As much as I had hoped maybe luck would trump skill in the O's season. It seems skill on the mound is still required to win in the majors...
Who would have thought the Nats would be a better team thann the O's?
I am a big Braves fan and I keep hoping the Nationals come back to earth. I think they are real..
How bout Pedro beating the Yankees last night? Now "who's your daddy"..lol
I have been to a few Nats games. I just do not like RFK. not to fan friendly.
As for Pedro... anyone who beats the Yankees is my friend!
Catching the metro tonight to the game.. No need to tempt faith and someone take my car..lol Still hard seeing Pedro in a Met uniform, I also might have to eat crow on the Red Soxs. They are playing well.
The Yankees are still the ones to fear. If the standings are basically the same as now by the end of the first week of August, then I'll breathe easier. I've thought that the O's could finish second, but only if they stay healthy. Oh well.........
Way to many games left and while I dont think the O's will be in first place when the season ends, I sure as heck dont think the Nats will either and would take the O's over the Nats any day of the week. Even with the Nats not being in the AL East, I think when its all said and done they wont have a chance to win anything.
If Eric Bedard was healthy they would be more than a few games up in the divison, the youngster they are using in his place is very talented, but really not up to the challenge yet, I think they are something like 2-5 at best in his starts and as well as Eric was pitching (was best started in AL at time IMO) theyd be looking at a 6-1 record in those games.
Give me Miggy over any player in the majors, not even gonna say Nats, no contest. Id also take Bedard over any picther on the Nats as well. BJ Ryan over any Nats bullpenner. The only thing Id take that the Nats have is not having to play the Red Sox and Yankess 40 games a year every year and play in the same divison as the two evil empires.
I cant stand Angelos, but inspite of him the O's front office and farm system have done well and have stocked the team with great young pitching talent like Bedard, BJ Ryan, Hayden Penn, Richard Stahl, Adam Lowen, Bruce Chen, Daniel Cabrera and more than handful more and along with the leadership and terrific play of Miguel Tejada and Melvin Mora, I'll take the O's chances over the Nats for the next few years, even with the O's playing in a much tougher divison.
B-Pop
BP; the "Red Sox" are the team to beat.. The "O" have to get there act together to get a wild card spot. The Nationals will be in the hunt until the end. The NL East is weak with 5 teams that can win it all. Don't count the National out yet but the Braves win it in the end.
Don't count the Mets out of race in that divison, they have a lot of talent on that team. The only reason The Nats will hang on is they don't play in a real divison, if they played with the Cardinals they'd be 10+ games out already. Hell, the Nats could still end up in last place in that divison as close as the race is going to be in that one.
The O's won't make the playoffs this year unless Bedard comes back before the All-Star game, they need that stopper in the rotation, plus my opinion all along was that they wouldn't make the playoffs this year and the wild card doesn't look like it will be coming out of the east this year, maybe the central.
The Red Sox are the team to beat, but they also have a so so rotation and could go on a 8 game losing streak any week now, even more so while theyre playing the likes of the O's, Yanks and Jays, tough divison.
The O's have had a lot of injuries and not one of their playes has been on fire at any time this year except Brian Roberts. Wait till Miggy heats up and goes out and knocks in 40 or so runs in one month. Sosa hasn't hit a lick and Palmerio is just now starting to swing Ok.
Plus, who really cares about baseball anyway, I'm just waiting for the Ravens to start playing, but until then I'll cheer Miguel on for the summer.
B-Pop
Now you are talking my game.. The Ravens need to get rid of Kyle Boller and get a real QB.. They have surrond him with talent but he will be a bust again this year. Always thought Anthony Wright was a better QB.. Who cares about the Ravens when my beloved Falcons will wreck havoc on NFC again..Ok everyone except the Eagles..lol
Kyle Boller will be fine, Wright is the bum IMO, never have liked him, terrible QB, to mistake prone and seems about as dumb as a rock in person. All Boller needs to do is hit a better % on his deep throws and he'll be one of the more reliable QB's in the AFC.
They have a better WR core now, but still not one of the better ones in the NFL, hope Heap can stay healthy this year, hes Bollers favorite target and while Boller started to play better after Heap was hurt last year, he would have been even better if he had his #1 target to throw to.
I have been tough on most the Ravens QB's over the years...Vinny is just ok, Jim Harbaugh was a never was, Scott Mitchell was joke, Stoney Case had a cool name and that was it, Eric Zier was below average, Tony Banks was fumble machine, Trent Dilfer was so so and a product of a defense that bailed him out more than once, Elvis Gerbac didnt have the passion to play the game anymore partly thanks to some shitty fans, Chris Redman has a better arm than my grandmother...maybe? Jeff Blake had a great deep arm but nothing else really, Anthony Wright is dumb as a rock and prone to big mistakes like Vinny was......Wow, thats a lot of QB's, a lot of crappy QB's, lol
The Falcons will be fine as long as Ron Mexico stays healthy, lol
B-Pop
I agree the Ravens has had some "busta" at QB.. But Boller give me a break, Wright is more mobile and has does not have "the deer in the headlight syndrome"..
Boller is one of the more mobile QB's in the league IMO. In fact for the first half of the season led all AFC QB's in rushing yards until he started to look to throw a little more once the play broke down. The deer in the headlights look you talk about was almost completly gone by the end of the season, he was able to slip many sacks.
He pulled of an awesome move in the Indy game when he should have been sacked and all he did was step up in the pocket two steps and dumped the ball off to his TE who was running a small curl down the middle, the reciver looked to be his third, maybe fourth option on the play, but he was able to avoid the pass rusher and hit his third progression, something Anthony Wright would never in a million years attempt to do, let alone be able to do and moves like this started to become almost common place for Boller by the end of the 2004 season.
Believe me, if Boller stunk as much as some people think he does, I'd be the first one to want to run him out town, but I really think most his critics wouldnt know a curl route from a curling iron, or at the very least dont watch many of his games, because them most would know better. Im more than happy with the progress he's made when he has not had a single legit #1 (or even #2, heck maybe #3, lol) WR reciever on the team since he's been here...hell, havent had one since Michael Jackson or Derrick Alexander in 96 and 97.
B-Pop
-- Modified on 6/28/2005 1:12:49 AM
You like the guy.. I think he is a bum but it's your team..lol You know your Ravens QB.. I ready for some football man..Later
Well, you would sure think the Braves are as good as bigdaddy said. They just finished with the "broom job" on the O's over the weekend. I also noticed that Boston was climbing up in the standings playing Cleveland while the O's had to contend with Toronto. I think we will see relative shifting of positions as the various contending teams have differing difficulties in their opponents at any given time. At the moment, it doesn't look like ANY of the AL teams are doing very good against the NL in interleague play.
Have to agree that the Oriole "pitching" has been utterly pathetic in the past week. Bedard being out has hurt, but one man can't make that much difference. Still, it could have meant a game or two in the standings. For the most part, it looks like the same ole Oriole pitching. Bats have been fairly quiet of late too. I mean 8-1 loss yesterday to Atlanta. Not much to cheer about there on either end of the ledger.
The Orioles will get their "easy" opponents as well. Hopefully they will do better with them than they did against Arizona. Hopefully, Cleveland won't be so frustrated from the trouncing it took from Boston that it will take it out on the O's. Just all the intangibles of the season and the schedule.