[Apple Pro Underwear]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/player...e?statsId=5921
Jason Varitek just got 4-year for $40 million dolla deal. Nobody better ever question Derek jeter's salary ever again!

Washington Nationals? They should just go for "Senators" and keep the history intact. I'm just glad they got them outta Montreal, that city did not deserve a baseball team.

What happens to admitted steroid users? Giambi and Bonds should be humiliated publicly. What they did was worse than corking their bats, aka sammy sosa.

Big market teams. The yanks had a huge payroll and lost to the Redsox. So I think payroll is a factor but not indicative of a true World Series team. So all the Randy/Yanks haters out there should shut their yaps. I personally would stick with Javier...

Pedro in NY full time? WTF? Oh well, he's a great pitcher. Which I have always admitted.

[residentEvil]

Go Tigers! I can't wait for opening day. It is a Holiday around here

Oh, I will also be going to the Red Sox/Tigers HOF game in May. Got a pretty nice Bed and Breakfast room reserved for 4 days, 1 block over from the HOF.

(i've already paid my season ticket bill, waiting on all-star pricing now)

[Rev-O]

Only thing interesting in Colorado is Denny Neagel got himself a 19 million dollar knobber.



Yech. I wouldn't let that in the car with me let alone give it $40.

[MacGorilla]

Some random thoughts:
I'm glad DC got baseball but I'm sickened at MLB extorting a poor city to get a stadium. Sad.

Giambi's career is over, as he knows it. Without steroids he'll go back to being what he was before: A solid but not spectacular first baseman and certainly not worth the millions the Yanks paid them.

Bonds' records will forever be questioned by the steroid scandals. A shame.

Pedro is not worth the money the Mets paid him; he simply can't pitch tons of innings and the Mets do not have a bull pen. He'll struggle. For reference, see Tom Glavine.

Is George going to order a mob hit on LA after the deal for Randy Johnson fell through?

Let's see, the Red Sox will spent $$$ on 41 year old David Wells but not Derek Lowe?

Carlos Beltrane is going to be one rich man very soon.

[Stogieman]

It sucks the A's had to trade Hudson to the Braves and Mulder to the Cardinals. I'm still hoping for the day that we afford to keep our good players. All we have left is Zito and Harden. The A's are going to need a lot more than that if we want to compete against the Rangers or Angels.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:

Let's see, the Red Sox will spent $$$ on 41 year old David Wells but not Derek Lowe?

derek lowe was a bum for most of the season

now he wants 8 mil.


epstein gets my props.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by Stogieman:
It sucks the A's had to trade Hudson to the Braves and Mulder to the Cardinals. I'm still hoping for the day that we afford to keep our good players. All we have left is Zito and Harden. The A's are going to need a lot more than that if we want to compete against the Rangers or Angels.

they did. BBeane knows how to put together a team and he definately knows how to nurture prospects

with the kids he got, A's should be cash money pimping for years to come after this year

hudson and mulder are good but i think the decision to trade should be questioned a year or two from now

[calamar1]

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:

Jason Varitek just got 4-year for $40 million dolla deal. Nobody better ever question Derek jeter's salary ever again!

doesn't jeter make $19 million a year? his production is better than varitek's, i suppose, but not anywhere near twice as good. next to jeter, manny ramirez looks like a bargain (this is not intended as a slight against either, just a statement on the relative worth of the two players and the fact that their salaries are artifacts from an insane time). but i assume you're talking about the notion of paying for 'intangibles' so often brought up when speaking of jeter. varitek's intangibles, however, are a lot more tangible--watching him and foulke set people up at the end of games in the postseason made that abundantly clear. if you want to talk about the overpaid, talk about j.d. drew or troy glaus.

as for lowe, i'm sad to see him go, but the red sox know all too well that they couldn't afford to overpay him, and there would be no choice put to do so since scott bora$ was his agent (the same with varitek, but he is far more important). i think he'll flourish in detroit or san diego or somewhere like that; a place where when his sinker is good, he'll be great, and even when it's bad, the attendant fly balls and line drives won't leave the park.

pedro left with no class, which disappoints his fans here greatly. he could have simply stopped at saying 'they showed me more respect' (translation: $$$) and we'd have known what he meant. but there was no reason for him to throw epstein, francona, schilling, et. al. under the bus. i hope he does well for the mets (facing nl lineups, he should), but he left as gracelessly as clemens did--the only thing that made clemens worse is that he slacked off and was out of shape his last three seasons here, then won two straight cy youngs with toronto.

[ManOfSteal]

I'm a Rickey Henderson fan.

And the only news in the "off-season" for Rickey is that the Newark Bears unveiled a new web-site, a new logo, and new uniforms last week...yeah, that's exciting for the Independent League!

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by calamar1:
doesn't jeter make $19 million a year? his production is better than varitek's, i suppose, but not anywhere near twice as good.

i like to use this analogy for derek jeter because he's unique in a similar way michael jordan was unique to the bulls

The yankees are a team and a corporation. Which is fine because this is New York's team. As a corporation, the Yankees are sucessful nationally and internationally. They make hundreds of millions in profits each year.

Derek Jeter is a player first and deserves perhaps 8-10 million per year. But he also serves as the face of the company, and is the team captain/spokesperson for the brand.

So think of that extra $10 million as a marketing sponsorship. Much like Nike pays Jeter to advertise their wares. Jeter has played the media perfectly in his years here and ALWAYS says the right thing.

_____________

Jason Varitek is not on that level. Manny doesn't have the skills for that. Nomar used to occupy that position in Boston.

LeBron James does. Kobe does. Jason Kidd does (if you were in the tr-state area you would see it)

[paully dub]

I'm a fed up with the Neo-Steinbrenner era Yankee fan. I love the game of Baseball, I like watching players, young ones who love to play and who don't have massive snotty egos and are paid osbecene amounts of money to fly around on private jets, have their own hotel suites, get paid to sign autographs or meet with fans, leave a town and a team that has developed them, stuck with them, beleieved in them, adored them (and paid them pretty good money) for a big money contract.

I like watching good teams play baseball right. I'm even, as an American League guy, sick of the DH. I think it lets a rather one dimensional side of the the game in (although there have been some great DH's -damn you Poppy!!!). I would like to see the Pedros and the Clemens throw at guys' heads in the NL... I like what Bob Gibson said - "If I wanted to throw at your head, I'd probably kill you."

I'm still holding out for Beltran signing with the Royals, for the Yankees to trade Brown to Texas for Soriano, and while they're at it to give Giambi a one way ticket to Oakland. And if ARod gets paid as much as he does to play in Yankee stadium, can't he at least learn to hit left handed for crying out loud?

I've had some fine years as a Yankee fan (after a long drought of misery). I just want the game to stop being so f*cked up.

That and to see the Red Sox lose. But only after they've had time to enjoy their title. Because I guess they deserve it...grrr...

[Apple Pro Underwear]

paully dub,

i am not exactly sure you are making sense but....

i would say i am a little weirded/alienated out by the yanks too. i dont see why they dont work with Javier Vazquez, he's not a lost case. Bernie is still good enough, certainly Beltran would be overkill if we got him.

The way i root for the yanks is more for the underdogs on the team. for instance, i expect superstars A-Rod and Sheff to play well but i root for yankee lifers like Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Rivera and rookies like Halsey to do well. it definitely is harder to explain but yeah thats how i root for them now. in the past i would sit on the edge of my seat for the whole lineup...

[paully dub]

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:
paully dub,

i am not exactly sure you are making sense but....

i would say i am a little weirded/alienated out by the yanks too. i dont see why they dont work with Javier Vazquez, he's not a lost case. Bernie is still good enough, certainly Beltran would be overkill if we got him.

The way i root for the yanks is more for the underdogs on the team. for instance, i expect superstars A-Rod and Sheff to play well but i root for yankee lifers like Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Rivera and rookies like Halsey to do well. it definitely is harder to explain but yeah thats how i root for them now. in the past i would sit on the edge of my seat for the whole lineup...

Jeter's great, Jeter's awesome, Matsui's fanastic, Rivera is my hero. I would've loved- loved to see El Duque come back to the team, since he's just about the most electric presence on the mound the Yankees have had in the last four-five years. He can still pitch, dammit!

But then you got those other guys. The stars. Can we not forget that the combination of Brown, ARod and Giambi in different ways effectively helped us lose, not win when it counted? That they come across as unlikeable, phony or worse - bad teammates? When you root for the Yankees you root for those guys too (it's a team sport). Guys that kill the fun of baseball.

I played little league, I like watching any old baseball game. Minor league baseball is in many ways much more fun. I've seen the championship teams. I've had my fill. Now I just want the game to be fun again.

[hardcat1970]

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:
derek lowe was a bum for most of the season

now he wants 8 mil.


epstein gets my props.

you can't blame Lowe for asking 8 mil. Look at J.D. Drew (11 mil), Pavano (10 mil), and beltre (13 mil). These guys only have one good season, and they are not even superstar, just better than average guys.

Baseball salary is really out of control.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by hardcat1970:
you can't blame Lowe for asking 8 mil. Look at J.D. Drew (11 mil), Pavano (10 mil), and beltre (13 mil). These guys only have one good season, and they are not even superstar, just better than average guys.

Baseball salary is really out of control.

when you have a break out year when you're young... i feel as though you can ask for as much as you think you're worth because that contract is going to be for your "prime" years

j.d drew, pavano and beltre are in that situation...


Derek Lowe to me is in decline with flashes of brilliance. he never dominated but was very good for a few seasons (notice how he had 4 yrs of good but non-dominating yrs in relief and 3 as a starter with his numbers in steep decline after his first "breakout" year as a starter)

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/player...s?statsId=5801

and he's 31

[paully dub]

The Yankees are trying to get every pitcher who ever beat us, or won when we didn't. Brown in 97 and 98? Got him. Jaret Wright in 97? Got him. Randy in 95 and 2001? Trying hard to get him. Schilling? We tried to get him too. George wanted Pedro but his "people" somehow smacked some sense into him. Some guy from the Marlins? Beckett wasn't available so... Pavano. Ding!

I'm afraid to root against anyone anymore, since they'll probably end up on my team. And the one damn starter we actually do develop, and can take credit for, Pettitte, we let him go. Yeah, that's a team that I wanto to follow.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by paully dub:
And the one damn starter we actually do develop, and can take credit for, Pettitte, we let him go. Yeah, that's a team that I wanto to follow.

Petitte looks pretty injury plagued to me. We did not ship him out injured but it looked over the last few years he wasn't gonna hold up. So I love the man and watched him grow into a yankee history maker... it had to happen.

The trade I did not like was for A-Rod. The way he tried to cheat by slapping the ball from the glove in the Redsox game was... um... unclassy. I would prefer to keep Soriano and accept him for what he is and develop Eric Duncan, a farmhand who is showing serious promise.

But of course, he will be gone soon as A-Rod is here forever.

[Agasthya]

Screw Renteria

Hooray Mulder

Getting Eckstein was a great move too. I would have liked to have Harriston Jr. but Eckstein is awesome defensively and every single pitcher we have is a ground ball pitcher (Except Matty Mo who seems to have become a home run pitcher, hopefully we can fix that.)

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by Agasthya:
Screw Renteria

Hooray Mulder

Getting Eckstein was a great move too. I would have liked to have Harriston Jr. but Eckstein is awesome defensively and every single pitcher we have is a ground ball pitcher (Except Matty Mo who seems to have become a home run pitcher, hopefully we can fix that.)

your team got better

i would say the addition of mulder is bigger than swapping eckstein for renteria

(you folks still have Larry for another year right?)

[Agasthya]

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:
(you folks still have Larry for another year right?)

That we do. And we are only paying him like $6 mill. Hopefully we'll sign Mulder before he hits free agency. Players get super greedy when they hit free agency.

[MacGorilla]

My Braves made some nice moves--We got Hudson in a steal of a deal. And our new closer so Smoltz can be a starter again (time will tell if we can return to form) and we signed him for what will be the rest of his career. Go Braves!

[paully dub]

Braves schmraves. The best teams that never won nothing. 95 was against Indians team with an old Hersheiser as their ace.

I'll take Mazzone as my pitching coach anyday though.

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by paully dub:
Braves schmraves. The best teams that never won nothing. 95 was against Indians team with an old Hersheiser as their ace.

I'll take Mazzone as my pitching coach anyday though.

Thw World Series titles--or lack thereof--is fustrating but winning 13 straight division titles is nothing to shirk at.

[Stogieman]

I thought it would be fun to bump this thread now that the first half of the season is over.

A lot has happened to the Oakland A's since the off season. After losing Mulder & Hudson, I thought this year was going to be one of those rebuilding seasons too painful to watch. My prediction started out true. The A's had their 3rd worst start in franchise history. They were 15 games under .500 on May 29th. Things have turned around since then and next to Houston, they're probably the hottest team in baseball. The A's just swept the White Sox in Chicago and finished the first half of the season 1 game over .500.
It's nice to finally have an owner that is willing to spend some money on the team. Since Lewis Wolff took over he has re-signed Billy Bean, Bobby Crosby, Rich Harden and now Mark Kotsay. It appears Wolff is set on building a new ballpark for the A's. Al Davis ruined the Oakland Coliseum for baseball once he installed the monstrosity call Mt. Davis.

Anyone else have thoughts on this baseball season? Will Baltimore still be in the race with Boston and New York at the end of the year? Who will win the wild card? Does Pauley Dub still want to send Giambi back to Oakland? (I don't care how good he's been hitting lately, we still don't want him back.)

[nredman]

all i know is the white sox need to start playing like i know they can (bad) so that twins can at least have a chance in the 2nd half.

[ManOfSteal]

Originally Posted by Stogieman

Anyone else have thoughts on this baseball season?

MLB baseball? No, unfortunately I don't.

[RGB]

Originally Posted by nredman

all i know is the white sox need to start playing like i know they can (bad) so that twins can at least have a chance in the 2nd half.

Since the Sox are now done playing Oakland for the rest of the season, I think they stand a pretty good chance of staying atop the AL Central.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by Stogieman

Anyone else have thoughts on this baseball season?

Cards - White Sox World Series

The A's aren't going to take the AL West, the wild card will go to Baltimore

[RGB]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious

Cards - White Sox World Series

The A's aren't going to take the AL West, the wild card will go to Baltimore

I'd love it. A Cubs fan's worst nightmare

[nredman]

Originally Posted by RGB

Since the Sox are now done playing Oakland for the rest of the season, I think they stand a pretty good chance of staying atop the AL Central.

the twins have a better record this year then last i think...i can't believe the white sox can keep playing the way they did the first half...they play the twins a few more times...i think the twins will make it interesting.

[rickey939]

"We're going streaking!"

[KeriVit]

As much as I have always liked Rickey, MOS you MUSt find a new player.. for your own sanity...

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by KeriVit

As much as I have always liked Rickey, MOS you MUSt find a new player.. for your own sanity...

What does that have to do with the above? Just wondering.

[paul w]

Originally Posted by Stogieman

I thought it would be fun to bump this thread now that the first half of the season is over.

Anyone else have thoughts on this baseball season? Will Baltimore still be in the race with Boston and New York at the end of the year? Who will win the wild card? Does Pauley Dub still want to send Giambi back to Oakland? (I don't care how good he's been hitting lately, we still don't want him back.)

I would send back Giambi to Oakland just because I'm tired of watching a so called athlete get thoroughly drenched in sweat for standing at first base and batting four times a game. Maybe he goes and lifts weights between innings or something. The guy is clearly bizarre. And he is being paid a lotta dough. Too much.

I hate what the Yankees become. I, as a longtime, long suffering fan under the Steinbrenner Era have learned that there are times when things need to get worse before they get better. And getting worse they are. I just hope they'll be sufficiently tragic enough to be interesting. Losing two heart breaking games to the friggin D-Rays is a nice start.

My gut feeling is the A's and Angles win the wild card/West division. Boston wins the East only because they can score 7 runs in the 10th inning every so often. And the curse of Cubans means the White Sox win the Central. And really, it's anyone's game. Boston's pitching is awful, Chicago kinda reminds me of the Yankees in 96- don't score a ton of runs, but have decent pitching and a good bullpen. The A's ALWAYS play like this in August- September.

God baseball. I used to play this game for christ's sake...

[Captain Obvious]

motherf*cker, 5 in a row.
Good thing the Yankees are coming. They are always good for a couple of wins against them..

[Captain Obvious]

So I think the sox will make it to the playoffs, but we're going to limp into it.
I don't understand why we didn't make a trade before the deadline last week. We need a good powerhitter.

[cjrivera]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious

So I think the sox will make it to the playoffs, but we're going to limp into it.
I don't understand why we didn't make a trade before the deadline last week. We need a good powerhitter.

Yeah, but who's really out there that's worth trading for? Is there a hitter who is worth giving up a large salary to for less than a year or giving up your good young talent who will carry you for the next few years? I don't think there was really anyone out there worth it for the Sox.

[ironknee]

Giambi is having a great few months...wadaya talkin bout?

so, sorry to be ignorant, what was montreal expos' name and logo about?



i see an E l B....??

[davesimondotcom]

The Expos name was chosen because there was a World's Fair (which was in Montreal in 1967, two years before the Expos began play.)

I heard they chose the name because it was the same in English and in French.

There are lots of rumors about the "e l b" - obviously, it's an M, but the red white and blue seem to be and e l b. Wikipedia says that stands for "Expos le baseball." I've also heard that it had something to do with the initials of the owner.

Of course, now the initials of the owner is MLB...

[paul w]

Giambi is always sweating. It bothers me. I love baseball, I have played baseball. I don't understand how he sweats so much.

Otherwise, I van't believe how the Mets are still in it. There's a chance they make the playoffs and the Yankees don't. Wow.

[RGB]

Originally Posted by cjrivera

Yeah, but who's really out there that's worth trading for? Is there a hitter who is worth giving up a large salary to for less than a year or giving up your good young talent who will carry you for the next few years? I don't think there was really anyone out there worth it for the Sox.

Gonna have to rely on solid pitching and small ball. Think back to the 2001 playoffs against the Mariners. Our power hitting team got out small-balled from the playoffs. This could be the year the White Sox get to return the favor to someone else.

But yeah - not feeling overly confident right now either.

My fall break happens to be the likely weekend for the start of the ALCS. I'll be back in Chicago, and if there's a game there that weekend, I will do whatever it takes to be there.

[ironknee]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

The Expos name was chosen because there was a World's Fair (which was in Montreal in 1967, two years before the Expos began play.)

I heard they chose the name because it was the same in English and in French.

There are lots of rumors about the "e l b" - obviously, it's an M, but the red white and blue seem to be and e l b. Wikipedia says that stands for "Expos le baseball." I've also heard that it had something to do with the initials of the owner.

Of course, now the initials of the owner is MLB...

wow thanks...for some reason, i don't think i ever saw the "M"...i imagine that expo must have been great if they named a team for the event...i suppose it would be the same for people who think the 1939 world's fair in nyc was very special event...

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious

Cards - White Sox World Series

The A's aren't going to take the AL West, the wild card will go to Baltimore

I was close.