2011 MLB Season Thread

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by troutman

On the Posey injury, the baseline was open for Cousins to slide. He chose to go out of his way and barrel into Posey with his shoulder, in front of the plate.

Cousins definitely went to the inside of the plate. Posey also swings around in front of the plate when the ball hits his glove. At the time I don't think Cousins could be sure if Posey was going to have the ball or not. The ball hits his glove maybe one stride before Cousins goes into his dive.

If Posey catches the ball and Cousins slides to the outside? I'm pretty sure he would have been out. Cousins made the right play. He was a stride or two behind the ball. The only chance he had was to crash into the catcher and try to knock the ball out. Sucks for Posey, sucks for the Giants. However, like somebody else pointed out, thats the way its been for over 100 years.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by troutman

I took a break from the Giants during the Bonds era.

On the Posey injury, the baseline was open for Cousins to slide. He chose to go out of his way and barrel into Posey with his shoulder, in front of the plate.

That's tricky. Are we trying to guess intent? Did Cousins make up his mind halfway down the line that he was going to crush Posey no matter what? That's possible.

Posey was moving left the entire time. If there was room to slide there wasn't much. Cousin is a bench player, he's trying to win a job too. If he slides around and totally misses the plate, it looks bad to his manager. It's the go-ahead run in the 12th inning. It's a tough job, baseball. I think this is about the 7th catcher I've seen a leg broken on a collision. The one before was Santana of Cleveland losing his rookie season last year.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yup, it's an unfortunate injury but the baseline belongs to the runner.
Trout you'll remember this one. 2003 Divisional Playoffs SF vs FLA. Top of the 9th the tying run JT Snow tries to score from 2nd on a single and goes crashing into Pudge Rodriguez. Pudge held the ball up for all to see and the Giants were eliminated. One of the most exciting endings to a series.

Snow should never have been sent home on that play. He was a slow runner and the ball beat him by 8 feet. The difference on that play and the Posey one is Pudge was 6 feet up the line and blocking the plate/baseline, so Snow had to go through him. Snow couldn't have ran around him because he would have left the basepath. Posey on the other hand came from the other side of the plate and Cousins went out of his way to hit him instead of going for the plate, which was open. The Giants just never got going that series. It was very frustrating, as they were a really good team during the regular season.

The baseline was open, and there is a picture above I have included. Since the base line hits the top corner of home, the entire plate was open and available for a slide. If a runner going to first does anything like this, (Alex Rodriguez vs. Boston), he's called out immediately. If the runner going into second tries to take out the fielder and doesn't touch the base on the slide, the batter is called out, or at least should be according to the rules. I've seen many wide slides not called.

[GirlySports]

Part of the unwritten rulebook of baseball

[squiggs96]

Posey had a conference call with the beat writers today. Here's the link from Baggs:
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/extraba...e-cousins-hit/

Basically he says he's likely done for the year, will catch again and wants MLB to take a look at hits like that.

He has about the same view I do on the hit, but he articulated it much better than I have been able to. Although it wasn't illegal, there was a lane available to the plate and Cousins chose to run Posey.

In my mind that makes it dirty. Just because it wasn't illegal, does mean it was dirty. I don't wish ill will on Cousins, but I don't wish him well either.

[troutman]

Posey's replacement Eli Whiteside got smoked by Prince Fielder tonight at the plate (called out). Whiteside was okay. He went 1-4 at the plate.

Call-up Brandon Crawford hit a grand slam in his first major league game in the 5-4 win.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...TL&type=sports

The Giants are such a scrappy team - gotta love them.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

.....

He has about the same view I do on the hit, but he articulated it much better than I have been able to. Although it wasn't illegal, there was a lane available to the plate and Cousins chose to run Posey.

....

I am sure Mr Buster Posey has crashed home plate many times in his career. You can't have it both ways. It was just a very unfortunate result on a play at the plate.

[Azure]

Mariners are doing pretty good.

.5 game back of first now.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Azure

Mariners are doing pretty good.

.5 game back of first now.

Yup they've been good since they got rid of Milton Bradley.
Hernandez and Pineda gives them that 1-2 ace pitching punch.

Texas and Seattle will be a good fight to the finish. Don't think the Angels have enough firepower to hang in there.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

I am sure Mr Buster Posey has crashed home plate many times in his career. You can't have it both ways. It was just a very unfortunate result on a play at the plate.

Show me where he ran the catcher instead of sliding to the open plate? I'll wait.

Last night Morgan of the Brewers came home against Whiteside of the Giants. He had a chance to run Whiteside over as well, but chose to slide and was safe. The play wasn't exactly like the Cousins/Posey play, but very similar.

[metallicat]

Swarzak with a no-hitter into the 8th for the Twins tonight until it got busted up. Too bad.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Azure

Mariners are doing pretty good.

.5 game back of first now.

The American League West is something. All teams have pretty decent pitching, although I'm still skeptical of the depth in the Rangers rotation. But 3 of those teams are pretty putrid offensively. The Rangers should run away with that Division now that Hamilton and Cruz are both back in their lineup. If Oakland had any type of offence to back their pitching I think they could mount a challenge. Pineda and King Felix are one of the better top rotation duo's but the Mariners lineup is will allow that team to be a 500 team at best.

Oddly enough the three bad teams as of right now are in the American League Central, and at least to me...surprisingly Cleveland isnt' one of them. Lots of mediocre AL teams this year within 3 games of the .500 mark. Maybe parity is starting to make it's way into Baseball, as more teams smarten up with their management.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

The American League West is something. All teams have pretty decent pitching, although I'm still skeptical of the depth in the Rangers rotation. But 3 of those teams are pretty putrid offensively. The Rangers should run away with that Division now that Hamilton and Cruz are both back in their lineup. If Oakland had any type of offence to back their pitching I think they could mount a challenge. Pineda and King Felix are one of the better top rotation duo's but the Mariners lineup is will allow that team to be a 500 team at best.

Oddly enough the three bad teams as of right now are in the American League Central, and at least to me...surprisingly Cleveland isnt' one of them. Lots of mediocre AL teams this year within 3 games of the .500 mark. Maybe parity is starting to make it's way into Baseball, as more teams smarten up with their management.

It's still very early, not even 1/3 into the season so everyone is still tightly bunched. Most of the bad teams are in the National League. Cubs, Astros, Mets, Dodgers, Padres, Natinals are all awful.

June will be important. Someone in the AL West will be 5 or 6 games back on June 30 and in a heap of trouble.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

It's still very early, not even 1/3 into the season so everyone is still tightly bunched. Most of the bad teams are in the National League. Cubs, Astros, Mets, Dodgers, Padres, Natinals are all awful.

June will be important. Someone in the AL West will be 5 or 6 games back on June 30 and in a heap of trouble.

Isn't June when a bulk of the interleague play happens? I don't think any AL West team will be in trouble, but by the end of the month I wouldn't be surprised if a team like Texas is up 4 games on the pack though. When you have teams like Oakland who have great pitching they tend to hang around a bit longer than a team who has no pitching. The only team in that Division who might be bad is Seattle...and right now they're the hottest team in the majors.

Now if we're talking the AL East, than yeah I can see Baltimore and Toronto being left in the dust a bit by the end of the month as the Red Sox are getting it together.

[Flickered Flame]

The A's would win the West going away if they had any kind of offence. No one in the division has as deep staff as the A's. They currently have a team ERA of 2.82 with only 4 pitchers with ERAs higher than 4.00, that is insane.

The more Beane changes the lineup, every offseason, the more things stay the same. Its all pitching, all the time in Oakland and they will stay close because of it.

[Gozer]

Watching the Jays-WhiteSox series highlights on MLB.com - Chicago has to have the worst announcers in baseball. Brutal pauses, annoying catchphrases, and blatant homerism.

"They're gonna come back and win this one" was a real gem in today's game.

[fundmark19]

You Can put it on the booooooaaaaaaaarrrrrrdddddd YES!

[troutman]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...SPNH1JN477.DTL

After Buster Posey's 90-minute surgery on Sunday, trainer Dave Groeschner confirmed Posey is done for this season and spoke of an extensive rehabilitation that will extend into next year.

"I would think so," Groeschner said when asked if Posey will be ready for the 2012 opener. "I think it's a good prognosis. It's a long road from here. I mean, he just had a very devastating injury that required surgery. He still has a long rehab process to go. We're optimistic."

What do the Giants do for 2011?

Sandoval could be back as soon as two weeks

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...SPAL1JN5CD.DTL

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Flickered Flame

The A's would win the West going away if they had any kind of offence. No one in the division has as deep staff as the A's. They currently have a team ERA of 2.82 with only 4 pitchers with ERAs higher than 4.00, that is insane.

The more Beane changes the lineup, every offseason, the more things stay the same. Its all pitching, all the time in Oakland and they will stay close because of it.

Part of that is a function of the park. With all that foul territory, balls that don't carry particularly great, and good sized power ally's, I don't think hitters want to play in Oakland. Hence why I think they lost out on a guy like Adrian Beltre because he knew it would be his Seattle experience all over again.

They do have great pitching and Cahill seems to be seriously under rated, even Gio Gonzalez is hardly a house hold name and he's having a very solid year. If they could add a couple bats into that lineup they'd certainly become a bigger threat in that Division.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by troutman

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...SPNH1JN477.DTL

After Buster Posey's 90-minute surgery on Sunday, trainer Dave Groeschner confirmed Posey is done for this season and spoke of an extensive rehabilitation that will extend into next year.

"I would think so," Groeschner said when asked if Posey will be ready for the 2012 opener. "I think it's a good prognosis. It's a long road from here. I mean, he just had a very devastating injury that required surgery. He still has a long rehab process to go. We're optimistic."

What do the Giants do for 2011?

Sandoval could be back as soon as two weeks

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...SPAL1JN5CD.DTL

Can Sandoval catch at all? I don't see anyone trying to run the catcher if he's back there!