The Official MLB Thread

[MistaNova]

Andy Pettitte just passed Whitey Ford for 1st place on the Yankees all-time strikeout leaders with 1958.
Another Core 4 member with another record .

[M Dogg™]

Okay then how many people committed suicide in Seattle after Griffey left? Over or under 60?

Over. As an Angel fan, I celebrated. I still pray for those in Seattle after that.

[MistaNova]

Okay then how many people committed suicide in Seattle after Griffey left? Over or under 60?

Over. As an Angel fan, I celebrated. I still pray for those in Seattle after that.

Lol.

A few moves today. 3 trades and 2 Yankees news.
The Cubs trade Scott Feldman and a catcher to Orioles for Pedro Strop, Jake Arrietta, some random minor leaguer and some money to spend on the international signing pool.
The Cubs also traded Carlos Marmol to the Dodgers for Matt Gurrier and money for the international signing pool.
The Cubs also moved a AA outfielder to the Astros for money they can use in next year's draft.

Now the significance of these moves is that the Cubs basically traded for more money they can spend on foreign free agents and in next year's draft. For those of you who don't know, last year a lot of complicated changes were put in place and make it a lot more difficult to draft talent both nationally and internationally. There's a certain limit to what teams can spend now, like in the first round of the draft they can only spend X million dollars or something like that. With these moves the Cubs basically traded for some of the other team's allowance.

Meanwhile A-Rod's rehab period has started. Looks like he'll be the first guy to come back.

Also Hiroki Kuroda apparently went back to New York to run some tests and to see if there's something wrong with his leg(s?). UGH!!!

[Remedy360]

Okay then how many people committed suicide in Seattle after Griffey left? Over or under 60?

Over. As an Angel fan, I celebrated. I still pray for those in Seattle after that.

You patronizing son of a bitch.

[MistaNova]

Manny Ramirez returns to the MLB by signing with Texas...

[MistaNova]

Well I saw the All Star Announcement Show and I'm glad to see Iwakuma make it.
I'm also glad to see Gomez and Encarnacion make it too.

Although I'm extremely disheartened at how Derek Jeter was snubbed. Truly, utterly shocked. I lost all faith in humanity when I saw that.

And as expected the MLB took the easy route and made Puig the final fan vote so the naysayers can't complain about Bochy putting him in.
I just hope that David Robertson makes it though. There's not enough Yankees on the roster.
#HighSocksForVotes

[Remedy360]

Well I saw the All Star Announcement Show and I'm glad to see Iwakuma make it.
I'm also glad to see Gomez and Encarnacion make it too.

Although I'm extremely disheartened at how Derek Jeter was snubbed. Truly, utterly shocked. I lost all faith in humanity when I saw that.

And as expected the MLB took the easy route and made Puig the final fan vote so the naysayers can't complain about Bochy putting him in.
I just hope that David Robertson makes it though. There's not enough Yankees on the roster.
#HighSocksForVotes

Would have been cool to see the ageless wonder Raul Ibanez make it but I'm not up in arms over it. Oliver Perez was definitely worthy as well but it's tough for relievers to make it so whatever. One of the few years in recent memory the M's have had more than one guy repping the AL so fuck it.

[MistaNova]

A few Dodger notes.

Ricky Nolasco has been traded to the LA Dodgers for three minor leaguers and I believe some international draft poll money. Considering how those three weren't even LA's top prospects, I guess all that talk about the Marlins wanting more was just them reaching.

There's also this Puig campaign video.
<a href="http://youtube.com/v/BOEuV8-JzzA" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://youtube.com/v/BOEuV8-JzzA</a>

[MistaNova]

Here's a little something that's been on my mind for a while.

I'm sure all of us baseball fans have heard arguments against Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (and A-Rods) HoF cases with the ever so popular "he cheated, why should we honor him?" line. Then it hit me, why can't we honor cheaters even though we honor those in the hall who never played against black/Latino/Hispanic/Asian players, those who were noted gamblers, those who were KKK members, those who were alcoholics and those who were greenies?

How can we say that we have to preserve the integrity of Major League Baseball when it already flew out the window over a century ago?

[Remedy360]

Here's a little something that's been on my mind for a while.

I'm sure all of us baseball fans have heard arguments against Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (and A-Rods) HoF cases with the ever so popular "he cheated, why should we honor him?" line. Then it hit me, why can't we honor cheaters even though we honor those in the hall who never played against black/Latino/Hispanic/Asian players, those who were noted gamblers, those who were KKK members, those who were alcoholics and those who were greenies?

How can we say that we have to preserve the integrity of Major League Baseball when it already flew out the window over a century ago?

That's a great point. To play devil's advocate I'd say that times were a lot different in the past, not only in terms of standards of the game (IE Ped's running rampant) but laws and society in general, excluding your gambling point. I don't disagree for the most part though. My one big thing against a lot of the steroid guys is how full of shit so many of them are for lying about it repeatedly. I have zero issues with a guy making a mistake and owning up to it, but when someone is just repeatedly dishonest it rubs me the wrong way. In that sense, I don't mind seeing some of them excluded, but at the same time I wouldn't be the least bit upset if they made it either.

[Russell Bell]

Here's a little something that's been on my mind for a while.

I'm sure all of us baseball fans have heard arguments against Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (and A-Rods) HoF cases with the ever so popular "he cheated, why should we honor him?" line. Then it hit me, why can't we honor cheaters even though we honor those in the hall who never played against black/Latino/Hispanic/Asian players, those who were noted gamblers, those who were KKK members, those who were alcoholics and those who were greenies?

How can we say that we have to preserve the integrity of Major League Baseball when it already flew out the window over a century ago?

good point.

what asian and latino player you talkin bout though?

[Remedy360]

Here's a little something that's been on my mind for a while.

I'm sure all of us baseball fans have heard arguments against Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (and A-Rods) HoF cases with the ever so popular "he cheated, why should we honor him?" line. Then it hit me, why can't we honor cheaters even though we honor those in the hall who never played against black/Latino/Hispanic/Asian players, those who were noted gamblers, those who were KKK members, those who were alcoholics and those who were greenies?

How can we say that we have to preserve the integrity of Major League Baseball when it already flew out the window over a century ago?

good point.

what asian and latino player you talkin bout though?

Probably just the fact that they were all excluded from the game during its earlier days.

[MistaNova]

That's a great point. To play devil's advocate I'd say that times were a lot different in the past, not only in terms of standards of the game (IE Ped's running rampant) but laws and society in general, excluding your gambling point. I don't disagree for the most part though. My one big thing against a lot of the steroid guys is how full of shit so many of them are for lying about it repeatedly. I have zero issues with a guy making a mistake and owning up to it, but when someone is just repeatedly dishonest it rubs me the wrong way. In that sense, I don't mind seeing some of them excluded, but at the same time I wouldn't be the least bit upset if they made it either.

Yeah I'm aware of how different society was back then. Separating races was pretty normal, some players needed to gamble in order to put food on the table etc... but at the same time if people want to say that they hate steroid users for cheating and not having morals, a lot of people we celebrate today as some of the best players of all time weren't exactly these perfect angels regardless if their behavior was the norm in society back then. And it just seems weird to me that some people act so hypocritical and are like "we're willing to accept them because that was the culture back then" but then say "but the steroid era is different" even though it was still a culture that was part of things they were back then (and probably still are).
That said, you bring up a very good point about how steroid users who don't openly admit that they took PEDs and keep on lying to people isn't exactly helping their cause and making shit worse. And I'm not condoning the use of PEDs, although I think making it a legal substance in baseball is inevitable, but I'm just pointing out that the anti-PED arguments are very flawed.
Although another problem is that pro-PED arguments have their fair share of flaws as well and this whole issue just ends up being a big old joke.

good point.

what asian and latino player you talkin bout though?

Nah man, I was just talking about how some Hall Of Famers never played against non-white people. At least not in the major leagues.
Like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth never faced non-whites except for a few exhibition games against the negro league players and in various countries.

[Remedy360]

That's a great point. To play devil's advocate I'd say that times were a lot different in the past, not only in terms of standards of the game (IE Ped's running rampant) but laws and society in general, excluding your gambling point. I don't disagree for the most part though. My one big thing against a lot of the steroid guys is how full of shit so many of them are for lying about it repeatedly. I have zero issues with a guy making a mistake and owning up to it, but when someone is just repeatedly dishonest it rubs me the wrong way. In that sense, I don't mind seeing some of them excluded, but at the same time I wouldn't be the least bit upset if they made it either.

Yeah I'm aware of how different society was back then. Separating races was pretty normal, some players needed to gamble in order to put food on the table etc... but at the same time if people want to say that they hate steroid users for cheating and not having morals, a lot of people we celebrate today as some of the best players of all time weren't exactly these perfect angels regardless if their behavior was the norm in society back then. And it just seems weird to me that some people act so hypocritical and are like "we're willing to accept them because that was the culture back then" but then say "but the steroid era is different" even though it was still a culture that was part of things they were back then (and probably still are).
That said, you bring up a very good point about how steroid users who don't openly admit that they took PEDs and keep on lying to people isn't exactly helping their cause and making shit worse. And I'm not condoning the use of PEDs, although I think making it a legal substance in baseball is inevitable, but I'm just pointing out that the anti-PED arguments are very flawed.
Although another problem is that pro-PED arguments have their fair share of flaws as well and this whole issue just ends up being a big old joke.

good point.

what asian and latino player you talkin bout though?

Nah man, I was just talking about how some Hall Of Famers never played against non-white people. At least not in the major leagues.
Like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth never faced non-whites except for a few exhibition games against the negro league players and in various countries.

What I was trying to get at with the whole society/culture thing was that steroids were certainly a part of baseball culture, but the racism, exclusion, etc that existed was a part of society as a whole. That's not to say that it shouldn't be recognized in baseball's history, but comparing the culture of PED's to something as big as that seems like comparing apples and oranges to me.

[MistaNova]

What I was trying to get at with the whole society/culture thing was that steroids were certainly a part of baseball culture, but the racism, exclusion, etc that existed was a part of society as a whole. That's not to say that it shouldn't be recognized in baseball's history, but comparing the culture of PED's to something as big as that seems like comparing apples and oranges to me.

I know what you meant, and that's why I included greenies and alcoholics which weren't as big a social "issue" (for lack of a better word) but they were there but yet don't catch as much flack as PEDs.