I expected...

[Trek]

Way more D-back cheering from Winnow then we have seen this season, after being told I was way wrong about him only cheering/watching his teams when they are winning. Its ok I suppose, its always been a problem in the Pheonix area.

[Soreali]

Think he's still trying to figure out how the Cards lost the SB and why in the world the suns failed so badly..

[Trek]

I guess no love for baseball when the Dodgers are on top eh? homers

[Winnow]

Anyone else's team make it to the Superbowl last year?

Go Cardinals!

[Spang]

Anyone else's team make it to the Superbowl last year?

Go Cardinals!

Losing in the Super Bowl is meaningless. Winning the Super Bowl is all that matters.

[Trek]

Anyone else's team make it to the Superbowl last year?

Go Cardinals!

Yes.......I believe their team is the one that won it tho.

[Winnow]

Far as I know, Kilmoll was the only Steeler fan.


hello band wagoners!

My team: Defending Superbowl Champion Runner Up!
Your team: finished somewhere below the Cardinals

[Spang]

Your team: finished somewhere below the Cardinals

My team did just as well as the Cardinals. Neither one won the Super Bowl.

[Winnow]

Your team: finished somewhere below the Cardinals

My team did just as well as the Cardinals. Neither one won the Super Bowl.

So according to this thinking, you suck because you're not the richest, not the best at anything.

There are 30 other teams that wish they got to the Superbowl and got to experience Superbowl week and play in the game.


Gooooo Cardinals! 20 seconds from a Superbowl last year!

[Spang]

So according to this thinking, you suck because you're not the richest, not the best at anything.

Only one team can win the Super Bowl. The rest are all losers.

[Sueven]

I think Spang is wrong, making the Super Bowl does mean something. Good season, Cardinals. But guess what?

It's no longer football season! Now it's baseball season, and my team is DEFENDING WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS, so shut the fuck up.

I'm fairly pleased with the Phillies this year. We're coming out of a real rough stretch, our starting pitching is worrisome at best, and Jimmy Rollins apparently forgot how to hit. But there's a lot of good news in the lineup. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard are still providing lots of offense, Shane Victorino is proving himself to be an above-average major league center fielder, Jayson Werth hasn't broken out but is playing fine, we're getting surprisingly good contributions from Pedro Feliz at third and Carlos Ruiz at catcher, and Raul Ibanez, of course, has been fantastic. Somehow our bullpen is surviving despite losing Brad Lidge and relying on Chan Ho Park for contributions.

We probably need to make a move for a real starting pitcher if we hope to repeat. Our current rotation is Hamels (a top of the rotation guy), Blanton (a 4th or 5th starter masquerading as a #2), Jamie Moyer (who pitches 1/3 solid games and 2/3 crap), J.A. Happ (who's amazingly 4-0) and Antonio Bastardo (young guy with some promise who may eventually be a good reliever and belongs in the minors right now). Given the lack of quality starting pitching on the market, we probably won't repeat unless we get some real step-up performances from some young guys.

Sure will be fun to watch down the stretch though. Right now I'm rooting for a third straight division title, and then we'll see what things look like in the playoffs.

[Spang]

I think Spang is wrong, making the Super Bowl does mean something.

Lots of teams have good seasons but only 1 team wins the Super Bowl.

[Boogahz]

Arizona only comes in first when the teams are listed in alphabetical order.

[Winnow]

Pretty lean times for Arizona Sports atm:

Arizona Cardinals: Excellent
Phoenix Suns: Horrible (pending draft and off season moves)
Arizona Diamondbacks: Horrible
Phoenix Coyotes: Worse than horrible

ASU Football: Mediocre
UofA Football: Worse than ASU

Thank God for the Cardinals. I don't hold out much hope for a recovery anytime soon except for possibly the Suns if management manages to blow up the team and get something for Shaq, Nash and Amare.

[Trek]

I was expecting LA to do well again, not this well for sure. A lot of people dislike Pierre, but I have always liked his hustle and appreciate guys like him that try hard evey day. Can he throw...not really, take a walk...no, but he will give his best day in and out even if it is a shallow pop to LF. I am very glad Kent is gone, not only Hudson come in (huge) but that cancer is gone. I am unsure how Manny will effect the club and it does really worry me, everyone likes JP and he earned his place but he will be benched almost certainly because it wont be Kemp or Ethier. They may do some wierd rotation where they all get a day off or something, who knows. LA really needs 1 more solid SP, I know Milton and Wolf have done wellbut overall LA doesnt make it much past the 6th inning, which is putting a ton of miles on the pen which has been spectacular. This is a very good team that does not give up, nothing like the teams of the past....I actually expect them to win and believe they have a shot every game.

[Boogahz]

I don't hold out much hope for a recovery anytime soon except for possibly the Suns if management manages to blow up the team and get something for Shaq, Nash and Amare.

Should be interesting if Shaq does end up being sent to Cleveland for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic.

[Gzette]

bad move for the Cavs IMO. Shaq isn't worth the price. If they win a championship, I'll eat my words. How does this affect their salary cap? I might change my opinion on the move if it frees up some cap room for resigning Lebron.

[Sylvus]

Is this a last-ditch effort to try and get a championship this year? I didn't think Cleveland had any realistic shot of re-signing lebron.

[Winnow]

bad move for the Cavs IMO. Shaq isn't worth the price. If they win a championship, I'll eat my words. How does this affect their salary cap? I might change my opinion on the move if it frees up some cap room for resigning Lebron.

No chance in hell Shaq is worth 29 Million this year. He's way past his prime. He's a slug out there and mostly just filling space. He misses simple layups that he used to dunk.

Rumor is Phoenix will buyout Ben Wallace and release the other guy. That will free up 10 Million + this year. Big Ben's contract si 14 Million but may take less to fade away.

I'm pretty sure Amare or Nash will be traded as well before draft/during draft or after draft. We'll see. I just hope a fun team to watch materializes for this season with something better in the works for the following year.

[Aardor]

bad move for the Cavs IMO. Shaq isn't worth the price. If they win a championship, I'll eat my words. How does this affect their salary cap? I might change my opinion on the move if it frees up some cap room for resigning Lebron.

It won't really affect their salary cap, since they're trading $19 mil worth of players for a $21 mil player (this is not counting the 2010 pick's salary, either, which evens it out). I don't entirely understand the move, but I think it's a good one. Ben Wallace has been washed up for a long time, and Sasha Pavlovic sucks. Seems like they are trading 2 shitty players for one player who may be better. I don't think this will be what they need to win a championship, but I also did not think they would be as good this year as they were (I kind of felt like they would play most games like the playoff games vs the Magic).

Edit: What the fuck, this thread is about baseball?

Further edit: Oh, I forgot to mention that Shaq only has this year left on his contract, so they can clear him out for salary cap room after the season, if he sucks/they need it to somehow resign lebron.

[Sueven]

I agree with Sylvus. They can't get a young guy to pair with LeBron, so they'll stock up on old guys to try and win a title. They probably won't get him to come back anyway, though.

I'd also like to add:

The original point of this thread was Trek accusing Winnow of being a frontrunner who only cares about his teams when they're winning. The fact that Winnow talked up the Cardinals incessantly and hasn't said a damn word about the Diamondbacks proves this, Trek is claiming.

So what does Winnow do?

Makes 5 posts: 1 about the Suns, 1 about Arizona sports in general, 3 about the Cardinals.

Point looks proven to me!

[Winnow]

I'm frantically scanning the local news for some obscure sporting event won by an Arizona team.

I may have to fall back to pimping the Pac 10 until the NFL cranks up.

[Soreali]

Theres never enough baseball talk on this board


By the way, my yanks are awful right now..

fire away!

[Trek]

I love when the Yankees suck

Doesnt happen nearly often enough and yes need more baseball talk!

[Sueven]

J.A. Happ pitched a complete game shutout today, boosting his numbers to 5-0, 3.00. I guess I shouldn't be complaining about that.

[Soreali]

I cant complain about AJ finally finding a rhythm. 7IP 1H 0ER 10K.. he was dominant.. still one of my favorite pitchers to watch.. his curve is disgusting when he's on.

[Trek]

I guess baseball is only fun to talk about when everyone elses teams are good and the Dodgers suck.

[Winnow]

LA have any more plans to load up on Roid users like Manny?

Arizona baseball - Roid Free!

[Trek]

Arizona - Baseball Free!

If LA does anything they will bring in a SP, im guessing a Washburn or something. I really wish they would grab a real #1 or 2 type of SP. I hear Webb is available now that he cant use roids to heal up

[Soreali]

Wasnt Jason Grimsley with the D-backs when he was arrested and charged with having roids with the intent to distribute? Nah couldn't be.. they're a clean team...

[Sueven]

Arizona baseball - Roid Free!

Really? Keep in mind that the top steroid years were approximately 1998 to 2004. Now look at this.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/s ... yerId=2419

Notice anything?

[Winnow]

Can't prove it!

His head looks pretty small too. Take a look again at Bond's head or Clemins's head. They're huge.

[Winnow]

Man, can he Diamondbacks pick pitchers or what?

Randy Johnson
Curt Schilling
Brandon Webb

and now

Dan Haren

With half-hearted apologies to Tim Lincecum, Diamondbacks right-hander Dan Haren deserves the nod. He is cursed by one of the game's more misleading statistics - win-loss record - blessed by one of the better repertoire's in baseball. He made a heck of a final push Saturday night with a performance that was vintage Haren: 10 strikeouts and one walk in an 8-0 complete-game victory over Florida.

"There are a lot of great pitchers in the National League," Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch said. "I'll take Dan Haren over any of them."

Like Haren, San Francisco's Lincecum, 25, has pitched brilliantly, but Haren, 28, has a better ERA (2.01 vs. 2.33), better opponent batting average (.219 vs. 270) and better strikeouts-to-walk ratio (8.06 vs. 4.38). Lincecum has a better record (10-2 vs. 9-5) and more strikeouts (149 to 129).

Should rename the Cy Young the Arizona Excellence award!

If Haren can manage to get some more wins the second half, he had a ton of games blow for him, he should get the Cy Young, adding to the Arizona stockpile.

[Trek]

For all your Webb nut-sucking from last year you havent once mention Haren who has been better.

Your a couple weeks late on that one, but C+ for effort. Your Snake coach is just being nice to his own player to give him an ego boost. You really think he would rather have Haren over Licsomcum? Little Timmy is putting up CY numbers in back to back seasons, not just a 1 time shot ala Webb or Haren. He would add prospects to Haren to get Licsomcum if he could. Schilling and Johnson where top SP's before going to the Snakes, so its not like they developed those guys or something.

[Wulfran]

what is this baseball you speak of? is it what people revert to in the football off-season in places too warm for hockey?