Play ball! 2019 MLB season thread

[Matthew]

Bochy, classy to the end with his comments in the after game ceremony, I'm really going to miss this guy! The Giants played probably their worst game of the year, losing 9-0. I still can't believe the Madison Bumgarner backed out of pitching the last game for Bochy, this from a guy who gets pissed off at the least show of emotion from an opposing batter, saying how "Old School" he is, and yet can't take the mound to give Bochy a decent change of going out with a winning game. Weak.

[Dan Gould]

On 8/3/2019 at 3:43 PM, Dan Gould said:

I revise my recent comment: 10 games above .500 is their kryptonite, 5-7 above is their level. Supremely, pathetically, embarrassingly average.  

 

And the Sox finished six games above .500.

[Dave James]

Maddon out.  https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/09/29/chicago-cubs-joe-maddon-future

Edited September 30, 2019 by Dave James

[ghost of miles]

Yankees looked terrible this past week--I really think it's a tossup between them and the Twins.  Will be extremely interested to see how either the A's or the Rays fare against the Astros.  Obviously the odds are very much in favor of Houston (the team I'd bet on to win it all), but I think both WC teams could make it a competitive series.

[ghost of miles]

Via Jeff Passan, the pitching matchups for the first three games of the Rays-Astros ALDS... wowza!

The ALDS pitching matchups between the Astros and Rays are set, and they look awfully good:

Game 1: Justin Verlander vs. Tyler Glasnow

Game 2: Gerrit Cole vs. Blake Snell

Game 3: Zack Greinke vs. Charlie Morton

This has a chance to be a really, really good series.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 3, 2019

 

 

 

[Dan Gould]

Yeah but which Snell do they get, the Cy Young or this year's version?  Rays downfall will be the bats. I think they lose in 4.

[catesta]

On 9/30/2019 at 0:38 PM, ghost of miles said:

Yankees looked terrible this past week--I really think it's a tossup between them and the Twins.  Will be extremely interested to see how either the A's or the Rays fare against the Astros.  Obviously the odds are very much in favor of Houston (the team I'd bet on to win it all), but I think both WC teams could make it a competitive series.

Yep, would have been nice to see the Yankees finish the regular season strong like the Twins did.

[ghost of miles]

2 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Yeah but which Snell do they get, the Cy Young or this year's version?  Rays downfall will be the bats. I think they lose in 4.

Well, I don't see anybody beating the Astros anyway, though I'm obviously hoping that the Yankees do if they get past the Twins and the Astros do indeed knock off the Rays.  Best scenario for NY would probably be the Rays somehow upending the Astros, as the Yankees actually had a winning record against Tampa Bay this season.  They did not against the Astros and the A's.

14 minutes ago, catesta said:

Yep, would have been nice to see the Yankees finish the regular season strong like the Twins did.

I *think* we'll nose it out against the Twins, but the whole "Yankees have dominated them" narrative makes me really anxious.  And it's a 5-game series.  NY better get it in gear after that fizzled-out ending of a season.  

[jlhoots]

My Brewers are out, so I'm done until the world series.

Hope I never have to relive a bottom of the 8th like the one in the Brewers vs. Nationals game. Hope Grisham can "recover". He was a pretty decent rookie.

[HutchFan]

I'm hoping that the Braves will do better in the NLDS series starting tonight than they did last year, when they got swept by the Dodgers.

During the regular season, the Braves won 4 of 6 against the Cardinals. Hopefully, that'll hold up in the playoffs.

 

2 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Hope I never have to relive a bottom of the 8th like the one in the Brewers vs. Nationals game. 

That was a BRUTAL way to lose.

I admire the Brewers for even making the playoffs. They could have easily folded after Yelich's injury.  But they didn't.

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by HutchFan

[ghost of miles]

Three different Gerrit Cole pitches, all from the same release point

[Dan Gould]

2 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Three different Gerrit Cole pitches, all from the same release point

Sorry but that sucked as you don't see where each pitch actually ends up. Why did the guy loop it at that point?

[ghost of miles]

14 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Sorry but that sucked as you don't see where each pitch actually ends up. Why did the guy loop it at that point?

Hmmm.... I thought it lasted long enough to give a pretty clear indication as to where they'd end up.  It's from Rob Friedman's "PitchingNinja" Twitter account, which I just started following at the suggestion of a friend and fellow baseball fan.

Four playoff games today!  Gotta love it.  

[MartyJazz]

I *think* we'll nose it out against the Twins, but the whole "Yankees have dominated them" narrative makes me really anxious.  And it's a 5-game series.  NY better get it in gear after that fizzled-out ending of a season.  

• Quote

Two games up in a 3 of 5 and I'm still nervous.  The Twins looked really good in our previous matchups with them.  Now that they're home, they should perform better.  Should the Yanks prevail, as is likely, the Astros are quite formidable.  In order to beat them, the Yanks would have to make their great starters work so that the relief staff can then be attacked.

[catesta]

[soulpope]

8 minutes ago, catesta said:

Actually based on some outstanding defense ....

[Patrick]

Nice to see Scherzer back closer to Max levels. And getting the big blast from Mr. National Ryan Zimmerman was very cool. With Strasburg pitching Game 5, it's a reasonable coin flip against the NL beast.

[ghost of miles]

24 minutes ago, catesta said:

Hell yeah!!   Great game by NY last night--to me, the most significant moment might have been Severino getting out of the bases-loaded, no-outs situation unscathed in the second inning.  Goodbye ghost of 2017 wild-card!  Sevy stepped it up big-time.  Also, the lineup/batting order we ran out for that series was the best we've had all year, IMO:

1) DJ LeMahieu, 1B
2) Aaron Judge, RF
3) Brett Gardner, CF
4) Edwin Encarnacion, DH
5) Giancarlo Stanton, LF
6) Gleyber Torres, 2B
7) Gary Sánchez, C
8) Didi Gregorius, SS
9) Gio Urshela, 3B

On to the ALCS!  (Speaking of banishing ghosts of 2017...)  

Edited October 8, 2019 by ghost of miles

[Dan Gould]

[ghost of miles]

Some great defensive plays from last night's game:

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/torres-slick-play-to-end-5th

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/judge-robs-sano?t=alds-b

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/lemahieu-s-great-snag

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/didi-s-nabs-polanco

 

[sonnymax]

41 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

[soulpope]

5 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Some great defensive plays from last night's game:

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/torres-slick-play-to-end-5th

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/judge-robs-sano?t=alds-b

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/lemahieu-s-great-snag

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/didi-s-nabs-polanco

 

Yep ....

[GA Russell]

Here's something I didn't know.  Wade Boggs played in 162 games from June 9, 1985, to June 6, 1986; and batted .401!

[Matthew]

In his historic 1941 season, Joe DiMaggio struck out just 13 times, Ted Williams has only 27 in 1941 while hitting .406. Think of it, two of the greatest seasons for a hitter, and Williams & DiMaggio struck out only 40 times combined... unreal. Baseball stats are great.

[ghost of miles]

Three of the DS going to a deciding game 5. I really can’t see the Rays beating Cole on the road at Houston, but “you can’t predict baseball” and all that. Even if the Rays do lose, I’m grateful to them for scrambling Houston’s potential ALCS rotation plans.