Thoughts on Nick Swisher's slide against Minnesota? I know it's common baseball tactics to break up double plays that way....but it still leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. Almost his entire body was over by the shortstop side. I can't tell if it's a only-worth-a-shoulder-shrug kind of thing that I'm mentally elevating because he wears pinstripes, or if it was a legitimately dirty play.
Buck up, little camper. The 1998 Yankees started the season at 1-4 (which really isn't vastly different than 0-6) and won 114 games. I won't go out on a limb in their favor, but it is way too early to count out the Sox. As for Swisher's slide, all involved said it was a good play on Swisher's part. Sliding in hard to break up the play has been a part of American baseball for over 100 years. If you're going to play in this league you'd better know how to handle it.
Absolutely 100% clean, even the manager of the Twins said so. Swisher was close to the base and he didn't come in cleats up. Swisher even went to the player in the X-Ray room to apologize and he told him it wasn't his fault.
Opening motherfucking day. Off to the big city to see some Red Stockings and boo a couple bullpen players. 0-6 is just 6 games, but there is a very good chance that they arrive on Monday being 1-8. That's where it starts to add up and just getting back to .500 will be a challenge. Lester pitched a gem of a game yesterday and they couldn't get shit going. Multiple bad plays on defense and a walk, bunt, steal brings in the winning run for the Indians. Yuck.
Boston's 0-6 really only means one thing to me: they're 4 games behind the Yankees. Thus, if they were slight favorites to win the division entering the season, they're now slight underdogs. Obviously, a lot can change over the next 150+ games, it just sucks to start in a 4 game hole. HOWEVER, they're only 2 behind Minnesota and Oakland, and tied with Tampa Bay, so they're still looking like pretty good bets to make the playoffs somehow, at which point none of this will matter. All this talk of them looking flat seems kind of revisionist to me; most teams looks bad when they're losing.
I went to Pirates opening day yesterday at PNC Park. Despite the poor performance on the field, particularly from the bats and infield defense, I had a great time. Beautiful weather, girls in shirtsies, 7 rows from the field, just great. The highlight though was this testament to man's genius: That is a sandwich consisting of BBQ pulled pork topped with 2 pierogies and onion jam, served on a pretzel bun. Simply fantastic.
Saw this watching the game, Deadspin picked it up. Spoiler Hilarious, and Chipper is definitely going to the hall of fame.
Uh word on the street is that Manny Ramirez just retired. Wow. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/content/manny-retires Edit: Official MLB tweet - http://twitter.com/#!/MLB/status/56451982336065536
That's an awesome answer. My respect for Ryan Braun just improved by 1000. And what kind of a silly question is that? Homerism aside, of COURSE Chipper's going to the Hall. I defy anyone to explain why he wouldn't be a HOFer, and a first-ballot one, at that. As for the Braves, how the fuck do you lose 3 of 4 to the Brewers. They'd better do something with this 9-game homestand before heading out to the NL West for 10 games in 10 days. This season could get off to rough start awfully quick. Hudson's already allowed 3 runs in 2 innings against Philly; very uncharacteristic of him.
Just got back from the Mets home opener, a good game for the first 7 innings before their bullpen completely imploded. And fuck going to games in early April, I'm never going to a game again unless it's going to be 70 outside. Jesus it was fucking cold out there tonight.
Chipper reached his first of a few 2011 milestones tonight, against Cliff Lee, no less. Big statement by Atlanta to open against the Phillies. Who was I kidding? It's Tim fucking Hudson! Turns out those were the only runs he gave up tonight. The other fun facts of the game were pretty interesting: That third one's pretty cool; I can't imagine that's a popular stat to have, but I don't know enough baseball stats to be sure.
So long Manny, I will miss that crazy asshole. In other news, the Indians win five in a row...what's going on? I"ll take it.
I'm right there with you. I'm trying to watch more games this year and because ESPN shows a ton of Yankee games I've seen Tex's goofy mug way too much. It's irrational hate, but hate nonetheless.
The Phillies' offense is becoming pretty tragic given the pitching performances. Lee has 10 Ks through 6 and the DBacks' 4-0 lead makes it look like he's getting dominated, rather than a handful of bad pitches and absolutely no offensive support.
The NL East is going to come down to a game of "Who's offense sucks the least?" between the Phillies and the Braves. I'm not going to say the Braves pitching is as good as the Phillies, but it's not that far behind. The Braves excellent bullpen is an underrated facet to their great staff. It is more than good enough to keep them in every game this season. With the exception of Howard, the Phillies will be up and down hitting the ball the entire year. Taking Werth (respectable right handed bat) out of the middle of the line up hurt them more than most people realize. Also, the Utley situation is cause for great concern. I don't get the same feeling of dread facing them that I have in years past. The Braves offense, on the other hand, has been confounding me. If you look at each individual piece it seems as they'd be above average hitting. However, as a group, they are not. It is a rare case of the sum of the parts being less than the whole. I'm not basing that on this year alone either. They are starting this year right where they left off last season. I know Uggla is a traditional slow starter, but this is ridiculous. I haven't seen them, as a group, put together a sustained run of consistent offense in a couple of years. Having said that, I think it will be one hell of a race the rest of the way....despite the 5 game hole already. And yes, I am intentionally disregarding the Marlins, Mets, and Nationals.
Its only a matter of time before the Braves go on a tear. For the first time in a while we have the talent to take the vast majority of our series against lesser opponents. I think its going to come down to the head to head games with the Phils. The main factor in past years has been the team's records against the Nats. We float at/below .500, the Phils take around .700 of the games. This year I think that evens up more (both through the Nats being more competitive to the Phils and us being able to handle business against the Nats) and the winner of the head to heads is gonna take the division. That being said, I expect the wild card to come out of the east again and am drinking the koolade to another Braves - Yanks World Series and us getting revenge. Fuck you Wohlers.
There are a litany of question marks surrounding the team this year - Fredi Gonzalez's first year as manager, Chipper's health, Jurrjens' health, Lowe's age, Freeman's rookie campaign, Heyward proving that his rookie year was no fluke, Hanson bouncing back from a so-so sophomore year, Uggla living up to his contract, Prado's move to LF, etc. That being said, I still like their chances for at least a WC. They're a better team than last year, which went to the NLDS, of course. This team's full of youth (Heyward, Freeman, Jurrjens, Hanson, Beachy, Venters), and Schafer's still lingering in the minors, so there's plenty of room for growth. I like the prospects of this team a year or two from now more than I do currently. In other news, what's up with Roy Oswalt? Very strange. I hope everything's okay on his end. I'm guessing it's something profound, like a death in the family, but hopefully it's nothing that serious.
Not to be outdone by the Kansas City mini-Braves and their promotion of a heralded prospect yesterday, the Atlanta Braves today announced that the top pitching prospect in the Universe will be called up tomorrow to make a spot start. He'll be immediately sent down, this is mostly so no one in the current rotation has to throw on 3-days' rest, but it'll still be a nice glimpse for Braves' fans that haven't seen him throw before. Even if you aren't a Braves' fan, listening to the Fox crew butcher his last name should be a good time (it's "tay..ron").