Random MLB News And Discussion 2012

[brettac1]

This is SO AWESOME.

[brettac1]

I LOL every time Nelson Cruz attempts to field a baseball.

[owbc]

They've blown it open, 12-5. Hamilton is worse than Kotsay in that gigantic CF, do they not have anyone else to play center?

[Polish Falcons]

Balfour rage?

 

A's fans going wild. This is cool. If Oakland wins and yankees lose then Oakland is the #1 seed in the AL. That would be nice.

[owbc]

Who has the home field in a Texas vs. Baltimore or NY one-game playoff?

 

Edit:

@ Baltimore if Baltimore wins tonight and NYY wins

@ Texas if Baltimore loses

@ Bal/NYY loser if AL East tie

[ramssuperbowl1999]

http://i.imgur.com/aKeTF.png

[brettac1]

Who has the home field in a Texas vs. Baltimore or NY one-game playoff?

Texas.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I would say someone forgot to tell the A's they were not contenders, but they heard that plenty this year. Lollerskates.

[TooLiveBrew]

Balfour rage?

 

A's fans going wild. This is cool. If Oakland wins and yankees lose then Oakland is the #1 seed in the AL. That would be nice.

Only in the 5th, but the Yanks are up 5-1 & threatening to add more.

 

EDIT: Aannnnd Robbie Cano just knocked out a 2-R HR right after I posted this. 7-1 now.

[trwi7]

A's lead the division for one day all season and it's the last day. Epic troll job on the Rangers.

[jerichoholicninja]

Is RBI Title an actual award or is it just something for announcers to talk about.

[Ennder]

I love the results of this race and I don't want to be the debbie downer of the group but lets be realistic. Every year a couple teams win 8 to 10 more games than their talent and then every 10 years some team wins 15-20 games more than their talent and the A's are one of those two groups. To be fair the Brewers were in group A last year. This A's team easily could be under .500 next year. They are the 2005 White Sox which is a great story and really fun to follow but just gets way too much credit because people refuse to admit that even in a 162 game season the results have extreme variance.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I love the results of this race and I don't want to be the debbie downer of the group but lets be realistic. Every year a couple teams win 8 to 10 more games than their talent and then every 10 years some team wins 15-20 games more than their talent and the A's are one of those two groups. To be fair the Brewers were in group A last year. This A's team easily could be under .500 next year. They are the 2005 White Sox which is a great story and really fun to follow but just gets way too much credit because people refuse to admit that even in a 162 game season the results have extreme variance.

 

 

So? Are the results any less valid because you think the talent is not equal to that of a 94 win team? I don't think you'll find too many people that would disagree that the A's played over their heads this year, so I'm not really sure what the point you're trying to make is. They had a great year, why should the fans, or just baseball fans in general, feel any less entitled about enjoying it simply because of 'variance'?

[Ennder]

Nope they aren't any less value but the praise heaped on the GM and the manager are certainly less valuable. All the moneyball comments etc are just kind of silly given the reality of how this happened. This wasn't some huge coup by Beane it was probably just a flukey year by a fun franchise.

[TooLiveBrew]

Nope they aren't any less value but the praise heaped on the GM and the manager are certainly less valuable. All the moneyball comments etc are just kind of silly given the reality of how this happened. This wasn't some huge coup by Beane it was probably just a flukey year by a fun franchise.

Actually, it's a reflection on Beane's commitment to building the A's in the right manner, year-by-year. He's consistently made good trades & acquisitions, and while this season in a vacuum may be a 'fluke', it's certainly no fluke that a team that built around young pitching & impact talent is in the postseason.

[brettac1]

Usually, the reason a team "plays over their head" is the bullpen. Same reason why the Reds ran away with the central (as I expected) and why the Orioles were so good. So, it's a fluke in the sense that bullpen performance is difficult to predict, but not really in any other way. They had a run differential around +100, it wasn't like they won all one run games.

[TooLiveBrew]

In 'not surprising at all' news, the Sawx have fired Bobby Valentine.

 

Link

[logan82]

He threw a few people under the bus with some of his recent comments. Not shocking at all.

[torts]

Ichiro has 2606 hits in the MLB at age 38. hitting 3000 is obtainable! has to be one of the greatest contact hitters in baseball history

[splitterpfj]

AZ has fired Daron Sutton and Mark Grace.

[torts]

Cubs fired Listach

[TooLiveBrew]

Pretty cool moment for Berkman in last night's game: Link (video)

 

Yeah, I know it's the Cardinals, but I've always liked Big Puma. He's always seemed very down-to-earth & likeable.

[BoxedWineWarrior]

Hitting coaches getting axed. Kevin Seitzer in Kansas City and Chris Chambliss in Seattle.

 

Remember when Chambliss was considered a possible manager not that long ago, including Milwaukee.

[AZBrewCrew]

*deleted* Already posted by someone

[owbc]

Valentine knew he was toast and he got his two cents in. His managing career is over, but then again, I'm not sure he was ever 100% into it again.

 

The A's will probably be going with an all-rookie rotation in the NLDS. It's still a classic Beane team--a mix of rookies and castaways that he picked off the garbage heap.

 

I am really excited for the 1-game playoffs tomorrow. Those have always been my favorite type of MLB game and they usually seem to be close, intense games. I haven't watched much of the World Series in a long time, the slow game pace and horrible announcing make it too boring. Hopefully the Orioles don't get blown out early, which is a decent possibility with Joe Saunders starting for the O's.