The OFFICIAL 2012 MLB Regular Season Thread

[Drake]

Ken Rosenthal:

#Dodgers news conference with Kasten, Colletti and Magic at 5:30 ET.

Do not know if #Dodgers’ news conference will be televised. Fact that it is happening just one more sign that deal has gone down.

[jschick88]

Deal is official

The Boston Red Sox have traded first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitcher Josh Beckett and outfielder Carl Crawford to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a nine-player deal.

Boston also sent infielder Nick Punto and cash to the Dodgers. The Red Sox acquired first baseman James Loney, pitcher Allen Webster, infielder Ivan De Jesus and two players to be named.

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=403817

The prospects the Red Soxs are receiving, anyone know anything about them?

[Azure]

Why wouldn't baseball allow the deal to go on? Trading away salary has been a part of any sport for the longest time.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by jschick88

Deal is official

The Boston Red Sox have traded first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitcher Josh Beckett and outfielder Carl Crawford to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a nine-player deal.

Boston also sent infielder Nick Punto and cash to the Dodgers. The Red Sox acquired first baseman James Loney, pitcher Allen Webster, infielder Ivan De Jesus and two players to be named.

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=403817

The prospects the Red Soxs are receiving, anyone know anything about them?

Without knowing a thing about them they've gotta be pretty damn skilled considering who's going the other way.

[jschick88]

Gonzalez first at bat with the Dodgers. Homerun.

[Trolleydodger]

Ivan Dejesus was a top shortstop prospect when he first drafted by the Dodgers, but was switched to 2nd base after the rapid development of Chin Lung Hu and later Dee Gordon. His development has been hampered by injuries particularly a broken leg during spring training in 2009. He is probably a utility infielder at best now.

Allen Webster pitched in double A and averaged about a strikeout an inning for Chatanooga. He was the prospect that the Dodgers were offering the to the Cubs for Ryan Dempster. He was generally considered about the 8th or 9th best prospect in the Dodger system.

Jerry Sands is a power hitting 1B/Of who wasn't going to play in L.A. with all of the guys they had brought in. He came up last year from Albuquerque about halfway through the season and hit fairly well after a rough start. He was expected to give James Loney a challenge at first and perhaps platoon with Juan Rivera in left field. Unfortunately a coach screwed up his swing during spring training and Jerry didn't hit at all and was sent to Albuquerque. He had been hitting very well the last couple of months though. He figures to be an okay major leaguer, but I liked him and think he could put up some big numbers if given a decent chance.

Rubby De La Rosa is the centerpiece of the deal. This guy has an electric arm. He came up to the Dodgers last year from double A, and despite his 4-5 record I thought he pitched really well. He blew his elbow out and has been on the DL for the last 13 months. He had been working out lately and has recovered his velocity without any lingering effects. He is the sole reason I don't like this trade. You just don't trade young pitchers {only 23} with arms this good. It kind of reminds me of when they traded Pedro Martinez to the Expos.

James Loney is a bum who is only going to take up space in the Red Sox locker room.


Edit*
While I do like Gonzalez, who used to kill the Dodgers when he was with the Padres. I don't like any of the other guys. This trade is just another example of why Ned Colletti needs to be fired the moment the Dodger season ends.

[Finny61]

Trade sucks because Gonzo is coming back to Petco Park more often and playing for another team in the division. Damn it. I need someone to splash some money on the friars.

[Azure]

Is there any doubt that King Felix is the best pitcher in baseball right now? Another 5 hit shutout. He's given up a total of 1 run in 5 games with one perfect game, 3 complete game shutouts, and one 1 run game.

He has 4 complete game shutouts since June 28.

He is 9-0 with a 1.40 ERA over his last 14 starts, tying his career-high winning streak.

Just insane.

[Montana Moe]

I know people were upset when he won the Cy Young with a poor W-L record. I'll bet many of those people hadn't bothered to see him pitch.

[Azure]

W-L means nothing in the big picture. Put Felix on a top team, and he comes close to 25 wins every year.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by Azure

Is there any doubt that King Felix is the best pitcher in baseball right now? Another 5 hit shutout. He's given up a total of 1 run in 5 games with one perfect game, 3 complete game shutouts, and one 1 run game.

He has 4 complete game shutouts since June 28.

He is 9-0 with a 1.40 ERA over his last 14 starts, tying his career-high winning streak.

Just insane.

He's the anti-Romero.

[Sylvanfan]

AL Cy Young is being pretty hotly contested this year between Weaver, Hernandez, Price, Sale, and Verlander.

Hernandez has really been on fire for about the past 2 and a half months though. He does have the benefit of pitching in a pretty pitcher friendly park...But he also doesn't get to pitch against his own team which is one of the worst hitting teams in the majors.

[Azure]

Over his past 14 starts, since mid-June, Hernandez is 9-0 with a 1.40 ERA and five shutouts. No other pitcher is under 2.00 in that span. He's allowed two homers in 109 innings. No other pitcher with even 60 innings in that time has allowed as few.

And the shutouts aren't just the most since June. It equals the highest total by any right-handed pitcher in the Major Leagues in any season in more than two decades. The last righty to throw more in a season was Tim Belcher in 1989. Only Randy Johnson and Cliff Lee, with six each, have thrown more shutouts as a lefty over those years.

Hernandez has done it in just over two months. There's locked in, and then there's what King Felix is doing these days.

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news...s_sea&c_id=sea

[Azure]

And with 31 games left, he gets another 6 starts at least. He could technically run his win total to 19, which would pretty much give him the Cy Young.

[Azure]

@GregJohnsMLB Felix Hernandez becomes third pitcher since '69 to win four 1-0 games in same season. "It's just special stuff," says Wedge.

.....


@JHickey3 In addition to 5 shutouts, #RealKingFelix also has 2 gm with 8 shutout innings. That's 7 of 27 starts w/0 runs. Also 9 other gms w/1 run.

[Azure]

Some more stats.

- The five shutouts are tied for the most in a season by an American League pitcher since 1989, joining Bert Blyleven (’89), Roger Clemens (’92) and David Wells (’98).

- He joins Mark Langston (September 1988) as the only pitcher in Mariners history with three shutouts in one calendar month.

- Only two other pitchers in Major League history have had three 1-0 shutout wins in a calendar month: Carl Hubbell for the Giants (July 1933) and the Braves’ Dick Rudolph (August 1916).

- He’s the first Major League pitcher since Randy Johnson in 1998 with the Astros to record five shutouts in a 12-start span.

- Hernandez’s 16 starts of seven-plus innings with one or fewer runs is a Mariners record, breaking the mark of 15 he set during his 2010 Cy Young season.

- Going into Tuesday’s games, he had the lowest ERA in the Major Leagues (2.43), the most innings pitched (196 2/3), was third in strikeouts (184) and sixth in batting average against (.218).

http://gregjohns.mlblogs.com/2012/08...ulous-numbers/

[saskflames69]

Twins to host the 2014 All Star Game!

http://mlb.com/min/ticketing/sth/gen...416985029-1054

[metallicat]

Unless the scoreboard changes, the Orioles are going to be tied for the AL East lead after tonight.

[fundmark19]

I love how the orioles and nationals are doing good this year after so many years of terribleness. I don't love how how the rays have to play them in one of the last series of the season

[Sylvanfan]

It's sort of remarkable how teams like the Rays, Orioles, Nationals, and Athletics are finding ways to keep winning. Just goes to show that if you can develop and stock good pitching, you can compete with anyone.