The Major League Baseball Post

[proshares]

I honestly didn't think anyone thought Peavy would put up good numbers coming off a foot injury in the AL.

But it's against Texas at home and Rich Harden could give up 7 in the next inning.

 

[N41D]

Rich Harden sucks. Put his %%% on the DL and send him to Oklahoma City for a "rehab" assignment... Get Holland up here.

 

[jpzx]

kgjskgjqirqurlgjsl I hate Scott Baker so damn much.

No matter what type of lead you give this guy, he'll somehow find some way to !!@! it up and make it a close ballgame again. He leaves pitches up all the time, and pitches into batters hot zones all...the...time. Get rid of this $%%+$#+ piece of *#*$. Ace of our staff? Big Spot Scott? Nah, this $@!@*! is Moonshot Scott.

...
...

Yeah we're in the lead but still...

I honestly didn't think anyone thought Peavy would pitch well coming off that foot injury.
He had three starts last September where he pitched well though. *shrugs*

 

[kiddin like jason]

Justin Smoak just hit his first home run off of Gavin Floyd. Upper deck.

 

[proshares]

^I learned from the best. As soon as I saw that he was up in Yahoo leagues, I snatched him up

 

[N41D]

Nobody in the majors has walked more than Justin Smoak since he was called up... Hasn't been hitting but still working counts and getting on base. Refreshing, really.

 

[proshares]

John Buck has 3 HR's in his first 3 AB's.

 

[briannnnn]

Kinda felt

for Oswalt after reading this, but at least his mom is alive:

Back from the storm: Astros ace Roy Oswalt was away from the team earlier this week, having gone home to Weir, Miss., where his childhood home was ripped apart by a tornado last weekend.  "The house had been there 40 years," Oswalt told The Associated Press. "It was the only thing I've known. All the stuff that we collected over the last 32 years of my life was pretty much gone. We found some pictures and some ... clothes. But everything else was pretty much gone. ... The biggest thing is that my mom's alive. The other stuff you can replace, it's materialistic stuff." Oswalt said he found game-worn jerseys from his rookie season hanging in trees, and his 2005 NL Championship Series MVP Award was broken to bits.

 

[proshares]

Greinke can't buy a win. Made one bad pitch all day.

 

[N41D]

Harden DEALING tonight...


The Rangers have held a lead at one point or another in all but 2 games this year.

 

[proshares]

Peavy finally pitching well and getting a W.

 

[shaunhillftw49]

Originally Posted by Nowitness41Dirk

Harden DEALING tonight...


The Rangers have held a lead at one point or another in all but 2 games this year.

Suzuki, Ellis and  Buck all injured

 

[erascism]

Damn, this guy might be done. Steroids are a helluva drug.

by Jim Caple

Eric Byrnes had an interesting weekend.

Because it was the last day of the month, Byrnes likely received his twice-monthly paycheck of roughly $917,000 (he's in the third year of a three-year, $30 million contract Arizona inexplicably gave him and is still largely reponsible for). That evening, he had an at-bat that was among the most ridiculous I've seen. With one out, the game tied 0-0 in the 11th inning and Ichiro Suzuki on third base, Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu called for a squeeze. Byrnes offered at the pitch but for some reason pulled his bat back and left Ichiro out to dry. Worse yet, Byrnes apparently realized his mistake and weakly attempted to bunt again after the pitch had already crossed home plate!

The whole thing was so astounding that Texas manager Ron Washington got ejected for arguing that the pitch should have been a strike because Byrnes had tried to bunt. When the umpire told him that Byrnes had pulled back the bat, Washington refused to believe him and continued to argue. He said that in all his years in baseball he had never seen anyone pull back the bat on a squeeze. He said he couldn't even fathom it. It was impossible. So he continued arguing and was ejected. (He needn't have bothered arguing. A couple of pitches, later Byrnes struck out looking anyway.)

But that wasn't the most amazing thing. No, the most amazing thing was that minutes after the game, Byrnes exited the clubhouse and rode his bike through the hallway past reporters and Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik! Really, he did. He dodged his GM and continued riding down the hall, presumably on his way out of the stadium and into the dark and rain.

Now, I'm a huge fan of cycling. I occasionally ride my bike to Mariners day games. But to ride through downtown Seattle in the dark and the rain and the traffic mess and the drunken crowds after a Friday night game? Wow. It kind of explains Byrnes' carefree attitude toward crashing into outfield fences.

Byrnes had Saturday off, but he was in the offense-challenged Mariners' lineup again Sunday. In his first trip to the plate, Milton Bradley was thrown out trying to steal second base to end the inning. That meant that in two consecutive trips to the plate, Byrnes had only one plate appearance but was part of three outs without putting the ball into play. He struck out looking with the bases loaded in his next at-bat and finished the game 0-for-4 with a .094 batting average.

The Mariners released Byrnes after the game. But the good news is he'll still get the rest of his $11 million salary regardless of whether he plays again. Better yet, he's now free to enter the Tour de France.

 

[djaman]

Originally Posted by briannnnn

Kinda felt

for Oswalt after reading this, but at least his mom is alive:

Back from the storm: Astros ace Roy Oswalt was away from the team earlier this week, having gone home to Weir, Miss., where his childhood home was ripped apart by a tornado last weekend.  "The house had been there 40 years," Oswalt told The Associated Press. "It was the only thing I've known. All the stuff that we collected over the last 32 years of my life was pretty much gone. We found some pictures and some ... clothes. But everything else was pretty much gone. ... The biggest thing is that my mom's alive. The other stuff you can replace, it's materialistic stuff." Oswalt said he found game-worn jerseys from his rookie season hanging in trees, and his 2005 NL Championship Series MVP Award was broken to bits.

That's pretty saddening stuff. Having his mom die would be incomparably worse than what really happened - but still ... big bummer.

 

[proshares]

Pretty good read on Greinke's struggles over the last two seasons:

[h3]

[h3]STRIKE TWO -- IF IT WEREN'T FOR BAD LUCK DEPT.[/h3]
Has a pitcher ever filed suit against his own team for abandonment? Zack Greinke ought to think about it.

I used to think Matt Cain was the unluckiest pitcher of modern times. After Greinke's 1-0 loss to the Rays on Sunday, I'm stopping this fight. He's your runaway winner. The facts, please:

Greinke

• Here's a stat that should be impossible -- even for the Royals: Greinke has a 2.17 ERA over the last two seasons. Somehow, the Royals are 18-21 in his starts.

• Over those two seasons, Greinke has made nine starts in which he went at least six innings, gave up one earned run or none and didn't win. No one else in the big leagues has more than seven non-wins in starts like that.

• Over those same two seasons, the Royals have managed to keep Greinke from winning 13 starts in which he pitched at least six innings and allowed no more than two earned runs. No one else in the American League is even in double figures.

• Want to expand this to quality starts not won? Greinke has 16 of those over the last two years. Next most in the American League: 13, by Felix Hernandez.

• Finally, only five starting pitchers in baseball are even within a half-run of Greinke in ERA over the last two years. Check out their teams' records when those guys have pitched:

Tim Lincecum (2.31), 23-14
Chris Carpenter (2.34), 23-11
Adam Wainwright (2.56), 27-12
Roy Halladay (2.56), 22-16
Felix Hernandez (2.5, 29-11

And Zack Greinke's team is 18-21. I've seen a lot of incomprehensible stats in my day. But for sheer degree of insane difficulty, that one might be Numero Uno.

[/h3]

 

[CP1708]

I wish the Cubs would steal Greinke, we'd give him some runs, and he would be even better pitching in the NL. 


So, he'll probably be a Cardinal in the coming months, usually how it works. 

 

[kiddin like jason]

That article just made me like Eric Byrnes more than I already did.

 

[jaysfordays]

Strasburg continues his fast track to the big leagues, getting called up to AAA.

Syracuse visits Buffalo May 31-June 3... hopefully he won't be in DC just yet. i might just drive to Syracuse to witness him.

 

[emok]

Does anyone know of any website where they stream live sports?

 

[jpzx]

Brian Bannister for KC got shelled tonight. 7 ER in 3 innings.

Wanna hear your guys' takes, Which of these teams that have experienced surprise success early are contenders/pretenders: Blue Jays, Padres, Athletics, and Nationals.

To be honest I think they're all pretenders.

 

[djaman]

I have to agree, though if any team isn't a pretender, it's Oakland. Pretty good pitching staff. I like to think Minnesota would handle them if they met in the playoffs. Of course Tampa Bay and New York would. But the Blue Jays, Padres and Nationals are certainly pretenders.

 

[jpzx]

Originally Posted by djaman

I have to agree, though if any team isn't a pretender, it's Oakland. Pretty good pitching staff. I like to think Minnesota would handle them if they met in the playoffs. Of course Tampa Bay and New York would. But the Blue Jays, Padres and Nationals are certainly pretenders.

IF the Twins make the playoffs, there's almost zero chance they play the Athletics in the ALDS. It's already obvious (as it was before the season started) that the Wild Card will be coming out of the AL East. Which means in the first round the Wild Card in the AL East and the Division Winner in the AL East cannot play each other. One of those two will play the AL West winner (right now Athletics) and one of them would play the AL Central winner (right now Twins).

I would love to play the Athletics right away though. Revenge for the sweep they handed us in 2006.

Back to that contender/pretender thing for a minute, as Twins fans djaman, we gotta hope the Padres are out of the race by July. Just in case Rauch has some troubles, we want to keep our options open and potentially have that trade for Heath Bell lined up to help us for the second half stretch. Rauch is doing fine right now, but hopefully San Diego starts to tail off so we at least have that option when July comes, if we do indeed need it. The only way the Padres trade him is if they're out of contention.

 

[proshares]

If we play the Twins again, I'm definitely making it out to Minnesota for the sweep game.

 

[shaunhillftw49]

Great pitching in the Rays Mariners game

 

[CP1708]

Cy Young might be in San Fran this year again, only it won't be the Freak. 

  Zito doin it real big to start the year.

Ummm, Milton Bradley, took his things and went home eh?  Shocker there.  Must be Chicago's fault, maybe he saw the city on a map or something and got shook.