Yeah, the teams down there often play local college teams. The Red Sox normally play Boston College in Fenway as well...
Too early to talk MLB?
- Thread starter mike4cy
- Start date
Yeah, the teams down there often play local college teams. The Red Sox normally play Boston College in Fenway as well...
Mike Gonzalez is good when healthy. Moylan had a good year, but relief pitching is the most volatile position in sports. Moylan is pushing 30, and he hadn't done a thing in his career since last year. There are a ton of relievers who pull a great year out of a hat and can never duplicate it. We shall see.
In baseball? I don't know, the Rays and Orioles' bullpens are pretty awful. The Braves bullpen has potential with Mike Gonzalez and Peter Moylan. Potential doesn't mean a thing once the season starts, though.
Not only the most competitive, but probably the best division top to bottom. Other than the Giants the whole division should be in the playoff hunt until the end. And there's no division with more quality arms. It'll be a fun season.
as much as i respect your opinions, especially when it comes to baseball, i am gonna have to disagree. the braves finished in third behind the padres and the cubs last year in team pitching. call me a homer, but i just dont c it...
Salas and Dohrmann are pretty solid and Wheeler has POTENTIAL to be good again, but we'll see... The Orioles, well their bad, but they do have a couple of decent lefty specialists...
Weren't you the one that late last year were commenting about the issues that the Dodgers organization was having? Something to the effect that the older players such as Kent were feeling threatened by the up and coming players or vice versa and it was causing some kind of disharmony (and eventually was what blew the Dodgers' playoff chances)? I'm not saying the Dodgers don't have the deepest team in the NL West, and I'm not saying they haven't put the issues to bed, but team chemistry issues will always trump depth, and if the players on the Dodgers haven't learned to "know their role and shut their mouths," so to speak, then it could be a long year at Chavez Ravine.
The Braves top guys in appearances last year were Moylan (very solid) then Yates (5.18 era, .251 baa, 1.44 whip) and Villarreal who they lost. I don't think they added anyone great, I could be wrong...
And for all of us Twins fans out there, this is exactly why the Twins didn't trade Santana to the Red Sox or the Yankees for players that are going to help us in the near term or hold onto him in hopes that we would be in the race at the end of the season. With all of the Tigers' free agent signings (on a team that was pretty good to begin with) and how stacked the Indians are, we were not going to compete for the AL Central and likely not the Wildcard in 2008 and probably not for 2009. At this point it's better to punt (and this kind of punt is one of those "field coverage" punts that pins the opponent inside the 10) and start playing for 2010 than to go head-on with teams that you know you are going to lose out to in the near term and then have your short-term decisions also affect your long-term ones.
Interesting.... I wonder how a guy puts up numbers in previous seasons, when it was his second year in the league and his first year he didn't come into the league until after the all star break. In that year he batted .300 w/ 14 bombs. The key to the Braves season is to keep the guys healthy. Chipper, Hampton, Hudson, Smoltz all have to stay healthy in order for them to make a run. They have a lot of young talent w/ Francouer, McCain, Escobar, Johnson, and Texeria
Brewers in the Central, the Cubs made the most flashy acquisitions but overall the Brewers are just full of young talent, quite a bit of which now has experience under its belt. Should be an interesting race but I think the Brewers are better. Mmmmm Cory Hart
Matt Cain is a going to be a good pitcher - still young and such. But a difference maker in that division he is not... but it would be a great get for the White Sox, either of those young arms actually.
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If it's Cain then the Sabean is an idiot... If it's Lowry then Williams is an idiot...
