We all feel such sympathy for the Yankees. :wink: Don't take that wrong, George...I admire yours and everybody's love of their teams...even Steelers fans. (Shudder) Can't figure the Tribe out this year...starting pitchers are either lights out good or give up a bunch of runs right off the bat. Bats are cold one game and on fire the next. Bullpen still going strong but Cody Allen gave up 2 runs in the ninth last night (in a win). And Tito's having some health issues...nothing serious I hope but it involves a heart monitor.
I hope Tito's OK. I always have liked him and have respected his managerial style. The Cubs, in the midst of a so-far disappointing season, have sent a clear message that if you make public your personal issues with teammates, you're gone. After Miguel Montero spoke out criticizing Jake Arrieta's windup as the reason for The Nats' 7 stolen bases in Tuesday night's game, the Cubs cut him.....er....designated him for assignment, which is the same thing. Even if it was Arrieta's fault, it should have stayed inside the clubhouse.
8) Opinion alert! JO'Co is going to give some personal opinions here, so don't go cataleptic! They are only opinions... re: Indians I don't understand their inconsistent play either. On paper, they're the best team we've seen this year... re: Cubs I don't understand the Cubs either. The defending champs should be clobbering everybody. Maybe getting rid of Montero is the answer. re: Miguel Montero I'm very familiar with this stinky dropping of human excrement. For nearly a decade he played for the Arizona Dbacks, one of our main division rivals. He was hated here in Los Angeles like no opponent since Juan Marichal. There were fights, punches, head hunts, cleats high slides and full scale brawls. He was the instigator of every incident. He and Yasiel went after each other on the field, and even in the club houses, which used to be connected under the stands. He handed out insults to everyone in both English and Spanish. His teammates hated him, his opponents hated him and we Dodger Dogs REALLY hated him. I was shocked when the Dbacks unloaded him on the Cubs. Good players are a temptation, but some guys just aren't worth the effort, and Montero is definitely one of those. So his pitcher is the reason an opponent stole 7 bases? Really? Montero's record this year for stolen base attempts is 0-31! He hasn't thrown out ANY base runners regardless of who was pitching! The Cubs will be better off without this punk. It's called "winning by subtraction." A team with great talent doesn't need to add more talent. They just need to remove the biggest troublemaker and cutting Montero will solve this problem nicely...
:idea: It's a change in philosophy. Starting pitchers used to pace themselves to go 9 innings. There was no such thing as a "closer" and relief pitchers were mostly former starters who had lost their fastballs. The new thinking has starters throw as hard as they can for as long as they can: usually 5-7 innings. "Set-up" pitchers come in as specialists, to throw as hard as they can for one inning, or one batter if it's a left on left or right on right matchup. Closers are specialists for the final inning only. All of these specialists can throw every day, because they're only throwing a few pitches per day. They can all throw as hard as they can...every day. At lower levels, pitchers are trained to throw hard. When I used to take my American Legion team to Arizona, I noted that Arizona pitchers were NOT ALLOWED to throw curves or sliders! They threw raw gas for as long as they could go. Most of them couldn't even throw a straight change! This was back in the 1990's, so this change in philosophy was happening at all levels.
Astros place 3 players in the starting line up for the All-Star game. Altuve, Correa and Springer. Keuchel would no doubt have been a candidate to be the starter but hasn't pitched in weeks.
:x Dodgers get screwed again. The best team in baseball didn't get a single starter. Cincinnati stuffed the ballot box to keep Seager on the bench and only four Dodgers made it. Let's talk about two of the greatest Dodger players who didn't make it: 1. Justin Turner He's the greatest hitter in MLB with the highest batting average in EITHER league! His current BA of .382 is only the 4th time since 2000 that anyone has hit over .380 at the half way mark. He's also in the Top 5 in things like OBP and slugging percentage. His defense is unrivaled, except by Arenado. This is a shame. 2. Alex Wood He was the best pitcher in MLB in the first half of the season. He has the lowest ERA (1.80) in either league and his record is 9-0. That's the first time a Dodger pitcher has started 9-0 in 41 years! How the only perfect pitcher in MLB doesn't make the team is a mystery to me and most of the pitchers who made it are guys I never heard of...
Blame your fans. The count I just saw shows Seager roughly 250,000 votes behind Cozart, so he'll make the team. The same tally shows Turner, who has spent over 20 games on the DL, in 3rd place over 800,000 votes behind Arenado and Bryant, who are locked in a close race. The Dodgers lead MLB in attendance. The Cubs are 6th, the Rockies are 8th, and the Reds are 24th. If the Dodgers are getting screwed, it's by their own fans. As far as NL pitchers, I don't have an argument with the choices. I have Wood on my fantasy team. He's a good pitcher, but he also has spent time on the DL, which didn't help him.
I didn't bother to acknowledge the obvious choices of Kershaw, Jansen, and Bellinger. Maybe the Dodger fans recognize that Cozart, Arenado, and Bryant are more deserving THIS YEAR than Seager and Turner. Cozart didn't make the team just on Reds fans' votes. I watch their games, and there are many empty seats. Same with Arenado and Bryant, who each have around 1.9 million votes, which didn't come only from their teams' fans.
Dodgers Kenley Jansen blames Dodger fans for the lack of starters.... He must have tallked to Sid! http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19794018/kenley-jansen-blames-los-angeles-dodgers-fans-not-voting-all-star-game-starters
:idea: :arrow: re: Bryant He's batting around 120 points lower than Turner. That's an All-Star? re: players on the DL The Dodgers use the new DL to make roster moves and to rest players, although Turner was really hurt for awhile. re: the vote What even Kenley doesn't understand is that MOST people in SoCal still can't see the Dodgers on TV. The exclusive cable TV deals prevent that. This still doesn't excuse the dishonest voting in so many places. The Washington fans were especially bad. Is Murphy really the best 2nd baseman in the NL? He's terrible. He's so bad defensively that he doesn't even take infield practice! he just doubles down on his batting cage cuts. Is Zimmerman really better than Goldschmidt or Votto? Even I voted for Buster Posey of Frisco: he earned it!
You can't get too worked up about this.... its an exhibition. Of course the voting is suspect; it is coerced, rigged, underserving players are hyped by their franchises. Give the fans the votes and they'll screw it up every time. Gary Sanchez was chosen for the team. Helluva hitter with power buy almost a total liability behind the plate. I see a Big Papi future for him. My biggest fear is that Aaron Judge will screw up his swing and timing in that stupid Home Run derby. Todd Frazier is still looking for his swing five years later !
:!: :idea: re: HR derby I hate that thing for lots of reasons and players screwing up their timing and swing is only one of them. It's fishing in an aquarium. re: Dodgers vs. Dbacks The pennant race in the West began in earnest tonight and both teams stayed true to form. Arizona is the worst team in baseball against left-handed pitching, so that's all they'll see here: Kershaw, Wood and Hill. One of their "All-Stars" (Jake Lamb) is so bad at hitting lefties that he's not scheduled to play in this series. He pinch hit tonight and walked. Kershaw took a no-hitter into the 7th and got his 13th win. Kenley got the save, but gave up a HR, which was the first earned run he has given in months... Turner hit a double on top of the fence in his first at-bat and homered his 2nd time up. He's leading the voting for the final All-Star slot thanks to the infamous Dodger booster group called "Pentone 294." They're the nice people who have turned San Diego and Frisco into Dodger home games by taking over the stadiums. Right now, they're inside Dodger Stadium with their lap tops voting for Justin Turner around the clock...
I really don't know how good the Astros are even after taking 2 out of 3 from the Yankee's (who are battling their own injury problems) and bashing (literally) the Braves last night in Atlanta. Pitching staff is still thin and tired out but we are producing enough runs to continue to win. We'll get Keuchel, Morton and Musgrave back in July. That should help a lot if they can stay healthy. Keuchel will probably be late July and he's going to have to get some rehab starts in the minors. But I thought we'd be down to a 6 game lead by the 4th of July, and instead we are up to a 16 game lead and 30 games over .500. Not sure we can blow that as far as the division goes but the playoffs are another thing. Our division is not very good and that is part of the reason why we are doing so well. We've not done well vs the Indians and the Red Sox this season. Have to figure that out if we want to get to the WS. We're not the Dodgers that's for sure.
:idea: re: Astros I don't know why they're so hard to analyze. I can't figure them out either. Some of their players, like Altuve, are obviously super stars. Many of the others I haven't seen enough of to have an opinion. They're a good team. The question is; how good?
JO'Co's nightly whine... Alex Wood did it again. The non-All-Star is now 10-0 with an ERA of 1.67 to lead all MLB pitchers in every category. He struck out 10 and gave up three hits. He's the first Dodger pitcher to be 10-0 since relief pitcher Ed Roebuck in 1962. He's also the first Dodger starter to do it since Don Newcombe in 1955... Pitching is the key. The Dbacks came in here with the second best offense in baseball, but they've scored runs in only one inning out of 18 played... The Dodgers are looking to add more starting pitchers before the trade deadline. The names mentioned most often are Justin Verlander, Sonny Gray, and Gerrit Cole.