Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

big papi is big.

hutch wrote:
I don't have that big an issue with Benoit coming in but how can you throw Papi a fastbball down the pike on the first pitch.. you got to pitch around him in that situation and if you walk in a run its better than 4..

did the pitch not end up where Benoit wanted it or was that realy what him and Avila where going?

I feel the Tigers just gave that game away…

That's just it.  McCarver said it was a fastball but it wasn't. 

It was 86 miles an hour so either he didn't put enough on his cutter or he threw his changeup too hard (I think the latter).  No one goes up thinking cut fastball to start unless you're facing Mariano, so that's what I would have thrown, low and away.

Instead he hit the spot with his changeup, but threw it about 5-10 mph too fast without first showing him the fastball and it was like BP for Big Papi.  Huge mistake.

You can be assured that Benoit will now have a crisis of confidence for the rest of the series. 

stevewizzle wrote:

sorry, but west coasters loathing the dodgers is not the pulse of the rest of country.  they're a likable bunch.  and anyone who hates on what detroit and boston has done this year is truly not a baseball fan.

I've got 241 million reasons why everyone who wasn't a Dodgers fan before 2013 should hate the Dodgers.

I think there are 3 guys on their 25 man roster that they drafted, 2 guys they bid for in the International market and the rest they dealt for or signed as free agents.

Contrast that with the Cardinals…. 

vansmack wrote:

stevewizzle wrote:

sorry, but west coasters loathing the dodgers is not the pulse of the rest of country.  they're a likable bunch.  and anyone who hates on what detroit and boston has done this year is truly not a baseball fan.

I've got 241 million reasons why everyone who wasn't a Dodgers fan before 2013 should hate the Dodgers.

I think there are 3 guys on their 25 man roster that they drafted, 2 guys they bid for in the International market and the rest they dealt for or signed as free agents.

Contrast that with the Cardinals…. 

i mean, contrast that with the sox? they've got homegrown talent, the core of their team is homegrown talent.  pedroia, ellsbury, lester, bucholz, middlebrooks, salty and lets throw ortiz in there since they are the first team to let him play every day. 

i'm not familiar with the cardinals full roster, but i know matt holliday and carlos beltran certainly aren't homegrown talent.

i'm not suggesting that it's a reason to root for/root against a team, but to say that the cardinals are the best team to root for because they have homegrown talent is a stretch.

stevewizzle wrote:
i mean, contrast that with the sox? they've got homegrown talent, the core of their team is homegrown talent.  pedroia, ellsbury, lester, bucholz, middlebrooks, salty and lets throw ortiz in there since they are the first team to let him play every day. 

I agree, but as was pointed out elsewhere, their fans have forgotten all about their past and have become completely unbearable.  Since I can't have beers with Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Bucholtz or Middlebrooks and can only have beers with Red Sox Nation, they're unlikeable despite the wonderful turnaround from last season, which I recognize to be incredible.

PS: Salty was a Brave, traded to Texas in the Teixeira deal, which might have been THE deal that turned the Rangers franchise around:  Salty, Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Beau Jones (minors) to the Texas Rangers for Ron Mahay and Mark Teixeira.  The Rangers then dealt him to Boston for nothing, the Braves dealt Teixeira to Anaheim for Kasey Kotchman and some reliever, and when he signed for New York, Anaheim drafted some kid named Mike Trout with the compensation pick.

stevewizzle wrote:
i'm not familiar with the cardinals full roster, but i know matt holliday and carlos beltran certainly aren't homegrown talent.

i'm not suggesting that it's a reason to root for/root against a team, but to say that the cardinals are the best team to root for because they have homegrown talent is a stretch.

Jadier Molina - drafted by the Cards
Allen Craig - drafted by the Cards
Matt Carpenter - drafted by the Cards
Pete Kozma - drafted by the Cards
David Freese - traded as a minor leaguer to the Cards from SD for one washed up Jim Edmonds
Matt Holliday - traded to the Cards for Clayton Mortensen, Shane Peterson and Brett Wallace (who?)
John Jay - Drafted by the Cards
Beltran - signed as a free agent
Desclaso - drafted by the Cards
Adams - drafted by the Cards

Wainright - acquired as a minor leaguer (as part of Jason Marquis deal) for JD Drew and Eli Morrero
Lance Lynn- drafted by the Cards
Shelby Miller - drafted by the Cards
Micheal Wacha - drafted by the Cards
Joe Kelly - drafted by the Cards
Jaime Garcia - drafted by the Cards
Tyler Lyons - drafted by the Cards
Trevor Rosenthal - drafted by the Cards
Seth Maness - drafted by the Cards
Kevin Siegrist - drafted by the  Cards


This franchise deserves their success.

i appreciate this list, and it's especially impressive if you rifled this off by memory, but i see nothing remarkable about that list at all. allen craig continues to fly under the radar as one of the best in the game, but besides that, what? we all should root for them because they have a bunch of above average players and are a well run organization?  i'd rather root for miguel cabrera and david ortiz, who bring fear to every single fan of the opposing team when they come to the plate.

vansmack wrote:
I agree, but as was pointed out elsewhere, their fans have forgotten all about their past and have become completely unbearable.  Since I can't have beers with Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Bucholtz or Middlebrooks and can only have beers with Red Sox Nation, they're unlikeable despite the wonderful turnaround from last season, which I recognize to be incredible.

the pink hat nation should not represent red sox nation.

stevewizzle wrote:
i appreciate this list, and it's especially impressive if you rifled this off by memory, but i see nothing remarkable about that list at all. allen craig continues to fly under the radar as one of the best in the game, but besides that, what?

You're watching a team that it is 2 wins away from making another World Series, that has $76 million committed next season to 37 players on their 40 man roster and only has 3 free agents: Beltran, Chris Carpenter (who will probably retire) and Furcal who might also retire.  They have an option on Westbrook they are unlikely to exercise with Wacha's success and Garcia coming back.

Hell, they don't even have a single ARB-3 player (last year of arbitration), only 2 ARB-2 players and 3 ARB-1's.  They have 11 players on thier roster that are pre-arb and aren't lookinng at a big payday.  They'll have about $30m to spend on next seasons roster alone if they only want to spend what they spent this year, let alone more.

Compare that with Detroit ($80m locked up on 4 players) and LA ($88m on 4 players and $164m already spent next season).  Boston's in a little better shape with money better spread out, but they still have $109m committed  with about a dozen free agents/options to exercise.

I am in awe of this franchise and look forward to watching a very competitive NL Central for yeaars to come.

that's a better explanation, and i can buy into that.

a lot of similarities to the nats last year. i know this is getting off-track, but it'll be interesting to watch how StL deals with their off-season.

in the end, StL is the last team i want to see win. i'm fascinated when guys like puig, kemp (when healthy), cabrera, prince, ortiz, and pedroia are at the plate.  watching scherzer pitch last night, i had nothing but appreciation. the same goes when verlander, kershaw, grienke, and lester are on the mound. nobody on StL does it for me. your rationale is fine, but that's not what makes baseball interesting to me, and i'd extrapolate that it's not what does it for the rest of baseball fans.

vansmack wrote:

I've got 241 million reasons why everyone who wasn't a Dodgers fan before 2013 should hate the Dodgers.

Deadspin has them at $216.  And your guys aren't exactly paupers at $142.

vansmack wrote:

That's just it.  McCarver said it was a fastball but it wasn't. 

Washpost said it was a changeup.  McCarver is just a tad past his prime as an announcer.

that is a ridiculous way of looking at it… we should dislike or like teams based on how much money they spend??? on that basis i find the Anaheim or whatever they're calling themselves this week Angels very annoying…signing both Pujols and Hamilton…come on now

I actually think its nice to see the Dodgers in the playoffs… lets not forget this is the Dodgers franchise of Brooklyn origins.. I read the Boys of Summer recently and its hard to hate a team with that connection going back…

Moreover, guys like Kershaw and Puig are very exciting players …..

The Cards- yes we keep hearing how they do things the right way.. but it gets  a bit old..

actually if i'm not mistaken there is a strong connection between the two franchises named Branch Rickey.. i think he helped make both teams great back in the day..

i'd like to see a Dodgers-Tigers series so we'll prob get the opposite

I think both of you are right. Any team that wins all the time (as long as it's not the team you personally cheer for) becomes increasingly annoying. The annoying level is made worse if the team has an astronomical payroll. I could never find the Cardinals as obnoxious as the Yankees, but I can still find them pretty darn obnoxious.

I can assure you, the most uttered phrase by Smackie this year was "I hate this team so much…." and I was talking about my Angels.  If you weren't born in Orange County, you should join the chorus of baseball executives who find Arte Moreno the laughing stock of baseball.  What he has done to this franchise in an attempt to win a World Series in 2012 or 2013 is simply ridiculous.

He decimated the farm system in mid-season trades, decimated the pay roll by taking on bad contracts and signing flashy players to long term deals that don't fill immediate needs, and by doing so sacrificed draft picks to rebuild the farm.  He's playing PED baseball when the league has gone back to pitching.  The only saving grace is that they identified Mike Trout and were able to land him with the 25th pick in 2009.

Annoying is an understatement for Anaheim. 

The devil inside of me wants to see Dodgers v Red Sox, just for my love of Theo Epstein.

The Dodgers would make it to the World Series in large part by taking on all of Theo's "bad" contracts while the Red Sox would make it to the World Series on the backs of Theo's home grown developed talent.

Baseball's a beautiful thing.

Don't remember such pathetic offense in the post-season.  The worm has to turn. 

Shemp wrote:
Don't remember such pathetic offense in the post-season.  The worm has to turn. 

it's not pathetic offense, it's been incredible pitching.

john lackey, pitching the game of his life today.

vansmack wrote:

stevewizzle wrote:
i'm not familiar with the cardinals full roster, but i know matt holliday and carlos beltran certainly aren't homegrown talent.

i'm not suggesting that it's a reason to root for/root against a team, but to say that the cardinals are the best team to root for because they have homegrown talent is a stretch.

Jadier Molina - drafted by the Cards
Allen Craig - drafted by the Cards
Matt Carpenter - drafted by the Cards
Pete Kozma - drafted by the Cards
David Freese - traded as a minor leaguer to the Cards from SD for one washed up Jim Edmonds
Matt Holliday - traded to the Cards for Clayton Mortensen, Shane Peterson and Brett Wallace (who?)
John Jay - Drafted by the Cards
Beltran - signed as a free agent
Desclaso - drafted by the Cards
Adams - drafted by the Cards

Wainright - acquired as a minor leaguer (as part of Jason Marquis deal) for JD Drew and Eli Morrero
Lance Lynn- drafted by the Cards
Shelby Miller - drafted by the Cards
Micheal Wacha - drafted by the Cards
Joe Kelly - drafted by the Cards
Jaime Garcia - drafted by the Cards
Tyler Lyons - drafted by the Cards
Trevor Rosenthal - drafted by the Cards
Seth Maness - drafted by the Cards
Kevin Siegrist - drafted by the  Cards


This franchise deserves their success.

I think you are paying a little bit too much attention to the Cardinals. 

Once your team is eliminated in baseball you are supposed to not care about the season anymore. 

I was a Red Sox fan growing up, but goddamn they have to be one of the ugliest teams in the history of baseball.

Go Tigers.

James wrote:
I was a Red Sox fan growing up, but goddamn they have to be one of the ugliest teams in the history of baseball.

Go Tigers.

that is a ridiculous way of looking at it… we should dislike or like teams based on how ugly they are ?