2023 MLB General Chat

Interesting first round of the playoffs:

- Rays were a runaway train early in the season, then came back to earth. They still had two home games in the first round, but only scored 1 run total. They had less than 20,000 fans each game! Stadium looked like a Tuesday night game in Cincy. On TV Sean McDonough made a comment when the fans disagreed with the call, something like "the group of fans here disagree - I say group because I can't call this a crowd" Pretty sad.

- Milwaukee also had two home games and got swept. Had early leads but did not score after the 2nd inning. Their home fans were loudly booing by the 6th inning when Brewers hitters made outs. So much for home field advantage.

- Twins had great home crowds and great pitching - Jays scored 1 run total. Jhoan Duran is the nastiest pitcher I have seen in a long time (ever?) - 102 mph heater, 98 mph splitter, and an unreal curve.

- If anyone can beat the Braves, it is the Phillies. Strong.
 
Tonight should be interesting in the NL. The two top seeds lost game #1 at home and today it is:
- Wheeler vs. Fried - advantage Phillies IMO
- Gallen vs. Miller - big advantage Dbacks IMO

Could the two heavyweights lose the first 2 games at home???
 
wolves82 said:
I agree. But I would do it if the Reds ever win a playoff series of any kind.
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This seems so today. We celebrate just about anything. Boy you go back to the big red machine days, most celebarations were pretty subdued. Think about the theatrics of today's players vs. those of before. Eric Davis hit one of the the biggest home runs in Reds history in game 1, inning 1 of the 1990 world series and he simply set the bat down and rounded the bases in only cool Eric Davis fashion.
 
Dodgers Wondering If They Should Have Spent More Time Training For Playoffs And Less Time Honoring Satanic Drag Nuns—- Babylon Bee
 
Playoff baseball is so great. Rangers/ Astros going to a game 7. Dbacks still alive in the NL.
 
who do you like tonight?
NL - Arizona at Philly - 5PM Game 6, Phillies up 3-2
After
AL - Texas at Houston - 8ish GAME 7!!!!
 
I think if Philly goes to the WS they win it. If Arizona goes Texas wins it.

Phillies might have gotten hot slightly too early. Were hot the end of the seasons and first two playoff series. Cooling off big time last few games.
 
The World Series that the networks did not want. No team from the East; no Houston; two underdogs from the West. And especially no team from Boston or the most over-rated sports city in the US - New York, city of losers. I love it.
 
I turned it off when the Phillies couldn't push across runs in the bottom of the seventh with the top of the order. I was a Phillies fan as a kid and it felt like that old disappointment again.
 
tom 48 said:
The World Series that the networks did not want. No team from the East; no Houston; two underdogs from the West. And especially no team from Boston or the most over-rated sports city in the US - New York, city of losers. I love it.
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I agree that TV did not want this matchup, two smaller fan bases. But Texas is no underdog. Payroll over $250 million is 4th highest in baseball, and that does not include Max Scherzer, who is not counted for them in 2023. They have spent like drunken sailors on Seager, Semien, DeGrom, Eovaldi and others.
 
wolves82 said:
I agree that TV did not want this matchup, two smaller fan bases. But Texas is no underdog. Payroll over $250 million is 4th highest in baseball, and that does not include Max Scherzer, who is not counted for them in 2023. They have spent like drunken sailors on Seager, Semien, DeGrom, Eovaldi and others.
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I thought you could only be successful if you have cheap, homegrown talent?
 
tom 48 said:
The World Series that the networks did not want. No team from the East; no Houston; two underdogs from the West. And especially no team from Boston or the most over-rated sports city in the US - New York, city of losers. I love it.
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I for one am happy with the world series matchups, although I'd been fine with the Astros as well. And I don't feel a bit sorry for baseball or the networks. The only reason they keep adding playoff teams is strictly for money. And they "hope" by doing this they can get the "brand" names to slide into the LCS and world series. Well it backfired on them this year. NO division winners make it to the world series, the #2 wild card seed from the AL and the #3 seed from the NL matchup in the fall classic. Arizona was 84-77, 3 games over .500 for the season. But in a sport like baseball, you can get hot, home field means less than ever.
Baseball has made and is making the regular season less and less relevant.
 
wolves82 said:
I agree that TV did not want this matchup, two smaller fan bases. But Texas is no underdog. Payroll over $250 million is 4th highest in baseball, and that does not include Max Scherzer, who is not counted for them in 2023. They have spent like drunken sailors on Seager, Semien, DeGrom, Eovaldi and others.
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#2 wild card, Seattle collapsed in September to put the Rangers in the playoffs. And that's with spending all that money.
 
14Red said:
... Arizona was 84-77, 3 games over .500 for the season....
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So is it your position that 84 minus 77 equals 3 ? Wow. :ROFLMAO:
The correct answer is 7. Don't say "typo" because 3 and 7 are very far apart on keyboards.
Also, for what it is worth MLB.com lists the Dbacks record as 84-78.
But hey, you were close.

14Red said:
I for one am happy with the world series matchups, although I'd been fine with the Astros as well. And I don't feel a bit sorry for baseball or the networks. The only reason they keep adding playoff teams is strictly for money. And they "hope" by doing this they can get the "brand" names to slide into the LCS and world series. Well it backfired on them this year. NO division winners make it to the world series, the #2 wild card seed from the AL and the #3 seed from the NL matchup in the fall classic. Arizona was 84-77, 3 games over .500 for the season. But in a sport like baseball, you can get hot, home field means less than ever.
Baseball has made and is making the regular season less and less relevant.
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As for the rest of this message, I think while TV execs would rather see bigger markets in the WS, MLB is fine with this. MLB accomplished it's goal. By expanding the playoffs to 12 teams, they kept a lot more markets (including Cincinnati) very interested in baseball through September. That helps TV ratings in August and September, helped attendance at the ballparks in many markets, and kept them relevant. A good strategy for the MLB.
 
wolves82 said:
So is it your position that 84 minus 77 equals 3 ? Wow. :ROFLMAO:
The correct answer is 7. Don't say "typo" because 3 and 7 are very far apart on keyboards.
Also, for what it is worth MLB.com lists the Dbacks record as 84-78.
But hey, you were close.
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So my thinking is you can't win and lose the same game, so if you win 3 less games, that give you 81 wins. Thus 3 games over .500. Point is, they barely made the playoffs.
 
wolves82 said:
As for the rest of this message, I think while TV execs would rather see bigger markets in the WS, MLB is fine with this. MLB accomplished it's goal. By expanding the playoffs to 12 teams, they kept a lot more markets (including Cincinnati) very interested in baseball through September. That helps TV ratings in August and September, helped attendance at the ballparks in many markets, and kept them relevant. A good strategy for the MLB.
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I'm really not worried about TV contracts and making money. I want to make the game as good as possible and adding playoff teams to a 162 game regular season stinks for the teams who got the job done during the regular season. Who knows, maybe the Reds don't even win world series in 75-76 and 90 if they have additional playoff teams then. I would split the difference, go back to 4 playoff teams per league, the division winners and one wild card. If you get stuck in a division with someone who just went crazy, you still have a shot getting in. I feel you get a true indicator who's the best team this way. No one can convince me that Texas or Arizona is the best teams in baseball this year. They are the best of a 3 week tournament at the end of the year, but not for the season.
 
14Red said:
So my thinking is you can't win and lose the same game, so if you win 3 less games, that give you 81 wins. Thus 3 games over .500. Point is, they barely made the playoffs.
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So if a team goes 91-71 you would call them "10 games over .500"??? What an odd way to think. Every other person in any sport would call this 20 games over .500 - you win 20 more than you lose.
 
tom 48 said:
The World Series that the networks did not want. No team from the East; no Houston; two underdogs from the West. And especially no team from Boston or the most over-rated sports city in the US - New York, city of losers. I love it.
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It could only be better if the teams were from the north and it would snow so that the idiots at MLB could pay for extending the season for too damn long.
 
wolves82 said:
So if a team goes 91-71 you would call them "10 games over .500"??? What an odd way to think. Every other person in any sport would call this 20 games over .500 - you win 20 more than you lose.
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um...yea???? Again, the 20 game swing is caused by 10 games, take 10 of those 91 wins and make them losses and your 81-81. Is this really necessary?
 
Dusty Baker has retired, which means there are no more MLB clubs’ World Series opportunities for him to screw up.
 
Don't know if this is any indication of the interest in the world series but......... an organization that has free tickets posted free tix to the world series game 1!
 
For those who turned away from baseball, man you're missing out. The first two games have been pretty good, moreso game 1. But just great drama. And what a treat for the Texas fans, and Arizona as well. When you get two teams who've not been in the series for years it really amps up the atmosphere.
Couple of points from game 1 with Arizona and it's not necessarily a criticism of them but the way the game is played now. So 9th inning, Ginkle is brought in the 8th, gets into a little bit of trouble but got Lowe and Jung out to finish the inning. So the stage is set for closer Sewald in the 9th. He was wild. He walked Tavares on 5 pitches, should had been 4 as the first pitch was called off the plate. He was able to strike out Semien and then Seager just blasted the first pitch about 500 feet, tie game.
11th inning, Kyle Nelson who pitched the 10th is still in for the Dbacks, he gets Evan Carter out. They change pitchers and Castro comes in, he's wild and Aroldis Garcia blasts a 3-1 pitch over the wall in right field, end of game.
What's my point? Well it's this...how many times do we see a relief pitcher who gets the previous guy out, and is replaced because of "analytics" or the righty / lefty stuff? It was clear that Sewald didn't have it Friday, and Castro didn't either. Everyone assumes the guy coming out of the bullpen is going to be 100% on that day and that doesn't always happen.
The DBacks were able to come back in game 2 and tie the series.
 
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