Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2008 MLB Season

mlb 2008 national tv schedule news

i'm doing the ical mlb tv schedule again this year, and like last year, i suggest subscribing to the feed with ical, since the schedule is subject to change, especially with the espn games being flex scheduling and such. i'll be releasing it march 9th, 15 days before the regular season starts and so we don't mess around with dst and all. of course, the times are edt, so adjust accordingly.

but looking at the schedule as a preview, drop in wgn (i wish ical could count number of occurrences in search) to 63 cubs games (i'm fearing wgn's fate is quickly going the way of tbs, probably going to see the sox and cubs axed from the station within a decade). here's an article about this topic here. of course, no more braves on tbs (i ranted about it several times last year), they are going to a game of the week format. but if you're asking, schedule isn't quite ready yet, i'm still trying to find the fox and tbs press releases of the 2008 schedules. but if you're itching for any baseball, first preseason game is next friday (my sig right now has the ical subscribe link where it says ST TV Schedule).
 
Eventually you will see more teams take the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, O's, model and start their own networks.
 
pachyderm said:
seems that's all either of us are doing... stating our opinion... put all the numbers up you want, call it what you want, either way one of us can always say, "it's because of this or that..." ;)

as a player and a coach i've had more success with putting the people who can hit/get on base up the top of the order. use any formula you want. i want folks who can hit and catch....;)
Click to expand...

You need to ask three questions:

1) Does the statistic measure an important contribution to that goal?"

2) How well does the statistic measure the player's own contribution?

and

3) Is there a better way to measure the same thing?

Your can dispute my conclusions, but to do so, your argument has to be based on those prior questions.

Basically in touting batting average, you need to say, hey look, runs created is all fine and good but batting average explains this that and the other thing, while runs created does not, therefore it is a better explanation of what is happening.

What you are doing is looking at results anecdotally and then tying those results to your observations and opinions regarding batting average.

Many people smarter than you or I have dissected this very topic. But here's just one example of why you are misguided:

dlf_ops1.JPG



The above graphic is looking at how well various statistical measures correlate to run production. As you can see, of all the available tools, batting average is simply not as tightly correlated.

I could go on and on, but if you care, all you have to do is google the topic and you'll have years of reading material.
 
i need to ask myself three questions all right but those aren't the ones!
i haven't disputed anything! you've disputed me!
i simply said get me some folks who can hit and i can win games.

walks are important...i never said they weren't.

i'm sorry i don't approach the game with a slide rule and a fantasy league guide bro...i just don't... i'm tired of this line bantering...

i was enjoying this thread...
 
aross99 said:
Is this just Manny being the "New Manny"?
Click to expand...

Manny's contract is up at the end of this season. The Sox have two option years (09/10) at $20 mil/per or he becomes a free agent.Either way,Manny's playing for next year's $$$..

Talk about a pay raise
Howard wins arbitration hearing
Slugger awarded $10 million salary for 2008 by panel
Click to expand...
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080221&content_id=2382364&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi&partnered=rss_phi
 
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Phillies closer Brad Lidge caught a spike in the mound on his first pitch of batting practice Saturday and hurt the same knee he had surgery on in October.

Lidge, the Phillies' biggest offseason acquisition, limped off the field after talking with team trainers. The team said it hoped to know more about the extent of the injury Sunday.

"It was my push off leg," Lidge said. "I caught my spike in the mound. I threw the pitch but it felt like I pulled something in the knee. ... It swelled up a little, but I'm optimistic that I just pulled some scar tissue loose."

Doctors removed torn cartilage from his right knee in the fall.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/news/story?id=3260676
 
derosa left with irregular heartbeat

MESA, Ariz. -- Second baseman Mark DeRosa was taken out of the Chicago Cubs' spring training complex on a stretcher and transported by ambulance to a hospital Saturday after experiencing what members of the team said was an irregular heartbeat.

DeRosa was sitting up as he was wheeled out of the Fitch Park complex. Some of his teammates were still in the field winding up a day of workouts.

"Mark's doing fine," manager Lou Piniella said. "He came in with a rapid heartbeat from doing the things on the field and was having a little trouble breathing, so they called in the medical team.

"He's completely stable, but better be safe than sorry. With the irregular heartbeat and so forth, they sent him to the hospital to test him and evaluate him. But he's fine."

A team spokesman said DeRosa felt faint but never lost consciousness.

"I talked to him. He was a little nervous and outside of that he's OK," Piniella said.

Team trainer Mark O'Neal accompanied DeRosa to the hospital.

"We'll find out what the medical staff or doctor at the hospital tells us to do," Piniella said. "I don't expect this to be serious and don't expect it to be too long."

A team spokesman said the medical team was brought in so DeRosa could be hooked up to an EKG first and then be moved to the hospital for further testing. A team doctor was at the complex.

Shortstop Ryan Theriot said DeRosa started to have a problem during groundball practice Saturday.

"It wasn't any one particular thing," Theriot said. "It started to speed up on him, and I think he started to get a little worried.

"He was fine through the whole thing. I think it was just one of those deals. He was more scared than anything."

DeRosa, who will turn 33 on Feb. 26, batted .293 in 149 games last season, his first with the Cubs.
Click to expand...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/news/story?id=3260797
 
macrumors fantasy baseball

who's interested in doing a fantasy baseball league on yahoo this year? (maybe this should be moved in another thread). i'm just itching for fantasy baseball.
 
furcalchick said:
who's interested in doing a fantasy baseball league on yahoo this year? (maybe this should be moved in another thread). i'm just itching for fantasy baseball.
Click to expand...
Start one up if you like. I know in years past people have done it elsewhere.
 
royals quizzed on baseball basics

i thought this was an interesting article with one of the royals coaches giving out quizzes to players about the basics of baseball, and its hard. it's just the exact opposite of that jim harrick jr. 'final exam' from a few years back.

Royals coach gives players test on baseball basics
By DOUG TUCKER, AP Sports Writer 40 minutes ago

SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP)—When sliding feet-first into a base, is your front foot straight up or sideways?

Before a game starts, what are the first two things a player should check?

Stumped? Don’t fret. When first-base coach Rusty Kuntz asked the Kansas City Royals to take his quiz on outfield play and baserunning fundamentals, there were quite a few “who didn’t have a clue.”

But that was better than the first player Kuntz quizzed a couple of years ago in Pittsburgh.

“Out of 50 questions, the guy got five correct,” Kuntz said. “And this was a starting player in the major leagues, a very well-known guy. I thought, `Oh, my gosh. Oh, my goodness.”’

So Kuntz came up with a detailed list of written questions and tried them out on a number of players. The results were encouraging.

“By the end of spring training, I gave the same player the same test, along with a bunch of other guys, and he got every one of them right,” Kuntz said. “And I noticed that during the year, he responded quicker to certain situations. I thought if you can do that for outfield play, why not throw in some baserunning fundamentals?”

Now, as a member of Trey Hillman’s new staff in Kansas City, Kuntz’s written quizzes have become a big feature during the first full week of spring training.

Even Hillman says he’s benefited.

“We talk about wanting this to be a learning situation,” the manager said. “There’s always things you can learn. I’ve learned from Rusty about things that were considered my areas of expertise. If you ever get to a point where you feel like you know it all, it’s probably time to get out.”

Not every player on the Royals was given the written quizzes. Among those who were, there was a wide range of success and failure.

“I’d say it was 50-50,” Kuntz said. “Some of them did relatively well. Some did OK. And some had no clue.”

Kuntz didn’t want to name the slackers, lest anybody be embarrassed. But getting a lot of the written questions incorrect doesn’t necessarily mean the major leaguers haven’t been paying attention while playing the game for as long as most of them can remember.

For a great many, it may be the first time they’ve ever been drilled in the finer points of the fundamentals. Another possibility is some players aren’t accustomed to written tests but have learned to react instinctively when situations arise during a game.

“These guys are major league players, but they’ve got a couple of years of minor league experience, and before that they were in high school,” Kuntz said. “I’m trying to get them out of the box. I’m trying to feed them bits and pieces so they can apply it once the game starts. Such as, can you have an infield fly rule on a bunt play?”

That’s one most of the Pirates two years ago and most of the Royals this spring got wrong.

“They say you can,” Kuntz said. “The answer is no, you can’t.”

Another one that gives everyone trouble has to do with umpires. If the ball hits an ump on the infield grass, is it alive or dead?

“I had experienced baserunners say it’s live,” Kuntz said. “Well, it’s actually dead. But if the same ball hits an umpire on the outfield grass, then the runners keep running because that’s a live ball.”

A lot of players didn’t know that the proper way to slide feet-first into a base is to have the front foot straight up, or that the sun and the wind should be taken into account as soon as a player leaves the clubhouse before a game.

One of the Royals who aced the tests was outfield prospect Chris Lubanski.

“The tests have been great because even the ones you get wrong, now you know the situation,” he said. “And the ones you get right, it refreshes your mind. At least now I know that I know what’s going on.”

So which question was missed most often?

“When you’re waiting on a flyball, what part of the ball do you look at, the top or the bottom?” Kuntz said. “Everybody said the bottom. But you’ve got to concentrate on seeing the top.”

And the easiest question anyone missed?

“The distance between bases,” he said. “It’s 90 feet, of course. Some guys got that wrong.”
Click to expand...

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-royals-baseballquiz&prov=ap&type=lgns
 
sox gave tito a 3-year extension + options for 2012 and 2013 :D
 
MacNut said:
Hope the Red Sox are willing to pay him lots of money.
Click to expand...

The Red Sox don't have to offer him any kind of new contract until 2011. They have the options for 2009 and 2010 for $20 mil a piece (the same as his salary this year)
 
So why would he sign Boras to represent him if he thinks he will be around for 3 more years. Does he have any outs in that contract. Or would the Red Sox let him go.
 
MacNut said:
So why would he sign Boras to represent him if he thinks he will be around for 3 more years. Does he have any outs in that contract.
Click to expand...
Not that I know of.
Or would the Red Sox let him go.
Click to expand...
If he has another off year like he did last year (or worse), they most likely wouldn't pick up his option. They'd try to negociate a cheaper deal (maybe in the 3 year 14-16 per year range) and let him walk if he didn't want that. However, if he goes and has another monster Manny year, they'll definitely pick up the option.
 
spring training plans

with spring training games starting tomorrow, let's list our preseason plans for games.

i'm going to two games as of right now, 3/7 in vero (i'll be posting pics on 3/8), and 3/17 in jupiter with the braves. i could be headed to astros camp on a saturday, but that's not been worked out yet. this is probably going to be the last spring goaround for me for a while.
 
furcalchick said:
with spring training games starting tomorrow, let's list our preseason plans for games.

i'm going to two games as of right now, 3/7 in vero (i'll be posting pics on 3/8), and 3/17 in jupiter with the braves. i could be headed to astros camp on a saturday, but that's not been worked out yet. this is probably going to be the last spring goaround for me for a while.
Click to expand...

I was hoping to go to Florida during spring break, but I don't know if that's happening, plus the Sox are leaving for Japan like the first day of my spring break so it won't work :(

oh, and all the tickets were sold out :mad:
 
zioxide said:
I was hoping to go to Florida during spring break, but I don't know if that's happening, plus the Sox are leaving for Japan like the first day of my spring break so it won't work :(

oh, and all the tickets were sold out :mad:
Click to expand...

i don't know about the red sox so much (i do know all their games sell out fast), they are on the other side of the state (i'm on the east coast of florida, about 2 hours east of ft. myers). dodgertown will sell out fast, i suspect the game i'm going to will be sold out before the weekend.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Where are you hearing this?
Click to expand...
ESPN has been saying it most of the day.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/news/story?id=3264187
The Tampa Bay Rays have recently done what the St. Louis Cardinals did a while back: have internal discussions about the prospect of pursuing Barry Bonds.

Manager Joe Maddon said Monday he knew "little" about what was going on, but acknowledged some thought has been given to the career home run leader.

"A minor discussion was thrown out there a little bit, and it's really not gone any further than that," Maddon said after Monday's workout at the team's spring training facility. "That's all it is right now."

The St. Petersburg Times reported in Monday's editions that team officials have conferred among themselves about Bonds and other veteran unsigned free agents, such as Kenny Lofton and Mike Piazza. Andrew Friedman, Rays vice president of baseball operations, called the report a "non-story."
Click to expand...
 
Doesn't sound like much of a rumor to me. You have to know Bonds will demand the big bucks, even with the overhang of possible prosecution. And the Rays? Boy, would that ever be going down-market!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back