The Official MLB Thread

[Remedy360]

Football is done and I have no pro basketball team to follow at this point so it's all about baseball for me as I weather through the winter. Spring training got me pumped to get this season going nothing like the daily ritual of baseball  

Use this thread to discuss all things baseball.

[PLANT]

Blue Jays coming out of the AL East this year...

[Remedy360]

^ Someone mentioned them on one of the local shows here earlier. Remind me again of some of the moves they made?

[Hack Wilson - real]

Ichiro hits .400 this year




















































for about a week or 2 lol

[MistaNova]

^ Someone mentioned them on one of the local shows here earlier. Remind me again of some of the moves they made?

They revamped their pitching staff by acquiring 2012 NL Cy Young Winner R.A. Dickey from the Mets as well as Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle from the Marlins.
They revamped their lineup by acquiring Jose Reyes and Emilio Bonifacio from the Marlins and signed Melky Cabrera to a 2 year deal.

However I'm skeptical about a lot of things about the team like how Reyes and his legs will be on the artificial turf at the RC, if Jose Bautista can came back to form after his wrist injury and how Cabrera's going to perform. Plus there's no way Dickey's going to be the same 20 game winner he was last year and Josh Johnson is always a huge question mark when it comes to health.
Is the team better than the one that was destroyed by injuries in 2012? Yes.
Is it the clear favorite to win the division? No. It made the most splashes out of all of the AL East teams but, keep in mind that the Angels and Marlins did the same in the 2011-2012 offseason and they both missed the playoffs.

That said there aren't any favorites in the AL East.
The Baltimore Orioles haven't improved the squad they ended the 2012 season with. In fact they got worse with the departure of Mark Reynolds. I doubt any encore performance will happen and as of right now I expect them to be fighting for the 4th place spot if they don't bring in some better pitching.

The Boston Red Sox managed to find someone dumb enough to take all of their backloaded contracts last year. Using their freed up money they resigned David Ortiz, gave Shane Victorino a contract he won't live up to, signed Ryan Dempster (who was barely decent in Texas last year) to a 1 year deal and signed Mike Napoli to a 1 year deal. They also got a new manager (the guy who was the Blue Jays' manager last year) but still have Alfredo Aceves fucking around and causing drama already.
Despite being a big market team with a really strong farmsystem that's about to see the cream of the crop arrive, they'll probably be fighting for a 4th place finish this year. Although a bigger issue for the BoSox this year might be what they plan to do with Ellsbury after the season ends and he hits free agency.

The New York Yankees are another year older. They're once again relying on their old vets who signed 1 year contracts (Pettitte, Kuroda, Ichiro & Rivera). They lost A-Rod for at least half of the season and have Kevin Youkilis to take his place in his absence. They are also going to be without Curtis Granderson for the first 10 weeks thanks to being hit by a pitch and they're probably going to see if one of their prospects (names like Zoilo Almonte and Melky Mesa have come up) can handle CF during Spring Training. Or if they can handle LF as the Yankees have considered moving Brett Gardner to CF (a position he was solid in back in the minors). They are also without a catcher right now and are looking at Austin Romine, Francisco Cervelli or Chris Stewart to be their starting catcher, ultimately it'll go to whoever has a hot spring and will tempt the Yankees to ride the hot hand. It'll be a far cry from the days of Jorge Posada and his .800+ OPS, but then again so was Russel Martin last year.
And yes, this is the walk year of Robinson Cano, Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain's contracts. All three will be free agents after the season ends and the Yankees have already (out of character) discussed an extention with Cano and his agent Scott Boras.

Finally the Tampa Bay Rays acquired uber-prospect Will Myes from the Royals during the offseason. They still have enough pitching depth in their system to handle the loss of James Shields and Wade Davis. The questions will be if Evan Longoria can stay healthy, if Will Myers can help the team ASAP to fill the void left by BJ Upton and if anybody in the lineup not named Longoria, Myers or Zobrist can actually produce offensively. Also, if the Rays fall out of contention before the trade deadline, expect them to be involved with several rumors for potantial blockbuster trades centered around their ace, David Price.

And I know I'm biased but for now I'm going to say that the Yankees are going to win the AL East. They won the division last year with pretty much the same squad. While they still have as many question marks as every team (some more than others) they have one thing that the other lineups don't really have, expierence .

[Hack Wilson - real]

the blue jizz will be improved but not much


yankees?  depends on if we can manufacture runs without a true "slugger" besides Tex  (and maybe Cano) before Grandy gets back.  i think Jeter and Ichiro and Gardiner can steal enough bases each to make up for that.....lets hope CC pitches a good 220-235 innings this year.

Rays?  they scare me

Orioles?  i think they will fall back a little bit

Red sox?  joke of the AL East

[Remedy360]

the blue jizz will be improved but not much


yankees?  depends on if we can manufacture runs without a true "slugger" besides Tex  (and maybe Cano) before Grandy gets back.  i think Jeter and Ichiro and Gardiner can steal enough bases each to make up for that.....lets hope CC pitches a good 220-235 innings this year.

Rays?  they scare me

Orioles?  i think they will fall back a little bit

Red sox?  joke of the AL East

Imagine how good the Rays could be if their shithole fan-base gave management some money to work with.

[Hack Wilson - real]

yep  florida is baseball HELL


everyone down there is a yankees fan who retired and moved south lol


i say move both florida teams and revive the EXPOS 

[Remedy360]

yep  florida is baseball HELL


everyone down there is a yankees fan who retired and moved south lol


i say move both florida teams and revive the EXPOS 

lol the Expos had some awful attendance too, I think a lot of that was strike related but I couldn't tell you for sure. I'm not as sure about Marlins fans, but yeah, Tampa fans just suck. They've had a contending team for the better part of the last 5 or 6 years and couldn't even sell out when they gave out free tickets.

[Hack Wilson - real]

i went to an Expos game and id say there were maybe 5000 people there


it was fun tho

[MistaNova]

94 MPH pitch thrown by Justin Verlander hits Jordany Valdespin in the balls.

[Chamillitary Click]

The Blue Jays on paper run away with that division. Although I think Dickey will be ass. The Yankees lit him up last year.

Yankees are in big trouble.

Give me a LA World Series.

[MistaNova]

Only 3 more days until Opening Day, I'm getting pumped.

I see the Cardinals or Nationals winning the WS this year and the AL East is still MLB's best division .

[Remedy360]

Opening day   Shoutout to Houston for winning their first game in the AL, welcome to the West my friends  

Got my first M's ticket package this year..Yankees, Angels, Rangers, Brewers (Griffey HOF ceremony), Tigers, and Red-Sox  

[Ghost Drebin]

Much love to the best sport finally starting.  Harper may just have a beast of a year Trout style.