MLB Regular Season 2021

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1425038544557559811

I don't think that many 100+ loss seasons in a row is that unprecedented. Houston Astros had three 100+ loss seasons in a row less than 10 years ago! Tampa Bay Rays almost achieved same thing in '01-'03 (Thanks to sturdy guidance of Sweet Lou Pinella, they managed to only lose 99 games in '03). Hell, it's possible that Astros might not even be the only team in the AL to have three 100+ loss seasons in a row. It's still technically possible for the Royals to do it.

(I'm amazed that the Marlins have never had back to back 100+ loss seasons considering how crappy their franchise history is besides the two World Series runs)

 

[alkeiper]

The 1938-42 Phillies lost 100+ games five years in a row. There have and will always be bad teams. In the Phillies' era there was no path forward except for an outside influx of cash. I think it's a problem that teams have an incentive to tank, but the alternatives are either NFL's artificial parody or a system where teams are consistently mediocre but never improve.

 

[alkeiper]

That's great to see. I want to see Cabrera hit some milestones.

One more to 500 HRs!

 

[strummer]

After how terrible the NL East has been this season the Braves are just going to casually stroll in and win the division anyway like everyone thought at the beginning of the season, aren't they?

 

[strummer]

Cubs released Jake Arrieta.

And uh, apparently he's anti mask and I assume anti-vaxx. Gross.

 

[Brocklock]

Cubs released Jake Arrieta.

And uh, apparently he's anti mask and I assume anti-vaxx. Gross.

Yeah, he gave up 7 runs in two innings and still yelled at a reporter for wearing a mask in the post game interview. Disgusting.

Stopped liking him as a person after 2016. I assume he's either MAGA or a libertarian after his comments after Trump won. Thought he could at least replicate what the washed up version of Jon Lester was giving the Cubs in 2019/20, but he was straight up horrible. One of the worst pitchers in baseball this year. Good riddance.

 

[Dandy]

That 2021 locker room would have made for a great Netflix documentary.

 

[Hawk 34]

Sadly, there is already a documentary called The Bastards of Baseball.

That 2021 locker room would have made for a great Netflix documentary.

 

[Krankor]

Really enjoyed the Field of Dreams game.

I kind of hope this becomes an annual or semi-annual event.

That was probably the most I enjoyed a baseball game in a few years.

The White Sox uniforms were great!

 

[Hawk 34]

It was cool and I hope they don’t over saturate it like NHL did with the outdoor series. We already know next season will involve the Cubs.

Naturally this led to a lot of chatter amongst the internet about how out of touch baseball is that they think paying homage to a 30 year old movie about a white man up to his eyeballs in debt is suppose to appeal to the young generation but ya know, we can always pay homage to Little Big League and let kids become managers.

 

[alkeiper]

After how terrible the NL East has been this season the Braves are just going to casually stroll in and win the division anyway like everyone thought at the beginning of the season, aren't they?

They're still the only team in the division with a positive run differential. I don't think they're a lock or anything but they're probably the nominal favorite right now.

 

[strummer]

I know they had a dh yesterday, have had a rough schedule lately and they are facing a lefty but Luis Rojas sending out a C level lineup against the Dodgers tonight is inexcusable when you're (theoretically) in a pennant race. Can't see how this guy returns

 

[strummer]

Tyler Gilbert made his first major league start for the D Backs tonight. And... he threw a no hitter v the Padres

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Dansby Swanson has set a new Atlanta Braves team record for most HRs in a season by their SS. He's now up to 23.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1427812894310342663

Well collapsing in July-August is better than collapsing in August-September at least. We still have another month and a half to right the ship! laughcry

 

[alkeiper]

The '69 Cubs are forever the gold standard. They lost 11 games in the standings to the Mets in three weeks.

The '76 Phillies lost ten games in the standings in two weeks. But they still won the division.

 

[snuffbox]

The 2014 Brewers were the worst imo.

 

[King Kamala]

Bobby Valentine films Cameo video, leaves camera rolling as his dog defecates in neighbor’s yard, sends it in anyway

MLB legend Bobby Valentine is running for mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, and his campaign just encountered its first controversy.

www.golfdigest.com

 

[alkeiper]

It's my turn to complain about my team. After a week long winning streak took them to first place, all the sudden the Braves are four games up in the division. I said the Braves were probably the better team, but damn.

This weekend's series between the Phils and Padres is suddenly interesting. The Padres have fallen out of the NL West race and their lead over the Reds for the second wild card is just one game. The Padres' rotation is down to Joe Musgrove and flotsam.

 

[Dandy]

The Reds are not playing horribly but have had some stretches of severely missed opportunities. Coming out of the all star break losing all three to Milwaukee and the two out of three to the Mets; two in a row to Atlanta; and then two in a row to the Cubs. Bullpen collapses in many of them. I do not expect the team I root for to win every game, but they have botched many winnable games and should be leading the Padres in the wild card instead of trailing, and should be closer to the Brewers in the Central.

The injuries have been horrible and poorly timed. Castellanos goes down from an HBP and shortly after he comes back Winker goes down. Several pitching arms have been out and Moustakas and Senzel were out for extremely long stretches.

But the killer is Suarez hitting .172 and performing below average on defense, yet still being trotted out there routinely. Moustakas returned and the plan was to platoon the two of them for the most part. Both are struggling and putting up crazy low exit velocity numbers. Jose Barrero was called up and has not played much. If we want to win, some tough decisions need to be made.

 

[geniusMoment]

MLB is proposing a salary floor as part of the collective bargaining agreement they hope to reach this winter:

"The MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire on December 1, which means labor negotiations will be ongoing over the next several months. One report says representatives from MLB and the MLBPA met on Monday in Denver to discuss alterations to the existing CBA. According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the big change proposed by the owners involved a salary floor subsidized by a lower tax threshold.

The report says the owners proposed having a $100 million floor. However, the first tier of the luxury tax would be lowered from its current level of $210 million to $180 million.

The addition of a salary floor would be welcomed. It would force teams to spend a certain amount of money on their roster each year. However, the tradeoff would be a lower first tax threshold. This tradeoff would have an adverse effect on spending, so there might not be much of a net gain to this change leaguewide.

The goal of MLB should be to have teams trying to field the best teams possible, not to try to maximize profits by using inexpensive players. Why? Because the former creates a better product and generates more fan interest, which results in a better, healthier league. Revenues and team values rise when the league is at its best and most competitive. It’s not as fun when just a few teams are willing to spend big, while several teams are content building cheap rosters and being subsidized by the big fish."


Somewhere the Pirates owner is doing the McMahon gulp.

 

[alkeiper]

If every team currently above $180 million sank to that level and the below $100 million teams spent exactly that, it's a hair above $4 billion. Currently the league is spending about $3.9 billion on salaries. So not much of a change. It seems like a carrot to float the idea of the luxury tax which is a salary cap to 29 teams. I'm not sure how it would shake out. I'm suspicious.

 

[King Kamala]

When the team with the highest payroll spends 4x as much as team with lowest payroll, I feel like something should be done. There's some bumass penny pinching teams in NFL and NBA too but disparity is never THAT bad. How they go about doing it is the hard part though as al just said.

 

[alkeiper]

Jorge Bonifacio is the starting center fielder for the Phillies in San Diego in case any of you are fans of triples.

 

[Hawk 34]

Teams should probably stop hitting Castellanos because Joey Votto doesn’t need more motivation to keep banging.

 

[MFer]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1429516622318944257

 

[treble]

With all the shit I talked about the Red Sox earlier, I should probably mention that the Jays season has gone into the tank in the last week and a half.

The series against the Tigers, they went 1-30something with RISP, but still probably could have swept them if it wasn't for a wild pitch on Friday and Semien making an error on the most routine play a 2B can make on what would have been the 27th out today.

 

[strummer]

The Baltimore Orioles have lost 18 straight games

 

[Dandy]

How many Sundays in a row?

 

[strummer]

Going in the tank seems to be in style this season because the Padres have fallen off a cliff as well. Only 10 games over and now trail the Reds for the 2nd wildcard.

They seemed to be a lock for the playoffs