MLB 2013: August Thread... It's Getting Serious...

[Gonzalez]

Marlins rookie pitcher Jose Fernandez strikes out 14 batters to break his own personal record.

[piranesi]

Marlins rookie pitcher Jose Fernandez strikes out 14 batters to break his own personal record.

 

That dude is scary as hell.  The movement on his pitches looks so sudden and kind of unpredictable.  His slider looks like a super fast knuckleball.  And tonight at least, he was able to hit the corners with it at will.

 

When are they trading him to Toronto?

[Brian Fowler]

Dude, I was so about to ask if it was too late for them to trade him, but the Cardinal loving bastard beat me to it.

 

Tigers are still playing well, so I am still content.

[Cobra Commander]

It'd be pretty cool if certain managers didn't overthink things and think they had to stack their lineup with craptactular LH bats instead of actual recently good RH bats in some effort to rough up Dillon Gee. It'd also be cool if certain 3rd basemen didn't go 0 for 5, no matter how good he's been over an arbitrary period, until that 3rd baseman puts up an above-average season, I don't give him a long rope

 

The most irritiating thing about the 2013 Royals is that, they're not gonna get significantly better next year. They'll lose their best pitcher to free agency. Their bats are either not developing quickly (Hosmer, Moustakas) or regressing (Gordon, Butler, Gordon, Gordon, Gordon). So there's not exactly a White Knight coming to save things in the final year of the Shields deal. They have a lot of guys who are not exactly dependable for winning big games and no real willingness to find solutions at positions where there is no concrete long-term guy (2nd base, corner outfield, 3rd base). Heck, for all the plays Cain has made lately, he's still 27. He's not going to be a guy in that spot in 5 years.

 

So when you pair that with the reality that their pitching is a rent-a-staff of two very good starters (for now), an average guy (Guthrie), and two semi-covered chest wounds (Wade Davies and Bruce Chen), and that they don't have pitching coming up to replace either chest wound. That's not good either.

 

Moore will get an extension, but they should have fired his ass 4 years ago when he started peddling the "it takes 8-10 years to win" garbage. The guy has never been involved in building a winner. He's a Scott Pioli type hired because his boss happened to get a team loaded with someone else's acquisitions in 1991

[Ryan]

Oh, Yeah!

 

So, Pittsburgh, someone may try and stamp your hand on the way out.  Don't bother though.  We're not letting you back in, and it will just end up being a sad, droopy memory when it starts to run and people ask what it says and you're like "First Place!" and they're like "No, really, what's it say?"

I'm going to the game on the 21st to see the Cardinals destroy us about 19-2, you'll get yours! At least there's free coupon vouchers!

[Ryan]

It'd be pretty cool if certain managers didn't overthink things and think they had to stack their lineup with craptactular LH bats instead of actual recently good RH bats in some effort to rough up Dillon Gee. It'd also be cool if certain 3rd basemen didn't go 0 for 5, no matter how good he's been over an arbitrary period, until that 3rd baseman puts up an above-average season, I don't give him a long rope

 

The most irritiating thing about the 2013 Royals is that, they're not gonna get significantly better next year. They'll lose their best pitcher to free agency. Their bats are either not developing quickly (Hosmer, Moustakas) or regressing (Gordon, Butler, Gordon, Gordon, Gordon). So there's not exactly a White Knight coming to save things in the final year of the Shields deal. They have a lot of guys who are not exactly dependable for winning big games and no real willingness to find solutions at positions where there is no concrete long-term guy (2nd base, corner outfield, 3rd base). Heck, for all the plays Cain has made lately, he's still 27. He's not going to be a guy in that spot in 5 years.

 

So when you pair that with the reality that their pitching is a rent-a-staff of two very good starters (for now), an average guy (Guthrie), and two semi-covered chest wounds (Wade Davies and Bruce Chen), and that they don't have pitching coming up to replace either chest wound. That's not good either.

 

Moore will get an extension, but they should have fired his ass 4 years ago when he started peddling the "it takes 8-10 years to win" garbage. The guy has never been involved in building a winner. He's a Scott Pioli type hired because his boss happened to get a team loaded with someone else's acquisitions in 1991

You still have our other trade-bait cast-off Alcides Escobar to lead you to the WS! *checks stats* Never mind. Wow, he's having a really shitty year.

[Cobra Commander]

 

It'd be pretty cool if certain managers didn't overthink things and think they had to stack their lineup with craptactular LH bats instead of actual recently good RH bats in some effort to rough up Dillon Gee. It'd also be cool if certain 3rd basemen didn't go 0 for 5, no matter how good he's been over an arbitrary period, until that 3rd baseman puts up an above-average season, I don't give him a long rope

 

The most irritiating thing about the 2013 Royals is that, they're not gonna get significantly better next year. They'll lose their best pitcher to free agency. Their bats are either not developing quickly (Hosmer, Moustakas) or regressing (Gordon, Butler, Gordon, Gordon, Gordon). So there's not exactly a White Knight coming to save things in the final year of the Shields deal. They have a lot of guys who are not exactly dependable for winning big games and no real willingness to find solutions at positions where there is no concrete long-term guy (2nd base, corner outfield, 3rd base). Heck, for all the plays Cain has made lately, he's still 27. He's not going to be a guy in that spot in 5 years.

 

So when you pair that with the reality that their pitching is a rent-a-staff of two very good starters (for now), an average guy (Guthrie), and two semi-covered chest wounds (Wade Davies and Bruce Chen), and that they don't have pitching coming up to replace either chest wound. That's not good either.

 

Moore will get an extension, but they should have fired his ass 4 years ago when he started peddling the "it takes 8-10 years to win" garbage. The guy has never been involved in building a winner. He's a Scott Pioli type hired because his boss happened to get a team loaded with someone else's acquisitions in 1991

You still have our other trade-bait cast-off Alcides Escobar to lead you to the WS! *checks stats* Never mind. Wow, he's having a really shitty year.

 

it took Ned Yost until July to stop batting Alcides Escobar in the 2 hole regularly. Ned's going with Gordon, Hosmer, Butler, Perez as his top 4 at the moment. Which kinda highlights the lack of an actual cleanup hitter because Salvador Perez isn't exactly a power hitter

 

Although game 2 of the final NL series for KC had Ned putting Billy Butler on the field, putting Eric Hosmer in right field (where he hadn't worked since Spring Training), fortunately nobody hit a ball to Hosmer because Bruce Chen (!!!) struck out 8 in 6 innings. Miguel Tejada (!!!!!!!) had a 3 hit game. But since Aaron Crow blew it in the 8th, today was another extra inning game. Ned didn't totally smoke his bench today, thus pinch hitter Justin Maxwell hit a game winning home run after 3 innings from Herrera (the last 2 outs were agonizing to watch as Herrera was obviously toast but the Mets ended the inning on a strikeout/throwout)

 

Lorenzo Cain is actually doing pretty solidly, if we're gonna talk about the Greinke trade right now

[just drew]

It's gonna take a box knife between the ribs to stop these Bravos. WE. CANT. BE. STOPPED.

 

See you real soon, piranesi. And without Sam Holbrook. 

[piranesi]

It's gonna take a box knife between the ribs to stop these Bravos. WE. CANT. BE. STOPPED.

 

See you real soon, piranesi. And without Sam Holbrook. 

 

 

Sam Holbrook is an idea.  Not a man.  You can't kill an idea.

 

The idea is order.  Structure.  Stability.

 

Tradition.

[SirFozzie]

Pretty good start for Peavy, 7 IP, 2 R, 4H, 2BB, 7K

[just drew]

 

It's gonna take a box knife between the ribs to stop these Bravos. WE. CANT. BE. STOPPED.

 

See you real soon, piranesi. And without Sam Holbrook. 

 

 

Sam Holbrook is an idea.  Not a man.  You can't kill an idea.

 

The idea is order.  Structure.  Stability.

 

Tradition.

 

LOL. That's cute. Watch us go ahead and stamp out this "idea". 

The Atlanta Braves: Enemy to Structure. And two games up on STL...

[Joe Lucia]

Heckler above the Braves bullpen today: "HEY KIMBREL! YOU'RE GOOD, BUT YOU'RE NOT GREAT! STOP MIMICKING PAPELBON!"

Me: "...if he were mimicking Papelbon, wouldn't he have blown the save already?"

 

Dude also tried to make a crack about Kimbrel not being an All-Star and Papelbon being one (whoops), and another about Kimbrel going through the league the second time...welp. He was pretty drunk, though.

 

Man, I'll tell you...Fredi put on a clinic in how to *not* manage a game today.

[Brian Fowler]

FFS, the Tigers have won 9 of their last 10, and have not increased their lead over Cleveland or KC by a single fucking half game.

[Ryan]

Prince Fielder ate the rest of the games.

[Super Ape]

Q: What do Jonathan Papelbon and Rev. Billy Graham have in common?

A: They can both make a stadium full of people shout "JESUS CHRIST!" at the same time.

[Brian Fowler]

It's funny, these exact same jokes were going around about Papa Grande a few months ago (pretty sure I even put one on the old board, with a "I put a Jose Valverde sticker on my laptop, and now it won't close" joke)

[Raziel]

Q: What do Jonathan Papelbon and Rev. Billy Graham have in common?A: They can both make a stadium full of people shout "JESUS CHRIST!" at the same time.

Recycled, first heard this when Mitch Williams gave up *that* home run in in the 93 World Series.

 

Ironically, another Philadelphia closer sucking.

[Ryan]

Is that really irony or more like the cycle of reality balancing itself out?

[SirFozzie]

The current espn.com headline is about the Royals hot run, but, um, I think the title is about as backhanded a compliment as you can get before it becomes a straight backhand.

"Wait, you're still here?"

[Ryan]

I wonder sometimes who chooses those headlines since the actual article headline is "Royals keep winning, prove skeptics wrong".

[Pete]

 

GAH.

[Cristobal]

Two pitchers and the all-time steals recordholder? Seems an unfair race...

[BobbyWhioux]

Two pitchers and the all-time steals recordholder? Seems an unfair race...

I think that's the gag.  Spoofing everyone else's Big Head Race by doing a mock one where the same racer (Rickey) always wins.

[RIPPA]

 

Two pitchers and the all-time steals recordholder? Seems an unfair race...

I think that's the gag.  Spoofing everyone else's Big Head Race by doing a mock one where the same racer (Rickey) always wins.

 

 

Wait... wait... wait. How long has that being going on???

And if RICKEY~! is always winning then it needs to continue for infinity.

[BobbyWhioux]

 

 

Two pitchers and the all-time steals recordholder? Seems an unfair race...

I think that's the gag.  Spoofing everyone else's Big Head Race by doing a mock one where the same racer (Rickey) always wins.

 

 

Wait... wait... wait. How long has that being going on???

And if RICKEY~! is always winning then it needs to continue for infinity.

 

I think it just started. The radio guys have been mentioning it in passing only in the last week or so.  They've talked about it twice and both times Rickey has won (including Eck falling down once, but I don't think that was part of the act), so as far as I know it's a Parody Big Head Race [also note there is only three of them instead of the "traditional" four].