Gretzky's Mullet Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 So, for all the bellyaching about how Giants fans stuffed the ballot boxes to get their players in the All Star Game, and Cain was picked over Dickey to start, we saw Giants hitters Sandoval and Cabrera combine for 5 RBI and the game's only homer, and Matt Cain pitch two good innings to register the W. Maybe the New York media could do us all a favour and shut the hell up, especially when New York teams tend to benefit the most year-in and year-out from this glorified popularity contest. Sure they complain to high heaven that Sandoval got the start over David Wright, but when Derek Jeter starts over the decidedly more deserving Asdrubal Cabrera? Not a peep. Granderson's had a fine season, but did he deserve to start over ROY and MVP candidate Mike Trout (or for that matter Mike Trumbo)? Not in my opinion, but there are no shocked New York Post articles about that. Hypocrites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngould21 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 My wife and I are going to our first NFL game in Seattle to see her new team, the GB Packers. Still haven't figured out the interest in the NFL game, but willing to give it a try. Nothing better than watching a MLB game on a beautiful sunny evening. The strategy of the game, and the dimensions of the game, really do play into it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 My wife and I are going to our first NFL game in Seattle to see her new team, the GB Packers. Still haven't figured out the interest in the NFL game, but willing to give it a try. Nothing better than watching a MLB game on a beautiful sunny evening. The strategy of the game, and the dimensions of the game, really do play into it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drybone Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I am rooting for the Pirates to end their 20 year losing record slide. This is the year they have a winning record ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sedin's 6th Sense Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Jays extend Encarnancian 3 years, $27 mill - last year is a $10 mill option where they can opt out of if they feel it is right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJokinen! Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Jays extend Encarnancian 3 years, $27 mill - last year is a $10 mill option where they can opt out of if they feel it is right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngould21 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I prefer baseball myself, but a good NFL game is a pretty cool experience. In a close game, when the fans are going wild and making a ton of noise for the defence, the atmosphere can be really electric, and the scale of the show is just beyond anything else, especially in America. Baseball is a more civilized and relaxing fan experience (most of the time), but there's something to be said about the fervor you see for football. The flip side is that in some places, NFL games can be a bit of a rough fan experience: not so much in Seattle, which is a universally safe sports town even for Seahawks games, but here in the Bay Area, an otherwise safe city like San Francisco can get nutty if the 49ers are playing the Raiders. Last year they played an exhibition game or something and an Oakland fan wearing a "F*** the 49ers" t-shirt got stabbed outside of Candlestick (which is admittedly a bad part of town). Though Raiders fans tend to be even worse in the "Black Hole", you don't even want to step into that stadium if you are a fan of the opposing team, unless you want to get sworn at and pelted with beer cups all game long. It's pretty amazing because the Raiders and A's still share a stadium, and you'd never see anyone get the slightest bit hassled at an A's game for wearing different colours, but they just go nuts for those Raiders. Must be all the tailgating. On a side note, how does White Sox nation perceive Hawk Harrelson? I had the chance to watch the Blue Jays a bit last week because in the US, the only way to see those games is if they're playing a local team or they're playing a team that's televised nationally, like the White Sox (and Cubs) are on WGN America. I think we've talked about this before but I wanted to bring it up again. Frankly, I found his call of the game to be atrociously bad. The homerism is annoying enough, especially with all of the "good guys" references, "Paulie" Konerko, etc. But the complaining about the umpires, and the fact that he has seemingly no accountability for it? The game I am specifically referring to is the 11-9 game, where Hawk repeatedly berated the home plate umpire for an uneven strike zone, and how the league needed to do something to make these guys call it fairly. Well I looked it up on Brooks, and based on the normalized strike zone map, home plate umpire DJ Reyburn called exactly 1 White Sox pitch clearly in the zone a ball, with 2 more right on the fringe were also called balls. Conversely, 4 Blue Jays strikes were called balls, with 1 borderline pitch also called a ball. Reyburn consistently gave the outside corner more generously to both teams, with 3 clearly outside Sox pitches and 4 clearly outside Jays pitches (combined between both types of hitter) being called strikes. Vertically, the Sox got 2 gift strikes (1 high and 1 low) while the Jays got 1 (low). So to summarize, if you exclude pitches straddling the border, Reyburn missed 6 calls in favour of the Jays and 9 in favour of the Sox. And Hawk spends the whole game yakking about how the Sox can't get a fair shake with all the bad umpiring, and you wonder why someone higher up doesn't chastise him for being so blatantly biased that he's wrong most of the time, or better yet, fire him for being so incompetent. The guy won't even fully describe plays that are made by the other team, pretty much ignoring home runs by the opposing team etc. Just terrible. Rant over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 I've heard of the problems in the Bay area, but somehow can see how fan interaction translates into violence. We met some Raider fans heading to a game when we were stopped in Vacaville Cali. Talk about fanatics. The women were larger than the men, and probably more dangerous. I still think the NCAA game is more fan exciting than the NFL, and probably a little more of a safer environment for families than the NFL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmen81 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUPERTKBD Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Nice to see EE step up after signing that extension. 2 dingers, one of them into Windows.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Purple Panda Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Posting as a Mariners fan! Mike Zunino got his first professional action today!! The 3rd Overall pick is starting mid season with the Everett Aquasox and in his 1st AB he cracked out a double! Welcome to the team Mike! We hope youre not a bust like Clement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UMB Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Just finished my three day Blue Jays Honda Super Camp, its a camp run by the Jays for kids. Pretty fun experience, a lot of past all stars were there, some all stars, silver sluggers, gold glovers, and of course, hall of famer, the one and only Roberto Alomar. Got him to autograph a baseball Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UMB Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Posting as a Mariners fan! Mike Zunino got his first professional action today!! The 3rd Overall pick is starting mid season with the Everett Aquasox and in his 1st AB he cracked out a double! Welcome to the team Mike! We hope youre not a bust like Clement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Purple Panda Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Same bro I'm an M's fan even though they suck. We don't have too many of us in this little CDC M's fanclub so welcome aboard About Zuzino we have the vancouver canadians who play in the northwest league and we are the short season single a affiliate with the jays. we will probably be able to check zunino out when e comes to play at the nat. i might go check him out maybe get an autograph cuz this kid could be huge. cant believe he was originally selected in the 29th round in 09, a's must be banging their heads on the wall for not signing their 29th rounder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Romo Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Morrow was doing great till he got hurt. I'm in Minnesota this week so I can see a twins-orioles game!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UMB Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 They do suck but Im just looking at their potential.. They have Felix who is IMO the games top pitcher, every year he is consistent and is amazing. He starts the season rough but smooths out as the year goes by. But the young team is amazing once they can adapt to the big league level. Dustin Ackley hit .300 last season for his part season stint. I believe he can go back to that. Smoak, maybe all hope is lost but there has to be something in him left. Kyle Seager was probably my biggest surprise as he is one of the best clutch hitters on the team. Then our rotation in the farm, Hultzen, Paxton, Walker, Ramirez. Also stoked for Nick Franklin and Alex Liddi. Oh and Steven Pryor. First MLB win came on a no hitter!!! Shout out to the Blue Jays fans hows Morrow doing? I really loved his potential but he just sucked here in Seattle and Im wondering now how hes pitching over there! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Justin Smoak has been disappointing this season but it's too early to give up on him. The kid is only 25 and the power is unmistakable. I'd give him a bit longer before calling him a bust. The thing about Morrow in Seattle was never that he was a bad pitcher necessarily, it's that he was never going to be able to outrun the "shoulda drafted Lincecum" crowd. And really, they had a point. Kid from Bellevue was available but the Mariners pass him up, and he goes on to win the Cy Young twice and a World Series ring. Not having a great season now, but is way ahead of Morrow in career accomplishment. Really, going to Toronto was a great move for Brandon in that he can play in front of more forgiving fans without that extra baggage he had in Seattle. Seattle could really use another guy who can legitimately start at the ML level, but they've got very strong organizational depth in pitchers and should be very strong there in the next few years. Hitting is another story, though as has been said, there are some good young prospects there too. I would imagine Zunino probably refused to sign anything after being taken in the 29th round, it's pretty common in baseball for low round picks who think they could get drafted higher if they re-enter to just not sign at all. That way, they get a bigger signing bonus, for one thing. They get to develop in college ball with a scholarship, which is a lot better option for many guys than the hardscrabble world of minor league ball where you face the possibility of getting cut any day. And guys who get picked higher up (especially the bonus babies at the top) always get a longer look than the guys who are playing for their jobs, so it's a much better path to try to get to the majors. So I doubt the A's are really kicking themselves too much, because I imagine there was very little they could do to get him to sign, aside from throwing 1st round money at him (which simply does not happen). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiznak Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Watch out fantasy scrubs, Doc is back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Romo Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Going to the twins oriols game tonight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Going to the twins oriols game tonight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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