How did your favorite team do in the first half of the season? (pitching, pitcher)

[CTownNative]

How did your favorite team do in the first half of the season?Whats thier record?And how would you say they played offenseively and defenseivly(pitching and defense).

My favorite team is The Indians.They have been pretty disappointing so far this year.Alot of people thought that they had the talent to win a world series,and they were coming of an apperence in the ALCS.But it has all fallen apart this year for them and at the mid point of the season they are 12 games under .500 and in last place in the division.The starting pitching has been pretty good for them this year.Cliff Lee is having a Cy Young caliber season so far,CC Sabathia was doing good while he was still in Cleveland,Fausto Carmona started off pretty well til he got injured.They've also gotten some good starts from younger guys this year,but also alot of shaky ones.Jake Westbrook is also injured he probably won't be playing again til the mid point of next season.The Bullpen has been really bad this year.Last year the Indians were in alot of close games,and they won alot of them because we had one of the best bullpens in the game.This year the bullpen has been bad,so they lose most of the close games they play in.Offenseinly they have been bad too.They don't have one guy hitting over the .300 mark.Grady Sizemore and Casey Blake have hit pretty well for them,but thats about it.A couple guys started to hit a little bit better before the All Star Break.Also the two main hitters on the team are injured Travis Hafner and Victor Marteniz.Travis Hafner consistently drove in more than 100 runs a year for them,and Victor drove in more than 90 runs a year for them.Hafner had a bad year last year and he still had more than 100 RBIs.All around this has just been a bad year for them.They probably won't even be able to get back to the .500 mark this year.

[NewToCA]

My favorite team is also the Indians, and I pretty much agree with your assessment of the club. However, I would add Peralta hasn't been too bad this season, and Aaron Laffey looks like a keeper as a middle to end of rotation starting pitcher. Really strong tendency as a groundball pitcher, if he can stay healthy he should be good for 12-15 wins a year for the next few years.

[CTownNative]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

My favorite team is also the Indians, and I pretty much agree with your assessment of the club. However, I would add Peralta hasn't been too bad this season, and Aaron Laffey looks like a keeper as a middle to end of rotation starting pitcher. Really strong tendency as a groundball pitcher, if he can stay healthy he should be good for 12-15 wins a year for the next few years.

Yeah Peralta started to hit alot better right before the All Star break.I hope he continues hitting well in the second half of the season.And Laffey has definetly had alot of good starts where hes allowed less than 3 runs.Jeremy Sowers hasn't really been that good this year though.I think he did pretty good in his last start if I remember correctly.I think they'll be more fun to watch in the second half of the year.I just think they dug themselves to big of a hole to climb out of this year.I think they will be a contending team next year.They do need to sign some free agents though,for the offense and bullpen.

[loose cannon]

The Phillies by and large did well. They started off strong but fell off a little after getting dominated by the AL. They have allowed the Mets to come back and the Marlins are hanging around as well. They must get right back to it and hopefully beg some team to take Adam Eaton off their hands.

The Indians have the talent. They just are having an off year. Next year they will be back. They could even put a monster winning streak together yet this year and make things interesting.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by loose cannon

The Phillies by and large did well. They started off strong but fell off a little after getting dominated by the AL. They have allowed the Mets to come back and the Marlins are hanging around as well. They must get right back to it and hopefully beg some team to take Adam Eaton off their hands.
.

I agree. The rest of the Phillies season will be dictated by the starting rotation. The offense and bullpen will be fine. But we need Blanton to be decent, Myers to come back and pitch respectably (or Happ to step in and do well). We can't keep giving up 9 runs and expecting the offense to bail us out and wil 10-9 every night.

Adam Eaton needs to go and sell used cars, I wouldn't want him on my son's t-ball team.

[j760]

My team is the Padres and we did lousy, huge disappointment. Ultimately though I think it's the best thing that could have happened to us, this team needs to get younger and hopefully a bit faster. And the constant patching holes with veterans who come cheaper might have worked for a few years, but it won't always work, especially playing in the spacious ballpark that we do. We need more speed and athleticism.

What I hope is that we can trade some of the veteran players for more younger talent, even though there is still a lot of baseball left we aren't going anywhere this season, so I'd like to see this team build for 09 and beyond.

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by j760

My team is the Padres and we did lousy, huge disappointment. Ultimately though I think it's the best thing that could have happened to us, this team needs to get younger and hopefully a bit faster. And the constant patching holes with veterans who come cheaper might have worked for a few years, but it won't always work, especially playing in the spacious ballpark that we do. We need more speed and athleticism.

What I hope is that we can trade some of the veteran players for more younger talent, even though there is still a lot of baseball left we aren't going anywhere this season, so I'd like to see this team build for 09 and beyond.

Tough season for the Padres but they have had a few positive developments this season. You've got to be happy with the season Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley (between AAA and the majors) have put together so far, and I would suspect they get a decent prospect for Greg Maddux.

[dxiweodwo]

My fav team(marlins) surprised the hell outta me this season. Uggla has unbelievable power number, on pace for 40 homers, same with Hanley. Jacobs is having a pretty good power season, but his average is only .236. And Willingham has been most of the year, and he is a HUGE asset to the Fish, Cantu surprised me as well.

~that pretty sums it up

[case44]

My real favorite team is located about 250 miles from Ranger country, where I live now. That team is the Houston Astros, just three years removed from an appearance in the 2005 World Series against the Chicago White Sox, have gone into the tank this season despite mixed expectations regarding our new off-season acquisitions. Some folks, including myself, predicted that the Astros would contend with Milwaukee and Chicago in the NL Central. So far, a lot of things haven't gone very well, and the team has been very inconsistent this year. Given the Astros' history of second-half play (sometimes in the form of comebacks), there is a chance that Houston could come back and get in the race. At this point, only time will tell, but you can't always rule them out.


In case you're wondering, since I live in the Dallas area, I grew up with the Rangers and the American League, but have given up on the team a few years ago. That franchise just never wins. Despite all the hype surrounding Josh Hamilton, I am completely convinced that the Rangers will not win their division this year, so I don't particularly care as far as they're concerned. I have chosen the city of Houston as my home away from home, and the Astros as my team of choice, and the National League as my league of choice. The Astros are the better Texas team, despite this year's results. And there you have it. Go Astros!

[ogre]

Red Sox. Middle relief has gone south since last year. They won't be repeating unless they can and do manage to do something about that.