The ONE and ONLY 2006 Baseball Thread!!

[ChrisPitch]

Anytime Jorge Julio gets a win and a save in the same series, you know things are going your way. Every aspect of the team is clicking. LET\'S GO METS!

[Wolfman]

Let\'s go Mets!  The only postseason baseball in New York this year is taking place in QUEENS baby!  Could this be the year (that they win the NL East)??

[ChrisPitch]

It\'s the Mets to win with the Braves already hip deep in shit. Philly is in second now and the Amazin\'s go there for three this week. Another big early series.

[Klout]

lookin forward to the phillies series. they are red hot right now but we are starting to really heat up ourselves. Pedro starts off the series so thats a goos thing.

zambrano out for the season

[Me!]

red sox vs. yankees tonight

Beckett vs Johnson

Beckett is def hot so far this year but Randy was 5-0 against the sox last year, should be a good game....

[Spacey]

Hopefully it doesn\'t get rained out tonight.

Beckett vs. Johnson will be a real good match-up this evening. I just lack confidence in the Yankees pitching at the moment. However, they have been playing pretty solid.

[Lexington]

i like chess

[Wolfman]

Top 10 Moments from this week\'s Red Sox - Yankees series in Da Bronx:

10.  Drop-Papi-gate.  The media is supposed to commentate on how the players play.  Only in New York would the players be commenting on how the media plays.  Reason #1,476,893 I got the hell out of living in Manhattan as fast as possible: not having to read Post and Daily News headlines every day.  

9.  The return of E-Rod.  Even though his first Game 1 error opened the floodgates for the Sox, I more enjoyed the second error where the ball viciously attacked A-Rod, followed by A-Rod not even bothering to turn around to see where it went.

8.  Papelbon\'s Yankee Stadium Debut.  Despite the fact that Yankees were getting mowed down, I\'m sure Papelbon\'s outing gave Yankee fans many happy flashbacks to when Rivera could pitch like that.

7. (tie)  Randy Johnson\'s MRI following his horrendous outing.  Turns out his arm is fine and the problem is he\'s just too old to be throwing heat anymore.  MRI tests should now be called: Maybe Randy\'s Injured tests.

7. (tie)  Schilling\'s "clandestine" trip to the hospital during game 3.  A small convoy of paparazzi missed the game to follow him to the hospital on a night he wasn\'t even pitching.  Frikin New York.

5.  Sox scrubs hitting like crazy.  How about Dustin Mohr and Alex Gonzalez doubling their batting averages against Randy Johnson?  And in Game 3, Doug Mirabelli, whose average had dipped below .100 on his previous at-bat, getting a hit to start the 2-run go-ahead rally.      

4.  Matsui = Dunzo.  This isn\'t cool.  I hate seeing anyone get injured.  The rivalry is best when both teams are loaded up and ready to go.  Injuries take away from it all.  In addition, there are only two Yankees I feel bad for if they get hurt: Matsui and Jeter.  Like I said, I don\'t ever want to see anyone get injured, but nobody\'s about to feel bad for someone like Sheffield.  Matsui I actually feel bad for.      

3.  Despite Matsui\'s injury, Damon and Bubba Crosby were catching everything in sight in Game 3, including each each of them robbing a potential multi-run homerun in consecutive innings.  Cano also robbed a go-ahead 2-run hit with a nice over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right.  It looked like we couldn\'t get anything past these guys.  Then Bernie Williams goes and overruns an Alex Gonzalez pop-up by 5 steps, the ball falls for a ground-rule double, and the go-ahead rally is on.  Bernie\'s quote: "I was getting ready to climb up that wall, and as I was getting ready to do that, the wind blew it back."  Riiiiiiiight.  I used that one in fifth grade.  

2.  A-Rod\'s game-winning homer off of Schilling.  Good job coming through to silence the critics and The Boss.  Enjoy it now, you won\'t be seeing any such thing in September.  

1.  Bernie throwing his helmet at the home plate umpire and getting tossed.  At least Bernie did a good job of turning around and firing the no-look-lob at the ump to avoid the 50 game suspension.  I still can\'t believe Bernie Williams did that.  Johnson and Matsui are done, but when you look up dunzo in the dictionary you\'ll see Bernie Williams.  He\'s one of the greatest Yankees of all time to be sure, but he\'s pulling a Sinatra right now and a midseason retirement after this series would rank a 10 out of 10 on the Nobility Scale.

[Me!]

player of the series: Mark Loretta

[Mark]

Player of the decade: Albert Pujols

[Wolfman]

Player of our lifetime: David Ortiz.

[wildcoyote]

One Dimensional Player of our lifetime: David Ortiz.

there, fixed it

[Klout]

mets and  yanks next weekend at shea

[Wolfman]

One Dimensional Player of our lifetime: David Ortiz.

there, fixed it

So I take it you wouldn\'t want David Ortiz on your team, right?  Get on here and post that you wouldn\'t want him on your team.  By your argument, every pitcher in the league is one-dimesnional because they don\'t hit.  To you, Josh Beckett, Brad Lidge, and Pedro Martinez are all "one-dimensional" thus you wouldn\'t take any of them either.  Anyone who hits for singles, doubles, homers, and average to both fields and comes through every time when needed is not a one-dimensional player.  Oritz happens to be the amongst the best in the league at the one dimension of hitting, which is half the game of baseball.  You\'re probably not aware that the A.L. has a position called Designated Hitter (DH for short) that requires someone on the team to hit without fielding.  This doesn\'t make anyone one-dimensional, it means they\'re playing a position that must be played.  And when Oritz does happen to play in the field he\'s not bad.  Just ask Jeff Suppan.  Hang your head in shame you silly little coyote.

[wildcoyote]

I take it you wouldn\'t want David Ortiz on your team, right?  Get on here and post that you wouldn\'t want him on your team.  By your argument, every pitcher in the league is one-dimesnional because they don\'t hit.  Oritz happens to be the amongst the best in the league at the one dimension of hitting, which is half the game of baseball.

Okay I\'ll try my best not to let the Yanks/Sox thing sway my judgement here.  
David Ortiz is an elite hitter.  His past two seasons are HOF quality.  I\'d take him on the Yanks in a second.
The fact that he cannot adq. field a position is a weakness.  It makes him an inferior all around ball player to say a Vlad, who would put up just as nasty offensive #\'s if he had Manny hitting behind him, and has a deadly arm from RF.  Guerrero is what scouts call a 5 tool player*.
1. Hit for average
2. Hit for power
3. Run the bases
4. Catch the ball (or at least get to it)
5. Throw the ball

Ortiz does 2 out of 5.  40%.  He does them extremely well, but I have no doubt I can beat him in a 90ft. race.

His utter lack of fielding ability hurts the Sox two fold:

1. Ortiz occupying the DH results in Manny if LF full time.

2. The Sox have sent out sub-par offensive 1B\'s during Ortiz\'s tenure w/ the team.  If he was a good fielder, it would free up the DH position for more offense. Consider this, take Ortiz\'s #\'s and Kevin Millar\'s (2005) #\'s and add them together.  Now divide by 2.  This is a DH\'s true value.  His #\'s with the numbers of the guy playing his closest position in the field.  If there is little dropoff (ie Jim Thome/Paul Konerko) fine, but if the team suffers offensively for the guy they send out to cover the DH\'s def. ineptitude, it devalues said DH.

Your argument is blinded by the "B" on your hat.  You don\'t see me arguing that A-Rod is clutch.  Oh, and by the way Sox fans, Ortiz\'s his average is down latley, how long \'til you turn on him Nomar style?