The Dodgers have been knocked out of the playoffs the past three years by that year's World Series champions.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
MLB 2019
Collapse
X
-
Reed, I've no idea how you recollect that night so vividly. You sound like me talking about a football match 30 years ago. I remember the Strasbourg thing. Why did it go on so late? Was there a weather break? Of all the Nationals games I went to, I couldn't tell you a single score, or a single team they were playing against.
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 7494
- Off the purple line
- I'm slutty: Roma (on haitus until Jose is fired), Liverpool, and Dortmund
- Del Taco
The one thing for the Nats is that they certainly earned this title. They beat the Dodgers (106 wins) and the Astros (107) wins. That's not an easy road--and the fact that both series went the distance speaks to that difficulty.
Comment
-
I think I read on the BBC report that as well as all 7 games of this year's world series being won by the away team, the last six world series have also now been clinched by a team 'on the road'. Is there a pattern for teams choking in the playoffs in front of a home crowd?
Comment
-
Originally posted by imp View PostReed, I've no idea how you recollect that night so vividly. You sound like me talking about a football match 30 years ago. I remember the Strasbourg thing. Why did it go on so late? Was there a weather break? Of all the Nationals games I went to, I couldn't tell you a single score, or a single team they were playing against.
I also probably remember it because that is the only time I've been to a major league game that was delayed that long. There was a very long weather delay. I don't think the game started until about 8. Maybe later. I've never been at a major league game with so few other people in the stands.
* It's becoming a bit more common now that the internet has all kinds of anoraky sites devoted to prospects and the minor leagues, but usually even the first overall pick in the baseball draft will play a few seasons in the minors before even playing for the big league team and one player can't really change the fortunes of a team anyway. The draft is a bigger deal in basketball and football where the top picks, at least, will join their team the following season and, in many cases, make a big impact right away.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View PostI think I read on the BBC report that as well as all 7 games of this year's world series being won by the away team, the last six world series have also now been clinched by a team 'on the road'. Is there a pattern for teams choking in the playoffs in front of a home crowd?
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 7494
- Off the purple line
- I'm slutty: Roma (on haitus until Jose is fired), Liverpool, and Dortmund
- Del Taco
Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View PostI think I read on the BBC report that as well as all 7 games of this year's world series being won by the away team, the last six world series have also now been clinched by a team 'on the road'. Is there a pattern for teams choking in the playoffs in front of a home crowd?
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 7494
- Off the purple line
- I'm slutty: Roma (on haitus until Jose is fired), Liverpool, and Dortmund
- Del Taco
I can't say I like or dislike the Padres. There was a year when the Dodgers were in the mix and the Padres knocked them out (one of the seasons when the Giants won, if I remember correctly) so that was annoying. But I do hope for Padres fans that the team dumps those horrific camo uniforms.
Comment
-
https://theathletic.com/1363451/2019...ague-baseball/
The Astros’ set-up in 2017 was not overly complicated. A feed from a camera in center field, fixed on the opposing catcher’s signs, was hooked up to a television monitor that was placed on a wall steps from the team’s home dugout at Minute Maid Park, in the tunnel that runs between the dugout and the clubhouse. Team employees and players would watch the screen during the game and try to decode signs — sitting opposite the screen on massage tables in a wide hallway.
When the onlookers believed they had decoded the signs, the expected pitch would be communicated via a loud noise — specifically, banging on a trash can, which sat in the tunnel. Normally, the bangs would mean a breaking ball or off-speed pitch was coming.
...
Pitching for the White Sox in 2017, Danny Farquhar made two mid-September appearances at Minute Maid Park, just before the playoffs. One Astros source recalled that Farquhar appeared to visibly notice what the Astros were up to.
Farquhar, the source remembered, pointed to his ear on the mound.
“There was a banging from the dugout, almost like a bat hitting the bat rack every time a changeup signal got put down,” said Farquhar, who is now the pitching coach with the White Sox’s High-A affiliate in Winston-Salem, N.C. “After the third one, I stepped off. I was throwing some really good changeups and they were getting fouled off. After the third bang, I stepped off.”
Farquhar said he and his catcher changed the signs to the more complex kind used when a runner is on second base — a situation where base runners have long been able to legally relay signs, using their own eyes.
“The banging stopped,” Farquhar said. “My assumption was they were picking it up from the video and relaying the signs to the dugout. … That was my theory on the whole thing. It made me very upset. I was so angry, so mad, that the media didn’t come to me after.”Last edited by Incandenza; 12-11-2019, 19:06.
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 7494
- Off the purple line
- I'm slutty: Roma (on haitus until Jose is fired), Liverpool, and Dortmund
- Del Taco
I saw some of that Jomboy footage on MLB Tonight but that video was much better since the MLB Tonight hosts talked over it.
More NL West news: Giants hire Kapler, go the reports. I'm good with this as a Dodgers fan, but I think it's a mistake. I think he'd benefit from a little time off to reflect. The Phillies suffered from injuries, and I think they signed a manager killer in Harper, but they were a bad defensive team and two years in a row they melted down toward the end of the season. There are things a manager can control and things a manager can't control. I think errors can be controlled. Just look at the Cardinals under Shildt.
Speaking of managers, how can Kevin Cash get robbed. There is no way that team had any business getting as far as they did during the season (since this is a pre-playoffs vote). I get that the Twins made the biggest jump but they've been a yo-yo team the last three years so no surprise that this was the up year. That's not to slight Baldelli, but Cash deserved the award.
Comment
-
Baseball Prospectus found a lot of at bats from 2017 with audible banging sounds:
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/n...led-delivered/
Before the seventh pitch of the year, you can hear a bang right before Jose Altuve watches a Felix Hernandez dive below the zone. They were stealing signs on literally the first day of the season. They didn’t just come up with this on a whim halfway through the year and see if it worked. The Astros entered 2017 with a plan in place to relay signs to their hitters.
While anonymous sources differed on whether or not the Astros used this system during their World Series run in 2017, one thing is very clear—this was not a one time thing. In fact, the blunt-object-to-hollow-plastic sound can be heard in almost every game I watched. To think a team would stop using this tactic right when the games matter the most would be ludicrous.
Reddit user ryanmuller1089 posted a video seemingly showing a whistle indicating Clayton Kershaw’s curveball was on the way during Game 5 of the World Series.
[URL]https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1194659705051910144[/URL]
Same whistle:
Last edited by Incandenza; 13-11-2019, 17:12.
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 7494
- Off the purple line
- I'm slutty: Roma (on haitus until Jose is fired), Liverpool, and Dortmund
- Del Taco
It's hard to see that the Astros would have stopped in the WS. But that Burke video doesn't add much since Barnes went out to the mound. No need to put down fingers at that point. They talked about the WS on MLB Now. Scott Braun brought up how hard the Astros hit Darvish but Eric Byrnes noted that it would be hard to pick up his pitches given Darvish's 5-pitch repertoire. Given how bad he was in that WS and in his first season+ with the Cubs, I probably would side with Darvish just sucking. I don't doubt, though, that the Astros were using tech during the WS as well. Darvish was bad, though; Kershaw was bad; and Jansen was bad. Maybe all three were victims of video sign stealing but the other two haven't been much better during the playoffs since 2017.
Maeda, on the other hand, has been lights out in the playoffs the past few years. So that whistle could mean something or it could just be Altuve being a true MVP player.
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 3353
- at the edge of the sea
- Plymouth Argyle, Plymouth Gladiators, Seattle Mariners
- cream crackers spread with nutella
The 42 minor league teams to be cut have been announced by the New York Times, not all of them from short season or rookie leagues either. From first glance nothing from AAA, but at least a couple from the next level down:
CALIFORNIA
Lancaster Jethawks
COLORADO
Rocky Mountain Vibes
Grand Junction Rockies
CONNECTICUT
(Norwich) Connecticut Tigers
FLORIDA
(Kissimmee) Florida Fire Frogs
Daytona Tortugas
IOWA
Quad Cities River Bandits
Burlington Bees
Clinton LumberKings
IDAHO
Idaho Falls Chukars
KENTUCKY
Lexington Legends
MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell Spinners
MARYLAND
Frederick Keys
Hagerstown Suns
MONTANA
Great Falls Voyagers
Missoula PaddleHeads
Billings Mustangs
NORTH CAROLINA
Burlington Royals
NEW YORK
Staten Island Yankees
Binghamton Rumble Ponies
Auburn Doubledays
Batavia Muckdogs
OHIO
Mahoning Valley Scrappers
OREGON
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes
PENNSYLVANIA
State College Spikes
Williamsport Crosscutters
Erie SeaWolves
TENNESSEE
Johnson City Cardinals
Kingsport Mets
Jackson Generals
Elizabethton Twins
Greeneville Reds
Chattanooga Lookouts
UTAH
Ogden Raptors
Orem Owlz
VIRGINIA
Bristol Pirates
Danville Braves
VERMONT
(Burlington) Vermont Lake Monsters
WASHINGTON
Tri-City Dust Devils
WEST VIRGINIA
(Charleston) West Virginia Power
Princeton Rays
Bluefield Blue Jays
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 3353
- at the edge of the sea
- Plymouth Argyle, Plymouth Gladiators, Seattle Mariners
- cream crackers spread with nutella
Originally posted by ad hoc View PostWho can make a decision to just get rid of 42 teams? Isn't it up to the teams themselves?
Comment
-
The teams might still exist as commercial entities, but the players are paid for and assigned by the MLB teams. So if they are no longer affiliated with MLB teams, they wouldn't have any players. They could try to carry on as independent teams if they could find a league to play in, but then they'd have to make enough money on their own to pay the players and find players willing to play for an unaffiliated team for whatever they can pay. There are some independent leagues that manage to survive, but it's tough and would probably be impossible in small markets like many of the ones here.
And, as I recall reading, MLB is hoping to poach some of the most successful independent teams - like the St. Paul Saints - and make them into affiliated teams, would would make it harder for those leagues to survive.
Some of these teams will probably turn into "summer wood bat" teams. There are leagues for college players to play in the summer to continue develop (and just to play). Unlike college, they use wood bats to help those players learn how to hit with them in preparation of maybe turning pro. But there are already a ton of those.
I would love to see a radical rethink of college baseball, so that they started later and played all summer. That would make it less of a regional thing.
A lot of politicians are pushing back on this, obviously, but I don't know what they can do.
MLB says its so they can pay minor leaguers more, but they could already afford to do that if they just weren't paying the major leaguers such outrageous sums.
I don't know what State College will do. They have a ~6,000 seat stadium that they share with Penn State, but Penn State rarely draws over 1,000 fans and only uses it for about 30 games. If they were better, they'd draw a few more, but many of the games are in the spring when it's still cold. Maybe Altoona will play some games here or maybe just move here. But Altoona is already the smallest city in the Eastern League. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the plan is to make them single-A.
Or maybe PSU will just give up, doze the stadium (which is barely ten years old), cut the 150-year-old baseball program and move on.
I doubt it will come to that, but there will be some people who argue that makes economic sense.
Comment
Comment