The lack of fighting doesn't really bother me. Fighting interrupts the flow of the game. I'm glad they didn't take any TV timeouts in the U.S. v. Canada game. Stoppage of play is annoying.
To be elite, you have to be an ace. Beckett has pitched like an ace before, but not year in, year out. If we're talking about top tier pitchers, I would say Beckett just misses the cut.
Halladay had his breakout season like 8 years ago...
To me, a breakout season is one in which you establish yourself as a really good player. If you have already done that, you can't really have another breakout season.
An .850 OPS from Varitek isn't happening. He'll get a lot more rest while mostly facing lefties, but I would still be surprised if goes above .760. He had nothing left in the 2nd half of the season last year. He's old and starting to show it.
Agreed. I believe Jamison is the final piece to the championship puzzle for the Cavs. They're probably the best team in the East without him. With him, they are most certainly the best team in the East and should give the Lakers fits.
I'd give B.J. a pass last year because of the shoulder injury, but if he doesn't rebound this season...
I'd say Justin has emerged as the better player.
I'm a big Kurt Suzuki fan. Martinez hasn't caught 100 games in a season 2 years in a row, and he's entering his 30s. If Martinez can't put the gear on for 110-120 games, I'd try to get Suzuki and replace V-Mart's bat with Adrian Gonzalez.
Actually, regardless of what Martinez does, I think they should go that route.
On the Sox, Bard or Buchholz.
MLB: I like a lot of guys. Wade Davis, Matt Wieters, Ian Stewart, Max Scherzer, Brett Anderson, Kevin Slowey, Scott Sizemore, Gordon Beckham, Colby Rasmus, Jay Bruce, Madison Bumgarner.
If that report is true, I'm not sure how much of an impact Robinson will have, but he brings a lot of energy. He's an exciting little dynamo. House was a great role player for the Celtics. Never saw a shot he didn't like, but he did knock down some big shots.
From the Nats' perspective, I don't think they had anything to lose by taking a chance on Wang. If he returns to form, and they don't wait too long to bring up Strasburg, having Lannan and Marquis as their 3 and 4 gives them a pretty nice rotation 1-4. Plus, they also have Drew Storen waiting in the wings to be their closer if Matt Capps doesn't work out. I could see them winning around 75 games this year. For this franchise, that probably should be considered a winning season.
He was the best right-handed hitter of the 90s and one of the best right-handed hitters of all time, and the fact that he was most likely clean makes what he did all the more impressive, IMO. Closers are specialized players. Why aren't they held in the same category as designated hitters?
Also, is Manny Ramirez a first ballot Hall of Famer?