*** OFFICIAL MLB 2018 Thread ***

[Dan Druff]

Sanlmar, Cueto isn't a KC guy.

Not sure why Sanlmar hates on Kershaw, aside from his odd hatred of the Dodgers. You won't find a better regular season pitcher in this generation. Postseason hasn't been good, but also hasn't been as bad as the rhetoric (rederick?) has been.
etter.

Geez Druff, I am well aware of Cueto. He beat the Dodgers the other day and there was the history of your “Royals are the poor man’s Dodgers” squabble with Sizzle which was a prelude to the Royals World Series victory.

It was a thin play but it amused me

I have selflessly dedicated a fair amount of my life trying to explain the Dodgers and Kershaw. Hope trumps logic and I am understanding and patient

This allegory might help:
The Patriots occupy the dreadful AFC East. This division has been awful the length of the Patriots dynasty

If Tom Brady racked up division championships and huge regular season numbers but failed in the playoffs he wouldn’t be married to Giselle. He would still be thought of as a pretty good quarterback though.

Fact is Brady is pretty damn clutch against the best competition in the playoffs. He’s a lot like Bumgarner if you don’t follow the NFL.

Similarly, the Dodgers and Kershaw have occupied a dreadful NL West and take down the division regularly. Conversely, Kershaw has failed in the playoffs against the better teams who are more focused and prepared for the longer series.

One or two failures might be written off as variance but the body of work grows and is consistently unimpressive

Interestingly, the NL West has turned around. If the Giants were healthy it would be at the top of the heap. The Dodgers and Kershaw have an opportunity to impress me this year.

We will see. It’s not too late for Kershaw.

The wildcard came out of the NL West last year, and the Rockies were competitive the whole way until the very end when they fell apart.

If you wanted to talk about a team benefiting from a weak division, then you should focus on the Nationals.

You can't compare a starting pitcher to a quarterback. The quarterback has far more impact on his team.

The playoffs are short, and the variance is high. While Kershaw has underperformed, he hasn't been a huge choker. He's turned in a number of good starts (and even a few relief appearances) at critical times.

Funny how you talk about "injuries" on the Giants. Which injuries are you referring to, aside from Bumgarner? Their lineup is at full strength. It's just not hitting.

The Dodgers are missing Justin Turner, which creates a big hole.

[Sanlmar]

Pitchers

Samardjzia
Melalancon
Bumgarner

[Sanlmar]

You can't compare a starting pitcher to a quarterback. The quarterback has far more impact on his team.

A pitcher can throw a perfect game. A quarterback cannot win single handedly even if he has a perfect QB rating

Super Bowls have been frequently won with dreadful QBs
Trent Dilfer
Doug Williams
Jim McMahon
Joe Flacco

Can’t win World Series without great pitchers.

The old Druff variance argument gets trotted out.

The playoffs are short, and the variance is high.

Kershaw has a dozen playoff games under his belt which is a fair sample. His numbers are bad

[big dick]

Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

You can't compare a starting pitcher to a quarterback. The quarterback has far more impact on his team.

[Dan Druff]

A pitcher can throw a perfect game. A quarterback cannot win single handedly even if he has a perfect QB rating

Super Bowls have been frequently won with dreadful QBs
Trent Dilfer
Doug Williams
Jim McMahon
Joe Flacco

Can’t win World Series without great pitchers.

The old Druff variance argument gets trotted out.

The playoffs are short, and the variance is high.

Kershaw has a dozen playoff games under his belt which is a fair sample. His numbers are bad

A pitcher can't pitch every game. In fact, he can't even pitch half the games.

Superbowls can be won with dreadful QBs, but baseball games are often won with dreadful pitchers (or good pitchers turning in a dreadful performance).

Kershaw is the very best pitcher to have on your team right now, and has been for several years.

If Fuck Yu didn't tip his pitches in Game 7, or if Roberts started Alex Wood instead, we might very well be talking about the 2017 Dodgers World Series Champions.

Either way, finishing with the best record in baseball AND making it to Game 7 of the World Series against a very tough team can't be considered failure.

You're also forgetting how they obliterated the Dbacks and handily beat the Cubs last year.

[Dan Druff]

Also, big dick, nice performances by the Cubs so far, especially the offense.

But the Marlins and Reds are very tough teams, so it's understandable.

[Sanlmar]

The young Yankees took the Astros to game 7 too. Same difference. Same result. Yankees made moves to improve thieir chances. Dodgers not so much.

The Cubs & the Red Sox both had almost a 100 years of ALMOST.

They addressed their problems.

[big dick]

Also, big dick, nice performances by the Cubs so far, especially the offense.

But the Marlins and Reds are very tough teams, so it's understandable.

It's been about as bad of a start as possible

[simpdog]

Dodgers had Kershaw and Greinke.

Missed opportunities should be their motto.

[Dan Druff]

Painful 15 inning game to watch tonight.

Ugh can't believe I wasted my time on this.

[Charham]

Painful 15 inning game to watch tonight.

Ugh can't believe I wasted my time on this.

Try that Cubs game a few days ago for me. Won't do that again. Though in the background at least.

I am liking MLB so far this year. Decent pitching, decent hitting, lot of parity. Good manager has Miami at least competing. That is a story. Houston looks dominant. But all it takes are a few injured starting pitchers and game on. Yankees not living up to the hype. Rookie managers making mistakes. Boston looking pretty strong. Lots of good stories. Likin it all.

[PLOL]

Also, big dick, nice performances by the Cubs so far, especially the offense.

But the Marlins and Reds are very tough teams, so it's understandable.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+the+dodger%27s+record

[Sanlmar]

Painful 15 inning game to watch tonight.

Ugh can't believe I wasted my time on this.

Try that Cubs game a few days ago for me. Won't do that again. Though in the background at least.

I am liking MLB so far this year. Decent pitching, decent hitting, lot of parity. Good manager has Miami at least competing. That is a story. Houston looks dominant. But all it takes are a few injured starting pitchers and game on. Yankees not living up to the hype. Rookie managers making mistakes. Boston looking pretty strong. Lots of good stories. Likin it all.

What strikes me most is that there is very little that is new. We are picking up from last year. Part of the fun is figuring out how new lineups and pitchers match up and maybe having an opinion about fading strength or weakness.

I like playing short handed pitching - like Giants or Red Sawks v Marlins last night. No models, no matchup history. Look at scouting reports and rotoworld. Spring training newspaper summaries.

Yesterday, AAAA pitchers Johnson (1 run allowed) v Marlins Richards (5 runs allowed). Felt like stealing. The line moved against Sawks kinda big and I couldn’t fathom why. Lol, sharp money.

The lines are so familiar and probably pretty correct. More than usual for this time of year, I’ll wager . I saw Druff desirous of underdogs. This environment is less favorable to that notion, I think. Favorites have been pretty solid and run lines are working better than ever. Maybe that’s just skewed by my own experience- I haven’t drilled into the numbers yet.

I followed the Dodgers game last night. It’s something you have on in the background after a certain point. It’s the soundtrack to the summer. You have Lady Gaga playing and I have baseball. The MLB package on your phone, tablet and tv is god.

Where you were hostage to the home team if you lived on a farm in Missouri... now you can hate multiple teams, not just the Cardinals.

So you aren’t fully dialed in and every once in a while you’re like “WTF”. It’s 6-3 Dodgers bottom 9th 2 out with their alledged Ace Closer on the mound. You look up and it’s 9-9. Huh? Wow! How is that not fun?

Looked at Dodger game with an eye toward Kershaw chalk. Is the love fading? Opened -191 now -158. I’m gaining a following it would appear.

For today I took the total over 7.5.

Just a ramble.

[Dan Druff]

I don't blame the Dodgers for blowing it in the 9th. Kenley Jansen is clearly "off" right now, and that might be a long term problem, but he was only missing by a little bit when walking those first two batters, and you don't really expect Chris Owings to hit a home run (even though he did have 12 last year, a career high).

You can't take your highly-paid, highly-respected closer out in that situation, even if you suspect he doesn't have it. Elite closers have egos, which means you have to let them grind through their bad outings, unless they're REALLY bad, in order to keep them happy.

My problem was Roberts' refusal to remove Wilmer Font when it was clear he had nothing left.

Here Font turned in an almost-heroic performance, going 4 scoreless innings against a tough lineup in a hitters' park. Yet he had thrown close to 70 pitches and was clearly out of energy. Dodgers had no more relievers available, hence his long outing.

More importantly, the Dodgers were up 7-6 in the 15th. This wasn't going to be an infinite game. Get 3 outs, and it's over.

At that point, you need to throw in a starter (I'd say Maeda) to finish the job. Push his next start back a bit if necessary. It's worth it to get the W instead of the L. Instead, Roberts left an exhausted Font out there to flail, and he gave up 2 runs quickly to lose it. He could have gone out a hero and scored his first Major League win. Instead, he took the loss, and any confidence gain here was thrown away.

The fact that Jeff Mathis hit the walk-off (he of the .199 career average) speaks volumes.

[Sanlmar]

Wow. Worse than even I expected

[Ballhawknet]

You're also forgetting how they obliterated the Dbacks and handily beat the Cubs last year.

THAT IS THE 2016 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION CHICAGO CUBS

Just thought id remind you

[Sanlmar]

Ohtani is giving me goosebumps.

The endless list of adjustments - the straight outta the box success. Makes no sense.

[snake_in_the_ass]

Ohtani is giving me goosebumps.

The endless list of adjustments - the straight outta the box success. Makes no sense.

Kershaw got mad that Ohtani turned down the Dodgers. Fitting that Kershaw lost tonight and Ohtani kicked ass.

[big dick]

Dodgers lol

[Sanlmar]

Was surprised to find the Dodgers weren’t sole owners of last place this morning. Half game out.

Astros Alex Bregman hits a walk-off infield pop up that isn't caught by anyone to beat the Padres. Oh, well.

Every Dodgers article discusses how things are fine as long as the Dodgers are healthy for playoffs. Playoffs? We talking about playoffs? Why are the Dodgers a mortal lock? This assumption never ends well.

ESPN passes on Dodgers/Kershaw for Nationals v Mets. Understandable if you like good baseball but also a sign of the times