The Official 2008 MLB Thread

The Braves really need to figure out this away thing. They have a 6 day road trip where they get swept by Cinny and loose 2 out of 3 to the Brewers. Then come and take 3 out of 4 from the Marlins!!!

Including the game that just ended a few minutes ago, beat the Fish 7-5

Chipper Jones hit his 400th homerun today!! Only the 3rd switchhitter to do that


Draft starts today anyone know anything bout their teams selections? I know a couple of the Braves were local and the 1st player chosen today (believe Tampa had the 1st pick) was from Georgia

The Braves have a long tradition of emphasizing local guys in the draft.

BTW, I note with some delight that the Braves visit Toronto soon (as opposed to the reverse)

Jays to a 1B named David Cooper...having been scooped on both the players they really wanted. Big xlow slugger but we didn't have any true big power in our sytem except Travis Snider so it made sense.

Still, my third choice was Shooter Hunt - just cause i like his name.

Damn.

With Smoltz's surgery revealing a severely damaged labrum and Glavine having to go on the DL for elbow problems the Season from Hell gets worse.

The only thing that's really making baseball bearable to watch is the ongoing collapse of the Mighty Mets.

Every time I brag on the Jays in this thread they have a bad week...I need to be more careful.

^^ Cardinals have Pujols hurt and about fifty pitchers on the DL at this point, so calm down and cheer up

I am not "uncalm"....i believe in the team overall, and most parts of it I adore...I just noticed the pattern.

The Braves are now, in their last 21 one run road games, 0-21.



To make things worse the closer who came off the DL a week and a half ago because he was supposedly past the elbow problems that sidelined him for the better part of two months has now been unavailable for the last six games (which included two leads blown in the ninth) because of fucking elbow soreness!

What's going on with Billy Wagner? He's blown three saves in a row!

Good thing the Diamondbacks play in such a crappy division.

Eh, I was addressing darkstryke.

Hopefully it stays that way when the Cardinals come into town.

A story on espn.com discusses Willie Randolph's job situation in New York. There are rumours that he won't make it through the weekend.

He's slated to help coach the NL in the All Star Game this year. I wonder if he'll still coach if the Mets can him.

Has anyone ever managed or coached in the All Star game after being fired from his team?

Diamondbacks won 1-0 on a Chad Tracy 10th inning home run.

Dodgers lost

Rockies lost

Giants lost

Padres down 8-5 in the 8th inning.

Good day.

An amusing (but possibly) thing happened in the Giants game --- the ballpark sprinklers all came on during a pitch. It took about 30 seconds for them to be turned off.

Diamondbacks are still 4 1/2 games ahead of the hated Dodgers in the NL West. They've really been inconsistent---probably because they're so young.

ESPN.com just started showing the run differential (runs scored vs. runs allowed) in their baseball standings. A few things from that:

The Cubs are +106 -- no wonder they have the best record in baseball!!

How could the Braves be 2 games under .500 with a +45 run differential??

The Orioles are the only team in the AL East with a negative run differential. They're still over .500 though.

Three managers canned in one week! (Mets, Mariners, Blue Jays)

Anyone seeing this Marlins/Rockies game in Colorado

Its 17-16 Marlins in the 8th

and Col comes back, scores 2 in the bottom of the 9th, wins 18-17



And in other news Braves finally snapped a 5-game series, unforunatly, 3 of them was against Philly

Jays have the same problem.

All is lost for us this season. You can't be losing so many games to Seattle and make up ground, the margin for error is too small.

Which is the most bitter disappointment since the collapse in '87. On paper this team should have been a monster, it's beyond inexplicable they have had so little success.

Time to sell off the guys who aren't important in '09 and hope for a good draft pick.

Can't find a video of this, but there was a play in Atlanta today, never heard of something remotely happen:

Runners 1st and 3rd, 1 out. Astro's half of the 6th

Acosta threw what would have been a wild pitch, McCann(catcher) couldn't find it, it had hit the concrete infront of the backstop, flew up to the Teixteria(first baseman), runner at 3rd took off, 1B fired home and got the out.

Anyone ever heard of that?? A wildpitch being turned into a 3-2 fielder's choice. (Offical Scorer ruled it a FC since Runner at 1st advanced to 2nd)

The Diamondbacks have taken a HUGE dump in the last six weeks. They went below .500 yesterday and it looks like they're going to lose again tonight (they're down 4-1 in the 9th). If they lose and the hated Dodgers win, the D-Backs will be out of first place for the first time since early April.

The NL West is HORRIBLE this year! It makes the 1973 NL East look good

The NL East isn't looking very good either, but at least it has a couple of teams over .500

Diamondbacks finally won one. Randy got win #289.

Haren and Webb were selected as pitchers for the NL All Stars.

Ya..that west looks terrible. What happened to your DBacks, earlier this year they had the entire division buried.

Braves had a wild one yesterday, after a 1 hr 50 min raindelay, the Braves/Astros game went 17 inninning, Atl finally won 7-6, after being down 5-1 at one point.

That was a good sign, that hey, the Braves *can* come back from behind to win--something that had been alluding them all year.

The bad, after 8+ hour day at the park last night, they had to get on a plane and they play tonight in LA, so they'll probably be tired from all that and jetlag

1. They stopped hitting
2. Some injuries (poor Chris Snyder )
3. Starting pitchers became human
4. Sometimes spotty relief pitching

Randy got win #290 yesterday. He helped himself out with a great at-bat. He fell behind 1-2, fouled some pitches off, worked the count to 3-2, then hit a 2-run double to left. The D-Backs scored 8 runs after two were out to break the game open.

Well....we slid into the break on a 12-7 run, including taking 2 of 3 from the Hated Yanks without 2/3 of our OF

By the way, Adam Lind is an f'n MACHINE since his last recall.

So, we are one game under .500, all but out of the race, BUT we start the second half with the slumping Rays and six weeks before we play a really hard opponent. It'd take a miracle to get back in it but if we are, it starts with extending the Ray's misery this weekend.

This is so very frustrating because there's no rational reason why so many hitters are not doing what they always have. There's no way we could have seen this coming.

Hamilton put on a great show at the Home Run Derby last night. Too bad he tired himself out and didn't win in the end.

The HRD shows just how wacked the whole ASG business is. I can't get into the home run contest or the all star game itself. If Roy Halladay had gotten the start tonight (as he rightfully should have) then I'd have watched until he was done.

But since he didn't, I'll spare myself the slobbering over Yankee stadium and those who played there. The last think I need is another nauseating serenade to the greatness that is New York City.

It's fun to watch

I do agree that the all-star games were better back when the starters finished the games. Willie Mays played the entire all-star game 11 times.

I don't see the problem with the "slobbering" over Yankee stadium. There's a lot of history there. Too bad I never visited it.

WHITE SOX!!!

10th in New York...been a good game