Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

Nevermind flying on it; who uses it to begin with for anything OTHER than a massive injury? I think of morphine only when I'm watching old war movies.

 

Well to be fair, I did know someone who got low dose morphine as a maintenance drug way after a back injury.

 

Well that's for pain. Was Halladay prescribed it because of an injury?

 

Matt Vasgersian & Alex Rodriguez join Sunday Night Baseball



Do like Vasgersian a lot, so that's a big plus; ambivalent about A-Rod.




Also...

 

Gotta love the irony to that. The big guy (Arod) had replaced Aaron Boone on the Yankees after Boone's basketball incident sidelined him for the year. Flash forward to over a decade and a half later, and he's replacing Boone again (who's in fact managing the Yankees) in the broadcast booth.

 

Not that I don't like Vasgersian, but Dan Shulman was the only good part of the Sunday Night crew. And A-Rod replacing Boone won't make things much better.

Amazing.

 

Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero, Jim Thome, and Trevor Hoffman voted into the Hall. Sucks that Edgar Martinez didn't make it.

I'm also having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that Chipper Jones has been retired for five years.

Amazing.

 

Thome was a certified Yankees killer, and of course Jones was a certified Mets killer. Great class for NY baseball fans lol.

 

bummed about edgar but there's a good chance he'll make it next year, his last on the ballot.

 

Yeah, I'd be shocked if he doesn't make it next year. Players always get a bump their last year and Mariano Rivera and Roy Halladay are the only significant players coming on the ballot.

Amazing.

 

37% leaves a tough climb for Omar Vizquel to get in. Possible, but a steep climb. I think he's worthy, but I'm also biased.

Glad to see Thome in. Chipper was a no brainer, I think Vlad is, too - hopefully he goes in as an Expo. Hoffman kind of surprised me, with the devaluation of the save. Thought he'd get in, but it would take time.

 

@cubman987

Thome used to come into a sports memorbilla store back in the day that couple of my buddies used to work at during the holidays/summer since we were in college. Jim is like seriously the nicest guy ever. Literally anything they put in front of him, he sign it. Got to meet him once myself. Was so nice and friendly. We kept telling him we hope the Cubs trade for you one day and he just laugh. To this day I wonder what would had happen if Jim Hendry took up Jim on his offer to play for the Cubs with a hometown discount. Maybe the Cubs win Game 1 or blow Game 6 wide open in the NLCS and Bartman is long forgotten? What could have been.

This might be my favorite HOF class ever. Seriously Thome, Chipper, Vlad and Hoffman. Doesn't get any better then that.

@DarthIntegral

Definitely he goes in as an Expo (Thome will go in as Indian). The only question what highlight you show with him. I know everyone remembers when he hit the bounce pitch but my favorite play by him is when he nailed Todd Hundley at the plate with an absolute mutant throw:

 

I think most guys who get that high a percentage on the first ballot ultimately get in. Non PED guys anyway. Not sure how that plays out with the new 10 year limit, though. I don't think Vizquel quite deserves to, but I would guess he makes it towards the end of his 10 year eligibility.

Amazing.

 

Vizquel most likely deserves to be in the very good but not great HOF. But this is one of the many problems the steroid era presents. How much better would Vizquel been had he played in a non juice era (I assuming Omar wasn’t a roid guy)? That is what makes players like Griffey, Maddux, Thome and even players Vlike Vizquel even more that incredible. They put up those numbers against many players who getting help from a bottle. It makes their feats even more incredible which I don’t think the “let all the juicers in” crowd doesn’t realize.

 

I was bummed that Mussina didn't get chosen. I liked him on the Yankees and respected him even before when he was on Baltimore. I still remember the game where Torre walked out from the dugout to pull him out of the game and he yelled at him; something to the effect of, "You stay there!" Always a gamer through and through.

 

Pettitte was a more valuable player than Edgar Martinez who, let's face it, is a borderline HOFer but also the greatest DH of all time so hard to leave him out. This is based on a very, very negative dWAR for Martinez (also lol @ Papi). It's basically the same argument as Mo -- by sheer value, it's borderline at best but they were literally the very best at what they did...

Mussina should be a pretty unassailable HOFer by value.

Also, I love O'Neill, but he's definitely not a HOFer.

Of course, it's also absurd that Bonds and Clemens aren't in the HOF too...

 

I'm kind of fascinated to see how the "No PED users at all" writers handle Pettitte. I'm fine with letting PED users in, doesn't really bother me, but so many writers have drawn a clear line in the sand. Easy to do on guys a lot of people personally dislike, like Bonds and Clemens. I wonder if some writers will offer some twisted "but he apologized" logic. Of course, he also probably doesn't deserve to get in ahead of Schilling, Mussina, or Halladay (maybe, still a little iffy on him), so that will be interesting too.

Amazing.

 

I saw the Clemens and Bonds voting numbers increased by 2%, putting them around 56%. Whereas, Sosa voting numbers dropped to around 7%.

 

I'm fascinated to see how the 'no PED users" writers handle Ortiz more than any other player. Ortiz did fail a test in 2003. Yes, everyone and their mother will focus on his wild thing teammate Manny Ramirez, but I'd call those writers hypocrites for passing up absolute clean players in favor of Ortiz when he becomes eligible.