Major League Baseball Thread - 2018 Season

[DirtyDeeds]

Looks like there are still signs of life in Toronto.

God almighty do Fox baseball broadcasts suck.

[DirtyDeeds]

Duda! Duda! Oh Duda Day!

[Apollo]

Has anybody on here umpired baseball? I have, not professionally of course, but I did it as a teenager. So I was umpiring kids, and would ump games for 'kids' who were 2 years younger than me. IE: My age was 17, and the players were 15.

It's not as easy as it looks. And the fans(parents) can be real assholes when a call doesn't go their way.

Oh well, just wanted to chime in on the umpire thing. Because I've come across a lot of people over the years who rip on the umpire any chance they get, but have never done it themselves.

I've umpired 100s of games over the years.

Behind the plate the only real thing you can so is to offer consistency. And do not hold a grudge.

While in college, for extra money, I umpired 5-6 adult softball games a day on the weekend. As you could imagine adult softball players didn't automatically give the long haired 18 year old kid a lot of respect.

What parents and fans don't realize is that they don't always see things correctly. Often people think they see something - but in reality, they are mistaken.

I won't bore you with the long story. But a few years ago I ended up sitting directly parallel to the end line for a regional championship basketball game. I was in the front row, court side, ten feet away from the baseball line.

Two controversial calls happened in the final minute. Both on the baseline. Both right in front of me. The officials got both calls 100% correct.

But the calls were against the home team. Fans were livid. Losing their minds that the refs screwed us.

Five years later locals are still saying how horrible the calls were. And pointing out with great description of what "actually" happened. But those fans didn't see what they thought they saw.

Hundreds of fans were 100% wrong. But would swear to you that the ref blew it.

So as an umpire or ref or official you just gotta do your best, realize people are getting mad even tho they are actually wrong, and to control the game without your own emotion.

It's a thankless job. Everybody hates the umpire.

Hell, I've thrown parents out if a T-ball game before.

[downzy]

Got to give the Mets a lot of credit. I was dead wrong back in August when I saw them as an average team playing in the weakest division in baseball.

Congrats on the Mets for making it to the World Series. I hope Jerry Seinfeld gets his wish and the Jays end up being the opposing team.

[DirtyDeeds]

This says it all!!!!!!!

Arts and crafts was never my strength. Also there may be a handful of small errors in the scorecard, especially regarding balls and strikes. It's okay; the Cubs catcher Ross had some trouble with that today, too :-P

[DirtyDeeds]

Hey, everyone can agree this is good:

• Tuesday's NLCS Game 3 between the Cubs and Mets on TBS averaged 9.2 million total viewers. It was the network's most watched LCS Game 3 ever and most viewed NLCS game of all time.

Source: http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/155186264/hector-rondon-hits-water-fountain-with-bat

[DirtyDeeds]

axlslash, tried to send you a PM but your box must be full. Anyway, I'll just copy and paste it here.

Hey axlslash,

You and your Cubs had a great season. I know what it's like for your team to break your heart repeatedly, but I don't want to dwell on that. Anyway, I'm genuinely curious to know if you have any pictures from your time at Wrigley in the NLDS. I'd love to see them if you do. Maybe you could post them in the baseball thread? I've always wanted to be in a postseason atmosphere. It must be just awesome. I'm jealous of you for having gone. I hope one day I'll be able to score tickets like that, too, especially to a game where the Mets are A) at home, B ) winning, and C) clinch, move on to a next round, or win a championship. That would be incredible, and I'm so happy for you that you got to experience that.

[downzy]

Well, I spaced this morning and completely missed the window for World Series tickets. I suppose the likelihood of the Jays making it to the World Series still aren't great, but with Price starting tomorrow and Stroman throwing a possible game 7, I still like the Jays chances.

[Apollo]

So glad Mattingly is gone.

Next that needs to go is McGwire.

[DirtyDeeds]

Well, I spaced this morning and completely missed the window for World Series tickets. I suppose the likelihood of the Jays making it to the World Series still aren't great, but with Price starting tomorrow and Stroman throwing a possible game 7, I still like the Jays chances.

All the Jays have to do is win 2 games. That happening is not so hard to believe.

[classicrawker]

The Yankee fan in me wants to root against the Mets just on principal but as a New Yorker I would love to see them bring the trophy back to NYC.

Congrats to them for a dominating series win over the Cubbies. Their young pitching staff is just awesome to watch and if they stay healthy should only get better. If they can resign Cespedes and add a bat or two they could have a nice WS run in the next several years.

Could this staff have more talent then the 69 Mets staff of Seaver, Koosman, Gentry, Caldwell and McAndrew?

[downzy]

Well, I spaced this morning and completely missed the window for World Series tickets. I suppose the likelihood of the Jays making it to the World Series still aren't great, but with Price starting tomorrow and Stroman throwing a possible game 7, I still like the Jays chances.

All the Jays have to do is win 2 games. That happening is not so hard to believe.

If the Jays win the sixth game, and it's not an unreasonable bet that Price will finally be able to piece together a decent to great outing, I like the Jays match of Stroman vs. Cueto. With the exception of the game 5 game against the Astros, Cueto is definitely beatable.

[axlslash]

axlslash, tried to send you a PM but your box must be full. Anyway, I'll just copy and paste it here.

Hey axlslash,

You and your Cubs had a great season. I know what it's like for your team to break your heart repeatedly, but I don't want to dwell on that. Anyway, I'm genuinely curious to know if you have any pictures from your time at Wrigley in the NLDS. I'd love to see them if you do. Maybe you could post them in the baseball thread? I've always wanted to be in a postseason atmosphere. It must be just awesome. I'm jealous of you for having gone. I hope one day I'll be able to score tickets like that, too, especially to a game where the Mets are A) at home, B ) winning, and C) clinch, move on to a next round, or win a championship. That would be incredible, and I'm so happy for you that you got to experience that.

My inbox was full, I had no idea! Cleared it out, so there's space now.

It was a tough way to end the season, no question about that. To come out of that Cardinal series with a real feeling that this could be the year and to not get there sucks. But it felt super different from 2003. For one thing, we didn't piss anything away. There was never a point in this series that made me think "If we had done these three things differently, we win," where 2003 had the entire 8th inning of game 6, complete with wild pitches and botched double plays (I refuse to include Steve Bartman in the list of things that went wrong, because the team had at least 2 blown chances to recover from it before things got out of hand). Yeah, from the 2nd half of Game 3 on it felt like the Cubs gave up, and I think to a large extent they did, but the Mets were just the better team. More veteran leadership, more overall experience, and the most inhuman playoff performance I have ever seen from Dan Murphy. So it sucks to lose, but it doesn't feel like we fucked up, and that's a nice change from literally every Cubs playoff team I have seen in my lifetime.

This article from ESPN does a marvelous job of summing up my feelings on this season. It ended painfully, but it was one hell of a fuckin' ride. We got a 20-game winner with a no-hitter who should win the Cy Young Award. We have the rookie of the year and the manager of the year. We had the biggest win differential in baseball, having added twenty-four wins from 2014 to 2015. And unlike the 2003 team, which felt like a group of veterans giving it one last shot (with the exception of Wood, Prior, and Zambrano), this is a young team with a solid core that won't be leaving for a good long time. The Cubs will be back in the NLCS sooner than later, and we will be better for having had this experience. What I particularly love about this article is how blunt Maddon was. It really sounds like he walked into the clubhouse and said "You get half an hour to be upset that we lost tonight. After that, we are celebrating the amazing year we just had, and we are only focusing on the positives." And it sounds like the team have really taken that message to heart. I haven't been this excited about the team to start an off-season in a long time, if ever. To lose sucks, but we have a lot to look forward to.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/35561/despite-rough-ending-the-chicago-cubs-are-now-built-to-expect-success

I have pictures but haven't gotten them uploaded yet. If you want a taste of the atmosphere, though, here's what it looks like from 8 rows behind the dugout when a playoff-starved fanbase sees its team vanquish its bitterest rival, in its first-ever home playoff clinch, to head to the NLCS (sorry for Blair Witch cinematography, I was a little excited):

https://vid.me/OQp0

Edited October 22, 2015 by axlslash

[Apollo]

Axl's - you really think jake deserves the Cy Young over Grienke!

Grienke had a better winning %, lower ERA and lower WHIP. Grienke never lost more than one game in any month of the season, while Jake was 7-5 through the first three months of the year.

Jake went like 10-0 to close out the year which is phenomenal.

But Grienke dominated the entire season, not just 70% of it.

How can you vote against a guy who had a 19-3 record with the lowest ERA and WHIP in baseball?

Look at Grienke's line in his three losses

6 innings, 1 run

8 innings, 2 runs

7 innings, 3 runs

Grienke only gave up 4 or more runs in a game twice. He essentially has two bad starts out of 32 starts.

And he only gave up 3 or more runs in a game six times. Arrieta did it eight times.

Grienke should win the Cy Young. Without a doubt.

But Jake will probably get it because of his second half of the season and the good will story of the Cubs.

[axlslash]

I look at the Cy Young as more than just "best statistical pitcher." I look at it as more of an "MVP for pitchers" category, so I want to see value added to the team more than just statistical dominance. Did Greinke dominate all year? Yeah, for sure. Did Jake? Not nearly to the same extent. But after going 7-5, Jake won 20 games. Greinke did not. And I think to have a .75 ERA for three months is more impressive than having a 1.80 ERA for 6 months. But here's the stat that really gets me: when Arrieta pitched after a loss in the regular season, I believe he was 12-1 and the team was 13-2 or something along those lines. In other words, the Cubs couldn't lose more than 4 games in a row, because Arrieta could stop the skid on a dime. To me, that is a contribution that goes beyond win percentage or ERA.

None of that is to discredit Greinke. I won't be disappointed if he wins it. I think it's ridiculous that one of those two guys' stat lines is going to go unrewarded, because those are two all-time great seasons of pitching. I think to say that either should win "without a doubt" discredits the other. Both had absolutely mindblowing seasons, both deserve the award, and we'll see who ends up with it.

[bran]

congrats to the mets they did a hell of a job this season.

as for the cubs no shame in how the season, they are on the right track and IMO they will get a championship soon, this team will only get better and will get more experience.

[DirtyDeeds]

It's only fair that the Mets won the pennant this year. If I know their ownership (and most other Met fans feel this way), they have no plans to shell out to invest in a couple of our stars whose contracts are up in two weeks. This is our one chance. The first half of the season showed us that incredible pitching can only get you to .500 baseball or so at best. With no offense, you can't cross that line into being an elite team (of course). We will be losing half our offense after this World Series.

The Cubs on the other hand, are nothing but promising. From your lineup of young stars that will be with you for years to come, to your front office that is committed to making the investments that will build a championship team, your organization is in fine shape.

On a happy but somewhat worried note, I just made arrangements to pretty much not work on any World Series days so I can watch the games. Now I need to figure out if I can work all the other days, or early on WS days so that I can pay my bills! lol This is too rare and exciting a time to miss because I'm stuck working a crappy job.

Edited October 23, 2015 by DirtyDeeds

[downzy]

Maybe the trend continues today?

[axlslash]

I totally feel that. The Cubs' 03, 07, and 08 teams were totally not built to last. Sosa was gone by 05, Soriano was already over the hill in 07-08, and once Castro came up in '08 our farm system was fairly depleted.

This time? Castro is the longest tenured member of the team with 7 years served. Everyone else joined the club later. Plus, even with most of our top tier prospects in the bigs, we STILL have the top-ranked farm system. Our prospects are so deep that I've seen articles say "yeah, Dex Fowler is probably leaving, but signing Jason Heyward won't work because Eddy Julio Martinez will come up during his projected contract." That's an insane thing to be able to say. "We probably shouldn't sign one of the best outfielders in the game because we may have a better one soon and our farm system is already overcrowded." It's hard to believe that the Cubs are as good as they are and this isn't even their final form.

The Mets have a lot of guys playing out of their minds, and at just the right time. Cespedes and Murphy are going to get PAID wherever they play next year. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see the Mets lock up at least a couple of those big pieces and stay in contention for a few more years at least.

[downzy]

It looked good for the Jays with Bautista's second blast of the game, but can't deny the persistence of this KC team. Still a half inning left, but either way, it's been a fun post season and a great regular season for Jays fans.

[Bono]

Sucks for the Jays to leave two sranded on 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out in the top of the 9th Heartbreaker for them. Relief for KC

[downzy]

Runner on third with no one out and you can't drive him home: you don't deserve to win.

Thought for sure they were going to try the squeeze play with Revere at bat. With Pompei at third, even with the infield playing well in, I still like the Jays chances if Revere drops a decent bunt.

Oh well. Lots of my friends on Facebook are lamenting the "home run" catch in the second inning. For me, it's moot. The Jays went 0 for 12 tonight with runners in scoring position. A key hit here or there and that catch wouldn't have factored in.

Congrats to the Royals. Should be a fun World Series.

[bran]

should be a good series, seems pretty evenly matched IMO

[DirtyDeeds]

I'm obviously biased but I like the Mets chances. I don't think Kansas City pitching is that impressive, but New York's certainly is, and both Citi Field and Kaufman Stadium are pitcher-friendly parks. So long as New York's bats didn't cool down too much in the week off, I say Mets in 5 games. Let's win this at home.

Let's go Mets!

Edited October 24, 2015 by DirtyDeeds

[classicrawker]

KC's pitching did a pretty good job on the best hitting team in baseball so I would not discount them. As I said in an earlier post the Royals don't look that impressive on paper but that is a nicely balanced team so it should be a great World Series.