MLB Thread

[twoods]

“Dodgers suck?” Well they sure do right now. 

[Salacious Kitty]

The wheels have officially fallen off the Dodgers' bus. I can't see the Padres losing.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Salacious Kitty

[CrazyDog]

20 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Padres are fighting to end the series. What are their fans chanting?

I mean the one that's not "Beat L.A.!"

The fans love to cheer for Ha-seong Kim when he's at bat, if that's what you heard.

[Lantern7]

Quick question . . . has a team that finished in third place in their division ever made it to the LCS? I don't think Nostradamus would have seen the Phillies coming. My current fear is that we get into an "Everyone In the NL East Wins the World Series Except The Mets" situation, and the Marlins fall ass-backwards into a third title.

[twoods]

17 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

The wheels have officially fallen off the Dodgers' bus. I can't see the Padres losing.

Yep. They aren’t going to score off of Hader. Wrong time for their bats to turn cold. They have nobody to blame but themselves. 

[Salacious Kitty]

1 minute ago, twoods said:

Yep. They aren’t going to score off of Hader. Wrong time for their bats to turn cold. They have nobody to blame but themselves. 

In one of Hader's last games with the Brewers, he gave up something like 8 runs against the Giants. It could happen again, but I doubt it.

[NUguy514]

Such spectacularly shitty calls by the umps and managing by Roberts (like clockwork every fucking year).  Although I'm a Dodgers fan, I would be excited for the Padres if not for the presence of racist homophobe Josh Hader.  Fuck that guy.

I will say, given the way these division series are mostly playing out, it's almost like finishing as one of the top two seeds in each league and being rewarded with a week of not playing so that your team can go completely fucking cold is not an advantage.  Still, that's no excuse for the abominable hitting by the Dodgers.  Jesus.

[Salacious Kitty]

I hadn't heard that about Hader. What did he say? 

[Lantern7]

As a Mets fan, the Dodgers and Atlanta going out without the full five games doesn't make me feel much better. Sure, a 111-win team not reaching the LCS would seem funnier and/or sadder than a 101-win team doing the same . . . but at least the Dodgers had a World Series win. Sure, it was in the Pandemic Season, they beat the Rays on neutral turf, and garden gnome Justin Turner ran around without a mask  . . . but it still counted.

Philadelphia vs. San Diego Yeesh. I pity MLB to try and promote that LCS. Ditto if it comes down to Ians/Astros on the other side.

[voiceover]

Wow, just over in the CF thread congratulating Vol fans; seems fair I duck in here to pour one out for the Padres.  I have no dog in either hunt, but I’ve got a couple of friends, swore off all San Diego sports when the Chargers left.

They’re both drunk off their asses right now 🤣

[twoods]

17 minutes ago, NUguy514 said:

Such spectacularly shitty calls by the umps and managing by Roberts (like clockwork every fucking year).  Although I'm a Dodgers fan, I would be excited for the Padres if not for the presence of racist homophobe Josh Hader.  Fuck that guy.

I will say, given the way these division series are mostly playing out, it's almost like finishing as one of the top two seeds in each league and being rewarded with a week of not playing so that your team can go completely fucking cold is not an advantage.  Still, that's no excuse for the abominable hitting by the Dodgers.  Jesus.

Unfortunately unlike the other three teams, the Astros did not have any cold bats after their long rest, and I do count the marathon game today because they still won. 

Edited October 16, 2022 by twoods

[Lantern7]

1 minute ago, voiceover said:

Wow, just over in the CF thread congratulating Vol fans; seems fair I duck in here to pour one out for the Padres.  I have no dog in either hunt, but I’ve got a couple of friends, swore off all San Diego sports when the Chargers left.

They’re both drunk off their asses right now 🤣

Aren't the Padres the only San Diego sport? At least professionally? You gotta admire voters rejecting a football stadium deal that they would've paid for. I'd like to go back there one day. The place is probably awesome even when Comic-Con isn't being held. Lewis Black once speculated that the easiest job in the world was being a weatherman in San Diego. From my experiences (albeit outdated), I'd have to agree.

I feel no pity for Crackers fans. NONE.

[twoods]

21 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I hadn't heard that about Hader. What did he say? 

He had some offensive racist and homophobic tweets surface in 2018 that he wrote when he was 17. It seems as if he’s a different guy and learned from his mistake since there hasn’t been a peep from him since he got drafted and seems to be well-liked. I can see living a very sheltered life where you learn to think one way, then go out into the real world and realize how screwed up you were. Josh Allen did the same thing at Wyoming and it’s all but forgotten now since he does a lot for the Buffalo community and is loved by his team, so I am willing to give Hader some leeway. 

Edited October 16, 2022 by twoods

[CrazyDog]

That was a great rally by the Padres. They were looking off tonight, and Musgrove ended up with a quality start, but was a bit shaky. But I trust Musgrove and Darvish to make adjustments and Musgrove did. And as random as the Padres hitting can be, they stepped up at the right time.

The bats might have gone cold for the Dodgers but the Padres starting pitching and bullpen are solid and shouldn't be overlooked.

I love San Diego, and the atmosphere at Petco is amazing. I'm thrilled they can rally around this team, this year and in the future too.

I'm bummed for my local Mariner fans, but jeez, that was a a battle. I can't wait to see them next year. Go Guardians!

[NUguy514]

5 minutes ago, twoods said:

He had some offensive racist and homophobic tweets surface in 2018 that he wrote when he was 17. It seems as if he’s a different guy and learned from his mistake since there hasn’t been a peep from him since he got drafted and seems to be well-liked. I can see living a very sheltered life where you learn to think one way, then go out into the real world and realize how screwed up you were. Josh Allen did the same thing at Wyoming and it’s all but forgotten now since he does a lot for the Buffalo community, so I am willing to give Hader some leeway. 

I'm not inclined to give Hader or Allen (or Nick Bosa or Kyler Murray, etc. etc. etc.) any leeway.  Since the vast majority of teenagers don't post bigotry on social media, I don't think youth is any excuse, and when these men are rewarded so handsomely, they don't have a particular incentive to change.  What I think athletes, in particular, do learn is not to put their bigoted thoughts on the internet and hope that people forget because they want their teams to win no matter what.

To a one, the athletes whose youthful indiscretions are uncovered use the "I'm sorry, those views don't represent who I am now" line, but those empty words are almost never followed up by any meaningful actions.  Sometimes, they have to go through some kind of sensitivity training, which is completely meaningless; sometimes, they don't have to do anything beyond making a statement of contrition.  What would actually, truly open their eyes to the damage they do and maybe help them to evolve would be to require them to do something like volunteer with The Trevor Project or at homeless shelters for LBGT youth or with victims of hate crimes.  That way, they'd actually have to interact with the people their bigotry is directly affecting.

Anyway, go Phillies.

[Mean Machine]

There were some weird balls-and-strikes calls against the Dodgers but that's not why they lost. Yeah, go Phillies.

[shoregirl]

So who had Phillies/Padres in the NLCS at the beginning of the season..or even the beginning of the playoffs....liars!!!😂

Aaron Nola vs Austin Nola.. 1st time since brothers played against each other in the playoffs since The 1997 ALDS with Alomar Bros.

[cambridgeguy]

11 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Quick question . . . has a team that finished in third place in their division ever made it to the LCS?

Yes, the Cubs pulled it off in 2015, where they were swept by the Mets.  Of course that scenario has only been possible since they expanded the wild card ten years ago, so we're not talking a large sample size.

[Notabug]

15 hours ago, Crs97 said:

Could someone kindly tell Bob Costas to shut up?

What?  You didn't enjoy the 48 references to Aaron Judge an inning?  Even when the Guardians were batting?  Even when other Yankees were at the plate?  It sounded like Costas was being paid per mention of Judge' name last night.

We know he's a terrific player and a future Hall of Famer;  but I don't think that's the reason most of us tuned in last night.  Once again, the national announcing teams drool all over the Yankees while ignoring what is actually happening on the field.  No mention of Boone's (mis)use of his bullpen last night.  I'm a Guardians fan through and through, but even I was surprised that they didn't seem to notice that he wasn't bringing someone else into the game.  And, lots of praise for the Yanks and their prodigious home run power while not a peep about the stellar 'small ball' played by the Guardians which resulted in their win.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Notabug

[isalicat]

As a life long SF Giants fan, last night was *wonder filled*. Always happy to see any other team beat LA, and our little bros Padres did it well. Now if the Guardians finish off NY later today, all the schadenfreude belongs to me.

[Carey]

5 hours ago, Notabug said:

Could someone kindly tell Bob Costas to shut up?

Looks like football will do that to him.  Yankees / Guardians should bring in a crowd, but that's meaningless opposite Philly/Dallas

[mojoween]

If there was no baseball tomorrow, I WOULD have thrown my teevee in the trash.

[ebk57]

3 minutes ago, mojoween said:

If there was no baseball tomorrow, I WOULD have thrown my teevee in the trash.

More baseball is always better.

Right?

Right??

Sigh...............

[roamyn]

I knew we were gonna lose today, based on the starting pitchers.  And I’m okay with that, because tomorrow we have a good chance of winning.  1) the Guardians are a good road team, 2) NY’s pitching (and coaching, tbh) is going to start getting thin now.

[Salacious Kitty]

How long will they wait before calling the game tonight? I checked the forecast, and it doesn't look good.

[Carey]

24 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

How long will they wait before calling the game tonight? I checked the forecast, and it doesn't look good.

I'm not sure.

A better question would be how was the weather earlier in the day.

TBF, the best response would be, "Carey can search for that information on the Internet."

[Carey]

Well, TBS is airing The Cube, which might mean a safe bet that we'll have to wait until Tuesday for the conclusion of the second ALDS to wrap up

[Salacious Kitty]

They just did an update. It's pouring now, but they said that conditions would improve in about an hour. Then there's time to get the field ready and for the pitchers to warm up. At best, we're looking at 90 minutes from now.

[roamyn]

What if they can’t?  How is this going to affect the ALCS?  

Go Guards!

[Lantern7]

Maybe the game could be rescheduled to tomorrow afternoon? It’s not prime time, but the winners could still get in some rest before flying to Houston.

[Salacious Kitty]

They mentioned playing tomorrow, but didn't elaborate in terms of the time. I also assume they'd have to play a day game. 

[Carey]

Good thing, as I had no intention of staying up late.  Especially if the score is tied following the conclusion of the ninth inning

[ProudMary]

Game 5 at 4:07 pm tomorrow. 

[LexieLily]

Did all the fans that bought tickets and were at the game tonight have to wait around for three hours, or were they told beforehand?

[Salacious Kitty]

21 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

Game 5 at 4:07 pm tomorrow. 

I thought they'd play even earlier. Big advantage to the Ass-tros.

[ebk57]

4 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Did all the fans that bought tickets and were at the game tonight have to wait around for three hours, or were they told beforehand?

I can't imagine they were told beforehand.  They don't want to cancel the game unless it's absolutely necessary.  And besides, they have a captive audience for overpriced concessions. 

I've never been to a rainy game where we've been let go early.

[roamyn]

53 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I thought they'd play even earlier. Big advantage to the Ass-tros.

It depends.  They’ve had to wait and sit, while the Yanks/Guards have been actually playing.

Of course, if NY wins then yeah their BP is so beat up, that it gives them no time to rest up.  OTOH if CLE wins, up BP is still fairly unused.

But I don’t think either team will beat the Cheatstros.  

[Carey]

Can't feel too bad for New York.  Or Cleveland for that matter.  New York was one strike away and then some on Saturday and crumbled.  Cleveland fell short toward taking advantage of a nice steal while maintaining home field.

But yeah, Houston will sorta backdoor to another fall classic, but at least if they do they will not be losing to Atlanta

[ProudMary]

1 hour ago, LexieLily said:

Did all the fans that bought tickets and were at the game tonight have to wait around for three hours, or were they told beforehand?

The fans, many of whom paid ~$50 for playoff premium parking, waited for over three hours, with no interim announcements. Then this:

From what I've been hearing, the Yankees were lobbying for an early call for a rain out based on the forecast, but MLB wanted the game played and MLB makes the decision in the postseason. 

[Salacious Kitty]

I called the game at 7:30 ET. TBS's update that I saw was overly optimistic. The forecast that I saw called for rain all night.

[nittany cougar]

I have to wonder if TV optics or ad money played into the decision not to start the game when it stopped raining at 9:30 -10.  They would have lost a lot of viewers before the end due to the late start for East Coast viewers. A lot of people online think that MLB wants a Yankees/Houston matchup because it will bring drama and ratings.

They do play late rain delay games late under normal circumstances. I've been at a game at Nationals Park that started at 10 after a rain delay and ended after midnight. Ths concessions were closed about 10 minutes into the game. Many people, including me, left before the end because we had been at the park for four hours when the game started.  

I also don't understand why the game is at 4. The weather is clear today. They could have played today at 1:05, leaving more time for travel to Texas.

Edited October 18, 2022 by nittany cougar

[Carey]

12 minutes ago, nittany cougar said:

I have to wonder if TV optics or ad money played into the decision not to start the game when it stopped raining at 9:30 -10.  They would have lost a lot of viewers before the end due to the late start for East Coast viewers.

They do play late rain delay games late under normal circumstances. I've been at a game at Nationals Park that started at 10 after a rain delay and ended after midnight. Ths concessions were closed about 10 minutes into the game. Many people, including me, left before the end because we had been at the park for four hours when the game started.  

I also don't understand why the game is at 4. The weather is clear today. They could have played today at 1:05, leaving more time for travel to Texas.

A reasonable answer to the question would be that we are dealing with Major League Baseball.  That's why we are in this spot.  Their decision-making (or lack of it) is not top-notch.

Sure they could have played at 1:05 Eastern, but they could have played earlier yesterday.  The Weather Channel & whomever else did not call for clear skies and a gorgeous New York night.  There wasn't an abrupt change.

Other sports organizations like the PGA & the NFL are much, much better with this when it comes to the weather impacting their games & tournaments.  More often than not they move it up to beat the weather.  Or they move it back if time permits, but they pay attention to the forecast.  MLB paid attention to the money and revenue.

Now, 1:00 on Monday may have been too much (4 games in 4 days), but too bad

[roamyn]

57 minutes ago, Carey said:

Other sports organizations like the PGA & the NFL are much, much better with this when it comes to the weather impacting their games & tournaments.  More often than not they move it up to beat the weather.  Or they move it back if time permits, but they pay attention to the forecast.  MLB paid attention to the money and revenue.

NASCAR, too.

Inclement weather can kill a driver on the tracks w/those tires.  There’s so much metal fencing that lightening can harm dozens, if not hundreds.   Esp with the energy conducted by racing around the tracks.

I’ve seen NASCAR stop a race if lightening is several miles away.  Now hubby did go to one race where the forecast was for ‘some’ rain at Darlington, but they didn’t call it.  However, it ended up being a big storm, so it took forever to dry out the track, they eventually called it.  But that wasn’t there fault.  We even checked the forecast, and the amount of rain was supposed to be minimal.

Nature happens.  There needs to be a built in day for weather, JIC.

Edited October 18, 2022 by roamyn

[twoods]

It’s their faults (MLB). Why they had a massive break between game one and two beats me (except to compete with MNF on Monday night for a possible game 5) when the other teams got a normal one day break between 2 and 3. Is it fair when some teams are playing game 4 when the others are on game 3? Why didn’t they play on the same night as the Astros and Mariners for game 2?

[shoregirl]

33 minutes ago, twoods said:

Why didn’t they play on the same night as the Astros and Mariners for game 2?

Bad weather in New York pushed back game 2 from Thursday to Friday.

NLCS starts tonight ..I think it's going to be a really fun series. They both seem pretty evenly matched and both are playing really good baseball right now. But also I very much want Bryce Harper to take Blake Snell deep at least once being that Snell is the pitcher who broke Harpers hand with the hit by pitch in June.

Edited October 18, 2022 by shoregirl

[Carey]

16 minutes ago, shoregirl said:

Bad weather in New York pushed back game 2 from Thursday to Friday.

The issue with this is that there was an off day between Games 1 & 2 despite both games taking place at Yankees Stadium.  Had things been on the sane level and Games 1 & 2 occurred on Tuesday & Wednesday like in pretty much every previous season, then there may not have been an issue

[ProudMary]

As info:

Inside Yankees-Guardians rain delay disaster: Who’s to blame?

Brian Cashman explained at length what led to the delay and the eventual postponement. There were “at least” six Zoom calls among MLB, Cleveland and the Yankees to discuss the weather. The first occurred at approximately at 4 p.m.

The Yankees were represented by Cashman and manager Aaron Boone. Manager Terry Francona, president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff represented Cleveland. There were various officials from MLB and representatives from two weather services.

“We expected to play,” Cashman said. A possible postponement wasn’t discussed until much later.

Meteorologists told the teams and MLB that they believed the initial rainstorms would clear through the area by 7:30 p.m. in the best-case scenario and 9 p.m. in the worst case. Then trouble struck.

“The (weather) system started moving a little slower,” Cashman said.

Still, there was hope. The sides stayed in contact. There was a Zoom call every hour, which soon became every half hour. The sides even began talking about a possible first-pitch time.

But more bad news came.

At around 9 p.m., MLB and the two teams were told a new storm system had developed near Newark, N.J., that it was heading for the Bronx, and that it would bring even more rain.

“It changed everything at that point,” Cashman said.

Before the delay, Boone said that he believed there was a chance the game wouldn’t be played. Meanwhile, Cashman had said all parties expected to get the game in.

“Weather is tricky,” Cashman said. “It’s very unpredictable. But the expectation every step of the way was that we were playing the game tonight. Both teams wanted to play tonight. Unfortunately, weather took us down.”

[Carey]

Man, did MLB drop the ball here.  Which is as surprising as an LA baseball season concluding in traditional failure.


For the National League Championship Series, I'll go Padres in 6.  I can see either team winning in how ever many games it takes to clinch the NL.  Tough pick, and I'll probably be wrong, but I'm okay with it.  I'll be okay with either team winning

[morriss]

I have a bad feeling if the Guardians use Arias at first base again.  I realize Naylor has a bad leg, but there must be someone else who has played more first base than Arias.  🥺

[Carey]

At last!  The Yankees/Guardians ALDS is finally over!  New York advances but (IMO) is up against it vs a rested Astros team.

I'll go Houston in 5.  While the Yanks can totally win the series, if there's no sign of rust (and there's a sign of fatigue from the AL East Champs), this ALCS shouldn't take too long.  Otherwise, the AL West Champs will clinch at home