SHaynes23

My favorite for ROTY is DeMarcus Cousins from Kentucky. He's playing for the Kings, and he and Tyreke Evans will be a very good inside-outside combo. The only reason he fell to five was his lack of maturity. He has the chance to come in and be the Kings number two man right away and make a major impact his first season.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5366254 So apparently Cliff Lee is about to be traded to the Yankees. That's a ridiculously good rotation.

I have no problem with what Gilbert said either. My dad was here watching it with me, he never watches baskeball really, he knows who the big stars are though. He just turns to me and says, Who does this guy think he is? I bet Kobe wouldn't want his own special to announce he's leaving Los Angeles. His company is based out of Akron too and he was only interested because all the people that live around there and work with him were talking about how this could set Cleveland back a long way, not only in sports but in general.

Haha. Yeah, I noticed that. Looks like a very professional eight year old typed it.

Wow, if you haven't checked it out go to the Cavs website and check out Dan Gilbert's letter to Cleveland.

I actually love the Yankees. They are my favorite team other than my hometown Cardinals. It's not that I'm against stacking teams if you are able to, I already disliked the Heat, this would just push them over. I'm a Magic fan, and those two teams don't get along.

It's sounding more and more like LeBron is going to Miami. After looking into it and hearing some other sides I could see it working, but man would I hate them. I already didn't like the Heat, and this would probably put them real high up on the list of teams in all of sports I hate.

I don't think they could win with nobodies as backups. That means that they'd have to ride the big three pretty hard, and if any of them had a bad night that likely would mean a loss because they would need those nobodies to step up and pick up that scoring. Plus, if one of them gets hurt they are done for.

I'm hoping that's where he goes. LeBron being there and taking all the pressure off of Rose for running the offense could really help him develop without having to be the only go-to-guy on the team. In his rookie year he had to do virtually everything just to get them to an eight seed and push the Celtics in their great series. Boozer will really help out Noah too. He can focus on just hitting the boards and playing great defense now that he won't be the primary front court scorer. When you look at a possible lineup of Rose, Deng, James, Boozer and Noah that's a team that if those three that have been with Chicago step up and develop into above average players that could contend for a long, long time. They'd still need somebody to be a potent outside shooter, but they could easily scoop up somebody like Mike Miller for the mid level exception to fill that role.

They have come out and said they are pretty much looking for a rent-a-player. Our top four are already in long term deals, so they are not looking for anybody that's signed beyond a year. We gave up Brett Wallace to get Holliday, but he was expendable because he'd never get time at first base and he's not the greatest at third. He probably wouldn't have passed David Freese anyways. A couple of those other names I've heard them talk about is Jake Westbrook or Kevin Milwood, middle of the road starters like that will give your team a chance to win. We don't really need a marquee pitcher, our top three will get a huge chunk of the wins, we can't just throw up the white flag on days four and five, or wear our pitchers out with a four man setup.

So what do the Cardinals do now for a back end of the rotation? During last night's game they announced that Brad Penny suffered a major setback in his rehab and it'll likely be awhile until he's back. Kyle Lohse is out for awhile too with his forearm surgery. Right now we're going with a four man rotation, LaRussa decides on gameday most times whether to start Jeff Suppan or Blake Hawksworth, and they aren't really doing much. Our front three are rocking it, should have three all-stars even though we got two (Garcia is still rocking it with a 2.10 ERA). There is talk of going to Arizona and maybe getting Danny Haren back, and he said he'd be open to returning to St. Louis. All the talk surrounding us is if we stay in the organization or chase a Haren or Lee.

I didn't say they needed him, but I could see him there. It would be an excuse to cut Upton loose too. Not only does he underachieve he's becoming a distraction from what I can tell. I don't follow them too closely but it's what I've heard from people. When you add Lee you can pencil in a few extra wins for your team, which might end up being the difference in the East. I would much prefer him to go to the Rangers like I said. They could really use a bonafied ace for their playoff run. Give him their monster offense and they are serious WS contenders.

I could see Lee landing with the Rays. He's just going to be a half season loan anyways, he's going to get a monster deal from somebody in the offseason. I'm hoping the Rangers get him though, I'm really starting to like them.

How in the world did Omar Infante make the team over Ryan Zimmerman?

I agree with this. Baseball has changed so many times over the years. It's much more effective to make decisions based on era, not all time. You can't possibly know how Babe Ruth would do in today's game because it isn't the same game it was in the 20s and 30s. What you can do is compare him to his peers like Gehrig and Hornsby. Who knows if Albert would be as great as he is now in huge ballparks. I'm sure he'd be a great player still, but there's no possible way of knowing.

It's awesome that we've got two perfect games in less than a month. What's even better is that both pitchers were on my fantasy team!

Yeah, that was exciting watching those three guys come up through the ranks. I always thought Anthony Reyes was just going to be amazing, but eh, not so much. He's still young though, hopefully he bounces back from his surgery. I pull for him and Chris Perez on the Indians. We had something really special in Danny Haren. As easy as it is to say that we never should have made that trade now that we are in 2010, it's something we had to do because all signs pointed to Mark Mulder being the man that would come and be the ace that we needed so badly at the time. I've seen Ottavino and Walters both pitch, I haven't got a chance to see Shelby yet though, but he sounds like a future front of the rotation pitcher.

And the Cardinals have one heck of a pitcher coming up through the system, Shelby Miller. He's was their number one pick last year. He's a 19 year old who by every account I've heard is going to be a very good pitcher. He's standing at a 14.3 K/9 inning rate right now.

I'd agree that the AL East is the best division in the league. As much as I hate them the Red Sox will wake up eventually and jump into things. The Blue Jays are hanging right around .500 too. It's a very good division from spots 1-4 with lots of superstar players. The NL East would take it if the Mets didn't under perform each and every year recently. The Marlins are such an exciting young team, Hanley Ramirez is amazing. The Nationals will eventually drop off and it will be a two team race I believe, unless the Mets keep playing good ball and they get a fire under them when Beltran returns. Even if they stay in they'll probably choke come crunch time anyways. They don't quite measure up their counterparts in the AL yet though. And back to Cardinals pitching, another great start for Jaime Garcia. He's 3-1 with an ERA of 1.12 after only giving up 1 to a potent Phillies lineup. I know he won't keep up at that pace all year, but it's really exciting to watch. He's battled Santana and Lincecum so far this year and is standing toe-to-toe with them. Cardinals are up to a 17-8 record now with a 5 game lead. Hopefully we can stay healthy and jump out to a huge lead in the division early.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Remianen" data-cite="Remianen" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="26724" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I am honestly flabbergasted whenever I see/hear baseball fans making postseason declarations....at the beginning of a season.<p> </p><p> And Stennick, wanting Cardinals pitchers to be considered equal to Lincecum and Cain is short-sighted and meaningless. If given the choice, I'd guarantee you Waino and Carp would rather be considered equal to Sabathia and Burnett than Lincecum and Cain. Do I need to explain why? <img alt=";)" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/wink.png.686f06e511ee1fbf6bdc7d82f6831e53.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> Let people run their mouths about how great Lincecum and Cain are in the regular season. Regular season means (richard) when all is said and done, especially if that's all you have to show for a season. Only the hardware with the metal flags (and the jewelry that results from the hardware with the metal flags) matters. Lincecum and Cain can play footsie with the Cy Young while everyone else hoists hardware with metal flags.</p><p> </p><p> If at the end, Lincecum and Cain have Cy Youngs and Wainwright and Carpenter have rings, who got the better of that deal?</p><p> </p><p> Full disclosure: I'm not a fan of either Lincecum or Cain simply due to their passivity when it comes to their ballclubs. A Schilling or a Johnson would take the Giants to task for half-assing it and not even trying to build a bonafide contender, despite having two of the top five young arms in the game on the roster. Winners want to win, when it counts most. They don't like their teams conceding defeat before the season even starts. Brian Sabean is a coward and the Seattle Mariners make the Giants look all the worse (100-loss season to bonafide playoff contender in two years).</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> In the first one I was talking about a season series, not a postseason. LaRussa's big philosophy is not huge streaks, but just make sure you get 2 of 3 from every series you play. With our pitchers going at the rate they are now, there isn't a good chance that a team will take many series from us throughout the year. And it's never too early to look forward to the playoffs, that's the ultimate goal, and that's what this years team is built for, a better playoff showing than they had last season.</p>

I went to the Cardinals game the other night, let me tell you, it's going to be hard for anybody to beat the Cardinals in a series if their starting pitching keeps up like this. I saw Jaime Garcia pitch the night I was there, he was our only question coming in and he won the 5th spot. He's tearing people up right now with an ERA right at 1.00. Then Penny has an ERA under 1. Wainwright and Carpenter are....well Waino and Carp. I don't see many people being able to match their pitching in a playoff series.

I'm pumped for opening day. Sitting in the dorm room missing class because today should be a national holiday. Watching my Cardinals play and boy does Albert know how to handle his first AB of the season.

Don't believe I've ever posted in here. I've been catching up on this slowly but surely and I hope to be caught all the way up before too long. That post on the front page was a great idea as well, it really helped me get a grip on what's going on in your game world. I just wanted to tell you that I've really enjoyed it so far, and can't wait to get caught all the way up so I can give some good feedback.