Goodness.

Just flipped over to the WBC and USA vs Dominican was tied 1-1 in the 9th in Miami and the Dominican had 2 consecutive RBI singles and I thought the stadium was going to come down. It was crazy over the top....but also kinda awesome.

Dominican wins.....

I haven't seen a team and a group of fans more excited short of winning the WS.

These umpires in the WBC are simply not up for it. High school umpires would do better. You can watch a whole MLB season and not see some of these strike calls.

I haven't seen much tonight, but did see the replay of the pitch Kimbrel threw last night that was called a strike. Similar calls tonight?

karen lotz;1406509 wrote:I haven't seen much tonight, but did see the replay of the pitch Kimbrel threw last night that was called a strike. Similar calls tonight?

They rang up Adam Jones on a horribly low and outside pitch. It was a 2-2 count with 2 outs and 2 runners on. I would never give in on this zone...catchers framing fools these guys.

My God....just called one on Rollins. About 6 inches low and a bit inside but catcher framed it almost a foot....STRIKE 1

Check this out Lotz....both pics are of the pitch to end the inning on Adam Jones with 2 runners on.

First pic is where it ended after catcher framed it

Second pic is where the pitch was caught...and ball is in the end of the webbing

Notice the difference compared to the left-handed batters box inner line....where the ball is caught in contrast to his right knee and right shoulder. Comically bad.

seems legit...

karen lotz;1406528 wrote:seems legit...

Great slow mo pics on my part....I know you'd love to see a video.

USA going down....Victorino looks horrible

USA loses game 7 in the WS again.

Torre sucks playing everyone and USA players need to start playing in this event. The other teams act like its game 7 of the world series but the usa team acts like they couldn't care less.

Ironman92;1406538 wrote:Great slow mo pics on my part....I know you'd love to see a video.

USA going down....Victorino looks horrible

I wasn't questioning your photos, just saying the umpiring seems to be suspect.

karen lotz;1406546 wrote:I wasn't questioning your photos, just saying the umpiring seems to be suspect.

I know. Being silly.

Ironman92;1406547 wrote:I know. Being silly.

tee hee

Midstate01;1406543 wrote:Torre sucks playing everyone and USA players need to start playing in this event. The other teams act like its game 7 of the world series but the usa team acts like they couldn't care less.

Well...in their defense USA players pretty much grew up in the US and dreaming of being big leaguers and winning a WS......these other teams are playing for their country and growing up were just trying to get off their island, but are very proud and want to pound the US asses showing that they are as good as a country.

It's the miracle on ice for them.

ESPN has an article up right now that just said that A-Rod will make more this season than the entire Astros entire $25 man payroll.

25 guys with a payroll of $25 million for the Astros.

Where does Bud Selig find some of these guys, and why does he let them buy teams.

What do you tell your season ticket holders when you are so clearly just stuffing your pockets instead of trying to upgrade the team?

Frank McCourt and Jeff Loria thought they had the market cornered on cheap skate, sleeze ball, can't afford the team and don't give a shit about the fans market. Clearly Jim Crane wants in on that bad.

If you can't have the team be profitable with anything higher than a $25 million dollar payroll (which he is claiming to need to be in the black) then you need to find a new hobby.

Sadly he seems to be another in the long line of these new school owners that can't afford the team, leverage everything they've got to borrow the money to buy it, and then spend every dollar that comes into the team coffers servicing the debt they incurred to by the club.

He even went so far as to accept a $70 million discount on the sale price of the team if he agreed to move to the AL (supposedly that money made the difference in him being able to afford the team vs. not).

I just saw that though and thought it to be completely outrageous when you see how many other small/medium markets are making it work with good size payrolls.

Houston is one of the biggest cities in the country, when did they suddenly become Tampa Bay when it comes to market size?

Hopefully the fans down there start leaving in droves as he Crane does not deserve their money.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9109596/alex-rodriguez-make-more-houston-astros-combined-salary

Im guessing other then the games vs the rangers where there will be tons of ranger fans, theyll have very small crowds.

IggyPride00;1416035 wrote:ESPN has an article up right now that just said that A-Rod will make more this season than the entire Astros entire $25 man payroll.

25 guys with a payroll of $25 million for the Astros.

Where does Bud Selig find some of these guys, and why does he let them buy teams.

What do you tell your season ticket holders when you are so clearly just stuffing your pockets instead of trying to upgrade the team?

Frank McCourt and Jeff Loria thought they had the market cornered on cheap skate, sleeze ball, can't afford the team and don't give a shit about the fans market. Clearly Jim Crane wants in on that bad.

If you can't have the team be profitable with anything higher than a $25 million dollar payroll (which he is claiming to need to be in the black) then you need to find a new hobby.

Sadly he seems to be another in the long line of these new school owners that can't afford the team, leverage everything they've got to borrow the money to buy it, and then spend every dollar that comes into the team coffers servicing the debt they incurred to by the club.

He even went so far as to accept a $70 million discount on the sale price of the team if he agreed to move to the AL (supposedly that money made the difference in him being able to afford the team vs. not).

I just saw that though and thought it to be completely outrageous when you see how many other small/medium markets are making it work with good size payrolls.

Houston is one of the biggest cities in the country, when did they suddenly become Tampa Bay when it comes to market size?

Hopefully the fans down there start leaving in droves as he Crane does not deserve their money.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9109596/alex-rodriguez-make-more-houston-astros-combined-salary

Agreed. Selig wanted nothing to do with Mark Cuban being an owner, yet he allows these clowns to become owners. smh

Verlander just signed a 7 yr. $180 million extension that could be worth up to $202 million if he locks in the 8th vesting year at the end of the deal.

That is a shit ton of cash.

Clayton Kershaw will now almost assuredly blow through the $200 million mark as he is 5 years younger than Verlander and he is set to be a free agent at the end of the year.

If Verlander at 30 years old is worth $180 million, what is Kershaw worth at 25 (just turned 25 a week ago) on the free agent market when theoretically you will get his entire prime?

IggyPride00;1416478 wrote:Verlander just signed a 7 yr. $180 million extension that could be worth up to $202 million if he locks in the 8th vesting year at the end of the deal.

That is a **** ton of cash.

Clayton Kershaw will now almost assuredly blow through the $200 million mark as he is 5 years younger than Verlander and he is set to be a free agent at the end of the year.

If Verlander at 30 years old is worth $180 million, what is Kershaw worth at 25 (just turned 25 a week ago) on the free agent market when theoretically you will get his entire prime?

Dodgers are gonna have like a 300 million payroll at some point

The Giants must not have learned much from the Joe Mauer experience in Minnesota.

Today they signed Buster Posey to a 9 year $167 extension.

I think he is a really good player, but for a guy without great power that is alot of money. Chances are likely that when he starts to slip a bit he will be like Mauer where he hits for a good average but only 10-15 HR's a year, and with that kind of financial commitment I am just not sure how smart that is.

Not to mention that all but assures he is going to be changing positions soon as the chances of getting hurt or cutting your career short as a catcher are so high. Can't have your catcher making $19 million a year only being able to play 140 games a season because otherwise his knees will fall off by about year 6 of the deal.

He is there franchise player and they had to pay him, but when you aren't the Dodgers or Yankees financially this is a really risky deal if it goes bad.

Minnesota is the poster child for the danger of being a mid market team that pays a monster ransom to the franchise catcher. Just too risky.

I've never considered SF to be anything but a major market. They usually have high paid players.

Laley23;1416542 wrote:I've never considered SF to be anything but a major market. They usually have high paid players.

I just went and looked at the yearly payrolls and I guess you're right in that since about 2009 they have been #8 or 9 for the past 4-5 years. Before that they were outside the top 10 on a consistent basis, so I guess that is why I considered them to be a 10-15 upper middle kind of team as opposed to a "big" market.

Outside of that Zito contract I don't remember them ever really breaking the bank (even Bonds contracts were reasonable) for players, so I guess that is why I considered this Posey deal to be so out of the norm for them.

I always thought they were a between 10-15 kind of teams as far as payroll ranking go, but they have been between

They just made Matt Cain the highest paid right-handed pitcher in history last year. The Giants throw out some big contracts.

IggyPride00;1416554 wrote:I just went and looked at the yearly payrolls and I guess you're right in that since about 2009 they have been #8 or 9 for the past 4-5 years. Before that they were outside the top 10 on a consistent basis, so I guess that is why I considered them to be a 10-15 upper middle kind of team as opposed to a "big" market.

Outside of that Zito contract I don't remember them ever really breaking the bank (even Bonds contracts were reasonable) for players, so I guess that is why I considered this Posey deal to be so out of the norm for them.

I always thought they were a between 10-15 kind of teams as far as payroll ranking go, but they have been between

I guess I never paid attention to them before. But recently it seems for sure they have spent the money on their players. So, while the contract is huge, it doesnt quite compare to Mauer in that Minny was done spending with that contract on the books. SF will still have tons of money to go around, especially with their recent run of playoff success.