Major League Baseball: 2012 Season

[JohnBM01]

All I know is that my Astros are building for the future and doesn't have much to offer for anybody. We already dealt Carlos Lee, and word has it we might give up Wandy Rodriguez and Jed Lowrie later. The one thing I hope for is that we don't have the worst record overall like last season's 56-102 effort by the "Lastros" of last season. I am just very skeptical of this Astros team actually being any sort of sleeper or surprise team. I'm not expecting the 2005 Astros, but there is just not enough for me to say we are going to be at least trying to avoid once again being the NL Central doormat. They still need to play better and harder to get out of this hole they're in. I am predicting maybe a 60+ win season. But unless the Astros have some sort of epic turnaround, Houstonians will likely look ahead to Texans football and Rockets basketball rather than seeing the Astros consistently fail. Astros haven't hoisted the white flag, but a lot needs to happen for the Astros to have even any hope of stealing anything better than a NL Wild Card berth.

There's just not much to be hopeful of when it seems like there's nothing positive to look forward to any time soon and when people have no hope or belief in your team. Still, there is less than 80 games left to make an impression and to make a run for the postseason. Wasn't it last year when Boston was WAY ahead heading into the end of last season... all to fall apart and miss the playoffs?


Some leading teams will remain strong and make the postseason. Some leading teams will fall apart and fail to make the postseason. Some trailing teams may become surprise teams and make the postseason. And... there are trailing teams that won't do much of anything the rest of the way, or they may even fall on their faces and have a terrible record. Whatever happens- there are less than 80 games left to make a lasting impression. So best of luck to all of your teams!

 

[JohnBM01]

Ready to get back to baseball? Good luck to all of your team(s) as the season resumes tonight.

 

[Patrick]

Well, the HR Derby didn't mess up Trumbo's swing. He hit a 3-run bomb to left center. 435 feet! We lost 6-5 though.

 

[JohnBM01]

The nightmare continues. San Francisco won 5-1 over Houston. It's Harrell (HOU) vs. Lincecum (SF) for the next game. Lincecum may get benched or something if he loses. Considering how crap we are right now, I won't be surprised if we end up losing this next game. That is unless Houston finds out how to start winning rather than failing.

 

[JohnBM01]

3-2, 12 innings- San Francisco beat us again. I'm almost beginning to feel like this season is now starting to be more like last year's terrible Astros squad. We just can't win all of a sudden. Two dubious distinctions plague my Astros: we're the only team to NOT win any extra inning games, and we also haven't scored a single run in extra inning games. It's San Diego starting on Monday once we're done in San Francisco today.

 

[JohnBM01]

Just wrapped up... the Astros failed again. We're going to San Diego to (probably) get swept yet again after dropping this one 3-2 at San Francisco. GREAT way to start the second half of the season- f:censored:ing up the same way you did for most of the first half. Yay. Astros all of a sudden forgot how to win games. Houston Rockets' Summer League is more fun than the 2012 Astros right now. *sigh*

 

[Prosthetic]

Good start, (Sorry John ) Giants are back in 1st with a 1 1/2 game lead I believe.

Lets talk prospects! Some of the drafts from the last years draft are really starting to make a name for themselves and its amazing how well we have managed to re-stalk our minor league pitching depth. Kyle Crick, Clayton Blackburn and Chris Heston all dominating the minors. Crick and Black burn both have major heat and Blackburn especially with pinpoint control. Heston has been a surprise but has show tremendous command and an above average strike out rate. Numbers remind me a lot of Cain/MadBum.

That's not even getting to Chris Stratton who was projected to be a top 5 pick but fell down to the Giants spot. Giants jumped all over with him like a fat kid with greasy fingers. Projected to be a top of the rotation pitcher with great hard stuff and the ability to throw all his pitches (except curve at this point) for strikes. Plus Agosta, a local kid with a small frame with great stuff. The Giants drafted almost nothing but pitchers this year..

Don't feel so bad about losing Wheeler now.. as a lot of these guys are at the same level as him and out performing him.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Swept by the Cubs. Only scored 3 runs in 3 games.

Go Dbacks.

 

[JohnBM01]

Can't beat one NL West team... maybe we'll have some luck against another. Swept in San Francisco for a three-game series, and now we're at San Diego for four. Only good thing about this road trip for my Astros is that it features three ballparks I think are lovely (AT&T Park the loveliest of all). So my boys will try to entertain the Padres at PetCo Park. Something has to give in this series. Brett Myers' poor pitching cost us in that series finale back in Houston (going from a 3-1 win to losing 7-3 is unacceptable). Now with this four-game series, the Astros will try to return the favor after the series split.


Whatever series your team(s) are about to engage in either tonight or tomorrow, good luck to all of your teams. Play hard!

 

[mcfizzle]

Swept by the Cubs. Only scored 3 runs in 3 games.

Go Dbacks.

Cubs pitching was tough. What's funny though is there are stupid Cubs fans starting to talk about a chance at the wild card after this run they're on. I'm enjoying what they are doing right now but let's not kid ourselves. It's just a good run before the team is blown up for prospects. I am excited to see what they can get for Dempster and Garza. And can they pawn Soriano off on somebody? He's actually having a decent season.

 

[Blitz24]

Cubs pitching was tough. What's funny though is there are stupid Cubs fans starting to talk about a chance at the wild card after this run they're on. I'm enjoying what they are doing right now but let's not kid ourselves. It's just a good run before the team is blown up for prospects. I am excited to see what they can get for Dempster and Garza. And can they pawn Soriano off on somebody? He's actually having a decent season.

The Cubs have as likely a chance as the Marlins do of making the playoffs. The sad thing is Miami doesn't realize it and will essentially gut their team in order to make a run by overpaying for Shane Victorino.

 

[CodeRedR51]

We just suck this year, end of story. Especially on the road.

 

[mcfizzle]

The Cubs have as likely a chance as the Marlins do of making the playoffs. The sad thing is Miami doesn't realize it and will essentially gut their team in order to make a run by overpaying for Shane Victorino.

Cubs are 16 games below .500 while Marlins are 4. Neither team is sitting pretty but at least the Cubs were supposed to be here. That second wild card is going to give a lot of teams false hope and make the trade deadline a little more interesting I would think. But even if the Cubs had been playing decent all season I think Theo would trade pieces away. They are building for the future, 2+ years from now.

 

[tfed]

I dont see any team "guting" themselves for shane victorino

 

[mcfizzle]

I dont see any team "guting" themselves for shane victorino

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...-have-talked-to-philly-about-shane-victorino/

 

[tfed]

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/16/heyman-the-yankees-have-talked-to-philly-about-shane-victorino/

Hardball talk isnt really known for accuracy. At most the yanks would give up a marginal doubleA player and an ok tripleA player for him. Certainly not gutting anything. They are just wanting on the word about gardner. I dont see this happening at all.
I dont know why cashman just dosent relieze that long ball teams can win. Dudes obsessed with speed right now

 

[mcfizzle]

Hardball talk isnt really known for accuracy. At most the yanks would give up a marginal doubleA player and an ok tripleA player for him. Certainly not gutting anything. They are just wanting on the word about gardner. I dont see this happening at all.
I dont know why cashman just dosent relieze that long ball teams can win. Dudes obsessed with speed right now

Oh I know, really all they do is post what other people say and criticize those against PED's. I just thought it was funny because I read that literally seconds before I read your post. And I know they wouldn't gut themselves for Victorino.

 

[tfed]

Oh I know, really all they do is post what other people say and criticize those against PED's. I just thought it was funny because I read that literally seconds before I read your post. And I know they wouldn't gut themselves for Victorino.

I love truth and rumors as much as the next guy. If i had my pick i would take victorino over upton.

 

[Blitz24]

I love truth and rumors as much as the next guy. If i had my pick i would take victorino over upton.

If the price was equal to acquire them I'd actually pick Upton over Victorino. Upton is 24 and Victorino is 31.

 

[CodeRedR51]

As much as I love Upton, he's killing us lately. (although getting better) If he gets traded we need another pitcher, then Parra can take his empty spot in right field.

 

[Blitz24]

Lets play "Get Injured!"

Joey Votto with a minor knee surgery. By minor it only means he'll "only" miss 3-4 weeks.

Jose Bautista collapsed to the ground in writhing pain following a foul ball he hit (did not hit him). His wrist may be badly injured.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Wade Miley with his 10th win tonight. Montero coming through with 4 RBI's in the 5-3 win.

Hopefully we can win at least one more in the next couple days.

 

[Patrick]

Oye, we lost again.

 

[JohnBM01]

Our road losing woes have finally ended, as we won 2-0 in San Diego. Great news is that there will not be another sweep of us as the Astros finally woke up and learned how to win. We may still have the worst road record once this season concludes, but at least we now have double-digit wins in road games now. That is just our tenth road win of the season.


Elsewhere...
* I didn't know Minneapolis knows barbeque. They put up 20 hits to cook the Baltimore Orioles well done in a 19-7 beat down.

* Arizona (our next series opponent) tamed the Reds 5-3 in Cincinnati. Good job by R1600Turbo's boys as they snapped their own road losing streak.

* It was 3-2 in Milwaukee as St. Louis handled the Brewers.

* In Kevin Youkilis' return to Fenway Park, the Red Sox roughed up Youkilis' new team. Their heads were ringing after taking an 5-1 hammer job in Boston.

* The Phillies did the rest of the NL West a favor as they beat the L.A. Dodgers 3-2 in Los Angeles. Every little win counts for the Fightin' Phils.


Congrats to all other winners from Monday's games.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Typical game for us so far. Into the 3rd and no hits.

Edit: 4-0 Reds now.

Awesome Bauer, just awesome.

This kid is not ready for the big leagues yet.

 

[Patrick]

Typical game for us so far. Into the 3rd and no hits.

We're up 7-0 after the 3rd.

 

[CodeRedR51]

*Sigh*

Bases loaded 2 out, Bloomquist swings at the first pitch and flies out.

🤬 go DBacks.

Edit: So far we've left the bases loaded two innings in a row, and left 10 on base in the last 4 innings. Sad when the team you are playing only has 4 hits to your 6, but you're losing 4-0.

 

[Patrick]

We won 13-0! Ending the Tiger's 158 game streak of not getting shut out!

 

[JohnBM01]

Here are some games of note...



How about two "DAMN!" moments? Here you go:

* The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim hammered Detroit 13-0 in Detroit. It was an 18-hit effort for the Angels compared to Detroit's 4 hits. G. Richards won for LAA while J. Turner lost for DET. Wait, Patrick... you're kidding, 158 straight games for DET of not getting blanked until tonight? Extra love for LAA, then.

* West Coast offense! Prosthetic's Giants towered over the Atlanta Braves 9-0. Zito (SF) was the winning pitcher while J. Jurrjens lost for ATL. San Francisco got their golden (50th) win of the season.

* Blitz24 probably was pissed seeing the Mets throw a wild pitch that ended up having the Washington Nationals win at home in 10 innings. Washington led 2-0 heading into the 9th before the Mets finally woke up and banged in three runs. Washington tied the game at 3 in the Bottom of the 9th. Then, the Mets put on one more run with Washington doing the same in their inning. After that... the wild pitch, one National answers the dinner bell to come Home- and the Nationals won after a wild pitch. The winner was R. Mattheus for WAS, and [former Astro] Tim Byrdak lost for NYM.

* Tough luck for the Diamondbacks- a 4-0 loss in Cincinnati. Cueto (CIN) won along with a Chapman (CIN) Save. The loser was T. Bauer for ARI.


I'll either edit this post or make a new one concerning how the Astros did tonight at San Diego.

 

[Max Powers]

Andrew Mccutchen may be the best player in baseball right now.

This is the best Pirates team that I have watched since being about 6 years old in 1992.