Post: #26

Starting watching in the 7th inning. I really wanted Kansas city to win, if for nothing other than to see the conclusion of the A's epic collapse. It's also nice for their fans. Playoff parity in baseball is so good compared to the other 3 sports.

Also, the 2nd wildcard was the best thing Bud Selig ever did for baseball. So many teams still in it in September, and it has revived the division race. Tremendous

Post: #27

(10-01-2014 06:41 PM)Stun Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 05:35 PM)kaotic Wrote:  PS Am I the only one that find it ironic that Kansas City is in Missouri and NOT Kansas ?

There is a Kansas City in Kansas too.

You know what I mean

(10-01-2014 06:51 PM)Switch Wrote:  Starting watching in the 7th inning. I really wanted Kansas city to win, if for nothing other than to see the conclusion of the A's epic collapse. It's also nice for their fans. Playoff parity in baseball is so good compared to the other 3 sports.

Also, the 2nd wildcard was the best thing Bud Selig ever did for baseball. So many teams still in it in September, and it has revived the division race. Tremendous

Yeah I was totally rooting for KC until I realized their on FIRE right now, I don't want the halos facing them, but I hate OAK so damn much.

Seriously, this is why I love October (besides the start of the NHL Hockey Season)

Post: #28

I've never seen a team dominate with speed the way Kansas City did against Oakland.

Against Weaver any single from Escobar, Aoki, Cain, and Dyson will become a double just through the SB. 83% stolen base success against Weaver this season, and Conger/Iannetta ain't scaring any one with their arms.

Also I'd like to see Ibanez in the lineup, .417 AVG career vs. Weaver plus 4 homeruns.

Post: #29

Delmon Young is an animal.

Post: #30

Watching Nats @ Giants Game 3 now.

Loving the playoffs. Don't get to watch a lot of baseball during the year but follow it when I can. You can drift in and out of it but October is another level.

Really like the drama and story of how October unfolds. You get to know the teams lesser known players who do well in big moments.

Was impressed how hot Kansas City Royals are at the moment. For me they just come out of nowhere, but obviously been good all year. They just wiped the Angels

Post: #31

Any WS predictions? I took the Giants in 5 last week.

As usual the 'experts' all took the Royals. They have a good chance to win tonight with the young fastballer, but I stand by my prediction from last week that the series will not go back to Missouri.

Post: #32

Sure there are more MLB knowledgeable guys than me. Are the Giants a dynasty?

From where I sit they are. 3 World series in 5 years. A lot of media seems to doubt their greatness. Comparisons to early Celtics eras etc seem irrelevant to me compared to the ultra competitive modern era.

I'm not a Giants fan but been watching baseball closely for the last 5 years. They are the business when it counts.

I wonder what the other mediocre teams would say.

Personally I think sometimes its ok to sit back and say they are exceptionally freaking good and doing it really really well

Post: #33

I think so.

SF is the first NL team since the Cardinals teams in the 40s to win at least 3 world series in a 5 year period.

Especially with the league being twice the size it was in the 40s makes the feat even more impressive.

Bumgarner was God this series!

Post: #34

Giants are definitely building a legacy of greatness. Really good team. Bumgartner was an absolute machine in the playoffs.

I wanted the Royals to win cuz I ways root for the Cindarella story but they just could not hit Bumgartner. Shame to lose game 7 in front of your home crowd, too. That hasnt happened in forever.

Post: #35

So we're about 3 weeks or so from 2015 opening day. Huge changes all over the map, Scherzer to the Nats, Lester to the Cubbies, Upton, Kemp, Myers, Shields to SD, Darvish already out with TJ, Donaldson and Martin to the Jays, B.J Upton is now Melvin Upton J.R!, A-ROiD back

It should be a great season, perhaps one of the most wide open with no strong divisional favorites (except the Nationals in the NL East) so who do you got?

My predictions

AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL West: Seattle Mariners
AL Wild Card 1: Baltimore Orioles
AL Wild Card 2: Cleveland Indians

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera
AL CY Young: "King" Felix Hernandez
AL ROY: Carlos Rodon

NL East: Washington Nationals
NL Central: Pittsburgh Pirates
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wild Card 1: San Diego Padres
NL Wild Card 2: St. Louis Cardinals

NL MVP: Andrew McCutchen
NL CY Young: Max Scherzer
NL ROY: Yasmany Tomas

What I want to see happen:
Baltimore Orioles 86+ wins and another postseason birth.
A-Rod to hit .215 and get booed out of Yankee Stadium.
The Cubs to fail so hard, and have everyone shut up about Epstein's brilliance.
^ Javier Baez to break the strike-out record for a hitter.
The Astros to win 81+ games.
I enjoy following Panamanian baseball players and want to see Christian Bethancourt step in admirably for Evan Gattis in ATL and fight for Rookie of the Year.
Giancarlo Stanton hit 50 homers.
Tampa to finish over .500 piece-by-piece like they always do.
Billy Hamilton steal 80 bases.


What you guys got?

Post: #36

Yu Darvish already tore a ligament in his elbow.

I don't know why teams even allow their top pitchers to even throw in spring training. The season is very long, throwing 95 in spring just leads to their arm breaking down by mid season.

Matt Harvey sat out all last year recovering his torn elbow, now in spring training he's already throwing 98 in fucking practice games.

I don't know when these guys are going to wake up and ban them from throwing so hard in march.

Post: #37

Pitchers have to throw in the Spring. The baseball season is long so they need to build up their arm strength, that includes throwing 98. If they didn't throw during the Spring and then tried to go out on the mound and throw heat, there would be many more injuries. It's not uncommon for pitchers to come back from Tommy John surgery and throw 1-2 mph faster than they did before getting injured.

Post: #38

Hoping your Tigers winning the AL Central prediction is on point

They lost an ace through free agency, and the middle of their lineup is getting a little long in the tooth

The window of opportunity may be closing

Post: #39

(03-18-2015 02:48 PM)dark_g Wrote:  Pitchers have to throw in the Spring. The baseball season is long so they need to build up their arm strength, that includes throwing 98. If they didn't throw during the Spring and then tried to go out on the mound and throw heat, there would be many more injuries. It's not uncommon for pitchers to come back from Tommy John surgery and throw 1-2 mph faster than they did before getting injured.

This.

Pitching injuries are rarely a freak one-time occurrence, so Darvish's injury escalated to the point of needing surgery coincidentally during Spring Training. Watching him throw is really painful, so I can't say I'm surprised he succumbed to Tommy John.

MDP:

Tiger's should be fine with full years of Sanchez and Price (free agent year too). Big year for Verlander, who will have to prove that last year was a fluke, or he'll be seen as damaged goods going forth.

I like the addition of Cespedes in left field, JD Martinez will continue to rake, Castellanos has a year of experience under his belt, and they'll get Iglesias back to go do his thing at shortstop.

The age-old question in Detroit though, always is: What About That Bullpen???

Post: #40

You make some great points, they've gotten to the doorsteps so many times in the last 5 years and faltered

Guess my sense of dread comes from their last two trips to the W.S. (06' & 12') and having their bats go cold and bullpen inadequacies show up

What are your thoughts on the Cubbies? Great managerial moves with Madden coming aboard, Epstein upstairs and an ace leading the charge

Post: #41

I'd like to preface by saying that I hate the Cubs, so it might affect my opinion.

With that being stated, I see them as 3rd best in the NL Central behind Pittsburgh and St. Louis, followed by Milwaukee then Cincinnati. (NL Central is actually a really good division).

What bothers me about the Cubs, and I think what makes them the perfect candidate to under perform is the stock that the National Media places in their players. Case in point.

Recently Ron Darling on MLB network rated the Cubs the 5th best rotation in baseball, based on...

1. Jon Lester (legit number 1 I'll give em that)
2. Jake Arrieta (who enraged me to no end in Baltimore, and now people are all in on after one good year. He may have turned a corner, but if he blew up this year I wouldn't be shocked in the least)
3. Travis Wood (had one good year in 2013, was below average before that, and an absolute dog last year)
4. Jason Hammel (meh, when he was put up a good year in Baltimore in 2012 no one gave him the attention he is getting now)
5. Kyle Hendricks (pretty good first year, playing in meaningless games, middle rotation ceiling)

That is his 5th BEST rotation in all of baseball! A non-bias analyst would put that somewhere in the middle of the pack. Not in the company of the Dodgers, Nationals, Tigers, Mariners, and Cardinals!

Just to drive the point home even more, Darling didn't even include the White Sox in his top 10 who have:

1: Chris Sale (legit number 1, perhaps better than Lester)
2. Jose Quintana (legit number 2, would be a 1 on a host of other teams)
3. Jeff Samardzija (would be a 1 on many teams, was the Cubs best pitcher last year before he left!)
4. John Danks (back end rotation filler, all teams got 'em)
5. Carlos Rodon (rookie with the potential to be the next David Price)

The media so blatantly plays the Cubs up, out of pity, market bias, or naivete that one can never be sure how strong they are, because their personnel always is skewed positive by the media (hello Kusoke Fukodome!)... This happens with the Red Sox and Yankees all the time, but I digress...

Just look at the way Kris Bryant is portrayed. He can absolutely rake, but has never played a game in the Majors, and is being deemed as the savior of the Cubs. His minor league results are being translated to major league success, which is nowhere a guarantee. The last can't miss prospect in baseball, Jurickson Profar, has not played since 2013 and was replacement level when he did see the field; which reiterates that you cannot have rookies being the center pieces of your team, which is the what the Cubs seem to be doing.

SO we got here is a team that may rely on 3 rookies, Bryant; Soler; and Baez, an average catcher and CF with Montero and Fowler, and untested bullpen (especially in meaningful games), starting pitching has a chance to be a roller coaster after Lester, and they get to play 38 games against the Pirates and Cardinals who have established teams with fewer question marks.

Like I said earlier I'd love to see them fail hard, go about 64-98. Joe Maddon is a good manager who should help with their resiliency, but when things go bad for a while (like they will for all teams), veteran clubs are the ones that can usually ride the storm. Not saying rookies cannot, it is just far less likely especially when they are consistently playing in significant games.

/End Anti-Cubs Rant

Post: #42

Pitching injuries are never just a one-time freak accident. It's always a buildup over time, where eventually the arm says "fuck it" and ligaments snap. There is almost always a lot of pain before an arm injury in baseball occurs. I'm talking months in advance. Yu's arm just finally gave out, if not now, then it would have in May or later (or sooner).

Anyone who's played baseball can confirm that many ballplayers are popping Advil like candy just to get through the day, so guys can play through a lot more pain than they should be able too, and when you throw 95, shit's gonna break, especially since you can't feel your body's warning signals.

Post: #43

Orale!! I have a good feeling about my Cubs this year.





If the Cubs win the world series, there will be riots in Chicago.

Post: #44

This guy could make your bullpen

Post: #45

@Chunnel,

Why you leave Anaheim out of your playoff predictions?

And I too hope A-roid gets booed every at bat at the Stadium. He likely will. Maybe even every ground ball and popup when they have him take the field.

Post: #46

So we're halfway thru the baseball season, any predictions as to who is taking the AL divisions?

Btw, I can't believe how good the Red Sox have been so far. They're destroying teams left and right. 70 wins before that All-star break....goddamn

Post: #47

Cleveland and Houston are mortal locks to win their divisions. The Central is one of the worst divisions I've seen in my lifetime, and although Seattle is pretty good this year, Houston is simply too damn good to not win that division over the course of 162. Red Sox and Yankees are close but I have to give the edge to the Sox simply because they're up 4 games right now.

By the way - I heard an incredible Mike Trout statistic last night during the All Star Game.

Any guesses as to what is the most amount of games in a row that Trout has gone without reaching base? For reference, he's played over 1,000 games in MLB.

The answer is two games. Two!

I heard that and my mind was simply blown. Trout really is a once-in-a-lifetime talent and some of the stats he's producing are incredible. Fangraphs had to basically stop writing articles about him because every article just boiled down to "We've already covered how Trout is the best ever, but now he's even MORE of the best ever!"

The sad thing is I bet the average person doesn't even know who Mike Trout is - dude gets virtually no exposure on ESPN etc.

Post: #48

The top tier of the AL is crazy good this year. Sox, Yanks, Stros are all gonna win over 100 games and Cleveland and Seattle are pretty damn good too. There isn't gonna be much drama towards the end of the regular season in the AL but those playoffs are gonna be damn good.

The NL is still wide open at this point. Looks like the Dodgers are gonna rent Machado for the year so they're the favorite now but the Dbacks, Rockies and giants are all right there in the division race. The Cubs are good and so are the Brewers. The Phillies and Braves have both had good seasons so far although I feel like one of them may fall off as the season progresses and the Nats will probably make a run at some point.

AL is pretty set already- Sox, Tribe and Stros win the division and Seattle and the Yanks get the WC

In the NL, I see the Cubs and Dodgers winning the division and in the East I honestly think its a coin flip between the Braves and Phillies as they're pretty similar teams. I think the Brewers and my Rockies get the two WC spots but it's gonna be a fun and close race to the end in both the division and WC chases.

Post: #49

I used to follow baseball religiously about a decade ago but I'm just so caught up with things now. I pick things up here and there.

I heard about a year ago Bryce Harper might get traded to the Cubs. Anybody want to comment on that? Especially if the Nats don't make it this year. Harper's a once in a generation talent hopefully he goes on a team that wins championships. Bryant-Harper-Rizzo would be insane.