Which is the BEST baseball team?

And I dare say (on paper) (which means SO MUCH) they got better.

I think the Yanks are better than saint loo, too. Cards will score runs in bunches but I don't know that they have championship calibre pitching, but again, I don't know who they picked up/lost in the offseason.

The Mets are hugely improved (still no bullpen, though) and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of numbers Detroit's lineup can muster, so I guess those are my out on a limb wild card picks.

They still have enough pitching to get them to the playoffs, but I still think they could lose to anyone in a short series and have many question marks. The Yanks defense is also a bit questionable up the middle and they don't have near the bench depth that they did when they got those titles in the late 90s. The Yanks got BIG lifts from that bench during that run and I think that gets forgotten.

The Red Sox are the World Champs until someone else says different in October. I think they have a decent chance at winning it again.

The NL is wide open.

Meanwhile, the Sox lost their long-time ace (bye Pedro!) and a one-hit wonder (bye Derek!), but did a lot of "little" things to give themselves depth in the rotation (signing Clement, Wells, & Miller, who will hopefully be able to contribute 15+ starts), & also improved their bench depth (swapping Dave Roberts for Jay Payton AND Ramon Vazquez). If anyone played out of their ass for the Sox, it was probably Damon - I can see everyone else producing at the level they did last year. Swapping Cabrera for Renteria is a push (w/ the defensive gap between Cabrera & Renteria hopefully offset by offensive gains), but this is probably as good a team, if not better, than what they took to the World Series last year. Talk to me in two years, and I'll probably be bitching about Varitek's & Renteria's contracts being millstones, but right now, they are the team to beat. And not just because they are the defending World Series Champions.

(I blame the decongestants I've been popping today.)

Having Karsay back will help take alot of the load off of Quantril, who started to break down late last year. That snowballed into Gordon and Rivera having to come into games earlier. Add Rodriguez, Stanton and Karsay to last year's bullpen and it looks pretty good to me. I can't blame Torre's using of the pen last because he only had three effective relievers.

We know how close these two teams have been the past two years. Maybe the Yanks' rotation will break down, but maybe the Sox won't hit like they did last year (130 RBI each from Ortiz and Manny? Probably not).

We get 6 games between the teams by April 14, so we'll have a good idea by then.

You mean as opposed to sutures and goiter? I don't understand what kind of logic takes two pitching staffs of comparable talent, subtracts Pedro from one and adds Randy Johnson to another, and determines that the former is better.

Either way the Red Sox are the World Champs until October.

Mea culpa: the Red Sox are Wild Card champions until October.

Staffs (as I see them):
NYY - Johnson | Mussina | Pavano | Wright | Brown
BOS - Schilling | Clement | Wells | Arroyo | Miller / Wakefield

And please note the following injury math that's behind the CW:

38-yr-old w/ sketchy ankle +
41-yr-old tub of surprisingly durable goo w/ back issues +
29-yr-old stud w/ rotator cuff problems
>
42-yr-old w/ sketchy knee +
40-yr-old w/ back problems & anger management issues +
30-yr-old one-hit-wonder rotator-cuff-tear victim/survivor trading The Bestest Pitching Coach for the Big Unforgiving City & $$$$

I really hope Arroyo's not going to the bullpen while Miller's healthy.

dunno if theyre quite the best but they probably have the best name

lol their previous nickname was the 'blaze,' their colors are blue and yellow, and their logo is two elephants. loving british baseball right now.

77 Tony "Yogi" Berry

"Team motto: "Be ready""

Alternate logo design: to be announced.

I think a certain artist whose illustrations were recently (and lamentably) removed from ILX might be of use.

LOL

¡LOL!

oh shit, from the club news webpage

March 4 2008

Bolton Baseball Club announces new name, the Robots of Doom. Phil Daft promptly retires on hearing the news

that might be the best pair of sentences i've ever seen

the club history webpage, i should say

I was expecting more from the team store :\

i like how they think they can just slip "oh hey guyz we're called the 'robots of doom' now" in there w/no explanation.

it also seems that they are a particularly bad baseball team, even allowing for the fact they are british

i mean, the kind of team that gallantly loses 10-0 amid condescending praise

and they are called the robots of doom

it's almost like they're begging for a movie script to be written

good luck uk

louis do us all a favor--go watch one of their games and provide a full report.

bring back gifts.

538 ranks the greatest all-time teams, or "I Love That Elo"

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-best-mlb-teams-of-all-time-according-to-elo/

'86 Mets 62nd? I don't think so...

1962 mets ranked 2372nd out of 2374