Warning!! Danger!! Annual Off-topic Baseball Thread '07!! Beware!!

[mick]

I found it it to be quite interesting when the Atlana Grounds crew cam out and fixed the mound.

Scrape, add mud, chop mud, tamp mud.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by mick

Mike Maroth was a good Tiger. Good luck in St. Louis.

And you got nuthin for him, Mick. I liked Maroth a lot and they gave him away for a player to named later, who will probably end up being a AA minor leaguer. What do the Tigers know that the rest of us don't know? I do know that Kenny Rogers came off the DL, but there wasn't some end-of-the-bench player that could've been sent back to the minors? Wow.

In happier news, the Red Sox won and the Yankees lost yesterday. That drops NY to third in the division and gives the Sox an 11 game lead. Beckett was sensational for the Sox, going 8 innings, and Jason Veritek had a triple and a homer, which gave the Sox a little breathing room.

Mussina threw 104 pitches in only 5 innings, and Clemens threw an inning of relief for the first time (in the regular season) since 1984, giving up a run of his own.

Clemens could've signed with Houston, of course, where Craig Biggio is closing in on 3,000 hits. Biggio had 3 hits yesterday, including one that drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning. Of course, the reason they played extra innings was that the Astros' bullpen give up 6 runs in the 8th and 9th innings. Ouch.

Ken Griffey, Jr returns to Seattle and received tremendous ovations from the Seattle fans. He hits a couple homers, passing Mark McGwire for 7th place on the all-time list, but the M's win anyway. Some Putz got the save for Seattle.

And the Cubbies beat the White Sox. Ozzie got tossed and the Sox GM is starting to lose patience. Cubbies are en fuego! Well, as hot as a team can be when they're 4 games under .500; but they are in second place in the division.

All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend of baseball. I didn't get to see much of it on Saturday, b/c of my daughter's birthday party. But what I saw on Fri and Sun was a lotta fun.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

1) And you got nuthin for him, Mick. I liked Maroth a lot and they gave him away for a player to named later, who will probably end up being a AA minor leaguer. What do the Tigers know that the rest of us don't know? I do know that Kenny Rogers came off the DL, but there wasn't some end-of-the-bench player that could've been sent back to the minors? Wow.

2) In happier news, the Red Sox won and the Yankees lost yesterday. That drops NY to third in the division and gives the Sox an 11 game lead.


3) I didn't get to see much of it on Saturday, b/c of my daughter's birthday party.

1) Let's see. Maroth was 5-2 this year but had a terrible ERA of 5.06. Lifetime, his career MLB won/loss record is 50-62 with an ERA of 4.81. He ain't the second coming of Cy Young, Chuckie. Detroit had 7 starters. He was the logical one to go.

2) You couldn't wait to get at the old computer this morning and post that, could you? I bet you set the alarm early just to git up for that.

3) How come Dan and I weren't invited?

[mick]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

And you got nuthin for him, Mick. I liked Maroth a lot and they gave him away for a player to named later, who will probably end up being a AA minor leaguer. What do the Tigers know that the rest of us don't know? I do know that Kenny Rogers came off the DL, but there wasn't some end-of-the-bench player that could've been sent back to the minors? Wow.

Maroth didn't meet the power specs of the pitching staff and, thus, he wasn't going to be a starter with Miller coming up.
If it's me I have Fernando Rodney going away.

Tigers appreciated Maroth and sent him to the Champs, who need a starter.
And, since Leyland and LaRussa are buddies, neither team will be hurt.

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

And the Cubbies beat the White Sox. Ozzie got tossed and the Sox GM is starting to lose patience. Cubbies are en fuego! Well, as hot as a team can be when they're 4 games under .500; but they are in second place in the division.

All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend of baseball. I didn't get to see much of it on Saturday, b/c of my daughter's birthday party. But what I saw on Fri and Sun was a lotta fun.

Any time the Cubs sweep the Cardinals or White Sox, it's a pretty fun weekend of baseball. Did you see the play that Ozzie argued and got tossed? I was having dinner at a restaraunt (should've been Chili's, right, Bob?) and didn't get to hear what was happening. I probably need to go over to the baseball side to read more about it, but I'll admit it didn't make sense to me, and it went entirely in the Cubs' favor. Runners on 1st and second, no one out. DeRosa hits a line shot over the right fielder's head that bounces off the wall. The throw comes back in, and by the time the play ends, 2 Cub runners have been caught and tagged out in rundowns, and no runs scored. Well, the umpires get together for about an hour and a half to discuss the play, and after it's over, put all the runners back on base, so it's now bases loaded and no one out, instead of a runner on second and 2 out. Of course, now there's another hour and a half discussion trying to explain it to Ozzie; I was actually surprised he got tossed because he didn't look like he was out of control. But I could read the umpire's lips, and I kept seeing, "But that's the rule!". It ending up having to do with an obstruction call at second base on the lead runner, and since that runner was the first to be tagged out, all other play(s) didn't happen. It was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime plays.

Chuck - tell your daughter Happy Birthday from all of us. Did you give pony rides for the kids?

[dblref]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

It's an East Coast vs. West Coast kind of thing, I guess. Congrats to the UNC Tarheels, who fought their way through the losers' bracket of the College World Series to reach the finals in a rematch of last year's finals against Oregon St. This is only the second time in the 61-year history of the event that the finals will be played by the same two teams in consecutive years.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2912564

Tony will probably be watching. Maybe Juulie will, too.

And the Tarheels finished in 2nd. place for the 2nd. year.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by dblref

And the Tarheels finished in 2nd. place for the 2nd. year.

And Oregon State was under .500 (10-14) and finished 6th in their conference this season. Too bad, I was pulling for UNC.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

And Oregon State was under .500 (10-14) and finished 6th in their conference this season. Too bad, I was pulling for UNC.

Well, to use a popular colloquialism, the TarHeels got Beaver-whipped.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Well, to use a popular colloquialism, the TarHeels got Beaver-whipped.

Oy vey.

[ChuckElias]

Good news, bad news.

Bad news is that the Red Sox lost in Seattle.

Good news is that Steve Phillips just announced on ESPN that the Yankees are definitely going to miss the playoffs. You guys must be devastated.

[ChuckElias]

Red Sox and Yankees both won by identical scores (2-1) at home last night. Toronto lost again last night, so the Sox lead is back to double digits in the division. DJ's M's have won 6 straight and are within 5 of the division lead. And the Cubbies overcome a 5 run first-inning deficit with a walk-off homer to win their 7th straight.

Here's a mildly interesting tidbit. After Philly lost (twice) yesterday, the franchise's overall record is 8,805-9,994, putting them on the inevitable pace to become the first professional sports franchise in history to lose 10,000 contests. In a stretch from 1938-1942, the Phillies finished no fewer than 50 games out of first place in each year. In '42, they finished 42-109, leaving them 62.5 out of first.

When told of the team's historically bad overall record, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel reportedly said, "Well, 180 wins and we break even." Math whiz, he ain't.

[Jurassic Referee]

Here's something that I didn't know, not being a betting man.....

In the Yankees game on Thursday night, the game was suspended for rain just after the Yankees went ahead 8-6 in the top of the eighth inning. They'll finish the game in a month or so, picking the game up at the point that it was suspended. But....according to the Las Vegas books, the Yankees already have lost the game. It doesn't matter if the Yankees end up winning the game when it's finished either; anybody that bet on the Yankees has already lost their bets. Apparently Vegas doesn't recognize suspended games. They go by the old rule that was taken out years ago...i.e. if the game is stopped, the score reverts back to the end of the last full inning that was played. That made the final score, according to the books, as being a 6-4 win for Baltimore. Apparently the bookies do this because they don't want to hold onto and track the bets for any period of time.

Wierd, eh?

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Wierd, eh?

And mildly more interesting than the post before yours.

[mick]

Oh, my !

July 3	Cleveland	7:05 p.m.
July 4	Cleveland	7:05 p.m.
July 5	Cleveland	1:05 p.m.
July 6	Boston	7:05 p.m.
July 7	Boston	7:05 p.m.
July 8	Boston	1:05 p.m.

[mick]

Originally Posted by mick

Oh, my !

Good nuff !