DownRodeo

Real ballplayers don't brag about their abilities on a forum. Thats why I don't do it. Umm... As for me? This is all I will tell you. I take 150 swings a day from each side in the cages. 85 mph is a joke. When I was 15, I was playing vasity ball and traveling to Puerto Rico in the RCL and the Tamiami leagues as well and having Leo Posada as my instructor. Boca Raton does not breed ball players. Maybe 1-2 pitchers but thats it. You are a joke. In Boca you don't face Dominicans & Cubans like in SW Miami. You are not a ballplayer. You are a DREAMER. Heres some advice, little boy. When I was 15, everyday when I came from school I practiced with my brother, I didn't post 600000 posts on a forum. I took 200 grounders, hit downs, soft toss, tee work and my arm was sore every single day. My bathtub would be stained with clay from the field and my school socks and boxers were f***ing orange. I loved it all. You need to get off your skinny a**, stop dreaming and start working if you want to brag about being a badass ballplayer. Look who's calling the kettle black.

How many Angels had playoff experience last season?

What Cabrera is doing at the majors right now is pretty remarkable. Plain and simple, players just don't come to the majors at 20 years old and have the type of success Miguel has had. Look at some of the young players currently in the majors who were highly touted prospects. Sean Burroughs, Xavier Nady, Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford, Marlon Byrd, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Joe Borchard, Eric Munson, Carlos Pena, Omar Infante, Brandon Phillips, Orlando Hudson, Hee Seop Choi, Mark Teixeira, Lyle Overbay, and the list goes on. All these players are considered to have solid major league careers ahead of them, and some are supposed to become stars. Well, Cabs is doing better than all of them...and he's also younger than all of them. Heck, he's a good 4 years younger than most of the players I just mentioned. The list of hitters who are called up to the majors at age 20 is short, and the list of those who actually have success at age 20 is even shorter. To put it in perspective, check out these numbers: Alex Rodriguez in his 20-year-old season: 142 ABs, .232 AVG, .672 OPS Gary Sheffield in his 20-year-old season: 368 ABs, .247 AVG, .640 OPS Miguel Cabrera: 201 ABs, .279 AVG, .839 OPS I really think, four to six years from now (maybe sooner), Cabs is going to be one of the top 5 hitters in the majors.

Take a look at Brandon Webb's numbers compared to Dontrelle's. Webb has better stats across the board. The only category he doesn't lead in is won-loss, which has more to do with run support than anything else.

Ump looks pissed I'm sure the ump cares who wins the game.

The replay showed that Cruz never actually touched home plate.

But a catcher is usually what you see is what you get. Can you elaborate on this? Are you suggesting that because Castro is a .230 hitter in 350-some ABs, that he's probably a career .230 hitter?

Castro had his chance and didn't do well. Remember before CJ came back? Redmond and Castro were the catchers and with alot of playing time, Redmond totally outperformed Castro. To say that Castro had his chance is being completely unfair to Castro. He's never had a fair chance in the majors. In 5 seasons, he's gotten all of 361 ABs. That's barely half a season for an everyday player. Compare that to someone like Alex Gonzalez, who's gotten 2125 ABs before turning 27 (and has been pretty bad for the majority of those ABs), and the notion that Castro has "had his chance" sounds absurd. Castro has never had a chance to prove himself the way players like Gonzalez, Castillo, Lowell, Lee, etc. have.

Cruz flied into double play left to catcher, Young out at home. that sounds good, but what the hell happened? The ball was hit to left field, fairly deep, but Cabs fired a bullet that reached Pudge on the fly, and he tagged out the runner. Actually, replays show that the runner was clearly safe at the plate, so the Marlins caught a huge break (peculiar since many here think the Marlins never ever get calls in their favor).

Don't know if anyone's posted this, but Carlos Zambrano has a no-hitter through 7 innings.

I'd rather have a decent pitcher with luck, than a good pitcher with bad luck. Would you take Kenny Rogers (11-6) over Barry Zito (10-10) this season?

To get back on the subject, Harris can field decently for any guy that plays just about every position. I beg to differ on that. I'd say he's fairly horrible at pretty much any position he plays. Defensively, Mordy is better at 3rd, Fox is better at SS and 2nd, and Cabs is better in left. And they're all better hitters. He is the career all time leader in pinch hitting arnie, this isnt just anybody. It's somebody who was never quite good enough to earn a starting job in the majors. If you think 20 abs in AAA ball is enough to say the guy is finished, youre wrong. How about 20 ABs in AAA along with 131 ABs with the Cubs? and I'm not talking about leadership like team cheerleader or something. I'm talking about somebody like Raines who has seen just about every pitcher and can give a crash course to a teamate that hasn't seen somebody before. A player-coach in that respect. Don't compare Tim Raines to Lenny Harris. Besides, I'm pretty sure Mike Mordecai, Andy Fox, Todd Hollandsworth, and Mike Redmond have seen a fair amount of pitchers as well. In fact, considering that Fox, Hollandsworth, and Redmond have all been starters at some point over the past few years, it's probably safe to say they've seen more current pitchers than Harris has. There's already enough mediocre veterans on our bench. No need to add another who can't even hit.

Nothin' like giving away an out in COORS FRIGGIN' FIELD. Pudge walks, 1st and 2nd and...oh, wait...

But that is all ridiculous. There is no perfect system, period. Instant replay is ridiculous because it undercuts the authority of the judges on the field in the first place. It doesn't seem to be a problem in the NFL or NBA. Both those leagues existed for more than half a century without instant replay. Both leagues had the same reservations as MLB currently does (does replay undermine the authority of the refs or tarnish the tradition of the game). And now both utilize instant replay, and there haven't been any complaints I know of. I don't see why it wouldn't work for MLB as well.

Alhough Redman is nearing the end of his career Say what?

I agree with Cape & others that there is a conflict of interest here. What about major league umpires who grew up as diehard Phillie fans or diehard Dodger fans or diehard Yankee fans? Is that not also a conflict of interest? Should an umpire who is a diehard Dodger fan be fired if he makes a couple borderline calls which go against the Giants? If you started crucifying umpires every time you thought there was a "conflict of interest," no one could become a major league umpire.

Why is it that we always have the bad calles and mistakes go against us? Why not against the other team? Why do they occur so often to us? Typical narrow-minded response. Do you think, maybe, just maybe, you imagine bad calls occur more often for the Fish because you mainly watch Marlin games and are biased towards the Marlins? How many Phillies, Braves, Expos, Angels, Mariners, or White Sox games have you seen this year? How do you know those teams don't have even more bad calls go against them? Being a Marlin fan, you'll notice all the bad calls against the Marlins because...well...you're a Marlin fan. How many times have you heard someone on this board say "OMG, THAT WAS A HORRIBLE CALL, IT ALLOWED THE MARLINS TO SCORE 3 RUNS THEY DIDN'T EVEN DESERVE!!"? Oh wait, I forgot, the Marlins don't get any calls in their favor...rrright. Why are they so obvious to everyone but the ump supposed to make the call? Why? Maybe because everyone watching the game gets the benefit of super-duper slow-motion replays from twenty different angles, while the umpires don't? I didn't think the plays were that obvious until I saw the slow-motion replay. Anyone who claims that they knew 100% what the right call was before they saw the replay is lying.

It's just too much of a coincidence that Wolf makes 2 bad calls today and both went against us. Oh, right, because no umpire has ever made two bad calls in one game. Besides, both plays were fairly close. I didn't know what the right calls were until I saw the replays. Umpires don't get the benefit of slow-motion replays like we do.

Why is it so hard for you to believe that maybe he's just making crappy calls? When any other umpire makes bad calls, you say that he's a horrible ump. When Jim Wolf makes a bad call, it MUST be because he's trying to help out his brother's team. Hey, Hunter Wendelstadt said Lo Duca was safe at the plate. Maybe he has it in for the Marlins too! Please.

since there is no noun following the possessive ending which you added. the possessive ending that you added...

Milwaukee has cut the deficit to 4-3. Arizona and Cincy are scoreless through three innings.

Since divisional play began in 1969, no team has ever overcome an 11-game deficit this late in the season to win a division (that includes the '95 Mariners). The Braves are not catchable.

Impressive list. Only thing I would change is the 5-4 win over the Braves on Mordecai's homer. I thought that was the third best game of the year, behind the Boston game and last night's game.

He was not wild. I can't comprehend how anyone could watch the third inning of yesterday's game and say, with a straight face, that Willis was not wild. Just take it for what it was: a poor pitching performance by Dontrelle. There's no conspiracy, bias, or favortism going on here.

I dont see how "homo" in itself is derogatory. Homo is short for homosexual. from dictionary.com: ho?mo2 ( P ) Pronunciation Key (hm) n. Offensive Slang pl. ho?mos Used as a disparaging term for a gay man or lesbian. So, to be politically correct, one must say the whole world "ho-mo-sex-u-al"? Well, you can say "gay", which is even shorter than homo and likely not to offend anyone (unless you use it disparagingly).