MLB Thread

[tom87]

5 minutes ago, smittykins said:

So can Oakland still use a DH, or will their pitcher have to hit?

It is an American League Park they can use the DH.   That is just SF choice to let him bat.  

[smittykins]

Ok, thanks.  

[AndreaK1041]

Apparently it's always an option to have your pitcher hit in the DH position, but it hasn't happened in 40 years.

Related comment: I know in the grand scheme of this season my beloved Oakland is terrible and will not make the playoffs, and the loathsome Giants will win another even year World Series, but I sure have enjoyed the last three nights of Oakland winning. I appreciate the terrible errors the Giants are making to throw us a bone.

[King of Birds]

1 hour ago, AndreaK1041 said:

and the loathsome Giants will win another even year World Series

This just needed special citation - the loathsome Giants! Love it.

[Rick Kitchen]

Boooo!!! Giants all the way!!

[Mittengirl]

Are there really people who enjoy listening to Chris Berman impersonating a demented chicken during the home run derby?

[tom87]

46 minutes ago, Mittengirl said:

Are there really people who enjoy listening to Chris Berman impersonating a demented chicken during the home run derby?

I don't enjoy Chris Berman doing anything except signing off.

[rippleintime17]

I've been in the Bay Area for a week and never truly understood breakfast baseball until Wednesday, when for the first time, I was literally still lazing in bed when the first game of the day had already begun. Usually I don't adjust that well to the time zones or am already out and about for the day and it doesn't feel so early! It's weird, but fun!

I also went to a BUNCH of games this week, most of them nuts, including the last three Bay Bridge series games. Last night's was definitely an improvement on the others and getting to cheer for Bumgarner getting a double & starting a huge offensive explosion after the Giants chose to let him hit for himself in an AL park was lots of fun. There was lots of excitement in the stadiums all three nights, fun to experience that rivalry a bit and now I can check the Coliseum of of my list of ballparks too.

[King of Birds]

Ya know when I made that poll for "Which Mets player needs to get a statue"? 

I erred. (I know! ME! Whodathunkit?)

The one true Met deserving of a statue is the man who has a baseball day named after him! Happy Bobby Bonilla Day everyone!

As the link will tell you, this is more about how Bernie Madoff screwed the Wilpons, but ... that was just karma since it showed even the 1% can be screwed as much as the rest of us. And it's so much easier to just wish everyone a Bobby Bonilla Day.

[Rick Kitchen]

Whew, Madison Bumgarner stopped the bleeding against the A's.  Now, on to Arizona.

[mojoween]

Cleveland is trying to get to 14 wins in a row and decided the best way to try to do that was to play two games in one.  It's currently the bottom of the 18th.

[cleo]

I can't believe Goins made it through that inning. What a sport to get up there for the first time.

Whoever wins, both teams have been great.

I couldn't watch Storen pitch though. I thought it was going to end there.

[Bort]

At a beer tasting that's going on at the Astros game before it starts. Like I needed another incentive to go. Free beer!

[roamyn]

14 baby!  In a marathon 19 inning, 6+ hour game!

And two infielders pitching for the Jays!  Who's gonna pitch tomorrow for the Tribe?  Kluber?  On short rest?  Will they call someone up?

Maybe LeBron's available?

[ketchuplover]

Go Indians !!!

[Crs97]

If I were Barney, I would have a lot of fun today after striking out Napoli.  There should be a lot of chatter on the bases today!

[mojoween]

Damn Blue Jays.  But it was a good run for the Tribe!

[Crs97]

It was a great streak, but I don't mind the Tribe losing.   The last thing I wanted to happen was for them to start playing tight because they got wrapped up in keeping the streak alive.  Now they can just start a new streak.  Anyway, we Clevelanders have already seen what happens when a team gets too wrapped up in a regular season record!

[roamyn]

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

Damn Blue Jays.  But it was a good run for the Tribe!

Hey it's a good omen!

The Cavs swept Detroit & Atlanta, then took the first two from Toronto.  Now the exact same thing just happened to the Tribe.

And we all know what happened to the Cavs season!

[smittykins]

The Angels have put up a 20-spot against the Red Sox--and it's only the 7th inning.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

I thought I was just seeing things incorrectly when I first saw that game score while trying to find my own team's game on tv. Ouch!

[ebk57]

I think the O's should get out of Seattle as soon as possible.

[smittykins]

5 hours ago, MattDuffysCat said:

I thought I was just seeing things incorrectly when I first saw that game score while trying to find my own team's game on tv. Ouch!

I remember thinking the same thing back when the Rangers scored 30 against the O's. I was like, ""Were they playing football?"

Edited July 3, 2016 by smittykins
correct mistake and add link

[ebk57]

Honestly, did you have to bring that particular game into the discussion?   :-)

[Rick Kitchen]

Minnesota, the worst team in the league, beat Texas, the best team in the league, last night, 17-5.

[Bort]

25 minutes ago, Rick Kitchen said:

Minnesota, the worst team in the league, beat Texas, the best team in the league, last night, 17-5.

Yes, that boggles the mind, but makes me happy nevertheless. Whatever knocks the Rangers down in the standings. 

[King of Birds]

16 hours ago, smittykins said:

The Angels have put up a 20-spot against the Red Sox--and it's only the 7th inning.

I tuned out after it was 9-1. So thrilled to see the Sox reach the approaching nadir against the pathetic Angels. (Once Dombrowski starts panic-trading, that'll be the nadir.)

[Lantern7]

So . . . Mets sweeping the Cubs at Citi Field. Is that cause for alarm in Chicago, cause for celebration in New York, or both?

Thinking about the All-Star Game . . . I went to Petco Park in 2005. Biggest bummer was that the game was tied in the top of the ninth, and that meant they didn't play "Hell's Bells" when Trevor Hoffman came out to pitch. I got that experience at Qualcomm back in 2000. So awesome.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

The Giants' bullpen is making me want to pull out all of my hair. It's almost laughable how they are expected to almost always lose our lead. Shame, shame, shame, GoT-style.

[shoregirl]

2 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

So . . . Mets sweeping the Cubs at Citi Field. Is that cause for alarm in Chicago, cause for celebration in New York, or both?

Thinking about the All-Star Game . . . I went to Petco Park in 2005. Biggest bummer was that the game was tied in the top of the ninth, and that meant they didn't play "Hell's Bells" when Trevor Hoffman came out to pitch. I got that experience at Qualcomm back in 2000. So awesome.

I was in San Diego during the playoffs in 1998, being a playoff game when they played it was incredible. 

[xaxat]

Well, it looks like we can definitively end all of the "27 Yankees" comparisons.

[Moose135]

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

So . . . Mets sweeping the Cubs at Citi Field. Is that cause for alarm in Chicago, cause for celebration in New York, or both?

Funny, Wednesday night, the Mets get swept by the Nats, and the sky is falling...then the big guns come out against the Cubs, and all is right with the world.  I got to listen to most of today's game on Sirius - the Met feed, and it was crazy.  Cubs end up with a catcher pitching, and Jacob deGrom pinch hits for the reliever in the 8th and gets a double!

[tom87]

Was Mets  fan for a few days .

Edited July 4, 2016 by tom87

[mojoween]

I've spent much of the morning reading more about Zach Hample than I ever cared to.  But in all the articles obviously the comments are the best part.

I had never heard of this guy before today.  How does someone get 10000 baseballs?

[Moose135]

3 hours ago, mojoween said:

How does someone get 10000 baseballs?

Clearly, not having a wife or girl friend frees up plenty of time to hang around ball parks...

[rippleintime17]

Seeing as the Giants are fielding about half of their Opening Day lineup and now have backups to the backups to the backups playing, it's pretty amazing that they have the most wins in MLB. Keep it up, guys! 

[MVFrostsMyPie]

There's so many injuries, even Bochy can't keep them straight - at one of the press thingies, he say Tomlinson was 'off the boot', when really Tomlinson's thumb cast is off and Duffy is off the boot, ha! Duffy should at least be back this week! And I guess Cain too, although he still makes me more nervous than Suarez did while he filled in for the role. And Romo came back yesterday! Now if Pence and Panik could hurry up and get back in the field too, that'd be so nice.

Maybe if we could get more hits once our injured players come back, it wouldn't hurt as much whenever the bullpen falters again and loses the lead.

[Rick Kitchen]

I can't imagine Cain ever really coming back.  At least, not with the Giants.

[rippleintime17]

Cain looked good his past few outings, he just seems snakebit as far as injuries go. Suarez has been impressive, though, this year's Heston, basically! I'm sure he'll be back soon. I wouldn't mind if they just hold off on Panik & Duffy till after the break. Belt's made me nervous when it comes to concussions, they should wait on Joe until he's as good as new. And I want Pence to be fully healed too! The OFs are more than capable of filling in right now, I've quite enjoyed cheering for Parker and Williamson. 

[xaxat]

On 7/4/2016 at 8:50 AM, mojoween said:

I've spent much of the morning reading more about Zach Hample than I ever cared to.  But in all the articles obviously the comments are the best part.

I had never heard of this guy before today.  How does someone get 10000 baseballs?

I guess the number is kind of impressive. But the fact that he racked it up by acting like a pro scrumming against eight and fifty year old amateurs is not.

In addition, he managed to get into last night's game at Fort Bragg to take away balls from the service members.

(Typing that tipped me into the "asshole" assessment for him.)

[Lantern7]

Thought of the Night: Why do the Mets pitch to Giancarlo Stanton? The only reason why he hasn't broken an infielder's leg is because he's too busy circling the bases.

I always forget about Jeurys Familia. Happy he got named to the National League team, along with Thor and Yo. He should thank his family, the fans, his teammates, and Jenry Mejia's PED dealer.

[mojoween]

There is some douchenozzle in Comiskey Park* who must be sitting directly next to the field mic because all I can hear is his inane chatter all inning long.  I want to fly to Chicago, punch him in the bridge of the nose and then fly back to Syracuse, hopefully before I have to start work in the morning.  Why do some people have to be That Guy?

*I know that is not what it is called, but I can't remember the corporate stooges who own all of these stadiums so I just call them what I remember.

[Rick Kitchen]

Cubs fans managed to stuff the ballot box with All Stars, putting their entire infield onto the starting team.

[King of Birds]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

There is some douchenozzle in Comiskey Park* who must be sitting directly next to the field mic because all I can hear is his inane chatter all inning long.  I want to fly to Chicago, punch him in the bridge of the nose and then fly back to Syracuse, hopefully before I have to start work in the morning.  Why do some people have to be That Guy?

I often am at odds with you mojo, but this post SO MUCH is what I'm thinking as well. When the crowds leave during rain delays, these are the idiots who hang around so we hear them being idiots even more clearly.  And "word" to generic corporate stupid sounding names. As if we give two fucks what entity has enough money to throw at a billionaire to name a place.

And ya know, after sucking so long, I really have no issues with the Cubs stuffing the ballot box now that they have some good talent on the team.

About 6 years ago I joined twitter so I could follow breaking baseball news during the trade deadline. As a Sox fan I've ditched some of the Globe/ Herald writers since they've gotten annoying - and besides, who REALLY wants to follow Dan Shaughnessy? But I found Aaron Gleeman a Twins blogger who's now with Baseball Prospectus. I found Dave Cameron with Fangraphs. Bob Nightengale, Joe Posnanski,  Ken Rosenthal, Keith Law, Ben Badler.  I don't really follow players too much, although Brandon McCarthy is hilarious - even when he was a Yankee. I follow about 7 hardcore RedSox fans who post funny and/or informative things during games.  But ... well I found out tonight who BLOCKED me. The MLB account! I think it's because I've copied them on a series of posts where I called them stupid ass idiots and even more names.

So yeah I was long-winded again but - who in MLB land do you follow for info or fun on twitter?

[Rick Kitchen]

I follow Hunter Pence on Twitter and Facebook.  He's hilarious and always worth reading.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

I don't follow anyone on twitter because it gives me a headache, but on fb I follow Pence, Posey & Zito (I'd follow Duffy but he doesn't have an official page). On instagram, I follow those 3, as well as Pence's fiance, Williamson, Parker, Susac, Kontos, Affeldt (pretty hilarious like Pence), Panik, Romo, one of the team's pro photographers, Duffy's cat (aka....myself?).... I think that might be it. ;)

Also, our bullpen completely sucks hairy monkey balls. No, more like hairy elephant balls. They wasted Williamson's 2 ridiculous defensive catches. UGH. >.<

ETA: At least the dodgers lost tonight.

Edited July 6, 2016 by MattDuffysCat

[mojoween]

I follow the ESPN guys like Buster, Jayson and Timmay! and numerous players who once were Yankees and are either retired or journeymen like Joba.  Also Jason Grilli because we went to the same high school.  His FB post amused me on Monday because it was all rah rah America/flag/Independence Day with his profile pic of his kid in a Blue Jays uniform.

[Lantern7]

Reyes made the front and back pages of the News today. I think he'd be tolerated if he fills the gap at third. If he helps the Mets to another postseason, he'll be forgiven. And if he lays hands on Matt Harvey and turns him back into the Dark Knight? They'd retire his number before he leaves again.

[ebk57]

17 hours ago, MattDuffysCat said:

ETA: At least the dodgers lost tonight.

Yay!  (Os finally stop the losing streak!!)

 

13 hours ago, mojoween said:

I follow the ESPN guys like Buster, Jayson and Timmay!

Love Timmay!!  Don't know if anyone listens to the Tony Kornheiser local radio show (which will be going totally podcast come September), but Timmay calls in.  There's a hilarious story about avocados... 

 

I don't FB or Twit so I follow no one.  But I do know how to Twitter-stalk if I need to know something.

[jennifer6973]

I follow the beat reporters for the Washington Nationals, a couple for the Orioles and I follow the Nationals, Reds and Orioles.

I follow a couple players here and there that are on the Nationals or their affiliates and a few I found interesting like Chris Archer and David Price.

Plus Ken Rosenthal, Lauren Shehadi and Kevin Millar from MLB Network