Other Baseball

Of course a lot of it is his own doing, including watching a pop up land a foot from him, but the Cardinals defense is atrocious thus far. One of my many pet peeves about baseball is the pitcher's refusal to catch a ball hit right to him.

EDIT: Never mind; can't make it.

I loved Leyland's little shake-up of the line-up (moving Jackson down one and everyone else up one). I especially love his comment "got to churn the butter." Got me thinking about whether Gardenhire would have made a similar move. He always seems so set on everybody being in their comfort zone.

What does everyone think about MLB's postseason coverage? I typically like TBS more than Fox because I can tolerate the announcing far more easily. I don't really care for Darling but I liked the early rounds with Eck, Buck Martinez, Joe Simpson, etc. I also like the pre and post game shows because it's obvious it's in the same manner as TNT's NBA coverage. I think Pedro has been a pleasant surprise for me and Olbermann has grown on me throughout the past two weeks. Verducci is ok and I think Sheffield is actually pretty decent. I'm glad they got rid of Dirk Hayhurst as I didn't find him knowledgeable or funny- a bad combo. Little things like "Who's your daddy" and the…

I had no idea who this kid is but I watched him throw three spring training innings and Wow... Simple Wow... He blew me away. i know it's only three innings and its only ST but my goodness... This kid has out of this world like stuff... I also watched Bundy throw a couple of innings... He was good... Wacha was much much more. That stuff is legit... He won't be in the minors long. If you get a chance to check him out... Do so... Wow... Hard fastball... Sick change up and a breaking pitch that freezes the hitter.

I have to ask after putting up another incredible season this year. It's hard to believe he had multiple years that were better than anything in Perkins' career. It seems like Mariano is a lock and Joe in his 5-6 year prime was not much more than a step below him. Joe is/was significantly better at accumulating strikeouts than Rivera too. He's 10th in career saves, had five 2.00>ERA seasons, a 1.091 career WHIP, a career 2.76 ERA, and a 9.6 career K/9. It's tough for relievers to get into Cooperstown and he's probably not first ballet, but am I wrong to think he gets in after a few years of eligibility?

McCann slugged a solid .000 :s-bluecap::s-bluecap:

Something I'd done on BYTO in the past that created some good commenting back and forth was annual fantasy rankings and a review at the end of the season as to how those rankings panned out. I've already posted them on another site, and I'm curious of the interest here. To save board space, I'd post them all in this thread with a new one each day.

I generally don't think of A-Roid very often, but after the last couple of days its hard not to. He is suing everybody! MLB, Bud Selig, Yankee doctors, NYC hospitals....who's next? My thoughts are this: He's guilty, he'll be banned from baseball (and the HOF), thereby nullifying his contract, so he is suing everybody in hopes that he'll win at least one of them and receive a huge settlement. This will allow him to leave the game on his own terms (in his mind anyway), and score one more huge payday. Everyone's thoughts and comments appreciated (rip him to shreds but stay within TD comment policy )!

I see that Dusty Baker made himself expendable in Cincinnati by not winning in the post-season. Given that the Twins just re-signed their own manager for two seasons, it's an interesting compare and contrast situation. A wag mentioned in another thread here that he'd like to see Baker ruin a few of the lesser arms in the Twins AAAA roster. At least, I HOPE and TRUST he said it waggishly. Me, I would love to see how well Trevor Plouffe and a few of the other allegedly mellow guys would get along with crusty Dusty.

1.The Dodgers will not run away with the NL West. I'll say they won't even make the playoffs. 2. The Now 5 team NL Central could be interesting and I'm certain that the Cards will be somewhere in the mix. 3. The Braves will win the AL East with pitching... Not Hitting. 4. Whoever wins the AL West will have the worst record of all the division winners. 5. The Yankees will fall hard and ESPN will have experts on every day to explain the collapse. Joe Girardi will be looking for work next year. 6. Someone... Maybe the Royals will push the Tigers hard in the AL Central... The Tigers won't runaway with it. 7. Some team that everyone thought was crap... …

The Twins suck and the season is winding down. No worry, Justin Morneau and the Pirates are in a Pennant Race. Everyone loves Morneau and everyone wants to root for the formerly lovable-losers. Me, or anyone who does it first, will use this thread to provide updates on how they are doing leading up to and throughout the playoffs.

In the wake of some of the Carlos Gomez discussion, I thought this article might be worth a look. Latino players bring much- needed flair to baseball. | SportsonEarth.com : Jorge Arangure Jr. Article Whichever side you lean more strongly toward, I think this article makes some thoughtful points well worth considering.

Hey guys - new member here. I've been reading the forums and articles for a while now and finally decided to join. I read the WSJ online daily and they had a cool video analysis by former Tiger's hitting coach Don Slaught of Miguel Cabrera's swing. It was educational for me as I don't know much about analyzing a player's swing, other than "that looks pretty!" It was also interesting to see the comparisons between years and to other players. I thought it might be interesting for anyone who cared to check it out. See ya! Video - Miguel Cabrera and the Art of Hitting. - WSJ.com

Delmon Young was designated for assignment so that the Phils could add Casper Wells. Need I say more? If Oliveros comes back and posts any substantial innings, the trade of Delmon Young will be a success.

Concordia's Burgau to make way for Coste as head coach | INFORUM | Fargo, ND Most here may not care too much, but it's finally official, so I'll put in a plug for a good friend and my alma mater. According to the above Fargo Forum article, the 33 Year Old Rookie, Chris Coste, will be taking over the head coaching job from Bucky Burgau at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. Burgau has coached the Cobbers for 36 seasons and 2014 will be his final. Coste, who started Game 1 of the 2008 World Series for the Phillies against Scott Kazmir and the Rays, is a Fargo native who was a three-time MIAC Player of the Year. He went undrafted and played independent baseball, primaril…

Going into the last 30 or so games, the identity of the NL Batting Champion this year is unknown, but it looks like it will be an unlikely winner. Since before the All-Star break, the leaders have been Yadier Molina and Chris Johnson. Michael Cuddyer has been second or third most of the time. None of these guys would have been a great bet to win the batting crown when the season opened. Following this trio is a pair of names who would be classified as better known--Andrew McCutchen and Joey Votto--but they haven't really challenged at this point Puig of the Dodgers is hitting .346, but has only 301 PAs, 201 fewer than required to qualify for the hardware. He might …

Report: Raicel Iglesias Detained For Attempted Defection - BaseballAmerica.com There was a report that he had defected a few days ago but it sounds like he was caught before he could do it.

Someone please tell me they just watched him homer and then get ejected. that was classic.

Dude's about to go 9-3 with an ERA of 2.00 over 76.2 IP. Not saying we should've kept him. I'm just wondering what is so drastically different now than the last few years.

Minor League Catcher Brandon Douglas Gets Drilled At Home Plate By Runner - YouTube The runner went to the same high school as me. He always had the biggest hits on the football field. Oh and Brandon Douglas is the baserunner, not the catcher.

Michael Cuddyer's BA currently stands at .334, highest of his career and currently highest in the NL. I'd like to congratulate him on making the transition to the NL and improving with age. Best BA of his professional life, best OBP, Slugging Percentage (despite "only" 20 HR, a little better than his 32 HR season in 2009) and OPS. But as I look at the Coors Field background, it looks like there are trees in the batter's eye. I always assumed he was basically elected to be the spokesman on removing the trees at TF but it is still hard for me to ignore that the TF trees were removed. I'm not suggesting a "curse of the trees". Maybe its more that removing the trees a…

How is that not an error? The throw pulled Adams off the bag and he would have been out. Even more ridiculously they then pull Wacha.

I hadn't realized how effective Hamilton has been for the Reds. He already has 13 SB in just 11 games. Here's video of him stealing four in one game - including on a pitch out. Video: CIN@HOU: Hamilton steals four bags in first MLB start | MLB.com

Good to see LNP is still at it... here's a link to a video of him sliding head first on a hit to the outfield. Y! SPORTS

Grantland's Bryan Curtis profiles baseball historian David Block, who is rewriting our understanding of the origins of baseball. How? And so we come up with all kinds of references that show that some game called "base-ball" was so common in the mid 1700s that there was no need to explain it. Eveyone played it. Including....well..... Baseball archaeologist David Block - Grantland

If the Twins never win a World Series again in my lifetime, I will look back to the dog-pile celebration following the Twins' Game 5 victory over Oakland in the 2002 ALDS. Denny Hocking caught the final out, sealing the Twins' win. During the celebration, Jacque Jones apparently stepped on his hand, knocking Denny out of the ALCS. The Twins haven't won so much as a playoff series since. I mean you can actually pinpoint the moment that Denny Hocking went from top of the world to misery. And that coincides perfectly with the Twins' inability to get to the next level too. Twins' infielder Hocking out of ALCS I for one think we need to start thinking about these past…

I'm driving solo over to Houston from Austin for the Labor Day day game. Looking to see if any fellow Twins fans will be in attendance for the series. Would like to meet up if so! It's my one and only chance to see the Twins in person this season, unrecognizable as they may be.

Diamondbacks Designate Jason Kubel: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com From 30 hr last year to a .324 slg percent this year. Rough season for him.

Friend of the site Sarah Johnson passes this along: Its 5 mins long and, I thought, a good primer to pre-Twins baseball in MN. On a side note, I'd love to feature more historical stuff n this site.