ECM Sports Bar

[05AccordV6]

fair weather, rightttt

[Mike]

Sure seems that way... Pending other issues in your life (Hope your mom is recovering wonderfully) could have held you back but, I think its just you being a fair weather fan lol.

[05AccordV6]

if that makes you sleep better at night, then sure, but its a whole mix of stuff that has kept me from posting more frequently in here to talk baseball smack including work

[slipkord]

While the sox and yanks battle it out the rays are gonna sneak up on yous guys

[05AccordV6]

While the sox and yanks battle it out the rays are gonna sneak up on yous guys

Kinda hard when the Yankees win every single day, lol, the Rays don't have the pitching staff to do what they did last year.

[slipkord]

Yanks got lucky the past week, Sox will come back, Rays are already 10 games over .500..........we got half a season to go man

[05AccordV6]

68 games left, season is quickly coming down the stretch, the Rays have yet to make any sort of blip on the radar that indicates they are anything more than an 85-88 win team really.  Upton is awful this season, Crawford is the man (fantasy owner and proud of it), Longoria hasn't been 100% since early on and is probably still hurt, Kazmir is a shell of what he was the last 3 years (I unfortunately had high hopes for him for Fantasy, but hes just bad this season and has spent much of it on the DL(Chien-Ming Wang syndrome?))  And your teams major issue is you cannot win away from the Trop this year.  You guys are 22-27 on the road, your not making the playoffs with a .448 road winning percentage.  Even after losing 4 straight road games the Red Sox are still a .500 (24-24) road team, the Yankees are 25-21 on the road.  As my man Yogi Berra would say, its getting late early for the Rays this year, you caught lightening in a bottle last year and made a run to the World Series, which isn't easy to do, but the Rays remind me more of the 2006 Tigers who lostt in the series and are having a subpar year as a followup.   Also now that you guys have higher expectations, the pressure may be getting to some guys.  The losing team in the World Series for the last 5 years has had a very subpar season the following year with higher injury rates.

2004 WS Loser - St Louis Cardinals 2004 record 105-57, 2005 record 100-62
2005 WS Loser - Houston Astros 2005 record 89-73, 2006 record 82-80
2006 WS Loser - Detroit Tigers 2006 record 95-67, 2007 record 88-74
2007 WS Loser - Colorado Rockies 2007 record 90-73, 2008 record 74-88
2008 WS Loser - Tampa Bay Rays 2008 record 97-65, 2009 record 52-42 through July 22 (your trending towards being an 87-88 win team)

In the previous 4 years, the average drop off has been 8.5 games from the year before.  Lets see how my theory holds up.  Also I do this type of work for a living, haha.

[slipkord]

Wow, I'm impressed, that's hard to do. I would be interested as well to see if your theory holds up. Next year invite me to your fantasy league. I'm 9-4 right now, only second year playing, might be a fluke lol

[Mike]

The Rays really don't have it this year man. Couple of solid trades by the Sox today. I love Laroches bat, and I'm happy trading Lugo for anything including a hot dog.

[slipkord]

The Rays really don't have it this year man

Your really crushing my dreams

[05AccordV6]

The Rays really don't have it this year man. Couple of solid trades by the Sox today. I love Laroches bat, and I'm happy trading Lugo for anything including a hot dog.

I think a hot dog might be a bit high of a price on Lugo, would you settle for a handful of peanuts?  

Only question I have is you have Youkilis, Lowell and Ortiz, occupying 1st, 3rd and DH respectively on any night, where/when are you going to play LaRoche?  Or are you gonna do what the Yankees do with Hinske and toss him in 2 games a week and waste his ability...

[Mike]

Oh man watch a sox game Lowell is hurting Kevin. He was a great player but, he can't really even run anymore. He's a shell of what he was prior to his injury. He's up there in age, and not recovering well. His defense is still A+ but, I would imigine lowell becoming a pinch hitter, and defensive substitute. Youk will play 3rd. We are in a little funk but, I'd imigine it will change friday back at home.

[05AccordV6]

well then that explains a lot, yeah you guys really are in a funk coming out of the All Star break.  I'm used to the Yankees bursting out of the AS Break hot, but I'm not used to seeing Boston sputter like this.  Still 65+ games to play, but even you know the season is only getting shorter and quickly.

[Mike]

We have sputtered after the break the last 2 or 3 years. It's becoming a trend actually.

[05AccordV6]

ATTENTION RAYS: YOU JUST GOT PERFECT GAMED, LOLOLOL.  I'm sorry but I hadda do it, Mark Buehrle just completed the 18th Perfect Game in Major League Baseball history, and the victims "The Rays".  On a serious note, they're were a couple of plays that kept that one going for him, including that great catch in center field for the first out of the 9th.