Aroldis Chapman was a man amongst boys, tonight....heyzeus cristo! Did you see the AL guy's faces in the dugout.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA201504240.shtml hahah just playing. The guy's mechanics look so much my Pedro...it is nuts...
Cutch and Cole really represented the Pirates well last night. I would have loved to have seen AJ Burnett pitch but he threw well over a 100 pitches Saturday night, so I understand. It had to be so awesome after 17 years to finally be able to take his 14 and 11 year old sons to the ASG with him as a member of the elite. He's such a classy dude. If anybody deserved to be there it was AJ. He earned it.
He sure would look good in Black and Gold. And it's not out of the realm of possibility. The Reds know they aren't going to get to the dance this season and will probably be unloading before the July 31st trade deadline. Move Tony Watson to the 7th inning, Melancon back to the 8th, and Chapman as our closer. With our 3 Aces (Cole, Burnett, & Liriano) good luck with that opposing teams. LOL The Pirates REALLY need a good RH batter to team up with Pedro Alvarez at 1st base, and a good bench bat that can play corner OF. If the Pirates can manage to accomplish that, they will be the team to beat this year, not the Cards...
I doubt the Reds unload. Cueto is gone because theyre not going to pay him Scherzer money, they will let the Yankees or Redsox pay him that, but everyone else will be retained, theyre not that far off talent wise from being a top team.
Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino. I'm actually being somewhat serious except it all depends on your definition "good".
Word is Reds are shopping Cueto, Chapman, Leake and Bruce. They would probably love to dump Phillips too. I bet the Reds do unload, they need to free up some money. And yeah I'd be shocked if the Red Sox paid big money for any FA pitcher, that's not their style anymore.
I'm not really interested in either of those two. I'd love to trade for Kelly Johnson if the price is right. He'd be the perfect bat off the bench/corner OF the Bucs need. And it seems the Braves are serious about trading him now. What they would want in return I have no idea.
As a Cubs fan who sees Chapman a lot, I just saw him and being his normal self, but I guess if you watch mostly AL games, it's impressive to see. Trust me, last night's performance was nothing out of the ordinary. Guy has a fireball. I'm like that in the opposite direction, since I only watch NL games and don't pay attention to AL guys except in highlights.
a bit OT but i found it disturbing not seeing Stanton at the game yesterday. Its a wrist injury... Even Gordon showed up.
I believe he's a FA after the year so it's a rental. He's not going to land a top prospect but I could see the Reds getting something of value back for him.
Depending on the package, I am interested in him.... Still think Tanaka's arm falls off and runs away, plus CC isn't good.....
Don't forget about Pineda, this is the first time he's thrown over 100 innings since 2011(!!!). Which is actually kind of an amazing stat. Who knows how he'll hold up in the 2nd half too.
True they can bring Warren back to the rotation and call up Serverino (even though I don't think they should)...\ Fun fact at the ASG the other day they had the Franchise Four for all of the teams, who was the only player to be on the FF for 3 different teams? Nolan....Guy was without a doubt Top 5 best pitchers ever, so underrated....
What? Nolan Ryan being underrated and being a top 5 best pitcher ever? Are you serious bro? Ranked 19th of all pitchers in the HOF in WAR. 49th in ERA, 4th in ERs, 3rd in L. 1st in BB with having 962 more walks than Steve Carlton who's in 2nd. He was a great strike out pitcher and was very fortunate to stay healthy his whole career to pitch all of those innings but he's no way a top 5 pitcher ever. One can make an argument he'd have a hard time being a top 15 to 20 pitcher. I think him being on 3 different FF teams says more about those 3 teams and lack of superstar/legend players for the Angels, Astros and Rangers then about Nolan himself, much like how Ben Zobrist is on the Rays FF, Jeff Conine on the Marlins or Paul Goldschmidt is on the DBacks.
With all of the talk about the guys going into the HOF, I realized that Pedro Martinez may be the player for me where my memory and thoughts of him is the most disparate from that of the general public. When I think of him, I instantly think of Senor Plunk, and his wild days with the Expos, and not his later days with the Red Sox. I've always watched very little AL baseball, but back in the 90s when he was with Montreal, there was no point that I watched more MLB games. Then, as a teen, I watched all the Cubs games on WGN, plus the Pirates were my local team and all of their games were on TV, plus the Braves games on TBS, and for a while, the Mets on WOR and the Dodgers on KTLA. I had a huge amount of free time in the summers, and watched a TON of MLB - almost all NL games, back then.
As a Red Sox fan I'm completely biased but from 1998 to 2003ish, Pedro Martinez was easily the greatest pitcher I've ever seen pitch. I remember every time he let up his first hit at Fenway the crowd would moan because they expected him to throw a no hitter every time out. He was the only pitcher before and since that I always thought it was an automatic win whenever he started too. Guy was just unfreaking believeble.
It's looking more and more likely that 8 of the 15 teams in the NL are going to go into sell off mode by the deadline, and we'll be down to 7 teams fighting for 5 playoff spots. And as a Cubs fan, looking at it realistically, 4 teams fighting for 2 WC spots. I like those odds. Especially with two of those clubs, the Mets and Giants, having their share of issues and seemingly held together with duct tape while the Cubs are scuffling and shooting themselves in the foot, and have yet to play to their potential for any real stretch this season.
First time since 1995 that LAA PPD a game.... As well first time since 2006 in SD and also only the 2nd time ever a PPD..... Crazy...
Who do you think controlled that stoooooooopiddd......much harder to win 2 on a doubleheader...almost at least 1 guaranteed loss....
It is crazy about SoCal. Having spent my entire life living where thunderstorms happen several times a week from March through September, its hard for me to wrap my head around.
Season is already a loss but he is still in reach for the homerun title. Im still going to games to watch him chase that. And to watch Jose pitch.
RIP Red Sox 2015 season. I guess now is a good time to sell whatever crap pieces other teams may want for some reason.
Red Sox getting swept definitely put a nail in the coffin but not sure you can blame the lineup. Too much talent to be losing, the starting pitching staff and the manager is the problem.
Scoring 4 runs in 4 games, you can certainly blame the offense. It's a mix of everything really, although not sure Farrell is a problem. Can't fault him for underperformance.
You guys seem to have an interesting mix of very young (who you obviously want to hold onto), very old, or very expensive. The one guy who doesn't seem to fall into those catagories is Brock Holt, who I'd love to see in a Cubs uniform. Not sure that the Sox would be all that eager to trade him though.
Honestly I would be disgusted, I watched them a few times the past month and it is like they are going through the motions..... Again I don't think you can blame this on Ben or even Farrell these guys like last with the Yanks just simply are not hitting for some insane reason...
Ironically I read an article that was suggesting the Sox deal Pedroia and roll with Holt at 2nd....Peddy would presumably get a huge package back..... I just don't think that's what the team wants to do, that type of stuff gets fans REAL pissed....
Just saw theyre playing Houston today in Houston. Yeeesh, it doesnt get easier. Could see another sweep coming.
Besides Ortiz, the offense really isn't that old. guys like Napoli and Sandoval are underperforming, Ortiz can't hit lefties this year, we have gotten nothing out of RF, 1B or catcher. Bullpen minus Koji and Tazawa are bad, rotation other than Buccholz, Miley and Rodriguez (outside of 3 starts) have been bad. They're just not a good team. Only thing positive is the development of Betts and Bogaerts and Rodriguez.
It's certainly frustrating, this team shouldn't be this bad, same with last year. I do wonder if Cherrington is on the hot seat. I get that he has a plan in place (which for the most part I agree with) and ownership is hands on, but the Sox are looking at 3 last place finishes in 4 years sandwiched in with a WS title.