MLB

[InnerHarbour]

Na 15 jaar mag het wel weer een keer ja.

Nog nooit een winnend seizoen meegemaakt.

[InnerHarbour]

De Orioles hebben tot nu toe 119 roster moves, wat zegt u 119 gedaan en de laatste behelst top prospect Manny Machado. Ze komen net af van een sweepje (Seattle) en zijn niet van plan de strijd om de WC op te geven. Ik weet niet wat ik meemaak, ha, ha.

ESPN

En vervolgens verliezen we gewoon de serie tegen Kansas, nog wel op Murray dag, gek wordt ik ervan.

[Dubbel]

Ik kijk niet eens meer naar de stand.

[zeux]

Phillies staan nog onder ons.

[InnerHarbour]

Was de wedstrijd van vandaag vergeten, series is 2-2 geworden. Opnieuw een HR van topprospect Machado, zijn derde in zijn vierde MLB wedstrijd.

[Dubbel]

Angels lopen het ook weer te verkloten tegen Seattle.

Machado is wel ff binnen gekomen zeg. Wat een debuut!

edit: bot 8, 1 uit, 3-0 voor Pujols met Hunter op 1. Slaat de 4e pitch (ruim buiten de zone) foul, en vervolgens de 5e pitch (ook ruim er buiten) GIDP... lekker hoor! Bij stand 1-3 voor Seattle. Zucht.

[InnerHarbour]

Ja Machado is zeker binnengekomen en dat terwijl hij zeker geen powerhitter is. Verder staat hij op het derde honk terwijl het een SS is. Het blijkt dat hij de afgelopen maand voor de wedstrijd vaak op 3 ballen is gaan ‘nemen’. We zullen zien waar dit eindigt.

[Dubbel]

Kut man! 4 van de eerste 5 wedstrijden verloren in de 11 game homestand waarin we dichterbij konden komen. Nu weer tegen de Indians. Eindelijk slaan we behoorlijk en dan stort de bull pen in en gaat starting pitching ook nog eens wiebelen.

[InnerHarbour]

Een payroll van 151 miljoen, zonder wat er tussentijds nog binnengekomen is en dan 8 wedstrijden achter Texas staan. Jullie zullen voor één van de twee WC moeten gaan spelen. Ik zie jullie de Rangers niet meer inhalen.

[zeux]

Perfect game Felix Hernandez. Heb de laatste twee innings gezien. 5 K's. Cool as a cucumber. Waanzinnig sterk.

[InnerHarbour]

Ja is een gigantje die King Felix.

[InnerHarbour]

800 miljoen voor de Padres.............

Padres sale approved by owners

DENVER -- Major League Baseball owners approved the sale of the San Diego Padres on Thursday to a group that includes the O'Malley family and pro golfer Phil Mickelson.

Commissioner Bud Selig announced the endorsement after the conclusion of the owners meetings in Denver.

Under the deal, the group will buy the franchise from John Moores for around $800 million. The final closing of the sale will be on or before Aug. 31.

The new ownership group includes Kevin and Brian O'Malley, the sons of former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley. Peter and Tom Seidler -- the nephews of Peter O'Malley -- also will be involved in the deal. Two of the four are expected to move to San Diego.

"This group knows what it takes to compete," Selig said. "They're very optimistic. I'm optimistic. I've gone over their projections, gone over everything. I think their projections are optimistic, but realistic. This is a good day for baseball.

"I think Padres fans have a right to be very happy today -- very happy."

Ron Fowler, chief executive of Liquid Investments, is set to become controlling owner and executive chairman, Peter Seidler said. He also gave a vote of confidence to CEO Tom Garfinkel and general manager Josh Byrnes.

As for what name this new ownership group may operate under, Seidler smiled and said, "The Padres."

No, really.

"Really, the 'Padres Group,'" he said. "We want the attention and spotlight to be on a great product on the field. We're going to be supportive and do everything we can to bring that down to San Diego. We're a bunch of Padres up here."

The agreement with the new group came months after Jeff Moorad's attempt to buy the team on a layaway plan collapsed. Moores' deal with Moorad, who began his attempted purchase of the club in 2009, was valued at about $500 million. Moores' divorce forced him to put the team on the market in 2009.

Selig said it's going to be difficult to say farewell to Moores.

"I saw him this morning and I got very emotional," Selig said. "John did a lot of wonderful things for baseball. Very helpful for me, during a time when things weren't, frankly, as great as they are right now. I know it's the right thing for him to do. Believe me, I like John Moores a lot. He did a lot for this sport -- a lot."

Selig said he was amazed at the ease with which this deal got approved by the owners.

"There's always a little bit of a problem here or a problem there," Selig said. "They were very cooperative. They came in and had all of their work done. It was just easy. There was no other way to say it, it was just easy."

The price for this sale was inflated thanks to a deal with Fox and the recent sale of the Dodgers for $2 billion.

San Diego fans hope a change in owners can turn around the Padres, who regularly have had one of baseball's lowest payrolls and have largely struggled since reaching the 1998 World Series. The Padres are 52-67 this season and sit in fourth place in the NL West.

"We're looking for a long, consistent ownership group here," Fowler said. "As a San Diegan -- I've been there for 30-plus years now -- I think it's great for baseball in San Diego, that the O'Malley family and the Seidler family are going to be the owners. I'm looking forward to having some fun over the next five to 10 years."


Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

[InnerHarbour]

Smerige speler die Hunter.

Yahoo

[Dubbel]

Leuk ja. En direct erna hem nog ff uitfoeteren ook zo te zien. Dubbel begint trouwens een beetje murw te raken, gisteren weer 0-7 om de oren...

edit: zo dat zit er ook weer op... nu 3-20 over 2 wedstrijden. De natives worden restless, vraag me af hoe dit eindigt.

[zeux]

Santana gooit als een absolute natte krant na die no hitter eerder in het seizoen. En het wordt alleen maar erger lijkt het wel. Misschien beter om hem dit seizoen maar verder af te schrijven. De oude Johan wordt hij volgens mij nooit meer, dus ik zie voor hem niet de rol meer van eerste starter volgend jaar.

[zeux]

Ik gok overigens dat de Mets over een week eindelijk op de plek staan die hen voor het seizoen was toebedeeld: 5de. Misschien zelfs al eerder. Verrassend is vooral dat het pas tweede helft augustus gebeurt en zowel de Phillies als de Marlins zo dicht in de buurt staan. Die beiden toch inmiddels echt kansloos zijn voor de play offs. Phillies met hun drie starters van in totaal 60+ miljoen. En de Marlins na hun shopping spree afgelopen winter en het met veel bombarie geopende nieuwe ballpark. Bij de Mets was het verwacht. En viel het eerste deel van het seizoen zo ontzettend mee. In Philadelphia en Miami hebben ze pas echt iets uit te leggen.

Eind september staan de Mets wel fors onderaan. Mets zijn 10-23 sinds de All Star Game (46-40 daarvoor). En er is geen enkel teken dat die trend omgebogen kan worden.

[InnerHarbour]

Beetje een zuur stukje hoor. De Mets hebben tot 2011 een hogere payroll gehad dan de Phillies en toen dat nieuwe ballpark van jullie geopend werd ging dat ook niet bepaald geruisloos.

De Mets stink jep het is zo maar volgend jaar hebben jullie in ieder geval een hoogtepuntje, de All Stargame.

[Dubbel]

8-0 voor, 8-10 nederlaag... weet het zo langzamerhand echt niet meer.

edit> en het gaat maar door, 1-4 na 4...

[InnerHarbour]

Wilson, stortte helemaal in elkaar zie ik en doet het dit jaar niet geweldig. Zijn laatste 10 starts is hij oh en 5.

[zeux]

Gaat lekker eerste twee innings O's-Tigers: 4-5, bottom 2nd.

[InnerHarbour]

Inderdaad, 7-5 gewonnen en de serie.

[Dubbel]

Ik heb het gevoel dat ik de Angels ongeluk breng. Hoe intensiever ik het volg hoe slechter dat het gaat. Stop maar even met me er tegenaan te bemoeien, hopelijk geeft dat ze de ruimte om alsnog een run naar de WC te maken.

[InnerHarbour]

[zeux]

Phillies voor het eerst boven de Mets dit seizoen. :-(

Vannacht weer een jonge starter bij de Mets. Goeide heel goed (7 ip, 2 h, 0 r, 9 k), maar totaal geen run supprt.

[zeux]

Kijk, dit is nog eens een trade:

BOSTON -- If one of the most compelling trades in baseball history works as the Red Sox intend, it'll also go down as one of the most humbling.

The front office faced the reality Saturday when it traded the team's ace-turned-pariah, Josh Beckett, and two $100-million disappointments with five years left on their contracts, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and outfielder Carl Crawford, to the Dodgers in a blockbuster.

Sox utility infielder Nick Punto was also a part of the nine-player deal, which netted Boston big-league first baseman James Loney and a package of prospects: infielder Ivan DeJesus, Jr., right hander Allen Webster, and two players to be named later.

"I think we recognized that we are not who we want to be right now," Red Sox GM Ben Cherington said. "It's been a large enough sample performance, going back to last year, that we felt like in order to be the team we want to be on the field, we need to make more than cosmetic changes. As we look forward to this offseason, we felt like the opportunity to build the team that we need, that the fans deserve, that we want -- required more of a bold move to give us an opportunity to really reshape the roster, reshape the team. It was a difficult thing to do to trade away four players like this."

Before the trade was officially announced, the players moving to Los Angeles were active on Twitter.

"Thanks to Red Sox nation for everything. You guys are great!" Gonzalez wrote on Twitter. "Excited to get back to Cali and be a part of Dodgertown!"

"Thanks to all the fans of Red Sox nation, also thank you to all my teammates, coach's and staff," Punto wrote on Twitter.

Punto also posted a grainy but still succinct picture of himself, Beckett, and Gonzalez on a plane with the caption, "dodgers doing it first class!"

The Sox sent cash to the Dodgers too to offset the approximately $270 million in contracts they shed, an amount of money that should allow them to again become significant free-agent hunters. The deal comes during the waiver period, a time when trading is usually toughest.

"We gave up a lot of talent, good guys," Cherington said. "Excited about the talent we got coming back and excited about the opportunity this gives us to build the next great Red Sox team."

An antagonizing name to fans since the team's 2011 beer-and-chicken collapse, Beckett waived his 10-5 rights to complete the deal. He was supposed to start Saturday in a night game against the Royals at Fenway Park, his would-be 195th start with Boston. Aaron Cook took his place.

The Red Sox, at 60-66 to start the day, are heading toward their first losing season since 1997. Cherington has now undone the last grand moves his tutor and predecessor Theo Epstein made before Epstein became the Cubs' president last offseason. It was Epstein who gave Beckett a four-year extension in 2010, and later that year, seven-year deals to Crawford and Gonzalez.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, and their new ownership showed how serious they are about winning the National League West and making the team a big-market powerhouse. They entered the day at 68-58, three games behind the division-leading Giants.

"The Dodgers have an opportunity," Cherington said. "They're in a pennant race and motivated to add talent, so they made a move that obviously they felt was in their best interest. We're focused on what we're doing here. We need to look at the entire roster and find ways to improve it. ... Pitching is one area."

In a rarity for a franchise like the Red Sox, whose fans demand winning every year, Cherington has close to a blank slate going forward. Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, too, should have a different clubhouse atmosphere to work with for the remainder of the season.

Gonzalez and Carl Crawford were introduced at Fenway within six days of each other in December 2010. The former talked of his admiration for Ted Williams, of his readiness to beat the Yankees. Crawford said if the money were the same, the place he wanted to be most was Boston -- that he wanted to stay in the American League East.

"He's shocked like we are a little bit," David Ortiz said of Gonzalez. "Adrian wants to be here, that's why he came here -- to help this ball club win World Series. To sign long-term like he did and to be out the second year, it's kind of surprises you. But like I said, we don't know yet what's going to be better for our ball club."

In the end, Gonzalez's time here was far more productive than Crawford's, but neither fit as the Sox hoped. Crawford, who has a $142 million contract, leaves the Red Sox with a .260/.292/.419 line in 161 games. He struggled mightily in 2011, playing just 31 games and undergoing Tommy John surgery just two days ago.

Gonzalez, meanwhile, posted a .321/.382/.513 line with 42 home runs in 282 games here while playing excellent defense. On a $154 million deal, he was reportedly involved in calling a July meeting with ownership to discuss problems the team had with Valentine.

When the Sox signed Crawford, the Angels were heavily interested. Now he gets his chance to be in Southern California, which is where Gonzalez was raised and became a star in five seasons with the Padres.

Beckett's time here was highlighted by the 2007 World Series championship, but a drop in velocity and a perceived bad attitude dropped his stock. He went 89-58 with a 4.17 ERA with the Sox lifetime, but was 5-11 with a 5.23 ERA this season. The Sox had explored trading him previously, and he could've been a goner in the offseason had this deal not gone through.

A 28-year-old who's in his seventh season, Loney has a lifetime .284 average but little pop for a first baseman, with never more than 15 home runs in a season.

Webster was rated by MLB.com as the second-best pitcher in the Dodgers' farm system. The 22-year-old righty is known for a nasty sinker that can reach the mid-90s. In 27 games and 22 starts for Double-A Chattanooga this season, he went 6-8 with a 3.55 ERA.

Bobby V. ligt zwaar onder vuur in Boston. Gonzalez zou een bericht van de spelers vanaf zijn foon hebben verstuurd om bij de top te klagen over hem.

Ondertussen winnen de Mets weer eens een wedstrijd (Dickey pitchte). Van de Mighty Astros maar liefst!