2016 MLB Season

[Cujo]

This Dodgers-Giants series, yea?

[FiddySicks]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

This Dodgers-Giants series, yea?

 

It's been SO damn good. These two teams are incredibly even, and I expect it to be the "best" rivalry all season long. Sorry D Backs, but these are still the two NL West teams to beat. 

 

Means seriously, how often does a guy give up five runs in the first and still goes 100+? This is why I'm so excited about Cueto. 

[Sport]

The Reds went 5-1 against Pennsylvania. Should've been 6-0. Long way to go, obviously, probably won't last, will probably see many more games blown by one of the worst bullpens (which is by design) in the league, and at some point Eugenio Suarez will get figured out, Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips will cool off because they always do, but it's been surprisingly fun and I'll enjoy this as long as it lasts. 

 

I was at the game yesterday and it was great. I can't prove this so you'll have to trust me, but I said to my girlfriend before Jay Bruce's at bat "Jay's gonna squeak this down the line, it's gonna kick around in the corner and BP is gonna score from first". And then exactly that happened. I couldn't believe it either. The only other time that ever happened was I called Joey Votto's mother's day walkoff grand slam in 2012 4 batters before he came up. 

 

Also, Pirates fans are nearing Steelers/Penguins level of annoyance. What is it about that city that makes their sports fans so boorish? 

[SFGiants58]

4 hours ago, McCarthy said:

The Reds went 5-1 against Pennsylvania. Should've been 6-0. Long way to go, obviously, probably won't last, will probably see many more games blown by one of the worst bullpens (which is by design) in the league, and at some point Eugenio Suarez will get figured out, Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips will cool off because they always do, but it's been surprisingly fun and I'll enjoy this as long as it lasts. 

 

I was at the game yesterday and it was great. I can't prove this so you'll have to trust me, but I said to my girlfriend before Jay Bruce's at bat "Jay's gonna squeak this down the line, it's gonna kick around in the corner and BP is gonna score from first". And then exactly that happened. I couldn't believe it either. The only other time that ever happened was I called Joey Votto's mother's day walkoff grand slam in 2012 4 batters before he came up. 

 

Also, Pirates fans are nearing Steelers/Penguins level of annoyance. What is it about that city that makes their sports fans so boorish? 

 

Case laws, with stricter enforcement than Philly.

 

In all seriousness though, the Pirates have spent the past three seasons in true contention. I'm willing to cut them as much slack as possible. Maybe they'll even avoid the dreaded wild card game this year.

[Crabcake]

O's are still undefeated behind Joey Rickard and a good pitching staff. 

 

#EnjoyItWhileItLasts

[FiddySicks]

So, am I the only one not buying the Mets hype this season? Sure, their pitching is stellar, but teams that are for real are usually stellar defensively. This team is just awful in the field. I bet they'll be out of it relatively early. 

[Unocal]

I'm not so much buying into the Mets as I am selling the Nats more. I have zero reason to trust THAT team at all.

[Sport]

This offseason the Reds front office must've looked at their lineup and said "these guys might not be that bad this year" and then looked at starting pitching and said "what if these guys are good this year?" and then looked at the bullpen and said "There. That's where we can insure this team will be terrible." I knew this team was going to struggle, but I thought it would be of the weak bat, bad starting pitching type of struggles, but now I can see it'll be losing a lot of preventable losses, which is by far the most frustrating way to experience losing as fan. 

 

That is not a major league bullpen and definitely the worst collection of relief arms I've ever seen this team employ. Though his decisions often irritate me I feel for Bryan Price. He finally gets a manager's job and with a team coming off 3 playoff trips in 4 years and then he's handed this mess in a rebuilding cycle that didn't begin in earnest until halfway through his second year, and he'll probably get axed for not effectively using this garbage bullpen they've handcuffed him with. 

 

[infrared41]

19 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:

So, am I the only one not buying the Mets hype this season? Sure, their pitching is stellar, but teams that are for real are usually stellar defensively. This team is just awful in the field. I bet they'll be out of it relatively early. 

 

Nope. They have some great arms, but what do they really have after that? You still gotta put some runs on the board and that lineup isn't exactly scary. And like you pointed out, there are some teflon gloves (nothing will stick to them) on the field every night. I don't know if they'll be out of it early - I think they'll be pretty solid - but I'm not buying the hype either. 

[Kramerica Industries]

The Mets will stay competitive all season because their division is truly awful. 57 games against the Braves, Phillies, and Marlins is an awful lot of should-be freebie wins on their record (disregard that they're 1-4 in five home games against those two; I hate when people destroy my narratives). Besides that, a full season of Cespedes and Conforto in the lineup; they only had those two for the final 1/3 of the season a year ago, as well as Cabrera, who is an upgrade offensively over what Tejada had to offer at short (there's a reason Flores is a utility IF'er, mostly, his crippling inability to play the field) bolsters them pretty well. Neil Walker is maybe a small downgrade over Daniel Murphy offensively, but even if he is, it's not much of one.

 

Now, maybe the argument can be made that the Mets overachieved a bit last regular season and are bound for some regression regardless? Maybe. I don't agree, but I can see it. I see a rotation fronted by Harvey, deGrom, and Thor, and especially in the National League, I don't see how the Mets don't, at some point, catch some real fire and run off a bunch of wins in a row. They did that at least twice last season that I can think of, off the top. I'd include Steven Matz, but I'm not as high on him, personally, as most are, and he has an extensive injury history that works against him. If he can stay healthy, he's going to do better than, well, he did last night, anyway. April weather in New York has a way of screwing with young pitchers (or at least, I'll keep telling myself that; hello, Mike and Nate!). 

 

The bigger question I would have is about the Natinals, really. We collectively tended to overlook them coming into the season after that nightmare season they had last season. Much of what the Nats had to offer last season is still on the roster this season. They don't have a complete donkey managing them, although it's not like Dusty Baker's in-game tactics generally merit a better adjective; it is fair to point out that Dusty, for all his flaws, does have a decent history of getting improvement over the previous season's results, and that does have to count for something, regardless of whether we can sabermetrically analyze that or not. Washington also gets the same 57 games against those three NL East duds, and they're taking care of business against them so far. I have to imagine that the team that wins the NLE will be the team that posts the better record in those 57 games, and while I will still anchor my boat to the Mets on this (I picked them to win the NL pennant, so I have no choice when it's still mid-April), the Nats have a pretty decent head start on them. The Mets already having dropped home series' to the Phillies and Mets is something that they can't get back, but fortunately for them, it represents a very small sample within that 57-game sample.

[infrared41]

@Kramerica Industries I don't think either of us were saying the Mets are going to be terrible, I think 

we're just saying the team isn't quite as good as the hype surrounding it. Yeah, the Mets get to play the bad NL East, but 57 games against bad teams can also make people think a team is a lot better than it actually is. 

 

Also, the Marlins aren't going to be terrible. They probably aren't going to be playoff run good, but I don't think they're near as bad as Philly and Atlanta. 

[FiddySicks]

Yeah, the Mets won't be "awful", but I think Washington is legitimately going to bounce back this year, and teams like the Marlins are going to give the Mets fits all season long. I actually have the Marlins as a Wild Card team this year. They have a lot of good young talent, and they kind of feel like a team that could put it together late in the year. The Mets, on the other hand, give off the vibe of a team that should be pretty good, but due to several factors, could let things kinda spiral out of control a bit at some point in the season, and I think it'll end up costing them a playoff spot. 

 

 

[shstpt1]

Also, the Marlins have been on the cusp of playing well the last two seasons before Stanton and Fernandez missed a lot of time with injuries. If healthy, I see the Mets, Marlins, and Nats all three battling for the division. 

[infrared41]

The Royals TV play-by-play guy just said that Alcides Escobar is "the king of the booty knock." I'm curious to see if it shows up on Deadspin. 

[Gary]

King of the Booty Knock sounds like I would have given to a stripper or porn star

[CS85]

My fave gif of the year so far.

 

[Crabcake]

The O's lost last night to end their undefeated run. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. 

 

Hopefully they can keep up some wins and make the playoffs this year, I think they've showed promise this season. 

[Sport]

8 hours ago, CS85 said:

My fave gif of the year so far.

 

 

okay this is good stuff. 

[ninersdd]

The Padres in 7 games not at Coors this year: Batting .095.

[Cujo]