10/19’s thrilling NLCS action

October 19, 2006 · Filed Under Mariners · 213 Comments 

Wheeeeeee! Suppan v Perez! I don’t know about you, but I’m locking the door and leaving the phone off the hook. This one’s going to be a barnburner! Can we just flip a coin to declare who gets sacrificed to the Tigers and get it over with?

Or am I being too pessimistic about this whole series? What’s a good reason to hang around and see tonight’s game?

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October 18th’s thrilling playoff baseball

October 18, 2006 · Filed Under Mariners · 85 Comments 

Cardinals at Mets! Chris Carpenter faces… John Maine? Really? Oookay. 5:19ish.

I almost forgot this was going to be on… it only occurred to me that there might be something on when I took a break from book work just now and looked at a schedule page. Yes, that’s how into this NLCS I am.

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Recommended Blogs

October 18, 2006 · Filed Under Mariners · 40 Comments 

Last week, a few folks asked if we could recommend some sites that cover other teams in a similar way that we cover the Mariners. Thanks to the explosion of blogging, a veritable cornocopia of team specific sites have popped up over the past few years, and nearly every organization in baseball has a quality site devoted to the team. So, what follows is a list of my recommended blogs for the rest of baseball; these sites have all published content that I have read and enjoyed at some point in time, and while they vary in quality, they’ve all earned the recognition as one of the better sources of information for their particular club.

AL West

Oakland: Athletics Nation
Texas: The Newberg Report and LoneStar Ball
Anaheim: Chronicles of the Lad
Seattle: Lookout Landing and Marinerds

AL Central

Minnesota: Bat Girl, Stick and Ball Guy, and Twins Geek
Kansas City: Rob and Rany and Royals Review
Detroit: Tigers Central
Cleveland: Lets Go Tribe
Chicago: Sox Machine

AL East

New York: Bronx Banter, Pinstriped Blog, and Replacement Level Yankee Weblog
Boston: Sons of Sam Horn
Baltimore: Orioles Hangout and Birds in the Belfry
Toronto: The Batters Box
Tampa Bay: Rays of Light

NL West

Arizona: Snake Pit
San Diego: Duck Snorts
Los Angeles: Dodger Thoughts
Colorado: Purple Row
San Francisco: McCovey Chronicles

NL Central

Chicago: Cub Reporter and Cub Town
Milwaukee: Brewer Fan
Houston: Crawfish Boxes
St. Louis: Viva El Birdos
Pittsburgh: Bucs Dugout
Cincinatti: Red Reporter

NL East

Philadelphia: Phillies Nation
Atlanta: Sabernomics
New York: Amazin’ Avenue
Florida: Fish Stripes
Washington: Capitol Punishment

So, there’s at least one link for every team. However, there are some that are good enough that you should read them even if you’re not trolling for team specific content. These guys are the best of the bunch, in my opinion, and I give them my full endorsement:

These include Lookout Landing, Bat Girl, Pinstriped Blog, The Batters Box, Dodger Thoughts, Brewer Fan, and Sabernomics.

So, hopefully this helps you guys. If you’re looking for information on a certain team, at the very least, most of these are a good starting spot.

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Ahh, playoff baseball for 10/17

October 17, 2006 · Filed Under Game Threads, General baseball · 58 Comments 

Glavine v Weaver in a battle to see who gets to lose to the Tigers! I’m excited.

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And I’m Back

October 17, 2006 · Filed Under Mariners · 82 Comments 

Transcontinental flights suck. Just so you know.

Anyways, I’m back on the east coast and trying to get caught up on life. Since I haven’t posted anything here in a little while, let’s just recap some of the news in the past week.

  • Lou Piniella has been hired to manage the Chicago Cubs, signing a three year deal to try and win with a club that doesn’t have enough talent to win. Good luck with that, Lou.

  • The A’s fired Ken Macha amid criticism from a significant amount of the players. Multiple players made their complaints public, and the A’s didn’t really have much of a choice, considering the way the clubhouse was being portrayed at the end of the year. However, the ’06 A’s should be another data point for the idea that a manager’s motivational ability to get his players to perform better is highly overrated. By all accounts, a large segment of the team didn’t particularly like their manager, and they still overachieved, winning the division with a pretty mediocre roster. I’ve said it a few hundred times, and I’ll continue to say it; by and large, the effects a manager can have on his ballclub are overstated.

  • One more managerial note, before moving on: Mike Hargrove made some bad strategic moves during the season, but man, did anyone watch Jim Leyland in the ALCS? He not only started Neifi Perez in game two, but hit him second. In that same game, he used Alexis Gomez as his DH, a move that was made at least partly due to the decision to leave Chris Shelton off the playoff roster. Games 3 and 4, he stuck Craig Monroe and his .301 OBP in the #2 hole. In the final clinching game, with a tie score and a chance to end the series and give his team a significant amount of rest before the world series, he used Jamie Walker, Jason Grilli, and Wil Ledezma to get through the 8th and 9th innings. Because the Tigers played well and the A’s did not, Leyland is hailed as a genius, but strategically, he made some lousy moves that turned out for the best.

  • Juan Uribe, shortstop of the White Sox, has an arrest warrant issued for him in the Dominican Republic after he shot two men last week. I wonder if he was hanging out with Ugueth Urbina.

  • The Arizona Fall League and Hawaiian Winter Leagues are underway, for those who need a baseball fix. Michael Wilson is off to a good start down in Arizona, but as I say every year at this point in time, the stats mean less than nothing. Don’t get excited or despair over fall league performances. The stats don’t matter at all.

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    Playoff Baseball for 10/15

    October 15, 2006 · Filed Under Game Threads, General baseball · 47 Comments 

    Mets at Cardinals, RIGHT NOW!

    Cards already up 1-0.

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    Playoff Baseball for 10/14

    October 14, 2006 · Filed Under Game Threads, General baseball · 187 Comments 

    Oakland at Detroit, 1:30pm
    New York at St. Louis, 5:05pm

    Hooray (woosh) for games (ba-dum) with different (buzz) start times (ka-chunk).

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    Playoffs for 10/13

    October 13, 2006 · Filed Under General baseball · 91 Comments 

    I’d rather be at some sort of awesome pizza feed with USSM readers, frankly, but — HEY! What a wacky coincidence!

    Oakland @ Detroit, now
    St. Louis @ NYM, 5:05

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    Unethical!!!!!!!

    October 13, 2006 · Filed Under Off-topic ranting · 68 Comments 

    Provided for your off-day horror/amusement, an email conversation on the feed between someone from Boeing and me, as I work through the Feed queue.

    Read more

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    Playoff baseball, 10/12

    October 12, 2006 · Filed Under General baseball · 69 Comments 

    Cards at Mets. Boooooooooooooooooooooring. Also, Fox sucks.

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