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2008 MLB Season

MacNut said:
All I gotta say is the thorn in the Yankees side is gone.:D
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I was thinking that Torre must be glad to no longer be on the receiving end of Manny anymore.
Teh Don Ditty said:
But we don't need another weak arm in the outfield.
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Like it was said, his arm wasn't the problem. He always got rid of the ball quickly once it got into his glove. Of course, sometimes it was into the stands after out #2, or maybe he high fived a fan before finishing the DP (only cool because he did get it in), or he's acting like a ****ing pinball between the Monster and the other wall in the corner while there's a runner tagging from third. At least throw it in dammit!
fotografica said:
How about a Carl Everett signed bat? :p
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That depends. How hard will Carl be swinging it? :p
 
MacNut said:
All I gotta say is the thorn in the Yankees side is gone.:D

Chew on this Sox fans, Manny hits great in Yankee Stadium, They can afford to pay him. Arod Manny batting 3 4 next year. How does that sound.
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i thought yankee stadium was getting torn down after the season...

Teh Don Ditty said:
The White Sox would have to go through the Angels, which is a tall order.

Sorry Lee, I'd root for the Cubbies.
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for some reason, i think the angels crash and burn in the playoffs and don't make it to the world series. they remind me of the braves, and if there is one thing we do well, it's choking in october. if i had to say right now my ws pick, it's rays vs. d'backs.

Teh Don Ditty said:
That's good. Us New Yorkers would never root for the other team.
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sure...the ny guy on the radio down here claims to like both the mets and the yankees...so that's not a 100% rule.
 
furcalchick said:
i thought yankee stadium was getting torn down after the season...



for some reason, i think the angels crash and burn in the playoffs and don't make it to the world series. they remind me of the braves, and if there is one thing we do well, it's choking in october. if i had to say right now my ws pick, it's rays vs. d'backs.



sure...the ny guy on the radio down here claims to like both the mets and the yankees...so that's not a 100% rule.
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The new one will have the same field dimensions.

I think the Angels go all the way this year. That team is unstoppable.

You can't be fans of both. That is like saying you like the Yankees and Red Sox equally.
 
Teh Don Ditty said:
Hush over there in the peanut gallery! :p
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Hey, I grew up in the New York area, so I know all about this nuttiness where you have to love one team and hate the other. My best year as a Mets fan was in 1969, when we got to point at all those slack-jawed glazed-eyed Yankee fans and laugh. That kind of fan behavior is unique to New York baseball, though. Spend a little time away from it and you realize it's actually quite silly.

Counterfit said:
I was thinking that Torre must be glad to no longer be on the receiving end of Manny anymore.
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He's almost said as much, and also how strange it will be to have him wearing the same uniform.

Speaking of uniforms, I wonder what number he'll get. He can't have his old number 24. That was Walter Alston's number, and it's been retired.
 
leekohler said:
I'm still hoping for a subway series here in Chicago. That would be awesome! And it's not that far-fetched.
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It really would be great with the Chi-Sox winning it all again...but not likely. They have a tall order to get by either LAA or TB.

Teh Don Ditty said:
The White Sox would have to go through the Angels, which is a tall order.

Sorry Lee, I'd root for the Cubbies.
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See above... I feel better about the Cubbies chances too... then see below...

fotografica said:
Quite possible we could have an all LA series..It's going to be an interesting stretch run to see which teams stay hot/go cold,injuries etc..
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I don't see the Dodgers pulling it off but maybe. That would be great if they got around the D-slacks. It certainly isn't out of the question. Close race made even more so with the ManRam in blue. I kinda feel like they(Dodgers) have an edge now...
LAA has a losing record v TB this year so I'm not counting any of those chicks as hatched yet and no one else should either...

But I like this post season run so far-LAA, ChiSox, Cubbies, Brewers. All four teams that I can live with winning the WS title.
 
Teh Don Ditty said:
Agreed.

Manny still can hit, I'll give him that. But we don't need another weak arm in the outfield.
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Weak arm? Manny may not be a great fielder, but he always had a great arm.





zioxide said:
Yeah, but nowhere near as good as he did back in his prime.

Some of the things I have read keep saying "Bay isn't anywhere near the hitter Manny has been." While obviously Manny was one of the best hitters ever when he was in his prime, he's 36 now. You have to compare what Manny is going to do now that he's old to what Bay is doing now. I think Bay is definitely an adequate replacement (and possibly an upgrade) to 36/37 year old Manny.

2008 Bay: .282/.375/.519/.894 22HR 64RBI 59BB 86K
2008 Manny: .299/.398/.529/.927 20HR 68RBI 52BB 86K

Pretty even. This doesn't take in to account that the Pirates lineup is much weaker than the Red Sox and PNC Park is also the #28 hitters park (according to ESPN) in the league. Hopefully, hitting in the lineup with guys like Ortiz, Pedroia, Drew, Youks, and Lowell, Bay will get some better pitches to hit. Also, having the monster out in LF instead of the huge LF in PNC will help.. I'd expect his SLG to increase because he will definitely take advantage of Fenway.
zioxide said:
It is clear that the Red Sox were a better team yesterday. Those numbers you give comparing Manny to Jason Bay are pretty misleading as well. Here are some reasons why those numbers are not "pretty even."

1. Manny is CLUTCH in the postseason. He has more homeruns in the postseason than anyone else with 24. In 2004 when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, Manny hit .350 in the playoffs with 2 homeruns and hit .412 in the World Series winning the MVP. He also hit .409 with 2 homeruns in the 2007 ALCS and led them on to win another World Series in 2007.

* Jason Bay on the other hand, well he has not played one game in the postseason in his whole life.

2. Manny is hitting .306 with RISP while Bay is hitting .216.

3. This will defintitely affect David Ortiz as well. With Bay batting 4th instead of Manny, Ortiz will get less pitches to hit because of the fact that nobody is scared of Bay. Bay is not a cleanup hitter and without that 1-2 punch of Ortiz and Manny, every team is rejoicing.
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MacNut said:
I think the Angels go all the way this year. That team is unstoppable.
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so were the patcheaits this year. i still think the angels are the favorites to win it all, but i will not be surprised if they don't make it to the world series for some reason...maybe it's the fact that they have a double digit lead with two months left (12.5 games up on second place texas as of today, magic number is 42). with that large of a lead, it's like preseason for 2 months before you have to play serious baseball again. if you can't turn on that switch soon enough...wham! out of the playoffs. i've seen it happen to the braves a few times when they clinch with 2-3 weeks left and still lose in round one.

MacNut said:
You can't be fans of both. That is like saying you like the Yankees and Red Sox equally.
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the new yorker on the radio down here is a HUGE mets fan (during the lcs in 06, it was basically mets report for a week and he plays meet the mets alot). but he also says he doesn't hate the yankees (at least right now), but he cannot stand the red sox.
 
pachyderm said:
I don't see the Dodgers pulling it off but maybe. That would be great if they got around the D-slacks. It certainly isn't out of the question. Close race made even more so with the ManRam in blue. I kinda feel like they(Dodgers) have an edge now...
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They do have the edge now, but I think the Dodgers become a virtual lock if some key players come back from their long stays on the DL -- Furcal, Saito, and Penny in particular. Garciapara is on the verge of going back onto the DL, and may just to make room for Ramirez. Kent is day-to-day. They aren't going to win many games with a Barroa-Maza middle infield.
 
ipodtouchy333 said:
2. Manny is hitting .306 with RISP while Bay is hitting .216.
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.280 career though.

3. This will defintitely affect David Ortiz as well. With Bay batting 4th instead of Manny, Ortiz will get less pitches to hit because of the fact that nobody is scared of Bay. Bay is not a cleanup hitter and without that 1-2 punch of Ortiz and Manny, every team is rejoicing.
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Bay is batting 5th, at least for now. The lineup is still solid.
 
zioxide said:
.280 career though.



Bay is batting 5th, at least for now. The lineup is still solid.
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Ya, but I'm talking about right now. Not numerous years ago. This was what he was producing recently for the Red Sox and that was what Jason was producing for his team at the present time. Obviously Manny is hitting 90 points higher.....that's a lot.

Sorry, my bad on the lineup thing. I thought he was batting 4th but was wrong.....
 
Counterfit said:
...
Like it was said, his arm wasn't the problem. He always got rid of the ball quickly once it got into his glove. Of course, sometimes it was into the stands after out #2, or maybe he high fived a fan before finishing the DP (only cool because he did get it in), or he's acting like a ****ing pinball between the Monster and the other wall in the corner while there's a runner tagging from third. At least throw it in dammit!
...
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or the extra cut off very now and then... :rolleyes:
 
And Jason Bay walks in his first Red Sox at-bat. He advanced to third on a single by JD, and then scored on a Jed Lowrie sacrifice. Not a bad start. :D


Yes, he plays left field. Yes, he's a righthanded batter and yes, he is batting in the middle of the Red Sox order. But any comparisons to Manny Ramirez can end there, thank you very much.

Newcomer Jason Bay, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates at Thursday's trade deadline, plans to carve out his own niche as he begins his Boston career tonight. Manager Terry Francona put Bay in the No. 5 spot in his debut against the Oakland A's, suiting up behind third baseman Mike Lowell.

"It's inevitable," said Bay at his introductory press conference tonight at Fenway, when asked about being sized up against Ramirez. "I know that. But I got traded to Pittsburgh for Brian Giles in essence and once again, it wasn't quite the grand scale of this one but it's something I can't control. I'm not going to be Manny Ramirez, I know that. I'm going to try to do what I can do. Kind of going through what I've gone through, I think I'm equipped to handle that. You've got to go out and play the game. I understand that that stuff is out there but that's beyond my control."

He said he received a warm welcome when he landed at Logan Airport, saying that "numerous" people tried to help him with his baggage.

"It was actually very, very ... overwhelming, really," he said. "It's going to be something I'll probably never forget, that's for sure. I can't wait. Everyone says the best fans in baseball are here and I can't wait to be a part of the home team."

He said it hasn't really sunk in that he's on a roster that is considered one of the top contenders for a championship.

"Pack a bag, get on a flight, get here, meet the entire team and an entire staff and then go out there and play a game and all of a sudden just have it click that you've been submersed in the middle of a pennant race and you have a chance to win a ring," said Bay. "I don't think it's going to resonate that quick. I think I might need a day or two to let it sink in. I fully intend to let it sink in."

Bay, who has a .282 batting average with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs in 106 games with the Pirates, is wearing No. 44. He said there weren't a whole lot of choices.

"It was slim pickings when it came down to the numbers," he said. "Eric Davis was a childhood idol of mine and he wore No. 44. so why not?"

Bay, a native of Trail, British Columbia whose father was a diehard Red Sox fan (Bay mentioned he still has a Red Sox onesie he wore as a child and also had Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski posters), said he found out he was dealt about a half hour after the 4 p.m. deadline, so instead of getting on a bus with his teammates to go to the airport for a trip to Chicago, he was told he was being rerouted here.

"It was pretty exciting," said Bay. "I just went home and packed my bag and got here at 1 o'clock."

For a while after the deadline passed, Bay thought he was staying put with the Pirates. There were a myriad of rumors but he didn't think they'd turn into anything because he hadn't heard anything concrete.

"My head was spinning," he said. "My name was everywhere and the deadline passed and I thought, 'All that and nothing.' All of a sudden, a half hour after the deadline, I get called into the office and they say, 'You've been traded.' If I was a free agent, I couldn't have picked a better place to go to, I don't think."

Bay has played against the Red Sox during the interleague portion of the schedule, saying when he came to town as a member of the Pirates there was one thing he remembered above all.

"It's actually stupid but I remember the stands singing, 'Sweet Caroline,' " he said. "I thought that was kind of neat, just the way everyone got into the game. The atmosphere, having not been a part of that, we had come from Yankee Stadium the series before that, the atmosphere was totally different. It was just like, 'Wow, I can do this.'"
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http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2008/08/bay_thrilled_to.html

Pretty ****ing sweet for his father... his son is now playing LF in Fenway, the same position as two of his favorite players (Yaz and Rice).
 
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