2012 A good year for baseball?

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Was / Is 2012 a good year for baseball?

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Positives:

The small market A's and Orioles resurgence

Buster Posey comes back from a devestating injury

The Dodgers get new ownership with willingness to invest

Some great rookies like Trout, Harper and Cespedes

A maybe triple crown season by Cabrera

emergence of Chase Headley and (offensively) Yadier Molina

the wonderful story and season of RA Dickey

rookie mgr Ventura and pitcher Sales for the Chisox

Lots of no hitters and perfect games

Josh H 4 HR in a game

a great first half by the Pirates

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Negatves

Melky Cabrera peds

A glamour team the Red Sox crash and burn

Ozzie Guillen (yet again)

Tim Lincecum's unexpected poor season

[dominik]

Good thread.

Overall I liked the 2012 season. It was still a pitching dominated year like the last 2 before also but we did se some impressive hitting too.

the AL races were all very exiting, even the second WC didn't change that. the NL races on the other hand were all dicided quite early. We also saw some surprise teams. We all expected the nats and to a lesser extend the Os (both have some young talent) to be improved but most thought they were not ready yet. And the As really came from nowhere. Even in the As forum they predicted about 70-75 wins.

[GiambiJuice]

Why would Tim Lincecum's poor season diminish the 2012 season at all? - unless someone happens to be a big Tim Lincecum fan. Every year there are great players who have sub-par seasons, and the Giants coasted to a divison win anyway.

Surprised you didn't mention the Nationals emergence as one of Baseball's premier teams after being an afterthought for so many years.

[Bothrops Atrox]

Why would Tim Lincecum's poor season diminish the 2012 season at all? - unless someone happens to be a big Tim Lincecum fan. Every year there are great players who have sub-par seasons, and the Giants coasted to a divison win anyway.

.

Right - every year has some superstars that have a bad year. Same with Posey - every season has an injured guy who comes back and does really well.

But the rest of the list was good. Triple Crown, new and exciting teams winning, a bunch of meaningful games down to the wire, Trout, etc. Very good year for baseball.

And I have to admit, I have loved watching the Red Sox be so bad.

[Tyrus4189Cobb]

And I have to admit, I have loved watching the Red Sox be so bad.

I live in Dunkin' Donuts Land and it's interesting to hear others opinion of the Sox. My support for them has personally diminished ever since around 2007. I would rally in a heartbeat if they changed some of their ways. Maybe my reasons are different than yours. Why do you (and the rest of baseball) dislike the Red Sox? I'm curious.

2012 was good in terms of the postseason race. It didn't go down to the wire like last year, but it wasn't bad. Lots of new players doing great and some perennial all-stars doing poorly. I missed Mariano Rivera.

[fenrir]

delete post

[Bothrops Atrox]

I live in Dunkin' Donuts Land and it's interesting to hear others opinion of the Sox. My support for them has personally diminished ever since around 2007. I would rally in a heartbeat if they changed some of their ways. Maybe my reasons are different than yours. Why do you (and the rest of baseball) dislike the Red Sox? I'm curious.

.

Imagine two siblings. An older sibling who gets all the attention, wins all of the awards, and is the favorite of everybody, and a younger, lets say, not as accomplished sibling. Imagine the younger sibling whining and boo-hooing for decades about being picked on and how hard he has it and how much he hates his older brother and how much everybody is out to get him, etc. Then one day, the younger brother finally beats the older brother in a few competitions for the first time and suddenly turns into the most arrogant, prideful, in-your-face, unbearable person ever, becoming entitled and falsely empowered.

That is how I see the Reds Sox. I would rather the Yankees win 1,000x over the Red Sox. It is the difference between earned arrogance and phony arrogance.

Of course , just like I am talking about on the Wild Card thread, that is a gross generalization of the team and fanbase. I know most Sox fans are great and have had no problems with the classy Sox fans I have encountered here on BBF.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Why would Tim Lincecum's poor season diminish the 2012 season at all? - unless someone happens to be a big Tim Lincecum fan. Every year there are great players who have sub-par seasons, and the Giants coasted to a divison win anyway.

Surprised you didn't mention the Nationals emergence as one of Baseball's premier teams after being an afterthought for so many years.

not many 2 time Cy Young Winners (in their first 2 full seasons) fall from grace so quickly, he also started a ASG and was the MVP of the 2010 post season (combined), he did not just have a "sub-par" season he had one of the worst seasons for a starter in recent memory - at one point the worst SP in like the last 100 years until the second half mini resurgence

and Posey did not have a normal every day injury - it was devestating and his comeback has been meteoric and he was a rookie C who led the Giants to their first WS win in 56 years, catching and managing a staff that set a ML record going back to 1917

PS good point on the Nationals but I created this post after midnite was not 100% coherent

[Tenorman]

Negatves

Melky Cabrera peds

A glamour team the Red Sox crash and burn

Ozzie Guillen (yet again)

Tim Lincecum's unexpected poor season

You forgot the Pirates' second half.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Imagine two siblings. An older sibling who gets all the attention, wins all of the awards, and is the favorite of everybody, and a younger, lets say, not as accomplished sibling. Imagine the younger sibling whining and boo-hooing for decades about being picked on and how hard he has it and how much he hates his older brother and how much everybody is out to get him, etc. Then one day, the younger brother finally beats the older brother in a few competitions for the first time and suddenly turns into the most arrogant, prideful, in-your-face, unbearable person ever, becoming entitled and falsely empowered.

That is how I see the Reds Sox. I would rather the Yankees win 1,000x over the Red Sox. It is the difference between earned arrogance and phony arrogance.

Of course , just like I am talking about on the Wild Card thread, that is a gross generalization of the team and fanbase. I know most Sox fans are great and have had no problems with the classy Sox fans I have encountered here on BBF.

I used to like the Red Sox 35 plus years ago, with Fenway and Tiant and rookies Lynn and Rice and the great Fisk etc, I loved their uniform colors and even had a Red Sox hat, the red hat with the navy bill and the cool "B"

but when they decided to create the evil empire 2 and just try to outspend every one else also and only won tainted ped infested championships and became media darlings and were always on tv and updates on espn etc I also began to really dislike them, and players like Schilling and Manny and the rest were easy to dislike

Schilling and Clemens are 2 of my all time top 5 most hated players

Hiring Bobby Valentine was the perfect idiotic move and I saw this disaster coming although of course injuries also played a big part

I do not consider their 2 championships legit just like many don't consider Bonds or McGwire or Sosa HR records to be legit

[Bothrops Atrox]

I do not consider their 2 championships legit just like many don't consider Bonds or McGwire or Sosa HR records to be legit

I doubt any championship the past 20+ years has been 100% clean. And I would predict that from 1995-2005 or so, a majority of players were using. I doubt the 2004 Cardinals or 2007 Rockies were 100% clean either.

But yeah on the Valentine hiring.

As to the $$$ being spent? If the Cards announced they would be spending a lot more money to improve their team...I would be happy. To complain about other teams doing it would be hypocritical on my part.

[PeteU]

As an Orioles fan, abso-friggin-lutely!

As a Marlins fan, not as much (but the new ballpark's cool....)

[dominik]

not many 2 time Cy Young Winners (in their first 2 full seasons) fall from grace so quickly, he also started a ASG and was the MVP of the 2010 post season (combined), he did not just have a "sub-par" season he had one of the worst seaopns for starter in recent memory - at one point the worst SP in like the last 100 years until the second half mini resurgence

and Posey did not have a normal every day injury - it was devestating and his comeback has been meteoric and he was a rookie C who led the Giants to their first WS win in 56 years, catching and managing a staff that set a ML record going back to 1917

PS good point on the Nationals but I created this post after midnite was not 100% coherent

Lincecum actually bounced back very well and had a good second half.

1st half ERA of 6.42 (by far the worst starter in baseball)
2nd half ERA of 3.83

So he seems to have gotten over the struggles.