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Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spots
You are traveling through another dimension...
Having shared baseball's best, regular-season record, the Cubs and the surprisingTampa Rays, making their first-ever trip to baseball's post-season, enter the 2008 playoffs assured of home-field advantage in the first two rounds.
In the NL, Lou Piniella's Cubs, reaching the post-season in
consecutive years for the first time since 1908, when they also won
their last World Championship, will hope to continue their superb play
at Wrigley Field this season as they host their National League
Division Series with the NL West champion, Arizona.
Florida,
which won the NL East and left the division's prohibitive pre-season
favorites, the Mets, in the dust, will host the Cardinals, the NL Wild
Card winner and another unexpected participant in baseball's playoff
derby.
...a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind.
In the ALDS, Tampa will host the almost-as-surprising White Sox, while
the Angels will host the Red Sox, the defending World Series champs and
this year's AL Wild Card team.
A journey into a wondrous land of imagination.
It's impossible, at least for a Chicago baseball fan, to look at this year's post-season field and not imagine a Cubs-White Sox World Series match-up. If it comes to pass, it will be a replay of the 1906 series, in which the White Sox dumped the Cubs, four games to two.
The '06 White Sox were known as the "Hitless Wonders" for compiling a .230 team batting average, lowest in the AL. This year's edition of the team also won despite an often feeble offense that featured three regulars, Nick Swisher, Jim Thome, and Paul Konerko, whose averages were barely above .200.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella has announced that Carlos Zambrano will start the first game of the Cubs/Arizona series, with Ryan Dempster taking the mound to start Game 2.
The rest of the Cubs rotation remains undetermined.
Next stop, the Twilight Zone.
Comments
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
this time, no fastballs over the plate to Chris Young if you pleeze.
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
I could also do without the Ted Lilly tantrum.
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
I could do without Dumb and Dumber (Kasper and Brenly) in the booth.
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
I'm fine with Brenly, but I'm not so big on Kasper. They still beat ESPN and FOX by a long shot. I guess I just don't like most sports broadcasters, come to think of it.
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
I could do without losing.
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
Say it right: I could do without a crappy lineup.
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
I could do without all of the curse references by the media.
Re: Major League Playoffs to Begin; Cubs, Rays Hold Down Top Spo
This is just asking for bad juju.
The Gladiator is done
See ya, Sammy.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3415614
Re: The Gladiator is done
Sounds more like he's trying to drum up some interest.
1/3 of the way into the season and
Bryan Roberts .262 .352 .417 28R 17RBI
Cubs' 2B'ers .317 .400 .429 34R 31RBI
Cubs are solid.
JMHO but Hendry really wasted too much time on the big deal that never happened when anyone with eyes could see that CF was the problem he should have been fixing.
Re: 1/3 of the way into the season and
The only move I thought made sense that Hendry could've bothered looking into was signing Hiroki Kuroda as a free agent. Instead we got Lieber, who has been pretty good anyway. We looked set in CF with Pie and Patterson, as the only big bats available were Hunter and Andruw Jones, and, well, they don't really fit. The Cubs didn't have that much money to spend and really wanted a lefty slugger, not a righty. I definitely agree though that not getting Brian Roberts worked out pretty well.
Troy Percival
anyone know what happened?
from Rotoworld
Troy Percival collapsed on the mound after striking out Brandon Boggs on Wednesday.
Re: Troy Percival
ah...Rotoworld just being retarded...can't even get the names right
Wheeler apparently injured himself after planting his left leg. He
stood up and started limping around, but the Rays took him out of the
game. It's unclear just how serious the injury is, but Dan Wheeler
would likely assume the closing job if Percival misses time.
Re: Troy Percival
Rob... it was Percival who got hurt, at least according to Dave Pinto:
The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
NL fans got it right at:
C: Soto
1b: Berkman
3b: Chipper
Got it wrong, but not badly at:
2b: Utley (Uggla)
SS: Hanram (Furcal)
Were really wrong:
OF: Soriano, Fukudome, Griffey (should be McLouth, Holliday, Burrell)
AL Fans are worse voters, they only got it right at:
DH Ortiz
SS Jeter
Got it wrong, but not badly at:
1b Youkilis (Morneau)
OF Manram/Ichiro (of the guys on the ballot these two are a tie for 3rd IMO, but Quentin deserves to go)
3b Arod (Crede, Does have the best numbers of the AL 3b with enough ab's to qualify for the batting crown but Arod will end the 1st half with better numbers anyways)
Totally screwed up:
C: Varitek (Mauer)
2b: Pedroia (Kinsler)
OF Manram/Ichiro (Bradley)
OF Vlad (Hamilton)
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
dueling All-Star updates...
and they've got nothing wrong with Utley.
at this point in the vote, it's more about which team has had more home games.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Agreed. Utley belongs there. Uggla and Utley's numbers are pretty similar right now, but Utley is the better defender.
Soriano and Fukudome don't look like they belong in the All-Star game right now, though Fuki is doing everything anyone should've expected him to (he just doesn't have the pop to contend with other potential All-Stars).
Of the Cubs, guys who should be shoe-ins are Zambrano, Marmol, and Soto. Guys who should probably back up the starters are A-Ram and Lee (though neither will probably make it, since Jones and Wright will likely be the 3B guys and Berkman and Pujols will man 1B).
Theriot in at 4th? Really? Hanley, Rollins, Furcal, Tejada, Reyes, Drew... I mean, I like Theriot and all, he's a good, cheap player who hustles and is having a good year with the bat so far, but he beat out all but three of those guys?
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Middle relievers don't make all-star teams, nor should they.
The only baseball fans that actually want to see Marmol pitch are the ones that already watch him regularly.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
I disagree about Marmol. Yes, it's true that normally middle relievers are the worst pitchers on the team and that they normally don't bring much to the table. However, Marmol is different because his stuff is absolutely electric. It's like K-Rod before he closed, or Brad Lidge before he closed, etc. He's got the stuff to close and would excite fans watching the game.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Talent and performance are not why we have the all-star game.
It's about who the fans want to see play. Most people don't even know who Marmol is yet.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Ah, but it's the *players* who vote for the pitchers. The more Zeus dominates, the better chance he has.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
I thought the managers chose the pitchers.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Managers used to pick all the pitchers and reserves, but that changed about 5 years ago. Current process goes something like this:
Fans vote in the starting position players. The players vote for the pitchers and for one backup player at each position. The managers nominate the remaining 4 or so spots (ensuring that each team is represented), and then the fans vote in the last bubble player (stupid, imho). Commissioner's office has some oversight, too.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
I spent a little time looking for an official reference on this to no avail. You'd think they'd have a rulebook or something published. :P
Here's last year's player ballot voting -- it shows backups for every position, as well as 5 starters and 3 relievers. It seems that most of the remaining manager picks must be pitchers. They usually carry 12 arms, I think.
That said, I wonder what Hurdle thinks of Zeus...
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Usually there is a difference between middle relievers and set-up men, and we've already had a bunch of people list on here the set-up men who have made the All-Star Game in past seasons. The game is also about showcasing talent that perhaps others don't get to see. If you let the fans just control the entire roster and pick those that they want to see, the team wouldn't be as good or as interesting. Also, if you want the NL to win for possible home field advantage, I want Marmol on the mound late.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
IIRC:
Donnelly and Nelson were homer picks by their own manager.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
Donnelly was picked by Scioscia, and Nelson was picked by Torre to play in Seattle.
Re: The ambodination that is All-star voting results so far
2001 All Star game
Nelson played for Torre in 2000.
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