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Official 2008 MLB Thread - Frankman, Erstad Make Epic Comebacks

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Say what you will about Ozzie, but since his rant the offense has put up 54 runs in 6 games, never scoring fewer than 6 in any of those games.
 
msdstc said:
I know it's ridiculous... I hope he can keep it up at least somewhat. I remember last year was just a travesty when he came to the plate. After all the issues he wasn't too popular here. Manny's streak continues :), and 18 for Pap already.
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Drew got WAY too much crap for last year. Yeah, his numbers were down, but he still had a more than decent OBP of .373. He wasn't hitting for power, but he wasn't costing us outs either. With a slightly above average defense that means he wasn't worth his contract, but he wasn't a travesty either.

Considering his time before the Sox, his PA's in Sept/Oct of last year, and this year I think we're watching the real deal JD Drew... well, maybe a tic worse than the past few games, but still good.
 
I was at the Braves/Phillies game today, and all I have to say is fuck you Blaine Boyer. :|

Everyone in our section groaned when they announced Boyer's name over the PA system, and then a Phillies fan yelled out, "Alright, my favorite Braves player Blaine Boyer has arrived!"

I couldn't help but lol. :lol :(
 
Freest Rolexes said:
Drew got WAY too much crap for last year. Yeah, his numbers were down, but he still had a more than decent OBP of .373. He wasn't hitting for power, but he wasn't costing us outs either. With a slightly above average defense that means he wasn't worth his contract, but he wasn't a travesty either.

Considering his time before the Sox, his PA's in Sept/Oct of last year, and this year I think we're watching the real deal JD Drew... well, maybe a tic worse than the past few games, but still good.
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Yeah I was looking at past stats and he had I think 2 seasons up over 30 HR, and .300 BA. If he can hit like this, the sox are going to be unstoppable. Manny, Papi, and Drew all hitting for decent power.
 
Okay: Today proves the luck theory:

Good Luck: Light Blue Phillies Hat.
Bad Luck: Reds Throwback Logo hat.
Worse Luck: Reds pre-2007 Hat.
Cursed Luck: Marshall 70's Throwback.

To be tested tomorrow: UCLA Bruins Baseball Hat. (Boston Rip-off logo)

Reality:
Good Luck: Days when Volquez is on the mound.
Bad Luck: Days when Voluqez is not on the mound.
 
Karakand said:
Hells yeah man... been doing that shit since like the 1960s.
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I was at a party, and I said "Whose hat is this? It's been here forever." and my friend said "I don't know." so I said "Okay, I'm swiping this hat. It's too cool."
 
Broom.gif


PHILLIES!!
 
Emergency meeting of the Mets council!!!! Johan, Billy, Carlos, Carlos, Carlos, Carlos meet right now!!!!
 
Sylar is just too good for this world. ::Pours Zima on the ground::


Welp, if we lose to Dontrell fucking Willis tomorrow, might as well pack the bags on the 08 season and start courting people to take CC, Paul Byrd and Casey Blake off of our hands.
 
mental note: Don't go to the gaming side, you will definitely be banned.

Sylar said:
More like lol garza, who is a terrible pitcher anyways so dont consider it much of a accomplishment.
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no no I mean lol rays, their defense played horrible today, which made garza throw a lot of extra pitches.
 
funkmastergeneral said:
oh fuck Justin Masteron is so awesome, poor Yankids being destroyed by the Redsox pitching prospects. 78 pitches in 4 1/3 innings, Joba? Awesome.
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He is pretty great... looks like Hansen has found his stuff too. He's only 22 years old and he came outta nowhere. All that hype surrounding Joba has yet to pay off for the yanks.
 
I'm calling an emergency Braves council meeting. Windu, carlos, RBH, grecco and Enron, it's time to start thinking about the future of this team.
In accordance with the following readily accepted points:

-We can no longer produce good pitching. The last half-way decent starter that came out of our system was Adam Wainwright, who we naturally traded for JD Drew. Ugh.
-Our rotation is fully of old and injured guys. We're not going to compete with Hudson and the Four Scrubs.
-Our front office has made some seriously dumb moves. For instance, McCann needed a day off today so who did we turn to? Automatic out Corky Miller. Makes no sense. Sure defense is important but why did we have to let Pena go? Shit like that is dumb. Old, useless guys like Corky Miller have no place on a contending ballclub's roster... which is good because we are NOT a contending ballclub.
-Bobby has trouble putting together lineups and choosing the correct reliever to bring in. I appreciate the hell out of the guy but it's time to move on.

Having considered all of the above points, I have come to one inescapable conclusion: REBUILDING TIME.

It's true that we have a good nucleus of young position players. McCann, Francouer, KJ, Escobar, potentially Josh Anderson and Schaefer in the minors. The problem is that our pitching sucks- everyone is either old, injured or both. Or Tim Hudson, the poor bastard. So it is with great regret that I have decided: it's time to rebuild. We need to deal Tex in the coming months to a contender and get back some serious pitching prospects, because our minor league system is stocked with shit like JoJo Reyes, Chuck James and god only knows what else. We should keep Hudson and Jurrjens, and focus on stockpiling arms. We need to get Bobby and all of his coaches out and go with a new approach.

I for one remember the Braves teams that sucked in the late 80's. They were no fun to watch. It was painful. But I would rather finish last for a year or two with the idea that we're planning for the future than have to deal with the nonsense we're putting up with now trying to compete and keep finishing third perpetually. I feel bad for Chipper, he's never going to win another ring but oh well. He and Smoltz will go into the Hall one day, along with Tommy and Maddux.

But we can't keep doing what we've been doing. These lame ass players need to go- no more over the hill back ups when we have a farm system stocked with young kids, because when the starter gets injured Bobby plays the shitty bench player. No more signing has been starters or trying to work a "project" like Mike Hampton. Develop good young pitching. This season is already lost, we need to go ahead and admit it. I don't want to say the same thing next year.

Finally, my only hope this year is that the Mets will once again miss the post-season.
 
Triumph said:
-We can no longer produce good pitching. The last half-way decent starter that came out of our system was Adam Wainwright, who we naturally traded for JD Drew. Ugh.
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I agree that we haven't produced great pitching prospects like Glavine, Avery, Millwood etc.. for a while. One thing we have had against us is we have had no high draft picks, I believe Heyward was our highest pick since 1991. And yes, we do tend to trade away our pitching prospects, well at least a few years ago we did. Apparently we have some good ones coming up that I doubt we will trade (Hanson, Morton (who btw has been dominating at Richmond, should get the call any day now.), Rohrbough etc..). Jo-Jo has improved alot this year and hopefully he will continue. I think we are starting to do better with the pitching prospects, but time will tell if the guys in the minors are the real deal I guess.
-Our rotation is fully of old and injured guys. We're not going to compete with Hudson and the Four Scrubs.
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True, but if Glavine, Smoltz (I hope not, but its likely) retire then we will have more than 20 million from them two, plus no Hampton so thats about 10-15 more. We will have money to get some starters, I'm just not sure if there will be any good ones out there come the off-season though.
-Our front office has made some seriously dumb moves. For instance, McCann needed a day off today so who did we turn to? Automatic out Corky Miller. Makes no sense. Sure defense is important but why did we have to let Pena go? Shit like that is dumb. Old, useless guys like Corky Miller have no place on a contending ballclub's roster... which is good because we are NOT a contending ballclub.
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I'm guessing Bobby was the one that did this. You know how he likes those no talent, hard work guys. And from what I heard, Pena was not very good in terms of catching. The pitchers apparently did not like pitching to him. I personally think we should just go ahead and call up Chris Sammons. He is a good defensive catcher who probably has a better bat than Corky's shitty one.
-Bobby has trouble putting together lineups and choosing the correct reliever to bring in. I appreciate the hell out of the guy but it's time to move on.
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Well sometimes Bobby makes dumb decisions, but we never know the whole truth. The other day when we didn't bring Soriano in to face the Phils I got mad but it turns out he was hurt. And when you use a Bullpen so much like we have had too (and with all the injuries) then you probably get stuck using guys you don't want to in certain situations. The reason why Bobby is a great manager is not because of his Game situation callings though, its how he gets the best from every player. I don't know how many times I have seen a Nobody player that succeeds under him. And with all the injuries and the patchwork pitching staff, we should be doing alot worse than we are.
Having considered all of the above points, I have come to one inescapable conclusion: REBUILDING TIME.

It's true that we have a good nucleus of young position players. McCann, Francouer, KJ, Escobar, potentially Josh Anderson and Schaefer in the minors. The problem is that our pitching sucks- everyone is either old, injured or both. Or Tim Hudson, the poor bastard. So it is with great regret that I have decided: it's time to rebuild. We need to deal Tex in the coming months to a contender and get back some serious pitching prospects, because our minor league system is stocked with shit like JoJo Reyes, Chuck James and god only knows what else. We should keep Hudson and Jurrjens, and focus on stockpiling arms. We need to get Bobby and all of his coaches out and go with a new approach.
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I'm not sure Rebuliding completely, is the right answer. I agree we should trade Tex, BUT only if we are waaaay out of it. With all the money coming off the books, I think we should just try for this year and reload next year.
I for one remember the Braves teams that sucked in the late 80's. They were no fun to watch. It was painful. But I would rather finish last for a year or two with the idea that we're planning for the future than have to deal with the nonsense we're putting up with now trying to compete and keep finishing third perpetually. I feel bad for Chipper, he's never going to win another ring but oh well. He and Smoltz will go into the Hall one day, along with Tommy and Maddux.
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One of the reasons why I am optimistic about our chances is probably because I grew up watching the Braves of the 90s not the 80s. I am too young to remember seeing the Braves suck that bad.

Anyway, we can still pull this out...its a long season. I don't want to start turning into a Cubs fan yet.
 
It's funny that you mention about trading Teixeira b/c I was telling my friend the exact same thing on the way back from the game earlier today.

I just don't feel confident at all that we'll be able to re-sign him with Boras handling the negotiations, nor do I feel that he'll be worth the money that will probably be necessary to bring him back. If the Braves continue to flounder around .500, I really wouldn't have much of a problem with trading Tex away at the trade deadline to get some pitching help (starting or bullpen).

As far as a full-on rebuilding process goes.....I'm not sure. I can definitely understand the reasons for doing so, but I want to wait and see with this team for the next month.

And one last thing, we should trade Blaine Boyer and Manny Acosta for some maple bats. :)
 
Triumph said:
It would be hilarious if the Rays make the playoffs and he's permabanned.
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I'm gonna have to take up the position as the lead member of the Rays defense force. I'm normally not a fan of liking out-of-town teams, but I'll make an exception for them. They're in the AL East meaning they can beat Boston and NY and they are fun as hell to watch.
 
I remember in a moment of anger, about a week into the season, I mentioned that the Braves weren't a winning ballclub, and while I held out hope that they would prove me wrong, so far it's been a repeat of the previous mediocre years.
I'm gonna give you my point of view on the club and what should happen to it:

PITCHING:
Hudson is the only semi-consistent ace.
Glavine looks to be just a serviceable #4 who is done in by the occasional bad inning.
Campillo is a pleasant surprise, can pitch 5-6 innings of 3 run ball, that's fine for a #5.
Jurrjens has been regressing lately, and they have to take care of his shoulder, but he should turn out fine as a #3.
Reyes is a question mark, since he has sucked before, but has given 3 straight good starts that have been blemished by Cox leaving him in too long in the 8th. For now, he should continue starting unless the suck returns.

Morton from the minors could be ready any day now, and barring any mismanagement when he's called up, he could be a great boost to the big club.

From the bullpen, Bennett, Ohman, Gonzalez and Stockman I trust;
Carlyle, Boyer and Acosta and Ring should be used for blowouts or just a batter or two.
Soriano I believe never recovered mentally from his surgery, since he keeps whining about pain even though MRI's constantly reveal nothing wrong with his elbow. I've given up on him since he seems to have spent too much time with Hampton....

As for what can be done: Don't sign/trade for pitching that is DL fodder (Harden, Sheets, etc.). there's a lot of cash off the books next year that can be used for good, risk-free pitching. Smoltz isn't coming back (or at least can't be counted on), Hampton thank God isn't coming back, and Glavine will probably retire, so the braves HAVE to get a proven ace or #2 during the offseason to have any chance.
The bullpen wil be patched together, as usual, since relief pitching can be so hit or miss from one year to the other.

MANAGEMENT:
You all know I've cursed Cox, increasingly so during the last few years, maybe once he was great and his old age has caught up to him, or maybe he was never great (as a manager,GM years notwithstanding) and just had good players.
I still insist that change is needed, but it looks like he'll be back for 2009 (unless this year's collapse is so great that he has no choice/does the honorable thing).
I have no beef with McDowell, he's won me over and proved himself (with most of the pitchers, at least).

I believe that the reason he has gone downhill these last couple of years is perhaps not his fault, but the firing/leaving of most of his bench coaches (Fredi Gonzalez, Pat Corrales, and even Mazzone) make me think that many in game decisions were made with these guys, and perhaps they know better than the current bench coaches.

In case you missed it, the braves' strength and conditioning coach was fired earlier this week, so perhaps this is a good sign that the front office is going to start holding people accountable for mediocrity...

BATTING:
I'm getting tired of writing, so let me summarize: the braves have no batting at the minor league level; Heyward is a year or 2 away, and Canizares, while good, is shaky on defense (he'd be good in a trade to the AL as a DH). Schafer is looking to me like josh anderson with a bit more power, thanks to the HGH...

Thorman? umm, let's not speak of him for now....it's that stupid trade of LaRoche for M. Gonzalez and Lillibridge that got the whole Tex trade/screwing over the farm done; (the latter is sucking in the minors, the former has barely pitched.). At least it's not as bad as Davies for 7 1/3 innings of Dotel.... my, look at me digressing, sorry about that.

The lineup needs a big, dependable bat (not Tex, who should be traded if we continue faltering) oh, and preferably not a Boras client. Diaz should return to the bench and occasional start, Blanco should not be starting and Anderson....well, I need more time to watch him, but he could be good leading off.

Kotsay could possibly be done, or not producing well due to the back problems (I feel his pain), and Francoeur should be taken out back behind the barn and put out of his misery.

Has anyone else noticed that if Mccann gets hurt, Corky would probably be starting full time? can you even fathom this? Cox would probably start him and have Sammons as his backup! lol Anyway, God bless Mccann and keep him safe from harm and put him on a diet.

Escobar and KJ have dissapointed me so far regarding situational hitting; if they finish hitting .290 or higher, that's great, but so many missed rbi opportunities.


In conclusion, fixing the offense is a huge problem, and it seems like priority should be to go back to the 90's era and focus on pitching and keeping the mediocre offense that they have. Now if only they had pitchers that could go into the 7th-8th constantly, I would feel better about the bullpen.

Cox has to make a lineup (a good one, mind you) and stick to it, tear new guys a new one when they underperform, and get those who aren't hitting out of the lineup. But that will never happen under his regime.
 
CajoleJuice said:
My internet was acting up last night.

I still want someone to shoot me, please.
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You know, as much crap as the Braves have gone through, I still forget that we have a better record than Los Mets right now. :lol Which says a lot about both ballclubs, if you think about it. ie, WE BOTH STINK RIGHT NOW.

And carlos, you pretty much hit every nail on the head. I still think that we can have a good lineup with the players we have, we're just not putting it together right and we need better coaches to reach these players. We're almost certainly headed for Terry Pendleton as manager directly after Bobby retires, which I think will be a disaster- think about his tenure as hitting coach. What there instills confidence in his abilities as a manager? The fact that Andruw went from a solidly dependable if not "awesome" offensive force to a joke? Salty was lucky to escape from that joker.
 
God help us if Terry is being groomed as the new manager of the Braves. Great player, one of my all-time favorites, but the lack of consistency in our hitting over the past couple years isn't exactly shining resume material. But maybe he'd be better at managing than teaching Jeff Francoeur to hit to right field? Who knows...

Oh, and after this weekend, officially on suicide watch. These games are becoming increasingly difficult (and predictable) to watch. It makes me sad.
 
Joba did well yesterday; I expect him to get to the 6th/7th next time up. He's gotta learn that he can't strike every batter out; pitch to some contact, and let the batter end himself. With 4 pitches, 3 of which are very good and can be used to punch a batter out, he can always get himself out of a jam.

He also needs to learn to not be too hardheaded with his stuff...throwing the same crap to someone leads to mistakes, like the slider he hung to Guillen. Mix it up more!

Yankees need to win today to get further above .500 while the rest of the division is sputtering a bit. Hopefully whatever's possessed Damon and GIAMBEAST will trickle down into Kid Wonderful, Cano, and Jeter.
 
CajoleJuice said:
Yeah, I wish it provided some solace, but I don't think that's possible after getting swept by the PADRES.
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EMERGENCY METS COUNCIL METING ASAP. Seriously.

I rightly of wrongly think I've been the most tolerant of the Mets' play the last two years regarding their play and of the players. No more. I can't take it anymore; The Frankman 2008 was supposed to be about TRUTH. And the truth is the Mets 4 games in every crappy way you can think of, and I'm pissed off because when you analyze it Willie Randolph pushed the right buttons yet they still lost (and of course he'll be blamed).

The Mets are now 7.5 back, the largest deficit since 2005. Right now they have no Church, Alou back on Tuesday (hopefully), and a staff w/ two X-factors (Pelfrey and Perez). The scary thing is Delgado and Castillo had great trips, Reyes cooled down a bit but is back, and Heilman hardly pitched. HOW THE FUCK DID WE GET SWEPT BY THE SAN DIEGO STAFF OF YUK, DUM, BOO AND BUM? No clutch hits and unreliable bullpen:

  1. That's right, I'm looking at you Scott Schoeneweis. Yeah you have pitched awesome this year, but when you walk two guys and hit the winning run you get on my list.
  2. And you, Pedro Feliciano; can you actually get the first batter of an inning/lefty out?
  3. Jesus, and Billy. Mr. $$$ Man. Brought into the 8th and for some reason, Bochy doesn't pinch hit for Jody Gerut (lefty) and bring in a righty (Barrett). So it's AD-Wagner on an 0-1 count and you throw a hanging slider up the middle. Great. RBI single, 6-5 game. So now San Diego brushes off the desicated corpse of Tony Clark to bat him righty, his more power/less contact side. After being beaten on a sucky slider you decide to pump fastballs at him. After 5-6 of them and a 2-2 count you throw what was strike 3, except that stinking jackass of a QuestTec-humping ump Lance Diaz calls it a ball. Y'know what? Whatever. 3-2, you can probably survive a walf if needed w/ Brian Giles on deck, great time to pump the slider to the free swinging Clark. So what happens? He throws a 7th straight fastball DOWN THE MIDDLE to a power-hitting, lowball hitter. Ball leaves yard. Sanity leaves me. 8-6 game.

I'm done being accepting of this team's flaws right now. Something needs to change ... maybe someone needs to go blond a.k.a Piazza in 2000 or steal some of that timberwolf testosterone HGHiambi is using, BUT SOMETHING HAS TO FRICKING CHANGE WITH THIS TEAM. Go bald. Trade for a right-handed power bat. Go watch some crappy animation together (Kung Fu Panda wtf?), but do it together as a team. It's times like this when I miss guys like Cliff Floyd around the clubhouse to take leadership pressure off Wright/Reyes/Beltran.

To sum it up, the fact that I'm blocked from Imageshack is the only reason this post isn't unleashing the full force of my stored images and .gifs. Internet in two weeks? Fuck that, it's happening this week. And can the Mets actually have a day off instead of this "Mets In the Community" crap they are doing today entertaining spoiled brats in Grenich? You know Alou's gonna hurt himself picking up some 50-pound overweight snot-nosed screaming brat who'll probably pick his pocket as he lays writhing in pain due to the soft tissue muscles of his groin having been violently ripped away from his pelvic bones.
 
Code: 
NL East           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs
[B]Phillies          39   26   .548   91.9   70.1   59.10196   11.50297   70.60493[/B]
Marlins           34   28   .476   80.4   81.6    5.65191    4.62616   10.27806
Braves            32   32   .551   86.2   75.8   20.29644   13.92250   34.21894
Mets              30   32   .534   84.6   77.4   14.94621   10.96693   25.91314
Nationals         25   39   .373   61.4  100.6     .00348     .00145     .00493

Chaa Boiii
 
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