<p>well, the all-star brake is over, so now it's time for the teams to start getting on the track for postseason. personally i'm a diamondbacks fan, and with their roller-coaster-like first half, as they say it, i don't really know what to expect from them the second half, but i'd sure like them to get things straight, thank god that hideous 8-20 june is behind. i think they've got a pretty good shot at NL West, 5 games back is not a very big number.
so what are your favorite teams and what are their perspectives for the second half and postseason?</p>
<p>mark teixeira...dayum...he's back alright</p>
<p>I'm a Blue Jays fan. They're in the best position for a post-season spot than they've been in in over a decade. Offensively thus far they have been amazing (.293 team average!); alas, as always, the problem has been pitching. We desperately need another strong veteran starter, behind Roy Halladay. Why we could not manage to snag one during the off-season is beyond me.</p>
<p>well, the jays got troy glaus from, heh, our dbacks, and they're paying him a lot of money, so they didnt have any left for a good starter. that was the one of the reasons we traded him - not enough production, not enough husteling and too many errors over at third for the money he was paid. i bet you didnt pay hudson nearly as much as you are paying him. but he's having much better season this year.
as a matter of fact, we've got the same problem: outside brandon webb our rotation is flip a coin. they can give up 9 runs in the first inning, or two-hit the best team in the NL for 8 innings. a lot of people on our tv are saying we might get barry zito or dontrelle willis, but i'm sure thats just rumors
by the way, what can you say about orlando hudson? as far as i see, he's a very nice defender but somewhat mediocre with the bat.
PS b.j. ryan rocks! you guys got an awesome closer.</p>
<p>red. sawkssssssssssssss.</p>
<p>red sox all the way baby!!!! World Series Champs 2006! No way any team can beat our line-up with Manny, and David Ortiz, the most clutch hitter in the game, just to mention a few. Our pitching will be stellar after we acquire some guys and get everyone healthy. Closing absolutely solid with Pappelbon, and our defense is amazing. Oh yes.</p>
<p>i live in cleveland and my team makes me sad.</p>
<p>haha im sorry</p>
<p>paul byrd is my neighbor and his children are noisy.</p>
<p>I'm a twins and a yankees fan.
The yankees really need to get healthy at the OF corners with Sheff and Matsui. Boston hasn't taken advantage of all the Yankee injuries, but we have been fortunate that Jaret Wright has stepped up. Biggest impact yankee will be Octavio Dotel who can be the nastiest setup man in the league. I wouldn't mind aquiring another quality SP.</p>
<p>The Twins have an outside shot of making the playoffs. With the best duo in the league--Johan/Liriano we can win any year. Mauer and Morneau have been huge, but I hope we stick with our youth such as Kubel/Barlett/Cuddyer. Stewart and Lohse will be traded, and Radke/Hunter could possibly be dealt as well. If either Detroit or Chi falls apart we could easily grab the WC spot.</p>
<p>My team NYY, seems like they are doomed this year. Steinbrinner doesn't care as he's retiring next year and handing the team off to Swindal (what a name for a yankees owner!). I doubt that any big deals involving soriano are going to occur, considering what talent the nationals got for practically nothing from the reds. This will be a steep price. </p>
<p>Preditions: yanks in 3rd miss playoffs, torre moved upstairs, bowa manager, sheff gone, payroll falls back to under 200 million, and A-rod gets ALL of the blame</p>
<p>I think yankees got 2 big problems: production players on the DL (godzilla, sheff) and starters not really working up to the expectations: shawn chacon's performance is incompareble with last year's after coming from colorado, randy johnson is pitching horrible by his standards (i'm a dbacks fan, i know what i'm talking about here ;) )
the red sox are definetely looking very good this season: solid pitching, both starting and relief, powerful offence, just playing neat baseball. but the division isn't theirs yet: yankees are yankees, and toronto is also capable of making a run, they're only 4.5 games back. winning the wild card could be even harder than AL east, with the way the sox and especially the tigers have been going.</p>
<p>Rangers have to win the AL West this year.</p>
<p>baseball is boring.</p>
<p>"by the way, what can you say about orlando hudson? as far as i see, he's a very nice defender but somewhat mediocre with the bat.
PS b.j. ryan rocks! you guys got an awesome closer."</p>
<p>O-Dog was a fan favorite around here and I was sorry to see him go. He's a Gold Glover. But yeah, he just doesn't produce enough at the plate or on the basepaths. </p>
<p>B.J. Ryan has far exceeded all hopes and expectations. 24 saves, 0.84 ERA, just 21 hits given up 42.2 innings with 54 K's. Unbelievable. He'll win the bloody Cy Young Award if he keeps this up. Thus far, he has proven himself to be the best closer the Jays have had since the days of Duane Ward and Tom Henke.</p>
<p>"baseball is boring."</p>
<p>If you ask me, hockey, basketball, and soccer are boring. If you think about it, fundamentally they are all the same sport. Put puck/ball in net; stop puck/ball from going into your net. It's so basic. Baseball may move at a slower pace, but there is so much more going on, so much more strategy. Baseball is a thinking man's game. It is also the hardest. Have you ever stepped into the batter's box against a 95-mph fastball? Putting wood on that is probably one of the most difficult things known to man.</p>
<p>Not to mention a round bat on a round ball :)</p>
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</p>
<p>B.J. Ryan has far exceeded all hopes and expectations. 24 saves, 0.84 ERA, just 21 hits given up 42.2 innings with 54 K's. Unbelievable. He'll win the bloody Cy Young Award if he keeps this up. Thus far, he has proven himself to be the best closer the Jays have had since the days of Duane Ward and Tom Henke.
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</p>
<p>Screw him.</p>
<p>My beloved O's are on pace to lose just under 100 games and finish 4 yet again in the AL East. At least it won't be the crash and burn that last season was (if you remember, we were first in the division for a long long time before a catastrophic collapse). My only consolation is that there's a good chance the Yankees won't make it in.</p>
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baseball is boring.
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baseball is boring to people that dont know a thing about baseball.
Fides et Ratio
we used to have a closer like that in jose valverde for about two months this season. 97-98 mph fastball, perfectly spotted, just blew it by people all the time. he was averaging around 2.3 strikeouts per inning. but in late may he just fell apart, couldnt get anybody out. like they said it on tv once, "if your pitching or offence is struggling, you can still win games, if you closer is struggling, you lose pretty much no matter what" good thing we got jorge julio from the mets, at least we have a decent closer now.
people here like o-dog too, he's cool and passionate on the field, and a very good defender. but we might deal him because we have to make room for some top prospects in our organization.
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My only consolation is that there's a good chance the Yankees won't make it in.
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its kinda funny that when yankees or red sox are struggling, AL east gets so much more competitive :)
btw, did anybody see the padres-braves game last night? possibly one of the wildest games i've ever seen.</p>
<p>No, dima1109, tell us what happened</p>