Does anyone else care? Two of my teams are in the playoffs, so I care. Are the Dodgers a foregone conclusion?
(this thread is not for people to say they don't like MLB any more, or that the shortened season makes it meaningless - it's about what is actually happening)
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I’m just hoping something can happen so my Braves don’t have to face Cinci....
I don’t think the Dodgers are a foregone conclusion. I’d give them at most a 10% edge over any team in the best-of-3.
If watching is caring then yeah, I care at least somewhat. It's cool to see franchises like the Reds and Padres become relevant again. White Sox and Marlins too.
Having a 4 way race for the last wild card going into the last 2 games is pretty cool. I'm a Giants fan, and a fair-weather Mets fan, but I wish I had any confidence in either of them, and I have no confidence in whoever gets that slot and has to face the Dodgers.
Maybe it's NL West bias but I feel like whoever comes out of the top half of the NL bracket - Dodgers or Padres - will handle ATL for the NL pennant and go on to beat the Rays or Yankees or whoever.
The White Sox are absolute monsters, but my Twins can be very good, especially if Odorizzi comes back and is effective. Cleveland also has a great pitching staff, which is everything. The AL Central has been unexpectedly strong.
15 errors in 4 games..the yanks are worse than little league fielding. Hopefully they can bounce back
I understand the shortened season, but my feelings are meh. Baseball for me, is all about the grind, what team can grind it out and come up the winner for 168 plus playoff games.
However, I am pretty impressed that the Marlins are in, but under a normal season, probably not!
I’m with TPM. How many of the up and comers have the depth and mental toughness to survive a long season? As for the playoffs it’s about who pitches better. Almost any team can win a given shirt series. The question is how many series can your pitching hold up?
Now, none of that. If we can get excited about college baseball with its shorter season, or high school baseball even shorter, heck if we can get excited about a weekend-long travel tournament, we can get excited about this. It's baseball - heard that the Brewers just turned a triple play. It's still a triple play, just because there wasn't a full season of grind behind it.
@Senna posted:I’m just hoping something can happen so my Braves don’t have to face Cinci....
Oh well; Reds-Braves are on!
Cardinals are in but they can’t hit so doesn't look good for them.
@anotherparent posted:Oh well; Reds-Braves are on!
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...
I am happy to see the Reds in it. Pitching lined up well for them. I am not excited as I would be if it was a whole season. But I can never complain about a Reds October.
I stopped watching MLB a long time ago. However, I have been watching the Trevor Bauer Covid season Vlogs. Those alone have got me watching MLB again (the Reds). So I am looking forward to the Post season.
@TxballDad posted:I stopped watching MLB a long time ago. However, I have been watching the Trevor Bauer Covid season Vlogs. Those alone have got me watching MLB again (the Reds). So I am looking forward to the Post season.
I too have been watching his Vlogs. I really enjoy them.
@57special posted:The White Sox are absolute monsters, but my Twins can be very good, especially if Odorizzi comes back and is effective. Cleveland also has a great pitching staff, which is everything. The AL Central has been unexpectedly strong.
The big prediction on ESPN is that the Twins will finally win a playoff game. Tough time to play at 1:00 PM. Will have to find a way to watch on my phone while 'working'.
@RJM posted:ESPN app with your cable or streaming log in.
It is streaming right from the website!!!!!
Time to prove that I can multitask
Check out this old (2009) post:
https://community.hsbaseballwe...sity-for-hs-freshman
It's about this guy:
https://community.hsbaseballwe...612#2982475074877612
He has ended up with plenty of playing time.
Thanks for sharing @anotherparent. That is a great thread with so many players who played in high school, college and beyond. Fun to see!
Yesterday was pretty fun. Much like the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Quite a lot of baserunning mistakes in close games. Best of 3 seems so short, for the teams that are already done.
@Senna posted:I’m just hoping something can happen so my Braves don’t have to face Cinci...
Well, so much for your worries...
@anotherparent posted:Well, so much for your worries...
Indeed. Now I’m just hoping we loosen the purse strings for a 1 year Bauer deal for 2021.
Suddenly, I find myself rooting for the Tampa Bay Rays! This is new territory, and right in line with everything 2020 has to offer.
Too bad they won't be playing at the Trop (eyes rolling)!
@Tim Turner posted:Cardinals are in but they can’t hit so doesn't look good for them.
So now I find out that the cardinals can’t pitch either lol.
@Tim Turner posted:So now I find out that the cardinals can’t pitch either lol.
Interesting with both Central Divisions... All 3 AL Central teams eliminated within 24 hrs. 3 of 4 NL Central eliminated with only the Cards hangin' on. It's possible that all seven Central Division playoff teams get eliminated in the Wildcard round.
Haven't paid attention all season, but our home team, Marlins in and Cards hanging on for one more game!
Well, I could not want the Cardinals to win, and I'm glad for the Padres, but it is pretty embarassing that all seven Central division teams are gone in the first round.
@anotherparent posted:Well, I could not want the Cardinals to win, and I'm glad for the Padres, but it is pretty embarassing that all seven Central division teams are gone in the first round.
Do you think that there is a correlation between young studs being brought up in an empty stadium and seasoned players missing the roar of the crowd?
We had a family discussion about this today. I don't know the teams well enough to make that call.
@anotherparent posted:Well, I could not want the Cardinals to win, and I'm glad for the Padres, but it is pretty embarassing that all seven Central division teams are gone in the first round.
At least they got to the first round. The Red Sox were 24-36 and the Nationals were 26-34. Now, that is more embarrassing than a home plate umpire splitting his pants.
PS...Still rooting for the Rays. I'd like to see somebody new win the World Series.
@fenwaysouth posted:Too bad they won't be playing at the Trop (eyes rolling)!
Good news is the crowd will be roughly the same
So does a 10-5 win mean that the Astros can hit, for real?
@anotherparent posted:So does a 10-5 win mean that the Astros can hit, for real?
Astros team OPS dropped from 848 in 2019 to 720 in 2020 and that is a huge drop and some see it as evidence that it was the cheating that made them great but they also had some bad luck. Obviously they overperformed in 2019 and are not that good but I think they are still a good hitting team.
Losing Alvarez to injury and altuve having knee problems most of the year did not help. Also the distraction of all that in the media didn't help either.
Maybe the cheating helped them some and they were more an 800 ops team than an 850 ops team but I still think they were good.
Two big news from the evil empire: 1. Stanton hit a meaningful HR 2. He did not get injured.
@2022NYC posted:Two big news from the evil empire: 1. Stanton hit a meaningful HR 2. He did not get injured.
Boy did he have a TERRIBLE at bat in the 9th. He kept the Yankees in these games with his 6 home runs, but looked awful on his last AB....bat never left his shoulder.
That was an awesome game. Great playoff pitching on both sides.
@fenwaysouth posted:PS...Still rooting for the Rays. I'd like to see somebody new win the World Series.
Wow that would be wild for Florida: Tampa wins hockey, baseball, and Miami (hoops--hoping against odds, not a Le Bron fan)
I agree, Astros-Dodgers would be kind of boring...
Although, I'm kind of for the Astros showing that they can win without cheating, too.
I just can’t pull myself to watch swing and a miss, swing and a miss, swing and a miss, swing and a miss, boom, baseball. I’ll watch again when the NCAA tournament baseball returns.
I read an article on what’s wrong with Andrew Benintendi. The Sox changed his swing angle several degrees to turn him into a 5’9” power hitter. Excluding this year’s injury disaster he’s now a questionable prospect hitting .260 with less power having trouble making contact and striking out an absurd amount instead of a .290 with 20 homer, 40 doubles power hitter.
i just can’t watch this crap. It’s crap it takes four hours to watch, I was a diehard baseball fan for a half a century MLB lost. I never watch more than a couple of innings anymore. After watching three of six hitters strike out, and it takes an hour, I change the station.
Nope, not allowed on this thread - it's for people who like watching it - some of us do!
Gotta love the Brousseau story. Just a great game that came down to an amazing at-bat. Only thing that could have made that HR bigger would be if it was in the WS. He showed a lot of class in the post-game too.
Before all the BS I was very Astros-friendly but I'll definitely be rooting for a Rays vs. Atlanta series.*
(Even though I'll be rooting against his team, I want George Springer to know that the Giants are a class organization with fantastic fans, on the rise again, and signing with them would be a great next step in his career.)
