2011(and beyond!) MLB thread.

[gmarsh]

The rest of the league better watch out for Darnell McDonald, he's tearing it up.

[clashcityrocker10]

I know the people that make these decisions tend to look for guys on playoff teams, but there is no one in the National League more valuable to his team than Jose Reyes. If it wasn't for the season Adrian Gonzalez is having in Boston, he'd be the best player in baseball right now.

[Dante1847]

yeah gotta love his 0-4. 8 LOB line....why he's up a roster spot is beyond me

[ultimatespidey81]

I know the people that make these decisions tend to look for guys on playoff teams, but there is no one in the National League more valuable to his team than Jose Reyes. If it wasn't for the season Adrian Gonzalez is having in Boston, he'd be the best player in baseball right now.

matt kemp is having himself a hell of a year too. and its being wasted on the dodgers. he's a 20/20 player and its not even the end of june.

[gmarsh]

yeah gotta love his 0-4. 8 LOB line....why he's up a roster spot is beyond me

Once Crawfish gets off the DL, I hope to see Reddick as a starter in RF. D.L Drew, Cameron, and McDonald all disgust me.

[ROCKBANDFANATIC7526]

Kershaw is my NL Cy Young right now.

[ultimatespidey81]

can't go wrong with hamels, halladay or kershaw for NL CY right now. verlander, weaver and shields in the AL.

[ROCKBANDFANATIC7526]

can't go wrong with hamels, halladay or kershaw for NL CY right now. verlander, weaver and shields in the AL.

Indeed. Shields is nasty this year.

[Dante1847]

Once Crawfish gets off the DL, I hope to see Reddick as a starter in RF. D.L Drew, Cameron, and McDonald all disgust me.

Im being cautiously optimistic about Reddick's status as a Major League outfielder. His walk rates have been way up this year in the minors, and he's showing some of that same discipline in his (granted small sample sized) major league showing this year. Id still put Kalish ahead of him on the depth chart, but Im liking what Im seeing from Reddick so far. Either way, I cant wait for the JD Drew era to end.

also, I hate James Shields. hes a Red Sox killer. at least the Rays traded Garza, who was more so

[SheSaidSheSaid]

The just concluded Marlins @ Mariners @ Marlins series was pretty awesome. Safeco Field does a promotion called "The King's Court" where a bunch of goofballs will wear yellow shirts that say King Felix (and several of them Larry Bernandez lookalikes...YouTube it if you don't get it) and boisterously root on their king. Friday night, they kinda took control of the entire ballpark. In the top of the ninth, they started a chant of "Oh-ooooh! Olivo!" (to the tune of The March of the Winkies from The Wizard of Oz...yes, you actually do know that tune). He responded with a two-run homer. When Felix was up, the Court held up signs that I thought said "Hit it here," which would be cute but kinda stupid (the court's seats are in foul territory), but they actually said "Hit it there" with an arrow to pointing to the left field foul pole. Felix batted three times, seeing seven pitches and swinging at all of them, and got a single to right in the top of the third. He was the first Mariner to reach base in the game. When he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the ninth (he had thrown 112 pitches through 8 innings and it looked like he was going back out there for the ninth until Olivo's home run made it a four-run game), pretty much no one in the stadium liked it. The Court didn't, Felix certainly didn't (though he was laughing), and the rest of the crowd didn't. Pinch hitter Jack Cust looked at three straight strikes to end the inning. Oh and did I mention Felix only allowed two hits in eight innings.

Saturday was pretty forgettable, but tonight was another kerr-azy game. Doug Fister and the Mariner defense did a remarkable job keeping the Marlins off the scoreboard. Fister, a right-handed pitcher but a left-handed batter, was a major offensive catalyst, stroking a one-out double in the top of the fifth, and eventually coming around to score on an RBI single by Brendan Ryan. It looked like 1-0 might hold up until the bottom of the 8th when Omar Infante hit a two-out double to score former Mariner Jose Lopez on a 12-pitch at-bat. Fister has a perfectly reasonable 3.08 ERA over 38 innings in his last five starts...and has 3 losses and two no-decisions to show for it.

So the game goes to extras. Hotshot rookie Dustin Ackley leads off the top of the tenth with an opposite-field double, and advances to third on a deep fly ball off the bat of Miguel Olivo. Jack McKeon orders an intentional walk, the second of the game, to left fielder Carlos Peguero, who entered play tonight with 38 strikeouts and 5 unintentional walks on the season. On the third pitch, Marlins reliever Steve Cishek threw well wide of catcher Brett Hayes. Peguero frantically waved Ackley home - the throw from Hayes back to Cishek covering the plate beat Ackley, but the pitcher was unable to hold onto the ball, giving the Mariners a 2-1 lead. Peguero, up 3-0 in the count, would then swing and miss at the next three pitches. Bring in shutdown closer Brandon League for the bottom of the tenth, and you've got one of the strangest Mariner victories in recent memory. But since that sentence contains the phrase "Mariner victories," I'll take it!




I don't care if no one reads that, it was fun to write