2023 MLB Season Thread

[BBTV]

5 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

Hot take: seeding should be done by run differential, not wins. Run differential is a better indicator of what teams are better than others. It’s also why I maintain that the 1987 Twins were the worst team to win a WS.

 

This is... a take, I guess.  A bad one.  You're not going to risk injuring a pitcher that you may pull in a laugher just because you need to improve the run differential.  You're not going to aggressively steal in the 9th up 10-3 just to improve differential

 

Why even keep track of wins and losses?  Each "game" is just a portion of a long-ass run-scoring season.  There would be no point to watching games because you're just hoping your team "wins" by 8 runs, and it's a bummer if they "win" by 1.

 

It's absolutely not a better indicator of who's better than who.  The objective is to win the game, not to win by x runs.  And if you eliminate wins/losses, then there's just no point.

 

Nothing personal, but this is the legit worst hot take I've heard in a long time.

[dont care]

36 minutes ago, Unocal said:

 

The rematch now feels inevitable. Almost Cavs/Warriors level.

Can you just sit down and watch and enjoy what the outcome is rather than complaining about every single thing that doesn’t go your way?

[SFGiants58]

54 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

Nothing personal, but this is the legit worst hot take I've heard in a long time.

I don’t mind. Bad takes happen all the time.

 

At least I’m not making dumbass posts about teams I don’t like and trying to argue that certain teams making it is Actually Bad.

[Dilbert]

Of the four remaining teams we have a total of 16 pennants won (PHI-8, HOU-5, TEX-2, ARZ-1) , but only 5 world series won (PHI-2, HOU-2*, ARZ-1, TEX-0)

[Red Comet]

Rivalries help grow sports. And the best way to get rivalries is to have constant high-stakes matchups. Championships are the fastest way to achieve this. Anyone who thinks rivalries are bad needs to grow a brain. Or another body part(s).

 

Does Red Sox-Yankees annoy the crap out of me? Absolutely. But baseball would be a lot worse off without it. 

Edited October 13, 2023 by Red Comet

[Unocal]

11 hours ago, BBTV said:

The Braves themselves were whining about reseeding because they didn't want the Phillies, and multiple players (including Strider) have said that the crowd atmosphere is so hard to play in that he legit thinks they should either go back to 2020 where there's no fans (and he wasn't joking) or at least ban lower-bowl fans.

 

Are you saying we SHOULDN'T reseed? Like highest seed vs lowest seed works in the NFL and used to in the NHL

[BBTV]

There's valid arguments on both sides of it.  Let it go.

[Cujo]

#6 Diamondbacks

#5 Rangers

#4 Phillies

 

The Astros have a clear path to the 2023 Piece of Metal.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

#6 Diamondbacks

#5 Rangers

#4 Phillies

 

The Astros have a clear path to the 2023 Piece of Metal.

 

Difference between last and this year is that if they play the Phillies, the Phillies have home field.  The Astros were the one team that seemed to be immune to the CBP advantage (after getting got in game 3) so that's not nothing, but it should be a better series this year than last (not that a 6-game series can be called "bad" like a 5 or 4 gamer can.)

[GDAWG]

Do we want to see Bryce Harper get a World Series Ring?  Remember he left Washington after the 2018 season, and in 2019, the Nationals won the World Series.  

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

Do we want to see Bryce Harper get a World Series Ring?  Remember he left Washington after the 2018 season, and in 2019, the Nationals won the World Series.  

 

Now that I've gotten to "know" him (not personally, obviously), I'd root for him to get a ring no matter what team he was on.  Dude is legit one of the best humans that I've ever seen in pro sports.  He's also the most clutch player I think I've ever seen, one of (if not the) toughest players I've seen, a great teammate, and probably the second best position player the Phillies have had in my lifetime (I'm not sure if he'll pass Mike Schmidt due to Schmidt's defense, but he's certainly more beloved than Schmidt was up until close to the end.)  He's a genuine maximizer (or is it "multiplier"?) in that he makes all of his teammates better.

 

Roll your eyes if you want, but I'm pretty hard on athletes, and especially when it comes to (in many cases) character.  This Phillies team is without a doubt the most likeable in my lifetime,  I'm not sure there's a guy that any fanbase can legitimately hate for reasons other than general "sports hate" (which we all have about good players on other teams.)

 

Don't get me wrong - if Seranthony Dominguez blows a high-leverage situation and it costs them a series, I'll be all over his ass (same with some of their other jabroni relievers), and I'm sure I'll be cursing Topper at some point during the next series (or two, if they're fortunate enough to beat AZ), but that's just "sports hate". 

 

This team is so likeable that even if they lost, they'd get a pass with the fans, unlike completely unlikeable teams like the Sixers.

 

Same for this year's Eagles - not just because they're good, but to a man, they're awesome in the community, awesome with fans, don't get arrested*, and (lead by Jason Kelce) connect with fans like no other team (probably even more than this Phillies team.)

 

*the Jalen Carter thing is a thing, but it's truly debatable how big a thing, and technically he was a college "lol student" when it happened, and he's been a model since... though eyes are on him incase there's another thing.  He's probably the one controversial guy.

[SailorOfSilence102]

On 10/13/2023 at 1:43 PM, Sec19Row53 said:

I've heard this stated, but it doesn't make logical sense to me. If you win17-2, it's just one win, which may have come with who knows who pitching for who knows why (dead arm due to get DFAd; a position player).

Is there something objective that demonstrates that to be the case? I've tried looking, but haven't found it.

It's more so related to the fact that team sports, a lot of the time, wins do come down to luck and certain things that can very easily go the other way, so the best way to consistently win is too limit that stuff, which more often then not comes down to winning by more. Stuff like the 17-2 wins, or 15-4 losses get smoothed out over the season, run differently is more like, are you consistently winning by like 3-5 in games you win, but losing games 1, or vice versa, and yeah, I think it's fair to say teams that consistently win by more are better then teams that don't. And we do have data from year to year with this stuff at the very least.

 

That said, I wouldn't want teams to be seeded like that. US sports league are very arbitrary with how playoffs, which is kind of the fun with it.

[Sec19Row53]

1 hour ago, SailorOfSilence102 said:

It's more so related to the fact that team sports, a lot of the time, wins do come down to luck and certain things that can very easily go the other way, so the best way to consistently win is too limit that stuff, which more often then not comes down to winning by more. Stuff like the 17-2 wins, or 15-4 losses get smoothed out over the season, run differently is more like, are you consistently winning by like 3-5 in games you win, but losing games 1, or vice versa, and yeah, I think it's fair to say teams that consistently win by more are better then teams that don't. And we do have data from year to year with this stuff at the very least.

 

That said, I wouldn't want teams to be seeded like that. US sports league are very arbitrary with how playoffs, which is kind of the fun with it.

Thanks.

 

Where is that data?

[Cujo]

On 10/4/2023 at 8:36 PM, FiddySicks said:

SNAKETOBER! 
 

Hell yeah, D Backs. Now crush them bums from LA. 

 

And they did!

 

But dude, when it's no the Giants, every team you want to win it all gets crushed in the end.

 

That being said, pleaseeeee root for Houston this year

[BBTV]

If we care about run differential, which leads to changing the way games are managed and played, then let's play the bottom of the 9th even when the home team is leading.  If you care about run differential then you don't care about injuries or unnecessarily burning players out, so what's a meaningless half inning?

 

Good teams winning by more runs than less good teams is only logical, but eliminates a lot of context.  Your team and all your $ could be spent on pitching, and therefore you're winning 100 games but mostly by 2-1, 4-2 or 5-3 or something like that.  That doesn't make that team any worse than a team that wins 100 games by scores of 8-4, which is why it's settled on the field.

 

We're not having this conversation if the Phillies and DBacks weren't playing in the NLCS (and if the Phillies hadn't made it last year despite being #6.)  I don't know anything about the DBacks other than few people really care about them, but last year's Phillies were the best or second best since June 1, and this year's were 2nd or 3rd in the same timeframe (albeit behind the Braves, who's talent was clearly poorly managed and not built to win playoff series'.)  Maybe the Braves shouldn't manage better once it's clear they're winning the division, or take a few "scheduled losses" since they can afford them.

 

*I hate the very notion of "scheduled losses", but it's very much part of most pro sports in 2023 so it can't be ignored.

[GDAWG]

22 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

Now that I've gotten to "know" him (not personally, obviously), I'd root for him to get a ring no matter what team he was on.  Dude is legit one of the best humans that I've ever seen in pro sports.  He's also the most clutch player I think I've ever seen, one of (if not the) toughest players I've seen, a great teammate, and probably the second best position player the Phillies have had in my lifetime (I'm not sure if he'll pass Mike Schmidt due to Schmidt's defense, but he's certainly more beloved than Schmidt was up until close to the end.)  He's a genuine maximizer (or is it "multiplier"?) in that he makes all of his teammates better.

 

Roll your eyes if you want, but I'm pretty hard on athletes, and especially when it comes to (in many cases) character.  This Phillies team is without a doubt the most likeable in my lifetime,  I'm not sure there's a guy that any fanbase can legitimately hate for reasons other than general "sports hate" (which we all have about good players on other teams.)

 

Don't get me wrong - if Seranthony Dominguez blows a high-leverage situation and it costs them a series, I'll be all over his ass (same with some of their other jabroni relievers), and I'm sure I'll be cursing Topper at some point during the next series (or two, if they're fortunate enough to beat AZ), but that's just "sports hate". 

 

This team is so likeable that even if they lost, they'd get a pass with the fans, unlike completely unlikeable teams like the Sixers.

 

Same for this year's Eagles - not just because they're good, but to a man, they're awesome in the community, awesome with fans, don't get arrested*, and (lead by Jason Kelce) connect with fans like no other team (probably even more than this Phillies team.)

 

*the Jalen Carter thing is a thing, but it's truly debatable how big a thing, and technically he was a college "lol student" when it happened, and he's been a model since... though eyes are on him incase there's another thing.  He's probably the one controversial guy.

 

He's someone I want to see win a ring before he retires and I hope he does it this year.  We never got that for Griffey (who I strongly believe had he remained healthy after he left Seattle, he would currently be the MLB's All Time Home Runs leader, not Giant Head Balco Bonds).

[Fowler]

4 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

He's someone I want to see win a ring before he retires and I hope he does it this year.  We never got that for Griffey (who I strongly believe had he remained healthy after he left Seattle, he would currently be the MLB's All Time Home Runs leader, not Giant Head Balco Bonds).

 

Who has the bigger dome? Organic Botchy or Chemically Enhanced Bonds

[GDAWG]

Rangers lead ALCS 1-0.  

[The_Admiral]

On 10/13/2023 at 10:23 AM, SFGiants58 said:

Hot take: seeding should be done by run differential, not wins. Run differential is a better indicator of what teams are better than others. It’s also why I maintain that the 1987 Twins were the worst team to win a WS.

Be that as it may, decoupling seeding from the actual winning and losing of games all but defeats the point of playing the games. Besides, incongruities between record and run differential are where lots of upsets come from (that and exploiting mismatches, but that's more so in hockey), and upsets are supposed to be the fun of it all.

[BrySmalls]

On 10/14/2023 at 5:43 PM, GDAWG said:

Do we want to see Bryce Harper get a World Series Ring?  Remember he left Washington after the 2018 season, and in 2019, the Nationals won the World Series.  

 

As a Nats fan, yes, I would be pleased to see Bryce win the World Series despite being in a Phillies jersey.