The Lions' Pride

I think the fact that the central is weak will keep detroit from winning 100 games.. You need to have someone pushing you..Id say they finish between 90 and 95 wins..I do think the Yankees have a shot at winning 100 games, only reason for that is because they might have to in order to win the division.. I'm not gonna predict the west because I dont kno how good the Angels really will be, Pujols is an incredible addition, but I still think their pitching could be suspect.. CJ Wilson isnt that great, obviously or Texas would have given him the money they gave Darvish.. Its gonna be about pitching.. There is alot of great lineups in the AL, gotta have a staff that can shut that down..

I dont kno man, our pitching staff is pretty loaded, and we have tremendous depth.. I pretty much expect the Yankees to win close to 100 games every year, and they usually are pretty close.. If the o/u is 95 wins for the Yanks I'd bet the over..

Shavi -

I'm just catching up on this thread and wanted to address your comments about what is wrong with the Phillies. I completely agree with most of what you said...though Wilson Valdez not coming back has NOTHING to do with their struggles. As much as Galvis has struggled WV is not any better. Fans remember his 'moments' such as pitching in the Reds game last year and forget how incredibly bad he was in general.

It really is maddening following this organization when you have even a modicum of an understanding of sabermetrics and the true value of a player's contribution to the team. A team like the Phillies has made some very smart decisions that contributed to a championship such as signing Werth for pennies, picking up Victorino in the Rule V draft, trading for Blanton (underrated move) . However, like you noted, those were all under the watchful eye of Pat Gillick. All Amaro has done is to amplify every weakness on the team at a huge expense. Signing Howard to that deal when any idiot knew he was already regressing was done only because they knew he was a fan favorite. It was a MAJOR blunder and unnecessary. He would have become a free agent this year and the Phillies could have signed Pujols or Prince for a lesser anual salary. Most Phillies fans are far to naive to realize how poorly this franchise is now run.

Imagine a team with this support base, TV market, financial flexibility that is run by a front office like that of the Royals or Mariners. That would be something.

Nice.

Best message board post of the night. Actually came from a Cubs fan

"Corey Hart looking like a hillbilly ninja"

Love it.

Amen sir. Ruben thinks sabermetrics are made up. Phils are the last franchise with a stats department. He has no idea how regression works and if he couldn't look at Howard's body type and think "he's about to fall apart," then he doesn't understand the game.

I just can't believe he's so averse to the numbers when it's clearly the way the game is turning. I bet he doesn't even know what fangraphs is.

You guys would've stroked out over Tony LaRussa. Silly Phillie fans.

I'd trade Chollie for TLR countless times. Give me overmanaging and playing matchups or standing around bumbling around like an idiot without knowing what a double switch is.

Managing a baseball team is the easiest high paying job in sports. The only thing easier than managing is managing an AL team.

Don't say that, they downvote you for saying AL managers don't have as hard of a job.

And I hope you would TLR is a first ballot HOFer. Your boy, well I didn't know Phillie fans disliked him that much.

Cardinals get away day lineup, tell me if you could name five guys here lol:

Furcal SS
Jay CF
Holliday LF
Carpenter 1B
Molina C
Descalso 3B
Greene 2B
Komatsu RF
Garcia P

Yay, so the Phillies finally got some offense going tonight vs. Josh Johnson of the Marlins. Hopefully they can keep it going tomorrow and start to get some consistency at the plate.

He's now looked bad in both of his starts.

Anytime you can pass Markakis for Jones you have to do it. I thought that call was a no brainer myself. I like ripping Girardi as much as the next guy, but was actually in agreement with that one.