MLB 2008 Season

[Duppin]

Originally Posted by Blumpster

omg nooooooo. Putz goes down with a rib injury. This doesn't look good, those things can take forever to heal.

If only we still had Rafael Soriano, or George Sherrill, or...

Meh, nevermind.

[Blumpster]

Anyone watch the Yankee's game? Was pretty funny, Alex just struck out and Giambi came up in the bottom of the 9th and flied out deep to left-center, and Orel said "Just not enough juice tonight." after saying Alex was probably the only one who could combat the wind out there. I busted up so hard.

[Ham n Cheese]

Anyone watch the Astros game? Down to 1 strike and down 1, end up getting a walk, a single, an rbi single than a 3R HR off of Hoffman to win by 3.

[Zodiac]

Dude, lol @ Berkman stealing 3rd in the 8th and them calling him Big Puma again. Haven't heard that in awhile.

Edit:

Ham, does it seem like Lee is putting a little more effort into running down balls? Just seemed to me last year that he just didn't cover that well, even in Minute Maid's small LF.

[Ham n Cheese]

Lee has always been a slouch I thought in the field. I really hated the signing due to the money, but he hit well enough last year I don't absolutely hate it like I used to.

Berkman has the worst nicknames, poor Fat Elvis.

[Dennadyne]

KC with another upset over the Tigers. A shutout nevertheless. I hope we get to see more baseball like that from the Royals. I don't expect to, but I hope to

Twins sucked it up again, shutout 1-0 but at least they had some excellent pitching by rookie nick blackburn. 5 hits over 7 innings with 6 k's and only 1 ER. God knows they need the pitching. This guy was supposed to be taking Liriano's spot for the next couple weeks but I bet they keep him and send Baker back to triple A and bring Liriano up.

[Akileese]

Alright, what the FUCK is wrong with Ryan Howard? I'm beginning to think he's a Boras client, or he borders on mental retardation. Taken from Jayson Stark.

NOTE: If you think this isn't true, you haven't been following the guy. He thinks he's fucking jesus.

• Miguel and Ryan: Miguel Cabrera may have had a bearing on Ryan Howard's income level for this year. But don't connect any future dollar-sign dots between those two guys, just because the Tigers were able to sign Cabrera to an eight-year, $153.3-million long-term deal.

In the short term, Cabrera is probably the biggest reason Howard will make $10 million this year. Why? Because many people believe Howard wouldn't have won his arbitration case this spring if the Phillies hadn't made the mistake of submitting a bid lower than the $7.4 million Cabrera won in arbitration last year.

But there are no indications that Cabrera's big deal provides any kind of blueprint that would enable the Phillies to get Howard signed long-term.

For one thing, the two sides haven't spent 10 seconds talking about a deal since the arbitration hearing. For another, Howard and agent Casey Close continue to position him as an unprecedented player, who therefore deserves an unprecedented contract.

So there's no sign they view the Cabrera deal as being any more applicable to Howard's situation than, say, what Mark Teixeira will get in free agency this winter or what Matt Holliday will rake in the winter after that.

Alright. You're NOT A-Rod. On top of that, you're going to be 31 when you hit free agency. You're a career 290 hitter (severely aided by his 06 season, which I think will be his peak) and on top of that, you didn't even pull a 400 OPB last year.

Look, Ryan Howard can drive in runs and he's gonna hit home runs. The problem is his service time is so minimal (it'll be 3 years after this year) and aside from 2006, his 2007 season wasn't great. If you look strictly at his power numbers, it was solid. Once you dig deeper and look into his strikeout rate, his OBP, and non intentional walks, it was an alright season, but nothing epic.

His whole situation bugs the fuck out of me. No one will give a 32 year old outside of A-Rod that much years and money and that seems to be what he wants. Not only that, but aside from his career year, he's fucking dreadful vs lefties. .238/.328/.488 with 33 homers and 97 RBIs. Compare that to his righty splits .317/.431/.671 with 94 homers and 192 RBIs. Now, the ABs is 467 vs 955, but I think most will argue 450 ABs is more than a big enough sample size for how well a guy can hit. What's more frightening about the whole thing is he's left handed. A guy like David Ortiz has a 269/375/559 line vs lefties so while his power numbers aren't as good (as expected with a smaller sample size), he'll still get on base.

Ok, I'm done throwing out stats to show that Ryan Howard isn't good vs lefties and that he's not worth 10 years and 200 million. Phillies fans, I await your angry messages and poss telling me I'm wrong. Fire away.

[Duppin]

Man, did Scott Boras fuck your girlfriend in front of you or something?

[Akileese]

Originally Posted by Duppin

Man, did Scott Boras fuck your girlfriend in front of you or something?

Nah man, he just has a track record of attempting to get 7x market value for his guys which is EXACTLY what Howard is attempting to do. I'm pretty sure you've used that one already too.

Also congrats for pointing out 1 minuscule point and NOT contributing anything positive to the thread, but by all means continue.

[Duppin]

I've already contributed a bunch of stuff to the thread, your irrational hate-on for Boras just amuses me.

In any case, you already made another thread to complain about Boras in, use that one!

[Akileese]

Originally Posted by Duppin

I've already contributed a bunch of stuff to the thread, your irrational hate-on for Boras just amuses me.

In any case, you already made another thread to complain about Boras in, use that one!

where did I complain about him? Rofl. I just said that Ryan Howard is asking for about 7 times his market value which means he's gone insane or he signed with Boras since that's what he does. The Boras thing was merely a fucking joke and it's obvious that you had no intention of contributing anything to my argument that Ryan Howard may be the most overrated player of the last decade. I mean, people forget that he's barely arby eligible and he's going to be 29, can't hit lefties, and doesn't get on base enough. How the hell that's worth 20 million dollars is beyond me.

Say what you want about A-Rod and his love for manly strippers, but the guy can draw walks, get hits, and is always a tough out. Even Soriano has improved on his terrible strikeout rate and oh by the way, he's also younger than Howard.

I'm very wary of these guys that somehow magically find their stroke right as they should be reaching their prime and try to bank off one great year. If he can put up a line like his 06 line for the next 2 years, I'll retract my statements but until he does so, I have to continue to believe he's terribly overrated and not worth it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the guy has a lot of issues as a player, just the ability to read stats.

[tjac]

Originally Posted by Akileese

Alright, what the FUCK is wrong with Ryan Howard?

I don't know that anything is wrong with him. There's too much hype behind Howard, and he's cashing in on it while he can. He's rumored to have parents guiding his business decisions, maybe that's a bad thing about him. I'm more inclined to ask, "What's wrong with the Phillies?" instead.

I like the Phillies (because I grew up with them), and Howard is fun to watch hit homeruns, frustrating to watch when he's being walked, and painful to watch when he's striking out or committing fielding errors. I'd trade him in an instant for an ace pitcher.

The Phillies and their management are so disappointing. I feel bad for Chase Utley. He deserves to be on a top team, but I think he's locked up through 2014 =/

[Dennadyne]

I think I need to watch more NL baseball. My blinders have me paying most attention to the AL. I don't know a ton about howard but I've seen his stats and I just don't see a first baseman pulling in $20M/year for any substantial duration (if at all).

[Ham n Cheese]

If JD Drew can pull in $16m a year, anything is possible

[Dennadyne]

Originally Posted by Ham n Cheese

If JD Drew can pull in $16m a year, anything is possible

so true.. or if carlos silva can get $12M/year.. or torii hunter pulling in $18M/year