[Tiste Simeon]

Anyone into it? The pre-season is currently underway and the season starts at the end of this month. Any predictions or thoughts on the coming season? World Series winner guesses?

I support the greatest team around and I will give much rep to anyone who also supports them. I'm not going to tell you who it is though cos I know you rep-whores will just say it to get rep. If ye get it right, the rep is coming your way!!

[paladin]

predictions?

AL

East
(Devil) Rays finally win some games. Yankees finish 4th, Boston, Toronto, and Tampa fight for the top 3 positions. Division beats each other up so much no wildcard candidate emerges

West
Angels win the west. Mariners compete for wildcard.

Central
Cleaveland and Detroit fight for division and wildcard. I'd say its about 75/25 the wildcard comes out of the Central at this point in time.

NL
East
A mess. Everyone can potentially contend. Wildcard? Maybe. A healthy Mets team will probably win the division because of Pedro and Santana

West
Arizona, San Diego, Colorado, and LA all have teams capable of winning the division. Most likely they will beat each other up all year and not get the wildcard.

Central
Such a bad division that the Cubs might actually win it. If 2 teams can be good in this division the wildcard will come out of it because it looks terrible right now.

World Series
Angels and NL West winner.

[Slum]

Yankees finish 4th? In your dreams, hater!


Born and raised in NY, so, yeah, I'm a Yankees fan.

[RodeoRanch]

C'mon Cubbies! It's only been a century!

[Optimus Prime]

My Predictions

AL East:
1. Boston, 2. Blue Jays, 3. Yankees, 4. Rays (more competitive, might get close to .500 this year) 5. Orioles, what a mess that team is.

AL Central:
1. Tigers, 2. Indians (wild card), 3. Royals (lots of talent) 4. White Sox, 5. Twins

AL West:
1. Mariners, 2. Angels (between them and Indians for Wild Card), 3. Oakland, 4. Rangers (hopeless franchise w/ no pitching)

NL East:

1. Mets (if Santana stays healthy) 2. Braves (wild card), 3. Phillies,

NL Central:

1. Cubs, it's finally their year!

NL West: Padres

[paladin]

Slumgullion Spitteler;274187 said:

Yankees finish 4th? In your dreams, hater!


Born and raised in NY, so, yeah, I'm a Yankees fan.

New manager + young unproven staff and old geezers + old position players all over the diamond = dropoff is going to come sometime

I predict the Rays will win a lot of games this year, and it will be at the expense of division foes.

The Red Sox won the WS and are less impacted this year by age/wear than the Yankees are.

Blue Jays just need their pitchers to remain healthy at the same time and they will be a contender for the division title.

I think the division is really going to beat itself up and in the end we may see a 5 game difference between first and fourth place. I put the Yankees 4th because of the new manager(with a totally different style), very old closer(he slipped early last year but recovered some. isnt going to hold up forever), very old catcher, declining outfielders, and a pitching rotation that is definitely in the air with no ace(wang? please. aces get strikeouts). Will the Yankees suck? Nah, but they will have their struggles. The division is just too strong and the Yankees are too old and too young with not enough in the middle. I really don't think they will finish first with their rotation. The only starter with significant major league experience that isn't old or injury prone(looking at you Pavano) is Wang, and he can't carry the team.

[Optimus Prime]

I think the Rays will be much better, and I agree, the Yanks are going downhill.

You have to admit Slum, the Steinbrenner boys are not even close to the man their dad is. They seem like bumbling fools. i think the yankees are heading towards another stretch pre-Torre era......

Boston stays healthy it's their division to lose of course.

The NL is much more intriguing...I'm really pulling for the Cubs.

[Tiste Simeon]

Rep for Paladin - Tiste is a big Angels fan! I think with Jered Weaver as pitcher and a strong team of batters they have a strong chance this year.

[Slum]

It may not be the Yanks' year, sure. But I think they've got a lot of young pitching and a better lineup than any other AL East team. It all depends on the old guys staying productive and healthy.

Now, I'm not saying that they're the team to beat, but they've got a chance. And the Blue Jays don't impress me at all.

[Tiste Simeon]

Slumgullion Spitteler said:

Now, I'm not saying that they're the team to beat, but they've got a chance. And the Blue Jays don't impress me at all.

Yankees = Chelsea. This means they are a team with enough money to buy all the good player. So yes, I reckon they will put up a good competition but I doubt they will get to the World Series (Though maybe as a Wildcard...)

[Cougar]

Ahhh, 'roid rounders.

A game as important to the fans for it's statistical riches as for it's sporting prowess. More similar to cricket in that respect than most would like to admit, if somewhat simpler.

Can somone tell me why there are so many innings, I've watched it a few times and the number of innings seems to make what might be quite a snappy enjoyable game at 2 innings a bit lengthy. It's not the length per se that bothers me, I can happily watch a 5 day test match, it's the repetition that seems a bit excessive.

[Tiste Simeon]

You say repetition in Baseball seems boring, yet you can watch a game that goes on for 5 days? Man...

[paladin]

Slumgullion Spitteler;274419 said:

And the Blue Jays don't impress me at all.

you have to admit that Halladay/Burnett, if they can stay healthy, is the best topend pitching tandem in the AL East. Kazmir/Shields/Garza is getting the Rays close though. Daisuke has to improve from a 3/4 to a 1/2 guy for the Red Sox to put them up there, because Lester, Wakefield, and Schilling aren't those guys either. Yanks have some young guns, but they're a year or two away from being seasoned enough to be aces.

Having those dual aces on top of the pitching order definitely helps beat the quality division teams, which is the reason I think the Rays are finally ready to compete somewhat for the title and/or ruin a few teams dreams this year.

[Cougar]

Tiste Simeon;274575 said:

You say repetition in Baseball seems boring, yet you can watch a game that goes on for 5 days? Man...

Don't get tetchy, did you even read my post? I said it wasn't the length per se that I found problematic. Rather the fact that you have the same team coming in getting out over and over. I only used cricket as a counterpoint to demonstrate that I don't mind a lengthy, tactical game.

It was more a question for one of our US crew about the history of the game, ie: how did they arrive at such a large number of innings when the anteceedents of the game have comparatively few?

[paladin]

Tiste Simeon;274397 said:

Rep for Paladin - Tiste is a big Angels fan! I think with Jered Weaver as pitcher and a strong team of batters they have a strong chance this year.

Angels are my team, and they're damn good, so I'm happy. I hope that Weaver continues to develop, because he was lights-freaking-out in college(locally) and has had some struggles at the major league level

[Tiste Simeon]

paladin said:

Angels are my team, and they're damn good, so I'm happy. I hope that Weaver continues to develop, because he was lights-freaking-out in college(locally) and has had some struggles at the major league level

Yeah but didn't he have one of the best starts to a season ever, or something? We don't get much about Baseball here, and I always find it hard to understand what all the statistics mean... I just remember that Weaver was doing very well at the beginning of his debut season with the Angels.

[Slum]

paladin;274584 said:

you have to admit that Halladay/Burnett, if they can stay healthy, is the best topend pitching tandem in the AL East. Kazmir/Shields/Garza is getting the Rays close though. Daisuke has to improve from a 3/4 to a 1/2 guy for the Red Sox to put them up there, because Lester, Wakefield, and Schilling aren't those guys either. Yanks have some young guns, but they're a year or two away from being seasoned enough to be aces.

Having those dual aces on top of the pitching order definitely helps beat the quality division teams, which is the reason I think the Rays are finally ready to compete somewhat for the title and/or ruin a few teams dreams this year.

Aye, those things are true. And let's not forgot the Sox added Bartolo Colon (whether he'll be any good or not, I don't know). The Blue Jays will be good if Ryan, Halladay and Burnett can stay healthy, but they're all injury-prone. And their lineup isn't the best; Wells and Rios, sure...but Glaus, Thomas, and Rolen are all as old as any Yankees artifact.

I just don't see the Rays improving much past.500, if that. They're just all too young, really. And their manager's a little bit out of his league, I think. Madden, right? I feel like he got hired on as the anti-Pinella; a guy who won't make much noise when the cheapskate owners deal another prospect to keep payroll down.

And the Orioles, fugheddaboutit!

So, I'll concede that the Jays may make this season interesting, but I don't see the Rays as much of a threat.

Oh, and Wakefield and Mirabelli got dropped yesterday.


Angels fans? *grimaces* The bastards always get the better of the Yanks.

[paladin]

Maddon was bench coach for Scoscia in Anaheim. I think he's done a good job so far.

And Glaus is gone now, swapped for Rolen. Most likely an even trade, but we'll see.

Colon, well, as an Angels fan, Colon was good to us, but he looked terrible the last year or so and didn't do very well in winterball this year. Garland is a huge upgrade over Colon at this point in Colon's career, so I'm happy we got him.

As far as the Yanks, we were the only team during the Joe Torre era with a winning record against the Yanks. Sounds good to me!!!

[paladin]

Tiste Simeon;274661 said:

Yeah but didn't he have one of the best starts to a season ever, or something? We don't get much about Baseball here, and I always find it hard to understand what all the statistics mean... I just remember that Weaver was doing very well at the beginning of his debut season with the Angels.

if i remember, he started out great with wins in his first 10 games or something? i dont recall. him and joe saunders did similar things to start their major league careers. he suffered last year though, wasn't as good as before. era went from 2.56 to 3.91(with only 30 more innings pitched total), his opposing batting average was over .300, his k/9 went down and his h/9 went up. walk ratio remained about thesame, which is good, but he just wasnt as sharp. hopefully he rebounds this year. the angels have a great young rotation with lackey, escobar, garland, weaver, and saunders. if ervin santana comes back to his earlier form, he was great as well. escobar is the oldest at 32 and everyone else is under 30(lackey will be 30 this year). reminds me of the braves in the early 90s

[Tiste Simeon]

Aye should be an interesting season. I'd like to see some teams do well that never do so good (just not the Rangers, Mariners or A's. )