Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

I've only been in Florida to watch Spring Training once several years ago in Tampa. I flew down to be with extended family on the East Coast of FL (Boca Raton/Deerfield Beach) for a few days, then drove with my rental car to Tampa on my own. It's a really beautiful area. My hotel was within an earshot of Steinbrenner Field, but still far enough to have to drive and park my car nearby. After the game I drove to downtown Tampa. I tell ya, being a NYer and knowing what real city life is like at night it makes you shake your head when you walk around Tampa at night. It was like a ghost town. I mean the city itself is nice and clean; but there was hardly anyone around. The next day I took a ride out to St. Petersburg and parked my car outside Tropicana Field to take some pics. There's really not much to look at from the outside of the dome; but the region itself is nice enough. Later on that day I took a boat out to a very small, uninhabited island and relaxed on the beach.

 

These are pictures from my Baseball Trip,
Jensen Beach


these were our seats two rows back from the field behind the new protective netting that I didn't mind at all made me feel safer!






This Is me and my Dad at the restaurant we went to Conchy Joes and the Indian River that follows The Atlantic Ocean and I believe goes all the way to Cape Canaveral!




this is my mom,

 

Some pictures from my ST vacation in 2011

 

They must have been watching a replay of game 7.

 

yea that was amazing! Health is the key for any contending team that and a lot of Lucky breaks are what gets you through a season!

Yankees spring training game is on MLB Network today just a heads up for Yankees fans on here we play at the Phillies ballpark today!

 

Joe Maddon already announced the starting rotation for the Cubs this year:



You don't often see a starting pitcher signed via FA for 6/$125 and be tagged as the #3 starter but that is what with Joe is going with. Giving a lot of faith in Kyle to take another step forward. I just worry about fatigue with him. He really seems to be a guy that can only 5-6 innings.

 

Darvish is an ace I wanted the Yankees to sign him.

 

@heels1785

That is what the hope is. Him and Hendricks. Quintana’s numbers are favorable to Jon Lester’s at this point in his career including Jon had a down year (Age 28) that Jose did. And they really need Jose to become a stud over the next few years for a whole slew of reasons especially since they gave up Eloy Jimenez to get him. He is the one prospect that Theo has traded that I really wince at and said, “Oh no”. The kid is just an absolute hitting machine and has all the makings of a future stud. Even Gleyber Torres who looks like he is going to be a very good player I was fine trading for Chapman because besides the fact that trade push the Cubs over the top in 2016 (they needed to get the 108-year gorilla off their backs first before they could worry about anything else) the Cubs are absolutely loaded up the middle with Russell, Baez and now even Happ since therefore there really wasn’t no room for him at the inn. But Jimenez playing one of the corner OF spots was definitely in the cards as unless Heyward can at least become what he was with the Cardinals (I don’t think he will, poor Jason has really gotten in his head and he just struggles so badly with stuff inside) I think they will try to trade him in a bad contract for bad contract which was floated around this past offseason with him going to SF for Jeff Samardzija or move Kyle Schwarber (I think they absolutely love Albert’s glove in CF and grit) but I guess they felt okay with what they had in the OF long term to move Eloy for Jose.

And it will be interesting to see what they do long term in the outfield. Happ is really *knock on wood* coming on and at least first glance could be their long term answer at leadoff. But then where to play him everyday? The infield I think is locked with Bryant/Russell/Baez/Rizzo for awhile and Heyward is amazing in right field but is just average in center field. And they want Kyle’s bat in the lineup as much as possible. I guess Ian could play CF but he really better suited for RF if he was going to play in the outfield which either they somehow move Jason or make him the most expensive fourth outfielder in history.

 

Eh, I was iffy about the Yankees going after Darvish. The team already is paying for one Ace Japanese starter with big money.

 

Speaking of Japanese players, I'll be watching to see how Shohei Ohtani performs this year, especially since he's in the American League and will be the Angels' rotation as well in the batting line up. He had two strike outs in an inning and a third in his spring training debut. He's expected to step up to the plate against the Padres on Monday, IIRC. In 2016, Ohtani had a .322 average and 22 HRs in the Japanese league. I'm not sure if I'll be able to see him pitch in person when the A's open the season at home with Angels since I'm not sure where he'll be position in the rotation.

 

Tanaka Was great In the post season last year! Something to remember Darvish had TJ Surgery what like 1 or 2 years ago It takes a good 2 years to recover from TJ Surgery So that might be why Darvish pitched poorly in the World Series, Look for Darvish to have a huge year In 2018, I have Coveted Darvish since he was in Japan I love Japanese and Cuban Players My all time favorite Yankees Pitcher was El Duque,

and my favorite Japanese player Is Hideki Matsui,

and I have always liked Ichiro,

 

I was at THE Stadium with my brother way back in 2003 when Matsui hit his first home run (Grand Slam).

For now I'm not going to hold anything against Tanaka, but I've always been thinking about that stint a few years ago when the Yankees and him opted to give him a PRP shot from the team doctor as opposed to TJ surgery when he partially tore his UCL. He's been pitching with that ever since. I do get scared that he could get severely hurt at some point, and the Yankees would never see him pitch again.

 

Ichrio is easily the greatest Japanese League player ever to play in the MLB but I think Matsui is the runner up in that race. Just a model of consistency.

 

Matsui was the one who was absolutely robbed of the ROY. No one can ever convince me otherwise.

 

I'm an Ichiro guy. I like his batting mechanics where he was in running positing (being left handed) after his swing and thus, allowing him to get a base hit on a slappy. Also, I like how he could move his hand during his batting swing to make contact making him a difficult strike out.

I like Matsui's nickname, "Godzilla." But, Matsui is not my second Japanese player is Hideo Nomo (despite being a Dodger) and his wacky wind up that would throw off the timing of the batters.

 

I always use both Nomo and Ichiro as examples to defend my argument over Matsui not getting the ROY in 2003. Oh, some of the writers thought it wasn't right to vote for a ballplayer who had already made a name for himself in Japan? That's your best excuse?

 

Writers always have their bias.

That reminds of Bill Conlin who didn't vote for Nolan Ryan for the Hall of Fame because he doesn't think Ryan would be able to win a World Series Game 7, as oppose to career numbers.

 

Tyler Chatwood I believe can be a really good pitcher. If you look at his home/road splits I'm pretty sure he had an ERA under 3 on the road, since obviously playing in Coors is not ideal for a pitcher haha.

 

There was no slam dunk ROY in 2003 though. I remember the Berroa/Matsui controversy at the time, but looking at it now, you can make a 1 through 5 case in any order you want for Matsui, Berroa, Rocco Baldelli, Jody Gerut, and Mark Teixeira.

Amazing.

 

Yeah, honestly unless OPS+ was somehow en vogue back then, Berroa looked better on paper than Matsui...

 

You show me how Berroa, who amounted to being a one-hit-wonder for KC, had significantly better stats than Matsui.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_2003.shtml#all_AL_ROY_voting

 

One hit wonder or not is irrelevant for purposes of ROY. What is true is they had extremely similar offensive numbers, but Berroa had a huge edge in stolen bases and played a premium defensive position.

Amazing.

 

Matsui was still the better player overall. Berroa himself, albeit after the fact, suggested that he deserved to win "partly because Matsui played for a long time in Japan".

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/s...dges-matsui-for-rookie-of-the-year-award.html

I know we're 15 years removed, but the obvious biased voting in that year still bothers me. Where were these voters when Nomo and Ichiro were given the awards; because they're obviously hypocrites if they did vote for them.