MLB 2018 Season

[Anti-Dentite]

Congrats to the Brewers fans, excluding Wades, WithoutBias, and this turd.

Justin Wilson throwing an offspeed pitch to Arcia after making him look bad on two heaters was a truly bewildering decision.

Turd Ferguson at your service.

[forgetful]

Why doesn't MLB expand the playoffs to 6 teams and hold a 3-game series between seeds 3-6, and 4-5?

That said, the game today was pretty exciting.

[wadesworld]

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/cubs-cole-hamels-trolls-brewers-fans-says-hes-not-sure-milwaukee-is-a-true-rival/

Good luck tomorrow, Cole!

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Why doesn't MLB expand the playoffs to 6 teams and hold a 3-game series between seeds 3-6, and 4-5?

That said, the game today was pretty exciting.

What I've been told that makes some sense to me is that "rust" affects baseball players more than football players. Making a team sit for a week could be a disadvantage. Personally, I think getting a bye is much more valuable than any possible rust issue.

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Turd Ferguson at your service.

Well done.

[GGGG]

Why doesn't MLB expand the playoffs to 6 teams and hold a 3-game series between seeds 3-6, and 4-5?

That said, the game today was pretty exciting.

1. The "rust" factor as TAMU indicated.
2. They don't want to push the schedule out even longer
3. The one game, winner take all of the Wild Card games has proven to be popular.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Great game. Great rivalry.  Nice little rest for the Crew. Big time stress for the Cubs.

And as Brewers fan, the 2nd Wild Card still sucks

[JWags85]

Everything about 1 game playoffs, for the division or the WC, goes against the nonsense MLB rattles on about when you dare suggest you shorten the season a bit.  Baseball is about supposedly about variance, so lets have hugely impactful things come down to 1 coin flip game.

But of all the leagues, MLB is the one you expect to get things right the least (well maybe NFL as of late).  Totalitarian when it comes to sharing highlights online, but sure, 1 game playoffs cause its EXCITING!

This is not trolling, but legitimate conversation after talking to my best friend who is an Indians fan.  Any fear by Brewers fans of the Brewers pulling a 2017 Indians?  Similar ends to the season, Indians finished like 26-4 in Sept i think (obviously weren't in a tight division race tho).  If they can keep getting decent starts (4-5 innings) then they aren't as susceptible IMO.

[Jockey]

Buehler?   Buehler?

[buckchuckler]

Buehler?   Buehler?

Kid is unreal.  And the Sox drafted another guy in his college rotation with him.  And he is not good.  Ugh.

[MU82]

Couple thoughts:

1) Thought the Cubs would let him take it to avoid the possibility of a run scoring on a double steal/error on throw;
2) Thought the Cubs would let him take it and walk Aguilar to put double play in place;
3) Thought the Cubs weren't paying attention because why would he steal to take the bat out of Aguilar's hands;
4) Get in scoring position so a hit scores two. 

No idea really, but not a terrible decision.

Disagree with all of this.

Brewers have a very good hitter up with runners at first and third and one out, and a chance to get in what could have been a huge insurance run. Cubs have one of the best throwing catchers in baseball, and, as everybody knows (and as Kurkjian drooled repeatedly), the greatest tagger in the history of taggety-tag-taggers.

Let the hitter try to hit a fly ball (which he eventually did) to make it 4-1.

I texted my Cubbie fan son (who was at the game) to say that if his boyz came back to tie, they could thank that decision.

Fortunately for the Crew, it didn't matter. Hader made it a little exciting at the end, but otherwise ... wow!

I wouldn't have said this a month ago based on what I had seen, but I'll say it now: The better team won. I really like the way the Crew was put together. A heck of a ballcub. Congrats to all the fans here. Looking forward to a fun postseason.

[copious1218]

Disagree with all of this.

Brewers have a very good hitter up with runners at first and third and one out, and a chance to get in what could have been a huge insurance run. Cubs have one of the best throwing catchers in baseball, and, as everybody knows (and as Kurkjian drooled repeatedly), the greatest tagger in the history of taggety-tag-taggers.

Let the hitter try to hit a fly ball (which he eventually did) to make it 4-1.

I texted my Cubbie fan son (who was at the game) to say that if his boyz came back to tie, they could thank that decision.

Fortunately for the Crew, it didn't matter. Hader made it a little exciting at the end, but otherwise ... wow!

I wouldn't have said this a month ago based on what I had seen, but I'll say it now: The better team won. I really like the way the Crew was put together. A heck of a ballcub. Congrats to all the fans here. Looking forward to a fun postseason.

Just to be clear, I don't think it was a good idea, just answering the question with some possibilities.

[Lennys Tap]

Disagree with all of this.

Brewers have a very good hitter up with runners at first and third and one out, and a chance to get in what could have been a huge insurance run. Cubs have one of the best throwing catchers in baseball, and, as everybody knows (and as Kurkjian drooled repeatedly), the greatest tagger in the history of taggety-tag-taggers.

Let the hitter try to hit a fly ball (which he eventually did) to make it 4-1.

I texted my Cubbie fan son (who was at the game) to say that if his boyz came back to tie, they could thank that decision.

Fortunately for the Crew, it didn't matter. Hader made it a little exciting at the end, but otherwise ... wow!

I wouldn't have said this a month ago based on what I had seen, but I'll say it now: The better team won. I really like the way the Crew was put together. A heck of a ballcub. Congrats to all the fans here. Looking forward to a fun postseason.

Agree on all counts, Mike.

[forgetful]

1. The "rust" factor as TAMU indicated.
2. They don't want to push the schedule out even longer
3. The one game, winner take all of the Wild Card games has proven to be popular.

Thanks, that makes reasonable sense.

[MU82]

Just to be clear, I don't think it was a good idea, just answering the question with some possibilities.

Understood. Sorry if my tone was brusque.

I think you probably were right that Braun/Counsell thought it might surprise the Cubs.

[wadesworld]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Brewers/status/1046876740063305728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1046876740063305728&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.12up.com%2Fposts%2F6185949-brewers-throttle-cubs-on-twitter-after-capturing-nl-central-title

[Its DJOver]

There's been a lot of talk about how good Yelich and the pen are, but a big factor in the September push has been Santana.  He's really come into his own since being optioned down to AAA.  After having only one month where he hit over .250 and hitting a remarkably bad .167 in June, he's come back to hit .381 in September, with the majority of his AB's coming in pinch hit roles.  His double yesterday was just as big as any of the RBI's IMO.

[GGGG]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Brewers/status/1046876740063305728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1046876740063305728&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.12up.com%2Fposts%2F6185949-brewers-throttle-cubs-on-twitter-after-capturing-nl-central-title

Social media at its absolute finest.

[Anti-Dentite]

There's been a lot of talk about how good Yelich and the pen are, but a big factor in the September push has been Santana.  He's really come into his own since being optioned down to AAA.  After having only one month where he hit over .250 and hitting a remarkably bad .167 in June, he's come back to hit .381 in September, with the majority of his AB's coming in pinch hit roles.  His double yesterday was just as big as any of the RBI's IMO.

I thought his double was the biggest hit of the game and it kind of got glossed over, put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out, statistically you're going to get a run out of that in a tie game.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

There's been a lot of talk about how good Yelich and the pen are, but a big factor in the September push has been Santana.  He's really come into his own since being optioned down to AAA.  After having only one month where he hit over .250 and hitting a remarkably bad .167 in June, he's come back to hit .381 in September, with the majority of his AB's coming in pinch hit roles.  His double yesterday was just as big as any of the RBI's IMO.

He's a nice weapon to have on the bench no doubt, with only 23 PAs in September I'm not sure he was that much of a factor.

That said, I'd like to see him get a whole lot more time next year.  I get that they had too many Ks last year and changed that up with Cain and Yelich, but Santana is starting to reach his prime years and Braun is aging.  Santana's OPS last year was pretty damn good, and if he can carry forward the sort of focus he's shown as a PH he could be very dangerous at least splitting time with Braun.

[WarriorDad]

Great game yesterday, congratulations to the Brewers.  Today has me nervous as Lester has not been clutch in do or die games.  A win would be an amazing NLDS for Cubs and Brewers.  Go Cubbies

[wadesworld]

There's been a lot of talk about how good Yelich and the pen are, but a big factor in the September push has been Santana.  He's really come into his own since being optioned down to AAA.  After having only one month where he hit over .250 and hitting a remarkably bad .167 in June, he's come back to hit .381 in September, with the majority of his AB's coming in pinch hit roles.  His double yesterday was just as big as any of the RBI's IMO.

Knebel, Arcia, and Santana all went down to the minors and returned to be big time contributors in September.

[JWags85]

Great game yesterday, congratulations to the Brewers.  Today has me nervous as Lester has not been clutch in do or die games.  A win would be an amazing NLDS for Cubs and Brewers.  Go Cubbies

Lester has been fine.  The Rockies are the best hitting team in baseball against lefties.  And Hamels is the next option if Lester falters.  Lets hope lack of rest and travel get to the Rockies.  Im VERY worried about Freeland throwing a gem.

[Sir Lawrence]

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/for-one-day-the-small-market-brewers-got-the-best-of-the-big-market-cubs/

[Mr. Nielsen]

Times and Networks
https://twitter.com/MLB_PR/status/1047154124914081792