Play ball! 2019 MLB season thread

[Brad]

A crazy man, who had it in for the Mets for whom he was head of player development. He was probably upset that the Mets didn’t hire him as Manager when Gil died. Not doing so was obviously a mistake. 

[GA Russell]

7 hours ago, BERIGAN said:

they should just move the team to Vegas now, but they won't

Is Montreal still in the cards, or was that a hoax?  Or was the Montreal story about Tampa?

[Aggie87]

Went to the Phillies/Braves game last night, my first in-person game of the season.  Was a one-run game until late, then the Phllies hit a HR and ended up winning 9-5.  JT Realmuto looks like a real player for the Phillies.  Harper didn't get a hit, and my local friends have mixed feelings about his value based on how much they pay him.  Phillies need better pitching before they're going to do much, I think.

 

It was German heritage night too, so of course the Phanatic had to dance to accordion music.

 

I wasn't happy when the Astros moved to the AL involuntarily, but now that I've moved to the Philly area, at least I can continue to root for them in the AL and the Phillies in the NL.

 

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Aggie87

[Brad]

Looks the NL WC is going down to the wire.  Mets and Phils are 2 behind Cubs and Brewers. 

Mets and Brewers have tough series against LA and Saint Louis, respectively, while Cubs have the Bucs. Phillies oddly have the night off but then face Boston.  

Phillies have a tough schedule the rest of the way. Brewers after this weekend have an easy one whereas Cubs need to play Cardinals 6 times. After this weekend, the Mets schedule let’s up.

If I had to handicap the rest of the way, my choice would be Brewers for the WC, followed by Mets, Cubs and Phils. Yelich’s loss is the wild card, so to speak.

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Brad

[Patrick]

Tribe basically needed a sweep against Twins, down by 3.5 with about 14 to play. They lost Saturday afternoon 2 - 0, and are well on their way to losing the evening contest (9 - 5 after 8, Minny grand slam to break 5-5 tie, ugh). Clevinger pitched great in the afternoon (8 IP, 2R, 10K), but no offense. Evening game pitched by the bullpen -- Clippard (ouch), Carrasco (far from back), Cimber (double ouch), etc. A nice illustration of ownership being cheap (Michael Brantley, anyone?), and too many injuries (Kluber, Carrasco, Clevinger, J Ramirez, Hand, Naquin, Zimmer). Wildcard seems unlikely now. At least they briefly led the division after trailing by 11+ games, and the emergence in the rotation of Bieber, Plesac, and Civale suggests continued success after Bauer and perhaps Kluber relocate.

[ghost of miles]

Of much less consequence, but the Yankees and Twins are also neck-and-neck in the race to set the new MLB team HR record (which was just set anew last year when the Yankees hit 267). NY’s at 285 with 150 games played, the Twins at 283 with 148 games played. Both teams on pace to end up with 300 or more, which is insane. And the Yankees have been without Giancarlo Stanton for almost the entire season (1 HR in 9 games), while Aaron Judge has missed significant time as well (he's fifth on the team in HRs, behind Torres, Sanchez, LeMahieu, and Gardner). Crazy year.

Edited September 15, 2019 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

Severino's line today for his second start of the year:  5 IP, 3 H, 9 Ks, 0 BB, 0 R/ER.  His return could be a gamechanger for the Yankees going into the playoffs.  

[Dan Gould]

No Red Sox, no Cubs in October which is both odd and really disappointing, but I think everything's set for the Yankees to crash out of the playoffs soon enough so I'll take that when it comes, especially since it will be the first decade since Ruth that they didn't win a single championship.  May I be struck dead if I've just reverse-jiinxed them.

 

[Brad]

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

No Red Sox, no Cubs in October which is both odd and really disappointing, but I think everything's set for the Yankees to crash out of the playoffs soon enough so I'll take that when it comes, especially since it will be the first decade since Ruth that they didn't win a single championship.  May I be struck dead if I've just reverse-jiinxed them.

 

You just did but we want you alive.  Wonder what is the Twins’ mindset?

 

[jlhoots]

Maddon says he doesn't give a shit & plans to NOT play regulars in end of season Cubs vs. Cardinals series. Is that "professional"???

[Dan Gould]

32 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

Maddon says he doesn't give a shit & plans to NOT play regulars in end of season Cubs vs. Cardinals series. Is that "professional"???

No dog in this hunt but certainly there is no reason to play any of the injured/walking wounded or treating the games like the season is on the line. So, yeah, they are professional players on the 40 man roster, by definition a professional baseball lineup is going to be submitted these last three days. Deal with it - the whole team has checked out anyway.  

[jlhoots]

16 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

No dog in this hunt but certainly there is no reason to play any of the injured/walking wounded or treating the games like the season is on the line. So, yeah, they are professional players on the 40 man roster, by definition a professional baseball lineup is going to be submitted these last three days. Deal with it - the whole team has checked out anyway.  

A good friend of mine who's a huge Cubs fan says they "checked out" weeks ago.

BTW, I wasn't suggesting that injured players should play.

[Dan Gould]

Just now, jlhoots said:

A good friend of mine who's a huge Cubs fan says they "checked out" weeks ago.

BTW, I wasn't suggesting that injured players should play.

I don't know how its been "weeks" as after the Pittsburg series they were in great shape and firing on all cylinders. The Baez injury was a crusher to the lineup.

As to injured players, no but Rizzo might not seem like he is injured anymore but he really shouldn't play the rest of the way. I was thinking of him in particular.

[Brad]

6 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Maddon says he doesn't give a shit & plans to NOT play regulars in end of season Cubs vs. Cardinals series. Is that "professional"???

 

5 hours ago, jlhoots said:

A good friend of mine who's a huge Cubs fan says they "checked out" weeks ago.

BTW, I wasn't suggesting that injured players should play.

I was in Chicago last weekend and saw portions of the Cardinals series. That was a killer but it was already trending downwards after they lost 2 out of 3 to the Reds in the middle of the week. They were in it until then and that was basically the season so I don’t see any point in Maddon playing this series full tilt. The players’ hearts aren’t in it and he’s probably gone after Sunday.  

[Dan Gould]

He's definitely gone after Sunday but the irony here is that tiny changes in each Cardinal game leads to a completely different outcome, and completely different pennant chase. At least when the Yankees crushed New England's heart they had the good taste to make it a total whooping. Those 1 run losses were ridiculous, in the aggregate. The odds of so many consecutive losses of that type at home were tiny.

And, I don't think they would have been in position to salvage the last game against the Cardinals if they had "checked out" so much sooner. Just had no bullets left when Darvish was sent out for the 9th.

[Dan Gould]

One other thing about Maddon and his lineups:

Maddon remarked on Thursday that he did not care if anyone complained about his lineups this weekend, even with the Cardinals and Brewers still jockeying for playoff position. The manager reiterated on Friday that he has no intention of asking any of his star players dealing with injuries -- small or large -- to take the field in St. Louis.

"I'm not going to play hurt people," Maddon said. "I'm not going to pitch guys that are over limits, based on what's best for the Cubs, ever. So, the conclusion of my commentary yesterday was pretty much, 'Understand these guys are hurt, so if you want to try to complain, go ahead and do that.'"

https://www.mlb.com/news/yu-darvish-cubs-opt-out-clause

[Brad]

They got a little bit of payback last night even though it had no bearing on the divisional race as the Brewers lost too. 

The rumors are that the Padres, Mets, Angels and Phillies are interested in Maddon. I think he will go to the team with the most  potential, which would be the Padres although I’d love to see him with the Mets. 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Brad

[felser]

30 minutes ago, Brad said:

They got a little bit of payback last night even though it had no bearing on the divisional race as the Brewers lost too. 

The rumors are that the Padres, Mets, Angels and Phillies are interested in Maddon. I think he will go to the team with the most  potential, which would be the Padres although I’d love to see him with the Mets. 

And I'd love to see him with the Phillies.  Two straight utter collapses under Kapler.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, felser said:

And I'd love to see him with the Phillies.  Two straight utter collapses under Kapler.

I understand that but I think the team with most appeal to him is the Padres. 

[felser]

56 minutes ago, Brad said:

I understand that but I think the team with most appeal to him is the Padres. 

55 minutes ago, Brad said:

I understand that but I think the team with most appeal to him is the Padres. 

Yep with that young pitching he could see Rays 2.0.

[jlhoots]

Thanks Cubs for trying.

[ghost of miles]

The Mets’ Pete Alonso has two games to break Aaron Judge’s rookie HR record—currently tied with it at 52. Yankees pulled ahead of the Twins last night in the race for the new team record, leading 305 to 303 with two games left for both.

Houston IMO is definitely the team to beat, both for the AL and the WS.  Yankees will have their hands full with the Twins, who will be eager to turn over the “can’t-beat-NY” narrative that’s built up around them over the past few years. And as strong as Houston is, I still think either the Rays or A’s could give them a really thorny time of it in the ALDS. 

[Brad]

50 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

The Mets’ Pete Alonso has two games to break Aaron Judge’s rookie HR record—currently tied with it at 52. Yankees pulled ahead of the Twins last night in the race for the new team record, leading 305 to 303 with two games left for both.

Houston IMO is definitely the team to beat, both for the AL and the WS.  Yankees will have their hands full with the Twins, who will be eager to turn over the “can’t-beat-NY” narrative that’s built up around them over the past few years. And as strong as Houston is, I still think either the Rays or A’s could give them a really thorny time of it in the ALDS. 

I assume Callaway may bat him lead off to give him a chance to beat the record but I think it would also be fitting if the two brightest stars in NY Sports shared the record. 

Still think the Yankees will win. It will come down to Yankees Houston and I think the Yankees will win. 

[Patrick]

Congrats to A's and Rays for getting the AL WC slots. Tribe just couldn't quite overcome injuries given the narrow margin of error provided by cheap ownership. And while they took care of business against weaker sisters in the AL Central, just not good enough against good teams. Following the Rays a bit more closely the last few weeks, I've grown to appreciate the challenges in the Bosox pitching staff (esp bullpen) and the Rays ability to take care of business, incl against NYY. Kudos to them down the stretch. For the Tribe, some hope for optimism given the progress of young starters Civale, Plesac, Bieber, and outfielder Mercado. But have they reverted back to being a farm team for larger market teams? We shall see. As irritating as Dan Gilbert is as Cavaliers owner, I'd appreciate the Tribe being owned by a mega-gazillionaire willing to spend $$$ in a smaller market.

[Matthew]

Bruce Bochy's last game as manager of the Giants today; the big question in the Bay Area today is if Tim Lincecum will show up for the pre-game festivities. Truly the close of a wonderful Giants era, three World Series wins in five year, that is a great achievement. Speculation up here is Joe Maddon as the next in line when he gets canned by the Cubs after the season ends.