MontanaXVI

I don't remember who it was I was talking about Bradley with in the 2008 thread, but I made the point that he had a career year at this stage in his career while playing as a DH.

He would NOT put up those numbers again, IF healthy.

The point of the debate was the fact that the best deal Abreu could get was 1 year in the 3-5mil range while the Cubs shelled out some cheese for Bradley.

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Glory's Sun

that was probably me.

I've been wrong before.. but hey.. what do I care? It's the fucking cubs.

MontanaXVI

Manny Ramirez reportedly tested positive for PED (performance enhancing drugs) and will be suspended 50 games by MLB

At this point in time, NOBODY that is found positive, or we find out tested positive back in the "anonymous" testing phase is going to shock me. I just assume everyone was juicing now during the late 80's through late 90's and early 2000's. As much as it pains me to say it, I don't think anyone will shock me anymore.

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kutulu

I stopped being shocked by that a few years ago. Now I'm just disappointed.

This is really going to hurt the Bums.

Glory's Sun

it's disappointing to me as well.. I'm still a Manny fan even though he completely fucked over my Sox.

Halx

They did not find steroids or HGH. So what was it? They found a "banned substance" - not specifically performance enhancing. Manny claims it is from medication given to him by a doctor. I'm waiting for the whole story to come out. There are some things on the "banned substance" list that are narcotics and such... have nothing to do with enhancing performance. The 50 games are not arbitrary - it is the penalty listed for the offense of having these substances in your blood.

In the meantime, I am hoping that the ban will be reduced or rescinded if the substance is found to be rather benign.

Damn.

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djtestudo

The rumor I heard was that it's an erectile dysfunction treatment, but that tends to be used as a way to increase testosterone production after performance-enhancing drug use.

That would be interesting, because even if it could be used that way, it could be argued that it was being used for a legitimate purpose and someone (Manny ) forgot to tell the right people.

On the other hand, the NFL still hasn't worked through the injunction against the suspensions of several players last season who reportedly attempted to contact both the league/union's banned-drug hotline and possibly even the league/union themselves and did not find that the drug was banned (or at least I don't think they did). So there could have been a combination of mistakes.

Honestly, though I believe he's guilty of something that deserves a suspension, and maybe something that deserves having his reputation tarnished for good.

And I'm a Manny fan.

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djtestudo

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/0...-be-fired.html

Sorry to hear that. Was just MOTY in 2007; obviously he stopped being able to manage in that time

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

pan6467

I would still be surprised if Junior ever tested or someone legit stated he juiced. I think there were quite a few non juicers but they were the "gamers" who played hard every day but didn't hit 40 homers a year. People like Kenny Lofton, David Justice, Todd Helton, Todd Walker, Omar Vizquel, Jeff Kent, and so on.

I am still a firm believer that fewer used than used.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

kutulu

As a DBacks fan, Bob Melvin had it coming for a long time. I hear a lot about how it isn't his fault that his players aren't performing and there is some truth to it but there are a lot of things that contributed to this. AZ had one of the best farm systems around. They were loaded with top prospects. Almost none of them have reached their potentials under Bob Melvin's management. Prospects that they gave up on have done very well under new management:

a. Scott Hairston. His best performance with AZ was a .735 OPS (extreme hitter's park) in 2004 (Brenly/Pedrique). Now in SD, he has had OPSs of .981, .781, and 1.062 with 29 HR in 530 ABs. SD is a terrible place for hitters and he has excelled there.

b. Alberto Callaspo. Melvin didn't play him and got nothing out of him. In Kansas City he has been a .300 hitter.

c. Carlos fucking Quentin. He couldn't play under Melvin's management but has been one of the best LF's in the AL.

Their choice of AJ Hinch as the new manager is VERY interesting and totally unconventional. I've heard a lot of talk about the type of manager to get things going but I think they are looking at it too traditionally. Before this, Hinch was their Director of Player Development since 2006 and their manager of minor league operations. He was the one the implemented the programs that got this group of players to the MLB level. They all excelled in the minors so maybe he can help fix what is wrong with them.

At the same time, there is a large experimental portion of this. Hinch is one of Josh Byrnes's (GM) right hand men. They will be working together to really evaluate who on the roster should be kept and who should be traded. Bynes was already doing a lot of directing to Melvin in terms of bullpen usage and other things. Now Byrnes will have a lot more control over the game management. If they went with some butt kicker like a Bowa-type Byrnes wouldn't be able to have this level of control. I also don't think that they view Hinch as a long term manager. Hinch is a future GM, he's wasting his true skill set as a coach. He's there to help evaluate and develop young players at the MLB level.

Overall, this move has a lot more long term thought to it than 2009. Byrnes is signed as GM through 2015 and this ownership group is way too cheap to fire him. He has the job security to take this type of a risk.

The team also fired the hitting coach and the pitching coach resigned.

djtestudo

Well, then the question would be what, if anything, he had to do with those guys. Callaspo sounds like a legitimate PT gripe, but how would Melvin have affected the way the other two players hit? Especially since other prospects, like Chris Young and Conor Jackson and Chris Snyder, did hit in the past under him.

I like that plan, and it sounds like something more teams should try.

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

kutulu

Young has put up a consistent .750 OPS. He should be better than that.

Hairston has always been a sore spot for me. He made a bad name for himself in 2004 with a few attitude problems and he never good a good shot. He got passed up for promotions and when he was up with the team, Melvin would never play him.

Snyder and Jackson are frustrating. They have shown that they can both hit well and neither one is doing anything right now. ho knows what's going on with him.

Other contributing factors included that BoMel always fell in love with his proven veteran toys, failed to come up with lineups that made sense, and was very slow to react to a pitcher that just didn't have it on a particular day.

---------- Post added at 03:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 PM ----------

It was hGC. Steroid users take it to restart their natural testosterone production after they finish a cycle. There can be no doubt that he was taking it for performance. Bonds, Giambi and others from the BALCO scandle were using it as well.

djtestudo

Well, there CAN be "doubt", because it can also be used as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

I don't think anyone's going to buy that, though...

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

pan6467

Maybe Manny has erectile dysfunction. Maybe he tried Cialis and Viagra and only this one worked.

It maybe easier for him to accept a suspension then for everyone in the world to make fun of him for having a limp weewee.

The world may never know.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Glory's Sun

hmmm.. for us Bo'Sox fans this is all making sense. It wasn't his knee that was bothering him.. he was lazy because he was depressed about Mr. Floppy.

MontanaXVI

I'd say that fewer didn't use than did use, or I think everyone woulda been dropping 50-60 bombs like back in the day. Justice was mentioned in the Mitchell report as having bought hgh a couple of times but no one has ever said he used it, he himself denied using it.


As for Manny, I heard that what he was taking he thought it to be a substance that would help prevent him from catching swine flu, so he thought it was ok.

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dohrk

I have heard that manny took HCG, which is supposed to be a masking agent. According to a few things I read, it was to bring his testosterone level down to normal levels., as whatever he took gave him unnaturally high (nad unnatural) testosterone levels.

Schilling has since said "to sit here today and say I played on even one team that was totally clean would be denying reality"

It has gotten that bad.

I for one think that it will be very interesting what happens to players like Bonds and Arod when Hall of Fame voting comes around. I think they should be in. I think McGwire should be in too, as he never tested positive for any banned substance (that I recall). Arod had a positive test when it was not against the rules to use steroids. Is taking steroids inherently different throwing a spitter? Gaylord Perry is in the Hall, and one of his pitches was a spitter.

MontanaXVI

My biggest problem/complaint with the whole steroid issue is that everyone who was caught or accused of using in the past uses the whole argument that it wasn't against MLB rules at the time.

That's just trying to justify doing something illegal by pleading ignorance almost. If you were to get pulled over for speeding here in Hilliard, OH and the cops were to search your car and they found steroids, guess what, you would be in trouble. While not against MLB rules they were still illegal in the eyes of the government, so they were breaking laws in getting/using/distributing them.

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dohrk

They were breaking the law, just like the hundreds if not thousands of players that have taken greenies over the past , what 50-75 years?

Not saying it is right, just the way it is.

kutulu

There is a lot of truth to that. In fact cheating has always been a part of baseball. For the old timers, it is almost romanticized. Doctored balls, illegal bats, stealing signs. There are numerous ways that players and teams cheated. Suddenly with steroids it became a big deal.

djtestudo

If I was willing to offer money to someone in exchange for removing Adam Eaton from the Orioles' rotation by any means necessary:

How much would you want?

What would be your plan?

I'm getting desperate here, and I'm sure there would be many here in the Queen City of the Patapsco Drainage Basin willing to contribute...

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pan6467

If they take that job can they do Wedge/Shapiro and the whole Indians team next???????

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

djtestudo

Actually, my offer's off the table. Rumblings around the Orioles-Wide-Web are that if (when...) he pitches poorly tomorrow against the Yankees he'll be gone and someone brought up from Norfolk.

I'm just trying to take solace in that the team spent the whole spring and the season up to this point all but publicly saying that Eaton is the stopgap of stopgaps and would be removed at the earliest opportunity, and the way some of our guys are pitching in the minors that time appears to be now.

Now if I can only find the patience to June 9, which is supposed to be the official unofficial date for the first Matt Wieters appearance...

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MacGuyver

Chris Tillman, Chris Tillman?! Send up Chris Tillman! He's one of my keeper prospects!

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pan6467

Oh sure, you have happy things to look forward to.

My offer is still on the table..... and someone take out Dwight Howard's knee while your at it.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

djtestudo

Sooner rather than later; he got dumped this afternoon. We brought up Matt Albers for a couple days worth of bullpen help with an eye on bringing up someone (not Tillman by most opinions) from Norfolk.

Between that and getting a chance to beat up on the Gnats, things really are looking up

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

djtestudo

Adam Eaton's gone. Mark Hendrickson is in the 'pen. The Orioles have already brought up Brad Bergesen and Jason Berken from Norfolk, with David Hernandez rumored to be Thursday's starter to make it 3/5 pitching prospects up already. Nolan Reimold is off to a hot start in his major-league debut.

And, Friday night, May 29, 2009, against Detroit, will be the major league debut of one Matthew Richard Wieters, a week after his 23rd birthday and already an Orioles legend.

Things are looking up in Birdland!

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

FuglyStick

STL back in a tie for first

Yes, that is what I look like when I dance.

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MacGuyver

Maybe I'm glad Tillman will stay down for awhile, as to avoid an early debut spoiling the potential I think he has. That being said, I think he's the best prospect you've got for the rotation.

At the same time, I hate the Wieters hype. Hopefully he'll live up to it, but there seriously hasn't been this much hype over a non pitching prospect in a long long time. (Pitchers always get hype, because they are more likely to get starts, etc.)

---------- Post added at 12:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 AM ----------

Unfortunately all is not well in 'the Nation'. I wish our rotation would figure it out. We are supposed to have one of the best rotations in the Majors and the only people who can win games are Wakefield and a very hittable Brad Penny with a 6 something ERA. Ugh. At least Smoltz is a Sea Dog, we'll see how he comes along. I've been begging for Clay Bucholz to have Penny's spot in the rotation, and I'm not sure why he hasn't been called up while Daisuke was on the DL. At least the Bullpen is phenomenal. 6 wild pitches in the game tonight holy shit.

Toronto is falling fast.

Must be the absurdity of Ryan Franklin's chin-piece.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
---Aristotle

Deeds, not words, shall speak [for] me.
---John Fletcher

MacGuyver

Prediction for Matt Wieters tonight: 0-3, 2K, 1BB

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
---Aristotle

Deeds, not words, shall speak [for] me.
---John Fletcher

djtestudo

Yeah, just like all of our other rookies.

Oh wait, we're the first team since 1900 to have four pitchers win their major-league debuts in the same season...and it's the end of May

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

djtestudo

Well, you were WRONG!


0-4 with ONE K

But our rookie starter pitched eight strong innings after being reunited with the guy who caught him last year and this year in the minors, and Wieters played some good defense on the chances he had.

And don't look now, but the O's are five games back and on a five-game winning streak

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

MacGuyver

Now, I'm not going to knock Wieters... I'm going to knock all the fucking people putting him on a pedestal. Just treat him like any other rookie!

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
---Aristotle

Deeds, not words, shall speak [for] me.
---John Fletcher

djtestudo

How DARE you call him "any other rookie"!

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

radioguy

texas rangers....in first.....wtf?????

would be awesome if it lasted!

pan6467

Let's see, we lose Sizemore, Martinez, Carmona is done, our bullpen sucks and we can get on but for what ever reason we can't score.

The good we have Pavano, Lee is still strong, Wood isn't too wild but needs a steady diet of work which the team can't give him, Asdrubel is a hitting machine, Peralta is coming out of his slump..... and we play in the AL Central so we still have a chance.

We're fucked.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

MacGuyver

Anyone watching the NCAA tourney. 32-0 After 5 for FL St. vs Ohio St. 37-6 final I think. Jessh, isn't there a mercy rule or something? That was historically embarrassing for Ohio St.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
---Aristotle

Deeds, not words, shall speak [for] me.
---John Fletcher

MontanaXVI

At least OSU doesn't get their ass beat like that in BCS Bowl Games


GO NOLES!!!!!!!!!

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MacGuyver

Also Texas and BC going 25 innings. Heard that over the weekend. Sad that BC is out, but they took #1 Texas for a ride.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
---Aristotle

Deeds, not words, shall speak [for] me.
---John Fletcher

djtestudo

Hey Pan, when is someone going to go Teddy Ballgame on those seagulls?

(Read near the bottom of page 54...)

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun