Fan4Life

What happened to the AAA/AA shuttle we've seen in the past to keep arms fresh?

What's the appropriate balance between enjoying this baseball season (short term gain) without sacrificing enjoy baseball in Baltimore for many seasons to come (long term gain)? Do we want to lose every game in extra innings by 1 run? An unearned one at that with the current rule.

This all is going to end. When Disney offered their online programming in competition with their own cable channel, they were telling everyone that cable is not the future. That being said, the media contracts that feed this greed will crash and reset. Players won't be making $30m a season to play sports again. I for one will be happy to see that day.

This is where I'm at and always have been. I'll never feel good about paying a player $30m a year in any sport no matter what the sport's revenues are.

Under-Commit, over-produce?

They may be wanting to keep him as a bullpen option down the road as they often like to shuttle a guy in here or there for a day to fill a need. Whether that's worth starting his MLB clock is another question.

Missing the option that says.. "I was for it initially, but It's too early to tell"

*** BUMP *** I don't think there is any doubt that Miller was instrumental for us in the sweeping of Tigers. Frobby posted that Miller would have to have a key role in post season success to feel completely satisfied in the deal. Are we there yet?

Tex being out for our upcoming series won't hurt our chances.

A testament as to just how much better Nick is as a hitter than anyone else on the team.

One more for the road.. when you say power I think power as in SLG%, not power as in how many HR's he'll likely hit. Would that be correct?

It is tough for me as well... there was great excitement when we made the playoff's as the WildCard in 1996 and made it to the ALCS. And there was a tremendous LETDOWN for me when we went wire-to-wire in 1997 only to get bounced in the first round. I think it took 3 years for me to recover from that. I've determined that for me, I like being the underdog and overachieving as opposed to the favorite and fending off the challengers.

It is anti-climatic when all the concern over the "buy a championship" approach has two of the highest spenders in baseball sitting on the sidelines watching the World Series along with teams that couldn't break 70 wins. I think Dan Patrick had a poll recently regarding who's season would you rather have: The Last Place Orioles with nothing to play for: Play a season ending series that ultimately eliminates a division rival in a final atbat or The Redsox: playing a high level of baseball aside from the start and finish but entering Sept 9 games up and sitting pretty. Only to be axed the last game of the season in a walk-off for the O's.

Rule changes for 2009 http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090115&content_id=3746071&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- Two significant rule changes affecting the postseason and one-game tiebreakers were approved by the 30 Major League Baseball owners at their first joint meeting of the year on Thursday. The first involved one-game tiebreakers, where coin flips will no longer determine host teams. Instead, now that host will be decided by a series of on-field tiebreakers, beginning with head-to-head records. If that's tied, the next is highest winning percentage within a team's division, followed by the highest winning percentage for each team in intraleague play during the second half of the season. Baseball's general managers had been down on coin flips, and at the GM Meetings in November they asked Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations, to propose an alternative. Solomon did, and presented the change at the Winter Meetings to the GMs, who approved it. "That was a general managers' recommendation as you guys know," Commissioner Bud Selig said after the four-hour meeting on Thursday, "and it was a good one." The custom had always been to flip a coin several weeks before the possible game to determine which team might host. The rule now becomes the same as the one that determines postseason seedings if two teams finish tied for the division title and both are going to the playoffs, one as the division winner and the other as the Wild Card winner. There have been only eight one-game tiebreakers for a postseason spot in Major League history and seven of them since 1969 when the multitiered playoff format went into existence. Home teams are 4-4 in those games. Two of them have been the past two seasons. In 2007, the Padres lost the flip and had to travel to Colorado where they lost the National League's Wild Card berth to the Rockies, 9-8, in 13 innings. In 2008, the Twins lost the flip and went to Chicago where the White Sox defeated them, 1-0, to win the American League Central title. The White Sox had to play a game rained out earlier in September at home against the Tigers on the Monday after the last day of the regular season to force the tiebreaker against the Twins. Chicago won, and then defeated the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday night. The White Sox had a 9-10 record against the Twins this past season and would've had to go to Minneapolis to play that game had head-to-head records been the first criteria. The Twins voiced their displeasure that they had to travel after winning the season series. The other rule change approved by owners is that all postseason games suspended by bad weather will be played to their conclusions. Under regular-season baseball rules, which remain the same, games are supposed to be official as soon the team trailing records 15 outs. If the game is canceled by weather after a prescribed waiting period, the team in the lead at or after that juncture is declared the winner.