Official 2009 Major League Baseball Season Thread

[SpoDaddy]

You can really make the determination that Bucholz is fragile after barely a year's worth of pitching? What he was at the time he was up, was not ready.

He's fragile the way Phil Hughes is fragile, both physically and in terms of makeup. They could both wind up being great pitchers, but neither can be relied on at this point.

I've already said I agree with you to a point, but really what were the sox looking for starter wise? If Beckett had been healthy we would have been in back to back world series. They shored up the bullpen and did pretty much nothing to the offense this off-season.

Beckett is truly healthy one season out of every four. Boston's rotation has been top-heavy for a couple years now and needed another reliable arm. The Red Sox bullpen is great, and they had no way of knowing that Ortiz was going to stop juicing so I don't blame them for not worrying about the offense.

Cashman should have spent more time shoring up that bullpen than he did courting Burnett (Sabathia of course they should have signed).

Cashman had to sign Sabathia and Burnett because he would have had a rotation of Wang, Pettitte, Chamberlain, Ponson, Giese if he didn't. Burnett isn't worth what he's making so far, but he's got the best stuff in baseball and a track record of dominating the AL East. I actually think Burnett would have been a better signing for Boston; he's got a wild sort of personality that I think would mesh a lot better with guys like Youkilis and Pedroia, plus he fed off of Beckett in Florida. Cashman should have done more to shore up the bullpen, no question, and he shouldn't have let Marte pitch in the WBC.

Also no number 5 starter eats that many innings a year, Wake on any other team is a 3 or 4, but I get the jist of what you mean. And while it's nice you acknowledge Lowe (I was certainly pushing for him over Penny), you cannot tell me you would not have signed Smoltz.

A number 5 starter's job is to eat innings. Wakefield isn't consistent enough to be more than a 5 starter. I've always said the Red Sox shouldn't have ever let Lowe go. I don't think Smoltz was a bad signing, but signing guys like Smoltz and Penny instead of a reliable guy like Lowe is a mistake. The Red Sox operated this past offseason as if they were a mid-market team, and that's not fair to their fans.

I'm finally starting to understand why Biff was always so high on Sabathia; the guy really is a horse. The Yankees haven't had a guy that could consistently throw complete games in over a decade.

[Geo]

CC is one of my fave players in all of baseball.

[Brisco Bold]

WE LOST! YAAAAAY!

[SpoDaddy]

From what I've seen of Toronto in this 3 game series, they're for real. Sabathia had to pitch his considerable ass off to hold them to two runs, and their pitching looks strong. They're clearly a notch ahead of the Rays, and possibly ahead of the Yanks and Sox too. The Yanks and Sox are not the teams they'll be in a month, so it's hard to say, but I predict Toronto will be at or near the top all year.

[magnifiedplaid]

Mets need to get some runs and beat the Giants!

[Geo]

Imagine if Baltimore actually had some pitching.

[SpoDaddy]

Mets need to get some runs and beat the Giants!

As long as it's a high-scoring game I don't care who wins. I've got Burriss and Wright in my fantasy lineup and I need some production to salvage the day. The Mets just had a big winning streak, so they'll probably rest on their laurels and lose a bunch of games now. If an entire team had the personality of Robinson Cano, they'd be the Mets.

[haohmaru]

As a Mets fan, I'm fucking tired of all the shit that's constantly heaped on David Wright, who's batting .326 with 3 HR and 19 RBI as of this moment. Fuck Fatboy at WFAN and everyone else riding this guy into the ground. He had a tough 10 games with RISP and everyone wants him out of town. To which I say "FUCK YOU" because if he ever goes to the Phils or some other NL team, he's going to kick our fucking asses for years to come. I want this guy as a Met for the next 10 years and if you're going to ship someone out then tell Jose Reyes to pack his shit. God it pisses me off.

[Brisco Bold]

Oh well. We lost our second series. I just hope we can still make it interesting. Kick some ass against Chicago. Please dear god.

[Brisco Bold]

Mets fans: I need enlightenment because I really don't know and want to. What has or hasn't Reyes done to earn this ire? The Reyes saga has intrigued me for quite some time.