rd innings, you pitched well for 2 innings

Just once I'd like to hear him say, I sucked again tonight , I have to do better than that, everyone else is playing well and I can't be the guy who isn't I have to do better

So the Nats locked up Strasberg - 7 years with deferred money and opt outs of course.

With all the salary deferrals once this run is over they should be hamstrung for a few years. Half of their budget is going to be towards long gone players.

Ya, but they have to sign Strasburg, can't afford to let him go...

1-1/2 games out of first. I want them to get there if only for a day; just so they can say they climbed over the Mets and Nats to do it.

We're playing the Braves then the Reds so we have a great chance to get all the W's we need this week. Hopefully we'll get the Reds back for that 0-4 they gave us to open the season.

blondie wrote:

1-1/2 games out of first.  I want them to get there if only for a day; just so they can say they climbed over the Mets and Nats to do it.

We're playing the Braves then the Reds so we have a great chance to get all the W's we need this week.  Hopefully we'll get the Reds back for that 0-4 they gave us to open the season.

they have been playing great blondie i know it's a long season, but getting off to a good start especially with a young team means alot!!


the sox are "tearing the cover off the ball)

they have like 185 runs scored already this year. I think it was like July before they got that far last year


And we got another good performance from our pitching staff, a six inning stint from Sean O'sullivan, with no walks. gave up a few runs but from a relative nobody it's better than expected.

Maybe he can give a few pointers to Bucholz on how to pitch


what, Sullivan wasn't Irish enough, they had to tack on an O' to it

Buzz about bringing up tommy Joseph is getting louder. He's the guy was got for hunter pence. It looked like a lost trade for us. But he's learning first base and hitting for power. They have to make some kind of move and I don't see a trade happening.

Is that the same o'sullivsn that pitched for us?

blondie wrote:

Buzz about bringing up tommy Joseph is getting louder.  He's the guy was got for hunter pence.  It looked like a lost trade for us.  But he's learning first base and hitting for power.  They have to make some kind of move and I don't see a trade happening.

Is that the same o'sullivsn that pitched for us?

I'm pretty sure it is. 3 games 40 runs scored, 48 hits!!!

Oakland is terrible but still, they are supposed to be a major league team, giving up 40 runs and 48 hits in 3 games is unexcusable

now Houston is coming to town for a 4 game stint. I'm worried though, we have the bottom of our staff Price and Bucholz to start the series

If we just had a real ace we would be great

They can easily out slug Houston, even with the bottom of the staff pitching.

Ez wrote:

They can easily out slug Houston, even with the bottom of the staff pitching.

the way they are hitting they can outslug anybody, it's really nice to see JBJ doing it, Shaw doing it, hell everyone is hitting, tough to beat a team that has 8 strong hitters in the lineup

I hope they keep it up!

Ez wrote:

I hope they keep it up!

I can't see this production lasting all year but if they can consistently score runs I'll be happy. for the first time in a long time I am not worried when they get down by a run or two, last year if they gave up a run in the first 2 inning I was like Well there goes that game

Ha, true story!

much better performance from price, though he was a little shaky in the first 2, he rebounded nicely. and the sox had an off night at the plate and could only manage 11 runs last night.

Yea, but it's just Houston, I'm not too excited yet.

Ez wrote:

Yea, but it's just Houston, I'm not too excited yet.

still, he had been rocked by tampa and by the yankees whose lineups suck just as much as Houston's does right now

and Tommy Joseph is being promoted; just in time to start against some left handed pitching. Here's hoping that he hits both handed pitchers so we can get some production at 1B. Howard can pitch hit from time to time.

bye Ruf. I was rooting for you but the .170 ave isn't helping your cause

6-1 homestand, 7 games 71 runs 103 hits, more than 10 runs and 14 hits per game and it took heroics in extra innings on saturday and a misplayed ball in the 7th leading to 2 runs on sunday to win the games

yes the offense has been PlayStation good, but the pitching over the weekend, and the defense on Sunday was atrocious.

still they keep finding ways to win


I'm looking forward to seeing Erod or kelly...or both in the rotation soon.

and papi is indeed the BEST clutch hitter ever, he single handedly willed them to a win on Saturday, driving in the tying run in the ninth and the winning run in the 11th, not mention a homer earlier in the game.

we didn't complete the sweep of the Reds but we did take the series. The Nats and Mets lost too so we stay 1 freaking game behind for 1st.

We play the Marlins tonight - hopefully we'll just continue to take series.

And I want to climb over those stupid Nats for 1st.

blondie wrote:

we didn't complete the sweep of the Reds but we did take the series.  The Nats and Mets lost too so we stay 1 freaking game behind for 1st.  

We play the Marlins tonight - hopefully we'll just continue to take series.  

And I want to climb over those stupid Nats for 1st.

that's all I look for
win 2-3 3-4 even splitting a four gamer is Ok with me if over all you win 58-605 of your games you will have a great season.

as well as the red sox played last week, the frigging orioles kept pace with them


i dislike shoemaker schomaker schowalter whateverdafuckhisname is

he has taken the place of Madden as the manger i dislike though he is very very good at getting the best from his team

I think we've only lost 2 series this season so far - the first one with the Reds and we went down 1-3 against the 4 games with the Cards.

Madden cracks me up getting his guys to dress up for road trips. Keeps them loose, not that they have anything to be uptight about these days.

I know its stupid to watch the standings and I know we won't be in it all season but I WANT FIRST PLACE AGAIN DAMN IT!