the new baseball thread
 

so it's almost september, and now everything is going to get interesting. as i suspected all along, the jays didn't have what it takes to win the pennant, or even get the wild card; but they stayed competitive, around or above .500 all season. and it wasn't until they're last road trip that they really put themselves out of contention for the wild card, so it was a pretty respectable season for the jays. also, the orioles didn't last. that was disappointing, because i like baltimore orioles--the birds--therefore, i like the baltimore orioles baseball team.

who do you think will win the wildcards? earlier in the season, i figured the twins were a lock for the american league wildcard, but now i'm not so sure. unfortunately, i think the yankees will come out on top in the wildcard race, but i'm officially cheering for cleveland. and in the national league? who fucking knows.. won't know for a while, too, 'cause it's going to be a tight race. but i'm hoping for either a) florida because carlos delgado is there, or b) washington because they used to be montreal and even though i'm bitter about not having the expos anymore, they used to be in montreal and that's good enough!

and which teams do you think are most likely to get through to the world series? i figure that either the red sox or the white sox will be representing the american league, and it seems likely that the cardinals will be the national league team in the world series. i'd like to see the padres get to the world series. (but it's pretty sad that they're a game under .500 right now, and they still have a 5.5 game lead over the second team.)

for the nl wild card, which i've been following the most, i am seeing either houston or florida taking it, though deep down i'm rooting for the phillies to take it. they can't hit decent pitching which will be their downfall, and their relief has been pretty poor this year. but maybe they will. this next few weeks with nothing but in division games will tell a lot about who is going to make it.

i'm also seeing the white sox in the world series, and i'm guessing they will square off with the red sox before then in the divisionals. i'm hoping the yankees get nothing.

as for the NL world series representative...i think it could be the braves, though they definitely are not as strong this year. most likely, the cards seem like a lock once again. but you never know.

Ive always been a braves fan, but Im not very confident in them making it to the big game. Their bullpen has been horrible lately and they have lots of streaky hitters like furcal and andruw (even though he should be fine, since hes been solid since may with a new swing)... plus their 5 spot is a problem. Someone has to protect Andruw, and they don't have a threatening enough player for that role unless francoeur can stay hot.

i dunno man, the braves are looking pretty solid right now.

i've been watching a lot of the phils and it's become obvious that its not their players that are gonna lose it, it's the manager. manuel is an idiot. he pulled his pitcher last night after 5 innings and 59 pitches because the had two people on base. what the hell? he brings in a pitcher with a 6.00 ERA who walks two batters and walks in a run before he has to bring another pitcher in, who is only used for 1/3 of an inning. that's just stupid baseball there. they could have had a close game, but stupid pitching changes really affected the outcome. it's looking less likely that the phils can take the astros out of the wildcard.

I didnt get to see that game.. was out last night. Those do sound like poorly made changes.

Hey, there's one thing the braves do have covered.

I've heard rumors that Brian Giles wanted to play with Atl with his bro, for a discount... which sounds great to my ears... you know anything about this? That and some help in middle relief and we'd start getting alot scarier for next year.

boo, atlanta!

you have to give atlanta credit though, they have won the division for well over a decade even when people have dismissed the team as too weak or losing too many good player. whoever they have always seems to play to their fullest potential, which is truly remarkable.

and i heard about the Giles thing, but i dunno if it was anything more than a rumor though.

it's boring when the same team wins all the time.. (but i won't lie, for a while when i was a kid i liked them because they won alot..)

but their division has some mediocre teams--nobody really spectacular, like a st. louis cardinals team, for example--so it's not too surprising that they've got the lead again this year.

GO TRIBE!!! I have a feeling that we can catch up to the sox, hell were only 2 1/2 games back after we stomped a mudhole in the soxes asses last night 8-0. If not its gonna be a hard battle for the wild card over either boston or the yanks cause they both seem to have a fire lit up their asses.


For the series, if the indians can with the division then I think they have a good chance at it. If our bull pen (#1 in the american league) can stay strong and Hafner can stay red hot the rest of the team will follow suit.

As for the NL, i dont follow them so IDK...

i'm hoping that both the white sox and the indians get in to the playoffs, but i don't really care which one is the wild card, and which wins the central division.

and what happened to the white sox anyways? gleesh..

so the white sox pulled their shit together just in time...

i'm kinda disappointed that the indians didnt make it, they had a hell of a run.

and the phillies...fucking goddamn it. one game short. if they wouldnt have lost 2 games to the mets in the last week that they were winning in late innings, the national league series might be halfway interesting.

so, uh...go padres!

Indians - the only team wiht 90+ wins and no playoffs...

How the hell do you win 93 games and not at least get the wildcard... [image]http://www.thetesttube.com/forum/images/icons/icon8.gif[/image]

yet in the nl the padres are in with just 83 wins... makes me sick...

Well, the NL West pretty much just sucked this year, and the Padres just happened to suck the least. The Indians had their chance for the wildcard.

regardless of everything, i <3 dodgers.

Ya the indians pretty much sealed their fate by going 1-6 for their last 7 games...

Still 93 games is impressive for this young team. Hopefully we get Millwood and Wickman back next year. For all i care they can drop Boone.. he sucks donkies.

Guess I have to go for the Red Sox this year again.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing the White Sox take it this year, they haven't won a series since little German men ran around pilfering with pointy hats. Since the Cubs haven't won a series since like...1908 I think, eh, Chicago winning a baseball title wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

as long as the yankees don't win, i'll be happy. they phoned this year in and only won when they had to.

i like many of the players on the yankees, so i'll cheer for them if the white sox and padres are both eliminated. (i'd rather see new york win than boston, if that's what the alcs comes down to).

Go-go Smoltz pitch!

anyone else watch that 18 inning astros-braves game?

that was ridiculous.

One of the best games I've ever seen ... and I was entirely wasted, too.

I'm glad that neither the Yankees nor Red Sox made it... despite being a die-hard Red Sox fan. I wanted something new. SO far, the Playoffs have gone as I had thought...

I posted this at another forum before they happened, and it's generally how I think it'll turn out:

==========================================
American League Divisional Series
New York Yankees @ Anaheim Angels: Angels in three games
Boston Red Sox @ Chicago White Sox: White Sox in five Games

American League Championship Series
Anaheim Angels @ Chicago White Sox: Angels in six games

-------------------------------------------

National League Divisional Series
San Diego Padres @ St. Louis Cardinals: Cardinals in four games (losing the first)
Houston Astros @ Atlanta Braves: Houston Astros in five games

National League Championship Series
Houston Astros @ St. Louis Cardinals: Astros in seven games

-------------------------------------------

2005 World Series
Houston Astros @ Anaheim Angels: Angels in six games.
==========================================

i think the white sox can handle the angels.

yea, that was a heartbreaker.... The home plate umpire was shady about his strike zone... he kept giving houston strikes 6 inches off the plate.. I remember one case in extra innings where Chipper went down to a quick 0-2 count from 2 pitches that were easily balls on the "k-zone".

Houston got lucky to eek by in the 8th, barely scraping together infield hits to load the bases for the slam. But the braves still blew it (again) and refused to make something happen even when Houston was drawing thin on pitchers and had Berkman out of the game for alot of the extra innings.

I guess the bright side is the that we have some promising young guys. If bobby would fix the gd bullpen.....

I don't see how Houston is going to beat to St.L....

i think houston has better pitching this time around, so that might help them out. but i would generally agree that st. louis has the edge in this series.

i'd say that st. louis deserve to win the world series this year--they've certainly played well enough--but i'm still cheering for the white sox, at this point.

whoops

the sox are just beating some astro ass right now.

it doesn't seem to matter how far they are down, they always come back.

i definitely don't see houston winning four games in a row

well if joe morgan says that it's difficult to get black kids into baseball, i'm not sure what major league baseball can do. i mean, it's their choice to like or not like things, like different sports..

Yeah, first WS roster in over 50 years without a black person...also the first Texas team ever in the WS...makes sense.

I dunno why Bud Selig is apologizing and saying he feels really bad about this. It's not his fault. It's like hockey, sometimes certain races just don't want to play a sport. it doesn't mean they are racist because they dont have a certain quota of black guys on the team.

that's what i'm sayin'.

in other news: sox win the world series!

Yeah, nothing to be concerned with really...some of the best ever in baseball were black..mutha fuckin hank aaron.

there's no crying in baseball!!

So you thought...

perhaps that is why the black man isn't interested in baseball anymore; sometimes they get emotional and have to cry, but according to colin there's no crying in baseball? i don't think that i'm on to something