soccer10k

That doesn't sound like fun.

I've heard simulated beer is quite stale. I would stay away, even if it costs zero simulated dollars.

I find myself looking forward to this post in every game thread. Not kidding. I agree. Mainly because we are awesome.

But we are also on pace for 341 more runs this year than last year. Home runs with more men on base.

Haha. Anyone have stats on how Kerry Wood does in simulated games? Also when we know who the batter is can we get stats between Kerry Wood and the batter?

I understand it's early but I really love the sweep of the Cardinals last weekend. I think that meant a lot for a young team. If we can take two out of three against them next weekend in St Louis, that would be huge as well. Overall, I think our starting pitching needs to improve, mainly Z. I like that we are able to score 11 runs without hitting a home run. I understand the importance of the home run, but I felt we relied on it way too much. I think Pierre will be better as a leadoff hitter than anyone we have had in the past couple years (Kenny Lofton comes to mind but he was only here for a couple months). The young guys, Murton and Cedeno, are producing. The bullpen has performed like we expected it to as well. I'm impressed by the start but we need to keep it up.

Raising the mounds would only make it harder to hit the ball. Not sure what you mean. You guys give baseball executives way too much credit. By the way, I'm not basing my opinion on what some may call a wild goose chase, and personally I find some of the comments in this thread condescending and insulting. I was making an observation based on what I've seen after personally watching parts of nearly 50 different games on mlb.tv. If it keeps up all year and certain pitchers end up with say 5-10 homeruns can I post a painting of an ostritch with his head in the sand? Would that be appropriate? Fixed. Sorry about the mistake. I was typing quickly and didn't check what I wrote. Lowering the mound then. I see what you are saying, but I don't think you can use less than two weeks of a baseball season to say that the ball is juiced. But if these early season home runs aren't a trend but the norm, then by all means point it out to me and say "I was write and you, soccer10k, were wrong." This goes for just about anything. Two weeks just isn't long enough.

You make an excellent point. I for one would hate to see our bullpen get run down. That is the last thing we need. If we can rely on our starters to go 5-6 innings, our pen should be able to do the rest.

I agree. I wouldn't necessarily want them at Wrigley, but if the Reds think it will help the team and bring more fans in, more power to the Reds.

It stopped raining for yesterday's home opener. Like I said, I want to go see a game anyway just to see how our minor leaguers look but it would be nice to get to see Prior making a rehab start.

I think it all depends. I know that Sheets made both of his rehab starts for the Brewers with farm teams that were on the road. The first was in Jackson, Mississippi on the road for the AA team. The second was in Iowa on the road for the Brewers AAA team. I think it depends on the team and the situation. Wood should be through with his rehab by then, but there is a chance you could see Prior or Miller. Maybe you'll get a chance to see Rusch by then as well. :) Oh god I hope not. Not that I wouldn't want to see Rusch off the Major League team, I just don't want to see him pitch.

are you drunk? :) i am. edit. i realized no one cared, but tha fact remains. At least somebody is.

I think I've read it four or five times and I'm still not sure what Griffey is implying.

I agree. One superstar player is not a substitute for a quality team of players. Felix is good, but we would be mortgaging the teams future. To further put in perspective, we'd be giving up a pretty good reliever, plus the #1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 prospects in our system(BA rankings). I definately don't think you should trade 5 of your best young prospects for a player that is only going to take the field once out of every five days. I could maybe see doing it with a position player like Pujols, MAYBE. But that had better be one hell of a player. Also you have to consider the injury risk. If your one star player gets injured, you're screwed. Whereas if you keep those five prospect and one gets injured, you still have the other four. In baseball, one player doesn't win you a championship. The same goes for football. However, if this was basketball, then it might be worth it since one player can completely change a franchise (re: Michael Jordan). I bet the odds are fairly good that one of those five players will make multiple All Star games in his career and another could make one or two. Throw in an average everyday player, and have the other two washout, and that is still three players that make contributions to your team. So like I said, I would maybe do it for a position player but I would never make that trade for any pitcher. Unless he's going to make 70-80 starts in a year and throw 450 innings. Then I would consider it. But I highly doubt we'll ever see another pitcher like that.

I agree, but history hasn't been kind to phenom pitchers. Here's hoping his career's a long one. The Mariners need to ban the words Dwight Gooden from ever being spoken in their clubhouse.

As for Clemens going back to Boston, I know the team would love to have him back, but I don't think the fans would like him too much. I'm sure if he was pitching well then they wouldn't boo him, but the fans would be much quicker to boo Clemens if he wasn't pitching well then they would another player. Clemens dogged it his last two years in Boston (as evidenced by his two Cy Young years in Toronto) and didn't say nice things when he left. I just don't know how well he would be received in Boston. He would definately get a much warmer welcome in either New York or Houston though.

Agreed (I do think Maddux should go in as a Brave. I was just posing a question for the other thread. There is absolutely no way you can make a legitimate case for either Toronto or Houston. New York you could make a small case for (like Chicago with Maddux) since he did win his only World Series there. But ultimately, he should go in with a Red Sox cap. A majority of his stats were accumulated while was with the Red Sox. Whether or not he wants to wear a Red Sox cap is a whole different story.

This is Jerome's chance to prove he is better than Rusch and deserves a spot in the rotation until Prior/Wood/Miller return. Hopefully he'll pitch like something is on the line (cause for him there is). And it is very nice winning.

all of the online scoreboards are real slow today. Yeah. ESPN.com shows the final score being 8-6 and didn't credit us for the 3 runs in the ninth.

I'm not sure that's such a good thing.

Did anyone ever consider that it could just be a coincidence? What's next? What if there is a day when only 20 HR's are hit; are you going to ask should the mound be raised again? No. It was one day with a lot of home runs and nothing to make a big deal about. If the pace continues over the course of the season, then you have a legitimate question to ask. But we aren't even 2 weeks into the season. Everybody is feeling good and hasn't suffered the normal wear-and-tear of the baseball season yet.

Ah yes. The obligatory Grady Little bullpen joke. Gotta love those. Somebody had to say it.

I live about 20 minutes from the Sacramento Rivercats stadium and the Iowa Cubs are supposed to come to Sacramento May 22 - May 25 and I was wondering about minor league rehab starts. Does it matter where the minor league teams are playing when the MLB team chooses where the rehab assignments are (i.e. preferring that the players start games in certain places not too far from Chicago) or does that not matter. Because based on the tentative schedule it's possible that either Prior or Wood could be making rehab starts around that time and I would really love to go see them. I'm going to go to one or two of the games anyway just to see our young guys, but I'm wondering if it's possible that either Prior or Wood could make a start there if that is how their rehab is set up? Note: I am not saying I expect either of them to make those starts and by no means am I trying to set a timetable for their return. I would never try to jinx them like that. I'm wondering about how teams do their rehab assignments.

Yup, definitely agree. Guzman still sounded rusty and had some problems with the control - especially his breaking pitches - despite not walking anyone. Hill starts tomorrow, Ryu Sunday. I don't mind giving Williams a shot to start. But why are we letting Rusch start again? Why don't we give Hill or Ryu a chance to if Guzman's control isn't up to par? As for Rusch going to the Astros, I would much rather see him go to the American League so we don't have to face him again. You know he would pitch one of those "I'm going to show my old team why they shouldn't have let me go" type games. It's virtually guaranteed.

I'm assuming that means you do the recaps.