June 17, 2013

Talkin' Baseball: NL West, Dodger-DBacks Punishment, & NL Central

49er16: The NL West has become very interesting all of a sudden with the Padres coming out of nowhere while the rest of the teams in the division deal with injuries and suspensions. There are four teams within 2 games of first place in the division, although that really doesn't say much about the division because all of those teams are barely over .500.

The Colonel: None of the teams are 5 games above .500 but to be fair this division has been hammered by injuries. All the teams have or had key players on the DL. The Padres are the team that interest me. Their best players are their middle infielders with one of them with a name that is pronounced Jerko. I don't trust them at the end though because Jason Marquis is their best pitcher.

49er16: The other problem, although it makes sense because they're the Padres, both of their middle infielders have high BABIP's. They're both getting hits that are squeezing through the hole or over the infielders head. Most likely they regress in September like they did in 2010.


The Colonel: Speaking of the NL West, those penalties handed to the Diamondbacks were ridiculous while the Dodgers basically received a slap on the wrist. Kennedy got what he deserved but Eric Hinskie receiving a five game suspension for being Puig's punching bag was over the top and proves why an old coach/player like Joe Torre shouldn't be in charge of punishment.

49er16: I'm less upset that Puig got off than Ronald Belisario getting off. Belisario ran in from the bullpen and tried to throw a DBacks player over the top rail of the dugout. And he got less games than roid raging Mark McGwire! Ridiculous. Torre showed his true hand as either showing favoritism towards his former team or showing that he's taking orders from someone else who doesn't want the Dodgers penalized as much especially in the case with Puig.

The Colonel: I hate being conspiracy guy but you can't help but think conspiracy when the Dodgers got off as easily as they did. It takes two to fight and MLB acted like the Dodgers never fought and that Greinke never instigated anything by drilling Montero. Just a bad look for MLB but they're used to bad looks by now.

49er16: I see the one Rangers issue that we worried about has reared it's head and allowed the A's to take a 3 game lead in that division and that is pitching. Darvish and Holland are fine, but the rest of those starting pitchers are yuck. I wonder if they would be willing to part with Profar to get someone like Cliff Lee again?

The Colonel: To be fair to the Rangers, the A's are playing out of their minds right now but yeah they need pitching. And they need to stop losing at home to Cleveland and Toronto. As far as a pitching trade, we'll see there. I wouldn't give up Profar but maybe the Rangers feel like they need to do something desperate because their window is about to close. Kinda like the Phillies trading away all of their prospects for Hunter Pence.

49er16: I would bet the sharks (Cubs, Brewers, and Phillies?) are circling the Rangers right now dangling some of their pitchers. You know the Cubs want to unload Matt Garza but picking him up would be like picking up Ryan Dempster again. Depends on how desperate they are, but I still say they go after Lee hard for the next month.

The Colonel: Figures that the one year the Pirates are 13 games over .500 the Cardinals and Reds are better. Of course they're still leading for one of the wild card spots but still it's ridiculous how good the NL Central is this season between those two teams.

49er16: And don't forget that they get to beat up terrible Brewers and Cubs teams to pad their record!

The Colonel: Heh, I was about to say the Cubs are playing better but they've gone 4-6 in the past 10 games.

49er16: Nice to see the Yankees and their gang of Vernon Wells, Youkilis, Hafner, and Overbay falter while their good players keep re injuring themselves. Also nice that the stories about putting on pinstripes improved the games of Wells, Hafner, and Overbay have died down. Guess what? Vernon Wells isn't a good player all of a sudden because he put on a Yankees uniform.

The Colonel: Oh God there is nothing worse than those "HE PUT ON PINSTRIPES SO LOOK AT HOW GOOD HE IS!" It's about damn time this team faltered while playing guys like Wells and Hafner.

49er16: What series' are you looking forward to this week? I'm actually excited for AL Central baseball with the Indians vs Royals and Tigers vs Orioles.

The Colonel: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati this week is a must watch. And the Padres vs Giants is going to be a series everyone is going to have to pay attention to because of how well the Padres have played.

49er16: Sounds like a plan. Have a good week folks.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with Keith, how Belisario got off so lightly is a shame and shows that Torre shouldn't be in charge of punishments.

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