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Official 2007 MLB Season Thread

Well that was a fun game.

Cub's fans looked quite happy. (not)
We got to see sweet lou go off again and get ejected, and the cubs fans throw garbage on the field a plenty.

Mm... Can't wait to see Lou's postgame on this one.
 
fotografica said:
What's the feeling amongst Dodger fans with McCourt?Are they happy with him and DePodesta's moves/direction? And are you guys going to resign Lowe or does he walk?
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Mostly we're OK with McCourt. There was a lot of skepticism when he took over because he didn't seem to have much money of his own to put up, and there was a concern that MLB wanted a debt-laden owner who wouldn't spend too much money. Since signing Lowe, Furcal, and Pierre, no one's really worried that he's stingy. (In Pierre's case, maybe McCourt is TOO willing to spend money.) The Ravine has also gotten a bit better, with new seats and now the parking situation seems to have gotten a bit better since the opening day issues. Concession lines are still a big problem though. After the Fox era, he would have had to really bomb to not impress us.

DePodesta is no longer the GM. Ned Colletti replaced him in spring 2006. I would say that so far Colletti's biggest error has been the Pierre signing. It's a little early to tell if the Schmidt deal will turn out to be an albatross. But most of his other moves have gone OK. We're very interested in seeing what happens at the trading deadline. My biggest worry is that at some point he'll break the bank for an overrated player like Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter. There have been rumors about maybe pursuing Scott Rolen, but considering how poorly he's been hitting, I'm not sure how good an idea that is.

I would say that Lowe has earned an extension at this point, although I'm sure his agent wants to test free agency ASAP. It will depend somewhat on the health and performance of the other pitchers. Penny was considered trade bait before the season, but he's pitched very well the last two months. There are several young guys, plus Hendrickson and Tomko, that could be starters by the end of the season. I think where Lowe goes will depend partially on how comfortable the Dodgers are with their rotation at the end of the season and on what insane amount of money it will take to sign him.
 
aloofman said:
Mostly we're OK with McCourt. There was a lot of skepticism when he took over because he didn't seem to have much money of his own to put up, and there was a concern that MLB wanted a debt-laden owner who wouldn't spend too much money. Since signing Lowe, Furcal, and Pierre, no one's really worried that he's stingy. (In Pierre's case, maybe McCourt is TOO willing to spend money.) The Ravine has also gotten a bit better, with new seats and now the parking situation seems to have gotten a bit better since the opening day issues. Concession lines are still a big problem though. After the Fox era, he would have had to really bomb to not impress us.

DePodesta is no longer the GM. Ned Colletti replaced him in spring 2006. I would say that so far Colletti's biggest error has been the Pierre signing. It's a little early to tell if the Schmidt deal will turn out to be an albatross. But most of his other moves have gone OK. We're very interested in seeing what happens at the trading deadline. My biggest worry is that at some point he'll break the bank for an overrated player like Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter. There have been rumors about maybe pursuing Scott Rolen, but considering how poorly he's been hitting, I'm not sure how good an idea that is.

I would say that Lowe has earned an extension at this point, although I'm sure his agent wants to test free agency ASAP. It will depend somewhat on the health and performance of the other pitchers. Penny was considered trade bait before the season, but he's pitched very well the last two months. There are several young guys, plus Hendrickson and Tomko, that could be starters by the end of the season. I think where Lowe goes will depend partially on how comfortable the Dodgers are with their rotation at the end of the season and on what insane amount of money it will take to sign him.
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McCourt was always a likeable guy here in Boston,esp when he was one of the final bidders for the Sox. To the point where his buying the team would have led to a new stadium in the South Boston waterfront on land he owned. That probably was what got him in the end as far as owning the Sox.
Didn't know about Colletti.Gotta look at the GM list. Is Pierre being considered a bust,or just someone who got way more than their worth?
Lowe has a knack for pitching over his head in a contract year. He did the same thing in 04 with the Sox. Was ok at best in the regular season,but post season,you could tell he was pitching for that contract.Personally,I would have loved to kept him. We didn't want to give him the money,but yet we gave it to Clement :rolleyes: It's too bad ownership was more concerned about his off field goings on.
And how's Grady? Do fans like his style/approach to the game? I know the players must as he was a player's coach..
 
They're just reporting that Clemens has been scratched for Monday and will be out for two weeks with a sore groin.
 
fotografica said:
Lol!..Wow,guess he thought the ump couldn't see the plate. Some pent up frustration there...
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I don't quite know what he was getting at.
The catcher during that rant was Bryan Pena, one of ours, yet it looked like he was saying that the ump was calling balls strikes. I haven't been able to locate a news story on it, I got the video from a friend of a friend of a friend.
 
fotografica said:
McCourt was always a likeable guy here in Boston,esp when he was one of the final bidders for the Sox. To the point where his buying the team would have led to a new stadium in the South Boston waterfront on land he owned. That probably was what got him in the end as far as owning the Sox.
Didn't know about Colletti.Gotta look at the GM list. Is Pierre being considered a bust,or just someone who got way more than their worth?
Lowe has a knack for pitching over his head in a contract year. He did the same thing in 04 with the Sox. Was ok at best in the regular season,but post season,you could tell he was pitching for that contract.Personally,I would have loved to kept him. We didn't want to give him the money,but yet we gave it to Clement :rolleyes: It's too bad ownership was more concerned about his off field goings on.
And how's Grady? Do fans like his style/approach to the game? I know the players must as he was a player's coach..
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This Dodger fan is pretty much in agreement with Aloofman, but I'm not so quick to say that the Pierre signing was a mistake. Too early to tell, IMO. Remember it was only last year when the same complaints were being made about how much they paid Furcal. Those critics are pretty quiet now.

McCourt made some mistakes in his first year as owner, but I believe he's learning, and I believe he's also in better financial shape now. I'm pretty sure he's now retired the paper Fox was holding against the purchase. IMO, the parking situation at Dodger Stadium hasn't really been improved. But it has been made more expensive.

Credit to McCourt for firing DePodesta and hiring Ned Colletti. He was the former assistant GM in San Francisco. I think a lot of Giant fans wish they'd fired Sabean and promoted Colletti. Too late!

Lowe will go to the money. Isn't that what they all do?

Grady Little is growing on us. He takes more chances than the string of overly cautious managers who came before him. Personally, I like his aggressive style of managing, even if it leads to mistakes sometimes.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Credit to McCourt for firing DePodesta and hiring Ned Colletti. He was the former assistant GM in San Francisco. I think a lot of Giant fans wish they'd fired Sabean and promoted Colletti. Too late!
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The same folks who hate Sabean would still hate Colletti. There is a group of fans of every club who thinks they could takeover the club themselves and run it better than the professionals. Usually this is after discovering the received wisdom of "Moneyball" or after reading their first Bill James book.

Truth is that there is many ways to build a winning ballclub, and Sabean's way has been very successful over his tenure. Colletti's way in LA is very similar, which is to be expected given his training. Not many San Francisco fans would want to trade Colletti for Sabean. There are those who would trade Sabean for Billy Beane in a second, but I'm not one of them. In LA, it's the same group of people who think DePodesta was the answer to all of your prayers.
 
Sayhey said:
The same folks who hate Sabean would still hate Colletti. There is a group of fans of every club who thinks they could takeover the club themselves and run it better than the professionals. Usually this is after discovering the received wisdom of "Moneyball" or after reading their first Bill James book.

Truth is that there is many ways to build a winning ballclub, and Sabean's way has been very successful over his tenure. Colletti's way in LA is very similar, which is to be expected given his training. Not many San Francisco fans would want to trade Colletti for Sabean. There are those who would trade Sabean for Billy Beane in a second, but I'm not one of them. In LA, it's the same group of people who think DePodesta was the answer to all of your prayers.
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I never ran into anyone who thought DePodesta was the answer to anybody's prayers. He was advertised to be Billy Beane, Jr., but it didn't take long before it became painfully obvious that his mandate was to make lousy trades for low budget players and had a talent for alienating everybody who came in contact with him.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I never ran into anyone who thought DePodesta was the answer to anybody's prayers. He was advertised to be Billy Beane, Jr., but it didn't take long before it became painfully obvious that his mandate was to make lousy trades for low budget players and had a talent for alienating everybody who came in contact with him.
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Haha... ha... Don't even get me started on DePodesta. I'm even convinced that he became GM for the sole intention of ruining the Dodgers. At least that's what anyone with half a brain would think he was doing. I literally cheered out loud when I saw those sweet, sweet words on the ESPN bottom line: "Dodgers fire GM Paul DePodesta".

No, I'm not crazy. :eek: :D :mad: :p
 
IJ Reilly said:
I never ran into anyone who thought DePodesta was the answer to anybody's prayers. He was advertised to be Billy Beane, Jr., but it didn't take long before it became painfully obvious that his mandate was to make lousy trades for low budget players and had a talent for alienating everybody who came in contact with him.
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IJ, I don't disagree with what you say about DePodesta, but believe me if you go to any "stathead" web site you are likely to find pages upon pages about the wonders of DePodesta, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, etc. - as if these are the only guys who understand the game of baseball. It's crap.

With Sabean, the push to get rid of him comes most forcefully from this contingent of fans. They can't abide the idea of building a team through well-paid veteran players. Instead, a player's salary is almost more important than his talent level.

Now, the last two years - coinciding with Bonds' ailments - have led to others getting impatient with Sabean, but I think a fair assessment has him looking pretty good. Not only do the Giants have the best winning percentage in the division over his tenure, but the present and future pitching staff is looking great. We will see how he assembles the rest of the team for the coming years, but his track record is pretty good.
 
sweet lou suspended indefinitely for that tirade yesterday. i suggest he goes on vacation now to prepare for the big bombshell that is chicago media when he comes back.
 
Sayhey said:
IJ, I don't disagree with what you say about DePodesta, but believe me if you go to any "stathead" web site you are likely to find pages upon pages about the wonders of DePodesta, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, etc. - as if these are the only guys who understand the game of baseball. It's crap.

With Sabean, the push to get rid of him comes most forcefully from this contingent of fans. They can't abide the idea of building a team through well-paid veteran players. Instead, a player's salary is almost more important than his talent level.

Now, the last two years - coinciding with Bonds' ailments - have led to others getting impatient with Sabean, but I think a fair assessment has him looking pretty good. Not only do the Giants have the best winning percentage in the division over his tenure, but the present and future pitching staff is looking great. We will see how he assembles the rest of the team for the coming years, but his track record is pretty good.
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"Pretty good" sounds like faint praise to me. ;)

Really, I'm not trying to judge. I'm just hearing more and louder gripes from Giant fans these days, maybe having something to do with the number of markers the team placed on Bonds. I think everybody knows what that kind of money can buy on the free agent market, and that signing Bonds was more about marketing than winning.

I'm sure GMs like DePodesta have many admirers among the baseball geek crowd, but this is a small minority of fans, and his techniques were obviously not paying off in Los Angeles. Instead, we were hearing constantly about player's agents not getting return calls in the thick of negotiations. I lot of potential deals were queered as a result. It's fine knowing how to work the computer, but you also need to know how to work the phones.
 
IJ Reilly said:
"Pretty good" sounds like faint praise to me. ;)
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Not faint, but not unqualified either. I think Sabean is a as good as it gets in assembling a team, but he has made a few very bad moves. The most important being the trade of Nathan/ Liriano/ Bonser for A.J. Pierzynski. Horrible, horrible trade. That combined with the understandable at the time signing of Armando Benitez that turned disastrous has got to make some folks think twice about our GM.

I think that is balanced out by a winning record that is one of the best in baseball and the development of young pitchers that look to take this team well into the future. But that's just my assessment.
 
So you'd call this a building year for the Giants then? I've seen some signs of a youth movement, but overall I've watched the team get older and older over the past few seasons. But maybe that's just my imagination.
 
IJ Reilly said:
So you'd call this a building year for the Giants then? I've seen some signs of a youth movement, but overall I've watched the team get older and older over the past few seasons. But maybe that's just my imagination.
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Look at the pitching side of the equation. The Giants have Cain, Lowry, and Lincecum in their starting rotation - all 26 or younger. Zito is 29, which leaves only Matt Morris as an over 30 starter. The Giants are grooming Jonathan Sanchez to replace him. What you have is the best rotation the Giants have had in many years, and one that is very young as well. It could well be that next year four-fifths of the rotation is young home grown talent.

In the bullpen, the Giants have some quality young arms as well. Hennessey and Corrieia qualify as veterans by now, but both are talented young arms. Jack Taschner looks like he can be a fixture as a lefty specialist. Add the prospects in Fresno (Wilson, Sadler, Blackley, Misch, and most especially the aforementioned Sanchez) and the Giants have good young pitching all over the 40 man roster.

With the position players the Giants have gone with a patchwork quilt of signings that gets them a little younger, but still a veteran team. None of these signings are long term and they will help while the young players in the Giants lower minors are developed and new stars are signed. Of these Bengie Molina looks to be the best. I also like the young Fred Lewis whose speed game is fun to watch.

What Sabean is trying to do is rebuild while contending. So far this year, the Giants have shown they need another bat, but have the quality to do better than they have. I'm looking for that trade Sabean is famous for pulling off to help their chances.
 
today's game sucked six ways to sunday. 10-1 whipping by the cubs, but you can't win them all. only thing i'm concerned about is lance cormier, horrible outing, 8 er and three bombs.

next, it's the marlins series, four games in 48 hours. that's going to wear us down fast.
 
mattscott306 said:
One of our farm system managers went a bit nutzo today.

link
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The bizarre part of that is that all of his actions after the yelling with the umpire are so slow and methodical, like he'd rehearsed it. I can see throwing the bases, and the redrawing of home plate was pretty funny, but that grenade thing was a sign of a demented mind. :p

IJ Reilly said:
This Dodger fan is pretty much in agreement with Aloofman, but I'm not so quick to say that the Pierre signing was a mistake. Too early to tell, IMO. Remember it was only last year when the same complaints were being made about how much they paid Furcal. Those critics are pretty quiet now.
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It's not so much how he's playing right now, but that he's a player whose raw stats make him look better than he really is, and his production has been declining for a couple years now. I cringed when I heard they signed him because Furcal is more than adequate batting leadoff and Pierre's defense is weak. So far he's been caught stealing too many times too.

IJ Reilly said:
Grady Little is growing on us. He takes more chances than the string of overly cautious managers who came before him. Personally, I like his aggressive style of managing, even if it leads to mistakes sometimes.
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I think he's managed the bullpen quite well so far. Deep outings by the starters have made that easier, but so far he's juggled everyone reasonably well. I was skeptical about using lefty specialist Joe Beimel against more batters, but that's worked out OK.

I always thought he got a bad rap about leaving Pedro in back in 2003. The next hit he gave up was a blooper that in many game situations would have been caught. Pretty much just bad luck.

I wish Grady would wear a jacket out there though. I've seen enough man-boobs now to last me a lifetime.

IJ Reilly said:
I never ran into anyone who thought DePodesta was the answer to anybody's prayers. He was advertised to be Billy Beane, Jr., but it didn't take long before it became painfully obvious that his mandate was to make lousy trades for low budget players and had a talent for alienating everybody who came in contact with him.
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My only quibble with that is that I don't think most of his trades were lousy. In fact, most of them made the team better. I agree that his people skills were seriously lacking though. He has "assistant GM" written all over him.

furcalchick said:
sweet lou suspended indefinitely for that tirade yesterday. i suggest he goes on vacation now to prepare for the big bombshell that is chicago media when he comes back.
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Lou Piniella is my favorite cartoon character. :D
 
Sun Baked said:
Nah, it is just that a lot of the people with high hopes for their teams are looking at another sport right now ... so they don't have to watch the painful losing streaks. :p
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Well they are not watching hockey, nobody is.:p
 
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