MLB 2019

[danielmak]

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.

[Incandenza]

[URL]https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1194348775965437952[/URL]

[Incandenza]

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.”

Also worth mentioning that the Nationals changed their signals prior to the World Series starting. It was a strange series, but interesting to think about that while pondering how Houston lost all their games at home...

[danielmak]

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.

[ursus arctos]

[URL="https://twitter.com/uniwatch/status/1193525506194509824?s=21"]https://twitter.com/uniwatch/status/1193525506194509824[/URL]

[danielmak]

Well, Larry Rothschild has become the Padres' problem.

[Hot Pepsi]

I was astonished to be reminded that we had the Royals and the Mets were in the World Series in the last five years. I'd forgotten that. That seems like a match-up from a different era.

[danielmak]

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?

The Red Sox were an incredible team last year. The Dodgers were lucky to win one and that took 18 innings. The 2017 WS was evenly matched. Had the Dodgers not blown a huge lead in Houston (game 5), they might have won that series. The Cubs and Cleveland was closely contested. The Cubs should have run away with that game 7 but let Cleveland back into the game. Dan Odowd (sp?) said on MLB Tonight tonight that had the grounds crew not brought out the tarp, that game 7 could have been very different given the momentum (which of course adds to the Cubs sense of destiny to break the curse). KC-Mets was way closer than the final 4-1 series win so as HP said, that victory on the road was really a product of the 2-3-2 schedules. Then the KC-Giants series had the Giants winning at home. These are some of the last 6, but not all. I'd probably agree with HP about the schedules and just add that in some cases the series was either very tight (not a choke job) or one team was much better than the other.

[Hot Pepsi]

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?

I don't think so. That's probably an anomaly. The team with the better record hosts the first two and the last two games. That may have something to do with it somehow. I'm not sure.

[Hot Pepsi]

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.

I've only been to about 25 major league games in my life, so I remember something about each of them. But I remember a bit more about that one because I've only been to that stadium twice and because the marketing effort to get fans excited about a draft pick is very unusual in baseball.*

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.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

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?

[danielmak]

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.

[imp]

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.

[Incandenza]

The Dodgers have been knocked out of the playoffs the past three years by that year's World Series champions.

[Hot Pepsi]

My team won. Yay!

I should add that I did go to the Nats several times over the course of my DC years. Did I pay any attention to them after I left town? Not saying. Did I start paying attention to them when they made the playoffs. A bit. Did I get up this morning in my pyjamas at 3.30am and finally watch some of the action? Hell yeah!

IMP and I went to a rain-delayed, not-well-attended-from-the-start, Nats-Reds game in 2009 on the night of the draft where the Nats got Strasburg. They showed the draft on the big screens during the delay and were handing out t-shirts commemorating the event of his draft, trying to convince people that it would be a moment to remember for the Nats in the future. Turns out they were right, but I doubt many people still have that shirt.

IMP didn't stay until the end. I did. The Reds won, but it wasn't impressive. I'd say there were only about 1,000-2,000 people there at the end, including all the players and the stadium staff. I was supporting the Reds, who weren't bad at that time, but it was still a depressing scene. It felt like I was witnessing the end of baseball itself.

[San Bernardhinault]

The first baseball games I went to were Nationals ones, so today I consider myself a lifelong fan.

[imp]

I'm goning to have to dig out my decade old, faded and paint splattered Nationals cap, bought for the sole reason that I needed something to cover my head sharpish and my sister had previously worked for a few years at the British Embassy in Washington. Go Nats!

We've got one of those in the cupboard somewhere too, bought one stifling day at the stadium when I forgot to take head cover. Cost five bucks, it's the most uncomfortable head item I own. In fact I hate baseball caps full stop - they look extra dorky on me.

[Greenlander]

I'm goning to have to dig out my decade old, faded and paint splattered Nationals cap, bought for the sole reason that I needed something to cover my head sharpish and my sister had previously worked for a few years at the British Embassy in Washington. Go Nats!

[WOM]

Our chosen team won. Couldn't be happier. Houston just seemed like a douche bro organization and the Nationals did it without Harper. Win win all around. And all 7 games won on the road. Wtf?

[imp]

My team won. Yay!

I should add that I did go to the Nats several times over the course of my DC years. Did I pay any attention to them after I left town? Not saying. Did I start paying attention to them when they made the playoffs. A bit. Did I get up this morning in my pyjamas at 3.30am and finally watch some of the action? Hell yeah!

[danielmak]

Never has the unofficial meaning of "interesting" been clearer. danielmak begins with "This was an interesting world series" and then proceeds to write two paragraphs about how in fact it was not interesting.

Actually an extension of a recurring problem that stems from spending way too much time on the computer each day: my mind moves faster than my fingers. The missing phrase in that first sentence: was set up to be--This was set up to be an interesting series. But it wasn't.

[ad hoc]

Never has the unofficial meaning of "interesting" been clearer. danielmak begins with "This was an interesting world series" and then proceeds to write two paragraphs about how in fact it was not interesting.

[danielmak]

This was an interesting world series. It was set up to be an all-time great series for pitching but that never played out. Game 7 was probably the most exciting, but even that's a bit relative. Houston was cruising, Greinke shook off the catcher twice, gave up a home run, walked a guy. And that was basically that. After Harris gave up the 2-run HR, the game was over. I think that was the 6th inning. For me it was an interesting WS on paper but not a very interesting WS in terms of game action, although I guess I wasn't feeling that in the moment during each game because I always thought there was an opportunity for more drama. That drama just never transpired. All games had very uneven scorelines.

I'll take KC-Mets, Cubs-Cleveland, and Rangers-Cardinals over this one easily. I had a horse in the race with Dodgers-Astros in 2017, and even with some painful Dodgers losses, that series was more interesting. I'd assume that series was also more exciting for a neutral baseball fan. I'm sure there have been other 7 game series that were a bit of a snore in retrospect but I'm having a hard time remembering one.

[ursus arctos]

You are just really fucking happy that the Astros got Osuna

[San Bernardhinault]

I’m very pleased about this, and don’t really know why.