I don't blame Tito for the collapse, but his laid back attitude did not help in the stretch run. The front office was not prepared with enough pitching for the second half and they were caught with their pants down.

The intensity of baseball in Boston finally ate up Francona. I just can't think of a possible replacement though. Part of me wants to see Schilling or Varitek become the new skipper.

Varitek might work, but he would need to be removed from the scene for a couple years, like Girardi with the Yankees.

Going to miss Francona but at the same time changes were going to be done because of how bad the season ended.

Some damaging reports about him loosing control of the clubhouse for at least the last 2 years and the players almost not even caring in terms of conditioning and focus. The worst being the pitchers being too laid back and drinking instead of resting or conditioning themselves for the next start.

Also expected to be fired is at least the pitching and conditioning coaches with the 3rd base coach also a possibility.

Tim Bogar has needed to go for a long time. Too many guys called out at home because of him.

So Francona is out, huh. Well, that's part of the problem out of the way.

I'm wondering who in the managers pool gets an interview with that team? There's a few open spots right now around the league.

Joe Torre has been mentioned, but...IDK.

Frank Wren fired Parrish as Atlanta's hitting coach and said Lowe will be traded or only be seen in bullpen duty.

Next year is sounding better already.

John Lackey for Derek Lowe?

Derek Lowe for your hitting coach.

<font color=goldenrod>Rays aren't fucking around.</font>

First Kawakami, now Lowe. Frank ain't got an eye for pitchers these days.


What are the chances the Rays/Rangers series is going to be a repeat of last year?

Angels fire GM Tony Reagins.

it's time for some baseball

I have no defense for Kawakami. He made seven million dollars in the minors this year. Lowe was unbelievable in September last year, and put up a solid first few years, but his contract was too long for sure.

However, have you seen the starting pitchers the Braves have lined up right now? We took a waiver on Beachy and he was outstanding all year. We have Jurrjens, Hanson, Hudson, Beachy, Minor, Delgado, Vizcaino, Teheran, and Medlen all able to start, and Lowe too if we really need him to. We aren't losing anyone in the bullpen any time soon either.

If the Braves could get some damn offense, the bullpen wouldn't need to hit the mound so much. Just awful awful years for Heyward, Prado, and Uggla (for the most part), and the worst I've ever seen out of McCann at the end of the year, who hit under .200 in September.

But the most hilarious thing, by far, is that Fredi said yesterday that the entire coaching staff was staying. Wren telling Fredi who's boss.

This team feels like it can accomplish anything, after the way they won the Wild Card. They are feeling pretty good about themselves, and on top of that, have a lot of momentum.

They're a very dangerous team.

Can't believe Matt Moore was so dominant today.

And that Hamilton had the only two hits for Texas.

would take Matt Moore over Strasburg

super impressed by him

That'd be a tough one.

Love me some Strasburg.

Jaret Wright was impressive in the postseason once too.

I am pumped for some 5:00 P.m Est standard time baseball.

Cardinals up 3-0 on Halladay.Who knew?!

Fuck yeah

Wow. Ibanez goes deep, too.

BAM.

Didn't like The Cardinals getting some runs there, but whatever.

Free Agency "sorta" begins. 22 Triple-A players declared today. They are:

Dusty Brown (Pirates)
Travis Buck (Indians)
Armando Galarraga (D'Backs)
Jay Gibbons (Dodgers)
Edgar Gonzalez (Rockies)
Steve Holm (Twins)
Wil Ledezma (Blue Jays)
Andy LaRoche (Athletics)
Felipe Lopez (Brewers)
Lastings Milledge (White Sox)
Pat Misch (Mets)
Pat Neshek (Padres)
Mike O'Connor (Mets)
Matt Palmer (Angels)
Felix Pie (Orioles)
Brad Snyder (Cubs)
Brett Tomko (Rangers)
Wyatt Toregas (Pirates)
P.J. Walters (Blue Jays)
Randy Williams (Red Sox)
Reggie Willits (Angels)

White Sox are going after Rays bench coach Dave Martinez to fill their opening at manager.

STEVE HOLM!

Holy Fuck TBS is horrible covering baseball.

Robbie Cano! Don't Cha Know!

I feel bad for Randazzo, taking a beating tonight. Doesn't excuse his ever changing strike zone.

The Yankees are layin' the smack down.

Still, no matter who wins this game, it'll leave a bad taste for me. All this rain-out and continuing the game in the 2nd inning 12 hours later.

when does TBS' postseason baseball contract run out?

God I hope it is soon

swear to God the dude who called the Brewers game said "you can't let this guy extend his arms" about everyone who plays for the Brewers

Say what you will about Buck, but I prefer FOX.

These guys make me long for Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

Thats right Joe.

2 doubles, grand slam. Don't worry about it.

I like Joe Buck, and I do not know why

A lot of people hate him, and I don't know why. His voice just FITS in the whole playoff atmosphere.

Girardi's done playing

lol 3 pitches from MO. :love:

This Yankees/Tigers series has been kinda messed up with. Now the pitching rotations are all messed up, and they just finished up a game they started last night, where they should've been playing Game 2.

IDK...I don't like it.

Wasn't soo much about the pitching but Girardi taking advantage of playoff rain-out game rules that require the same lineup to be done with only pitchers allowed to be subbed out.

Tigers Game 1 lineup was meant to go against right-handed CC and instead got wrecked by the left-hander Nova. The Tigers have a separate lineup specifically for lefties but obviously couldn't do it because the hitting order can't be modified for the game.

The 2008 WS between the Rays and Phillies had some BS like this, right? Where they had to resume a game the next day?

Yes and it ended up being the main reason for why MLB doesn't want another WS occurring in November again and the new changes in the schedule meant to "speed up" the playoffs with how the off-days are setup.

Bummer. We came close.

Sabathia vs. Verlander round 2 tomorrow on 2 days rest. 2.5 days if you wanna throw in the rainout on friday.

Whose arm falls off first?

on deck circles are gay

pointless, dangerous, and gay

I'd guess Jose Valverde's little dances and fistpumps are very irritating to fans of oppossing teams.

The guy's good, but he goes overboard. Too much.

Papa Grande is fantastic

I like him, and he never faces the Cubs, so I really don't have a problem with it, but if I was a Yankee fan, or fan of any AL team, It'd bother me.

I actually like his little dances and energy. I've always enjoyed colorful closers such as Armando Benitez, John Rocker, Brian Wilson, etc.

<font color=goldenrod>Tomorrow might be a must-win for the Yankees. Because otherwise their season will come down to the right arm of AJ Burnett in Game 4.</font>

Are you kidding me? I hated Valverde even when he was a Diamondback. Seems like he has never had a clean inning in his life and he's out there being a big retard about getting out of it.

Valverde is adorable

Well today pretty much sucked.

It's so awesome to be able to watch the playoffs and not dislike any of the teams, so therefore, you can watch all games with a clear mind, and not really mind who wins each game. I literally wouldn't mind seeing any of the 8 teams win the whole thing (though I'd be especially happy if the Rays, Brewers or Rangers won).

what

I love baseball as much as anyone, but it is 8 billion times more exciting when you have a rooting interest. Come on now.

It's better, but there's no pressure when you don't. You just enjoy the games.

basically just rooting against the Phillies, Yankees, and D'Backs

I really hope the Yankees can beat Detroit, I have a bad feeling that they won't. Luckily for me my second favorite is the Brewers. I'd be especially happy if the Yankees won. But if the Brewers won the World Series I'd be fine with that too. As long as it isn't the Phillies.

This isn't good.

legend just reminded me that if the Yankees lose tonight, the season rests on the arm of AJ Burnett.

I just got worried.

A source for ESPN is saying the Red Sox GM is about 50-50 for leaving the club this offseason with the Cubs being the big frontrunners. The owner respects Theo enough that if he wants to leave and the Cubs offer Theo the GM and President titles, he is willing to remove the last year of the current Red Sox contract so that Theo can leave easily.

ESPN is also saying if Theo leaves, the Red Sox will either promote the assistant GM or go after a few names such as Oakland's Billy Beane.

I wonder is the Cubs will reunite Terry Francona and Thoe Epstein, in hopes of ending the Cubs' WS drought.

If Terry and Theo bring a Championship to the Northside...they will go into the HOF!

I don't think a managerial change is going to change the Cubs' chances at winning a title. They have a lot of other issues that need be to dealt with in the player personell category before they dream about winning the big one.

With Beane, I'd be doubtful he'd take the job. He passed on it once already, and now that he has a critically acclaimed movie out that makes him look like a saint, he might be less inclined than last time to leave Oakland. Add to that he has some ownership stake in the A's, something he will have nothing of in Boston, and it could be a tough sell.

Also, the Red Sox's pitching staff blew up in their faces. Epstein focused so much on offense that their pitching staff top to bottom suffered and nothing was done mid year to alleviate the damage, thus their collapse last month. They need to focus on improving their starting rotation more so than grabbing a manager.

That's where Theo comes in.

And one year and a meh farm system isn't going to change that. When Theo came into Boston, he inheretied an already good team. Yes, he made some key acquisitions, like David Ortiz, but again, the Red Sox were already a very good baseball team when he was brought in.

The Cubs, meanwhile, have issues with their "staff ace" Zambrano, a shaky closer, lack of depth in both the pen and the rotation, question marks at 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base and RF. Soriano's horrendous contract is and lack of production isn't helping, either. Theo would be walking into a nightmare if he were to take the Cubs job. The Cubs are going in a completely different direction than the Red Sox were in 2003.

Well, I'm not saying either Theo or Terry (or both) is going to come in and win the same year, or the next. But if they ever do get to turn things around, and if they reach the big goal, they'll go down in history.

<font color=goldenrod>Can't wait to see how much money Yu Darvish gets this off-season. Dice-K cost $51 million in the posting fee alone. Given that Darvish absolutely shits all over Dice-K, I can't see Hokkaido parting with Darvish for less than $60 million. So that'll be $60 million plus whatever Darvish himself gets in contract negotiations.

I don't even know how many teams would be willing to fork over that much. The Blue Jays are considered the "favorites" at this point for some reason, but are they really about to put up $110+ million on a Japanese pitcher? Hard to say.

If Hokkaido sets a reasonable minimum bid because they want to do what's best for Darvish, I could see damn near every team at least taking a run at it.</font>

I think every team's scouting director has been over there to watch him.

Yankees might be in the mix, but I think we're afraid to get burned again. So we may pass.

Hisashi Iwakuma said he was gonna try to get in again. He might have better luck if he didn't ask for an insane dollar figure.

I think a lot of teams are going to be weary about bidding for Japanese pitchers now. Who was the last Japanese pitcher that actually lived up to the hype and price tag? Dice-K has been a bust lately, Koji Uehara didn't turn out like he was supposed to, and I'm not even gonna mention Kei Igawa. Darvish's team may still post him just so that they get some sort of compensation before he can freely leave for the MLB in a few years. I've read that the Blue Jays may go after him aggressively.

Was watching MLB Tonight the other day and Dallas Braden was on the panel.

Couldn't believe this.

Also Eric Byrnes was on the panel tonight.

So was Jerry Manuel.

did Byrnes randomly slide into first base or do a flip when he threw a ball in from shallow left?

love Eric Byrnes

goofy white guys are my favorite athletes

2-1 deficit for the Rays and Yankees. I'm one game away from getting everything I want out of this post-season.

Congratulations to the Tigers. I didn't want the Yankees to face them in the first round because I felt that they were the other top team in the postseason.

A-Rod has too much rust on him and Tex is pulling a no show. All hope now lies with Mr. AJ.

Oh Aj Burnett

AJ has been known to surprise people. And bats fade in and out by game. Someone who goes 0 for 4 for 2 days may go 5 for 5 the next. I didn't think we'd rough up Verlander as much as we did last night. Stranger things have happened. Maybe I am just being way to optimistic. But, until I hear the words "The Tigers have won game 4 the Yankees lose" I am not giving up hope on them.

LOL Adrian Beltre has 3 Homer Runs TODAY.

<font color=goldenrod>Pretty gutting for the Rays tbh. Between the late-season surge, turning a triple play in the 2nd to last game of the year, and coming down from 7-0 to win the final game...it almost felt like they were a team of destiny.</font>

If only David Price would've lived up to expectations...

Wouldn't matter that much if Price had been good because the Rays haven't matched up well against the Rangers for at least the last 2-3 years in a row.

Not 100% sure but I think even the Yankees struggled a bit this season against the Rangers and the Red Sox had some problems with the Rangers hitting power earlier in the season.

So "Elimination Tuesday" off to a fast start with the Rays going down.

We'll see about the Yankees and D'Backs.

Bye Rays. :wave:

Lets's go Rangers!!! Hopefully St Louie can knock off the Phillies they scare me x0

If the Yankees somehow come back against the Tigers and win the series, they'll get eaten up by the Rangers.

The Rangers made the World Series last year, but they are an even better team this year. They have a better bullpen, they added Mike Napoli and Adrian Beltre...I mean...they're scary.

Tigers are winning the WS. Its over, the rest of you can go home now.

Let's see if AJ gets squeezed tonight like CC did.

BTW, I hate fans with waive towels.

jonron

aint no reason to even play the game

Well, the Cubs have asked the Red Sox for permission to interview Theo Epstein for their GM opening. No other details have been released.

Dodgers decline the options of Casey Blake and Jon Garland.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME JETER

A-Rod, looking for that elusive first hit of the postseason.

At least A-Rod is being somewhat productive with his outs, Tex has done complete and utter dick.

Holy shit AJ made it through 5.

GRANDYMAN!

Now the fans can go on with their lives like they do April through August.

<font color=goldenrod>Yanks won the series. They're going home, Nova's proven he can perform in the playoffs, and they've already thoroughly fisted Fister. When you allow AJ Burnett to beat you, you know you're sunk.</font>