The 2007 Major League Baseball Thread

[Vendetta]

Smoltzy is on fire today he's got 7 Ks through six innings giving up one run (HR to Rollins).

Marlins are rolling 6-1 over Nationals and The Cubs are trailing right now, but Zambrano is pitching a good game.

[Lowerdeck]

Pavano was doing ok for a little while, and then finally hit the 5th inning and got slapped around a bit. (Y)

[Vendetta]

Hanley Rameriz is on fire for the Marlins today. He's 4 of 4 with 2 singles, 2 doubles, 1 RBI and 2 SB.

[GhostMachine]

Innocent until proven guilty. They should celebrate it and acknowledge it as the record until they get the chance to wipe it from the record books one day.

[Vendetta]

Last time I checked it takes more than muscle to hit a baseball.

[GhostMachine]

Last time I checked it takes more than muscle to hit a baseball.

[Vendetta]

If he is using, maybe he is using them in the sense to stay healthy and not in the sense to produce more numbers.

[Guest JACQUES OF MONTREAL]

That's ironic, considering all the health problems they'll give him...fairly soon.

[ACCBiggz]

Innocent until proven guilty. They should celebrate it and acknowledge it as the record until they get the chance to wipe it from the record books one day.

I told someone once that if Bonds gets into the Hall of Fame and they later find proof he cheated, they should do the following:

Wait until the next Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and ask him to come because they plan on doing something special for Willie Mays (his godfather), get him up on stage and reveal the proof and unveil his own plaque busted all to pieces, hand him a bill for the plaque, and literally boot his ass off the stage.

If they ever find proof he's cheating after he breaks the record....if he does....I think they should toss out EVERY home run he's ever hit as a Giant on principle....and ban him from the Hall.

[Vendetta]

The way I see it, steroids or no, hititng a ball at nearly 100 miles an hour 400+ feet, over a fence is pretty damn impressive. Not to mention we aren't talking a softball we are talking a ball that is just a little bit bigger than a tennis ball.

[Green Demon]

Last time I checked it takes more than muscle to hit a baseball.

Let us not start that shit again. Yes, it does take more than muscle to hit a baseball; damn good hand-eye coordination and a few other things. But the fact is that players' home run production goes down eventually, not up, and Bonds has been past the point where his home run production should be levelling off or going down, not going up, and he was past that point the year he broke the record. I don't care if you've got the greatest hitting coach who ever lived working with you and are possessed by the ghost of Babe Ruth or Ted Williams (or both), you're NOT going to be hitting a lot more homers per season in your late 30's-40's than you did earlier in your career unless you're cheating somehow. No way. Bonds is either cheating or a freak of nature.

[Lowerdeck]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/aaronha01.shtml

I'd say he was fairly consistent throughout his career, even if there was some upswing in the early 70s.

[livid]

So far it's been a rocky start for the defending champs and my favorite team, the Cardinals, especially knowing that Chris Carpenter's going to be missing his next start because his elbow's bothering him. That's not a good sign, but hopefully it's just a little sore. That being said, it's going to be a tough year regardless, as the Brewers, Cubs and Astros all made improvements over the offseason while the Cards were forced to shuffle their rotation big time.

[Thatz]

Even though they've only played one game, I thought that my Cubs were going to look a little better on Opening Day. They did well in Spring Training, and Zambrano is one of the best pitchers in the game...they just couldn't put anything together on Monday. Hopefully they do better today, I hope that Lily gets a win in his first game in a Cubs uniform. I'm pulling for the Cubbies to be one of the top teams in the division this year, as I haven't been this excited for baseball in a long time. Later this summer I'll be making a trip down to Wrigley too, so I hope they're doing well.

[Green Demon]

The Cubs better hope that they do well this year they really spent alot of money this offseason and I would have to say that after all the money they spent that not making the playoffs this year would really be failure for them.

[grind your soul]

Not enough Jays talk.

I think last year was the pinnacle of my enjoyment of the Jays, even if they missed the play-offs. The team lost two guys who I really liked [Frankie Cat and Justin Speier] and replaced them with Frank Thomas and a bunch of scrubs, all of whom I dislike.

I think their starting pitching has, sadly, improved over last season. If Ohka can stay consistant, and Towers has the bounce-back year that spring training would have us believe that he could, then the Jays actually have a chance. It's too bad their bullpen is just so horrible. Casey Janssen, Shawn Marcum, Jeremy Accardo... ugh. It's basically Halladay, Burnett, Ryan, and some filler, and that certainly is not play-off worthy.

I haven't been paying much attention to any other teams, but as the season progresses I will continue to get more involved.

Here's to a good 2007!

[Vendetta]

Various news tid bits

- Bonds hits 735th home run in the bottom of the 9th, 2 on 2 out

- MLB inks deal with IN Demand sot hat people can now get the MLB package from their local privders wihout switching to direct tv.

- Tigers and Blue Jays postponed today due to weather

- Mets sweep Cardinals

- Pirates sweep Astros

- Angels sweep Rangers

- Twins sweep Oriels

San Diego and Atlanta could swep with wins today.

[The Sultan of Swank]

GYS I love me my Jays. Sadly I too miss Frank. I don't think they really improved their roster much over last season. They really need to fill in their infield, I like Royce Clayton, but they have a really weak middle infield... also who in thier right mind signs Zaun over Molina? I loved Benji, he was so good, everybody runs on Zaun.

Tough loss yesterday to the Tigers, but that 7 run inning was a nice almost perfect comeback by the Jays.

[Ananas]

GYS, I know I'm gonna sound like a total bandwagon jumper with Janssen with the start he's had, but I've actually always though he had great stuff, he just needs to be able to harness it. I was at his best performance to date, a 7.1 inning 1 hit performance against the Angels, and when he's hitting his locations the guy's scary. Not a power pitcher by any means, but he knows how to get outs. He seems to have a good attitude, and he knows solid relief work is what's going to get him back to the starting rotation. I was also really disappointed with the loss of Speier, he was a fantastic set-up guy. But I like Frasor, Marcum has potential and I like the idea of the 6th starter acting as mop-up. It's not a fantastic pen, but it's also not a particularly pitching based roster. They've got potential, the cards just need to fall in their direction this year.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I like the batting order they have this season, it doens't have too many holes. So far, I've liked what I've seen from Clayton, I know he wasn't brought in to be a big hitter, but he's been doing pretty well on both sides of the ball this year. 3-2 record isn't so bad I suppose, considering we lost to Tampa is pretty embarassing. Very very early on in the season, but the AL East is looking kinda weak right now.