The MLB Thread

God rest the man. Also, Musial spent half his career as a first baseman, which helps me immeasurably in filling out my all-time NL all-star team.

I'm surprised I didn't find this thread sooner. Guess I'll keep tabs on it now that spring training is nearly here.

We don't normally post a lot, as most people don't bother paying attention except when playoffs draw near. I, of course, am always happy to talk baseball.

Yeah, I follow other sports, but baseball is definitely my favorite and the one I follow the most closely. It's just well past the point that I'm sick of winter and ready for the season to start. Granted, I suppose there isn't too much exciting to discuss quite yet...

I'm excited to see what the Giants and Rays can do.

Well, the reallocation of free agents is always of interest. The Blue Jays and the Braves in particular rocked the offseason in this regard.

The Cardinals and Twins are my teams. The Cards will always be my #1 as the team I grew up with, and given that they're basically intact from last year, minus Lance Berkman (who was injured for most of the year last year anyway), Kyle Lohse, and Skip Schumaker, I'm not too worried about them at least staying competitive. I am really hoping the Twins start to turn it around though, especially since they're easier for me to follow up here and I'm more likely to get out to a couple of their games. I was sort of upset they lost Denard Span and Ben Revere, but it should be interesting to see how their new pitching rotation fares at least. Seems they should be solid, but not spectacular given the list of acquisitions.

I'm stoked about the Braves' moves, but a lot could also go wrong. Justin Upton isn't a sure bet to be productive, and though Jason Heyward will probably be fine in the long run, he's capable of regressing. And I'm pretty sure we've already seen Dan Uggla's last decent season. Odds are, though, that the offense will be very good on balance, and the pitching is solid top to bottom. I believe this'll be Brian Mc Cann's last season in ATL, and it'd be nice to see him go out with a bang.

Anyone here play any baseball video games? Based on what I've read, it looks like this year's version of MLB The Show is the first one in quite a while that I've been especially excited to check out. Impressive considering the past couple years have felt like more incremental improvements and the new console generation is probably right around the corner. Of course, this year you also have the Astros switching leagues and the completely new season structure with the interleague games, which arguably changes the entire complexion of franchise mode even without any significant improvements to the game itself.

Haven't in years (not counting this one time I played a Mario Baseball game). I liked the old High Heat franchise (particularly 2001, that was the best game of all). Really nailed the pitcher interface.

I remember those High Heat games being good, even though I never actually owned one, just rented. Before I really got into The Show, MVP Baseball 2004 was the game I played a lot.

It's official, they are the Evil Empire.

I read about that a while ago, and as a non-Yankee fan, I still don't get it. Have they decided to officially adopt the derisive nickname out of some kind of self deprecation or ironic pride? Because buying the rights to it just to keep people from using it to refer to them in an official capacity is precisely the sort of thing that reinforces that image.

I will remind you that the origin of the word "Yankee" pretty much falls under "self depreciation or ironic pride". Clever marketing is clever...or not, depending on how self-aware they really are.

Opening Day is nearly upon us, and it's time to begin the discussion. I'm making my call right now: it will be the Tigers and the Nationals in the WS.

The picks of Sports Illustrated staff. You've got two people agreeing with you there, with them split on which team wins it.

Tigers-Nationals seems as good a bet as any, but there are always surprises. Ask me again in July and my pick might be totally different.

Anyway, I'm certainly ready for the season. Already have a ticket to the second game of the season for the Twins against the Tigers on April 3rd.

It would be easier to list the teams that are seriously looking to contend (based on some combination of their performance last season and postseason moves), which I will do now:

National League:

• NL East: Washington Nationals (Last Season NL East Champs)
• NL East: Atlanta Braves (Last Season Wild Card)
• NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals (Last Season Wild Card)
• NL Central: Cincinnati Reds (Last Season NL Central Champs)
• NL West: San Fransisco Giants (Last Season NL West Champs, World Champions)
• NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers (Last Season 2nd Place in NL West)

American League:

• AL East: New York Yankees (Last Season AL East Champs)
• AL East: Tampa Bay Rays (Last Season 3rd Place in AL East)
• AL East: Baltimore Orioles (Last Season Wild Card)
• AL East: Toronto Blue Jays (Last Season 4th Place in AL East)
• AL Central: Detroit Tigers (Last Season AL Central Champs, AL Champions)
• AL Central: Kansas City Royals (Last Season 3rd Place in AL Central)
• AL West: Texas Rangers (Last Season Wild Card)
• AL West: Los Angeles Angels (Last Season 3rd Place in AL West)
• AL West: Oakland Athletics (Last Season AL West Champs)

Keep in mind I'm not saying all these teams will be competitive, just that they are looking to try.

edited 31st Mar '13 9:45:08 AM by TotemicHero

No offense to any Yankees or Red Sox fans since this largely comes at those teams' expense, but this year's AL East is the most wide open and interesting it's been in quite some time.

Well, it's mainly unclear because three of those four teams have a huge "what if" swirling around them.

For the Yankees, it's age and injury (which are already taking a toll, even before the season starts!). For the Orioles, it's trying to repeat from last year (which was one of the more notable worst-to-near-first turnarounds for a team in recent history). For the Blue Jays, it's seeing if their new talent clicks together (otherwise, hello 2013 version of the Marlins).

And in that mix you have the Rays, who have no such uncertainty, and could conceivably take the division championship simply because everyone else falls down. We probably will have to wait until July to see who's in a position to come out in that race.

Yeah, that's basically what I mean. It could really be any of the teams in the AL East, where in the past several years you could generally count on either the Yankees or the Red Sox to make the playoffs, occasionally both. With so many injuries and questions surrounding the Yankees this year and the Sox in rebuilding mode, I wouldn't be surprised to see two playoff teams come out of the AL East this year, neither of which happen to be from New York or Boston. When's the last time that happened?

Looking very forward to how the Giants and Rays do.

I dont know if the Detroit Tigers can win it, we didnt get a closer to replace the one we lost (good riddence).

And I'm just hoping that my team will finish around .500.

Who is your team?