The Swamp

i'll bite on the 13 run pool.

I'll take the case!

Keg wrote:Sounds like Mark Ellis, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez are all out for the rest of the Giants series. My avatar bet is doomed.

Tried not to pile on:



I considered this, but naw:

A day after beating Houston 17-2 it's 8-0 in the 4th inning today. Oh and Verlander is pitching for Detroit. Umps should just invoke a mercy rule and let's call it a weekend.

brian wrote:A day after beating Houston 17-2 it's 8-0 in the 4th inning today. Oh and Verlander is pitching for Detroit. Umps should just invoke a mercy rule and let's call it a weekend.

And it can't help that Verlander is not really sharp. No hits allowed, but 75 pitches through four.

Damn, Cabrera with a hell of a play to keep Astros hitless.

87 pitches through 5. What say you DSafe? How many pitches will Leyland give JV if he needs to? I'm thinking 140.

98 through 6 without a hit. He has at least 32 pitches to play with. Probably a few more than that.

Carlos Pena breaks it up with 1 out in the 7th. Makes things easy on Leyland. Bullpen will get the last 2 innings.

The Royals are playing good baseball. Their fondest dreams are coming true with the new starting rotation. And they're not even getting the slugging that they expected at the infield corners. If that comes, and the rotation is not an illusion, then the Tigers are in for a real race despite their much larger payroll.

Turrible

Another weird one. All I cared about was Matt Cain finding his arm slot. And sticking his split anywhere he wanted to, +/- 5 millimeters.

Oh, and we may have our left-fielder. The young Francisco Peguero. Yeah, I know it is early, 22 ABs in the bigs, two games this stint. But I gots a feeling.

I'm going to pick up this Peguero guy on my fantasy team, based solely on your gut feeling, doc. Let's hope you're right.

(He's replacing Lombardozzi or Brandon Inge, so it doesn't matter if you're wrong)

3rd base ump that tossed Harper yesterday should be suspended. He went after Harper, looking to toss him.

brian wrote:I don't know if Giff & his buddy are still there but it looks like 90 percent Tigers fans at this point.

We stayed til they scored the 7th run. Did you see the guy who caught the foul ball while holding his baby? We were right next to them. And you are correct, it was at least 90% Tigers fans then. They represented well all weekend.

Would be fun to host you next season.

brian wrote:Hey Giff -- this is going to sound sarcastic, but I promise you it isn't, but I really like this Astros team. I'm going to be rooting my ass off for them when they're not playing the Tigers. They remind me a lot of the 2003 Tigers team in all of the good and bad ways, but that's one of my favorite Tigers teams of all time. Despite all the losing, they played with a lot of heart all season and I see the same thing in the Astros this year. Half the team on the 2003 Tigers were also on the 2006 World Series team.

I do too. I really like the direction they are going and couldn't be happier with the front office right now. And our minor-league system leads all in winning %, so that seems like a good sign.

Miguel Cabrera's slash stats with RISP this year (52 PAs):

.548/.615/.857

Went to the Indians-A's game with my friend Bruce last night. We were one of the 9,500+ folks in attendance. It was so quiet you could hear the glove make noise when a player fielded the ball.

During the 8th inning, someone a few rows behind us started shouting "Jason Kipnis" and then clapping like clap clap clap-clap-clap. Repeat several times. After a few stanzas, you could see Kipnis moving his arms in time with the clap clap clap-clap-clap. Our entire section erupted in laughter and cheered, and Kipnis then turned to us, bowed his head, and tipped his cap. Pretty freaking awesome.

Oh, and that Mark Reynolds home run was an absolute bomb. It's the closest I've seen a home run come to hitting the advertising on the Indians video board.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?conte ... 901105&v=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For those wondering, Reynolds took his time before starting the home run jog because the A's pitcher plunked him in the first inning.

Reynolds has been hitting shots all year. The bomb he hit against Toronto in the first series, which was at about eye-level, was insane. It's kind of neat that him and Chris Davis, who are basically the same person offensively, are both putting up huge turnaround starts to begin the season.

I believe McGwire hit the advertising there back in the day when he was with Oakland.

SABES! You forgot to note that Ubaldo Jiminez started a game and only gave up 3 runs! WHOA!

Icepenis wrote:I believe McGwire hit the advertising there back in the day when he was with Oakland.

Yes, he did. He hit the Budweiser sign, which is at the center-bottom of the video board.

And yes, Ubaldo has had two strong starts in a row. I'm sure he's just one brain camp away from flirting with a 10 ERA, though.

...

DAMMIT REX!

Also, JA Happ carted off on a stretcher after taking a line drive off his skull.

kranepool wrote:DAMMIT REX!

Fucking drive by.

kranepool wrote: . . . JA Happ carted off on a stretcher after taking a line drive off his skull.

Where did the ball go after it hit Happ?

Icepenis wrote:Reynolds has been hitting shots all year. The bomb he hit against Toronto in the first series, which was at about eye-level, was insane. It's kind of neat that him and Chris Davis, who are basically the same person offensively, are both putting up huge turnaround starts to begin the season.

I still don't understand the O's logic letting him walk. They certainly could have matched Cleveland's offer of one year $6 million. He played a great 1B when he moved there last season and the club never picked up another power bat to replace his productivity.

O's take the opener vs. KC on a base hit by Jones, moves up on a bad pick off attempt and a double by Wieters. I really like this team. They are winning with absolutely no production from 2b or SS and Wieters hitting .230 or so. Keep your eyes on Manny Machado, he is learning so much about hitting and is really fun to watch. He is an absolute joy to watch at the plate and in the field.

bfj wrote:

Icepenis wrote:Reynolds has been hitting shots all year. The bomb he hit against Toronto in the first series, which was at about eye-level, was insane. It's kind of neat that him and Chris Davis, who are basically the same person offensively, are both putting up huge turnaround starts to begin the season.

I still don't understand the O's logic letting him walk. They certainly could have matched Cleveland's offer of one year $6 million. He played a great 1B when he moved there last season and the club never picked up another power bat to replace his productivity.

He's supposedly playing with a chip on his shoulder because the O's didn't even offer him a contract. For whatever the reason, I'm glad he's on the Indians this year. He's been lights out so far, although I don't expect him to continue to play over his career averages.

Astros are 5-6 in series openers (should've been 6-5, thanks a lot Ankiel). They've won 4 games other than that.

The Reds and Braves are taking turn wasting bases loaded chances early this afternoon.

Scottie wrote:

kranepool wrote: . . . JA Happ carted off on a stretcher after taking a line drive off his skull.

Where did the ball go after it hit Happ?

Very late to answer, but it ended up in the RF bullpen... or at least that's what I recall hearing on NPR yesterday.

Holy cow, did the A's get screwed out of a game-tying home run. An A's batter hit a shot that looked like it hit the railing above the fence, but umps reviewed for 3+ minutes and called it a double. Replays were clear that it hit above the yellow line.

Melvin charged out of the dugout and was tossed in less than 10 seconds.

Pedro!!!

rass wrote:Pedro!!!

Heat up, El Toro!

EDIT: Never saw the locking horns celebration after a Pedro HR. "Hometown herooooo" - Travis Snider

God damn it.

Clint Hurdle manages games according to a simple FORTRAN program, telling him which reliever to use and when to use it. If the team is leading by whatever, Melancon and Grilli. If losing, Gomez. If tied, ehhh whoever the fuck was recently called up from AAA and cross your fingers.

Tonight, he goes with his best relievers...in a tie game! He gets away from the simple program! He's all like "fuck the save" for one day! And Grilli gives up the winning run in the 9th.

I'm afraid this convinces him that the first method was absolutely the proper way to manage.

Zach Greinke is 4 weeks ahead of schedule. He has a rehab start tonight for Rancho Cucamonga and could start for the Dodgers next Wednesday.

Yet more proof that MLB umps are incompetent.

The Halos played yesterday's game under protest after the ump's allowed the Astros to change a pitcher who had yet to throw a pitch (and who was not injured):

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... b&c_id=mlb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brandon Phillips made one of the best plays I have ever seen.

Oh shit, sup, Francisco?

Thought DC47 and Brian might like this. Fifty years ago today, Mickey Lolich made his Major League pitching debut for the Detroit Tigers.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2 ... ory-29.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mickey Lolich is an idol to Tigers' fans of a certain age.

Zito being Zito in Toronto right now.

Bautista up for the second time tonight.

we are still in the first inning.