MLB 2007 - PT 4

[Lois Gilbert]

go for it

[GoodSpeak]

Giants actually win a game...and against the yankees of all teams.


A rookie shall lead us.

[Borat Pri Hagafen]

Chris Young through 6 innings vs Boston...

6 IP, H, 2 BB, 11 K, 102 pitches

Pretty impressive 1-2 punch they've got with Peavy going tomorrow.

[GoodSpeak]

Rubber match tomorrow: Mussina 3-4; 5.10 ERA vs. Lowry 6-6; 3.74 ERA

If there is any justice at all....Giants kick ass.





So....we wait and see.

[Enforcer]

Tigers have had a great road trip, regardless of how it ends tomorrow. After three straight series in NL parks, Comerica Park will be a welcome sight.

[Captain Hate]

Your guys have been crushing the opposition while the Tribe has been not doing well in interleague play, Nags.

Rod Beck dies at age 38. Damn.

[GoodSpeak]

Safety squeeze...3-0 Giants.


5th inning.

[Enforcer]

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

Your guys have been crushing the opposition while the Tribe has been not doing well in interleague play, Nags.

Rod Beck dies at age 38. Damn.

I think it ends tonight, Cap. Braves need one bad and are due to break out and score some runs, while the Tigers are due for a loss.

[GoodSpeak]

Here's the Rod Beck story just off the AP:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070624/...bo_obit_beck_6


Wow.

[GoodSpeak]

Happier times:



From the Giants' website:

Beck came up with the Giants in 1991 and holds the team record for most saves in a single season with 48 in 1993. His 199 saves with the Giants is second in club history to Robb Nen, who finished with 206 and his 286 saves during his 13-year career places him 22nd on Major League Baseball's all-time list.

Beck was a three-time All-Star with the Giants, making the NL squad in 1993, '94 and '97. He saved 48 games for the Giants in 1993, and saved 51 for the Cubs in 1998.

[GoodSpeak]

One of the best relievers the Giants ever had:




Rest in Peace, Rod.

[GoodSpeak]

Clemens just punked out on baseball fans everywhere with a cheesy unintentional-intentional walk to Barry Bonds. Absolutely no sense of baseball history at all, this guy.


Psssh.

[Jon Abbey]

if you look at their career numbers, Clemens has walked him almost every time. this time he came around to score a big run too, before the wheels fell off in the eighth.

putrid, putrid week for NY, 1-5 against Colorado and SF. the other wild card contenders aren't playing especially well, but they're rapidly losing any margin for poor series they have left. will they be sellers at the trading deadline? it'd be nice to never see Krazy Kyle in pinstripes again.

[GoodSpeak]

Hold on, Jon....it's only a 6 run game.


The Giants' bullpen has to actually hold the lead.


All bets are off at this point. Anything can happen.

[GoodSpeak]

Well how about that....the bullpen came through for once.

I think Messenger is a keeper


Good luck the rest of the way, Jon...your guys will be going farther than mine will this year.

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Good luck the rest of the way, Jon...your guys will be going farther than mine will this year.

thanks, but neither of them is going anywhere. A-Rod may want to sign with SF, he was 22-33 there in his career last I saw.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

thanks, but neither of them is going anywhere. A-Rod may want to sign with SF, he was 22-33 there in his career last I saw.

I'm figuring that is the long term plan in SF.

But we will see if Peter Magowan will put out the money to make it happen.

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

thanks, but neither of them is going anywhere.

I will believe that the Yankees aren't going to the postseason only when they are mathematically eliminated. Until then, I am going to assume that they are not only going to make the playoffs, but that they will also win the division. If they are less than 8 games back on August 15, they will win the division.

[stonemonkts]

My new second favorite team is the Detroit motherfucking Tigers.

OH, baby.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

My new second favorite team is the Detroit motherfucking Tigers.

OH, baby.

Long as it ain't the yankees or [hated] dodgers.

[stonemonkts]

No I don't like the Dodgers, and never have. In fact when the Yankees shafted them in the 70's, I loved it.

I really can't stand the Braves though, and their fans too. At least the ones that do that ridiculous tomahawk chop chant.

[GoodSpeak]

Then I guess we do have something in common.

[Chris D]

Buehrle likely to be traded soon.

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by Chris D

Buehrle likely to be traded soon.

Did I see something somewhere about the Yanks looking at him?

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

putrid, putrid week for NY, 1-5 against Colorado and SF. the other wild card contenders aren't playing especially well, but they're rapidly losing any margin for poor series they have left. will they be sellers at the trading deadline?

A's obviously havent played well either. The Mets seem like the best team we've seen all year. Fast teams give us a problem. The Indian and Yankee series will be more accurate indicators of whether this team is going to have a shot at the Div / WC or is going to be a mediocre 88 win team. This is beginning to feel like a transitional year. Back end of the rotation is really falling back to earth hard.

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

thanks, but neither of them is going anywhere. A-Rod may want to sign with SF, he was 22-33 there in his career last I saw.

Your comment about ARod to the Giants reminded me of Purdy's column. Its a few days old, but kind of interesting.

Purdy: Giants, A's staying true to their pasts this season
By Mark Purdy
Mercury News
Article Launched: 06/21/2007 01:41:55 AM PDT


The old saying still holds true. Those who do not study Bay Area baseball history are doomed to repeat it.

And I'm not talking just about the repetitive Giants' losing streak.

Among other things, the Giants and A's have given us a great baseball laboratory since they arrived in 1958 and 1968, respectively. It is difficult to imagine two major league organizations with such dissimilar cultures - or cultures that have remained basically the same through different owners, general managers, players and brands of overpriced ballpark beers at different ballparks.

That realization struck me again Wednesday. I was watching the A's roll out another victory at McAfee Coliseum while also watching the scoreboard as the Giants fell to the Brewers in Milwaukee.

The A's are three games out of a wild-card playoff spot and as usual, gaining summer momentum.

The Giants are less than ... well, less than just about everything.

Except in star power, of course. They have Barry Bonds. They have Omar Vizquel, another presumptive Hall of Famer. And they were supposed to have Barry Zito. Not sure what happened to him.

My point: This is nothing new. This is as old as Willie Mays. Literally.

From the day the Giants opened up shop in San Francisco, they have mostly been focused on giving their fans a lot of big stars with charisma - while never winning a World Series.

And since the A's moved to Oakland in 1968, they have mostly built their
team organizationally and through trades to give themselves a lineup of very good players who have never been as famous as the Giants' famous guys. But over the decades, the A's have won many more championships at every level.

Oh, some of those less famous A's did go on to become Hall of Famers. Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter come to mind, although they had to become Yankees to gain their major eminence.

But far more of those winning A's were characters of the Sal Bando or Carney Lansford variety. The muck-it-out soldiers. The grunts who simply played the game with intelligence and got the job done. And never got their face on magazine covers.

Dave Stewart would be another perfect example. He will never join the Giants' incomparable Juan Marichal in Cooperstown. But which man won more postseason games?

(The answer, as if you couldn't guess: Stewart won 10. Marichal won zero.)

I realize the details and names of my thesis are arguable. In fact, please argue about it all you want. That's the fun of baseball. But I'll defend my underlying premise doggedly. When someone says the Giants are failing in 2007 because they have been too fixated the last 15 seasons on promoting Barry Bonds and trying to build a World Series winner around him, my reaction is: Duh. That has happened since Mays and Marichal and Willie McCovey.

The whole business, I figure, has something to do with the roots of the two fan bases. When the Giants showed up here, they had Mays, the game's best player and one of its most celebrated. In the years since, every owner or operator of the Giants has believed that fans in San Francisco and on the peninsula side of the bay will not buy tickets unless they believe they are seeing a pin-up celebrity in the team's lineup.

Likewise, the A's came to Oakland with a roster full of scuffling young baseball talent - Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Jackson, Hunter and the rest - and watched them grow up into a multiple world-championship team. So that's what the A's fan base expects.

All of this was less true in the late '80s, when the A's probably had the most star power in their history with Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. Even so, the Giants were splashing Will Clark's face on billboards and using it to sell their Humm-Baby image created by Manager Roger Craig.

Simply put, the Giants have never been willing to try what the A's have done at least twice in their Bay Area tenure - empty out a high-priced clubhouse full of star power and throw more energy into developing talent in the farm system. The A's did it in the late '70s and early '80s after their first run of World Series titles and did it again in the mid-'90s after dissolving their championship Tony LaRussa teams.

Billy Beane, the A's general manager, is not eager to get into a comparison test with his friends across the bay. But strictly in terms of the A's, he says the organization's consistency comes from key minor league executives such as Keith Lieppman and Ted Polakowski. Beane also thinks former G.M. Sandy Alderson set up the culture that has allowed the A's to retool twice.

"When we had to do it a second time, it was easier to be patient, because we'd been through it before," Beane said. "We knew what legs needed to be put on the table."

T he Giants? They keep trying to patch and glue together their old table. They had a perfect opening for a total retool after last season. Their best fans surely would have understood. Bonds' contract was up. Young pitchers were ready for their close-up. The All-Star Game was scheduled for AT&T Park, which would retain season-ticket holders.

But ultimately, the Giants followed their ancient instincts. Peter Magowan, the owner, is getting most of the blame. I'm not sure he should. He was merely following the primeval ways of his ancestors.

http://www.mercurynews.com/markpurdy/ci_6192536

[Surfer]

Daric Barton's June numbers:

82 ABs, .512 BA, 13 2B, 1 HR, 7 BB, .578 OBP, .732 SLG.

[Enforcer]

Tigers have played 42 road games and only 32 home games. Tonight, they start a 13 game home stand.

[Chris D]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Did I see something somewhere about the Yanks looking at him?

They'd be negligent if they weren't. Due diligence and all. The scavengers hover.

So strange. Being at the park last week, where he features so large in the historic highlights, and seeing him close in on 500 homers, I realized that there was never a time given to mourn the end of the Frank Thomas era, what with the glitz of winning 90 the year after he left, Thome coming home, whatever the la ever else.

Well, in the depths of transition, I mourn you now, Frank Thomas Era, 1990-2005, a rare burst of fairly sustained excellence from the club and, when healthy, you, No. 35. Big Frank.

[Jon Abbey]

I hate Buehrle, I think the Yanks would be insane to trade for him at almost any cost. he'd probably be a good fit on the Mets, though.