2013 MLB Thread

[MUfan12]

Eh...trying to bait a Brewer fan after a bad season and the Packers have already kicked off is really a useless exercise.  I mean it's obvious the Cardinals have a superior franchise.  I just don't care.

Not sure how much of that was baiting, and how much of it was just an excuse to remind everyone of how superior the Cardinals are in every possible facet of the game.

[jmayer1]

Not sure how much of that was baiting, and how much of it was just an excuse to remind everyone of how superior the Cardinals are in every possible facet of the game.

I'll admit it was baiting a little bit

[wadesworld]

Here's a tough question: Would you rather be cheaters who win (Cardinals), cheaters who lose (Brewers) or (sigh...) the Cubs?

Yeah, the Cubs have never had a single cheater on their roster. Clean as a whistle organization. No juicers or guys who use corked bats or anything along those lines. It's just the select few players in the mlb who get caught who are actually cheating when they're listed in a Biogenesis lab. Splintered bats revealing cork doesn't prove anything. The guy mixed his batting practice bat up. He just wanted to do it for the fans during BP. And nothing ever went into his body or others on the Cubs that shouldn't have. Baseball has been very good to him.

[GGGG]

Eh...I care so little, that I'm going to make a passive agressive comment about the Cardinals in a MLB thread on a MU basketball website, just to show you how much I don't care.

It wasn't a passive aggressive comment about the Cardinals.  It was a passive aggressive comment about the World Series.

[MerrittsMustache]

Yeah, the Cubs have never had a single cheater on their roster. Clean as a whistle organization. No juicers or guys who use corked bats or anything along those lines. It's just the select few players in the mlb who get caught who are actually cheating when they're listed in a Biogenesis lab. Splintered bats revealing cork doesn't prove anything. The guy mixed his batting practice bat up. He just wanted to do it for the fans during BP. And nothing ever went into his body or others on the Cubs that shouldn't have. Baseball has been very good to him.

Lighten up. It was a joke. Your blind hatred of the Cubs is embarrassing.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Bud just said he is resigning next year

[ronald dragon]

Watching the homerun and the bat flip is fine, when he started jawing with Maholm right out of the batters box is when he took it too far.

You got him back for hitting you "on purpose" by hitting a homerun off of him, there was no need to for him to yell at Maholom. Gomez is a damn good player but he needs to grow up.

[WI inferiority Complexes]

Bud just said he is resigning next year

His contract is up.  He's let it known over two years ago that he will not seek a new deal.

[MerrittsMustache]

Bud just said he is resigning next year

He's been saying that for a while. I guess it's "official" now.

[4everwarriors]

Ah, so that's where Fr. Pilarz is headed, hey?

[Archies Bat]

Ah, so that's where Fr. Pilarz is headed, hey?

No, that's where Bud is headed.

[CTWarrior]

Dont have a problem with the Braves. Would really like to see the Pirates do well and as always, love my Rays. So long as the Tigers or Red Sox dont win (I guess the Dodgers too) I am ok.

As a Red Sox fan I don't want to face the Rays with Price and Moore, but the Rays are really taking care of business now. 

As an aside, if they're going to have two wild cards they need to balance the schedules.  It's ridiculous that the Rays/Orioles had to fight off the Indians (38 games against the helpless Twins and White Sox) and the Rangers (38 games against Seattle and Houston).  The doormat of the AL East (The Blue Jays) actually has a winning record when not playing other AL East teams.

[tower912]

Yeah.   It's not fair that the Cardinals, Pirates, and Reds had to spend all year beating up on each other.   It practically ruined their playoff chances.   

[4everwarriors]

No, that's where Bud is headed.

Did Buddy get shi tcanned?

[GGGG]

Did Buddy get shi tcanned?

PRN thinks its a scandal...probably sexual.

[CTWarrior]

Yeah.   It's not fair that the Cardinals, Pirates, and Reds had to spend all year beating up on each other.   It practically ruined their playoff chances.   

Fortunately, while playing around .500 in the games against each other, they got to beat up on the Cubs and Brewers to offset their games against each other.  Reds/Pirates were both 24-14 against Cubs/Brewers and Cards 23-12 with 3 left against the Cubs.  They also got the advantage of not having to play the AL East in interleague games.  So they benefitted from the schedule, too.

[tower912]

All you can do is play the games in front of you.   Now, if you want to make an argument for the end of interleague play and/or a balanced schedule, I don't necessarily disagree.   But again, all you can do is play the games in front of you.    From a Tiger fan perspective, I am thankful that we got to play Cleveland so much, because we owned them in the regular season.    Take out the Indian/Tiger games, and they have a better record than Detroit.  

[SaintPaulWarrior]

All you can do is play the games in front of you.   Now, if you want to make an argument for the end of interleague play and/or a balance schedule, I don't necessarily disagree.   But again, all you can do is play the games in front of you.    From a Tiger fan perspective, I am thankful that we got to play Cleveland so much, because we owned them in the regular season.    Take out the Indian/Tiger games, and they have a better record than Detroit. 

My White Sox set a record yesterday by losing to the Indians for the 14th consecutive time...how depressing.  At least I still have the BlackHawks.

[wadesworld]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/benches-clear-jose-fernandez-hits-first-career-home-022103628--mlb.html

 

[Otule's Glass Eye]

I am very annoyed the Brewers are winning games. Very. While the worst Brewers team since the early 2000's suddenly has found the will to win, their draft position is shooting down. Dropped three spots alone today. I may sound like a bad fan, but I just want to build a better future and a higher draft pick would help that.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Don't care for the Yankees, but that was pretty cool

[CTWarrior]

Don't care for the Yankees, but that was pretty cool

I'm a Red Sox fan, but its hard not to like that guy. 

I know I am in the minority, but the true value of a closer is wildly overrated.  Using your best pitcher for only one inning in games you're going to win 92% of the time anyway is a tremendous waste of resources.  In my opinion, Andy Pettitte had a more valuable regular season career than did Mariano (200+ innings/year of above average pitching vs 65-70 innings/year of dominant pitching).  Rivera's true value was in the postseason, when they used him like they used to (and should) use relievers.  Multiple innings in tight ballgames, to escape jams, etc.

It's so weird how tied managers are to the save statistic.  If the save stat was never invented, I'd wager that Rivera would have pitched more like 100-110 innings a year, almost exclusively in high leverage situations.  As it was, he pitched 70 innings a year, 20 of which were' to "get him some work" when save siutations hadn't popped up in a while, while lesser pitchers tried to escape jams in the 7th or 8th inning or pitched in tie ballgames.  Makes no sense.

I read somewhere that the Yankees winning pecentage in games where they had the lead entering the 9th inning is about 1% better during the Mariano era than it was in the 18 years preceding it.

This is not meant to be a knock against Rivera, who is truly a great pticher.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I'm a big Yankee fan and I could not go to bed until I watched everything.
The Andy Pettite & Derek Jeter "pitcher change" idea was only hatched by Joe Girardi in the 8th inning and he got the OK from the umpires and Tampa just before the start of the 9th.
2014 could be a long season.

CTWarrior - Red Sox did the Yanks in back in early September when the Yankees scored 25 runs against them in 3 games and lost all three.  Incredible.

[GGGG]

I'm a Red Sox fan, but its hard not to like that guy. 

I know I am in the minority, but the true value of a closer is wildly overrated.  Using your best pitcher for only one inning in games you're going to win 92% of the time anyway is a tremendous waste of resources.  In my opinion, Andy Pettitte had a more valuable regular season career than did Mariano (200+ innings/year of above average pitching vs 65-70 innings/year of dominant pitching).  Rivera's true value was in the postseason, when they used him like they used to (and should) use relievers.  Multiple innings in tight ballgames, to escape jams, etc.

It's so weird how tied managers are to the save statistic.  If the save stat was never invented, I'd wager that Rivera would have pitched more like 100-110 innings a year, almost exclusively in high leverage situations.  As it was, he pitched 70 innings a year, 20 of which were' to "get him some work" when save siutations hadn't popped up in a while, while lesser pitchers tried to escape jams in the 7th or 8th inning or pitched in tie ballgames.  Makes no sense.

I read somewhere that the Yankees winning pecentage in games where they had the lead entering the 9th inning is about 1% better during the Mariano era than it was in the 18 years preceding it.

This is not meant to be a knock against Rivera, who is truly a great pticher.

While I do generally agree with you about the save statistic, I don't think a lot of people realize that not only is he the best closer ever....but whomever is second really isn't all that close.

[Hards Alumni]

While I do generally agree with you about the save statistic, I don't think a lot of people realize that not only is he the best closer ever....but whomever is second really isn't all that close.

Trevor Hoffman.  He is pretty close.