2012 MLB Season

[Kramerica Industries]

This isn't the 1st time they sputtered after being called the favorites... Angels got Mark Teixeira in 2008 and were supposed to cruise according to the media, then they get pounded in the ALDS.

This is true, difference is the Angels already had the AL West basically in the bag, and the Tex move was to bolster their chances in the postseason.

And they ran into a surging, 95 win Red Sox team in the wild card, a team that always had their number and, in many ways, still does.

This is a season-long failure. And they've only got 41 games, or the final quarter of the season, to start to turn the ship back around. I will pay a hefty reward to the diligent fan out there who said the Oakland A's, a team that traded two of their top three pitchers in the off-season, would be four games ahead of the Angels after the games played on August 19. That's a small credit to the A's, but a huge black mark on the Angels.

Just goes to show - a team can be willing to spend the big $$$, but if the pieces don't mesh, you won't get the W's to go with them.

[Raysfan12]

What notes could you possibly be talking about?

An excellent farm, rotation, and magic bullpen potion?

The Rangers have done much of the same, and they have two American League pennants (and two playoff series victories over the Rays) to show for it.

Not to offend you, but I mean like properly using salary, good management, and again all the things you said. The Rangers took some of the advice from St. Pete and they have 2 AL Pennants and made free-spending teams obsolete.

[Lights Out]

It seems as if the Rays are primed to ride yet another August hot streak into the playoffs, but this team looks to be in a LOT better shape than last year's, getting no-hit AGAIN notwithstanding.

Also, LOL Angels. Apparently, being one AL East team's whipping boy wasn't enough for them.

[Kramerica Industries]

What notes could you possibly be talking about?

An excellent farm, rotation, and magic bullpen potion?

The Rangers have done much of the same, and they have two American League pennants (and two playoff series victories over the Rays) to show for it.

Not to offend you, but I mean like properly using salary, good management, and again all the things you said. The Rangers took some of the advice from St. Pete and they have 2 AL Pennants and made free-spending teams obsolete.

Free-spending ways are not obsolete. It just means there are multiple ways to build a long-term pennant contending ballclub. Jon Daniels and the Texas Rangers have been building since they traded Teixeira five years ago. They were also fortunate to get out from under Tom Hicks' disintegrating financial empire.

Fact is, the Rays have their approach that they're market limitations have more-or-less forced them to embrace, and they have done an excellent job embracing it. Andrew Friedman is probably the best GM in MLB. I won't sing praises for Maddon, because I think he's an arrogant windbag who has made just as many critical mistakes in important games as he's made masterstroke decisions.

And the team the Rays have been in combat with the most the past three seasons, the Yankees, have their approach that their market (non)limitations have allowed them to exploit for decades now, and the Yankees have a number of championships and pennants to show for it, including as recently as 2009.

As much as I don't like the Rays, I do concede that I enjoy the AL East being a Yankees-Rays battle than I did when it was a Yankees-Red Sox battle. Living in the TB market does help.

---

I don't want to overlook Baltimore. 66-55 through 121 games. That's just outstanding given not only their pre-season expectations, but also their awful run differential. Kudos to Buck's club.

[Brass]

I'm pretty much hoping the Beckett Era in Boston is over after this season....

[sportstar1212]

I'm pretty much hoping the Beckett Era in Boston is over after this season....

+1 His departure is long overdue.

[pmoehrin]

I'm pretty much hoping the Beckett Era in Boston is over after this season....

+1 His departure is long overdue.

Even as deep as the Red Sox pockets are I don't think they are going to be willing to eat $30 million.

I'm not really sure what the Red Sox can do, but I do know keeping around a lame duck manager can't be helping and they should be taking a que from the Astros as far as how to handle the situation. Its the worst kept secret in the MLB that Bobby Valentine will be fired almost as soon as the regular season is over.

[Dexter Morgan]

I wonder what nasty information will be leaked about Beckett when he departs. God knows the Red Sox like to on everyone when they leave.

[oddball]

I think Big Donkey is a Hall of Famer. I mean he is on pace to hit 600 home runs and the fact that he hasn't juiced at all is amazing. I think Adam Dunn is one of the most feared power hitters of our era. His home runs aren't little 388 foot ones down the left field line either; he hits freakin 450 foot home runs! Just look what he did last week in Toronto! He's a great character too. He was the one that chose to sat out in the All-Star game so the other players could get playing time. Just because he can't play defense worth squat or hit for average doesn't mean he isn't a Hall of Famer. I think Adam Dunn is a sure Hall of Famer if everything plays out as planned.

A career .240 hitter should be not be in the Hall of Fame. He'll probably have an even worse average when he retires, so no, he's not a Hall of Famer. If Dunn wasn't so great at hitting home runs, he probably wouldn't even be playing in the Major Leagues, as he's average or below average in pretty much every other asset of the game. He's slow, can't hit for average very well, and he's an average to below average fielder.

Adam Dunn is just Dave Kingman resurrected. Home run hitter and that's all he can do. He can't run, he can't field, he can't throw, and he occasionally hits the ball far. *shrug* Sure he's entertaining, but Hall of Fame, not even close.

[Kramerica Industries]

I'm pretty much hoping the Beckett Era in Boston is over after this season....

+1 His departure is long overdue.

Even as deep as the Red Sox pockets are I don't think they are going to be willing to eat $30 million.

I'm not really sure what the Red Sox can do, but I do know keeping around a lame duck manager can't be helping and they should be taking a que from the Astros as far as how to handle the situation. Its the worst kept secret in the MLB that Bobby Valentine will be fired almost as soon as the regular season is over.

You mean how the Astros trashed Mills on the way out?

Actually, as Dexter alludes to, a smear campaign is actually pretty standard for the Red Sox. I still can't believe they trashed Tito the way they did on his way out last season. That ownership group doesn't deserve the championships it has won.

[pmoehrin]

I'm pretty much hoping the Beckett Era in Boston is over after this season....

+1 His departure is long overdue.

Even as deep as the Red Sox pockets are I don't think they are going to be willing to eat $30 million.

I'm not really sure what the Red Sox can do, but I do know keeping around a lame duck manager can't be helping and they should be taking a que from the Astros as far as how to handle the situation. Its the worst kept secret in the MLB that Bobby Valentine will be fired almost as soon as the regular season is over.

You mean how the Astros trashed Mills on the way out?

Actually, as Dexter alludes to, a smear campaign is actually pretty standard for the Red Sox. I still can't believe they trashed Tito the way they did on his way out last season. That ownership group doesn't deserve the championships it has won.

I don't think any manager could have won with the talent the Astros had assembled. But if the decision has already been made to fire manager, then he needs to go ASAP. I don't believe in keeping lame duck managers/coaches. Its unfair to them and your wasting an opportunity to explore other options.

As for the Red Sox smearing guys, to be fair alot of that is the media and not the Sox. Paranoid schizophrenia would be a very fitting description for how the local media writes about the Red Sox. Its on par with the Yankees in terms of how much media attention the Red Sox get and the Yankees are playing in a market that's 4 times the size of Boston.

For a paper like the Herald this year has been great because the last thing the paranoid self hating Red Sox fan wants to hear about is good news. How is my team screwing up? That's the story I'm going to buy. And the Globe does it to a pretty good extent as well. Can't give them a free pass either.

There's probably alot of lower level people in the Red Sox front office leaking this stuff that need to go, but I don't think the ownership regards it as being as serious of a situation as maybe they should. Then again for all we know Tom Werner could be the one leaking it. Its doubtful but nothing would really surprise me given all the stuff that's come out about the inner workings of that team.

[RedSox44]

I'm pretty much hoping the Beckett Era in Boston is over after this season....

+1 His departure is long overdue.

Even as deep as the Red Sox pockets are I don't think they are going to be willing to eat $30 million.

I'm not really sure what the Red Sox can do, but I do know keeping around a lame duck manager can't be helping and they should be taking a que from the Astros as far as how to handle the situation. Its the worst kept secret in the MLB that Bobby Valentine will be fired almost as soon as the regular season is over.

You mean how the Astros trashed Mills on the way out?

Actually, as Dexter alludes to, a smear campaign is actually pretty standard for the Red Sox. I still can't believe they trashed Tito the way they did on his way out last season. That ownership group doesn't deserve the championships it has won.

They trashed Nomar too. It's the present management's thing when players leave. Hell, John Henry even said that he was "personally opposed" to the Crawford deal, basically putting that morass of a contract entirely on the recently departed Theo Epstein.

[The_Admiral]

Having an age 31 season that ranks among the worst in the history of baseball really can't be good for Adam Dunn's HOF chances. You can suck up the joint like that when you're 49 years old and barely clinging to your career, but not between 27-33.

The only real argument against Frank Thomas is that most of his seasons were played at designated hitter. Even then, I think some of his best seasons came when he played most games at first base.

[raysfan24]

Does this belong here?

Roger Clemens scheduled to pitch for the Sugar Land Skeeters Saturday.

And what a name for a baseball team....Skeeters.

[RedSox44]

Does that league have drug testing?

Anywho, according to the NESN ticker, the Red Sox have fired Bob McClure, the pitching coach. So now there's no "pitching coach" (McClure, Cherington's guy) and "assistant pitching coach" (Randy Niemann, Valentine's guy). Niemann is the only pitching coach for the Sox from now on, I guess.

This is the fourth Red Sox pitching coach in three seasons. John Farrell, who was pitching coach in 2010, left to manage the Blue Jays. The much criticized Curt Young was the Red Sox pitching coach last season. Then McClure was lured from the Royals this season, and now Niemann, who's been promoted.

It should be noted that Niemann was previously the only "assistant pitching coach" in the majors, which is an indication of how :censored:ed up the Boston Red Sox are.

[BigBubba]

Dunn has never hit above .270 in a season, nor has he ever finished top-20 in MVP voting. He can't hit for average, is a bad fielder (and DHs most of the time now anyways), and is a slow runner. He is a 1-tool player, and doesn't belong in the Hall.

[Eye]

I'm pretty much hoping the Beckett Era in Boston is over after this season....

+1 His departure is long overdue.

Even as deep as the Red Sox pockets are I don't think they are going to be willing to eat $30 million.

I'm not really sure what the Red Sox can do, but I do know keeping around a lame duck manager can't be helping and they should be taking a que from the Astros as far as how to handle the situation. Its the worst kept secret in the MLB that Bobby Valentine will be fired almost as soon as the regular season is over.

You mean how the Astros trashed Mills on the way out?

Actually, as Dexter alludes to, a smear campaign is actually pretty standard for the Red Sox. I still can't believe they trashed Tito the way they did on his way out last season. That ownership group doesn't deserve the championships it has won.

They trashed Nomar too. It's the present management's thing when players leave. Hell, John Henry even said that he was "personally opposed" to the Crawford deal, basically putting that morass of a contract entirely on the recently departed Theo Epstein.

Well, Nomar was a baby.

[pmoehrin]

The A's finally get some desperately needed middle infield help in the form of Stephen Drew.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/08/athletics-acquire-stephen-drew.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MlbTradeRumors+%28MLB+Trade+Rumors%29

We'll see if he can get his career back on track in Oakland. I have a hard time buying that he's a sub .200 hitter, but then again I really haven't seen him play that much this year.

[Sport]

I haven't watched the Phillies at all this year so I look at their record and it's surprising. What's the deal?

I still wouldn't be surprised to see the Reds get swept in 4 games there. Again. They just can't play in Philadelphia. I don't know what it is.

[pmoehrin]

I haven't watched the Phillies at all this year so I look at their record and it's surprising. What's the deal?

Age and injuries.

The key players that helped drive those World Series teams, Howard, Utley, Rollins, Victorino (know he's on the Dodgers now) just aren't the same guys they were four years ago. Plus Halladay going down pretty much ended any real shot they had.

Also the bullpen has been downright awful. Outside of Papelbon they have nobody down in that pen,