2017 MLB Season Thread

[LawrenceMD]

^ Hmmm....my team sucks but I think Angelos and staff (soon to be former staff with McPhail on his way out) are trying to do the whole rebuilding through by making our minor league teams better, I don't know. I think either A or AA won something this year. I want to say AA.

the way I see it the O's had their wings clipped by Jeffery Maier - the O's basically set the 90's-00's model of how to run a baseball team (by utilizing the ballpark revenue) and front office savvy. Who knows but I think that that very catch changed the O's (potential juggernauts) to middling team just by that one unfortunate event.

current model is : sign huge cable regional/national deal. don't care about the stadium revenue. invest Heavily in farm. unless its fenway/wrigley you need a winning team to make a lot of money from attendance. The only way to up attendance is to be winning (and that doesn't even work 100%).

if anything there's some excellent payroll parity in this years playoffs. not like years past where one small market/payroll team sneaks in this year is basically half the teams:

http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/baseball/mlb/salaries/team


New York Yankees $ 202,689,028
Philadelphia Phillies $ 172,976,379
Detroit Tigers $ 105,700,231
St. Louis Cardinals $ 105,433,572
Texas Rangers $ 92,299,264
Milwaukee Brewers $ 85,497,333
Arizona Diamondbacks $ 53,639,833
Tampa Bay Rays $ 41,053,571

 

[clarinetplayer]

Tigers win two in a row. Watching Valverde (Cardio Grande) has cost me to lose two years off my life.

 

[Michigan Planner]



Tigers win two in a row. Watching Valverde (Cardio Grande) has cost me to lose two years off my life.

I was at the game last night and told my buddy I wish I had brought my heart rate monitor to measure what was happening to me when the second JV took the mound in the 9th.

That was the most electric atmosphere I've ever experienced at a game.

 

[Slopho]



the way I see it the O's had their wings clipped by Jeffery Maier

5 years ago I would have agreed with this, but I think too much time has past to continue to blame this bastard. There is another almost more significant (not as noticed) event that I think too has crushed the O's. In the 1997 ALCS vs. Cleveland back up catcher Lenny Webster got distracted some how and for some odd reason Roberto Alomar came all the way around from second base to score. This was a changing moment in that game and in that series. I remember Davey Johnson coming out and actually trying to cheer Webster up, he mouths "Are you alright?" where the camera can catch it. That one play really shifted everything.

I don't think the Tigers will win, but I think the Brew Crew is the real deal!!

 

[clarinetplayer]



I was at the game last night and told my buddy I wish I had brought my heart rate monitor to measure what was happening to me when the second JV took the mound in the 9th.
That was the most electric atmosphere I've ever experienced at a game.

I'm going tonight. C'mon, Ricky! I think the best thing that happened to Porcello to prepare him for tonight was that horrendous 7 run lead that he blew a month ago. I'm sure that he learned a lot about himself after that. I doubt that Papa will be pitching tonight.

 

[bdeuce22]

^ don't forget he also pitched Game 163 a couple years ago.

have fun, man. i'm 50/50 on heading down there and getting a couple tickets. last night was crazy down there. while i don't want it to be this close, can you imagine if someone hit a walkoff homer to end it.

santiago stays in the lineup!!!

if the tigers can get by the yankees, the next 10 days of sports will be out of control.
Tigers
MNF + Lions
MSU/Michigan

 

[Michigan Planner]



^ don't forget he also pitched Game 163 a couple years ago.

Even though the Tigers lost that one, that was one of the absolute craziest games I've ever seen (even if I was only watching the TV for it).

if the tigers can get by the yankees, the next 10 days of sports will be out of control.
Tigers
MNF + Lions
MSU/Michigan

Looking at the probably MLB postseason schedules, if the Tigers and the Rangers win tonight to end both those series, it's entirely possible that they could be playing against each other Monday night in Detroit at the same time as the Lions and Bears are playing on MNF across the street. Even if I don't have a ticket to either of those games, I might have to be downtown for that if it plays out that way.

 

[bdeuce22]

^ Game 3 (in detroit if both detroit and texas win) would be Tuesday per MLB's schedule. Though weather and whatever happens between now and then is another story.

 

[guster]



you know i'd rather have john henry owning the team first. he's shown a willingness to spend on players AND he's a statistical genius (if you read moneyball back in 2003 henry was featured prominently in it being one of the few owners who actually leads the way in statistical analysis in baseball way back to his days with the marlins).
so if the redsox were to lose anyone that would sink the franchise? it would start with losing their current owner - john henry the statistical genius billionaire who turned the redsox into a money making machine (through the fenway group). I wouldn't care if epstein and francona are gone as long as henry is at the top with his money and savvy.
just ask any the MLB team fanbases with dipshit owners running their franchises into the ground or worst: the teams that do it on purpose just to keep a luxury tax welfare profit. - now thats some sad ****.

Henry put together a great company for consulting and picking stocks. And he and Werner and the other owners have done a great job fixing up Fenway and investing into the operations of the Red Sox. But I am not so sure his statistical mind is behind the Red Sox World Series wins. Remember he owned the Marlins for 3 seasons and they did nothing under his watch. They did win WS before and after his ownership.

Henry did cut Marlins salaries in half, so I am not sure his track record as an owner is the one that drives the big spending decisions for the pure pursuit of sinning or that he uses his statistical baseball mind to win games for the teams he has owned.

I do know they were worried about declining TV revenues so they signed big names Crawford and Gonzalez and refused to pay for Beltre and Martinez at cheaper prices. Ratings are back up so that is great for revenues but not sure you could say in year 1 that the Sox came out on top by trading top prrospects and spending all that $$ ($300M?) on Crawford and Gonzalez. And if he was a no holds bard spender, why not resign Martinez at catcher rather than go with a guy with very little major league time? And baseball is so much about chemistry - not so sure getting rid of club house leader Martinez waseven the best cost saving decision.

And then, if Henry was all about spending for winning, why would he not spend the money to go after Cliff Lee? Epstein has been on record saying how he wanted more pitching. But pitching doesn't get you the big ratings that hitting will. (Henry and crew own 80% of NESN, TV station). So they got Crawford instead. If Lee would have signed with them, they are in playoffs easily. It wasn't poor hiiting that caused them blow a big WC lead.

Also Werner is in it with him along President Larry Lucchino so hard to tell even how much of Fenway revival and WSins is Henry's doing. Lucchino is the one that wanted Epstein for GM and Epstein clearly made a lot of the earlier personnel decisions.

Every report says that Henry has greatly increased his involvement with personnel decisions in recent years. Henry has a good ttack record in business and with the Red Sox on running the business side. But I think he is like the vast majority of other owners that screw up a club when ownership gets too involved with personnel and game management.

 

[guster]



^ Hmmm....my team sucks but I think Angelos and staff (soon to be former staff with McPhail on his way out) are trying to do the whole rebuilding through by making our minor league teams better, I don't know. I think either A or AA won something this year. I want to say AA.

Orioles have some exciting young pitching. But they need some more, especially in the pen. What is in the minors for pitching?

 

[Lord-Barrington]

Burnett is two outs away from having put in a very, very good night of work. I was about 80% sure he was going to crap the bed tonight but so far he's been solid.

 

[bdeuce22]

only fitting that cgrand takes runs away. damn. unreal

 

[Slopho]



Orioles have some exciting young pitching. But they need some more, especially in the pen. What is in the minors for pitching?

Matt Riley, Bust
Sean Douglass, Bust
Josh Towers, Bust
Steve Belcher, Dead
Rick Bauer, Bust - This one I kind of like because Gammons was so high on him. He was also high on George Lombard and Mr. G may be one of the only people who knows who he is.
Daniel Cabrera, Bust
Sidney Ponson, Fat, Drunk
Hayden Penn, Bust
John Parrish, Bust
John Maine....meh....meh......mmmeeeeehhhhh Bust
Jorge Julio, never bring a guy from A ball all the way up to the Majors in a single season Bust
Adam Loewen, Rick Ankiel clone Bust

The O's have a long history of bad bad pitching bust. I don't trust anything in their minor league system

 

[shoreman1782]

slopho stop turning this into another O's thread and let the less doomed teams have some fun.

How about that Ben Francisco, huh? Two months ago he wasn't even sure thing to make the postseason roster.

And watching Ryan Madson bat was almost as fun as seeing Sidney Ponson bat at an interleague game in Phila a few years back.

 

[dcg]



slopho stop turning this into another O's thread and let the less doomed teams have some fun.

How about that Ben Francisco, huh? Two months ago he wasn't even sure thing to make the postseason roster.

And watching Ryan Madson bat was almost as fun as seeing Sidney Ponson bat at an interleague game in Phila a few years back.

I take back everything bad I ever said about Ben Francisco. And yeah, my first thought when the Phils came up after Lidge failed to get them out of the eighth was "damn, if someone gets a hit here Madson's gonna have to bat!" Frankly, he didn't look THAT bad up there (he went down on three pitches, but he at least looked like he'd held a bat before). Also: