*** OFFICIAL MLB 2022 THREAD ****

[Sanlmar]

The rainout threw all the cards in the air.

I’m off this game - at least overnight.


I’m about to unload a clip on Astros to win the AL @ -185.

Whoever wins has to fly to Houston and play the next day against a rested Astros. It’s like spotting the Astros 1-0. This expanded playoffs is so messed up.

Astros are def greater than 65% against either NYY or Cleve in that spot.

The only fly in the ointment would be a blowout especially by Yankees. They are more prone to using their starters in relief - up to and including Cole in a tight game. Maybe Cashman prohibits using Cole, idk. You get my point.

I love the Guardians and this bet will mean I don’t bet anymore AL til the World Series but I have to.

If I wanted to get cute I could live wager the inevitable Astros slow start in game 1. This has less to do with too much rest than a season of falling behind and finishing strong by a Astros. They were a hemorrhoid to wager in the regular season.

Yankees vs Houston makes for better storylines for the ALCS clearly. Expect Yankees to smash Cleveland in short order tomorrow to allow them to just coast most of the game. (if the fix is in possibly). Truthfully if it is Cleveland I dont give them a snowballs chance against Houston, Astros in 5 easy. See other thread I somehow have this gut feeling MLB wants a Judge vs Harper slugfest for the WS but we shall see and it would be a rematch of 2009 when the Yankees last won it all.

Fixing games is an NBA thing in recent history. Much easier to do. It’s like judging figure skating. All fouls are subjective.

I was remiss in not advising taking the pitchers as ACTION if you are on Cleveland. If Bieber goes instead of Civale then you will pocket a smooth 25 cents on the line (it’ll drop to +125). I did.



I reaaaally want Cleveland to start Bieber. I know it screws you with Houston but you gotta get there first. If the thought is to have Bieber come in if Civale gets in trouble then those 2 runs early might be too late.

A short rested Cortes is worse than Taillon imo.

An elite bullpen supersedes a starting pitcher coming in off bench. Karinchek or Clase trump Taillon to use an example.

[4BET]

Fired Cleveland @+149. Fun times turned game off in the bottom of 1st inning

[Dan Druff]

Looks like the Padres burnt themselves out with the Dodgers, and stealing the LA goose.

One hit yesterday. Brutal.

[Dan Druff]

Ah, these are the fail Phillies I know and love.

You blank your NLCS opponent on their home field, and hold them to 1 hit. Great!

Then you break out to an early-game, 4-0 lead. Also great!

Then you give up 7 runs. FAIL!

The Phillies had several disasterous collapses during the regular season, which is why it's so lol that they had a pretty good chance at being in the World Series, after shutting out the Padres last night.

Now they're looking like the inconsistent failteam we all knew. Now that they've burned through Wheeler (great) and Nola (not so great), they're going to have a bit of a rough go of things the rest of the way.

[Dan Druff]

Also, you don't expect San Diego in mid-October to be blazing hot, but....

It is. October is a funny month in southern California. It can be cool and winter-like, it can be moderate, and it can be hot and summer-like. Unfortunately for Padres fans, today is unusually hot in both SD and LA. Right now, SD is 88 degrees. This is especially unusual for SD, because they are right by the perpetually cool water and that tends to moderate the heat. At least the sun finally moved behind more than half of the stadium. When the game started, it was beating down on everyone. Definitely one of those games you wish was at night.

I wonder if that was a factor in Nola having a bad game, though you'd think he'd be used to it having pitched these summers in Philly.

[Dan Druff]

Oh and I hate those little ads they run between at-bats. The theory is that this is "dead time", so they can stuff ads in there. I find it jarring and makes the whole thing unpleasant to watch.

[Dan Druff]

Andrew Friedman, whose moves paid off big time in the 111-win regular season (think Betts, Freeman, Trea Turner, Tyler Anderson), made various statements regarding 2023:

- They want Kershaw back, but they're not sure if he wants to come back. The decision seems more to come down to retirement or returning to the Dodgers, and not so much Dodgers versus another team.

- They haven't decided upon Justin Turner's future. He has a $16m option which I can't imagine them grabbing, as he turns 38 in November, and he was both inconsistent in the regular season and awful in the postseason. As great as Turner's story was (Dodgers picking him up as a bench player in 2014 after the Mets intentionally put out false rumors about him being a clubhouse cancer, and him blossoming into both a star and a clubhouse leader), father time seems to have eaten most of his usefulness.

- Dave Roberts is coming BACK for 2023, despite the team's epic failure against the Padres, some of which was due to his bad decisions.

- Friedman totally, absolutely, positively is not dictating said bad decisions from above, and Roberts totally, absolutely, and positively isn't a puppet.


https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ershaw-returns


While the front office can't be blamed for the team's inexplicably bad situational hitting against the Padres, there were definitely some managerial and personnel screwups.

Friedman can be blamed for not acquiring some strong bullpen help at the trade deadline, when it was clear Kimbrel wasn't working out.

Roberts continued the likely Friedman-dictated obsession with pulling starters early who were pitching well. This has been a sore spot among Dodgers fans for years now, and they just don't change.

Roberts made some piss-poor choices regarding bench usage, putting up weak-hitting Austin Barnes in a critical spot, and another time putting strikeout prone Cody Bellinger up when a base hit was needed.

Roberts oddly did not use their best reliever, Evan Phillips, when the team was collapsing in the 7th in Game 4.

Roberts pulled Yency Almonte mid-at-bat when he seemed to have gotten over his shaky start, and had just retired two tough batters.

[Sanlmar]

. I think it's human nature to want to point the finger at someone. I feel this was an organizational failure in the postseason.

-Andrew Fraudman


I completely agree, Andrew.

The decisions mid season have been consistent over the years.

I encourage you to watch Fraudman’s presser too. Repeatedly reassuring the fans that losing hurts and the “organization” cares as much as the fans do. So lame but appears to work for LA.

At no point does the press ask the million dollar question, “why have the Dodgers been so patently and consistently unsuccessful in the post season?” For all the talk of variance and such the Dodgers have earned a unique status in the history of modern post season baseball.

No, I don’t want to see any organizational changes either. Too much fun.

Meanwhile the Astros are undefeated in this playoffs. Astros Padres will be kind of fun.

[Sanlmar]

Fired Cleveland @+149. Fun times turned game off in the bottom of 1st inning

Not a lot of success his year in playoffs. Sigh

Houston Astros -135 & over 7 -110

Astros opened -150 and I passed. Now it is more attractive and is now -137 or so. -135 was my threshold.

I gotta -185 Astros NL future so that’s my head space anyway. Yankees Bader scares me.

[Dan Druff]

Well, good for Harper, I guess, but the Phillies -- a team so bad that they fired their manager midseason -- are the NL champs, with a whopping 87-75 record, 6th best in the NL.

In an era with teams dominating the regular season, the NL champions for the past 3 seasons have been:

2019: Washington Nationals (93-69), won World Series
2021: Atlanta Braves (88-74), won World Series
2022: Philadelphia Phillies (would have missed playoffs every other year in MLB, 87-75), about to play World Series

The '19 Nationals and '22 Phillies were both failteams in the first half of these years.

[ftpjesus]

Well, good for Harper, I guess, but the Phillies -- a team so bad that they fired their manager midseason -- are the NL champs, with a whopping 87-75 record, 6th best in the NL.

In an era with teams dominating the regular season, the NL champions for the past 3 seasons have been:

2019: Washington Nationals (93-69), won World Series
2021: Atlanta Braves (88-74), won World Series
2022: Philadelphia Phillies (would have missed playoffs every other year in MLB, 87-75), about to play World Series

The '19 Nationals and '22 Phillies were both failteams in the first half of these years.

I noticed you left out the bubble NL and WS champion Dodgers in 2020.

[Texter]

Just hoping for an entertaining world series, that the Astros win.

[Dan Druff]

Just hoping for an entertaining world series, that the Astros win.

[Sanlmar]

Train wreck, you say?

On the plus side, Tyler Anderson should be rested for next regular season.

[Sanlmar]

Found this in the comments following another LA Times worthless clickbait piece on the Doyer’s failure. This poster nails it.


Roberts and Friedman NEVER admit that the system is a big part of the problem. They NEVER admit that they have made some of the worst decisions in playoffs history, resulting in crushing series defeats.

Economist Thomas Sowell said:

"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."

1. Guggenheim employs Stan Kasten, who won 14 straight division titles, but ONE World Series championship in Atlanta. He has now won 6-7 division titles with the Dodgers, and only the pandemic-shortened season resulted in a ring. He is replicating his Braves run in L.A. Guggenheim just watches. Kasten's job is secure.

2. Friedman spent about a decade in Tampa. Four playoffs, zero championships. Fits Kasten perfectly, and Kasten just watches. Friedman's job is secure.

3. Roberts says he's made all the decisions, without Friedman telling him what to do. I'll take him at his word. (no one believes this -sanlmar) However, that makes him one of the worst judges of situational baseball in postseason history. It's like his brain disengages when it comes to the playoffs. Friedman just watches. Roberts' job is secure.

4. The players who underperform in the playoffs are basically the same guys who always underperform in the playoffs. Every swing is for the fences. Pitches out of the zone are chased, while pitches in the zone are taken for strikes. Key at-bats are squandered. Roberts just watches. Many of the underperformers will be back. Amazingly, their jobs are secure.

Sowell wasn't talking about the Dodgers with the quote above, but it's a perfect fit. Nobody will be held accountable. Friedman called it an "organizational failure," a convenient way of sweeping the mess under the rug.

Next year, they'll run the same script again.

Prices will be raised.

3.6 million fans will show up.

They'll win the division.

They lose in the playoffs.

Friedman and Roberts will recite the same reasons for the failure.

Rinse and repeat successfully completed.

That's the Dodgers way.

[Sanlmar]

I have repeatedly compared the Todgers’ historic playoff failure to the Braves in the ‘90’s over the years on PFA.

Guggenheim (owners) have essentially hired the Braves front office and replicated the fail in LA. A perfect fit as the LA fans have been cool with it until recently.

I think LA fans are starting to shake off their meth haze when it comes to the Lakers and Dodgers. Shades of the old Chicago & Boston fellowship of the miserable just not as knowledgeable and a lot less fun.

[Texter]

Just hoping for an entertaining world series, that the Astros win.

I've been a Dodger fan since 1977; if they can't win it, I may as well root for the local team. It's a great time when a local team wins.

[Texter]

That’s a shame, was a competitive series, but Astros pitching was just too good….sorry most of America.

[gut]

28 of 30 first place votes for Judge. Apparently AL records and making the playoffs actually does sway voters.

I stand by my claim that not a single GM would deal Ohtani for Judge straight up right now, if contracts/money were not a factor.

[Dan Druff]

28 of 30 first place votes for Judge. Apparently AL records and making the playoffs actually does sway voters.

I stand by my claim that not a single GM would deal Ohtani for Judge straight up right now, if contracts/money were not a factor.

HR are revered in MLB, and many see him as the true baseball HR king, since Bonds/Sosa/McGwire were all clearly roids assisted.

It just felt weird to writers to give it to Ohtani when Judge not only set the HR record, but also hit .311 with a 1.111 OPS! Ohtani was excellent in both hitting and pitching, but he wasn't exceptionally good in either. That was the killer. I don't think Ohtani being on a failteam hurt him all that much in the voting.

Those giving Judge a huge contract need to take care. He played only 60% of the games from 2018-2020. Injuries might take him out fairly early, or at least severely limit his playing time and effectiveness. Guys who are 6'7" carry a great danger to get hurt in athletics. He will already be 31 just weeks into the 2023 season.