2014 MLB Regular Season General Thread

[ATL Boy]

GO ROYALS!

8 game winning streak.

Half game lead in the central over the Tigers.

Lol if Detroit loses this after the David Price deal.

The Royals are something else. Their bullpen is lights out. If the Royals starting pitchers give the bullpen a lead in the 7th inning, 8th inning, or 9th inning, forget about it! Their bullpen is going to close it out.

The A's continue to struggle without Cespedes. Their offense is painful to watch.

It's a great feeling as a fan when you can trust your bullpen to shorten the game like that. That was exactly the way the Braves pen has been the past three years but for some reason they just completely suck now.

[TheKingofSting]

We need new owners bad.

[ATL Boy]

Braves have packed it in.

[El Turco]

We need new owners bad.

would you rather be TWO time world series champions like San Francisco Giants, or have one less but dominate your division for two decades?

[ATL Boy]

We need new owners bad.

would you rather be TWO time world series champions like San Francisco Giants, or have one less but dominate your division for two decades?

Tough choice, but I don't think many Braves fans would trade what happened in the 90s and into the first half of the 2000s for an extra championship. If only we still had Ted Turner as our owner.

[Quake Griffin]

We need new owners bad.

would you rather be TWO time world series champions like San Francisco Giants, or have one less but dominate your division for two decades?

Tough choice, but I don't think many Braves fans would trade what happened in the 90s and into the first half of the 2000s for an extra championship. If only we still had Ted Turner as our owner.

He really means just one World Series.

Anybody with an objective mind can look at Melky's positive test and see the amount of help he gave them in the 1st half was unfair - including being the MVP of a game that gave them HFA in the World Series.

We don't even need to mention (but we will) Marco Scutaro with an .859 OPS in his 61 games with the Giants + unreal playoff run....no other season with in 70 points of it...and he was 36 years old.

2012 Giants WS is a joke.
What happened in Atlanta > that.

[Higga]

A shame Doug Fister was out the first month of the season or he'd probably be receiving Cy Young consideration(he wouldn't win it but he'd at least be in the running).

Great debut for the rook Michael Taylor. 2/3 with a 2 run bomb.

I love playing at Citi Field, our home away from home.

[RoyalMajesty]

GO ROYALS!

8 game winning streak.

Half game lead in the central over the Tigers.

Lol if Detroit loses this after the David Price deal.

The Royals are something else. Their bullpen is lights out. If the Royals starting pitchers give the bullpen a lead in the 7th inning, 8th inning, or 9th inning, forget about it! Their bullpen is going to close it out.

The A's continue to struggle without Cespedes. Their offense is painful to watch.

It's a great feeling as a fan when you can trust your bullpen to shorten the game like that. That was exactly the way the Braves pen has been the past three years but for some reason they just completely suck now.

Yea that's why the Royals will be there to the end. Their bullpen is just lights out. It must be comforting for their starting pitching staff to have that.

Speaking of the Braves bullpen, what's your thought on Eric O'Flaherty? He spent couple of years with the Atlanta Braves. I'm hoping he can be another guy that the A's can depend on during the 7th or 8th inning. Plus, he's a lefty and the A's already have two good lefties in the bullpen with Fernando Abad and Sean Doolittle. Another lefty wouldn't hurt

[RoyalMajesty]

GO ROYALS!

8 game winning streak.

Half game lead in the central over the Tigers.

Lol if Detroit loses this after the David Price deal.

The Royals are something else. Their bullpen is lights out. If the Royals starting pitchers give the bullpen a lead in the 7th inning, 8th inning, or 9th inning, forget about it! Their bullpen is going to close it out.

The A's continue to struggle without Cespedes. Their offense is painful to watch.

Don't they still have the best offense in baseball and they play in a pitcher's park? It's a small string of games. Cespedes' offense wasn't even that good, I think they'll approximate his offense eventually with their platoon bats.

They'll continue to be the best offense in baseball without him. The reason they were this good was not Yoenis Cespedes, it is their platoon strategy.

Yea the A's still lead the majors in runs and RBIs, but shockingly, they are the #5 team in most HRs and like you said, playing in a pitcher's park with those enormous foul territories. It is a small string of games, but ever since Cespedes left, the A's can't able to hit at all outside of last night game. Josh Donaldson has Brandon Moss backing him up, but there's nobody backing up Brandon Moss. I'm hoping Stephen Vogt (.219 AVG vs LHP and .335 AVG vs RHP) or Derek Norris (.356 AVG vs LHP and .245 AVG vs RHP) could be the #5 guy in the lineup after Josh Donaldson at #3 and Brandon Moss at #4.

[ATL Boy]

The Royals are something else. Their bullpen is lights out. If the Royals starting pitchers give the bullpen a lead in the 7th inning, 8th inning, or 9th inning, forget about it! Their bullpen is going to close it out.

The A's continue to struggle without Cespedes. Their offense is painful to watch.

It's a great feeling as a fan when you can trust your bullpen to shorten the game like that. That was exactly the way the Braves pen has been the past three years but for some reason they just completely suck now.

Yea that's why the Royals will be there to the end. Their bullpen is just lights out. It must be comforting for their starting pitching staff to have that.

Speaking of the Braves bullpen, what's your thought on Eric O'Flaherty? He spent couple of years with the Atlanta Braves. I'm hoping he can be another guy that the A's can depend on during the 7th or 8th inning. Plus, he's a lefty and the A's already have two good lefties in the bullpen with Fernando Abad and Sean Doolittle. Another lefty wouldn't hurt

Eric was Mr. Reliable for us. He was absolutely lights out up until his Tommy John early last year which unfortunately ended his season prematurely.

Three years ago he was the best middle reliever in the game IMO, we just brought him into the game in the 7th inning and watched the magic happen. He shut it down in the 7th, Venters in the 8th, and then of course the dominant Craig Kimbrel closed things out in the 9th. He was a monster for us two years ago and in the limited time last year too. I was pretty pissed off when we let him him leave because the A's gave him a very manageable contract which we probably didn't wanna match. It's coming back to bite us even more now that we don't have a reliable lefty in the bullpen. If he can get back to his pre-injury form then that'll be flat out scary in the A's pen.

[RoyalMajesty]

It's a great feeling as a fan when you can trust your bullpen to shorten the game like that. That was exactly the way the Braves pen has been the past three years but for some reason they just completely suck now.

Yea that's why the Royals will be there to the end. Their bullpen is just lights out. It must be comforting for their starting pitching staff to have that.

Speaking of the Braves bullpen, what's your thought on Eric O'Flaherty? He spent couple of years with the Atlanta Braves. I'm hoping he can be another guy that the A's can depend on during the 7th or 8th inning. Plus, he's a lefty and the A's already have two good lefties in the bullpen with Fernando Abad and Sean Doolittle. Another lefty wouldn't hurt

Eric was Mr. Reliable for us. He was absolutely lights out up until his Tommy John early last year which unfortunately ended his season prematurely.

Three years ago he was the best middle reliever in the game IMO, we just brought him into the game in the 7th inning and watched the magic happen. He shut it down in the 7th, Venters in the 8th, and then of course the dominant Craig Kimbrel closed things out in the 9th. He was a monster for us two years ago and in the limited time last year too. I was pretty pissed off when we let him him leave because the A's gave him a very manageable contract which we probably didn't wanna match. It's coming back to bite us even more now that we don't have a reliable lefty in the bullpen. If he can get back to his pre-injury form then that'll be flat out scary in the A's pen.

Thanks! Thanks a lot! I looked at his numbers and he had some great years with the Braves and I wanted to personally asked a Brave fan about Eric O'Flaherty. After reading your post, I feel a lot better about the A's bullpen.

7th Inning: LHP-Fernando Abad (.194 AVG vs Left-Handed Batters & .138 AVG vs Right-Handed Batters)
8th Inning: RHP-Ryan Cook (.226 AVG vs Left-Handed Batters & .140 AVG vs Right-Handed Batters)
OR
8th Inning: RHP-Luke Gregerson (.232 AVE vs Left-Handed Batters & .207 vs Right-Handed Batters)
9th Inning: LHP-Sean Doolittle (.127 AVG vs Left-Handed Batters & .175 AVG vs Right-Handed Batters)

Then the A's also have these guys just in case for extra innings: LHP-Eric O'Flaherty, RHP-Ryan Cook/Luke Gregerson, RHP-Dan Otero, RHP-Jesse Chavez

[El Turco]

would you rather be TWO time world series champions like San Francisco Giants, or have one less but dominate your division for two decades?

Tough choice, but I don't think many Braves fans would trade what happened in the 90s and into the first half of the 2000s for an extra championship. If only we still had Ted Turner as our owner.

He really means just one World Series.

Anybody with an objective mind can look at Melky's positive test and see the amount of help he gave them in the 1st half was unfair - including being the MVP of a game that gave them HFA in the World Series.

We don't even need to mention (but we will) Marco Scutaro with an .859 OPS in his 61 games with the Giants + unreal playoff run....no other season with in 70 points of it...and he was 36 years old.

2012 Giants WS is a joke.
What happened in Atlanta > that.

butthurt is immense with this one

[Quake Griffin]

Saw on MLB Network that Tulo is out for the rest of the season for a hip surgery. Poor Rockies and a "whew" to any team that was going to give them a huge haul for him.

30th birthday is in October.

[Da Schwab]

Saw on MLB Network that Tulo is out for the rest of the season for a hip surgery. Poor Rockies and a "whew" to any team that was going to give them a huge haul for him.

30th birthday is in October.

Could be more precautionary than anything, but still very unfortunate.

Looks like Yu Darvish will probably be shut down for the stretch, too. That's basically the dagger for my fantasy team.

[RoyalMajesty]

Oakland A's=Kings of Choking

[TheKingofSting]

We need new owners bad.

would you rather be TWO time world series champions like San Francisco Giants, or have one less but dominate your division for two decades?

I wouldn't trade the division run.

[Quake Griffin]

So are my dodgers hot or the Braves just playing bad?

[Kerb Hohl]

The Royals are something else. Their bullpen is lights out. If the Royals starting pitchers give the bullpen a lead in the 7th inning, 8th inning, or 9th inning, forget about it! Their bullpen is going to close it out.

The A's continue to struggle without Cespedes. Their offense is painful to watch.

Don't they still have the best offense in baseball and they play in a pitcher's park? It's a small string of games. Cespedes' offense wasn't even that good, I think they'll approximate his offense eventually with their platoon bats.

They'll continue to be the best offense in baseball without him. The reason they were this good was not Yoenis Cespedes, it is their platoon strategy.

Yea the A's still lead the majors in runs and RBIs, but shockingly, they are the #5 team in most HRs and like you said, playing in a pitcher's park with those enormous foul territories. It is a small string of games, but ever since Cespedes left, the A's can't able to hit at all outside of last night game. Josh Donaldson has Brandon Moss backing him up, but there's nobody backing up Brandon Moss. I'm hoping Stephen Vogt (.219 AVG vs LHP and .335 AVG vs RHP) or Derek Norris (.356 AVG vs LHP and .245 AVG vs RHP) could be the #5 guy in the lineup after Josh Donaldson at #3 and Brandon Moss at #4.

Yeah, they'll have a platoon #5 hitter.

The A's, given the amount of money they paid Cespedes and because he was a decent offensive player, played him every day.

Cespedes had a .767 OPS overall (he played every day). By the way, he's at .640 with Boston in a small sample.

Johnny Gomes has a .790 OPS vs. LHP this year. Reddick has an .870 OPS vs. righties. Put that together and what do you get? A much better hitter than Cespedes. They could also go with Vogt/Blanks (when healthy) or any of their other platoon setups.

Fuld is not as great of a platoon splits hitter but he is an excellent defender...so he can also factor in with Gentry who is similar from the RH side.

[Higga]

So are my dodgers hot or the Braves just playing bad?

The Braves are mediocre when they don't play the Nationals. Of course against us they're the '98 Yankees.

But we are 6 up now and Harper seems to be returning to form. Can't complain.

[RoyalMajesty]

I keep on saying the Addison Russell trade for Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardzija is going to hurt the A's. The Braves destroyed the A's tonight with 4 home runs and 3 home runs off of Jason Hammel