MLB Thread

[cleo]

I wonder if Manfred's job is in jeopardy if they don't make it to the playoffs.

[ebk57]

Hey, we're in 2nd place! 

I still think starting the inning with a man on second is stupid, but I did laugh at the walk-off celebration...

 

 

[theatremouse]

That's the first no-contact celebration this season I've actually seen (meaning I've repeatedly seen a mix of real high fives and elbow bumps). They're still too close together while maskless tho.

[Sew Sumi]

2 hours ago, theatremouse said:

Which begs the question why he played at all.

I read that he did consider opting out altogether. Guess he wanted to get paid, even if for a short while?

[catlover79]

34 minutes ago, Sew Sumi said:

I read that he did consider opting out altogether. Guess he wanted to get paid, even if for a short while?

Or maybe he didn't realize how bad things would be in MLB until now.

[catlover79]

Here's an op-ed from SI that says it all about Manfred's incompetence:

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/08/01/rob-manfred-bluff-end-mlb-season-pandemic-problems

[mojoween]

I know it’s been a week, but I am still boggled by the fact that the Marlins KNEW they had positive players...ON THE SECOND DAY...and they left it up to the TEAM to decide if they wanted to still play.

Typing it out like that is so fucked up.  Were there seriously not protocols in place for the managers in that type of situation?  Like, if a player tests positive, the manager alerts the league office and then everyone is quarantined and tested immediately?  You don’t take your infected asses to THE ROAD CLUBHOUSE.  The team does not get to make that decision because of fucking COURSE they want to play.

Right now in the season the Phillies have played three games, the Yankees seven.  The World Series, if there is one, will HAVE to have the hugest asterisk in history with how unbalanced this season is.  ONE WEEK IN.

[catlover79]

I agree with all you've said, @mojoween. How come the Marlins aren't facing any kind of discipline from the league? Is Manfred really that spineless? (Of course, I probably just answered my own question!!)

[smittykins]

I wonder if Mattingly will be gone by the end of the season.(Not entirely his fault, but he’s the likely scapegoat.)

[catlover79]

Don Mattingly has led the Marlins through some very difficult times (most notably, the death of Jose Fernandez). Of course, he can't be all places at all times, so I don't think he can be blamed for some of his players being careless in their downtime and going out to party. They are adults who should know better. Still, if MLB needs to make an example of the Marlins - Mattingly would most likely be the one to go.

[xaxat]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Jeter fired him. Mattingly was one of the few that survived Jeter's purge when he took ownership, so he's not a Jeter hire. And Jeter needs to do some PR work. Especially since there will be a caravan of infected players headed back to Miami. Not a good look.

[catlover79]

The bad news continues, this time with Joey Votto:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29583408/reds-put-joey-votto-injured-list-no-reason-given%3fplatform=amp

[Jenniferbug]

Kris Bryant is out for self reported covid symptoms. He's tested negative so far 😪

It figures that the one guy on the Cubs that I've seen trying to mask as much as possible is the one to maybe be sick. Then again, if he's taking it seriously enough to mask as much as possible, he may be more inclined to report any symptom he experiences. So I'm going to hope that he's just being cautious and isn't actually sick. And hopefully his caution will be a good example for the rest of the team to do the same. 

[mojoween]

Yoenis Cespedes  is apparently AWOL and the Mets released a rather inappropriate statement about it.  I genuinely hope he is ok.

[xaxat]

25 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Yoenis Cespedes  is apparently AWOL and the Mets released a rather inappropriate statement about it.  I genuinely hope he is ok.

The Mets just had Gary Cohen walk back the tone of their initial statement, saying that the team does not believe he is any danger.

But how do they know? He's missing!

[mojoween]

I hope he just texted a teammate but won’t talk to management but the way they have gone about this is so terrible.

[theatremouse]

The whole thing sounded to me as though they're trying to be factual. Since they genuinely don't know where he is or what's happening, if it turns out he's pulling a Matt Harvey, he'll look bad. If it turns out he's having a medical emergency or otherwise unsafe - people will have already been worrying about that.

I would hope they've already sent someone to do a wellness check at his hotel room, so that much should've been ruled out pretty quickly.

[mojoween]

Ok now that I know Yoenis is safe I can say that the Mets really fucked up the initial announcement and also Yoenis opted out in a really really immature way.

This entire season is a disaster.

[Growsonwalls]

In other news I unpleasantly discovered Aubrey Huff's twitter this afternoon. Oops.

 

[Silver Raven]

6 minutes ago, Growsonwalls said:

In other news I unpleasantly discovered Aubrey Huff's twitter this afternoon. Oops.

 

He's not worth reading.

 

[xaxat]

Given that he hasn't played the past two seasons because of injury and is a free agent after this season, this is essentially a retirement.

[Growsonwalls]

Well a bright spot in the shit show of this season the Yankees-Sox game is pretty good. Huge homer by Aaron Judge in the 8th.

[catlover79]

Get well soon, Tito!! Thankfully, this appears to be a non-Coronavirus issue.

https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2020/08/terry-francona-heading-back-to-cleveland-to-meet-with-doctors-as-indians-head-to-cincinnati.html

[theatremouse]

10 hours ago, catlover79 said:

Get well soon, Tito!! Thankfully, this appears to be a non-Coronavirus issue.

...while the header photo shows him wearing his mask wrong...

[catlover79]

14 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

 

 

15 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

...while the header photo shows him wearing his mask wrong...

He's been caught on camera wearing it under his nose numerous times, though he had gotten a bit better about it during this past series. 

[theatremouse]

I know. That's why I think it's funny that the publication choose to use one of the photos of him doing it wrong in an article about him being sick but probably not COVID-19. They didn't even need to use a recent photo of him, or one of him on-field. 

[Mittengirl]

The Tigers-Cardinals series that was supposed to start today as 2 games in Detroit, then 2 games in  STL, then changed to four games in Detroit, has now been “postponed”.

 I have serious doubts that any of the postponed games across the league will ever be played.  I think the odds of the season going all the way to the end are tanking.

[catlover79]

Some of these Cardinals should be put in the same doghouse as some of the Marlins. Idiots!!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/report-cardinals-went-to-casino-prior-to-team-outbreak/ar-BB17wiM9?li=BBnb7Kz

[cleo]

A few days ago I thought they would cancel. But Manfred's little we won't quit speech- I think he got his marching orders from the owners. They want that playoff revenue no matter who gets sick or opts out or how unbalanced the schedule is. 

They should not call it the WS though. Whatever integrity a 60 game season had is long gone.

[mojoween]

I fail to see the damn point in seven inning doubleheaders.  Why can’t they just play nine?

[catlover79]

10 minutes ago, mojoween said:

I fail to see the damn point in seven inning doubleheaders.  Why can’t they just play nine?

Because that makes too much sense. 😝

[Lantern7]

52 minutes ago, cleo said:

A few days ago I thought they would cancel. But Manfred's little we won't quit speech- I think he got his marching orders from the owners. They want that playoff revenue no matter who gets sick or opts out or how unbalanced the schedule is. 

They should not call it the WS though. Whatever integrity a 60 game season had is long gone.

“The Manfred Cup”? “The Fauci Trophy”? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[cleo]

Was there a trophy in the Hunger Games? I never watched the whole thing.

[basiltherat]

The WS is gonna be one big asterisk, but if one of MY teams wins, it will be as legitimate as all the others!

I am totally gobsmacked that, in this age of social media, NO ONE has posted (or sold to TMZ) pictures of baseball players (or any other athletes) as they carouse on the town.  That stuff should have been posted before we heard anything about positive tests.

[catlover79]

1 hour ago, cleo said:

A few days ago I thought they would cancel. But Manfred's little we won't quit speech- I think he got his marching orders from the owners. They want that playoff revenue no matter who gets sick or opts out or how unbalanced the schedule is. 

They should not call it the WS though. Whatever integrity a 60 game season had is long gone.

If Manfred had any sense, those games against the Marlins and Cardinals wouldn't be postponed. They should be forfeited. Their upcoming opponents were left holding the bag. They shouldn't be penalized. It's the only fair solution.

Edited August 3, 2020 by catlover79

[Moose135]

1 hour ago, Lantern7 said:

“The Manfred Cup”

[xaxat]

It feels like the league is one or two clusters away from a state or local health commissioner taking the decision to play in a city out of Manfred's hands. The PA Health Commissioner (who vetoed the Jays' move to Pittsburgh) can't be happy that the Marlins' cluster spent a week in Philadelphia before leaving. It doesn't seem like the mayor of Miami Dade is too excited about receiving the covid bus. And Milwaukee officials can't be happy that they are now hosting a hotspot.

I'm tired of league and team officials saying that symptomatic party members are experiencing "mild" symptoms. This is an insidious disease, and just because you don't go to the hospital doesn't mean you can't have life changing effects. We were told that Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez had mild symptoms. Then they discovered he had developed a heart problem that ended his season. And Rudy Gobert still doesn't have a full sense of taste and smell.

I try to be optimistic,  but the league, from Manfred down, has not earned any benefit of a doubt.

Edited August 4, 2020 by xaxat

[theatremouse]

1 hour ago, catlover79 said:

If Manfred had any sense, those games against the Marlins and Cardinals wouldn't be postponed. They should be forfeited. Their upcoming opponents were left holding the bag. They shouldn't be penalized. It's the only fair solution.

Yes. Not postponed, you don't have enough of a healthy team that wasn't recently exposed to play, you get the L. The end. And if that'd been established before this started, I don't think those guys would've been out and about at restaurants and casinos.

[catlover79]

50 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

And if that'd been established before this started, I don't think those guys would've been out and about at restaurants and casinos.

It doesn't help that Manfred seems to be making up new rules as he goes along. MLB started 4 months late. That was more than enough time to draft up a contingency plan.

[catlover79]

Yet another pitcher is done for the year, but because of injury. Ouch:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29591558/braves-ace-mike-soroka-helped-field-injured-leg

In a different kind of ugly, the Indians dropped their fourth straight game. The pitching has been stellar, but the offense has been almost non-existent. 

[Moose135]

2 hours ago, catlover79 said:

It doesn't help that Manfred seems to be making up new rules as he goes along. MLB started 4 months late. That was more than enough time to draft up a contingency plan.

They were too busy trying to squeeze the players to worry about setting up a real plan.

[Silver Raven]

5 hours ago, cleo said:

Was there a trophy in the Hunger Games? I never watched the whole thing.

It was called being the only one still alive.

 

[xaxat]

Well that's a first. The Pirates/Twins game was delayed because some idiot decided to fly a drone over the stadium.

2020 bruh.

ETA I stand corrected. It is the second time a game has been delayed because of a drone.

Going out for "a milk". So that's what the kids are calling it now?

Edited August 4, 2020 by xaxat

[catlover79]

3 hours ago, xaxat said:

Well that's a first. The Pirates/Twins game was delayed because some idiot decided to fly a drone over the stadium.

2020 bruh.

ETA I stand corrected. It is the second time a game has been delayed because of a drone.

Going out for "a milk". So that's what the kids are calling it now?

He may be a HOF player, but he's a horrible spin doctor. Maybe he just should have kept quiet.

[Silver Raven]

With no minor league games, how are people being called up as injury replacements staying in shape?

[catlover79]

5 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

With no minor league games, how are people being called up as injury replacements staying in shape?

I can't speak for all teams, but the Indians' "taxi squad" is working out at their Class A ballpark, which is about 20 miles east of downtown Cleveland.

Edited August 5, 2020 by catlover79

[Lamb18]

The drone was weird (and illegal). The relief pitchers tried to bean it with baseballs but missed.

I'm glad the Twins are doing so well but sad that it seems so pointless. 

[Mittengirl]

I find it hard to believe that the Marlins were staying in a hotel that didn’t have a restaurant or coffee shop onsite that the players couldn’t have availed themselves of.  Or that there is not a concierge or team lackey that could make a milk run when someone has a yen for some dairy.  If that is the case, maybe Derek needs to crack open his wallet and book his team into a better hotel than the Super-8 they must have been using.

 

I want baseball, not excuses.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Mittengirl

[xaxat]

2 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

I find it hard to believe that the Marlins were staying in a hotel that didn’t have a restaurant or coffee shop onsite that the players couldn’t have availed themselves of.

They were staying at the Four Seasons. Many of their US locations, including Philadelphia, are only offering room service.

ETA So yes, they could have ordered milk, but not "a milk".

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by xaxat

[Mittengirl]

So they could have ordered their glass of milk or cup of coffee from room service?  Instead, they chose to run amok in a pandemic.