2019 MLB Season

[FiddySicks]

On 6/24/2019 at 10:55 AM, McCarthy said:

Remember when two-time world series champion Albert Pujols left St Louis and Cardinals fans acted like it was the same betrayal as when Lebron first left Cleveland? I guess 8 years will provide some clarity. Also, I cannot believe he's been on the Angels for 8 years.  

 

Honestly? No, not really. I remember a lot of people being really heartbroken, some thinking it was totally lame, and others being pretty mad. But there was NEVER the level of anger towards Pujols that there was Lebron (Or KD, for that matter). If fact, I seem to remember a handful of Cardinals fans realizing almost immediately that not signing Pujols to a massive deal when he was trending downwards was a blessing in disguise. I think it was @Kramerica Industries who started pointing out that downward trend basically as soon as the new deal with the Angels was announced. While I was pretty upset myself, I made the prediction that the Cardinals would have a lot more success post Pujols than he would ever have with the Angels. Even for as good as Pujols was, his career was at a much different point than Lebron or KD's careers were (Leaving his prime rather than in the dead center of it). 

 

He was the backbone of two title winning teams, had multiple MVPs, and then totally floundered while the Cardinals went on to another World Series and a lot of sustained success afterwards. Granted, baseball is just a different beast than basketball, but I didn't see a terribly unusual amount of Cardinals fans act as miserably over that as Cavs and Thunder fans did when their stars left. 

[Kramerica Industries]

His decline started in St. Louis, really. 

 

1.100 OPS in 2009, 1.000 in 2010, all the way down to .906 in 2011. Now, .906 is still really good, and if you're descending from an OPS above 1.000 then there's not much higher you can go while you certainly have a lot of room to fall...but taken together with that he was "31"* after the 2011 season and he was already dealing with leg problems by this point, and then you consider as well the Cardinals being an NL team and, thus, not having a DH fallback option in his later years, and it really makes all the sense in the world why the Cardinals let him walk when they did. Considering the deal he was going to get from someone - as it turned out, Anaheim - there was no way the Cardinals were going to end up benefitting from it in the long run.

 

Which didn't stop the emotional reactions the moment he left, of course. But you could've looked at the numbers even then and realized the Cardinals knew they had gotten Albert's best years and those weren't coming back.

 

*there's a non-zero chance, based on some of Albert's own quotes, that he's upwards to three years older than he actually is; he came to the U.S. prior to 9/11, mind, so record-keeping wasn't as strict with him as it is post-9/11.

[habsfan1]

 

[tp49]

15 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

The Phillies announcers were all dumfounded, and at one point nearly laughed that every move he made played right into the Phillies hands. They couldn’t touch Vargas. The reliever they put in even allowed their next batter to switch to left where he has more power, and he lines a double on first pitch. 

 

EDIT: just heard the radio broadcast. Larry Andersen literally called it an unintelligent move, after he stopped himself from saying stupid. 

 

 

Why?  It's the Mets those kinds of moves are to be expected.  I'd be more dumbfounded if they made a right move.

[Sport]

On 6/27/2019 at 10:17 AM, Bucfan56 said:

 

Honestly? No, not really. I remember a lot of people being really heartbroken, some thinking it was totally lame, and others being pretty mad. But there was NEVER the level of anger towards Pujols that there was Lebron (Or KD, for that matter). 

 

He was the backbone of two title winning teams, had multiple MVPs, and then totally floundered while the Cardinals went on to another World Series and a lot of sustained success afterwards. Granted, baseball is just a different beast than basketball, but I didn't see an unusual amount of Cardinals fans act as terribly over that as Cavs and Thunder fans did when their stars left. 

 

Silliness like "you could've been Stan Musial!!" was getting thrown around. It didn't last long because Pujols immediately fell off a cliff and his contract would've killed them and the Cardinals went on to stay super annoying for the next 3ish years, but early 2012 there were some Cardinals fans here who behaved as if he hadn't just won a championship with them. 

[CS85]

I can't believe I'm about to do this, but Cardinals fans really aren't all that bad.  Busch is a great place to go see a game, the fans there are nice (even when the Cubs are in town), and the overall experience of growing up in a place that's 70/30 Cardinals fans has been pleasant.

 

The whole TRAITOR! crap about Pujols, Heyward, Lackey, etc. is representative of Dumb People™.  A lot of Dumb People™ are Cardinals fans, but the vast majority of Cardinals fans are not Dumb People™.  These are the symptoms of:

• being in the midwest near a bunch of hayseeds with poor education and misguided upbringings that trend toward tribalism, chewing tobacco, and ignorance
• being a franchise that has routinely been successful both historically and currently, drawing in a lot of loose-leaf fans that "wanna root for teams that WIN" (see also:  Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys [for some reason])
• fan narcissism from Dumb People™ who vigorously consume the "Cardinals Way" flavor-aid, believing that indeed St. Louis Cardinals baseball is on a different level, an institution of sport that all who wear the uniform should not only be honored, but are expected to take contracts below market value.  Being loyal to the franchise and to the Cardinals baseball institution should always, always come before self-interest and money.  When successful players leave the Cardinals, they betrayed the organization and indeed fandom that made them all they are (God-gifted talent and years of training aside).

It's reflective of Cardinals fans (in a positive light!) how they gave Pujols such a massive reception during the Angels series, but it's indiscernible how many of those fans are the same ones who get on the internet and anonymously ripped Pujols for leaving years ago (in addition to the many other things Cardinals fans tend to do online).

 

[Marlins93]

Pujols to the Marlins was virtually a done deal during Loria's new ballpark spending spree. I really wonder what would have happened to him during the 2012-2013 offseason when they were dumping all of their players. I can't imagine that it would have been easy to unload that contract but teams seemed more comfortable giving these types of deals to aging veterans back then. If they were stuck with that contract, there's no way they would have given Stanton his megadeal.

[Brass]

The Red Sox are doing way more damage to how foreigners view us than any fat American tourist.

[rams80]

On 6/28/2019 at 10:17 AM, McCarthy said:

 

Silliness like "you could've been Stan Musial!!" was getting thrown around. It didn't last long because Pujols immediately fell off a cliff and his contract would've killed them and the Cardinals went on to stay super annoying for the next 3ish years, but early 2012 there were some Cardinals fans here who behaved as if he hadn't just won a championship with them. 

For the record, I was far more at peace with him leaving after that second World Series title. I figured that was a decent return for his services 

[DCarp1231]

After this two game series, it’ll be interesting to see how many people will now want an MLB team in London.

 

London-Montreal-Tampa Bay Rays, anyone?

[Marlins93]

I highly doubt that MLB wanted to subject the Brits to a 5 hour plus long game and the field dimensions are a little wonky, but the ball has to be juiced to create more offense, right?

[rams80]

That is a really shallow outfield 

[DEAD!]

1 hour ago, Marlins93 said:

I highly doubt that MLB wanted to subject the Brits to a 5 hour plus long game and the field dimensions are a little wonky, but the ball has to be juiced to create more offense, right?

Yeah, if the Brits wanted to watch a five-hour ball and bat match, they would watch one-day cricket.

[DEAD!]

1 hour ago, rams80 said:

That is a really shallow outfield 

yeah, that was probably the result of the direction of the field from home plate to center field running ACROSS the athletic track/ soccer pitch rather than the length. 

[dont care]

2 hours ago, DEAD! said:

yeah, that was probably the result of the direction of the field from home plate to center field running ACROSS the athletic track/ soccer pitch rather than the length. 

I don’t think running it the other way would have helped much if at all. The right and left fields were also incredibly shallow and would have been even more shallow if the field was oriented lengthwise. There is just no good way to orient the field at that stadium for baseball.

[dfwabel]

29 minutes ago, dont care said:

I don’t think running it the other way would have helped much if at all. The right and left fields were also incredibly shallow and would have been even more shallow if the field was oriented lengthwise. There is just no good way to orient the field at that stadium for baseball.

London Stadium only has suites on the west side of the stadium and they put home plate there to maximize revenue, otherwise, the suites and club would be down an outfield line.

 

[DEAD!]

36 minutes ago, dont care said:

I don’t think running it the other way would have helped much if at all. The right and left fields were also incredibly shallow and would have been even more shallow if the field was oriented lengthwise. There is just no good way to orient the field at that stadium for baseball.

 

I mean, they couldn't possibly have done it any other way... or we might as well end up with the LA Coliseum.

 

[Wings]

A little over a month until the Premiership!!!

[MJWalker45]

10 hours ago, Wings said:

A little over a month until the Premiership!!!

Will the Yankees score at London Stadium more than West Ham?

[dont care]

16 hours ago, dfwabel said:

London Stadium only has suites on the west side of the stadium and they put home plate there to maximize revenue, otherwise, the suites and club would be down an outfield line.

 

Doesn’t matter because any way it gets oriented you are going to have super shallow parts of the field. It’s just a :censored:ty stadium to try to set up a baseball field in.