JetsMania Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 The orioles could potentially be real good with the addition of Lopez, Tejada, Guerrero and Palmiero. Whats crazy is that they could be adding like 140 home runs with those 4 players. They should pose a threat to the yankees and redsox. Blue jays are going to have some good pitchers and they were already over .500 last year. the al east is now looking like a 4 horse race rather than a 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catchoftheday Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 I really dont think that the orioles are that good ... they have added tons of hitting to a club that really didnt hit much last year, so they have solved that problem, but they dont have too much pitching besides a load of prospects , no one is proven and they wont match up against the pitching of NY, Boston , or Blue Jays. i really think that the blue jays will be better, they have made some key offseason moves and not too many people have noticed. Boston New York Toronto Baltimore Tampa thats the way i see it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DurableTear Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 Yanks Red Sox Toronto Rays Orioles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odom006 Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 Vlad, Javy, Miggy and Viagra Man to go with jay Gibbions who hit 23 jacks and 100 RBI;s and Matos and Mora who both hit ova 300 with Brain Roberts running the base pads..... only bad part..... NO PITCHING WHAT SO EVA Ainsworth could be they ace and Omar Dall the 2nd guy??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heckeroo Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 Ainsworth could be they ace and Omar Dall the 2nd guy??? thats really horrible.actually, worse than horrible. They should at least make a run at maddux or ponson, or SOMEONE Worry about pitching, then Vlad. That's what i would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rferry Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 I see the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays among the top 7 teams in baseball next year. The Orioles and Devil Rays could even compete for the AL Central title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorianoFanHFW Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 I really dont think that the orioles are that good ... they have added tons of hitting to a club that really didnt hit much last year, so they have solved that problem, but they dont have too much pitching besides a load of prospects , no one is proven and they wont match up against the pitching of NY, Boston , or Blue Jays. i really think that the blue jays will be better, they have made some key offseason moves and not too many people have noticed. Boston New York Toronto Baltimore Tampa thats the way i see it The blue jays got some pitching, lack middle relief. but have offense. however on paper, the yankees can dominate any team in the majors. Their middle relief, their starters, and their offense are among the league's best are one of the best. A couple of "myths"... "The yankees are weak against lefty hitters. They have no lefties in their rotation." Jose contreras opposing ops against lefties: .593 against Righties: .612 Mike Mussina lefties: .629 righties: .666 Kevin Brown L: .621 R:.595 Javy Vazquez L:.677 R: .644 Andy Pettitte was better against righties than lefties (.785 against lefties compared to .690 against righties.) In fact, the Yankees have radically improved their starting against LEFTY HITTING. "Boston's acquisitions made them better than the Yanks..." How can Boston beat the Yanks? They don't have any lefties either, a break down comparing each player on the Yanks to the red sox reveals the Yankees still totally outclass the red sox. Even last year the red sox scored 85 more runs than the yanks, but they gave up 93 more runs, making them the worse of the two teams. The red sox improved by adding schilling and foulke (and let's not bring up the factor of pissing off 3 and 4 hitters manny and nomar.) The Yankees improved by bringing in Gary Sheffield (1.023 ops last season) and pitching with Gordon, Quantrill, Brown, and Vazquez. Karsay and Heredia are returning for another go, and though the yankees are weakened by giving up hammond for gabe white, they are clearly still superior to the red sox. "Folke and Schilling are way better acquisitions than Brown, Vazquez, Quantrill, Gordon, and etc." Paul Quantrill is almost as good as Foulke. Foulke had a 2.08 era last year and a 3.16 era, while quantrill had a 1.75 era last year and a career 3.65 era (which is higher because he was a ground ball pitcher on astroturf.) In fact when compared to league era last season and adjusted for ballpark effects paul qualtrill was 57% better than his peers. Foulke was 51%. Kevin Brown pitched 211 innings with a 2.39 era while schilling pitched only 168 with a 2.95 era...it is rather clear that brown is the better pitcher. with schilling coming off freak injury and other injuries throughout his career with no red sox middle relief forcing him to stay out longer, Brown seems to be the safer of the two old guys. Some contend that bob is a hitters park and dodger stadium is a pitchers park. Brown's era away was 2.38 while schilling's was 2.18 era. Schilling does beat brown here, but definitely not by much, and not enough to warrant a red sox takeover the eastern division. brown was always considered better than schilling until he became a dodger. "The Red Sox offense is clearly superior" The Yankees now have gary sheffield and have hitters like Bernie Williams and Jason Giambi who career wise are clearly not the hitters they were in 2003. The Red Sox had hitters with career years, and though players like Mueller will still be potent players, Ortiz will almost definitely not repeat last year's performance, and nomar is getting worse every year. Any way you cut it, on paper the Yankees are clearly superior. Who knows what will happen of course. Mussina can get his first major injury of his career, Contreras might start 8 games and blow out his shoulder, brown's elbow might go, and etc. However, Pedro might have an albert belle like career ending injury, schilling's elbow might say "no more", and derek lowe might get even worse and face an injury...who knows. I'm not omniscient so i cannot possibly tell you the future. however i can tell you what we know NOW and what we know NOW points to one thing: Yankees Red Sox Toronto Baltimore Tampa ...what a surprise...what will this be, the 6th or 7th year in a row it ended this way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odom006 Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 NOOOOOOOO it wont end that way again..... clearly the O's have in works 3 years 21 mil with ponson..... i dont see the yanks winning that divison i see the Jays, yanks, O's and Deadsox going into September i can see all 4 teams separted by the matter of 3-4 games..... it will just be like the race we saw last year in teh AL cent between KC, Whitesox and Twins..... AL CENT is all KC's with Juan Gone MVP the leauge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catchoftheday Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 Kevin Brown pitched 211 innings with a 2.39 era while schilling pitched only 168 with a 2.95 era...it is rather clear that brown is the better pitcher. with schilling coming off freak injury and other injuries throughout his career with no red sox middle relief forcing him to stay out longer, Brown seems to be the safer of the two old guys. so your saying that in one year ... Brown is better than Schilling??? ... hmmm do you remeber Brown before this year ? ... because he was dead and Schilling was winning 22games a year like it was a joke.... Dont get me wrong i loove me some KBrown, but you cant say hes better than Schilling .... he could be, his sinker is just beyond anything but hes always injured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markotsay7 Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Wait till you all see the Rays. They're gonna finish around .500 and surprise everyone, and finish 3rd in 05. Regardless, my predictions: Boston NY Baltimore Toronto Tampa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rune Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 The Yankees have always been superior in talent including the past three years but one thing they've been missing since O'Neil and some of the other boys left town... They lack that chemistry, they don't click and even with all that talent, A WS Ring has yet to be shown and when you spend that much money. They ARE the biggest busts in recent history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorianoFanHFW Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 so your saying that in one year ... Brown is better than Schilling??? ... hmmm do you remeber Brown before this year ? ... because he was dead and Schilling was winning 22games a year like it was a joke.... Dont get me wrong i loove me some KBrown, but you cant say hes better than Schilling .... he could be, his sinker is just beyond anything but hes always injured. okay let's look at their careers, shall we? http://www.baseballreference.com/b/brownke01.shtml Brownie^^^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/schilcu01.shtml Schilling Schilling has a career era 3.33, but has had 4 years with injuries. Brown has a career era of 3.16, and has had 5 injury years. However with the dodgers he was injured twice, one season with 115 innings and a 2.65 era and another with 4.81. Both are injury risk and the red sox will more likely abuse schilling's arm than the yanks will abuse brown's. so the question is, which pitcher is better as of late? since 1996 the eras have been: Brown Schilling 1.89 3.19 2.69 2.97 2.38 3.25 3.00 3.54 2.58 3.81 2.65 2.98 4.81 3.23 2.39 2.95 Brown had definitley been the far superior pitcher. You site that schilling has won 22 games, but he has only 163 career wins and brown has 197. With the Yankees, brown not only win 200, but with run support, has a shot at 230-240 if he doesn't get injured- a sure fire HOFer with his track record. Schilling, free of injury, has an outside chance at 200, bt with sox run support, he can do it too. However, both are old and are injur risk. Pitchers are not predictable, who saw Clemens getting injured in 2002 or pettitte for that matter. YEt, is pettitte an injury risk? In my eyes, in reality brown is only slightly a larger risk than schilling when all factors are assessed. Brown has definitely been the better pitcher and has always been. I would take brown and vazquez over one schilling. I would take one brown over one schilling. They both passed their physicals, the rest at this point is chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorianoFanHFW Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Wait till you all see the Rays. They're gonna finish around .500 and surprise everyone, and finish 3rd in 05. Regardless, my predictions: Boston NY Baltimore Toronto Tampa None of those new bats in baltimore can pitch. I understand people would like the yankees not to win it, but on paper, which is all we can speak of at this point, the yankees will win. And if you think Bautista, Hentgen, and Lilly aren't going to make a difference in toronto, you are mistaken. The Yankees have always been superior in talent including the past three years but one thing they've been missing since O'Neil and some of the other boys left town... They lack that chemistry, they don't click and even with all that talent, A WS Ring has yet to be shown and when you spend that much money. They ARE the biggest busts in recent history. Mets, rangers, dodgers have all been bigger busts. the yankees have been in 6 of the last 8 world series, I'll take that any day. Do you consider the braves a bust? I wouldn't. Are the yankees not living up to potential? Hell yeah, with the money we spend. Lack of team chemistry? No worse that a team with a pissed off Pedro, nomar, and manny...in fact, I would consider it better. How about the 1978 yankees and their great chemistry? It is not that simple. I miss o'neill, and sheff is not going to be a good influence...wait a second, doesn't he have a ring from 97? again, it is not that simple. all the money on earth can't compell people to hit with runners in scoring position with pitchers who are shutting them down whenever something is brewing. The marlins definitely deserved to win, but the yankees didn't lose to you because lack of chemistry...maybe torre's mangerial decisions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markotsay7 Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 I do think the arms in Toronto will help. I realize none of the bats in Baltimore can pitch. They're still got Rodrigo Lopez along with Ainsworth and it appears they could sign Ponson. That's decent enough to keep them afloat. Overall, there's a chance that every team in that division could be around or above .500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJC Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Blue Birds are looking very solid. but the East is all NYY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorianoFanHFW Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 I do think the arms in Toronto will help. I realize none of the bats in Baltimore can pitch. They're still got Rodrigo Lopez along with Ainsworth and it appears they could sign Ponson. That's decent enough to keep them afloat. Overall, there's a chance that every team in that division could be around or above .500. R Lo had a 5.87 era last year, and though he had a good 2002, so did Damian Moss. Ainsworth has ability, but has never proved himself. Ponson, now a pretty good pitcher, is up to par with Boston's 3 starter Derek Lowe, the Yankees 4 starter Jose Contreras, Toronto's 3 starter Pat Hentgen...yet Ponson is their 1 starter if he signs. Baltimore was horrible last year. Tejada is extremely overrated, Lopez cannot repeat last years performance (he would have a good season if he hit half the homers he hit last year), and though additions like Palmeiro or a possible Vlad or I Rod would be good additions, they still do not have an offense and pitching staff up to par with toronto, boston, and new york. Thus they remain to be a good 4th place team! Remember Baltimore had the highest payroll in baseball and went nowhere in 1998. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dankingdc Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 The O's also had the highest payroll in 1997 and were wire-to-wire AL East champions. I don't think anyone believes the O's will compete next year, but adding Vlad and Ponson will put them on their way to compete in 2005. Their rotation would be Ponson, Ainsworth, Matt Riley, Eric DuBose, and the best of Rodrigo Lopez and Omar Daal. Ainsworth, Riley and DuBose all show a lot of promise, and I expect at least one of them to succeed. The O's will still have plenty of cash to sign a front-line starter or two nexty offseason, and take advantage of the aging Yanks and Sox. I expect the AL East to be a two team race from 2005-2009, the Jays and the Orioles. The Yanks and Red Sox have just about NOBODY in their minor leagues, while the Jays have a great system, and the O's have a decent and improving system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorianoFanHFW Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Well Guerrerro is an angel so Ivan will probably be an oriole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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