bobcatfan

Right now we are near the all star break and Lance Berkman has 306 career home runs. Right now he is 33 years old, he has this year and next left on his contract, plus a club option of 15 million for 2011 (I would imagine the team would pick up if Lance is still healthy and wants to play). The question is, how long will Lance want to play, will he want to play after his contract expires or will he try to extend his career? I've heard that he will play past his contract, as long as he's productive. Keep in mind Jeff Bagwell has the franchise record of 449 home runs, i wonder if he will try to break it if he gets close. So he's been averaging 30 or so home runs a year, how many do you think he will end up with?

Here are the AL-NL all star teams: Lets hear your all star snubs... The only one that stuck out to me is no Ian Kinsler..wow. AL- [Hidden Content] STARTERS POS PLAYER TEAM ALL-STAR APPEARANCES C Joe Mauer Minnesota 3 1B Mark Teixeira NY Yankees 2 2B Dustin Pedroia Boston 2 3B Evan Longoria Tampa Bay 2 SS Derek Jeter NY Yankees 10 OF Jason Bay Boston 3 OF Ichiro Suzuki Seattle 9 OF Josh Hamilton Texas 2 PITCHERS POS PLAYER TEAM ALL-STAR APPEARANCES RHP Andrew Bailey Oakland 1 RHP Josh Beckett Boston 2 LHP Mark Buehrle Chicago 4 RHP Zack Greinke Kansas City 1 LHP Brian Fuentes LA Angels 4 RHP Roy Halladay Toronto 6 RHP Felix Hernandez Seattle 1 RHP Edwin Jackson Detroit 1 RHP Joe Nathan Minnesota 4 RHP Jonathan Papelbon Boston 4 RHP Mariano Rivera NY Yankees 10 RHP Justin Verlander Detroit 2 RHP Tim Wakefield Boston 1 RESERVES POS PLAYER TEAM ALL-STAR APPEARANCES C Victor Martinez Cleveland 3 1B Justin Morneau Minnesota 3 1B Kevin Youkilis Boston 2 2B Aaron Hill Toronto 1 SS Jason Bartlett Tampa Bay 1 3B Michael Young Texas 6 OF Carl Crawford Tampa Bay 3 OF Curtis Granderson Detroit 1 OF Torii Hunter LA Angels 3 OF Adam Jones Baltimore 1 OF/IF Ben Zobrist Tampa Bay 1 NL- [Hidden Content] STARTERS POS PLAYER TEAM ALL-STAR APPEARANCES C Yadier Molina St. Louis 1 1B Albert Pujols St. Louis 8 2B Chase Utley Philadelphia 4 3B David Wright NY Mets 4 SS Hanley Ramirez Florida 2 OF Ryan Braun Milwaukee 2 OF Raul Ibanez Philadelphia 1 OF Carlos Beltran NY Mets 5 PITCHERS POS PLAYER TEAM ALL-STAR APPEARANCES RHP Heath Bell San Diego 1 RHP Chad Billingsley LA Dodgers 1 RHP Jonathan Broxton LA Dodgers 1 RHP Matt Cain San Francisco 1 RHP Francisco Cordero Cincinnati 3 RHP Ryan Franklin St. Louis 1 RHP Dan Haren Arizona 1 RHP Josh Johnson Florida 1 LHP Ted Lilly Chicago 2 RHP Tim Lincecum San Francisco 2 RHP Jason Marquis Colorado 2 RHP Francisco Rodriguez NY Mets 4 LHP Johan Santana NY Mets 4 RESERVES POS PLAYER TEAM ALL-STAR APPEARANCES C Brian McCann Atlanta 4 1B Prince Fielder Milwaukee 2 1B Adrian Gonzalez San Diego 2 1B Ryan Howard Philadelphia 2 2B Orlando Hudson LA Dodgers 2 2B Freddy Sanchez Pittsburgh 3 SS Miguel Tejada Houston 6 3B Ryan Zimmerman Washington 1 OF Brad Hawpe Colorado 1 OF Hunter Pence Houston 1 OF Justin Upton Arizona 1

Considering the Astros have been near the bottom of the central division standings and have been below .500 all season, i suspect the Astros will only get 1 representative to the All Star team. I posted a number of players to choose from, along with their current stats. Everyone i've heard from says, Tejada is the choice for the team, but i'm not so sure thats who i'd pick. Tejada leads the team with a .333 batting average, which has steadily been on the decline, but only has a .364 OBP which is tied for 2nd on the team with Bourn. Tejada is always a fast starter and finishes poorly, and in his age, his defense is below average. If I could pick anyone for the Astros who i think deserves to be on the team, i'd take Pence or Wandy. Pence has a higher OBP than Tejada, more home runs and has stolen 8 bases. His defense is way better also. He has played a very good right field this year, and is near the top in outfield assist. I also believe Wandy would be a better selection than Tejada also. Wandy's era has just been above 3.00 recently, but it was in the 1's and 2's for most of the year. Wandy has been the Astros best starter, and at some points in the year has looked like one of the most dominant pitchers in the NL. Along with his ERA, his K/BB ratio is pretty good also. So while i'm sure most people will think that Tejada is the choice for the all star team, i hope the NL manager takes a look at some of the other Astros seasons before making his selection.

[Hidden Content] [Hidden Content] I didnt realize the Astros were the only team in MLB that didnt allow fans to bring food or drink into the ballpark. The only excuse Drayton comes up with for this, is that its "Houston tradition". Thats a pretty weak excuse. I think Drayton has been a pretty good owner for the most part, and i do think he wants to win, but for a guy who wants to win he is way too worried about the bottom line. And while he wants to brag about ticket prices, they have gone up a few times in the last 5 years. 5+ years ago, tickets were probably among the lowest in the majors, but now they are probably at or above league average. I go to usually 6-10 game a year, but reading stuff like this, and the astros playing as badly as they are, makes me less interested in going to games. I went to the astros game yesterday vs the Cubs. Me and a friend wanted to buy the all you can eat thursdays tickets, since we saw at the game and online that the prices on all you can eat thursdays were reduced to 20 bucks. I tried to buy tickets online though, and when i went to check out, it said the tickets were 35 bucks. The next day the ad was pulled off the site, so we called the box office to ask about getting the 20 dollar promotion. They said the 20 dollar promotion wasnt supposed to be run that early and it wasnt supposed to run for a couple weeks, and they just laughed. On a side note, i sat down the left field line yesterday and came the closest i've ever come to catching a foul ball. Michael Bourn hit a lazy foul ball that was coming right toward me. I got a finger on it, but the guy above me caught it. I heard i was on TV for a while on that play. I had friends who didnt know i was at the game texting me about it.

As much as i would like to put biggio in for kent, you really cant justify it. Look at Biggio and Kents stats from 2000 on and Kent is definitely superior. Biggio's peak years were in the mid to late 90's and you can see a dropoff in his numbers after 2000, when Biggio was on the downside of his career.

I came across this on Rob Neyer's blog and thought it was pretty interesting and wanted to see what yall thought about it. The preliminary all decade team of the 2000's has been picked by someone and Rob Neyer was critiqing it. [Hidden Content] Heres the article he got the info from: [Hidden Content] If you dont want to click on the links and read, here is the all decade team that was selected. 1B: Albert Pujols 2B: Jeff Kent SS: Derek Jeter 3B: Alex Rodriguez LF: Barry Bonds CF: Carlos Beltran RF: Vladimir Guerrero SP: Randy Johnson SP: Pedro Martinez SP: Johan Santana SP: Roy Oswalt SP: Mike Mussina/Curt Schilling RP: Mariano Rivera RP: Trevor Hoffman RP: Eric Gagne Glad to see Roy O getting his due on the all decade team, well deserving of him. Remember when you look at these, this is a body of work for the decade. But would you make any changes if you could take someone off the list and put someone else on there? I'll leave this open for debate.

Heres what i dont understand about all of this. Oswalt isnt the only player on this team that would be an attractive player in a trade. Oswalt isnt having a great start to the season, but when does he ever start out the season well?? He's actually a run better than last year era wise, and his run support has been terrible. He has a reasonably good contract that he can live up to in the next couple years, which i'm sure is what also makes him a valuable trading piece. But if we are looking to "rebuild", why dont we explore other options besides Oswalt? If pitching wins championships, why trade off your best pitcher who would help you win a championship? Here are some players i think the astros should look to trade well before we trade Oswalt. I realize some of these players wouldnt net us the same prospects, but i'd rather trade these players first: Carlos Lee: I think this is the guy we should be shopping that has a no trade clause instead of Oswalt. He's still revered as one of the best hitters in the NL, so i think we could get a lot in return for him. Besides the fact that we are wanting to trade players to get prospects and build up our farm system, heres another reason we should trade him. He has 3 more years left on his contract, making near 20 million a year, and he is turning 33 this season. He's already hard to watch play the outfield, imagine what he'll be at 36? With his size too, it wouldnt surprise me if he gets hurt with his in his declining age. He needs to play DH in the AL, not play left field for the astros... Miguel Tejada: We should trade this guy while his stock is high. Hes batting in the 300s right now, and off to a great start offensively. If his continues his recent track record, his offense will decline in the 2nd half and his value wont be the same. I believe Tejada's contract is up after this season and I doubt the astros spend the money to resign them (it'd probably be a good idea not to pay him that money anyway). So if the astros arent gonna be in contention, why not try to trade him and get something back for him now and not be empty handed at the end of the season. Pudge Rodriguez: We signed him for a very inexpensive 1 year deal and he's done fairly well. We may resign him next year, but i'm sure he'll cost more, and something tells me they wont for some reason. He's a catcher that can still hit which carries some value for many teams. You may not get as much as the other guys, but if you are rebuilding, why not trade off an old veteran that carries a lot of name recognition and see what kind of prospect you can get.

I am curious what schools in SE Texas have it and what schools dont. I would imagine that in most schools in this area, everyone goes through the dreaded universal offseason including straight basketball players. I have talked some basketball coaches about this and most of their responses are the same. Universal offseason is tailored for football and not basketball. Basketball is a skill sport and football is more of a strength and speed sport, and so they should have different workouts. A non basketball coach would have you believe about UO is that it "is good for all sports", but really its for football. While it helps to lift weights and bball players should do it, its important the kids be in the gym on the regular basis. I've been meaning to bring up this topic for a while, but just havent. What made me think about it though, was reading the discussion on the football forum about the Orangefield job, and how kids should put down a basketball and go through the football workouts (typical football coach mentality). This topic probably could be brought up on the football forum, but i'm sure i'd be outnumbered, so i thought i'd ask the basketball guys their opinion. I know nostradamus and Dicky V have an opinion on this and i'd like to hear it.

Here are the teams that are scheduled to appear in the Slocum Shoutout on May 22-23: Slocum (1A-II state champs) Slocum JV Cayuga (1A regional finalist) Martins Mill (1A regional quarterfinals) Orangefield (tied 3rd in 21-3A) Huntington (4th in 18-3A) Westwood (tied for 2nd in 20-3A) Central Heights (2A playoffs) Neches When or if i get a schedule, i will post on here. I believe it will be a 3 game round robin then records seed for a single elimination tournament. Who do yall think is the favorite?

I always like to set lines for over/under for fun. My friend and I were talking about over/under for the Astros players for the season, and i thought i'd give yall some stats and you can either say over or under for each one. Heres the lines i set for some of the players, some of them are for fun. Roy Oswalt 15 wins 3.50 era Wandy Rodriguez 13 wins 3.90 era Mike Hampton 4.20 era Jose Valverde 37 saves 7 blown saves Latroy Hawkins 6 saves Lance Berkman 30 home runs 105 rbis Carlos Lee 32 home runs 110 rbis number of flyballs he doesnt catch that the average outfielder would- 50 Miguel Tejada 12 home runs number of times during the season you say "Everett wouldve gotten that ball" - 20 his actual age- 38 Hunter Pence 27 home runs 55 walks 3 hot girlfriends during the season Pudge .250 avg 12 home runs Michael Bourn .265 avg 52 steals Kaz Matsui 125 games played 25 steals .5 anal fissures Over/under when Cecil Cooper realized Keppinger is better than Blum - all star break (Jim Deshaies)JD's jokes during astros games- 1000

[Hidden Content] I've seen this mentioned several times on the astros games and so i went to the astros site and found the link to the whole bracket. Go there and look through the bracket and give me your picks. In my opinion, the fans have already royally screwed up the bracket with their love of Ausmus. There is no way Ausmus's home run in his final game is a better moment than the 2004 home run derby with Berkman. If i were making the picks by region of who should win, here's what i'd pick: region 1: 2004 home run derby region 2: Burkes 18th inning HR in NLDS (winner) region 3: Biggio's 3000th hit region 4: Kent HR in NLCS I think Burke's 18th inning HR in the NLDS should win the whole contest, but thats my opinion. I remember sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings that day and watching all 18 innings there. I think that deserves to be the top moment, but what gets your vote?

Signups for the First Baptist Church Orangefield mens basketball league have already begun and its filling up. If you are interested in playing in the league, you can go up to the church during office hours and sign up (phone number is 735-3113 if you have any questions). People that are eligible to play are anyone that graduated from Orangefield-Bridge City or currently lives in the Orangefield-Bridge City area now. The cost is 40 bucks and the league will start when the first 40 people sign up. Games are on tuesday nights at 7 and 815 you play a total of 10 games. The league is a lot of fun and after it is over i'm constantly asked throughout the year when the league will start back up, so the league is very popular.

How do you figure OF doesnt have the talent to compete with HJ or even Silsbee? OF has Hayes, Granger and Evans (Gunstream coming back from injury too) all returning plus a JV that handled HJ's JV both times last year. Would you take Turner, Ricossa, Gustafson? over Hayes, Granger and Evans? Probably not so i dont know what you are talking about on that statement. HJ lost 2 of their 3 best players which averaged 40+ pts a game last year. Frankly, i expect OF to beat HJ next season and if they dont i'll be very disappointed. I know recent history suggests OF beating HJ or even Silsbee would be an upset, but next year i dont think that will be the case if it happens.

I think 21-3A next year should be very interesting. Most of the top teams in the district are losing their best players plus a couple other guys so it will be interesting to see who will step up for each team. Silsbee is losing Robinson and some other guys, HJ is losing Bernard and Burrell, WOS is losing Watson, and OF is losing Angelle. Silsbee may not be as good as last years team but they had a lot of talent and depth (Hill, Stallworth, etc) and a very good JV, so i expect them to be pretty strong again next year. HJ should be very competitive again with Turner and Ricossa back plus a solid JV. I do have questions about how they will score considering they are losing about 40 pts a game with the Bernard/Burrell combo. Turner will probably be the main option but this year he had the luxury of being the 2nd or 3rd option behind Benard and Burrell getting all the attention. I will be interested to see who does the scoring next year for HJ, but i know Coach Sutherland will have them ready. OF loses Angelle which hurts, but returns the core of their team in Hayes, Granger, and Evans. They lose their post player Addison, but they will have Luke Gunstream coming back, who missed the season due to an injury. His presense was sorely missed last season in the middle and will be a difference maker next season. I'll be the first to say it here, with the talent OF has coming back next year, they should beat HJ at least once next year. I think OF will make the playoffs and challenge for 2nd, with Silsbee being the favorite and HJ making the playoffs.

Since the season is over, i thought we could look back on what happened this year. Who's season was most disappointing? In other words, what team didnt live up to their expectations this season. I looked at all the teams in SE Texas, and this was the best list i could think of. All 5 teams i listed are disappointed for different reasons. Big Sandy had most of their players back from their state finalist team of last year. This year they ended up getting beat in the first round of the playoffs. Woodville was thought of to be a playoff team and they ended up getting beat out by Shelbyville for 3rd this year. Cleveland was considered one of the region 3 favorites and ended up losing in the 2nd round and not even making the regional tournament. Orangefield had expectations of making the playoffs again this year, but played too inconsistent this year, and blew a 15 pt 2nd half lead in the playoff game to WOS. Ozen who is usually ranked high year in and year out didnt make it to the regional tournament this year. I left off Silsbee because they made it to the regional tournament which is farther than any of these teams and making the regional tournament is a big accomplishment even if you think you may be a state bound team. I may have left off someone i wasnt thinking of though. Who do you think had the most disappointing season? Try not to be a homer.

I thought this would be a good question to ask everyone on here. All 5 teams will have tough paths. Leggett and Slocum will have to get through traditional powerhouses like Lipan and Nazareth. Tenaha plays Roscoe in the semis and would get the winner of Plains/San Antonio Stacey. New Waverly plays Shallowater and gets the winner of Ponder/Santa Rosa. Hardin Jefferson has to get through 2 tough teams like Lubbock Estacado and winner of Dallas Madison/Stafford. I was at the 1A regional finals yesterday and i heard from different people that the winner of the Cayuga/Tenaha game may have been the state title game. Slocum and New Waverly were considered favorites to get to state this season, but they will have a tough time with traditional power teams like Lipan, Nazareth and Ponder. I know Hardin Jefferson will probably win this poll because of the fans on here, but i think if HJ fans were honest, most didnt expect them to be here and i have hard time seeing them beating Lubbock Estacado and Dallas Madison (but they have a great coach in Sutherland so who knows). If i had to put actual money on this poll, i'd pick Tenaha or Slocum.

I dont care if they've already been picked and people know who is what. The whole point of this post is i'm asking for everyones opinions. I'm sure the all district selections will be posted at some point in the next week or 2. I'm asking though if you could pick the team, how would you pick it? Lets get some opinions and lists...

Bobcat05, why is 7 so surprising? The girls had 6 per team on the team you just posted for this year and the boys had 7 last year. It usually depends on the coaches determining how many are deserving and how much talent is in the district. HJ2012, you may want to modify your selections because a player that wins a superlative isnt on 1st or 2nd team.

In a week or 2, the season will be over for 21-3A and all district selections will be made. I thought i'd start this thread and see if anyone can predict who gets all district and the superlatives. Last season, there was MVP, off MVP, def MVP, newcomer of the year, coach of the year, and 7 1st and 2nd teamers each. That leaves 14 spots for 2 teams plus 4 superlatives for 18 spots. I'll name some possible players and you fill in the blanks: MVP: ? Offensive MVP: ? Defensive MVP: ? Newcomer of the year: ? Coach of the year: ? 1st team all district 1 - 7 ? 2nd team all district 1 - 7 ? Here are a list of possible names i came up with, maybe theres a few more you can add. Shannon Robinson - Silsbee DC Stallworth - Silsbee Pheal Hill - Silsbee Byars - Silsbee Walters - Silsbee Jarvis Bernard - HJ Jacoby Turner - HJ Ricossa - HJ Trey Burrell - HJ Quest Watson - WOS Green - WOS Davis - WOS Zach Hayes - OF Tyler Angelle - OF Garret Granger - OF Derrick Evans - OF Nate Mcanelly - BC Adams - HF How many of these names would qualify for newcomer of the year? I know Granger from Orangefield would qualify and be an excellent choice, just wondering who else would be considered.

Here are some more scores from all over east Texas. All the teams and games from 5A region 2, 4A region 2, 3A region 3, 3A region 2, 2A region 2, 2A region 3, 1A region 3, 1A div 2 region 3, 1A div 2 region 4 are listed. After each night all the playoff scores from these regions are posted and will be posted after each playoff game. [Hidden Content]

This was a frustrating game to watch and heres what happened. Orangefield led the entire game until the last 2 minutes of the game. Evans was on fire in the first half hitting 6 3 pointers. In the 2nd half, he only took a couple shots. Orangefield was 2-12 from the free throw line until the last couple minutes. But the thing about this game i'll always remember which i think determined the game was that Zach Hayes fouled out with 6 minutes left in the game. OF went on to score 2 points over the next 5 minutes which allowed WOS to come back and win this game. The refereeing was good with the exception of a couple very questionable calls on Hayes. Not only that, i only counted 4 fouls on him but he somehow had 5 which was likely an error by the scores table. His "5th" foul was also called on the wrong person. Another one of his fouls he got knocked to the ground (which shouldve been a charge) then a guy shoots and #55 gets the rebound and trips over Hayes and Hayes gets a foul call. Theres no doubt in my mind if Hayes doesnt foul out that OF wins the game tonight. Give WOS credit for coming back. Quest Watson pretty much was the man for them. He's very good, and i'll be surprised if he doesnt get 1st team all district. Good luck to WOS in bidistrict vs Coldspring, i think they should be able to win this game.

I didnt think it was that bizarre. Probably the most bizarre part of the end was that OF's 2 best shooters missed the 1st of a 1 and 1 in the last minute and a half. WOS had the ball with 30 seconds left and on their last possession turned the ball over and Sparks was fouled on the steal. He misses the first free throw again, WOS gets the rebound and calls timeout with 2 seconds left. They throw a long pass to around the top of the key that gets tipped, and bounces a couple of times and out of bounds. The clock operator never started the clock on the obvious tipped ball, so the refs got together and determined 2 seconds ran off on the play and said game over. That was a gritty effort by OF, they looked much better than the first time they played WOS. It was a very intense game and great atmosphere. The playoff game friday should be a good one.

[Hidden Content] Check out the regional tournament predictions posted, go the link and make your own predictions for who you think will be in the regional tournament. Many southeast texas teams are in those picks.

I figure this thread was gonna get started at some point so i'll start it now. The first time these 2 teams played i thought Orangefield came out flat and didnt look like they wanted it as bad as WOS. I was very impressed with WOS in that game, so i know Orangefield winning at WOS will be a tough task. WOS has always been a tough place to play too. Orangefield has played some good ball lately though, almost upsetting HJ at home, being ahead of Silsbee in the first half on the road, and looking fairly good beating BC last night. I dont know how WOS has been playing, i can only go by the score that i saw last night, maybe HJ fans can tell me how WOS looked last night. Orangefield was in this same situation last year, needing a win on the road to force a 3rd place tie, and many on this board doubted they could win. I think OF will be the underdog in this game, but if OF can win @ WOS, they would have a great shot of winning the playoff game. What do yall think though.

You kind of contradict your theory with this statement. You say because the last two freshman teams for HJ has done so well, that they will dominate Silsbee in a couple of years yet that freshman team that went 23-0 last year, who are now HJ's JV, has lost to Silsbee's JV this year. Silsbee's JV is undefeated in district, that's all that matters. Yes, you guys got a few soph. on varsity, 3 to be exact, but Silsbee has 4 soph. on varsity, 2 which are starters. Predicting domination at the varsity level based on freshman results is pretty idiotic. Lot's of things change over time. Since there is a thread about the JV teams, i thought it should be pointed out that while Silsbee's JV is 1st in district, OF JV has only 1 loss in district and that was to Silsbees JV in a very competitive game. OF has beaten HJ's JV twice and last nights win was by 20 pts. OF's JV has 2 juniors, 1 freshman, and the rest sophomores. OF JV doesnt thrive on talent, but they play smart and very hard. The OF 9th grade is fairly thin on talent, but the 8th grade team is very deep and talented. OF plays Silsbees JV tuesday night to try to get a share of 1st place in distrct. I expect it to be a very good game like last time.