Mlb 2011!

Sarkus · 2011-09-28T23:42:15.000Z

I wonder how Gonzalez feels - two great years and yet two seasons in a row where the team he was on collapsed down the stretch.

inactive_user · 2011-09-28T23:57:07.000Z

Is there anything better than a Boston sports fans tears? Besides a Yankees fans tears, I mean.

Hanacker · 2011-09-29T00:01:04.000Z

Boston sports fans are worse now that all their teams are decent. New York pretty much just has the Yankees right now.

Alstein · 2011-09-29T02:52:14.000Z

Sarkus:

I wonder how Gonzalez feels - two great years and yet two seasons in a row where the team he was on collapsed down the stretch.

Hopefully like maybe he should consider a new line of work.

Oh wait, wrong Gonzalez.

Major_Icehole · 2011-09-29T03:17:08.000Z

Every year it gets more plausible that they might never win in my lifetime.

Ceasarbear, though I have a hard time feeling too bad for you right now. You speak the truth. I always wondered what it was like to be a fair weather fan. Sometimes I almost wish I could be one. Almost.

One day the cubs might actually win. I’ll be ecstatic, I may die. But then I’ll just be another fan, indistinguishable from the jerks who only got on the bandwagon when it had a full head of steam.

As a baseball fan, October is a difficult month to be away from the states. I don’t miss Joe fucking Buck or Joe fucking Morgan, but I miss the game in the cold and dark of autumn.

Good luck to those teams in the playoffs. Even the Cards (I must be getting soft in my old age)

triggercut · 2011-09-29T04:23:39.000Z

triggercut:

The problem with Rasmus is that every year there’s been something that got trotted out as an excuse with the guy.

His first season he comes down with a sports hernia in August. Fair enough, you can’t hit well with that, obviously. But…next season we find out that Colby was “miserable” during his rookie year because he and his father had this huge falling out over Colby getting his girlfriend pregnant or something. Colby married the girl, has a family, and as he enters his second season we’re all told that Colby is much happier and much more mature and has patched things up with dad.

Then in his second season, Colby regresses badly at the plate and in the field. Won’t listen to Mark McGwire. Team promotes Mike Aldrete–a lefthanded hitter in his big league career, and a guy credited with helping Skip Schumaker and Jon Jay tool their swings–to assistant hitting coach, specifically to work with Rasmus. Rasmus responds by asking for a trade. Team tells him to nut up. Colby goes into a funk. Colby loafs through a game in the outfield to the point where LaRussa is ready to yank him off the field in mid-inning, and after the inning takes Colby into the tunnel to read him the riot act. Colby asks for a trade again, this time in front of the whole team. Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday among other teammates tell Colby to grow the fuck up and pull his head out of his ass. Colby tells everyone he was kidding…but sulks through the remainder of the season.

This year, Colby listens to Aldrete and McGwire and is OPSing .900 in Mid-may, but is distressed because he has just 3 HR to show for it. Changes his swing again to being a dead-pull hitter and goes back to the bad habits he’s shown throughout his MLB career. Cardinals get frustrated and decided that they’ve got Peter Pan in their outfield and start to give some of his PT to Jon Jay. Jon Jay takes that opportunity and flourishes, and Colby gets his ass shopped.

If the Cardinals don’t trade this dipshit, they’re not in the postseason. Edwin Jackson did exactly what they wanted from a middle-rotation starter. Dotel and Scrabble have been heavy contributors out of the bullpen. Corey Patterson just sucks, and may not make the postseason roster; the Cardinals have become enamored with The Collider (rookie Adron Chambers).

Meanwhile, how’s Colby been in Toronto? His slash line as a Blue Jay is vomit-worthy:

.177/.206/.323 That’s a .529 OPS. Colby went on the DL in August with a jammed wrist. Came off on September 18th…and went 4-for-42 in the month of September.

And then there’s this.

I hope the kid can pull it together, but seriously, he seems like baseball’s equivalent of Todd Marinovich. Just doesn’t seem to be having any fun playing baseball, doesn’t want to work at it, seems sort of bored by the entire enterprise.

T

Omniscia · 2011-09-29T04:34:51.000Z

Oh, Red Sox.

Didn’t catch the end of either game, as I was falling asleep on the couch, but as soon as that rain delay lifted, that old, familiar, sinking feeling returned. Tampa appeared to have destiny on their side, too.

At least the Bruins regular season starts in a week.

divorced · 2011-09-29T07:21:28.000Z

As a Yankees fan I have to say woo hoo!! As a human being I hate to see anyone go through that kind of despair, but the sun will rise in the morning and the day after that.

But woo hoo!!!

Mark_Asher · 2011-09-29T07:39:44.000Z

Major Icehole:

Good luck to those teams in the playoffs. Even the Cards (I must be getting soft in my old age)

I’ve always thought of the Cubs and Cards having a friendly rivalry. We like the Cubs fans coming down and we like to go up to Wrigley.

About feeling sorry for Boston fans, they’ve won two series in the last decade. They’re fine. And the Rays coming back from 7-0 is really something. That has to be a microcosm of their last month comeback.

Hawkeye_Fierce · 2011-09-29T07:53:07.000Z

I’m happy the Cards got in, both because I like them and because the Braves can suck it. Too bad about the Red Sox but they only really looked like a good team for about a month this season. In any case, I can’t remember ever seeing a day of baseball like that.

Courteous_D · 2011-09-29T08:22:54.000Z

Mark Asher:

I’ve always thought of the Cubs and Cards having a friendly rivalry. We like the Cubs fans coming down and we like to go up to Wrigley.

The Cubs/Cards rivalry never struck me as particularly heated, either. For this die-hard Cubs fan, it’s at least partly because the history of the two clubs is so lopsided. And plus the Cards are hard to hate. Maybe it’s a more of an Illinois thing?

[…] And the Rays coming back from 7-0 is really something. That has to be a microcosm of their last month comeback.
Yes, that Rays comeback really did encapsulate their entire September. Very nice symmetry.

Epic night. Incredible end to the season.

TranquilityBase · 2011-09-29T09:11:44.000Z

That Bruce Chen rumor was kinda weird. I didn’t believe it until I read more about it today. I don’t remember a team ever trying anything like that before.
Anyway, it sounds like the Sox should’ve got him for game 162 instead, as he ended up pitching 8 innings of shutout ball.

Sarkus · 2011-09-29T10:48:19.000Z

Major Icehole:

Every year it gets more plausible that they might never win in my lifetime.

Ceasarbear, though I have a hard time feeling too bad for you right now. You speak the truth. I always wondered what it was like to be a fair weather fan. Sometimes I almost wish I could be one. Almost.

One day the cubs might actually win. I’ll be ecstatic, I may die. But then I’ll just be another fan, indistinguishable from the jerks who only got on the bandwagon when it had a full head of steam.

As a baseball fan, October is a difficult month to be away from the states. I don’t miss Joe fucking Buck or Joe fucking Morgan, but I miss the game in the cold and dark of autumn.

Good luck to those teams in the playoffs. Even the Cards (I must be getting soft in my old age)

Speaking of the Cubs, did you see the documentary ESPN showed the other night about Bartman and the '03 Cubs? They really drove home the idea that like the Red Sox blaming Buckner in the '86 series even when the game was hardly the title clincher, Bartman being blamed for the Cubs loss is greatly exagerrated. And the guy, a life long Cubs fan, has paid a heavy price for what just about any fan would have done in the situation. Essentially, its been easier for the fans and media in Chicago to blame the guy rather then deal with the fact that it was a failure by the Cubs players.

Alstein · 2011-09-29T10:52:34.000Z

triggercut:

.177/.206/.323 That’s a .529 OPS. Colby went on the DL in August with a jammed wrist. Came off on September 18th…and went 4-for-42 in the month of September.

T

Wrist injuries can do in a guy for a couple of years- look at Jordan Schafer.
I think he’ll end up being a decent pickup for the Astros in a year’s time.

I’d still want Colby for his potential.

Hanacker · 2011-09-29T13:59:34.000Z

I hope Tampa’s fans learned their lesson about leaving early during the most important game of the year.

Sarkus · 2011-09-29T14:01:37.000Z

Hanacker:

I hope Tampa’s fans learned their lesson about leaving early during the most important game of the year.

I’ve heard some contrary things about that. I did not see the game, but there were some shots taken at Rays fans in the media today. On the other hand, I heard one Tampa newspaper columnist claim in an interview that only a relatively small percentage of fans left early, claiming that about 85% of them stayed until the end. It wasn’t a sellout, though, which is what you would have expected in most cities.

Alan_Dunkin · 2011-09-29T14:19:55.000Z

Right, the game wasn’t even a sell-out, which is fairly shameful to begin with. I think they barely sold out of their playoff series last year.

I remember the first time the Marlins went into the playoffs they were not selling out playoff games.

It just shows what kind of crap these supposed franchises and the size of their markets/fanbases just don’t mean dick. Put these franchises into cities where they actually care about baseball to begin with.

— Alan

Sarkus · 2011-09-29T14:24:35.000Z

Do you advocate moving the A’s and Royals as well, then?

sluggo · 2011-09-29T15:28:01.000Z

Through 7 innings last night, the Rays were losing 7-0 and had mustered a grand total of 2 hits against a parade of backup Yankees pitchers. That game was as dead as any game you could imagine, and there were a lot of people heading for the exits before the rally started around 10:15.

I’m a big advocate of staying until the end of games, especially the last game of the season where there are playoff spots on the line, but with that game all but over and the Boston game in a lengthy rain delay, I don’t begrudge anyone who had to get up early for work the next day and headed for the exits after the 7th inning. People have lives to lead and real life stuff to take care of and if they think a game is dead and want to get back to real life, IMO that’s their call to make. I think it’s unfair to call out Rays fans for leaving early, because there isn’t a ballpark in America where people wouldn’t have been heading for the exits at that point.

What bothered me way more, as Alan mentioned, was that there were plenty of empty seats from the start. The Rays are on a crazy run and tied for a playoff spot on the last day of the season, and if you can’t sell out that game, that city shouldn’t have a ballclub.

Greatatlantic · 2011-09-29T22:47:10.000Z

In news not related to the play offs, the Indians front office just picked up manager Manny Acta’s option… for 2013. He’s a likely candidate for the manager of the year award for outperforming expectations by so much with so little (5th lowest payroll in baseball and numerous injuries not limited to Brantley, Choo, Hafner, Carmona, and Tomlin). I don’t know why they felt the need to do so before the 2012 year, but it was a show of confidence in the direction he took the team.