The boys of summer! (Baseball Thread)

[ACamp1900]

Stros/Nats would be a starting pitching matchup for the ages,...

 

[Irish2155]

Nice to see a new face in the WS. Now my Yankees need to figure a way to get to the Astro's pitching. It's only 2-1, but feels more like 3-1.

Does a rain out today help or hurt the Yankees? I think both teams were planning on a bullpen day.

 

[Irish2155]

Angels hire Maddon if anyone cares....

 

[ACamp1900]

Angels hire Maddon if anyone cares....

All the important people care....

 

[irishff1014]

I really don't take any issue with Shildt's words. I mean it's a locker room, I assume stuff like that is said all the time. But Molina and some of the players? They can go get bent. Also the Braves as an organization showed themselves to be cowards by banning the Chop hours before the biggest game in the last 18 years all because an opposing pitcher had some things to say about it. They can go pound sand too. At least Helsley didn't get his feelings hurt though.

Again i agree with everything you said.

 

[Rogue219]

Angels hire Maddon if anyone cares....

Nope.

They could lose 20-0 and he'll say it was positive. The guy is a motivational poster you've seen 100 times in the lobby of your kid's dentist office.

 

[Rogue219]

Congrats Nats. You think Bryce Harper is rethinking his decision? Idk how that actually went down.

Probably will be rooting for the Astros here on out though.

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I doubt he is. He's going to get a boatload of money.

He took a better financial deal, but he's an athlete, so people shit on him for doing it. I get it. I've moved on. I'm enjoying the Nationals without worrying about Harper, especially since they jettisoned the Cardinals. I consider us all winners for that.

The Nationals are no fluke. When they got healthy they took off running. They spent a good deal of the season without Rendon and some others, but once they had a full roster they cruised to something like a 75-48 record.

 

[Irish2155]

Nope.

They could lose 20-0 and he'll say it was positive. The guy is a motivational poster you've seen 100 times in the lobby of your kid's dentist office.

LMAO...yeah, pretty much. I've never been a big Maddon fan going back to his days in Tampa.

 

[ickythump1225]

Nope.

They could lose 20-0 and he'll say it was positive. The guy is a motivational poster you've seen 100 times in the lobby of your kid's dentist office.

Maddon is a legit good manager though.

 

[Irishize]

The best decision the Nats ever made was refusing to seriously bid on Harper. He’s a good player, but he is not worth the money he is being paid. The power dynamics with him on the roster were also questionable... he and Boras had an inordinate amount of influence on decision making, and that’s not a good thing.

That’s fine but they need to move on. Celebrate your success and win the WS...don’t waste energy rubbing Harper’s nose in the fact he left. Be better than that.

Nats' success shouldn't be about Bryce Harper
By Bill Baer | Oct 16, 2019 7:45 PM CDT

Bryce Harper turns 27 years old today. As an early birthday present, he got to watch his former team reach the World Series for the first time in franchise history. His new team finished exactly at .500 in fourth place, missing the playoffs. These were facts that did not go unnoticed as the Nationals completed an NLCS sweep of the Cardinals at home last night.

Harper spent seven seasons with the Nationals before hitting free agency and ultimately signing with the Phillies on a 13-million, $330 million contract. The Nationals offered Harper a 10-year, $300 million contract at the end of the 2018 regular season, but about $100 million of that was deferred until he was 65 which lowered the present-day value of the offer. The Nats’ offer wasn’t even in the same ballpark, really.

Nevertheless, Nationals fans were upset that their prodigy jilted them to go to the Phillies. He was mercilessly booed whenever the Phillies played in D.C. Nats fans’ Harper jerseys were destroyed, or at least taped over.

Harper, of course, was phenomenal with the Nationals. He won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 2012, then won the NL MVP Award several years later with an historically outstanding 1.109 OPS while leading the league with 42 homers and 118 runs scored. Overall, as a National, he had a .900 OPS. Pretty good. He was also productive in the postseason, posting an .801 OPS across 19 games, mostly against playoff teams’ best starters and best relievers. Furthermore, if the Nats had Harper this year, he would have been in right field in lieu of Adam Eaton. Harper out OPS’d Eaton by 90 points and posted 2.5 more WAR in a similar amount of playing time. The Nationals would have been even better if they had Harper this year.

The Nationals lost all four Division Series they appeared in during the Harper era. 3-2 to the Cardinals in 2012, 3-1 to the Giants in ’14, 3-2 to the Dodgers in ’16, and 3-2 to the Cubs in ’17. They finally get over the hump the first year they’re without Harper, that’s the difference, right? I saw the phrase “addition by subtraction” repeatedly last night, referring to Harper and the Nats’ subsequent success without him.

Harper, though, didn’t fork over four runs to the Cardinals in the top of the ninth inning in Game 5 in 2012. He didn’t allow the Dodgers to rally for four runs in the seventh inning of Game 5 in ’16 before ultimately losing 4-3. He didn’t use a gassed Max Scherzer in relief in 2017’s Game 5, when he allowed five of the seven Cubs he faced to reach base, leading to three runs which loomed large in a 9-8 loss. If certain rolls of the dice in those years had gone the Nationals’ way, they would have appeared in the NLCS. They might’ve even been able to win a World Series.

The Nationals saw how that looks this year. It was the opposing manager this time, Dave Roberts, who mismanaged his bullpen. Howie Kendrick then hit a tie-breaking grand slam in the 10th inning off of Joe Kelly to win the NLDS for the Nats. The playoffs are random. Sometimes a ball bounces your way, sometimes an umpire’s call goes your way, and sometimes the opposing manager makes several unforced errors to throw Game 5 in your lap.

Reaching the World Series, then thumbing your nose while sticking out your tongue at Harper feels like a guy tagging his ex-girlfriend on his new wedding photos. It’s time to move on.

Follow @Baer_Bill

 

[Irishize]

Ron Washington getting a second interview for the Padres opening. That would be a sweet gig w/ their youth movement...and living in San Diego.

 

[ACamp1900]

That would be a great hire for a team that seems just a piece or two away

 

[IrishLax]

That’s fine but they need to move on. Celebrate your success and win the WS...don’t waste energy rubbing Harper’s nose in the fact he left. Be better than that.

Sorry, but when he and his wife continue to take shots at DC from the start of the season to the very end it's going to continue to be a story. If he had handled leaving differently, we wouldn't still be talking about him. But he's Bryce Harper.

 

[irishff1014]

From watching him and read articles on him Bryce is a complete a$$hole. So he gets want ever he deserves.

 

[Crazy Balki]

Jesus, this is just some classless and disturbing stuff from Yankee fans. Good to see Greinke play through it and shutting their fans up.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/astros-zack-greinke-social-anxiety-depression-alcs-report

 

[Irish2155]

From watching him and read articles on him Bryce is a complete a$$hole. So he gets want ever he deserves.

He's really not even that good of a baseball player either, especially for that money. 4th most Ks in the league this year. And the few guys who struck out more had 49, 41 and 53 bombs compared to Bryce's 35.

 

[irishff1014]

He's really not even that good of a baseball player either, especially for that money. 4th most Ks in the league this year. And the few guys who struck out more had 49, 41 and 53 bombs compared to Bryce's 35.

In a better hitters park then he came from in DC.

 

[ACamp1900]

That’s the thing, he’s good but nowhere near the ‘greatest high school player ever’ hype he came in with and he’s only had one year where he was anywhere near that.

 

[Irishize]

Sorry, but when he and his wife continue to take shots at DC from the start of the season to the very end it's going to continue to be a story. If he had handled leaving differently, we wouldn't still be talking about him. But he's Bryce Harper.

No need to apologize. I have no skin in the game...If the Nats were my team I’d want them focused on winning a ring...not petty back & forth.

That’s the thing, he’s good but nowhere near the ‘greatest high school player ever’ hype he came in with and he’s only had one year where he was anywhere near that.

He sounds like the Jimmy Clausen of MLB.

 

[IrishLax]

No need to apologize. I have no skin in the game...If the Nats were my team I’d want them focused on winning a ring...not petty back & forth.

He sounds like the Jimmy Clausen of MLB.

That is the best comparison I've ever heard.

 

[Irishize]

That is the best comparison I've ever heard.

I was tailgating near a former member of ND’s training staff back in 2014 before UNC game. She, very politely; painted an unfavorable picture of Clausen as the douchebag I always suspected he was.

That being said, I hope he matured past that into his adult life. And, his 2009 season has to be one of the greatest QB performances wasted by a nonexistent defense. I think ‘09 was the season he played w/ the toe injury as well?

 

[Irish YJ]

Jesus, this is just some classless and disturbing stuff from Yankee fans. Good to see Greinke play through it and shutting their fans up.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/astros-zack-greinke-social-anxiety-depression-alcs-report

Just one more reason on top of the other billion to hate NY...

 

[irishff1014]

Altuve and the astros send the Yanks packing. Altuve is a beast!

 

[T-Boone]

Just one more reason on top of the other billion to hate NY...

Well what are the other billion? I mean, just name 100 thousand of them?

 

[Irishize]

This quote from Carlos Correa to @Buster_ESPN is something: "It’s a great series. We knew they had a great team. Like they call themselves, they’re savages. But in this jungle called the American League, we’re the apex predator."

 

[ickythump1225]

Go 'stros!

 

[Irish2155]

David Ross to manage the Cubs? How are north siders feeling about that hire?

I'm just happy we don't have to hear him in the booth any longer...geesh.

 

[ACamp1900]

Fun first game from a neutral perspective... with the pitching being what is was I figured the game was done and dusted multiple times and kept being proven wrong.

 

[T Town Tommy]

David Ross to manage the Cubs? How are north siders feeling about that hire?

I'm just happy we don't have to hear him in the booth any longer...geesh.

Not a north sider but...

From Maddon to Ross? The only winner here is the Angels.

 

[loomis41973]

David Ross to manage the Cubs? How are north siders feeling about that hire?

I'm just happy we don't have to hear him in the booth any longer...geesh.

Very Meh....I guess with good and experienced bench, hitting and pitching coaches it could work.