If it wasn't for gambling and beer no one would watch baseball.

Royals become the first team in history to have all three of their outfielders hit 40+ doubles in a season. (Gordon, Cabrera, and Francoeur)

Really nice comeback season for Francoeur. Maybe the Mets should've kept him and traded away Jason Bay instead.

Only thing to help the Mets is trading away that stadium. Yet another brilliant idea by the Wilpons.

Maybe they can still fix it. It's pretty telling that a team 8 games under .500 has one of the best road records in the NL.

They can't hit there, and they don't have the pitching to keep other teams from hitting there. They need to go all 80's Cardinals, Reyes as their Willie McGhee, can Ike be Jack Clark, the Thumper surrounded by speed demons? I don't know.


Eat half Bay's contract and trade him for pitching. Trade Wright to a band box for pitching prospects. Cross your fingers Santana can pitch again. Hope Reyes isn't insulted by what the initial low ball offer will be.

And I think Alderson is going to bring the fences in, but they can only do a certain percent each year.

Braves should gave kept him to begin with.

Both wild card races tied up heading to game 162 tomorrow. I have the DirecTV Extra Innings package, I'll try to keep up with 4 games at once.

Cardinals and Braves tied, Rays and Red Sox tied.

Cards at Houston
Phils at Atlanta
Rays at New York
Red Sox at Baltimore

All under the lights tomorrow night.

Yankees are scraping the bottom of the bullpen for pitching tomorrow. Sux spent all that money last winter to watch the playoffs from their living room. Bruins Cup musta started another curse in bean town.

The Braves have two of their top pitchers out and can't hit a fucking lick. They don't even need to be in the playoffs.

What a night! I got the teams out I wanted out. BDM, I should like the Braves, but I can't stand that droning tomahawk chop shit. And, I loathe Boston.

AL-
Det. -vs- NY
TB -vs- Tex.

NL-
St.L. -vs- Phil.
Ari. -vs - Mil.

Yanks got it tough w/ Verlander 2x in a short series.

Red Sux declined the option on Francona. Beginning of the end for them boys. Francona didn't injure Bucholz, make Youk a China doll, spend all that money on a soft Lackey or Crawford. Another 80sumtin years Sox fans. Hope you DVRed the celebrations.

5-4 to the Cardinals.

Carpenter ineffective. Down 4-0 and the bullpen comes in and saves the day. Cliff led staked to a big lead and it doesn't last. They decide to pitch to Pujols and lose.

Game 3 Tuesday in St. Louis.

i'm going straight to the top on this one. steinbrenner style.
theo has probably got a decent coke habit going by now and john henry is pumping money into the thai lady boi market like a bull so of course tito is going to take the blame. he was the only guy watching the games...

Theo sniffin around the Cubs, he's ready to jump off a sinking ship. He doesn't want to watch Lackey pitch the next 4 years.

The University of Texas is already having fun with this one.

U of T isn't having any fun today.

St.L. over Texas in 6.

If Pujols and Fielder leave the division, the Reds look good next year!

Nationals Starting Catcher Kidnapped

Congrats to new Hall of Famer Ron Santo.

You mean Hall of the Pretty Good.

They break Santo's balls and keep him out while he's alive, then vote him in when he's dead and can't appreciate it.

Nice job MLB.

Like the Yankees have retired #s and then the monuments, the HOP should really have a special "inner circle" or something for the truly great. No offense to Santo, I'm sure he'd have been an asset to any team, but come on. Really I'd say if you don't get 50% of the vote your first year, you are off the ballot after 5.

Probably 1/3 of the Hall of fame doesn't belong there. Another 1/3 is boarder line, and 1/3 no brainers.

I agree with a small Hall. Santo should not be there. The Veteran's Committee has put too many marginal players in.

You know, I'd even go for a thing where the BWAA and the members of the hall vote for a starting line up, minus DH, RHP, LHP and reliever every 10 years and put them in a special wing.

how bout they just vote em in based on salary. it only seems fair.

Nooooo. Then we wouldn't have a chance of keeping Bonds and A-Roid out.

Shoeless Joe and Petey Rose for the hall ...now !

Shoeless Joe, yes.

Pete, he a lying sack o' crap, he made his own bed. Day after he dies.

I don't like him either but you can't argue with his stats.

Absolutely. He could have retired from palying 5+ years before he did and he still would deserve to be in. I'm hung up on lying and disparaging people, even though the bad remarks were predicated on his lies. Fuck him.

Bonds got 30 days house arrest, 2 years probation, and community service.


2012 Writers' Ballot

Have $20 million laying around? Then become a Mets Minority Owner. they are trying to sell 10-12 4% stakes in the team. They need $200 million. This confirms that the Wilpons are delusional.

Seriously delusional. They want a bunch of money without really giving up anything in return for it. And they want to make sure they get to keep the team no matter what. I'm hoping MLB steps in and takes it away from them so we can get a real owner.

The Braves need a power hitting outfielder. Any takers ?

Larkin is the only BBWAA inductee this year. Makes me happy.

I didn't watch him day in and day out, but I never thought he was a HOFer.

I don't think Posada is a HOFer, either, but the papers seem to be touting him as such. They make a good case, but they compare him to the guys in there already, not contemporaries like Piazza and Pudge-Rod, both of whom probably more juice likely than Jorge.

Go here http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof.shtml and click the Voted By column. The BBWAA inductees mostly deserve to be there, the Veterans' Committee inductees are mostly marginal.

Larkin did something exceptional every time I went to see him play. I think he is very deserving. He'd have a closet full of Gold Gloves if not for Ozzie. .295 lifetime while moving up runners, etc. a 30-30 season, MVP, and a ring. Yeah, he's legit.

Santo, not so much. and fucking Tim McCarver will get the announcer's award. Ugh.

A local sports columnist today called Larkin one of the top 5 ss to ever play.

^^No.

Banks
A-Roid
Jeter
Ozzie
Ripken

Not necessarily in that order, but that is 5 off the top of my head.

I'm not going to complain much about Larkin, just felt like voicing my opinion.

Add Honus Wagner, Lou Boudreau, and Robin Yount to that list as well. I could probably name at least ten shortstops better than Larkin. Both Larkin and Santo belong in the Hall of Very Good but neither belong in the Hall of Fame.

We could probably pull the plug on the Veterans Committee. ESPN Classic has been around long enough that there is no excuse for a current voter not to have seen plenty of footage of everyone even remotely qualified to even be thought about voting into the Hall of Fame. They've pretty much put in every player from the first two thirds of the twentieth century who has any business being there already.

I didn't remember what the split was with Yount between SS and CF.

Dale Murphy being a nice guy and religious will probably keep him out. Should have beat his wife and kids and he would have been a lock. [strong sarcasm]

Back to back MVPs, switch to Gold Glove CF from CATCHER!! Feared hitter from late 70's until the late 80's. I'da put him in before Rice. He did have a performance enhancing berry on his face. Seems his skills left as soon as his lil friend did.

Speaking of former catchers and center fielders, next year Craig Biggio goes on the ballot.

3000 hits = HOF

Rafael Palmeiro got 3020 hits and only managed to get 12.6% of the writers to vote for him. It wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't get in.

Raffy caught red handed on the juice, then threw a teammate under the bus. They might as well take his name off the ballot, because he'll never make it.

Biggio was a good lead off guy, 3000 hits, and I think he's top 10 in doubles. His only benefit from juice was scoring a bunch of runs thanks to Bagwell. He's gonna get in.

Side note: John Heyman bolted SI to write for CBSSports.com. Very bad for SI. Their 2 name baseball writers now are Posnanski and Verducci, 2 douche bags. Now SI is NFL articles, by Peter King and Don Banks, and not much else.