Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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Inside Baseball From Crogan's Montclair Feb. 15th

Inside Baseball will originate from Crogan’s Montclair on Thursday Feb 15th beginning at 6 PM heard on 1550 AM in Northern California.

The new Street and Smith’s Baseball Annual magazine is out and it is quite good. We will have Matt McKenzie, one of the editors, on the show before I head back down to Arizona.

By the way, Street and Smith picks the Red Sox, Tigers, and Angels as AL Division champs. In the NL, the Phillies, Cards, and Dodgers.

Yanks and Mets as wild card teams. A’s second in the AL West and the Giants last in the NL West.

Any thoughts? Also what are your thoughts about the A’s most important question heading into Spring training?

Marty

P.S. We will post the show on the site this Monday (2/19). Guests included Ken Korach, Vince Cotroneo, and La Velle Neal III, beat writer from the Minneapolis Star Tribune who gives a great perspective on Shannon Stewart.

thanks,

Marty

0 comments

1 Randy_Bell { 02.14.07 at 11:38 am }

I agree with the Tigers winning the AL-Central, the Dodgers winning the NL-West, the Phillies winning the NL-East, and the Giants very well could end up in last place in the NL-West.  Although of course nothing is written in stone especially in preseason, heck even the predictions at the all stars break can be incorrect because the mlb season is so long.

I am not so sure about the Cardinals winning the NL-Central or the RedSox winning the AL-East.  I will go with the Yankees winning the AL-East and quite possibly the Cubbies could sneak in and win the NL-Central.  Cards don’t have much pitching and the Cubs have spent a ton of cash in the offseason.  Assuming they resign Carlos Zambrano as their ace, and if they get lucky with health {e.g. Prior} the Cubs could go farther this year in a weak division.

It isn’t just because I’m an A’s fan but I am NOT conceding the AL-West to the Angels just yet.  The Angels have great pitching but not much offense, and aside from the Mathews Jr. deal, they didn’t do much to improve themselves in the offseason.  I think if the A’s can get lucky and have a healthy year for a change, they will have enough offense to upset the Angels.  Seems almost every year the A’s get no respect.  Again we will have to earn it.  The Shannon Stewart pickup could prove crucial.

I take these preseason predictions with a grain of salt.  Everybody tends to pick the media darlings.  Remember last year no one was picking the Tigers.  Nobody anticipated the Tigers to have the run that they had last year.  And given how hard it is to repeat, the Tigers could stumble this year but they do have the best pitching so it is hard to go against them.

We shall soon see — it should be fun — and it is a looonnngg season! 🙂

2 Randy_Bell { 02.14.07 at 11:44 am }

.. to answer your question ..

.. my thoughts about the A’s most important question heading into Spring training ..

** HEALTH ** — ** HEALTH ** — ** HEALTH ** — ** HEALTH **

That will be the KEY to the season, if the A’s are healthy.  It will be the central question in spring training and the rest of the season.  We have to stay healthy this year in order to have a chance to upset the Halos. 🙂

3 Anonymous { 02.14.07 at 2:36 pm }

Sorry if I’ve posted too much but .. I also predict ..

.. the BoSox will have another August collapse and finish 2nd or 3rd in the AL-East. I am viewing them as evil empire #2 given how much dough they expended in offseason, — 101-mil just for one unproven rookie pitcher who never yet thrown a single pitch in the majors, etc. I hope this season will prove a disappointment to bosox fans and will teach "theo" a lesson that he can’t buy a championship by outdoing the yanks for "evil empire". I also predict the wildcard to come from the AL-Central, maybe the ChiSox or Twins if the Tigers win the division. Indians could be a sleeper but once again this year I’m wondering if they have enough pitching. Thoroughly sick of the evil empires of the east, and their obnoxious fans .. AL-Central is the stronger division now ..

Seriously though, bosox fans in the baseball blogs are predicting "the best rotation in baseball" and "another world championship" in 2007. They should think about what they are saying; they are talking about, essentially two
{almost} "rookies" for their #1 and #2 starters {pap and dice-k} ??
Followed by 5.01-ERA "gopher ball beckett" ?? Then two forty-somethings
{schil and wake} at the back end of the rotation ?? And the bosox fans
think that will be the best rotation in baseball ??

The Angels and
Tigers have the best pitching in baseball bar none, the RedSox won’t
even be close. And of course I am not an Angels or Tigers fan, just speaking the facts. If boston wins it will have to be with a potent offense, as they
have no closer and their starting rotation is a mixture of old guys and
unproven rooks {or "sophomores" in pap’s case}. I am thinking the
Yankees win the AL-East once again and Boston has another August
breakdown and finishes in 2nd or possibly 3rd place. Watch out for
Toronto nipping at their heels.

As I said, if the bosox’ spending spree does fail to product the expected success this year — it will be a good lesson for Theo not to
try to out "evil empire" everybody and buy a championship. 🙁 I loathe the evil eastern empires and their bully-spending ..

4 Anonymous { 02.15.07 at 11:16 pm }

Not only was the Gary Mathews Jr. acquisition a major addition to the Angels attack and defense, but they got the player the A’s needed themselves, just to have a hope of staying competetive with the Halos, who despite injuries to Juan Rivera and Dallas McPherson and Bartolo don’t take Fremont seriously. Erubiel Durazo may be the secret weapon this season. It’s just possible that a healthy Durazo plus a slice of Piazza might equal a Big Pain. Instead, however, the A’s and their fans are excited about a slowed Shannon Stewart, who without stealing bases is a very ordinary player. The A’s needed to trade Mark Kotsay and Houston Street to the Rays for Carl Crawford. Imagine an outfield of MB, Crawford and Swish (if DJ would find his stroke). Pointless assertions about how Shannon Stewart can "fill Jay Payton’s shoes" make me chuckle. Jay Payton, a likeable enough sort and a hustler, still lost as many games as he helped win with his unbelievably horrendous outfield play in the second half–which nobody seems to remember–so there aren’t any shoes to fill.

Rick

5 Anonymous { 02.16.07 at 12:01 am }

I forgot to mention in proposing Kotay and Street for Crawford that the A’s would be better off with Duchsherer as their closer, a pitcher who has more of the seasoned closer mentality and  than the young and still developing Street.

6 marty { 02.16.07 at 9:20 am }
How about Barry Zito and his new delivery? Somehow this doesn’t see like a good idea. The Giants have entered "Zito World" stay tuned. If he didn’t feel comfortable with his delivery last year why didn’t he say something then?

Lavel Neal’s comment about Shannon Stewart being one of the best in the game at fouling off pitches makes him very valuable to the A’s. Kendall and Ellis do that consistently and after a long at bat the next hitter has a distinct advantage. Put those three back to back in the order and watch what happens.

Marty

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