[accies2006]

Well its back and 1st regular games of the season are 24 hours away.

Having lived in New York and getting right into baseball i started supporting NYY and went to over 30 games in the 'old' Yankee Stadium.

basically this post is to see if thers any other followers of baseball and who there tip is for the new season?

not being biased but this year i cant see past Yankees they have made the biggest signings of the close season and moving into the new Yankee Stadium should be enough to bring the World Series home.

Heres hoping.

Thoughts???

This post has been edited by accies2006: 05 April 2009 - 01:20

[Shengus Khan]

I've got zero interest in baseball but as a bit of a stadium geek I found this short video on the Yankees' new home quite interesting.

Also some stills from the Beeb.

This post has been edited by Shengus Khan: 05 April 2009 - 01:03

[bluetooner]

accies2006, on Apr 4 2009, 19:50, said:

not being biased but this year i cant see past Yankees they have made the biggest signings of the close season and moving into the new Yankee Stadium should be enough to bring the World Series home.

Where has signing all those big free agents got them in the past?

There are a few MLB fans on here. As a braves fan, i like what i see so far this year. We made some great signings over the close season, probably the 2nd best CS behind the yanks. We have solidified our rotation with guys that aren't going to get hurt, and if they do we have much more waiting in the wings than we did last year. Francouer seems to be coming around, and B-Mac and Chipper are going to have the same seasons they always do. Young guys like Kelly Johnson, Escobar and Kotchman should be more than solid - and we have a ROTY candidate starting in CF. Ofcourse probably being in the toughest division in baseball isn't going to help, but there goes.

24Hrs from now, hopefully the Braves will be ahead of the Phillies

[Bibby]

i'm the opposite. I think the new stadium will have an adverse effect.
It's not even 'new' its exactly the same dimensions.

my picks would be:

NL: Dodgers v Cubs
AL: Angels v Tigers

WS: Cubs v Angels with an Angels win.

AL east gonna be close. i can see it going down to the wire with the top two.

Gould & Chetwynd = legends.

[Savage Henry]

The Dodgers? With that rotation and that bullpen? Not so sure. The NL could be one of any number of teams, but I really like the Braves to do something unexpected.

The Yankees may have spent a billion dollars, but there are still two lineups in their own division which are on paper much stronger even with Teixeira. I can see Joe Girardi getting his jotters.

Braves, Mets, Rays, Red Sox will all be in there or thereabouts.

[Swarley]

Another pish season ahead for the Mariners no doubt

[Bibby]

Swarley, on Apr 5 2009, 12:03, said:

Another pish season ahead for the Mariners no doubt

and their best player (arguably the best batter in the league) is out for a significant part of the season. all the best.

am I right i saying there is no terrestrial coverage this year?

[Swarley]

The Blair-Skint Student, on Apr 5 2009, 11:37, said:

and their best player (arguably the best batter in the league) is out for a significant part of the season. all the best.

am I right i saying there is no terrestrial coverage this year?

Aye doesn't sound too good for Ichiro. He's carried the Mariners for many seasons and it's obviously caught up on him.

[lichtie23]

The Blair-Skint Student, on Apr 5 2009, 12:37, said:

and their best player (arguably the best batter in the league) is out for a significant part of the season. all the best.

am I right i saying there is no terrestrial coverage this year?

It's true that channel 5 ain't doing any baseball this year, only ESPN America which u get threw Setanta.

I'm looking forward to it all starting again, have a funny feeling the 09 season is gonna b the most competitive in years.

I'm an Angels man myself and hope we can get a decent start to the campaign even with all are pitcher injuries.

As long as the Yankees and A-Rod the junkie don't win and il be a happy man.

GO ANGELS

P.S Phillies to win 5-2 tonight

[bluetooner]

The Blair-Skint Student, on Apr 5 2009, 07:37, said:

am I right i saying there is no terrestrial coverage this year?

mlb.tv well worth $15 a month.

Swarley, on Apr 5 2009, 08:00, said:

Aye doesn't sound too good for Ichiro. He's carried the Mariners for many seasons and it's obviously caught up on him.

A strange injury too, but he may be back sooner than you think - although certainly not soon enough to take them off bottom spot in the division. I think the only positive thought from the mariners would be that Washington may not draft the guy strasburg - who the mariners will take and have in the MLs in september.

lichtie23, on Apr 5 2009, 08:30, said:

P.S Phillies to win 5-2 tonight

f**k off

[Maryhill Magyar]

The Blair-Skint Student, on Apr 5 2009, 00:09, said:

i'm the opposite. I think the new stadium will have an adverse effect.
It's not even 'new' its exactly the same dimensions.

my picks would be:

NL: Dodgers v Cubs
AL: Angels v Tigers

WS: Cubs v Angels with an Angels win.

AL east gonna be close. i can see it going down to the wire with the top two.

Gould & Chetwynd = legends.

Unfortunatley they wont be returning to our screens this year

[stuart.]

Hello

I am spending 3 weeks in America and Canada in Summer and fancy taking in a few games. I want to go to a game of this - bearing in mind I will be in the North East all the time who would be best to go and see? the Yankees don't appeal to me much for some reason.

Also, does anyone know anything about minor league matches, I would quite like to wile away a couple of afternoons down a traditional kind of ballpark place.

[bluetooner]

stuart., on Apr 5 2009, 11:46, said:

Hello

I am spending 3 weeks in America and Canada in Summer and fancy taking in a few games. I want to go to a game of this - bearing in mind I will be in the North East all the time who would be best to go and see? the Yankees don't appeal to me much for some reason.

Also, does anyone know anything about minor league matches, I would quite like to wile away a couple of afternoons down a traditional kind of ballpark place.

Where exactly in the NE will you be?

[Savage Henry]

stuart., on Apr 5 2009, 15:46, said:

Hello

I am spending 3 weeks in America and Canada in Summer and fancy taking in a few games. I want to go to a game of this - bearing in mind I will be in the North East all the time who would be best to go and see? the Yankees don't appeal to me much for some reason.

Also, does anyone know anything about minor league matches, I would quite like to wile away a couple of afternoons down a traditional kind of ballpark place.

Can go far wrong with Boston. Great city, great beer, great sports town. The Giants minor league club is in Connecticut or however you damn well spell it, which is up in New England too. For what reason I do not know. I'd imagine tickets are very easy to come by.

[lichtie23]

go watch the Phillies for sure.
And if possible you should go take a look at both the new stadiums in New York.

[bluetooner]

lichtie23, on Apr 5 2009, 14:08, said:

go watch the Phillies for sure.
And if possible you should go take a look at both the new stadiums in New York.

If he is in the Phillies area, he should give me a shout. The Camden Riversharks are a team that play about AA level, but in a non-affiliated league.

Only 5 hours until first pitch - and i just had to take a train to work with a train full of philthy fans. Excitement is starting to build.

p.s. JP - i just did a load of predictions, and actually predicted the Giants to win it all. For fun, i have copied and pasted my predictions from the other site:-



Mine are:-

AL East
1. Yankees (best record in MLB)
2. Rays
3. Red Sox
4. Orioles
5. BJs.

AL Central
1. Indians
2. White Sox
3. Tigers
4. Royals
5. Twins

AL West
1. Oakland
2. LAA (WC)
3. Texas
4. Seattle (worst record in MLB)

NL East
1. Mets
2. Braves (WC)
3. Phillies
4. Marlins
5. Nats

NL Central
1. Cubs (best record in NL)
2. Cards
3. Reds
4. Brewers
5. Pirates

NL WEST
1. Giants
2. Dodgers
3. DIamondbacks
4. Rockies
5. Badres (worst record in NL)

Playoffs:-

Giants beat Mets
Braves beat Cubs

Giants beat Braves

Yankees beat LAA
Oakland beat Indians

Yankees beat Oakland

Giants win it all. (this years rays - will have an amazing pitching staff, and pick up a big bat at the Trade deadline)

AL MVP - Tex
AL Cy Young - Beckett
AL ROTY - Andrus
AL Comeback POTY - Andruw

NL MVP - Pujols
NL Cy young - Santana
NL ROTY - Sandoval (Giants)
NL comeback POTY - Frenchy (a lock)

[stuart.]

I don't know where I am going to be at all - I have to be in Toronto on the 11th July but the rest of the time I am just gonna bum about the place. Boston didn't appeal to me at all but I am starting to come round to wanting to visit there.

[bluetooner]

stuart., on Apr 5 2009, 16:33, said:

I don't know where I am going to be at all - I have to be in Toronto on the 11th July but the rest of the time I am just gonna bum about the place. Boston didn't appeal to me at all but I am starting to come round to wanting to visit there.

JP could probably tell you a lot more as he did this last year - but all down the coast from Boston-NY-Philly-Baltimore-Washington is well worthwhile if you have the time to do things. It all depends how long you have, what you can do.

[Savage Henry]

If your trip is purely sport, go Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Boston. Baltimore is worth it just because Camden Yards is the best name for a sports arena in any sport in any country. New York is good for all the NA sports, particularly hockey. Philadelphia has all of them as well, and Boston is a good sports/beer town. I gather in Philadelphia there's a wise Peterhead fan who knows a thing or two about speakeasies and cheesesteaks. If you are into your presidential politics, spend some time in Washington DC and Cape Cod too. Any tips you want, drop me a PM, I made precisely the same trip last November.

As for tipping the G-men to go all the way, well, I have heard stupider things. The NL West is a crap shoot, as they say. I honestly think the Dodgers rotation might implode. The Giants have arguably the best rotation in the NL, if their rookies can hit more dingers than they are expected to, it's going to be very close, and once it gets to play off time, well, who knows.

I love Atlanta in the NL, and I think the Rays can repeat last year.

Tips, very briefly because I can't be arsed going all the way through..

NL.
West; Giants
Central; Cards
East; Braves
WC; Mets

Playoffs; Mets over Giants
Braves over Cards
Braves over Mets

AL;
West; Angels
Central; Tigers (f**k it, might as well go for a dark horse here)
East; Red Sox
WC; Rays

Red Sox over Rays
Angels over Tigers
Red Sox over Angels

Braves to beat the Red Sox in 6.

[lichtie23]

Braves have come out flying.

4-0 up in the 2nd. 3 homers already

[Zanetti]

A nervy last inning for Atlanta there!

[Zanetti]

bluetooner, on Apr 5 2009, 19:59, said:

AL Central
1. Indians
2. White Sox
3. Tigers
4. Royals
5. Twins

Out of interest, why have you predicted that the Twins will finish bottom? I actually fancy them to have a pretty damn good season.

[bluetooner]

Zanetti, on Apr 6 2009, 08:38, said:

Out of interest, why have you predicted that the Twins will finish bottom? I actually fancy them to have a pretty damn good season.

The AL Central is a very difficult division. ALl 5 of the teams could conceivably win the division. I think their pitching will be worse than last year, and with the chance of Joe Mauer missing most of the season, they will be bottom of a good division. Nothing against them at all - i could make an arguement where i would be upside down with the division

[lichtie23]

PHILLIES 1 BRAVES 4

This game was over before it even got started. An absolutely shocking early pitching display by Brett Myers sent the Braves on there way.

McCann,Francouer and the very impressive rookie Schafer all hit Homers in the 1st 2 innings. The Phillies solitary run came in the 8th when Werth singled to left bringing home Pinch Hitter Bruntlett.

The Phillies Offence was non existant with last years NL MVP Ryan Howard going 0 for 4 with 2 Strikeouts.

Braves Pitcher Derek Lowe had an absolute stormer, throwing 8.0 Inns for 2 hits and 4 Strikeouts,2 of which were Howard.

Overall very disapointing fom the defending World Champs, but the Braves (who the majority said would struggle for powe this year) were exceptional.

[Zanetti]

bluetooner, on Apr 6 2009, 14:12, said:

The AL Central is a very difficult division. ALl 5 of the teams could conceivably win the division. I think their pitching will be worse than last year, and with the chance of Joe Mauer missing most of the season, they will be bottom of a good division. Nothing against them at all - i could make an arguement where i would be upside down with the division

Fair enough. As you say it will likely be a 4 or 5 team division with at least 4 teams challenging.