The boys of summer! (Baseball Thread)

[GowerND11]

This is the most excited I've been about the Mariners since I was 12...

 

[Irish2155]

Looks like the Pinstripes got it righted again. Two game lead with tree left. Watch them start down the roller coaster as soon as the playoffs begin.

Really wish MLB would do something about the schedule so the playoffs start mid-September or tad earlier.

A trip to Fenway will do that for you.

Boston dropping in 2 of 3 in Baltimore is inexcusable.

 

[Irish#1]

A trip to Fenway will do that for you.

Boston dropping in 2 of 3 in Baltimore is inexcusable.

Jake, you need to switch allegiance.

 

[Irishize]

Machado just had his best season as a Padre. By far. He's obviously a talent. There is a narrative surrounding him and much of that is his own doing. I just don't know if giving anyone outside of Mike Trout that kind of money and years is a wise thing. Especially the years. He can opt out after 2023, so we'll see what happens these next two years. Should be interesting. AJ Preller has a knack for not standing pat. I'm sure they're in too deep to stop now.

Chicago missed out on Machado, but if Mr. Moncada find his power and continues to improve his plate discipline and defense, a new sheriff could be coming to town. Chicago just won their division and San Diego is going to finish under 500. Any disappointment Chicago had in missing on Machado is well in the past.

The best third baseman this year has been Jose Ramirez. His best season since his monster 2018. Sadly, Cleveland totally dismantled everything around him so nobody knows. He just turned 29 this past month. Not sure what the future holds for him, but my guess would be he never wears a Guardians uniform and gets traded this winter if the pattern holds.

He’s been pretty consistent whether it was in Baltimore, LA or SD. He can hit for avg. He can hit for power. He can run. Phenomenal glove. Arm is ridiculous and he was originally a SS.

As far as the clubhouse, I think what we see as fans is not the proper context to judge a player as a leader & teammate.

Ramirez is great but he’s behind Machado as far as career trajectory and I believe they are both 29 years of age.

Moncada could be an all-time great…definitely promising thus far. But as of today, I’d take Machado’s skill set over any other 3B

 

[Dale]

Machado’s deal won’t look bad relative to any other in short order. Lindor and Tatis already blew it out of the water and Lindor isn’t as good as Machado IMO. Story, Seager, Correa, Bryant and more will all be eyeing that realm

 

[Irish2155]

Jake, you need to switch allegiance.

Was surprised to see that we still hold the head-to-head/potential home game Wild Card game 10-9. Not that it means much if Sale has to pitch tomorrow.

 

[Irishize]

Machado’s deal won’t look bad relative to any other in short order. Lindor and Tatis already blew it out of the water and Lindor isn’t as good as Machado IMO. Story, Seager, Correa, Bryant and more will all be eyeing that realm

Correa & Seager just need to avoid the major injuries.

 

[Crazy Balki]

Seems like the White Sox are getting hot at just the right time.

Great to see after spending a good portion of the post-ASB playing .500 baseball.

They'll need it because it's looking like they'll be playing their first two games on the road if Houston holds their 10-4 lead.

 

[Irish2155]

Jake, you need to switch allegiance.

 

[Irish2155]

You rethinking your fandom?

I’ll take Sale over Cole all day

 

[Rogue219]

So after all that potential for chaos, America gets Yankees vs Red Sox in the end. ESPN must be absolutely thrilled.

The Red Sox clinching on the road against the Nationals was exactly what Bud Selig one day dreamt in his wildest dreams.

People who have not watched baseball all season will now tune in and prove to the world that there are still massive groups within the population that don't understand sample size.

If it isn't Chicago, I hope Tampa can get it done.

 

[Irishize]

So after all that potential for chaos, America gets Yankees vs Red Sox in the end. ESPN must be absolutely thrilled.

The Red Sox clinching on the road against the Nationals was exactly what Bud Selig one day dreamt in his wildest dreams.

People who have not watched baseball all season will now tune in and prove to the world that there are still massive groups within the population that don't understand sample size.

If it isn't Chicago, I hope Tampa can get it done.

Agree with you, however; I don’t see anyone getting past the Giants. I was hoping like hell they were a fluke but they proved otherwise over a 162 game season. No reason to think they’ll shit the bed now. They’re unbeatable IMO

 

[Rogue219]

Agree with you, however; I don’t see anyone getting past the Giants. I was hoping like hell they were a fluke but they proved otherwise over a 162 game season. No reason to think they’ll shit the bed now. They’re unbeatable IMO

Unbeatable and won their division by one game.

They don't have to shit the bed. They could just not reach 11 more wins this season.

Since 1969 the team with the best regular season record has won the World Series 13 times. The 2018 Boston Red Sox were the most recent. (I am not counting 2020).

Looking forward to the matchups. Once you're in, you have as good of a chance as anyone. It's a crapshoot.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Cards play the Dodgers for the 1 game play-in on Wednesday. Both teams are about as hot as can be. Scherzer vs Wainwright, I'm hoping for a good game!

 

[Rogue219]

Cards play the Dodgers for the 1 game play-in on Wednesday. Both teams are about as hot as can be. Scherzer vs Wainwright, I'm hoping for a good game!

I hope the Dodgers win. As a Pirates fan, all I can do is support the misery of the Cardinals and Cubs, the two teams in the Central I dislike the most.

Brewers, on the other hand, I could fall in behind and would like to see make some noise.

 

[Irishize]

Unbeatable and won their division by one game.

They don't have to shit the bed. They could just not reach 11 more wins this season.

Since 1969 the team with the best regular season record has won the World Series 13 times. The 2018 Boston Red Sox were the most recent. (I am not counting 2020).

Looking forward to the matchups. Once you're in, you have as good of a chance as anyone. It's a crapshoot.

It is a crapshoot but I can’t recall a team that has avoided a slump the entire season. And remember most pundits had them finishing last or near the bottom of the NL West.

 

[Rogue219]

It is a crapshoot but I can’t recall a team that has avoided a slump the entire season. And remember most pundits had them finishing last or near the bottom of the NL West.

ATL 3-3
LAD 10-9
MIL 3-4
STL 2-4

Records against the other NL playoff teams this year. They piss pounded the DBacks and Rockies, 11-8 vs the Padres. Somehow went 3-4 against the Pirates. I'm guessing those results increase if they play 19 times like a division oppoent.

They're beatable. Everyone is when the sample size shrinks to where it is. It's baseball.

 

[Irishize]

ATL 3-3
LAD 10-9
MIL 3-4
STL 2-4

Records against the other NL playoff teams this year. They piss pounded the DBacks and Rockies, 11-8 vs the Padres. Somehow went 3-4 against the Pirates. I'm guessing those results increase if they play 19 times like a division oppoent.

They're beatable. Everyone is when the sample size shrinks to where it is. It's baseball.

You’re correct about that. It really shrinks when you have a one game, do or die playoff regardless of record. I expect Wainwright to go back in time and recapture his performance peak like he’s done all year. Scherzer has been strong but got lit up in his last appearance. I still wouldn’t want anyone else on the mound for a 1-game playoff but if Scherzer’s pitches are flat again, STL will roll LA and advance to play SF.

 

[Rogue219]

You’re correct about that. It really shrinks when you have a one game, do or die playoff regardless of record. I expect Wainwright to go back in time and recapture his performance peak like he’s done all year. Scherzer has been strong but got lit up in his last appearance. I still wouldn’t want anyone else on the mound for a 1-game playoff but if Scherzer’s pitches are flat again, STL will roll LA and advance to play SF.

I'll take the Dodgers to win against the Cardinals and then Giants.

The Giants did what they had to against the bad teams in their division, which is paramount because you play those teams 19 times. With interleague play and an unbalanced schedule, hard to tell what is what most of the time. Playoffs come and it all gets tossed out the window.

Every move you make now is in the fishbowl because every dude that's been eating hot pockets playing video poker since March is suddenly going to tune in to playoff baseball and formulate an opinon based on what little he sees.

 

[Rogue219]

I was very surprised by the amount of people that were not giving the Red Sox a chance last night. 91 wins and playing at Fenway. They were 10-9 against the Yankees this season.

Gerrit Cole was one of the guys who started to struggle and had numbers dip (spin rate) when they started cracking down on pitchers earlier this season. Schwarber's home run brought back painful memories for me as a Pirates fan, of which there are plenty, I assure you.

 

[Irish#1]

I was very surprised by the amount of people that were not giving the Red Sox a chance last night. 91 wins and playing at Fenway. They were 10-9 against the Yankees this season.

Gerrit Cole was one of the guys who started to struggle and had numbers dip (spin rate) when they started cracking down on pitchers earlier this season. Schwarber's home run brought back painful memories for me as a Pirates fan, of which there are plenty, I assure you.

I knew before they played the Red Sox would win. The Yankees were on the down side of the roller coaster again. They almost blew a 2 game lead with three games to go and needed a hit in the bottom of the 9th to make it. That's not how you want to enter the playoffs.

 

[Irish2155]

I knew before they played the Red Sox would win. The Yankees were on the down side of the roller coaster again. They almost blew a 2 game lead with three games to go and needed a hit in the bottom of the 9th to make it. That's not how you want to enter the playoffs.

I thought it could have gone either way with Sale not pitching. Yankees having beat Boston 6 in a row worried me. Thankfully, the Fenway advantage came into play - had the game been in NY, then Stanton would have had 3 bombs with maybe a different outcome.

On to another AL East foe...

 

[Rogue219]

It could've gone either way and it did. Boston was 10-9 against the Yankees. They both played 162 games. They both won 92. Neither is a perfect team by any stretch. Both are as capable of beating the other or anyone else in a five or seven game series.

It came down to one game.

Tonight's narrative is a little different. The Cardinals are "hot" and facing a team that won 106 games, including nine of their last ten because they were trying to win their division (Cardinals got the WC spot and had about a week of meaningless games) and are one of the most dominant franchises of the last decade. I think people are waiting on pins and needles to see the Dodgers get beat so they can claim last year's World Series doesn't count and their postseason failure narrative can carry on. I have long been in favor of a balanced schedule, no interleague play and a different system for the postseason (no wild cards) to make divisions more meaningful. This is the system baseball has chosen, however.

I hope the Dodgers win for a number of reasons, the most recent is that Adam Wainwright has a serious boner that FanGraphs didn't project the Cardinals well enough to his liking at the start of the season.

 

[Dale]

Adam Wainwright has a serious boner that FanGraphs didn't project the Cardinals well enough to his liking at the start of the season.

Not accurate but okay.

 

[Rogue219]

Not accurate but okay.

My mistake. Not at the start of the season, but when they were a meddling team about a month ago.

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/zachsilver/status/1443070009702600707[/TWEET]

At worst we're talking about some manufactured Michael Jordan motivational tactics. The "us against the world" and "chip on our shoulder" narrative is really played out. It's a walking motivational sports poster or meme. Nobody cares. They were given a 2% probability to do something and they did it. It's not disrespectful to not be able to predict a team not losing for nearly three weeks.

"Thanks to all the people at FanGraphs that gave us zero respect so we could go out there with a chip on our shoulders." -- Adam Wainwright

That's a real quote from a guy who played on a team that was pretty middle of the road mediocre for 140 games. The math at FanGraphs isn't trash talk. Surely there were many newly found foreign policy and medical experts who have emerged in 2021 that were able to predict their historic 17 game winning streak rather easily, though. I didn't see it coming, and for that, I am a fool.

Link to quote: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...champs-tonight

Mr. Wainwright is going to be golfing this weekend as it stands, so it doesn't matter. The red hot Cardinals are red hot gone along with the chips on their shoulders.

THAT was trash talk.

Last night's game was satisfying on many levels. Great entertainment. Play in games are over. Here we go.

 

[Dale]

It's pretty accurate. At worst we're talking about some manufactured Michael Jordan motivational tactics, but seriously, if you want to trigger people just wait for Baseball Prospectus to release their PECOTA projections in the early spring or for FanGraphs to predict the playoff participants.



That's a real quote from a guy who played on a team that was pretty middle of the road mediocre for 140 games. The math at FanGraphs isn't trash talk. Surely there were many newly found foreign policy and medical experts who have emerged in 2021 that were able to predict their historic 17 game winning streak rather easily, though. I didn't see it coming, and for that, I am a fool.

Mr. Wainwright is going to be golfing this weekend as it stands, so it doesn't matter. The red hot Cardinals are red hot gone along with the chips on their shoulders.

THAT was trash talk.

Last night's game was satisfying on many levels. Great entertainment. Play in games are over. Here we go.

Yeah and you’re missing the context which is why I said it wasn’t accurate. Consider the second quote he later had or consider the actual presser you pulled that from not just 1 sentence. EDIT: wait you actually pulled the quote from the article that proves it inaccurate lol.

“It was weird because we would be one game back or two games back and we'd win and the Reds would lose and our postseason odds would go down”

So no it was not about Fangraphs pre-season projection.

You can disagree with that opinion too but your first statement was as I said not accurate. Seems like someone has a way weirder gripe with Wainwright than Wainwright does with Fangraphs

 

[Irishize]

Phenomenal baseball game last night. It’s a shame either team had to lose but I’m glad Dodgers won. Felt great to see a slumping Chris Taylor be the hero. On to SF.

My buddy who is a Cards fan called the ending as soon as they brought Reyes in. You couldn’t tell by the announcers who were lauding his 2021 season but evidently he’s been blowing games the latter part of this season. As a Dodgers fan, there’s a lot to love about the Cardinals. Wainwright has always been one of my favorites. Great pitcher & a great human being.

 

[Rogue219]

Yeah and you’re missing the context which is why I said it wasn’t accurate. Consider the second quote he later had or consider the actual presser you pulled that from not just 1 sentence. EDIT: wait you actually pulled the quote from the article that proves it inaccurate lol.

“It was weird because we would be one game back or two games back and we'd win and the Reds would lose and our postseason odds would go down”

So no it was not about Fangraphs pre-season projection.

You can disagree with that opinion too but your first statement was as I said not accurate. Seems like someone has a way weirder gripe with Wainwright than Wainwright does with Fangraphs

I think we're covered and I admitted my mistake (sign of weakness). Thanks again.

I hope Wainwright continues to support FanGraphs. He's not the first player to mention them and he probably won't be the last.

 

[Rogue219]

Phenomenal baseball game last night. It’s a shame either team had to lose but I’m glad Dodgers won. Felt great to see a slumping Chris Taylor be the hero. On to SF.

My buddy who is a Cards fan called the ending as soon as they brought Reyes in. You couldn’t tell by the announcers who were lauding his 2021 season but evidently he’s been blowing games the latter part of this season. As a Dodgers fan, there’s a lot to love about the Cardinals. Wainwright has always been one of my favorites. Great pitcher & a great human being.

I admittedly don't like St. Louis and I probably don't like the Dodger haters even more. So that was a win win win under my roof last night.

All I know of Wainwright was he was in the JD Drew trade and is a Roberto Clemente Award winner, which means he's done good deeds. I can't abide by any Cardinals, however. Their aggression will not stand, man.

 

[Irishize]

ATL 3-3
LAD 10-9
MIL 3-4
STL 2-4

Records against the other NL playoff teams this year. They piss pounded the DBacks and Rockies, 11-8 vs the Padres. Somehow went 3-4 against the Pirates. I'm guessing those results increase if they play 19 times like a division oppoent.

They're beatable. Everyone is when the sample size shrinks to where it is. It's baseball.

I’ve seen enough and it’s only game one. I don’t recall such an unimposing lineup come up clutch. Tommy LaStella? Are you kidding me?

Buehler has been notorious for giving up a 1st inning HR and he did it again tonight. After walking LaStella to lead off he grooves one over the plate to Posey on 3-0?!!?!

He’s been dealing ever since but the Dodgers couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat these past two games. Great timing!!!

Logan Webb is a really good pitcher but they can’t even hit a pop out….just broken bat ground balls for routine outs. No one is beating the Giants. I’ll keep banging the drum until they give them the trophy.