nmigliore Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 (edited) They'll probably win that division; Baseball Prospectus gives them a greater than 92% chance as of right now. Alex Avila has been pretty incredible. There's definitely some flukiness to his numbers, but he looks like a real keeper. I don't think its too early to start talking about him as one of the best catchers in the game. Also, Miguel Cabrera looks likes hes well on his way to the Hall of Fame. He may get some flack for his off-the-field issues and his defense, but he is an amazing hitter. Can't go without praising their most valuable player either: Justin Verlander. He's the the Cy Young Award winner for me right now, and there's probably no way he doesn't end up winning it. Edited September 4, 2011 by nmigliore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masked Fan Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 (edited) Tigers are loving the spotlight! 12-0 and counting bot 6! OK Tigers hang 7 on em in the 6th, now 16-0 then Max Scherzer comes out and has a 7 pitch 7th. muwahahahahaha! Edited September 5, 2011 by Masked Fan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 (edited) Should Adrian Beltre be a future Hall of Famer? A recent article by Rob Neyer inspired this thought... Sunday afternoon, Adrian Beltre singled in the sixth inning -- a seven-run sixth inning, as it happened -- which was a notable milestone because it was Beltre's 2,000th hit.As Aaron Gleeman pointed out earlier this season, there are a fair number of players with 2,000 hits. What sets Beltre apart are two things: 1. He's a third baseman, and 2. he's only 32 years old. Beltre is the youngest third baseman in major-league history to reach 2,000 hits. Oddly, neither the second youngest nor the fourth youngest are in the Hall of Fame. Beltre reached 2,000 at 32 years, 5 months and 28 days. Ron Santo reached 2,000 at 32 years, 6 months and 1 day. George Brett reached 2,000 at 33 years, 10 days. Buddy Bell reached 2,000 at 33 years, 7 months and 30 days. Of course, George Brett's in the Hall of Fame and Ron Santo should be. Buddy Bell's even got a better argument than you probably think, but his last good season came at 35 and he was finished at 37. Anyway, there are two points here. One, Beltré's on track for some pretty impressive career numbers. Two, he's already done some pretty impressive things. When's the last time you heard some attach future Hall of Famer to "Adrian Beltré"? Or superstar? http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/9/5/2405180/adrian-beltre-dummy-hed Of course, I don't think anyone views Beltre as some elite hitter. His career OPS+ is 108, and hes had a sub-100 OPS+ in 6 of his total 14 seasons. One thing the article (surprisingly) fails to mention is why Beltre is even in the Hall of Fame discussion in the first place: defense. Fangraphs gives him credit for 152.9 runs contributed from defense, which ranks 6th best among 3B on their career leaderboards, and he looks poised to jump to 3rd, or even 2nd best with another great defensive season or 2. His career Fangraphs' WAR sits at 54.3, which is very impressive for a still-quite-productive 32 year old. The typical Hall of Fame "zone" is 50-60 WAR. However, peak does matter, and Beltre has only 2 seasons of an fWAR of 5 or greater. It's really tough for me. As of right now, I would probably say no. However, if he were to accumulate another 10-15 career WAR? He'd have to be yes for me at that point, I think. I think that's very do-able too, as hes only 32 years old, and is in the midst of another very good season: he can still hit (112 OPS+) and hes still exceptional in the field (+11.3 UZR). What do people think? Is Adrian Beltre a future Hall of Famer? Or more importantly, should he be a future Hall of Famer? Edited September 5, 2011 by nmigliore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BelieveinBrodeur Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Phillis swept Braves, they have no trouble with good teams and have little struggle for the spoilers. Biggest let down this year is if they don't win the World Series they have lead the MLb pretty much all season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 24, 2011 Share Posted September 24, 2011 (edited) MLB is pretty much all-but-officially adding a 2nd wild card team, according to Joel Sherman. He claims it could happen as soon as 2012 but no later than 2013. This idea is great, IMO. But a 1-game playoff between the 2 wild card teams? That is awful. How is that fair to the better wild card team? Yeah, sure, they get home field advantage.... but it seems very wrong to have just a 1 game playoff. If anything, it should be a best of 3, at least. He also says the Astros could move over to the AL to balance out the teams in each league. Edited September 24, 2011 by nmigliore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefiestygoat Posted September 24, 2011 Share Posted September 24, 2011 I hate adding a 2nd wild card team, I like the system the way it is, minus the DS being a 5 game series instead of a 7 - though thats not a huge deal to me. If they are going to do this then I really, really hate the idea that it is a 1 game playoff. At the minimum it should be a best of 3, though I'd prefer best of 5. Unfortunately there is no way they would shorten the regular season to something like 156 games to compensate for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyrsuck26 Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 (edited) This story's been around for a while, and I support it. Every year you can look down the list at the teams that just missed the playoffs and honestly think, "if they got in, they might have had a shot..." Oh, and it has to be a 3-game series IMO. 1-game is too fluky and not fair to the "1st wild card team." As far as Houston (or any other team for that matter) switching leagues I really can't support that unless the NL is finally gonna adopt the DH, because interleague play year round wouldn't be right (and you can have teams having like 4 off-days in a row). I'm actually kinda surprised that there's never been any talk of the AL expanding two teams... Edited September 25, 2011 by nyrsuck26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 (edited) Is anyone following these crazy Wild Card races? The Braves are now only 1 game up on the Cards with 3 to play. The Braves face the Phillies while the Cards face the Astros. This should be fun. And the Red Sox are a loss away (currently playing the Yankees, tied in the 8th inning) from being tied in the Wild Card race by the Rays. Insane. Fortunately for the Sox, they face the O's 3 times while the Rays face the Yankees. I think Boston will hang on, but this one is also in for a really fun finish. I mean even if both teams wind up getting in, it's still amazing to think how much ground they have given up this month. They were pretty much locks to go to the playoffs a month ago. Edited September 26, 2011 by nmigliore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devils Dose Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 Having it come down to one game- after a 162 game season- stinks, but that has to be the way you do it. I want something to keep those division races meaningful, and hoping to avoid a one-and-done situation does just that. If I'm not mistaken, that, more than allowing more teams in, is the reason for the change. The tight race could be anywhere any given year (obviously this year it's in both wild cards, and those races would be ruined if both teams knew they were just going to make the playoffs and face each other either way). But if you don't like one game to decide your fate, win your damn division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onddeck Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 good job boston, you idiots took till the 14th inning to beat our C team Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefiestygoat Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Is anyone following these crazy Wild Card races? Obviously as a Yankee fan I've been keeping a close eye on the AL race. Anyway, here is some info on the tie breakers from Chad Jennings at LoHud: If the Boston Red Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim finish in a three-way tie for the Wild Card, then two games will be played in the first two days after the regular season. The games will be played according to designations based on the head-to-head three-way records among the tied clubs:• The Rays went 12-6 against the Red Sox and 4-4 against the Angels. Combined: 16-10 (.615). • The Red Sox went 6-12 against the Rays and 6-2 against the Angels. Combined: 12-14 (.462). • The Angels went 4-4 against the Rays and 2-6 against the Red Sox. Combined: 6-10 (.375). The designations dictate that: • Club A would host Club B on Thursday, September 29th. • Club C would play at the winner of the A vs. B game on Friday, September 30th. Because the Rays held the best head-to-head record among the three tied clubs, the Rays received the first choice of designation and the Red Sox had the second choice. If such a scenario arises: • The Rays have chosen to be Club C, playing a road game on Friday, September 30th. • The Red Sox have chosen to be Club A, hosting the first tiebreaker game on Thursday, September 29th. • The Angels, as Club B, would play the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday. • The winner of the Thursday’s Angels-Red Sox game would host the Rays on Friday, September 30th. • The winner of Friday’s game would be the American League Wild Card. In the National League, the potential two-way National League Wild Card tie between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals would be broken with a tiebreaker game on Thursday, September 29th at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Head-to-head record determines home-field advantage in a two-way tie, and the Cardinals earned a 5-1 advantage over the Braves in the season series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 AL Wild Card is now tied with 2 left to play.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95Crash Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Did anyone else last night watch the ESPN documentary on the Steve Bartman incident? It was EXCELLENT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onddeck Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 what a finish this will be for the last playoff spots... here weeee gooo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefiestygoat Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Did anyone else last night watch the ESPN documentary on the Steve Bartman incident? It was EXCELLENT! I read an article on ESPN about one of the other guys (grey sweatshirt) that was involved and the impact it had on his life. I am really interested in watching the documentary on Bartman, hoping to catch a re-run and DVR it. 2 wild card ties heading into the final day, MLB has all the possibilities up here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 IMO, Craig Kimbrel is the best reliever in baseball. He just blew the save for the Braves and is departing with a bases loaded mess (2 out). Yikes. The Cards are up big on Houston. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilsrule33 Posted September 29, 2011 Author Share Posted September 29, 2011 (edited) Can't believe David Price dropped the ball two games in a row. Not like he had a chance with the performance the offense put on tonight either. Although, they are starting to rally now. Edit: 7-6 now. Rays really making things interesting... Edited September 29, 2011 by devilsrule33 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs4978 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 lol this night's living up to the billing...Phillies and Braves going to the 11th after the Phillies' CF'er makes a great running catch to save the game. Sox and Orioles still in a rain delay in the seventh inning of a one-run game. And the Rays came back out of nowhere to put some real suspense in the ninth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Dan Johnson ties it! Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs4978 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 The Yankees are just trolling Boston now Two extra inning games, yeesh. And the Phillies-Yankees want no part of playing all these extra innings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilsrule33 Posted September 29, 2011 Author Share Posted September 29, 2011 Dan Johnson comes through. He was batting .108 before that home run! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Phillies take the lead. If they close this out.... WOW. That would be an insane collapse by the Braves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefiestygoat Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 The Yankees are just trolling Boston now Two extra inning games, yeesh. And the Phillies-Yankees want no part of playing all these extra innings. I really hope Proctor goes out there in the bottom of this inning and serves up a solo HR. I am so paranoid about injuries right now and really worried about Jesus' hand.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmigliore Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 (edited) AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Atlanta CHOKED. I cannot stand the Braves. For all the a$$hole Braves fans that criticized the Mets after what they endured in 2007/2008: Now you know what it feels like. Edited September 29, 2011 by nmigliore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefiestygoat Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 How big was Atlanta's lead on the wild card? Also it figures that now Proctor is finding a way to pitch scoreless innings. At some point his arm is going to fall off...just give up a damn run and get back to NY already!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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