*** OFFICIAL MLB 2018 Thread ***

[gut]

This AL Central is glorious. Indians mucking around 9 games over and 8.5 clear. They could play .500 here out and no one is catching them. Just one horrible division.

This Twins season is a disaster thus far, although we have played the Indians well. All the bargain shopping deals have turned out.....bargain shopping results. Odorizzi is all over the place, Lynn cant handle the AL and is nibbling and walking everyone, Morrison's AVG hasn't been above .200 AT ALL this season IIRC. Buxton hurt, Sano...overweight, hurt, mentally checked out, Santana's finger still hurts.....le sigh.

When Fernando Rodney is like...the fourth best thing about the team thus far, the season is not going well.

[BCR]

This AL Central is glorious. Indians mucking around 9 games over and 8.5 clear. They could play .500 here out and no one is catching them. Just one horrible division.

This Twins season is a disaster thus far, although we have played the Indians well. All the bargain shopping deals have turned out.....bargain shopping results. Odorizzi is all over the place, Lynn cant handle the AL and is nibbling and walking everyone, Morrison's AVG hasn't been above .200 AT ALL this season IIRC. Buxton hurt, Sano...overweight, hurt, mentally checked out, Santana's finger still hurts.....le sigh.

When Fernando Rodney is like...the fourth best thing about the team thus far, the season is not going well.

Yeah, if you were a true threat at any point, we’d need to make a move for a lefty starter. You’ve had too many left-handed bats for us the past few years. Thankfully, it’s kind of a moot point given how you've performed against everyone else.

[Sanlmar]

No mas, Druff


Dodgers are the best team in the NL atm. 27-10 since mid May. About the time Kershaw left.

They are going to win 92 games. Who woulda thunk it.

I can’t watch the late Dodgers games anymore. One of life’s true pleasures has been watching Dodgers lose and that has been taken away from me ... until September.

I’ll still tune in to watch the sun set on Kershaw. Remember he was -425 this year? Remember we faded him? Good times.

How many consecutive appearances has Kershaw gone off as the favorite? When will that end?

My favorite Dodger is Kike Hernandez. Kid is clutch. Has hurt me many a game.

Nothing has changed since last year in baseball. Same 4 teams.

Astros
Yankees
Sawks
Dodgers

Rizzo just ain’t Rizzo and w/o him Cubs are anemic.

Sawks v Yanks in the Bronx this weekend. Wish Sanchez was healthy. Sawks might win one.

JD Martinez has the highest OPS in Fenway Park ever. That’s insane. I thought the Green Monster (left field) and the ballpark wouldn’t suit him. Monumentally wrong. Hope he can stay healthy for one season. The race is good fun.

[Sanlmar]

BCR,

What do you guys think of Terry Francona? I always liked the guy. Thought it was a disgrace what the Sawks did to him on his way out.

I think Tito hates the Sawks as much as I do ... I’m mellowing

The Sawks have had a parade of idiot managers. Bobby Valentine was comically awful. Farrell was a lying company man and the players hated him.

Having said that, Alex Cora fresh from the Astros is tremendous. Aggressive. Straight shooter with the press. I’m a fan and that’s saying something.

[BCR]

BCR,

What do you guys think of Terry Francona? I always liked the guy. Thought it was a disgrace what the Sawks did to him on his way out.

I think Tito hates the Sawks as much as I do ... I’m mellowing

The Sawks have had a parade of idiot managers. Bobby Valentine was comically awful. Farrell was a lying company man and the players hated him.

Having said that, Alex Cora fresh from the Astros is tremendous. Aggressive. Straight shooter with the press. I’m a fan and that’s saying something.

Love him. If I had any complaint, the only issue I’ve had is him being overly loyal to his guys. Like he hung with Josh Tomlin far too long when he was throwing batting practice. He did it a few years ago when Yan Gomes had one of the worst hitting season I’ve even seen. Those are two of the best clubhouse guys, and Tito loves good clubhouse guys, sometimes too much. Still, he keeps the team together and we’ve had a great clubhouse so there’s obviously a method to his madness.

The last 3 seasons have all kind of had the same feel. I think he kind of doesn’t lay the hammer down until like the 70-75 game mark. We’ve been a few games over .500 like 70 in every year and then get hot. I don’t know if it’s the team or him, but I think he didn’t want to burn guys out with such a long season and is lax until he isn’t.


Haven’t had my coffee yet. This was poorly written, but I really like Tito a lot. Favorite manager of my life for the Tribe.

[Sanlmar]

Francona was loyal to a fault with players like JD Drew in Boston. Every damn day sports talk would harp on JD Drew still being in the lineup and Francona never relented.

Theo Epstein went so far as to hire two Bill James wonks to create lineups for Francona and he never took the suggestions.

Napoli went through a dreadful slump. Francona stuck with him and it paid off in a key situation that contributed to the playoff run and World Series win. His loyalty in the face of all reason often paid off.

The relationships inside the Red Sox front office was dysfunctional to say the least. Francona had to fight through that shit.

But it went the other way too.

There was a famous story of Manny Ramírez walking off the field during a Yankees Red Sox series.

Manny leaves the game in the 4th inning and walks down the tunnel to the locker room saying “Hamstring”

Francona asks, “Which one?”

Manny points to both his legs and says, “Pick one”

Francona called Manny out for this. The owner, John Henry, had a soft spot for Manny and demanded Francona apologize to him. Francona refused and threatened to quit if the Red Sox persisted with the apology demand. Fucking great.

There are 1000’s of Francona stories which are all fantastic. Here’s another Manny being Manny & Tito Francona story:

During Game 4 of the 2004 World Series, Ramirez got into an argument in Spanish with Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina. Molina was accusing Ramirez of stealing the Cardinals’ signs.

Francona turned toward plate umpire Chuck Meriweather: “Chuck, Manny doesn’t even know our signs.”

Francona turned to Ramirez, and asked, ”You don’t know our signs, do you, Manny?”

Ramirez replied, sheepishly, “No.”

When the Red Sox fired Francona then leaked shit about his divorce and planted stories about his pain pills I finally had enough of the Sawks clown show. Theo Epstein had enough too and bolted at the first opportunity. I did too.

[gut]

Anyone else appreciating the "throwback" season Andrelton Simmons is having? In this TTO era, he is just making contact, spraying the ball to all fields, and never striking out. His stat line this year reads like vintage Tony Gwynn....oh and he's probably still the best defensive SS in the game.

It's really a feat that the Angels can have Trout, him, and Ohtani (granted he's hurt now) and still be a barely over .500 team thats slipping away from any real shot at the playoffs. I know I've said it before, but the national writers really give that franchise a pass for how shitty they are, probably just because they did win 1 title 15 years ago and they drafted Trout. They might be the nut low front office in all of MLB.

[Sanlmar]

Last night vs Sawks

Pitchers Ankle on play at plate

Simmons did tie the game 6-6 on a hit like you describe. Sawks were up 6-0 at one point

Albert Pujols with men on is sad to watch.

[Dan Druff]

Anyone else appreciating the "throwback" season Andrelton Simmons is having? In this TTO era, he is just making contact, spraying the ball to all fields, and never striking out. His stat line this year reads like vintage Tony Gwynn....oh and he's probably still the best defensive SS in the game.

It's really a feat that the Angels can have Trout, him, and Ohtani (granted he's hurt now) and still be a barely over .500 team thats slipping away from any real shot at the playoffs. I know I've said it before, but the national writers really give that franchise a pass for how shitty they are, probably just because they did win 1 title 15 years ago and they drafted Trout. They might be the nut low front office in all of MLB.

The Mets front office has been pretty bad lately, too.

Think of what could have been for that team if they didn't let Daniel Murphy go as he was peaking, and if they didn't drop Justin Turner instead of paying him the league minimum.

Yes, neither of them have done much this year due to injury, but the last few would have been huge.

They've made lots of other stupid mistakes, and have wasted Syndergaard and Degrom.

[Dan Druff]

Amazing how the Dodgers keep getting huge performances of out players off the scrap heap.

In 2014, it was Justin Turner.

In 2017, it was Chris Taylor and Brandon Morrow.

In 2018, it's Max Muncy.

Not sure if they're doing something right, or just running really well with role players who break out to have big seasons out of nowhere.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

Anyone else appreciating the "throwback" season Andrelton Simmons is having? In this TTO era, he is just making contact, spraying the ball to all fields, and never striking out. His stat line this year reads like vintage Tony Gwynn....oh and he's probably still the best defensive SS in the game.

It's really a feat that the Angels can have Trout, him, and Ohtani (granted he's hurt now) and still be a barely over .500 team thats slipping away from any real shot at the playoffs. I know I've said it before, but the national writers really give that franchise a pass for how shitty they are, probably just because they did win 1 title 15 years ago and they drafted Trout. They might be the nut low front office in all of MLB.

[big dick]

No mas, Druff


Dodgers are the best team in the NL atm. 27-10 since mid May. About the time Kershaw left.

They are going to win 92 games. Who woulda thunk it.

I can’t watch the late Dodgers games anymore. One of life’s true pleasures has been watching Dodgers lose and that has been taken away from me ... until September.

I’ll still tune in to watch the sun set on Kershaw. Remember he was -425 this year? Remember we faded him? Good times.

How many consecutive appearances has Kershaw gone off as the favorite? When will that end?

My favorite Dodger is Kike Hernandez. Kid is clutch. Has hurt me many a game.

Nothing has changed since last year in baseball. Same 4 teams.

Astros
Yankees
Sawks
Dodgers

Rizzo just ain’t Rizzo and w/o him Cubs are anemic.

Sawks v Yanks in the Bronx this weekend. Wish Sanchez was healthy. Sawks might win one.

JD Martinez has the highest OPS in Fenway Park ever. That’s insane. I thought the Green Monster (left field) and the ballpark wouldn’t suit him. Monumentally wrong. Hope he can stay healthy for one season. The race is good fun.

Not so fast cubs team to beat in nl.
Rizzo musta heard you he had 4 hits today

Two v good teams and Kershaw on the mound and the place was mostly empty prob more cubs fans at the game
fuck the dodgers and their shitty fans
both have no heart and neither deserve a world championship

[Dan Druff]

Good article about Zack Greinke and his amazing ability to prevent bunt-base-hits: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2...ill-world-best

[PLOL]

Rays quietly on fire here. About to win 3 of 4 against the Astros (if they can hold), after sweeping the Nats and Yankees. Next 16 games are against below .500 teams

[Dan Druff]

Well, it was a nice ride while the Dodgers were hot and hitting a million HR, but it looks like the party is over for the moment.

3 losses in a row, and their bats have absolutely been asleep against the Rockies this weekend.

Of concern to me is the fact that Kemp has stopped hitting.

I didn't expect this almost-MVP-caliber season to last all year, though. He's older, he has tons of injury history, and he's a streaky hitter. Even if he falls off a cliff now, the Dodgers still got way more out of him than expected (especially since the expectation was that they would release him and eat his contract.)

I think the team's hitting will pick back up, though. It's the pitching that worries me. Kershaw still isn't Kershaw, and the rest of the staff is just okay. Stripling could easily fall off a cliff, as well.

I still think the Dodgers will squeak by in the West (though it won't be a cakewalk like previous years). They may even win the NL, as no team is particularly dominant. But this team isn't nearly as good as the one last year, especially with Seager gone, a weaker middle relief squad, and Kershaw saddled with injury problems.

[Dan Druff]

Also, why are the Reds the best-playing team in the NL right now?

They really have been.

Even Jose Peraza is hitting home runs.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

interesting article on willians astudillo, the most anti-3 outcome guy in baseball...

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/7...-true-outcomes

[Dan Druff]

interesting article on willians astudillo, the most anti-3 outcome guy in baseball...

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/7...-true-outcomes

Funny. So the guy just tries really hard to swing right away and make contact, and does a pretty good job of it. So he's a good contact hitter, but has no patientce and little power.

I do wonder if the three true outcome thing is going to last. I think it will last until a team wins a World Series after manufacturing runs all year, and maybe teams will go back to emulating that.

Also depends upon how much the ball is actually juiced. If it's easier to hit HR, then the three true outcomes approach becomes more and more correct.

[snake_in_the_ass]

I have been watching baseball for 25 years and the 2018 National League has the most dogshit teams I have ever seen.

And what happened to Bryce Harper? Did he get caught using steroids and the appeal process is impacting his focus?

And the Dodgers star players are Matt Kemp and some fat fuck named Max Muncy. Weird season.

[BCR]

We’re just cruising along here in the AL Central. 10.5 game lead and second place team 11 games below .500. Amazingly bad division. I’ll take it.