Baseball

[transjen]

With the Flyers playing like a giant turd i can at least be happy that there is only 75 days to opening day
Jerseygirl Jen

[shadows]

Originally Posted by transjen

With the Flyers playing like a giant turd i can at least be happy that there is only 75 days to opening day
Jerseygirl Jen

Like said giant turd, their poor play will eventually pass and they will be winning again. I think that they will make a move during the second half.

Regarding baseball, all Blue Jays players have now been re-signed and they avoid arbitration yet again(they have not had to deal with that since 1997).

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by transjen

With the Flyers playing like a giant turd i can at least be happy that there is only 75 days to opening day
Jerseygirl Jen

JEN:


Hockey on a baseball thread?
LOL!!

TAL

[smc]

Phillies fans who risked heart attacks every time Brad Lidge came into a game last season can now add stroke to their health risks from relief pitchers. Word is that Eric Gagne is going to have a tryout this afternoon in Arizona for the Phillies.

Gagne has what could safely be called a "checkered career." He won the Cy Young Award in 2003 with the Dodgers and holds the record for consecutive saves with 84. He had three seasons during which the word "unhittable" would not be an exaggeration: from 2002-04, with the Dodgers, his ERA was 1.79 and his strikeout-to-walk ration was 6.29. But then came Tommy John surgery. He came back and wasn't too bad in the first half of 2007.

After that, we got to see him at Fenway Park. He joined the team in July 2007. I happened to be at the game where he made his first appearance in a Red Sox uniform, a lovely afternoon that was Bobby Doerr Day! Gagne was a disaster. The Sox got rid of him. He spent last season as a starting pitcher for the Quebec Capitals of the Canadian-American Independent League, posting a 6-6 record, with an ERA of 4.65 ERA.

In Red Sox Nation, Gagne coming into a game during his Red Sox tenure would provoke the same reaction as Lidge coming into a game for the Phillies last year. It was time to make sure your health insurance premiums were paid up.

(Gagne, by the way, was named in the Mitchell Report in December 2007 as a steroid user!)

[Talvenada]

Gagne is a lightning-in-a-bottle guy, and probably won't even make the team for a 2 week trial run in April. The Phillies will have 5 open spots with Moyer (out for April), Lidge and Romero (both out for 2 weeks) to go with the 2 open slots for young arms to unclog the AA & AAA bottleneck of young arms.

Lidge may have caused heartburn last year, but he wasn't booed off the mound. He has now had his best and worst years with '10 being neither perfect nor a disaster. Nobody would have believed with Philly's reputation that Lidge could have his worst year ever, and still not be booed.

[smc]

The Red Sox again avoided arbitration with Jonathan Papelbon and signed the closer to a 1-year deal.

One of my dreams for this season is for Papelbon to confront Jon Miller of ESPN, who insists on calling Pap "Jon" rather than "Jonathan" -- something about which Papelbon has been quite adamant with the Boston media (all of whom are happy to go along). In my dream, Pap climbs up the screen and makes his way to the broadcast booth, drags Miller down to the field, and recreates the Irish jig he did after the 2004 World Series victory, dancing around Miller while the broadcaster begs not to be stepped on.

Remember, this is only a dream.

Now, if it were to happen in real life, who wants to bet against the following?: Joe Morgan, still up in the broadcast booth, says in complete seriousness that when he played he would never have done such a thing and that Papelbon's Hall of Fame chances are being compromised.

[Talvenada]

The problem with Joe is that he stayed a year too long, and The Phillies made The WS that year in '83. Joe fell flat on his face coming off of 3rd base trying to score in that WS, and it was a pitiful thing to watch for a guy who was a great player (not announcer).

[shadows]

Originally Posted by smc

The Red Sox again avoided arbitration with Jonathan Papelbon and signed the closer to a 1-year deal.

One of my dreams for this season is for Papelbon to confront Jon Miller of ESPN, who insists on calling Pap "Jon" rather than "Jonathan" -- something about which Papelbon has been quite adamant with the Boston media (all of whom are happy to go along). In my dream, Pap climbs up the screen and makes his way to the broadcast booth, drags Miller down to the field, and recreates the Irish jig he did after the 2004 World Series victory, dancing around Miller while the broadcaster begs not to be stepped on.

Remember, this is only a dream.

Now, if it were to happen in real life, who wants to bet against the following?: Joe Morgan, still up in the broadcast booth, says in complete seriousness that when he played he would never have done such a thing and that Papelbon's Hall of Fame chances are being compromised.

That reminds me of the team when Jim Rome kept on calling a quarterback(Jim Elway? I cannot recall the fellow's name) a name that he repeatedly asked not to be called. Rome kept it up, so he was tackled on the set! I don't think that interview was ever finished...

Some people do not like to be called by the shortened version of their name. There was a guy that I worked with that wanted to be called James rather than Jim. Nothing wrong with that, and I don't blame Papelbon wanted to be called Jonathan rather than Jon. There are a couple of other incidents where he came across as a jerk, but not in this case.

[smc]

The San Francisco Giants are keeping Bengie Molina behind the plate for 2010. I keep wondering how many more Molina brothers (or other relatives) there are waiting to make the big leagues as catchers. In addition to Bengie, we already have Jose (who was with the Yankees last season), and Yadier (who started for the Cardinals last year). Then there's Gustavo (who I think is in the minors now but played for the Mets in 2008); is he related to them in some way? And what about Stubby, Stumpy, and Chunky?