Forumophilia - 18 Years Online!
ludedewd
Respected Poster
jitna
Respected Poster
Deity
billyellis
2008 Wrap / 2009 Preview
Congratulations to Deity on the Rays making it to the World Series.
And a big Nelson Muntz "Hah hah!" for getting smoked by a crappy NL team.
Maybe next year...oh wait...we're talking about the Rays, aren't we? Which means that any decent players will soon leave Tampa for cities where the ownership will actually pay them competitive salaries. The Rays have 2 big REAL bats (Upton, Longoria) that they will not be able to keep for long, which will start to cause dissension in the clubhouse as their agents whisper in their ears about how they are better than the rest of the team and should be getting different treatment. Their 3rd bat (Pena) is a career m1n0r leaguer in his 30's who suddenly turned into Mickey Mantle overnight, meaning the likelihood that he made this overnight explosion clean is less than the likelihood that the Yankees will show fiscal restraint this offseason and not overpay for a big name in decline. So he will either test positive for something or come down to Earth hard next year. The Rays will not hit anywhere near as well as this year again - opposing pitchers will take them seriously from now on, and their lack of patience at the plate gives pitching coaches a way to attack them.
As for pitching, they caught lightning in a bottle this year as well, and will also face serious consequences next year for the ridiculous number of innings they put on their young staff's arms this year. Big Lame James is a decent pitcher, but does not have dominating velocity and is a #2 starter once hitters get a better book on him. Jackson is terrible. Sonnanstine is average. Price is completely unproven and is being rushed up way too fast for his health. Garza was mediocre in the NL, and was effective largely because AL hitters had not seen him before this season. Their best pitcher is Kazmir, and what the Hell is wrong with him?? My guess is the same sort of overuse injury that the rest of the staff is now at risk for.
The Rays will suffer two serious long-term injuries to the starting pitching staff next year, which will kill them because as a shoestring budget operation they have no depth. Their bullpen was exposed it the playoffs. Balfour and Howell can't handle pressure, and the only pitcher that can (Wheeler) was the 2008 version of Joe Borowski in 2007 - a closer with nothing in the 90's who mysteriously got by with smoke and mirrors for a full season, but who will be hit hard next season as the law of averages catches up to his lousy stuff.
Boston will regress next season and not make the playoffs. Toronto will, as always, end up hoping for next year. Baltimore will Suckoncemore. And the damn Yankees will win the AL East going away, with Boston finishing 7 games back and the the Rays in 3rd 12 games out.
Cleveland will win the AL Central by 5 games over a surprising Royals team that is in contention until mid-August, and LA will walk away with the AL West again.
Hmmm....I tried to find a team that would be better than a Boston team that will finish way behind the NYY...but since the Yanks will have the best record in the AL, I retract my previous statement - Boston will slip in as the best of the rest WC team and play at the #2 seed Angels (they can't play the Yanks in the first round as divisional rivals). And now that they are in that position...the Red Sox will win in 4 games because even though they will not be very good they will have at least 2 good pitchers and the Angels just plain suck in the postseason. The Yanks will sweep the Indians, and then sweep (ugh) Boston.
In the useless NL (don't get cocky after winning the WS twice since 03, NL fans - both times you played teams of rookies who were overwhelmed to be there), the seeds will be Mets, Cubs, D-Backs, with the Marlins as the WC. Florida will beat the Mets in 4, the D-Backs will break the Cubs' hearts in 5, and the D-Backs will beat the Marlins in 7.
The Yankees will make me vomit by winning another payroll dominated title in 5 games. Sigh. You heard it here first.
However, on principle, they will still SUCK.
Congratulations to Deity on the Rays making it to the World Series.
And a big Nelson Muntz "Hah hah!" for getting smoked by a crappy NL team.
Maybe next year...oh wait...we're talking about the Rays, aren't we? Which means that any decent players will soon leave Tampa for cities where the ownership will actually pay them competitive salaries. The Rays have 2 big REAL bats (Upton, Longoria) that they will not be able to keep for long, which will start to cause dissension in the clubhouse as their agents whisper in their ears about how they are better than the rest of the team and should be getting different treatment. Their 3rd bat (Pena) is a career m1n0r leaguer in his 30's who suddenly turned into Mickey Mantle overnight, meaning the likelihood that he made this overnight explosion clean is less than the likelihood that the Yankees will show fiscal restraint this offseason and not overpay for a big name in decline. So he will either test positive for something or come down to Earth hard next year. The Rays will not hit anywhere near as well as this year again - opposing pitchers will take them seriously from now on, and their lack of patience at the plate gives pitching coaches a way to attack them.
As for pitching, they caught lightning in a bottle this year as well, and will also face serious consequences next year for the ridiculous number of innings they put on their young staff's arms this year. Big Lame James is a decent pitcher, but does not have dominating velocity and is a #2 starter once hitters get a better book on him. Jackson is terrible. Sonnanstine is average. Price is completely unproven and is being rushed up way too fast for his health. Garza was mediocre in the NL, and was effective largely because AL hitters had not seen him before this season. Their best pitcher is Kazmir, and what the Hell is wrong with him?? My guess is the same sort of overuse injury that the rest of the staff is now at risk for.
The Rays will suffer two serious long-term injuries to the starting pitching staff next year, which will kill them because as a shoestring budget operation they have no depth. Their bullpen was exposed it the playoffs. Balfour and Howell can't handle pressure, and the only pitcher that can (Wheeler) was the 2008 version of Joe Borowski in 2007 - a closer with nothing in the 90's who mysteriously got by with smoke and mirrors for a full season, but who will be hit hard next season as the law of averages catches up to his lousy stuff.
Boston will regress next season and not make the playoffs. Toronto will, as always, end up hoping for next year. Baltimore will Suckoncemore. And the damn Yankees will win the AL East going away, with Boston finishing 7 games back and the the Rays in 3rd 12 games out.
Cleveland will win the AL Central by 5 games over a surprising Royals team that is in contention until mid-August, and LA will walk away with the AL West again.
Hmmm....I tried to find a team that would be better than a Boston team that will finish way behind the NYY...but since the Yanks will have the best record in the AL, I retract my previous statement - Boston will slip in as the best of the rest WC team and play at the #2 seed Angels (they can't play the Yanks in the first round as divisional rivals). And now that they are in that position...the Red Sox will win in 4 games because even though they will not be very good they will have at least 2 good pitchers and the Angels just plain suck in the postseason. The Yanks will sweep the Indians, and then sweep (ugh) Boston.
In the useless NL (don't get cocky after winning the WS twice since 03, NL fans - both times you played teams of rookies who were overwhelmed to be there), the seeds will be Mets, Cubs, D-Backs, with the Marlins as the WC. Florida will beat the Mets in 4, the D-Backs will break the Cubs' hearts in 5, and the D-Backs will beat the Marlins in 7.
The Yankees will make me vomit by winning another payroll dominated title in 5 games. Sigh. You heard it here first.
However, on principle, they will still SUCK.
billyellis
DYasha
The Curse of A-Rod. Since they picked up A-Rod, they have gone nowhere. Boston is going to win the division and if Toronto can get back one of their 75 injured pitchers, then they could snatch up the Wild Card. Or maybe it has something to do with steroids. Coincidentally 
since the league instituted drug testing policies, the Yankees have been crap. Sure, a few of their star players have been linked to steroid use, but that is completely coincidental. Isn't it?
since the league instituted drug testing policies, the Yankees have been crap. Sure, a few of their star players have been linked to steroid use, but that is completely coincidental. Isn't it?
billyellis
DYasha wrote:
Looking at both Yanks and Sox, I would bet my life that A-Rod is still using HGH. He is an insecure narcissist who has not played without cheating since Seattle (and maybe high school), so he can't play without it.
The two players that smell the worst right now would be Damon and Varitek. I love Tek, but he was horrible the last couple of years and heard it in the media for all that time, then all of a sudden starts this season stroking the long-ball? Hello HGH in the offseason, which gave him a good month and a half, and now he is coming back down to Earth.
Damon is a pussy hitter. Always has been, and Boston fans know it because he played here too. Now, after a couple injury-filled seasons with no production to speak of and the massive pressure of his Yankee contract he is suddenly hitting them out like the Babe? No way.
But as much as I hate to say it, the Yankees are not cheating more than anyone else. It just comes down to a team vs. a collection of individual egos. The Yankees won in the late 90's (YEAR 2000!, ba, ba, ba-ba-ba, YEAR 2000!) when they built a team through their farm system. Now that they are back to traditional Steinbrenner-ism and overpaying prima-donnas they are so mentally fragile they play like the Sox used to under "The Curse." I love it.
Take tonight for example. The Sox overcome Homer-on Ramirez blowing Lester's win in the 9th and yet come back to spank the best team in the NL (sorry Dodger's fans - you are a mirage that will disappear when you play some actual MLB competition) in 13. Meanwhile, the Yankees celebrate like they just won the WS on a GS by A-Fraud when all that happened was the Mets dropped what should have been a game-ending pop-up by Choke-Rod. Pathetic reaction. Absolutely pathetic.
Coincidentally since the league instituted drug testing policies, the Yankees have been crap. Sure, a few of their star players have been linked to steroid use, but that is completely coincidental.
I hate to say this, but I really don't think the Yankees juiced any more than other teams. At this point my estimate for performance enhancers before testing began in 2004 is that about 80% of players used something, be it HGH, full-on steroids, etc. Post-testing I would put that number at about 30%, mostly HGH use in the offseason. As long as the player's union continues to block testing for HGH there will be a high level of abuse.
since the league instituted drug testing policies, the Yankees have been crap. Sure, a few of their star players have been linked to steroid use, but that is completely coincidental. Looking at both Yanks and Sox, I would bet my life that A-Rod is still using HGH. He is an insecure narcissist who has not played without cheating since Seattle (and maybe high school), so he can't play without it.
The two players that smell the worst right now would be Damon and Varitek. I love Tek, but he was horrible the last couple of years and heard it in the media for all that time, then all of a sudden starts this season stroking the long-ball? Hello HGH in the offseason, which gave him a good month and a half, and now he is coming back down to Earth.
Damon is a pussy hitter. Always has been, and Boston fans know it because he played here too. Now, after a couple injury-filled seasons with no production to speak of and the massive pressure of his Yankee contract he is suddenly hitting them out like the Babe? No way.
But as much as I hate to say it, the Yankees are not cheating more than anyone else. It just comes down to a team vs. a collection of individual egos. The Yankees won in the late 90's (YEAR 2000!, ba, ba, ba-ba-ba, YEAR 2000!) when they built a team through their farm system. Now that they are back to traditional Steinbrenner-ism and overpaying prima-donnas they are so mentally fragile they play like the Sox used to under "The Curse." I love it.
Take tonight for example. The Sox overcome Homer-on Ramirez blowing Lester's win in the 9th and yet come back to spank the best team in the NL (sorry Dodger's fans - you are a mirage that will disappear when you play some actual MLB competition) in 13. Meanwhile, the Yankees celebrate like they just won the WS on a GS by A-Fraud when all that happened was the Mets dropped what should have been a game-ending pop-up by Choke-Rod. Pathetic reaction. Absolutely pathetic.
DYasha
bif_tanner
Poster
Are you kidding me? A Yankees bashing thread on a pornography forum? Wow... I'm a Detroit Tigers fan, so feel free to pity my sorry loyal ass.
motorcycle
Respected Poster
buckethead
bif_tanner wrote:
You've got to be kidding me. Detroit is in first place in the Central. I'm in the Kansas City region and the Royals just lost Coco Crisp for the rest of the season. They're going to suck worse then ever now. If it wasn't for a couple of decent pitchers they might be almost as bad as Washington.
Are you kidding me? A Yankees bashing thread on a pornography forum? Wow... I'm a Detroit Tigers fan, so feel free to pity my sorry loyal ass.
You've got to be kidding me. Detroit is in first place in the Central. I'm in the Kansas City region and the Royals just lost Coco Crisp for the rest of the season. They're going to suck worse then ever now. If it wasn't for a couple of decent pitchers they might be almost as bad as Washington.
DYasha
peeper80
Good Poster
DYasha
Deity