*** OFFICIAL 2011 MLB Season Thread ***

[Numenorean]

rockies beating up giants 6-1, they keep winning at this pace they will clinch pretty early!!!

While I would love for them to keep winning at this pace, I don't think that it's sustainable for the whole season. It would mean at the end of the season they will have 117 wins. That's a tall order for any club.

 

[SP33Demon]

Chicago and St. Louis are the only teams you could say are in fiscal "trouble" or risk due to debt. However, both are great franchises and Chicago has a new owner. The Nats have already started making money and will be fine once Strasburg/Harper are ready. Texas, new owner, they are fine.

 

[SP33Demon]

http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/sto...ect-but-mlb-is-model-for-major-sports-leagues

Baseball's rising revenues reached a record $7 billion in 2010 despite our still-troubled economy. Unlike the NFL, which is fighting about how to divvy up its billions, baseball owners haven't hinted at a lockout when the collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2011 season. Unlike the NBA, which claimed a loss of $380 million last year, baseball is making money. Unlike the NHL, baseball has long since recovered from its last work stoppage in 1994.

 

[BrownShoes]

Frank McCourt digs in as new hire calls MLB 'irresponsible'

By Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY

After Major League Baseball announced it was seizing control of the franchise, McCourt's latest freshly-hired lieutenant, Steve Soboroff, blasted MLB's actions as "irresponsible" and vowed that McCourt "can lay the piper."

Soboroff, hired Tuesday as Dodgers vice chairman, told the Los Angeles Times that there is a "pre-determined campaign to blow McCourt out of town" and added, "We need more people like Frank McCourt."

Soboroff's theory: A lucrative local TV deal with Fox is in place, and there are other revenue streams available that will keep the club viable even after McCourt settles his divorce with ex-wife Jamie.

But commissioner Bud Selig did not approve the TV deal, not wanting such an integral portion of the franchise's future locked up during a time of distress for the franchise. Soboroff likens that to "having money in the bank and having somebody hold your ATM card."

MLB has not yet revealed who it will assign to take over day-to-day operations of the club. Soboroff, so new to the gig that the ink may not be dry on his business cards, doesn't sound like he's ready to move his office into a broom closet.
As he tells the Times: "I'm going to work until that magic man comes in and tells me to leave," Soboroff said.

Soboroff, who was integral to the development of Staples Center and other key developments in L.A., is cited as a potential mayoral candidate.




Soap Operas Are Not Dead

By HUGO LINDGREN

You just have to look for them in different places, like Major League Baseball. The news that the league has taken over operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers is the latest installment of a gloriously debauched family saga. For years, the big worry in baseball was that small-market teams would be squeezed out of the national pastime by the big-market gorillas. But look what’s happening: the big teams are imploding. Texas, New York and Los Angeles, each a tale of epic bungling and good ol’ hubris.

In this competition, the Dodgers win the pennant. And if you want to understand how it all came to be, how the baseball establishment — which considers an actual billionaire like Mark Cuban unfit for inclusion in their august club — let one of the greatest franchises in sports history fall into the hands of a parking-lot owner from Boston, please read Molly Knight’s comprehensive account from ESPN magazine last summer. It’s highly entertaining. For everybody but Dodgers fans.

 

[hclarkjr]

Special Report: Inside Baseball’s Debt Disaster

By MONTE BURKE

(I wrote this story with my colleague, Nathan Vardi. Follow him here. The story will appear in the April 11 issue of FORBES, on newsstands this week.)

Inside Baseball’s Debt Disaster

Madoff and the Mets are just part of the problem facing Bud Selig and Major League Baseball.

By Monte Burke and Nathan Vardi

As the U.S. economy and financial markets strengthened last fall, investors across the island of Manhattan breathed a welcome sigh of relief. But a short subway ride away in Queens it was a different story. Inside the offices of the New York Mets at Citi Field—the team’s plush new $800 million stadium—things looked grim.

The Mets had just finished a woeful season, losing more than half of their games and drawing 600,000 fewer fans than the season before. Despite the new ballpark, the team’s revenues had fallen by some 13%, resulting in an estimated $6.2 million in operating losses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The Mets did not have enough cash left over to meet a mountain of bills, including an upcoming league revenue-sharing payment that small-market teams were counting on. The banks that had once been so willing to lend liberally to the Mets were no longer in the mood to extend more credit.

In the past the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, had drawn on the Mets’ 16 accounts at Bernard Madoff’s investment firm when the team needed cash. But those funds disappeared when the Ponzi scheme collapsed. In an act of desperation, the Mets were forced to turn to Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig, who through the league made an emergency $25 million loan to the Mets, eerily similar to the too-big-to-fail bailouts taxpayers gave Wall Street to keep the banking system afloat.

It wasn’t the only meltdown Selig faced. Another one of baseball’s marquee franchises, 2,400 miles away to the west, was in deep trouble, too. The Los Angeles Dodgers had become the prized bauble up for grabs in the contentious divorce proceedings between owner Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie. Court documents revealed that from 2004 to 2009 the McCourts—using the Dodgers and related assets as collateral—had racked up a staggering $459 million in debt, much of which was used personally. FORBES estimates that almost all of the team’s profits were being used to pay down just the interest. As was the case with the Mets, Selig was again asked for help by a desperate team. This time he turned down the cash-starved Dodgers’ attempt to borrow $200 million from their cable broadcaster, Fox.

Coming just one year after the bankruptcy of the Texas Rangers, this latest one-two punch has been deeply unsettling to those with longstanding business ties to the game. “It’s bad for baseball to have this situation where two owners are teetering on the brink,” says sports economist Andrew Zimbalist. One baseball executive with a deep knowledge of both the Mets’ and Dodgers’ finances goes further. “This is a very serious issue,” he says. “These are two of the flagship franchises in all of sports. This situation is going to infect all of baseball.”

http://blogs.forbes.com/monteburke/2011/03/23/special-report-inside-baseballs-debt-disaster/

Bobby Valentine is rumored to be forming group to buy the mets, has not been to much about that lately.

 

[BrownShoes]

R.A. Dickey - "We have to be honest with ourselves. We can keep saying, 'We're a better team than this.' We may not be."

 

[hclarkjr]

hey, nice win last night for them. nice to see bay back

 

[rcpratt]

Hoping the game isn't rained out tonight

Considering how we usually play them, getting them while slumping might be our only chance. Or we'll just reverse their slump for them.

Lots of good pitching in the series though, should be fun.

 

[hclarkjr]

mets are looking great again today, love having bay back.

 

[rcpratt]

Penny got screwed out of a no-hit bid by the official scorer (and Inge).

That's okay, I'll take another beatdown of the Sux.

 

[raystorm]

mets are looking great again today, love having bay back.

wow..an actual winning streak! Ike is crushing the ball too.

 

[hclarkjr]

make that a 4 game winning streak, go mets!!

 

[Anubis]

Boston looks like they collectively decided they wanted to pitch correctly this year

 

[moshquerade]

Yankees, yeeeesss!

 

[Perknose]

A lot of ink has been spilled already this season marveling over the fast starts of the Colorado Rockies and the Texas Rangers and the Cincinnati Reds and even KC and the Indians, but at the end of this, the twenty-fourth day of April in the year of our Lord 2011 it is the Philadelphia Phillies who alone own the very best record in all of major league baseball.

 

[hclarkjr]

A lot of ink has been spilled already this season marveling over the fast starts of the Colorado Rockies and the Texas Rangers and the Cincinnati Reds and even KC and the Indians, but at the end of this, the twenty-fourth day of April in the year of our Lord 2011 it is the Philadelphia Phillies who alone own the very best record in all of major league baseball.

BOOO!!!!!

 

[SP33Demon]

The Rockies simply don't have the pitching necessary to win. Ubaldo walking the bases loaded in the 5th inning was pathetic, especially when the other pitcher (JJ) is no-hitting your team. A number 1 pitcher should never be walking batters back to back, let alone 3 in one inning.

Votto, Braun, Fielder, Pujols, Berkman, Holliday, Kemp, Ethier, Polanco, Castro still hot. Halladay with a sick 14K game yesterday.

Other tidbits:
-Omar Vizquel went 2-for-5, doubled, drove in two runs and stole his first base of the season. At 43 years and 362 days, Vizquel became the oldest second baseman since 1919 to steal a base. The previous oldest was Hall of Famer Rabbit Maranville, who did it at the age of 41 years and 242 days on July 11, 1933. [Omar is the man]

-The Athletics' Brandon McCarthy took the loss despite pitching eight innings of one-run ball. McCarthy's start gave Oakland's starting rotation a combined 2.14 ERA -- nearly a full run better than the 3.01 ERA put together by the Angels' starting staff, ranked No. 2 in ERA. [yes I picked Oakland to win the West]

-Boston's Josh Beckett allowed two runs on three hits in eight innings in a 4-2 win against the Angels. Beckett has made three straight starts in which he has gone at least seven innings and allowed no more than three hits. Since 1920, only Beckett and Pedro Martinez (2002) have had a three-game streak like that for the Red Sox. The last player in the Majors to have a streak of at least four games with seven innings pitched and no more than three hits allowed in any of the starts was Johan Santana, who made five straight such starts for the Twins in 2004. [Beckett's baaaaack]

-Albert Pujols hit his sixth home run of the season and tied Darrell Evans for 44th on the all-time list, with 414. Pujols, who is 19 games into his 11th season, already has the most home runs in history for a player through his first 11 years.
Albert Pujols 414, 2001-11
Eddie Matthews 399, 1952-62
Ken Griffey Jr 398, 1989-99
Alex Rodriguez 381, 1994-04
Mickey Mantle 374, 1951-61

 

[Perknose]

-Albert Pujols hit his sixth home run of the season and tied Darrell Evans for 44th on the all-time list, with 414. Pujols, who is 19 games into his 11th season, already has the most home runs in history for a player through his first 11 years.
Albert Pujols 414, 2001-11
Eddie Matthews 399, 1952-62
Ken Griffey Jr 398, 1989-99
Alex Rodriguez 381, 1994-04
Mickey Mantle 374, 1951-61

I'd bet not that many posters here have ever even heard of HOF'er Eddie Matthews, one of the greatest third basemen ever to play the game.

Oh well. <shrug>

 

[anxi80]

^ Glad to be in that minority.

Also Perk went to the games Thu/Fri/Sat (stayed home Sunday, thought perhaps I was a whammy) and man that was a tough series for us but my hats off to the Fightin's. Was actually glad to see Cole do well since he's a local kid and I'm still scratching my head on walking Rollins to pitch to Howard (dont care about the golden sombrero he was wearing).

 

[Perknose]

^ Glad to be in that minority.

Also Perk went to the games Thu/Fri/Sat (stayed home Sunday, thought perhaps I was a whammy) and man that was a tough series for us but my hats off to the Fightin's. Was actually glad to see Cole do well since he's a local kid and I'm still scratching my head on walking Rollins to pitch to Howard (dont care about the golden sombrero he was wearing).

Yup, we were scratching our heads on this coast about that one as well.

I DO love that term, Golden Sombrero, though!

I really feel for you guys. Against all odds, you had a magical season last year, only to have the rug pulled out from under you right at the very end.

It . . . just . . . didn't seem fair.

. . . Just as you not being able to keep Adrian Gonzalez is messed up.

I know right now my Phils are benefiting from being one of the big spenders (it feels weird), but baseball's brutally non-level playing field between small and big market teams blows.

 

[davmat787]

I'd bet not that many posters here have ever even heard of HOF'er Eddie Matthews, one of the greatest third basemen ever to play the game.

Oh well. <shrug>

Mathews also has the honor of being on the cover of the first issue ever of Sports Illustrated.

 

[Perknose]

Just a passing thought here: Bud Selig is a huge, clueless, incompetent douche. He's the worst high-ranking executive I know of, by far. Just looking at him, you can tell he's out to sea with the tiniest of paddles.

That is all. I felt the need to share.

 

[drebo]

Just a passing thought here: Bud Selig is a huge, clueless, incompetent douche. He's the worst high-ranking executive I know of, by far. Just looking at him, you can tell he's out to sea with the tiniest of paddles.

That is all. I felt the need to share.

I don't think anyone with an interest in baseball would disagree with you.

 

[hclarkjr]

Just a passing thought here: Bud Selig is a huge, clueless, incompetent douche. He's the worst high-ranking executive I know of, by far. Just looking at him, you can tell he's out to sea with the tiniest of paddles.

That is all. I felt the need to share.

i agree for the most part, he did expand the play offs to the current state. which i think is about all he did right IMHO

 

[drebo]

i agree for the most part, he did expand the play offs to the current state. which i think is about all he did right IMHO

I don't know about that...

Unbalanced schedules and 3-tiers of playoffs have lessened the drive to win every game possible. We see teams pull off of games where extra effort might be necessary to win because it's less likely that one game will make the difference.