MLB Discussion

[Duff]

i told one of my co-workers the day after Strasburg got pulled with the injury that he would need Tommy John Surgery. you could see it coming a mile away. maybe not in his first stint up in the bigs, but eventually he would need Tommy John surgery at some point in his career because of how hard he throws and his arm action.

it sucks for the kid, hopefully he can bounce back from it because he's definitely good for baseball due to his talent and because ticket sales sky rocketed on days he was scheduled to start. i can only imagine the panic and fear in the Nationals' front office as they worry about whether or not their $15 million investment will go down the drain

[dynamitekid]

I think it's funny that Rob Dibble was saying how Strasburg should man up and continue pitching. Well, it's kind of hard to man up from Tommy John surgery Rob.

[danthemjfan23]

in all fairness to rob dibble, he's a fucking moron.

[travis]

in all fairness to rob dibble, he's a fucking moron.

Again, Dan is right.

[dynamitekid]

its amazing to me how he still gets work.

[forgeagain]

So the White Sox are going to spend $4.3MM on, at most, 32 games of Manny Ramirez at DH.

Might be worth a single win to them. I really don't think that's going to be enough to close the gap with the Twins. Huge waste of money. Hell, Manny might not even be healthy enough to play in most of those games.

[travis]

I just hope I never have to hear the term "Mannywood" again

[mclz]

They've wasted enough money keeping Ozzie Guillen as their manager.

[dynamitekid]

Kenny Williams is an over rated GM. I hate how he gets praised for being proactive and taking chances. Trading all of your prospects away every season doesn't make you a good GM.

[Duff]

well we know Manny is healthy enough to leave the bat on his shoulder and argue with umpires

[forgeagain]

In defense of Manny, it sounds like that was a pretty silly ejection.

He's an odd dude, but when he's right he's a huge impact bat. Even the biggest bat can't do much damage in 31 games, but we'll see.

Kenny Williams is ok as a GM. However, the team that won the World Series was full of guys who had career years then never did anything ever again. Neal Cotts? Cliff Polite? El Duque? Most of those guys tanked immediately afterward. Going and getting his favorite players from his youth (Griffey, Manny, Andruw, etc) past their prime is silly. Still, he's better than stupid ass Jim Hendry. Makes decent trades but awful FA signings.

Ozzie isn't a fantastic manager (after all, he wanted Kotsay and Vizquel and Jones getting Thome's DH ABs this year - now they're going to Manny for 30 games), but he's hilarious and I like having him in Chicago.

[travis]

When Manny wants to play he's a great right handed bat to have in your line up and can do some serious damage.

It just depends on how soon he's going to start acting like a bitch and give up on the team cause you know its coming at some point. As soon as that happens he's pretty much useless and becomes a bigger distraction than he's worth.

There are few people in sports I dislike as much as Manny. He's like TO, he's done the same thing to every team he's been on and will continue to do that until he retires.

[Duff]

In defense of Manny, it sounds like that was a pretty silly ejection.

what's silly about it? you argue balls and strikes and it's an automatic ejection. plain and simple. which party is right in hind sight is irrelevant.

that one pitch appearance cost the Dodgers $100,000, which was more than enough incentive for the Dodgers to just let him go without getting anything in return other than the White Sox picking up the remainder of the tab. over the final month of the season Manny will laugh all the way to the bank with well over $4 million of the White Sox' money. insane.

[danthemjfan23]

as a white sox fan, i am so conflicted on how to feel about this manny deal. he is literally my most hated athlete from any sport. not just currently playing, but of all time. i can't fucking stand anything about him.

when i was a kid growing up, i used to LOVE the indians. their lineup was stacked. kenny lofton in center, robbie alomar at second, omar vizquel at short, albert belle DHing, jim thome at first, sandy alomar catching, and hell even travis fryman at third. they were unfuckwithable. as a white sox fan i hated the team because they always killed us, but i loved all the players. except manny. i was 8 years old and i saw he had all the talent in the world, but that he was a lazy player. it kills me to watch a guy waste any amount of talent, let alone as much talent as he had/has. the first time i saw him drop an easy fly ball in right because he lazily tried to catch it with one hand out at the side of his body, i said to myself "this. this is not my kind of guy."

as many of you also know, my second favorite team (by a very slim margin behind the white sox) has always been the yankees. even in the early 90s when they sucked. my dad and i are super into baseball history, so that's how i started loving them. of course everybody called me a bandwagon jumper when i was cheering for them while they were winning world series after world series, but for as long as i can remember liking baseball, i've liked the yankees.

that being said, when manny went to the red sox, it was instant ammunition for me to hate him more. his smug attitude. his (even more) lazy play. his TERRIBLE "effort" in the outfield. the dude played left field at fenway park - which is arguably the easiest position on the easiest field to play it in all of baseball - and was still horrendous. but to me, it doesn't even matter if a player is bad. i can like a player who is bad, as long as he's trying his hardest (hello, noberto 'paco' martin!). but manny would continuall prove to everyone that the only thing he cared about was himself. and don't give me this "but he was always smiling and laughing and being a great guy when they were winning their championships" crap because anybody can be cordial when you're one of the best players in all of baseball, playing on the best team, and your manager will let you get away with anything.

i hate his dreadlocks. i hate the fact that he wears #99. i hate that he wears sunglasses during press conferences indoors. i hate the fact that he would sit out the all-star game every year with a mysterious injury, yet wouldn't miss any regular season games for it. i HATE the fact that he stops trying when he doesn't really feel like it, but can all of a sudden flip a switch and hit .450 for a month with 15 HRs. i hate "manny being manny" and that it has become an excuse for any and all of his asinine behaviors. i hate the fact that he's a cheater. go ahead and tell me "he served his 50-game sentence, it's over and done with" if you want, but it's not that way for me. his whole career is tainted because he got caught one time. who's to say he hadn't been using that stuff or something similar all along, and just was never caught?

i have hated manny ramirez as a person for 15 years. but, he's still manny ramirez. he's still a slugger who can hit for a high average. he's still a guy who can make a difference in a lineup. he's still a guy who can make the other players in the batting order better, because teams will pitch selectively to him and consequently throw more strikes to players like Paul Konerko (who's batting over .500 on his 11 game hitting streak), Alex Rios and Carlos Quentin. and let's not forget manny is playing for a new contract for next year, so this next month is very important for him, too.

the white sox are only 4 games back with a month to play. at the beginning of this year, when i was talking to my dad about the upcoming season after seeing names like omar vizquel, andruw jones and brent lillibridge, mark kotsay and mark teahen on our opening day roster, i told him this team was going to lose 90 games. and through the first 50 games of the season, that's exactly what they were on pace to do. but by some miracle, they went 40-18 in their next 58 and put themselves right back in it.

there's no reason this team should be 4 games out right now, but they are. they're in the race to make it to the playoffs, and as much as it pains me to say it, getting a guy like manny ramirez can help them get there. granted, that's only IF he plays hard. but there's no doubt in my mind that he's still a good player, and that he can get hot for a month and carry this team past minnesota, just like he did for the dodgers when he first went to los angeles. i want nothing to do with manny after this year (i don't care if he hits 1.000 with 20 HRs in the next month and we win the division by 10 games), but for right now, for this team and this situation, i think i can swallow my hatred for him and see what he can do for us.

[dynamitekid]

It's the ultimate support the team or the player argument. If many came to my team, I would have a REALLY hard time supporting them. It's kind of like selling your soul to the devil for a chance at the playoffs. For 4.5 million, i don't think it's worth it.

[danthemjfan23]

^^ exactly. a couple years ago when he was up for free agency and the yankees were rumored to be getting him, i had no problem saying "if the yankees sign him, that's it, i'm done rooting for them" because it would be much easier to cut ties with a team i only liked initially because of their history. i don't watch 100+ yankee games every year. i don't go to their games.

when it was announced that the sox were going to pick him up off waivers, i'll admit i was upset about it, but the thought never went through my head "okay, i'm done rooting for the white sox now" because i'm just too emotionally attached to this franchise. they always have been and always will be MY TEAM.

best case scenario in my eyes for the rest of this season is that manny doesn't get a single hit, drive in a single run, or get on base one time and we still make the playoffs. i know that will never happen in a million years, though, and my love of the team is more important to me than my hatred of the player. i'd rather see them succeed than him fail. but that doesn't mean i'll ever cheer for him, because i won't.

[flood]

the pennant race should be interesting... in the AL east the yanks have like 7 against tampa, and 6 against the sox.. oof

[mcm1610]

the pennant race should be interesting... in the AL east the yanks have like 7 against tampa, and 6 against the sox.. oof

The way the schedule plays out at the end, the Sox still do have a chance. The problem is that they have to actually play out those games and win... which they won't. But it's not like they have to win games against other teams and hope the Rays lose out or something, each of the three teams holds the end of the season in their own hands.

[flood]

isn't it crazy that Baltimore will actually have a huge impact on the playoff races? since showalter took over they're playing over .500 ball and they have most of their remaining games against three teams fighting for 2 spots

[Duff]

at this point the only thing left for the Orioles to play for is to be spoliers.

[themean]

I have not looked at this thread at all, but am a huge Reds fan.

The month of August is the most fun I've had as a baseball fan since 1990 (although 1995 was great as well.)

Here is a picture of me pumping my fist after Ryan Hanigan's 3 run jack broke the game open last night:

(Just to the right of the foul pole, under the score graphic.)

Oh yeah, Aroldis Chapman is sick. That slider is nasty when mixed with an 103mph fastball.

[travis]

Im happy to see the Reds doing well this year. I really wish the Angels could have gotten Chapman.

[mclz]

Yanks have won 7 straight, this is how they should have been playing all season.

[dynamitekid]

Padres have lost 7 straight, this is how they should have been playing all season.

fixed

[311thrice]

Anybody else see that bogus call that ended the Rangers-Twins game today? Coach's interference...awful way to end a ballgame, especially when a rally is taking place.