Baseball Thread Rated X -- Mature Audiences Only

In Arthur's defense, he's done that with every single team he's pitched for.

 

First, Rhodes is done for his career.

Second. the $15 million payroll team is the better story.

Chase Utley?

 

The Marlins might be the better story, but I don't want to see baseball games played in front of only 12,500 fans. The Phillies -- or anyone else, for that matter -- would at least pack the game and create a real playoff atmosphere.

 

Cy Young Award voting should be interesting in both leagues. Yes, Santana is the AL favorite but you have to consider Roy Halladay, Jon Garland and, yes, even Chien-Ming Wang. Is there a candidate from the Tigers and is there anyone else I'm missing?

As for the NL, I still kind of favor Brandon Webb but there is no automatic here, I don't believe. Brad Penny has had a few bad outings lately, Carpenter and Arroyo are borderline picks. Some statistics bureau started pushing Billy Wagner recently but I can't buy that. I honestly don't see an obvious winner. I would imagine some of you experts can help me out here so please do.

 

Probably Verlander, who ought to win the AL ROY. Santana should win the Cy Young, and I'm guessing that with the wide open AL MVP race, he might have a chance for that too. The Twins are 26-5 in games that Santana starts, 57-54 in the others. Those numbers define his value to that team.

NL Cy Young? I wouldn't mind seeing Webb win, he certainly has the numbers.

 

Casty - Wang has been very good and has shown improvement over the course of the year. But I just can't see him comparing to Santana. Wang wasn't a dominating pitcher early in the year. I think it's Santana and everybody else.

 

Santana will be unaninimous.

In the NL, Steve Trachsel will win if he finishes first in wins.

 

Now, THAT'S funny.

 

That Steve Trachsel or Jason MArquis could lead the league in wins despite ERAs well north of 5.00 just proves how freaking awful the NL is.

And both are free agents after the season, meaning one dumb team will very likely pay them for their gaudy win totals.

 

The Tigers, of course. Every year, they zoom in on the over-35, usually injury-prone, invariably coming off an aberrationally great year free agent, and dump boatloads of cash on him.

Although given Ilitch's baseball history, and the fact that season-ticket sales will rocket next year due to being in contention this year, it wouldn't be suprising to see him clear the roster of all the big money (Pudge and Ordonez could certainly bring something in trade), bank on coming back behind the young arms, and just use next year to pump up his bankroll.

 

Any AL team that signs either one of those guys is going to get what it deserves.

If those guys are racking up 5.00-plus ERAs in the NL, what would they do in the AL? 7.50?

 

Just to throw another name in the hat...

Roy Oswalt compares favorably with Carpenter in IP, SO numbers. The ERA, hits allowed are a bit higher. However, he's allowed the least walks (32) of any NL starter with more than 150 IP.

And if Colombo hasn't already: Josh Johnson, though the dude was knocked around his last start.